Saturday, November 20, 2004

Let us become mentally impared!

A few years ago, I dont think I could imagine a scenario in which I would be listening to a song entitled "Let's get Retarded", but here we are. Damn you Black Eyed Peas for your infectious melodies.

Its funny to think that at one point I had the time to update this blog every night, and didn't simply because I had nothing new to say. It seems that now I have to resort to blogging every two weeks or so. So I better make this time worth while, here we go...

I've been through three weeks at the new job. I'm enjoying it, despite the fact that it is exhausting. I have to get up every morning at 6am to get to work by 7:15. I am by no means a morning person, most artists aren't, and this has taken alot of getting used to. It has also become pretty obvious that the kids don't want to be working on art at 7:15 any more than I do. I guess it's better than working on AP Calculus at 7:15.

There is this thing that happens when you surround yourself with talented people, you tend to become incredibly inspired, even if at the same time you feel alittle discouraged by their gifts. It seems the converse is also true. When you are surrounded by people who are bored with art, and create mediocre work, you tend to feel drained and are left generally uninspired. This has been the transition from my college experience to my current job situation. There are some kids at Berkley who are truly gifted and generally interested in creating cutting edge art. But for every one of them there seems to be five kids who just want to sail through the classes with as little effort as possible. I guess it's to be expected, it has just gotten to be exhausting. I tend to come home most days feeling like I want to sleep the rest of the day away. I've been trying to force myself into working on my own stuff, for no other reason that I need to get out of this state soon. I think California or Washington seems to be an inevitability at this point. Maybe New York if I can get a Marvel job.

I'm beginning to feel all grown up, despite the whole living with the parents thing. I have Friday's off, and I actually got up before 10am. I was out of the house before Noon and spent most of the day paying bills, and running errands to places like Kinkos and Office Depot. I was feeling all responsible and old until I made a stop to the local comic book store to pick up the issues I'd been missing.

Speaking of comics... here's yet another Batman. I did this sketch entirely on the Wacom tablet, just an experiment that turned out much better than I originally thought it would.



I guess thats all for now. Thanksgiving this week, good food and hopefully some contact with friends, should be fun.

Pat

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Birthday plus one

Techincally it's now two days past my Birthday, as it is after Midnight, but my day ends at 6am, like the TV. This may be a long post to make up for lost time, so be prepared. Im going to try and do this chronologically so bear with me.

October 29 - Tim and I went to see "The Grudge". Better movie than reviews let on. The night ended in WhiteCastle.

October 30 - Got to hang out with Monica, Molly and Tim at U of D. First Tim and I saw "Shawn of the Dead". Also a very good movie, very funny and excellent effects. Then we picked up Molly and Monica. Went to some of the local Frat houses. None of us had costumes for the Halloween parties, so we ripped some caution tape off a tree and went as the Caution Tape Avengers. I also managed to scrape the hell out of my hand and arm on a fence. I originally climbed the fence to get to a frat house, but then Timmy couldnt climb it (he's not very bendy) so we ended up going the long way anyhow. The night ended in WhiteCastle.

October 31 - Halloween. I drove up to MSU to hang with Fodee. We dressed as Dr. Evil (him) and Number Two (me) from Austin Powers. A few people recognized us, one guy recognized just me, and not Derrick. That pissed him off. We saw two asian roommates who dressed up as Fook Mi and Fook Yu. Hung out with them and their hot friends for awhile. Saw a guy dressed as Quail Man from the Nickelodeon show "Doug". The highlight of the evening was me and Fodee walking down the road to our car, a drunk dude seeing us and yelling "Hey it's Dr. Evil and.....a pirate!" Clearly the costume was a hit. Got home with enough time to sleep for 4 hours before my first day at work.

November 1 - First day at Berkley High. Pretty interesting. Im still getting used to it. Found out I have a lot more responsibilities than I originally thought. For example, grading students and coming up with lesson plans. After work I sleep for several hours, and then Tim and I had fun playing Burnout 3 for hours on end. The night ended in Whitecastle.

November 2 - Second day of work, not a whole lot different than the first. I vote. It makes no difference. Tim is gone and so is the WhiteCastle.

November 3 - Third day of work. Bush is re-elected. Proposal Two passes. Generally a crappy day. Congratulations to the homophobes and future CEO's in the audience. I begin apartment shopping in the Toronto area.

November 4 - Fourth day of work and my Birthday. Work is getting easier, and I can relish in the fact that I am making good money. Get a few Birthday calls and emails, nothing terribly amazing.

November 5 - First day off from work, since I only work four days a week. Went to dinner with the parents and got some CD's and a nifty Concept Design book I've been wanting for awhile. I am now full of Italian food and drowsy.

Its been a long week. I have to get used to waking up at 6am every morning. That used to be the time I would go to bed. I havent had to get up this early since Senior year of High School and AP Calc class. It is getting easier though. I'll post more when more happens I guess.

Pat
Currently Listening To: "Pain Killer" by Turin Brakes