Wednesday, July 25

I wanted to capture some thoughts on the forests in Colorado, and now that I'm 20 days past the experience, I'd better do it before I space it out altogether. I'm no acolyte of the "new age", but I am very aware of my physical self in the physical world, and like wind on your face, I've found that forests exert a power, perhaps energy is a better term of art. And when I'm in places that aren't dominated by oceans or deserts, I like to take a moment and "feel" the trees. The woods in my beloved Virginia are about aggressive life, the undergrowth battle the trees for light, everything is pushing, fighting for life. Colorado, at 11,500 feet on the other hand, is about peace and harmony. The ground cover is content to allow the pines to own the sky, and nestles low, and green to the ground. There was a sense of the ancient in those deep, soundless groves, an energy unbroken by conflict. I spent a good while there, at the Hoosier Pass as the sun rose, and will have to return again in my travels.

Okay, enough fruity ramblings, need to get some drawing done before I hit the sack. Peace my babies.

Tuesday, July 24

You know, there's something sort of randomly inhuman about working in an office. I've worked in a zillion different work environments, bullpens, cubicles, shop floors, gyms, and more, but when you're in an office and you never really see anyone, it's like some kind of rat experiment. Although, my compatriots at my current client site take the cake, they've been moved from a basement furniture storage space INTO a filing closet. When you just look at it, it's hilarious, but when you think of the psychology of being equated to old TPS reports, well, it's just wrong!

Now that I think of it, I need to give some serious thought at to what makes the "best" work environment. There are all kinds of issues that go beyond the work, and that's one of the problems, because when a business by policy, makes your work space correlative to your status people are being encouraged to think beyond "the work" to something unrelated. Man, this is too deep and I'm way too tired to dwell on this, but its an interesting idea I'll need to flesh out later.

Monday, July 23

Started the day at my client site, which is always a nice break from the routine, and I always enjoy the subway. I just finished retroactively filling in the last four days of this journal, and find I have nothing to say about today. Let's hope I'm able to gin up some more enthusiasm tomorrow!

Sunday, July 22

Man, had some serious difficulty getting some clean clothes today. Woke up around 5:00 and got very industrious, hitting the grocery store and cleaning up my taboret (little table used to store art tools) in preparation for drawing full-time. But when I went to do my laundry, nada quarters! By the time my bank opened at the grocery store I had visited hours earlier, all the machines were in use, and my hopes of clean socks were fading. I hopped on the bike and hit the Barnes and Noble to see if I could track down "Dance of Death" by Preston and Child, because I found out the book I had was the third in a trilogy, but was unsuccessful. I did pick up some vintage pulp in the form of collections of Conan and The Spider, very old school. But how can you resist a title like "Satan's Murder Machines"?

I was finally able to get some loads spinning, and got a call from Alex inviting me for some barbeque with Jen. A nice evening, and I had zero desire to return to the grind.

Saturday, July 21

Jeez, been a bad week for me getting my ass out of bed and in the gym. Had a decent workout today, and was able to take care of some paperwork I'd be procrastinating on.

After I got all the random detritus cleared from the day, I joined neighbor Jennifer for a little pool action over at the Marriott. Strangely, we couldn't find our customary poolside chaise, and had to encamp on the outer perimeter outside the fence. And, for the first time since we joined that pool, the gates on the fence were padlocked. We attributed that to the zillions of teens and young kids wandering around, there to attend the Feis competition (which is some kind of step dancing, looks very Riverdance). And the poor girls had to wear this nutty wig, that looked kind of like Shirley Temple if her hair was woven from wool. But as crazy as they looked, they were dead serious competitors, some very focused, some very scared. It was great energy to be around.

Friday, July 20

Had dinner with my old friend Mike, and his lovely new wife Heather, at Fogo de Chao a sweet Brazilian barbeque place down on Pennsylvania avenue. Haven't heard hide nor hair of the boy for four years or so, and it was great to reconnect. We headed over to the HIRSHHORN AFTER HOURS where we'd hook up with Jennifer and Alex. On the way, I kept missing my cross street, and I wound up parking us on the far side of the Mall. The sculpture garden at the Museum of Natural History was packed with revelers, so we took a detour to see what's what. Turned out it was a jazz concert, but it was really a big excuse for a huge gathering of locals (tourists are lovely, but they don't have any appreciation). Mike, Heather and me wandered for a bit then headed across the Mall to the main event. We met Alex and Jen on the wrong side, and as we worked our way through the garden, stumbled upon a group of about five young folk. Who, upon seeing us, scattered like roaches. Then the huge cloud of hashish tickled our noses, and all was explained.

