My name is Octavian Ristea. I grew up in Cernavoda, Romania. After attending kindergarten there I immigrated to America when I was seven years old.
My hobbies consisted of playing soccer with friends, riding our bikes, and playing video games such as Bomberman and Grand Theft Auto at the computer cafe.
When I got a computer at my house I played games such as Hercules, 102 Dalmatians Puppies to the Rescue, and Disney’s Magic Artist Deluxe. Let me tell you one thing though; the Magic Artist Deluxe was more like Photoshop to me. I continued to use it up until the 3rd grade, it was such a great program!
I also happened to have grown up with Nintendo NES and 64. It was perfect; I was getting the best of worlds; the old classical gaming and the fresh new stuff.
Technology was an awesome thing, and I was in love with it, but I’m not really sure I understood the implications of it all. I’m not sure I do today. Technology has never failed to fascinate me.
Coming to America (in 2003) was a whole new experience. First of all the computer was nicer 
I remember playing Star Wars and a game similar to Call of Duty, being introduced to Google, and the PlayStation2/Ratchet and Clank as well as Mortal Kombat; the second part was the language.
I think it took me about a year to get the language down, and get up to par with everyone else. In the first grade I read just about every single dinosaur book there was available at my library. In the second grade my reading scores were better than average, and I was awesome at math. I used to read a ton load of Magic Tree House and The Boxcar Children.
At the end of 2nd grade I became interested in animating. After some research I abandoned conventional paper and pencil animating, for something I didn’t even know existed. Digital animation. 3d or 2d animating; I didn’t really care. I just wanted to find out how to do it! I also won some art contests in the 2nd grade.
Throughout the 3rd grade I discovered Anim8tor; a free 3d modeling program. I was hooked; I completed every single tutorial available. I also began looking into game making, and graphic design. I read the book Eragon in the 3rd grade, and it is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Right up top with Deception point and Angels & Demons.
In the 4th grade I read The Animator’s Survival Kit. It was pretty eye opening, just seeing all the art and stories the author had to say. I also downloaded the a program called GameMaker. I begged my dad to buy me the Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners. I was just blown away. I learned smart and logical things from that book. In school I was in compact math and that was about it I also began learning guitar.
By the 5th grade I was reading way more then is good for any kid. I read all of the Harry Potter books in about six weeks. I read all of the seven Alex Rider books by Horowitz. I really liked reading. I also learned HTML that year and built some basic websites using free website builders. My graphic design skills took off and I started using Gimp as a professional In school I wrote some interesting stories and began to really expand on my writing abilities, I was also in advanced math for 5th and 6th grade; as well as a news reporter for the morning news announcements.
In the six grade I showed GameMaker to a friend and we had fun messing around with it throughout the year. I remember he made an interesting Ninja game, it was actually pretty fun 
My reading activity kind of fell in the 7th and 8th grade but I did manage to write a nice piece of poetry about the depression. My teacher and classmates really liked it, but as with everything that I do well, I had rushed on that assignment. It baffles me how that works, I do well on highly boring demotivating things… I see why people like that poem, but I think there’s better stuff out there.
I also learned more about web design and tried to learn C++/C during my middle school years. Anyways I’m always trying to advance and have fun Somethings I forgot to mention is that I got an iPod Touch soon after it came out, and my love of photography and art. It seems like computers are cooler though, and that’s why I focused on them more
Talking about computers I built a pretty nice workmachine in 2011.
Throughout the years I’ve never been more interested with iPod Touches then I was and continue to be with the iPod Touch 1st generation. It’s weird. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to stick with the new stuff, but I also end up selling them. My 1st Gen 16gb iTouch is worth about $20-$30 bucks right now, but that thing is priceless to me. The 1st generation was before Apps, before Bluetooth, and speakers, and cameras, and more. It was the age of jailbreaking, and painful waiting for updates. I can’t even describe how happy I was when the App market came out (it cost $10 to upgrade to iOS 2.0). There were literally 20 apps at first and I bought all of them. I’m not really an apple fan boy but the iPod Touch is an amazing gadget. Better then any other gadget out there.
Talking about gadgets. I have a Kindle 3 and that thing is also awesome! No glare is just about the best thing after electricity I use an HTC EVO 4g. I’m quite into Android as well, I have a Google TV. The market on there kind of sucks though…
Some of the books I’ve read over the years:
| Dragon Rider | 3rd Grade |
| Inkheart | 3rd Grade |
| Eragon | 3rd Grade 5th Grade 8th Grade 8th Grade |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | 3rd Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade |
| The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners | 4th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | 5th Grade |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | 5th Grade |
| Eldest | 5th Grade |
| Stormbreak | 5th Grade |
| Point Blanc | 5th Grade |
| Skeleton Key | 5th Grade |
| Eagle Strike | 5th Grade |
| Scorpia | 5th Grade |
| Ark Angel | 5th Grade |
| Snakehead | 5th Grade |
| Leven Thumps and The Gateway to Foo Book 1 | 5th Grade |
| The House of the Scorpion | 5th Grade |
| Brisingr | 6th Grade |
| Angels & Demons | 6th Grade |
| The Da Vinci Code | 6th Grade |
| Interview with The Vampire | 6th Grade |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | 6th Grade |
| Lord of The Flies | 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade |
| Touching Spirit Bear | 7th and 8th Grade |
| The Catcher in The Rye | 7th and 9th Grade |
| A Separate Peace | 7th Grade |
| The Lost Symbol | 7th Grade |
| The Vampire Lestat | 7th Grade |
| Twilight | 7th Grade |
| Freakonomics | 7th Grade |
| The Queen of the Damned | 7th Grade |
| Stephen King Just After Sunset | 7th Grade |
| Demon Seed | 8th Grade |
| Black Like Me | 8th Grade |
| Pet Cemetery | 8th Grade |
| The Cosmic Landscape | 8th Grade |
| Deception Point | 8th Grade |
| Inheritance | 9th Grade |
| Pi Patel | 9th Grade |
| 1984 | 9th Grade |
| Outliers | 9th Grade |
| PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide 4thEdition | 9th Grade |
My Favorite Quotes:
A road is a road, the only road to success is persistence.
-My dad
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
-Steve Jobs
Sometimes we find the key to a door we already broke through
-Myself
It doesn’t matter if you can’t see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Who is this Kid?
