Bio
Since I'll likely be commenting on a number of things in this blog, it would probably be useful to give a little background on myself. Just so you know when I'm talking out of my ass and when I might actually be talking about something I have some knowledge about.
A warning: I'm known by some as the king of contradictions.
Another warning: This won't be a linear train of thought.
I grew up in a log house on a 50-acre plot of land outside of a small town in rural Ontario. Vast, barren fields separated us from our nearest neighbour to the north. Thick, green bush hid our nearest neighbour to the south.
I was raised a hunter in a family of hunters. I received a pellet gun for my seventh birthday and was an expert shot by my eighth. I haven't hunted since I was sixteen.
The town had nearly 4,000 people. When people ask what you do for fun there, the standard response is, "Go somewhere else."
I started studying martial arts near the end of public school. Began with karate, moved on to kung fu and on again to kempo, earning my first degree black belt in it and teaching for a year. I hate violence.
Highschool taught me the only thing I really enjoyed was writing fiction. But I went to university in Guelph and got my honours degree in Criminal Justice & Public Policy. The program is a hybrid major, composed of criminology and political science. I graduated in the summer of 2003 with my BAH.
A series of lateral shifts over the four years brought my career goals from criminologial research to politics to lobbying to journalism.
During my third year I started copyediting for the campus newspaper.
In my fourth year I wrote news for the paper. An incredibly busy and stressful year for me. I was writing for the paper every week, doing a full course load, working part-time at a gas-station - yes, I was an eco-Nazi - and doing my undergraduate thesis.
The thesis was on newspaper coverage of youth crime in Ontario.
I'm the paper's news editor this year.
I'm a Taoist and an environmentalist. I don't eat red meat, but I think hunting is morally justifiable.
My politics are extremely left-leaning, but I despise the actions of extreme political protestors.
I've worked with kids every summer for the last six years, working with kids with special needs for the last three. It's the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Yet after careful thought I dismissed working with children as a career path.
But whatever else I am, I'm a journalist first and foremost.
A warning: I'm known by some as the king of contradictions.
Another warning: This won't be a linear train of thought.
I grew up in a log house on a 50-acre plot of land outside of a small town in rural Ontario. Vast, barren fields separated us from our nearest neighbour to the north. Thick, green bush hid our nearest neighbour to the south.
I was raised a hunter in a family of hunters. I received a pellet gun for my seventh birthday and was an expert shot by my eighth. I haven't hunted since I was sixteen.
The town had nearly 4,000 people. When people ask what you do for fun there, the standard response is, "Go somewhere else."
I started studying martial arts near the end of public school. Began with karate, moved on to kung fu and on again to kempo, earning my first degree black belt in it and teaching for a year. I hate violence.
Highschool taught me the only thing I really enjoyed was writing fiction. But I went to university in Guelph and got my honours degree in Criminal Justice & Public Policy. The program is a hybrid major, composed of criminology and political science. I graduated in the summer of 2003 with my BAH.
A series of lateral shifts over the four years brought my career goals from criminologial research to politics to lobbying to journalism.
During my third year I started copyediting for the campus newspaper.
In my fourth year I wrote news for the paper. An incredibly busy and stressful year for me. I was writing for the paper every week, doing a full course load, working part-time at a gas-station - yes, I was an eco-Nazi - and doing my undergraduate thesis.
The thesis was on newspaper coverage of youth crime in Ontario.
I'm the paper's news editor this year.
I'm a Taoist and an environmentalist. I don't eat red meat, but I think hunting is morally justifiable.
My politics are extremely left-leaning, but I despise the actions of extreme political protestors.
I've worked with kids every summer for the last six years, working with kids with special needs for the last three. It's the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Yet after careful thought I dismissed working with children as a career path.
But whatever else I am, I'm a journalist first and foremost.
