c is for... (character.)

Birthdate: September 10, 1975. I am a Virgo, born in the Year of the Rabbit.

Residence: St. Louis, Missouri

Current soundtrack to life: The Magnolia Soundtrack

Heritage: Filipino-American--which, by the way, does not mean that one parent is Filipino and the other is Caucasian. (Both are 100% Filipino.) It means that I make the same claim to being as American as an "African-American" or a "German-American"--more of a cultural thing than a blood thing.

Family: Dad's a doctor, mom's a nurse. Younger sister, Angelica (goes by "Jeli"), born in 1977; younger brother, Joseph (goes by "Joe"), born in 1978. One dog--a chow, Chopsticks (goes by "Chops" and "Stupid" but answers to neither). And just as long as you're asking, no, I don't go by "Chris"--it's always "Christian".

Philosophy, politics, and religion: Progressive Roman Catholic, with a healthy dose of Taoism. Politically, I refer to myself as a pacifist-anarchist. I dislike labeling myself along "liberal/moderate/conservative" lines, because I find that a lot of the stereotypical beliefs attached to conservatives and liberals tend to be contradictory (if not hypocritical); but I have a lot more liberal friends than conservative friends, so draw from that what you will. I am a utilitarian, a post-feminist, a fierce believer in free will, a gestalt theorist, a post-modernist, an empiricist, an apophatician, and a chaos theorist. I really dig the concept of agape, and I wish more Christians would practice it and stop giving the rest of us a bad name.

Occupations: Officially, Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Aquinas Institute of Theology, and Kenrick Life Teen Music Director. Unofficially? Pixel and print designer, liturgical pianist, illustrator, composer, writer, cartoonist.

Diet: The more I watch Babe, the more I want to become a vegetarian -- but I just like meat too damn much. I try to minimize the amount of red meat I eat, and I usually don't eat pork (fall back on the Pulp Fiction dialogue). I can't drink caffeinated beverages because they give me heart palpitations. And I'm allergic to the pectin in fresh apples.

Hobbies and interests: Drawing, writing, creating comics, playing piano, flirting, playing "guardian angel" or "shoulder to cry on".

Heroes: Tori Amos, St. Augustine of Hippo, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, Berke Breathed, Tim Burton, Tracy Chapman, e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, Jules Feiffer, Neil Gaiman, Jimi Hendrix, George Herriman, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Joel, Pope John XXIII, John Keats, Walt Kelly, Martin Luther King, Jr., Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Baz Luhrman, Bobby McFerrin, Sarah McLachlan, Thomas Merton, Camille Paglia, William Shakespeare, Dave Sim, Jeff Smith (the cartoonist, NOT the Frugal Gourmet), Stephen Sondheim, art spiegelman, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Bill Watterson, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams

Celebrity crushes: Halle Berry, Claire Danes, Terry Gross, Juliana Hatfield, Camille Henderson (Sarah McLachlan's backup singer), Moira Kelly, Emily Procter, Aidan Quinn, Alicia Witt

Favorite films: Babe, Beauty and the Beast, The Blair Witch Project, Casablanca, Charade, Eat Drink Man Woman, Fist of Legend, The Empire Strikes Back, Manon des Sources, The Matrix, The Princess Bride, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Schindler's List, The Seven Samurai, The Usual Suspects, The Wedding Banquet

Favorite albums: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, New Beginnings by Tracy Chapman, 1200 Curfews by the Indigo Girls, The Original Concept Album of Jesus Christ Superstar, Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill, Circlesongs by Bobby McFerrin, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan, Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails, The Original Cast Recording of Rent, The Joshua Tree by U2, By Request... by John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra

Favorite books (or comics in the guise of books, or illustrated stories, or at the very least leaves bound together with some form of language printed upon them): Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock, Invisible People by Will Eisner, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (facsimile and transcript edition), Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Sandman: The Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman and various artists, Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, Cerebus: Jaka's Story by Dave Sim and Gerhard, Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith

Favorite TV programs: ABC World News Now (not World News Tonight with Peter Jennings--you have to catch this really late at night), Ally McBeal (prior to the 3rd season, 'cuz now it sucks), CNN Headline News, Inside the Actor's Studio, Law and Order, VH1 Behind the Music, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The West Wing

Favorite games: Archon, Chess, Donkey Kong Jr., Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda series, Mancala, Scrabble, The Samurai Shodown series, SiSSYFiGHT 2000, The Street Fighter Alpha series, The You Don't Know Jack series