Blogging

Time Passes By

Time can be an elusive thing.

My life is in quite a bit of chaos at the moment, but for the most part it is the food kind of chaos.

That’s why I haven’t been posting much here.

I have been writing, though. As of this post I am just over 10,000 words into my new project and though I’ve encountered some resistance now it had been going well.

I should be working on my project rnow, but I thought I’d give you a quick update instead.

There’s still a lot to be done before I’ll have the chance to get back into a healthier routine, but at least I’m consciously working on it.

My creativity has to be on the back burner for a bit, but I won’t give up on it completely.

Despite everything else going on, my goal is to keep up a schedule of three posts a week, just to keep the habit and make it part of my new routine to be checking in.

I’m off to do some work now.

Reblog: David Bowie’s 100 Favorite Books

As you all know by now, yet another music legend has lost his bout with cancer.

David Bowie was not only a varied and talented musician, he was also a varied and avid reader. Follow the link below to see a list of 100 of his favorite books, courtesy of Lincoln Michel at Electric Lit:

http://electricliterature.com/david-bowies-100-favorite-books/

How many have you read, Dear Reader?

Fear of the Dark

“Worrying is like praying for what you don’t want.”
– Unknown

I wrote this piece a few days after the attacks, but decided to not publish it at that time. Today, however, I read Ngobesing Romanus’ post “What people fear the most” and I thought I’d publish this in response.

It is valid for all types of fear – not just fear of terrorists.

Fear

Let’s talk about fear – about terror.

Whenever an unusual disaster occurs, people start expressing fear. The terror attacks in Paris recently was a telling example of this. My government raised the perceived threat level, various US states stopped accepting refugees from certain areas (or entirely), people interviewed in various media say they feel threatened and more alert – staying away from certain areas, viewing people who appear to be middle eastern with suspicion, avoiding public transportation, etc, etc.

Are you afraid, Dear Reader?

If you are, why? Of what? The odds of getting injured or killed by an accident in our own bathroom far surpasses the risk of being the victim of a terror attack, yet I doubt people are afraid to go into their bathrooms. Few of us fear crossing the street or driving a car; few are afraid of preparing food; more of us fear going on a plane but they are still few in comparison.

At any moment, any number of accidents or assaults could occur – most of which are far more likely than a terrorist attack. So why do so many of us succumb to fear now?

It’s no different than a child’s fear of the dark.

We fear what we don’t understand, what we can’t see, and what we feel we have no control over. We feel powerless and uncertain, which makes us angry and hateful and afraid. And that is exactly what terrorism is all about – making us afraid to live our lives. Creating chaos. Inspiring terror. Making us unfree.

If we succumb to fear we give the object of our fear power over us.

That is exactly what terrorists want. That is exactly what bullies want. That is exactly what sexual predators want. Power and control over our lives.

Instead, “keep calm and carry on”.

That was the advice to the British people during the air raids of WWII. They lived under a very constant, very real threat of getting bombed, every day, yet they were told to go about their lives as best they could.

Be aware, not in fear.

Do not let the terrorists and bullies and criminals of this world control and limit your life. Be aware of the threats that are out there and take reasonable personal measures to protect yourself as needed. By all means, lock your doors and have security measures in place. By all means, avoid taking unnecessary risks in your life. By all means, if you encounter a threat to your person move away from it if at all possible. Be prepared – physically and mentally – for the dangers of life. Be aware of what is going on around you. Know that bad things can happen, but do not let them bother you until they do. You can’t predict where or when or how disaster will strike, so don’t dwell on it.

Do not let oppressors take your life from you while you still breathe – you are worth more.

November…

“When you are writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.”
―Tom Waits

EyeSketch

…is just around the corner, Dear Reader, and with it: NaNoWriMo!

If you are unfamiliar with the phenomenon, it’s about writing an entire novel in one month – 50,000 words, to be exact – about the lower limit for what can be called a novel – and the abbreviation stands for “National Novel Writing Month”. This year I plan on making an honest attempt to pen down those 50,000 words before November’s end and the end of my 30s – and I do mean pen! Doing this in long hand will bring both benefits and drawbacks:

  • It will be slower, but I can resist the urge to edit as I go.
  • I can write anywhere without losing continuity, but it will be more difficult to keep an accurate word count.
  • I’ll have to lug two notebooks and at least one pen around all the time, but I’ll be able to use any extra time I get!

The past three years I’ve done increasingly worse at NaNoWriMo. 2012 I fell short by about 12,000 words due to stupidly deleting an entire chapter and then coming down with a high fever the final week. 2013 I made a mistake in research which invalidated three quarters of the first 6-7,000 words, and I spent the rest of the month (and then some) stuck in re-research. 2014 I just said ‘fuck it’ and jumped onto the Movember band wagon instead, producing facial hair instead of words.

This year, I come better prepared and more determined.

I doubt 50K will see me through the entire story, and I’m far from certain my notebook will fit even half the words I need. I’m not even sure I can manage to hand-write 1,667 words a day between my day job and the drawing I need to get done.

But at least I will try.

My aim is to keep you up updated on my progress so you can rejoice in my success or take pity in my failure (or vice versa). Really though, regardless of my exact word count I will be further along in a month than I am today.

So: NaNoWriMo, here I come!

 

Update: Portfolio

PortfolioOctHello Dear Reader, and welcome to my new portfolio!

I have restructured and expanded on my image gallery, but there isn’t much new material posted. Most works have appeared on here, on twitter or on facebook previously, but they have never been gathered in the same place before.

Feel free to have a look!

(The image on the left here links to the portfolio page – sadly it would have been too much work to do a collection of expandable thumbnails on here)

As i think I’ve mentioned before, I’m doing an overhaul of this site.

Last week I reduced the number of categories of my blog to six and restructured things a bit:

Life – posts about what is going on with me, be it personally, professionally, creatively or just randomly overthinking and contemplating something.
Art – posts that prominently feature my artwork, including Sketch of the Week, portraits, etc.
Commentary – posts offering my views on current events or specific topics.
Feature – posts that feature or promotes another artist, as well as posts on inspiring people in general.Reblog of the Week – my weekly (ahem…) sharing of other blogs.
Word of the Week – my ever popular delvings into the obscure, archaic or arcane nooks and crannies of the English language.

As usual, nothing is set in stone and these categories are subject to change, addition, division, fusion, deletion or transmutation without prior notice. I take little to no responsibility fpr the actions of my future self (you didn’t hear this from me, but that bloke is a madman)!

Also, i have a loose plan of where to go from here.

I am slowly putting my work out there again, testing the waters and throwing out hooks to see if anything will bite or stick or come angrily shambling from the depths looking to end mankind. It’s slow work, but no one else is going to do it!

Finally, a heart-felt Thank You, Dear Reader!

Since rekindling my efforts on here I’ve seen an increased response from You – likes, shares, feedback, views etc. Just over the weekend now I had over 400 views from nearly 100 people, in a single(!) day. I really appreciate it and you are very important to me!

 

From the Ashes…

“Nothing in life is worth turning your back on, if you love it.”
—Albert Camus

I am back, Dear Reader – or so I hope, at least.

Things are settling down and the determination and creativity is creeping back into my skull, demanding attention. I haven’t created anything worth while for a long time now, but ideas are forming and inspiration is rising in my soul again. All that remains now is the discipline and hard work. Not an easy task, for me, but I need to create or else I go insane and self destructive.

So, here I am, returning to the blog and to the creation of my online platform.

I’m going to start light and try to get into a routine again, so bear with me if things go slow. The important thing is that I am here again, I hope.

See you next week!