A lost cause, I'm sure, but as Cyrano said, or as I think he said, "I fight the harder when the battle is in vain" - maybe he didn't say it like that, but you get the drift...
I'm one of those strange kids people call "bright", and "intellectual". Frankly, I prefer to think of myself as lazy, yet interesting. I'm pursuing a rather lazy, yet interesting, career in academics. I'm shooting for a PhD (I'm one of those crazy kids who's known his goal since he was 8) in some area of history - which area, I'm not sure, as I have too many interests.
I'm a military historian - my area of interest seems to be Europe from the post Roman Empire until WW2. Broad, to say the least... if I continue much longer with my sights too broad, I may have to go for more than one PhD.
I'm also interested in archaeology (I smell a double major in the works), 'cause... well... I like to get my hands on old things. I love conservation and preservation, museums and archives.
Ok, enough about my strange "career", how about what I do here and now? I'm a college student (horrors), and am ploughing through the rather awful process of completing my general education requirements before I can play with stuff that will actually pertain to my major. Doncha just love the "American" system?
In my spare time, I have many hobbies - the most time consuming and expensive one would be military reenacting. Reenacting is basically the grown up version of boys in the woods playing with sticks and saying "bang, I gotcha". Only this type is more expensive. Reenactors say that we are "educating the public", yet deep down inside most of us wish that the public would just leave us alone to play by ourselves :-D
I reenact American Civil War (yeah, like everyone and their brother), as well as Napoleonic (Red Coats!). I've also been asked to join a WW2 group, and am on the lookout for a Medieval group other than the SCA.
I'm a picky reenactor - in the reenacting world I am what is known as a "hardcore" - super authentic with an almost religious aversion to anything unauthentic. Even if the public can't see my kit, I want to have it almost exactly as it would have been in whatever era I'm portraying. Hey, it's really no more radical than ultra-sports fans...
At home and at school I have this odd tendency to wear suits and ties. I'm not one of those guys who naturally looks good in t-shirts and ragged jeans, so I go for the things I do look good in: suits and ties. I have a nice collection of well cut, good fitting name brand suits that I have purchased (drumroll, please) at the various thrift stores in town. Hey, being a student means I'm low on cash (not having an income also has something to do with it), but my motto is "it doesn't cost much to look great". Besides, I only have one chance to make a first impression on people, so I do my best.
I grew up in a rather musical household - my dad is a very very good violin player - playing both classical and folk music (he put himself through college playing in Mariachi bands), so I have eclectic tastes in music. As a result of that, I play bagpipes. Oh yes, I'm not your normal chappy ;-)
That almost sums me up except for one small point - I'm not in the least bit interested in sports (except sport shooting - I'm an NRA national and international competition shooter), and not the least bit interested in activities that involve a lot of pain... except for one thing...
I'm madly interested in Western Martial Arts, or in other words, Medieval fighting - from German and Italian longswords to Norse Glima, I love it all and read it all and practice when I can with other like minded persons. When people think of sword fighting, they think of large burly guys swinging swords about, but I'm one of those small, slight guys who's just that much faster than the larger and stronger guys I go against ;-)
That does it, I suppose - now you know as much about me as the next man... and that's probably enough
