Archive for the 'Writing' Category

Much Needed Post

Published
by
Mike
on August 8, 2007
in Comic, Military, Nonsense, Photography, Web, Wood Carving, Work and Writing
. 0 Comments

Well, it has been quite a while since I’ve made an entry with decent length and information about the happenings of my life. I intend to resolve that now in this very entry.

Lately I’ve been very busy at work doing all kinds of stuff in preparation for a big inspection which is coming up in September. Although I don’t really care about the outcome of the inspection, I do care about the people it may impact, so I’m trying hard to do well for their sake. I’ll be out of my job probably anywhere from mid November to early December so during that time you may not here much from us as we get situated in Scotland somewhere.

We recently did a big upgrade of the HandRooster website to make it look nicer and to allow for future updates, etc. The site now has a single front page with both blog and comic in one location. I think it looks really nice. We continue to update every weekday. It does get hard at times and we occasionally miss a day or two but generally, we’re doing a pretty decent job of keeping things updated. It is quite hard to think of something funny everyday, so some days have better comics than others.

After my finger injury, it took me a while to work up the courage to start carving again. I’ve started carving on the love spoon for my sister again and I’ve made a lot of progress. I still have a bit to go, and I still have to do the detailed parts and I’m not sure how to do them exactly. It may get a bit scary, but I think I can do it eventually. It’s been quite a while since I started the project but I’ve learned a lot. I feel bad for taking so long, but I hope to get it done soon so I can give it to my sister.

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. I’m quite happy at the moment because I think good things will be happening in the future. I hope all of you are doing well and I look forward to reading your blog and LJ entries. Steph and I went for a photo walk recently, so here are just a few of the photos. You can see them all and much more on my Flickr page.


Conker growing

Lone tree

Fairford Church

Change of plan

Published
by
Mike
on July 25, 2007
in Military, Nonsense, Web, Work and Writing
. 1 Comment

As some of you may know, I’ve been in the US military for almost 8 years now. For the majority of that time, I have found that my personal beliefs are completely incompatible with military life. Unfortunately, due to many circumstances (some good and some bad) I couldn’t extract myself from the military in a good way. My enlistment is done in December of this year, and Steph and I had planned for quite a while that we would go back to the US and live on the West coast somewhere. I planned to get a job in IT, working as an Information Security specialist in some company. I must admit that I was excited about the change and the prospect of a new life, but the job didn’t appeal. It was just money and a lot of time away from Steph.

Things have now changed. We’ve decided that we’re going to move up to Scotland and I’ll pursue writing while we support ourselves doing web development with Steph’s brother, John. I’m so excited about the change of plans and I’m so relieved that I can finally be myself and possibly mold my life into the one I’ve always wanted. While we’re going to make plenty of contingency plans and be very careful with the financial situation, we’re also going to try our hardest to make it work up there. We’ll be able to spend much more time together as well as live a slower, more balanced life. I’d like to thank everyone who reads this regularly for supporting me through some difficult times. You’re all part of my happiness.

Book Review - Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life

Published
by
Mike
on June 20, 2007
in Books, Comic, Religion/Spirituality and Writing
. 1 Comment

Several weeks ago, I got an email asking if I would like to review a new book which was being released. After agreeing that the content of the book was something which related to the general content of my blog, I responded that I’d be honored to participate in what is now being called the Book Blog Tour for Brad Swift’s Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life.

Glancing over some of the other blogs participating in the tour, I see that the book has thus far received overwhelmingly positive feedback. I’m pleased that I’m not here to argue with the other reviewers. Dr. Swift’s writing is genuine and warm, and you can definitely feel the coaching roots of his prose. While I don’t think I am in the target audience for this book, I can see how it could help those who find themselves in the bewildering position of what can only be described as an identity crisis.

Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life is a detailed step by step method of discovering purpose in life. When Dr. Swift writes of a life purpose, he rejects the traditional western association of career with identity and presents a more balanced approach. He suggests that through thought, intuition, and contemplation, we can come up with a sort of guiding statement for our lives. This statement is meant to be the cup which holds the liquid of our lives. The book is scattered with helpful and inspirational quotes from famous thinkers and utilizes spiritual insight from multiple schools of spiritual thought. Those familiar with Zen and Taoist philosophies will notice many familiar techniques utilized in this system, which to me is a fantastic thing. Dr. Swift’s methods advocate contemplation and meditation techniques, as well as learning to live in the moment in order to keep our life purposes on track. The book is filled with exercises and techniques for discovering what kind of life purpose you wish to have, and for keeping the things you do within the context of that purpose once you’ve found it. Some of the most helpful parts of this book (in my opinion) were the sections dealing with what Dr. Swift titles the Inherited Purpose, something brought about by our past experiences and which influences the way we behave and the decisions we make in our lives. These sections really bring to light the history of your actions and the things which shape the person you’ve become.

