I know I'm a bit early on this one, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get this journal up on time otherwise.

I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year, that it may be better than the last-- that things will change for the better, that you will accomplish part of what you hoped to in life, that the good will outweigh the bad. In my well-wishing, I thought I'd share some wisdom I've found, from various sources, that you could keep in mind when none of those things seem attainable.


Thoughts on love...

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." - Sophocles

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." - Erich Fromm

"The book of love is long and boring,
And written very long ago.
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes,
And things we're all too young to know."
~Peter Gabriel, The Book of Love

"Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile." - Elizabeth Browning

"Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever."


The following advice comes from "The 45 Lessons Life Taught Me" by Regina Brett, 90 years old, from Cleveland, Ohio.

Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
Don't compare your life with others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
Everything can change in the blink of an eye.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.
Over prepare, then go with the flow.
No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
Time heals everything. Give time time.
If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours right back.


And finally, an essay titled "Advice, like youth, is wasted on the young", by Mary Schmich, published in the Chicago Tribune in 1997.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

I don't see myself when I look in the mirror
I see who I should be
I don't see myself when I look in your eyes
Thank God for that
~"In the Crossfire" by Starsailor


Less depressing journal, for the most part. Like, maybe 75% less downer material.

Some good news, finally... my laptop is fixed, and fully functional. I've been trying to get WoW back on it for the past 5 hours, it's slowly getting there. If not for the fact that there are 2 other computers in the house able to run WoW, I... well, I have no idea what I would've done these past few weeks. WoW is an awesome and welcome distraction. And it makes me feel accomplished sometimes (I now have 2 80's! If you think that's lame you can go fuck yourself, it took me 4 years!)

...regardless, after this everything will be back on my laptop, including Photoshop.

THANK GOD. I've been going crazy over here. I have a lot of stuff to get working on, so expect to see more from me-- this really just means a lot of pencil drawings from my sketchbook, mostly just face and body studies/practice of like, two characters. But hopefully having my laptop back in working order will motivate me to work on my list of things to do over break, in preparation of next semester. Resume's and classes and emails, boring stuff, you know.

Christmas is this week. That's pretty neat. Hope everyone has a good one, and a safe New Year's, for that matter. It'd be cool if I come up with something witty or insightful to say at the end of the year-- we'll see. By come up with, I mean rip off of someone wiser than I.

Oh also Chazi is once again awesome for getting me a subscription as part of a deal on devart... I hate those stupid virus-ridden ads on this site. I'll have to keep this subscription up myself after it expires this time, you know, using the money I don't have.

Man, was this really all I had to say? A guess a piece of good news has been long overdue...