Charles Stuart Smith III is a living anachronism. His hopes and dreams are those of an old time circus performer: to light the fires of awe and joy and wonder in the minds of small children. Many observers believe he's just the one for the job.

Charles is one of those people whom the right people think is very cool and the wrong people think is...well, silly. (I'm sure you're one of the right people.) During his formative years in San Buenaventura CA, Charles enjoyed the following things: Star Wars, Star Trek, role-playing games, fantasy novels, computers, and - most importantly -- wine, women, and song. Those are still his chief obsessions, except maybe for the role-playing games. His family loves him dearly, and he loves them back.

Charles is an expert carouser, a soft drinker, a big laugher, an occasional flake who is always there when you most need him. He has been known to chase his friends through rainstorms to console them, to design multimedia birthday cards, and to wear vampire fangs in mid-summer. He loves trenchcoats and cool hats.

Charles entered UC Berkeley in 1990. There he learned lots about mechanical engineering, and about how to love hard cider and to philosophize well. He joined the Cal Fencing club in 1990, where he met all the friends he could ever want, and some he couldn't. The infamous "Summer of '92" was a formative time for Charles: all he will say is that it was the "summer of love" for himself and his old high school friends, but in all the WRONG ways. Plus he got dumped. Other collegiate activities included: exploring the steam tunnels under the campus; learning to make mead; being on the internet well before it was hip; fencing on the stages of Rennaisance Fairs; loving; losing; programming computers and playing games on them; baking cookies; earning an A average.

Currently, Charles is a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He has just gleaned his Masters degree (how many people have "gleaned" a Masters degree, eh?), and is studying computer animation and making computer art and web sites as part of the multimedia consulting group The Brothers Digital. His professors think the world of him, and his clients are deliriously happy with his work...at least, that's what he tells us.

Charles lives in El Cerrito, CA, with his roommate Brian, his gargoyle Smi, and a stuffed dog named "Loxley," who by general consent is very cuddly.

This bio was crafted by Charles' close friend and confidant Mark Gabel, who owns a rubber duck named Alfred P. Quakleberry.