After attending Texas State University from 2004-2009 and acquiring a Bachelor's in Liberal Arts-Creative Writing degree, I sought out to work odd jobs, pin myself into difficult situations with interesting people, and write about the pitfalls of idealism mixed with a healthy dose of poor planning. However romantic that ill-advised plan was, it certainly didn't end up being professionally fruitful.

After having bounced around St. Louis, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and a few other places in between, I eventually returned home to Central Texas.

For my second time through Texas State University, I'm pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Advertising with hopes of immediately jumping into the industry in the near future.

When not working as a general contractor or focusing on academics, I like to camp + hike, play sports, ride bikes, and basically stay active. I enjoy classic cinema, vinyl records (bop, soul, funk, classic country western) and have an arts + culture blog (Rickstate.com) that I've contributed for over 10 years as well as a St. Louis Cardinals blog that I began as a class project this past spring (ricknerredbird.wordpress.com).

Here's one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite films, Orson Welles's The Third Man.