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2001-01-30 - 2:59 p.m.

My Autobiography (abridged)

So it's been a while.

I hereby make a triumphant return from my longest D-land hiatus to date. For the past week or so, I've been under the weather, clocked by a cold that forced me off my feet, except for each night, when I went to work. It unfortunately did not hit hard enough to keep me home from work; it merely tired me out enough to the point where I slept until I woke up each day, laid on the couch until it was time to shower, went to work, and came home and did it all over again. I had no desire to do anything but watch the tele. And it didn't help that it was a busy week at work, what with the Giants in the Super Bowl and all. But that ended abruptly now, didn't it?

So I figure I will take this time to explain myself, finally, after all this time. This here is the entry that many make their first, the one where I tell you all about myself. I didn't do it in my first entry, or any after that, because this diary was, is, and always will be for me. I don't care what other people think or say, but I am flattered by those who read it, and I do appreciate it. So that's why I never introduced myself; and at the same time, that is why I choose to do so now. Much of this information has already come out in various entries, but I'm putting it all together into one now.

I started the diary, just by coincidence, on Election Day, Nov. 7, 2000. I have plenty of entries that predate that day, but those were added over the past few months. I've never really kept a diary before (though I've tried) but ever since I took "Kerouac and the Beats" during my final semester of college in 1998, I've been keeping notebooks, the way Kerouac did. And so I went back and entered passages from my notebooks, from some e-mails, from various computer disks so that I would have it all in one place. Kerouac once said about his writing, "In my old age, I intend to collect all my work and reinsert my pantheon of uniform names, leave the long shelf full of books there, and die happy." I have no need to reinsert any names, because I don't leave any out, but I like the idea of all my significant leisure writing sitting there in one place, for me to look back upon when I feel the need. The fact that I can put it on the Internet is just a bonus. So that is why you can find entries going back to 1998; they were written then, but entered much more recently.

I am a 24-year-old sports writer and copy editor living in the same town in which I grew up on the Jersey Shore. I'm 50 minutes from New York City, about 70 minutes from Philadelphia and 11-and-a-half hours from South Bend, Indiana, from where I graduated college in 1998. My sister attends Notre Dame now, to graduate in May, and both my parents are teachers.

My interests are like most other people's: I love traveling, particularly driving, ever since I spent six weeks driving across America the summer after graduating from college. I love music and movies, bars and beer. And I suppose my number one hobby is photograpy. I have taken thousands of pictures on hundreds (if not thousands) of rolls of flim in the eight years since I bought my first camera, a Minolta Maxxum something-or-other that was replaced 18 months ago by a new 3xi. Unfortunately, I have yet to digitize the archives, and therefore have no website to which I could direct you to view the catalogue.

I really can't think of anything else at the moment. That about covers the basics, but I will be sure to go into more detail about relevant stuff as it arises in future entries. So you'll just have to keep reading.

And now, before I return to the two-dimensional journalist-to-diary relationship from which I have digressed for this entry, I leave you with a random list of Stuff About Me, in no particular order:

� I've been to 41 of our 50 states, having yet to set foot in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Oklahoma.

� The most I've driven in one day by myself is 16 hours, 1100 miles, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Houston.

� I'm 5'7", about 160 with red hair and brown eyes.

� I'm half Polish (all from Dad), one-quarter Italian, and the rest mixed Dutch and Scandanavian.

� Currently single, I've been in two significant relationships, the longest lasting two years from junior year of high school to the beginning of college. The most intense, however, was one semester during junior year in college.

� Every sport has its benefits (except professional basketball), but baseball is the greatest game ever invented.

� I drive a black, two-door 2000 Pontiac Grand Am GT.

� My travels abroad are limited to a trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving my senior year of college, spring break in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, my senior year of college, and half a week in Toronto my junior year of college.

� My favorite President was Andrew Jackson.

� All-time, top five recording arists, in no particular order (except for No. 1): 1. Bruce Springsteen, 2. Lyle Lovett, 3. Cowboy Junkies, 4. Eagles, 5. Barenaked Ladies.

� All-time, top five movies, in no particular order: 1. Shawshank Redemption, Field of Dreams, High Fidelity, There's Something About Mary, Chasing Amy.

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� 1998-2004 DC Products. All rights reserved.

Yeah, sorry I have to be all legal on you here, but unless otherwise indicated, all that you read here is mine, mine, mine. But feel free to quote me or make fun of me or borrow what I write and send it out as an e-mail forward to all your friends, family and coworkers. Just don't say it's yours, you know?