![[Current photo]](/current_photo_full.jpg)
![[Book cover]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1421519208.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif)
![[Book cover]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1421519194.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif)
![[Book cover]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140023747.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif)
![[Book cover]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1421519186.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif)
31 Aug 07 – 31 Aug 07
I won't bore you with a litany of today's accomplishments. In brief: I took today off work, and determined to make the day count. And I did.
Most exciting development: I attached a MIDI-to-USB cable between my piano keyboard and computer, fired up GarageBand, and was able to play directly into my computer. In twenty minutes I was able to write a simple forty-second piano melody. It's nothing impressive, but this is what you can do in twenty minutes:
Tomorrow I drive in to D.C. and explore the museums. Can't wait.
29 Aug 07 – 29 Aug 07
From The Accidental Creative:
| Todd Henry writes: | There's going to be some noticeable dips in quality and performance when we're taking risks and trying new things, because taking risks requires more energy, requires more focus. There's some sort of psychological trauma that's inflicted on us whenever we take a risk, whenever we step out and try something new. |
That made me stop and think. So true. When we try something new, we need to reserve lots of space for relaxation and reflection, and be very forgiving of ourselves. We tend to compare our attempts against finished works of brilliance, and forget the years of worried, uncertain experimentation that built them.
28 Aug 07 – 28 Aug 07
Thanks to my parents, I caught ImaginAsian TV's Tuesday anime block tonight. Very interesting. Briefly:
- The Law of Ueki — Very standard shonen series. Not always a bad thing.
- Paradise Kiss — Neat little fashion-oriented show hampered by severely limited animation budget.
- Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror — Well-done and refreshingly mature, but as is common with classic Japanese stories, rather murky and weird.
- Kyo Kara Maoh — A pretty boy surrounded by pretty boys. Quality, but I predicted almost every event in the episode.
- KamiChu! — The warm surprise. I still love this show for its quiet, unhurried pace and realistic characters.
A fun night, despite the late hour getting back home.
27 Aug 07 – 27 Aug 07
I spent the weekend relaxing, pretty much. And if you believe in yin/yang retribution for goofing off, then I paid for it.
Saturday, I puttered around the house, then enjoyed the company of my friends at Guy's Night Out, where we watched Logan's Run (a film I still love) and Sahara (which is a perfect guy's movie). Great fun. Collapsed into bed at 1:00 A.M.
Then, Sunday, I slept in, went to church, had my parents over, then pulled my hair out as I tried to get some stuff for work, um, working. Pardon the horrible grammar.
Bedtime? 2:00 A.M. And I had to post the results of my labors at work Monday morning, so I simply had to get to work on time. I managed to drag myself into work at 9:00 A.M. and post the files, to discover that the day-long conference call I was supposed to be on started at 8:00 A.M. Oops. So I pressed a phone receiver to my ear for the next eight hours.
But...you know what? I discharged my duties with honor. I was able to drive home at 5:00, grab some plants and groceries on the way, dig in the plants, pan-fry a tilapia filet, do two loads of laundry, watch more Gun Frontier, wash the dishes, and write three pages of script for my current comic project, Grave Thoughts.
And, soon, I'll go to bed. Tired but content. And it will have been a good day.
24 Aug 07 – 24 Aug 07
Some days, you just come home and watch two episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 back-to-back, and then go to bed.
Not that your day was bad. Not that you're depressed or frustrated. Your brain just wants to be switched off and amused for an evening.
And that's fine.
(They were "Teenagers from Outer Space" and "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies," in case you're wondering.)
23 Aug 07 – 23 Aug 07
I just finished watching Gravion Zwei, a modern twelve-episode giant robot series.
It's ridiculous. It's over-the-top. It's full of maids, giant robot combination sequences, fanservice, teenagers screaming their attack moves, and bickering teens who really love each other.
It is a perfect example of its genre. It is clearly pushing every genre convention to its limit. It's entertaining. It's trying so hard to be entertaining. It's great, great fun.
