Richard PezzellaA STUDENT AT SUNY NEW PALTZ

Who am I? I’m Spider-Man.

Nah, just kidding. Iron Man.

Okay, so, lame jokes aside, my name is Richard and I’m a second year student at New Paltz. At least, I think I am, since the issue of “what am I during the gap between terms?” hasn’t gone away with college.

I’m from Brooklyn, and I am an anthropology major (not that the two relate all that much).

Currently in deep with a re-read of A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. This, alongside with catching up on a few TV shows I missed during the school year and some Marvel comics (brushing up before Avengers: Age of Ultron).

What do I enjoy doing?Quite a few things. Namely, these.

Longboarding!(ignore the bad hair

please)

Videogames!(excuse the Alienware, my self built desktop is far superior)

Photography!Took this one in Krakau. Great city.

(Prague was cool too)

A Few Favorite Authors

THERE ARE A LOT MORE THAN THESE, BUT THEY’RE IN THE TOP FIVE

Robert A. HeinleinBorn at the turn of the 20th century, Heinlein stands as one of the most renowned science fiction authors of all time. Novels such as

Starship Troopers drew from his political ideology and military experience as much as they did from the unconventional (for the time) scientific concepts featured. A variety of modern scifi staples would not exist without him: things like Power Armor, a staple of military scifi,

were featured for the first time by Heinlein.

Max BrooksSon of famed comedian, satirist, screenwriter, actor and director, Mel Brooks, Max Brooks is a contemporary author who reached critical acclaim with

his zombie-centric novels. His first foray, The Zombie Survival Guide, was a satirical look at the idea of a “realistic” zombie virus and its effect on the world. Driven by its popularity and inspired by accounts of World War II veterans, he wrote World War Z. Completely unlike the 2013, Brad Pitt starring summer blockbuster, the novel expands on the ideas presented previously in a tongue-in-cheek manner in the Zombie Survival Guide: it takes a global

look at a fictional zombie pandemic that rages from 2010 to 2023, and the war that’s started to end it and take Earth back from the zombie plague- with all the scientific, political, cultural and geographic intricacies of such an event. Personal favorite!

Joseph StatenWriter of the Halo series and architect of Bungie’s Destiny franchise, Staten is one of the lead writers of the gaming industry. Thought I’d mix it up a little. The narrative he created for Halo is widely regarded as a modern epic, and one of the principle

pieces of storytelling in video gaming.

Some of my favorite books, for good measure