The happenings of the past few days

I liked the idea of blogging every day, but I DIDN'T like the idea of only having a couple of boring things to say. So that's why I'm back now.

Admin stuff on TWIG is going great, we've fixed a bunch of the issues, but we're still working out the bugs. If you're a young writer looking for a tight knit community in which to discuss and share your work, check out twig.jcink.net.


Okay, so I've done a little art in the past few days alongside the twig stuff which has been a large focus as we tried to get it off the ground. Anyway, the art. I mentioned it in the last post, this is the turtle, and I am very proud of it.

If I had to choose one thing I've ever made to put on t-shirts and mugs, this would be it. It might even be motivation for me to work on that. We'll have to see.

I also did this, but it's not as cool, I'm just happy that I had the patience to copy a simple picture so meticulously.

So that's been art.
I've worked a lot on putting together a superhero roleplay for twig, as well as working on the actual website, so that's also another reason for low production. Here's the character I've brainstormed for the roleplay:

Yesterday we went to another mountain. There wasn't any snow on this one, but you sort of felt like you were on the edge of a giant bowl, looking in. I mostly just sat and worked on my wreck this journal.
After that, I was delighted when we went to downtown Boulder and got to walk around. I bought an ice cream cone from haagen daz, which ended up being like 6.50 which for an ice cream cone, even though it was a decent size, is a little ridiculous, but I decided the waffle cone experience was worth the extra dollar since that's something my parents always skipped when I was a kid, probably because it's a large rolled up sweetish cracker that costs a dollar. Whatever.
It was cool to see so many shops. I stopped in a couple, but frugal me was like "nooooooooooo everything is so expensive." I almost considered some 3 dollar soap- that was on CLEARANCE. and that wasn't even from the soap store that everyone but me seemed to have found.

There was a cool tea shop that had a back room which looked almost like a peaceful zen cafe or something, i want to go back there to sit and draw sometime.
The best one I went to was one I looked up on google though. It was actually off the mall, but I'm glad I went. There were a ton of cool journals, some from brands, like moleskine or this apparently popular japanese brand, but a lot handmade too! And handmade paper, and just a lot of paper goods, some pens as well.

There were a lot of street performers on the outdoor mall. I was trying to figure out why there weren't so many of those in Austin. I think it's because we're lacking many accessible pedestrian-only spaces.

Boulder will be a great place to spend the summer, and I'm not ready to leave, but I miss Austin already. Heh.

Short Update

Being on the computer all day makes ya feel icky.
From whenever I started in the morning til 1:30, I was working on my comic, but without taking a break I went from that to some paint tutorials (useful, I did paint) to browsing with some art in between (but headphones in the whole time) for the rest of the afternoon.

By the time I finished dinner was being prepared. My roommate made some mango salsa which I found myself suprisingly able to eat despite its status as fruit mixed with regular food (why???). It definitely wasn't my favorite though and I got tired of it pretty quick. I GUESS i can understand the appeal but it still is not my thing.

After dinner I drew a turtle and was thinking of coloring it when Shadow informed me that I could register on the new version of TWIG. So i got my computer out and just then everyone wanted to play a game.
I suggested telephone pictionary, and there were a few misgivings about it at first with such a small group (5 people), but we just passed the stacks around twice and it worked really well. Everyone laughed REALLY hard.

This morning after a little discussion, I LEVELED UP to admin on twig so now there's a new responsibility awaiting me.
But first, breakfast.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Yesterday we went up into the mountains.

We drove for a considerable time. Once we actually got into the park, we drove some more. We lost the second car in our caravan by accident. Apparently they were waving at us and honking and blinking their lights, but we had some cool music on and weren't looking at much besides the mountains.

We stopped at one place that had chipmunks that did not fear humans, and we climbed around a little, waiting for the others to catch up. After 15 minutes we were sure they weren't that far behind us so we went on, wondering if they'd somehow missed the bright blue car in that stop lot and gone on ahead. We got to the next big scenic area and waited THERE for a while, and just as we were heading down, we found about half of the second car's occupants. Apparently the other half stayed just before that first point because someone was feeling sick. So Erin went back to get them and we all hung out in the snow for a while.

Ah yes, the snow. It was my first real experience with it since I developed self-awareness and/or started forming memories. I've seen some dusted yards in my day, but I made a few real snowballs and experienced the slippery surface formed when snow has been walked on a lot. I didn't squeal or throw myself into it or anything. It was just like, huh. So this is it.

It was a little chilly, but after being outside a while, I got used to it, even after we all trooped up to one of the peaks where the snow was so deep we kept falling into it and getting our shoes wet at the bottom.

