Figured since I joined two similar communities around the same time I would just use same introduction since all the information about myself is the same and well, no point in retyping it again... no?

Figured since this is an introduction thread I might as well introduce myself so here you go!

Hello everyone!
To begin with, I am 24 and am finishing up my final semester of my Biology Major (Bachelors of Science or more lovingly known as a BS) with an emphasis in pre-med related classes at the University of Arkansas. I am hoping to eventually become a reconstructive surgeon working mostly with deformities or deformations relating to birth defects, trauma, or the results of operations needed when dealing with disease such as cancer,etc.

When I am not studying there are a number of things that I do enjoy doing which range from purely physical, to purely mental, as well as everything in between (I'd like to think). To begin with I enjoy reading (both manga, and actual books Wink ) , I suppose it could be considered the most basic of activities but on a nice day I find one of the most relaxing things to do is to sit out with a good book and read until the sun goes down (not always possible but I've had some of those delightful days xD). I also enjoy drawing, and would like to think that I am not too terribly bad. I also dabble around with computers both with software and hardware, and while I am by no means a professional I can do enough to make my way around them and do the basic things.

As far as physical things, I cannot stand the idea of just doing nothing and letting my body whither/fall into general nastiness :/ That being that I tend to do jogging when I can, but prefer something more fun by ways of hiking, trail riding, swimming, soccer, or figure skating. When I do get the chance to visit my relatives in Puerto Rico (my family goes every so often during the summer) I also enjoy the opportunity to make my way to the beach for some swimming, snorkeling, or hopefully soon scuba diving. The latter being on hold for now since I got my open water certification not too long ago, but now find myself slowly saving up for my equipment which is not very cheap Sad On the upside though, my father is also certified so as a result I always have a diving parter when we go on vacation Smiley

Now why would I be here? Well that I think would require some more explaining, hehe. From a young age I was introduced to consoles; my first being my parent's Colecovision with the Atari addon. When I was five or so I was then introduced to the NES, which came with Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. From there I'd have to say that the rest was history. I continued from there with the Sega (which broke down and was later replaced with a Sega Genesis), a Dream Cast, XBox, my 360, and various hand held consoles along the way. (GameBoy, GameCom, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, and GameBoy DS in that order xD) Along the way I've also partaken on and off in PC gaming, but never really going as far as many others do to put together a "gaming PC".

At the time, my first experience with gaming outside of the conventional way came with the discovery of Roms which could be played on the PC without the use of any fancy equipment, just the strange little program (at least to me at the time) called an emulator. I enjoyed playing with these for a number of years using them exclusively to find and play the games that had long disappeared from shelves, or games for which I didn't have a console to play on. (Many NES games, Super NES, Sega games) Later on when I'd obtained a used Dream Cast, a system which I thought was so much fun despite its seemingly horrid ability to keep afloat in the game industry, which I enjoyed for about a half until a friend of mine mentioned to me that it was possible to get games off the internet, as well as different utilities, and user made games for it. From here I found a new use for my DC and it really took on a new life for me, aside from being JUST a console for playing games. Since I'd now learned how to watch videos, surf the internet, even use irc with it! Next game my Xbox which I had for a few years, which was then modded which became something like my Dreamcast in turn of what I did with it. (Had it modded, and now use it as a media player, ftp storage for extra files, videos, and the homebrew ddr Cheesy) Most recently I've been introduced to the idea of Flashcarts ( I think is the right term?) and had begun poking around on the internet until I found an irc chatroom which directed me to another one, where I began to learn about the hardware that could be used on a DS.

Eventually they also helped me learn about the AceKard 2 which I ordered and have recently obtained. (as of yesterday actually!) Now I am learning about the different elements of how the community works, as well as having fun talking with different individuals, and even learning how to program basic cheats for games. (which even though I do not cheat, since it takes the fun out of it is fun for providing help to other people, and allows for some other more fun effects such as changing the visual appearance of the game which I do enjoy!).

On a side note, it is in part the last thing that helped lead me to this community since one of the individuals I was chatting with had mentioned this community which I thought I would investigate and thus here I am!

Well there you go, that is how I got here and well I look forward to talking with you all!
-Fae