It was a surprise to find the negative of this photo of me when I was 20 years old. It was early in 1988 that this was taken. It's in the tiny apartment I shared with five other young, broke students from various trade schools. We all shared this two bedroom, one bath as well as all being perpetually broke. Our downstairs neighbor was a prostitute with seven small children. She'd sleep all day, and the kids would run wild. Whenever I'd get locked out I'd ask them to break in since I knew they played in our place while we went to school They never took anything. At night, if we didn't secure the garbage bag the rodents would drag them all over the place. There were so many cockroaches just recalling it is making me shudder. Aside from my art supplies, everything you see in this shot was what I owned. A few decorations, a pallet to sleep on. At my lightest weight I was around 145# (67kg). It truly motivated me to focus on getting past "just surviving."
In August of 2000 Mark talked me into going to Pennsic War 29. Having grown up near where it's held, I'd always been curious to see what went on there. It took Mark basically ordering me to go have fun to get me to finally go. Oh, and also divorcing my first wife who didn't like the idea of me going. Little did I know how I'd go there to play for almost nine years!
On the LEFT, me in June of 2014 weighing in at around 247# or so. I'd just hurt my ankle being an asshat. On the RIGHT, me today October 29 2015 weighing in around 197#. I'm getting ready to get hurt being an asshat next weekend at NAGA.
