Well, then...

Here I am. Don't believe what the date tag says--it's actually December 21, 2004, but as this is meant to be the first post, I'm making sure it turns up at the beginning. That said, this is a first post, so if you already know who I am, feel free to skip it. Here you'll find the mundane administrative stuff like who I am, what I intend to do with this blog, etc.

I'm Stacie. I'm 25 years old, and I live in Pittsburgh, PA. By trade I'm a graduate student (in English literature) and an editorial assistant (for a scholarly economic journal). For fun, I like to read, write, perform random acts of cross stitch, watch movies, play Dungeons and Dragons, and immerse myself in the Internet. I'm (in order of positive impact) clinically depressed; either overweight or maybe a BBW, depending on who you ask; addicted to the written word; engaged to my college sweetheart; and generally very happy with my life at the moment. There are plenty of other descriptive terms that I could use, but my creative writing professor always told us to show, not tell. I hope subsequent reading will effectively reveal more.

A little explanation of the name (because to many people, it's a bunch of gibberish): well, FinaSedai has been an oft-used screen name and e-mail address since I was an undergraduate. I'm a big fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which explains the Sedai part, and Fina was the name of a character I played in a roleplaying game based on the books. It doesn't fit me that well anymore, and I'd move away from it if I could, but after seven years I've become kind of entrenched in it. It's strange, how something like an e-mail address can become something akin to a nickname. Even away from the computer, I'd probably answer to it.

Finally, why am I writing this? I love to write, and I like sharing my work. This is my third attempt at an online journal, and my first attempt at a serious one. I only sporadically updated my first one, and it contained a lot of late teenage angst. My second one is somewhat better, but it's more a way to communicate with my like-minded writerly friends, and contains a lot of "This is what I did today" accounts, conversations with friends, spur-of-the-moment emotional rants, cuss words, online quiz results, and other various bits of silliness. Many of the other blogs I've read are polished, intelligent, impressive examples of creative nonfiction. Inspired by them, I'm embarking on this one hoping to create something fit for general human consumption.

Oh, one more thing, if it hasn't already become evident: I have a tendency to ramble. Long entries will most likely be the rule. Hope you enjoy reading.