James Larken lives in Baytown Texas, a suburb of Houston. He is 45 years old, with two kids, Corey(17), and Rachel(15). He has lived in Texas most of his life. He went to college in Missori a couple of years, and has an associates degree in music. In addition, he has 3 years of chemistry, with 25  years experience in the field of paint and coatings formulation and research.

Several things have brought James to where he is in life. First is his love of music. He has played trumpet and piano for many years. He also sings, and has written some music. For a number of years he helped some churches with ther music programs. Most recently it has been his DJing & performing in the virtual world Second Life(r). He loves jazz, classical, movie soundtracks, and has an affinity for any music by real musicians.

The second thing that has brought James Larken where he is today is his experience that happened 3 years ago that led to having brain surgery. On July 28th, 2004, he had a brain anurism, which led to having brain surgery, and unfortunetly a stroke. But inspite of the difficulties and challenge, James has come out ahead in this situation. Though he suffered some life canging effects from the stroke, he still leads a pretty normal life. But the experience has had a profound effect on his life, and he has enjoyed being able to share his experience with others. You can read more of James Larken story under the 'AVM and stroke' portion of this website.