October 2018

If it wasn't autumnal enough in September, those leaves and temperatures certainly started falling this month. And that's before all the time change too. However it has still been nice enough to go chill at the park, which I'm sure I wouldn't be saying if I was in the UK.
What can I really say? Work has been work (busiest time this months and it's been crazy some days). No luck with job search, but I'm still looking.
On the art front I've been making more progress with the Fyfe & Sparkplug comic, as well as making a few Halloween themed pics of course - including this spooky Bob & Flyer comic.

See you in November.

September 2018

I can't really say too much about September that wasn't already said in August, apart from the weather gradually starting to get cooler, not to mention a lot wetter too. Here in Connecticut, we got the remnants of what was Hurricane Florence, and to say that we got lucky is an understatement. Wishing all the best for those in North and South Carolina, and the Bahamas, that were affected by the storm.
Still no luck with the job search, I'm afraid. Work is work, as always - and this month marked a year since I started my job, and having a permanent job has been quite the adjustment in a lot of ways. I've certainly had to change quite a lot of my habits, that's for sure. However I think the biggest change to come out of this job is becoming confident enough to be able to stand behind a counter and interact with people, I certainly never thought I would ever be able to pull that off, and I still don't think I'm perfect at it, but it's safe to say that I surprised myself there.
This month wasn't all about work though, and in my opinion no month should be. Or year, even. How about your entire life? You have to be able to play too, otherwise what's it all for?
September 28 marked 6 years of me and my lovely wife as a couple, and every year it's always strange yet humbling to look back on all that we did in the years past, especially all the hoops we had to jump through to get to this point in time. We celebrated it with a trip to Bridgeport, mainly to visit the many animals at Beardsley Zoo, but also for a walk down the beach at Seaside Park. (I recommend it for the view of Long Island Sound.)
While we're on the them of anniversaries, I also want to give a very special birthday shoutout to my dear grandma, she turned 80 on September 25, and I am happy to say that she is still going strong. (Love you and miss you very, very much.)
On the artwork front, I've completed a couple more Fyfe & Sparkplug comic pages, as well as some of my regular short comics. I'm still having trouble getting back to working on my website, so I really need to get cracking on that one.
I'll leave you with an example of one of my scenery pictures - doesn't looking at this waterfall make you want to dive in for a dip? See you at the end of spooky season.

October 2017

September was a month of changes, and this month was no different. I've been feeling the change weather-wise, as It's started to feel a lot more autumnal lately. In other words, getting colder and a little more rain too.
I've been working at my job for a month now, and as I said, it's been an adjustment, but that's part and parcel of anyone starting a new job, as is having work days that go better than others, but on the whole I'm pretty much used to it now. Admittedly I do wish I had a more consistent schedule, but that's retail for you.
The biggest change this month - big announcement in 3...2...1... - is that me and my wife have landed a new apartment (flat in Brit-speak)! It's been in the pipeline for a while now, and it was just at the end of September that we started looking for a new place. The first couple of places we saw didn't tick all the boxes, but the last house that we saw, a second floor apartment in a quiet suburb with two bedrooms, two main rooms, a garage and an outside deck, was the one we instantly said yes to. The real plus point about the place is that it's close to my job, and also close to the in laws' place, as well as two parks (including a certain park/beach I enjoy visiting a lot). That's not all though - we could have the keys by the start of November, so we could start moving in within a matter of days. Speaking of which, we've been packing up our stuff a bit at a time to try to make the move easier. I can't say I'm looking forward to that part, but as with any move, it will be worth it in the end - and to put it into perspective, it's certainly not as daunting as uprooting your entire life and moving to another country.
I couldn't end this blog without mentioning Halloween of course - so here's some Halloween themed artwork to see out this month. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, hope you have a good one. Until November.

September 2016

This summer was certainly an eventful one, and while I'm sad to see the end of the nice warm weather, this month has also seen me begin to experience Autumn in the US for the first time - up until this year, I had experienced every season but Autumn across the pond.

The immigration situation has progressed somewhat this month, I finally had my background check a few weeks back, and now I am waiting for them to send confirmation that it's all clear. Our lawyer also sent me my work authorisation papers, however because of an admin error I haven't been able to get those completed. It's little hiccups like that which have made this process so frustrating, as I well remember from this time last year.

And where did that year go? Many times this month I've found myself thinking back to those few months, going down to London to do my medical, seeing the sights of the city, wondering whether my move to the US would pan out. It feels strange looking back.

