I am an early 50-something Type 1 Autistic, meaning I have features of autism (repetitive behaviors, social adjustment issues, &c.) but am able to live independently with little, if any, intervention other than medication to slow things down so I can respond instead of react to the world around me. Being an “Aspie” (my condition was known as “Asperger Disorder” before it was reclassified in the DSM-V, probably because the scientist it was named after, Hans Asperger, was a Nazi eugenicist) means that I am awkward at an awful lot of things, particularly when they involve social situations, so I spend an awful lot of time alone.

The gloriously awkward “brand”, if you can call it that, came out of a comedy routine of Jeff Foxworthy’s in which he defines the term “redneck” as “a glorious absence of sophistication.” Being a rather unskilled gamer at the time, I adopted the handle “gloriousabsenceofskill” on platforms like Twitch, and eventually it evolved into defining “gloriously awkward” not just from my lack of social skills, but from my nearly-40-year journey in the Christian faith, which, compared to “the world”, can best be described in my mind as a “gloriously awkward” life. I think Paul, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, says it best:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31, ESV)

I work from home (which means anywhere) full time for Optum Workers’ Comp* (which used to be PMSI, then Helios, now Optum) as a Power BI and SSRS developer; I’ve been there since 2011 after being laid off from AT&T in 2007 and being unemployed for nearly four years during to the Great Recession. I’ve lived in Lakeland, Plant City, and Tampa, Florida, and now live a bit south of Clermont in unincorporated Lake County, Florida, near the Disney tourist trap.

I arrived here in Florida in 2000 after being born and raised in Orange County, California, and graduating from Vanguard University of Southern California (then Southern California College) in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree cum laude in in religion with emphasis in pastoral ministry. Never got to fully apply that degree, though, because in 2005 I morally disqualified myself from pastoral ministry after admitting to a pornography addiction I had since my teens (that is the subject of a separate talk). Needless to say, I’m not the shining example of how to be a perfect Christian, just an example of one who lives in the mercy and grace of a sovereign God; and that, dear reader, that has nothing to do with me. I have a church home nearby where I can receive instruction and accountability from other guys.

Over the years I’ve been married (almost sight-unseen), divorced (because of the second paragraph above), married again (this time to my junior-high crush), and finally widowed, so I have lived on my own since 2016. To keep myself from becoming a hermit in my own apartment I have annual passes to nearby Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, Kennedy Space Center, and all the SeaWorld-owned parks in the U.S. (although I only visit the ones in Florida—SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay). I’m known to pack one of my laptops (either my personal or work one) and do “office hours” from a table in Tomorrowland or a open-air nook in EPCOT.

If you haven’t figured out from reading this blog, I am fascinated by personal informatics and data and visualizations of the same (which makes my day job loads of fun). I track the places I’ve been to and my continuous location 24/7, as well as health metrics and whatever else I can measure with an app or log.

—Clermont, Florida • June 25, 2025.

* – The views and opinions expressed on this site are my own unless explicitly attributed; they are not necessarily those of my employer or anyone else for that matter. Now get off my lawn.