About Myself

I am Andrei Thorp (originally known as Andrei Pachintsev), a Canadian resident of many years. I am originally Russian, but view myself as a child of the planet Earth, and more of a North American. I am interested in philosophy, yoga, computers/technology, reading, writing, programming, art, music, video games, medieval weapons, history, health, vegetarianism, and of course the exploration of various ideas.

I’ve started this site out of a desire to be self-employed and to spread the open minded belief that I’ve gradually picked up and continue to learn.

About My Name

My real name is Andrei Thorp. However, I go by Garoth Thorp, or often just Garoth on the Internet. Why? Interesting story: a long while ago, I made up the name, Garoth, as an alias for games, websites, etc. I also really liked the name, a slight variation on the more popular, Gareth. Over the years, I have registered for a variety of sites under the name Garoth. This has been great, because I could use an easy-to-remember name everywhere, most often without numbers or anything. As time progressed, I realized that I owned this name. Both Google and Yahoo! put me on the first page when you search for ‘garoth.’ (The entries are mostly my various profiles on a bunch of different websites. Examples: forums.ubuntu.com, gnome-look.org, and linuxquestions.com.)

So, eventually, this name became a very solid alias for myself on the Internet. Using it on this website is just a continuation of this trend. This choice is not a matter of security, fear, or anything else of the sort — it is simply a preference. In fact, I don’t mind so much if you know what there is to know about me.