The lifetime commitment to art.

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. Starting as a visual artist, I scribbled out little pictures as a young child with whatever passion a young person can muster, before eventually finding music toward the end of my elementary school days. Somewhere in junior high school I even developed an interest in creative writing, mostly poetic in form, and by the end of high school I added story writing, mechanical drafting, and music writing to the list. And something that doesn't traditionally get recognized as an art, which I am not entirely sure qualifies, would be my inclination for invention and problem solving. It can definitely feel like art so that is what qualifies it to me. And this list certainly isn't exhaustive of my artistic endeavors... each one gaining a greater share of my attention from time to time, I realize that I will basically never let any one of them die completely. Sure the interest might become dormant for an unusually long span of time(mechanical drafting comes to mind here) but I know that if/when the opportunity arises in the future I will be quite enthusiastic to jump right back in for a dose of the fun again. And I will likely do this until the day I die. Because this is who I am. I am an artist.

No such thing as a lazy weekend.

Especially when you pretty much always have multiple projects in the queue at all times. Even more so when they are actually paying gigs. My brain was so wiped out for the first half of the day that I basically forgot all of my responsibilities. Once I caught on, though, I got things back in gear and made some decent progress. Still lots to do, of course, but at least I don't feel like I'm under the gun for now. Maybe by the end of tomorrow, if I move too slowly, I might need another jump start.

Remember the work.

One of my coworkers was collecting footage he had shot today and reminded me of the importance of keeping that kind of record for myself. Everything we shot during the season will be shipped off to the network soon and once it's gone we will not likely have a chance to claim any of it back for pretty much any reason. I'd like to use some of it for my reel but I'd love to keep some of it as a memory of the experience in some way. It was a treasured opportunity that I value as a memory of my past. Memories are the sum of my history when there isn't any physical element to hold on to... and memories always fade over time. Even the best ones.

Holy long daze!

Especially since I only had three hours of sleep last night. I literally worked FIVE times as many hours today. A decent amount of the work was fussing with ornery computers but that doesn't really ruffle my vibe much anymore... I've been through so dang much of it... just rollin' off my back these days.

Losing weight can be incredibly difficult.

It requires a level of self-discipline I am rare to exhibit. I think it mostly has to do with motivation. I am basically fine with all the extra fat just lingering all over my body. It doesn't seem all that bad since I am not very noticeably overweight. Plus, I really am quite addicted to sugar. That's a definite challenge as well. Sugar sugar sugar. Even just saying it three times in a sentence probably triggered a serotonin release in my brain... ugh. Well, at least it isn't 100% evil. It does, after all, provide a little bit of energy from time to time.

Stretching all the skills.

I sometimes enjoy the opportunity to be directly working on every element of a production, from shooting, to writing, to graphics, to editing, to producing, to accounting... and all the little pieces in between. Certainly there are many additional elements I am not a part of but there isn't too much more that even could be done from the outsider's perspective of this particular project. Anyway, even though I generally prefer working in a team, I do sometimes enjoy the super-solo mode once in a while.

One of my new favorite quotes.

"You have to learn to love the effort divorced from the result." - Myke Cole

If I could have more succinctly worded this myself I would have. I know I've tried to explain it multiple times with varying levels of success, I suppose. I really enjoy how efficient, truthful, and profound this little sentence is. It would benefit me to revisit it every once in a while to gauge my own application of it.