I live in Rio de Janeiro where I work as a financial journalist for Bloomberg News. I've been married to Patricia for almost four years. We have a daughter, Theresa who is two and a half, a golden retriever named Pongo and a yard with four Banana trees, a mango tree, two avocado trees and a pitanga bush. Patricia, who's from Rio, is a graphic and industrial designer.

After the GSV and high-school graduation, I moved from my hometown, Chicago, to Canada to study at the University of Toronto, where I probably spent more time working on the student papers than studying English Literature and History, though, they decided to give me a English Literature specialist degree in 1987.

After university, I started a journalism career in Ontario. First job, editor of Canada's smallest daily newspaper, The Port Hope Evening Guide, circulation 4,200 Monday-Friday.

In 1991 I moved to Rio de Janeiro with my then wife. We split in Brazil. I spent the early 1990s writing about Brazil and traveling all over this enormous country. I was able to write about Confederate descendants in the Amazon, towns overrun by ants, the impeachment of a president, wild urban violence, and Brazilians of German descent who want to form their own country.

I worked regularly for such papers as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle and Miami Herald.

In 1995 after meeting Patricia, I moved back to Canada briefly then split for Miami, here Patricia joined me and we got married. I moved back to Brazil in 1997 to work for Bloomberg in Sao Paulo. Theresa was born there, and a year later we moved back to Rio.

Rua Faro, 17, Jardim Botanico, CEP 22461-020, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Telephones: (5521) 516-1552 at work; (5521) 259-9103 at home; E-mail: jblount@bloomberg.net at work; or blount@uol.com.br at home.