Name: Ariela
Birthday: October 7th, 1984. Textbook Libra.
Location: Brooklyn, NY

I'm Ariela, and I hail from Brooklyn, NY. My friends call me Ari. It rhymes with starry. It's easier, since most of them tend to misspell and mispronounce my full name in the first place. Though I have seen several people spell my nickname "Arie." It's annoying.

I've got a BA in fine arts from Brooklyn College, which I attended free of charge thanks to my acceptance into Macaulay Honors College. Lots of great memories.

That said, I'm a studio and graphic artist. I draw, I paint, I sketch. I've been dabbling in art my whole life. I've dipped into as many mediums as I could handle: painting, pencils, pastels, digital graphics, websites, flash, sculpture, sewn garments and bags, clay, collages...the list goes on.

My other artistic outlet is digital photography. I can do alright with a regular SLR, but I much prefer the versatility of digital. I don't have any particular theme I follow, but I do enjoy macro (closeup) photography as well as landscapes and scenery. I also do digital photo retouching. I'm looking into making it a career, but for now I need to build up my portfolio so it's actually worth showing in an interview.

I'm a total geek. Hardware, software, web and graphic design - it's all good. I built my own system (and quite a few others) from scratch, and I'm the resident techie among my friends. I'm also a freelance web designer and graphics artist. Yes, I take commissions.

Hobbies
Making websites and graphics, photo retouching, artsy stuff, digital photography, building and fixing computers, writing reviews on Yelp, working out, corrupting people's morals, providing friend-therapy, playing videogames, and figuring myself out. I used to sing soprano in a college a cappella group, but those days are pretty much over.

What I Like
Anything geeky/nerdy, design, 16th-century art, the Classics (Homer, Greek/Roman stuff), random trivia, candles, Italy, psychology, creative cursing, technology, long words, etymology, linguistics, grammar, editing/betareading, crosswords, wrestling, football, NYC, dogs, reptiles, good massages, learning new things, a large choir singing in harmony, ballroom dancing.

Favorite Books
Dune, Ender's Game/Shadow, Good Omens, Harry Potter, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Lamb, LotR/The Hobbit, Pern, Red Dwarf, The Celestine Prophecy, The Golden Compass series, The Ship Who Searched, Wicked/Son of a Witch.

Favorite TV Shows
America's Got Talent, Black Adder, CSI (any), Drawn Together, Family Guy, Futurama, Ghost Hunters, How Clean Is Your House, Invader Zim, Mad TV, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Saturday Night Live, Rome, Seinfeld, Simpsons, South Park, Spongebob Squarepants, Star Trek (any), The Daily Show.