I’ll keep this brief. Two things, really: A) I still really get goose bumps and righteous anger fills me every time I remember 09.11.01, and that’s a fact. B) I still think people have generally forgotten about the 9/11 attacks. I suppose this is where I get slammed for promoting “us vs. them” mentalities, etc. (lawl!)  Either that, or I’ll probably be pigeon-holed as some satanic neo-conservative fundamentalist wack job for being even slightly patriotic (read: evil, barbaric, and nationalistic).

Whatever! It was a cowardly thing to do, and call me a dupe of the political propaganda machine, but I still think the attacks were a good reason to go around kicking some fascist arse. That is all.

Also, two rad pictures:

The first one is a couple of Batman-esque lights they shoot into the sky every 9.11 at night (smacking strongly of an alien attack akin to the movie Independence Day) and the second is some sweet lego guys all done up like those firemen in that one famous picture. Yay for flag waving! Either way, I thought it was rad, so sue me! I dug the pictures off of Google, of course.

We’re nearing the final stages of sketching. I really am feelin antsy about this drawing. Time to start, boss men! Get me zee approvals!

Sketch 1:

This one is a gate fold where the outside is supposed to look like sweet, sweet stained glass. Whatever Bible verse we’re gonna use will go on the outside in sweet Latin-y text. On the inside, the flaps are space to sign the thing! Also, there is a sweet angel in the middle. Rad!

Sketch 2:

This sketch is pretty much the last one except for the nifty die cut-type thing goin on in order to make the card look like you’re going through some doors into a church or whatever. Yay!

Sketch 3:

This last one is pretty much a normally-folded card with the same treatment of the first version. If I could combine Version 1 and Version 3 together, I’d be happy. Lets do something like that! I blatantly stole Amos’ tattoo for this, as well - as a filler idea-type thing.

Also of note: I hate the way wordpress makes me edit my text. Why don’t you know basic things like line breaks? Why can’t you be more user-friendly?! Just because something is professional, doesn’t mean it should be a pain the butt to learn.

Another thing of even more interest: I’m sorry the image quality sucks. I took these with my phone and decided to post these up as an afterthought. I hope my ‘client’ doesn’t get too angry that I’m posting these for all to see.

It’s not often that I find a non-Japanese artist that I flippin love, but I found one today while I was collecting examples of stained glass windows for the Christmas card. His name is Alfons Mucha and is known best for his work done in the Art Nouveau style.

Anyways, he did a lot of commercial work, but really had a love for Czech culture (which I think Amos might appreciate), and produced a huge series of pieces entitled the The Slav Epic.  Apparently, though, he also did a friggin epic stained glass set for the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague:

I saw this and almost pooed myself. That’s what I call insane amounts of awesome, right there. I instantly became a massive fan haha. I might have to make a pilgrimage to Prague just to see it myself some day..

Also, here’s what he looks like (I think he actually looks a bit like Amos hehe):

Now you all can be fans too.

For those of you who haven’t noticed, it’s already flickin September. Where the heck did this year go? Anyways, this is about the time of year I start listening to Christmas music. I officially have branded August as the most annoying month of the year, so when September rolls around, I celebrate by acting like it’s already December (my favorite month).

But actually, there is a second reason I start listening to Christmas music and that is it has become tradition ever since I’ve started doing ColdWater Media’s annual Christmas card. And since I obviously have to try and out-do myself every year, I start planning things a good bit in advance (and it always ends up getting done last minute anyways, it seems). Christmas music is what I use to get meh in the mood, so to speak.

Last year, I listened to a whole bunch of the Chieftain’s Bells of Dublin Christmas album. This year, I have yet to figure out what I want to have pumping some good ol fashioned holiday cheer into my ears for the next few months. Suggestions?

Anyways, I spent about an hour sketching at Starbucks this morning and the following is the best idea I had… It’s hard to grasp from the moleskin sketch, but what’s important is I have in mind what I want to do hehe.

The card is supposed to depict a icon-esque Gabriel as if he were coming off a stained glass background. I kinda wanna play around with spot UV and custom card shapes with this one… we’ll see what I can get the boss-men to sign off on.

Lord have mercy, either way I need to develop me some discipline! It might be time to sell off all my video games haha.

