A Radiant Cage Of Thunder

THE BLOGGER'S PROFILE: Who Are You?

Unless you wish to remain anonymous for some private reason - I invite my fellow bloggers here at the University of South Dakota to complete a personal profile like the one that follows. I - for one - think reading your material is much more interesting when I know a little bit more about you - and I'm sure most of your readers would agree.

If you do choose to post such a profile, don't be shy or give one word answers! Open up and celebrate maximum verbosity!

1. Name: Douglas L. Bryenldson

2. Major/Degree/Course of Study: English with emphasis on Creative Writing.

3. Primary Interests (other than those in #2): Besides creative writing, my interests are eclectic to say the least. My PRIMARY interests in no particular order include LITERATURE STUDIES - more specifically the Romantics such as Shelley, Byron, Keats and William Blake; CLASSICAL MUSIC, HEAVY METAL, NEW AGE MUSIC (space and ambient); COMPOSING ORIGINAL MUSIC; THE MYSTERIOUS FEMININE (How I ache for personal interaction with a deep, mysterious, authentic lady(!)), JUNGIAN (Archetypal) PSYCHOLOGY; MYTHOLOGICAL STUDIES; QUANTUM MECHANICS including String Theory; PC GAMING (mostly CFRPG's and FPS); HISTORY (and HERSTORY); ANTHROPOLOGY.

4. Status (single/married/divorced): I am divorced and single. (And although I've looked high and low for a long time, I still haven't found a woman deep enough and mysterious enough to fascinate and hold me. Geez... where have all the authentic, artistic women gone? Please dear God don't tell me ALL the passionate, creative-intelligent women around here have taken the robes of Sappho?)

5. Hobbies: Writing (of course), Blogging, Composing Music, Issue Discussion & Debate (Online Forums), Personal Studies and Research, PC Gaming (current games and sims I'm playing or have just finished are: OBLIVION, NEVERWINTER NIGHTS 2, BIO-SHOCK, GOTHIC 3, MS-FLIGHT SIMULATOR X, MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR ), Fantasy and Science Fiction literature, films, media.

6. Academic Goals: Short term - MFA in English. Long term - PhD in English Studies. Possibly a BS in Psychology as well. If I were to win the lottery and have unlimited resources and time - I would most certainly love to earn degrees in Psychology, Musicology, Astrophysics and History (Sumerian especially).

7. Personal Goals: To complete all my degree tracks, establish myself as a distinguished writer, a scholar and a gentleman, find a fascinating woman who understands and tolerates the creative and passionate lifestyle of a dedicated writer and maybe start a revolution of one kind or another. Or found a new religion. Or maybe both. Oh and have some more ultra-intelligent kids. (I already have one adorable, highly intelligent daughter named Aria who is 5, but sadly she lives in Missouri with her mother - however we talk on the phone almost everyday and I try to visit her monthly. Raising her to be happy, healthy and unafraid in this hostile world is - without a doubt - my PRIMARY personal goal. Every thing I do must somehow benefit Aria or else I don't even waste my time with it.)

8. Who are some of your personal heroes? Joseph Campbell of course, the Great Father of all Heroes, Carl Jung, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord George Gordon Byron, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, Thomas Jefferson and the guy who stood in front of the tank on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

9. What are some of your primary talents? I can play guitar, sing, play piano (keyboard), compose music, cook gourmet foods from scratch, type 80 words per minute, change diapers, do character voices for my podcast skits and balance a cat ontop of my head while eating cashews.

10. Are you 'religious' or 'spiritual'? What are you willing to share about this? I am deeply spiritual but absolutely not religious. I am a bonafide Gnostic (not agnostic but GNOSTIC) coming from a Christian orientation. My spiritual experiences are personal, direct and mostly private. I don't try to impose my beliefs on anyone else and I don't expect anyone to believe me or share my personal beliefs. I advocate individualistic spirituality but I don't prosyltize it. I encourage anyone who is interested in authentic spiritual experiences to explore within themselves and discover their own authentic, personal spiritual path as opposed to subscribing to an established collective religious belief system.

