Introduction

My name's Ben, and I'm finally jumping on the blog bandwagon. I have so many different things I could blog about, so I'm not sure what direction this thing will eventually take. I'm hoping it'll mostly include deep thoughts on whatever topic pops into my erratic brain, but it may at times degenerate to the goofy or to a list of "stuff I did." The first real post will come soon, but for now I'll get the "who the heck is this guy and why should I care what he thinks or has to say" part out of the way.

Basically, I'm a recent college graduate who isn't sure yet where his life is headed and you shouldn't.

I grew up in a small West Virginia town called Martinsburg. It's about 90 minutes from Washington, D.C., so it's not quite the middle of nowhere. It had all the advantages of both the major metropolitan area and the rolling countryside. It had all the disadvantages too. I think it prepared me to live just about anywhere, except the extremes like NYC or here. I miss it at times, but my subsequent homes have been excellent for me as well.

I moved to Pittsburgh to attend college at the University of Pittsburgh, where I studied first Chemistry (which I ended up not liking so much) and then Anthropolgy. I didn't really want a career in either when all was said and done, and I didn't really know where to go from there. Grad school is an eventual probability, but for now I don't know what field of study I'd pursue so I'm in a kind of limbo. I really do miss Pitt and its home city; the whole of my experience there (except my actual studies) was wonderful.

Now I'm living in an apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland just a quick jaunt from the DC Metro station with my girlfriend, Laurel. She's from Falmouth, MA (on Cape Cod) and went to Pitt as well. We've only been here a short time, but the area is fantastic. I have a boring job (an administrative contract position with a Federal agency), but I don't care because everything else is going so well. Things from my pipe dreams down to the everyday realities of life are beginning to coalesce into a picture of how my life will unfold.

I have a million hobbies, from sports to video games to the outdoors to music (I'll listen to any genre and I've played the trombone for over 12 years), but the most consistent of my diversions is reading. I'm an avid Sci-fi and Fantasy reader, but I also thoroughly enjoy Mysteries, Thrillers, about half of the Classics, and Nonfiction. Actually, I'll read just about anything that someone recommends to me. The reading has given me two of my major life goals: to own and operate a used book store and to become a published author. I think both goals are achievable, but neither is a valid career option for me now.

My sense of humor is one of my strongest defining characteristics, but that doesn't mean I don't take things seriously. In many cases, I think one has to take an issue seriously to make an adequate joke about it. Humor serves as everything from a defense mechanism to an insight-builder. I'm also a deep thinker and a religious (perhaps more precisely spiritual) person. My religious beliefs, though, aren't very orthodox or beat-you-over-the-head. I don't often share the deeper side with my friends and acquaintances, and thus the blog will partly be an outlet for that.

OK, apologies for the lengthy introduction. Real posts will start soon.