Background
My father was born in Austria, my mother was born in Denmark, they met in Canada. I was born in 1973, and my sister was born in 1975. We came to Texas in 1979, so I am a first-generation American immigrant.

Education
I did well in high school, with my reading and writing skills being higher than my math skills. I graduated in 1991, and went to the University of Texas in Austin. Thanks to my parents' forethought and planning, my savings and some minor investments I made along the way, I did not have to work to afford to go to college. After four years and two summer sessions I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communications, with a minor in Film Editing.

Profession (so far)
I came to work in Dallas in 1996 for a multimedia company. The company has since changed names twice, and is now one of the few remaining dot-coms. I was originally a cdrom programmer, but due to the evolution of the company, I changed professions within it to become an information architect.

Business
For information about how I go to this point, please see the Long Story.

I am the CEO/CFO/Head Kahuunah of the Bengal Business Group, which was started in May, 2002. I actively started building this business in January 2003, and it is the vehicle which will finally get me to my financial freedom. This involves a lot of work, and a lot of time, and some money to get things started, but I know it is an important part of my plan, and may even speed up the timeline a bit (wouldn't that be nice?   ^_^  )

Hobbies
I am still very interested and involved in anime (Japanese Animation), although I spend considerably less money on it than I used to. I've stopped collecting anime production ceils and trading cards, although I do have a file of Web sites and dealers that I will make extremely happy when I get some more discretionary income and get back into collecting again. I really enjoy seeing how many great new anime shows are now available on DVD, compared to a few years ago, although the Japanese still have us solidly stomped in terms of the show's tie-in marketing and merchandise. But that just means I need to make enough to pay for over-seas shipping.

Every now and then, the editing bug eats at me and I create an anime music video. This means taking a song I like, and editing scenes from an anime to the music, thereby creating something new from two existing works. I realize this involves copyright violation on both sides of the Pacific, but it is not for sale, and if anything, helps promote both the anime and the music.

I also create fansites - a Web site devoted to something I greatly care about. I will often get an idea, and search the Web to see if someone has already implemented it. If not, and I am still passionate enough about it, I will create a fansite. I consider this (Kestrel's Financial Freedom) a fansite dedicated to my future.

Thanks to starting my own online business, I got involved in scrapbooking, and enjoy it very much. My dining room table is a dedicated scrapping station, so I can do as little or as much as I like, since all of the materials are already laid out and available.