11. Why did you decide to create your blog here at USD? I wanted to share a portion of my copious creative output with the students and faculty here at USD and perhaps make some new friends, meet new people and change and/or open some minds,

12. Any pets? Names? Anecdotes or descriptions? I have one white cat - Princess Angel (Aria named her!) who is addicted to jumping at the mouse arrow on the wall as my primary computer system presents a wall-sized projected image (like you'd see in a classroom). She freaks out chasing the mouse arrow on the wall and loves to follow the cursor as I type and pounce on it whenever I rest.

13. What kind of music do you like? Do you play an instrument or compose? I enjoy listening to CLASSIC HEAVY METAL (Black Sabbath, DIO, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden) , CLASSICAL (Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Bach) and some NEW AGE (DEADCANDANCE, Lisa Gerrard, Steve Roach). I can play the guitar (acoustic and electric) and any kind of keyboard. I do compose original music in the CLASSICAL style, HEAVY METAL and NEW AGE formats. I have been composing music since I was 6 years old!

14. What kind of literature do you read? What are some of your favorite authors? I prefer science fiction and fantasy literature, but I am also intrigued by notable classic authors of various genres - i.e. Honore De Balzac, Charles Dickens, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, H.G. Wells, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, D. H. Lawrence.

15. What disturbs you most? Your pet peeve? People who don't give me their full attention when I'm interacting with them... for instance - a waitress who is looking around for a friend or co-worker while she's taking my order. Or a person who answers you, but continues to type on the computer when you ask them a question.

16. What's the most unique and/or bizarre characteristic you possess? My enormous hunger for new knowledge and experience. That is most surely the biggest, gangliest, most noticeable thing I possess. It's like a huge floppy trunk with agile digits protruding from the top of my head constantly reaching out and pulling books off of shelves and tapping on computer keyboards wherever I go.

17. What television series do you follow? I love anything STAR TREK, HEROES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I also loved the HBO mini-series CARNIVALE.

18. List at least (5) of your favorite movies: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, LORD OF THE RINGS, BLADE RUNNER, STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, AMADEUS, DONNIE DARKO, ZEITGEIST,

19. What would a person expect to find in or around your CD/Mp3 player? Led Zeppelin III, Best of Black Sabbath, Bach Partita No.2 in D minor Gigue, Yngwie Malmsteen Collection, Rainbow Rising.

20. What is your personal outlook for the future of planet Earth? I think that we need to get busy and educate ourselves (and our children) in the sciences of evolutionary change, global climate change and astrophysics. If we don't - there's going to be TOO many people on this planet and not enough resources to go around and there will be horrific wars, violence and bloodshed. We need to DEFINE our global problems and start solving them NOW... or else humanity is going to face a major extinction level event.

- Douglas Bryenldson

By the way - here's the template for any other bloggers interested in presenting this personal profile:

1. Name:

2. Major/Degree/Course of Study:

3. Primary Interests (other than those in #2):

4. Status (single/married/divorced)

5. Hobbies:

6. Academic Goals:

7. Personal Goals:

8. Who are some of your personal heroes?

9. What are some of your primary talents?

10. Are you 'religious' or 'spiritual'? What are you willing to share about this?

11. Why did you decide to create a blog?

12. Any pets? Names? Anecdotes or descriptions?

13. What kind of music do you like? Do you play an instrument or compose?

14. What kind of literature do you read? What are some of your favorite authors?

15. If you best friend were to describe you - what would they say about you?

16. What's the most unique and/or bizarre characteristic you possess?

17. What television series (if any) do you watch?

18. List at least (5) of your favorite movies:

19. What would a person expect to find in or around your CD/Mp3 player?

20. What is your personal outlook for the future of planet Earth?

Posted at 01:19PM Oct 03, 2007 by Douglas.Bryenldson in General  |  Comments[5]