So who am I?

So who am I? I am an older-than-I-look graduate student in the College of Information Science and Technology at Penn State University. I was born and raised in northeast Pennsylvania, and though I have tried living a few other places on the east coast of the US, semi-rural PA seems like where I am most comfortable. I currently live in Pleasant Gap (about 10 minutes from downtown State College) with my wife and best friend, Kim. Though we have been together for a few years, we were finally married in August '08 on Grand Cayman Island. There are a few pictures of the event on our wedding planner's blog. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful place with a beautiful woman!

So that's some obligatory biographical information. What else would I want you to know about me? I love a lot of music, but I don't like a lot of what gets played on most radio stations. I miss the days before 'alternative' became its own musical genre and I still think Husker Du is the world's greatest band. I've been hooked on NPR since the late eighties and it only gets worse as they offer more ways to get a fix. I read a lot of comics, though sophisticated people call them 'graphic novels' now. Most superheroes of my childhood are still around (not that you could miss them in theaters lately ), but comics seem more interesting than ever.  I think the recent death of Captain America is an interesting commentary on the state of the nation after the last eight years.  Wasteland is one of my current favorite comics. I can't wait for the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica to finally air. I remember where I was the moment the first episode of the Simpsons aired and to this day I know where I will be most Sundays at 8 pm. I think great poetry might be more important than most science. And my favorite poet is Robert Bly. I think the status-quo of almost everything is terrible and that we are running out of time to save ourselves before we run out of oil, water, or bees.  I'm torn between having hope for the future of human beings and kind of hoping the world will end.

Some of the places on the web that I visit daily that might tell you a little more about me:

Digg - social news site where users are the editors

Ars Technica - tech news blog that covers legal/policy issues better than most

AlterNet - national news from a perspective outside the 'mainstream' news media

This Modern World - liberal political blog with a weekly political cartoon

Liberty Meadows - daily comic strip by my favorite comic artist, Frank Cho

And just for fun, me as a cartoon: