Welcome to The Cooler; as in, the water cooler.

One of the few good things about work is the chance to get together with other people and talk about the movies, television shows, music and other pop-culture hoopla. At least that’s my take on office life at this early stage in adulthood.

This will be a spot where I post my ramblings about pop culture. But I hope this will become a venue for you to dish about the latest in entertainment, be it at the boxoffice, on the smallscreen, out of your speakers (or iPod, if you prefer), or just about what’s caught your interest.

Just so you know a little bit about me: I was born and raised in Gaston County, N.C., and while most kids my age were out throwing a football or swinging a bat, I was in my room reading the latest issues of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines and playing my guitar. I spent nearly every spare penny from my allowance and summer jobs as a teenager on CDs and was known among my friends to stretch $20 a week to cover a date, gas-money and the essential trip to the music store. During my years at UNC (I know, ‘boo!’ ‘hiss!’), I wrote and edited for the Arts & Entertainment desk at The Daily Tar Heel, the campus newspaper.

My ever-growing CD collection is still my prized possession, and I try to keep it filled with all genres of music, but am especially fond of U.K. bands and singer-songwriters. I’m also an avid film and television viewer and have been known to go on binges of HBO’s “The Sopranos” from time to time.

I’m pretty passionate about the media I consume, and fairly critical of it as well. I think what entertains us says a lot about who we are, both as individuals and a society. As a 25-year-old who’s lived in Kinston for more than a year now, I think most would agree that we could use a few more social outlets.

 I look forward to hearing about what you like, dislike and what you love to see/hear/think about.