Tuesday, November 29, 2011

30 years and 13 months

The last 13 months have brought upon a lot in my life: The birth of my daughter Allura A new career Turning 30 Produced my first film Wrote my first script Made many new friends Lost a friend Death of a family member On Nov 29th of 2010 I started with a new bank. This bank was completely different than the one that I had worked at for almost 7 years since graduating college. I knew I was in for a challenge and its come with many ups and many downs. I've learned a lot about banking and myself in that year. I've been challenged like never before. I've won some challenges and lost some, but I've learned a few things with every win/loss. My team is fantastic and keeps me on my toes. I look forward to many more days with them. I hit 30 this past January as well. Let me tell you, my body has repeatedly told me that it is 30 and I can't do certain things anymore. The first thing it told me is that I shouldn't be eating large amounts of food because I'll be paying the price. Getting old sucks! Since being in the working world for 8 years its hard to stay up past midnight on the weekends to squeeze in a few extra films or hours of video game play. The more I try and hold on to some of the things I used to do, the more I realize I need to do more things that I haven't done before. Instead of staying up late I should go to bed early and start working in the yard early instead of putting it off until the following afternoon. Allura being born was too awesome to contain in one or more blogs. Having my little guy Reeve was fun but a little girl is really a different experience and one that brings out my soft side. She's my little pumpkin and I will do whatever I can to protect her from all the villainous scum out in society. One thing that hasn't changed in the last 13 months leading up to the end of my 30th year: that's me. I realize I'm the same person i've been for the past 12 years or so since graduating high school. I'm fun loving, a big kid, wears my heart on my sleeve and an open book. I think sometimes my personality has held me back in certain aspects of my life and has helped me in others. I know one thing for certain, I need to start being more assertive with not just myself but in everything I do. I've always wanted to do many things and always just kind of waited for them to happen instead of going out and grabbing them. I need to start speaking my mind more. I tend to bottle things up and let them simmer and eventually they get to a boiling point and that's when I express my anger/frustration. I need to find a more useful outlet and I think I found that my muse likes it when I'm angry. She's shown up again today after my day turned out to be not such a good one. Will my creativity yield anything? Probably nothing more than a few hundred words of the short story or so I have rattling around in my head. I'm sure a lot of my friends will appreciate this blog since they all know I need to write more. I also need to keep up the emphasis on photography. My creativity ebbs and flows depending on the season and what else is going on. Not only do I thank my wife for putting up with me but I thank my friends for all the great times over the past few years. There have been ups and downs and everything in between. I'm me, i'm staying me, I'm a horse of a different color and I don't know any other way to be. I should embrace that more and stop thinking about what other people of me. I tend to let others opinions of me dictate how i feel about myself from time to time and that stops. I'm going to do the best I can at everything I do. I'm going to succeed and make the best life I can for my family and myself. Not everyone gets me but I get me.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Untitled

The smoke of the cannon fodder on the fields outside of Gettysburg were barely clear when the dead soliders of the Union and Confederacy sat back up. The armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia were already on their way back down south when the townsfolk faced a new nightmare. Bullet ridden and mutilated the dead soldiers turned towards the small town and marched in unison towards a new target. The people in town were still taking in the damage done to their fields and town when they noticed the newly risen army of dead solidiers walking their way.

Town blacksmith John Shepard and his sons noticed the approaching figures and thats when they heard the screams...

To be continued

Focus

Focus, Daniel-son, thats what Mr. Miyagi said to Daniel Larusso in the first Karate Kid.

Focusing seems to be a lost art for me lately. I find myself at all hours of the day wandering about 15 random things in my life from what i'm going to be doing in the next 10 minutes to what I'm going to do when I get off of work. The minute I start something my mind is already focusing on the end of that task and what I'll be doing next. With having two kids time to myself has become a luxury. I wouldn't trade the time with my kids for anything in the world but I would love to rediscover the lost art of starting a task and seeing it through with complete concentration.. I'm not sure when this started or when I noticed it but I'd say its been since probably mid-2009 onward. I can sense it in just about everything I do. If i'm sitting on the couch reading a book, I find myself wandering whats going on online and stop to check the internet or whats on the tv and checking that. They say idle hands are the devil's playground, well I can say for certain that the devil isn't playing around with my hands.

I think I need to retrain my mind to a time before the iPhone and being completely jacked in and having my mind racing in 27 different directions. By doing that I think I'll be able to focus more effort at work and in the tasks I complete everywhere else.

Thanks to Skip for his constant blogging and unknowingly being my inspiration for starting to write again!