908 views | January 20th, 2010 | Bookmark This Page | No Comments
My real name is Michael Mitchell but my work name is Michael Island.
Though I haven’t worked on it much, this site has been up for a year or two and I guess it’s time I wrote some words about who I am and what this site is all about. In the beginning I decided against it because I don’t care and I didn’t think anyone else would either, plus it’s hard to summarize such things. But now I know it’s important for most people to be able to correlate a face with that face’s ideas and that it was naive of me to assume that my ideas didn’t need a face. A business needs a reputation and a creator needs a face. Also, if my site should ever become popular, I’d like to have all this stuff out of the way already.
So who am I?
I was born in Oklahoma but I’ve lived in Georgia since I was a teenager.
I quit school when I was 16, worked about a hundred different jobs at both factories and restaurants, moving from place to place, until my brother had a kid and I moved in with him and his wife and I haven’t worked for another employer since. It was helping more than mooching and lasted about 8 years. Now I’m 34 and I live in a trailer with my mother.
None of this is hyperbole, by the way.
About four years ago I discovered affiliate marketing and started making porn sites with very little success. I’ve made about $15,000 total, but considering I don’t pay for things like rent and groceries and I subsist on a very meager amount of luxuries (except for cigarettes), I’ve managed to get a lot of useful stuff out of such a small sum of money, stuff like a fast computer and important pieces of software. I’ve also learned the basics of marketing and promotion in a very competitive field.
I’m in good shape overall, considering I sit at a computer all day, but I need to get a good pair of glasses and every tooth in my mouth is rotten and decayed. But I’m not overweight or ghostly pale. When I was younger I played basketball for hours each day and I guess I’m still getting by on a better past, though all of that has been changing quickly since I hit 30.
I haven’t had a romantic relationship since my early twenties. There’s a simple explanation, too. Most people hate me, especially the more they get to know me. Contrary to popular belief, honesty is not a trait most people respond positively to in another individual. I’ve managed to alienate my family and friends because they think I’m an asshole and from their perspective it is true. Also, I don’t meet new people very easily, even when I actually leave the house. So, basically, every kind of social relationship there is, I don’t have. I don’t even go to chat rooms or participate in online forums. It just seems frivolous to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not antisocial. I’ll get back to all that stuff eventually, probably. But for now I’m just focused on my work. I can live without rich human relationships just like I live without dining out a fine restaurants.
Okay. Enough of the embarassing stuff.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was about 16. Before then I used to write down the lyrics to songs, which lead to writing my own lyrics. Soon I found myself writing lengthy letters to girlfriends, and then I started getting ideas for short stories and novels and movies and I haven’t looked back since.
I used to think I’d write a bestseller and then I’d be rich and happy and my life would be complete, but it turned out I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually, I got access to computers and the Internet and the whole world was opened up to me. Of course, by then I found I cared way too much about my work to sell it to publishers, but it didn’t matter because I could publish myself and all I had to do was learn how. Since then, I’ve learned to make websites, create graphics, model in 3D, and any other skill I might need to accomplish whatever goal I might have.
Now for my favorites, every personal profile needs a list of favorites.
My favorite TV show is 24, but I watch almost every drama from Dexter to Make It Or Break It and if I was going to be stranded on a desert island with electricity I’d make sure I had all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls.
My favorite movie is Dangerous Beauty. I like it and it’s well done, which is very rare for a movie. Other movies in the running are The Bone Collector (Denzel beats the bad guy with his mouth), The Girl Next Door (though I hate Risky Business), Dream A Little Dream, The Illusionist, and Pump Up The Volume. The best movie I’ve seen in a while is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
My favorite music artist is Rob Thomas. He’s simply the best since Elton John — who is also one of my favorites, mostly his early 70’s material. Others include Kings Of Leon (who are way better than people realize), Hootie+and+the+Blowfish, Fiona Apple (great lyrics), The Shins, The Fray, KT Tunstall, and Jason Mraz. When I was younger it was bands like Guns N’ Roses and Skid Row but the only similar band on that level these days that I can tolerate is Shinedown. Also, when I go to sleep I usually start an album from David Gray or The Eagles or Nicole Atkins. Nicole Atkins is great, by the way. She sings amazing and writes big dramatic songs, which is what I respond to the most and I can’t wait for her next album. I also like Miranda Lambert, though I don’t usually listen to country music because it’s too simple and repetitive, but Miranda Lambert has the best songs. I like Toby Kieth, Pat Green and Sugarland, too. If I could only listen to one album for the rest of my life, it would be Bad English’s first. It’s the only album (other than Appetite For Destruction) that I liked as a kid and still listen to regularly. I don’t know why. It’s nothing special. It’s just good.
I don’t have favorite sports teams in the same way most people do because I don’t like losers. For instance, my favorite NFL team has been the Patriots but if this last season (2009) is any indication, then it looks like I’m going to be dropping them for the Colts. I’ll see how it goes next year but the Patriots were not the Patriots this year and it even looks like their genius head coach is slipping a little, getting distracted. I don’t have a favorite baseball team because it’s boring and I don’t watch, though I like to see the Yankees win. Basketball is my favorite sport but I don’t have favorite teams, only players. I’ve been rooting for the Lakers every year since 2002, when I realized Kobe was the best, and that’s not changing anytime soon. I don’t watch college sports as much as I used to. I know the games too well and I only like to watch the best playing them. Also, I never root for underdogs as a rule. As great as it is to see an underdog win, it is not worth it to me to also see the better team choke or get screwed by the refs.
My favorite food is french fries, though I rarely eat them because the grease hurts my teeth. I don’t eat white sugar or white flour because they’re nutritionally worthless and lead to not getting enough of the nutrients I do need. I just eat lots of cooked vegetables and meat. All I drink is bottled water and artificial sweetener.
If I could do anything I wanted right now, I’d just go play basketball. I love everything about it.
My favorite time of the day is a toss up between 12:34:56 AM and 12:34:56 PM.
My favorite fiction book is The Fountainhead. My favorite nonfiction book is Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff.
My favorite writer, favorite artist, favorite philosopher and favorite historical person is Ayn Rand. If I tried to tell you why, I’d never run out of reasons. She’s the father I never had.
I hope that’s enough favorites. Now for the purpose of this website.
When I started it a few years ago I thought I needed a theme to keep all of the content integrated, so I went with a somewhat didactic theme of helping media professionals communicate more rationally. I thought most everything I created from short stories to articles to video tutorials would fit such a broad theme, but all it really did was stifle my creativity, as I kept trying to come up with ideas that would be useful to others. I believe in total independence in the creative process, so you can imagine how I felt when I realized what I’d done.
Well, now I’m tossing out the theme and I’m just going to write about and create whatever I want. But that doesn’t mean this website is merely a personal blog. The primary reason this website exists is to publish my work.
If there’s anything else you want or need to know, you can contact me here.
Leave a Reply
