Profile for SAVAGEDRAGON Click here to make or adjust profile

Height:  not enough inches Weight:  too many lbs. Alumni Status:  '07, '10
Location:  central NJ Favorite Baseball Team:  Boston
Natural Enemies:  NCAA administrators, Boston College poseurs

Athletic Ability: I liked playing summer softball in the ND co-rec league, does that count? Before my son was born, my wife and I used to run (very very slowly) a few miles a few days a week ... eventually we'll restart that. (So claims everyone, I know, I know.)

Sartorial Style: I wear khakis and polos for work, so I dress up as rarely as possible, but when forced to, I clean up alright.

Favorite Beverage and Consumption Freq: I enjoy lemonade, especially during the summer, and a wide variety of beer.

I try to drink mostly water and hot tea at work, though the constant availability of soda is a peril to that intent.

Political Philosophy: I think I'm pretty conservative in the more traditional non-populist sense. I tend to think of myself as a moderate conservative, but most people scoff at that notion -- though to be fair, in my academia environment I'm often perceived (sometimes jokingly, oftentimes not) to be hyper-omgwtfbbq-right-wing; but so would anyone who self-identifies as even "questioningly conservative".

ca. 2015 I took the standard Political Compass test and scored Economic Left/Right: 4.12 & Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 3.03, which seemed too far right/auth at the time. Mid-2018, I did it again and got Economic Left/Right: -0.25 & Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.15, which seemed too far left/libertarian at the time. But by mid-2020, in the depths of the disaster that is the Trump administration, I continued that lurching left to -0.63 and -3.03, so perhaps theis is a real change in my political philosophy (whether that's brought about by disillusionment at the fundamental problems of the modern Republican party, or a decade in NJ and with my very liberal spouse are impacting me more than I would have thought, I'm not sure)

I tend to prefer politicians who are pro-life, pro-military, and generally moderate with an independent streak. Several of the DINOs that the DNC ran in the 2006 election to gain seats in "Red States" appealed to me. Almost none of the politicians who rush to line up behind their national leaders (President Trump, the extremists of the Freedom Caucus, or their counterparts on the left who seem determined to follow the R's mistakes and extinguish any population of moderates in Congress).

Religious Philosophy: Roman Catholic, having returned to the Church after a few years of being practically non-practicing (mostly due to my own faults - laziness, selfishness, and inability to get over the resentment I feel against the Church for Her pie-in-the-sky stance on Catholic education), only to have stopped attending Mass again as career and parenthood obligations once again have been allowed to too easily distract me from that moral obligation.

Nonetheless, even as I wandered away each time, in my heart of hearts, I always truly believed in this quote:
"Ecumenism cannot be undertaken at the expense of the truth." -- Msgr. Georg Gaenswein

These days my faith is reasonably strong, but with a kid who has not yet embraced his parents' love of sleep, I continue to struggle to get up for Mass worse than any other time in my life.

Musical Favorites: Baroque and Classical
90's-to-modern alt rock ... though I don't think it's groundbreaking or "great" music, I enjoy listening to it.
Late 50's through early 70's rock.

Favorite Quote from an ND Coach: "If you're old and you lose, they say you're outmoded. If you're young and you lose, they say you're green. So don't lose."
- Terry Brennan

Miscellaneous Data: Inspired by the-poster-formerly-known-as-FNB's crusade against the phrase "try and", I declare my personal jihad against ignoring the possessive with a gerund. My trying to eliminate this linguistic abuse may make me seem like a dick, sorry in advance.