Relationship: Single
Sex: Male
Commission Status: n/a
Trades: Maybe, if I have the time and inspiration. (doesn't hurt to ask)
Requests: Probably won't take requests, but I'm open to suggestions and ideas.



I'm a self-proclaimed "geek of all trades," and I find that term particularly fitting, as I'm also a bit of a goof-ball at times.

To put it more eloquently, I'm a bit of a savant, in the true sense of the word.

That is to say, I'm fascinated by just about everything in the world around me and a thirst for knowledge and information that makes me soak the stuff up like a sponge. ;)
Science, technology, history, nature, fiction, fantasy, games, philosophy, and in pretty much any medium of art or entertainment.

On the fiction end though, I'm a big fan of fantasy, supernatural, sci-fi, and speculative fiction (especially alternate history and speculative future stuff), though the latter, admittedly, bleeds into the sci-fi genre as well. And, of course, various combinations of those genres.
I'm also a big fan of fiction that can get deep, dark, or complex, but still not take things too seriously, at least not all the time. (even more so if a bit of added whit can be worked in without upsetting the immersion or integrity of the universe)
If there's something where it seems like the writers are "having too much fun" with the subject matter, you've got a fair bet that I'll like it.

That's one of the reasons I loved (love) many of the cartoons from the 90s into the early 2000s. Not just the matter of growing up with them, but the amount of complex subject matter that managed to get worked in without ruining the "kid friendly" experience. That and some of the truly bizarre and fantastic stuff that some of those included.

I grew up with broadcast TV, so exposure to stuff that wasn't on networks or in syndication (ie cable only), I had relatively limited access to. But, honestly that was fine as I ended up damn near overstimulated by what there was back then from networks to syndicated programming, old re-runs, and, of course, the gamut of PBS programming (from kids stuff to adult/general history/science/nature stuff -again, fascinated by all that, even as a little kid). And of course, having KTEH's lineup of brittish sci-fi and (later on) anime introduced me to that fairly early too. (that, and my parents encouraged it pretty heavily; big Doctor Who fans there)


The tech and history interests overlap a good bit, which is part of why I'm into the retro computer and video game scene . . . also into the general history and technology of that too. I grew up with Nintendo and PC in the early 90s, but I'm pretty "equal opportunity" as far as bias goes, and also pretty broadly open to a huge range of genres as well as finding really primitive games still quite fun (especially multiplayer), not to mention fascinating from historical and technological standpoints.

After muddling about a bit after high school I finally settled on computer science, so I'm working up my programming experience now in community college. (first tries were in physical science . . . totally burned out with organic chemistry, and eventually went back to the old standard computer geek end of me ;))

Other hobby stuff and interests: chemistry, geology/minerology, paleontology, ecology, various engineering topic, various other nature topics (including animals ;) ), pyrotechnics, video games, computer/tech stuff, coin collecting, and I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch.



I guess I'm a bit of an actual jack of all trades too, going beyond the "geeky" stuff, though the "doesn't like organized sports" stereotype does kind of apply. (more like I just wasn't ever that good at most thing . . . wanted to like baseball as a little kid, though; I did end up getting casually into Tennis and Golf though :-p ).
There's cooking/baking (competent, and I like it, but nothing exceptional IMO), hiking/nature stuff (sporadically, though I've been a bit more active recently), woodworking and metalworking (mostly in middle school and high school), automotive stuff (various, though I used to help a lot with my dad's racing hobby in the SCCA), I got an ROP certificate for arc welding in high school . . . and I'm sure there's some other random stuff I do that I'm forgetting too.




I'm an animal lover, but that's not really surprising for anyone on here . . . I'm kind of a "cat person" as far as that being the main family pet(s) I grew up with and, by far, the one(s) I've associated with the most, and the most familiar with. There's some interesting stories there too . . . I might end up posting something about that in my scraps at some point. Short story would be that the whole family has always been very close to our pets.

