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New Year post. Here's what I did in 2021...

I proposed to my girlfriend the other day. So, I’m engaged now. That’s probably the coolest thing on this list. The rest is mostly in chronological order.

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In January of 2021, I became the Artistic Director of a school.

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The US Capitol building was breached.

 

I played a lot of Stardew with Cari.

 

Marvel had awesome TV shows on Disney+.

 

I played a lot of D&D with two groups.

 

I got summoned for jury duty.

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Did a lot of hiking with Cari (highlights: Mastodon, Pere Marquette, and Castlewood State Park)

 

Watched a ton of Impractical Jokers.

 

Went to an art gallery for a friend.

 

Helped Cari through a major car accident and shopping for a new one.

 

Went on a fantastical Disney vacation with a road trip.

 

Dealt with some hard times...people I care about in the hospital for extended stay. They are OK now.

 

Started a very serious diet and lost weight.

 

Worked on some seriously awesome writing projects that I can’t talk about yet.

 

Lots of art fairs.

Felt sad when Scruffy, cute little doggo, died.

Went to the STL Renaissance Festival.

 

Went to MO Games Con with Reed and Ryker.

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Created a new show called PerformLAB.

Brought back live performance to my art school.

 

Did a ghost tour at the Fox.

 

Celebrated 4 years with Cari.

 

I put on a CommUNITY Fun Day.

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Got back into Animal Crossing.

 

Cooked a turkey for the first time.

 

Got my mom a birthday lunch.

 

Put on a Dance concert, a play, and a Winter music concert (7 total performances) in one month.

I enjoyed Spiderman: No Way Home

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Hosted a Christmas party.

Some of the big things I did in 2015

Saw “Impractical Jokers” at the Peabody Opera House

Sculpted a Nintendo statue that went viral

I participated in a friendly Smash Bros. Tournament

I taught Social Science at my school

I bought Oxyborb.com back

I went to Wizard World Comic Con

I hunted Amiibo during the craze

I beat the Witcher 3

I began a reread project of A Song of Ice and Fire

I went to a music festival called SOHO

I went on a solo tour of Springfield and took pictures with Abe Lincoln

I worked on my book and edited several books for other people

I saved a kid from choking

I had a college buddy pass away. The first person to read my book, actually.

I went on a float trip that was a bit of a disaster

I saw the new Polar Bears at the Zoo

I went on a crazy road trip to Chicago and stayed at a different house each night

I wrote in a journal consistently every single day

I had my first jury duty

I bought my first Halloween animatronic

I had one total sick day at work

I played in a pumpkin patch and carved a jack-o’-lantern

I was a monster in a haunted trail

I bought a nativity set (a Christmas gift)

I saw a Jesus Circus

I took two friends Christmas shopping

I saw a new Star Wars movie

I went out to Silvercreek with awesome people from work

I saw a friend I haven’t seen since SIUE

I met a bunch of cousins’ children

I bought a boomerang

I played Fallout 4 and love it

I went to a Farmer’s Tan Market show

2015, overall, was a great year. It's also was very transitional for me. I had some job promotions, responsibility changes. I tried a lot of new things and went outside of my comfort zone. I kept up with my blogging and writing, although my editing of my novel had a pause during which I had to write a million lesson plans. I went on a few adventures, the best of which was my road trip to Chicago. 2014 I was a little reclusive, but 2015 I learned how to balance myself. I made new friends. I took chances on people. I dove into social situations where I didn't know anyone.

Looking forward to 2016, there are a world of changes at hand, and I don't mean "New Year's Resolutions that I say I'll do but never end up doing." I have major goals that I have to complete, not out of desire but out of necessity. I don't think these changes will be too hard, but they will be interesting. Most of my challenges waited on me paying off my car loans, and I'm almost there. I should hit it by January. Party!

Anyway, happy new year to you.

January Ventablogging – Getting back into the groove

It’s already halfway through January. Weird.

I guess it feels weird because I was out-of-town for the first 6 days of it, add seven more and here we are. That’s not that much, I suppose. I started out the year at MAGfest, which is a video game and music convention. It was awesome, but the last part of the trip was so stressful and taxing that I was burned out in general afterwards. I’m still feeling a little traumaburn from it, honestly. There was some major drama and then a car ride over a sheet of ice that nearly got me killed… fun story… The rest of MAGfest was extremely fun, but man… that last bit took it out of me.

the push

I’ve been trying to force myself back into the groove ever since that vacation. I haven’t worked on my writing / editing / etc. very much since being back. I was also sick, to top it off. I spent an entire day sleeping, just to recover all the sleep I missed. I haven’t felt very artistic.

What little art I have been making has been going into my new YouTube channel. It’s actually a pretty cool thing I’m working on, and I hope that it helps me promote myself as an author. I’m dedicating myself to making a new video every single day. Sometimes it’s a vlog, sometimes a musical poem or a Let’s Draw.

Here’s a few examples from “oxyborb2”:

I also own “oxyborb” without the 2, but that channel is my higher-quality, less quantity channel.

Selling personality AND my book

Making a video every day has forced me to come up with creative ways to think about film. I set out to start video blogging because some of my favorite authors do them, and I really like the way they sell their personalities along with their books. I want to be that kind of author. I want to be personable. I know it’ll help me when it comes time to promote my novel, but I really enjoy talking with people about art.

I’ve always been a good public speaker, but I’ve never felt entirely comfortable in front of a camera. As someone who wants to be in the public eye with his writing, this daily video/vlog thing should help me perfect my camera personality when the time comes. 

 

Think creative

But I’ve been doing other cool things on my new channel. Shorter videos, that I might have otherwise never posted, are getting put up on my second channel. I’m making stop-motion. Doing animation. Reciting my poems and short songs. Learning how to edit film—which might teach me a bit about crafting dialogue! I am enjoying it, for now. I hope I keep it up.

Other than that

I’ve got to get pushing myself. I think one thing about this whole process is how lonely it is to be an unpublished, unknown writer trying to make his first novel a reality. Nobody has read my book, so I have nobody to talk about it with yet. All my friends just think I’m crazy for being so dedicated to something, and I don’t want to pester them with links to my blog and stuff. That’s one thing—I wish more of my friends were readers. I can’t really get my friends to read my book, because none of them really make reading a priority. That just makes writing all the lonelier, I suppose. There will be no gratification or validation for the insane amount of hard work I’m doing until I get an agent and get published… but that’s the way of it, I suppose. You just have to keep pushing. Keep believing.

Belief

That’s what we’ve all got to do, right? Believe in our novels, ourselves. Nobody else is going to believe in you until you’ve proven yourself, sadly. The only way to prove yourself is to get published. Ahhh… Alright, I guess writing this all out has made me feel better. I just needed a reminder that writing will be lonely until I break through into the business and gain actual readers.

One last thing!

I’m still looking for a critique partner. Are you out there? Do you like fantasy for teens? (Big bonus is you happen to live in the St. Louis-area!) Well, I’m looking for a critique partner. Here’s a link to a post all about that: http://unravelreads.blogspot.com/2013/12/now-accepting-applications-for-critique.html

Take care! Drive safe on icy roads! Pussssh!