While reading through this book, I sometimes felt that Dr. Swift’s directions were tailored for a child, or a very slow learning adult. I also felt that this book was written mostly for an audience of burnt out baby boomers. Despite these things, I always felt that Dr. Swift had my best interest at heart and if you can overlook these small and unimportant points, I’m sure you’d feel the same way too. If you’re lost in life, looking for meaning, or finding yourself constantly switching jobs, partners, or life circumstances, I would highly recommend this book as a system of self healing. Go into it with an open mind and a warm heart, and only good can come from the endeavor.

Oh, by the way - all the talk of a life purpose brought up an idea for this comic.

Good Fortune

Published
by
Mike
on May 29, 2007
in Comic, Nonsense, Web and Writing
. 0 Comments

I thought I’d just do a quick update to tell you what I’ve been doing.

An interesting thing happened. Our comic website, HandRooster was linked to by Joystiq on their weekly webcomic wrapup poll. This caused a substantial rise in daily hits and visits this weekend, and various blogs and social websites have been linking to some of our comics. It is pretty exciting for us, regardless of some critics whining about one thing or another. We’re just going to keep doing comics and see where it takes us. If we disappear into nothingness, at least we’ve made something interesting and funny (at least I think so) and if we get recognized and it turns into something bigger, that is great too. I’m having a good time with it right now and I’m hopeful for the future of the comic.

I’m still doing a lot of backposts for corresponding comics on the Handrooster Blog and hopefully I’ll be all caught up soon. I’m hoping that some people will have at least some interest in what I have to say about these comics. If not, oh well. I enjoy doing it anyway. Until next time, here is me wishing you all the best.

Wounds, Work & Halo

Published
by
Mike
on May 15, 2007
in Comic, Military, Nonsense, Wood Carving and Writing
. 3 Comments

Yesterday I was carving my sister’s wedding gift and I failed to put on my carving glove. I also did something very stupid and placed my hand in the front of the carving. I went over a slightly difficult section of wood and my tool slipped and sunk into the flesh and fingernail of my left index finger. It bit down to the bone and formed a flap, partly fingernail and partly flesh. A nice flow of blood started and I ended up getting some quick first aid. I then went to the hospital and got further treatment…mostly cleaning and bandaging. They used paper stitches because they said they couldn’t do much for the tips of fingers.

I’m fine now, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson about safety while carving. I don’t think you’ll find me without my glove anymore, and I’ll certainly be much more careful about my hand placement. I think the key is patience and focus when carving wood. I’m not an inherantly patient person so I think that this is a learning process for me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about some things that annoy me about working for people - at least these people. One of the most annoying things is knowing what needs to be done, prioritizing these things, and then having a “superior” who isn’t even aware of all of your projects come in and push their own priorities. Everyone seems to have a different set of priorities and each person wants their top priority to be your top priority. I know what needs to be done and I always have a plan in my mind for getting these things done in time. I’m guessing this is the same sort of thing which happens in the civilian sector, but it is a big reason why I’d like to work independently someday. There are many other things I dislike about being in the military (such as violence, disregard for other people and cultures and our interdependence with these people) much more than this sort of thing, but this is something that bothers me in the sort of day to day aspects of working in the military in general. The military (especially this branch) is like a failing business. Everything is done in ways that aren’t thought out by the people who really know, and people are treated like rusty old tools.

We’re still doing comics every weekday on HandRooster and I think we’re doing ok. We’re also toying with the idea of doing a sort of news/talk post associated with each comic, in a sort of Penny Arcade style. It would probably do me good to do that, honestly.

I’ve been involved recently with a lot of Halo 2. We sometimes hold Halo 2 festivals, which we call Halofest. I got that name from my friend Frank, but now I give them individual names. For example, the one this last Saturday was called Halofest 2007 - Tragic Ending and the one on the 26th of this month is called Halofest 2007 - Rite of Passage. We just tend to play a lot of different gametypes in the community center. We eat a lot of junk food and play all day. We had about 7 or 8 people show up this last time and we’re hoping to have more on the 26th. We’re all very excited about Halo 3 - if it ever comes out.