DreamWard Bound (5/3-5/10/14)

What happened this week?

This week started off great. I woke up early on Monday and Tuesday to do yoga before work. Driving into work, since I carpool, I read. After work I was creative for over ten minutes each day.

I was doing great for those two days. Yet, on Wednesday morning something horrific and terrible happened. I woke with a sore throat! This ruined my works outs for the rest of the week, because I did not want to wake up early with a sore throat and move. I wanted to rest and baby my small aliment. I mean you can’t really do anything with a sore throat, right? You shouldn’t exercise or be active if you have post nasal drip.

It is also really hard to work out in my room, since it is a bit crowded with boxes, junk and a mess.  As you can read it is so easy for me to brush my fitness and health goals aside. It is not fun for me to work out with out a purpose and it is hard to work out with out a specific space that is solely for fitness. I have heard that there are buildings that are dedicated only for fitness and exercise. I may have to do more research on them and redefine my fitness goal or at least how I am going to achieve it.

I made most of the other goals. I still have to spend 2 hours working on my novel and have not recorded a video. The good news with both of those goals are that I have them planned for today. I should be posting the video later on today, along with another post about which paintings of mine are going up on eBay.

As far as the goals I made; Three days I worked on writing and two days I worked on a monologue type thing, which will be explained in the post with the video.  I did post two of the poems that I wrote this week on this blog. One was She, He, They and the other was Friendship. Both were quick little poems that took under ten minutes, but hey I wrote two poems, and was actively creative while working a full-time job with a 45 minute commute (one direction).

The 45 minute commute is also why I decided to do my reading in the car, which apparently not everyone can do.  Another note about the reading I finished reading a book about writing and read all of Romans (a book in the Bible) this week.

To wrap this blog up I just want to say that all in all this week was a good week and a good step towards my dreams, which are now my goals. Thank you for reading and I will be posting more later on today or maybe tomorrow. We shall see what happens.

Friendship

I am really thankful for my friends today. Nothing major happened. I simply am thankful for them and all the ways they help me be the best me I can be, whether that is apartment search, giving support for my goals, being goofy or answering every question I ask.  Friendships are easy to take for granted, and it is easy to not realize how essential friendships are.

That being said, during my ten minutes of creativity today I wrote them a poem. Even though it does not have the words, “thank you” in it, this is my thank you poem to all the people I call friends (family, friend-family, and friends alike).

 

Why does the sun shine

and the grass grow?

Why does the wind blow

and I breathe?

The answer should be clear.

It is because you are near.

The sun shines bright

and days last longer

when you are smiling,

when you are laughing.

The grass grows greener

and the wind calms the storms for just a bit longer,

when you my friend are living along side me.

Happiness brings the sun out

even on a cloudy day;

the grass grows

even in a drought

when friendship is sought.

I can breathe with ease

because the wind calms the storms

when you stand close.

 

What a wonderful life

when friendship can be seen.

 

She, He, They

I just scribbled down a fast poem and wanted to get some feed back. I also like how it came out, so wanted to share it with you, my readers.

 

She waits, she works

she spins and twirls.

Merrily on her way she goes

in a dance that no one knows.

 

He paces, he panics

He dashes to run races.

Frantically rushing every where

in a rave that no one knows.

 

They talk, they listen

They move all about

Sweetly whispering and giggling in the other’s ears

in a life no on really knows about.

Forest Painting

I painted a little forest area and recorded myself while doing so. Here is the sped up video, that is available on youtube. I also have two other paintings that I recorded and sped up.

Here is some more information about the video and song that is playing in the back ground.

This a sped up version of me painting a forest, which is where the title “Forest Painting” comes from. It took me a little over an hour to paint this piece and is one of the very few forest paintings I have done.
The song in the background is O.A.R.’s song, “If Only She Knew.”
It is off their 2001 album Risen. You can find more information on O.A.R. on their website.

Looking back to help me go forward.

I always like looking back at my past. I do not look back to dwell on my past mistakes or my past hurts. I do not like putting energy into the negative things that could hold me down. Instead I look back to see how far I’ve come. I enjoy seeing my progress and realizing what I have left behind. I also review my past to see what else I need to let go of.

The first thing I realized you may not care about. It has does not have a obvious correspondence to my art or this blog.However,  it is a big realization for me and important. I recently realized I’ve stopped looking for romance. Like I mentioned in my DreamWard Bound post this week I went through old journal entries. I realized how much I thought and wrote about romance before and how little I think about being in a relationship or finding my one true love. Yes, if some one comes along and sweeps me off my feet I will go with it.The difference is that  I am not looking for that person. I am so happy, complete and fulfilled in my life right now, that I do not feel the need to add another person into it. Plus I realized how free I truly am without romance in my life. I can do what I want when I want, I can make future plans without worry about another person, and I do not  have to be any one’s life partner. Again, when the right guy finds me I will be happy to do all that relationship stuff with him. I’m just glad it’s not right now.

