I am a 31 year-old, SWM, living alone in a rural community in the Deep South. Though I have lived in this general region my entire life, I recently moved from a major, metropolitan city to where I currently reside: a small, 1-br apartment in the middle of basically nowhere, a few miles from the Tennessee River.

I began playing the drums when I was 6 years old and grew up on Kiss. By the time I was 13, I was heavily into Metallica, Slayer, and the like, and playing them with my friends every chance we got. We won the highschool talent show my Freshman year and once I graduated, I pursued a career in the music industry. But while that was what I wanted to be as a child (who didn't want to be a "rock star" as a kid?), I really wasn't as into it as I needed to be in order to be truly successful; unlike most people who get into the biz, I was into the music -- the girls, the drugs, the all-night partying -- everything else was there, but it isn't as enjoyable as most people fantasize (it's not at all like they make it seem on TV). Unless you are a specific kind of person, the hangovers, addictions, addicts, hangers-on; the backstabbing, arguing, paranoia... there's a lot of shady dealings, bad people, envy, ego, and turbulence that goes along with that lifestyle and that industry and it just wasn't me. I got into it because I truly love music and love playing it, but the really important things in other careers -- being both good at what you do and dependable -- are not big money-makers in music.

The only real reason I went into music at all was because when I hit 18, the bottom dropped out of the comics industry (thanks mainly to Image Comics). That and I am good. Especially back then, I was one of the few around who could not only play the drums well, but play them well fast -- very, very fast. But even when I embarked on that part of my life, I remember thinking specifically, "I'll give this a shot for a while and see where it leads me." And some of the places it lead me were pretty dark.

But even though I regret a lot of things that I did and that happened due to all of that, I really don't regret having done it -- and have to admit, if I met the right kinds of people (dedicated, serious-minded, talented), I'd go back in the studio in a heartbeat... but I wouldn't go back on the road.

Having been published at an early age, my mother pushed me to focus on my writing. And while I've met with limited success in that field, it is not exactly where my true passion lies.

I've wanted to be a comic book artist and writer since I was about 12 years old. I'm a comic book geek. I am!

And while I've been out of the habit of drawing, writing -- even reading -- comics for several years now, I've gotten on a kick here and there where I delved back into it. And just recently, one of those kicks (spurred-on by a knot of comics and comic-related drawing books purchased off eBay) reminded me of the rush I'd felt as a kid, reading and studying and poring over every little detail in every little panel of those funnybooks.

So I quit my computer job, sold my car, got my drafting table and materials out of storage, found an affordable apartment far away from the vestiges of my old life, and decided I'd go for it.

Except now I'm broke, don't have a way to go anywhere, have no girlfriend, know no one around here, and spend most of my time looking for people to chat with online.

What ya gonna do, huh?

I guess I could buy a dog, but then everyone'd go, "If you can't afford to feed yourself, why the hell'd you buy a dog?" Dirty bastards.

I've been blogging pretty steadily since around 1998-99 and I didn't join in the craze; Suck.com (I don't think it's still around) is what got me started -- my early attempts were really nothing more than mimickry. And while a lot of what I say is OpEd, I try to throw in a little something educational in just about all of them... okay, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them. Some -- some of them; I put something useful in some of them.

Usually, I write about what interests me, as well as sometimes what I've done that day. This includes comics and comic books, how to write and draw comics, the comic industry, cartoons (especially Adult Swim), living alone, movies, TV, books, writing, music (heavy/death metal, punk), online stuff (blogging, sites, hot topics), current events/news, cooking, art and art supplies and art projects, IRL stuff (she said/he said, "I can't believe what just happened," blahblahblah), and sometimes celebrity news (face it, we're a celebrisociety). Just all that kinda stuff.

I'm more or less a shut-in, though I have my "on-the-go" cycles. I almost always end up back online, though; I'm more interested in my life being comfortable than exciting, as the saying goes.

The following links tell more about me, if you're interested:

MySpace Profile
Yahoo 360 Page
My Website

I hope those come through. If not, I'll repost them in a later blog.

Right now, I have not been able to get Yahoo! Messenger to connect for hours and am getting set to watch Jason Lee host SNL (I missed this episode the first time).