My dad recently sent me a book called The Reason For God by a man named Timothy Keller and I’ve been trying to read a little bit of the thing each night before bed. As far as I can tell (I’ve been skipping around a bit), Keller takes common arguments used by people to dismiss the existence of the Judeo-Christian or “traditional” God and then explains the irrational logic assumptions behind each claim. He must transition into a more positive approach somewhere along the way, though, because I skipped ahead to a chapter entitled “Religion and the Gospel” and he was saying some pretty interesting things. The chapter ends thusly:

Grace is only a threat to the illusion that we are free, autonomous selves, living life as we choose. The gospel makes it possible to have such a radically different life. Christians, however, often fail to make use of the resources of the gospel to live the lives they are capable of in Christ. It is critical for anyone reading this book to recognize this fundamental difference between the gospel and religion. Christianity’s basic message differs at root with the assumptions of traditional religion. The founders of every other major religion essentially came as teachers, not saviors. They came to say: “Do this and you will find the divine.” But Jesus came essentially as a savior rather than a teacher (though he was that as well). Jesus says: “I am the divine come to you, to do what you could not do for yourselves.” The Christian message is that we are saved not by our record, but by Christ’s record. So Christianity is not [either] religion or irreligion. It is something else althogether.

This one paragraph was all I actually read from the chapter, but in these few sentences, Mr. Keller raised several issues that have long since been on my heart. Firstly, the line about grace breaking down our own illusions of self-autonomy caught my eye because I was so recently discussing that sort of thing with Amos. He’s been on a “Tower of Babel” kick lately and it’s come up almost every time we’ve hung out since I moved to Washington, lol. But either way, I essentially agree with both Amos and Tim. The main, underlying barrier to Christianity shared by most people is that it seems to be so dang intrusive on autonomy. God actually dares to ask us to submit ourselves to him willingly! Especially in the US, where we’re so obsessed with ideas like equality and civil rights, this is a hard pill to swallow. Really, though, the reason I was so captured by this one paragraph was the deft way in which Keller describes one of the basic, fundamental aspects of Christianity. Namely, that Christ came not in order to establish some religion; some secret set of steps and rules set towards gaining an ever-elusive divine favor. Nor did he come to abolish religious practice - Christianity has rules and regulations, morals and ethical truth-claims. Rather, Christ came to establish the one truly different way that humans are to interact with both each other and God.  Where most religions focus on the religious actions of their practitioners, Christ says “believe and I will save - trust and I will do the impossible for you.”  Indeed, this is the very essence of Christianity, but the radical, almost paradoxical nature of the whole situation is something that is often overlooked because at first blush it seems so much of a subtle difference…

Either way, another thing Amos and I were talking about this weekend is the world’s obsession with mindless marketing and consumerism. It pervades everything these days. Politics are no exception. All too often we are pitched this message that X or Y candidate will “finally shake things up in Washington!” or will “once and for all put to rest the divisive politics of Capitol Hill!” In the end, though, what may have seemed like a genuine promise of change turns out to be just another piece of the same old pile of crap. This comes in the wake of the Democratic National Convention. I make no bones about my negative feelings for both the candidates, but if there’s one message that has been hammered into my head in recent months it is that we shouldn’t even be putting our trust in politicians anyways.

My point is that there are things that seem to be original. They appear to be something new, when in fact are just a pseudo-unique twist on something fundamentally the same. This is why I think Christianity is so compelling. It truly is, at its fundamental rational level, something unique. Christ preaches a message so wholly different from any other major world religion and the effects his message have had on culture are immeasurable. I have forgotten that fact often lately, and it’s been hard to keep proper perspective what with me being so busy and the political season being so horrible and all. But this book has done much to refocus my mind. I very much look forward to reading it the whole way through. Also of note, the next chapter begins with the following quote by Malcolm Muggeridge:

I would catch a glimpse of the cross — and suddenly my heart would stand still. In an instinctive, intuitive way I understood that something more important, more tumultuous, more passionate, was at issue than our good causes, however noble they might be… I should have worn it.. It should have been my uniform, my language, my life. I shall have no excuse; I can’t say I didn’t know. I knew from the beginning and turned away.

Two proverbial smacks in the face, philosophically in one night. I wish I were better at actually taking things to heart and then executing them and integrating ideas into the every-day of my life. For now, though, I’ll sleep on things.

Almighty God, Eternal Father, Lord of Lords, have mercy upon me, a humble knight in Thy Divine Service. Oh Lord, I pray for Thy indulgence and blessings. Forget not Thine servant in his trials, nor his Order of Knighthood. I pray, that Thy Will be done in all things, both great and small.

Let me always be worthy of Thee, let me not forget Thee in good times nor bad. Armor me with the armor of Thy Righteousness, give me the sword of Truth that I shall confound Thine enemies and be unto Thee a true knight.