I also have some news regarding the children's book that I'm collaborating on - the pictures for the first book are all finished, now I just need to stop procrastinating and get them all sorted into a PDF file. I get easily distracted, after all.

It wasn't just a Stateside Autumn that I was getting to experience this month, either - the 28th September marked me and my lovely wife Nicole's 4 year anniversary of becoming a couple. Now I know couples don't usually celebrate that particular anniversary, but this was different, because this year was the first time we were able to celebrate that anniversary together in person, not through a Skype chat, and it was wonderful being able to do that. Memories like these are what remind me that making my move and beginning a new life with Nicole is what it's all about.

The new local bowling league season has started this month, too - last season was my debut alongside Nicole's dad and close family friend Steve, and I was amazed that we finished second place in the league overall. This time, I'm bowling alongside my lovely wife, and so far it's going really well.

The artist's corner this month is also a shoutout to my good friend Chris Clews from Australia - we collaborated on a comic, featuring a few of our characters - you can check it out right here.

Bring on the pumpkins and Autumn leaves - till next time.

November 2015

I just do not have the words to say that can cover how eventful this past month has been - but I can say one thing for sure: the wait is over.

The absolute highlight of this month was the last week, when after 11 months apart, I got to see my fiancee Nicole again, she flew over to the UK to spend a week with me, both at home in the north-east and for two trips to London. This was Nicole's first time getting to visit the capital, and we had a hectic but brilliant time seeing the city's sights, including Buckingham Palace, London Zoo, Regent's Park, Baker Street, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, as well as also having a skate on an ice rink down on the South Bank, and seeing the night lights of the London skyline from the top of the London Eye. Both the hotels we stayed at were great too, especially the Doubletree on the second visit (minibar and iMac in the room, anyone?)
We also combined the London trip with another DeviantArt meet-up, it was great getting to hang out with Dracorum-Order, Granitoons, TopperHay and LaptopGeek again, not forgetting meeting Qwertypictures (aka Chris Signore) for the first time. There was much walking, food, chat and drawing involved, and though it flew by, it was still something neither me or Nicole will forget for a long time.
However, spending timt together in London wasn't the only reason Nicole flew over, there was another very important reason for her being here - on 23 November, I had my visa interview at the US Embassy. It was a lengthy process, which involved waiting for two hours in between being called to a booth to have documents and fingerprints taken, the staff were very pleasant however. The actual interview consisted of questions about me and Nicole's relationship, and it was very quick, but also informal, it was more like a conversation than an interview, which made us feel at ease.
And now for the big announcement - how did the interview go? I can now finally say it after all these months...the embassy told me there and then that my US visa had been approved. It is finally happening after all this time, I can scarcely believe it - but needless to say both me and Nicole were overjoyed on hearing the news.
So this means December will be my last month living in my home country, because I've decided that I will be flying out to the US in the last week of December. This is because I want to spend one more Christmas with my family, before starting the New Year and a new life with Nicole. We both have a lot to do between now and then, that goes without saying.
Changing subject, the other highlight of this month was attending the Lumiere Festival in Durham for the third time - for those needing to know, it's an outdoor art festival that's been held in Durham every 2 years, and all the exhibits are themed around light - it was very crowded, but as always the exhibits were impressive. Some of the highlights included two flying fish creatures, mist across the River Wear, a projection of a whale swimming on the Wear and a dramatic projection on Durham Cathedral. Lumiere also saw another DA meetup, I hung out with DragonRichard for the event, which was nice.

I can't even imagine how December is going to be...but it's going to be a very important and very likely an emotional time - a lot of changes are happening, and I just hope I'm ready for them.

As always, I'll leave you with some artwork - a homage/parody of the B-movies from the 1950s that I drew for CowboyCrocket's 1950s art jam this month.

Till next time.

P.S. - Click the links below if you want to see pics and videos from my visit to the Lumiere Festival.

Videos:
Durham Lumiere 2015 #1
Durham Lumiere 2015 #2

Photos:
Durham Lumiere 2015 - Photos

September 2014

September usually isn't one of my favourite times of year - it's that time where summer ends and things turn very autumnal, and of course in the past it was also the month where the summer holidays ended and I had to go back to school and get readjusted to being in a different class and having a different timetable, and all that jazz - and the way things have gone this month is not too dissimilar.