I've volunteered on and off at the Town Cats shelter in Morgan Hill, CA, since 2007 . . . later realized there were actually several furries among the other supporters there, and apparently, the shelter also had a booth at Further Confusion for a while (did in 2012 too, doesn't look like they did it this year). I'm more of the casual end of the whole furry thing (and totally about the art/fiction), and don't do much of anything with it offline . . . still, seeing this at the carwash fundraiser was pretty . . . interesting:
http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&a.....=35&ty=102
;)


I guess this isn't all that surprising given the SF Bay Area is apparently "furry central." http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Bay_Area_Furry
That would explain a lot, actually . . . but it's still a little crazy realizing I grew up pretty much in the middle of the densest furry population on Earth. Something I really hadn't realized until . . . just now when I did a search on wikifur. :-p
(and if not still today, that population thing was at least true while I was growing up in the 90s and the whole online community was really taking off --though I, personally, didn't really get big into the internet until ~2002/2003 . . . hell, I didn't even know about FurCon until like 3 years ago, though I've literally been in the convention center it's held in dozens of times -pretty sure I may have actually have seen FurCon going on too, while doing something else downtown . . . I definitely noticed Fanime a few times)





Now, the whole furry thing (or, more generally, anthro) . . . As far as that goes, it's pretty much just an extension of the whole fantasy and sci-fi thing as far as I'm concerned. The whole concept of anthropomorphic animals is awesome and it works great for a ton of stuff, from "kids" books/movies/tv to just plain high quality work in any medium. From cartoony to dark and serious, and everything in-between, it's all awesome.
I don't now, nor have I ever had a "fursona," as such, and any self-insertion into such fantasy tends to be with me still as a human, but furry characters are fascinating and just plain cool in general on so many different levels. :)


Funny thing about my screen name: it has nothing to do with furry at all . . . just a silly name I came up for my runescape character back around 2004, and I just stuck with it.


Size difference stuff fascinates me; the whole so-called macro/micro thing . . . so yeah, I'd fall under the macrophile category, though I'm on the "small" end of that PoV. (that is, imagining myself -or personified character- in a fantasy with me being on the smaller end . . . so either "normal" sized with "macros" or micro sized in relation to "normals."

Also a tad ironic given I'm like 6'3" in RL . . . not that that actually means much given the sort of scales dealt with in these genres. :p

That coupled with the predator/prey relationship thing, and . . . vore, so yeah. Actually the vore/macro-micro thing is what introduced me to the fandom, more or less. (mostly through macrophile.com -back around 2004/2005)
And, despite the use of cat characters, the name (which is semi-coincidental), and lack of a fursona, so to speak, I'd still probably associate myself more with certain mice here on FA. ;)

It's kind of complex, and you can say not to over-think such things, but, with me, there's no way in hell that's going to happen.
One of the best explanations I've seen anywhere is in an essay written by Arilin: http://arilin.macrophile.com/articl.....k-romance.html
Really fascinating, and pretty well covers most of the way I see it . . . though it does still center on the fetish end of it a lot (albeit not exclusively), and the way I see it, it's still a lot more than that. (I mean, it follows fundamental fascinations and fantasies I've had for as long as I can remember -and my memory goes back pretty well to being 2 years old- and there's a ton of it which is totally not sex related . . . and the rest of it is more both -rather, much of it was there before . . . sex . . . was even a thing, ie as a little kid, and then it morphed into being more than that on top of everything else)

And I tend more towards the "gentle" side of things, but it's really hard to pin down, and, I'm really kind of fascinated by almost any of the branching themes and sub-genres that are involved. (of course, well-made art and well written stories with fleshed out, complex, well-made characters are always more interesting and enjoyable . . . or at least more powerful -some genuinely dark and chilling horror and tragic stuff out there)
Compassionate characters are extremely powerful in this respect IMO. (that goes for both compassion being the driving force for restraint of power and/or instincts, or, in the more tragic examples, not being able to overcome those things, yet retaining a great deal of compassion -possibly making occasional or fleeting exceptions to this rule) When well written (or well made in other media), this can make for extremely moving and compelling works.


Interests also range the full gamut of totally cartoony and silly to works centering on realism, and themes going from cute/fun/silly to pretty damn dark and deep (even moving), be it visual art of writing.
(and my current writing is kind of a mix of the two, as far as a setting focusing on semi-realism -as far as speculative fiction in this sub-genre goes- while the characters are more of a mix . . . not what I'd call totally unrealistic, but certainly kind of silly at times -likewise the subject matter will likely range from light hearted fun to pretty dark) I also get kind of touchy on technical realism . . . or at least relatively speaking in such fantasies. (bending some of the technical impossibilities -and/or working around them with reasonably plausible, if vague sci-fi explanations- and focusing on realism as much as possible in other areas) It's a combination of my favorite aspects of the fantasy and something that's not actually done all that often in the community. (if at all, in some respects)

Meh, I may go into this in more detail in some (very likely rambling) "essays" of sorts in my scraps, so you can take a look there, if you want . . . it may or may not get somewhat adult or . . . awkward . . . depending on your prerogative, so bear that in mind, and the normal tags/warning will, of course, apply. ;) Maybe some stuff in my Journals too . . . we'll see.