A Weekend of Birthday Observance

JANUARY
It's always in aftermath,
Moments of clarity never come before
No time for introspection,
Hear the cadence, we're marching to war
We're marching to war, we're marching for peace
No side will win, 'cause no side agrees
Be damned if we'll live in tolerance
It just makes it unbearable to live

I'm getting older
Am I the wiser, or more the fool?
When it gets colder,
I'm finding it harder and harder to move

It's hard to start over
We try to make years like those before
But there's no going home today
The waters have taken it, leaving it torn
Torn from the wars 'tween heavens and earth
Everything turns white, frozen, interred
Buried in white, and cloaked as a god
Of whom we think black, and devoid of blood

I'm getting older
Am I the wiser, or more the fool?
When it gets colder,
I'm finding it harder and harder to move

With a white a pure as the snow
We were blinded as holy fools
We'll now find our own "kingdom of god",
Where only the "wicked" will rule
It's always in aftermath
Moments of clarity never come before
No time for grave reflections
Hear the cadence, the dead come once more

That song is actually a year old, give or take a day. It's an absolute stream-of-consciousness anthem of things that are always in my head and at various times run on into eachother, becoming desegregated and hard to organize. It's a perfect birthday song for me.

Speaking of birthdays...
Everything panned out well over the weekend. I unfortunately shared the holiday with the Devils Lake ice fishing tournament, so we had to kind of think about which bar would NOT be overrun with fishermen. It actually wasn't too bad. There were strippers at Thirsty's, but I didn't want to crowd in with a bunch of fishermen ogling chicks that probably wouldn't have gone full frontal anyway, and if they did, I probably would have had to sit in the back listening to "oh yah, der's some good titties, dey are."
We went to the 11th Frame, which is almost literally a hole in the wall of the bowling alley--just my kind of place. We had a good time, they had a jukebox with Tom Waits (which Derek generously played a tune for me), and I had great time. Sorry Ben, if I'd have known you were in town, I'd have sent for you, and Amber, don't worry--you're not too far from bar-age now, and I have 2 more non-30 birthdays to go.
Sometimes my birthday falls on a perfect time of year. It's the deadest month, and everybody naturally needs a pick-me-up. Plus, many of us needed to get out and have a little fun. The last two months have seen loss, life-changing situations, and probably more stress (on top of an already typically-stressful Christmas season) than people should have to go through. My birthday comes right at the point of the year when everyone is sick of the cold, sick of the depressing boredom that pervades January. It's about that time that even I have to admit that people are thinking too much, and that's when I say "It's time to get stupid."
I thank everyone for getting stupid with me, those that didn't or couldn't come I'm sure wanted to get stupid, and don't worry, I like to stupid things up alot...wait a minute...

Anyway, I just got two books I've been waiting for: Another book in a series called Concrete, which I have been addicted to for 2 years now, and Frank Miller's 300, a book about the Spartans war against Thermopylae (thanks for the pronunciation, Kevin) that is soon to be coming out in theaters and looks fucking awesome.

School starts tonight. I'm excited about Illustrative Digital Imaging, and I hope if I have trouble with anything April might be of some use in that department. I'm stuck, due to my bad timing with registration, with Still Life Painting. I've decided, though to make the best of it and at least try to enjoy it. On the plus side, I get to work with acrylics. I like the way oil looks, but I have absolutely NO patience with it. Gouache was hard enough. But acrylic paint is cheaper, and to me has always been just a little easier to work with. Plus I can get it anywhere, as compared to gouache, which doesn't seem to exist in the state of North Dakota.

I have the next page of the comic already done (a week early!), but it still isn't going up until Friday. My hope is that I'll be able to set aside enough time right now to be able to get a page out on time, and still do homework. The story's getting exciting again, and I'm itching to keep this moving.