Hello to the interwebs. You're probably wondering where Animation Domination has been for the last three months. Ha-ha I joke... no one's wondering. Suffice it to say, my new job took up a lot of my time in the run up to Christmas, and the shocking decline in quality in certain series, as well as tiredness, made me put the project on hold. Rest assured, I'm going to catch up when I get the chance.
To be honest, my new job took up a little bit more than just my time. While it was at first great to be back earning some money after three long years scraping by, it soon turned to stress over long hours and proximity to Christmas. Stress turned to anger, anger turned to hate and hate... lead to suffering. (the reference is doubly apt; not only is it an accurate rendition of events, on one particular sorrowful afternoon I ended up rewatching the Star Wars prequels... the internet was RIGHT)
But there you go; Star Wars! Star Wars is coming back! It's just like when Doctor Who was announced again in 2003, and I was over the moon, except this time it something that was on in MY lifetime. I SHOULD BE OPTIMALLY HAPPY!
Wrong. I was low. Lower than I had been for a while. Maybe I was being lazy or silly I told myself, but deep down, I knew something was wrong. I hadn't done anything creative in months, barely seen any friends, was struggling to get back into church and life in general. I was still smiling, but I knew deep down something was wrong. It's hard to pin point exactly what that was now, but after a particular trying shift (and I must admit; 90% of the time, working in a Deli was incredible; but that 10% was really getting to me), I knew a lot of it was down to my job. Whether it was a just me projecting frustrations onto it, but once I came up with the idea of getting out of there about it, I felt it was the right thing to do. Talking with friends, family and, most importantly, praying about it, added to my relief. So I undertook the decision that for once, I was going to sort my life out. I had a lovelly chat with personal, and now I have a lovely new position I'm starting in a week on the pie counter. Simple as that.
Whilst the whole event may sound petty, or laughable, I honestly can say I felt SO much better now I've done it. It's not that my old job was in anyway as horrible as some jobs I've had, or proably am going to have, but it did feel like a speedbump in my life. That I'd come to complete stop and was going to stay there until I had to balls to hit the accelerator. Now sure, a transfer to the pie-counter isn't much. It's not my dream job script editing Doctor Who, or even a service station on the motor-way it's going to take to reach that destination (I'm stopping the motoring analogies now). But it does feel really good to have a new start, however small, and I hope this is going to be a catalyst for a really great new year.
And hopefully, a lot of that I'll be able to share on this blog. Before hand, I never really knew what I was doing with this page, and to be honest I still don't. But I have some new idea's I'd like to try. Animation Domination is going to continue as whilst I haven't got the scheduling right, I'm eager to get back to it.
Likewise, I want to get started on some writing projects I'm setting myself. One of my best moments of 2012 was working on the first act of a screenplay for my University Course. I got the highest grade I ever achieved for it, so I'm eager to get back to it, and to the general process of writing. It can be a lonely and difficult task however, so I may just have to post bits and pieces on here in desperate need of feed back. And I may add in the a few more movie reviews in here and there for fun.
But I have some new projects as well. I'm getting back into Warhammer (ducks from hurled stones) and since many of my friends run blogs where they post a few pics of their work in progress, I'd quite like to pop a few of mine on here as well; even if there just orcs finger painted with bright primary colours. I'm also looking to get into a better shape (currently I'm a circle and I'm hoping more for oblong...) so I might also put up some of those tedious posts on exercise what I have done. Skip over those if you just want riffing on Family Guy.
And most importantly, I think it's high time I reconnected with God. Perhaps you spotted a few teasers earlier, but I'm a Christian, something that doesn't often come up when discussing the merits of Judge Dredd blowing punks away in a storm of bullets. Indeed, it's often been a struggle to properly place my faith in many aspects of my life; it's a lot easier to get my praying out the way on Sundays, then act like I'm in a Kevin Smith film the rest of the week. But the short of it is, God's who I really have to thank for what's been going on this week. He's been in my friends and families hearts when they were giving advice on what I should do, he's guided me to my New Job when I finally go the courage to speak up, and he even helped me today when I told my boss I was moving departments (which, against all my expectations, went brilliantly). And he's the reason I'm sitting here right now, putting the finishing touches to this surprisingly long post. I hope I'll be able to talk a little bit about my faith later in the year when I've reconnected with it a bit more myself.
Until then, thanks for listening, and enjoy this video of Batman racing through my home turf.
