Hi!

I guess my long and involved first post has landed somewhere among the lost socks and "eaten" homework.

Oh well. I just wanted to give you a brief idea of who I was before I started posting things and you got the false impression that I was a pretty normal, sane guy. I was born in Redmond, Washington in 1979 (really!) when it was possible to live on a farm 30 miles east of Seattle.

I moved to Indio, California (aka, the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Mojave Desert) when I was 6 and stayed there until I graduated from Palm Desert HS and went to Dartmouth College. Well, except for the time (about a year and a half all told) when I lived in the Czech Republic-- in both the far Northeast (Bystrice nad Olsi) and Prague. I focused on Geography, Politics, and the Slavic world while at Dartmouth and graduated with a dual degree in Government (IR and Comparative) and Geography in 2001.

Since then, I've been based in Washington, DC, doing various projects from educating Congressional staffers on issues of int'l security and law to looking into the historical implications of Dwight Eisenhower on the beginning of the Cold War. I'm in kind of blah employment situation now, though, so if y'all have an opening I might fit, let me know!

Anyway, this blog is probably going to be a lot of my random ramblings, strange things I come across (lots of them), and responses to all the stuff going on.

Beware: my life imitates art. Sometimes Jackson Pollack, sometimes cubism, and sometimes charcoal. Eh—“gotta know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em.”

I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but I can’t think of a better way to mirror my life.

But since I’m back in Indio for a couple of days, I’ll be able to dedicate more time to this kind of thing. So, until next time……