I live in my head a lot of the time. It's a little bit messy and kind of cramped, but no place on earth feels more like home. It's my library, my laboratory, my classroom, my sanctuary, my courtroom, and my prison. I give myself a lot of leash to play with, I take advantage of it, and I subseqently punish myself accordingly. It's where I have my most gradiose revelations; moments of clarity and brief understanding, just barely brushing against ways to heal and repair the world, give people hope, make people happy, make myself happy. Then, like some ancient and priceless relic, the value of which nobody on earth can comprehend but myself, I hide it away... take it up into the attic, wrap it in old newspaper, put it in a box, and shuffle it into a cozy little corner where it's light will never touch anybody and it will never be broken by a clumsy, careless world. It's a place of light and shadow... more shadow than light, I sometimes think, but if so, then that's only because the brightness of that light makes the shadow seem all the more imposing. It's easy to get lost here, but you never entirely dislike the place where you decide to stop and bed down for the evening. Maybe you'll try it again tomorrow. Maybe not.

After years of wandering aimlessly through school and menial labor, I've finally decided on a career path and am currently pursuing it. I'm working on prerequisites in order to take the test to be accepted into the nursing program at my local community college. Within the next few years, I hope to be employed as an RN at an area hospital. My goal is to work in the ICU. Between frantic study sessions, I try to make room for friends, family, love, video games, and the dream of playing original music with a group of people that I like. Yeah... the first band is no more, and it's time to move on. I also try to masturbate as much as possible. Hmm... did I just really write that? Oh well. They'll fix it in editing.

I'm not great at anything, but I have mediocre talent in a variety of fields. I've been working on a book of poems since late highschool which I hope to finish and publish by the end of this year. I play bass guitar, acoustic guitar, bamboo and glass flutes, and piano. I also sing a little and write lyrics for my music. I've studied martial arts formally and informally my entire life, including swordsmanship built on the basics of Kenjutsu. My prefered unarmed style is a mix of Muay Thai and Aikido with subtle influences from Karate and Kung Fu. I love persuing philosophy and metaphysics and I'm mostly a moral relativist. I'm a struggling pessimist who can make you laugh and make myself cry.

My intensity. I'm quiet until I know more about you (knowledge is power and I prefer to collect it in silence than give it away with a smile), but I seem to have a certain type of charisma which makes me somehow appoachable. I haven't quite figured that one out yet...
Also, people tend to notice that I wear nail polish a lot. Yes, I like black, but I'm much more partial to greens, blues, and purples, especially if they're metallic, as I much prefer glosses to mattes.

My favorite novelist is Anne Rice. I find it frighteningly easy to get lost in her Vampire Chronicles; the beauty, the tragedy, the eroticism - it's all completely intoxicating. I'm completely in awe of her erotic works as well, particularly the "Sleeping Beauty" trilogy. I think that I gained a greater understanding of my own sexuality by reading these books. I have a serious hang-up on vampires in general. My major poetic influences are Edgar Allen Poe, with whom I became aquainted very early on, and Stan Rice, a far more contemporary poet and the late husband of Anne Rice. Other poetry favorites are Gordon Parks "In Love", Billy Corgan "Blinking With Fists", and Sylvia Plath "The Collected Poems". I also read all the manga I can get my hands on! If you know what manga is, then you probably understand my addiction. If not, then you'd most likely just ridicule me for it anyway. A lack of sufficient funds keeps me from owning as much manga as I'd care to, but I'm a HUGE fan of the "Samurai Executioner" series, FLCL (although I actually prefer the anime), and I'm also hooked on the erotic romance series "Yubisaki Milk Tea." and OF COURSE Akira is a complete classic as far as manga goes. I love James O'Barr's graphic novel "The Crow" and anything by Shakespeare has my immediate attention; "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is my favorite! I'm also a fan of Stephen King. I'm trying to catch up with his work, but there's just too much! The Dark Tower Series is an impressively staggering undertaking, though. I also try to read books on religion and philosophy, although I manage less of it than I'd care to because the reading is so dry. Still, I recommend Descarte's "Meditations on First Philosophy", Huston Smith's "The World's Religions", and Anton LeVay's "The Satanic Bible". I'm also very interested in cultural mythology, be it Greek, Celtic, Chinese, or Christian. I also recently read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, which I recommend in the highest possible way. It's a call to atheism, rationalism, and reason.

