oblig. extended bio post

the name’s roger. roger dale burton jr. it’s been that way since may 20, 1992, and it’s probably going to be that way for the rest of my life. i’m 19 years of age. not old, but not young either.

i live in greensboro north carolina and i go to college at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. i’ve lived in north carolina my entire life and it has its ups and downs. at the end of the day, it’s a nice place and i can’t really complain.

i’m told my life story is interesting. if you want to know more, feel free to ask me, but here is a heavily abbreviated version. i was born an only child and it stayed that way. when i was seven months old, my family got a dog named molly for christmas. she was three months old. we grew up together. in 2001 my parents divorced and i began to live with my mom and molly, seeing my dad on the weekends. my mom, deborah jo burton, was a wonderful, loving woman. the world lost her in a tragic accident in june of 2005, shortly after i turned 13 and she turned 50. losing her was a reality check for me; up until then i had been a social outcast who took everything for granted. after that, i changed myself for the better; i strove to be everything my mother would have wanted me to be. after she passed, me and molly went to live with my dad. he did an excellent job raising me and the amount of respect i have for him is endless. in high school i became more social and i made more friends, but i kept the ones who had stood by my side since my young years close. molly passed in july of 2009 at the ripe old age of almost 17.

i’m at peace with everything in my life. i live with no regrets, because i am satisfied with the person i am today, and that person is a culmination of all events both good and bad in my past.

sorry to heap all that heavy stuff on you. but it’s all a part of who i am, and i embrace it.

let’s turn to a lighter note. i’m a history/dramatic arts double major, and i am on track to teach high school history once i graduate. i have a passion for both history and acting, and acting is one of my favorite hobbies.

i acted a lot in high school, the highlight being when i was cast as charlie brown in the spring musical you’re a good man charlie brown during my junior year. i can’t sing, but i did good enough and it was amazing.

another hobby of mine is writing. i don’t have time to do it often anymore, but i have written three novels in the past, two of which are worth reading. the two that are worth reading concern themselves with the story of daniel smith, a high schooler who discovers he has the ability to touch a picture and travel back to when and where it was taken. the book is based on my real life, loosely in some aspects and tightly in others. obviously, i can’t do the picture thing, but man would it be awesome. if you want to read them, just leave something in my ask or something.

i also enjoy playing video games. i have an xbox 360 but i’ll always be a nintendo fanboy at heart.

i love playing sports and watching sports and everything about sports. my two favorite ones are (american) football and basketball, though i do enjoy soccer and hockey now and again. i can’t stand baseball. i’m not good at them, but i love playing pickup games of football, basketball, and soccer.

music is also an important aspect in my life. radiohead is my favorite band by far, but i also like the strokes, the killers, franz ferdinand, and interpol. i am also hugely into rap/hip-hop, and i love kanye west, atmosphere, and outkast. this is just scratching the surface, though. i am into so much music.

i don’t read often anymore, as i don’t have the time. but the books of jerry spinelli and jack london shaped my young life, and once i discovered douglas adams’ hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, that became my favorite book series by far. i also have a lot of respect for nineteen eighty-four and the great gatsby. i also read my fair share of webcomics; achewood in particular has done a lot to shape the person i am today. i can dig literature.

i have also been chronically single for the past two years. i am straight, though i support gay rights and attend the north carolina pride parade every year. i seem to have terrible luck with women, which is the bane of my existence as i am a completely hopeless romantic at heart. oh well. i’ll find someone eventually.

that’s really it. i could talk for hours, though, and i love getting to know other people as well. we can chat whenever. i love making friends and meeting new people.

when it comes to this blog, it’s really impossible to predict what i will post. i post a lot of music, a lot of funny/cool images, some writing, some achewood, some homestuck, basically anything i feel like posting at the time. i am by no means an artist, though; any artwork i post is undoubtedly not mine.

my ask box is always open, and i am always willing to get to know any of my followers a little bit better. i don’t want you to be a name on a page; i want you to be my friend.

phew. that’s all, folks.