Two posts in one day? Unheard of.

This has been a productive day for me and in a not-tiring way, either...which is sort of like the best of both worlds. Now all that's left to do is to produce some sleep. :)

I've been reading a couple of books lately...one is a book that I started reading a while back but never finished for whatever reason called Scribbling in the Sand...it's about creativity and God. The other book is called Understanding Comics, which I stole from the Cardigan. So um..yeah, Stephen, I have your book. At least I'm assuming it's yours. I'll bring it back when I come up in a couple weeks.

and THAT book's got me thinking about a lot of stuff that I'll be working on at some point and also has me reading another book (at my sister's suggestion, who would normally be the last person to suggest a comic book for me to read), and that book is Maus. I look forward to reading it more.

And yes, I know I said I was only reading a couple, but I meant that by reading a couple, it has me reading a third.

Ok, so Jared, you commented on this being in my sketchbook, and I told you that I worked it out a little more OUTSIDE the sketchbook, and today I worked on it a little more. I think it needs to be a scene of sorts, but I'll work that out later.


Also, in my productive day, I learned how to make sure that the images are clickable and biggable (and in some cases more sensical and amusical).

Goggles are all the rage...

Not enough is said...

...about monsters who eat good, healthy cereal.

everything is orange, red and yellow

Well it's the first day of October, and officially fall now (I think). It is in my mind anyway. And since it's the beginning of my favorite season and the beginning of my favorite month, I felt like I needed to update.

I think that God had a smile on his face when he gave me a birthdate in my favorite time of the year. That's a cool, warm thought.

So Rock Hill this past weekend. After having been away for over a year now, I have come to see more now than ever what people mean to me, and just how special relationships are. You get a different perspective - a different view - when you're standing a ways back...it's like a bird's eye view and you can see a lot better how everything connects and intertwines, and the magnitude of things and how far they can reach.

I think I have a lot to say about that trip, but it's almost left better unsaid, 'cause I'd only muck it up if I tried. I'd rather just leave it to that front porch, with the sun and the shade, the slight breeze and the first hints of crisp autumn air.

Word of the day: perfunctory

So I don't want to give the impression that I'm not doing children's books anymore with that last post. (maybe I just outright said that...I don't remember and I didn't go back and read it) I just liked the feeling of freedom in so far as drawing pictures and not feeling like I have to do any of it with a reason and an agenda.

I think I've decided on a layout for my website. It's pretty simple. I'm a big fan of simple.

Also, they're coming out with a Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Veggietales movie..consider me way pumped. Those movies/shows are too cool.

The weather for the past three days has been absolutely amazing. s'got me jonesing for the fall time. I like fall the most of all the seasons..maybe that's why it seems like God made it the shortest..so that I'll long for it when it comes around. I love the leaves, the pure blue sky that you can see through empty branches, the crisp air, jackets, pumpkins, mountains..man. Makes my heart swell up.

So I've been leading this small group down here in Charleston...and it's been a huge blessing for me. It's good to have others looking in my direction..keeps me accountable with what I do and how I spend my time when I'm away from my brothers and sisters. My brother (from the same mother) came to the group this past Monday night, which I was really glad about and my sister has been coming too...those two, man...God's got a lot He wants to do with them.

Only a week and a half before I'm up in Rock Hill again. It may not be this trip up, and if it's not that's ok, but I want to go hiking at crowder's. Or somewhere. Because that's what the fall is for. I want to maybe carve a pumpkin too. Not at the same time, however.

I leave with the old version of Pedro...

Apparently, I'm a fan of blueish backgrounds and looking to the left.

fog is good at hiding things.

I think that maybe I've been going about things the wrong way. I keep getting hung up in certain points of my life and then find myself frustrated when it happens. Maybe it's supposed to be happening? Sometimes life and thoughts and expectations and plans need to be completely re-evaluated. Rehauled.

