Day 1 Introduce yourself / List your likes and dislikes

My first real entry!

I've never been particularly good at introductions (or, well...social situations in general, really). I don't know what to say. There are facets of my personality even I'm still discovering. The basics: I'm twenty-three years old, from South Carolina, and I'm a software engineer with an area HR company. I'm certainly a geek--my intellectual interests tend to be broad and, in some cases, deep. On a standard weekend, you'd find me reading a book, on my PC either playing games or writing code, or out hiking (though I haven't been doing that as much as I should...as my softening waistline will testify). I'm impulsive: often I'll say or do something without thinking through it properly. The only way I get through the day and end up not ruining my life is to use my interest in technology to keep myself in certain boundaries (especially financially).

I'm usually happy, though sometimes I'm sad (I guess like everyone else). I'm pretty low-key and, as mentioned before, shy. As a strong introvert, sometimes I need my alone time away from other people. One of the most difficult things about my recent trip (7 months through Europe and Asia) was dealing with the attention I received upon returning. I tend to become quite nervous in social situations, so the questions from acquaintances and coworkers made me want to shrink. On the other hand, I can be quite chatty and enjoy opening up to friends. I have a thick shell, I guess. My girlfriend is one of those people. We met traveling, and I miss her. She's English, so we've embarked upon an intercontinental romance. I feel quite confident about it, however. We've made definite plans with achievable goals, so there's no reason that distance and time will cause it not to work out.

I feel like I've rambled on quite a bit. I think I explained a lot of my likes and dislikes in this post, so I won't do a full list. Plus, it's pretty late at night...I need to examine some code for work and hit the sack. I will write more tomorrow...until then, goodnight and good luck! (Also, I'll try to get a BIT of structure/organization...this stream-of-consciousness rambling's not the best).