From My Notebook: The Disappearing Act

This is a short story I wrote that’s inspired by the Biblical story in Luke 2:41-50.

They were having that age old argument that all couples have at least once in their life. “I thought he was with you!” The pointing of fingers, the worry making the defenses sharp; “how was I supposed to know he wasn’t with you? You were off with the rest of the men these last couple of days!” We’ve all heard something like this before, the anger caused by fear when it’s discovered that a child is missing. After the initial shock of finding that he wasn’t with the other, the two parents, trying to calm the flood of anxiety, began rationalizing with themselves. “He’s probably with Jacob’s family, they’re always doing something together, or maybe he’s with his Aunt Rebecca.” At that, they split up to cover more ground; asking all of us, more and more anxiously, if we’d seen their son. With every shake of the head, every “no, I haven’t seen him since we left” his parents grew more and more desperate. Whispers started to go around of roadside robbers, deciding that a young boy would sell good on the slave market. There was no denying that the boy was strong, having worked with his father in carpentry from the day he could walk. It didn’t take a trained eye to see that he could work hard. “That’s it. We’re going back!” The boy’s mother, tears beginning to fall, almost hysterically sobbed. It was a final act of desperation, to turn back; but the city was the last place any of us had seen him. A few of us volunteered to take the couple day’s journey back with them; but the rest of us had homes to get to, and children that were tired of being on the road, and we continued on without them. News reached us a few days later that they were successful in finding him. He had stayed behind in the city, doing the last thing anyone would expect a twelve year old to do when free of his parents; he was in the temple, talking with the teachers of the law! His parents had searched for him three days throughout the entire bustling city, and it’s said that when they found him, the only thing he had to say for himself was “didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

From My Sketchbook: Chibis

Here are some Chibi versions of movie and T.V. show characters that I drew a while ago. Chibi style is related to the Japanese art style of Manga and Anime and literally means "short person." Its characteristics are very simplistic and drawn quickly, with exaggerated features to make the character look cuter. Technically, Chibis don't get this detailed, but I decided do it my own way.

Most of the characters are from the T.V. show Lost. Flynn Rider and Rapunzel, from the movie Tangled, were my first two attempts at this style. I had planned on doing a TON of other characters, but I haven't sat down to do any more for about a year now. Someday I want to draw more; it’s a really easy and relaxing art style to do and only took me about an hour to complete one character.

Here's a picture of "true" Chibi style (not done by me.)

Wikipedia

In an attempt to save money (in other words, being creatively cheap) I printed out scanned versions of the characters to tape onto the back of my ipod for some custom covers. This one of Charlie has been on the back of it for a long time, I've been too lazy to change it (plus, it's perfect for my ipod because of the guitar!)

List Sundays: Reasons Why I Quit Making New Year's Resolutions

• Everyone else is doing them. Where's the fun in copying others? I like to be an original.

• I found a better tradition for the New Year. Instead of goals, I pick one word that I want to strive to be like for the whole year. This year my word is NOW; meaning letting go of worrying about the future and dwelling on the past and instead simply enjoying life in the present moment (a little more about this new way of resolutions if your interested; MyOneWord.org.)

• No one ever actually meets their goals anyway, myself including. Why keep doing it when it only makes you frustrated with yourself?

• Life isn't about trying to be better for a set amount of time. It's about constantly growing and learning from mistakes every single moment of our lives.

• I don't need to wait for the beginning of the year to start having good habits. Every day I wake up I can decide to be the person I want to be, or sometimes I can just put life on hold and take a personal day off to be an emotional poet wandering around asking deep sounding questions.

Bill Watterson