About
My name is James Carr. I am a left-handed, introverted, ignostic, pantheist entrepreneur. If that’s not enough, I’m also a lazy, procrastinating, ranting, insecure, computer geek. I live in Veneta, Oregon (outside Eugene, Oregon), which is a very small and peaceful town. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1987 and moved to California right afterwards, where I lived until the age of 15. In 2002 I moved to Oregon, finished high school and college.
Education and Goals
I have an associates degree in Computer Networking, but I plan to go for a BA in English and/or business sometime in the near future. Writing is one of my biggest passions so I would like to stay involved in writing and further my education in that field. I would also like to keep this blog running throughout all of my college and hopefully after. I also plan to write a book and publish it. I’d also like to get a PhD in some branch of science or philosophy one day. There’s so much I have planned!
Hobbies
I don’t love working in IT, but I will if I have to. I just feel it is necessary to have a strong understanding of computer science to function in most jobs. I am also interested in nanotechnology and do a little programming, but I am an entrepreneur at heart, so working for someone is not what I want to do forever- unless of course the conditions were outstanding and the job environment is really awesome.
I enjoy web development, watching funny videos, and reading blogs. I also play a little World of Warcrack (”Gaelicum, 70 warlock on Shadow Council”). When I am not doing those, I enjoy messing around on my guitar. That’s an interesting story actually. I did not want to learn how to play the guitar initially, I actually preferred the piano (even though I am terrible), but I was given a cheap acoustic from Wal-Mart (for the record, I hate Wal-Mart and refuse to shop there) to mess around with. I watched the movie Walk the Line a few months later and got inspired to continue playing, so I learned all of the Johnny Cash and Luther Perkins riffs I could find. Now I am hooked and I have a pretty nice Stratocaster (not from Wal-Mart) which keeps me busy while thinking of things to blog about. I don’t think I will ever, or would even be interesting in, pursuing a career in music, but it is definitely a hobby I would like to stick to.
Lately (beginning of 2008), I have been less interested in my guitar (maybe because I am still very bad). I am trying to improve my confidence and social life. I am looking for a job and planning my career. You will find that my blog posts often relate to my current status of life. So expect articles relating to personal growth and entrepreneurship.When something changes in my life, my writing will reflect it.
Beliefs
I am a pretty complicated and opinionated, yet open minded, person when it comes to my beliefs and political standings. I am the type of person that remains skeptical about everything and I take all evidence in to account. I challenge popular beliefs and supported theories all the time. I like changing my mind and beliefs frequently; to me, it’s a way of growing mentally. For example, I will believe just about any rational thing I hear, then I will keep it until I find an even more rational argument against it and so on. I have probably shifted my political standing three or four times and my religious beliefs about six times, but I think I have found a nice spot. It is sort of a cross between ignosticism, pantheism, and Steve Pavlina’s idea of using all religions. Who knows, this may change in the future. As for politics… let’s just say I am an independent. My political blog posts are very controversial and sometimes offensive, but I enjoy writing them.
I was raised Christian until I was about 14. This was mainly because I had always been presented with biblical information and was the only empirical knowledge I had. When I turned 15, I started learning about the Earth, evolution, biology, and had a strong interest in the cosmos; from this I considered myself an agnostic. About three years later, I had learned so much in science and never gained any more rational knowledge about Christianity (among other religions); therefore, I became an atheist and I was pretty active in the atheist communities online for a few months. As I started hearing arguments from atheists, I started to move away from both sides and eventually went back to agnostic. I am still highly against the Christian Bible, but I no longer wish to support the atheist community- though they still make some good points. When I turned 20, I came up with the idea of completely removing these labels from my life and adopted the Pavlina belief system mentioned in the previous paragraph.
I talk about religion a lot in here because I feel it encompasses humanity the most. It plays the biggest role in our morals, our political systems, our education, our future, and most of our philosophy on life and the universe. I don’t like to blog too much about it though, as it is very controversial and it’s hard to claim anything is a fact when it comes to the topic of deities and supernatural powers. I will continue to write about them once in a while though, I enjoy reading the intelligent responses to them.
Anyway, welcome to my blog, site, community, or whatever else you want to call it. I try to respond to all comments and e-mails, and your comments will be approved, even if negative, as long as they are mature and spam-free. If you feel generous, you can offer some money or advice so that I may feel more motivated to do work on this site and fulfill my dreams. Thank you!
Contact: james [at] smalltownbigshot [dot] com or Forums
Thanks for visiting!