About Me

Me?

How you came to this site without already knowing me from one circle or another is curious, but I’ll give you the potted version.

I am Brandon Oto, currently a senior at UC Santa Cruz, working on a philosophy major. I live in the area.

I am 21 years old, was born in Berkeley, California, and attended Berkeley High School. I have an older sister living in LA, and both of my parents are still in Berkeley, doing whatever they do. I am half Asian (father’s side) and half white in descent, with no particular ethnic identification except American. I'm about 6 feet tall, 176 pounds, and moderately built. I have small ears.

Over my junior year (’07–’08), I studied abroad at Leiden University in the Netherlands, via the UC EAP program. I got home in August of 2008.

I am, to the best of my abilities at self-analysis: goofy, intelligent, analytical, introspective, restless, (over)thinking, practical, prone to unfinished projects, imaginative, closed with emotions, lazy, and undoubtedly more. I’m the guy that’s useful to have around. At this point in my life I am in a serious state of change, so a lot of what’s me is undoubtedly not permanent.

My interests are all over the map, especially because one of them is merely “trying new things.” Some highlights:

On the screen

Since the early ’90s I’ve been kicking around the internet, first on the aging America Online, then expanding into more respectable regions of the web.

I have at various times been big into blogs, webcomics, assorted news sites, gaming, and more. The most significant stuff I’ve done, at least in terms of longevity, has been in Halo, in various self-defense/martial arts circles, and in web design. In other words, in fields that I’m interested in anyway, which is probably how it should be.

I am not really a hardware person, though I rub shoulders with some; at this point, all I really care about is that my computer do what I need—internet, email, chat, writing, media—and not give me too much grief. For over five years I was settled down happily with an old G4 Mirrored Bay dual 1Ghz tower, along with some non-Apple displays and other bits and pieces (here’s a shot of my setup back in Berkeley), but my recent travel necessitated that I lighten up, so I’m using a white MacBook, 2.0 Ghz and 2GB of RAM. Sexy.

I use my computer as a music depot, and collect a wide range of music, of which I usually only listen to a portion. My tastes cover nearly all genres, but tend to predominate in the mellower indie stuff.

On the dirt

As of October, I’m working as an EMT-B for American Medical Response in Monterey County. AMR is the private ambulance provider with the contract to run EMS for the county’s 911 service; I partner with a paramedic and provide care and transport for folks who stub a toe or saw off their face, anywhere in the county.

I’ve been involved in some form of martial arts for a good part of my life. In elementary school, I did Isshinryu karate for a while, not learning a whole lot; I dabbled in one thing or another later on; got into Jeet Kune Do, escrima, and pentjak silat (a personal style of the instructor Neal Bryant, but heavily based on mande muda, through Guy Chase); and until recently was engaged with a Renaissance Faire guild (the Twilight Knights) working on Western sword. My interest in the martial arts has been somewhat abated in recent years due to my gradual realization that a great deal of that field is bullshit and nonsense, especially when looked at from a practical self-defense angle. I tend to try to surround myself only with those who actually know what they’re talking about, such as the Animal list group.

Exercise-wise, in late ’07 I got involved with the CrossFit training system, which sent me down the odd but interesting road towards athleticism. I’ve since developed some quibbles with the CrossFit methodology, and have modified my training somewhat; at this point it consists largely of heavy lifting, Olympic lifts, sprints, gymnastics, conditioning, flexibility, and some miscellanea. I codified my general theory on this topic into a flexible system for use by myself and others called the AGT template. Here’s a running log of some PRs and videos. In the past, I’ve rowed, played tennis, and fenced.

I’ve done some playing around homebrewing beer, with the help of my housemates. The results were always happily consumed.

I’ve been writing for a long time as well, mostly self-taught, and though I haven’t written as much lately I’m trying to get back into it.

For the past couple years, in yet another example of bizarre things I picked up using self-education and internet resources, I’ve been learning about locksmithing and lockout work, and I currently own a lockout service in the Santa Cruz area, Rapid Entry Locksmiths, which is now dormant due to my recent absence from the North American continent, and unlikely to reopen due to my general disinterest.

I read a bunch, not so much in high school for whatever reason, but more again in college. Back in the day my interests were mainly science fiction and some military fiction, but I suspect that may be largely because that’s all we had around the house (mostly hand-me-downs from my father). I’m into some science fiction and fantasy, some more standard stuff, some classic literature, and a lot of poetry (favorites are Blake, Cummings, Eliot). If I had to choose a favorite book overall, it would have to be Cyrano de Bergerac, the Brian Hooker translation.

More? Well . . . I suppose I’ll add more later, as it comes about. This is narcissistic enough as it is.