New Years Resolutions

January was named after the Roman god Janus who you may or may not have heard of. He had a face on the front and back of his head and he was the god of beginnings and endings. Which I know the true God of beginnings and endings (or shall I say Alpha and Omega) but that's another topic for another post.

Anyhow, as I think about the image of a man who looks forward as he looks backward, it is so very appropriate for January. We have the tradition of making "New Years Resolutions" in which we look back at the year that has past and select a few things we would have liked to change. Be they our eating, spending, management of time, sinning, or whatever and we try to make an effort to change those things or do better at them.

Some people have the same resolutions every year. Which means they didn't really succeed in really changing at all. However, some have given up on this tradition entirely because they acknowledge that it is futile to set goals that they have in the past failed in.

So, who is right and who is wrong? Should we set out to change our selves for the better year after year and fail every time? Or should we just stop trying all together?

Well, I think both are wrong and yet both have a grain of rightness in them. With the resolution(er) who tries and fails he/she is at least acknowledging areas of his/her life that need to be addressed. And with the non-resolution(er) he/she is being honest about the fact that they have failed in the past.

So the real question should be, "how do we stick to our resolutions?" And my answer is, yes make a resolution if you want to. But don't necessarily do it in January. Do it in August, or May or whenever. But don't do it because it is a tradition or because you feel you should. The ones that are kept are the ones that we are really passionate about keeping.

I resolved to lose weight back in August of 2006 after seeing the Super Size Me movie. I cut out fast food and soft drinks immediately and started to eat more whole grains and smaller portions. It was tough, and a couple of times I have had a fast food burger, but I lost a good amount of weight in the first year and then started to plateau. So I had to dig in and try harder, make different sacrifices.

And that is what I think is the real key to succeeding or failing in any type of resolution. You must be willing to make sacrifices and stick to those sacrifices. If you want to stop spending so much money then you have to sacrifice some of the things you buy, if you want to lose weight you have to be willing to give up the lifestyle of eating you have. And it is never easy. No matter what kind of change needs to take place it always hurts somewhere.

Christmas time is here!

It's the most wonderful time of year they say. I don't say bah humbug, but if you really think about it, why is it the most wonderful time of year? Because we get stuff and give stuff? Shouldn't any time of year be wonderful? I personally think July is the most wonderful time of year. It's more pleasant outside and several special days fall in that month, The fourth of July (which is also my wife's birthday) the 12th of July (which is my wife and my anniversary) and the 20th of July (which is the anniversary of the first moon landing as well as my twin brother and my birthday). So, I say July is the most wonderful time of year!

My pastor last week in church said that Jesus was born in the summer not in the winter. (This is partially because the shepherds wouldn't be sleeping outside at night with their sheep in the winter.) The only reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because that used to be Saturnalia; a holiday celebrating the Roman god Saturn. So when the Christianity became THE religion in Rome during Constantine's reign they just took the celebration of the god Saturn and melded it with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm not saying "lets move Christmas to the summer" or "don't celebrate it on December 25th". Just think about it.

We have been working very hard this past few weeks to finish our Special Christmas issue of Hatman & Indigo. It is our own version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. And I think the real lesson of that story truly is that we should keep Christmas in our hearts year round and that every day should be Christmas day. Not that we should give presents to our loved ones on every day. But we should try to take time to reflect on the real true magic and reverence that happened on the day Jesus was born. In the same way I suppose every day should be easter day too.

My thoughts on Winter

I hate this time of year. I love the summer and warmer days I think it is because of my winter asthma and back when I was a kid in elementary school...

Because I wasn't allowed to go out on the playground and play when it was cold I had to sit in the detention hall if it was below 40 degrees outside. Now, I wasn't in detention but I still had to be in the detention hall. Now doesn't that suck? I did however get to read, do homework and even on occasion play my Game Boy (the old school yellow screen with green dots one that sucked up batteries like no tomorrow and was almost as thick as it was wide, you remember). However I think my health imposed imprisonment at that time forged a loathing of these cold times deep to my core.

