Greetings and salutations. My name is Brainiac 5, at least on this site. It is my personal opinion that, if this site is the only place where you will have contact with me, this pseudonym is the only name you need to know. I am of an age where life seems to be attempting to run me over, and I'm still not entirely sure what I want to be when I grow up. My best friend is Jesus Christ, and I know that he loves me even more than I could ever love him, and will always love me.

I am a human female who enjoys reading, writing poetry and fiction (in addition to fanfiction), drawing, playing piano and guitar, listening to music, watching a few particular television shows and various animes, practicing karate, science, studying international communications, learning foreign languages, and attending church. (Yes, you heard me right, I actually enjoy attending church. What a shock!)

Of everything God created, the thing I appreciate the most is a good story, which does not require huge explosions, nonstop action, or even (shock of all shocks) violence. A good story, in my opinion, is a good plot, carefully woven and crafted by an author with a strong, unique voice, who does not need to compensate for a lack of literary style by peppering the story with profanity, stupidity, and generally rude, crude, and unacceptable scenes. (I would say 'socially unacceptable' scenes, but to date, these scenes are becoming more and more socially accepted. However, they are still completely unacceptable.)

One of the peeves that I pet frequently is a good idea carried out badly. It bothers me when someone comes up with a great idea, spends three-to-five badly-written paragraphs on it, and then lets the whole world see the great story that could have been. It's not a sign of weakness to seek a beta and with their help, create a masterpiece. I don't know anyone who would complain; I certainly wouldn't. People weren't made to do everything by themselves, writing is no exception.

Another pet peeve of mine is the nefarious and abundant lack of grammar on this site. While even I sometimes struggle with keeping every single sentence grammatically correct, and sometimes there may even be a good reason for that dangling participle, "They're" is not "Their", which is not "There". If you can't keep it straight, see the above paragraph and find a beta who knows the difference.

Hobbies in depth:

READING:
My genres of greatest interest are Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Mystery. Not that I have anything against thrillers or historical fiction, I just would rather pick up something by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Isaac Asimov than something by... James Patterson? (I can't even think of a historical fiction author, sorry.) I apologize in advance, but don't even talk to me about Westerns and Romances. I have no interest in Fabio, and my Grandpa can keep his Louis L'amour. However, my favorite book happens to be neither Sci-Fi/Fantasy nor Mystery. Cheesy as this may sound, my favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Everyone, everywhere should read this book! A current series that I enjoy reading is the Artemis Fowl series. I am a shameless comic book and cartoon nerd, and love superhero trivia even if I'm not quite geeky enough to know everything. As may be guessed by my interest in anime, I spend much of my reading time in various manga. A few of my favorites are Fullmetal Alchemist, Detective Conan/Case Closed, Ouran High School Host Club, DeathNote, XxxHolic, Trigun, Hayate the Combat Butler, One Piece, and Naruto.

WRITING:
As could probably be guessed by my reading preferences, I write mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy and I'm currently trying my hand at a mystery (And failing miserably... in my opinion). If anybody has a desire to take a look at any of my fiction, I've posted a few bits on Fictionpress under the same penname. I also write poetry occasionally, and have currently been trying my hand at some haiku. Here's a quick fanfic-style sample of what they might look like:

Edward and Alphonse
Brothers bound by blood and pain
seeking redemption

Fun fun fun...

DRAWING:
I'm really not much of an artist, but I try. Generally I don't get past the eyeball, so I have pages and pages of eye doodles. Sometimes it scares people to look at my notes because the pages stare back at the reader... I do, however, have a deviantart account with a few pictures uploaded, and a really old, not updated profile. Kind of like this one used to be... Anyway, as I have recently acquired a wacom tablet and photoshop elements, I might actually draw something beyond the eyeball! Then again...

PLAYING PIANO AND GUITAR:
I took piano lessons for over five years and never learned to read notes because I can play by ear. Now I write songs by ear, but I have to record them with my computer, because I can't write them down. It's kind of sad, really. Guitar I sort of learned to read the notes for, but I prefer tabs. I only took guitar lessons for 3 years, and I'm not especially adept at playing guitar. But I like listening to riffs and learning to play them by ear at about one fifth of the speed...

