My Doggy Twitches In Her Sleep And My Sister Sings Loudly

Dude, things are progressing at a slow pace.

I have a dog now, as can be attested to by Maddie's blog and numerous pictures, and that's spicing up life a little bit, but I'm still W....A....I...T...I...N...G for more exciting things, like graduation and my new job!

ONLY 9 WEEKS AND 4 DAYS TO GO!!!!

And in that nine weeks I have to write my 20-30 page senior thesis on the destruction of farming and the American countryside by Big Corn, which I haven't started yet, although I have the sources. I'm just so OVERWHELMED by it! I made the mistake of saying in my prospectus that

"As a student of anthropology and agriculture I have learned that the number of acres planted to corn in the United States has grown exponentially over the last fifty years, and that while the average size of farming enterprises in the Corn Belt has grown, the number of farms has dropped, and that this has created many changes in the life of the modern American farmer. In this paper I seek to find the reasons behind these changes, determine whether these changes have been helpful or detrimental to the Corn Belt, and if they prove to be harmful I intend to put forth a solution for a better rural America in the years to come."

SOOOOOOO basically I have to come up with a pretty awesome answer to the problem of the disappearing small farm. Way to bite off more than you can chew, Hathan.

Meanwhile, though, I'm having fun volunteering at St. Martin's Table, which I like to describe as a hippy Christian bookstore cum local food restaurant in my free time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I work for between three and five hours serving tables and all the tips and part of the proceeds go to charity, and I get a delicious from-scratch free lunch to boot! WHAT A DEAL as my father and grandfather would say.

So, yes. Stress about my thesis, volunteering, dog, general boredom....what else?

OH!!

SPRING BREAK IS NEXT WEEK! I'd totally forgotten, but a blessed week of hanging out at home is nearly upon us! I think I might take a day or two to go check out Bluebird Gardens and meet my new boss, but we'll have to see.

So that's about all the news for now. Except that Maddie is recording a lot of music in our house lately, and it all sounds awesome. If you have a chance to hear her and Jordan Taylor together, DO IT. They've recorded a few originals, and I like what I've heard.

Later days!

I Have A Job!

Guess what, everyone??

It's only February and I have a job lined up for June, after I graduate. How cool am I? Pretty darn cool, that's how.

I'm going to be working at Bluebird Gardens up in Fergus Falls:
http://www.bluebirdgardens.net/
Check out the staff page and you'll see me and the other interns!

It's so nice to know that I have my future figured out at least until October, so I don't have to start freaking out about my life yet.

I'm meeting with a pretty cool small group thingy on Wednesday nights during Lent at the ELCA church on campus, too, which is helpful. It's all about trying to figure out what you're supposed to do with your life, but instead of just being a bunch of college students, it's actually me, two other students, and four or five adults in their 50's and 60's. Talk about inter-generational perspectives. Awesome. And it's nice to know that there are people older than me who don't have it all figured out yet.

And I'm excited for this weekend! Lots of people to meet up with, and lots of stuff to do. Good times shall be had.

But for now I'm off to toss back a few with my amigos from Mexico.

Later days!

P.S. Just in case you need the date, I'll be graduating on May 16th, 2010. Woohoo!!

Lonely Road

The more I think about it the more convinced I am that most of the problems with “kids today” are related to loneliness.

Without going into a long rant about society, I’ll just say that our separation from the people around us has gotten ridiculous. Considering the number of people on the planet, this seems absurd. We’re lonely in a crowded room.

Technology has changed this in a way, because we can now contact the people we know best at any distance, but take away a kid’s cell phone, laptop and ipod and they begin to feel the separation.

Not that people haven’t felt this before. I think the feeling of separation is something all teenagers go through. But I would argue that kids today feel it more keenly.

Texting, random internet surfing, pot, TV, alcohol, sex; all used to get outside ourselves and our loneliness, and to connect with others to some extent.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’ve been feelin’ the loneliness in a concentrated way for the last few weeks. I’ve been immersing myself in books and TV and living in another world whenever possible. Somehow this life of get-up-go-to-class-work-out-come-home-eat-do-homework-sleep just doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. I’m SO ready to be done with school. I can’t stand asking myself “what the heck am I doing with my life?” every morning.

I’m ready for action. Let’s get on with it!

Comic #2

I'd talk more about comics and what I'm learning, but it's 2:30am and I'm tired! Hurrah! More later.

Crown - Mason Jennings

I took the train up from Illinois
I was following through on a letter you sent
I always feared that you'd be true
True to yourself to the bitter end.

It just kinda happened, or so she says.
She was drinking and lonely; you know the rest
And he meant nothing; he was happenstance.
She says she loves me still and wants a second chance.

But I don't wanna be together,
I don't wanna be apart,
I don't want none of this love for you, honey
Deep, deep down in my heart.

Where is my golden crown
That you took and passed around?
There's no telling what a man might do
With a life like this when it all falls through.

I don't wanna be together
I don't wanna be apart
I don't want none of this love for you, honey
Deep, deep down in my heart.

You were my dream come true.
Can't you see what you've put me through?
The love that tears me apart
Still beats deep, deep down in my heart.
Deep, deep, deep down in my heart.

Comic #1

Well, here's the first comic! Waddaya think?

And here are a few things I've learned so far:
1) This is hard.
2) And time consuming.
3) But really fun and relaxing!
4) You should use good quality pencils and pens if you want it to look decent. Sadly, I have none of the above.
5) Always write the dialogue before the speech bubbles!!
6) Making a character look the same in every panel is nearly impossible.

Anyway, I'm off to the airport to surprise Lyss, who's coming back from Norway tonight! Yay!!!

Experimentation

Hey everyone! Good news! I'm not sick anymore, and I'm in a much better mood overall! This is good for me, and also good for you as you won't have to listen to me be pathetic for a while.

I'm trying something new in the next few days. Inspired by some really cool people including Jeph Jacques, Erica Moen and Athena Currier, I have decided to have some fun with drawing and try to comic-ify my next few entries. Know this in advance: I have little to no real artistic talent, so this may be somewhat of a mess, but it'll be fun! So, without further ado, here's my first attempt and 2d-ing myself.

So for the next few days I'm gonna try my hand at being witty and putting it down in graphic form, and we'll see how it goes. I'm ALSO going to finally set up the printer dad gave Maddie and I for Christmas, so I'll be able to scan what I draw instead of taking pictures.

Wish me luck!