The older I get, the more I feel that there are so many talented artists around me. Back in elementary school, most people were only capable of badly colored drawings, often consisting of:

- Stick figures
- Houses that are just a triangle on top of a square
- Skies that are blue at the top but otherwise blank

By middle school it had improved quite a bit for some people, and by high school a few were drawing like pros. I find it funny, though, how almost every teacher I've met is terrible at drawing. The only exception is, yep, you guessed it, art teachers. The last art teacher I had, I think he used to be an illustrator. So of course if he wasn't a good artist he would've starved. (Well, maybe not starved, there are probably ways to get food...Like the lady I saw sneakily picking an orange from someone's tree because the orange was hanging out on the other side of the fence...)

Well, at this age, I guess people are starting to figure out what they're really passionate about and are deciding what they want to pursue, what they think is worth spending their time and effort doing. I know a lot of people who are pretty good at drawing, but there are a few who have really put in a lot of work and I especially want to point them out now.

One of them is my mom's friend's son. My mother just told me that he won the Fotodyne art contest. Apparently he spends a lot of time on a regular basis to improve his art and even goes to another city to practice sketching models (nude, I think, but it is important for artists to be able to draw the human body. After all, my art teacher said about naked people, "Eventually they become just another thing to draw"). If you want to see the full size version of his contest entry, click here. Actually, the style does remind me a bit of an artist on Pixiv. (Not that that's a bad thing. I greatly admire many of the Pixiv artists, wish I was more fluent in Japanese so I could understand more of what's there...Google Chrome's instant translate can be really confusing...)

As for the other person whose art has caught my attention, it is this artist. She has some very nice portraits in her gallery. Actually, a group in my Writing for Publication class last year made a documentary showing what three different people do on Saturday night. One of the people featured was her, and showed some of her drawings, as well as her practicing the guitar.

I must say that I really admire those who practice so much in order to better themselves. I've only ever had that kind of energy in brief fits, and I wish I could keep going at it long enough to make a significant change in my habits and my artistic abilities. I've been thinking maybe I should do something like the 365 days project, either with photography or drawing (or both!) so I'll be forced to practice at it every day. ...I just worry if I can come up with 365 good ideas... -_-;;

Labels: 365, art, change, contest, documentary, drawing, hard work, improvement, motivation, photography, pixiv, practice, project, winner, writing for publication

For several years now, I've felt like I have obligations to things that I have started (and later regretted doing so). Mostly it has been websites. I would join a website, perhaps out of curiosity or because of a friend's recommendation, and for a while I might be enjoying myself on the site, but after some time I would grow bored. In some cases the site was not important to me, so it was easy for me to quit going on it. But in other cases, I had spent a long time building up things on my account that I had become proud of, and I didn't want to leave because I was afraid all that hard work would go to waste. And I ended up weaving a kind of spiderweb around myself, trapping me in an endless routine of visiting websites, making it feel like a chore and not something done for fun.

It happened to me with video games as well. I used to brush my dogs in the game Nintendogs every day. I kept them in good condition - they were always in the hygiene state of Beautiful, they were always fed and given water, I took them on walks every few days (to go to the discounted shop to buy dog food, water, and collars), and I trained them until they could easily win the Agility contests (which allowed me to make lots of money). In fact, I earned enough money to be able to remodel my house all the way to the most expensive kind, which gives you a view from Outer Space.

I really didn't want to abandon my dogs because I feared they would run away (they run away if you neglect them too long, and I prided myself on never having a dog run away) and because I thought all the work I had done, every day, for years, would become meaningless. It was only when I had to prioritize my activities (and Nintendogs was one of the ones I decided to sacrifice) that I stopped playing the game. (And anyways, my DS screen was ruined from all the brushing.)

Indeed, I am still playing Animal Crossing: Wild World to this day because of my annoying sense of obligation. I turn on the game once a day in order to water my plants. I have cultivated a vast garden of flowers. I also used to spend much time in making money, which really did pay off, because I was able to expand my house to its utmost capacity. (It has three floors - there is one big room and three smaller rooms on the first floor, one small room on the second floor, and the third is a basement type of thing where my "people" sleep) Always, always, always, I feel like I can't possibly part with these things, however material and shallow they may be, because of all the time and energy I devoted to them.

