12 February 2007

And so I begin...

The blogosphere is hardly a realm that I am completely unfamiliar with, but until now, it's been a place that I have gazed at from the outside looking in... a world that has held an inviting allure for me, but one that I kept myself from participating in out of my own personal apprehension and insecurity.

No more... I have arrived, and now the party can begin in earnest.

I kid, I kid. Honestly, as a neophyte blogger I have pretty big dreams for this, not quite equalled by pretty big fears that those dreams will fall short of realization.

Who am I?

A better initial question might be... "Who am I not?" Such a provocative blog title would incline one to think that this is another run of the mill white supremacist hate site – nothing could be further from the truth. As for the "white heterosexual male" part of my identity... those are things not of my choosing, simply the biological end result of some humping by mom and dad, who I love but did not choose. That leaves "angry" as the one component (somewhat) within the realm of my control. Why am I angry? Well, that's a question that will have an ongoing answer as I contribute posts to this blog. In a nutshell… I'm none too thrilled by looking at centuries of history that have involved ongoing oppression and violence against people who don't look like me, people who aren't built like me, and people who don't have sex like me. From Christopher Columbus to George W. Bush, a lot of bad things have happened at the hands of people who LOOK LIKE ME. And I'm sick of having my heritage tarnished by the evil and selfish whims of many of my predecessors and many of my contemporaries.

So who the hell am I? God, I hate trying to answer that question... honest self-appraisals are so difficult to come by, what with all the personal bias involved. But I'll give it the good old college try nonetheless...

  • I'm 32 years old.
  • I live in a trendy, hipster, cosmopolitan, economically, ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhood within a metro area where most neighborhoods are not so trendy, not very hip, and not too economically, ethnically and culturally diverse. And this is within a state and multi-state region that is even less so in regards to these things.
  • I'm a graduate student, and hopefully I will be completing my degree this May - a Master of Arts in Media Communications.
  • I'm a single dude, too often wookin' pa nub in all the wrong places.
  • I have a dog, a 45 pound black mutt thing... I tell people that she is a German Shepherd-Chow mix, but in all honesty, I have no freaking clue what she is. She has a black tongue and bushy tail like a Chow, and though quite a bit smaller, her body, head, ears, and snout are the same shape as that of a German Shepherd. Whatever she is, she's been my best friend for the past 18 months, especially when I've gone through some very trying personal life experiences.
  • I love and obsess over the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, in spite of the political affiliations of their owner Bill DeWitt.
  • I have spent nearly my entire life living in the St. Louis area, with a brief hiatus to New Orleans from August 1993-December 1994, when I attended Loyola University for 3 semesters.
  • I am an absolute political junkie, and my political beliefs have run the gamut in just a few short years. From early in life until the 2004 election, I had always considered myself a devout neoconservative, flag-waving, Gawd-fearing, ACLU-hatin' Republican. Dubya was once an idol of mine. Then I woke up. Today, I'm an unapologetic "secular progressive", Bush-bashing, lefty loon. And I strongly hope to see Barack Obama elected as the 44th President of the United States in 2008 - so much so that I'm taking as much of an active role in his campaign efforts as I can. I suggest you consider doing so, too.
  • As a media communications student, I think one of the most necessary curricula that should be introduced into the lives of future generations in our K-12 schools is the discipline of Media Literacy, so they might be more aware of what exactly it is that they are consuming on a daily basis.

That's all I got for now... I'll get more into why I'm starting this blog next time. And I've already got a doozy of a topic for my first post not about me... "Morally appropriate liberal male perspectives on the abortion issue in America" - just a little softball subject to get things started.

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