No NO here.

Despite Hothead and Peggy having just moved there and everyone's journal buzzing like hives of angry bees, I am strangely detached from the hurricane stuff. I've seen a total of ~3 pictures of the chaos and not followed any of the news links to read about the riots and shootings and military and everything else people are talking about. I have no idea what's going on.

This strikes me as very curious. Normally I care about this kind of stuff and, from an intellectual standpoint, it'd be interesting to watch. I used to really love the british programme about the survivors of a massive plague and on some level I'd love to be comparing and contrasting this even with those stories and see how they hold up. But.. I don't know. I'm not avoiding the news I'm just feeling totally unaffected by it. I guess I've got too many of my own things going on right now and the sphere of my world is currently very small. I'm worried about my job next month, about moving into my new apartment, finding time to animate, paying tuition, and a million other tiny and pointless things. I dont' feel shock or outrage or anything. Just sort of.. "I wish I weren't so busy. I need a break." I hope the scale of my world goes up again soon. I don't like being oblivious to the suffering of others.

And now, as I'm oft wont to do, I'm going to make a separate post that's all about me. Because, you know, that's all that matters in my stupid little worldview right now. :/

Why do we do what we do?

Earlier I was listening to some of my coworkers speak in Russian and I was thinking about how it'd be neat to understand them and how I wished I had time to study more languages and time to better learn the ones I know. Which raised the question, 'Why don't I?'

The answer to this is simple enough. I like to study. It doesn't matter what. Anything. I've mentioned before that if there were anything I could do it would be to spend almost all of my time studying.

This leads me to another question though. Why, the past few years, have I chose to make art the central focus of things I am studying?

I think part of the question is easy. I am driving to it because it is a creative venture. Unlike studying a language, studying art gives me some direction to grow in. It isn't an 'instant knowledge' like math. It also isn't rigid. You can try things that don't work and unlike say electronics, you won't burn your house down or electrocute yourself. What's more, art can be done in rightbrain space. It's relaxing to me.

So the next question. Why art? Why not poetry, music, fiction, etc?

I like writing and music and I guess I should note that I'm not exclusively studying art. I also practice music and I write periodically. I think though that art, particularly animation offers me the greatest room for self-expression in a way that can be easily conveyed to other people. Plus... I dunno. I've always admired animation and tried to make it. Also, art was a 'forbidden fruit' to my childhood self and nothing breeds desire like taboo. So.. I guess that's it. *sigh* I wish I could just learn faster and make things that actually look good. :(

Anyhow, there are probably more important things going on in the world right now so I'll shut up.