The Simpsons

So recently I have been watching what few episodes of The Simpsons that are on Hulu, and to my surprise, it is quite a wholesome show considering some of the other crap that's on TV these days. Homer loves his wife and his kids and even though he isn't the brightest crayon in the box, he still does nice things for them. It encourages good family values, which surprised me. Maybe some people still care about the family.

Swear words are sparse on the show which is really nice for a change (i.e. you hear more swear words out of little kids these days). And I was very proud of Homer for reprimanding Bart for using foul language. The reason all of this surprised me was because when I was growing up, I was never allowed to watch the Simpsons because it was a "bad show." I thought it would be similar to Family Guy, which is just a long string of poorly executed dirty jokes and insulting, stupid stunts. The only resemblance to the shows are the animation style, and that's even a stretch.

So in a word, I have gained respect for the Simpsons.

Peace.

Why . . . ?!

Why do I have a horrible knot in my back? Why are my friends sick or ignoring me? Why can't I concentrate? Why am I not tired, having only 4 hours of sleep last night? Why does everything feel weird? Why am I almost falling apart? Why can't I catch up with this homework? Why do I feel like I don't belong? Why all this shunning? Why all this hate? Why this pain? Why can't I find a place of Zen? Why can't I find balance? Why do I feel so frustrated?Why can't I find the other half of myself that I had last week? Why do I always get lied to? Why? Why?! Why?!?

Ug . . . . .

The Hole

Sometimes, when you have a hole, it can't be filled. As much as you would like to you can't replace what was in the hole. Like, take for instance, a hole in the ground. Once you take out the dirt out of the hole you can't put all the dirt back in the hole exactly the way it was. Why? because that's millions upon millions of little pieces of rock, sand and dirt that all have to go back in the same order and place. The same holds true for most other kinds of holes too.

Another frustrating thing about holes is that you can't make something that didn't fit into it in the first place go in. Take, for example, that funny block game that we all had as kids. It was the cube that had the holes of the different shaped blocks and you had to match the blocks with the holes. No matter how hard you tried you could never fit the square into the round hole and visa-versa.

So what, may I ask, happens when you have a hole such as these two examples? A hole that not only has to have all the right parts, but also the right order of these parts? Disaster.

What if you had a hole such as these and not only was it impossible to fill, but it also had been there for so long and was so deep that its very existence caused pain? What if every time you walk out the door you fall into this hole? So to fix this problem, you put up cement barricades, orange cones, caution tape and warning signs. But this doesn't fix the problem. Now, every time you look in the general direction of the hole you are reminded of how deep, dangerous and painful the hole is.

Still after all of this you must seek another answer. Maybe, perhaps, you could use force to remove the hole all together by forcing objects that do not fit the hole into the hole? A possibility. You try with all your might to push dirt, rocks, cement, water, mud, plastic, air, gasoline, molten metal, wood, scrap and carpet of all things into the hole. The results are abysmal. One after the other, each thing just blows up in your face making your hole all that more deep and ghastly looking.

All this has made you very tired and discouraged. You sit, taking a break from your labors. While you rest and without your knowing, a nasty, gnawing, darkness oozes forth from the pit. It surrounds you and before you can do anything, it, in one sweeping gesture, brings to memory all the joy there was when you didn't have a hole. With it's emptiness it mocks your feeble efforts at trying to erase the gapping maw. You try to deny it's logic, but you cannot.

"It's all your fault," the wicked voice whispers in your ear.

"But I was blind!" you exclaim in earnest. "I didn't know what it was doing!"

"That doesn't matter. You are the one to blame! If YOU hadn't have messed up, you would still have everything that you lost," the voice says with thundering power.

"That may be true, but nothing like that is meant to last. It would've have ended one way or another. With my help or no."

"But just think if you had been more careful!" the voice screeches, reaching some twisted crescendo. "You would have enjoyed more!"

"You are wrong, Demon. That is not what I regret. I regret something that you cannot understand."

"And what is this that you regret? I have my doubts that I won't understand."

"I regret not always having these memories. It was the best decision that I ever made to do these things so I could learn from my mistakes, and grow and change for the better. Sure I miss having the wholeness like I used to have, but I was so naive back then. I am much wiser now. And missing this doesn't make me a dammed soul as you would have me believe. It makes me stronger," you pause, choosing your next words carefully. "I command you to bother me no further, Devil. I am free from you!" you shout the last words in a triumphant call that shakes the ground, releasing the Demon's hold on you.

Rejected, the voice slinks back away into the darkness that it came from leaving behind a trail of memories, good memories that it could no longer hold from the light that is coming from within. But, although the light is coming from within, it did originate from there, it is coming from a greater source, somewhere higher, where all good comes from . . . . . . . . . . . .

Work In Progress . . .

Time to update.

So I'm home for the long weekend. It's been rather enjoyable to eat my mom's food, sleep in a bed that is actually soft and take full advantage of the woodstove in the living room. But all good things must come to an end, and sadly my time is almost up.

One not-so-enjoyable feature of this vacation has been all the homework that I have had to do. Three assignments for one class is over kill in my opinion. I don't like that class . . . . But, since I have slaved away under the whip of the A, I will share my small triumphs with my loving fans (all three of you)!

Here is my first piece. . .

