This wedding is eating my brain, and will continue to do so for the rest of the month until it is over. Fortunately, it will only last until the end of the month. Until then there's not much space to do all the personal projects I've been trying to work on, since just about every weekend and most of my waking moments are dedicated to helping with my sister's wedding. This weekend is to be dedicated to wedding craft projects, such as decoupaging a box for gift cards, painting the cake stand, and the like.

I am getting a few things done. For example, I posted a new youtube video, and I started the artwork on a short animation(ish) thing that I'm working on. I'm also continuing to write in my poetry journal every morning. So there's time to make progress even in the midst of all this madness.

For this week, I'm just hoping that I can complete the artwork for and create the animation. I'm planning to meet with a friend to discuss the possibility of writing a musical together. And I'll be thrilled, if on top of all that, I can manage to get some work done on my short story.

I spent three and a half hours last night working on an educational zombie/infected video for youtube. I am only about halfway done with it. Finishing it up tonight should go a whole lot quicker, since I now know what I'm doing with the program (I'm using the computer at my office, since my laptop would not have handled it well).

I left the office and drove home totally jazzed, in part because I'd been promising to make this video for a while now, and in part because I always feel great when I'm working on a creative project, especially if its going well. I feel like doing jumping jacks or something. Gotta love that feeling.

My plan is to hopefully get some sketches done for a poetry video and also get some writing done this weekend before I take my laptop in on Saturday.

I'll be working on a new youtube video tonight, which will basically be in response to this video on art and commercialization.

I used to have huge debates with my father about how I should approach my creative works, whether it's painting, writing, or whatever. He, being the good dad he is, was always concerned about me being able to make money with my creative self, so he would try to get me thinking about how the final product could be sold before I even had a product to sell.

This always frustrated me, and I would try to explain to him that while I would love to end up with a bestseller on my hands, I couldn't just approach it from a commercial point of view, because if I did that I would never get the heart of the story I was trying to tell. I needed a story I loved first, instead of just some gimmicky angle, otherwise I would never get anywhere. It's hard enough trying to write a story I'm excited by let alone some story that only would have commercial potential.

At the same time, I am always surprised at how many people out their look at commercial movies/books/art as bad things, as somehow compromised and unvaluable. True a movie/book can become lost in the realms of commercialism, they can be overburdened by the need to make money, but there is also nothing wrong with a work that is made strictly for entertainments sake.

X-men and Superman are very commercial movies, and yet, you can also tell that director Bryan Singer was passionate about the stories he was telling. He loved the superhuman characters he put onto the big screen. The fact that this was a commercial success did not take away from the story being told. It merely allowed for more people to be able to see it.

In approaching my own writing, I don't discount the market. I try to be aware of what's selling and of what is commercially viable. Yet, and the same time, when it comes to the story itself, all that is secondary. In the end, I just try to go with my gut, to go with the stories that excite me, that inspire me, that would be the kind of stories that I would want to read myself. Chances are that if it's something I'm passionate about someone else will be passionate about it, too.

My friend created a blog/webpage for an ongoing creative project called the 20 Dollar Robot. The challenge to the universe is to make a robot, a sculpture, a painting, a costume, a hyper intelligent man-servant, bu whatever you create, it must cost no more than $20 to make. The site will post photos, receipts, stories, tips, tricks, videos, and any other documentation that is provided.

I'm already trying to plan out some ideas for what I might do for this site. Don't know what that is yet, but I'm working on it.

Anyway, I also wanted to invite anyone else in the universe out there to participate as well. Go at it, have fun, make robots.