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.