Aug
24
Posted by Scraps
and why, for me, that’s a good thing.
I heard it again, today: “since you’re not busy or anything” said with a whole heaping dose of good-natured sarcasm. (It’s actually being facetious–non-malicious–but I don’t know how to say that in the right tense for that sentence!) I get that a lot because folks who know me, know that I always have a lot of projects going at once. My usually answer to ‘how’ve you been’ is ‘busy, but in a good way.’
Let’s just take a look at my list of current projects:
That’s just the ones that get some attention each week. Not mentioned (aka back-burnered) are both webcomics currently on hiatus, a couple of knitting projects (one needs finishing, one is an idea waiting on a swatch and a design) and the party (maybe more than one, I’ll know more later) I’ll be throwing later this year. I was fiddling around with some beads and came up with a beading pattern project that I want to finish and write up. There are canvases waiting to be painted for the living room and 3 couches to cover.
And I just accepted a commission for a painting.
Why? Because I like being busy!
It’s more than that, though. I am capable of focusing solely on one large project at a time, totally immersing myself to where it’s all I think about outside of the day-to-day requirements of human interaction.
But with such focus comes a price: burn out.
For years before culinary school I was obsessed with food. If I wasn’t decorating cakes (or teaching others how) I was baking for the office (oh, if I only blogged back then, right?). If I wasn’t baking, I was watching that new channel, Food Network, reading a copy of Cooking Light or planning the week’s menus. I got into school and there wasn’t time for anything else–I worked 8am to 4:30 pm, changed clothes, grabbed something resembling dinner on the way and was at class from 5:30 to 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night 4 nights a week.
Total immersion.
Then it stopped. The internship led to a job but that job couldn’t keep the bills paid. When I was looking for a second job to keep my car from being repossessed, the opportunity to return to my old desk job was presented and I took it.
And I stopped cooking. I stopped reading cookbooks, watching food shows, dreaming of my own bakery or catering company.
It was nearly 10 years before my passion for food returned.
10 Years is a Long Time to Go Without Your Passion
Since then I’ve become a bit of a dilettante (the lover of the arts and a nod to the root–delight–not so much the superficial interest bit).
It’s a defense mechanism against tunnel vision. Against obsession. Against burn out.
Having multiple projects going simultaneously means I’m always happy to get a chance to work on any one thing. It’s always fresh. And if I hit a road block? Just choose a different project and wait for the other to clear out.
Going back to culinary school for a minute, it was a private college that taught in modules. 16 days of focus on a single subject. 1 subject a month. For a lot of people this style of learning works well because there’s little to no distractions. No other classes are competing for the student’s attention, no other homework getting in the way.
But there are no breaks, either.
In contrast, middle and high school and the majority of public universities prefer schedules with multiple disciplines being taught over the course of a day or week. They switched to block scheduling at my old high school when my brother’s were there and, while it played hell with extracurriculars, it was the middle ground between 7-periods a day and 1 module a month.
I liked high school.
I liked the multiple classes because it kept everything in motion. It might feel overwhelming from time to time (tonight, a little, but my schedule’s been off) but, all in all, it serves me well.
So I don’t mind when folks rib me about all my many projects. Sometimes they admire me, and I–always working on accepting compliments gracefully–thank them. I think it’s given me a skill set not everyone has and I revel in that, too.
~~~oOo~~~
This has nothing to do with the 64 Arts (other than it’s the perfect project for someone like me, someone who likes to change things up on a regular basis), just something that was on my mind and I wanted to share. We’ll get back to flowers and what to do with them, soon.
Until then: where do you fit? Do you prefer a single focus or a broad spectrum?
There is no wrong answer, as long as it’s right for you.
Jun
30
Posted by Scraps
This little monkey went to Nebraska…
This little monkey went, too…
This little monkey had a Runza…
After these two went to the zoo…
And this little monkey went tweet, tweet, tweet…
All the way home!
We’ll get back to the water glasses this week but I’m still running on fumes from being away from the computer for 4 days! (Hence all that tweeting on the way home.)
Travel was less than fun–2 car trips, 3 airports and 2 plane rides each there and back–but we managed. The funeral was brief (we missed the viewing on Friday night, there was just no way to make it) and the visiting was plentiful throughout the weekend. Todd’s dad’s house was built (and decorated) in the 70s and let me tell you–it’s the house that time forgot! It’s perfectly preserved retro down to the wall-to-wall shag carpeting. Of course there are pictures (over 400 from the 2 days we were in Lincoln) but I’ve yet to weed through them.
In case you’re wondering what a Runza is, it’s a ground beef and cabbage hand-held pie that (when not sold by a regional chain of restaurants by the same name) also goes by the name Bierock. It’s a local staple and one of the things Todd was looking forward to having when back in town. After making them ourselves, it was nice to compare them to the original but… yeah, I liked ours better, too. We also went to Valentino’s (another local staple) and, of course, had some Omaha Steaks. The new monkey came from the Lincoln Children’s Zoo–a spur of the moment addition to our itinerary–and is already making himself at home with the other Georges.
