Who is this guy?

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I have always found these little introduction/bio pages to be rather strange. They are almost always written by the person they describe, yet they are also almost always in third person. Well, I am not quite so full of myself. And I like to be different, so first person it is.

I was born in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Universe. Apparently, I like to be thorough. For the majority of my life, I have lived in or around Chicago. I was born of various European descent with a speculated, but impossible to prove, speckle of Native American. I like to say that because it makes my heritage sound mysterious and potentially more interesting. But it's also true to the extent that any unprovable speculation is true. I am part of a family that includes a mother and a father, three sisters, a niece, two cats, and some fish. I do not drink, smoke, use illicit drugs, participate in any organized or unorganized religion, or support the antiquated institution of marriage. I do believe in asking all questions, even those with scary answers or no answers at all. I greatly encourage everybody who reads this to consider the following two mantras:

The first comes from Socrates, who may or may not have actually uttered such a phrase. Regardless, one who does not constantly examine and reexamine their own life will never, ever, truly understand themselves or others. This site and all extensions of it are, to some extent, all examinations of my own life through my work. I'll get to that second quotation shortly.

I received a Bachelor of Arts in English - Creative Writing from the University of Puget Sound in May 2006. Before spending time in Tacoma at UPS, I attended a local community college. Before that, I spent one year at Columbia-College Chicago as a Film/Video major with a focus in Screenwriting. My post-secondary education is varied, though not always fruitful. It has prepared me for communication with all types of people. It remains to be seen how well it has prepared me for my professional life.

I try not to limit myself when it comes to writing. I write or have written stories, poems, jokes, columns, blogs, character/storyline sketches, and more. Nearly everything I do gets a creative spin to the extent that I want everything to be a story. I rarely can accept that things just are. I search for human motivation and figure out why that's important. The more of all this I do, the better this site will be.

I am currently working on a number of projects, though I always do little side things to distract myself. As you can see by browsing the site, I am working on a novel. This novel is many years in the making and, in time, will be completed. This is the number one priority in my professional life and I will not be satisfied until I see it sitting in bookstores. In addition to that, I also have written for websites, pitched stories to magazines (even getting a byline), and I have performed a little stand-up comedy. It remains to be seen if I'm actually funny, but it's worth a shot. Any other major projects I tackle will likely be announced on the site.

The second quotation is from the film A Bronx Tale, and it is another reason for the existence of this site. Despite all my flaws, one thing I do not want is for the talent I do have to be wasted. And hopefully this site serves as a catalyst for the cultivation of my work. Everything I write won't appear here, because publishing on the Internet is a fantastic way to not got published "for real." But that doesn't mean I'm saving my second-rate material for the site. Much of the writing I do is not designed to generate profit. Instead I use it as a means to entertain myself, to stimulate my creativity, and to practice my writing. The main purpose of this site: I hope somebody sees it, likes my work, and wants to pay me lots and lots of money to do something I love.