Dossier
Vitals
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Tidbits
Career I Wish I Had: Rockstar (who doesn't want to be adored?)
Career I'm Destined to Have: Social work, or educator
What Makes Me Paranoid: Forgetting how to spell in American English
Song Which Always Gives Me GooseBumps: "Piano in the Dark," Brenda Russell
Toothpaste: Colgate or, if available, Tom's of Maine
Eating Habits: Taking a break from red meat, but still going
for the white (except pork; that's just a marketing scheme!)
Fitness Regime: Winsor Pilates and DDR
Vices: Dark chocolate, buttered movie popcorn, dessert
Most Surprising About Me: I used to be 100 pounds heavier
1st Major Purchase with My Own Money: An acoustic guitar (my mom was so proud)
Hidden Talents: good with a soldering iron; really good at
Tetris
Britney or Christina: Oh god, neither.
Brief History
My parents, both from in the Philippines, emigrated to the United States where I was born and raised. I spent all of my impressionable years in San Francisco, but remained in the Bay Area to stay close to my family and friends.
I attribute my love of computers and electronics to my mother, who bought us an Apple II+ in 1980, introduced us to our first camcorder around that same time (and it weighed like 50 pounds) and made sure we had all the latest video game consoles to keep us occupied. So, it was only natural that I chose a career in computers; they were already like second nature to me.
M Squared was my first real job. Before, I had done volunteer work at the Exploratorium, and a bit of activism with About-face. I started M Squared working a mere 4 hours a week, doing data entry and answering phones. Concurrently, I was also studying at SFSU, getting my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Management Information Systems. When I graduated, I expanded my work hours at M Squared to full-time status, slowing moving up in the ranks first as Operations Manager, then to Assistant Network Administrator, and finally to my last position as Manager of Network Technologies.
My official reason for leaving M Squared was I was moving to Europe to be with my partner Rudi, though I will admit that at that point I had grown increasingly tired of my job and disillusioned with the corporate world. Moving to Amsterdam was my way out.
Once in the Netherlands, I quickly learned how hard it was for an American to find work. After a year or so of sending out my CV and being silently rejected, I started my own business of fixing computers and tutoring English-speaking expats on computer applications, soon branching out to include web development, internet programming, and graphic design to my arsenal. This is what keeps me busy today, though I've added another component: social awareness, evident with my work on the AsiaQuake database and, more recently, HCV Action Now.