"Move to a warmer climate" you might say. Well, I have lived for short times in other states and areas, and I always yearn for the Kalamazoo area. Despite the seemingly half a year or more of frigidity I'll probably always live in this area, because I like it. I suppose it is another enigma of being Jason. I hate the cold but I love this area.

And funny enough, Christmas is my favorite Holiday, not because of the gifts but because of the giving and the true story behind it. Every year I put together a rag-tag group of men and we go caroling right before Christmas. And yes it is usually cold. But I love the way people light up at those old songs from their childhood. Its a very fun time and I want to do it every year until I'm dead.

I'm really looking forward to sharing Christmas with my daughter, Alexis, this year. Last year she was too little to really understand the whole opening of presents and stuff. But she'll be 2 in February and she's a lot more aware of things around her, especially things that pertain to her and I just can't wait to see her dig into presents and get all excited by the lights and music and everything that goes along with Christmas.

I have more to say on this topic, but Winter is a long season and I will spread it out over the bitter months ahead.

A poem

Draw close to God and He will draw close to you
A promise and a picture
I want to draw closer but I am afraid
I’ve made myself accountable so I have to draw close

My heart is in struggle with my flesh and my soul
Why do I feel the things that I feel
And want the things that I want even though I really don’t want them at all
Is this my plight to turmoil inside forever

I want to succeed I want to make it
But it seems like the struggle is all I will ever have
No matter if I win or lose, I never seem to get anywhere
I’m rolling my rock up the hill and every time, it slides back down

Inside me is something that says I am made for greatness
I know I’m still young and yet sometimes I doubt it
But the something inside makes me keep on trying
So many times I want to give up

I must keep going that is the lesson
The journey is the tale not the destination
Am I a fool and foolish to keep trying
Or is it noble to try forever regardless of the outcome

Alone I am so very lonely
But He is with me He never leaves me
I take solace in His comfort
He is always there

My physical pain seems cruel sometimes
I hurt like an old man and there is no reason why
My life has been full of personal battles and wars
When one seems to end I turn around to face another one

Is the dream real, do I not have much time
Will I die in a few short years
Or will I live to be an old man
Or will we all be whisked away because Sin has taken over

Lover, Spouse, Father, Boss, Partner, Friend, Brother, Cousin, Son, Uncle, Grandson, Servant, Stranger, Jerk, Storyteller

I am all of these things

How do we make a Hatman comic?

My friend, and fellow 3Twin, Steve, suggested that I explain what all goes into a Hatman comic from conception to flash file. First one of us (Andy, Steve or myself) has an idea and we discuss it over the phone or through email. Then one of us writes a script (usually the one who had the original idea) and the other two read over the script and edit it for spelling and grammar (Andy is usually the worst a spelling and I am usually the worst at grammar) Then usually the original writer rewrites the script or one of the other 2 will do the rewrites. On occasion we have sat together and done rewrites. We did this with Heroic & Incredible which turned out to be one of our best adventures yet. After the writing process is finished we decide the order the scripts should come out in. Sometimes it doesn't matter when a script could come out, other times it is very important that a certain script come before or directly after another one because a new character may be introduced or something crucial to the plot may need to happen in a certain order. Once we figure out the order we assign the script to an artist (most of the time Steve, but sometimes others). Regardless of who is drawing for that issue, Steve will go through the script and figure out where the page breaks should be and then he creates a layout for the cells with comic life on his wife's Mac book. He then will print out the cells for himself or the other artist to draw in. Sometimes he will do a quick sketch of what he would like in the cell other times he just hands the blank cells on to the artist for them to do it their self. Then the artist draws in the cells in pencil and later goes over it in pen. After that we scan the drawings into the computer and I take over the coloring process. I usually just use MS Paint to fill in the shapes but sometimes we need something a little more special and then I take the colored picture into Photoshop and I will add any elements to it there (for example the different colored beams of light in the disco scene after color is restored to Hatman in Its Not Such A Wonderful Life). During the drawing phase I gather the audio. I have the various voice actors come to my house and record their lines directly into my computer using my Creative sound card. Each character is recorded separately because some of us do more than one character and certain characters may need to have some special effect done to the voice (i.e. I do the voice of the Leprechaun and we pitch it up slightly so he will sound smaller). After we have all the audio recorded either Andy or I will edit the audio with SONY Vegas Video editing software. We save the files as large wav files. Then I cut them up into the individual pages (adding the page turn notification chime) and I reduce them to a smaller mp3 file I play around with each ones compression so that it will be the smallest file yet still sound nearly as good as its wav counterpart. Then we take the colored pages and the compressed audio into SwishMax and put the comic together with the page flip animation and add any other animations that may be needed. Finally we upload it to the web and I send out an email to those who are signed up for our newsletter informing them that we have a new Hatman comic.

