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The Long-ish Version:

My name ~ Manning was my maternal grandfather's name, and I found out a few years ago it means "son of the hero" in Old English. Leonard was my dad's first name. Krull is a truly American name; it was shortened from Krulikowski (not sure about the spelling there) when my dad's parents came to the US from Poland in the 1920s.

First appearance ~ I was born in New Jersey in 1975, about a week before Halloween. My birth was foretold by a swallow, and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow across the sky over the mountain and a new star in the heavens. (Oh wait, wrong weirdo.)

Location ~ I've recently relocated to New York after living in Paris, France for five years. Before that, I grew up in New Jersey, and lived in Philadelphia during my twenties. I still think of Paris as my home, and I write and maintain a website and blog called Cool Stuff in Paris. I now live in Brooklyn with my beautiful French girlfriend and two handsome French rabbits.

Work ~ I've been making websites professionally since 1997 (wow! that sounds crazy), and doing illustration all my life. After working in web agencies in NJ and Philadelphia for many years, I went freelance in 2005 when I moved to France, and am now a freelancer in New York. I work on lots of different kinds of projects involving art and computers; I mostly design and build websites, and I also do a lot of illustration work. I sometimes do Flash animation projects, graphic design projects, pixel art and video game design, et cetera. I taught myself how to do all of this stuff, and I'm mighty proud of that. I'm always interested in picking up new freelance projects; please check out my Hiring Me page, download my résumé (pdf), and feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com any time.

Interests ~ If I had to pick a number one interest it would be travel. I got started with traveling pretty late in life, but I'm trying to make up for lost time. I've visited about twenty European countries in the last few years, mostly during the time I lived in Paris. My favorite place in the world is always France, but some of my other favorite places that I've visited are Sarajevo (Bosnia), Budapest (Hungary), and all over the Transylvanian countryside in Romania. Visiting the ruins of Vlad the Impaler's castle in the middle of nowhere is probably my favorite travel memory so far. It's certainly the one that gets me the most e-mails from weird goth kids.

The vast majority of my travels have been in Europe and North America. I'd love to explore the rest of the whole world sometime.

Other non-travel interests of mine include horror movies, Halloween, fashion, shopping, French movies and general Francophilia, comic books, pixel art, comic book illustration, hiking, and reading about science, history, languages, etc. I really like building Ikea furniture. Does that count?

Fun facts ~ (Okay, they're not really all that fun.) I speak French fluently; my home life is 100% in French, and my professional life is 100% in English. I was featured in Time Out New York's "Most Stylish New Yorkers," which is hilarious. One time I met Elvis Costello and asked if he wanted to be in my band (note: I did not even have a band at the time). I played the Pirate King in my high school's production of Pirates of Penzance. I haven't owned a pair of blue jeans in about twenty years. I can juggle a little bit, but I usually only do it when I'm drunk. My favorite foods are sushi and pumpkin pie, but probably not together. I mentally collect coincidences; one time in a hostel in Transylvania I met a Canadian women who, it turned out, used to live in my apartment in Paris — scary! I can play the cello, guitar, bass, drums, and xylophone. I usually don't, though.

Blogs ~ Oh man, I've got like four blogs; is that bad? I maintained a LiveJournal pretty regularly for over ten years (wow!), but I don't post on it much anymore. I also maintain a website/blog called Cool Stuff in Paris, which I try to update frequently. I have a blog about my new(-ish) life in Brooklyn called Mostly Brooklyn, which I update from time to time, mostly with pictures of silly graffiti. I also have a blog about the historical Dracula called Dracula: History & Myth. I guess I feel like I have a lot of stuff to say about a lot of things.

Other places to find me ~ Twitter | Google+ | Facebook | LinkedIn | Pixel Joint

E-mail ~ Please feel free to write me at manning@manningkrull.com. I would love to hear from you. Probably.

In closing ~ Wait, what was your question again?

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