User Profile

Welcome to the madman's land... (lemming/meme free since Feb. 18, 2004)

First and foremost, let's get this bit out of the way...

The Tip Jar:

See that shiny PayPal "Donate" button? That's the Tip Jar. Eventually it will be replaced with one that specifically says "Tip Jar". What's it for? Well, many of us creative types often find ourselves with irregular income. It can be feast, and it can be famine. Any monies donated to the Tip Jar specifically be prioritized to go toward things like rent, cell phone (which has saved my ass more times than I can count), food, medical expenses, things to facilitate income, and such. Read: Necessities. Honestly, I think any serious/professional creative, whether blogger, author, artist, or other individual who maintains a web presence, should have one of these.

Don't tip out of obligation. Tip because you want to. Here's my proposition: If you like something I post, whether in general, or in specific, and you want to throw a few bucks my direction, do so. Mind you, if you want to throw more, I'm certainly not going to argue... There is no set amount, just tip what your comfortable with. The Tip Jar monies will be put to good use, and may well be incentive for me to post things of greater substance. As one friend's Tip Jar cleverly puts it, "$ = Brainpower".

Important Note: While there is no minimum amount set with this, all PayPal transactions have a set 2.9%, +$0.30 fee that Paypal takes out of the transaction. So if you opt to donate, keep that in mind. If you're confused by that, here are a few examples, rounding up on the fee:

Tip: $10.00/Received: $9.41 ... Tip: $3/Received: $2.61 ... Tip: $1.00/Received: $0.67

Finally... Tipper identity and amount tipped will remain between myself and the tipper. Those that opt to tip may also receive priority for commission and gratis artwork, where applicable.

Sound fair? Cool.

Feeling generous in a different way?

I'm all about broadening my literary and educational horizons, so here's my Amazon.com WishList page for those who'd like to contribute to that:



Now for a little about me:

(Quick preface-- my user info is due for an overhaul. I'm not in the mood to futz with it at the moment, but expect it to change soon.)




I’m a 34 year old single male with an open mind to most things who's recently moved to KC after living in St. Louis for the last 5. Before that, I grew up in Columbia, halfway between the two. Now I'm focusing on the pursuit of my artwork full time as a career. My secondary endeavors include DJ work, and the occasional pro-liaison and/or bodyguard gig for media guests at conventions. Being nocturnal by nature, a good chunk of my downtime is spent surfing the net, watching television, playing computer games, doing artwork, cooking, mixing music, etc.

I have accounts/profiles on networking sites of various sorts, of which the content varies from site to site. Of those sites, LiveJournal is where I do my blogging. I'm by no means a site whore-- however, in an effort to ease the reading of some of my friends who have accounts with said sites other than LJ, I'll likely echo my posts across the board, whether via RSS or a more direct method. Though I check LJ on a frequent basis throughout the day, the others may go a few days between checking if I don't get contact/comment notification emails of some sort from the site. Given the mutual confirmation nature of adding connections in some of the sites below, if you're already on my LJ friends list, and have an account on one of said sites which you'd like to network to me on, feel free-- just make sure to give me a heads-up as to who you are if the profile there doesn't immediately identify who you are. For those not of my LJ friends list (and who may not have an LJ account), but who have an account on one of the other sites and would like to add me, take the time to give me a brief intro and perhaps reasoning for doing so. The following is a list of direct links to each site, with descriptives of those not as commonly known:

Blogger/Blogspot
Friendster
LiveJournal (you are here)
MySpace
Orkut (Google's social and business networking site, may still be invite-only)
WAYN ("Where Are You Now?", another networking variant)
Yahoo 360 (Yahoo's beta attempt at a social networking service)

Herein you'll find chaotic bits of my psyche ranging from one aspect to another, the substance of which may include my rants, my musings, my philosophy, my day-to-day monotony, occasional recipes for things I've cooked that day, etc. Oh, and I occasionally likes me some cussin'. Let's not forget that, shall we?

Terms to know (more will be added over time):

WIP: Work in progress. Primarily art-related, and used in conjunction with exactly that-- works that aren't finished yet.
NWS/NSFW: Not work safe/Not safe for work.

Public commentary's always welcome, otherwise I wouldn't post publicly. I can’t always guarantee consistency, but then again, it's my journal, so the content is pretty much up to my weekly, daily, and hourly whims.

If you add me to your friends list, don’t be offended if I take a while before I add you—I might add you in a matter of minutes, or I may never add you at all. That’s my prerogative. Nor will I be offended if I add you to my friends list and you choose not to add me. Chances are, if you add me as a friend, I’ll end up browsing your journal at some point, and if I like something I read, chances are I’ll end up adding you as well. Also, just like in RL, connections in the virtual world come and go over time-- some are passing acquaintances where mutual interest may change and dissolve, others may find connections that strengthen with friendship over time. I do occasionally go through and clean house on my friends list, removing those who for one reason or another have lost my interest, and often adding others in the process. Removing someone doesn't mean I don't like them-- it just means I don't have any interest in reading what they're posting in their LJ. The point is, this isn't a popularity contest. If you think it is, you're probably looking at the wrong profile... We clear here? Good.

If you want to know more about me, read along, or feel free to pop me a message via email or one of my IMs (I use 'em all with regularity), just give me a heads up as to who you are when you do.

I may post with frequency or not much at all, my situation is such that I have time to viably keep up with reading my friends, but by no means do I live here. I'm not here to air my personal Drama(TM), should I ever have any, nor am I here trying to impress anyone. This medium serves as a vehicle for me on various levels-- it's a means to an end.

Read this carefully: This journal-- being a direct reflection of myself and my thoughts-- has no bias towards/against anyone's sexual orientation, race, or religion. Though I myself am straight, as far as I'm concerned, what someone's preference is should be their choice, not anyone else's, so long as they're not hurting anyone. This doesn't mean that those subjects won't occasionally pop up in posts from time to time-- they can be interesting conversational fodder. Beyond that, I'm a firm believer in treating people equally across the board, that they have the right to their opinions/beliefs. I'm also not above playing Devil's Advocate in certain circumstances, should the situation warrant. If you can't wrap your brain around that, or if you suffer from some form of blind intolerance, you should probably move along.

One final note—if I say something in here that you take offense to, that’s not my problem, it’s yours. What's stated within is opinion, or directly from personal experience, unless I clarify otherwise. Furthermore, I am not responsible for any comments made within this blog other than my own, anymore than SlashDot, Engadget, The Washington Post, or any other comment enabled sites are for comments made to their articles. The only times comments will be deleted are if they contain critical personal info about someone, if they're spam, or if I deem them to be ungodly offensive without reason (and trust me, it takes a lot to offend me). In the end, it’s my journal, nobody required you to read it.

Friends (382):

Mutual Friends (347):

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