I also wanted to reflect on my internet presences. First let’s start with this blog. I just read over the first blog that I ever posted. It is an outline and a plan for movie reviews. You see this blog was going to be dedicated to reviewing movies. It has since changed. It has actually changed a few times now. I would like to go back to reviewing movies, but that will be a goal for the future. I have grown to realize that doing, creating and growing as an artist is more important to me, than growing as a critic. I also realized that I would share art and thoughts rather than movie reviews. I just enjoy it better, at this point in time.

Now a fun look back: My first video that I uploaded to youtube.

Oh and now the first art piece I posted on this blog. This painting took me at least a few days as opposed to the couple of hours my last 3 paints took.(I really hope you are enjoying this, because I am having a blast!)

solo tree

 

In addition to (at least  perceived growth) I have posted more regularly and have more followers visit this blog. I actually looked at wordpress’ stats recently and mine are slowly rising, which makes me happy. All this makes me want to do more, share more, create more. Hopefully all my writing, sharing, and creating wants you, my reader(s) to read and see more.

Feel free to comment below or check out my youtube channel to see more recently videos, my website to see better paintings, or follow me on twitter so that you do not to do any of those things to stay up to date with my going ones.

I have another few posts that I will be working on today and posting through out this week, so stayed tuned/ focused/ on the look out.

DreamWard Bound: now with a plan

I am sure that if you read my blog you have noticed 1. I’m a dreamer and 2. I have not been totally sure what I am doing or know what steps I should take to achieve my dreams. I really felt it this week. I kept asking myself what was I do? What is really going on in my life? Two things helped me not to freak out one was a reminder from a youtube video, the other was a reminder from myself in the form of a old journal entries.  In the video Felicia Day talked about writing but really any dream/ creative talent. Creativity takes practice. The old journal entries simply reminded me of who I was and how far I came (which will be another blog).

With these reminders on my mind today,I spent the day focused on figuring how what success means to me, what dreams I want to make reality, and what I want my future to be. I did this by going through Donna Partow’s “21 Quick And Easy Ways To Make A Real Change In Your Life.” It is a short little 7 step e-book that use to be for free on her site. I believe that offer is over and she took the book down. It is a good simple book that can be a useful start.

By writing out my current goals and planing my daily schedule around it. I should have more interesting blogs to post and more writing to share with you as the days and weeks go by. First thing is first; what are my goals.

1.) I am going to read more than I watch television by reading a chapter in my Bible once a day and by reading at least a page in another book. For every chapter of the Bible I read and every page I read in my other book I will be rewarded with 10 minutes of television, with the exception of comic book, that ratio is 1 page = 1 minute.

2.) I am going to fit into my plaid pants by working out 15 minutes a day and 1 hour on Saturdays over the next 60 days. My reward will be a new outfit. – I want to draw attention to the fact that I am not trying to lose weight, simply trying to get into a healthier shape.

3.) I am going to strengthen my creativity by either writing or practicing a monologue for 10 minutes a day. After 2 months of doing this daily with 3 exceptions/ sick-days I will reward myself with a new video camera or editing software.

4.) I am going to post at least one video and one blog a week onto the internet (more specifically this blog) for accountability, feedback, tracking goals and growth and to find support that I other wise may not have found. Every 6 months of  posting 1 video and 1 post, so that it adds up to be 45 posts I will reward myself with a weekend free of responsibilities.

5.) I am going to finish the 2nd draft of my novel in 1 year (May 3, 2015) by working on it for 2 hrs a week. I will reward myself with a party with my friends.

 

I have plans, tracking tools, negative consequences if I don’t meet my goals, and other information that I won’t bore you with. I do not think you would enjoy reading more lists (if you do let me know . I will share). I also plan on doing a video tomorrow to go along with this post. We shall see how that turns out. I may decide just to paint instead. Either way stay tuned for a video tomorrow.

DreamWard Bound (4/20-4/27/14)

This week’s update is late. This week’s update is short. If I was not tired this week’s update would also be clever.

It has been a long week. I drove Kateland to meet up with Zach Deputy, so that she could go on tour with him.  I actually had to check in order to make sure that it had only been a week. I was right, that happened this week. We had dinner with Zach, which was a great time. I got see what a cool guy he is and he made one comment that really was great. He said that he made and created his music to get that played in his head out. This is why I right and paint. It was amazing to hear someone else having a similar brain to me. I write and paint because if I did not I would have so many stories floating around in my head I would not know what to do.

