I believe I was a golden dragon in a past life, and in 1998, I created what I think must be the first web-based community of 'otherkin' dragons to help us meet and support eachother. Although I tried off and on to meet someone through the site, it wasn't until 2007 that I met the love of my life,  Murrahnithahn-i-ia, partly because she was causing trouble on the site! =) We currently live together amongst the pine trees and mountains west of Arrowhead, California.

I'm old enough to know I can't change the world, but I still try. I do what I can to spread the word about environmental and social justice causes and feel that the only reason I might have chosen to be born as human instead of dragon is to try to protect the non-human life of this world. To that end, check out 350.org, avaaz.org, and moveon.org if you haven't yet. I worked at an environmental non-profit for over five years but as managers changed and their policies shifted away from environmentalism, I no longer felt at home there, so I now run my own software business.

I'm the kind of guy who strangers stop to ask directions and people seem to trust me easily. I'm often quiet, thoughtful, and analytical, but if I feel comfortable enough with someone, I can be downright goofy. Some people are annoyed by my sense of humor, while others love it. Unfortunately, those that try to know me better are often put off by my being too busy to socialize much. Really, I'm not very social in the first place and maintaining lots of casual friendships is just not possible or enjoyable for me. I tend to be very affectionate if I like someone or feel a deeper compatibility with them, and my most treasured relationships are with those who respond in kind, even if it's been a long while since we spoke. It's always amazing (and rare) to find people who still care for you without the constant contact. I don't believe in the Hollywood romanticized notion of having a single "true love" - the idea is ridiculous to me and what I can remember of my dragon life. So, I do love others besides my Mate, but my Mate is the one I will share most of my life with and who I treasure the most.

I'm a licensed pilot (but haven't had the money to use my license in years), and I love anything to do with flying. When I'm alone, I usually gravitate towards doing something 'useful' on the computer, be it programming or just cleaning up my hard drive. Since my lady and I have found a house, home repairs/improvements have become another sink for my limited time. Programming, creating user interfaces, generating how-to guides or even building a monitor stand or a Wacom Cintiq clone is my way of being creative. I consider myself to be an artist, even if my 'art' tends to be more functional and technical than aesthetic. Let's just say I "build stuff". I used to do digital art and 3d modeling, but I would spend too much time on each piece and burn myself out on it. These days, I mostly only do graphics for my business.

What do I mean when I say I'm a dragon? American culture portrays dragons as loners, predators, arrogant, greedy, often with anger-management issues, but I'm none of those things. If anything, I have some of the personality of the stereotypical Asian dragon. But really, true dragons aren't like anything humans have come up with in myth. For dragon cultures to advance beyond the scattered, lone predator model (which is almost all you ever see in human stories), they would need a lot of self control because, let's face it, with fire breath and sharp bits in lots of places, it would be quite easy for two fighting dragons to mortally wound each other. So dragons should actually be more likely to be slow to anger and quite conservative in their use of force. That's how I am, at any rate, and you'll find the same thing in most predator species on this world. They'll do a lot of ferocious-looking displays before they actually risk attacking and getting both parties hurt.

If I really was a dragon in a past life (which I freely admit I have no way to prove beyond what I feel), it was on some other world, one of countless worlds in the universe, and it's extraordinarily unlikely that dragons from any of those various worlds are going to have a lot in common except maybe a love of flight or possibly a predatory instinct since our bodies are obviously built for predation. But my predatory instinct is almost non-existent and I'm mostly a vegetarian for environmental reasons, though I'm sure I hunted as a dragon. I've also met plenty of Otherkin dragons who had a fear of heights and little interest in flight. The way a past life or dragon spirit is filtered through a human mind and body is rather chaotic and unpredictable. Heck, I can't even think of any particular trait that can be found in all humans, and they're all from the same world. Even "human nature", however you define it, is far from universal. So it bugs me when anyone says such and such is or isn't dragon like, or when a dragon says all humans are such and such. I wish we all shared more in common - it would be easier to find close relationships if all dragons were similar - but maybe our differences are a good lesson in tolerance. So, if you're a dragon, or any kind of creature upset by feeling little connection even to others who claim to be your own kind, keep searching, because we're all different and you're bound to find someone you click with eventually.