I cannot stress my belief in how important it is to understand our goals, priorities, expectations, and desires. Or GPEDs for short. To know our perfect work/play balance. To wrangle one's fear of missing out.

With a relationship ended. I fall back into that aching comfortability. I've been single roughly 80% of my life from age 18 until now. That's a lot of alone time to think about why. And many have asked through the years, Why are you single? Perhaps it's time I explored that.

Teetering on the precarious edge where reflection meets regret, my heart aches with the missed possibilities that led me to a more flourishing life.

Growing up I always thought relationships could be complicated, but they didn't need to be.

It doesn’t quite feel like reality yet. The night I met her, I was stunned. And I’m just now shaking off the effects.

My mom lives on within me and I can never thank her enough. With every breath, I'll always be her little boy trying to make her proud.

I have met a lot of people in my life. And sometimes there are people who are just magnetic. Where every instant you're around them feels real, authentic, and memorable. And if we're lucky, we get to call these people friends.

I had a thought about how special it is to be a conscious creature — to be so aware that I’m aware of being aware and how much I’m aware of that.

I honestly barely remember what it feels like to be loved, to share a life, to have someone to care about and care about you, check in on daily, to call and chat for hours, to just to exist in the same space, cuddling, silent, both protected and protector...

Last year, I didn’t receive a birthday card from my mom for the first time. No "Happy Birthday, my sweet Turkey!" or "Gobble, Gobble up your special day!" in an elaborately hand-constructed, multi-folding, pop-up birthday card.

I slammed into the curb, instantly flipping my car onto its passenger side. Still going well over 30 miles per hour, I helplessly slid a many car lengths down the sidewalk, only stopping because my car slammed in between an electrical post and a light post.

Perhaps, this isn’t clear, perhaps it never was, I choose this void of emptiness while embracing the ache of loneliness, over the alternative: an average relationship.

2018 had some ups and downs. Let me share a bit.

Week seven of my solo road trip! The return! Vancouver to Southern California!

Week six of my solo road trip! Astoria, Cannon Beach, Seattle, Vancouver, and more!

Week five of my solo road trip! Portland, Olympia, the Deschutes River, and more!

Week four of my solo road trip! Bend, Portland, and more!

Week three of my solo road trip! San Francisco, Elk, Mendocino, Oregon, and more!

Week two of my solo road trip! Santa Cruz, Davenport, Berkeley, San Francisco, and more!

Week one of my solo road trip! Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, Paso Robles, Monterey and more!

We are learning how to live through our teenage years. Learning to be an adult. Then, magically, we are one. Or so we are labeled. Our 20s are for exploring what that means to us. Around 30 we begin...

Last year's project fell flat after a fantastic beginning with a trip across the country that spawned no other ventures. That intriguing, yet odd companion I discovered in New York had an aura about her that was very seductive, but I came to discover there was also a harshness and bitterness underneath it all.

I met a woman while in New York. She's different. My first impressions were she was immature, superficial, yet intelligent and cunning. But there was something more, waiting to be uncovered...

So, this time last year, I wasn't happy. The relationship I was in eventually ended. She, like a few before, believed I was giving up on us too soon. I cannot fully disagree. But I have to trust myself or go mad buried under an avalanche of regret.

Life is only now. How we spend our lives is minute to minute. What do we desire from it? A living reality or a conceptualized one?

Day 1: Driving through the nothingness with my mom. Randall Flagg. Playing carnivorous littlest pet shop with my niece. Toys R Us. Gambling with Adam West's Batman's money.

My yearly project is to reconnect with friends. To go on outings with them. In a way, date them. It is ironic then that the only thing on my mind as I write this is—when and how my relationship might end.

Four years ago I tore off a part of me, threw it down on a page and began forging it into a unique creature. I was a god among gods.

On December 28th, 2013 there was a shift in time and for a few wondrous minutes the entire world moved at half speed (and occasionally backwards). It was glorious.

