One of the first things that comes to mind to describe myself is, "jack of all trades, master of none." I have a wide range of skills and assets that are most likely too numerous to mention. Generally, though, I tend to focus on art and technology.
My two loves are fusions of art and technology: web development and photography. In addition to graphic and user experience design of web development, I enjoy the technical nitty gritty of HTML, CSS, coding, server deployment and version control. Photography brings to my life the hardware of camera bodies and lenses, technique of balancing light, shutter and aperture and, of course, the beautiful artwork.
My educational background is the professional jack of all trades: architecture. I hold both a degree in architecture and minors in visual arts and history of art and architecture.
What is Ceardach?
In my research, I discovered a source believes the name "Murtagh" has its origins from the Gaelic, "muir ceardach", muir meaning water and ceardach meaning skilled. My family line, then, was likely from sailors or some sort.
I decided to start using 'ceardach' as a handle and my domain name to have some connection with my name, yet be easier to spell. As unbelievable as it may seem, everyone knows how to spell 'ceardach', but frequently misspell 'Murtagh'. The misspelling of my last name is such a problem that if I ever have an email address with my last name, I must also have forwards for all the misspellings!
Pronunciation Guide
Both this website's and my last names are most prone to mispronunciation due to their Irish origins. Just as the "gh" in claddagh is silent, so is the "gh" and "ch" silent in the site's and my names.
My family pronounces my last name as "mer-tah", or rather "mer-tauh" for too strong of an "ah" sound offends my poor ears. However, we do not entirely pronounce the name correctly, as in Ireland they pronounce the 't' much softer, making it more like "mer-thauh".
The true pronunciation of 'ceardach' is unknown, but from looking up various other Gaelic words with similar components, I deduce that it is pronounced, "care-dah". Although, for the sake of making it easier for people to know how to spell it, I will commonly inform a person to think "kire-dak" and that usually does the trick. In day-to-day conversation, though, I use the "care-dah" version.