Gifts
Look, something shiny!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
So my birthday is coming up and I’m faced with the ultimate annual question: What do you want?
Knowing it was coming, I started to make a list last month. My list is far from complete, and I’m not even how happy I am with it. My problem is that I think of something I’d like, but I’m driving or busy and don’t have time to add it to the list. Then, when I do have time, I have completely forgotten what it was. I can only remember that there was something, and it was good. But I do have a list and as I looked it over, I noticed something. In the past, my lists, whether birthday, Christmas, Arbor Day, whatever, have always had a nice selection of books to it. The past few years, however, I have included fewer and fewer books. This is due to the fact that I am now reading far less. Partly due to a lack of time, but mostly due to a lack of something I’m sorely missing: Attention span.
I’ve always been a bit ADD, in elementary school and junior high I took some medicine for it, but through high school and college I really didn’t feel like I needed it. Lately, however I’ve been noticing that I’m having trouble following long trails of thought or reading long articles or books. I’ve had a theory that this was due to the fact that I spend more than eight hours a day staring at a computer, where my attention is generally spread between three or four things. Even as I write this, I have an IM conversation going, four email accounts that are constantly popping in and a movie (on pause). I am able to keep up with all of these things just fine (or so I tell myself), but when I’m not on a computer, things just move too slow for me, and when they move too slow, I lose interest. Thus, the lack of reading. There’s really nothing I liked more growing up than immersing myself in a nice long book. I did so often and quite quickly. A four hundred page book in a matter of days was nothing for me. The higher the reading level, the greater the challenge. Today, I can’t get a page or two without losing focus. Shoot, sometimes I can’t even get through a sentence without having to re-read it two or three times. Not because I don’t understand it, but because somewhere in between the words, my mind wandered. I’ve been trying to read through the Bible in a year, by reading just a few hours a week. I have been unable to keep any kind of schedule, or even keep track of what I’m reading beyond a few verses. I hadn’t mentioned this theory of the computer ruining my life before, but I read an article today that broached this exact subject. The article is four pages long, and I read the entire thing, though I did have to stop and focus on something else a few times. I’m not going to go into detail on the article as I hope you will take the time to read it for yourself, but I will say that his findings are quite congruent with my own experiences.
If this is true, if my mind has truly been altered by a constant flood of distractions and blinking lights, what can I do to fix it? The quick and easy answer: get off the computer. I’m not saying I need to become a Luddite or anything, but I do need to check my email and surf the web far less often. Ok, that seems easy, but there is an inherent problem that most of us face. We have jobs that require us to sit all day. That’s a big issue for me right now, and not one I have an answer to. There are other issues to sitting in front of this box as well, my eyes are strained (yes, I have an LCD monitor), my body is lethargic and I’m terribly out of shape, and I rely on things like spellcheck and Google far too much for even basic things. I have chosen, or should say, found myself in a career that is focused solely on not only the computer, but the internet in general. While I don’t feel like I’m part of the problem or what I do is wrong for these reasons, I do feel that sitting here, in a chair in front of two large monitors less than two feet from my face for eight, soon to be ten, hours a day, is detrimental to my well-being. Again, I have no answer to this issue. I am not qualified to do anything other than this without getting a Master’s Degree to teach with. I don’t have enough money to take a leave of absence or sabbatical. So until a solution presents itself, I will be here, fighting the urge to Twitter my every move, which, to me, is just giving in fully to this machine.
Ironically, this may be my longest blog post ever.
Wii!
Monday, December 10, 2007
So we got a Wii for the kids for Christmas! We got pretty lucky, my wife just walked into a Wal-Mart and they were unloading them, so she grabbed one. Since it’s for the kids for Christmas, we haven’t been able to hook it up to the TV… in the living room. But every night, after they’re in bed, we get it out and Wii it up. Wow, that’s a really awkward sentence. Anyway, it’s a blast to play, and all we’ve got so far is the sports game that came with it. What’s really cool, is after playing for about an hour, I’m pretty sore. I get pretty caught up in tennis. And I don’t really even like tennis.
I’m anxious to get into some other types of games, Metroid of course, some of the first person shooters look cool. How bout you? What do you recommend?
Update on the book front. Court and I are pinning down the story for Haywire 2. The first chapter of Wonderdog, Inc is done art-wise and I’m lettering it now. There are four chapters total, and I think we’re on schedule for this summer. Hopefully we’ll have it for San Diego.
Merry Christmas…late
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Wow, so a bunch has happened this month and I haven’t mentioned hardly any of it… I’m such a good blogger.
Haywire came out, some stores are sold out, but they should be able to reorder, if not, hit up Amazon or Borders (probably have to special order it). I just checked Amazon and it says there is only one left, so act now! If all else fails, you can order straight from Viper Comics.
