Neko_Asakami:

I was born in Utah to a kind loving family and then…..wait, who am I kidding? I was born into a family so dysfunctional that, well let’s just suffice it to say that my childhood wasn’t the happiest one out there. Didn’t become a juvenile delinquent, did well in school (3.6 GPA, 4.2 if you grade AP Classes on the 5.0 scale), grew up more or less stable. Needless to say, I don’t have a lot of tolerance for those who blame their families for their position in life. Home is where I learned my best survival trait: a sense of humor. Life’s kinda sad without one, so if your life sucks, start laughing at yourself. After all, everybody else does, maybe they’re onto something.

But enough about you, this is about me. In all reality, I’m not really that big of an ass, although I can be a bit gruff at times. As I was growing up, I was teased and tormented and all of that crap. Honestly, like McSteve (Razorfang), I think I’m a better person for it. After all, when you realize that your insults keep changing and theirs stay the same; you realize it’s time to move on. Looking back though, the time I had to give a report on Uranus, I think they had plenty of right to tease me. (Heh, Uranus. –giggle–)

When I wasn’t in school, I spent most of my time out in the hills mountain biking. In the small town where I spent the first 14 years of my life, the reservoir was only about a half hour bike ride away so there was plenty to do. Once I moved to Idaho, where I currently live, I still rode my bike everywhere, I just didn’t ever really have a chance to ride it off-road any more. (Ironic, right? Moving to Wild Idaho only to end up in the city.) Once I started high school, I started to get into computers more. We originally had an AT&T computer, (no idea what model or anything, all I know is that it had Super Solvers: Out Numbered! on it) we got a Compaq Prescario with Pentium 233 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, and a 6GB hard drive. I was living large and had started on a downward spiral that never would end….

High school wasn’t the formative time for me that it seems to be for everyone else. I was a geek, born and bred. I discovered roleplaying games in my sophomore year in high school. Well, discovered, isn’t the right word, I knew all about them, after all I had a friend in junior high that had a friend (I met the kid briefly, so I know this is actually true) who thought he was his elven ranger and would often disappear for hours on end because his “sense danger” ability was telling him something bad was about to happen. Creepy shit, that was. Anyway, back to the story, I discovered the Star Wars Roleplaying game (2nd edition, R&E for those of you who are curious) and never once looked back.

In high school, I was sort of a ladies man. Actually, I was sort of a girly man, I was the guy all of the girls felt comfortable with, which royally sucks. (For those of you who don’t believe in the “boy next door” phenomenon in shojo, it really does exist. I speak from personal experience!) I had two girlfriends in high school, both in my senior year. Not to say I didn’t date before that, I did, just not seriously. They provided my with great experiences: my first kiss, my introduction into the world of fangirls and fan fiction, and my first (and only) skanky girlfriend. Seriously, any girl that wants you to make out with her while your brother, his girlfriend, and her dad are all there with you has issues. Seriously.

College is where I really learned who I was. I had the [mis]fortune to attend Ricks College/BYU-Idaho for my first five semesters of schooling. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd in a place like that, especially when they’re actively trying to mold you all into the same thing. I almost fell into the trap, but thankfully, I had some really good friends who kept me sane. I attended the University of Utah for a year, during which time I discovered my second love, linguistics. (Architecture being my first love.) I also became a competition level DDR player, however I usually just stayed on the sidelines and helped choreograph other people’s freestyle routines.

It was during my time at Ricks I met my first fiance. Wonderful girl, once you get past the lying, selfishness, and mind games. I lasted just under two years with her and realized that it wasn’t going to work about two weeks before I was supposed to marry her. Thankfully the wedding had been postponed because of other things and so nothing was lost there. However, I met my current wife at that time (I really should say, re-met her, since she was my first date ever, but we just ended up being friends in high school.) We courted for a while, which was really weird, since I hadn’t done that in a very long time.

I ended up not being able to finish my schooling at the University of Utah because I ran out of funding, so I decided to take some time off and rebuild a buffer. (For those of you keeping score, I’m currently midway though my junior year of architecture and am just starting my senior year of linguistic.) During those years, I worked odd jobs, doing tech support, a brief stint working at a clothing store in the mall (I helped open our local Hot Topic store), and started my own moderately successful DJ business with my brother and dad. My dad has since taken over the business, which is fine by me.

Right now I’m into computers, roleplaying, Dance Dance Revolution, and my wife. Okay, and modding my Xbox, anime, all sorts of music (mostly techno of the house variety), writing, and digital art. And playing my PS2, my Xbox 360 (unmodded, for now), my Dreamcast, my DS Lite….okay, I ADMIT IT! I’M A DAMN GEEK! WHY DO YOU THINK I RUN A GEEK WEBSITE!?! Go away. Seriously, just go away. Now.

Tasunke:

The one member of the group who doesn’t play Magic, I am responsible for many acts that have been termed “evil”,　one of the foremost of which is addicting many others to shoujo manga and anime. As of this writing, and as far as I know, I still have the largest collection of anime in the group (and perhaps manga too, though perhaps Razorfang has more now), with mostly shoujo titles, and a few shounen here and there. Some in the group ph34r my computer with much ph34ring. Not because it has the best specs, no far from it, because of what I manage to do with it that by all reason (according to them) it shouldn’t be able to do. (Such as running two Firefox windows with 10 tabs each while at the same time running Winamp, mIRC with 8-10 windows open, 5-10+ Trillian windows, and more., all at the same time.) The beast is a 600 MHz PIII running Windows 2000 (yes I know, Windows sucks, but the apps I use all run on it, and I don’t have time to learn a new OS or apps right now, in other words, flames about my choice in OS to NUL, or /dev/null, take your pick). Anyway, I am also the one with the most formal education in Japanese in the group, having completed as of this writing 2 years (4 semesters) of formal Japanese study and I am in my 3rd year of such. That being said, I freely admit that my Japanese is lousy and that a native Japanese preschooler probably has a better grasp of the fundamentals of the language than I do.

