"Stats"
Name: Dwayne Jeng
Character Class: Professional Codemonkey
Birthdate: August 13, 1985
Height: 5'6"
Weight: Slightly overweight
Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
AIM: Viltris
Favorite Color: Cyan and Red--incidentally, they are opposite colors.
Favorite Game: Final Fantasy Tactics Disgaea 2
Weapon of Choice: The sword, preferably a long sword or maybe a Japanese Katana. Whoops, this isn't Dungeons & Dragons. Saber... I'm a fencer, remember?
Current Goal: To become God. Progress? It's slow, but I'm getting there.
For those of you who don't like good old statistics, I have...
Biography
My name is Dwayne Jeng, and I was born in Lafayette, Indiana, on August 13, 1985, at about 10:59 pm. Being on the 13th has a huge significance for me. It means that I believe in reverse-superstition, meaning that I believe that the number 13 is lucky, and that anything most people think is unlucky, I think it lucky. I always let black cats cross my path, I always walk under ladders, and I would break mirrors, but it'd probably be 7 years of my parents yelling at me. In any case, my hobbies are games (both playing and making them), music (both performing and composing), and writing (novels, plays, and poetry, or any kind of fiction for that matter).
I've been playing video games and computer games since I was a little kid. I was first introduced to video games on my mom's Atari 2600 system. (Despite the fact that it has the reputation of killing video games, I didn't know and kept playing with it until the days of the SNES, aka Super Nintendo.) In 6th or 7th grade, my friend Jaylum Chen introduced me to the Final Fantasy Series, starting with Final Fantasy 4. These games were addictive, with an engrossing storyline and tactically advanced gameplay. Since then, Final Fantasy has been my favorite series. Don't even try to tell me that I "jumped on the FF bandwagon because it was popular" because I played FF for 2 or 3 years before FF7 commercials began appearing on TV, let alone become popular. This doesn't mean I like ONLY the FF series. I also enjoy the Metal Gear series, Blizzard games, Wrestling games, The Sims, and Silicon Commander Games (my friend, aka AwfullyJohnToday, would like a mention right here, next to SCG). RPGs are still my favorite, probably because I like stats, swords, magic, and characters.
On the making side, I've been making games ever since I was able to read. I first started making games with old DOS batch files (.BAT), but that didn't work out too well. Then, I taught myself QBasic and made a handful of interesting games. Actually, my friend Bernard is now much better than me at QBasic. In any case, he introduced me to a now obselete DOS toy called ZZT, which was a tool that allowed people to make games. A "ZZT-clone" called MegaZeux (exactly like ZZT except better) later came out and I made games for it to. To this day, only 1 game survives as a project that I continue to refine until it is complete and perfected (or as perfect as a DOS-based MegaZeux game can be). 2 or 3 years ago, I learned Visual Basic and am now making most of my games with that. I also learned Java 2 summers ago and am now a Sun Certified Java Programmer. In anycase, in 8th grade, I founded Omega Software, which became Omega GameWare, then VidWorks Entertainment, and finally, Project Viltris. I define Project Viltris as a computer programming interest group. My friends and I work together to make larger, more complicated games for other people to enjoy.
Remind me again, what was the next thing I said? Oh, yes, music. Well, at the age of 7, I began taking piano lessons. At the age of 10, I began taking viola lessons. In 6th grade, I joined CYS. In 9th grade, I made it to CYS Associates. In 10th grade, I switched to SJSYO, which became SJYS in my junior year. Anyways, also in my junior year, I quit taking piano lessons, but I still play the piano a lot because I like playing the piano. I just don't like people telling me what to play on the piano and when to play it. To this day, I've written a few songs of my own. I also play with MIDI Sequencers to make MIDI music files (.MID).
Lastly, I like writing stories, plays, and poems. I've been writing stories since elementary schools, and almost none of them were at the prompt of my teachers. I just have a very active imagination, is all. The adults used to call me "creative." Then, the schools stopped asking me to write creative fiction in their English classes, so no one knows about my hidden artistic talents. I started writing poetry in my sophomore year, I think. If anyone requests it, I'll gladly publish them on my website. And I've never written any plays, but I've been thinking about it, and I've been planning on writing one, but I've never found the time.
Well, that's me. Is there anything I forgot? Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I currently go to Leland High School. I'm a senior. I'm applying to MIT, CalTech (commonly misabbreviated as CIT by MIT fans), and UC Berkeley. [Addendum 8/19/2003] Actually, I'm a student at UC Berkeley now, majoring in EECS. [Addendum 5/23/2006] I'm now a Berkeley EECS Alumnus, and I'm on my way to a software development job at Microsoft. [Addendum 9/20/2006] I'm now a Professional Code Monkey at Microsoft, working on Windows SharePoint Services. I'm also a National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists. Some people think I'm arrogant, but I'm only restating facts. Can facts be so arrogant? (Now, if I said "I'm better than everyone I know," then THAT would be arrogance, but I'm not saying that.) Also, I'm currently the Captain of the Leland Radicalz (Math Team) in charge of teaching, and I really enjoy teaching the little freshmen about contest math. I'm currently teaching them high-level probability stuff. Apparently, I can't spell Baye's Theorem.
Last, but not least, I practice the Art of Seduction, and fail. I used to be very depressed all the time regarding the girls. However, during my first year in college, I learn to let go of myself and to stop caring about anyone or anything. Ever since then, I've been able to find enjoyment in anything. Today, I live in the moment, never worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. Life is simply not enjoyable unless you live it as it comes.
Sorry, but there's one last thing. If I could describe myself in one word, it would be . . . fiend. More specifically, the Dark Fiend of the Chaos. Keyword: "the". I don't know why.
Sorry, again, but I just HAVE TO tell you this quote that Viltris from Demons (a game that I'm writing) said:
"I am your love and your hate. I am your pleasure and your pain. I am the suffering of all humanity. And in order to end all this suffering, in order to finally bring some Justice, I must destroy this sinful world."
--------Viltris Kindell, the 2nd King of Hell
If anyone would like to know me better, contact me on AIM. I use the screen name Viltris, but tell me who you are or I'll might get paranoid and yell at you, warn you, or possibly block you.