My Story

I am Jordan, or Boing, as many people know me. I grew up in South Central Pennsylvania. I spent most of my childhood bouncing around between a variety of activities and hobbies, as children do. I never really stopped doing that as an adult.

Early on

In grade school, I liked to do a little bit of everything. I was in the band (mallet percussion), orchestra (violin and double bass), chorus (tenor), musical theater (actor, though I envied the sound and lighting people), tennis team, bowling team, golf team, volleyball team, and newspaper. I find it important for myself to pursue a large variety of things, for it has always been how I operated.

While I enjoyed some aspects of living in small town Pennsylvania, I realized that I had to try living somewhere else. I was a queer teenager with an intense hatred of cars, driving, and car dependency and could not abide adult life in such an environment. I left for the Philadelphia area for unversity.

Computer Stuff

I work with computers for a living. When I was a kid, I always loved using the computer. I'm not entirely sure why. I found them very fun. I learned to code using the Game Maker program. Making games was my main motivation for programming for a long time. Nowadays, I mostly work in backend services. I really like APIs, I find it interesting to see how data is organized and used by different systems.

I went to college to learn how to make games, though I got a general Computer Science degree to be safe. I wasn't very good at making games anyway, and college felt like it was just a victory lap for people who were already good at what they wanted to do. My senior project was a video game project that I can only amicably describe as a total nightmare. It left my self confidence as a game maker, developer, and person completely broken. I gave up on making games for the time being. I'd like to learn to enjoy making games again someday.

Gaming

Playing games continues to be a passion. The first video game I competed in was Halo 3 around 2008. I loved playing in gaming tournaments after that. I have competed in a variety of video games since then: Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX, Pinball, Tetris, particularly guideline tetris, though occasionally Tetris the Grandmaster, Splatoon, Neon White, Super Monkey Ball, Sound Voltex, and probably some others that I am forgetting.

Eventually, I found myself interested in helping with gaming events behind the scenes. I joined Inkling Performance Labs to help with online Splatoon tournaments. I joined as technical staff, but then found myself finding my footing as a broadcaster, which I helped with for several years. I found that I have a strong appreciation for broadcast media, and still like to develop further skills in that realm. My first major gaming tournament I competed in was Riptide 2021 in the Splatoon 2 tournament. I have been attending every Riptide since, and it has been nice to have that staple even to return to.

Creativity

I have long been a very amateur artist. I do not know if I could be a professional. I would draw and sing a lot as a kid, and I eventually found a creative outlet online within the Furry subculture. It was through furry that I explored myself as a queer man and never looked back. I made lifelong friendships and developed an appreciation for self-expression through this space. The intersection of furry and gaming is where I met my partner, whom I have shared the past 9 years of my life with. This does not mean that I have had universally positive experiences in furry, but I appreciate what it has provided for me and so many others. Also, if you are curious, my fursona is a snake.

As I transitioned into adulthood, I began participating in conventions, initially Bronycon in 2013 and then I attended other gaming, furry, and anime conventions. I still love to attend conventions, and I occasionally staff them. I really love nerd events, and I love to see everyone coming together to celebrate the things they love. You can see how many people are a version of themselves that they rarely get to express in other places. These spaces are important for them.

Outside of playing instruments at school, I would occasionally dabble with making my own music. I installed FL Studio in 2008 or 2009 and would mess around. I find myself mostly influenced by the breakcore, hyperpop, and showtunes genres. I return to making music every once in a while. Perhaps someday I will have a consistent habit of it.

Urbanism

Like many others who are currently into it, I started identifying as an urbanist in the 2020s, when the term really exploded through YouTube commentary. Despite this, I found myself relating to urbanist ideals for a long time. I was quickly drawn to cities as a kid while discussing public transportation and cities online. I was enamored by the idea of being able to get wherever you needed without having to drive a car. I loved the thought of so many people and places being within such small proximity. I still love these things. I knew I wanted to try living in a city, and once I tried it, I knew I wanted to stay.

While I love living in a city, I think all areas can do better by their citizens when they are outside of a car. I love the work of Strong Towns, and I hope that most of the United States learns that it is worthwhile to make their downtowns safe and navigable for people. It feels a bit silly to have to say that.

In my late 20s, I have re-learned the joy of riding my bicycle, and using it as a form of transportation. I do not use it for every trip, in fact I haven't ridden it in quite some time as of writing this, but the experience of using your own effort to get around is unparalleled. I think more people need to remember how empowering it is, and maybe then they would support their towns and cities making it safer to do.

Etc

Everyone's story continues to be written. Hopefully, I have more to share here as time progresses.

Last updated October 7, 2025.