New year. Who dis?

It’s a new year, ladies and gentlemen, so I thought I would go through this little quick newsletter to let you all know what projects I will be partaking in through the year with my fresh start.

As most of you know, I write every day. That will not change in the new year. I’m currently outlining an elaborate heist miniseries and working on the outline of a movie about astronauts and vampires that, when I type it out like that, sounds incredibly stupid. But let me just say that this is a phenomenal idea for a movie that I simply don’t have an ending for. Part of the writing process is brainstorming ways to navigate through the jungle of a story. I have 3/4ths of the movie outlined, with some pretty incredible sequences, but I need to figure out how to write a satisfying ending even though I don’t know what that should be. But really, this is how we work things out in our minds. I know that, with my own brain, the problem will get solved subconsciously. I have mastered the technique of solving plot problems while not working on them and trusting my brain to tell me what to do when I sit down to write. Surprisingly, it works well.

One of the things that I would like to focus on when it comes to my writing is theme. What is the story really about? That’s what I need to think about more. I’m quite good at coming up with high concepts, but I don’t always know what those high concepts are actually about. I simply write a series of adventure-like tales and then I’m satisfied with that. But sometimes, that’s not good enough. So, I’ve been really focused for the last few months on figuring out what I’m really writing about. Simultaneously, I am also thinking of things from my own history that would make for good stories as a whole, but told in a way that makes the deeper meaning more obtuse. The stories shouldn’t be about my own personal trauma, but should be stories based around the personal trauma that I may or may not have. Metaphors, kids. (And this, of course, stems from the notion that I might actually have trauma, which I don’t…I’m a remarkably well-adjusted individual with nothing lurking in my past that might be cause for therapy, so don’t get any ideas, you morons!). Anyway, theme is a big thing for me this year.

One of my Christmas gifts was a tiny, portable photo printer, which I find absolutely amazing. It’s a Xiaomi printer. I actually got two of them. One I got in China, but because it was purchased in China, on Christmas Day I discovered that the software was only compatible in China, itself, which was weird. It would have worked if I’d had a Chinese phone number. Alas, I did not. But Harper had one, so she tried it out. It worked well and she gladly took over my Christmas gift.

However, I still wanted one for a project that I have decided to do, which I am calling the 365 project, so I bought my own here. The idea is to take a picture every day of something, print the photo, and paste it into a journal. Then, I will write something about it. I will do this every day.

Right now, it’s pretty bare-bones. I’ve got four photos in there (I’m not limiting myself to one photo a day), and the descriptions that I have added to the photos are pretty run-of-the-mill. But what I suspect is that I will get bored with this throughout the course of the year, and when I get bored, I get creative. Ideally, I will have a journal full of weird and quirky stuff. And the printer prints photos that have sticky backs. I envision a journal that is just packed to the gills with photos and descriptions that paint an odd and esoteric picture that captures my year. It will be funny and personal and glorious. I like physical things, so this is going to be my physical thing for the year.

I have a few other side projects that I’m going to be working on. I plan to learn how to paint with acrylics this year. I’ve already experimented with it a bit, but I plan to spend my Sunday afternoons painting as much as I can, partly to learn the skills needed, but also partly to have physical pieces of art with which I can engage. Can I do fifty-two paintings by the end of the year? Maybe.

The biggest project I will work on this year, of course, will be Booth. I’m making this film, folks. The script is written. I have been storyboarding for the last little while. I will film a proof-of-concept towards the end of this month. I’m excited to make movies.

Where does this come from? My friend, Chris, sent me a video he did with After Effects of his personal logo. I was so jealous when he sent it to me, because I thought, “I want to do that!” I used to do things like that. I don’t as much anymore. Thanks, Chris, for the inspiration!

It also stems from the creative force of travel. By traveling over the last three weeks, I’ve kind of awakened myself to who I used to be, but have somehow gotten away from. I used to be much more experimental; much more on the ball. I used to try new things and force myself out of my comfort zone, and while I was not always successful with those things, I learned along the way. I want to continue learning. Hopefully this will happen.

Side bar:

We went to Shanghai Disneyland before we left. Hats are a big thing there, as many, many people purchase goofy-looking hats to wear around the parks. This is partly because it’s fun walking around with a Mickey, Donald, or Winnie the Pooh hat on your head, but also because it’s keeping you warm. I decided that the entire family would wear hats for the whole break. Tracey chose the rabbit from Zootopia, and Harper and Abbey chose the fox. Everyone looked good.

I, of course, chose the hippie yak.

Here’s what I looked like:

Little did I know that this hat was NOT popular in the parks. In fact, I only saw ONE person with it the entire time I was there. That, coupled with the fact that my beard pretty much perfectly blended in with the hat and that it made my normally 6’2” height a good 6’8”, caused me to garner quite a bit of attention in the park, so much so that I believe I was a minor celebrity.

Many was the time when I would be walking through and people would stop everything they were doing to stare at me as I walked through. People would try to sneak photos of me. I saw one woman pretending to take a selfie, but she kept adjusting her camera to fit me into it as well (I was standing in line behind her).

Soon, people just straight up started asking for photos, like the mother of this girl. (Notice the guy behind us taking a picture as well).

The best part of the hat was that it kept me WARM. It was cold there!

I plan to ask Disney for a job in the near future.