And it's gratifying to experience a creative work that knows what it's trying to do, and does it completely and fully through to the final frame. Even if it's "just" a cheesy giant robot show.
22 Aug 07 – 22 Aug 07
If you were to parody Web 2.0, you could hardly do better than eSwarm.
(If you're not familiar with the term, "Web 2.0" was coined recently to describe the next generation of websites, characterized by community-driven content that uses the web as a platform instead of a destination in itself.)
I have nothing against Web 2.0 itself; it's a useful descriptor for a real trend. But it's been rapidly appropriated by all sorts of sites, and stretched so thin it often doesn't even resemble its original shape. Or it's just horribly misused.
So, I submit, with eSwarm. It appears to offer itself as a central point at which consumers can ask suppliers for stuff. Consumers go on the website and create "swarms," which are basically requests for particular goods at a particular price. Sellers and/or suppliers will then connect with the swarm and offer the goods at a particular price.
Which means that suppliers have to be persuaded to register with this site so they can to supply a handful of anonymous internet customers. And it's all centralized on the eSwarm website. And eSwarm deducts a transaction fee.
Hey, maybe it'll be the next eBay. But doesn't this look like an idea in search of an audience?
21 Aug 07 – 21 Aug 07
Sure enough, my block of YouTube helped me to be more "productive" today, in the sense that my leisure was directed towards things that I really care about.
I watched a lot of anime today, chugging through my to-watch pile nicely. I got through about a third of Gun Frontier, a fun show in which the Captain Harlock characters are wandering the Wild West. No SF, and no fantasy; just blood, dirt, and steel.
It's a mediocre series, though I don't mean that as a criticism. It's entertaining, without ever becoming excellent. It's rarely boring; every episode has at least one neat little showdown.
Part of the problem is that it's a western. Gunfights don't last long, so episodes are mostly about a Mysterious Woman or a Suspicious Sheriff, and lots of stand-offs and dialogue. It's difficult to do that in an outstanding manner.
Ah well. No complaints here; I'm enjoying myself.
20 Aug 07 – 20 Aug 07
Aaand I come down with a cold. Just in time to affect work. Great.
So I spent the day watching clips on YouTube. Wish I didn't; this evening, I changed my hosts file to block YouTube. I enjoyed myself, but I could've just as easily spent my time watching anime, which rewards watching.
I did catch a few episodes of Loonatics, the "Looney Tunes meet Batman Beyond" series currently airing. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when it was announced, and the end result is actually quite entertaining.
It's not Looney Tunes, and it's clearly not meant to be. It's a fun, light superhero show told with The Tick-like takes on Looney Tunes characters. I laughed out loud at times, and was generally entertained throughout.
Not the desecration that many feared it would be.
18 Aug 07 – 18 Aug 07
A perfect day. Just when the cheeks start to feel a little warm, a light breeze sweeps through, and the deep green leaves flicker.
I spent most of the day wandering around town, deeply exploring all the little shops and cafes that I usually walk by. I found lots of neat places. Finally tried out the Chinese restaurant, and discovered a fantastic tea shop.
I feel like I don't deserve a day this perfect.
17 Aug 07 – 17 Aug 07
I sat down tonight to assemble chapter one of Grave Thoughts, and got myself thoroughly confused and frustrated. I didn't keep track of which drawings correspond to which line of dialog, and I think I'm either way ahead or way behind. I'll probably have to work my way backwards from the end.
All because I scribbled down notes as I went, and apparently threw away my notes. Arg. I feel like I should just keep everything. On the other hand, I have so much stuff now, I feel like I should give away everything.
Which is a petty complaint, really. I have a cool little creative project here; I'm just having a tough time with it right now.
So maybe I can just sit down and finish assembling it over the weekend. Can't do it tomorrow, as I insist on having one day a week when I really relax. But maybe on Sunday.
Maybe.
16 Aug 07 – 16 Aug 07
Still busy. Still watching anime (more Beck and an episode of Noein). Made a cake tonight, and assembled more of Grave Thoughts chapter 1. And that's time-consuming (the comic), but it's a new skill for me. Unlike anything I've done before. So, probably useful in the future.
