The personal side of AT Options

[Astrid]

Sitting here in the school library between classes, ultimately bored and exhausted, I've come up with an idea some of you may either immediately disregard as a waste of time or find some interest in. What is it that we do? How many of us are high school students? College students? Which major? How many of us have completed that tedious part of our lives and achieved a career?

I'm a college student, who after months of trial-and-error has finally settled on Philosophy as an appropriate major. I entered school as a psych major, then chem, then physics, then math, then philosophy and physics, and now just philosophy I finally realized that I wasted entirely too much time trying to pick one and just decided to go for the shortest and most enjoyable. Nothin' better than arguing with a classful of people about the validity of the substance of an inanimate object :D Anyway, I plan to eventually become a professor and mess with my own students' minds. I'll throw enough Nietzsche, Plato and Descartes their way to make them question society and reality all the way to the looney bin. I love my major :D How about you guys?

Also, hobbies. Other than gaming, do you guys like anything? I used to take martial arts for a very brief period of time, but temporarily injured my knee, so I'll switch to archery until it heals. I'd call myself an avid comicbook fan, but after recieving more disappointing news in the direction of the X-Titles, I plan to quit them cold turkey (I've said this at least a million times in the past).

Any writers out there? If so, please participate in the FFXI role playing game on http://www.geneticrevolution-home.com (Heh! Shameless plug )

Anyway, this happens to be the aftermath of my sleepless, in-between-class, Tuesday boredom.

[Kazicht]

Okay, I'm gonna try to break it down as best I can.

Lets start with my present...

Currently I'm 19 year old Fine Arts major at a state college in the city. Yep, I study/do all that free-form abstract painting, sculpture, drawing.. along with the classical techniques of the old masters. Its really fun and different from last year when I was a Graphic Design major. Although I enjoyed it... I just felt like I needed more time to express myself freely, inspire, and ferther develope my own style.. without all the rules and restrictions of corporate design.
After I get my A.A.S in Fine Arts, I'll be going for a B.F.A in Computer Animation & Interactive media. Aiming for a career animating in either Film, Game/Character-Design, Web-Design and the such.

During the school semesters I like to spend alot of time to myself. Everyother weekend or so I'll go hang out with my good friends and just take it easy.
Im pretty stright-edge (no smokes, booze, drugs), but I don't preach it... I have a big dislike for preachers of all kinds. Other's do their thing, and I do mine; we all have our reasons, right? ^.^


Now, hobbies and interests...

Art...heh. Well yeah, I pretty much grew up as a child of the arts. Both me, and my younger brother inherited the skill from our father. I have an interest for many kinds of visual expression; from classical, modern, ethnic, architectual to web-design, graphic-design, Anime/Manga, sculpture, 3-D animation and photography.

Music... for the most part I listen to alot of EMO/core, although I'm not a "EMO kid", my personality is far from the whiny, crying, super sensitive type. Anyone that knows me even alittle bit can tell you that. I guess I just enjoy the feelings this type of music envokes on me, feelings that I usually wouldn't feel or think about. Some of my favorite bands include Saves the Day, Emery, SAOSIN, Rufio, and Funeral for a Friend.. among others. Also I enjoy music by such bands as AFI, Rise Against, Abandoned Pools, GooGoo Dolls, Weezer, and The Used. Im sure Im missing alot more but I wanna move on...
J-Rock, also another type of music Im into... but this, Im not into for the words or lyrics as much. Mainly just the melodies. Whenever I get sick of listening to english words, or just the language altogether, I turn on some HYDE, Larcenciel, or Pillows. I enjoy the presentation of rock&roll this culture brings...

Which brings me to things like Visual-Kei. V-K is basicly Japan's version of 80's glamrock but taken much farther in terms of style, visual presentation, and the overall coolness (atleast to me ). Most V-K bands/artists dress very androgynous and their clothing style is pretty much extreme bondage mixed with a flair of gothic type, feminine cut clothing. They put their look on the same level as their music and most of these bands/artist are male, although you'd swear they were female. Some Visual-K bands/artists are Periotte, Gackt, Malice Mizer, and Luna Sea. The only female V-K artist I've come across is the very cute Kana.

I also find cosplay very fun and interesting.. although I don't do it myself. If I ever were to do it, I'd probably try and do a visual-kei style outfit ^.^
Alot of people wrould probably find all this stuff to be kind of bazarr, but since I'm a very visual type person... things like this really draw me in.

Ah, gaming... I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. I had an Atari (don't remember the model) in my house before I could even grip a joystick. My uncle would absolutely spoil me in terms of video games... he'd bring home a new cartridge for me all the time and I'd sit there jamming buttons and rotatating the joystick mindlessly. Probably by the time I was 3-4 I was able to somewhat understand and control the relationship between me, the joypad, and the moving colorful shapes on the TV. By six years old I was beating Mario 3 over and over just to improve my time. On the weekends my uncle would take me down to the local arcade and just let me go wild with quarters... ahh, those were the days.
These days Im more picky with the type of games I play. For the most part I've seen and played every genra out there and very little new games captivate me enough to waste my time. My favorite genres are Console RPGs, MMORPGs, Fighting, Racing, and 2-d Side-scroller type action adventure, shooting and platformers. I also enjoy flight and mech simulations.

Other things I enjoyr are Sci-Fi (cyberpunk) & fantasy novels, comic books, and graphic novels.


Personality...last because I don't really have much to say about this.

I guess I'm a quiet kinda guy, maybe alittle aloof... some people would mistaken this for shyness, but I really just don't have much to say most of the time. I speak when I'm spoken to, or when I think its important for me to share my thoughts. I'm an absorber... taking in infomation for myself, and not caring to share it.
I can seem alittle more outgoing online, mainly because its a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere to me, and also more effortless to try and share thoughts with people.
I rarely judge people... but when I do its on actions, words, and personality. I have a huge distaste for things such as cliques, trends, ignorance, posers, self-induced depression and people who cast opinions (good or bad) before getting the bigger, or whole picture. Alot of these reasons in why I tend to shut myself off from most people (including reasons that deal with my childhood, but I don't feel like getting into that) and just look for my own way towards things. Right or wrong, I still did it 'my way'.


Other stuffthat might tell you somthing about me...

My name is Thai (pronouced like Tai, Tie, Tye, etc). In Chinese/Japanese it means 'Peace', 'Calm' or 'Tranquility". I think it matches me well.I was named after my brithplace, and came to the US before I was two years old. I was born in a mountain village.. Chinese from my mother's side, Vietnamese and Cambodian from my father's. I'v had an adoration of Thieves since my early teens... and um, dunno..thats all i got for now.

If I come up with anything else I'll edit. But thats the jist of it...or atleast what I can come up with.