A Short Bio of TsuKata
Well, you might be familiar with the old text of this bio, but with the advent of WordPress comes updates to every part of the site, as I get to it. Instead of references to fandoms that I haven't squeed about in years, this bio will be chock full of entirely new references, at least for some period of time after which this bio, too, shall be cobwebby.
Let's start with that rotating tiger up there. You might wonder where that's from and why I have it here, even now. Much of that has to do with the origin of my name, so really, we need to start there. Longtime readers may remember the cheesy intro that used to greet you at the root of my site. That gives some definitions of the components of my nom de guerre, but it doesn't tell you how it came to be.
Long, long, ago (circa 1994), in a city far, far, away (unless you're in Charleston, SC USA, in which case, you are very nearby), I was a CCG-er. In fact, I played that holiest of CCGs: Magic the Gathering. Early on in my MtG days, my friends got all into Blue Interrupt decks, which are easily thwarted by the Tsunami. It became kind of like my signature. Back in those days, you could find me on Prodigy as TsunamiCat or TsunamiKat.
Slightly less long ago (circa 1996), in a city still pretty far away (unless you're in New Orleans, LA USA...same reason), I attended college at Tulane University, home of the Green Wave. (Yeah, they have mostly crappy sports, but I still wanted to show some school pride.) When I went away to college, I needed a dial-in internet account. They had free highspeed, but I was on this old Packard Bell 486 that I had upgraded the proc on all by myself. (Awww...PB! I miss your proprietary ways!) At the time, I was on Win 3.11 as a result, and it couldn't support ethernets without additional software, which required more processor than I had. Anyways, my parents and most of the world had left behind Prodigy for this fairly tiny start-up called America Online. Maybe you've heard of it? Back in those ancient times, AOL charged by the hour, so I didn't want to sap off my parents' account. I was a wee little college student, too, which translates to "poor" in most languages. So, I sold my soul to the devil. Well, I actually just got a job working for AOL's online tech support. They paid me with a free unlimited overhead account and access to employee numbers that were never busy. At the time, that was a sweet deal. It also meant I had to choose a permanent screenname. Unlike Prodigy, AOL had this concept of your screenname being your *everything*, so it needed to be special, catchy, recognizable... It also should be easy to spell, but I learned that lesson a bit too late. So, here I was, smack in the midst of my freshman year at Tulane, trying to make a decision that might very well follow me for the rest of my life. It's the stuff that college life is made of. I looked to my interests. I was going to Karate lessons and doing very well. It was the only sport I'd done where my size (vertical and horizontal) was more of an asset than a liability. I was taking Japanese. I was an anime freak. I still played games, but MTG had run its course for me, mainly because I couldn't afford the habit. I wanted my history and my future. And thus, TsuKata was born.
Kat was a bit of history...a leftover piece of my old screennames, which always used to contain the word "kat." Kata was a term from Karate. A kata is a series of articulated moves that demonstrate the student's skill level. Tsu was the first part of tsunami, a throwback to my MtG days and a salute to the Green Wave. Later, I figured out that TsuKata translates to "in expert form" which thrilled me, because I'm arrogant. :) That picture that started this whole thing is the symbol of Shotokan Karate being spun into a Tsunami. This guy I cybered on AOL made it for me as a thank you. :) And, speaking of arrogance, I graduated from Tulane on May 20, 2000 with Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from the Tulane School of Engineering, and minors in English, Math, and Asian Studies. (Woohoo!) If you don't believe me, I have a giant ass diploma to prove it.
Maybe you didn't want to know all of that. Maybe you're one of those A/S/L jerks, so if you are, here's what you need to know: I'm the hottest redheaded computer geek you've ever imagined, and you can't have me. You could beg all day long, and I will not send you a pic. I was born on 8 Oct 1978; you do the math. I live very far away from you, and I don't want to travel to meet you. Satisfied?
Apologies. I have no patience for those asl-bastards. You know now that I grew up in Charleston, SC; I went to college in New Orleans, LA. After that, I moved to Chicagoland to work for a very large corporation that you've most likely heard of and/or used products made by. I started out living in Schaumburg, IL. Then, I lived in Palatine, IL. These days, I live in Gurnee, IL USA. I share a house with my darling, He-Who-Has-Not-Yet-Been-Named, and my cat, Maggie. HWHNYBN and I started dating in 2002; you can see the beginnings of that romance here; just keep clicking "next day" until bored for best results. We also recently got engaged, and you can read the details of that here.
Going back to the discussion of pictures, The other unusual picture you may have noticed is the background for these pages. If you are familiar with Japanese culture, you might recognize it as a maneki-neko, or "lucky cat". A very unusual set of circumstances led me to the maneki-neko, and I am the type of person who takes coincidence very seriously. While I am not religious, I am spiritual, and part of my belief is that sometimes we come across things and people accidentally which actually have a purpose or serve to guide us. Over the course of roughly 10 years, the maneki-neko found me so many times that I decided it must be one of those things with purpose.
Other interests of mine? Well, wander around this site for awhile and you'll get a rough idea. :) I'm a Libra. I write a blog, which you can read on the front page of this site. I'm a member of Mensa. I game pretty regularly...german board games, regular board games, card games, whatever interests me at the moment. I play poker. I geek around on the computer. If you want to know more, drop me an e-mail and ask.
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