Hi Jo,

 

Welcome. Yes, I decided not to have an "about me" section, because who can really sum that up so easily? I decided the articles could slowly reveal elements, and were the best way to learn. But today seems to be a day when people dig a little deeper!

 

Okay, so how does one describe this site? Hmmmmm. It's basically a site based around my writing, usually focused on popular culture and current affairs from a psycho/social perspective. Usually. Mostly. For registered users (you can register in the top left of the home page), you get to post on the forums (where anything and everything tends to get drudged up), you get to browse profiles of other users (and make one of your own), you can drop into the chat lounge (which is just a private chatroom where people gossip and discuss whatever takes their fancy - if users are in there, there'll be a pink box that says, "chatting", next to their name), and you also have access to the gaming arcade (where you can try to beat other users in 80's retro arcade games). You can also usually use your personal user inbox and messaging system, but at the moment, this is down (we were hacked into last night, and they used this feature to do the hack, so it's gone for now - but will be back). Basically, it's just a way of getting people together in a place where they can come to and... well... think. But we don't mind a laugh, either, of course. I've explored and been involved in various forms of writing over the years, so blogland was one of the last places for me to go to, and so it's partly experimental, and just an avenue I wanted to explore from a creative and vaguely anthropological angle. 

 

The history of this site stems from another site called Eye On Big Brother (you'll notice it referenced from time to time) which was a kind of blog psycho-analysing the Big Brother TV show, and the media circus around it, which ended up really taking off and getting me attention from various facets of media. When this finished, apart from being very relieved (I'm not actually a Big Brother fan, I just saw it as a valid way of finding a large audience in a context involving various social issues), I wanted to start a general site where I could venture into any topic I pleased. So... here we are.

 

About me? I suppose this is where I go into a CV type state, do I? Lol. Along the way, I have been a writer, a breakdancer (okay, that was a really long time ago), a DJ, a counsellor and psychotherapist, a philosophy tutor, a checkout operator, a copywriter and creative advertising director, a freelance journalist, and now I currently run a marketing and design agency, while I finish my novel. Along the way, I spent a great deal of time studying, and hence, I have a degree in communications (specialising in writing for film and television), another in psychology, and then honours and up to half a masters post-grad in English (I liked uni, okay? I decided to spend eight years there!). I'm from a very small town in rural NSW, but spent my adulthood firstly in Canberra, and then, mostly, in Sydney, until I left the big smoke to return to Newcastle (not too far from where I grew up). I like reading, and writing and walking along the beach at sunset. Okay, I don't walk along the beach at sunset. But it's a novel idea.

 

And that's about it, really. Well, it's not, and it's difficult to put who you "are" into a list, but you get the picture.

 

Thanks, and welcome aboard.

 

Aaron