it's Leah's fault

i've thought of "blogging" for some time. when i owned the bike shop, one of my favorite things to do was publish my "rants" on the shop website. they seemed to be popular with my customers, but being essentially lazy, i stopped doing it regularly after a while. we'll see if the blog is the same. i hate people's "blogs" that only get updated once a year (or less!) - what's the point?
i will try to update regularly - it might keep me from talking to the walls, anyway.

at dinner NYE, Leah Broker, who was a tad inebriated, very enthusiastically told me i should start a blog; this based around a conversation we were having about my regular Facebook status updates. since my ego drives me so absolutely, i enjoy having an anonymous social outlet where i can say random things that come to my mind. this blogging deal should be an extension of that. if not, i will cancel the account and continue my fade to utter obscurity. the fact that i even think i have an audience in the vastness of the 2010 interwebs is somewhat audacious anyway. i realize this.

so i'm a 41-year-old married guy. i'm a mechanic, essentially. i do some other stuff, but my greatest successes come with a wrench in my hand - it's where i lose myself. it's complex mathematics, wherein there's usually a finite correct answer. i'm a recovering alcoholic/addict for just over eight years as of this writing. the way that works is that since i began drinking & using drugs addictively at the age of 15, my emotions stopped maturing then. they began growing again when i finally stopped using, so internally, i think and feel more like a 23-year-old, which is who i see in the mirror. i'm just now learning stuff that i should have learned when i was in my twenties - stuff about how to have relationships, how to react appropriately to things that happen in life, how to use money wisely, like that. i'm generally a very intelligent complete idiot. my job is a little bit of this, a little bit of that. i talked my way into an Engineer job with the tiniest bit of 3d CAD modeling experience, ahead of a few years in the Navy as a "nuke" mechanic on a submarine, followed by a few years in bicycle shops (culminating in the aforementioned ownership experience), and being a key member of the startup team at Industry Nine. google it - cool shit. but i am easily bored, and once i master a particular thing, i tend to search for new things to do.

i have a lovely, talented wife and a lovely, talented almost-five-year-old who are my family, and the light of my eyes. i'm generally very grateful for the life my God has gifted me. sometimes not so much. i'm sure you'll hear all about it.

Happy New Year 2010, and here's to a new decade! the last one kinda sucked.
-fred