I have been a lot of things to a lot of different people throughout my life… I have a storied past and many individuals know me from one aspect of my life or another. Most of my longtime friends are dead, in jail, or left their homes to live elsewhere without a hint for me to find them, so few know me from many parts of the greater whole of my life. Bits and pieces of my life I’d put here for my readers, but nowhere has there been a collection of facts about me and the life I had lived up to this point.
Firstly, I’d lost a lot of friends and loved ones, in fact, I lost my first friend and five years old and by the time I was seventeen, I’d been to over a dozen funerals for friends and loved ones. At forty-three years old as I write this, that number is double (or more) than it was at that age. My eyes have wept a deluge of tears for those who have passed far before their time, some to illness, some lost simply to living in a violent and drug-addled place, all far too young.
Second, I first got into hip hop at age four or five, literally growing up as Rap grew into its own, and even when I was a racialist, I listened to rap, trying to justify my being on opposite ends at the same time. Bee rekindled my love of rap and hip-hop culture once I was free of that ideology and I’ve been in love with it (again) ever since. I used to breakdance/pop n’ lock, tagged and practiced street art, and listened to everything I could get my hands on.
Third, I’ve listened to metal, rock, goth, punk, and Industrial for as long as I could remember, dressing Street/hip hop Goth pretty much since I was small and well into my adult years. I used to tag my skateboard as a kid with “Slayer,” and metal band names in straight-up graffiti style, seemingly opposites, but I loved it all (and still do).
Fourth, I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, spending hours upon hours drawing, coloring, etc… from as long as I could hold art supplies. I even did Fleisher Art Memorial as a kid in Philadelphia, and at age forty, I took up painting and have since sold well over 200 pieces of art around the world, and am (In my opinion) just getting started. I’ve sold pieces to famous musicians, other artists, average people, lawyers, politicians, and most people imaginable.
I’ve been a musician since I was around 12 or 13, playing bass guitar, Cajon, drums, singing/writing lyrics, production, learning guitar and for about a decade I was the well-known Goth figure D-Lux through five albums and a single.
I began my foray into the martial arts at 10 and 32 years I hold a fifth-degree black belt in Kenpo Karate and classical Karate-Do. I am an internationally recognized Shodai Soke (Original founder) in my own branch of the Kenpo tree (Cook’s Kenpo Karate) and am a recognized Master Instructor under the world-famous Al Case. I have taught hundreds of students from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Tucson, Arizona.
I was lied about in high school by a black girl who asked me out (but I was already seeing someone), so the girl told a bunch of black kids I called her a N#%%&r B@*$h and the 12-13 kids jumped me after school and hit me in the head with a brick. I was in a coma for several days and have a small metal plate in the back of my head holding my skull closed, today my memory is not quite as good as it should be and that instance led me down the dark road I was on for so long.
I have been shot in the shoulder, stabbed, cut, and shot at during the early 90’s gang wars in Philly, due to my friends and where I lived.
I grew up in a mostly Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and black community, then later moved to a mostly Irish one.
I had been kicked out of and moved through four different schools before high school, mainly from fighting.
I’ve been married and divorced once, then married to the love of my life and I now have four kids, two boys (12 and 13), and two girls (5 and 7).
I am an alternative therapist with certifications in nearly a dozen therapy types both mainstream and alternative. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Dialectical behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming, stress management, Reiki, EFT Tapping, Acupressure, and more.
I am also a certified herbalist.
I have been a gamer since I was five and consequently, also fell in love with Japanese Anime.
I am an avid reader preferring to read books on Judaism in nonfiction and horror/macabre in fiction. I have also been published five times in magazines and once in a news periodical and six times in book format (for horror short story collections and poetry).
I spent 32 years of my life in the occult, and the last almost two years reading, studying, and converting to Judaism. I’ve given lectures on the occult online in front of 1.2 and 1.4 million people, wrote 3 books on it, ran an international organization of 10k members, and was a household name in the occult. It was a huge change for me and one that my family, friends, and those in the occult world took immediate notice of (yet were supportive).
There’s more… but that’s enough for one article.