About

My name is Emmett, and I am constantly curious about the world around me. This is my website, and this is my About page. Where should I start?

I am currently a graduate student studying finance, and I live in Seattle. I am also trying to launch an internet marketing company.

I am a recovered alcoholic. I haven’t had a drink since July 1st, 2008. I went to AA meetings for about six months, but AA is not the program for me. I think it’s great because it helps a lot of people, but I have a lot of philosophical differences with the 12 step program. I’ll have a lot more to say on this later in a future post.

The name of this website, Perpetual Buzz, is a reference to alcoholism and addiction. Everyone seeks out pleasure in some form, but for alcoholics and addicts, this becomes an obsession. We’d like nothing more than to find a way to become perpetually buzzed. We pursue this unattainable objective, usually with chemicals. My goal now, as a recovered alcoholic, is to find ways to pursue a perpetual buzz through safer, more natural means.

I am a finance nerd. I jumped into the stock market in 2000 when I was a freshman in college, and I promptly lost $800 as the dot-com bubble burst. I decided I better learn what I was doing, and I’ve been learning about the financial markets ever since. I lot of my knowledge is self-taught through books and personal experience. These days, I mostly trade options. Learning about the financial markets led me to economics, psychology, political science, and philosophy, and all of these things continually fascinate me. I have a BA in Economics and am currently pursuing a Master’s in Finance, and my goal right now is to eventually get a PhD, probably in Finance. So yes, I am a finance nerd.

I love books and consider myself a life-long learner. Of all the authors I’ve read, the most influential on me by far are as follows: Ernest Hemingway, Ayn Rand, Hunter S. Thompson, and Nassim Taleb. There are others as well, though those are certainly my primary influences. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on each in future posts.

I love learning other languages. I studied Japanese through high school and got pretty good, but I’m incredibly rusty now. I studied Italian in college, did a study abroad program in Verona, and lived in Milan for 9 months. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent in Italian, but I would say I’m an advanced speaker. I also understand Spanish decently, but Italian words always want to come out when I try to speak it. I’d like to learn some others as well, including French, German, and maybe something crazy like Chinese or Arabic. Someday.

I have always thought that I have an artist’s understanding of the world, and (maybe delusionally) consider myself to be an aspiring artist. I would love to create music, but I am pretty tone-deaf and have no natural talent. My real goal, however, is to become a writer. I plan on writing a novel with the same name as this website. I have some ideas and would really like to accomplish this relatively soon, but we’ll see.

I love music. In high school, I mostly listened to hip hop (this was in the ’90s, when hip hop was still good). In college, my roommate got me into punk, and I’ve been into that ever since. I also love ’90s alternative rock, as I grew up on it. I mean, I lived in the Seattle area when grunge blew up. These days, I think I have pretty eclectic tastes.

My all time favorite bands include Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Muse, Radiohead, Oasis, Bob Dylan, Sublime, and BB King. More recent favorites include Thrice, At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Jimmy Eat World, Senses Fail, Death Cab For Cutie, Brand New, Negramaro (Italian band), and Against Me! I also have a soft spot for pop punk, including Blink 182, MxPx, Rufio, The Starting Line, and New Found Glory. There are many more bands that I love, but I don’t want to bore you.

I love gangster movies. My favorite movie all time is The Godfather, followed by The Godfather II, Goodfellas, Scarface, and The Departed. There are many other movies I like, of course, but I won’t list them here.

Have I revealed enough about myself yet?

No? Ok, here’s more. Politically, I consider myself to be very independent and a libertarian (small l, not big L) at heart. I believe in the sanctity of the individual, so I have a real disdain for socialism, communism, authoritarianism, and other forms of collectivism (Ayn Rand influence, anyone?). I believe that as long as you don’t harm another person or another person’s property, you should be able to do whatever the hell you want.

I don’t trust either political party. I think most politicians are dishonest, and a lot of them are corrupt. I have flirted with some conspiracy theories, and I believe some of them are at least partially true. I’m sure I’ll go into more depth in future posts.

My Myers-Briggs personality type is INTP, so I am introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving. All this means that I value and crave independence, have to make up my own mind about things, generally refuse to believe in something because I’m supposed to or told to, and love to solve problems creatively.

I truly am introverted, and can be shy sometimes, though I used to be a lot worse. I’ve come out of my shell somewhat, but I still struggle with social anxiety sometimes. Being introverted means that being by myself is usually refreshing and recharging, and having to talk to people I don’t know can be draining. I believe that introspection is crucial because it leads to self-awareness.

I think that I’ve always had a deep-down self-confidence, but it’s often hard for that self-confidence to come across socially. In my experience, the majority of people have the opposite problem.

There. I think I’ve revealed enough.