I've been holding onto this children's book career idea for a long time. Family, friends and teachers have been incredibly supportive and encouraged me to do it. But I have to wonder if I've let them have more influence than they should have. I've been told "That's so cute - if you don't get that published, I'm going to have to kick your ass" or something along those lines. (A threat-compliment, as odd as those are...)

I could make a lot of money with it..I won't put on a false modesty about it...I think I could do it and be successful. But I keep hitting these walls, and I can blame it on lack of discipline and not being able to make myself do it,...but I think the real reason is that my heart isn't there. So while God may still lead me there, I'm not going to put that as a focal point for what I'm going to do with my life.

And coming to that decision is somewhat liberating, opening up the doors again for anything to happen, and not trying to force a square peg into a round hole. And it should allow me to just do art for the sake of loving it, to be passionate about it.

That said, here's Jared:

Ok, so this is an update to the original post. I had this other drawing of a kid that I was coloring and it gave me the idea to do this next thing. I call it "16 years down the road: Retribution".

As in, Jared Jr. Annoying Jared Sr. :)

Well this is sort of a story..

It was for me, anyway.

I had the most amazing dream two nights ago - it was full of both peace and joy - it flowed. When there is water, it can be clean or dirty. This was clean. And when water flows, it can move rapidly or slowly - this was swift, but it took its time as well - there was no hurry.

Some of you, I may have told this, some maybe not . . . but there's been this now and again thing with death in my dreams and my family dying in them. Every morning after held this somber kind of air, trying to shake it off.

And then two nights ago, I had a dream about my own death. I never saw my end; it didn't happen in the dream, but I knew that my day was coming and I had completely reconciled myself to it. Actually, the peace that I had about things was almost as if I was going to go to sleep at an appointed time, not to wake up again. Not death.

I had nothing to say, nothing to do, it was as if I was as light as a cloud - absolutely no burdens and in as much of a dreamlike peace as could be. And there was a committee. A group of people, led by a lady. She, and the others, were there to orchestrate my final hours, days, months - but not to lead me to my death, but rather almost to give me a kind, red carpet farewell to the Gate.

And they made everything perfect.

It was like a painting - of brilliant color, from the dark hues to the light, of smooth singing voices, tragic, beautiful and joyful, and the whole thing swallowed and breathed of depth.

It was beautiful. And I woke up.

And I didn't have to shake myself from it, the morning after.

The place that I work may have a company picnic coming...

but I doubt that it'll have funtivities, coal walking and management parables.

It will however, have sumo suits. And I won't be there for it. The company's going to a Riverdogs game next Friday, (which is minor league baseball for those of you who are out of that particular loop). But I'll be down at the river in Beaufort with the fam for that weekend. Water skiing, catching crabs, that kind of stuff.

I've been watching some Man vs. Wild recently, so I should be good to go if I happen to get stranded out in the marsh somewhere. Cattails make for excellent fire materials.

I really don't think there's much to tell you that's cool or that you'd be interested in. Oh. Here's something - I was able to get my mom's old cell phone and activate that for the time being. So if you need me, call.

They had ice cream at work today. I had a Klondike bar, or as my grandad calls them, a polar bear bar. It kept getting in my mustachio. I don't think Crotts saw me when I was mustache-less. Probably for the best.

I've been having a lot of fun with the new JJ Abrams movie lately...I would give its title, but it doesn't really have one. But the trailer was attached to Transformers (and in my opinion, sort of trumped the movie in terms of excitement). Abrams is a genius at getting people excited about seeing something, whether it be the next episode of Lost or this movie. Maybe I need to watch some Alias to catch that, even though I know it ended poorly.

Anywho, I think that's it for now. Return back to your lives. You might find a short story on here next time you read it...I'm tempted to do so. Story is the first part of illustration a lot (if not most) of the time...

Now that I'm here, I don't know what to say.

My blog-posting life goes like this:

1) Something cool or interesting happens.
2) I want to tell somebody about it.. - ooh! journal!
3) By the time I finally get to the computer, my interest in writing it out has waned.
4) The long period of time since my last post extends even further.

