The title “Dead Seriously.” is the result of two things. First, I had a mission companion in Finland who said (usually sarcastically) “seriously…” whenever you would tell him something. It stuck with me, and now I do this incessantly…even 10 years later. Second, my DW’s blog is already called “Seriously.” and I didn’t want to steal her thunder.

A few of the other things you should know about me if you want to understand my blog posts are listed below.

1. I am not a very interesting or creative person. Most of what I have to say is extremely dry, humorless, and logically incoherent. You may actually fall asleep mid-sentence. You have been warned.
2. I am an economist. I cannot extricate the economist way of thinking from anything, whether I’m talking about politics, cooking, sports, personal hygiene, or religion. I don’t even try.
3. I am a Mormon. I am proud of my Mormon history, culture, and faith. I try not to rub any of those things in peoples’ faces. However, I probably fail sometimes, because like my inner economist, I cannot simply switch off my Mormon upbringing at will.
4. I don’t know if I’m a normal Mormon or not. I like academic/critical inquiry into Mormonism. I also really like orthodox approaches. I am happy reading a Church leader’s sermons, but also enjoy an academic’s look at polygamy in Nauvoo.
5. I have very strong libertarian leanings, but these are subject to Bayesian updating. I prefer the term “Classical Liberal” to describe my views, but most people just blink and stare when I say that.
6. I like sports. I like them more than most of my friends do. This means that I am usually left by myself to watch sports. I haven’t been invited to a Superbowl party in like 10 years. I am confident this has nothing to do with my sparkling personality.
7. I am married to a Finnish gal, whose name for all intents and purposes here is DW. I have two kids, a boy and a girl. My daughter is too young to be any fun (see the comment below for clarification here), so any stories or posts about “the kid” refer to my son.
8. I live in Irvine, California. I am from Preston, Idaho. Yes, that Preston, Idaho. I went to college at Utah State University, which I affectionately refer to as Craptastic State during football season.
9. I have several Man-Crushes: Bill Simmons, Deron Williams, and my Triathlon-completing neighbor are a few of them.
10. My birthday is in late December, just before Christmas. This means that my birthday, generally speaking, sucks.