Brand New Day

So here we are…welcome to my new blog. This will be the home of Scott Adams on the web for the next little bit. I decided to start a blog for a number of reasons.

1) A number of friends have been writing blogs for a while, and I wanted to try and capitalize on their fame and steal a few of their readers.

2) I felt the narcistic need to increase my own personal Google hit count.

3) I thought that as I move forth with my major life change, this would be excellent forum to document my journey. A way to keep a public journal as I move west looking to discover a little bit more about myself and capture my own manifest destiny.

As I’m sure you all know, if you are reading this blog, after 28 years of living on the East Coast, I have decided to take a chance, roll the dice and move out west to San Francisco. And yes, I am moving out there with no job and no place to live. When you put in that context it sounds like a really bad idea….hmmmm. I should say that my sister in law lives out there, one of my closest friends from high school is in the area, and I do have a few job leads. So in that sense, it’s not completely insane.

Now why am I making this move and why am I thus writing this blog? Moving out west has been a dream of mine for many years. When I was applying to colleges ten years back (I feel really old stating it that way), a number of my top choices were in California. When it came down to making a decision it was between USC and Syracuse. I decided to play it safe, stay closer to home and buckle down for four of the worst winters I have ever experienced. After graduating college, I could have flown to LA, but love kept me grounded and I attempted to find my way in the mass of people known as New York City. This I will say was probably one of my better decisions as I am now married to the most wonderful woman in the world, learned, after visiting, that LA is definitely not for me, earned my Master’s in Film Theory/Criticism and started a great career in animation and post production.

Well here it is again, a choice that has come up before me and one I must make. On one hand, I could play it safe and stay at my job, not having to risk anything and knowing that I will be financially secure and able to eventually settle into a house and a family, etc. On the other hand is the risk, but also the knowledge that I took a chance, followed a dream, possibly and hopefully chased down a more fulfilling career, and attempted something that will lead to greater happiness, even if that happiness is not in the immediate. This is the reason that I am making this move and the reason why I will be writing this blog. I am interested in documenting this experience, my job search, my ability to fit into a new community, and my own growth as Mel and I live apart, even just for a short time being, and I search for that next step in my career.

I look at this as my “Into the Wild” moment, just with more people and hopefully with no poisonous tree-roots. It’s my chance to discover a side of me that I feel was lost by living in the constant mass of New York City. While I love New York dearly, it is my feeling that a touch of humanity is lost by flowing through the break-neck pace where you either get out of the way or keep moving with the crowd. I see this as a chance to strip away some of those east-coast notions and slow down a bit, enjoying life ever-so slightly more. I think it is appropriate that I making this move on the first full week of Lent. Some of you may know that I am a pretty devout Catholic. And while I try my hardest to not be preachy and believe that all religions can co-exist and interact, as a Catholic, Lent is the time in which one pushes away all of the distractions and vices that cloud the human condition. In a similar way, I am looking to find a little bit of the innocence and personal fulfillment that I may have lost over the years. Maybe this is way too lofty of an idealized goal and maybe I am seeking something that will not and can not exist outside of a conceptualized notion. If that’s the case, well then I guess I’ll just write about how cool the city is and how awesome it is to be so close to wine country.

I do hope that you will continue to read this blog and leave notes to say hello and keep up with my adventures. While my main focus is on my journey and discovery, I plan to ruminate on all things from entertainment to politics to sports, and random happenings. I will try not to get too deep, but will hopefully try to make this a blog one with an inspiring message. So, check back here in a week after I fly out and get set up. (I leave Feb 12)

Now I shall end this initial post like this. In college, as President of my co-ed service fraternity, I always tried to end meetings with one parting thought. While I cannot promise this for every entry, I will leave with one such today:

It is often in our lives that we don’t chase down a dream or what we know may make us happy because we are too settled in our ways. We are either content in the routine or scared to try something new. When I reach this point, I think about a quote from Edward Abbey that a friend told me years ago and has been a guiding principal of mine since:

“To live life is to take risks; to always be safe and secure is death.”

Alright then, it’s time to head out. I will write again in a week or so as a new resident of the West Coast! It’s been a long time coming……Westward Ho!!

-Nice Guy SMA Out!