I feel I’m on the cusp of a new chapter or perhaps I’ve already begun, but lacking the required perspective that only time brings.

This weekend I was at war. Literally. Kinda.

A cruel, enlightening, important, and self-imposed tradition. A single day of introspection. My thoughts immortalized in words.

A long time ago a very sweet girl introduced me to this poem. It found its way back to me and I'd like to share it here.

I was around so many old friends today with their families, the irony hits hard. For it was me who wanted a wife and family from an early age, while most of my friends around me dated for fun, I was on a quest for my one.

My 2012 project is now decided. Inspired by my friend Charlie and his The B-roll project, this next year I'm taking the jumper cables to the right-side of my brain and creating something every week...

It was a dark time for comic book stores. Those which had not already closed were undergoing a slow death.

...so I sat down and began to create some art. This is what spilled out of my head.

I need your help. I need YOU to draw a robot! Take 5 seconds, take 5 weeks. Create a robot from your imagination or draw your favorite from fiction.

In a world where video games have become hyper-realistic and intensely intricate, where your emaciated imagination slowly withers from lack of use, there is a glimmer of hope...

We live. We die. And happiness, contentedness is the only thing that matters. The problems only arise when you desire more than what the world offers and that which you are not willing to fight for.

Stirring before your curious posture, is a world. You know it well enough. You have long recognized it, defined it, explored it, and loved it. Dear, you held it close and manipulated it.

Grand Moff Tarkin runs into Hellboy. They quickly become enemies.

What is the meaning of life? To everyone comes a different answer. Life, a gift. A gift so complex, so vast and beautiful most spend most of their lives just trying to figure it out.

Everyone needs an outlet to express themselves; to emancipate our ideas, emotions, and desires. How we do this and the means in which it is interpreted will inevitably define us.

Here we go again. I’ve been setting the stage for some deep introspection all day and for some reason, I have lost it all in the here and now.

Tired, I stumble into my house. An unfamiliar silence and stale air wash over me. The house seems to grow larger in front of my eyes. The rooms are darker, the air painfully silent.

So I went to the Fish in the Pond — A String Theory Discussion Lecture at Claremont Museum of Art yesterday afternoon.

More and more evidence seems mounted against recycling. I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to find out this discussion has been going on for years and I’ve only now heard of it.

I have been away — mentally, physically, and virtually. I have let my daily photographs become the vehicle wherein I illustrate my thoughts and feelings.

Days past, remembered only in the ripple they’ve caused to eventuate the here and now, sometimes feel so futile.

Years fly by in a maelstrom of change and as I ride alongside of it, I continue to uphold the agreement I have with time to continue to metamorphosis into someone I never was and will never be again.

Unbeknownst to most at the time, there is always a singularity of moment, of change that alters one's life so completely that a chapter ends and gives rise to another.

Identity. I seem to come back to this idea a lot. This time I come back to it pissed off.

I was introduced to Jonathan Lethem at my desk while I sat in my office casually listening to my morning podcasts while gleefully doing what others refer to as “work.”

Our time is valuable. Our choices are our own and its derivative is the weight we bear. Lesser ideas, aspirations, jobs…and people have no place but to fall aside for what we deem more important.

This week is evolving into one of the best in a long while. On top of everything, tomorrow I become truly whole again.

I usually don’t like movies that are based around adultery or cheating. They are usually disturbing, contrived, and generally in poor taste.

I can finally move my head and look left. This weekend involved some tempestuous activities that left me broken. I was not alone in this.

Sometimes I watch television and it’s like a glass of wine. A beautiful moment savored, memorable in the here and now but forgotten soon after.

my wednesday night. back at skool. one last time. with an awesome mech pencil and triskets.

my tuesday night. back at skool. again. with an awesome mech pencil.

my monday night. back at skool. with a sucky pen.

I should be having a glass of water heading for bed. But, sometimes in those crucial seconds, before you commit yourself to do something, somewhere, something clicks…and so I’m here.

