The Quick Facts
- Name: Carolyn Chan
- Astahost handle: Hraefn (duh!)
- Sex (it's not a dirty word!): Femme
- D.O.B.: May 7, 1980
- Age: 25
- Enthnicity: Chinese
- Country of residence: Philippines
- Credit card number: (what do you think I am, stupid?)
The Not-so-quick Facts
So who am I, really? Truth to tell, I don't think even I know. I'm a sometime writer, a sometime artist, a sometime musician, a sometime techno-greek (ie. a grrl geek). That's a lot of sometimes, come to think of it. If there's anything I do full time, it's being a managing b****—or at least that's what my siblings would say. But of course I'm the eldest, so they're probably just jealous. =^^=
Like I said, I'm a sometime writer. It all started back in highschool when I was picked out of the unwashed masses to become editor-in-chief of the school paper. Since then I've written a few articles—mostly freelance work for a couple of local dailies, with the occasional scathing letter to idiot politicians (did you know used took a semester in Political Science once? it never worked out). But nowadays, I mostly write fiction, or to be precise, fan-fiction (though I have a couple of original works of my own). Did I mention that I'm an anime fanatic? No? Well, I am, and most of my writing is based on various anime fandoms. Ah, the joys of being an otaku!
For the art part... well, I used to draw and paint quite well (the operative words being used to). I haven't practiced my skills since forever, so I'm afraid they've deteriorated. What I do now is mostly pixel pushing. If you haven't become acquainted with the wonder that is Photoshop, I suggest you start now.
Hmm... I wonder why I said I was a sometime musician? Sure, I can sing and play the guitar, but not well enough to start my own band. But I do love music. In fact, my whole family's musically inclined—all but two can play a musical instrument (one actually has his own band), and the two that can't are fairly good singers.
On being a techno-greek (the greek part meaning that I dispute the popular assumption that computer technology is a male-only domain), practically everything I know about computers, I learned on my own—with one or two exceptions. I love computers; I love what they can do. Truth to tell, I don't know what I would do if I lost access to a computer for more than a month (horrible thought, that!) Uh, can I program? Well, I do know some C, C++, and with a few minutes study, I'm usually able to edit existing scripts to make them do what I want. I'm not the hardcore programmer in my family; my brother is.
I am rather well conversant with HTML/xHTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP, if I do say so myself. Everything I know about those web scripting languages is self-taught, though, like most of what I know about computers. I actually find it easier to learn through self-study than to have a teacher yammer at you all day. Maybe that's because I'm a quick learner, and because I genuinely find those subjects interesting.
So what technical background do I actually have? Very little actually. I do the maintenance of my family's computers (including my cousins'), and I can fix practically anything as long as I have the time to study it a little. I am an unlicensed technician for Nokia cellphones (a necessity, that, since there were times I had to fix my own phone—once the warranty has expired, of course). I also used to work as technical support for PalmOne (stressful job, that. Don't people ever read the f**** manual anymore?!). Well, that's it for my technical background.
Uh... this is running rather long, and it's an uncredited post, too. Guess, I'll have to cut it short, especially now that the clock reads 5:15 (wow, one whole hour to type this post!). After you've read this post, please forget about it. I'm not usually this silly. =^^=
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So you're from Phillippines eh ? Good good.. been down there a couple of times. Really liked it. Beautiful country. Infact, my company partner used to work in Subig bay and he was the one who took me down. Good to have you here.
