Video Game Wood Carvings

Another personal blog. Around this time last year I got into doing wood carving when I was out of work and my mother suggested I take some old derelict barn wood and do some kitchy signs and whatnot that could be sold in her farm store. Sadly, before that could really take off, I wound up getting a job, even more sadly, one that had almost eaten all the time I had to wood work.
Then just recently on a day off I was poking around the garage and found a choice piece of rosey wood, and spent a good hour contemplating what I wanted to put on it. Being an avid gamer, my first instinct was to find something relevant to my interests. A logo or something. Being an even bigger fan of Bethesda Softwork's Elder Scrolls series, I decided to opt for what is commonly now known as the Skyrim logo.

The symbol is known as the Seal of Akatosh or The Imperial Dragon, and if I am remembering correctly, it first showed up around imperial bases in TES 3- Morrowind, before becoming the cover icon for TES 5- Skyrim.

Little bit of gaming trivia for you.

The second photo is the first one I did. Not very deep, as I would have liked, but it WAS a rather thin piece of wood so I didn't want to push my luck. Minutes after posting a picture of my efforts on facebook, a friend asked if she could have one, and how much it would cost her. I told her twenty dollars, to cover labor and everything. By lunchtime I'd found a decent piece, drawn the pattern, and by 4pm that afternoon, I had the first image you see above, which I feel is a better, more accurate rendition of the iconic image.

At my friends recommendation, I tossed the pictures up on the Phoenix Comic Con facebook group, and the response has been positive. I've even offered to do up some for people if interested once I get some fresh material, having used my last two good pieces for what you see.
Even have some friends curious if I might do other woodwork for them. It feels good getting back into an artistic swing of things.

Though I hope Bethesda is cool with me making these.

So, what are you Grateful for?

What are you grateful for?

It's a question that's always given me a moment of pause. There's a lot of things in my life that get on my nerves, but what am I honestly grateful for? It's the part of Thanksgiving that always puts me on the spot in my family where we go around the table before grace and talk about a thing that we are happy to have in our lives. And we want that to be a meaningful thing, even if the thing that comes to mind is "I'm grateful the Diamondbacks at least made an effort this last season".

But it doesn't have to be something astronomically meaningful on a grand scale. Who are you trying to impress? There's no shame in being grateful for smaller, even insignificant things. After all, as I keep saying, it's the little things. When you wake up, before you start cursing the day and everything it's going to deluge into your life, take a second to think of something to be grateful for.
-"I'm grateful I have clean socks and underwear this morning." (I am notorious for forgetting to my laundry the night before)
And then just make a mental list of things to be grateful for.
"I'm grateful there's still some milk for my cereal."
"I'm grateful for the existance of coffee."
"I'm grateful my favorite Webcomic updated on time."
"I'm grateful we'll have a full team at work today."
And so on and so on. The idea is to take stock and count of all the good things in your life, rather than putting all of your innermost passion on the things you hate, or the things you're dreading. Even if you absolutely despise what you do for a living, you can at the very least say "I am grateful I am employed", because you are. You are at least grateful for that.

It can be a bugger to just compile a big list of things like that. So I recommend starting with just one thing. One thing that you're grateful for. And take a moment to appreciate this thing, or person, and love it. Love coffee? Have a cup of coffee, and really savor it, or enjoy it in that one coffee house you rarely get to go to.
And now that you have that one thing, you can start adding other things you find in your life that you're grateful for. Even if it's a situational "The carpool was on time, today was a good day". Or something not even relevant to you ("I saw a bunny on my way to work"). You will be amazed at what you can find a bit of gratitude for in things around you, or the things you take for granted.
And never forget to always take some time every day to be thankful for the things you're grateful for, even if it's just two seconds of silent reflection. Do this for yourself, focus on the good, and the good will start coming back to you.

Have a great and prosperous day.

Upcoming: Gratitude and trying to find it

So, I haven't been all that active of late, my job has been getting increasingly taxing these last few weeks and it's kind of been draining my creativity and I've been at a loss for a topic to work off of. But, I've been seeing and hearing a lot of discussion about the importants of Gratitude in the creative process, that I've made that my next topic. Hopefully to have that to you soon.