Welcome to the "About Me" page! I am Chris Gonzalez, the author of http://luct.tacticsogre.com. As its title implies, the purpose of this section is to give you an idea of who I am--it is aimed to serve as an extremely condensed version of the rest of my former site, give or take a few pieces of information. If there is something not included that you think should be, feel free to send me an e-mail at crg@alumni.princeton.edu.

Without further ado, let's get started...



Originally born in New York on December 26, 1980, I now live in Kirkland, Washington, which is a suburb of Seattle. My family has lived in this area since 1993, when we moved to Washington from Las Vegas.

I attended Princeton University from July 1998 to June 2002, receiving a Bachelor of Science and Engineering (BSE) degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering. In a nutshell, it's a form of applied mathematics and economics that uses mathematical modeling to optimize real-world situations. The concepts of Operations Research are applicable in a broad range of contexts, leading to a wide selection of career paths upon graduation. The program itself is quite flexible, allowing for a number of elective courses in engineering, the sciences, mathematics, and economics/finance. I spent my junior year in England, studying math and economics at the University of Bath; during my senior year, I took electives in Astrophysics and Environmental Engineering (among others) and wrote my 70-80 page senior thesis on planning a mission to Pluto. My extracurricular activities included singing in Princeton's Chapel Choir, weightlifting, and taking aikido lessons. I had a great time in school, and I miss it a lot! I'd like to get a Master's Degree someday.

After graduating, I continued the job search that I had begun while in school. It was a long and storied search--I checked the Seattle Times at least once a week, and I spent countless time browsing through job search sites on the internet. I was in an unenviable position, being overqualified for many of the "unskilled" entry-level jobs, yet underqualified for most (if not all) of the professional jobs. Fortunately, I did manage to find a good job with a municipal consulting firm called Financial Consulting Solutions Group, Inc., which is based in Redmond, Washington (which you might recognize as being the location of Microsoft's headquarters). I work with local governments in the Pacific Northwest to help them with tasks such as pricing utilities and planning and financing public works projects. I'm happy to be doing something productive, and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that await me.

Like most people, I do a variety of things in my spare time--as you can probably imagine, playing video games is one of them. I would have to say that most of my favorite games are RPG adventures like Final Fantasy VI, Dragon Warrior IV, Chrono Trigger, Suikoden III, Dragon Warrior VII, and Tactics Ogre. I'm also a big fan of the Mega Man series and fighting/wrestling games--in fact, here is the "formula" for my custom wrestler in WWE SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth, Chris Powell. Ironically enough, his name comes from Tactics Ogre--I named my main character "Chris," saw the name in the Warren Report, and it just kind of stuck! As far as fighting games go, my favorites are Super Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II, both for the SNES. My brothers and I always used to play those games together, and we still do every once in a while.

Another hobby of mine is exercising. In addition to lifting weights, I'm training in Nihon Goshin Aikido. I attend four classes a week, and I really enjoy both the physical activity and the opportunity to meet new people. I also enjoy taking long and brisk walks through suburbia!

I love to laugh--I enjoy comedy whether it is on TV, at the movies, on the radio, or anywhere else for that matter. My favorite shows of all time include Married With Children, In Living Color, and Son Of The Beach, and I am a die-hard fan of the Three Stooges. I have a bunch of Three Stooges short films that I recorded on AMC a couple of years ago, that ran from 4-5 PM during the week and 6-7 AM on Saturdays and Sundays!

Hopefully this has given you a bit of insight into who I am. If you want to know anything else, feel free to e-mail me at crg@alumni.princeton.edu. Thanks for stopping by!



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