But I know, with a sinking feeling, that these things must eventually be put aside... The older you get, the less time you seem to have (or at least, you have to spend your time on other matters). And I fear eventually I will not have the time to even water those flowers, that they will all turn brown, and wither up and die, and weeds will take over my town. I am sure this has already happened for other gamers, who have grown bored or simply cannot find the opportunity to play anymore. And I am unwilling to buy Animal Crossing: City Folk, the newest of the Animal Crossing games, because I don't want to become interested and motivated, and then have to give it up - it would sit, collecting dust, like many of my Gamecube and some of my Wii games. I feel terrible now for having wanted video games, when I really don't use them much and they do cost a big chunk of cash. That money could have gone to worthy causes, or even to my retirement, which I moan and sigh over so much.

Eventually, I know I must disentangle myself from the trap I have laid around me. I need to learn the lesson of being able to give up certain things, without worrying so much over them the way I am wont to do. I wonder if it's just a part of my nature and I won't ever be able to overcome it. I really hope that is not the case. It unsettles me to think that things are impossible and that the sky really is the limit.

Labels: accomplishments, age, animal crossing, fun, future, hard work, human nature, letting go, money, nintendo ds, nintendogs, obligation, problem, sacrifice, time, trapped, video games, waste, website

That is what the city of Vancouver was described as. Last night was the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Vancouver is apparently one of the most populated places that far north. I have visited Vancouver once in the past, years back, when my family was visiting my dad's friend's family. I can't remember that much about it anymore. I guess I was too young back then to appreciate the beauty of Canada anyways. I'd like to visit Canada again, but I'm not sure when I'll get a good opportunity.

My memories of that time are really quite hazy because I thought I had visited a tower in Vancouver. However, that had happened in Seattle, not Vancouver. I remember that my family was going to eat lunch in the restaurant of the tower (Space Needle, I believe it was called) but there was too long of a waiting time so instead we went to a small shop where I bought a bagel. It was a good bagel, I recall.

Well, I should probably get back to the subject of the Olympics before I lose my thought process. I watched the people representing each country walk in. Everything was announced in French first, then English, which I was pleased by. There aren't a lot of countries interested in the Winter Olympics compared to the Summer Olympics, but I'm still excited by it.

I noticed that some countries seemed to have a lot of people, like Russia, Germany, the USA, Japan, Canada (but of course, they're the hosts!), and so on. On the other hand, some countries only had one or two athletes. And India, despite having such a huge population, still had very few athletes (though there was a decent crowd for China). Is India not that good at sports or something? D: I do hear that they play cricket, though. But that's not really a winter sport.

I'd really like to go the Olympics myself sometime. Particularly the Summer Olympics. It's true, you can easily watch from the comfort of your home, and the camera can get closer to the people than you would be able to from your seat in the actual stadiums, but it would be nice to really be there. To really see and hear everything for yourself and to be able to look wherever you want, not just what the camera shows you. And to really be able to wave back at the athletes as they come walking out.

You know, I've dreamed of myself doing athletic things like skating or running. But I wonder if I'd ever be able to achieve such a thing.

I once said that I was interested in becoming a janitor to my parents. I think being a janitor is a noble job. You keep schools and other public places clean, even though it's hard work that must constantly be done and not necessarily for a great amount of pay. In fact, I would rather be a janitor than a soldier. A soldier is a noble job too. But I think sometimes when you get out there, and kill innocent people, and see people's fear, and be horrified by death and starvation and disease, it wouldn't seem so spiffy. I would think, "Is it really worth it for the 'great good' to be doing this? People are really, really suffering."

My father told me that he didn't think I could be a janitor because I didn't have the stamina. And he even went so far as to say that my talents would be wasted if I became a janitor. That may be so, but it was discouraging to me. I really hate to be told what I can't do. People's expectations and words can really build fences around you, fences that are barbed and would injure you terribly to climb over. But I guess that's part of what makes it exciting to chase your dreams. It's showing people that you can do things no one thought you could ever do and overcoming challenges to become a better person that is so great, kind of like people who are addicted to getting adrenaline rushes... I want to do something amazing, to leave my mark on the world, or to at least feel a sense of self-accomplishment. I think just having a small taste of victory would be enough to make me feel like life was worth living. Perhaps being a janitor doesn't seem like the most stunning, life-changing job, but you never know. One of my school janitors was able to run a 4:25 mile, back in the day. I could write a book about my experiences. I could start changes in the school The possibilities are endless. How else can a mountain be made out of a molehill?

