I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, second son of a lawyer and a house wife. Both my close and my extended families have always been very close, and my childhood is filled with memories of family gatherings and large soirees involving a few dozen cousins and second cousins and third cousins and cousins to the nth degree, all of whose names I cannot properly remember even now when I should know better.

That does tell you I'm not very good with names. Lately, I've gotten better - learning to use the person's name in conversation the first time I meet them helps in this matter. It also tells you that I'm very used to large groups of people - which might well be why I prefer solitude over such large gatherings. While I do enjoy the company of friends, I'm very independent, and tend to keep to myself, preferring to work on projects on my own time under my own rules.

I grew up in the late 80s, and came to become a real person in the 90s, which means I'm one of the first few members of Generation Y. I grew up on video games, movies, and literature, and these three have been very much my passions as I've gotten older. I've expanded my gaming to include roleplaying games - no doubt influenced by the hours my family would gather playing board games on the weekends. Even though my mother once despised my RPG habit to the point of throwing away all of my fantasy books because they were Satanic (ironically including The Lord of the Rings among them), I simply accepted this as an eccentricity of ignorance and, after giving up the hobby for a few years, came back to roleplay gaming, which I've been doing steadily for approximating ten years now.

Growing up, I attended American Military Academy, a non-boarding military school in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. I owe a lot of who I became to the AMA, where I went to school with some wonderful people, joined and completed the JROTC program, and studied under some of the best educators in Puerto Rico. The JROTC program taught me a respect for the armed forces, and the men and women who serve in it, though I knew it wasn't the path for me. My teachers, particularly my high school teachers, gave me the foundation to think and to question which have much guided my higher education beyond school. And the friends I made there continue to be loyal companions to this day, though I must admit I can be quite difficult to keep in touch with.

Following this, I attended Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana, and received a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Journalism. Computers have always held an attraction to me - the idea of breaking down a complex system of logic is something that's incredibly appealing and just feels right to me. Journalism, however, helped me with my second passion: namely, people. I like learning people's stories, helping people with their problems, dealing with people's anxieties and just helping them survive in the day to day. Journalism was a big part of my discovering that, as I covered a number of small assignments, most notable of which was a profile on a local latin jazz band and the band's leader as she worked her way to graduate school.

I've always loved to write, and my journalism education only helped me hone my pen. I wouldn't call myself prolific, though I've left more than a handful of poems written in the backs of test forms (I've always been an incredibly fast test taker). I used to leave little haikus for the graders to find, for no real reason other than I was bored. People who have read my stuff say I'm good - that I have a way with words. Though I'm not fool enough to say they're wrong, I'm even less a fool to think that's all it takes.

Right now, I've recently gradauted law school in Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts, on May, 2008. I'm now studying for the Massachusetts Bar Exam, which happens on July 30 - 31st. I have a job lined up with the Committee for Public Counsel Services as a public defender in the Springfield District Court office after that.

I also blog, by which I mean I keep an online journal. I tend to keep things light, though a lot of it depends on my current mood. I tend to write more when I'm feeling blue - which means I've not really written consistently in a while, though I tend to update at least once a week. I'm trying to better that.