Enter Stage Right...

I’m sure I’m not the only person out there who finds introductions awkward.  You find yourself in the middle of a room, with people you don’t know and who don’t know you all around, and you are expected to feel good about it.  Well, as a bonafide introvert, I don’t feel good about it.  In fact, it scares the living shit out of me.  But…I also know it’s something that is holding me back both personally and professionally, and something that I can conquer in my life if I put myself to it.  So that’s where this blog and ya’ll come in.  I’m hoping through this blog, I can learn to open up to people and become a little more balanced in how I deal with others.  But more on that in a bit…

First…who the heck is this new guy?  Well, new guy is right.  I only found this site relatively recently after I re-awakened my love for console gaming that started oh so long ago with the Atari 2600. Back in the summer of 2006, my eldest son Sean received an Xbox 360 for his 11th birthday.  Did I have alterative motives in getting it for him?  HELL YES!  I enjoyed the system off-line for several months, but then both my wife Gayle and I started pulling away from our online MMO (City of Heroes / City of Villains) due to a lack of time and, frankly, lack of interest.  So there I found myself, without an online means to do what I love – play videogames.  After a little searching, I was able to score a XBL Gold membership on the cheep, and start that account back up.  Then…a quick google for mature, online gaming sites got me to 2old2play, and the rest is history.

For myself, I’m what the profile says…a 34-year old married schmuck who was lucky enough to land the love of his life and con…I mean convince her to marry me back in 1994.  Along the way we’ve lived in 3 states, had as many children (Sean, Jacqueline, and Jared), and just had a blast being a part of each other’s lives.  On the professional side, I work for a Danish pharmaceutical company specializing in diabetes care.  We make everything from the modern insulins, to the oral agents, to the devices, to the needles.  That makes up about 75% of our business, with the remaining 25% in other smaller, but just as critical biopharm products (e.g. one product for hemophiliacs, and a human growth hormone).  The company is absolutely stellar, and after working for several of what I would call “American Pharma”, I couldn’t dream of going back.  This is quite simply a company I could easily see retiring from in 30 or more years.

As for my passions – which help define who I am I suppose – well, they’re my family, and my gaming by and large.  My family take precedence (as it should) above all else, and I love each one of them with more heart and soul than I would have ever thought possible.  I’m truly blessed to have married my best friend, and most secure confidant in the world.  She is my rock.  She also gave me three of the most precious kids a guy could hope for.  All three of them are their own individuals, with personalities as different as night and day.  But each of them are a separate and equally important piece of my family, and something I thank God for each day.  I’m certain over time you’ll get to know each of them – if you care to keep up with my ramblings here in the blog.  :)

I grew up a gaming addict, from the first console my father bought way back when, through to the early PCs, and into the modern day of computer and console gaming.  I enjoy everything from a solid RPG like Bauldur’s Gate, to RTS games like Company of Heroes.  MMO’s have always drawn me in, having played just about every major title to have hit the market in the past 5 or more years – with the exception of WarCrack.  Even I know enough to stay away from that one.  ;)  As far as console gaming, be it Fighting, Driving, FPS, or Strategy…I’ll take them all in equal measures.  As I said…a gaming addict I am, and proud to be one. 

Well…I guess that wasn’t as hard as I thought.  I said earlier I’m an introvert, and that is no exaggeration.  While I’ve managed to work my way up the so-called corporate ladder quite nicely, I am now starting to have problems because I just don’t relate to people as well as I want to early on in a given ‘relationship’.  My guess is it boils down to how I view “acquaintances” versus “friends”.  In my mind’s eye, there is an enormous difference between the two.  I have very few friends, because those are the people I let into my life unequivocally.  They have earned my trust, and I trust them.  Acquaintances however, well those people I find myself keeping at an arm’s distance.  I’m thinking therein lies the problem – people don’t like that, and that is how I’m managing my relationships at work.  By doing so, I’m coming off as closed off, inaccessible, and other descriptors that don’t fit in well with my aspirations of being a top executive some day for the company. 

Anyhoo…I’m looking at this as one of my many resolutions for 2007 – to try and better develop my own personality into something I want to be, rather than settle for how I am today.  Will it be uncomfortable, sure.  But I’m hoping that a (relatively) safe environment such as this one might be a good launching pad for more significant personal improvements in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.  After all…we never stop learning and developing, right? 

Thanks for reading this first try at blogging and the disjointed rambling it turned into, and look forward to the friendships I plan to develop here in 2o2p. 

B.