O Lord, in my hour of need, be with me. Let me never forget my sacred and holy vows unto Thee, that I should not be prey unto demons and devils nor the dark things of this world.

Let me always be a beacon unto those in distress, never allow me to forget my obligation unto the homeless nor the poor: let me serve Thee and Thine Eternal Throne all the days of my life. Let me always remember the obligations that I have taken upon me. Lord, if it is Thine Will, let me serve Thee forever!

If ever, oh Lord, I turn from Thee and this Order, let my name forever be cursed, may my spurs be broken and my body given unto demons to dwell with them forever in that Lake of Fire which Thou hast: prepared for the ungodly.

Power beyond Power, Pillar of Strength, Refuge of the Homeless, let me serve Thee for all the days of my life! Amen.

The above words were part of an oral history of the Crusades compiled in 1200 A.D. and were spoken by a Knight Hospitaller moments before a battle against enemy forces.

Yay, I’m graduated. It took roughly the better part of 6 years due to major changes, school changes, etc… I’m reminded of the Tommy Boy line where Richard says to Tommy something like “wow, graduated just shy of a decade.” To which Tommy says “hey, lots of people go to college for 7 years.” And Richard replies “Yeah, they’re called doctors.”

Well shut up Richard. I’m finally done. Rock.

Prince Caspian is out. Yay! I was really psyched for the movie because A) I loved the book B) I loved Caspian’s character design and C) I loved the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. After seeing the midnight showing of the movie on Thursday/Friday, though, I found myself a little let down. I suppose it’s hard to re-create a masterpiece. It seems to happen less often than not. Matrix, anyone? But it has been proven to be achievable a la Lord of the Rings, Bourne identity, etc. Certainly, it shouldn’t be too terribly hard to create a masterpiece with Prince Caspian if they’d simply follow CS Lewis’ genius book, right?

Apparently, this wasn’t what director Andrew Adamson had in mind. Caspian was more of an “inspired-by” than it was an adaption of the book, and while it’s true that the book itself is inferior to Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, it would nonetheless make a flippin sweet movie would they just adhere to the book.

Thusly, Prince Caspian the film threatens to degenerate into the depend-too-heavily-on-flashy-graphics, pseudo-epic battle type of movie that are all too common these days (Beowulf comes to mind). The worst part, though, is that CS Lewis’ charming influence is almost wholly removed from the film. The lines are somewhat simplistic and the characters are almost never expanded upon - most grievously in the case of Prince Caspian himself. By the end of the film, you know almost nothing about him except that he’s hot, is a prince, and has cool armor. The most telling line Caspian has in the entire movie is to declare “I am Prince Caspian!” At least we now know for sure… On a positive note though, Reepicheep mercifully retains most the awesomeness he exudes in the books. Even still, he seems far too intent upon stabbing people in the face while lamenting the fact that they notice he’s a mouse (they seriously bring it up about four times in the movie).

Lastly, the movie fails to bring up plot points that the book uses to connect itself to the rest of the Narnia series. Aslan barely makes mention of how the Telmarines came to Narnia, but we’re given a glimpse of how our world relates to theirs - Saddam Hussein is one of the main antagonists and I must say, his fashion sense is much improved. Apparently, there’s a door to Narnia somewhere in Iraq.

Either way, the movie seemed a bit like they rushed to get to the battle scene at the end. More time should have been spent having Caspian unite the Narians, less on how Peter is now very surly for whatever reason. Having said that, I’m thinking I should go see the movie a few more times. Maybe it’ll be better to see it earlier in the day. I wanted to like the character of Prince Caspian so bad - he was always my favorite in the books - but my initial reactions were a little disappointing.

I was able to contribute to one of ColdWater Media’s recent shoots by drawing a chibi Charles Darwin on a chalkboard for a bit they did on college-level biology. They nabbed an English teacher to act the part of the biology professor which ended up working a lot better, lol. Either way, it was a bit of fun. It’s always a good day when I get to work around the cameras.

ColdWater Media <–

First off, these pictures are almost unreal. That lightning playing around the volcanic plume is breathtaking. But GEEZE, nature! Can’t you see we’re just tryin to help out?! Spittin all that toxic crud into the air with your dang volcanoes… shoooooot.

Or perhaps this is the way that earth is helpin out… Maybe the ash is suppose to shield the planet?

Either way, I want to hear no more about how “Global Warming” is a man-made event. You hear me Algore? Seriously, how blatantly egotistical of us humans to think we have that kind of power.

Full story here…