Rinse, repeat.

But I digress. I am here.

So, factors in my life have rendered me almost completely communication-less. I jumped ship on myspace and facebook a week or two ago and on Wednesday, my phone got wet during a trip to the beach. The facebook and myspace bit has something to do with trying to slow down and simplify my life and thoughts. The phone bit...well, that's unfortunate.

One of my new favorite things: drinking out of styrofoam cups, with lots of ice and whatever's not filled up is where the drink goes. Any kind of ice will do, but sonic's ice remains the best.

I saw Transformers last night. As good of a job as they did with the special effects, it didn't really get me going. Some kinds of movies aren't what they used to be for me, and I'm thankful for that. Nowadays, I need a good story. Transformers didn't have that. Just robots, rockets and busted up buildings.

And with the need for story, I started to steer more towards the book market. I just finished up the first part of a trilogy retelling of Robin Hood by Stephen Lawhead and I bought the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman as well as The Bridge to Terabithia by whoever wrote that.

My imagination needs rekindling. I think it went out for the most part a good while ago.

I was glad for July 4th to be in the middle of the week. It made the work week go by a ton faster. Two day weekend, two day work week, one day weekend, two day work week, two day weekend. That's a nice ratio. Even if I do endorse working 6 days a week...

I'll write again later. That's not a promise, so don't think I'm making one.

It's a threat. ...or something not like...a promise.

like a hit and run.

So I don't really feel like writing anything right now, but I wanted to post this for your guys...


i meant for the bull crop to look a little more like a potato.

or a spud, if you prefer. with little hairs sprouting off. cause you don't shave spuds.

or potatoes, for that matter.

And a picture for kicks. To tide you over.

I'm working on a short little three-panel comic right now, so that should be up soon too.

Dancing Bones

So I love where it's recorded in John 11 that Jesus raised ol' Laz from the dead. He says what I think is one of the greatest things in all the Bible....as if any of them aren't good. This one just catches me a lot. Christ was talking to Lazarus' sister and he tells her "This sickness will not end in death."

Kabloom.

How prophetic is this for all the children of God? It's a promise and it's a statement that life in and with Christ is more powerful than death, that death is nothing more than a point along the way - it is not the end. Death is merely a doorway.

And it's so great because when Lazarus dies, he dies with a sickness. But when Jesus raises him, Lazarus is raised as whole as can be, yet without the sickness. It has been stripped from him and done away with. The sickness that was in Laz is no more.

It's baptism through death. The whole point of baptism (which I think is properly done with a good dunking to get the point better..) is to be submerged in water (ie death) and then to re-emerge, having been washed clean and having left all of your sinful self behind in the water. Man, baptism is so beautiful.

And the way that Jesus says "This will not end in death," he says it with such an authority. It's not a "Let's hope this doesn't end in death"...it's a statement of fact.

So whatever you're dealing with, whatever you're going through, whatever plagues you inside and out and you can't seem to separate yourself from that crap called sin in some way or another, know this: This sickness will not end in death. And so the sick and even the dead are called to dance and rejoice.

half of the stuff in my veins is mountain dew.

So after a couple of requests to see this, here "this" is:

In case this doesn't post properly so that you can't see it, it reads:

the 27th of May,

anno domini 2007

we bring to you a show

to celebrate the days and children

of healing broken things

but they're not really playing a show on the 27th of may that I know of, so don't expect that. but you can always ask...

it was good to see you guys (those whom I saw) this weekend.

if camels didn't have hair, we'd have a lot of sunburnt humpbacks.

it's sunday afternoon. it's been a good day so far. as well, the week has been good too. went to a riverdogs game (baseball for those not familiar with the charleston area) last night...I've been wanting to for a while now and finally got my chance.

i've been working on several art things lately, as I've probably said before...there's another one at the end of this post, even. biggest news is revamping the munch book. i feel like a lot of the original artwork is mediocre, both in terms of quality and layout. i think i can do better. some of the pages I'm not going to like redoing (particularly the spread of munch jumping into the pile of leaves..), but it'll have to be redone, most likely.

and all of that will take about...well,..a long time, seeing as work likes to take up a lot of time itself. and speaking of work, it's either more pay or a different job...that's the ultimatem. so we'll see what happens.

also, for those of you who read this, who don't know yet, i'll be coming up to the rock hill area this coming friday after I get off of work and staying until saturday night. hope to see some folks.
anyway, here's a little sketch, sponsored by photoshop and a stolen stock photo.

