Pleasta Meecha

 Well, I was asked to write a blog post introducing myself for a class that I'm taking on John Milton, so I figured I would post it here as well just for fun. I am not a big guy on taking photos of myself, so any time I want to post one for a profile or whatever, I have to take one on the spot, so I've included an obligatory photo. I feel like when introducing themselves, most often people emphasize the same five or so things and then finish it all off with "something interesting" which invariably becomes nothing more than an extension of one of the first five things, so this time, I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach and share some things that not everyone might know. I hope you can get to know the everyday stuff about me from just regular interactions, here and in real life.

I am a technology enthusiast with reservations. I follow all sorts of cool new technologies, from transparent solar cells to 3D printers that can be used to print viable human tissue (to quote the oracle from Hercules, "...it's gonna be big"). I'm interested (though shamefully inexperienced) in lots of different forms of digital expression, from 2D art to filmmaking, and I'm really interested in reinterpretations of older forms, like spoken word poetry and the work of young and aspiring Youtube artists like Lindsey Stirling. It's secretly a dream to make a successful vlog or Youtube channel someday. I remain adamant, however, in my opinion that just because your phone is an egghead, mine doesn't have to be a "dumb phone" even though it's from 2005. I like a lot of the features of modern phones and stuff, but I know myself well enough to know that if I had a so-called "smart" phone, I would probably quickly get sucked into all the cool apps and other stuff. So, I stick with my museum-worthy RAZR. 

See, MSPaint isn't thaaaat bad...

Ever since I was 15 or so, I've wanted to develop a low-cost method of water purification for application in low-income areas. That's pretty much what made me want to study chemistry originally (that, and the prospect of going into food sciences and developing calorie-free Goldfish crackers so I could not feel bad about being practically addicted to them). I worked at a nature preserve for a summer and actually served on a municipal water council to raise awareness of water-born illness and to encourage "green" building techniques. Yep... closet hippie. Eventually, though, English called my name, so I can still be a hippie, just in different ways.

Though I'm an English major, I have a terribly difficult time with English sometimes. Before I left for Ukraine on a proselytizing mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was an avid prescriptivist--a full-on Direktor in the grammar Gestapo. Then, as has happened with so many that thought themselves invincible, Russia happened. I threw myself into my studies of Russian, and I excelled, but the problem was, if I was going to master Russian, I would have to leave English behind for a time. I returned from Ukraine with a great deal of trepidation about my ability to convey myself in English, and it's something that I struggled with for a long time. In fact, two years later, I still find myself translating words backwards from Russian from time to time.

You likely know this by now, but I am a creative writer. I keep a creative writing blog which unfortunately is at times the neglected child in a big family. I like to keep busy, so I involve myself in way too many things at once and end up looking like a zombie half of the time from lack of sleep. I love to create original content, though, in text, audio, and other formats. Currently, the hat I wear most often is that of a poet, mostly because poetry is short and doesn't require a huge time commitment as would a novel (though I've been working on plotting out a novel for about 6 months now). I love music and art and just the integrity of it all--the fact that it captures the human experience in ways that even words (gasp) sometimes can't. I could say a lot more, but I'm guessing that your patience is wearing thin by now (I thank you for your vigilance, by the way), so I guess I'll close with a super-short poem-ish thing that I wrote yesterday for a friend and a random doodle from my notebook. Oh, and pleasta meecha.

The butterfly in the gale is violence and beauty. The violence is the scaly stardust that sloughs from her papery wings, and the beauty is the winds that shine golden behind her.

Aaaa! Blurriness!