About Me...

     [It's me, dammit! Sort of...]

    Quick Facts:

    Some ultimately meaningless information:

    I was born, raised, and have lived most of my life in the eclectic Silverlake/Echo Park area of Los Angeles. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, that's the east part of LA, near Dodger Stadium and Chinatown. Or, Page 35 in the older versionds of the Thomas Guide. Much to many people's surprise, I've lived in the same house all of my life, except for when I'm off at school.

    Before starting the college phase of my life, I generally went through the expected course of events of schooling. In Junior High, I participated in the Science Olympiad, and while my team never made it beyond the State Finals (we lost by a matter of a couple of points once, but, hey, that's life), it was fun. In High School I tried to get more involved with campus life, in the twisted ways I thought best. At the famous John Marshall High School (you've seen parts of it in various movies over the years, what with its brick gothic collegiate facade and all...hey, the football field is used in the final scene of "Grease", and, yes, the grass is still that crappy), I worked on the campus paper, editing, writing articles, humorous articles and a comic strip. While school rules made it that I could only "officially" be Editor-In-Chief for one semester, I ran it longer than that. I also participated in the Speech Team, and was instrumental in making an orange our team mascot (see below for details).
    The feat I will best be known for there, however, was my participation on the Academic Decathlon team for two years. In my senior year, our team won the National Championship Title. Feelings about that whole experience are mixed, but I would recommend people try it if they can...

    As one might imagine, after that all of the colleges I applied to were eager to accept me. They were not eager enough, though, to offer me enough in the way of scholarships to allow po' liddle ol' me to attend them. The school that seemed the most desperate for my attention was UC Riverside, which basically said "Oooo! Come here and we'll pay your tuition for four years!" I originally applied to there as a backup, but when that letter came in, my parents looked at me and said "Guess where you're going to school..."
    Overall it wasn't been too bad, I guess...I've made the best of it. To be fair, what Riverside lacks in the way of anything to do, the school is excellent, small, strong in the sciences and the arts, and all around a good school. It lacks the credit it deserves because of it's out-of-the way location and relative obscurity. No wonder they were so eager to suck in students...

    I started out as a Bio-Medical Sciences major, which is an intensive pre-med program. The true story about this is that I applied for it by accident. As I said before, Riverside was a back-up school for me, and I never had much intention of going there. For years, my interest has been in genetics, but as few undergraduate schools have Genetics majors, I had to look for things in the Biology areas to choose. When it came to Riverside, I found this thing called "Bio-Medical Sciences" listed, and I thought, hrm, well, I want to get into human genetics, with somewhat of a medical application, so, maybe this would work. Since I wasn't giving the school much thought, I didn't bother to look up any descriptions about the major. Later, I received a letter informing me that I had been accepted into the prestigious BioMed program, and it explained what it was. Well, I made the best of it, and stuck around for a while, even at some points contemplating going for both and M.D. and a PhD in Genetics. After about a year, though, I scrapped that idea and changed my major to Biology with an emphasis on Molecular Genetics. The secretary of the BioMed department was disappointed...she liked calling my place to hear my always very strange answering machine messages.
    Ultimately, being a Bio major gave me more flexibility of courses than the rigid BioMed program allows, and allowed me to more fully explore my various interests.

    While on campus, I was involved with various organizations, from cultural groups, to an improvisational comedy group, to others. I worked in the student computer labs for a few years, and was a Lead Consultant for two of the labs for a year.

    I graduated from UCR in June of 1999, with a Biology major and Philosophy minor, and after spending a couple of months at home, I'm now living in Boston, where I'm attending a PhD in the Harvard School of Public Health, the Biological Sciences in Public Health program. Stay tuned for thoughts on the program and the city as they develop... :)

    Other Things About Me:

    Various rants and stories...
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