Also in Haywire news, I’m scheduled to do a signing here in San Antonio at Dragon’s Lair on January 13, I think from 12 to 2, but I need to verify the time. Also I’m going to be in Kerrville at Hasting’s on February 17th from 2 to 4. Come out and see me, it’ll be fun.
Last week I got to participate in a crazy live podcast called the Wescast. Hosted by Wes Molebash it guested Josh Howard, Patrick Bussey, Jessie Garza and my awesomeness. It was a lot of fun and I’m sure we’ll do it again. Next time I’ll give a heads up and you guys can call in and ask questions. You can download the episode though and listen as if it were live, I’m in Wescast Live 3.
Speaking of Josh Howard, check out the preview of his next book, The Lost Books of Eve. Rawk. Stah.
Christmas in the new house was a blast. The kids loved it and so did we. They both got Hamsters this year. She named hers Handsome and he named his Peter Pan. She was kind of disappointed to hear she couldn’t cuddle up with him at night, but I think it was OK when she realized she can just lay in her bed and talk to him, and he’ll listen.
I’m so excited, I got a gas grill for Christmas. Now I can cook outside in style. Possibly when it warms up. We also gave ourselves a digital camera and a new camcorder, so expect pictures and video of stupid stuff soon.
Work on the next book should start early next month, which I’m really excited about. All I can say is it’s called Wonderdog, Inc and the art will be by Matt Hebb. I’ve already written it, but we haven’t really shopped it around to publishers yet. Viper will, of course, get the first glimpse of it and if they so desire will be publishing it. If not, well, we’ll see. I think I’m going to start up a production diary of sorts at wonderdoginc.com since I’m really not using it all that much anymore… and the title kinda fits. I’ve been working on a new site now for a while, hoping to consolidate the content from there to here, mostly moving the drawings and a few of the animations over. But instead of just moving stuff, I have to be nitpicky and build my own cms first. Nothing too complicated, just some of the mostly used (by me) features that WordPress has. Nothing against WP, I just want to write my own cause I can. Hopefully that will be soon… but then, I think I’ve said that before…
Buy me a Mac
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Guess what? I’m giving you, YES YOU, a chance to buy me a mac! My PC is pooping out and I’ve grown to not only love the mac at the office, but I’m also far more profecient with it. It’s like drawing with a sharp pencil after trying to do fine work with a jumbo Sharpie all your life. Quite the change. And YOU can help with that change! I’m aiming for an iMac, though I’ll be quite happy with a macMini. I know Scott Kurtz did this a few months ago, and it worked for him, so I figured I’d just rip his idea and try it out for myself. Knowing the size of my readership compared to his, I’ll be lucky to get enough for a Mac Remote.
You can send money via PayPal to wonderdog at wonderdog inc dot com (<-spam free style).
Also, as an added bonus, those of you who do send cash get a FREE EMAIL FROM ME! That’s right, a personalized email to either you or the person of your choice! Guaranteed to be from ME! WOW! AND I’LL EVEN USE CAPS!!
Veinte-nueve, if you must know
Monday, June 26, 2006
Well, another birthday has come and gone for not only myself, but also the boy. He turned four yesterday, still no superpowers, but I’m keeping my eye out. My brother’s birthday is today, so happy b-day bro. I turned one under thirty on Saturday, which, as most of you know, means I only have one more year until retirement. So that should be good.
Just for fun, here’s a rundown on all my neat-o presents.
- My kids got me a Cheetos shirt with a bag of Cheetos. I think my son likes the Cheetah since I don’t really eat Cheeto’s all that often. Still a stylin’ shirt, all faded and stuff.
- My wife got me a book I’ve been wanting (House) and a CD that I’m quite anxious to listen to (Brad Stein). Amazon lied and it got here today, not Friday like the promised. Ah well, at least it got here.
- From my aunt (via cash), The Princess Bride, The Dread Pirate Edition. I haven’t had a chance to go through all the features yet, but it looks quite promising. This has long been one of my favorite films, so I’m really anxious to see all the special features.
- I forgot to tell my folks what I wanted and they had no ideas for me this year. Usually, I figure out what it is I want, and by the time I tell them, my dad say’s he’s already bought something else. Often something better than what I picked out. This year, we both relied on the other, which seemed to only upset my mom.
- My brother got me a shirt, the same shirt I got him (I also picked up a copy of You’ll Have That Vol 1...there ya go Wes, free plug).
If you are wondering about the shirt, I guess it’s time to break the news: We have a new addition to our family.
A 1971 Jeepster Commando.
We are all very proud and I’ll keep you updated on it’s status as it grows into the fine rock-crawling machine we all know it will be. I also will be sure to get the pictures off my dad’s camera and upload them...not quite that exciting without I suppose.
