Summer Garden

Summer gardening fun at my parents house! Got lots of good plants to eat and flowers to love! My wife and I love the freshness of them!

 

 

New Project: Psycho Cat

I am starting a new children's book project entitled, 'Psycho-Cat'. It is the story of a brave little toy-pinscher named, Tony who saves his unsuspecting parents (his owners) from a psychotic cat who they unknowingly bring into their home.
The story is sort of inspired by real life. In our first apartment, in the first year we were living together on our own a couple of months after we got our baby puppy boy, Tony we were out for a walk in the village of New Hartford one summer afternoon. They were having some sort of a pet expo for the Humane Society at the New Hartford Park and had all sort of pets for adoption. Now at the time we were still getting use to having one new member of our family and I was hesitant to get anymore yet. However we fell in love with a kitten at the show. I tried to resist getting the little guy but my wife, who at the time was my fiancé, fell in love with it fast and so we decided to try it for a while. We got all the right stuff for it and everything and brought it home. It was a very cute cat and we liked it a lot, however our little guy Tony did not care for it. We played with it and fed it and tried to train it a little, as much as you can in one night and then we all went to sleep. Well, so, my wife and I and our dog all sleep in the bed together so we had our new kitten sleep in our living room and closed our door. Somehow that night the cat had slipped itself underneath the door and curled up to my head. Tony was in the sheets but then he sensed this and started barking and trying to get out of the sheets (which was hilarious) to get at the cat. So then I got the kitten and put him back in the living room, however Tony would not go back to sleep. The next day we talked long and hard about it and decided that the kitten wasn't for us, so we returned it to the shelter. I chalk this experience up to the fact that we were still new at being on our own and we still were learning to take care of our little puppy, and we just got scared I think. Luckily though I heard that our little kitten got adopted the next day and is very happy.
So I had been mulling over a short humorous story for a landscape style children's book for a while now. Then one day I was staring at my dog and thinking how cat like he is, yet how much he despises those felines and that sparked the recollection of that night and thus I began writing. The story will be narrated by Tony from his perspective, so as to bring it down to an accessible level for kids to get into but also cross that line so that YA and adults will like it too hopefully. Pictured above are just some sketches I've done so far. More to come.

The Game of Kings

Chess or Chaturanga as it was originally called, literally meaning Four Divisions is a game as old as civilized society invented somewhere between c. 280-1000 into the modern era. Many histories and treatises have been written about it for ages. It is indeed a powerful game and is of course known to be a favorite of strategists and intellectuals. The great thinker Benjamin Franklin had this to say of the game:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action.
II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations.
III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily."

Thusly I've begun to play a chess game with myself each day/week to strengthen my mind and open up more doors of creativity. As a writer I am hoping this practice will increase my ability to think for multiple characters at once and to have strategy in defining a plot that is both satisfying and entertaining. As an actor, the same principles apply, by having to play two sides at once and with multiple pieces to move I am hoping this will help with defining character wants and needs or motivation for movement. Now, as an artist, I don't see much practical use into the strategy portion of the game as art is meant to feed on chaos, not order, but I do however see the beauty of the juxtaposition of the pieces as well as the layout of the board, they are all indeed aesthetically pleasing, so I think in some way unbeknownst to me this will help. Well, we'll see.
On the news of the project front, I finished scene one of act two of my play last night and I hope to write most of scene two of act two tonight possibly. The best thing about this play is that I have it all played out for myself in my mind so the effort of it is to just get it written so then I can read and rewrite as needed and then share my creation with those whose opinion I respect.
Also, tonight the wife and I got some great vegetables from my parents. A blog on that will be coming up.

Movement

Staying ever active as always. I am currently in the midst of writing a new stage play. A comedy entitled FIRST DATE about a date that just goes horribly wrong. I am so looking forward to this being completed. I am trying my hardest to complete this play as soon as possible. Not that I am rushing the process, no not at all, I've taken plenty of weeks to make notes and mull over plot and scenes and character development and what not before I even started writing. The best thing is once the writing begins its so much easier to just sit back and let things happen by themselves. It's amazingly good fun. I can't wait.
I'm really trying to make sure I finish things. I have not forgotten about my other projects either (my novel, my comic, my short stories) and I have worked on them as well. Making notes and what not, prepping myself for the actual writing to begin. However I decided that since this play is so short that it should take me less time to complete this first and thus give me that good feeling in my brain of completion and endorphins will run wild and make a me a happy boy! So I am going to finish this thing hopefully by the end of this weekend (08/02/15) and make with the happy. I am very pumped and motivated.
Recently I read all of the Neil Garman books I have bought and have an incredible void to fill in my mind since I have not a book to read at this point. However of course books wild come. Until then though I am going to keep busy with everything. Oh, also a new commercial I am in is out! Check it out below!