Proper introductions...

"Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I've failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success." - Dicky Fox, from Jerry Maguire

Success is a difficult word to quantify. If I look back at my life I'd like to think I'm successful. Life has sure thrown me curveballs. There have been plenty of ups and downs. But as the quote says, I love my wife, I love my life and I wish you my kind of success.

What is that success?

**incoming introduction**

To properly introduce myself I figure I should talk about my life, which is about to get one more year longer tomorrow September 13th. I also want to talk about why I started this blog.

First, my life. In a nutshell: married to my childhood sweetheart, have an amazing two-year old son, just moved from Chicago to central Florida, near Tampa and Orlando, I'm very close to my family and friends, I love art, graphic design, anything related to art and design, I love to draw and come up with new ideas, I am an artist and work as a Graphic Designer in the marketing industry, I was once a teacher of art (I consider that period of my professional career, working 5 years as a teacher, as the best working time in my life so far) that I gave up to move to Florida, I've started game designing (not video games but CCGs, the topic of more blogs I'm sure), I'm an avid CCG player, I love writing, drawing, movies, music, dogs, football, fantasy football, and...can't really think of much. But I'm sure as I continue this blog, IF I can upkeep this blog, I'll be writing on all the aforementioned topics because...

Why did I start this blog?

I figure I'm living in a new town, new state, working in a new city, all my friends are 1300 miles away, why not blog to help me vent on life? Sure. Okay. I'm going to upkeep this thing for as long as I can. There are plenty of new adventures waiting here in our new surroundings! We have already actively searched many of them out. Like what you ask? We swam with mantees and dolphins. On accident. We were at the beach and BAM!!! There they were. Just 10-15 feet away. Stuff like that.

So I'll just blog about the new stuff that's been happening to me and my family as we begin our new lives in sunny Florida. I probably could have done this back home in Chicago but I was busy with a life. Here in Florida my life has shrunk. So I have time. Who knows? Maybe I'll blog about making each of the dishes from Julia Child's cookbook and then write a book! Then maybe they'll make it into a movie!!! Right.

Honestly, one of my ex-students who became a pretty good friend linked me to his blog. I thought it was cool so WTF. Here I am.

Topics of discussion:
Living in Florida!
The Beach
Back to the Grind
Starting my own business
Art
Graphic Design
Typography
Movies
Music
Magic the Gathering
What I did over the weekend
ETC.

...crap like that. Not very interesting...

or is it?

So why is my Blog named Funcrusher Plus?

Honestly, it's a badass sounding name. No lie. It just sounds cool right? Right. It's the title of Company Flow debut and their only LP. CoFlo is a hardcore urban rap group from NYC circa late 90's. I liken the title to my old habit of being a realist. Sometimes I'm like Debbie Downer from SNL. I keep it real. I tell it how it is. Sometimes it crushes the fun. It crushes dreams. Although, I vowed to change my mentality and outlook on life. I've chosen to be sunnier! I'm in the Sunshine state after all!

So yeah...Funcrusher Plus.

You can Twitter follow me at cpa13 too if you want. And FB and Myspace if if you'd like.

My kid is stacking stools on top of the coffee table trying to play Cirque de Soleil. Before he breaks his neck let me finish my earlier thought.

Back to the quote. What is success?

I've had just as many failures in life as I have successes. But I've learned from my mistakes and my failings. Failing probably helped me to succeeded. I've grown. I've learned. One of my great successes has been sharing my life with my best friend, my partner in crime, my heart, my love. I love my wife. Maybe I don't say it enough. Maybe I don't show it enough. But, I really do. She is a wonderful girl. A fantastic mother. I love her with all my heart. Which brings me to major success number 2. Our son, Phoenix, is freaking amazing!!! He just brightens my world. Sometimes there are days where he drives me crazy but I chalk it up to growing pains (used to love that show). I basically try to be the best husband and father I can be. I try to be a good son. I try to be a good person to everyone that is in my life. If you can just try to do that, to be good, then you can put that in the win column.

I wish you my kind of success.

Until nextime...football season started this week. We don't have the NFL station so we can't watch the Bears get owned by the Lions. AND the friggin Bucs are blacked out!!! WTF is wrong with Florida. All kidding aside...I'm going to watch the afternoon and evening games. Swans works tonight so it's just me and the Babaganoush.