Since I started to see these blogs pop up, I knew I wanted to do one too but had a crazy week last week and still hadn't had the time yet. This weekend, I saw Hamza's wrap up post and when I saw all the incredible entries, I knew I had to get off my ass and make it happen. So here you go -- sorry it's late. :)

1. I grew up in New Orleans and lived there until I was 29 years old. I can't describe what it is about being from the South, but I can tell you that everything about the city and the things that happened to me while I lived there make up who I am and what I'm about in a really major way. No matter where I move, I always find myself wishing I was back home, and I know eventually I'll return there no matter what.

2. I seriously considered careers in both musical theatre and psychology and performed in quite a few college productions of musicals and plays. I still find myself sometimes thinking that I should have done what it took to make a career for myself as a singer (or that I could still do something about it, even if its only a small project like joining a band).

3. My writing was once published in a little literary zine called Jubal when I was 18. It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me and I remember thinking I wanted to pursue a career in writing at that time more than anything else in the world.

4. The first person I was romantically involved with after moving to Los Angeles just happened to be Mark Hamill's son (I didn't find this out until after the fact). I remember thinking that my nerd cred had shot up to catastrophic levels after the fact.

5. I love books more than I love games and I have a huge collection which I always want on display in my house. I feel comforted by rooms of books and have always wanted one of those dark wood-paneled studies crammed with books that you see in movies. I also collect rare/first edition printings of my favorite books.

6. Speaking of books, the tattoo on my back is from a book called A Season in Hell, written by a French author named Arthur Rimbaud. I still love the book to this day.

7. I've been to nearly a hundred concerts and I really love seeing live music. Some of the most memorable ones were at really tiny venues such as Sigur Ros at the New Orleans House of Blues, but I also recall seeing Massive Attack at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl as another major favorite. I'm knocking one of my most wanted concerts off my to do list this year when I go to Grand Rapids to see the Final Fantasy concert (and meeting Nobuo Uematsu in person!)

8. I'm terrified of flight turbulence thanks to a flight coming home from Cancun when the plane dropped 15 feet in the air due to bad weather. Lights went out, people hit the ceiling, babies started to scream and I thought I was going to die. I really hope I am able to overcome this fear because you look pretty retarded being scared shitless when you're hitting minor turbulence.

9. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I lost both the home I grew up in and the apartment I was currently living in to the storm. I would have never imagined I would ever say this, but in the end I don't regret that something like that happened to me in life. It forced me to become a stronger person and provided a great point of comparison when it came to how I reacted to other hardships. Nothing really seemed so bad after surviving something like that, and I feel lucky that my family and I survived safely.

10. I almost accepted a job at Kotaku in 2007, but decided in the end that I was a better fit at Dtoid. I'm really glad I did too: Destructoid is the greatest thing to ever happen to me and has permanently transformed my life.