Biography

So... let me make this page as boring as possible! Maybe you'll run away?

• (1976) I was born in Moscow, then-capital of Soviet Union. It is just like any other huge city - commotion, crowds, subways, traffic, huge faceless apartment buildings (even more faceless in Moscow than in, say, New York). City jungle culture where little children adventure in the sewers and on construction sites.
• (1982) When starting school, I got to spend a year or more in a village with my grandmother - water from the well, heat from the logs, but with real electricity - I had nothing to do but read, read, read, and it was all high school level books since my grandmother was a teacher. That's when I realized I like chemistry.
• (1983-1990) Life in school was not fun, as I was picked on by every bully, and forced to help them at every test, but stil I managed to make a few very close friends. Around that time I've also started martial arts: my parents had been desperately trying different sports for me (as I was doing nothing after school besides reading books). We had tried everything from soccer to water skiing, and martial arts clicked with me. I started with a couple of years of russian wrestling style Sambo, which taught me forever how to fall without getting hurt, then I had some chinese wu-shu (Snake and Crane style, don't know how authentic it was, but it taught me a lot about twisting people's arms), and then two years of Kiokushinkai Karate-do, which had finally built my strength.
• (1990-1992) After 8th grade (end of russian middle school) I went to a Chemistry/English specialized high school, which also had some very nice PDP-11 computers, and an IBM XT, which kicked off my computer science skills with two completely different assembly languages!. Different school also meant different martial art school, and I spent a year doing Taekwondo ITF, which taught me to use my legs, a skill I am slowly forgetting these days.
• (1992) My chemistry success story took me through the chain of "olympiads" - high school student competitions - to the international olympiad in USA. This was a very big event for a soviet high school student! (At the moment, USSR was in process of falling apart and I went under the white flag with big letters CIS)
• (1992-1998) Then on I studied chemistry of materials in the University (back then it was The University, now it's simply Lomonosov Moscow State University), changed over to organic chemistry and NMR spectroscopy (where my rapidly growing computer science skills were more useful). From the first year in University I got myself into Shitoryu Karate-do, which increased my speed and skill by a lot. I found this to be the best martial art style I've seen, and I have been its follower ever since. Another important thing that happened in this period is that I went online in 1994, and went online a lot - up to 15 hours a day when I had no classes. I wasted all that time on IRC and MUCKs, and I must say that greatly helped my English. I have been going to IRC and MUCKs almost daily ever since, even if for a few minutes.
• (1998-2000) At some point I realized that I know enough about computers so I wrote a couple of books on programming (the Assembly language book became a bestseller in Russia, among the books on the subject, for many years to come.. mmm.. that payed for many things :). I had part-time software development jobs, taught computer classes in the university while working on my PhD. I even had enough money to visit USA for the last chance to see my favorite musical, Cats, live on Broadway - it was closing in less than two weeks from my visit! This was also the time when the furry community self-organized in Russia and I found myself involved with it heavily.
• (2001-2002) I dropped the thesis for the chance to work for Lynx RT Systems, which was absolutely awesome (especially the time I spent in California), and that's where I also got into a relationship deep enough to get engaged. But then I had to go back to Russia, and was promptly dumped. It was sad, but well.. it's history. I finished my PhD in 2002, and went back to USA as a scientist (I am such a waffler -.-;). In California I also got myself addicted to DDR, which I have been playing at least twice a week ever since.
• (2002-2004) Back in chemistry, or, more precisely, biochemistry, I slaved away on a stressful job in Stony Brook University on Long Island, living in a dinky basement and getting myself slowly into debts untill another software company found me and made an offer I was happy with. But it was not all bad, since I met my girlfriend, Mae, in March 2002, and this is now my longest and most stable relationship ever!
• (2004-onward) I lived in Queens for a year and moved out to Long Island. Mae and I got married in 2007. I'm happy with my job (software development again), happy with my car (2001 Jaguar XJ8 VDP!), satisfied with my apartment, happy with my friends (most of which I met online first), and happy with my married life.

And if you are into more formal approach to the things, here are my Curriculum Vitae (for chemistry/biochemistry) and Resume (for computer science).
While I am at it, I should note that I own lots of Brainbench/Techmetrics certificates, which is great to show off. My online Brainbench transcript can be viewed here: http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=5471. The best certificates are listed in the resume as well.