About Ren
Rene Echavarri was born 28 years ago on 1 September, 1976 in the fashionably shabby border metropolis of El Paso, Texas. His parents, being far too young to have children in the first place, somehow succeeded to raise a decent child. Originally slated to be Hugo Rene Echavarri, Jr., Rene's father hated his name so much he vowed not to curse any of his progeny with it.
Spending his formative years driving about the city of El Paso with his great great aunt and great uncle, Rene formed a love of consumerism that continues unabashed to this day.
At the dawn of the 80's, Rene was enrolled in Ascarate Elementary School. After spending Kindergarten and 1st grade at the school, Rene's parents moved on up to a De-luxe 3 bedroom/2 bath ranch style house on the East side of El Paso in the summer before Rene's 2nd grade year.
Rene enrolled at Vista Del Sol School in the Fall of 1983. After a brilliant career as one of the few students to complete 2nd through 8th grade (the school switched to a K-6 format after his 8th grade year), Rene's life was flipped turned upside down in 1990 when his father accepted a job in the Sparkling City by the Sea: Corpus Christi, TX. Following a rough freshman year, Rene found his stride as a member of the Tuff Tiger Band at Mary Carroll High School.
Fortunately for Rene, he quickly discovered that the high school curriculum did very little to challenge him academically...unless it involved math and then it did require vast amounts of effort. Luckily, he managed to graduate 91st out of a class of nearly 500 students despite failing pre-calculus.
Unfortunately for Rene, his lack of drive, combined with decent, if not spectacular grades led him to college at Texas A&M University-Kingsville eventually selecting music as his major. Realizing the need for money beyond student loans you have to repay someday, Rene took a job as a web clerk in the Office of Public Affairs. It was there Rene discovered his true calling: slacking off on the Internet all day long.
Graduating from University in the Spring of 2000—following the mantra "It doesn't matter how long it takes you to graduate from college, so long as you do"—Rene was determined to make his dream of instant messaging and getting paid for it a reality. Eschewing his chosen profession of music education, Rene took a job in the New Media department with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as an online designer.
The glamourous life and fast pace of newspaper deadlines was not conducive to Rene's desire to be as lazy as possible and still get paid, so when the opportunity to work at a university appeared, he realized his dreams of slacker bliss had been fulfilled. After all, if there's one place that rewards ineptitude and the status quo, it's academia and higher education.
Currently Rene continues his employment with Texas A&M University-Kingsville as the University Webmaster. In addition to web surfing all day, his other duties include graphic design for things such as print advertisements, publications and even the occasional website.
In his spare time, Rene lives well beyond his means, makes fun of people that have it worse off than he does and thanks God every day that his nightmare descent into booze and pills hasn't happened—just yet.