I am Mark of Bettendorf, IA. I was born in Peoria, IL on Nov. 7, 1977.

I was adopted during that December to Mr. Kenneth and Mrs. Kristine Rossmiller of Rock Island, IL. We moved to Bettendorf when I was still very young, which is just across the Mississippi from Rock Island.

I went to Lourdes' Catholic Elementary School until second grade (I didn't like uniforms in the hot weather and all in all I didn't like it there).

I got into trouble once for throwing rocks in the sewage grate and had to sit all by myself in the dark while everyone else watched a movie. I cried there by myself.

In about third grade I found a coin out in the playground. I kept it all my years until summer of 1996, but I'll get to that later on. I don't know exactly what kind of coin it was, but it had on the front a 0 with a 1 over it, and on the reverse side was an olive branch and some strange symbols.

Then came middle school. I didn't have many friends throughout my schooling. I started skateboarding more in sixth grade. I skated until eighth grade, because I went to skateboard camp the summer before that and injured my hip.

I got into a mean streak sometime in middle school, and I was in several fights in one week. And then I got beat up. So I learned my lesson and quit hitting people.

I didn't have good grades until high school. I went all out my first year and got all a's except one b. I was on the computer a lot by now, talking to people on Compuserve.

Anyways. Freshman year passed... I was really into algebra. I never liked english too much. I still didn't read many books. I found out about cliff notes. I was already smoking cigarettes during my freshman year.

Sophomore year, Algebra II did not go well. I had a different teacher, and I couldn't just understand things anymore. I had to think about them. So my grades and interest in math went downhill. Really I guess my interest in school overall went downhill.

I smoked marijuana for the first time. My friend Adam (from baseball...his dad was the coach) sold me a bag along with his friend Nate. Adam actually got me started smoking cigarettes also. And so I smoked it.

I didn't get high the first two times or so. I finally got high. I don't remember what it was like at all. I think I remember time going funny. I couldn't figure out if there were minutes or hours or whatever.

Then somewhere around the end of my junior year to the beginning of my senior I started dropping acid. The first time I ever dropped acid I was talking to my friend Chuck and telling him some of the things I was thinking about.

Then I walked Chuck home and told him how if I go to school I'd want to go with someone who's a friend...at least that it would be cool to. And I was talking all about college .. Then I went back home and listened to the NIN song Hurt on repeat. I dropped again later that night. I never got any sleep. I was so wired.

So morning came around and I went to school and came home because someone told me "if you trip on acid it will make you schizophrenic" i think that was the term... I only remember it had to do with psychology, and that was my next class and I was still really wired like I was tripping.

So I left before class started. And went home. I did this again the same week I think. And my mom sounded suspicious that I was "sick" again. I don't remember exactly why but eventually I quit for the time being. I think my parents found out I was smoking pot. But I don't remember.

I was die-hard into listening to marilyn manson. My car was plastered with mm stickers and it's all I listened to. Marilyn manson t-shirts. Everything. I guess it was after I saw NIN in iowa city and MM opened for them. I didn't like them then (in fact Mr. Manson almost stepped on me that night) but my sister had me listen to their cd within the next couple of months.

When I came to University of Iowa I moved into a triple dorm room with only one person living in it, John. Eventually Kris came to live with us. He was a big pot smoker and did numerous other drugs some of which I still have probably not heard of. He was loud and obnoxious and it was awful to live with him I thought.

I was computer science major. Or going to be anyways. Programming classes were too simple and I couldn't stand to listen to them so I always would skip out except on days that programs were due. Other than that there was speech and philosophy. I started trying to mix philosophy and computersci. and make a "computer god" philosophy. Something to the idea of comparing God to a computing machine. Speech was my worst class. I am not much of a public speaker.

I went out to the bars more and more. And I started smoking pot with my roommates (in our room).

One night I took some mescaline that Kris gave me and went with Adam (he was visiting me) to a party. We both took mescaline. I remember drinking alot and smoking a lot of pot. The night was awful.

So I was partying my classes away pretty much. I went to visit a friend I knew in Pennsylvania over spring break, Linda. We went out to Philadelphia and stayed with one of her friends there. He got me a sheet of acid, it had a picture of a genie on it, Blue Genie was the name of it I think.

Linda took some drugs I forget the name of it, but it is powdered cat tranquilizers. She didn't seem to pay much attention to me, but left me by myself, I felt so alone there. I wanted to go back when morning came,

So I left for home. Then I got back from spring break out in PA and my stereo was missing and our door was wide open. And to top it off I found out I was failing philosophy which was the only class I was putting effort into. I ended up dropping out. Kind of stupid I guess. But I just had one of those days .

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