This is not a post (really!)
Category: Navel Gazing...
Posted Saturday, May 15, 2004 at 03:47 PM [GMT-6]

On the other hand, a little mystery is a good thing...use your imagination to fill in the gaps I've intentionally left.

• Name: Eric Siegmund


• Location: Midland, Texas


• Age: Old enough to be on the AARP radar, but too young to grab any of my [dwindling] 401K
  
  
• Education: Public schools from start to finish; BS in accounting, MS in Management & Administrative Science (emphasis in Behavioral Management)
  
  
• Occupation: Free-lance website designer. Oh, and 25 years with a Fortune 500 energy company doing everything from programming to accounting to deal-making. The website thing is probably a symptom of a mid-life crisis. Lord knows it's no way to make a living.
  
  
• Politics: Hmmm...that's a good one. As much as I am totally disinterested in the political process, I am also acutely aware of its impact on things I value. I vote, but don't contribute or campaign. I generally vote Republican, not because I think their candidates are inherently better people, but because they generally support the positions I think are important: less government in most areas, more government in a few. However, I don't vote a straight party ticket, and I've been know to support third-party candidates. Having said all that, don't try to engage me in a political debate; I'm not interested.
  
  
• Theology: Notice I chose this term over the more frequently used "religion"? I trust you're perceptive enough to understand the distinction, and the implications. But this area merits a little more detail, as it's important to me (unlike politics). Sometimes labels are helpful, even though no one likes being labelled ("I'm much too, um, complex for that."). In my case, you can label me a "conservative, born-again Christian" if that's something you understand and relate to (whether you agree with it or not). I believe in moral absolutes, and I look to God to help me make distinctions between right and wrong. I believe in Heaven and Hell as real places (as opposed to, say, Orlando and Las Vegas, which are obviously figments of someone's deranged imagination). I believe this life on earth is but a pale foreshadowing of that to come, and I can take great comfort in an eternal perspective of events that only seem to be unbearable at the present time. This also allows me to ultimately be an optimist, even if I present a very cynical view of events and people. And, finally, I'd very much like for you to have this same optimism (aka peace, love, joy and all those good things that sometimes seem just out of reach). But I won't beat you about the head if you decline.
  
  
• Other Interests: Oh, all the usual things you'd expect living 600 miles from the nearest beach and 400 miles from the nearest mountain: snow skiing, windsurfing, scuba. Also bicycling (recumbents) and guitar-playing (left-handed, self-taught, and amazingly incompetent, but never discouraged...except by my listeners!). I share my home with a peculiar dog-like creature named Abbye, and a loving and lovely and patient wife of many years who shall remain nameless in respect of her privacy. Go find your own.
  
  
• Computer Platform: I suppose I should have included this under "Theology"...I'm a Mac user, of course.

OK, I trust this has been helpful in some small way. Now when you read something I wrote that strikes you as particularly outrageous or inane or both, you can calm yourself with the thought, "well, what can I expect; after all, he's a [fill in the blank] with [fill in the blank] leanings and an obvious bent toward [fill in the blank]." You'll feel better, I promise.