I moved around a lot when I was a kid. Suburban Pennsylvania until kindergartern, then coastal Massachusetts until third grade, then cheese-heavy Wisconsin until the beginning of fifth grade, then back to suburban Pennsylvania, then glorious paved New Jersey in sixth grade. Why I stayed in New Jersey, I don't know. I'm stuck to say where my hometown is, but if you want to broaden it out to a state, I say New Jersey.

I went to college at Trenton State College, which changed its name halfway through to The College of New Jersey (THE is capitalized because it's part of the TCNJ acronym. Why a boring word like THE is in the acronym is a mystery I've yet to figure out.) I loved the hell out of college, pumping lots of time into the Signal (school newspaper), WTSR (campus radio station) and Mixed Signals (campus improv troupe). Somehow I never got involved with the TV station.

After graduation, I went through six months of hell trying to find a decent job. I ended up finding a semi-decent paid internship at Editor and Publisher, which had the promise of a all-decent full time job for putting in my dues as an intern. It worked, I got a full time job, and was financially stable enough to move out of South Orange and into Jersey City.

Of course, my all-decent job at E&P was not all decent. I didn't like it, I wasn't doing it well, it wasn't what I wanted to do, and I was intensely aware of this all. For the next six months, life wasn't the most pleasant.

But a carrer nose dive at 23 wasn't in the cards. I found a better job, coincidentally right after getting laid off when E&P got bought out. I'm completely happy with the way it worked out, since if I quit or got fired I woulnd't have gotten a severance package. As is was, I got six weeks severance, and was working again in three.

The job's Private Label Magezine. I'm assistant editor there, which means I write up product reviews of various private label offerings, mostly based on marketing and packaging. I get to travel a few times a year for them, so free plane rides and hotel soaps. The only downside of the job is the commute. 45 minutes to Fort Lee from Jersey City, a whopping ten miles away. I moved to Jersey City solely for the commute (the PATH train is a dollar and takes you to Manhattan in twenty minutes); right now, I'm staying because it's too much of a pain to move.

I'm still with Mixed Signals, which has morphed past the college troupe into a group that does paid shows (although we still do plenty of free campus shows). I also wandered into caving, which I did as a Weblos once and was interested in ever since.

Anything else big you need to know? Don't think so.