The Lesson Of 2009

Posted by Jared | Posted in Autobiologic | Posted on 08-01-2010

I‘m pretty good. My broken ankle is healed and I can almost walk like a normal person. I’ve got a graphic novel with a great deal of promise, finally making headway on my novel WAY OF THE DODO, and am frustrated at my dayjob.

But those are outside things, aren’t they? Atmospheric disturbances.  How is Planet Jared doing, I believe the question was. Nevermind the asteroids.

Pretty good.

One thing the Ankle Incident drove home is how my tendency to rush to the end keeps me back. Dealing with the broken bones, and then the subsequent healing (still ongoing!) forced me to slow down and contemplate what I was doing. I tend to get very Zen in moments of crisis, judging what behavior is most effective from an almost detached perspective–you can ask the paramedics; I had ‘em laughing all the way to the hospital–and this injury kept me in that state for longer than usual. And what I’ve come away with, is it’s better to do things than to do plan what you’re going to do with them.

Don’t count your chickens, in other words.  But in a creative way. Don’t name you chickens, maybe? Don’t make your posters for your dancing chicken show, until they’ve hatched and it’s clear that dancing is their true calling? You get the idea.

This is been hard for me, because it’s my nature to skip to the end. But that’s alot of pressure to put on oneself, and it’s easy to put the work aside if it becomes clear that it’s not going to end up where you wanted it to in your head. I’ve done that too much. It’s hard to stop that, to scale back into the smaller frame. But it’s the right thing to do.  ‘Cuase if a project works, then I can build on it. And if it doesn’t, well, it was just a small idea to begin with.

That’s an email I sent in July, which means I learned the Lesson of 2009 early.  2009 has been my nonline year, full of projects and events that weren’t designed for virtual spaces. It was a year of food and sculpture, of theater and photography, and of secrets. Especially secrets. A great many things happened in 2009, but most of them never reached this space. Nonline year.

Just as 2008 will always be defined by my wedding, 2009 will always be the year I broke my ankle. It will be the year JR was able to sleep in the hospital bed with me because nurse saw her as my wife. It will be the year I re-learned how to walk, the year I struggled with what the truly handicapped go through every day, the year everything slowed down to crawl.  The year I learned what it takes to break bones and what it takes to rebuild muscles.

A year of learning, as the Lesson of 2009 above can attest.

My favorite expression concerning the New Year has always been “That much still a child, I still consider the start of the year to be at the fall.” Back to school, and all. If 2009 has any distinction, it’s that the end of summer didn’t feel like the end of the year at all. And that  this casual, academic shuffling from one winter day to another felt like the end of something old and the start of something new. We’re starting over, the lot of us. Setting it all back to zero for one more go.

Though the years barely more than a week old, there’s been more than enough sadness to go around. Two recent deaths have hit pretty hard, and that’s just the tip of the melancholy iceberg that extends far out into our friends and loved ones. It been hard to look at the new year with hopeful faces.

But.

On January 1st, I was told by a friend I had known for a handful of months that it was like we had known each other all out lives. Last night, I had a dinner of Iron Chef quality with a friend I had not seen in ages, and met a friend I hope to know for ages yet. This morning, I juggled snowballs, something that had never, strangely,  occurred to me before.

Snow Juggling

Let this be 2010, then. A year of the old ways made new, and the new ways made old.

Also, let it be full of Jessica Hische’s delightful letters from Daily Drop Cap.

Been A Great Year, Hasn’t it?

Posted by Jared | Posted in Autobiologic | Posted on 31-12-2008

How The Year Began

At NYCC '08

We’re Officially Offbeat

Posted by Jared | Posted in photos, Autobiologic | Posted on 22-10-2008

When planning our wedding, the one place JR and I turned to over and over again—even more than my sketchbook—was Offbeat Bride. Offbeat bride is a collection of not only beautiful, unusual weddings, but beautiful unusual couples who were celebrating not just their love, but who they ARE. It was more than a place of inspiration. It was a place reassurance. When ever we thought our choices were too weird or untraditional, there was Offbeat Bride to tell us that frankly, we hadn’t even gotten started.

Would we have had the same wedding without Offbeat Bride? Probably. But I can tell you, we wouldn’t be near as confident about it.

Which is why it so awesome to be on the site today, and for something we wanted in our wedding from day one. A lot of things about our wedding changed as we planned, but we always wanted our wedding party in capes.

And Offbeat Bride once again reassures us that we made the right decision. Thanks, Ariel.

How Was Your Weekend?

Posted by Jared | Posted in Autobiologic | Posted on 13-10-2008

Mine was pretty awesome.


photo by Jason Adams

More pictures here.

We’re Out Looking For Astronauts

Posted by Jared | Posted in Odds And Ends, Autobiologic, Aliens You Will Meet | Posted on 05-08-2008

It’s been a wonderful handful of days. Despite the stress and panic of wedding and convention planning, it’s been good. Not through anything I’m doing, mind. It’s all the excellent friends I have, from J.R. on down. Without them, I’d have been curled up in the dining room, hot gluing felt together.

Dragon*Con looms at the end of the month—did I mention I’m a guest this year? I’m totally guest at Dragon*Con this year—with another Aliens You Will Meet puppet show due. Naturally, I have to top myself, which means new puppets. We’re going for quality over quantity for this one, only 8 new puppets compared to last year’s 15. Luckily some extremely talented folks have volunteered to operate them, so that helps.

Saucy Polly, Space Pirate Queen

Saucy Polly, that’s her right there, is the first of the new group. A space pirate queen of murderous reputation, she’s also the first of the AYWM puppets to have a working hand. This year’s characters are going to be a little more active than last years, so she’ll need it.

But it hasn’t all been space pirates and googely eyes! There’s also been culture!

JR and I managed to snag Shakespeare In Clark Park’s production of AS YOU LIKE IT on it’s final night. We had meant to go earlier, but it turned out to be a wonderful thing we did not. Trillian Stars and Kyle Cassidy—extraordinarily talented folks that we had been meaning to meet for, like, ever—were front row-center, so we got to not only see the show, but share it with fascinating people. Trillian and Kyle hung out with us after the show and played with our puppets and rayguns. A future zoo-date was tenuously set up, and well as plans for future collaborations. It was like we’d been friends for quite some time.

Watching AS YOU LIKE IT has gotten my theatre bug twitching again, as has the just-released Philly Fringe schedule. Come this fall, I’ll have a huge collection of alien puppets (heck, I have a huge collection now!) that I should probably do something with. Philly Fringe can always use more puppets.

The whole experience was capped off by spending yesterday with David, Mena and their tiny, smiley baby Tina. It was a relaxed evening, but great one. I really don’t hang out with them as much as I should, something I need to rememdy.

Also, they have a TV the approximate size of Belgium, so that should make finding a reason to go back pretty easy. “Hey guys, I was just in the neighborhood…Oh, look. I just happen to have MIRRORMASK with me…”

AUTOBIOLOGIC: My First Reaction

Posted by Jared | Posted in Autobiologic | Posted on 17-03-2008

Click to embiggin

I mean, nothing against BitStrips as a concept, but you sure can create some horrifying characters without meaning it, can’t you?

That said, it’s fascinating to see what people, given the BitStrips template, think they look like.

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