It seems an introduction is in order.

I have never been a fan of blogs. Weekly accounts of one's life, confined to a few paragraphs. I don't really get it. However, I do feel as though I have more to offer than Twitter allows for, so here we are. A short bio, to start:

My name is Shea Read. I spent the better portion of my life living in 100 Mile House, and moved to Burnaby about a year ago. A novice, self-taught programmer with a focus on C++, I aspire to one day be able to call myself a full-fledged Code Monkey.
I enjoy comic books, although I don't really do the whole weekly trip to the local shop, with a few exceptions. Mostly trade paperbacks. Obviously, like any comic book afficionado worth his salt, I rest firmly in the Marvel camp, with the occasional foray into Dark Horse territory. A few of my favourites, in no particular order: Astonishing X-Men, The Sandman Chronicles, The Walking Dead, and Iron Man.
Music plays a huge part in my spare time as well. I can wile away the hours scouring the internet trying to find a good new band my roomates haven't heard of yet. I listen to a bit of everything, but my standard fare includes Goa, a fair amount of techno, Breakbeats, Ska, Reggae, and a whole lot of indie rock. A few artists high up on my playlist include: Freestylers, Pepper, Ween, The Mars Volta, Infected Mushroom, Genesis, and Daft Punk.
I am a huge movie fan, willing to watch everything once. I am a fan of anything by Wes Anderson, The Royal Tenenbaums in particular. The Coen brothers are also high up on the list, with Fargo having held the Number One spot on my list since I first saw it. I live with a film student training to be a cinematographer, so there's never a night when I'm not watching something new. Recently, it's been older films, with fair like Footlight Parade, and Breathless.
I am an avid book reader, constantly half-way through something or other. I read a lot of comedy, some Sci-Fi, a moderate amount of Fantasy, and some poetry thrown in for good measure. A few of my favourite authors include Douglas Adams, John Kennedy Toole, R.A. Salvatore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Herbert. Some books occupying my top shelf are Dune, The Hitchhiker's Guide (all of them), War and Peace (no, I haven't finished it, but I will.... someday), American Gods, The Divine Comedy. I just recently finished A Confederacy of Dunces, which is the funniest book ever, and I'll have no argument.
Finally, I have a passion for video games. Everything from design to programming to writing. Between me and my roommates, we own just about every console released in the last fifteen years. Programming video games is what I want to do with my life. Just to be involved in the process of creating something that has played such a large role in shaping who I am..... it's going to be amazing when I finally get there. Almost every genre has a place in my library of games. A few of my faves consist of The Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, The Half-Life series, Company of Heroes, Arcanum, and Planescape: Torment. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be a hardcore gamer until the day I die.
Well, that was an impressive bit of digital diahhrea. My life, confined to a few simple paragraphs. If you made it this far, feel free to give yourself a hand. It can't have been easy, but now you have a bit of an understanding of who I am, and some context for my future posts. Said posts are likely to include reviews of books/music/movies/video games, opinions on whatever I can think of, and the occasional rant/rave. Basically, I intend to expose the world to my brain, a few sentences at a time. I hope you're ready for it. I'm not sure I am.
I've decided to try to make at least two posts a week, and I'll do my best to keep that schedule. Hopefully, I'll have enough material to keep you all (whoever you are. Who are you?) coming back.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for a party.