Little Sketchy Bio

I have been told that some web visitors find it really annoying if they don't know anything about the author of the pages they (dis)like. Although I had been resisting the urge to provide personal information (can't see how it can be useful), I finally relented and put this little biographical sketch here. There will be no pictures though, I promise.

• July 16, 1973 - born in Sofia, Bulgaria
• 1980-1984 - 57th School "V. I. Lenin", Kiev, Ukraine (then USSR)
• 1985-1987 - 133rd Polytechic Middle School "A. S. Pushkin", Sofia
• 1987-1992 - 1st English Language School, Sofia
• 1992-1993 - American University in Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad
• 1993-1997 - Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX, B.S. Computer Science
• 1997-2002 - University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, Ph.D. Political Science
• 2002-now - University of California, San Diego, CA, assistant professor of Political Science

Bio-Blurb

A native of Bulgaria, harusame moved to the US to avoid the high connectivity charges in his homeland. Upon finding out that he still needed mucho denaro to subsist, he enrolled at Angelo State University's business department to study ways of scoring the quick buck. When the department went bust in an apt demonstration that economics is indeed the dismal science, harusame somehow slept through a semester of management classes and became convinced that business is all about smiling on the phone when no one can see you. By that time, he could not afford a phone, and the exacting schedule of sleep deprivation and strict cornflakes regimen had led to a permanent facial fixation of a very unattractive nature.

He therefore switched to Computer Science with the vague notion that he could Pascal his way into retirement. Two days later, he disappeared while writing a COBOL database for the IBM 370 mainframe. He emerged three years later, relatively unscathed but with a firm grasp of C++ and unmatched knowledge of the intricacies of ordering pizza (this being the only food that could be delivered and slid under the door). The COBOL program was never found.

Upon noting how many of his programming colleagues went to make six-figure salaries, he decided that real men need challenges in their lives. Therefore, he contrived to find the worst-paying job that required maximum effort. This landed him in graduate school to study political science. He spent four patient years amidst the dark recesses of academia, and did not see the sun for two years. Most of his time was taken by thinking up ways to keep the office with two windows.

Some of harusame's waking hours were spent working on this site, proving conclusively that you do need at least a Master's degree to edit text files. He still does not know how to avail himself of the convenience of a spellchecker. Or write short sentences, for that matter. Or not write sentence fragments.

Now harusame has a real job... well, almost... at least it's more fun than a real job although it pays like one.