My personal page

My name is Pablo D. Flores. The D is for David, but I never use that name. I've also never used a pseudonym or nickname, like many webmasters do, so "Pablo" would be fine if you want to talk to me.

I was born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina, on 24th September 1976 (at the time of writing, then, I'm 27). I was raised and still live there (I haven't even moved one block down the street).

My native language is Spanish and my native dialect is Rioplatense (which you hear in Rosario, in Buenos Aires, across the border in Montevideo, and around those places). We aspirate our syllable-final s's into h's and we don't say tú eres but vos sos, among other dialectal niceties. English is my second language, which I write fluently and (due to lack of practice) speak rather less fluently; I learned it in regular courses, supplemented by cable TV and movies. As of today, I've just started studying Japanese, though I haven't got past Ohayō gozaimasu and Hajimemashite and the like. Like any average Spanish speaker, I can understand quite a bit of written or spoken Portuguese and Italian, and a little written French if pressed.

Besides inventing fictional languages, I love reading about languages and linguistics, sociology, biology, ethnology, and in fact most sciences. I also read a lot of science-fiction whenever I can, and I've written a little myself. My favourite authors are the classics: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, some Brian Aldiss ("Hothouse"), some J. G. Ballard, some John Brunner ("The Jagged Orbit"), Roger Zelazny ("Lord of Light", "A Rose for Ecclesiastes"), Ursula K. LeGuin ("The Left Hand of Darkness", "The Dispossessed", "The Word for World is Forest"), Philip José Farmer (the "Riverworld" series), Philip K. Dick (countless short stories), plus selected works by Frank Herbert ("Dune"), Octavia Butler (the "Exogenesis" trilogy), Jack Vance (oh so many short stories, and "Lyonesse"), Frederick Pohl, and the ancient gods H. G. Wells ("War of the Worlds") and George Orwell ("1984"). I've had only the briefest encounters with Olaf Stapledon ("Odd John") and Stanislaw Lem ("Solaris"). And of course, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (up to his originally unpublished unedited scribblings). Among the Spanish-speaking writers, I confess my inconditional allegiance only to Jorge Luis Borges, though I won't dismiss Julio Cortázar. I'm partial to José Saramago as well.

I like going to the movies, but I don't like most movies. I can enjoy even "Matrix Revolutions" and "The Return of the King", even though they both were the worst of their respective trilogies, but I can't take "Spider-man" or "Daredevil" or "Torque" or "Titanic". I liked "The Others", but I was pretty much disappointed by "The Sixth Sense". I prefer something like "Wag the Dog" rather than "Air Force One". My latest findings were "Big Fish" and "Lost in Translation", the latter of which I found truly expressive and moving. I haven't seen "The Passion of the Christ" yet.

I'm single and I still live with my parents and one younger brother. I work to support myself and the household. My wages are modest, but then so is the amount of work I get, and it's routine, rather mindless work. I'm grateful for it and even more grateful that it doesn't take up a greater share of my time. I don't believe that one has to work on something one loves — in fact, I think I'd hate having my hobbies being turned into a job!

By natural instinct I'm shy, good-natured, friendly but mostly quiet, and overly cynical. In the Myers-Briggs classification I'm an INTJ. I have the utmost contempt for arbitrary authority and hierarchy. I'm absolutely non-nationalistic and non-patriotic. "When a dog barks at another dog, that's patriotism; when it barks at the moon, that's religion." I'm an agnostic pragmatic atheist — I don't know if there's a God, I don't believe there is a God, and in the abscence of proof I behave as my sense of right and wrong tells me.

Enjoy surfing my pages. I enjoyed writing them.

Pablo D. Flores
9 April 2004