About Tom

It occurred to me recently that nobody knows what Tom is about anymore. In my old blog, which crashed, I had a snazzy About page with heartwarming pictures of wedding scenes and dogs and flying spaghetti monsters but, like I said, it’s gone. Eaten by the Internet, never to be seen again. I’ll summarize it, and me, as best I can. Stand by.

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The most important thing in my life is Mrs C. She and I have been together for ages, and have been married since July 19th, 1997. On or about July 19th, 2017, we went back to the place we were originally married (Vegas, baby!) with some 30 friends and family and we renewed our vows. We’re best friends and she loves superheroes, the Rams, gaming nights, The West Wing, and flying spaghetti monsters, just like me. To say we’re a perfect pairing just doesn’t underscore it enough. Love prevails.

Posed
She completes me.

As I mentioned above I love superheroes. The world has had a renewed fascination with the four-color marvels since the movies became so big and flashy and funny and cool. But I was an Avengers fan before it was cool. Roundabouts 1973 I stole a stack of comics from my brother’s desk drawer and read about Iron Man and Thor and Captain America and Hulk and my young life became about them. I liked their stories so much I made up my own. I then invited friends to pretend they were heroes themselves and I ran the stories around them. I became the storyteller at age 7 or 8 and I’m still the storyteller today. Ask Mrs C. Her favorite thing, to this day, is story night. Game night. Adventure time. You pick. I create, she enjoys. Toldja.

avengers vs zodiac
“And there came a day…”

My other favorite thing is cheap beer. Make the mountains blue, please, and keep ’em coming. ‘Nuff Said.

blue mountains

I’m not a believer in gods or fates or aliens or ghosts or whatnot. I mean, I think anything is possible – and I don’t blame you one bit for your beliefs – but having been such an imaginative person my whole life I get to understanding how the imagination can make us see things or believe things that just aren’t real. Gods and creators are our collective cultural imaginations and have been since our kind could think. I love the stories about them all, from the first myth of Gilgamesh to the current myths that abound. I don’t think we could have come this far without them, to be frank. Kudos to gods and cheers to them, too.

flying spaghetti monster
Something to believe in.

One thing I do believe in is the progressive nature of mankind. The long arc of history, I always say, shows our evolution towards ever greater egalitarian principles. But it’s easier to see that in the long run than in the short. In the short run there are always vile participants in humanity’s plight seeking personal gain and iniquity at the expense of the greater throng. The current President of the United States is just such a cad and unworthy of our support. But his term will be short-lived and we will remember him as a barrier to progress that we overcame.

one world
We are one people.

Finally I’m a huge Los Angeles Rams fan, so you’ll see me talk about them sometimes. I became a fan when I was about 10 years old and the other neighborhood kids told me I had to pick a team and the team they hated most was the Los Angeles Rams so I picked them. I also thought their helmets made them look like Goliath of the Avengers, my favorite superhero at the time. Go Rams, eh?

Green Bay Packers v Los Angeles Rams

Oh, one more thing before I go. I love dogs. I have three golden retrievers and I’ll talk about them quite a bit, too. The oldest, almost 11, is Moxie. The middle child, just past 4, is Ludo. And the baby, 6 months and almost 85 pounds, is Marvel. Our kids.

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Front to back: Marvel, Ludo, Moxie

So that’s Tom. Feel free to make fun of him or discuss our similarities or differences. I’ve got thick skin and a warm heart, and all those seeking discourse, praise, or enlightenment are welcome. We’re all in this together.

I believe that most of all.

tom marches

26 thoughts on “About Tom”

  1. Love this page…….Love the Rams (don’t tell anybody though as my kitsch is “I hate football”)…and why is Moxie’s expression saying “I swear I didn’t do whatever it is you are thinking I did”???

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  5. Hey Tom,
    So, I’m not sure I was around when your first blog crashed. I’m almost scared to ask, but how the heck does that happen? I would totally freak out if that happened to me! Anyway, glad you’re safe and sound. You’re about page rocks! Love the photos! Also, what’s the 10 sentence rule, again? 🙂 Mona

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    1. I don’t think you were either, Mona. I started my initial tombeingtom.com in February 2016 and it ran til December 2018. There were some 200-250 posts at the time, I forget the exact number. It started with just “friends and family” followers but I opened it up in the Summer of ’17 to the general public and was so glad I did! I’ve met amazing people like you ever since!

      In December of ’18 there was some connection issues with the site (it was hosted on BlueHost at the time); the kind of issues that probably could have been solved with a simple customer service call…

      But that’s not the Tom way.

      I dug in, trying to figure out what was causing what so that I could fly clear and free in the nethersphere forever … but a little knowledge is a terrible thing. 😉

      I moved it from BlueHost but found it incapable or accessing archives at the new site. So I decided to move it back. Unfortunately, there was some arcane law stating I had to wait 90 days to move my hosting again so I decided to use this TBT as a “temporary” placeholder until the 90 days were up. Of course, at the end of the 90 days I was up and running, feeling fine, and didn’t exactly remember what I had done the time before so I’d have to dig in again and yadda yadda yadda … suffice to say I just went with the flow instead. 😁

      I have the rough draft of every old entry if I want to recreate those posts (I always compose on Word then edit on WP) and I have the backup files if I ever want to resurrect the old me but … I doubt that ever happens. Ever forward my motto is. 😎

      Thanks for reading and responding! Sorry for the drawn out answer! 🤣

      P.S. the 10-sentence rule is Bojana’s way of telling me that brevity is the soul of wit (a paradigm I often fail at). An About page, I’m told, should be concise. I have told her in response that to capture the essence of Tom requires verbose loquaciousness to which she has responded 😝.

      Thanks again, Mona!

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  8. You named your oldest dog Moxie.
    I live in the birth state of the original Moxie soda.
    It’s like we were destined to meet….
    Except for the Coors.
    Dude!
    There’s a whole wide world of craft beer at your fingertips. Leave the mountain behind.
    😉

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    1. It is kismet! Which, by the way, was almost the name of my third golden. 😉

      Love me some Coors Light! I’ll drink some low IBU specialty beers sometimes, but CL is my session beer. When I want 20 of ’em*, gotta go light!**

      *I’m on vacation. Don’t judge me. 😁
      **I can’t stand the taste of most craft beers. Keep that bitterness rating under 30; under 20 is preferred!

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