My Deviantart story

can be found over on my art photography account ,if you want to know more about me or you just want to see a wide selection of awesome thumbs by awesome people.  My deviantART StoryIn lieu of the usual weekly feature thing, I figured I'd do one of these journals, especially since DA has had such a profound effect on my life in general.  This is going to be pretty wordy, a bit dark in places and get pretty personal, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat hesitant to be this open about myself and some of the issues I've faced/am facing.  I've been considering posting a journal talking about it for a while anyway for reasons I'll delve into later, and this seems like the perfect opportunity. If you're not interested in the story, then by all means just check out the thumbs or skip this one altogether, i promise i won't be offended.
Prologue:
Before we get to DA, a little bit of background.  I'm from a small city in upstate New York called Binghamton.  Once a manufacturing hub with almost 100,000 people, after WWII factories started to shut down as manufacturing relocated overseas, jobs dried up, and the city began to shrink. Currently th