Most of my week was the same old same old. I did write a poem on Tuesday called Black Winged Guardian, since it was floating around in my head for a day.

The only other thing that was taking a step towards my dreams was that I have decided to research acting classes. I started today looking today. I have found improv classes (which won’t work, since I am already in an improv group) and a workshop (which won’t work because I want to do it to grow a muscle. I know how to use the acting muscle… my muscle is just weak and unused.) I may wind up simply doing more acting videos. We shall see what happens.

 

Have a good week and I shall write again… at some point

.success

Black Winged Guardian

I drove home really late last night by myself. While driving I came up with this poem. Let me know what you think.

Black Winged Guardian

Black winged guardian

hiding in the night sky;

watching over your charge

In invisible armor

to match your unseen ways.

Mysterious and strong

staying in the shadows

exactly where danger lurks.

Black winged guardian,

inconspicuous hero,

hiding out of sight

so villains always feel fright

and victims stay alright.

Black winged guardian,

only feeling love unknown

staying in the shadows

staying where you were meant to be.

Powerful and brave,

Mysterious and strong,

Yet unknown and unseen.

DreamWard Bound (4/12-4/20/14)

All weekend I have been thinking about this blog. What would I write? What should I write? What did I do this week to take steps towards my dreams? Did I actually do anything that made me dreamward bound? I did not have an answer to these questions, until today.

I realized that I did not do anything to move me towards my dreams, instead I enjoyed my time. I worked hard, hung out with friends, went to my improv group, was able to take two friends out to dinner one night, and went out with my “Friend-Family” another night. I was able to celebrate birthdays with two close friends and had fun. Instead of focusing on what my life could be, I simply enjoyed my life as it is.

Now that being said I did have free time today and did want to do something artistic. I decided to paint for a little bit. I also really enjoyed how the first recording of my painting went, so I recorded the painting I did today. The only issue I had was that my camera died within 10 minutes of painting. Thankfully, I had my phone with me and was able to record it on that.  I have posted it on youtube, and placed it right below for your viewing pleasure. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you think. (The song that is playing in the background is MercyMe’s “Move.” which is off their Generous Mr. Lovewell. You can find more information on them at MercyMe.org

4/6/14-4/13/14 (DreamWard Bound)


I started my new job this week. I went in bright and early on Monday and then even earlier every other day. I did my training and went through Human Resources things. By the end of the week I was actually working on a few real sites. You see my not lame day job, that I mentioned in last week’s DreamWard Bound post, is that I’m an ethical hacker. I will be working on client’s sites to find their weaknesses, so that the bad guys can’t. It is technically called web security, but ethical hacker sounds much cooler.

Since most of my time, energy, and brain power went to just surviving the first week of waking up early, and working 8 hrs a day, I do not have an art updates. This post is the closest thing to writing I have done all week, which actually brings me to my first realization. I need to do something art based every week. I was so wiped by the time the week ended and it took me until today, Sunday, to realize how drained I was. You see, art is how I charge my brain’s battery. I turn off reality while I create. I turn off what is going on in my life. I turn off myself. I step outside of who I am to create and in creating I learn either more about God or more about myself, some how. This may not make sense, but art doesn’t always make sense. Just know that art is a release and I now know that I 100% need that release in my daily life, or at least in my weekly schedule.

Another thing I learned, well kind of learned or rather something I want to make sure you know. The web security industry is awesome. What I have seem of it, is super cool. Most of my co-workers are nice people who want to help. Some have felt the sting of being on the outside of society (ie they’re nerds). Others are what society would call normal, or at least can fake normalcy for the most part. What it comes down to is that I know work with nerds, geeks, and just smart guys, who are real. The entire company seems to be made up of normal people working comfortably. Even the upper managers are just normal people, working in a company that promotes openness and a relaxed yet productive culture. In other words I work at an awesome tech company, that is like the tech companies you may hear about.

Now, I may be working a day job to support my passions, but my friend/ roommate will not be. I am sure I mentioned Kateland before. I may have only mentioned her blog. Any ways I am super excited for her, because we are both focused on our dreams right now and she is taking a giant step towards her dreams. She will be working with a musician for the next month or so. She is going to travel with him and sell his merchandise, which will help her experience tour life, network with people, and be around the music she loves. She has a passion for music and this job will surround her in music. I am very excited for her and happy that she will be able to have a taste of her dreams. I have been telling everyone I can, because this will affect my life, also. I will be watching and learning from her experience.

I believe that is all that went on this week. I hope to post more about my art in the coming week, but for now it’s all about my not lame day job.

success