Hello, and welcome to me.

Online I'm much more secretive about myself than I am in Real Life, but here's a few quick tidbits...

I'm Caucasian (of Dutch descent), 5 foot 6, 115 pounds, brown hair (may be dyed black), blue eyes. I have not been spotted leaving the scene of any crimes recently, and there is no reward for my capture, dead or alive.

I was born in the 70's, and am somewhere in my thirties at the time I'm writing this. I also have 6 years of University under my belt, and a decade in the field, which should tell you which end of "thirty-something" I'm closer to.

My favorite colors are blue and black. And silver, though that's not quite a color, I've been told.

I like to wear tight double-dye black jeans, T-shirts, cloaks, black leather jackets, and silver jewelry. Occasionally, I even toss on leather cuffs or collars sparkling with silver studs and pointy spikes.

I also wear a leather thong around my neck with little pewter letters reading 'RAVEN' hanging from it, so in case you ever meet me (yeah, right) at a Convention, Mush meet, GothBar, or in a cage at the local pound, at least you'll know it's me. (Actually, at a Goth Bar, I'd be the one hacking on the smoke whilst making some vague attempt to look pretentious and arrogant.)

I drive a bright red '94 Plymouth Voyager which I picked up through my Dad's connections -- he happens to be a master mechanic, and an Automotive Instructor at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

I've owned a variety of computers, mostly IBM, but made the leap to Macintosh just before the new milennium rolled around. I'm currently working with an iMac DV Special Edition, running on Mac O/S X. I haven't gotten around to installing panther yet, but I'll probably do that soon.

I don't keep any pets, but (along with my sister) was adopted by a orphaned Crow (christened 'Edgar' tho we'd no idea if it was male or female). Edgar liked to caw a lot and make a mess on the balcony, but he was generally a nice bird, and quite content to sit on your shoulder, especially if you had some bacon rinds for him. He has since been returned to the wild, and at last report was doing quite well.

In 1993 I received my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta (Canada). Due to lack of employment, I went back to the Uni to get my Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in History and minoring in Japanese. That degree isn't quite finished due to financial constraints.

I am currently working in the medical field. My preference is for nightshifts. When I'm not on shift, I tend to stay up all night anyway - usually online doing email, chatting, or designing new web pages.

Speaking of web pages, I have my own domain (shades-of-night.com) and my prolific efforts can be viewed there, be ye not faint of heart nor feeble of browser. Most of my spare time is devoted to maintaining The Aviary, a page for raven and crow enthusiasts.

My other hobbies include archery, hiking, watching birds, Live Role Playing, making costumes, MUCKing around on MUSHes and MUDs, traveling, Zymurgy (that's wine-making), drawing, reading (when I have free time - heh), photography, coping with crises, and doing coffee with friends.

On that note, caffeine happens to be my drug of choice and I'm also a fan of theobromine (a chemical in chocolate).

I have been blessed with a stable family, more cool friends than any one person deserves, and enough health problems to keep me grateful just for breathing (yay asthma. Oh, did I mention that Theophyline, a drug used for treating asthma, also happens to be chemically related to caffeine and theobromine? Long live the Xanthines, I say!).

Anyway, I'm very content being who I am, even if I do like to dress like a pirate, play silly games, and occasionally dye my hair funky colors.

Anything else you would like to know, you are welcome to ask. You can catch me online on a MUSH or ICQ (my UIN is 2033010), or you can email me.

One warning, though - I'm notoriously erratic in my email habits. Sometimes I'll answer messages within minutes of receiving them (I check my email pretty often), and at other times I'll let messages languish for weeks, for no discernible reason. Perhaps it's just my corvid nature... I like to line my nest with shiny things, and email messages constitute a large part of that lining.

Ah, well - enough about me. For now, at least...