August 11, 2025 (my real first post)

Here I am, and here is my very first blog post. The picture above is actually one that I found deep within the trenches of my iCloud storage earlier this year. I chose it as the very first of, what I hope will be, many images showcased on this blog, not just for its strong nostalgic vibes, but also because it’s the only place I feel is best to start this story. You might say I’m starting… From the Beginning? Yeah, corny I know, and I’ll try not to overdo the prog puns, but honestly, where else am I going to get to use them? Getting back to the picture, this was my locker at the beginning of the first of seven years at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, CA. It was late August 2009. Just a couple of months earlier, my guitar teacher, Troy, had introduced me to a song called “Is There Anybody Out There?,” by a little band called Pink Floyd. It had been a far cry from the ample pop and grunge songs we had been learning in the 10 months of lessons I had already taken with him, but I’m sure neither of us had any clue of the musical awakening it would release inside me. Days of listening and watching turned into weeks, then months, years, and now here I am, almost exactly 16 years after I snapped this photo of my locker, finally giving myself the guts to slap together this website so I can sit down and tell you all about it. I’m a little scared about where this is going to go, but I’m going to trust the process.