Hi, my name is: myspace.com/daethington. Some of you might be confused; some of you might think my name is Dean. Not so. Not here.

What is Happiness? Can you create your own happiness? What are life’s ambitions? What does it mean to live a fulfilled life? Is happiness creating happiness for others? What does it mean to love someone? What does it all mean?

I saw my youth slowly fade from my reflection this weekend. Although, if I had been looking closer I would have seen it long ago, this feeling of getting old creeping up from nowhere and settling in my bones.

My thoughts sometimes have a way of escaping time and avoiding reality in order to travel across vast distances where they find themselves cold, alone, outside themselves, looking wondrously at the world in a wholly foreign way.

I ended my relationship with painkillers today. Our breakup was not unlike those of previous romances — it was sad, we had our tearful goodbyes and then we went our separate ways.

The most highly acclaimed independent film of the decade! Well perhaps acclaimed isn’t the right word.

I’m on drugs. Listening to Norah Jones. So. This won't be very coherent. Because of the drugs, not Norah Jones.

I handle stress well. In fact, I thrive in it. Knowing that what I do has an impact on other's lives especially my own makes me want to work hard at it.

I woke Monday morning with no vacation plans at all. So, as chance befalls chance, by the time my head touched a pillow again I had purchased a round trip ticket to Maui.

You see, I own a car. This October I will have owned it ten years. But it's more than “just a car.”

everything happens. not for any reason, in particular, it just does. such is life.

How does one know they are getting older. How does one know they are an adult. How does time play tricks on us.

I haven’t talked a lot about my current job here and that’s a shame, because I absolutely love it. Although, the nostalgia of past jobs and the years and years and years of college has already set in.

I’ve never had the opportunity to experience a Broadway show before. Tonight I rectified that.

I received this comment today and got really excited. I immediately sat down and typed the first thing that popped into my mind. Here it is…

Well okay, not literally. Not even figuratively. More like spiritually. You see, all my life I’ve been baby deprived. Quite simply no one I knew, not family nor friends, had babies.

Okay, as some of you know, my first job was in my local comic book store, Comicmania, when I was 13.

Every time I try, I fail. Okay maybe not every time, but recently it feels that way. In those times my mind turns to me and says, “Hey buddy, this is normal, people fail...

24 hours later and I still feel like someone took a baseball bat to the right side of my face.

So, it seems everyone I know is meeting their soul mates after a seemingly innocent trip to the continent of Europe, which is in fact attached to the continent of Asia.

I literally cruised into my first day of work as a college graduate this morning.

Bored and lonely after almost nine months, it looks like my baby sister’s baby has decided it is time to come on out and meet everyone.

As some of you know, I’ve dedicated a lot of time to a project for a real client that my professor handed off to all his upper-level classes. The idea was to provide this client with a barrage of different styles and designs to choose from.

I went over to my friend's for a Cinco de Mayo fiesta extravaganza…and before taking shots of cheap 50-year-old tequila, drinking a dozen redbull/vodkas, and staying up until dawn having drunken philosophical discussions, I took some pictures with my phone. Including an epic battle…

I’m fried. I had hoped I would have lasted longer. However, with two real weeks left of classes and two huge projects looming over my head, I’ve simply run out of juice.

The girl I’m going to marry doesn’t exist. It might sound like a harsh statement and like everything, my attitude and thoughts on the subject are always changing.

An article that I ran across a few days ago; which is strange because by happenstance, earlier this week, I found myself in Downtown Fullerton at the local Farmers’ Market.

Headaches have been something that occasionally crept up on me every few months and then after a Tylenol or two, they would go back into hibernation. I always found it curious when people complained about constant migraines and having headaches every day.

I raise the axe above my head as the rain that beats down on me intensifies. Exhaling, I let gravity and my muscles take over.

Recently, I made a promise to seriously focus on my burgeoning career. This is mainly because I have been neglecting and avoiding the reality of my impending graduation.

