Who Am I? Hey, that's a Point of Grace song!

Alright, as known by my friends, I really don't like talking about myself. But I'll succumb and at least put a bio on this site.

Let's start with what I do. I'm a software engineer/consultant who, for the past several years, have done various things in the field, mostly traveling to customer sites and assisting them with their software needs, whether it's trouble-shooting, programming or training. My degree is in Computer Science so yes, I did go to school to do this kind of thing. However, I'd much rather be traveling around shooting pictures of places, people and events. I have had lots of chances to do that though, having had the opportunity to roam around in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and, of course, the United States. "My country t'is of thee, sweet land of liberty..." Oops, sorry, that song just came unbidden. Yes, America is my home but I was born in the fair land of the Philippines. I really miss it - too bad I can't just up and go and live back there. But most of my family are here now, so here I have to stay.

Currently, I've taken a breather from years of toil and am back as a student studying the sciences. Whoever thought I'd be doing this again - lugging a backpack and hightailing it to classes? And here's the kicker - I've been having fun studying biology, chemistry and organic chemistry. It's really strange. I never thought these were fun classes before. But the new field of bioinformatics has piqued my interest. If you don't know what that is, then tough. Just kidding. If you've heard about the human genome, then bioinformatics is simply the confluence of molecular biology and computer science. People are needed to apply computer science principles and concepts to interpret all this data coming from researchers and scientists.

Enough gobbledygook. Before all this boring stuff, I was a musician for most of my early life. Yes, M-U-S-I-C. I remember my dad selling off his motorcycle (his only mode of transportation at the time) so he could buy me a piano. Note, I did not ask for this. I had no clue at the time what a piano was. But my parents made me take piano lessons till high school when my piano teacher had me audition for a scholarship at the Philippine High School for the Arts. I kept up with more piano lessons there (no, they did not have baking as a major) until college when another scholarship led me to the University of the Philippines' College of Music for 3 years. Finally, a place with baking lessons. But I was having too much fun getting involved in various musical things to bother with flour and baking soda.

Which brings things back to the present and the end of this short bio. I guess the most important thing is that I'm a born-again believer who is trying to serve God not just in word but in deed. I pray the same for you.