Last month I mentioned about being put on a training course that turned out to be refreshingly bearable...well, I've now been put on something else by that certain place I keep mentioning, and this time it's definitely not bearable - for 6 months, I'll be doing a 30 hour work placement, which will be in a charity shop, along with having to attend a 4 hour jobsearch session at a training provider every week. The problem is that I don't get a wage for this, just my unemployment money every fortnight as normal. As it stands, I don't have the placement yet, the training provider is apparently trying to sort one out for me, however if they can't, I have to attend their jobsearch session every day and do nothing but jobsearch for 30 hours a week. It's all BS, I know it is, because I've been in this position before, and the only reason they make people do 30 hours of jobsearch is so they can keep tabs on them - as I mentioned, this is only designed to massage the unemployment figures and put money in the pockets of the organisations concerned, and I have no choice but to go along with it, for if I choose not to attend, I'll get my money stopped. I'm really not happy about being put in this situation at all, and I find myself worrying that I won't be able to have much of a life outside of this placement/jobsearch deal - I know that's how it would be if I had a permanent job, but at least I'd be earning money to justify it. I just feel like I'm being used as cheap labour at the end of the day, and other than work experience I fail to see what I can get out of this. Obviously once more happens, you'll hear about it here.

That's the bad stuff out of the way, now onto the better stuff.

Since around 2008, when I flew on a plane for the first time, I've had a big interest in planes, more specifically commercial airliners - at the back end of August and most of this month, I've been taking that interest a bit further. You see, I like to planespot, just watch planes flying up above, and it just so happens that where I live lies right under the flight path of air traffic flying in and out of Newcastle Airport, which is great. By taking it further, I mean that I've now been logging each plane that I see, and obviously if I've logged a plane already I don't log it again. This also harks back to a hobby I had when I was a kid - me and my brother would walk around the streets and write down the make and model of all the cars parked in the street and tally them up. Funny how things come full circle.
This also ties into the other good part of this month - on the 28th, myself and my lovely Nicole celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Sadly we couldn't be physically together for obvious reasons, but we still made the most of it via Skype - I sent Nicole a home-made greeting card complete with cheesy words, plus two packets of her favourite Aero Bubbles chocs, and a little gold clock that I came across a few months back - I thought of Nicole as soon as I saw it, because even though we're separated by distance and time, there's also not that much time until we do get to physically be together again (December). So it just seemed right that I buy the clock for her, as a reminder that time isn't always against us.
I said this ties into the planespotting - Nicole's present for me was a model plane, and not just any plane, but a British Airways Boeing 747, just like the ones that have flown me to the US to see her on three occasions now, and what will be flying me back there again in December - and it goes without saying that I can't wait. Too bad we can't just skip over October and November, I'll especially want to this year.

I'll sign off with some artwork, as always - a group shot of the cast of my comic series "A Monster Thing", and speaking of that, I've gotten back to making my series of cartoon blogs on my YouTube channel - go take a look at those and more if you're interested.

Sayonara for September.

PS: One last mention - many congratulations to two good friends of mine, Andy and Hayley on their recent marriage - all the very best for you two crazies. :)

Autumn's here, and the paintballs are flying

Well, if it didn't feel autumnal last month, it certainly has done this month - the leaves are falling, the temperatures are dropping, and the clocks have gone back - not forgetting Halloween, of course.

I'll be honest, I haven't really got a great deal to say about this month, as it's more or less been business as usual for the most part, to the point where some days have just felt dull and grey, and not just because of the weather - the only break from the old routine was a recent paintball session with my brother and a couple of friends, which was only the second time I'd ever been paintballing (the first time was 9 years ago as part of a Business Studies course at school). There were just six of us playing to begin with, but we ended up getting joined by a group from a stag party, who were a little bit hungover, one of them was suffering from whiplash from being in a car crash the day before, and the stag himself couldn't play as he'd had way too much the night before, so quite a bunch there!
Anyhow, it was all a good experience, even though I soon found out how much I really, really suck at paintballing, and those paintballs didn't half sting! It's the taking part that matters though, and the whole day out was much needed.

The paintballing wasn't the only thing that happened that day - I also had a first, attending a wedding via Skype - one of Nicole's friends was getting married, and she wanted me and my brother to be there. Obviously we couldn't be there in person because of the small matter of thousands of miles of ocean separating us, but we made the best of it, and the wedding was absolutely fine.

And that's pretty much it for October - if you're celebrating Halloween, with costumes or without, hope you have a blast.

I'll leave you with some Halloween artwork - Bob & Flyer looking a bit more ghostly than normal.