When I was a child I was fascinated by the stars. As a child I would often lay in the grass behind my parents house and gaze at the constellations, trying to comprehend just how the universe was created. My parents, from a very young age, always encouraged me to decide what it was I wanted to do with my life, so at age 10, I decided that one day I would be an astronomer so that I might some day make a career out of gazing at the night sky. I remember my parents, my father especially being proud that one day they would be able to tell people that they had raised an astronomer. That Christmas...

When I was a child, I thought that when I grew up, that all my picture-perfect maps and plans of the future would come true. As of yet, very few of those plans I was certain and convinced would come true actually did. But what if things turned out differently? Maybe I would have been famous. Maybe I would have been successful. Maybe I would have chased dreams similar to those around me.

How I feel; three small words I ask myself too much, and as for everyone else around me, perhaps not enough. I feel as if I've lived my entire life making other people happy, pointlessly documenting my anguish, pain, disappointment, and dissatisfaction of a wasted life in a books written pages.

In my life I am often misunderstood, and my writing, especially during the days of my youth was often difficult to interpret or understand; mysterious, fleeting, and wild. In a word, enigmatic.

July 2001 Epsom Salt And Other Things

"Writers write about things that other people don't pay much attention to." — Natalie Goldberg

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion." — Jack Kerouac

This is my early photography work, developing 35mm black & white film at home for the first time. It was mostly experimental, haphazard, and unpredictable. I used sink water, and Kodak developer, and Kodak fixer. Everything was water-based, and inaccurately measured. It was a very janky way of doing things, but at the time, it was the most cost effective means of developing my pictures.

Ever since I was young, I incessantly took notes and wrote down observations. Often times, they were about experiences I had, written generally within a couple of days of the events. I also took many photographs, and countless pages of notes, but put simply, since the age of digital was still years away, many of the photographs failed to capture my true vision, and the pages of writing ended up getting lost, misplaced, or thrown away, either intentionally or by accident.

Ever since I started a blog, people have asked me where I find my inspiration. My main source of inspiration comes from real life experiences, which is why the vast majority of my writing is non-fiction. In 2011, I wrote a list of 80 Journal Writing Prompts, which was in response to the repetitive emails asking me for advice for inspiration. The journal writing prompts were posted in April of 2011, and quickly became the most visited post on my blog, and after going viral, received an average of 20,000 visits per day for several months thereafter. I knew I had stumbled upon an idea, if even...

My father died in February of 2013. I was 33 years old. There are so many things still left unsaid. So many things I wanted to ask my father. And yet, with each passing year, it seems that there are more and more questions left unanswered. I decided a long time ago that I would not be having children of my own, for various reasons, despite the fact that I know I would be a fantastic parent. Perhaps it all goes back to my childhood and all the things that went wrong. I don't know for sure. One thing remains certain. As children, we are poisoned by fairy tales, and the concept...

Recently, a handful of my friends have decided to post scans of their high school yearbook pages on Facebook. And while I have since misplaced the yearbook from the year I graduated high school, conveniently, or otherwise, the concept of posting ones yearbook online has inspired various thoughts and ideas.

Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder... — Henry David Thoreau

I need just one thing when I'm creating; I need serenity. -- Thomas W.P. Slatin