LISTENING TO MUSIC:
I have an eclectic taste in music. My only limitations are: Country, Rap, and most Hip-hop or Pop. (However, my college roomies have really tried hard to drag me kicking and screaming into the frightening world of dance music...) I really like Marcello's concerto in D minor, Mozart, Joe Hisaishi's soundtracks, Danny Elfman's soundtracks, and the Star Trek 2009 sound track. I also love listening to Styx, Journey, Boston, and Foreigner. Because I'm a girl with really no particular style surrounded by roomies who listen to country or dance music, it surprises people when I whip out this next genre, but I really enjoy listening to Hardcore, Metal and Metalcore. Some bands I listen to include All That Remains, In Flames, Demon Hunter, and Disturbed. I also love the band Red.

TV/MOVIES/ANIME:

I don't watch much TV. It tends to bother me. When I do put on TV shows, it's usually something like Criminal Minds, Psych, or Monk. As for Movies, I usually prefer Animation and such to Live Action movies. I would rather watch The Iron Giant than Ironman 2 (Heh heh, Iron giants and Iron men. Sorry, couldn't resist). That being said, I am quite thrilled that there have been so many Comic-book-turned-blockbuster films lately-- But I'm still waiting for Legion Of Super Heroes to take the silver screen... I've always liked parody-style movies, like The Princess Bride, Shrek, and Enchanted. I would take action-adventure or sci-fi flick over a chick flick ANY DAY. I absolutely adore Miyazaki Animes, and I liked Code Geass (though it was definitely too adult to watch with any of my younger siblings). I like watching anime based on manga AFTER I've read the manga first... though sometimes I manage to watch the anime first. I've recently been watching an anime called Mushi-shi, and for some reason I love it, possibly because it's so different...

KARATE:
I am a brown belt (3rd kyu) student in the shiho karano karate ryuu, and I love my school, my shihan and all the sensei. I've attended one tournament, and I prefer katas to sparring, though I really enjoy both. I wish I had more time to practice my martial arts, and I want to take Aikido, Iaido, Kendo and Jiu Jitsu too, though I've yet to find time to do so.

SCIENCE:
Contrary to popular belief, science and religion are not mutually exclusive. I love God, AND science. I'm fascinated by chemistry, microbiology, immunology, and genetics. Unfortunately, physics is the one science I have trouble loving.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS:
Ever since I grew up hosting exchange students, I've been fascinated by other cultures and how these cultures interact. So it seems natural that I would focus my studies in on how people communicate across cultures, borders, oceans... I find Communication Theory fascinating and I love learning about foreign cultures. Put the two together and... presto! International Communications!

FOREIGN LANGUAGES:
I admit it. I have a top ten bucket list of languages I want to learn before I die. Japanese, French, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Russian, Thai, and various others are on that list. I'm currently learning Japanese and I've picked up a high-school level French book, which will hopefully be enough to get me started teaching myself. Next on the list is Mandarin Chinese and then, well... you get the idea.

ATTENDING CHURCH:
I love Jesus. Plain and simple. I believe that he is the son of God and he died for my sins and rose again on the third day. I believe that God created the world, and while this is hotly debated among Christians today, I also believe that he created it in SIX days, not millions of years. Call me an old fogey, call me unscientific, call me whatever you want, I figure that God's god enough to make a world in six days. I'm not going to beat anyone with my big black attack bible if they think God DID use evolution to create the world, I just happen to believe in a literal interpretation of the Genesis account. I also believe that man is basically evil, which is something else that Christians seem to tiptoe around and whisper in the dead of night when they hope no one is listening. EVERYONE HAS SINNED. You, me, and everyone else in the whole world. We are evil, dirty people inside, and it's only through the grace of God that we can be good, kind, decent people. With this in mind, I must assert that I believe that homosexuality is a sin. HOWEVER, I'm not going to beat you with my big black attack bible; it's not my job. I have friends who are homosexual, and I don't beat them with my big black attack bible either. But suffice it to say, I don't read Yaoi or Yuri fics.

A FEW FAVORITE QUOTES:

"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." - Wesley, The Princess Bride

"Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing." - Robert Benchley

"Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?" - Scott Adams

"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition." - G.K. Chesterton

"Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence."- Ambrose Bierce

"Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Finally, I always forget to put my disclaimers in my stories, so here goes:

If I've posted a story up here, it's FANFICTION. IE, I didn't invent (most) of the characters, or the universe in which they currently reside. I often wish I were creative enough to have done so, but I'm not. There you have it. They don't belong to me, I don't make any money off of them, but I love them anyway.