When Following Jesus, Wear Running Shoes

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… So I said, I cannot oral sex you; I don’t like how you smell. If you want, I can give you a proper bath, but that’s an extra 100$ per square inch of skin. Plus you gotta pay me for the soap. — sex worker sam.

For the next four or five days, I have the apartment all to myself. Dre went camping and Matt’s catsitting.

Heaven. I’m in heaven…

🎶

I have decided to follow Jesus!
I have decided to follow Jesus!
I have decided to follow Jesus!
No turning back.
No turning back.

🎶
Certain church songs stick.

Hey yo Jesus, why you walking so fast!? I ain’t tryna run after you nigga!

I bet you can imagine how happy I am that I don’t have to deal with none of that back-to-school shit. Matt’s starting post-secondary in September, but that’s different.

Kai is coming along, not as quickly as I’d like but I’m happy with how it looks and the slow down too might be related to having to learn this new software while I’m making the book.

But I love the different personas — Pixel, Vector, Layout, Typography, etc. — and how easily I can move between them depending on what I’m trying to do.

I’ve started my other book and I’m gonna use construction paper, foamboard and paint to illustrate this one.

Wish me luck.

After I’m done, I’ll write, The Art of Paper Tearing.

I’m also trying out this new software that’s supposed to turn a script into an animation, so I turned my Pigtopus poem, Petal Music, into a script using Final Draft 13.

This is where I get to learn about direction.

Since I wasn’t specific enough, the software turned me into a Japanese anime schoolgirl. AND the flowers… WTF! That is not what I imagined.

When I write a poem or story, I leave an enormous amount of information unstated but I see the whole thing playing out.

I know what Pigtopus looks like. I know how the flowers grow. I see exactly how characters are interacting and moving through the scenes.

Novi said,

“I don’t know none a dat shit bitch. Spell the motherfucker out!”

So… transitioning from writing to video means learning to notice all the decisions I normally make silently and the imagination bits I take for granted.

I say take for granted because I didn’t realize I already had a picture in my head until I saw something that didn’t match.

Aniway, I mainly wanted to tell you about my lottery win – to you it’s just me home alone but it feels like I lucked into a couple million bucks.

Which is great cause I have no idea how many coins Novi is going to charge me to get this first animation done to my satisfaction. But once I know, I will know. 🙂

Have a good one. Oh! I am one or two poems away from 500. Isn’t that crazy. Wow.