So what is there that I want you, Dear Reader, to know about me? By that I mean, what is there that it's fair that you should know before reading whatever I've written?


First, my pledge: I will be honest. I won't lie to you, won't beef up a story or puff up my achievements (such as they are) in order to sound more interesting.


What's to tell? I'm a single white male a shade past thirty, Aussie by birth and Canadian by grace. I have sporadic fits of Catholicism, mingled with bouts of Atheism. Member of a tiny minority group (leftie). Optimist by temperament but careful to keep it under wraps in this fashionably cynical age. Hopeful; I have faith in the glorious heights and venial depths of humankind, and believe that given the option, most people make the right choices about the stuff that really matters.

I've flipped burgers, joined an army, driven tractor-trailers and forklifts, shaped steel, worked leather, cut grass, thrown garbage, shoveled shit, and so on. Once I got tired of the amazing variety and frequent monotony of manual labour, I determined to return to college.

Electronics, I thought, was my first calling. Fat chance. Mathematics, as my teacher used to say, is a tool kit. Some of us keep it right handy under the kitchen sink. Mine, though, is downstairs in the basement, in the little closet by the furnace. Yeah, that's it; right there under the camping gear. Hey--isn't that my old motorcycle jacket? Bet it still fits, lemme try it on . . .

You get the idea.

So a couple of years ago I applied to a professional writing program. My first difficulty has been getting it through my head that anybody might pay me to write. That's what much of the program is about. And this blog is part of one of the last program courses.

Which brings us back here.

Politically I lean left, but pragmatically so. The unfortunate thing about most political structures in North America is that we generally have a choice of two parties, policies, or what-have-you. In order to be seen as different, two parties will support the same thing in different words. They'll also demonise each other.

This means that debate becomes a matter of arguing who's Right or Left on an issue, and what that association is supposed to mean. But generally, the truth, and folks' feelings, on most issues lies somewhere in the middle.

Our belief systems are like trees. They are supported and nourished by our root values. When we think the root values are threatened, we often react violently.

I need to confess--this isn't very interesting, even to me. The tone isn't really what I wanted either.

I'm really more interested in you, but this is monoblogue, not diablogue.

Tell you what, I'll hang it up for the evening and see what the morning brings.

Meanwhile, why don't you check out this band's site?

If you liked that, this site has more.