an introduction: Mike

I am a 23-year old resident of Austin, TX and currently an undergrad at the University of Texas studying the Japanese language. I grew up in Southern California, moved to the suburbs of Houston when I was 15 and finally settled down in Austin to go to university four years ago. While Japan and its culture are probably my greatest passions, I consider my interests varied and have found myself working more and more on my writing and my photography in particular.

I have been very interested in photography, particularly film photography, since getting my first camera (my dad's old olympus) when I graduated. Here's a picture I took a couple of years ago while studying in Tokyo. I hope to get some newer photos on here as soon as possible (now that I have access to film scanners, I have absolutely no excuses). I've also recently acquired a digital camera after mentally torturing myself for years over the idea and plan on using that extensively around town.  With the SXSW music festival coming up in three weeks or so, you can expect a slew of pictures from my end.

Though I love to write, I have been pretty harsh on myself to the point that I hardly share anything I work on. I have been trying to get out of this habit recently, with this blog and collective being one of the ways I hope to change.

This excerpt comes from something I wrote in November (according to the timestamp) and seems to be part of an abandoned short-story:

When the house gets real still, maybe before she wakes up or something, my mind will begin to wander. Eventually it always goes back to those days, those easy days just a few years back. For whatever reason, I lost the ability to empathize with this man that used to be me. It's like reading a novel with a main character you don't really like all that much. You just can't get in his head- can't understand why he does what he does even though he reminds you so much of yourself. I don't mind losing the bad parts, but for the life of me, I wish I could remember the good parts more clearly. 5 years. 5 years and all I have to show for it is a single, long, blurry image and vague after-effects of feelings I can barely remember experiencing. The sad part is that no one else seems to have forgotten what happened. I see it in their eyes. I feel it in their actions. I was once the prizefighter now I am the broken-down man that people chip a coin or two out of reverence for his decaying victories.

I'm particularly interested in writing about dreams, science fiction, history and being young in this world.

I have been planning on setting up a workspace in my outdoor shed to work on stenciling and experimenting with making chalkboards/chalkboard art this spring and summer with Preston. To this end I have experimented with making logos primarily and exploring the world of typefaces (I kind of have a thing for Futura and Akzidenz-Grotesk).
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