A Little Bit About Me

“An Introductory Introduction”

Hey.  How you doin’?

No, wait, let’s try that again.

Is this thing working?  Hello?

No, that’s not it either.

Hi, my name is…

Eh, forget it.  I’m not very good with introductions.

My name is Andy Sima, and I write things.  If I had a business card, that’s probably what it would say.  That, or something like “student,” “amateur science guy,” or “cool dude.”  Depending on who you ask, only some of those are true.

This website that, by the grace of Google, you’ve found your way to is a little experiment of mine. My ultimate goal is to be a published author, and the best way to do that, I’m told, is to have a pre-made audience. Without building a whole bunch of robots, I’ve deduced the best way to create an audience is through blogging.

“But who is this Owlmanandy guy that the blog is named after?” you may be asking yourself.  Great question, rhetorical device.  To answer your insightful inquiry, that guy is me. See?  Here’s a picture.  I look like this.

Let’s try that again.  This is me.

“Wait a minute, who are you?” asks the small kid with a kazoo.  Well, that’s what I’m trying to get to, and in the process, hopefully answer your next most logical question: “Why should I read this blog?”

It would be easy to start at the beginning: the beginning of the universe.  But someone already wrote that, so let’s start in the middle, where we are now.  Or it’s the end, if you’re pessimistic.

I’m just a guy who likes to write stories, read books, play video games, hike mountains, and learn science.  I enjoy the simple things in life, like determining a species of bird based on wing shape or sticking pine needles up my nose until I sneeze.  I love to travel, explore new places, try new things, have new experiences.  I dislike fascism, bigots, and onions, like any reasonable human.  Oh, and I really, really like birds.  Like, a lot.  I started a bird-watching club on campus at the university I go to.

Oh, yeah, I am a student.  I tried to avoid mentioning that, since it’ll be an outdated fact in two to four years (depending on grad school), but at this moment, I’m an undergraduate majoring in Creative Writing and Environmental Science, otherwise known as “hey, that’s an interesting combination.”

As far as those two fields go, I want to be a published author, but I also value the environment and the planet as a whole.  I love conservation work, ecological study, and renewable energy.  If I had my way, I’d publish my own books out of my own carbon-negative publishing house while growing organic produce to help reduce urban food deserts.  But that’s a dream for a few years down the road.  Right now, I just want to get through college and find a literary agent.  If you’re reading this and know of a literary agent interested in Gothic horror and finding new clients, I’d love to meet them.

As far as specifics go, I specialize in fantasy and science-fiction writing, and though I mostly write genre fiction, I dabble in writing more literary works and tend to read mostly literary fiction.  I’ve even got two tattoos of book quotes, one from Joseph Heller’s incredible Catch-22 and one from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax.  Yes. The kid’s book.  That got made into that movie by the Minions company.  I try to ignore that part.

I also like video games.  Much like my passion for birds, I really, really like video games.  In fact, I consider myself an amateur historian and connoisseur of the medium.  Something I hope to write a lot about is the more esoteric, literary side of video games; the quiet moments of personal reflection amid the frantic button-mashing, or the stories that force you to stop and think for a minute.  If I could have a blog that focuses on the stories of the everyday, from books to video games to science to life, I think I’d have a pretty solid base to jump from.  And maybe, just maybe, it would build up some kind of audience, too.

What else do I need to mention?  I got my name, occupation, likes, dislikes, interests, activities… I think there’s something else.  What am I forgetting?

Oh, right, I remember now.  The mental illness.

I don’t want to oversell this point, or make it out to be a bigger part of my life than it is, but full disclosure, I have some minor Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety and Depression, so if that crops up in an article every so often, or I write an entire piece about living with OCD, there is a reason for it. Here’s the thing, though.  I, just like everyone else struggling with mental illness, am defined by so much more than just my disorders.  There’s so many sides to me, so many sides to everyone with a disease like that.  It’s a part of my life, yes, a part that I can’t get rid of, but it’s there.  So I think it’s important that I mention it as a facet of who I am, but it’s not all of who I am.  There is more to me.  There is more to everyone.

If I had to choose a defining feature, it would probably be the writing.  That’s the part of me that I’m most proud of, and most hope to improve.  And the part that’s easiest to demonstrate.  But I could also define myself by my outdoorsman skills.  I’m an Eagle Scout, for better or for worse, and I’ve been on multiple week-long backpacking adventures.  I’ve been taught ten different ways to build a fire, only two of which I remember.  I got a badge in plant identification and can recall just enough to not cover myself in poison ivy.  And I have received classical instruction in campfire cooking, none of which helped the poor pizza I set aflame a couple summers back.  So, yeah.  If you ever see me in the woods, be intimidated, for I am in my element.

I suspect I could continue writing about myself for hours, days, or even years, perhaps.  Come to think of it, I do exactly that when I keep my daily journal.  Oh, yeah, that’s a part of the OCD.  I obsessively take notes on everything that happens around me, or just about any thought that comes into my head that I think may be worthwhile for a future story or project.  If you ever meet me and make any sort of an impression, chances are you’ll be in my notes somewhere.  Which sounds really kinda creepy, when I type it out loud.  “Do I remember you?  Of course I remember you.  I remember everyone.  Everything. Forever.”

At some point I’ll probably have a crash course into OCD, and what makes my decidedly mild form different from the more serious, more debilitating kinds.  And what makes it different from wanting your pencils to be in the right places or your books to be in right order, goddamnit, I put them that way for a reason, don’t touch my stuff.

In fact, I could do a crash course into a lot of things.  Natural history.  Bird watching.  Classical literature.  How to pick onions out of your sandwich.  Things like that.  Much like nuclear science and spycraft, I know just enough to be dangerous and not nearly as much as I probably should.  But we’ll get there, right?  If you’re reading this, I can tell we’re gonna be good friends.

And if we’re gonna be good friends, or at least very one-sided acquaintances where you know a disproportionate amount of my thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams, we’ve got a lot of time to talk.  Or a lot of time for me to talk at you.   Through text.  On a computer screen.  From a different time and place.

So this is the start of things, not the end-all-be-all.  You’ll learn a lot more about me if you keep reading and if I keep posting.  And if you don’t learn anything about the kind of person I am by the things I write, then I have failed at my job as a creative writing major and should probably find a different passion.

Let’s get started.