I can't believe it's June already, but enough about me ...

Hi there.

So, as I was thinking about what to post the other day, it occurred that I have yet to reveal any personal information. That’s probably not going to change. As much as we live in a public world that I wish to take part in, there are just too many idiots out there with strange, scary, dangerous, stupid motives for me to get too revealing. I will however give you some background.

As Bob Dylan once said, "Oh my name it ain’t nothing my age it means less. The country I come from, is called the Midwest.” I grew up in Missouri, in about as Mark Twain a setting as one can get. I played by the river, ran in the woods, lived in a small home with my family, in our small town that was never enough for me. I got a scholarship to college and joined the Navy after a year because I was bored. For me, the first year of college was simply another year of high school in terms of subject matter, and it was not very interesting. In fact, for all you high school Seniors out there about to start, good luck, work hard, and stick with it, but don’t think that its all going to be Animal House and American Pie. But you know that so I’ll move on.

My new job as a Sailor was and still is amazing. The first thing they did after teaching me journalism was send me to live in Sicily for two years. I worked at a Navy base’s local TV and radio station. Awesome. Maybe I’ll get around to posting some pictures of that someday but we’ll see. For all you prospective travelers to Sicily out there I’ll give you my two cents. Palermo is gorgeous if not a bit scary. Take in an Opera, skip the village of Corleone. Head for Taormina on the east coast of the island, and if you have time and want to see some great ruins, they’re everywhere, (it is Italy after all) but I’d recommend at least a day trip to Agrigento. The ancient Greeks ran aground there after being blown off course and so they built some temples that still stand 2,500 years later because, hey, that’s what you do.

So, to keep this brief, I’ve lived in Europe, Asia and California, a world unto itself. I’ve been to several different parts of Africa, and let me tell you, from an American mid-westerner’s perspective, that place can use all the help it can get, but it’s tough to know where to begin. For anyone interested in Africa, I’d recommend either the nation of South Africa, or some of the northern countries bordering the Mediterranean. If you’re not a seasoned traveler, or someone with a good sense of adventure, Sub-Saharan Africa is not for you.

I live back in the States now and am pretty darn happy about it, though I don’t know if I’ll finish it all up here. It’s nice to be back home after so many years abroad, and I wouldn’t have started my family any place else, but America is really having to re-make some friends globally. I’m not much of a politico but know all ye this; I have an awful tendency to get long winded when answering questions so, if you ask me a question, I’ll give you an honest answer. As you may know if you’ve read more than this post, I’m married, and proud father of twin daughters, who are doing great by the way.

Now, for those of you who may piece together these snippets and figure out the man behind the curtain, good on’ya but I would ask that you keep the mystery just that. For those of you whom I’ve alerted to this cause, please take this as just another anonymous citizen engaging in a public dialogue with absolutely no point whatsoever.

Ciao