Or not. In some ways, I think it's more important that I'm doing something to grow. To improve myself. Isn't that what humans do?
15 Aug 07 – 15 Aug 07
Busy week. On a whim, I picked up the latest issue of Fine Gardening, and got inspired by an article on front entrances. So, I've been working on my front yard, adding plants and generally improving it.
The article advises that you treat your front walk almost like a series of hypnotic suggestions. You step off the sidewalk, along this stretch, around the bend, past the statues, through the gate, and up to the front door. Or whatever. It's a relaxing rhythm that can help you to feel like you're home before you even enter the front door.
So, I've been buying plants. In odd numbers, and in relatively large numbers (three to five at a time). Gardens just look nicer when there are large swaths of color, instead of just one or two plants poking out of the ground here and there.
And I've been watching anime, two episodes per night. Beck recently. A great show about a Japanese teenager getting into his local rock'n'roll scene. It's a remarkably non-childish look at what it's like to get into something new.
There's a wonderful scene in episode four, just after the main character's hit a really rough point. In the first episode, his favorite musician is a typical Japanese pop star, a girl with nice, happy music. When he gets depressed in episode four, we cut to him sitting in his room, slumped over, headphones on, listening to this pop star's music. It's light. It's happy. And it's doing nothing for him.
He's outgrown it.
Painful, in some ways. But human, and ultimately a wonderful thing. He's moving on. May we all move on.
14 Aug 07 – 14 Aug 07
![[IMAGE]](http://www.brentnewhall.com/graphics/my_pocket.png)
13 Aug 07 – 13 Aug 07
The Old Testament is about behavior.
The New Testament is about attitude.
12 Aug 07 – 12 Aug 07
Today is best described as relaxation to busy-ness. Gah, horribly phrased. Anyway.
After yesterday's relaxation, I spent this morning and early afternoon at my parents' house, then bought some plants on the way home, got home, and pushed myself to really get some stuff accomplished.
Completed: two loads of laundry, a loaf of bread, a batch of cookies, planting flowers, preparing party invitations, rewriting a script for work, and watching a disc of anime. In five hours.
So now I want my bed. Which is a very good thing.
Though before I slip between the sheets, I want to write a bit about that disc of anime. It was disc two of Gad Guard, a series that almost nobody Stateside has seen. Came out a few years ago, and just caught no audience. I bought it mainly because I bought so much anime back then, and there was comparatively little to buy.
It's a joy. It's a mecha series, yes, but it's retro and fun and well-written. The characters are worried about their actions. They question their own morality. They each have different motivations. And there's a lovely action sequence in every episode. And it means something; it's a battle of perspectives and beliefs, not just fists and metal.
So wonderful to rediscover a gem.
11 Aug 07 – 11 Aug 07
A relaxing day today. I decided to take a real Sabbath today, so I spent the morning snapping pictures of flowers at a nearby plantation, then drove out to see a friend who's just returned from a trip to the Ukraine. Then back home to make dinner, read, and call Saalon to talk about plans for a giant robot TV series.
The weather was perfect. Mid-seventies, clear blue skies, no insects. Sadly, the plantation was completely empty; nobody else wanted to enjoy a beautiful day in a beautiful garden, it seems.
I can't imagine why not. Even when I was poring over garden books, I was doing so at a table in the garden. It was too nice of a day to spend all of it indoors.
Ah well.
10 Aug 07 – 10 Aug 07
There's a great, short blog post over at My Two Dollars entitled There Will Be No Flashing Green Light, OK? It excellently explains something I've found to be true: we all have big plans, but often we put them on hold because now's not the right time. But for many things there is no right time.
Which is no reason to overload yourself. But why not make a list of ten cool things you've always wanted to do, and do the first thing you need to in each one?
9 Aug 07 – 9 Aug 07
A respite from Thor's Hammer of Heat: a storm blew in and dropped the temperature by twenty degrees or so around lunchtime. It's positively beautiful outside, except for the gray skies and occasional portly drops of rain.
