Today, I said goodbye to an old friend. Midas, my beloved ’87 Pontiac Acadian Scooter, was sold to someone who will love him, take care of him, and make better use of him than I ever would be able to.

In all seriousness, “Midas,” who I named for his wonderful golden shine, was my second car, and I bought him for $200 the summer before I left on my mission in 2005. I bought him after my first car, an ’88 Honda CRC, was smashed into by a stripper driving out of the Tim Hortons parking lot (true story). While I was gone, my sister drove him, and when I got home I drove him some more. That car was awesome.

Here’s to Midas, an awesome car.

This summer I plan to work, podcast, draw, write, and party it up! Oh yeah, and blog! I’ve gotten into comics again, so maybe I’ll write some comics stuff as well. Also, we have our ultrasound to get a look at our baby next week, so that should be the coolest thing in the whole world. For now, look at this weird picture of summer’s day. DERP!

A couple weeks ago, I started a new podcast with Alexis Santos from VG Tribune and Infendo Radio fame. We cover a variety of topics and its been going very well so far. Check it out!

I released the first page of my comic today, and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Check it out over at Team Jetpack 104!

I am a person who loves to be doing something almost every minute of the day. Whether its doing homework, working on my drawing skills, listening to music, writing, whatever, I am a busy man. Lately, I have started to feel the weight of too many things going on at once. I have this overwhelming desire to be doing some things that are just not a priority.

I guess it has to do with the fact that there are so many cool things that you can spend your time on. Things that, if you let them, will absolutely consume you. This can be anything from Facebook to video games to Twitter to drawing in my life, and while I enjoy all those things, I have recently taken a step back and looked at each of them with a more critical eye. Allow me to share my thought process with you.

1. Family - Wow. Both Hilary and I are very busy this semester (she is finishing up her last semester in nursing), and we’re finding that if we don’t make time for each other it vanishes into the wind. We went out to dinner tonight, and its nice to be able to catch up with my best friend. It will be nice when she graduates and is home, or at least in Raymond.
2. School - I admited don’t spend as much time on school as I could (and probably should). However, my schedule is such that if I allowed it to, studying would completely overtake literally everything in my life. I have such a heavy semester that to get straight A’s I would need to do nothing but study nonstop. Not only that, but some of the content of this semester is unbelievably difficult. As a result, I find myself becoming very distracted away from my school work. I’m working on specific things to help me focus better, and I hope this gets better soon.
3. Drawing - I recently started rethinking my entire comic over at Team Jetpack 104, and I would be lying if the details of the story didn’t occupy a lot of my time. In my morning pages over at 750 Words, I have already written three issues worth of story, and I have yet to start the first page. I know that if I had the time, I would draw all day everyday, but I can’t. I have dedicated to drawing one picture per day, but other than that I’m trying to keep it to a minimum because of my tendancy to become WAY too into my own creative process. I’m really looking forward to summer though, lemme tell ya. There won’t be any school then!
4. Writing/Podcasting - For those who don’t know, I write every once in a while over at Infendo.com, a website about video games. You could call me a video game journalist of sorts, I guess. I also join a weekly podcast on that website, which is a ton of fun. However, I need to be able to look at it and, if occasion demands, be able to step back from it. Its fun to be able to step back and enjoy talking about games for a couple hours every week, so I don’t mind doing it, but I just want to make sure that I’m not overdoing it. I’ve actually cut myself back on writing due to my possible tendancy to go crazy with it, but I still write things from time to time. More than anything though, this is a fun distraction, which serves as an escape for a few hours a week.
5. Video games - Contrary to the belief of people who think they know me, I don’t actually play a ton of video games. I recently picked up a new game for the DS, and that has been fun, but I have reached a point where it really is not a huge distraction. It has become something I can really use to unwind and enjoy myself if need be. Do I play when I should be doing other things? Of course I’m not perfect, but 9 times out of 10 I have been studying or working the majority of the day, and if I don’t unwind for at least a little while I may have a brain aneurysm.
6. Social Media - Facebook and Twitter are pretty nifty little tools in and of themselves. I actually have a pretty healthy relationship with Facebook, all things considered. It has become a second e-mail to me, with cool pictures and connections with most of the people I care to talk with. Twitter has become a way for me to talk to some of the people who I might otherwise not talk to (whether I should even care to is a discussion for a different day), and I find it fun to interact with some of these people on a day-to-day basis. I have met people through Twitter specifically that I have become very good friends with, and I honestly consider it to be an asset if used properly. Just like anything though, if you overdo it it can consume you. I think I’m at a happy place for both right now.

Scott Johnson’s blog today got me thinking about this topic, and if I myself have become overstimulated. I have so many cool things going on in my life that I  want to do and be involved in that I don’t know if I can do them all. There just aren’t enough hours in a day. If I could do it, I would be going to school full time, studying enough to get straight A’s, drawing a daily (or weekly at the very least) comic, writing a killer video game blog, hosting a podcast or three, playing some video games in the downtime, starting up my own research project about mental illness and how the brain works around all that, and doing all sorts of crazy fun stuff with my family and friends.

I think I need to get a Time-Turner, or become the next Jamie Madrox. That way I could do it all, but for now I have to pick and choose what I want to do. That’s the challenge of this life for me right now, then focusing long enough to do it.

I’ve committed myself to doing things daily: 750 Words and Daily Doodle. What is that, you might ask?! 750 Words is a website in which you play a game of virtual bowling with yourself, in which you write 750 words per day in an effort of getting your thoughts out on paper (manage to write 750 words and you get a strike, write anything and you get a spare. Each month is a new score card). I’ve found it very therapeutic, and it has helped me to really get my thoughts out of my head and into a tangible form. Its a pretty cool little doo-hicky if I do say so myself. I’m 8 or 9 days into it and I haven’t missed yet.

Daily Doodle is a seperate blog I set up via Posterous in which I have challenged myself to draw something every day. So far I have been drawing something, taking a picture with my BlackBerry, and e-mailing it via Posterous (which is cool by the way. Posterous makes e-mails into blog posts automatically). Its also been pretty fun and I’ve noticed a decent amount of improvement in my drawing skills lately.

So yeah, thats about it. School is pretty busy, work is chill, and I’m looking forward to summer.

Oh yeah, I never mentioned on here. WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!! My awesome wife Hilary is due on October 3rd, and we couldn’t be more excited. Hilary is doing well despite feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired (har har…). Anyways, hope everyone’s doing awesome!

Very rarely do I get to be a science geek when I write on Infendo, but I did today. Debunking the science behind the Wii Vitality Sensor. Check it out here.