So the Pig says:
My mind has been intensely involved in a fantasy world. I have had to come up so many ideas that I can't see straight. It always makes me wonder what's going on when I end up in these situations. Why such urgency on a batch of cartoon scripts? Is the world going to end if I don't crank out another one?

I know I'm bitching... the good thing is that I really do like making a living by writing such things and getting paid for it. I've observed that there are a couple of types of writers -- one group is like Stephen King or Norman Mailer (and one of my writer friends). They have what I call "Diarrhea of the Keyboard" and it seems there are not enough words that can be written from their fertile brains. I've gathered that there are others (such as Kurt Vonnegut) who find the process rather painful and exhausting. I fall into the second category. Maybe it means I'm not a real writer, although if that's the case I wonder why people keep hiring me to write stuff.

This is a test... hmmm, looks like I can upload pics again!

Animal Medicine
These have been in my life for a while. You may have seen them. They are a deck of cards, each bearing a different animal. There is a guide book written by Jamie Sams and David Carson, and they are beautifully illustrated by Angela C. Werneke. I hope to meet the illustrator while I'm still in New Mexico, but it hasn't happened yet. It is all very Native American, and since I have a brew of that blood flowing through me I feel a bit of affinity to some of that approach to life.

This was the latest spread I did for myself. I wasn't sure if I had shuffled the cards adequately, and held them in my hands for a long while. I finally turned over the first card and it was Coyote, so I knew I had gotten it right. So the spread went like this: East -Coyote, South - Hummingbird, West - Porcupine, North - Deer, Center - Bat.

There are somewhat complicated levels of meaning, but it is all quite positive, and seems to relate well to my work at the moment. Coyote is always my card, Hummingbird indicates joy to follow. The Porcupine indicates innocence, and seeing the world through child-like eyes. The Deer is similar, solving problems by a gentle approach. The Bat indicates rebirth, and hopefully means that the struggles I've been going through are over and I've learned all of the lessons they have to teach.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted
Here's a first -- I got a special request for this blog. My sister has reconnected to the ol' Internet and read these here musings. It apparently sparked an appetite for my observations of the absurd. She would like to hear my take on some of the disastrous attempts our family made to go on a decent vacation. There was one particularly unfortunate excursion to the Salton Sea down there in Southern California. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I am unable to put together a coherent set of recollections about the event. It makes quite a tale when we all get together and compare notes, though. All I can say is that everything that could possibly go wrong, DID go wrong. I have only flashes of images, the worst of which was when I was trapped in a sleeping bag with my brother in a vain attempt to find warmth and comfort. He had been eating oranges all day and kept farting. Is there any question why such an experience would be buried deep within my subconscious?

Oh well, that was all many moons ago. These days I'm writing scripts for CGI animation. It's kind of a fun way to make a living, although it is sometimes a little challenging to try to figure out exactly what the rooster should say to the pig in various instances.

Rebranding
Speaking of war, I notice the White House is trying to rename their conflicts "The Global War on Terrorism." I guess they think that rolls off the tongue pretty well. Everybody I know still calls it "The War In Iraq" but they have to do something. The news people are trying to help. Martha Raditz on ABC enunciated it three or four times during a little report. The local guy talking about some troops returning to Albuquerque (shhhh... from Iraq) dutifully referred to The Global War on Terrorism that they had been fighting. Who gives these people their orders?

Mr. Bush is out there trying to explain it to everyone. I think it's a lost cause. Anyone with any capacity for critical thinking can see what's going on. War, war, war... it's so scary because EVERYONE's a terrorist and we have to be ready to go blow 'em up. Are you listening Iran?

During my adolescence when I started watching the world and trying to figure out my place in it, I wasn't sure if I was a Democrat or a Republican. I thought Richard Nixon was a pretty good president. Then it all started to unravel with Watergate and I was distressed to see how easy it was for the leaders to out and out lie to us. At my first opportunity to vote, I punched the card for Jimmy Carter. At least he seemed like an honest man, and I've never seen any evidence to the contrary. This is not to imply that lying comes easily to our current president... I'm just sayin'.