About
Scott Jarkoff just so happens to be the name that I have been adorned with, as fortunate or unfortunate as that may be. Since 1990 I have been living in central Japan, the best part of this island nation. I am married to my wife Junko (pronounced June-koh) and have a son named Anthony.
My name, as peculiar as it sounds, originates from the Russian name zarkov. How it evolved in to what you see before your very eyes remains a mystery as exciting as that of the ancient Maya. I am originally from Los Angeles, California and was born a couple of days after Christmas in 1970. It really is terrible having a birthday so close to that particular holiday!
In 1990 I joined the United States Navy and got shipped over to Bahrain in order to meet my new home: the USS Blue Ridge. The vessel is home ported in Yokosuka, Japan, which is where I lived up until January 2006. I separated from the Navy in 1999 in order to pursue more exciting opportunities rather than be whisked away from my life at the whim of the government.
I am married with children, though my family is nowhere near as exciting as the TV show. My wife’s name is Junko (pronounced June-koh) and my only son is named Anthony Akira. She is a homemaker and Anthony is currently in 5th grade though he will be starting 6th in 3 weeks, when the new Japanese school year begins. We have two dogs, a labrador retriever named Matrix and a miniature daschund named Miu. Lastly, we have a turtle named Sleepy.
Professional
I am a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, otherwise known as a CISSP. This means that, by trade, I am a network security professional. There are a number of aspects to a job of this nature though my main focus is on the technical side. Essentially, I am responsible for securing networks from hackers by utilizing various technical means to do so, as well as perform audits on a multitude of devices that allow the network to function. Overall it is a pretty exciting job that I enjoy immensely.
deviantART
In my so-called “spare time” I work on designing and developing web sites and other internet related projects. In the summer of 2000 a friend of mine and I founded a little ole website called deviantART. I was the sole developer, having programmed the backend that powers the site as well as designing the interface to it. deviantART currently is in the top 300 most trafficked websites on the internet, receiving 20 million page-views per day, and rising. Unfortunately, I no longer work on the site; that is an epic story set for another era.
Please read more about the history of deviantART, and its beginnings, in the deviantART; A Little Story series of posts. So far part 1 and part 2 exist.
Since around 1994 I have dabbled in web design and ran a variety of websites. The first successful website that I ran was named CyberTropix and was an MP3 “news” website. Since that day I have been involved in a number of different projects throughout the Intarweb.
Interests
Other than that I really enjoy listening to music and watching movies. In the spare moments of life I spend time with my family on small hot springs trips, eating at delicious restaurants, watching movies and just running around various parts of Tokyo.
Favorite Movies: Saw, Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams, Memento, Donnie Darko, Braveheart, Gladiator, Spider-Man, Sixth Sense, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Unfaithful.
Favorite Music: Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Armin van Burren, Trance, Vocal Trance, Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Stabbing Westward, Smile Empty Soul.