日本語を読めるお客さん：わるい日本語を許してください。オタクギーク団.orgへようこそ。このサイートは英語だけ書かれています。

Tau Zero:

My name is Tau, and I’m both an Otaku and a Geek. I’ve been watching anime longer than I’ve even known that it existed. And Geekdom is in my blood, my older brother is a computer coder, my father is a nuclear safety engineer, and even my grandfather was an electrical engineer. I write the magic Monday article, about wizards of the coasts magic the gathering game. I’ve played magic for over 10 years, I even got it banned at my elementary school (someone was offended by my revised unholy strength, go figure). I recently took the judge test and scored high enough to qualify to be a DCI judge, though due to a paperwork issue I have yet to be made official. I’ve only played in one REL 3+ tournament, and that was Grand Prix Salt Lake. It was an interesting experience, but I didn’t do very well. I play and GM many different RPGs, currently I am GMing a GURPS game and playing in a D20 modern game. I enjoy many different types of music, though I tend to avoid country music, something about it annoys me. As far as Otakudom goes, I tend to enjoy shonen anime, things like Great Teacher Onizuka, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, recently Bleach has caught my attention. I also like other types of anime, Inuyasha, Love Hina, Trouble Chocolate. While I hate to admit to it, I also like Dragon Ball Z. The battles do move slowly, and the dialog is less than spectacular, but something about it makes my inner child want to fire energy beams that blow up mountains. What can I say; my inner child likes explosions. I am currently a senior at the University of Idaho majoring in computer science. I’m 22 years old and happily single… though if there’s a magic playing female between the ages of 19 and 25 who’d like to change that, send me an e-mail some time. I’ve known the other guys here at OGS for between 5 and 10 years. I currently work as a manager for a local fast food restaurant, which is not as fun as it sounds… and it doesn’t even sound that fun, but it pays the bills, and once I’m done with school I hope to get a better job, optimally in game design, but realistically, anything in the field would be great. I generally don’t spend much time talking about myself, so this is fairly difficult for me, I’m also not a writer by nature, more of a thinker who rarely gets around to recording my ideas. At times I suspect that that’s a good thing. Well, that’s me in a nutshell, though, if you read my weekly article, I’m sure that you’ll learn more about me. Later. ~TZ

Razorfang:

Hello, I am McSteve. I go by the handle Razorfang on the site. I currently write the Fanimaniac Fridays article and also do general coding and design work on the site. I have only been seriously interested in Anime and Manga for three to four years, but in the last few years I have begun amassing a formidable collection. I am currently single, not in school, gainfully employed, and living on my own. Yes, I know the last one may not seem that significant, but in my circle of friends I’m the only one that can say that, (Two are married, one has a roommate, and the rest live at home with their parents while still in school.)

My life started on a warm August day in a hospital that is now a parking lot. I’ve lived in the same town my entire life. In fact, I lived at the exact same street address for the first nineteen years, though not the same house. The early part of my life was rather uneventful, though I was not popular at school and was often made fun of for a multitude of different reasons, I feel that I am a better person for having experienced it. Other than that my school life was rather normal. The elementary, junior high, and high schools I attended were not more than a quarter mile from each other and only about a mile from my house. I attended the advanced classes almost exclusively until high school until my propensity for laziness took over. I am certain that I could have had a 4.0 GPA if I had applied myself in school, and I look at this as one of my greatest regrets in life. I never had much interest in sports or other athletics during my education and, as such, have spent most of my life in rather bad physical shape. This is something about myself I do not like, and I am actively fighting with the demon of my apathy to remedy this.

After graduating I enrolled at the University of Idaho and pursued as degree in Computer Science. I put in three years before I was hired to work at the DOE site west of Idaho Falls. Since the pay is very good, there is significant room for advancement, and the work schedule directly conflicts with any reasonable class schedule, I have put school on hold, most likely for good. I always want to go back, but I just can’t justify giving up a good living for a much riskier alternative.

During this time I also met my first girlfriend, who will remain nameless. This was one of the best and worst times of my life. Anyone who has ever been through a breakup understand where I am coming from with this. Anyone who has ever been dumb enough to go through another one with the same person really understands this. It was hard to understand at the time, but I have come to realize some of the good things that come out times like these. Like my little girl who, as of this writing, has just turned two, or the sense of independence I gained that helped me get out of my parent’s house and start living on my own. For more information, check out my personal page at http://razorfang.otakugeeksquad.org/

Doktaru:

Hello, “doktaru” is my handle on this site and other sites as well. The name partly comes from subsection of an anagram of my real name and partly from the Taru Taru creatures in Final Fantasy XI. You may or may not see my name much on the site, as I as of yet am not writing an article. Instead I am contributing my efforts toward this site on improving the coding and delivery of the site, and things such as layout and design are currently a limited portion of my duties. I am most likely to be blamed if something goes horribly wrong with the website. (I hope that saying that doesn’t come back to bite me. ^_^) As my night job I work as a ninja, and during my my day job I work as a build master at a software company.

Some of the things that I currently enjoy include:
Video Games (I bet you didn’t see that one coming)
Bemani (Music games like Beatmania IIDX, Pop’n Music, DDR, Guitar Hero)
Japanese Culture and Language
Manga (Some of my favorites include Love Hina, Bleach, and Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days)
Anime (Blood+, Monster, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell)
Personal Computers and their (mis-)applications <_<
and Roleplaying among other things