[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [L].

Day 50! In another 50 days I'll be able to use another single character. Roll on, day 100.

50 kph is the speed limit on roads in Australia that have unspecified limits. Around 30 miles an hour.

Yesterday's date was great! My wifey and I are so blessed. We've been saving up to go out to eat at Shoguns for a couple of months. Literally. I've just got my permission to work and I'm still waiting for a reply to applications and my wifey is called in sporadically to work, so income is up and down. Mostly down. Saving for this date has been something that we've been doing and looking forward to since we went to Shoguns last September/October.

I had made a reservation. This made me feel two things. Posh because I've never made a reservation before and safe because it was the weekend after Valentine's Day and I was now happy with the fact that no matter how many people turned up, we'd have a seat.

So we got there late... Only by five minutes, but it was packed out. We had a word with the guy on the reception and although our names were down, they hadn't put down that I wanted a place around the Hibachi, so that was a slight worry. We got called to our places within 5 minutes, though, so that was nice. And at the Hibachi.

We got sat next to a family that had just come from the Razorback's basketball game. They were a lovely family - out to celebrate one of their daughter's birthdays (which was the day before), with another daughter having a birthday the day after. There were seven of them altogether, the mum and dad, their two daughters and three friends of the daughter with a birthday the day before.

The meal started and the guy came to the grill to start cooking for us. It was really nice. In a room of maybe 160 people, he recognised me from when my wifey and I went months before! Made me feel all warm-like. The guy next to me offered us a bite of his appetiser which was pretty good.

The meal progressed in the usual manner one does when eating with complete strangers - we talked on and off about the smaller matters of the evening, about how this restaurant has sister restaurants in the town they're from, etc. The usual talk, but just really pleasant.

Several times throughout our eating, the house lights went down - along with the tranquility of the place - and gave rise to strobing lights and a tune from the charts. Ugh. I think that sentence aged me. It was for individuals who were there celebrating a birthday. They were given a complimentary plate of mostly cream and everyone within earshot of the following shout-out request half-heartedly cheered happy birthday.

Well, the time came for this man's daughter to have her moment which I was actually quite excited about. They were on the same table and they were all really nice folks, so it was pretty exciting to wait for it. The man signaled the waiter and told him to bring over two extra plates for my wifey and me. Really nice! His wife cut the pretty sizable two-tier cake and dished it out. I got about a quarter of the top tier. Far too much to finish!

We chatted a little more and the waiter came over and presented this guy with the bill. I leaned forward to get ours and the waiter told me that he'd be back with it in a few minutes. Then he came round behind me and told me quietly that the guy we'd been sat next to had paid for us!

To say we couldn't believe it would be somewhat dishonest. We know our God is a God of huge blessing. It was so, so kind of this guy and his wife to pay for our meal and to share their cake. God blesses us in many ways and through people is one of those ways. This guy was a Godsend and after wishing us a pleasant night and receiving many thanks, he popped into the limo waiting for them outside and they went on their way.

It was an amazing night. God is so good! I know to a lot of people it's only a little thing, but to us it was huge. We'd been looking forward to it a lot and it was a sacrifice that we'd made in order to go. We wanted to invest the time into each other and spend time together in a date setting. It was amazing!

Anyway. That was last night.

For today:

My wifey and I had a practice for our swing dance this afternoon. The High School pageant is tomorrow night and the queens of the past years are going to be there performing. My wifey and I are swing dancing (thanks to youtube, for the most part). I'm really nervous, but after the practice this afternoon I'm a lot more confident. There's a whole lot more room up on this stage than there is in the living room at home!

A new creature for my game. It only has two feet, but they're razor sharp and he kicks real good. He's heavily armoured and is only vulnerable when he's in the air, but it's when he's in the air that you're in danger. Usually a scavenger, but known to actively hunt slower prey, they get very protective over two things - their food and their eggs.

I've had a great day. I'm going to draw a little bit more tonight and chill out with my wifey some more :)

Peace.

Still day 49, a bit of sad news.

I wanted to post this separately because it's not a happy post. 16 year old Angela Allen was a girl from Van Buren who started talking to - and eventually meeting up with - a complete stranger online. This stranger was a very dangerous man and sadly, the girl was killed and dumped off this road just outside our town.

It's surreal - the other night I dropped my sister-in-law off at her friend's house not even 5 miles from this spot. I thought "Oh, cool. Police cars and things. I wonder what's going on." It was pretty sobering to turn on the news when I got back home.

Being in such a small town (under 2,000 people) is much different than what I'm used to, after having graduated from a university that had a population of around 30,000; and that's just the university - not the whole city that it's in. Here, the man who's been arrested for this horrific crime isn't someone who someone else somewhere in the city must somehow know; he's an acquaintance of a friend! Everything and everyone is just so close that it's a much more shocking. Not that this wouldn't be devastating in any other community, but it's almost as if the more people there are in a community, the more shock absorption there seems to be.

I'm lost for words. I don't know what to say - I don't even know if I've written this in a coherent or respectable manner. I just worry because it's so close to home geographically but also, now, emotionally. Since getting married, I have acquired - if you will - a little sister that I can now be protective of and it's great, but after coming from a home of just me and brothers, it's just odd to have that sense of protectiveness, you know? I don't feel that way about my brothers, but they're lads. They're less likely to get taken advantage of by the opposite sex. It's just weird. I don't know what else to say.

I guess this: be careful! I know that there are still going to be people who talk to strangers online and there will still be people who think it's a great idea to meet up with them. Even more so in secret, right? Don't be stupid. Just think about what you're doing. This girl made a silly mistake and has paid for it with her life. Don't do the same thing! Don't think that it can't happen to you. Don't think that this is a shame but you're different. That's what she thought. She didn't plan on this happening. She didn't want this to happen.

