I was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States with my family at the tender age of six months. I grew up in a small farming town in California's central valley. After graduating from high school I went to Cal Berkeley and got a B.A. in psychology. A year and a half later I started an M.A. program in education at San Francisco State. I intend to complete my M.A. program next spring.

You can see a pictoral history of my life by visiting this page.

Fiction Writing

I started to write short stories during my junior year in high school. My love for writing fiction started spontaneously. I had finished writing an email to a friend and I was listening to "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys when I got the urge to just randomly write a little bit of fiction. I haven't stopped writing since then. I hope to one day get published. You can read some of my fiction here.

Illustrating

I started to seriously draw and illustrate during my freshmen year in college at Cal Berkeley. I don't know why I started. Maybe it was to beat the boredom or the anxiety with being a new student. I used to draw a lot during elementary and middle school but stopped in junior high. You can see some of my illustrations here.

Softball

When I was at Cal Berkeley I played on an intramural softball team for two and a half semesters. When I came back to the bay area to go to school at San Francisco State I tried to rejoin my old softball team but the game times were incompatible with my school schedule. So I joined San Francisco's Gay Softball League and now I play on the Fireballs. You can read a little bit more about softball and see my old jerseys here.

Men's Health

The very first time I went to the Magnet men's health center in San Francisco's Castro district I met a very cool counselor. After that meeting I had decided that I wanted to give counseling a try and now I volunteer at Magnet as an HIV test counselor. (Thank you Dale for inspiring me!) I think this might be the path towards a career as a therapist or counselor. You can read more of my thoughts about this by going to my Men's Health page.

Music

I suppose I really started to listen to music when I was in junior high. I only listened to hip hop and R & B at the time. I suppose I gravitated to that because my syster listened to pop and hip hop when I was very young. During high school my nephews introduced me to rock and alternative. I now gravitate towards indy and modern rock, punk and alternative. Go to my music page to learn more about my favorite bands.

Transformers

Transformers were a favorite toy of mine growing up. I didn't really take care of them as a kid and I quickly forgot about them. Many, many years later, say around the year 2000, I ran into Transformers again. I immediately restarted my collection. These toys are too cool. Learn more about Transformers and my collection by going here.

Comic Books

My middle school friend Sean got me hooked on comic books when he brought some comic book trading cards to school. The artwork was fantastic to look at and I loved hearing about the intricate histories and storylines associated with the characters. I grew up as an X-Men and Marvel Comics fanatic. My tastes have expanded since then. Read more about my interest in comics by going here.

Street Fighter

I was an arcade junkie growing up and Street Fighter II was definitely my favorite game back then. I didn't really get good in a competitive sense until Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released in 1996. The last few years I've participated in Street Fighter tournaments. You can read more about my Street Fighter by going here.