Saw Ratatouille tonight. The 6:30 P.M. showing was sparsely attended, which shouldn’t have been a surprise for a “kid’s movie.”

It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a long time.

Today’s counterintuitive idea:

The blogosphere is much smaller than we think.

I’m on Facebook now. Brennen recommended it as a convenient way to keep up-to-date with people that one rarely communicates with otherwise. And it does seem convenient in that way.

Lots of pretty little widgets to play around with, too. Which is often a good predictor of a site’s longevity.

A few months ago, I wrote up a Renewal Investment Plan (or R.I.P, ha ha). It’s a list of significant things I want to accomplish in the next three months. I’m at the end of the quarter, so it’s time to review.

Three new skills:

• Drawing heads/profiles, to prepare for my next comic. Done.
• Cooking pasta to al dente every time, no matter the shape. Done.
• Reading and practicing Japanese. Not as often as I’d like, but better than before.

Thirty new people to meet:

• Join Toastmasters. Complete failure.
• Keep in touch with students in my Web Design class. Complete failure.
• Go out on ten dates. I only did two.

Three new major projects:

• Kickstart Project Omega, the game my co-workers and I are designing. Done.
• The Garden Redevelopment Project. This included building a bunch of planters, repainting the fence, and laying down several truckloads of mulch. Done.
• Giant Armors written. Done (wrote the last bit this morning).

One new thing for the resume:

• Firestorm, my side-scrolling shooter for Syllable. Done.

So. I did terribly at meeting new people, which is typical for me. But that’s fine. I now know how I did, and can work on that for my next R.I.P.

If nothing else, this has been a great way to keep me in touch with my bigger life goals, the stuff beyond the day-to-day projects that will make me a more interesting, well-rounded person.

Today is Make Day. Thanks to a post on the Accidental Creative blog, I reserved today just to make stuff (and plan to schedule a new one every month).

One of the results: check_syntax, a script that will check the syntax of whatever source code file you give it. Currently supports C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python, and common Unix shells (bash, sh, csh, and tcsh).

Are you an artist?

We’re all capable of producing art. Many people compare themselves to world-class art. They look at their drawing or their story or their song, and they see that it’s not as good as the artists they see in galleries or read in books or hear on the radio.

But if your goal is to be a world-class artist, isn’t that a hollow goal? It might get you there, but you’ll never be happy until you are there, and when you’re finally there, then what?

Why not just create art? Whatever art you want to.

Tired. Been sleeping poorly. Ate a plate of spaghetti and freezer-burned bread. Took a load of laundry outside, and…

…twilight gilds the windows of the facing condo with pure gold. The garden is full of earthy browns and vibrant living greens. Pink flowers seem to burst from their pots. The doves beneath the bird feeder look at me.

Not a bad day.

Things are usually a lot easier than they seem.

I’ve been stressing out over a project at work. An influential person needed some data from me, and I had to provide it by the end of today.

But it was easy. It wasn’t all easy, but my worries didn’t lessen the difficulty. I could have spent the last few days enjoying the challenge instead of worrying about it.

Spent some time today working on Project Omega, the super-secret RTS game that a fewe co-workers and I are developing. And I realized that I spent twenty minutes writing and organizing status and reporting on two hours worth of work. Feels excessive to me.

On the other hand, we’re just getting started. Should be faster to update once I get used to it.

We’re using Assembla, a free service that hosts code projects. They provide a free Subversion repository, Trac system, mailing list, and Wiki. You can pay for full backups and more storage, but what they provide is plenty for a small project. Highly recommended, so far.

Just back from the first meeting of the anime club that Nick and I are starting. We were the only ones who showed up.

This was not disappointing. Several folks said they couldn’t make it, and the others weren’t firm. So we chatted and watched a bit of anime, and will organize another meeting for a few weeks from now.

Initial failure means very little. It’s persistence that usually wins.