Like My New Header?

I mean, it's nothing particularly impressive from a Graphic Arts standpoint, but I feel it's a bit more evocative and descriptive of what my blog is all about. It comes just short of using clip art pics for a typewriter and a film camera, lol.

But if you follow the blog, the new header conveys a sense of the content.

The Script Frenzy cirtificate illustrates my screenwriting, and by extension my writing in general.

I WON, by the way!!! 23,810 in 28 days!!! Now, you can't write a screenplay in 30 days and have a manuscript that's worth SHOWING to people, naturally. But still, I have something worth rewriting now!!! YAY ME!!!

I also lucked-out in that my recent finances afforded me the opportunity to actually donate a tiny sum to the organization, and to buy a T-shirt to commemorate this month!!! So that's cool!!!

Also, allow me to clarify: If you missed previous blog entries, winning Script Frenzy doesn't mean my script was the BEST or anything; it simply means I commited to writing a feature-length script in 30 days and I wrote a feature-length script in 30 days. No one actually knows how good or bad said screenplay is (except me, and I'm just gonna lie and tell you it's the best screenplay EVER, hehe).

But I DID IT! (Like Rocky in the first flick: This contest isn't about a knock-out; it's about going the distance.) ;)

So anyway...

The Script Frenzy certificate is my symbolic typewriter, and on the oposite side of the name of the blog is my baby... My inspiration, my strength and my reward, all rolled into one beautitiful being. Then beside her is my Core: Tommy, Kelly, me and Brian, respectively. These are my GUYS, and in the pic we're all together at the screenwriting expo that put us in front of David Koepp and William Goldman and Karl Iglasias and Nathan Fillion & JOSS FUCKING WHEDON!!! This is us together on a 5-day adventure of learning, writing, dreaming and hangin' out. This pic is the guys who've known me since I was a kid, and are still with me, and always will be. And when you combine them with my Gnomey Goddess, you have my Core: These folks are how and why I keep the faith and never stop trying, no matter how bleak the road ahead can look at times.

A Note: There is a guy not pictured: My Genius Friend Dave. This cat has given me SO MUCH over the last decade, and I strongly suspect we will be linked together until the end. The Guys all love and revere him too, as his advice -- often given as an afterthought or in passing -- has often proved invaluable to our endeavors. But My Geniuos Friend Dave is not an attention whore, like the rest of us, and I don't have many pictures of him, and none of us together. But he is still a very active, vibrant part of Who I Am and teaches me EVERY SINGLE TIME WE SPEAK. Additionally, it's My Genius Friend Dave who GAVE me my first computer, got me on the Internet to begin with, got me blogging (him and Kevin Smith), and taught me that often just hunkering down and doing the work yields the most and best results.

So even though My Genius Friend David isn't pictured in the header, he is indesputably part of my Core.

Back to the header now...

Finally, there's my skull & crossbones design for Mangey Raiders which, to me, represents the philosophy by which I live: Imaginative FUN! Pirates were cruel and mean people, but the popular IDEAL of pirates is a subversive, uninhibited, unrestricted lifestyle of joyful excess and bounty!!! The concept of the Mangey Raiders, to me, is folks who don't fit and don't have to fit! People who live outside "The Norm" and enjoy Life SO MUCH MORE because of it! It's Punk Rock, it's Indy Film, it's bitTorrent and shareware and podcasts and raves and it's successfully taping a "Kick Me" sticker on the back of the guy at work who keeps pointing out to the boss that you have a tendancy to arrive late after the weekend!

My pop-eyed skull-and-crossbones logo represents everyhting that the Trickster Zen Masters were illustrating in their bizarr acts and antics.

And yet, I realize, it's not PURE Graphic Arts. What can I say? I'm not a Graphic Artist. I'm a cat who plays with...

You know what? SCREW THAT! I AM a Graphic Artist!

Okay, I'm not a PROFESSIONAL Graphic Artist, but I uses graphics to express myself and my ideas, which -- by definition -- is art.

So I AM a Graphic Artist... Just not a very skilled one.

And you know what? I DON'T HAVE TO BE good at everything I do. Pay me to write a screenplay... It will rival ANYTHING Hollywood has to offer. Pay me to write a novel... It will win you awards. Pay me to write a short story, even, and I will write you a piece that can win your money back ten-fold.

In SecondLife I'm an architect and a T-shirt designer. I've made some money in SL off my architect work, but none off my T-shirt designs,and I have yet to make any money off my T-sjirt designs in RL (at CafePress.com) but we CAN'T be expected to be brilliant at EVERYTHING we do!

So I AM a Graphic Artist... Just not a very skilled one. There's MUCH I need to learn, which I WILL learn when someone is willing to TEACH me.

Okay...

I should be getting to bed now, as I have a fun-filled day of work ahead of me, lol.

PEACE & LONG LIFE!!!

:D