welcome to me

I'm not entirely convinced I'll be able to keep the DAILY TOM a daily 'publication', but what the hell, I bet I spend enough time everyday doing something stupid that could be used to type my thoughts and post my pictures into the internet! So, here goes!

I think 9 out of 10 of the people that know me don't actually know me and 9 out of 10 of the people that meet me don't actually meet me. Why? I believe the reason hardly anybody knows me the way I know me is because 1. I don't act like myself around people I don't know and 2. I look like an asshole. Seriously. Every time I talk to someone for the first time who I've been around plenty but never actually talked to, i.e. in a class with but never spoken to, they're like "wow, I always thought you were some angry guy who hates everything because you always look like youre mad" and they're totally surprised that I have any kind of personality whatsoever.

I think the main reason for that is I never smile. I smile when I laugh. at stuff. and things. and I love things that are funny, but I dont really smile when I see people and if I did I'd be faking it and it would probably look worse than my regular face, so I don't, so I think people see me and think omg I dont want to talk to him because he must be some kinda asshole. Well, I'm not really. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. I love people and I'm nice to everyone. I'd never hurt anyone or lie to anyone or take something that's not mine, so.. now that that's out of the way..

Here's me:
I'm a photojournalism student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
I'm a photographer for the schools paper, The Daily Egyptian.
I'm in love with a wonderful woman and will be until the day I die.
I'm a Christian who believes God put me here to do wonderful things for his people.
I'm 21 years old, I like alcohol in moderation, but I don't party.
I want to be a journalist because I think telling the stories of others is a wonderful thing that saves the world everyday, and there's not many greater professions.
I'm not rich, I've never been rich, and I'll never be rich.
I have no respect for people who care more about how they look than how they act.
I love video games and will play them all my life, no matter what anyone says.
I play guitar, violin, drums, and piano, but am not amazingly awesome at any of them.
I can speak a lot of English, a little Spanish, and hope to someday learn modern Arabic.
My dad died almost 2 years ago, and my sister died over 6 years ago, so I am perfectly aware of how mortal people are.
My parents divorced when I was 9. or 10. one of those.
I'm scared of large insects.

That's the basics of Tomology. Thanks for reading and I hope I can continue to update this page with my ever-interesting thoughts and/or rants and/or photos. Even if no one reads or looks at it, I'll probably feel better because I can vent stress or anger or humor or sadness and imagery out of my mind and cameras and loosen up the tightly bound knot that is everyday.

TB