A short bio for the curious.
Last updated: Monday 11th September 2006.
A picture of me with long hair.

Long hair is a kind of reverse shibboleth: if anyone makes comments about your hair being in the wrong decade or other such nonsense, you can safely assume they're not worth talking to.

My name is Josef Griffiths. I usually roam the Internets under the nickname Scragadelic. I am 18 years old, born and living in New Zealand - a country known for its fantastic CGI-enhanced movies and sheep to human ratio of about 11.5:1, and lesser known for its totally dull public television, monopolised overpriced Internet service, clusters of real estate agencies and a trading website which accounts for the majority of our internet traffic.

I was born in Lower Hutt, and migrated south to Wellington from Papakowhai a short time after, where I endured primary and intermediate education for twelve years, along with miserable weather (and a number of similarly miserable people). After that we migrated north again to Kapiti where I attended secondary school, finishing last year, 2005.

My main interest is supposed to be music. I've been learning the violin since I was four years old, and have played mostly classical music, though I have little personal interest in classical music. I generally don't listen to much music as I find it distracting unless it is my sole focus, but when I do it will usually be in the genres of progressive rock or thrash/progressive/symphonic metal. I don't go out of my way to restrict myself to these genres, and I can enjoy most music with a decent melody, a rhythm, quality production and (most importantly) feeling - with the standard omission of country music.

I very much enjoy the music of Opeth, a Swedish experimental/progressive metal group. Some of my other favourite artists include (in order of perceived awesomeness): Dream Theater, Bal-Sagoth, Porcupine Tree, Finntroll, Vintersorg, Bathory, Yes, Pantera, In Flames, Iron Maiden, Summoning, Slayer, Burzum, Tool and Metallica. Other artists I used to rotate regularly include System Of A Down, Eminem, Moby and Enigma.

In the last three years of secondary school I played the violin in the Paraparaumu College Music Roadshow, a touring music group comprising a dance troupe and orchestra, run by the Music HOD, Merrick Stein. I also held a bass part in the school's choir (sometimes having to act as the whole bass section when the others slept in and the tenors were still in the process of hollowing.) In 2003 I found an interest in music composition, and in 2004 one of my compositions was selected to be played by the NZSO as part of their annual Secondary Composition Workshop. I played in the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Symphony Orchestra with my violinist friend Byron the same year.

I have an interest in computer programming and a general interest in the inner workings of systems. I've written a few of my own programs (odds and ends), my favourite being SCiFT, a utility for transmitting files between two computers via HTTP. Language is another fascination: I studied French during my five years at secondary school, and have been developing an experimental language on and off with my actor friend Kieran since then. I am also fond of first-person shooter games, though my interest in these has largely waned.

I've been having this year (2006) off to improve my health. I had a rather unenjoyable 7th form last year due to problems with fatigue; while I got plenty of sleep and ate all the right things, I had virtually no energy or concentration for anything. Getting up on time was near to impossible, staying awake in classes was a mission in itself, and I often had nosebleeds, lapses in balance and random sharp pains just about everywhere. I got awful headaches after looking at computer screens for short periods of time. By midday, most days, I was almost entirely focused on getting home and back to sleep, depressing as that is. It was very bizarre and stressing.
Apart from that, I have been continuing with my violin studies, working towards a St. Cecilia First Performance Certificate exam at the end of the year, as well as participating in the relatively new Kapiti Concert Orchestra as a second violinist. My guitarist neighbour Robert and I have been experimenting with some musical ideas from time to time, toying with the possibility of starting a concept band in the genre of progressive rock / progressive metal.

These are some things I like:

These are some things I do not like:

That's all for now.

There are ways of talking to me...
Last updated: Friday 8th September 2006.

If you have any questions or you wish to use resources from this site on another site, you can mail me at:

j o s e f (DOT) g r i f f i t h s (AT) g m a i l (DOT) c o m