I wanted to introduce myself better than saying "I'm some blogger who sometimes writes about Greater East Asia" or writing that I've gone to DSU and USD and will be going to UNL. And then I realized how important my friends are, how much I care about them, and how much they define me. So my intro post is basically a shout-out to the friends I've done stuff with recently -- maybe the past two months.

Thanks to Janson Yew, of Singapore's Air Force, for being awesome.

Thanks to Rob, an aspiring director and writer at SFASU, for hosting me when I visited him and his friends in Nacogdoches, TX.

Thanks to Matt Smart, a friend from USD's CompSci department. Matt defended his graduate thesis and invited me for the ensuing celebrations.

Thanks to Tennessee Dave, aspiring small-business owner, for travellin' from Nashville, Tennessee to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit us all.

Thanks to Biz Dave, aspiring Society for Creative Anachronisms mogul, for visiting us from Fort Wayne, Indiana

Thanks to Hat, high definition television engineer, who joined me in the cobuyitaphobia and nationmaster wars.

Thanks to Aaron, my oldest friend, whose community blog mine split off from.

And to the always beautiful Kristin, the always heroic/awesome Joh, the successful People's Dan, the sold-out Brandon, and everyone else I'm rudely forgetting.

And of course blogger friends, like Mark, Josh, Gaijinbiker, Curzon and Younghusband, Bill, and everyone else I'm rudely forgetting.

Thanks to Simon, for giving me the opportunity to guest blog at his site.

And thanks to you, reader, for putting up with this post.