This is something that I've been working on for Pointe North's upcoming sermon series titled "Questions". I've got some more to do on it (namely a little bit of color, not much), but I like the way it's going so far so I figured I'd post.

A little something in prog.

It's been a while. Too long. Been trying to get stuff on here and out "there", but haven't gotten anything final done. I'm working on multiple things though, so hopefully more should be coming soon...


A little bit of sketchwork....
becomes a little bit colored.....

more on this later, perhaps.

that, and I've written my first new story in about...well, since I left Rock Hill.

The world had to do a lot today.

So yeah, I said there would be more in a couple days, but now it's three and I haven't quite finished what I wanted to put up here. So I'll put something else. On a side note, I ran into a girl from high school in walmart this afternoon. She's now a police officer and is in the forensics dept. CSI stuff. XFiles was cooler. I don't know what my reaction would've been if she'd been part of that. Dag. No further ado:

I need to stop having cool ideas until I start getting them out. It's called getting creatively fat and sometimes I feel like a slob. Or a slacker. Or a slocker. ...slobber? Peace out.

Saving the world one entry at a time..

So this particular thing actually started out by staring at the bathroom floor tiles at work. No lie. And the stinky cheese actually had nothing to do with being in the bathroom.

There's more from where this came from too...look back for it in the next coupla days.

Cathedrals..

There's a song by Delirious that I've been listening to a lot recently called "The Deeper 99" that's off of their Mezzamorphis album. The main gist of the song is really just one line that says "Heaven is my home", that's repeated with passion, authority and laying claim to.

I was listening to a sermon recently by Rob Bell entitled "Why We Sing", and he was talking about worship in general at one point and mentioned the things in our life that really touch us, that hit our souls at the very deepest. It could be a word from a friend, a part of a movie, a song (with lyrics or without), a waterfall, mountains, anything. He said it was kind of like walking into a cathedral, and the feeling of awe that you have when you do. We feel it because the in that awe, the glory of God is there and we recognize it, our spirits recognize that this is a little piece of the Almighty that is taking place on earth.

Heaven is the anywhere that resides in the presence of God. Different levels of Heaven, perhaps, but it's home. We're wanderers and don't belong here so much of the time...you can feel that in almost every step of the day. We belong in Heaven with God our Father...home is where we belong.

And my hope is this. That place we call home..Heaven.. I think that parts of it are available for viewing here and now. "Your will done on earth as it is in Heaven." Jesus brought the ability to have Heaven here, to be able to see it and know parts of it now. It may be in a movie, or in a song, or maybe it's in a run down neighborhood or a stray dog, where the compassion of God lies. But wherever God has laid Heaven, home, open for the viewing, I hope that you, and I, may be given the vision to see it, and that we may be able to lay hold to it, clutch it to our chest and treasure it dearly, as it is the dearest thing earth.

What nomad in history has ever had a true home on the road besides us?

A little something new..er...

Click on it to make it a lil' bigger.

Give me a yea or a nay on this style of post..cheers.

It's lunch time again here at Anchor Sign and I just went outside to my car before eating to get some potato chips. And that is a fact, as they are now on my desk in a little baggy. Now, one might speculate as to where these chips came from. Basically, it comes down to two options. The first is that I have a bag of chips that I bought that are sitting in my passenger seat which I put into smaller bags to bring them for lunch. The second option begins a few days back.

