Who am I?

First & foremost, I am someone who avoids this type of question like a trip to the dentist. I seem to have made a life out of avoiding definition. Nevertheless there certain labels that I definately fall under. Let's see what I come up with:

Christian
I'm not a great one, not even a very good one if you ask me. It's a pretty frustrating identity to affiliate with, when you consider the 100% failure rate amongst it's membership when it comes to living a perfect, Christ-like life. God knows that we will still sin, but expects us to recognize our sin and hate it. To still accept us even though we are fallen can only be explained by God's grace. That's probably the biggest misconception about Christianity out there. The church is not a club for hypocrites who think that they are somehow better off than everyone else. The church is a hospital for sick people who need more of what makes them well. Perfection is my aim and it is only attainable through humble submission and God's grace. Not a lot of room for self-importance or inflated ego, which I tend to be guilty of on both accounts more often than I would care to admit. Am I the type of person that goes around knocking on doors or handing out pamphlets? No, evangelism is not really my strong suit. But I'm working on it...

I serve as a webmaster for my church, the Filipino-American Christian Church here in Minnesota and try to play in the Praise & Worship Team as often as possible.

Husband
I met my wife on a cold day in 2000 and I married her on a sunny day in 2002. I avoid using her name on the web site to protect her privacy. She is from a town called Iligan city, which is located on an island called Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. She has lived here in the U.S. since 1997, when she came over with a group of programmers who specialize in older computer languages to save our butts from Y2K. She is the most beautiful person - inside and out - that I have ever known. I am lucky that she even gives me the time of day and the fact that we are together at all is proof of an unfair universe.

Father
Nine Months and five days after I became a husband, I became a father. Again I don't drop names on the site. The photo album portion of this site was primarily created as a means for sharing family photos to relatives in California and back in the PI (Philippine Islands).

Call it bias if you will, but I think that I have an exceptionally attractive son. What's more he is a deep thinker. He passionately examines items to learn how they work and inspects them to see if they can be disassembled into smaller components. He will undoubtedly cause us sleepless nights as he grows.

Son & Brother
My family can be seen scattered across the pages of the photo album. I have 2 older Brothers and 3 older sisters, making me the youngest (With a 20-year span between the oldest and me). My mother died in January 2006 and it has made me take stock of what really matters in life.

Artist
What?? Blech. Don't use that word! I don't know why I have such disdain for people who refer to themselves as artists. I don't have the same reaction to somebody who calls themself a plumber, for example. It just sounds a little too self-important I guess. I play the guitar and attempt to write music but I don't exactly consider myself to be a musician. I like to draw, take pictures and do cool stuff in photoshop but I don't really consider myself to be a visual artist.

I think that I would most like to be thought of as a writer. I like to write (obviously) but I have never really done anything to promote myself as one. A passive-agressive fear of failure, perhaps?

Work
I work as a project manager for a local web development firm. I always thought of management as a necessary evil and never really considered myself to be 'management material.' Yet there I am. Hey, it pays the bills, and it has taught me about web design, web programming and image manipulation.

What else?
That leaves hobbies mostly, things that fall under 1 or more of the above. I am a homeowner, a gardener, and a tinker-in-the-garage-er. I love to camp and fish. Hunting is a great excuse to walk through or sit in the woods quietly. I have friends with whom I go on at least 1 trip per year.

There's probably more that I will add later.
Sheesh! Isn't that enough, already?