Hi Forum (and the people in it)!

[lifeinoleg]

My name is Oleg. I'm new to this forum. Here's a bit of an introduction:

I was born on October 4th 1984 in Kyiv Ukraine. My family immigrated to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles in 1990. I've lived here ever since.

I just got my BA in English at UCLA, and plan to attend the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) at UCLA starting September 2008. I'll be going for my MLIS(Master of Library and Information Science) degree.

Introductions are a bit difficult because I'm not exactly sure where to go with them, there's so much to tell about 22 years of life, after all . In any case, I think the most effective way is to mention some things that I'm up to; this will give you a sense of my interests and who I am (though it probably won't give you any clue about my kooky sense of humor, but using the word kooky will, haha):

- I'm starting the GSE&IS early by taking IS 201 through UCLA Extension. The course is called Ethics, Diversity and Change in the Information Professions. We're learning about Information Ethics, which I find fascinating primarily because it allows me to delve into the "deep" words we hardly ever think about and examine my definitions of them vs. those of my classmates. Likewise, I feel like a lot of things that I'm learning (through the readings, class discussions and lecture) apply to my current job (Messenger Clerk at a library in Hollywood).

- Working as a Messenger Clerk (which mainly means I shelve books) at The Will and Ariel Durant Library (http://www.lapl.org/branches/31.html). I do much more than shelving though; I'm the go-to guy for Russian translation (we have a huge Russian community), I fix the computers and set up our technology for presentations in the community room and occasionally I answer reference questions...Oh, and I amuse the staff and some patrons with my goofy antics.

- I'm part of the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble (http://www.latensemble.org) . I love the theatre, so I stay involved as much as I can. Currently I'm House Managing our critically-acclaimed production of Wounded; my goal there is to give the audience the best experience possible outside of the show itself. It's going well, and with every weekend of the show, I'm fine-tuning and improving things. Whoever house-manages after me will have a working plan all laid out for them.

- Just started a new blog, Believement-Achievement! (http://lifeinoleg.wordpress.com). For now, I mostly post about my running program and how I'm learning to love it. But today was the first day where I moved outside of simply journaling the running.

- This evening I'm going to see some world-class guitarists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with a friend.

- 20 minutes ago I finished making some Vegetarian Lasagna (I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian about 2 months ago, it's going great!).

- 10 minutes ago I joined this forum because I've learned so much from Steve Pavlina's website and thought the forum might be a good place to get more practical advice from like-minded people.

- 5 minutes ago I started writing this post because the message near the top of the screen says it's a good idea.

- Now I'm done. Hi!

[Shamou]

Welcome aboard Oleg... you sound like a fascinating guy... and you should be a great asset to this forum...

I am looking forward to your posts... and hope that we can share and grow together...

.