About me

Skill Summary

Career

Overview

I’ve had a long and interesting career to date. The diagram below gives you an idea of the path that I took . While most of this time was spent in the Public Sector, I did spend a few years out in the Private Sector including running my own software engineering business from 2002 to 2004.

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Highlights and achievements

I look back at my career with a fair bit of pride. The following were among my favourite achievements.

  • 1991 “Celebrating at Sydney” – a weekend long graduate festival for the University of Sydney that included a banquet, a celebrity quiz night, guided tours, a food festival, a display of medieval martial arts, and a fireworks display. I was Project Manager.
  • 1993-1997 TAFE Integrated Property and Planning System – a Geographical Information System for NSW TAFE that stored student demographics, facilities information, and asset data so as to facilitate educational planning, capital works and facilities maintenance. I worked variously as the Analyst, Systems Administrator, Data Capture Supervisor and chief documenter on this project.
  • 2001 Membership Central – a membership management system for unions and clubs with bank and financial transaction integration. I was Senior Software Engineer on the project.
  • 2007-2014 eTrack Practice Management System – a system that tracked time and expenses for billing, debtors and analysis purposes for almost 300 financial services workers at the NSW Audit Office. I completed its implementation and subsequently managed the team that administered it.
  • 2008-2014 IQ4Bis (later HaloBI) – a Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse system to provide an understanding of trends within the NSW Audit Office. I implemented and subsequently managed the team that administered it.
  • 2010 “People Power” strategic planning group aimed at improving employee management within the Audit Office. I led the group.
  • 2015 Implementation of ISO27001:2013 – this is the international standard for Information Security. I implemented this for the NSW Audit Office.
  • 2015 Business Continuity Plan – a plan for continuing Audit Office operations in the face of a crisis. I designed, documented and implemented the plan.

 

Qualifications

As a young adult I worked by day and attended the University of Sydney mostly by night where I majored in History and English. In 1988 I was surprised when my fictional account of the Celtic god Cernunnus won me the Aisling Society of Sydney Prize.

In the 1990s I undertook a second degree, this time in computer science. I was particularly interested in computer graphics and began fiddling with early 3D art programs such as POV-ray and Bryce.

By 2004 I decided to undertake a Graduate Diploma of Education while also running my own business. This was a precursor to two years as a High School Teacher, a profession that I thoroughly enjoyed but found financially arduous.

Just after some involvement with strategic leadership and planning in my workplace, I undertook a Masters of Management degree (also part-time). This provided me with the knowledge that I needed to steer a business.

Writing

Writing came naturally to me. Working in the Community Relations Office of the University of Sydney I quickly found myself assisting with the editing of graduate journals, newsletters and advertising material. I completely took over the production of Celtic Connections for two years.

As I fell back into computing the task of documentation always seemed to fall my way. I enjoyed the challenge of turning technical concepts into something that anyone could read and understand. Towards the end of the 1990s I found myself writing a few technical articles for computer magazines and then a couple of management text books at the beginning of the century.

As Information Services Manager for the Audit Office of NSW I wrote many a document. The biggest challenge was turning a complex business continuity plan into something that was easy to digest and use.

I am currently working on a number of novels and a new text book.

Creativity

I love all things imaginative and creative. I wrote my first attempt at a novel when I was 12 years old. It was 112 pages and never saw the light of day.

An artistic youth, I taught myself oil painting and particularly enjoyed landscapes. But being somewhat shy, these also were rarely seen at the time. Even more so when the hormones kicked in and nudes became a favourite topic.

In the 1990s I became enamoured with computer graphics and created the following.

While working and studying I also kept painting.

I currently enjoy digital art, photography and video production. In respect to the latter I have produced workplace media that has included a film noir approach to promoting business system improvement and a buccaneer themed video regarding financial planning.

This is only a small part of what makes me me. Yes, many call me eccentric, but I am nevertheless proud of my accomplishments and feel that my unique qualities always benefit those around me.

