In the beginning...

...there was a little blog.

With this, I officially do not think there is anyone left in my age group without a blog, MySpace, Facebook, full-fledged web site, or other centralized place of expression and/or networking. I'd certainly be surprised to find anyone in that category.

I mean, if I'm joining some craze it must have legs of some sort. I'm normally a severe nonconformist: if some fad is all the rage with my peers, that deters me from joining it. You won't see me get a MySpace or Facebook account. But, you know, I've always thought about getting a web site some day, and maybe spouting off on there on whatever is going on or is in the news, which is basically what a blog is for, and I don't consider myself quite ready to go "all the way" yet, and the drive to begin spouting off... it's been strong recently.

So I've started this. What can you expect? Well, I'm not sure (more on that later), but you'll get my opinions. Sometimes they'll be offbeat, sometimes colorful, sometimes even mainstream. You'll probably also hear what's going on in my life. If you're lucky, you'll get more than my opinions or life story. You'll get other stuff, some of it quite informative.

But wait, you say - who the heck am I? Well, that's a good question. My name is Morgan Wick, I'm 18 years old and I'm a freshman at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, USA, North America, Earth, Sol, Milky Way. Except for a one-year interregnum in Los Angeles I've lived in Seattle or thereabouts my entire life, and I've never left the Pacific time zone at all. My interests are too numerous to mention, as are my hobbies. I hope, one day, to be notorious enough that this blog will become rather closely watched by media types, or at least I hope not to be dirt poor and needing to sneak in time at libraries to post when I grow up. This blog will serve as a journal of my quest from muddled confusion and procrastination to some sort of success.

I have zero friends, zero chance of making friends, and less than zero desire to make friends. I'm abrasive, crusty, self-centered, and prone to temper, at least in person - just like humanity.
That's because I have (or at least have been diagnosed with) Asperger's Syndrome, a form of "high functioning autism" (to quote one of my teachers who probably quoted someone else) that's not as debilitating as might come to mind when you hear the word. Describing its core is probably impossible in a few short sentences, but one leading scholar in the field (or so I've heard - man, I've really been reduced to repeating this teacher!) defined it as "the pursuit of knowledge and truth" with "alternative priorities and perceptions".

If it weren't for the necessities of life I'd probably live completely alone and spend my days eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing games on my computer. I often start grandiose projects I have no chance of finishing and tire of them, many involving an elaborate alternate universe (or several!) with no bearing on my real life. Those and the strong desire to have fun often distract me from my schoolwork. I often think in very logical terms. I often think of grandiose questions of philosophy (human nature is a favorite) and also think of far more vulgar things. I am incredibly shy and rarely converse. Sometimes when I'm stressed out I'll pound on a table, a book, and anything else nearby, and you'll probably think I'm on the verge of flipping out (and believe me, I CAN flip out) when in reality doing all that took me off of that verge and doing anything based on that assumption will succeed only in driving me back to that verge.

I'm a perfectionist and have little tolerance for mistakes, especially stupid ones. I don't care whether something is a small issue - small issues get too little love! I don't intend to fix my warts because I don't want to become like everyone else. If you met me and you heard all my thoughts and saw what I do in certain situations you might think I was insane.

I'll post more about me as we go along.

But you know, I don't want to post just about me. I have a lot of interests and I like to study them intently. Anything I'm interested in, I'm probably keeping something that deeply explores it. I'd like to share my opinions, and I'd like for this to be a source for more than my ramblings. I'd like people to come here for some reason. I'd like this blog to have a topic that's not just me, though I will post plenty about me and I will branch out into other fields as we go along. And because I have so many interests, some of which my parents don't know about and which I hope they don't know about (I don't spend all my time staring at porn or smoking dope!), I'd like to turn it over to you. What do YOU want this blog to be about? You can choose just about anything. If you want some ideas, some of my interests are on my Wikipedia user page, though that's far from a complete list, and you don't have to choose something I'm interested in. Maybe I can be introduced to a new interest for me to get incredibly wrapped up in. Go ahead! Sound off by leaving a comment on this first entry.

2007 will come with a new blog on the scene, and it will be the start of a journey for me and... (looks around, hears crickets chirping) well, probably just me for now, but as we go along this train, I hope, is going to pick up some passengers and start being read by some people, and maybe even a significant number.

Which will probably compound my embarrasment in my later years looking back on some of the stuff I've posted, but...