Anyway, the gig at the Hirshhorn was a blast, and it felt great to be out in my town on a beautiful July evening, seeing it anew through the eyes of my visitors. Most excellent.

Thursday, July 19

Ouch, ouch. I was REALLY in pain today, looking like one of those Gabby Hayes characters in the John Wayne movies. Which is a long way of saying I skipped the gym outright this morning. I got up and as I staggered to the kitchen to grab my java, it was pretty obvious I wasn't as functional as I could be. I took that as an opportunity to read the ending of the novel, Brimstone by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, so I wouldn't be tempted to stay up late tonight to polish it off.

Speaking of which, need go find the next book I'm going to read!

Wednesday, July 18

Ouch! I really busted up my legs yesterday, and am hobbling hard today. I got to the gym this morning and even though it was delt day, I just couldn't focus, so I jumped on the stairmaster and just winced through it.

Not much to chat about today, feeling very mortal as a small change in my leg routine has left me crippled!

Tuesday, July 17

I took an interesting break at lunch and started the character design process for the comic I'm re-doing from my teenage years. And it's such an interesting process, what I did back in the day was so raw and from my gut, that it's almost like a blank canvas. There are about six characters that need "serious' design, the rest I can use photo reference for.

One thing it does bring close to home, is that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, all the time. The next question is, how to make money at it. And that's a question I'm looking forward to answering.

Monday, July 16

You know, Joseph Campbell was always yammering on about "finding your bliss" but I'm starting to get a more robust appreciation of what he was talking about. Time spent in the pursuit of of lesser passions, is just an alternative to being dead, not the stuff of life. And I've been getting that vibe, that familiar feeling that I'm surrounded by the waking dead when I work or hit the grocery. What'd Hamlet say, "whether it's nobler in the mind, to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them"? Hamlet was a wussy, and was contemplating whacking himself, but his core meditation of "suck it up, or fight it" is something we should never forget.

Well, as entertaining as using the bard's words to bolster my world view, I really need to scoot. I've been sucked into another potboiler novel, and I can't get seduced into staying up too late. It's leg day at the gym in the morning, and I can't give myself any excuses (and believe me, when I think about those squats, things like "my socks feel a little loose" become viable excuses to bail on the molecular dislocation).

Sunday, July 15

Good God, I can't believe it's the 15th and I'm just getting this back up! I went on vacation on the 4th, and every time I sit down to knock out an entry I get side-tracked by some nonsense or another. Case in point, I updated my Norton anti-virus, and it too three nights to get it tight, and it's got some annoying "anti-fraud" functionality that's killing the speed of this box. Yeah, whatever, everything's back on line now and we can get back to our normally scheduled program.

A good Sunday, interrupted by about four hours at the office, but I got my cooking done and for the first time since vacation am looking forward to a "normal" week. I only got to the gym three times last week, being the victim of some kind of slow-mo jet lag, which just killed my ability to hop out of the sack early enough.

I did an inventory of my available art supplies, and have decided to re-work a comic I did when I was 17. It's goofy, but it'll be a fun project.

I'll be trying to update the events of the month preceding today (hence all the empty boxes below), but at minimum I'll be doing a daily update moving forward. Peace out my babies.

Saturday, July 14

To come later today...

Friday, July 13

To come later today...

Thursday, July 12

To come later today...

Wednesday, July 11

To come later today...

Tuesday, July 10

To come later today...

Monday, July 9

Back to business

Sunday, July 8

Lunch with Alex and Transformers

Saturday, July 7

Flight back from Denver,

Friday, July 6

Trip to hoosier pass, woods, groundcover

Thursday, July 5

Yikes, can't remember what we did

Wednesday, July 4

Flight to Denver

Tuesday, July 3

Been putting some serious thought into what it's going to take to become a working artist, and what it means to leave behind all of the material goodies being a corporate hooker brings. But even that is an intellectual posture more than a reality, my passions don't lie in possessions, they're primarily physical.

Monday, July 2

I'm not as entertained by my employment as I could be in general, and with two day's till Colorado blast-off I'm struggling to feign interest. But being a good former Catholic, I fear damnation if I don't put in a good day's work so I delivered my deliverable today.

Sunday, July 1

Good god, I can't believe it's July already, it's beautiful