“Let’s start with where I’m from. I’m from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kind of a long ways from home. Lived there pretty much my entire life. I lived in downtown Minneapolis until I was three, then moved to south Minneapolis when I got older. So, been there ever since.
I’m a gamer. So I spend a lot of time doing that. I play mostly shooters. You know, Mayday 2, Battlefield, that kind of stuff. For fun, mostly. Other than gaming, I like to make stuff. I’m an amateur blacksmith. I also make costumes. I went to a 501st panel. They do costuming for Star Wars. I’ve been looking to hone my skills, and I thought they’d be a good place to start. They’re experts at it, so I figured I’d try to get in cahoots with them.
The [panels] that I’ve really enjoyed … voice acting. Saw a couple of voice actors. I saw Robin Atkins Downes, Jim Cummings – I saw quite a few. I went to Cartoon Voices 1 yesterday, Cartoon Voices 2 today. Good God, that was hilarious. They’re funny. I like voice actors more than your typical movie actors. They’re just so much more personable, less stuck up. More sincere. I sat through a couple panels because as you know, it’s kinda hard to get to certain panels. So you have to get there early, sit through. Other than [that], didn’t really go to many panels.
They really need to move Comic-Con to Vegas or somewhere bigger. I came here from Minnesota with my uncle and my brother. My uncle has been coming to Comic-Con for 25 years. So, when he first went, there was 300 people. Nobody came to Comic-Con at that time. There’s a Civic Center I think a couple blocks that way. The building is tiny, and it used to house Comic-Con.
I went to college for two semesters last fall and this spring, and I didn’t like the way it was going, so I stopped. Since then, I’ve been working at Office Max. I quit my job actually, like a week ago, and came here. When I get back, I’m going to look at a company that makes swords and armor. So, my uncle’s going to help me get into that, hopefully. I’m only going to be able to do that, if I do get the job, for a couple months though, because I’m enlisting in the navy! I’ll be [doing] technician maintenance, which is basically taking care of machines that process top secret info. Kind of like a spy?
I honestly haven’t traveled outside of the US. I’ve never left the country. I’ve gotten really close to the Canadian border, but that’s about it. So Wisconsin, California, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas, and I think that’s it. Well, that’s kind of the reason I joined the Navy. On my deployment, I could get placed God knows where – anywhere on the planet, really. I thought about the Air Force, but the Navy, because you get to travel, seemed more appealing. Plus, I didn’t want to get stuck in nowhere, North Dakota for four years.
I was a Boy Scout, so ever since I was young, I’ve always been interested in outdoorsy kind of stuff? When I was little, my dad would take me camping a lot. We’d go every summer. Go down to Lake Superior, which is, you know, the big lake near us. We’d go camping all the time. The outdoors always felt natural. Fun. Peaceful. It’s just relaxing, I guess. I would almost say it’s my calling, as cheesy as that sounds.”
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.