A good day at work, spent mostly listening to and commenting on discussions about processes moving forward. It's still far removed from actual profit-generating work, but it was easy and interesting and should make some peoples' work less painful down the road.
Then home, and another episode of Pani Poni Dash (a fantastic little spastic anime comedy), and one of Brain Powerd (an incomprehensible epic mecha series). Then a call to Saalon, and I waxed my living room. Which was not the terrible chore it might seem like. I can zone out while waxing. Um, so to speak. Anyway, I want to get my downstairs floor shiny, and there's nothing like three coats of wax to do it. So, I can wax half of it one night, half of it the next, etc. for six days, and it's done.
Which is a good thing.
8 Aug 07 – 8 Aug 07
Four hours of sleep last night means no long post today.
A good day. Got my truck back from a local auto place, getting its air conditioner repaired. With the hundred-degree heat we've had, I really wanted that fixed. 'Twas more expensive than I would have liked, but eh, I can afford it.
Now, I'll flip through the latest issue of Bon Appetit, read a chapter of Shogun, and fall gratefully to sleep.
7 Aug 07 – 7 Aug 07
A good, full day at work, followed by a good dinner with my parents, good conversation with them afterwards (marred only by a random phone call from someone in Maryland, whose number I didn't recognize so I didn't pick up), followed by a wonderfully cheesy movie (The Sword and the Sorcerer) and a bit of anime (Brain Powerd).
I finally trudged upstairs, happily tired, checked my phone, and found a message from the Maryland number. It was a member of my writer's group, wondering where I am. We were supposed to meet tonight, to review one of my stories.
I completely forgot.
:sigh:
6 Aug 07 – 6 Aug 07
Today begins a week of on-site training at work. I'm sequestered with a dozen co-workers in a classroom all week. We're running through a bunch of test scenarios with our new SAP system. My co-workers are all good people, but the experience itself is a frustrating interruption to my other work.
I'm still a little surprised at the corporate fiats that demand software integration like that. We have to use SAP now. I've personally witnessed the hundreds of hours that it's taking out of several important people just at my location. It's probably costing thousands of man-hours of work. Work that would otherwise be making us more profitable. Instead, we're switching our financial systems to different software.
Ah well. I got home and got domestic. After eating a plate of spaghetti, I made some root beer candies, did a load of laundry, and waxed some of my wood floor. This is all undoubtedly because Mandy and my parents came over after church yetserday for lunch (well, Mandy went with me to St. James Episcopal in the morning).
I rarely clean (except important locations like the kitchen). However, I've realized recently that this is because I rarely have anyone in the house. It's just me, and I can live with a little dust. But now that I have folks over occasioanlly, I want the place to look nice.
This, in turn, is undoubtedly because of my incessant pride. I desperately want everyone to feel impressed by me. Which has some useful outlets—like cleaning—but it colors so many of my decisions that I get worried.
Ah well. Perhaps sleep, the great street-sweeper of the mind, will hand me a wondrous revelation. Or I'll dream about a man being constantly electrocuted, as I did last night.
Sometimes, I want so much to figure out my motivations. Other times, I think maybe I'd be better off not diving further into the murky depths of my psyche.
5 Aug 07 – 5 Aug 07
Was in Giant yesterday buying a few random odds and ends, and swept by the seasonal aisle. And stopped. Shocked. They have Halloween stuff in there.
On August 4th.
Well...oh well. So I stocked up on a few things, since they had some "Fun size" candy for $1 per pack. And full-size candy bars at slightly lower than average prices, so I bought a bunch of those. Oh, yes, I give out full-size candy bars at Halloween. I'm one of those guys, the one who puts up Halloween decorations October 1 and is thinking about putting a fog machine out front.
Still, it reminded me of the Halloween party that I plan this year, which should be fun (if last year is any indication).
4 Aug 07 – 4 Aug 07
Saturday. My Media Fast is finished, so I spent much of the day catching up on anime: Mushi-shi, Pani Poni Dash, Infinite Ryvius, and Gundam Seed Destiny.
