Allow myself to introduce...myself...

My name is Erik Grow. Nice to meet everyone! I expect that this is the first step on an interesting journey for me. My "about" page is actually mostly complete, so you can read more there as well. I will figure out how to put more of that on the front page at some point soon.

This is actually my second blog. I started my first one about a year ago, and it is located at www.myblog.de/erikamerikaner. I created it to practice German, and I have met lots of friends there. I expect that this will be somewhat similar, aside from this one actually being in my native language. I also have a regular rarely-updated homepage at www.erikgrow.com. I was born and raised near Syracuse, New York, and have been living in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington DC since Fall of 1997. Six months after moving here, I met my wife, and we have been married since Fall of 2000.

I decided to start my own blog in English after having some debates on two other blogs. First was Tom McMahon on www.tommcmahon.net, whose blog contains all sorts of interesting thoughts. I originally commented on the Schiavo case in his blog. Tom seems to be a little on the conservative side, but not scarily so. He makes a lot of good observations on the state of the world. Second, but more frequently, I have been debating a woman that goes by the name "Right Wing Sparkle" on http://rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com who despite her much more vehement and activist Texas conservatism is still an interesting person, and generally a worthy debater.

This blog is NOT going to be all political by any stretch, but since that is what a lot of my recent blogging activity has been about, I will elaborate here. As the "about" page indicates, I am a moderate Democrat. This is to say that my views generally fall along the lines of the "average" middle-class Democrat. I am not a purple-haired protester, and I do not care a bit about what Hollywood types have to say. These people, while they are *sometimes* correct in my view, are generally correct only by accident. I don't care to be correct by accident. To me, a moderate Democrat means somewhere between center to *somewhat* but not far left of center on social and fiscal issues. For me, as with anyone, it of course depends on the issue. You will find this out in time. Thank you for reading, and I hope you learn as much from me as I am sure I will learn from you.
-Erik Grow