THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I feel like I’m not getting enough work done.  I’m working like crazy but it feels like I’m not getting anything done.  I don’t know why that is.  Maybe it’s because the scenes I’m doing are complicated or maybe it’s because half the stuff I’m doing is on the computer and the other half is on paper.  There is also the fact that some of the scenes I’m working on need to be printed out on paper so that I can work on them; only it’s a big pain to do so and I end up spending a lot of time printing the stuff out and trying to get the size of the artwork to work the way I want.

Been staying late the last few days to make up the hours I didn’t work last Friday.  More on that below.

FAMILY

Last Thursday, Alesha stayed home with Munchkin because she came down with some sort of stomach flu.  Munchkin spent the whole day laying down, taking in liquids, watching cartoons,  and going to the poddy.  She seemed to be doing better by the end of the day so Friday morning we woke her and Dante up to go to daycare.  I gave her morning sippy cup of Pediasure (doctor prescribed) and we left the house.  Five minutes letter, we heard a gooshy splat sound coming from the back seat.  Alesha said, “Oh no.”  We both turned around only to see that Munchkin had vomited her Pediasure all over herself.  As we stared, she then proceeded to projectile vomit the rest of it all over the back seat of the car. Needless to say, we turned the car around and I told Alesha I was going to stay home with Munchkin this time.

After rushing to clean up the back of the car, Alesha was on her way.  Meanwhile I got Munchkin comfortable, and put the blankets and coats she had puked on (that where in the back seat and protected the car from the puke) in the washing machine. Munchkin, once again, spent the day laying down, taking in liquids and watching cartoons, although she DID sleep for a veeerrry long time at midday.

By Saturday, she was definitely better. The day before, she could hardly get up.  Saturday, she was walking around happily.  Alesha and I had a lot to do during the weekend so we asked my mom if she would mind taking care of the kids for the day.  She told us she would love to.  Alesha went over to Munchkin and asked:

So off we went.  I ran errands all day while the kids had a blast with my mom. It was a very eventful couple of days.

CATHOLICISM

One of the errands I need to do this Saturday was to go to Confession.  It had been about four months and I really needed it. The church I went to had some fairly long lines.  I hate that.  I’m always afraid that I won’t get a turn.  On the other hand, long lines are a good thing.  It means people care enough, and know enough to go and take advantage of the Sacrament of Confession; which I always see as a reflection of the spiritual health of the parish. Still, I don’t like the long lines.

The most interesting part about Confession this time around was my penance.  The priest told me to take out my Bible, open it up to Psalm 51, read it to myself at first, then read it out loud and pray it to God.  He told me, praying the Psalms out loud was a very Jewish way of praying them. I don’t know if that’s true but I did as I was asked, and I must say, it’s a very moving way to pray a Psalm.  Not only that, but Psalm 51 is an amazingly appropriate Psalm to pray as penace.  Though I didn’t know it before I read it, I didn’t realize I was already familiar with it (or at least parts of it).  The Psalm is one of the Psalms, always read in the Liturgy of the Hours.  It was one of those, “Ah ha! So that’s where it’s from” moments for me. I might read that Psalm from now on after Confession, even if I’m not asked to.

SOME THOUGHTS

Been sending e-mails back and forth with my friend Raul (see the bottom of last weeks post). He’s been sending me copies of the pitchbibles of the shows he’s been pitching around the animation studios. I must say, I’m very impressed with them.  Not only with the fun ideas he has, but the amount of work he puts into them.  Everyone of his pitchbibles has the outline of a complete episode plus a few quick hooks for other episodes.  They also have drawings of the main characters and a history of each.

This has got me thinking, what have I done that is anywhere near as complete as those? NOTHING! I have a ton of ideas of my own.  I keep a book near my bed where both Alesha and I have written out germs of ideas or even written out slightly more fleshed out concepts.  For some ideas, I have small doodles, for some I have tried designing the characters;  others, I have even gone so far as to try to write the outline, but none of those ideas have been done to completion. Even the ones I have done the outlines for I have had to re-edit some story flaws, only to find myself get stuck somehow on how to fix them and they end up being left incomplete.  I mean, wasn’t I suppose to be working on a webcomic.  Well, where the heck is it?

Seeing Raul‘s out put is very inspiring.  It’s made me want to come up with even more ideas of my own. Not necessarily to sell as kids cartoons like he’s doing, but just fun ideas for stories that I think would be cool to write.  In fact, on the way home on Tuesday, I came up with four that I haven’t seen anyone do before (I googled them and they don’t exist).  I immediately wrote them down in my “idea book” when I got home, but will they go anywhere?

Also, I’ve been thinking of maybe doing some freelance drawings for some role playing game magazines as well.  Just to do something different. But in order to do that, I would need to draw something in the style of what they’re looking for as a portfolio piece. I’ve been meaning to get to that, but I haven’t done it.  Why?  Why is it, that when I get home, the last thing I want to do is draw?  I just want to relax.  I don’t want to keep working.  Not only that but I when I have any free time where I can actually do something creative, I don’t.  It seems like, I like the idea of drawing and writing all these creative things, but I don’t actually like doing them.  Yet I get all excited about them when I think about them and I can’t wait to get started on them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have to somehow find a way to discipline myself into completing SOMETHING or I’ll spend the rest of my life wishing I had.

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