They were all excellent, in different ways. Mushi-shi is a set of Twilight Zone-style dramatic episodes, but with positive endings. Pani Poni Dash is a spastic, fast-paced comedy that manages to retain its speed and entertainment value throughout. Infinite Ryvius was tough to watch, because it was so dramatic that I didn't want to see bad things happen to the characters, but to my relief I was completely satisfied by the ending. And Gundam Seed Destiny I'm rewatching so I can loan it to friends. And it's just so good (except when it's not, which is rare).
Then, after making a batch of cookies, I was off to meet a friend and watch Harry Potter. But the theater changed their showtimes, so we saw The Simpsons Movie instead, and it was utterly entertaining throughout. A solid flick. I was gratified to see that the theater was completely full. The film deserves it.
3 Aug 07 – 3 Aug 07
Another hot day. It's been in the upper 90's all week, and it's slated to stay that way. Which is summer. Feels silly to complain about normal seasonal weather.
This is the last day of my Media Fast, and I'm glad of it. I actually broke the Fast today; watched a bit of anime over lunch, and bought and read some manga this evening. Tasted sweet.
I definitely do want to minimize the amount of media I consume in the future, though. Leave plenty of room for creativity and relaxation.
Creativity like Grave Thoughts, a comic I'm writing and drawing. Finished inking the first chapter (ten panels) tonight, and trying to figure out what to do with it. Should I start posting it now, without knowing when I'll finish the rest, or wait until I've done another chapter or two? Would posting it and getting feedback encourage me to finish it?
The main thing keeping me from finishing it is the fact that I wrote myself into a corner. I conceived it as a series of monologues given by the same person at a gravesite. But I quickly realized that monologues in comic form are boring. I need to rewrite the later chapters to include more characters, even if they're silent. But that means quite a bit more work.
Ah well, such things happen in creative projects. Better that than pumping out boring art.
2 Aug 07 – 2 Aug 07
I've discovered a downside to this week's media fast: as a single guy who lives alone, it's lonely. I come home from work, and I'm tired, and all I have are my projects. Oh, I could go for a walk. But even that's lonely.
Not that I'm complaining; just commenting. I was a little depressed this morning, but that passed when I got to work. And I had a good day at work; purposeful and interesting but not stressful.
In fact, there was so little stress that I went out for lunch, toting my laptop with me, and watched two episodes of anime. (Okay, okay, yeah, it's a break from my Media Fast. There are no MF Police.) Watched Lucky Star episode 16, and the second episode of Goodbye, Professor Zetsubou.
Lucky Star continues to get better. The first seven or so episodes were merely enjoyable; after that it just kept getting funnier with each episode. As funny as the Comiket episode was, this was fantastic.
And I'm even more impressed with Goodbye, Professor Zetsubou as of its second episode. The first established a terminally depressed, suicidal teacher and his perpetually chipper female student. It was a highly stylish comedy which seemed to establish its duo. But the second episode introduced half a dozen other students, created a very complicated set of relationships, and didn't resolve any of it. Apparently this won't just be individual episodes of zany hijinks. Nice, for a change.
Anyvay. After a long, slow afternoon, I stopped by my parents' house for the evening. After a brisk swim and a light dinner, we spent the evening bouncing between the foreign-language channels on the TV, mocking an impenetrable Dutch (?) film (almost as bad as Jay Sherman's student film) and trying to translate the Cantonese and Japanese news programs and dramas. Great fun.
So now, I'm laying on my bed at 11:30 P.M., typing this blog entry. On balance, I like this day.
1 Aug 07 – 1 Aug 07
I started drawing my next comic today. Knowing how this goes, I spent the day waiting for the dramatic event that would keep me from moving forward creatively. There's always something to dissuade one from a creative project.
I shouldn't have been surprised. There was no dramatic event, but I have had trouble drawing. Because of me. I draw for a few minutes, then find myself wandering off. Laying on my bed. Researching poses, which takes me down a rabbit trail for fifteen minutes.
I've found only one solution: I gently pull myself back to the work.