Okay, the "stipe", is the stalk of the mushroom.  I am not that kind of stipe, so don't eat me.  I am not a DJ, either, so things are probably a little confusing right off the bat.  At least you know what to expect.  To continue the confusion, my intitials stand for "Danny Jr." but I am not actually a junior.  But, to name a thing is only the first step in getting to know the thing.

I was born in Ukiah, CA..the first baby born the year 1974 to the gateway to the redwoods, Willits.  I spent my childhood moving around with my Sister, Mom and Step-Dad, and lived in such spots as Compton (CA), Olympia (WA), Southern Oregon, finally landing in Minnesota at the age of 15, - less one sister and angry for having had to desert my friends and feeling fairly deserted by the situation that my elders found themselves in.  I turned to the guitar and writing to try to interact with something and work through the questions that were building inside of me everyday.

At the age of 17, a stolen car and trashed house saw me kicked out of my home and bouncing from pad to pad selling the only products I was able to get my hands on and pan-handling for extra change.  There were other business ventures, but details aren't so important now that I think about it.  Eventually the crash pads ran out and I landed on the streets in Minneapolis experiencing the great freedom of the homeless.

Now, actually, my home during this time was a giant ventilation duct that pulled air in and out of a night club called Glam Slam.  This club was actually owned by Prince.  There was always a different cast of characters crashing here, because it was cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  Warm or not, there came a time when I was done with sub zero nights and begging for change, so with some help I convinced my Mother to allow me back into the house.

There were conditions.  School or the military.  And I had to get a job in the meantime.  Freedom of homelessness gone, I took the easy route at the time and joined the Navy on the delayed entry program, putting off the inevitable for what was the fastest 8 1/2 months in the history of people putting stuff off for 8 1/2 months.

Bootcamp and the Navy happened to me.  Then Columbia and Panama happened, and the various amenities available in those areas saw my departure from the Navy just before my 4 year term was up.  I moved back to Wisconsin with my first wife where I continued to TRY and self destruct.  At some point, I began to feel stifled in that situation, left my first wife and moved back to California to be closer to my family.

So, I moved around a lot in the early days, and until recently didn't realize that inside of me something gets VERY uncomfortable within consistent situations.  I am now remarried to a wonderful woman who has helped me beyond that comfort zone, and our two children have shown me that life is prescious and I need to respect all of it - not just the lives outside myself, but the life within.

The journey is something I would never change.  I am now a software developer/analyst by paid profession, and a writer by choice.  I have found that I have something of value to offer the world, and while I still beat the $#^* out of myself from time to time, I continue to develop a sense of self that moves me toward the "stipe" that I want to be.  And that in itself is enough to make me happy with my progress in this world.  As I get on with the growing up I should have done decades ago, I hope to move my energy back outward and begin to help others in some capacity. 

See, a couple of years ago, I was jolted out of a dead sleep by a loud voice compelling me to take a journey I would never have considered on my own.  I have no explaination for this voice, as it came when I was begging for help from the God I'd heard about as a child.  I believe this to be my destiny, and while I have no idea how to get there, I feel that daily attention to the talents and skills that have been bestowed upon me will move me continuously in that direction.  And as things become clearer, I have a feeling I will be writing a little more detail about this....for now, I'll let you believe that I am just hanging out at the fringe of insanity....but I hope you're wrong!

I'm glad to meet you, now....tell me all about you.