Initium

I’ve never had much desire to blog before, but I figure now is as good a time to do so as any. The Myspace generation is doing it, so why can’t I? I’ve had many of the same thoughts many bloggers do when they’re starting out, such as “Why would anyone care what I’ve got to say?” and “How am I going to keep this thing interesting?”. I guess that the worst case is that even if no one visits this blog to hear what I say, at least it’ll be here for posterity sake when I’m long gone (these servers will still be here in 100 years, won’t they?).

I’ve been a member of 2old2play for a few months now, and I’ve just broken the 200 post barrier. Not a big deal to many of you guys out there with 2000+ posts, but an achievement (not “entitlement”) for me, as I’ve never been an active part of a web community before. This is the first web community that I’ve visited that actually feels like a community – posters and moderators are generally helpful and no one typically berates anyone else (other than in a friendly fashion). Plus it’s cool to see and hear from the same people every day when I visit the forum – you start to get a feel for who’s going to help you out with a particular question or anticipate how someone is going to respond to a post. It’s also nice to fill your friends list with some like minded people.

Anyway, you may (or may not) be asking, who’s the man behind the posts? You’ve probably come across some of my posts now and then on the forums, especially if you frequent the 360 forums. You’ve maybe even wondered what the significance and meaning of my Gamertag – what the hell is an “ImaginaryEngr”? Well, the answers to many of these great mysteries shall be revealed!

I currently call home the big metropolis of Taylors, SC (located in the Greenville county – upstate SC, near the NC border for those geographically challenged). It’s a lot like London or New York except smaller, less diverse, and has sweeter tea. By day, I work as a Process Engineer at an Engineering Consulting firm. Telling people that makes me feel kind of like Locke did when he told Boone that he worked as an Accounts Manager at a Box Factory (sorry if you don’t get the “Lost” reference). I have one of those jobs where no one really seems to know what I do. Ask my wife, friends, and family what I do, and you’ll hear, “He’s an engineer of some sort”. My job is not too exciting, but it pays the bills.

That brings me to the origins of my Xbox Live Gamertag, ImaginaryEngr76. The “76” part is pretty simple – I was born in 1976, I wanted to separate myself from the numerous other ImaginaryEngr’s on Xbox Live. Somehow I ended up with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and kind of like my job now, none of the other engineering disciplines seemed to know what the hell Industrial Engineers do. Civil Engineers build roads, buildings, & bridges, Mechanical Engineers build cars, spaceships & rollercoasters, Computer Engineers build computers and develop world dominating robots – what the fuck do Industrial Engineers do? Because of that, we were also referred to as “Imaginary Engineers” – engineers that design things only they know about and understand. I liked the name so I resurrected it to smoke some fools on Live. (BTW, if you’re dying to know, here’s what Industrial Engineers actually do in one sentence: Basically, we either design the processes used to build the stuff other engineer create, or we figure out ways to build their stuff more efficiently, cheaper and with higher quality).

Outside of work and gaming, I’m married and I have a daughter. My wife’s never been much of a gamer, although when we were dating she was once addicted to playing Super Mario Brothers on my Gameboy Color. I’ve been trying on and off again to lure her into gaming with a gateway drug such as Lego Star Wars II or Zuma, but so far, she won’t bite. Her interests lie more with the Harry Potter books and the associated lore. She’s in school now going after her Master’s degree in Social Work. I help multi-million dollar companies improve their processes so they can make even more money and she helps people find services to help them live better lives – guess who has the more fulfilling work?

Well, that’s probably more than enough for my first blog post. If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations, you’re a winner! Maybe I’ll actually try to keep up with this thing. Doodirock has given me the motivation to do so – points (I like points).

But hey - enough of my yakkin’. Whaddaya say? Let’s Boogie?