Gearing Up

Gearing Up: An ingearduction

Who am I? Why am I here? What is this blog for?

Honestly, only time will tell. In the beginning, my goals for this blog are simple: 

~ I want to tell compelling stories. 

~ I will fight tooth & nail in order get better at writing & telling stories. 

~ Exploring Game Design Theory and gaming topics are a priority.

~ Integrity reporting to readers on political topics I'm passionate about.

~ Updates on creating businesses without revealing said businesses.

~ Random gears & other junk. 

If you can't tell, I have a thing for gears. The possibility exists that I'm merely going through a phase but the fact that I'm older than 20 tells me that I might actually have a thing for gears. Keeping that in mind, I believe there lies a certain importance in ensuring that gears are mentioned at least once, reasonably, in every post. Will that happen?

Your guess is as good as mine! 

The content for :GearFoundry will revolve around personal research that I do on certain topics, opinion pieces on events, recaps of history, thought process on creating games, and many, many original writing pieces by yours truly. 

I figure I'll update the blog two or three times a week with one big research article about a political topic of my choice coming once or twice a month. Since one of my goals is to get better at writing stories, I'll be doing both fictional and non-fictional work. You'll see lore snippets from games I'm working on (not much. Don't get excited), examples of design documentation, and my absolute best attempt at unbiased reporting. 

Oh... You wanted to know more about me? Well... Alright then. I thought the blog was the star of the show!

My name is Ben. I won't tell you my last name but honestly, it probably won't be hard to find. In fact, you'll probably find this post by following a link that displays both my first and last name but make you search for this little nugget of information I will!

I'm older than twenty but younger than twenty-five and I still haven't graduated college, though that will be changing this Spring if all goes according to plan! I was married in September of last year to the love of my life (whom I'm sure you'll learn much about over the life course of this blog) and I honestly couldn't be happier! I attend the University of Utah and will graduate with a bachelors in Communication. 

My current employment is Apple Inc (Yes, that Apple. No. You don't get a discount. Seriously). Don't ask me anything about rumors or when the next iPhone is coming out because I don't know. I really don't. Really. I. Don't. Know. I also won't be talking about my job 'at all' on this blog but I'll be honest, it felt really, really gratifying and awesome to say that I work for Apple and some people might actually read this one day!

I'm also working on two startup companies. Both will be owned by my wife and I though they are focused on completely separate industries. I won't say anything about my wife's business but I'm in charge of BioGear Studios, a new gaming studio that hasn't quite found it's focus yet (I'm working on it... At least the name is sweet!). 

As I mentioned before, I'm attending the University of Utah and plan to graduate in Spring of 2014. Wish me luck!

I've been writing off and on for a lot of years (hehe, yea, I've totally been writing...) and this blog is an attempt to refine and practice my voice both written and verbally. My purpose is to find a voice that I can use to brand myself, my company, and my future: both online, and offline. 

As a beneficial side perk of having a blog, I figure that I'll learn how to prevent placing my value on all your snarky, pathetic future comments that are meant to troll and make me feel like a shitty person. I don't mind feedback. Not one bit. Yes, it usually makes me cry but I have some serious ego issues that aren't any of your concern so please, bring on the feedback! CONSTRUCTIVE Feedback, not this "Your writing sucks my donkey's balls man. Get better". Actually, on second thought, go ahead and bring on those comments if you want because I need to learn how not to take them personally. Much obliged future trolls! (Those of you reading this first post, I'm willing to bet this 100% does not apply to you.)

The amount of topics and subjects and stories I want to tell you all is amazingly diverse and deep. I've got stories on Absinthe, World War II, in-game Lore, Gaming reviews, Problems with the bees, gay rights, childhood obesity, everything! I want to share what my little tiny experience is with the world and hopefully, you all will be slightly better for having given me some of your valuable time. 

I promise that in the future, I will try my absolute hardest not to ramble on like this and will instead, use your time wisely. Time is money and I want to make sure that both of us get our money's worth when interacting with each other. 

In the spirit of generating interaction, I'll try to ask a meaningful question at the beginning or end of every post. I'm still trying to decide and find out if you'll actually read to the end or not... Which gives me an idea!

Questions: Did you read to the end of my post? Answer with a simple Yes so everyone else will be confused. 

Question2: Did you enjoy this first post? What feedback do you have for me right away? Do you have any questions for me?

That's it for now! I believe that's a nice ingearductory post for tonight!

~ Storyteller Out.

P.S. I'm fully aware that the title joke is absolutely horrible.