3Twins Cookout (looking back)

So, we had the 3Twins cookout/meeting/party on Sunday. It was a very good turn out. Everyone who said they were going to be there came with the exception of a couple of people who had a last minute family emergency, and one who's family decided to throw him a birthday party. I think we (the 3twins) learned a lot about our fans and our site. First of all we put together a survey which was pretty insightful on what things are liked and what are not so liked on our site. Steve is going to compile the data into some sort of tangible form so we can have an even better grasp of that but I think that it will help us to shape our site in the future to better fit the personality of our fan base as a whole.

We had the meeting video taped for future reference and today I captured that on my computer and watched it while doing so. I was somewhat surprised that the actual meeting portion of the time took only around 13 minutes and we really didn't convey as much as I think we thought we did (if you can follow that). Also, the setting was in our friends home opposed to last year where it was held in a restaurant party room. I think that last year felt too much business and not enough fun and this year was the total opposite. So, for next year we will try to find a half way medium.

One draw back is that Andy, Steve and I live in Garret Indiana, Grand Rapids Michigan, and Schoolcraft Michigan (respectively) we don't get to have a meeting with the 3 of us all together very often, so we met the morning of the meeting and had to compile what would happen when and such with only a couple of hours of preparation. Which I think because we were focusing on making sure our guests were going to have a good time we sacrificed a little bit about what our plans our for the future and some of the pitfalls and lessons we have learned over the last year.

We also played a trivia game based on our site and that seemed to be pretty fun for everyone. Eric was the ultimate winner of a Limited Edition 3Twins T-shirt, with our runner up, Tom receiving a glossy of the first Hatman comic cover.

At the end we passed out 11"x17" posters of our comic covers to everyone and I was really surprised that a lot of the people wanted our autographs. I really look forward to doing this again next year with the possibility of adding a second one in the winter perhaps.

3Twins Cookout (looking ahead)

I haven't posted in a while so I think its about time that I did. This coming Sunday we are having a big 3Twins meeting/cookout/get together for those who have been involved in 3Twins and a couple of lucky fans. Hopefully, its going to be really fun. But being that I'm one of the main guys running the show, I'm really starting to feel anxious and a little bit nervous about it all coming together and actually being fun. Last year we did something similar but it was just a meeting in a private room at a restaurant and I think it lacked the element of fun. I mean it was probably very informative but we want this year to be fun. This year Andy and Steve (the other 3Twins guys) are putting together a trivia game where some of the people at the meeting will go head to head against me. I know of a couple people already who are studying the website and I'm sure I'll have some tough competition. I've also been working on a Star Fetched Trailer to debut at the meeting (for more info on what Star Fetched is just read my first blog). And its coming along nicely, but like everything we do I always want it to be better. We're planning on having some giveaways and some prizes as well. So, hopefully it'll be a really good time and help get people pumped up for the next fiscal year for 3Twins.net.