User Profile

Ah, the monologue. I would be brief, lest I bore my audience, but that isn't really the point here, is it? I do warn you that cynicism, sarcasm, and even satire may await you.

I am a 25 year old Michigan resident who spends most of his time shaking his fist at the unemployment rate. Yeah, I'm one of those old-timey people who believe that a job is more than just something you spend 8 hours a day doing. I value and respect my work, and I want it done right. So, of course, when it comes time to squash someone, my head's the first one on the chopping block. At will, indeed...

I would tell you all about my wonderful and oh-so-charming personality, if I was pretentious enough to believe I would be unbiased. I can tell you that I am sometimes philosophical, I have an analytical mind, I always enjoy a good conversation, and that I really do think that honour and integrity are the most valueable assets a person can have.

Obviously, I am a radical, left-wing, hippie-hugging, whale-protecting do-gooder, right? Keep reading...

Over the years, I have been called everything but a gentleman. People sometimes say that I am confrontational, stubborn, even closed-minded. When I'm angry, you'd get farther talking to a rock than trying to put anything past me. Yes, I hate authority figures, yet I always feel a need to belong. I love wearing suits and uniforms, and the thought of belonging to a team, in a structured environment, with responsibilities...I want that. Still sound like a liberal?

Truth is, I don't have political interests in mind at all. I want what is necessary, or what is desirable, just like anyone else. But for some reason I can't see why everyone else is just blindly following whatever they're told to do. I want to see this world move forward into the future with its head held high, and with success in its hands. But I guess I just don't play nice enough. Freedom of thought will do that to a guy.

Aside from the metaphysical and the political, my majour interests are in art and creative writing. I am a HUGE fan of Tracey Butler and Dark Natasha. The former is, I think, an absolute genius in cartoon-style furry art (NO, it is not about sex.). She has mastered not just an intimate understanding of anatomy and facial expression, but a very intricate knowledge of clothing, objects, backgrounds, and more. One single picture has been enough to inspire a world of stories in my head. The latter prefers a more realistic approach, and incorporates a level of detail that makes me swear the creatures could be real. As far as writers go, I don't really have a favourite; I just pick up something that looks good and I read it through. Most of the time.

I think the worst book I ever read was Stephen King's Gerald's Game. I mean it. The writing was captivating, as always, and the story kept me turning pages till the very end...when I was shown what a complete and total disappointment feels like. If you haven't yet read it, don't. It's worse than Lucas raping the memory of Star Wars.

The best? Well, there are a lot of good books, and I can't remember all the ideas they inspired in me. It wouldn't be fair to pick just one. Writers that really resonated with me were King (even though I hated Gerald's Game, Pet Cemetary was intriguing), Franklin W. Dixon (Yes, I read the Hardy Boys. Get over it), and of course, Agatha Christie and Angela Lansbury.

I myself am something of a writer, although I could never compare myself to the aforementioned. It would be like comparing Salvador Dali to that guy who taught his cat to spatter paint on a canvas. Even so, I think the stories are pretty good, and worth a read. I'm writing a series of three books in the same science fiction universe. They follow a story arc that stretches through the limits of time, both history and future, although the three books themselves take place within about 20-50 years. There is also a fourth book; a medieval fantasy based on the retelling of one of my roleplaying adventures.

Roleplaying has been the single greatest outlet of creativity in my entire life. Many prominent religious figures have fingered it as a perversion of faith, or an obvious tool of the devil. I laugh at people like this. D&D didn't brainwash those two idiots into gutting each other; they picked up swords which they had no idea how to use, to recreate combat which they understood nothing about, for a game which had no basis in reality. I think that's felony stupid, and they got what they had coming to them. Games require psychologically unstable fanatics for cults to form, much in the same way that guns require to be loaded, held, aimed, and fired in order to kill a person.

No, roleplaying is like improvisational theatre, or like a movie without a set. Like a script, there are rules as to what a particular character can or can't get away with, and like a director there is a person telling the story. The greatest adventures of humanity are already over, in reality. But in fantasy, they live on. I think these games are the single most powerful tool for developing creativity, and if I had my way they would be distributed in schools all over the nation, as a teaching aid for social skills, developing rudimentary reading and math skills, and even for understanding literature and science.

If the storyteller knows what's real, he can postulate what might be, or could be. The light bulb didn't fall from an apple tree; somebody had to concieve of it. He had to dream about it night and day, had to theorize and contemplate...He had to create something that didn't exist, based on what did exist. Whether it's fictional written works, or actual technology, the power of the human mind to imagine a concept that exists only inside itself is a power that we cannot afford to waste.

Wow. I typed alot in this profile. Are your eyes bleeding yet? Anyway, I guess I did get a little of my personality written down, whether I did it on purpose or not. If you liked what you saw, please feel free to contact me. I don't take kindly to flames, so don't be surprised by a rude answer if you send them. But if it's a good conversation you're after, come on over.

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