User Profile

* For my friends, I'm on Flickr, Upcoming, MySpace, and a whole lot of other places. Since I don't always use ajanhelendam I'm harder to find on some of these sites. If you are looking to link or add me just message me for the info. I'm thinking about starting a "professional only" Web presence so I want to keep some things separate considering I don't want to make this journal friends only.

***

Places lived: Olathe - KS, Al-Kobar - Saudi Arabia, Overland Park - KS, Ma'adi - Egypt, Evanston - IL, Lawrence - KS, and now Austin - TX; more or less in chronological order.

I moved down to Austin 6 yrs ago to marry my job. The marriage looks like it's falling apart due to irreconcilable differences right now. I'm still trying to make this work, but it seems we just aren't on the same path anymore. If we can't find some common ground, I guess I will just need to move on to something that can rekindle my passion.

These days I like listening to KUT news programs such as: Marketplace, All Things Considered, PRI's The World, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and On the Media; when I have the radio on. Music-wise I tend to listen more to KROX though it's not quite the music I like, but it's close enough most of the time. I list my favorite music artists on my MySpace page. With a little cyberstalking you should be able to find it. I'm also known to spend a fair amount of time in bookstores and libraries. I'm not too picky in the stores themselves but rather if they have a good section on fine art topics. This normally means the bigger the bookstore the better. It's kind of ironic. I use to read a couple of books a week. Now it's more like a couple of books a year and it's not because I'm choosing longer books or more difficult reading. I guess I'm just learning things via other outlets besides printed text these days.

My number one passion in life is the fine arts. I like art museums. I'm happy the new Blanton has opened, but overall the Austin Art museum scene seems so small. I guess I just haven't met the right people to introduce me to the Austin art scene. I think there are few public galleries that I haven't explored yet since I didn't want to have to deal with parking downtown. But these days I'm feeling so out of touch with art since I haven't had time to work on any personal pieces I find myself spending more and more time downtown. I think it's only a matter of time before I start rummaging through the galleries.

I also like cinematography, especially anime and of course the art house genre. I've finally started to drag myself to attend film festivals. I guess I decided that I've been anti-social long enough, I had my job to keep me preoccupied. Now that's no longer the case, I will subject myself to the butterflies and see what course fate will guide me on. I meant to attend SXSW this year, but forgot when it was and when I did realize that it was coming I had already submitted to the spouse that I wasn't taking any vacation that month. I'm going to try not to forget and actually take some days off. That's of course there is anything that piques my interest during the day. If the films I'm interested in are all during the evenings, I just make sure I leave work early enough. Oh, I forgot. I <3 the Alamo Drafthouse. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of movies there with friends. I generally don't like to go to theaters alone so attending these festivals without friends can be uneasy at times.

I also don't like dining alone, but I'm a foodie at heart. I don't make any time these days to cook, but I would say I am good cook and I liked helping my mom out in the kitchen while growing up. Being Chinese and all I'm partial to Chinese cooking, more specifically Cantonese style cooking. However, I like all sorts of cuisine and I'm always willing to try new things (this goes beyond just food).

Stuff I like to do, but for some reason I don't do often with my current group of friends include: hanging out at coffee shops, shooting pool, camping, attending plays and ballets, and I guess hanging out. I don't really have any friends that I just hang out with like I use to. Since I'm eternally curious and always learning, I like to talk about a large variety of topics. That's enough rambling for now.

Friends (12):

Mutual Friends (9):