I was parking my car in the lot around 7:30 one morning last week, and as I was about to make my way to the building, I heard an "Ahem," from behind me. So I turned around, and there to my surprise was a faun. He then proceeded to explain that he had been exiled to the parking lot by his mother because of a very obnoxious prank he pulled on her the day before (though he declined to tell me what that prank was to prevent any other exiling). He said that being out in the parking lot with no trees got really hot, especially with the wool that covered his legs and all and he asked if he could lie underneath my car for the day. I wasn't sure about it at first because, well, it was a weird request. Then he said that if I did, he would give me a little plastic baggy of potato chips anytime I wanted. So I said OK.

So it's one of the two. You decide for yourselves. I would tell you which one I'd go with, but I already know the answer, so that'd be cheating.

Cheers.

P.S. I wonder how a game of phone tag would go if it were freeze tag.

Tomorrow's payday.

And I couldn't be more ready for it.

So I've been doing a lot of stuff with my mom or a lot of the same stuff as my mom here lately. For instance, we get up around the same time for work, we watch 24, Lost and Heroes together, we've been fixing lunches and dinner together (b/c we're both watching what we eat). We also both download and listen to the sermons that come out of Mars Hill in Michigan. This is the point where I segway.

If you want to hear a good sermon (I really don't like that word..too formal)..or series of sermons, you should go to www.marshill.org and download the Peacemakers. But if you want a really good one and have only time for one, download the third one. It's amazing. Also, I just found out that my new pastor (Pastor Cal) actually knows Rob Bell. Which is cool. And Cal was in the Air Force once upon a time where he did top secret missions (like middle of the night, you don't know if you're coming back type stuff), which is cool too.

It's good to be getting active in a church as an individual, and because of my own individual choice.

Tomorrow is payday. And I couldn't be more ready. I think I'm gonna buy a kid.

If God could be thrilled to death, He would have been today.

I've been reading a devotional book by Watchman Nee that my biodad got me for Christmas called A Table in the Wilderness during lunch time at work. And today's was about rejoicing in the Lord in everything which, as Nee pointed out,...this is hard to do considering all of the things that happen in life that we go through. So he went on to say that Paul gives the secret and that we are to take God's joy as ours (the joy of the Lord is our strength). And then he said something that I found really cool and really applicable (not that the other stuff wasn't, but you'll know what I mean..).. He says:

"His joy is yours. Learn to live by it above your troubles. When tempted to be cast down, look up and ask yourself, Has the Lord lost his joy today?"

It sounds like a remedy for the morning, it sounds like a remedy for self-pity, it sounds like goodness. Because you know that the Lord is joyful for a reason and that means despite what I can or can't see, there is something to be joyful about. And there is the strength.

And don't worry kiddies...I'll be posting some sketch stuff on here soon enough...as soon as I figure out how...

this post is brought to you by the font "Georgia".

On the first day of Blogmas...

jake page here.

I felt like I needed a place to do things like write and post sketches and sometimes think things out on a keyboard. And that's why I created this thing. It's been like 2 years since I've posted anything blog or journal related online. An old friend and a new friend.

This is also a place so that friends (this probably includes you, unless otherwise noted..) can keep up with me nowadays. Right now, I'm living at home with my mom and my brother and I'm working as something of a graphic designer at a sign company called Anchor Sign in Charleston. I'm actually in my cubicle right now as I type this, on my lunch break. I've got homemade hashbrowns with ham and cheese and man. It's good. Anyway. I've started going to a new church too - Pointe North. (I don't know why there's an e on the end of Pointe..) It's good..trying to get involved there some.

Walking with God has been as interesting as always..since I've been home it's been all over the place and I've felt like my mind has been too. I've had my bitter days and my complacent days more often than not, but the wilderness is the wilderness for a reason. But I think a corner has been turned. I'm thankful for a lot.

So I hope that this'll be good to read and look at. And I hope I keep up with it. holla.

And yes, Cori, I stole your layout.