About Me

I was born in August of 1976, in Concord, CA (in the San Francisco Bay Area), and have lived there pretty much all my life, save for my time spent at college. I went to school at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington (south of Seattle) for two years before I was forced to drop out due to poor health; I took a year off and then spent another year at U.C. Santa Cruz before quitting school again when my health failed.

As of winter 2003, I've started looking for a job for the first time in six years. Painter's Wing Design was my stint of self-employment which, unfortunately, suffered from the bottom falling out of not only the web-design market but the entire tech sector. After clawing for a few contracts, I finally decided to look into a steady job again to try to get regular income... Just my luck to try as the economy hits its latest nadir, when my quantifiable job skills have suffered from six years of being out of the larger workforce.

The plus side of this is the simple fact that I feel healthy enough to even try a full-time job. I've had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since I was eighteen, a condition which physically crippled me for several years; recovery has been slow, but I finally have hope that I can be a normal person again, able to hold a job and, indeed, build a career. Of all my achievements lately, that hope has been the most important.

The saving grace for me (beyond a very supportive family) has been my Significant Other, a very gentle and interesting fellow named Nick Kolowski. He has kept me going through the long process of reconstructing my health.

I've discovered, as my health has improved, that I have a taste (okay, passion) for gardening. After starting a small vegetable garden in my own yard in fall 2002 (which has since expanded), I enrolled in the UC Cooperative Extension's course for Master Gardeners, and graduated the following June. Along the way I ran across a curious discipline known as Plant Pathology: the science of diagnosing plant disease. Sounds dry, I know, but it's Sherlock Holmes crossed with gardening, and I adore it enough that I've enrolled in college again in an effort to get a degree. Once I have what the local college can offer, I'll be getting a B.S. in Plant Biology from UC Davis, then on to the Master's Program in Plant Pathology. I can't wait.

My major hobbies are tending the vegetable garden, frequenting GardenWeb forums, keeping up on various comic books, trying in vain to catch up on my e-mail, and playing in whatever role-playing games I happen to be attending. I write when I can carve out a little time here and there.

I read a lot of fantasy/science fantasy novels -- my favorite author is Barbara Hambly, though C.S. Friedman certainly gives her a run for her money -- and dabble in whatever crafts I have a taste for at the given moment. Some things I have going are baking (wheat-free), knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, hand-sewing a shirt, light jewelrymaking, beading, crocheted doilies, and of course drawing. Most of the time I work on things as I feel a need for them -- I will make a new beaded necklace when I want one to go with an outfit, for example.

If you have any comments, or want more info on the subjects I've outlined on this site, feel free to email me at torquill@foogod.com; it's my primary email, which I try to keep out of the hands of spambots. I am also available by ICQ (#1281966) much of the time.