On said peak, we climed up to a rocky part with no snow on it and hung out for a while. The air was actually kind of warm in the sun, but the snow was keeping itself cold for the most part. I still didn't need my jacket, and thank goodness the air wasn't freezing because by this point my shoes were completely soaked from that patch where there was water under the snow just waiting for your feet to fall into.
Note: converse are good for damp conditions up to a certain point. That point is the line at which the rubber ends and the canvas begins. To be honest, even if I had brought my real boots, I doubt they'd have fared much better: they certainly aren't leak proof and they're fake leather so they probably would have been damaged. Texas people aren't known for having proper snow gear. :)

Okay, so up on the peak. There was some cool multicolored lichen growing all over the rocks.

Just before the peak, I stopped on a small rock to photograph my feet with some mountains. Also to get some of the ice out of my shoes. Why am I on a feet kick? idk. I feel more comfortable with it than selfies. bleh. Also, feet kick. ahahahahahah

 

Note: this was before the water-under-snow trap. My shoes, while icy, were not yet saturated.

From the same rock:

After the mountain, we went down to a stream. Now the mountains are cool and really get some people going, but for me it's woods and forests. I like those. :)

We went on a short-ish hike with the kiddos. It was difficult for them to keep going without getting distracted.
By the end of the day, my shoes (again!) were interestingly affected. The white rubber was cleaner than usual, but the wet canvas + forest hikes resulted in dirty canvas.

After all that, we went to a pretty nice restaurant to eat. The waiter was cool, very knowledgeable, and had his longish hair in a ponytail. He also sort of resembled someone I knew, minus the long hair.
Note: I think long hair looks awesome on guys IF they can work it. But it's probably for the same reason I like short hair on girls: it's a little non-conformist and means people actually put some thought into their choices and decided they didn't care if people thought it was "wrong." But usually I don't think that deeply into it. I just think: oh, that dude has a bun. That's cool. Or that girl has seriously short hair. That's awesome.
Anyway, I ate some yummy mushroom pasta while looking at mountains and listening to people tell stories which were kind of funny and kind of a bit much.
By the time we got home, I was tired.
So tired.
I got in bed by 9.

Busy day

Sunday (yesterday) was a busy day.
We went to church at a place that had hymns and a little bit of liturgy, which is awesome. As per the norm, the sermon didn't resonate hugely with me, but it was also a guest pastor so we'll have to see how things play out there. I did have a little bit of a musing on the relationship of emotion to truth, but nothing conclusive.

After church we went to help somebody move. This person had A TON of stuff in her house. I never want to be that bogged down. I wish I could go minimalist to be honest, but being an artist doesn't sit well with that. Supplies, supplies, supplies.

There were a couple large furniture pieces that had been assembled in a loft and we did a lot of fun problem-solving estimations to see if we could get them down the stairs. By measurements it was looking pretty iffy, but of course when the men got back they were like "let's just try it," and Erin found a clever method to move the fan out of the way, and it was accomplished in the end.

Afterwards I told a couple people about Bananarchy and they thought it was awesome.

People here are so cute. They think 90 degrees is ridiculously hot. If they start sweating, it's an event. I'm just here enjoying the cool weather and wearing jackets sometimes. Austin doesn't give you enough chances to wear hoodies even though I love them.

So I took this cool photo when I got back: I love the color balance though I could have done without the errant lightbulb in the background.

There are hammocks everywhere in this house. I may have mentioned that last time.

I spent the afternoon somewhat lazily on the computer, looking at old work and tumblr. I then tried to take a nap but couldn't fall asleep. I had gotten a picture i wanted to draw in my head, but when I headed down and tried to draw it, nothing really turned out right. That happens a lot, ever since I was a kid actually. The image in my head is like an idea I can see, but it's not so solid in that I can zoom in and study every detail and copy it exactly.

While I was drawing, there was dinner which was pasta which was AWESOME.
After dinner I kept on using my markers, coloring and whatnot.
Kestrel, the youngest of the family I'm staying with, joined me and wanted to help test my colors. I suggested she try mixing some, and that got her excited except she kept wanting to mix more than two and making brown.

So I started trying to explain color theory to her.

Of course, she didn't really grasp it and just fixated on the fact that I had gotten out the entire rainbow. Primary and secondary colors? Right over her head. But she had fun. Maybe she'll thank me later, when she learns about colors and already knows a little. :)

I was already tired and hadn't been able to manage my nap, so I actually went to sleep before my roommate did, even though she's been going to bed an hour or more before me until this.

Soooooo that was yesterday. Today I hear we're going to see the mountains.

The art is happening!

I woke up this morning (without an alarm) before 6:30 and it was already light outside. Well, that's odd.
I saw a rabbit omnomnomnomnomnomming some plants outside. Well that's odd.

