Justin Tadlock

About (Feb. 2007)

Life. Blogging. WordPress.

Simple, right? I started blogging back on April 15, 2003 and using WordPress on May 13, 2005. I’ve been doing this blogging thing for a while now.

It wasn’t until recently that I decided to narrow my site’s topic or theme down to something that would help me expand my audience. I thought to myself, So, Justin. What are you good at? Nothing really. I enjoy using WordPress and I’ve been using it for a while. Maybe I have a little expertise.

  • Life: My life can get a little crazy sometimes. Heck, I’m living in South Korea right now. That’s crazy.
  • Blogging: I’ll sometimes write posts about the art of blogging. This may be more about “how to” write well because I have an English degree, and I suppose I should know a little something about writing. Just a little.
  • WordPress: I develop all kinds of neat WordPress things around the site. I’ll give you tips and tutorials on how to best use this great system.

About Me:

I graduated from Auburn University after five years of grueling hard work, insane partying, and sheer laziness with a degree in English in May of 2007. Before that, I finished high school in 2002 from a little town, oops, I mean community, or slab of pavement a few miles long, called Highland Home, Ala.

I’m currently teaching English at Avalon English in Seoul, South Korea. Weird, huh? This small-town boy from the woods in Alabama managing to see enough clearing in the trees to simply go for it out of curiosity? Life has this funny way of putting people in situations they never thought they’d be in. Sometimes, I just have to sit back and reflect on where life decided to place me. I feel like just a passenger at times.

This website has been a kind of home for me since 2003. It started out as Dark Autumn (a site name I may reflect further on at some other point). Its focus has been all over the place. Fan fiction, web design, literature, art. But mostly, it has been about my life.

I assume it will always be about my life because that’s what’s really worth reading about, isn’t it? I don’t know how many more reincarnations will happen in the future of the site, but I do know that I probably won’t stop blogging for a long time. I hope to never stop.

Part of the thing I like about blogging is that sometimes I have to truly open up to the world. Honestly, I’ve never blogged about my deepest feelings. Those I have to put in a journal somewhere dark and hidden from the world. But sometimes, I let a few of those feelings out, forever allowing the world access to them. Sometimes, that’s my best writing. And truly “writing” means truly opening up. Let the world see who you are.

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot more Stephen King. I like his attitude when writing. He’s like, “Here’s what I have to say. Screw you if you don’t like it.” I can feel that attitude come out in his writing. He’s the kind of writer that makes other writers feel ashamed for not showing a bit of their soul, their inner demons, once in a while.

So, if you haven’t guessed by now, you should know that I want to be a writer. Not just some almost-been, one-book-selling writer. I want to be more than a great writer. I want to be remembered like Shakespeare is remembered. Like Stephen King will be remembered.

One of my favorite quotes, and one I’m trying to get through to my sister who I think can have a great career as a singer, is by Ayn Rand:

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamp of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.

I love this quote because it reminds me that I’m still young enough to see my dreams clearly, but not old enough to simply be content with life. This is not saying that old people cannot realize dreams, just that I’ve seen too many people “settle down” and forget about them so early in life. I suppose it’s a curse of growing up in small-town Alabama.

I always wanted to escape that place—Highland Home. But there’s something about it that feels so right. It’s home. Whether I decided to “settle” there later in life is of no consequence. I still plan to keep my flame burning feverishly. That’s the good thing about being a writer—you can write anywhere you are geographically. However, I think there’s something about Highland Home that’s calling me as a writer. Somehow, I feel that I must return there to remember the novel that I haven’t finished. Remember why I started it. Remember why the story is so important. Remember why I wanted to escape. Why so many don’t. Why my being itself is essentially shaped by that place. Remember.

That’s enough about me for now. Go enjoy the rest of the site. I’m sure there’s something around here that will catch your interest. Feel free to check out the Justin page too. It will one day be merged with this page.

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