103 Comments


  1. Looks like you keep pursuing dreams, and making them come true so all set there. :) Thanks for stopping by and best wishes, Neva


    1. Hi Neva :) Thanks for popping by. Yep, gotta keep on movin’ where dreams are concerned. :) It was my pleasure reading your blog. There was so much adventure there! And wonderful photographs. I really enjoy people’s photographs and stories. :)


  2. Hi, Greg. I did not find the “Follow” button. Hope that “Notify me of new posts via email” will work.





    1. Thank you! :) I am still very much the enthusiastic amateur. I must admit that I am so grateful for the internet, especially with blogs and YouTube and the talented people who share their techniques. They teach me so much. I also love meeting all these artists like yourself online :) It is inspiring :)


      1. I agree. I’ve learned so much from YouTube art lessons people post. What a wonderful tool the Internet is for us enthusiasts.



  8. I know that “time warp” very well. Kudos for maintaining the dream. Excellent graphics. Thanks for the interest in my website. Cheers


    1. Thanks for visiting and the kind comments :) As for my interest in your site, really I should be thanking you for providing something interesting for me to read :) Greg


    1. Thank you very much! I have been blogging for only a matter of months but I am loving the community associated with it and each day I discover wonderful blogs such as yours written by people with similar interests to mine. This is so cool! Thanks again :)



    1. Thank you :) I enjoyed your interpretation of the Korean flower and bird motif. Seeing such traditional motifs carry on is very important in my opinion. They create artistic continuity. Thanks :) Also, you may want to update the link on your gravatar :)















    1. I liked seeing discrete goals laid out ☺ I believe that lays the foundation for success ☺


  26. Wow, what a great background in education and its associated offshoots. It’s great to see people who are dedicated to their art, whatever the genre. I remember loving scifi when I was a boy and it was in its infancy and Dick Tracy had his wrist radio etc. Reality now. Goods for you.


    1. “Dedication” makes my erratic striving for knowledge sound a lot more dignified than it feels inside my head :) Thanks. :) The shows that really got me into scifi as a kid were Doctor Who, Lost in Space and Star Trek. Other shows followed, but those were my first love. You are right – its amazing how fantasy becomes fact with wrist radios, communicators etc :) Thanks for commenting :) Greg


    1. Thank you ☺ I really love all things creative. We shall talk more ☺


    1. And thanks to you too for visiting :) I somehow managed to miss a whole lot of nice comments here till now. So sorry for not replying earlier :)


    1. Thanks for visiting and so sorry for not seeing/replying to this comment earlier :) Greg


  31. Hi there fellow creative soul. A fantastic blog. And thanks for stopping by mine. Also a graduate of Sydney Uni.


    1. Hi Anne. Thanks right back at you :) Cool. When did you go through Sydney Uni? I was there in the 80s.


  32. Hi Gregory,
    I’m dying to ask you a question and can’t find a right place for it – the gallery comments keep throwing me out. So I’ll ask it here.
    How the heck do you produce that beautiful hair for your characters? It looks like it’s probably polygonal, but, at the same time, it’s so amazingly realistic. Like, Pari’s hair, and your “Reaching Out” picture, and… and all the rest of your characters who have hair, really. How do you do that? Are there tutorials?
    Thank you in advance!


    1. Thanks :) I would really love to lean back and wax lyrical about my brilliance. Alas, I can’t. Currently I purchase all my hair assets from the shop at DAZ (https://www.daz3d.com/) . There are some great hair tutorials at YouTube that employ particle systems that I intend to explore, but not yet.

      Currently I confine my modelling to architectural objects and (in one case) a spaceship. This said, I do experiment with creating my own displacement maps and normal maps for characters, objects and clothes as well as making my own textures in many cases. I also love playing with lighting. I guess the final picture is more important to me than actually being the creator of everything than the viewer sees.