The amount of work I put into this picture was not quite worth the result. I would have been if I had know what I wanted and the proper technique to get there, but alas, I had neither when I blithely started my project. It was for a typography assignment.

"A character made completely from a font."

Notice how is says A font? Yeah, that's right I did all of this with one font and the only thing in the picture that is not made out of words is a rectangle that I used for a clipping mask for the inside of hood. I'm very proud of this little piece of work. I guess I should be for 15+ hours of work spent on this bad boy. Well, enough about the technique. On to the content.

The hooded figure in the center is a representation or Altair or Etzio from the Assassin's Creed series. The reason I say either is because they both have the same hood, which is the focal point. The title of the picture, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." is used several times in the games with considerable impact on the storyline. Because of this, I figured that it was an appropriate title. In addition, I don't think the phrase is trademarked, thus giving my artwork a legal legitimacy. That little bit was for you, sister! : )

The background words are from Lorem Ipsum. If you don't know what that website is, Google it. It will be worth your time. All of 2 seconds of it. The inside hood words/face words is made up of a phrase that I made up but could have easily been in the game. "Come, old man, and I will give you death." To be honest, it is a kick butt phrase in Italian, as far as looks go, at least. His mouth or teeth is the word "morte," which in Italian is death or dead. I thought that this little touch added depth and significance to the picture because he is an assassin and death is what he deals.

The rest of the hood is a quote from the game: "Non temete l'oscurità - accettate il suo abbraccio," Which means roughly, "Do not fear death - but welcome it's embrace." A very beautiful phrase in my opinion. So there you have it, my massive project.

This was a much smaller project that I did tonight that I have to present in class. It's based off a tutorial that I found on the internet.

I think that final effect is pretty cool. It's not perfect. I messed up a few places, but I'm not going to tell you because then you would notice. : P

I think the coolest part about it is the marks around the edge. They are so exact, like a watch. And if you know me, you know that I LOVE watches. The compass star in the middle is pretty cool too, and the shadows give a nice touch. All in all I'm happy with it.

Anyway, I have to go back to good ol' St. George tomorrow, and I have to get up early. : ( Last night I get to sleep in a legit bed for three weeks.

Well, don't forget to leave feedback, my beloved readers! That's the only reason I ever update this thing, is to get comments, so if you want this perpetuated, leave comments! Tell me what you think about my projects, constructive criticism is welcome.

Night, people.

Peace.

Now I Know Why Garfield Hates Mondays . . . .

So, yesterday was just about the wost day ever.

So I need to fill my antibiotic, because it will be out tomorrow. I drive down to Wal-Mart, get out of my car, walk into the store and realize that I forgot my prescription bottle. I turn around, walk back out to my car, get in, drive all the way back to my dorm (hitting almost every red light on the way), run and get my prescription bottle, get back in my car, drive back down to Wal-Mart, get out, walk back in the store, go the pharmacy counter, tell her I want it filled and she tells me that I'm out of refills. Sucks, huh? So, I call my doctor, ask the secretary if the doctor could fax the prescription to Wal-Mart and she tells me that the doctor isn't in, but when she gets in tomorrow, she will have her fax it over.

If you can imagine, by this time, I'm getting pretty frustrated with the whole fiasco. So, trying not to blatantly waste a dollar in gas and almost an hour of my time, I buy a door mat and Assassin's Creed for PS3. I drove home feeling disgruntled.

This whole retarded fiasco was just another stress on top of the 60% that I had gotten earlier that day on a quiz. For some stupid mistakes, nonetheless. So I play my new game for a while and then go eat dinner and by the time that I'm done with dinner I have a splitting headache. I lay down in a vain attempt to try get rid of my headache. I fall asleep for WAY too long. I wake up at 10 PM. Day is just about shot, but that's a good thing, right? Nothing else can go wrong, right? Wrong!

So I play my new game for awhile more then decide that I should have a shower. I take a shower. But before I go to bed, I decided to sync some music to my MP3 player. BIG mistake. I plug in my Zune and wait for the computer recognize it, but it doesn't. I unplug it, and plug it back in. Nothing. I repeat this process at least 28 times before I get so fed up that I Google it. I can't find anything that helps me. After about 2 unsuccessful hours of trying to fix it, I head to bed, tired, ticked off and frustrated at about 4:30 AM. Yeah, my Monday sucked.

10 AM.

My alarm beeps. I drag myself out of bed and to class. I try to learn what seems like an infinite amount of Linux commands while just struggling to say awake. I enjoy Institute, it's a good lesson. I drive to Denny's to get their free Grandslam deal. I drive around the parking lot, realize there is about a 2 hour wait just to get a seat and promptly drive back down the hill to my dorm.

I walk down to the cafe and eat a Countryfried Steak sandwich. It was ok. I call Wal-Mart, only to find out that there is still no prescription. I call the doctor's office. They tell me that the doctor's kids are sick and she wont be in until Thursday. *sigh* Story of my life.

But, on the upside of today, I got a date (even though I can't go to the dance this weekend because I'm going home). Bright spot! I have an art assignment to do tonight . . . not so bright spot. : ( Oh, well.

. \) (/

.(o.o) <----------------- This is Mr. Bunny.

o(__)o

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Ok, sorry, that was really random. Well, I on that note, I bid you all farewell.

Goodnight and good luck.

P.S. Don't forget to comment!!!