The First Post

Welcome to Seth in the City. I should probably tell you all up front that I'm not in that city. Though one of these days, I'd like to be. For now, I'm a lot farther to the west.

You're probably curious about who I am, and that's always an interesting question. How do you label yourself? We all seem to rush to find our labels in life, most of them coming from whatever career we choose and whatever relationships we put the most stock in. "I'm a Doctor." "I'm a father." "I'm a broker." "I'm a lover" "I'm a star, baby!"

I really don't like defining myself by labels. We're all so much more than any specific role in life. But for the sake of introducing myself, I'll toss out a few labels that could be said to fit my current status in life, in no particular order:

College Student

Son

Progressive

Gay male

Wage slave to corporate America

Brother

Liberal

Friend

Reader

History Major

Partially Reformed Television Addict

American

I think that will suffice for now for a general picture of the sort of person I am.

This blog is about my life and the world I find myself living it in. And what a world, huh? I think we're going to get to the sunshine of a brighter day sooner or later, but for the moment we're practically living in the neo Dark Ages.

You'll notice that I'm a history major. One of the things that has always fascinated me the most about history is how arbitrary it is. Think about it for a minute. None of us has any control over where we're born, or in what time period. Fate made me a 21st century American, and there's nothing I can really do about that, short of changing my nationality. But even then, I'd still have been shaped by growing up in this country, in this time period.

The cool thing, though, is that we do have some control over how we help shape the place and time we're born into. Especially in the age of the Internet, when we can all make ourselves heard and come together like never before.

This is going to be a very political blog. There's no getting around that. Life itself is political. You can't exist in this world without being directly affected on a daily basis by politics.

So you can expect me to be sharing my views on a lot of political issues, pretty much all the time.

But this isn't going to be a blog just about politics. This is going to be about life as I find it. I'll write about college life, about movies, music, books, or television shows that catch my interest. I'll write about my friends and family. I'll definitely be writing about hot guys. Sexuality is just as big a part of our lives as politics. In fact, the two are very much intertwined these days, especially if you happen to be a gay guy or a lesbian.

So, if you're someone who's going to be offended by political views that are decidedly to the left of the majority of Democrats currently holding office, this blog may not be your thing. If you think George W. Bush is doing a decent job, or if you think John Roberts is going to be a hell of a good Chief Justice, you're not going to find much here at Seth in the City to agree with.

On the other side of the coin, if you think the Democrats in Congress are doing a good job, if you think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are excellent Minority Leaders, if you think Hillary Clinton is a Liberal, then you, too, will find yourself without a lot to agree with here.

Democrat is no longer synonymous with liberal, if indeed it ever truly was. There are some true liberals holding elected office nationally as Democrats, but they're in the minority of the Minority party. Our Congress is made up of the Conservatives and the Centrists, with a smattering of liberals here and there.

So you won't find me patting Democrats on the back just because they serve with a D after their names and aren't as bad as the other guys. 'Not as bad' is not good enough.

And if you're someone who just can't stand to read a blog in which a gay guy dishes on hotties, hit the road. I like guys, and I'm going to be talking about them a lot.

Just to fill you in on my 'type' of guys, I should say that I'm mostly attracted to dark haired guys. Chest hair is a definite turn on, but not an absolute necessity. Think Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Mark Ruffalo. Hot guys in glasses and/or with accents get bonus points.

Of course, if I'd been writing this blog a few years back, you'd be surprised at how different my tastes were. I preferred smooth blond guys back then. Think Ryan Phillippe, think Hayden Christensen.

My tastes moved from the rather bland, safe teen-idol type guys to the sort of guys who you could actually imagine fucking as I grew more comfortable with being gay and being a sexual human being.

But that's the fun thing about life. We don't stay the same. We grow, we change, we learn. At least, we're supposed to. Maybe someone should clue Bush & co in on this?

Nothing is really off limits here. You'll find me talking about just about anything that comes to mind.

Tomorrow I'll be adding some links to some excellent political blogs I frequent, as well as some other sites, so check back for that.

Right now, I've got a TON of reading to do for my classes tomorrow, so I should get to it.