I am constantly amazed by my own existence and every aspect within. Some may perceive this as egotistical. Truthfully, I’m not trying to exaggerate my own importance over anyone else. I just find I am the most readily available person who also has the most insight on myself.

It happened in a flash. It’s a moment that changed many things. Recalling it opens my mind to the ideas of regret and alternate realities. And that dreaded question that plagues us all from time to time — what if?

Companies have patented their method of hiring, and real estate agents have patented the way they sell houses. Lawyers now advise athletes to patent their sports moves, and screenwriters to patent their movie plots.

Friends — People who know you really well and still like you. These are the people you willingly invite into your lives to share with them your greatest gift — yourself.

There is something nostalgic about the phrase, "first day of school". For me it brings back exciting memories of reuniting with friends after a summer-long absence, mom taking pictures, and meeting my new teachers.

If there was any doubt in my mind that 24 is the greatest action TV show ever in the history of TV shows, the season premiere of this new season obliterated them!!!

It always comes as a surprise. It seems I always forget about it until it’s upon me. Today is an anniversary of sorts. Of what, it matters not.

What makes a person sit down and write about themselves? There is a bit of arrogance in writing this and placing it online for people to read. Personally, my writing here is a bit of a challenge for me.

Wooohoooo! Somehow I managed to pull off straight As this semester! I guess all my sleepless nights paid off.

Today, I discovered how much I missed a lost love. I believe that love stripped down to its core is sacrifice. When you feel strongly about something, you make sacrifices for it.

Nothing more to say. No more ace to play. The winner takes it all.

A MySpace survey that delves into who I think I am.

There are always things you wish you did in hindsight. Some are small and some can be huge. And sometimes the small ones can be the most important.

29 years ago, I popped into this world-changing countless lives for better and for worse. I ask you to join me in a drink to celebrate our pasts and rejoice in the here and now!

It seems this time next year I’ll be an uncle. My sister made the announcement tonight and I must say that it left me feeling a bit bewildered, confused, and pensive.

There is nothing like eating sausage & beans and drinking a beer while watching TV in my pjs to make me really feel like a bachelor. But bachelor life isn’t the subject of this entry, I got my first birthday gift!!!!

Wow! How special am I? Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Warren Beatty called me today! They wanted to tell little ol’ me to vote! And of course, I will, because the future of the world depends on it.

I’ve sat through many nights so engrossed in a novel that time virtually disappears. However, one author, in particular, transports me utterly and completely beyond all others.

I feel like more of an anomaly than usual. I don't know. I often feel like I do tonight…it is as if I exist on a different plane of reality.

Uuuuh. The lack of sleep combined with six hours of inhaling developer, fix and stop has made deano beano quite queasy.

“Life’s a journey, not a destination
And I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings.”

For some of you, this might be the most boring article ever.

Video: A glimpse into what creates our individual identities. How what we wear, the way we cut our hair, our facial expressions, and everything else about our outwardly appearance is perceived and can never truly express who we really are.

My random thoughts spewed onto the virtual page in order to hone in on an idea for a self-portrait video.

Who can blame her? They're delicious!

Sometimes I just hate talking. I’ll think of something to say and yet when I go to speak it, I’ll babble out some nonsense along with the occasional slurring and stuttering before I can get out my disjointed thought.

Everyone wants to believe they are special. Everyone wants to be different. Contrary to this, many strive to conform and struggle to be accepted.

It all started when I ran away from home. I was five years old. Almost six. I lived in a simple, nice, yet thug-ish city in LA. Not that I ever noticed. I was a bright kid and had the street smarts needed to survive. Playing on the streets of LA makes you grow up fast, one wrong move and you’re toast.

Disbelief, helplessness, and despair all flood my mind faster than I can comprehend what it all really means, and the impact it will ultimately have on my life.

Everything that happens to us is a direct result of the choices we make. You choose to act or procrastinate, believe or doubt, help or hinder, succeed, or fail.