A forward

All things start at the beginning and to do that I have to start with where I came from and that would be from my parents. It's important to spell out their part in making me who I am and where my core personality traits come from. I'll spare you the details of how I got here but I'm sure you can figure out the mechanics. Besides what I DO know is that my parents only had sex 2 times once for me and once for my brother, this FACT is not up for discussion.

My Dad, Peter (pronounced Pe-DA) Hustle, came from a large family he was the oldest and was often times the bread winner and surrogate father for his family. My grandfather (well both of them to be honest) was a rolling stone. My Dad by all accounts was poor and hungry. To eat where he was from he had to work. Also my Dad graduated dead last in his class from high school. He was in special education and all that crap, not because he was stupid or a retard but because he was poor. The world doesn't give poor people and chance and then blames them for their situation. That's not an excuse that is just an "is".

After high school for him he joined the Navy and became a voracious reader. My Dad built opportunities for himself. By the time I was 16 or 17 my Dad had a full career in the US Military and retired at 37, had a successful insurance business that was worth millions cashed out and retired from the insurance game by the time he was 50 and the way I see it he was quite possibly the most successful person out of his high school class.

Heck, everyone that has ever met him will tell you how intelligent he sounds or is. Hell, the guy is the smartest man I know (it took me a while to figure that out).

As for me I was never poor or hungry because my Dad's goal in life was for his children to never be hungry or poor and I was always in books because he knew that education was the key and any real learning that I was going to do or going to get was not going to come from school. For my brother and I we had two schools, regular school and Dad school. Education was king in my house and not just regular school things my Dad wanted to make sure we were knowledgeable on a broad range of topics on as a result I've developed a knack for oddball facts and figures. I pick up on information like that and it's the same for my brother.

He also introduced me to my first love, video games. I can tell you the first game I ever played was Sea wolf I had to be maybe 3 or 4 at the time my Dad would take me to Aladdin’s Castle and let me play games. While I know you may see kids today who randomly press buttons that wasn’t me. I was playing the game I intuitively knew what to do don’t ask me how but if you ask anyone in my family. I am all things games.

As a matter of fact when I was in the 1st grade we got a Vic 20 and the only way I could play games at home was by writing the programs myself. There was a magazine called Games magazine and it had BASIC source code for all sorts of games and I would sit up all night (well all night for a first grader) programming and debugging that source so I could play a game. If I knew what I know now I would have keep going but, someone figured out that you could fit those games on a cart and once it got to me I was like so long programming!



My Mom, Sista Hustle also came from a large family she was the eldest girl and pretty much the big sister of the bunch. Her older brother was shipped off to live with my great aunt Sealy. I'm not sure why but, it is what it is. Her father was a rolling stone as well and people tell me that I take after him, Fast Freddie they used to call him. He died in 1996 of a bad heart. I say he died of good living. He lived fast and hard and his health deteriorated because of that lifestyle. But, anyone that met him loved him he was a charismatic fellow. The one thing I always found funny about him is he always called me Tomy. I was like dude there is like a whole extra 'm' you are missing in there.

At any rate, my Mom was/is pretty much the glue of our family. She protects her litter at the same level as an injured female tiger. As a child I thought my Mom was just a busybody but what I found out a few days before I left to go to Iraq was that her 1st grade teacher horribly and brutally abused her. I've never met pure evil but if I did it have to be that woman. She would lock my Mom and three other students in a closet and wouldn't let them out. They would urinate and defecate on themselves and generally were terrified little kids then when they would get home and get in trouble for making a mess of themselves.

Then they would get sent back to school, this happened everyday for a long time from what I could tell. As my Mom told me this story I was looking at her and I didn't see my Mom. I saw a little girl that I couldn't help and I just felt so powerless as she told me that story. Of the four of those little kids she is the only one that is still alive they all died young. The last one to die died of cancer I think and she found my Mom and asked her to come to the hospital. She thanked my Mom for being there for them. As my Mom related the story I found out she was the one that held hands and told everyone in that dark closet that they would be okay. She helped them to survive. That story made me so sad, I went upstairs that night and I just cried about it because I love my Mom so much but, right there I couldn't help her, there was nothing I could do to save her or make it better.

As a result she was extremely involved in school with us. When I was a kid the schools could dish out corporal punishment however no teachers were allowed to touch me at all. She was always the PTA president; hell if they had a PTA in College she would have been the President. My Mom she always kept a positive face even when things were probably upside down. I mean because I am I an adult. I know that there are ups and downs but as a kid and when I say kid I mean in my 20s I never saw my Mom have a bad day. The one thing my parents were good at was hiding stress from us. I think that it is important for parents to shield kids from the realties of their lives or at least break it down on level that the kids can cope with.

Another thing about my Mom that I just found out is that she is dyslexic and I am as well I often cross up 'd', 'p', and 'b' (the lowercase not the upper case). Well my Mom is a wonderful artist one I always wished I could be. She can draw anything from sight. I’m a decent artist but my art comes from my mind I can imagine something and draw it. I’m not all that good at drawing nature. However, her art skill wasn't just an element of having a creative mind it is how she learned how to read and write. She doesn't read or write words like regular people as far as I can tell. She doesn't process words as a collection of letters like you and I do. She sees them as images sort of like you would see a picture of a bird and then process it to the word 'bird'. She sees the word ‘bird’ and processes the words into an image and then she 'draws' the word. I mean if you were to draw the word “bird” it is 4 straight lines, 2 half circles, 1, arc, and one dot. You all don't see that but, I do and she does. That's how she defeated dyslexia pretty cool huh?

The main thing about my Mom because of her life as a little girl she is protective of little kids and lost souls in general. She has a kind heart and a big heart. Sometimes my Dad has to pull her out because she can get in to deep when trying to "help" or "save" someone. My Dad, brother, and I have not problems cutting our losses but my Mom is a "never give up, and all people are special" type of woman. Thank goodness we found her first.

From my Mom I think I got my creativity, my optimism, my artistic ability and my charm.

From my Dad I got my work ethic (later on in life), my desire for knowledge, confidence, and love for technology.