Movies... let's see... I'm addicted to the Independant Film Channel, so I tend to enjoy artistic, foreign, or independant films outside of the Hollywood mainstream... but that doesn't mean that I don't like mainstream films as well! Not surprisingly, "Interview With the Vampire" is one of my all time favorites, and one of the BEST book-to-movie adaptations that I've ever seen. Conversely, the movie "Queen of the Damned" was a steaming pile. Some of my other favorites are "Amelie, Garden State, Sin City, Willow, The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogies, The Doors, American Beauty, The Butterfly Effect, The Ladykillers, Pi, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, The Dreamers, X-Men 1 and 2, The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King's Rose Red, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, Ringu, Waxworks, Amadeus, The Star Wars films (I prefer the classics, but I really enjoyed Revenge of the Sith!)... and others! Now... let's talk anime! Ninja Scroll, Appleseed, Akira, Perfect Blue, Street Fighter II, Blood: The Last Vampire (although I actually prefer the series, Blood Plus), X, Ghost in the Shell, etc.

I'm very fond of classical music. My favorite composers are Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bach, and Ravel. I'm also a big fan of jazz, John Coltrane in particular, and all forms of rock music. Here's a short list: Tool, A Perfect Circle, The Smashing Pumpkins, Opeth, Slipknot, Jefferson Airplane, The Urge, System of a Down, Bjork, Tori Amos, Orbital, Stabbing Westward, Nevermore, Coldplay, Keen, Breaking Benjamin, Dave Mathews Band, Switchblade Symphony, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, Primus, The Cure, The Cranberries, R.E.M, Skinny Puppy, The White Stripes, The Shins, Colin Hay, Modest Mouse, Fiona Apple, Radiohead, MC Chris, Graham Revel, Blue October, Iron and Wine, Death Cab For Cutie... there's more, of course but I can't list them all... you get the picture.

I'm an ex-vegetarian who only recently started eating meat again (I'm still not crazy about beef or pork) but I'll still eat ANY Boca or Morning Star Farms product. I LOVE Mexican food (tortilla chips, Spanish rice, refried beans, stuffed peppers, etc.), and Chinese food (white or fried rice, veggie lo mein, spring rolls, etc.) and I've tried gyros before and really liked them as well. I have yet to sample Indian or Thai food, but I hear that both are very spicy... a big plus for me!

Pen. Paper. Solitude. Silence. Books. A katana. An acoustic guitar.

Sociological issues: feminism, (Yes, I do consider myself a feminist and it's NOT what many people believe it to be!) gay rights, gay marriage, political/religious reform, racism, classism, poetry, music, love, sex, trying to remain objective and not buying into the illusion of my own existance, death and the nature of acceptance... and plotting the downfall of capitalism. Religion has also become a very important topic to me recently. Not to get TOO into it, but I find it to be an extremely distructive and disruptive force on humanity. That's not to say that I don't have religious friends or that I will try to "talk you out" of your faith, just know that it's a subject on which I have very strong feelings, and if you don't try to preach to me, I won't try to preach to you, mmmmmkay?

The only reason I ever leave home is to go to school. On Friday nights, I'm usually home on the computer or reading whatever book I'm working on at the time. I'm not interested in going to bars or parties. I've tried both and found that people simply don't understand me, and I simply don't understand them. This seems to work best for everyone. I get peace and quite and they get to enjoy their drinks without me being a nuisance.

I think that my initial response here turned some people away, so I'll just say that I'm willing to answer any questions you might have about my "private" life, but I'm not going to do that here.

One little tidbit, though, is that self-inflicted scars are a big turn on for me. So if you have them and want to show them off, I'm your guy.

For fuck sake, just MESSAGE ME!!! I'm getting so tired of seeing an empty mailbox here all the time. I just want to chat with a few people for a while.

You have questions, comments, or just want someone interesting to talk to for a while. Rudeness and stupidity will earn you my immediate indifference, although I refuse to stoop to your level. Yes, I will refuse to speak with you and probably block you, but I will do so in a calm, level-headed manner, and I will NOT call you any names, regardless of how I may feel about you.

It should be noted that I am currently seeing someone that I am very serious about and very much in love with. We have discussed open relationships and polyamory, but if this offends your "moral" sensibilities, simply don't write. If you're okay with this kind of an arrangement, then we can talk.

Even online, I'm somewhat shy, but I really like it when someone forces me out of my shell. It's very flattering. I enjoy talking about sex and sexuality as much as the next person (maybe more than some) but out of respect, I will not address the topic until you do, and I will take comments and flirtation no further than you do.