UPDATED VERSION: I’m still Andrew, but a lot of my info has changed. My summer adventures are over (but my autumn ones are yet to come). I’ve already signed on to crew RAAM again next year for Team Type 2, and my band has a name: Dead Letters. I now live alone with my two dogs, Gus and Spike. Don’t ask. I’d still like to write a novel… in fact I should be working on that now.

Look below the line for the old version of “Who Am I?” from a time when I was younger and slightly more exuberant about the endless possibilities of life and blogging. For continuity’s sake, I haven’t deleted it, because that just wouldn’t be fair or honest.

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Hi, my name’s Andrew. Long time reader, first time blogger.

I’m an admittedly late arriver to the blogosphere (if that is, indeed, what they’re still calling it these days). I’m not sure why, though. I’ve always embraced technology, and I think it’s really interesting how the world is getting so much smaller every day. I also do a lot of writing and reading, and I’m never short on opinions. So I should have started this thing years ago.

So far, my experience with the ever-shrinking world has been largely limited to Tallahassee, Florida. That will all change soon, though, as I’m planning to do some extensive traveling in 2009. More on that to come.

The facts: I live here in Tallahassee with my wife, Amanda, and my two dogs, Gus and Spike. I work for the Florida State University College of Business graduate studies program; there my responsibility list is more like an umbrella, which covers all things young and hip. Anything from Web design, to writing content, to shooting and editing video for the Web. I’m really glad to be in such a creative environment (even nestled as it is within the confines of a business school).

But…

I’d really like to write a novel. That’s the truth. I graduated from Florida State in April 2008 with a degree in creative writing, and I’d like to think I’ve got the chops to make it as a writer. I imagine myself spending my days in my study (which doesn’t exist in the real world of our current one-bedroom apartment), listening to loud rock and roll music while Amanda raises the kids or works or whatever. It’s the getting there that’s the tough part. I’d like this blog to be a place to publish stories, and perhaps to get feedback on works in progress. We’ll see if that comes to fruition.

I’m also intensely interested in music (as mentioned above, in the form of “rock and roll”). I’m in a band now (with Matt Littlefield, Justin de la Cruz, and Tim Linafelt), and we’re practicing and getting ready to start booking shows. We don’t have a name yet, so there’s no link here to a band Web site (most of us used to be in a band called Bombardiers, if your’e interested in doing some really deep research), but I’m leaning toward Dead Letters, The Ghost Periphery, or Telepath. Watch your local event calendar for shows by any bands with these names, and you’ll likely run into me. I play guitar, sing, and write most of the lyrics, but the music has been a sort of organic process this time around, and that’s nice. Gives you a chance to stretch your musical legs and let them walk you wherever they want to go. And when you’ve got four sets of legs with four different backgrounds, you could just end up anywhere.

More facts: I also work with a cycling team called Team Type 1, doing Web design. I’m working on a new version of the team Web site which will hopefully replace the current one some time this year. It’s a good cause, raising diabetes awareness, and I’m glad to be a part of it. Amanda and I will be traveling across the lower forty-eight this June as part of the Team Type 2 crew in the Race Across America. San Diego to Annapolis in seven days. Should be an adventure, and a chance to get out of T-Town for a while.

Then it’s off to Switzerland for my friend Eric’s wedding. We’re going to traipse across Europe for as long as we can while we’re there, and I’d like to blog about that too. We’ll try to see Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy if we can.

Anyway, that pretty much brings you up to speed. Enjoy the blog, and feel free to comment kindly!*

*For the record, I hate exclamation points, but I thought one seemed appropriate here. Don’t get used to this level of exuberance.