About Me

Thanks to David's Gallery
 for the temporary profile picture!

Who I Am:

Hi! My name is Drae, and I'll be your Safety Goron for the day. I'm here to collect and publish useful and interesting material related to the four phases of emergency management: Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery.  I pull this information from a variety of open-sources, and I add my own thoughts, recommendations, advice, or opinions based on the experience gathered from my profession.

My Profession:

I'm an emergency manager. When I introduce myself at parties, I usually leave that part out.  People have the most interesting expressions on their face as they muddle out what, exactly, that means. Well, Vizzini, it means exactly what you think it means.  An emergency manager is a person who manages the resources (including people), procedures, processes, and plans that allow an institution to prepare for, respond to, and recover from an emergency. Yes, it is a real job. No, I don't work for FEMA.

Explain the Safety Goron:

Safety Goron is a nickname my siblings gave me many, many years ago. Wait, that's all? Of course not. There's a story.

All good stories start at the beginning. This is not a good story, but I will start with some background. 'Gorons' are a fictional race populating the universe of the popular video game series "The Legend of Zelda".   Gorons are large, tattooed, stone-eating, enormously strong humanoids with rock-like skin and growths on their body.  Gorons curl themselves up, rather like a hedgehog, for defense or to roll (rolling is used for long distance travel, combat, or to excavate rock.) Gorons also come across as a little...dim...but the character portrayals are belied by the advanced social and technological capabilities of the Gorons compared to other races in the game.  Gorons are featured as significant supporting casts for both of the N64 games Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and in the GameCube game, Twilight Princess.   If you're totally intrigued by these folks, visit theZeldaWiki for more.

A cute OOT Goron

In Ocarina of Time, the title character (Link) meets Gorons very early in game, and the Gorons teach the character (and thus, the player) how to survive in unsafe conditions (Gorons don't swim) or when exhibiting extremely reckless behavior. Our favorite line goes something like this: "Press A to roll after jumping off a cliff. Go on, try it!"

After jumping off a cliff.

So, back to the story: My siblings and I encountered this advice-filled Goron, thought him hilarious, and used him to parody all sorts of actually-helpful-but-horrific-sounding advice to one another, and the Safety Goron was born.

Now, I should also probably mention that I'm the oldest, and I'm a (little) bossy. As my siblings and I grew older, I stopped bossing them around about things like bringing me candy, and started bossing them around about things like wearing seat-belts and bike helmets, driving safely, or not walking alone in dark or secluded areas. One of my siblings, in a fit of (allegedly justified) annoyance, called me a Safety Goron.  Alas, the other siblings heard this, seized upon it, and in the true nature of siblinghood, attached it forevermore to me when in safety-advice-giving-mode.

As fate would have it, I entered into the field of professional bossiness related to safety. When I started this blog, I struggled to find a unique brand and identity to frame my content, and hopefully appeal to readers in my own generation.  Another sister suggested using Safety Goron, and here we are.

Artwork Credit

The OOT Goron is from zelda.wikia.com