So far my Colorado experience has been pretty awesome. Yesterday morning, all the adults (including me... i'm on the edge of THAT group now.... wow) sat around the breakfast table making art. THAT was really cool. I just realized i capitalized both of my most recent "that"s. Ah well.
Here's a bit of what I did:

so those were cool.

Later on, we went to a small church festival during which I ate some decent food that filled me up (and there was one grain salad thing that was pretty yummzy), and superficially watched the henna table with the girl I'm rooming with, and decided we'd probably get along pretty well.
I actually did give a couple people henna, but mostly I just went a little nuts on myself.

That evening I sat quietly with my laptop and tried not to giggle out loud at some silly things I wrote in the past.

I did a liiiiiittle bit of comic planning and then went to bed.

yes, my writing is still boring, but I figured if I have this morning time, might as well develop a sort of habit of journaling. maybe my writing will improve. :(

New Ventures

Here I sit, in a hammock indoors, aspen trees and fog outside the window, in a really nice area of Colorado.
I've been invited to be an artist-in-residence for the summer–to get to stay here and do art without working a "real" job. What! A great! Opportunity!

The house is beautiful. This is right after you walk in the door–Erin painted aspens inside, too!

At first I wasn't sure that I could do it, but I clearly saw God putting everything into place. Even when the one interested sublease candidate was taking WAY too long to respond, even when the manager at my house was taking WAY too long to respond, it all ended up working together so that my friend returning from missions work overseas has a place to stay, and I get to go. I even got a free ride up here with a family I know who is visiting for vacation.

I apologize that my writing isn't as beautiful as it once was. (Though I guess in terms of blogging, it's just gone from rambly to slightly less rambly and more functional.) However, that's one thing I want to work on this summer. Erin (the wife/mom of the family I'm staying with) is a writer, and I've not written in a awhile, though I've been wanting to. We'll see.

However, my main focus is on my comic. I hope I can put out 2 pages a week, or get WAY ahead on it.

In addition to that, I want to practice painting and get better at it, and I want to do an illustration series (medium to be determined) based on Sleeping at Last's "Atlas" album.

I also want to form some habits while I'm here: Habits like praying every morning, hopefully setting aside a specific time to read my bible too (or maybe not a specific time, but regularly, since scheduling my day makes me feel like I'm stuck and limited).

The family I rode up with is visiting this week, so I'm not sure what that means for developing routines, but things will eventually fall into place. For now, I want to explore. I've gotten into the habit of taking really long walks, so I want to see what's within walking distance of here.

Ah, well, I guess I'll go out and face the people soon. People. I just spent 2 days in a car with people. I am very grateful for this quiet space.

Jesus in the morning.

I'm not one to wake up early. 7 AM is a reasonable time, and I grudgingly hit snooze until the last minute on work days, but on my days off I usually pull myself out of bed between 9 and 10:30. The result of this is that I never get to experience the kind of mornings where you feel the space in air and time.

This morning was different. I wanted to see a sunrise. So Bethany and I woke up at 6:30, pulled together some Bible study materials, and drove to Whole Foods to sit on the roof and have prayertime.

There weren't many people around and we could pray louder than we can at home. Our house is in no way condemning of prayer, quite the opposite, but you've got people's morning snoozing and puttering to not disturb.

We read about the lost sheep and lost coin. It's hard to understand exactly how the sheep farmer felt since sheep aren't much of a business model anymore unless you're playing Settlers of Catan. But I could imagine Bethany in all her ENFP-ness being the woman with the coin- losing something and then calling up everybody when she found it. She also loves to sweep. It was a fun way to imagine the story.

We sat on the edge of the roof and looked out at the city and prayed for its' people. It was cloudy, so the sunrise part didn't exactly work out, but the atmosphere was still very nice.

I made this picture about it.

We were loud and goofy and spiritual and it was great fun. We were just ourselves before God. Afterwards, we went in and bought bread.

I wanna do it again.

Time for some CAR WASH STORIES

Here's what there is to know about my job.

I work at a car wash from 9 AM to 6:30 PM three days a week in a row. Usually I'm on the drying team but on occasion they'll send me over to the vacuums or to the detail area. It's a pretty physical job so by the end of the day and especially by the end of the week I'm SUPER TIRED.

It doesn't require me to interact with people much, so I get to spend a lot of time in my head, which compensates some for the boring repetitive job.

The reason I am writing is because last week we had a day that was not boring and repetitive. It was scary and crazy and hectic, because the stop button was broken at the end of the tunnel.

Most of the actual car washing is done by an automated system where the cars are put in neutral and pushed forward by a conveyer under the front tire. There are emergency stops at the beginning, end, and inside, for obvious reasons. Usually there isn't a need for it because the finishing supervisor is pretty good at hopping in the car at the last second and driving it to a parking spot. But if he's running a bit late or a car won't start, we have a safeguard.

