NAME: Gerald Tarrant
AGE: 23
LOCATION: Tokyo, Japan
OCCUPATION: Ruler of the Universe
ANIME: Macross 7
BAND: L'Arc~en~Ciel
MOVIES: Star Wars (Return of the Jedi), Ben-Hur, Gettysburg
AUTHORS: William Faulkner, James Joyce, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen Lawhead, C.S. Friedman
HOBBIES: writing, webdesign, the internet
EMAIL: lordofmerentha@yahoo.com
I guess it's about time I updated this little bio. It was a little outdated and a lot silly, so here I am, starting from scratch.
What to say about myself? Hmm. Well, I'm Chinese-American, born in the United States in one of the really boring states, raised Protestant Christian (people always ask if I'm Buddhist >.>). The most exciting thing about my childhood was probably that I moved to Texas when I was entering my teen years, and please don't confuse the Texas of movie westerns with the Texas that I grew up in. Yes, there are cowboy hats and yes, the people who lived a few streets down kept horses and cows, but there is more to Texas than deserts and cacti and rodeo. Personally, I consider Austin, Texas, my home. It's probably as modernly un-Texas as people can think of while still keeping to the "small-town, down-home" feeling that we've all come to associate with the Texas of old stories. The best part about Austin is the eclectic atmosphere of the town, which you'd expect of any college town, but with a distinctly Texan feel.
I had a lot of issues about myself and my heritage when I was growing up. My family hails from a small island just off the shore of Hong Kong, Cheung Chau. My parents spoke Cantonese to me at home, but I really never felt connected to my Chinese ancestry when I was living in America. Since I've graduated from college and left home to explore the big wide world, I've been able to come to terms with a lot of the identity problems that I, and a lot of other Asian-Americans, face. I'm proud of my Chinese heritage and the customs, language, and values that come along with that.
I've always liked fantasy/science-fiction novels and films, and I've been writing since an early age, earlier than I can remember, even. I wrote some very crappy original wannabe novels before discovering the internet and the world of fanfiction when I was a junior or senior in high school, and haven't looked back since. The internet has grown a lot since then, and I'm constantly amazed at how the "information age" is just expanding people's horizons and linking everyone across the globe.
When I was a freshman in college, I decided to join the Air Force ROTC program there, and four years later I graduated and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force. We had a really great ROTC program. Over those four years I had the opportunity to learn a lot about our country's military, as well as go on training programs at Air Force bases around the country, to train other cadets, and to learn to be a leader in today's military. One of the best things I ever did was go TDY for a summer to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, to be a cadet training assistant at one of the field training encampments there. I still have a lot of fond memories of that time - it was hot and sweaty and tiring, and I didn't get much to eat and only about 3 hours of sleep a night, but being able to train the best flight of cadets in the camp was worth it.
I discovered Japanese animation my first year of college, prodded by one of my friends from high school. The first anime I ever saw was Fushigi Yuugi, and I'm not at all a shoujo anime fan by any means, but that first exposure was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. With help from the wonderful folks at the Fushigi Yuugi Fanfiction Mailing List, I was introduced to the world of anime fandom, and really haven't looked back since. Most of my best online friends are people I met on that ML. It's been about 4 years, and I'm very glad that they've been with me every step of the way. I don't watch anime as often as I used to, and when I do, it's mainly science-fiction mecha (giant robot) and cyberpunk anime now. I do write a lot of anime fanfiction, which can be found on my fanfiction site.
I also consider myself somewhat of a self-proclaimed expert on Japanese rock music. It was my love of Japanese music, in fact, that led me to start learning Japanese, because I wanted to know what the people were singing about in the songs. I've been studying Japanese for about 4 years now, and have gotten to the point where I can understand people speaking rather coherently and translate rather less coherently.
The military, in a gesture of what I consider to be the single best thing they've done for me yet, stationed me in Tokyo for my first active duty assignment. I love being in the middle of the Tokyo culture and living here being able to go out every weekend and fuel my expensive hobby (Japanese music) without having to pay import taxes and all that. Besides the fact that I can now learn Japanese in Japan, I now have the opportunity to see my favorite bands live, which is like a dream come true.
In the future, I don't plan to stay in the military for a career. I will most likely get out at some point and go back to school for an education degree, and then use that to move back to either Hong Kong or Japan and teach English, or maybe become a writer. Like a lot of Asian-Americans, I find myself drawn back to the place where my parents came from. I don't know if that is going to be temporary or permanent, but here in Asia, it feels like I've found a piece of myself that was always missing when I was living in the United States. The thing I like most about myself, I think, is that I am multilingual. I think every kid should grow up knowing at least two languages, because it really broadens your view of life, even if you end up spending all of your life in the same country.
Thanks for reading ^_^