Last updated: March 15, 2007

I’m Carlo, a 24 year old web designer / graphic designer working for an offshore design firm. My days consist of daily little drudgeries like making logos, designing layouts, pounding away on the keyboard hoping my code looks consistent on browsers, and killing time on Pinoy Exchange, Slashdot and more recently, 4chan’s /b/ image boards.

I love the internet, and even that is an understatement. I have a big fat geek streak across my chest, and I’m not afraid to show it (but only if the geek streak is covering my man-boobs). My friends know me for being online almost 24/7, I am rarely ever away from a computer. Most people would take that as a bad thing but… well, yeah… it is probably a bad thing but hey at least I’m not doing drugs.

I’m big on gaming, not so much a fan of consoles but I love PC games. This is just a geek prerequisite, really. I thoroughly enjoy first person shooters, role-playing games, real-time and turn-based strategy games, management/economic simulations, vehicle simulations, and my favorite: god games. Basically, if it involves the manipulation or termination of virtual lives, there’s always some fun to be had.

Over the past half decade or so, my life has steadily steered itself well on the path of digital media. Sometime around 2000, I discovered that I’m quite handy with Photoshop, so I continued to self-study for several months. I went as far as earning a professional certification but never bothered renewing it by taking the yearly exams. To this day, my friends at school and at work know me as the resident Photoshop guru. Chalk it up to my penchant for surreal, dark, gritty and extremely detailed pieces that they would think that. In mid-2005, I gained an interest in print media and started subscribing to an online typography/print media course just to round out my skills a little more. That and the whole Web 2.0 thing I would cite as the overarching influences that drive my lighter, laid back and mainstream works.

Someday I hope to blend these two prominent styles to form the greatest technique of all: Aqua Grunge Skulls with Pipes, Spikes and Diagonal Stripes 2.0 Beta. Ah yes, one style to rule them all! Mark my words!

If there was one thing I enjoy thoroughly, it’s satisfying my craving for the aggressive chugging, thumping, blasting, ripping, shredding, growling, shrieking, and pulverizing sounds of metal. From the blizzard-like blasts of black metal, to the testicle-shriveling wails of power metal, I—on some level—will find a way to enjoy it. Finding order in the chaos, beauty in the ugly, meaning in the undecipherable, light in the darkness, insert cliche here is an acquired skill and I’m damn proud of it.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m a complete sucker for any good music. I’m an even bigger sucker for female-fronted bands with clean and commanding vocals, the jazzy ones are a great listen, too. I also have a thing for instrumental music. I’m talking about good, textured, sludgy post-rock and post-metal. Most people would find it boring and repetitive, but it’s all about the atmosphere and the gradual buildup to a grand, epiphany-inducing climax.

Religion is a sensitive topic for most people. Not for me though because I do not practice one. I’m an atheist, but for the sake of not having any clashes with my more conservative siblings and relatives, I do not let them know. But to other people, I’m mostly open about it. It’s odd that it’s the strangers who are more likely to get it. But you know why I’m not going to hell? He’s your god, they’re your rules, you go to hell.

And one more thing. Nicole totally rocks my world.

This page is a work in progress subject to many addenda and complete rewrites, check back.

In the meantime, you can view my Friendster profile. I keep that one pretty consistent and fairly snubby.