It's been a while. I obviously don't blog very well because I don't have too much to say. Therefore when I do have something to say, it must be very important...or not.

Anyway, I'd just thought I'd encourage anyone feeling uninspired lately by showing you my DSF submissions for 2006. Some pictures were goofy, some were serious, but I had a good time and want to continue practicing. If you are not already part of the DSF please stop by and participate in a topic or two by clicking on the following link: I’d like to check out the DSF but I’m a small frightened creature No one is going to make fun of you and you just might make a friend or two.

So where was I? Summer had its ups and downs. The downs were lower than Hell itself. Anyway, I have a WIP in the WIP section where I’m trying to create an exotic car with Illustrator. I’ve also been involved in the DSF this year so be sure to check out some of my humorous quick sketches. Quick for me is 2 – 4 hours because I’m a perfectionist. For example, I’ll draw an arm in maybe 2 seconds. Some 3,000 seconds later I’m working on getting it just right.

I always tell people that the eraser is one of the most important tools in an illustrator’s arsenal. And that’s true because you can simulate light sources simply by removing volume from key lines. In my case, however, I probably spend as much time erasing as I do drawing so maybe I should quit putting such an emphasis on erasing?

I’ve had my Wacom Intuos3 9x12 for over a year now but I have not practiced enough to be at the level of pencil and paper yet. I’m trying to change that with forced doodles and DSF submissions. Wish me luck and good luck in your endeavors.

For a detailed account of my summer, please deposit $19.95 ($23.95 Canadian) into my PayPal account and send me a note with the subject; “Holy Hell, How Horrible!”

Just me thinking out loud. How many jobs have I had? Not counting my pre-W-4 days of mowing lawns and door to door sales:

McDonalds – Window Cashier/Cook
King’s County Workout Gym – Trainer
House of Commons – Janitor
KSEQ 97.1 Visalia – Late night DJ
Some construction company (I can't remember their name) – light construction work
Kenny’s Shoes – Shoe Salesman
Lyon’s Restaurant – Busboy
Round Table Pizza – Delivery Driver
Rusty’s Pizza – Delivery Driver
KFC - Cook
Office Depot – Stock Clerk
IRS – Tax Examiner
USPS – Data Entry Specialist
Woodside Summit Group, Inc. – Documentation Specialist
Computer Sciences Corporation – Writer
Electronic Data Systems – Technical Writer
Alcova Mortgage – Marketing Associate
Engineering Documentation Systems, Inc. – Technical Writer

I wonder how many more I’m going to have?

There are several medical remedies of which you can Google. But here are some things which I do, which you can do yourself that maybe you’ve never tried:

Clear your mind:
This is perhaps the hardest thing in the world to do if you’re like me but the biggest key to falling asleep. You need to let go of your thoughts. Stop replaying what-could-have-been or what-might-be type situations in your head. Good luck with that though. I do the same thing all the time – my body is exhausted but my mind keeps going over how I could have better handled a situation (usually involves back flips and flying kicks). I know, I need to stop that. You need to stop it too because lack of sleep affects your mental and physical health more than a good cane beating. If you can’t get that song out of your head then try broken stanza repetition: Instead of singing, “Can’t you help me as I’m startin’ to burn (all alone) Too many doses and I’m starting to get an attraction,” sing, “Too many doses and I’m too many doses and I’m too many doses and I’m…”

Breathe like you’re sleeping:
Ever notice that when people are sleeping they breathe in breathe out, hold it for a couple of seconds, breathe in breathe out, hold it for a couple of seconds, breathe in breathe out, hold it for a couple of seconds? You need to do that. It will lower your heart rate and create the rhythmic brain activity that induces the sleep cycle. Breathe deep with your mouth. Shallow breathing is too much like when you’re talking on the phone. Instead take deeper breaths when you want to fall asleep, but do not be so quick to take in a breath after you exhale.

