Why? ... and who the heck am I?

Ok, I admit it, I looked at the comments when one of my friends on a social site "pimped me out" to her circles (BTW, thanks L!) and a really good question was asked. "Where is he going with it?"


To be honest, I have no idea.  I've never tried the blog thing before so I'm new to this too. Will it ever be in the top 10 for blogger.com? Highly doubtful.  But it is kind of a niche audience, along with The Unlikely Oilfield Wife and SurvivalBlog (though I suspect my audience may be a little more... different), so I'm not expecting any kind of huge readership.  But then again, even just one person reading my writing is an accomplishment in my book.

My original intention was to write a blurb for Polo's Bastards, an "Adventure Travel" blog for a bunch of folks that may or may not actually be crazier than me.  I realized though, most of my stories wind up being funnier than adventurous and quickly backed off from that plan.  So I considered writing a travel guide for people working in the oil field and/or the merchant marine.  The whole "Oh jeebus, the customs guys are hitting me up for 'gifts,' what do I do?!" or "I just got arrested by the national drug enforcement agency for having Tylenol in my stuff*, what do I do?!" kind of travel guide.  But, unfortunately (or, if you're a publisher, probably fortunately) I decided to do a fairly great impersonation of Emperor Palpantine shooting sparks out of my fingers as I picked up my laptop and that effort (all 150 pages) went into the great mark-up room in the sky.  So now you, dear reader, get the next attempt at my writing.  In short, It'll probably be sea stories and travel advice while I'm at work, and my main hobby of shooting sports when I'm home.

As for who I am? I'm a mystery wrapped inside an enigma..

• I'm an Eagle Scout, a member of the NRA, read Ayn Rand, went to Texas A&M, and have fairly conservative views on gun rights and the military.  But yet I donate to both Sea Shepherd and the Human Rights Campaign, support the EFF, and in general have a liberal viewpoint on women's rights and religion.  
• I'm a ship Captain, working in the oil and gas industry for a company that for now, shall remain nameless.** I've chalked up enough miles to have been around the world quite a few times.  Had [many] a beer on all seven continents, and I've seen more than my share of crazy, good and bad, times.  
• Right now I work in Nigeria, but that's subject to change at any moment.  
• I've been married for nearly 7 years now, to a wonderful woman who understands that the sea truly is in my blood and that working in an office would probably have me in a funny farm in a week.  We've got a wickedly smart 5 year old, who can be both wicked and smart and will be cute as a button while being both.  
• I'm a simple guy that likes guy stuff... though had no idea who was playing in the super bowl.  
• I like to think of myself as a handyman, if it's broken, I have a 90% chance of being able to fix it, regardless of what broke.  
• I have a bad tendency to write stupidly long sentences like Hemingway.

* Yes, there really are places where Tylenol is banned... you are however allowed paracetamol... which is the same thing. Go figure.  
Note: Benedryl is illegal in Nigeria too.
** My company is going to be pretty obvious fairly quickly as I post pictures from here though, even if I never mention it by name.