An Introduction

I would like to make a confession right from the start here- this is my first online blog and therefore my first entry onto it. With that said, my intentions here with this first blog entry will be to give you some insight into who I am, my background, socio-economic status, and perhaps even sprinkle in a few of my views. My overall intent with this blog as a whole is to use it as a repository for my thoughts, feelings, opinions, and even off-the-wall ravings about a myriad of subjects- from politics, entertainment, music, and even things from my personal life. My secondary objective is that you, the reader of these entries, will find interest in what I write. Be it pleasure, disagreement, agreement, loathing, humor, or any other emotion or mental state that chooses to appear. In addition, I am open to your comments and responses, with one caveat- some civility need apply. I enjoy a good argument as much as the next man. But what I loath is when irrational hostility and unproductive rhetoric enters the fray. My entries will be aggressive at times, sometimes attacking, but hopefully never irrational. I respect other opinions and will gladly listen to yours as long as they are somewhat rational. I am a big boy and can take some direct attacks, so bring those on. Just make your arguments sound. Ok, with some of the ground rules out of the way let me tell you more about me.

Here is the way my census data might read (should you have access to it)- 30 year old male, married, 1 child, income level-low to moderate, profession- insurance agent. Now that is an awfully cold way to describe a human being, but does lay out some key facts about me. First, I am 30 years old. I crossed that threshold last year with relatively little fanfare. It is only 30 for God’s sake! I do, however, remember when I was younger- say 12 or so- that I thought 30 was so old. Also at around that same time, I thought I would be a successful (businessman, writer, filmmaker, congressman) by the age of 30. Sadly, my 12 year old self would be disappointed at where I ended up. Heck, my 30 year self is disappointed at times. So we have kinda established here that I have yet to reach the career aspirations of both my 12 year old and 30 year old selves.

On the other hand though- my personal life is pretty good for the most part. I have been married for 7 months to a talented, intelligent, adventurous and all around fantastic woman. We met, as many due in the modern age, through the internet. It was funny that at the time I met my wife I was about to give up on dating for a while. Prior to her I didn’t have much luck finding someone I truly connected with and it was not for a lack of trying. I was using internet dating sites, going to the bars/clubs, joining writing and reading groups. None of these avenues proved very interesting. Sure, I met some great people, had some decent sex at times, and had fun overall. But none of these women were quite right for me. Then, I found my wife twice online. Once through a dating site I had forgotten to cancel my subscription to and then again on MySpace while searching for new friends in my area. The rest, as they say, is history.

Along the way my wife, prior to us marrying, became pregnant. It was an accident, one in which I had an equal share in and entered into willingly. At the same time though, it was quite possibly the best accident I have ever had. My son Liam is amazing. Truthfully, amazing doesn’t really quite cover it either. I continue to find small things about him every day that I marvel over. From the look on his face when he is working something out to the random sounds he makes to express himself. Every day with him is just so much fun and a gift.

I can willingly admit, as you have no doubt surmised, that fatherhood has changed me. It has made me more responsible of course, that goes without saying. (Although looking at some parents, it seems less obvious that a sense of responsibility automatically comes with the baby in the delivery room.) But more importantly it has reminded me of the impermanence of life. Life is all about cycles and my son reminds me, rightfully so, of that each and every day I am with him. He has also made me much more appreciate of my still enduring childish side. I do not suffer from Peter Pan syndrome, mind you. I do however have a healthy imagination and overall sense of whimsy and fun. Coming back to an earlier point I made- my younger self (12 year old, most likely younger) still has a pretty prominent residence inside of me. And I would not have it any other way. To lose one’s childish nature is to cease to believe in magic, to cease to have imagination, to cease to be an optimist. Losing your childish self diminishes greatly the amount of joy you can gain from the people and world around you. For the record: I never plan to really grow up. (I guess Peter Pan I am afterall.)

I am also a card carrying liberal. (boo, hiss from those of you reading who happen to be Republicans) Now I do not lean far left in my political views, rather I am standing with one foot firmly on the left and the other toward the middle. I am not a moderate though, to be that I would have to agree with something, anything the Right has to say. I can say with no hesitation that I do not. You see the interesting thing is that once upon a time, not too long ago, I was a moderate, a true moderate. I didn’t declare myself for either party and found strengths in each. But then the Bush era came along.

I can honestly admit that I did vote for the former President in the 2000 election. I had greatly admired his predecessor at the time, President Clinton, but just never connected with Al Gore during his campaign. I liked Bush’s message at the time of coming together, Republican and Democrat, to continue to solve the problems found both domestically and internationally. I also thought Bush was, if first impressions meant anything, a nice, honest guy. You may ask at this point if I regret my decision to vote for Bush. I do. But at the time it felt like the right decision.

I am not, at least in this blog entry, going to delve into my overall views of Bush, as a person, and his presidency. Those views, thoughts, and feelings will be sprinkled and sometimes directly addressed in future blog entries. What I will say is that his actions, policies, social and political views, and general mindset turned me off to the Republican party completely and most likely permanently.

One last thing about me- I am a film lover. I love films themselves, I love the process involved in making them, I love theaters, popcorn, seeing a film with an audience, discussing it after with friends in the parking lot. I am an unadulterated film lover. So with that said, you may find many of my entries in this blog pertain to movies. Or you may see me make references to films and film characters while writing about something else entirely. All of that is just me; it is my way as they say. Also, I am going to try my hand at writing film reviews on this blog for films I see. I will admit that I have never written a “real” film review in my life. But I have certainly read a great deal of them in my time and feel pretty confident that I can do pretty well at it. Who knows, perhaps sometime down the line you will be reading my thoughts on films on a major news publication’s website. We’ll see I suppose.

Closing things out here I just want to say that I hope that having read this you have a better sense of who I am. I haven’t filled in all the blanks, nor will I ever completely. But, I feel I have at least given you enough of a sense of who I am to allow you to decide if you want to continue to read my blogs. This was much like the first paragraph or a novel or short story, either you are hooked or you are not. In either case, the story will continue to go on.