My turn!
Name's Jason, 37. Born in Dallas, lived with grandparents in Korea for a year, then in Peoria, IL for a few years, moved to Costa Rica for 2 years, Chile for 6 years, back to Peoria for 2, back to Chile for 2 and graduated high school there, studied at Wharton undergrad in Philadelphia (father's choice - either that or pre-med then med school - I took the easier route).
Moved to NYC and have been working at an independent dance record label/music publisher for 12 years. Boss is the guy who produced Madonna's first hits and launched her career. Small company (there's 7 of us and I'm the business affairs department), low pay but very comfortable job. Considered working at a major but with the music industry as it is now that's not the safest path to take. Besides, I like the laid back environment at my current job.
Started smoking in college, mostly because all the Asian friends I hung out with were smokers -- the smoke was disgusting to me until I picked up the habit myself. Been smoking about a 1/2 pack a day for 20 years until I found out about the e-cig last week. Now that I'm equipped with that, I've no desire to smoke real bogues.
Used to DJ club, house, trance, breakbeat from college until 2002, then stopped going to clubs and raves. Got burnt out from too much fun. These days are mostly spent at home with my girlfriend of 5 years watching Asian films and Japanese/Korean TV dramas (don't speak the languages, rely on English subtitles) and playing videogames on PS2, PS3, PSP, DS and wii.
Was active in martial arts from age 6 until 30. Took Taekwondo for about 12 years straight, but at different schools since I moved around a lot. Then dabbled in Goju Ryu Karate, Shotokan, Bujinkan Taijutsu, GoKempoJutsu, Iaido, Kendo, and Brazilian Jiujitsu.
After I met my girlfriend, stopped training for 5 years and got fat and lazy. My girlfriend's from Hong Kong, so her family's interests are very food-centric. Been eatin' well since I met her!
I've been a fan of mixed martial arts since the very first UFC. Couple months ago decided to get back in shape so took up Judo and Kickboxing for a month. Then found an awesome Sambo school and have been training there since. It's really hard for me now because of the smoking and my weight gain - I get winded from climbing a flight of stairs, never mind the warmups during class. But now that I have quit smoking and will only vape, I'm hoping it'll become easier. I've read other people's posts here about their lung capacity/conditioning improving.
Happy to be part of this forum, people are friendly and helpful. Nice to meet you all.