The other day they were working on the wiring. A car was coming through and getting kinda close. Supervisor J was nowhere in sight and the other employee near me looked a little frazzled. Confidently I was just like -shrug- and pushed the button and NOTHING HAPPENED NOOOOOOOOO

Supervisor J showed up and drove the car away. Whew! But I knew this button would cause problems. Especially when it's busy we use it around 3 times a day.

I'm usually very quiet at my job. Nods, short answers, straight up ignoring small talk... RUDE (i know). But this day caused me to yell "hey" one time when Supervisor J was looking the other way. This felt like a small accomplishment.

A few close calls but it was okay. But then. Disaster.
One of the trucks got locked. Supervisor J jumped back and forth a bit trying to decide if there was time to run around the building to hit the other button. There wasn't. He motioned to the people inside to shut it off from there. It wasn't working inside either. He started pushing the truck out of the way. I helped. I felt pretty kick-butt. >:D

But that didn't solve the problem, it only temporarily suspended it. The boss came out. He jumped in the next car and put the brakes on or turned it off or something so that it couldn't move even when being pushed a little. Then they managed to turn the tunnel off.

They used the kit to unlock the truck, drove it away, and started the tunnel. But all was not solved. That second car still wasn't moving!!!!!!!!!!!! oh noooooes
I tried to get another girl who I'd seen driving cars in detail to get in and move it but she wasn't supposed to or didn't understand or something. Supervisor J finally got over there and moved it in the nick of time.

After that I had such an adrenaline high. They called the electrical people and got them to come back and fix the wiring.


Okay, I realized this story probably doesn't interest many people. But it was exciting to me, so I decided to write it.  I may not be writing beautifully right now, but I want to write, at least.

The Hampton Bunny!!!

This will be the first of (likely) many stories about the community house I live in.

About three days ago Mikey brought home a baby bunny he rescued while doing lawns. I didn't get to see it 'cause I went to work extra that day. They were planning to take it to the shelter the next morning, so I just sort of accepted that this was an event outside of my sphere.

The next day, our house's email list was bombarded by a slew of emails. The bunny was missing! It had been there that morning, and then the box was empty. This caused everyone minor distress for a few days. At first this was my reaction:

But after a day passed with no luck finding the critter, my thoughts took a sadder turn.
It is going to die in some small corner. It is going to smell really bad. We will only find it because of the smell. We will weep over its small corpse.



Sorry, had to take a moment of silence there. It was really quite a sad situation. I think we had pretty much given up hope. Or at least half of us had.

This morning we were greeted by an email sent by Charlie at 4 AM.
THE BUNNY WAS FOUND!!!
Apparently it hopped on his arm in the middle of the night and scared the crap outta him.

This is a picture (taken from facebook) of the bun in Alana's hands. Is so widdle!

Because I was at work all day, I still haven't actually seen the bunny yet. Perhaps I should go see if I can do that. :)


Ah yes, and the bunny is staying! Big Mike wanted to adopt it, and so did Mikey.
So the bunny's parents are both of the Mikes.

Nice To Re-meet You

I suppose I should say something like "hello."

This is me with a graffiti that somehow knows my life motto.

I haven't written much of anything in what feels like a year or more. Moving out on your own, learning to be an adult, it changes you. You realize some things you thought were the pillars of you just aren't true anymore, at least for a while.  I don't think I stopped writing in my head. But I stopped putting it on paper. I didn't chase the stories down. I chased real life adventures instead. I took a lot in. I learned to appreciate beauty I hadn't seen before, I stayed out until early morning driving with friends, I experienced new depths of emotion. Incredible connection, crushing heartbreak, conscious emptiness.
I said and thought a lot of things that slipped away into the air of the places I occupied, lost forever. Or maybe they're still cycling through the air ducts, floating on the night breeze, tangled in the fibers of my pillows.
I think I'm ready to start writing again.

I'll admit, life this past year has been as wearying as it has been revolutionary. But I wouldn't trade away the time I spent or the lessons I learned. No matter how many mistakes I made, no matter how many times I cried and couldn't hide it. I feel more like a mess and know myself less than ever before. It's becoming increasingly important to find my identity in God as everything around me changes so quickly.

I chose to name this new blog "Beautiful Times" after an Owl City song about beauty mixed with pain. Maybe I'll change it later, but for this time in my life, it seems fitting.

A few important facts about my life right now to give some context:

>>I live in a big blue house named Hampton with about 23 different people give or take a couple. We're an Intentional Christian Community dedicated to investing in each other's lives, not just sharing space.
>>My main job is at a car wash. I work there half the week. The other half of the week I try to focus on my art. I create and publish a webcomic and try to do other illustration as well.
>>I just turned 20. My days of teen heroism are over. It's all regular type superhero antics from here on out.