Labels: aiming high, bagel, canada, challenge, countries, dreams, glory, hard work, india, janitor, limits, memories, mountain, olympics, potential, seattle, soldiers, vancouver, winter, wish

I saw my mom reading a Chinese newspaper, a common activity of hers. There was a page featuring, France, Paris in particular, and I saw a picture of a food dish with the words "Au Chien Qui Fume" under it. I said, "Oh, it must be something like a dog who smokes." My mom read the Chinese translation and said I was right about that. She seemed a little surprised. Well, I guess learning French is doing some good at last. (I mean, I really can't read Chinese...)

Au Chien Qui Fume is the name of a restaurant in the Paris. See if you can understand anything on their website. XD I can vaguely read it...And considering that whoever is reading this right now understands English, you could probably guess at some of the words.

I recently heard that there was some regulation being passed in France saying that you couldn't smoke in restaurants anymore, I believe it was Paris in particular... So then people went outside to smoke. However, some restaurants are open late at night (bars too, I guess?) and so the smokers outside make noise. People who live upstairs above the restaurants get annoyed by it and have complained so restaurants/bars had to close at an earlier time. This made people upset, saying something along the lines of, "It's Paris! The city of lights! And now you're taking this away from us!"

You know, I've always wondered why countries where people smoke seem to have such long average lifespans. France and Japan are both countries where there are quite a few smokers and yet the average life expectancy is quite high in both countries. Perhaps other factors like diet end up outweighing it? (My parents actually question whether smoking is bad, but I don't think that is debatable. I mean, if nothing else, it makes your breath smell bad.)

Friday, being the closest day to Valentine's that we were in school (next week is a week off!), was the day Singing Valentines were going on. Just to get you up to speed if you don't have that at your school, a Singing Valentine is something that you can buy for a few dollars from the school for a friend or significant other. The recipient will be sung to by students from the school choir, as well as a card from the sender and a piece of candy. I didn't send any this year, because I really wasn't thinking about it at all, but one of my friends did send me one.

One of my teachers was sick of all the Singing Valentines. At first I was shocked by his attitude since the singers had probably practiced their songs and choreography, and anyways it's easy for me to respect those better than myself at something, but then my teacher said that during third period, there were 9 Singing Valentines. That's a lot of singing. In my period, one student got 2 Singing Valentines.

There were various groups of students, like a group of people wearing white shirts, ties, and red hats, a group of people with pink outfits and fairy wings, a group of people with plaid shirts, and a group of pizza deliverers. I liked the pizza group the best because I liked their songs. (And they were unique since they had two guys in the group...I bet those were the only two guys in the school choir. It's kind of sad how there's such a huge difference between the number of girls and guys. I wonder if it's any different in high school.)

Speaking of high school, it is really starting to loom near for me. On Thursday, I went to the high school that I will most likely be attending to listen to presentations about science, math, and language arts (since history isn't offered for freshmen, there was no presentation for that) and to get information about the electives offered at the school. My dad says the teachers there are pretty cool, like college professors. I am not sure what to think of this because I'm not that sure about what college professors are "supposed" to be like.

Anyways, the school newspaper looked pretty cool. It was pretty different from my school's newspaper, that's for sure. Does four years really make that much difference? My school's newspaper was fairly amusing - the bad advice column was great - but now it's not even there anymore because Journalism was cut from the electives (Not enough money! Not enough students! UGH!). The articles in my school's newspaper weren't all that long most of the time and some of them were just kind of unexciting, corny descriptions of school dances and rallies. But the high school's newspaper talked about actual issues, and showed the car accidents that have happened. There were also pictures of the crossing guards, which I thought was nice - they should be recognized for their work.

I wonder if I should take Journalism when I reach 11th or 12th grade? I've always worried that it would be really hard work, having to stay after school and interview people and slave away typing articles on laptops. I guess I'm just really lazy and fearful of hard work. I can't always stay this way... (As much as I'd like to retire, it's simply not that likely to happen in the near future. I'll have to get used to studying or working for long hours and dealing with more burdens over time)

Labels: au chien qui fume, chinese, choir, french, gender, group, hard work, high school, journalism, lifespan, newspaper, paris, restaurant, singing, smoking, teacher, valentines, website

Top ↑