It’s been a month since my last entry and that’s far too long to let a blog go dormant. Looking over this posting I admit it sounds very self-congratulatory. Yep it could be, and if it is well..... DEAL!

My sketchbook has scribblings for ideas that could be in one sense non-sequiturs. They’re not really, like most ideas that end up in my sketchbook the ones of late are leaning towards the direction I want them to. I know that sounds enigmatic, but please bear with me as this involves further experiments of where I want to take the illustration career and some commercial ideas that could be fun. Further bulletins as situation warrants. Oh, as for my YA novel I’m working on? I’m up to ten thoudsand words and heading into the ninth chapter!

Concerning my musical pursuits and musings, let’s just say I’ve had quite enough of people getting nostalgic about past music trends, especially this habit of clinging to the 80’s. Even though I enjoyed it at the time, the tunes being resurrected and over played are not indicative of what the decade was like, nor are they edifying. I find it just a tad reprehensible, that whether it’s out of laziness or the fact that we’ve allowed the record industry to hold our tastes hostage.

You know what I’m referring to: creativity killed by monetary obsessions. While there’s nothing wrong in making a buck, especially in the arts, it’s unacceptable that the strategies employed are old, outmoded and lack creativity. If you’re afraid of taking chances, then you’re not living. And for the love of anything good in this world please listen to something other than just western pop music! Granted this rant is informed by the fact that I'm actually playing a musical instrument again, but that doesn't mean you to listen to the" same ol' same ol'," again and again. C'mon, I'd really like to see you eat nothing but cheese-burgers, for the rest of your life and nothing else!

Closing thought for this posting: I was something of a hero two weeks ago; I found a fellow gasping his last in a hallway, and in the process of calling for the ambulance, etc. I began CPR with a neighbour helping out. It just happened. No real panic, I just realized that this was a life or death situation, and if I was going to make any difference I had to do it, and do you know what? It worked. Granted EMS still had their work cut out for them when they arrived, but it could have been a grimmer scenario if I had stood back and decided to let the paramedics do it. It was scary, exhilarating and in a very pragmatic way, the right thing to do. I won’t tell you to take a CPR course so that you can save someone, because as a dear friend of mine who’s a former paramedic told me that what I did was rare, as most people naturally freeze up in a situation like the one I was in; well if that’s the case then I ‘m grateful that I acted the way I did and to quote Christopher Robin from Winnie The Pooh, “…there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”