Odds are you stumbled upon this article because your curiosity about the title of this blog got the better of you. Good. I got your attention. Now that I have it, I would like to say you are reading the first of hopefully many blogs by me, Dustin Turley, CHUD.com’s newest blogger. Like previous blogmates, I would like to do a rather short introduction and history of myself before jumping into a ‘normal’ article.
I was born and raised in sunny San Diego, California, with two very accepting and open-minded parents allowing me to explore my creative edge instead of squelching it underneath a pile of social stereotypes. I was quickly identified as a ‘jock’ among my peers, yet I kept my ‘geek’ side quite open as well. Growing up playing little league baseball, basketball, and football, I still managed to fall in love with collecting comic books, Magic: The Gathering cards, Lord of the Rings, video games, Star Wars, my Commodore 64, and just about everything to do with movies. I have since followed both of my passions; sports; and pop culture.
I continued my sports career through high school and it opened the door for a scholarship to the United States Air Force Academy. During a routine block, my hand was snapped back to my forearm and all ligaments were torn in my right wrist. Due to medical reasons, I was forced to honorably discharge and return home. My love of sports did not allow me to stop there however. I became a coach in both football and track & field at my alma mater and remain there today.
My semi-secret passion, pop culture, has been the creative fuel behind my teaching and coaching. I have been a frequent online gamer for the last ten years and if you also play online, you may have read some of my threads under my online alias of SkipJack. You may have even been in a Half-Life or Call of Duty server with me once or twice. I have fallen in love with all things cinema and television and revel in my video library which consists of over 600 DVDs.
I have ranted, raved, complained, cheered, and caught a few peoples’ attention along the way. With any luck will continue to catch the attention of readers with this new blog. I will be posting regularly with reviews of new films in theaters as well as DVD releases. I hope whole-heartedly I can provide an alternative to your common newspaper or periodical, with some real average human perspective. Thank you for reading and don’t be afraid to drop me a line with your thoughts or topics for discussion.
-Dustin ‘SkipJack’ Turley
P.S. VB stands for virgin blogger.