Hi. I'm Randem, AKA R. Dean Phelps. I'm the same flirtatious goofball online as I am in real life. I start random conversations and make new friends in grocery store checkout lines. I smile at people for no apparent reason. I take opportunities to encourage people, or just to lighten their day by making them laugh. I can be "me, here", wherever that may be. However, when pressed to choose between "me" or "here", I will always choose to remain true to myself - even if that means I need to find a desert isle and spend my life alone.

Why is this so important to me? Because I'm not a fan of manipulation or pretense, and both are heavily rooted in the idea of "masks". I have spent much of my life removing the masks I used to wear while trying to fit in. Some will love me for who I am, some will tolerate me, and still others will hate me. But the most distinguished change that losing my masks made for me is that I will never again worry that peoples' opinions toward me will change because the mask I wear for them slips a little to one side, or that it is accidentally seen by another for whom that mask is objectionable.

I will apologize to those who got caught up in any drama as a result of me being me. It will be a cold day in hell before I apologize for being my real and true self, regardless of who is within view.