Look for sleep:
Ever notice that when babies are sleepy they cross their eyes and roll them back into their head? Well, we all do that. The body falls asleep with eyes crossed, rolled back into the head. REM sleep changes that but to fall asleep cross your eyes and roll them back into your head. It not only sounds stupid but also sounds forced. Well, there is another trick to it. You have to look at something while you’re doing it. No, I don’t mean open your eyes and look at your night stand. You have to keep your eyes closed and imagine you’re looking at something. Let your mind form the image.
You see, when people close their eyes while awake (such as a birthday surprise) they do not try to look past their eyelids. Instead they just close their eyes and experience sensory deprivation – a dark void sometimes involving a fading ghost image of the last thing they’ve seen. But when you imagine something with your eyes closed you see form, color, depth, value, motion, more often than not, sound and sometimes even smells. That’s a big difference.

Touch your face:
Yes it’s stupid. No it doesn’t always work. Nothing always works. But having your fingers touch your face is a great way to “concentrate” on sleep. For one thing it’s completely distracting to be pushing your lip up past your teeth. This distraction keeps you from thinking about all those what-could-have-been or what-might-be type situations. You can’t stop thinking about how annoying your finger is. After a while you can’t feel your finger so you wonder if you are actually touching your face or not. It’s kind of like lucid dreaming because you are aware of your mind but not aware of your body.

Miscellaneous:
I turn on a fan for white noise. I make peace with my wife. I make peace with Jesus. I don’t drink a lot before going to bed but sometimes have a cup of water on the night stand for those I-just-crawled-through-the-desert dreams.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I suffer terribly from insomnia and even medical remedies have been unhelpful but maybe you are not a chronic sufferer like me. The only thing that knocks me out cold is Valium but I can’t get a hold of any so send me your samples. Otherwise, have a good night.

Cool. It was bashing the bodybuilding lifestyle. My question was basically why is it okay to bash body building and not the gay lifestyle? You shouldn’t judge either lifestyle; and I wanted the people involved to really think about the words they were saying by taking it to that level. Yes, of course it’s the straw man argument (they didn’t actually talk about homosexuals) but the underlying basis of fear and hate is not really ignorance but conformity. A person can be well versed on the subject they hate. But those that conform to social pressures do so out of the fear for their lives, and rightly so. A Christian is not welcome in a Muslim community. A homosexual is not welcomed in a high school football locker room. These differences can be fatal for the different person but safety for the person who conforms.

So you can see how easy it is to start bashing groups of people that are different from you and your group because it’s our basic instinct to stay alive or, at best, avoid ridicule. After all, ostracism isn’t conducive for group cooperation and you need human collaboration just to meet your basic needs.

I know what you’re thinking—just because you disagree with your friends doesn’t mean they’ll kill you. My answer, of course, is what earth are you living on? Men kill their wives, women kill their children, brothers kill brothers; people kill each other every minute that you breathe, over differences of opinion, differences of appearance, differences of beliefs. There is safety in numbers so if you surround yourself with like-minded people you have a better chance of remaining alive.

Your basic survival instinct sounds pretty grim, and it is. But now we’re all enlightened, right? We now know that it isn’t right to judge other groups. We know that we can conduct intelligent conversations with pretty much anybody and that every person has something to offer. We are highly intelligent and rational beings. Right? Wrong? What do you think?

Back on topic: Basically, a group of people who didn’t like body building got together and started giving their opinions on how detestable the lifestyle was. Yes, there is a dangerous trend of unhealthy steroid use in the body building community but as a whole the group should not be judged by the actions of some individuals. The users who posted their opinions patted each other on the back and everyone was safe and felt included. A few of us defended body building but then I wondered if the other people really were so enlightened and rational why did they not see that what they were saying could easily be applied to any group such as homosexuals. Boom. The thread disappeared. Cool. No need to spread ignorance. Do not bash any group of people for just being people. You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers.