Hello there! I'm your friendly neighborhood latin boy stranded on down under, though you are advised not to let that ethnic adjective mislead you. A eskimo probably can dance salsa better than I and I feel more comfortable in winter than in the hellish, life-sapping furnace that some refer to as "summer". As a matter of fact, I'm a shameless nerd... aaaand yeah, there goes the majority of my readers. Thanks for staying until now, ladies!

With that out of the way and for the few of you still reading, let us proceed. I love storytelling in any of its forms: books, movies, TV series, games, plays, music, et cetera. Anything that tickles my imagination and my intellect and preferibly, stands as a metaphor for the greater misteries of life. I love long conversations over a coffee or a hot chocolate (I have a ravenous sweet tooth), walking, exploring, learning, taking it all in, because I find life infinitely fascinating.

I sport a well developed jaded cyinical and black humoured facade to brave life's roughest edges but anyone who gets to know me just a bit knows that it is paper-thin, hardly disimulating a tenderness that I've been increasingly less afraid to embrace in the latest years. Finally, I suffer of acute synchronicity (mad bonus points if you don't have to Wikipedia that) which is pretty cool, as it's probably the closest I'll have to a superpower.

I recently moved to Australia, weary of the stale routine, sights and sounds of my life in Colombia, where I was born. Weary of feeling like a tool, weary of wasting the best years of my life without prospects of a somewhat brighter future as an expendable graphic designer pawn in an advertising agency.

So far, I've been loving it here. I'm really grateful for the opportunity of coming and I believe it's one of the best choices I've ever made. Travelling is an amazing experience and I hope to be able to travel to many other places in the world at some time.

So, for the time being I'm living the life of the immigrant student: studying and working hard for the chance of staying here a bit longer and hopefully become a productive member of this wonderful country. Now, if I had some friends, everything would be just peachy.

Listening. Seriously. I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I usually find myself as the confident of both friends and strangers. I can't tell why or what is it that I do well, but everyone has always expressed how better they feel after talking to me. Similarly, people usually remarks how I can always find the best side of a circumstance of a person, though I'd hardly call myself an optimistic. I'm too humourosly cynic for that.

I have a really steep learning curve and I love teaching and I think I have good methods to make people understand. I also like to believe I have a decent ability at weaving tales, writing and drawing, though I'm aware that I need to dedicate much more time to it, if I am to become somewhat good at them.

I'm also naturally good at playing Table Tennis and shooting a gun (long story about why I know, but fortunately -or unfortunately, for my sensationalist biographers in the future- nothing morbid or particularly dangerous), and I have the uncanny feeling I'll be good at surfing. I plan to put that theory to test soon.

And obviously, I'm highly proficient in all mandatory nerd fields: pwning j00 at videogames, spewing random quotes from obscure entertainment offerings that no one cares about, being socially awkward and hopelessly romantic.

Did I mention socially awkward already? Oh yes. Then, the second thing would be that I'm usually not with both of my feet on the ground, so to speak. I'm usually pondering on one thing or the other (from the most trivial matters to reality-encompasing issues) and sometimes it takes a second calling of my name to bring me back to Earth. Also, that I'm usually smiling. I hadn't noticed it until people started pointing it out

Physically, I've been told that my eyes are my most noticeable and appealing feature, so I guess that's it.

My favourite authors are Charles Dickens, Edgar Alan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Agatha Christie, C.S. Lewis, Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. The list is hardly conclusive as I'm always reading and always in the lookout for new things. Probably, one of my biggest sources of regret and depression is to realise from time to time that I will never be able to read everything that there is to read. Worlds I'll never go to, characters I will never know, ideas I will never have; however, such feelings are shortly-lived as I quickly realise that I could be reading instead of wastefully mopping. Latest well-loved offerings include works by Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and H.P. Lovecraft.

Movies are my second favourite source of storytelling! My favourite movies are among those made by the studios Pixar and Ghibli (I'm a big fan of animation), or by directors Tim Burton and Woody Allen. Besides that, Forrest Gump, the Back to the Future trilogy, The Fight Club and a huge list of etcs. Preferred genres are action-adventure, horror, romantic comedies and suspense thrillers.

I don't watch too much TV nowadays, because I tire of its oppressive dictatorship on one's schedule. Amongst the selected few I enjoy, Lost, Arrested Development and some anime.

Although I am tragically mainstream, my musical tastes are quite eclectic across time, space and genre: from big band to fusion, from classic music to symphonic rock, from latin rock to J-rock, from 80's and 90's one-hit-wonders to gospel. You get the idea. Music makes me dream and affects positively my mood; my favourite songs are those which either lyrics, rhythm or melody create fantastic stories in my mind. Some of the bands/artists that continuosly provide me with that feeling among many, many others are: U2, Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Fito paez, Cafe Tacvba, Ron Kenoly, The Killers, Queen, No Doubt, Crystal Lewis, Marcos Vidal, Alanis Morissette, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Pink, Vanessa Carlton, Counting Crows, Kool & the Gang, The Petshop Boys, Radiohead... the list goes for ages.

My favourite food is definitely pasta. And sweets.

In no particular order:

- A computer with an Internet connection
- A public library somewhere in 100 miles around
- Butter + Jam over my bread
- Friendship
- Some sort of entertainment technology: Mp3 player, DVD player, gaming console, etc.
- My brain (in more than one way)

Everything. As I mentioned before I alwasy keep my mind occupied with something. I constantly challenge my assumptions, try to come with ideas for stories or things that I'd like to do once I settle down, I think about the origins of the universe and life and about their end and about the relevance of my tiny spark of awareness. I think about things that I'd like to improve, about things that I wished that I did in another way just to have fun figuring how different would my life be if I did. The list is endless.

doing the same I do every night, Pinky: Try to take over the world!

Which for the time being, as I get more minio- err, friends, means kicking back at home with a good book, movie or the ceaseless wonders of the Internets.

I have no fashion sense whatsoever.

Well, that should have taken care of the few girls still standing around, except... oh, hi mom!

despite my lame atempts at self-deprecation you still think I'm someone that you would like to meet! Groucho Marx would say that he wouldn't be interested in associating with such persons but I'm a notch less awesome so it would be good to have some friends or -do I dare to dream?- someone to love.