So in summary...

Obviously the writers block has not gone away yet, but I am still trying. I've written a dozen things but they just haven't come out very well. So, here's an update at the very least.

Christmas
This was one of the better Christmases in years I think. Their were some interesting ups and downs. Things that were normally down were up and things that were traditionaly up took a spill, but the overall was good. Often times I dread that day above most. I love my family(s) and I love Christmas, but I don't like how Chirstmas day usually plays out. It just isn't comfortable to me. Or so it had been. This year though I felt surprisingly comfortable with how things went. The only things that was hard about the day was not haveing the money to buy everyone gifts as I had grown accustomed to doing throughout the past nine years, but their was no way to do so as the end quarter of 2005 was a financial mess. (I'm fine, don't freak out on me.) In the end it almost felt good to not have to buy and trade presents with everyone. Felt like I, for once, hadn't given into the "holiday effect" if only because I was close to broke. =P I was able to relax a bit and enjoy the ambience of the day.

New Years
New years was spent as many before it. As a gamer would. Hanging out with friends in front of a glowing screen...sober and stuffed with cookies...laughing and passing the time. Which is all New Years really is, passing time. I understand the concept of celebrating the start of a new year and for those that do party the night away I am happy they can. Personally though, it is like celebrating a birthday, its no different than tomorrow or the next day. A day that is coming until it is here and then it is gone. Just more time. It's hard for me to see a difference.

*Branch Thought*
Similarly, I find it a bit strange that poeple would continue the tradition of the new years resolution. What happened to the other 364 days in the year? (^_^) Some people take it seriously enough and make an effort to do something, to change, but why that day and over the rest. Others almost treat it as a way to validate their poor efforts to better themselves. I don't really understand that either. Perhaps I take it too seriously, but growing and bettering myslef is a priority and their's plenty of work to be done on that front. So was your 2005 as good as it could have been? Could you have made it better than it was? Was it worth doing, whatever it was you did I mean? If so are you going to stay the course and if not are you going to change it this year? I hope your year was more good than bad. I hope your year provided growth and good change. I hope it was worth remembering. Mine was probably the best yet in terms of change and growth, but also one of the most difficult. This year (2006) though will be better...and worse in the same regards.

The challenge
For those of you who don't know I took part in a contest on some forums that ended on the 31st of December. We were given a photograph (portrait) of a young woman and we had to come up with a vector work of some kind from it. The turn out for the contest was impressive but the work done for the contest was far more so. At first I thought..."hey, I have a chance here"...and then others started posting their work. Yikes, these people have crazy amounts of talent in vector art. Some of the contest submissions were almost like the original they were done so well. Others had some creativity melded into the portrait. Anyway, I lost in terms of the contest, but I can say I learned some valuable lessons such as when vectoring in Flash ALWAYS keep a backup of the line work. (Disaster struck a few weeks before the deadline x.X) Also, I was able to do the linework in Flash as opposed to AutoCAD like all my previous work had been done. The result was that the linework was smooth and graceful compared to the edgy and blocky lines I got from CAD. However it took 3 times as long to do.

The original photograph

My contest submission

A new challenge
Not long after the Vector challenge was over I was talking to a good friend who is interested in a collaberation effort with me for another contest. This is not a normal one for me, but I am excited as it requiers me to pick up my pen, pencil, and paper. My friend has a great idea for the contest but needed a drawing to work with. Hopefully, I will not be as rusty as I think I am. Their was a time when I could draw quite well if I took my time, but that was many moons ago. Drawing by hand is something I loved so much growing up, but at the time I didn't have the interest in the arts like now. It was more just a natural things than an interest. A shame, I think, that I failed to continue the practice. Anyway, I need to draw an open ancient looking fairytale book. In my mind are two very complete and beautful images of what I am going for, but we'll see just how much the end work matches them.

School and School-like things
Ok, so school has been dead in the water so-to-speak for some time now, but I made contact with my advisor to find out why my next class hasn't started yet and should hear back soon. Apparently I am not the only one who has slipped through the cracks. I recived a letter from the new president over at Trinity which led me to believe that the internal politics and communication system had been a bit broken down lately. He stated that this was going to change rather aggressivly which is good. Hopefuly this means that I'll get a responce in the next week or so. Not to worry though, in the interim between class and class, I have learned so very much. Meeting many people of many beliefs lately has led me to suck in tons of information about their backgrounds. Things I should have been familiar with but wasn't. To be honest, a great deal of the info has already been forgotten, but I still have the source material I had gotten it from so that's ok. It will be there if I need it. =P

*Branch Thought*
It is good to know what else is in the world (in terms of beliefs) and to understand why other people believe what they do I think. The more I understand the more I can handle what I hear. (The more sensitive and respectful I can be in the matter.) I find that those Christians who have either no or very limited understanding of why others believe what they do normally have a greater intolerance and insensitivity to the beliefs. Consequently, though perhaps without trying, they can be rather disrespectful towards the people they should be appealing to. I'm not saying that I accept and/or assimilate those beliefs as I am required not to, but it should go without saying that we should be loving as God loved us. Understanding that, for many of us, their was a time when we simply didn't know one belief from another and accepting that each person needs to make their own choice in the matter. I was not forced into this belief and neither should they just because I hold some form of hostility towards their non-belief. Love them as God loved me, even when I made what turned out to be the wrong choices. Besides, having different beliefs or traditions doesn't mean that the person is less human does it. Time, space, philosophy, and culture do not seperate people from each other as much as we think.

God Bless,
-Day