So begins 2009 - awake half-an-hour from noon, and still waiting on my sister and her friend; the Gator Bowl (?) is playing downstairs amid the sea of confetti from last night. It doesn’t feel like January, or winter at all for that matter; I’m quite comfortable in a loose shirt and shorts at home. There is probably snow left, but it looks and feels out of place; the world looks more like a chilly November morning than a cold January afternoon.

At this particular moment, there are five post drafts, two of which I actually plan on posting. One of them is the follow-up In the Thunderlight post on the Pokemon Trading-Card game. That particular post feels long enough to be made into a book…

At this moment, sitting next to me on my left, is a wonderful deck of 60 Pokemon Cards encased in ruby-red sleeves, the only color of red I like. Hidden therein are enough rare cards that, if I were to sell the deck (with the sleeves), I could probably get $100-140 for it. I don’t intend to, however; this deck is my tournament deck, the deck that I use when I really want to win. It’s not fantastic - but it is pretty good.

On my right is my new shiny-blue Nintendo DS, which I got for Christmas. My DS plays one particular game the most, and that game is Pokemon: Diamond Version. Unfortunately, that particular game was given to my friend for a while, since I hadn’t got a working DS to play it on - and now, he’s gone and lost it. He thinks a friend may have it, but he can’t contact that friend until school starts next week. Sigh. However, as collateral, he has offered something far more interesting and, to me, something far more substantial.

I have this strange sensation relating to cartoons and games of a Japanese art/story style called anime. You have probably heard of anime before; it’s assimilating itself into American culture more and more with each passing moment. TV shows in that drawing style are called “anime”, and comic books are called “manga” (often read right-to-left, in the traditional Japanese fashion), etc. Anime is often classifiable into various types of shows, just like our normal TV programs, and each of those types has characteristics, though I find them to me much more concrete than American shows tend to follow. The stories themselves, however, when left to the imaginations of the Japanese, expand and explode into so many strange dimensions that it’s hard to find two animes that really are the same.

Anime is so interesting.

Ever since I really noticed it, however, I’ve had this distaste for watching it - a feeling that I shouldn’t like it. This feeling has followed me and plagued me all my life, and it’s starting to learn that it needs to go. It applies to not just anime, but almost anything,  anything popular that I have been exposed to. The video game series Halo was the first one that I really fought, and I was glad I did - Halo is one of my favorite games now. A lot of video games still are pressured under that feeling, though I’m going to see about destroying that barrier and trying them out soon. To do so, I feel a need to make a decisive strike of some kind. Eric, the friend who has offered the so-far unnamed collateral, has offered me a chance at just such a battle.

That distaste for watching it triples when I try to draw anime. I’ve wanted to draw it all my life. It’s a simple, easy style, with so much potential, and a style that everyone will at least be able to look at and comprehend easily. You can create a good portrait in about an hour to two hours, easily. You can do just about anything with that portrait. It’s like writing, it’s like playing guitar, it’s an art form, and I love art in all its forms, it seems. I want to draw. I have wanted to draw since I saw other people draw. And the older I get, the better everyone around me gets. Well, now it’s my turn. Eric has given me three books (take them back…) that helps a total beginner understand the basics behind drawing in the anime style. I’ve skimmed through the first chapter, and it’s treated just like any other art book - in fact, it’s quite similar to my creative writing class!

As you can tell by the fact that I spent three or four paragraphs on this, I’m very excited. It takes some forceful convincing to get me to actually try to draw something, but I’m still excited. Once I start doing fairly well, I think it’ll take less effort to start going out and drawing.

In all sorts of other pursuits, my horizons begin to broaden. I’m at a point in my life where opportunities are available that I hadn’t realized were coming up. I’m at a point where, if I wanted, I could begin writing a serious novel. I’m at a point where I could join a band. I’m at a point where I might be able to pick up a programming language, make some simply downloadable program, and sell it for some quick off-the-top cash. And it’s time I start deciding what to do - and get started.

2009 will be an interesting and exciting year.