      Hope that this is not too disappointing.

      Thanks again

      Greg


      1. Hi Greg,
        It’s Friday and I’m back :) Sorry it took so long to reply! I’ll admit I was a tiny bit disappointed – I’m struggling with hair for a character, and was hoping for some tips. My computer isn’t powerful enough to pull off particles, so I have to make do with polygons. Oh well, I’ll experiment some more this weekend :)

        I can totally relate to modelling the things you enjoy modelling and using assets to save time, though. I’m a storyteller and world-builder before anything else – so, yes, architecture, lighting, clothes, poses… And, of course, you’re right – the final image is what counts, in the end :)



  37. HI, It appears that you have mastered the skill of reinventing yourself! My blog is dedicated to that very endeavor “coping with mid life transitions”. I wish I had spoken to you sooner! I can only hope to find so much new meaning and purpose moving forward-thank you for being so inspiring! And, thanks for stopping by my blog and checking it out!


    1. Hi. Thanks for commenting. Yep, mid-life is certainly a challenging time. Mind you, the path through life that I follow is to be constantly growing and changing. Age can only catch us if a) we stand still long enough; and b) we always look the same. LOL I’ll keep an eye on your blog :) Thanks


  41. Hi Greg, I am curently working on a surgeon simulator on the C ARM, do you have any advise for me or tips to build it on Blender first then animate it in a 3D world with unity and HTC vive. That’s my internship job, so I am first learning Blender and Unity, and I guess, creating a full C-ARM will be very difficult. How did you get all the dimensions of the device ? I will probably need them too


    1. Hi Tom :), welcome to my blog. :)

      Most of my advice is on my blog, but one key thing I did not mention too much were my two sessions of taking photos. Before I started I visited a lab and took lots of reference photos of the C-arm and surrounding equipment. I made sure to have a reference ruler in there so that I could get sizes and dimensions correct. After some modeling, I visited a second time to take a few more photos covering angles I had missed. I also researched them online. I particularly liked the aesthetics of the Toshiba Infinix. BTW, even though you are learning Unity, also check out the Unreal Engine. Finally, Blender is like any other tool – hard to begin with and then easy once you get used to it. :) I would love to see your outcome :)

      Greg


      1. have you finally decided to sell it on any asset store or to make it open source ? I guess you had contacts in the labs to be allowed to visit it ? The thing is, I cannot really start render it if I don’t have approximatives dimensions, but when I see your job, it’s astonishing, I’ll do my best !




  44. Ah ha! Somewhere I can hopefully get a message through. I just caught up with your last couple months news. So sorry to hear about your Mom in law. My condolences to all of you. But congratulations on the success in the new job.
    I read an article yesterday in a local alternative medicine magazine that I acquired at the accupuncturist’s office and immediately thought of you. Don’t know if it would be of any help, but best to offer than not, and it would’ve been the answer. I scanned it and put it up on my website. Feel free to download. http://skyscapesforthesoul.com/pdfs/gregkeratokunos.pdf
    Good luck also with the dieting. I have a (I’m sure it will be funny some day) story about that. I recently had some dental work done in Mexico. The receptionist …. needed a shirt size larger, her buttons were almost popping. On the drive home, my evil inner twin came up with this song – sung to ‘if you’re happy and you know it…’.

    If you jiggle when you wriggle, skip dessert.
    Stop at firsts, don’t go for seconds, it won’t hurt.
    If you’ve padding in the middle that’ll wobble when you giggle
    Eat a little less until you fit your shirt.

    Once the anesthetic wore off, karma struck, and I now have TMJ (hence the visit to the accupuncturist). I can only open my mouth about a half inch, which makes eating difficult, I’ve lost about 4lb so far, which doesn’t seem much, but I think I only have about another 5lb of fat left on my body anyway.

    No more cake cooking for you! Look forward to hearing from you when you have time and feel like it.

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