Introducing Alty

Hello world.

This marks my first foray into the world wide webosphere of blogs. I hope to develop this oft-daily (-weekly, -monthly, -wheneverIfindthetimely) chronicle of my life and musings into an enriching  and entertaining experience for myself and audience alike. As is customary, I shall start with an introduction:

My name is…not important. If you know who I am, that’s wonderful! I fully expect most of my audience to know me personally, as I doubt the quality of my writing will provide the driving force to attract a broader audience, at least not at this early point in time. That said, I have come to the realization that anonymity is fleeting, especially on the internet. Nevertheless, I will attempt to maintain some level of personal discretion. Friends and family that know me already know me; there is no need for me to further identify myself by full name. So for the sake of this and all further discussion, you may call me ‘Alty.’ I realize that this will only hinder even the laziest of internet geeks for only a few minutes from uncovering all but my social security number and what I ate for breakfast three days ago. Actually, with a little effort, you could probably figure that stuff out too. (What’s that? My last name is my blog title. Well, as long as my first name remains…oh, my full name is in my email address? Uhhh…oh well. I don’t care. So much for anonymity. Nevertheless, I like my nickname.)

So here is the nuts and bolts of who I am:

I am currently on scholarship as a 3rd-year undergraduate student at UCLA. I am a neuroscience major, also pursuing a minor in linguistics. Ultimately, I would like to be a physician, and I am currently devoting my entire life towards that goal, but more on that later. I am also a very loud, proud member of the Solid Gold Sound of the UCLA Marching Band, marching an alto saxophone as squad number W52. (Go Hardcore Saxes!) I am also a volunteer authorized provider of instruction for the American Red Cross, so I have held my own classes for Adult and Child CPR, First Aid, and AED use. And finally, I am the Corporate RElations Director for the Regents Scholar Society at UCLA. Big title for an even more specific job that is mostly administrative and fundraising, so I’ll leave it at that and perhaps go into detail in a later post. Some of my closest friends (and all three of my roommates) have come from this Scholar society. That is because I am above all a geek, will forever stay a geek, and love other geeks. ‘Geek’ is my term of endearment for those that are smart, friendly, fun, goofy, and sometimes eccentric. People that are like me. Go geek.

I identify myself as an optimist. <insert winking smilie here>

As this blog become more fully developed, I will undoubtably reveal much more about myself, directly through my divulged experiences and endeavors, and indirectly through my prose and its entanglement with emotion. Personal writing is cathartic, which is why I have attempted to keep a journal since high school.  Yet such strenuous levels of introspection can only soothe to a point. Public writing on the other hand is much more revealing in its nature. This is not because there is a greater degree of truth versus falsity in a public account; to the contrary, it is much more tempting to lie to the world than to lie to a diary under lock and key. I state that public writing is revealing because it adds a level of conversation to the musing. This writing, though introspective, is no longer one-way. You, my audience, can write back, comment, share your experience, and provide feedback. This added level of engagement is the fruit of this new world of social media. It is the miracle of Facebook and blogs, of online journalism and twitter. So as you learn more about me through reading, I ask you to please also share by writing and adding comments. I greatly appreciate the interaction.

What this blog is about:

It is difficult to lay out all the topics I may cover from time to time. I may give an anecdote about an especially taxing school project. I may reveal the harrowing experiences of life as a premed and scientist. I might talk about apartment life, friendship, love, loss, or even some cool article I read online. Maybe I’ll venture on an interesting bike path and lay out my route. Maybe I’ll just write a poem. Who knows.

What this blog is NOT:

This will not be a laundry list of my day-to-day activities. The topics of what I had for breakfast or the time I plan to wake up on Sunday–while excellent source material for facebook status updates and random tweets–are about as entertaining to read as they are to write. Not very. Therefore, I plan to keep such idle chatter and food-logging at a minimum. Please post negative feedback if I do not keep that promise. Thank you.

Again…

Hello world.

Alty out.

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Tags: first post, intro, introduction

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