My Family
Let's start with Mom & Dad,
shall we? Since mom's paranoid about me giving out too much
information on the Internet, I'll just say they're a nice couple who try
to do what they think is the right thing. And they have a lot of
interesting quirks. I'll spare you the psychological analysis for now,
but you should ask me sometime. It will embarrass me and I won't want
to think about it, but if you pester me enough and don't let up I'll
finally either leave or punch you in the mouth.
I have two younger brothers. The older of the two is named Matt. He works at Fryes and drives a Pontiac Firebird with reckless abandon. He would like to work with animals but he's not sure it's worth all the work and dedication required to make a career out of it. Though I never thought I'd admit it, he's turned into a pretty good guy.
Then there's Rob, the younger of the two. He's probably my best friend in the world. We're wierd in a lot of the same ways, except he talks more and is skinnier. We're currently engaged in an information battle in which we both try to impress the other with what we know and/or can do with a computer. Right now I have the slight advantage because I'm a UCLA student and have interesting classes like "Artificial Intelligence Programming" but Rob has a $40K/yr. job programming computers so who knows how this one will end up? He may end up buying me out or something pleasantly nefarious like that. Oh well, I can hope.
There have been several cats and dogs in our family. Since the cats
are more impressive, I'll start by introducing them. Nick, the oldest, is a black-and-white
terror with touches of senility. He's afraid of anything or nothing (or
both!) but he has the softest fur you could ever imagine. He has
fathered several litters, most of whom have been hit by cars. He's dead
now.
The one descendant remaining in our household is Thump. He's big and black and fuzzy and he
likes to hit his head on things. Now, when I say he's big, I mean he's
really immensely huge! He's almost as big as our dog, who is a pretty
amazing size himself (as I'll explain momentarily). He's also dead now.
Then there are the two newcomers. Prince, the little dainty white punk, is deaf, and paranoid because of it. Then there's Mo. Mo was named Spice before he came to us (his previous family moved away), and was renamed after molasses because he's really slow. He's the most personable cat our family has ever had the pleasure of taking care of, and this can get on your nerves at 5:00am as I've found out many times. He's dead now also.
Then there's Snoopy, our family beagle. We have many names for this little sausage-with-feet, but my favorite is "Dergible Dog." He really is fat! If we didn't keep a close eye on the cats' food (as we often don't) he would eat it all in seconds. Often he won't even stop to chew something that you drop for him before he swallows. This habit has lead to many hillarious incidents involving rocks and napkins, but I won't get into the particulars. His favorite game is "catch," where he runs away and you have to somehow catch him before he gets tired and quits. As he has aged, this has gotten more difficult not because he's become more agile and crafty, but because he quits so damn fast!
Now on to the closer
member of my family: my wife Sangeeta.
We've been married since September 28, 1996 and we're happier now than
we've ever been before. Don't get me wrong. she's as crazy as any
woman. It's just that her brand of crazy is a variety that I rather
enjoy.
So, as you can see, animals hold more importance than people in our family. Well, not really, it's just that they're easier to talk about because you can say anything without offending them or hurting their feelings. They're also simpler to characterize than are people. I think my father's best friends (only friends?) are our animals. This is one of his quirks as mentioned above. I, on the other hand, have several human friends (some of whom are animals). I'll introduce them to you in alphabetical order:
...and Friends
Travis Black is a charming blonde elephant handler who works at the San Diego Zoo. He's a computerphobe though and he'll probably never read this, so if you see him tell him about it. He's into really fast musclecars (he owns an electric blue '69 Chevelle 396) and hard music (from Slayer to Tool) and snakes. Oh, really big snakes. It's been a while, but I think his biggest one, Abigail is 11 feet long. I remember I could hold it over my shoulders and it reached nearly to the ground on both sides of my body. It was as big around as my thigh. In other words, too big to put both hands around! He also has an iguana named Buddy who likes to chill on top of the drapes.
Dennis
Brown and my brothers and I used to spend hours making huge
ammounts of noise with our guitars. Dennis is one of the most gifted
guitarists I ever jammed with. He plays guitar a lot like George Lynch
of Dokken. He's also a very nice and sincere guy. We know eachother
because our mothers were nuns together before we were born, so whenever
they'd visit eachother, we'd see Dennis. Now he's in a couple of bands
in the San Pedro area. If you get a chance (and you like Dokken) then
check them out.
John Haas is another one of the most skilled and talented guitarists I've ever had the pleasure of jamming with. He's a solo player, though, because he really can fill up a song until there's no room left for another guitarist. He's also probably THE kindest and most polite person I've ever met. He now has a BA in Music from UCSC, and will soon be a black belt in Ninjitsu.
Anthony Lani is another guy who'se mother is a friend of my mother. He's a genius who works on computer-generated film segments (like Titanic or Face/Off). He's one of the only people I know who's taller than I am. He drives a brand new black Mustang and he has a charming girlfriend.
Diane Mangum is a huge Van Halen fan. She even has it emblazoned on her license plate. She's very concerned about AIDS (she doesn't have it, though, but she thinks it's just a matter of time before someone she cares about gets it) and she is very dedicated to her family.
Orlando Olarte is my clever Peruvian buddy. He's a pretty
good hockey player and has two adorable children. Between his kids and
his hockey, he doesn't have any time left! He's a nice guy, and very
smart, but terminally tardy.
Kalyan Rai is one of the only guys in Kathmandu to have a degree in Chemistry. He's currently pursuing postgraduate work here in the states and trying to learn Javascript. I met him because his father and my wife's father are best friends.
Adit Reddy is a crazy, ripped, computer maniac who is so handsome he gets paid by people who want to take his picture. He's also one of the few Cognitive Science majors I've met at UCLA.
Greg Ripes is a musical genius. A mad genius of electronic sound synthesis and engineering. He's currently attending CalArts where he studies Music Technology. If I were to make an albumn, I'd want Greg to produce it. He's brilliant!
Castor Uycoque is an aspiring computer geek who reminds me of a comic martial-arts hero. He has a vivid imagination, a vicious ex-wife, and an unshakable faith in logic. He needs a woman who's smarter than him and who can stay calm in the face of his bad temper.
Bill Vondrasek is a master of social engineering. He has a well-developed sense of justice, at least for himself and his friends and family. He is a die-hard musician and a true friend. He now runs Mission Control Studio in Simi Valley, CA.