If you were looking for my profile page, you've found it. I'm Richard, and this is my profile page. Let the celebration commence. I usually sign as Airblade64, but let's face it. Airblade64 is a clunky name to go by. Let's go by Richard instead.

I myself am an aspiring novelist who dreams of one day becoming a published author, and hopefully a successful one. I take a great interest in literature, inasmuch that I intend to take this hobby to the professional world if given the opportunity.

If you care to know a little more about me, then here's a list.

Activities and Interests: Reading and writing, naturally. I haven't always enjoyed reading, but I think I first really started to pick up on it after figuring out how much fun it can be to carry around a huge book at school and watch other people gawk at it. If only I had needed glasses back then, I probably would have been able to pass myself off as some sort of genius. Too bad, really.

I can't really remember why I started writing. I think it was because I wanted to impress the other kids at my school, although the results were probably fiendish things that I would shred into tiny pieces and kill with fire if I ever found them today. However, I kind of doubt any are left. I was pretty thorough in destroying them once I figured out how atrocious they really were. I can only hope I've improved somewhat since then.

I play tennis with my roommate on a semi-regular basis. I'm not too good at it yet, but my serve is pretty wicked when I can get it to cooperate with me. I play video games, as any healthy and self-respecting guy ought to, and I've accumulated a fairly expansive library over the years. My favorite games are of the adventuring sort, where you can explore to your heart's content and prove thy mettle against yonder foes with thine trusty sword.

I have a deep and sincere respect for any Legend of Zelda game. Super Smash Bros. Melee is great, I had a blast playing through Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and I probably play Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 a little a more than I should.

Favorite Music: This is a tricky one, mainly because there are just too many songs to write down without making the whole paragraph sound like some kind of boring...list (gasp). Christian and classic rock are generally my favorites, although I do like jazzy saxophone solos and cool video game theme music. I keep about a thousand MIDI files on my computer, further evidencing my obsession with video games.

Among my favorite Christian artists are Michael W. Smith, Scott Krippayne, Steven Curtis Chapman, the Newsboys, Skillet, Sonicflood, the Ragamuffins, Rachael Lampa, and a little bit of dc talk.

As far as other artists go, I rock out to Journey, Men at Work, The Cars, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Dokken, Stan Bush, Spectre General, N.R.G., Blue Oyster Cult, Gordon Lightfoot, Genesis, Guns N' Roses, and DragonForce. Oh yeah, and Queensryche is awesome.

Favorite TV Shows: I don't watch TV too much. That's probably because I don't have whatever it is that makes your television work. Not that I care, anyway. I only use my TV for video games and movies.

My favorite cartoon show is the original Transformers, hands down. I am also a fan of the majority of Naruto (the first series, Shippuden is kind of iffy), Ultimate Muscle (pro-wrestling anime), and Avatar. I also watched Beast Wars, a variant of Transformers, and was laughed at for it.

Favorite Movies: Ah, now here's a neat list. The original Transformers movie (cartoon, 1986) has the honor of being my own childhood favorite, but I also enjoyed Saving Private Ryan (amazing), Gladiator (awesome), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (epic). Also worthy of mention are Troy, Spirited Away, The Incredibles, and The Emperor's New Groove. There are a few others, but those are my favorites, in a nutshell.

Favorite Books: There actually are quite a lot of these as well, so I'll just list a few. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (including The Hobbit, of course), C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom are all awesome reads. I also love Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. A thoroughly amazing book. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Let's see, what else? Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chris Wooding's Broken Sky, and Robert O'Brien's The Secret of Nimh. Those are great, too. Anyway, the list goes on.

Works in Progress:

Nightfall

11/23/09 - Updated. Sort of. This should go on record as the shortest chapter ever conceived by me. Shame, shame.

The Missing Man

11/16/09 - This is a new story I just started today. It came about as a result of a rather weird dream I had last night. Is it any good? I don't know. I thought it was interesting. But that's what most people would say about their stories, I'm sure.