The posting schedule around here might be a little skewed for the rest of the week but I expect to have more on the water glasses before the end of the week.
Mar
31
Posted by Scraps
I didn’t post a comic for today and that wasn’t the biggest fail that happened last night.
Tuesday afternoon I started to feel way more stressed than was called for. On the way home I lost it. I’m a fairly stable person but sometimes I push too hard and down I go. Last night I got pretty far down. I thought, after several hours of questioning all sorts of things from why to wherefore to small cog in the giant wheel of time, that I’d figured out what was bugging me.
I was about half right.
This morning, Wednesday, I got a triple shot of the cosmic cluestick and have an even better idea of what I did wrong.
I didn’t take care of myself.
I don’t mean I failed to eat right or failed basic hygiene standards or anything like that. I failed to take time for myself and got wrapped up in the deadlines and to-do lists that I created so that some They would agree I was doing it right and some other They would acknowledge it.
And last night my mind and the Universe decided to let me know it.
Last night I was heart-sick, today I’m body-sick. Whether the one was the cause or merely a harbinger of the other is anyone’s guess. Probably a little bit of both, to be honest. But I listened, and I hope I really heard it this time because I don’t want to have another night like that.
To that end, things around Random Acts Comics-land are going to be a bit more fluid for the next month or so. I’ve got some housekeeping to do (literally and figuratively) and some shuffling of priorities and some decisions to make regarding my various projects. Nothing’s going away at this time, but I need to approach it all differently, correctly, so that I don’t hit this wall again.
Or be forced to break up with the Internet. Internet and I are BFFs and I’m not ready to give back my half of the friendship necklace.
So I’m going to spend the next few nights attempting to relax (especially the right arm, my drawing arm, it’s sorta on strike and didn’t even want to type this letter), clearing my head and considering my options. Since update days may be sporadic for the month of April, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me ontwitter in order not to miss anything.
Because if I don’t do this I risk true and total burnout. And no one else can tell my stories. Other people can tell other stories, but no one can tell mine. And it’s my stories that I want to tell. I draw and write because it makes me smile, it makes me happy. I need to remind myself of that and make sure I proceed with that, and my own mental and physical health, first in mind. The rest will work itself out.
Mar
16
Posted by Scraps
So, I’m back from Orlando, back from the Con and, frankly, I feel sorta run-over. I need another day or two to get my head back together, officially deal with the not-so-great parts of the convention and work out my plan for going forward. The next art of “Cutting Paper” (more will be revealed) will start probably on Thursday and might involve a weekend project for those willing to give it a shot.
Feb
01
Posted by Scraps
So, um, I didn’t exactly plan to take a break from the blog for so long (or at all, really) but, well, I was busy and then there were the holidays and more busy and, well, yeah. Too, was the thought of what I was going to DO with this blog. I’m still not sure. I have a bunch of sites right now and, well, one needs to stand out as the clearinghouse of them all, and right now that one hardly gets any attention from me or anyone else. So, I’m going to try and post more regularly over on jenniferwalkeronline.com for obvious reasons–basically any time something happens on the other sites or in a professional capacity. This will continue to be the personal blog; maybe not updated daily but with some regularity I hope, and then comic will be what the comic is/are (there will be a second starting soon over at SoulGeek).
Now, the last update had a staggering number left on the to-do list. Well, it still does. Half the projects on the list are now completed but I still have a lot of work to do. On the up side: the Year 1 book and my 24-hour comic have been sent to the printers, just waiting on proofs now, and should be here by MegaCon. Woo! Satyr#8 from Main Enterprises is out (though not in my hands, yet, but it’s on it’s way) and I’m looking forward to having copies of that for sale at MegaCon, as well. Of the things that didn’t get finished: the handprinted mini still needs most of it’s work done (though I’m confident about it’s chances of being ready for the con, as well), I’m not where I wanted to be with my Small Press Idol entry, but it’s still going to be fine and, of course, Where the Geeks Are is still on it’s way to it’s destination when I’d originally planned to have an entire month of updates up and established. That wasn’t totally in my hands, though, so it pays to just roll with it and do it when all the ducks find their places. Now, of course, I need to finish up those things and get everything else ready for the Con (not to mention try to set up some more cons for the year!).
A truly bright spot in the craziness was our vacation: the 8-day Western Caribbean cruise was, overall, amazing and we both really enjoyed the time away from the every day craziness. I have tons of pictures and video to post but they’re all still on the cameras. Hell, I haven’t even unpacked yet and it’s been a week since we got home!
But now it’s time for bed, work week starts tomorrow and I have a lot to get done.