At the moment - until we have a little girl of our own - the only girl I can talk to like this is my sister-in-law with my wifey. I just hope that you who may read this will pass it on. Just think about what you're doing. It's not worth it. Don't be stupid. Don't even think that you can know all you need to know about someone by talking to them for long enough online. It's frustrating that there will still be people - despite this happening - that think they're the exception to the rule and they'll do it, too.

I don't know what to say. Just don't be silly. I'm rambling. This tragedy could have been avoided and I just hope that with it comes a lesson to you who may think you're the exception and you who may think it's not going to happen to you because it very well could.

I'm sure you get my point. I'm going to leave it there.

Sorry to ramble, thanks for putting up with it.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XLIX].

The San Francisco 49ers are so called because of the nickname given to the participants of the 1849 California Gold Rush. I wrote that yesterday but then remembered yesterday was day 48.

For today:

My hair for tonight. I thought I'd try something new... It's DATE NIGHT and we're going to...

SHOGUNS! I can't wait.

Quickest post ever.

I'm going on a date with my wifey :D

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XLVIII].

The States excluding Alaska and Hawaii are collectively known as the 48 contiguous States.

For today:

We went round town for a little while this morning running errands and drove past the university's entrance, outside which this spectacular sculpture stands. Really nice. We were out for most of the morning and then I grabbed a little bit of lunch with a few friends. My wifey was a bit poorly-sick, so we had a nice afternoon chilling out and feeling better :)

Yea, we chilled out for the afternoon. I think this is the earliest bed time I've had for years. It's only 8:45. Early morning then, I guess! We're shattered.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XLVII].

In the film Super 8, the film that Charles is trying to create takes place - in part - in Warehouse 47.

It's been a pretty good day. I've been drawing and that's about it. I had breakfast first, but the day has been about the pen and the photoshop. Pretty happy with it. All I need to focus on now is taking less time in photoshop. It's been hours. But I still like it.

For today:

This is what is waiting for me now. Plenty of application forms for almost every business in Lavaca. I've handed a couple in already, so I have these left. Fun.

Here's the finished monkey from yesterday. I had a well good time drawing this up. No weapons; just a broom... (the huge sword is out of the picture at the top). Leaving the pen in the picture is a little tribute to the guy I'm going to post below. But first:

The hours-long colouring project from this morning and a couple of hours of this afternoon. Pretty happy with it. I normally cross-hatch to shade or whatever, but I decided to try and be disciplined this time and only make the lines, leaving the shading to photoshop. I don't know if it's paid off, but hey, it's always good to try new things.

Here it is! This is by 't-wei' over at deviantART. I love the way he just takes photos of his line work and colours it in photoshop without editing out the surrounding pens, fingers and sketchbook edges. It doesn't detract from the movement and energy of his drawings, rather, it adds character to his pieces in a lovely way.

Here's the link to his gallery: http://t-wei.deviantart.com/gallery/

I have a filter on there and I noticed two of the images on his first page - at present - are blocked, so apologies for boobs if that's what the images contain. It's either that/those or gore. So another sorry for that if that's what's there.

Speaking of; it seems as though I'm constantly being followed by scantily-clad womenbots on Twitter. Is this common for all guys out there? There's nothing I post about that I can imagine they'd be picking up with a filter, so it baffles me. Three today, I think. Report, report, report :)

Hope your day is going great. It's nice to have been somewhat productive!

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XLVI].

There are 46 books in the Old Testament. I'm currently reading the first book of Samuel and it's amazing. Did you know Goliath's armour weighed 125 pounds?! And the head of his spear alone was 15 pounds. He wore scaled armour - I'd imagine it to look like the old Captain America style - sort of feathery. But bronze, not feathers.

For today:

I finished off a doll that I've made for my Grandma-in-law. It's her birthday today, but I haven't been able to get to see her, so I'm hanging onto it for the next time I do. I'm pretty happy with the hat. The hats are really simple to make. It sort of makes me want to make hats for all of my dolls from now on, but then I'd run out of socks... (The hats are made out of socks).

The start of my Monkey. I'm not sure whether to give him a huge sword or a broom. He doesn't talk and his face is more of a mask than a face. I'll tell you more about him once I've drawn it.

Short and sweet today. Thank you again for reading.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XLV].

A footy match is two halves of 45 minutes. Also, I fired a .45 handgun and it nearly took my hands off. Nearly.

Straight to it.

For today:

My wifey and I were at the mall doing some Valentine's Day chilling out together. As one gentleman passed us, he shouted "SUPERMAAAAAN!" I smiled and said "Yeea."

(The photo I wanted to post here didn't save to the card on the camera. Because the card for the camera was left in the house this morning... It was just a picture of outside. After the snow day yesterday, today's sun and T-shirt weather was something of a stark contrast.)

I tried to draw the dog with my eyes closed. I think I did a great job. I really caught the sparkle in his eyes.

In other news, the university I graduated from last June (2011) - the University of Central Lancashire - is using one of my drawings in the title banner of their Games Design gallery page! I'm well happy. I didn't even know until I decided to browse their blog to see what's going on there at the moment. Yea, my images has been flipped and altered somewhat... and it was just a quick doodle of a character to get an idea for it, but I'm still really happy that my work has been chosen out of the class of maybe 50 other people!

Tomorrow is apply for more jobs day. I'll be filling in forms and getting them to several places around the town.

I also want to start learning how to crochet. But that's an aside.

Also also, now that this has arrived at it's destination, I can reveal it to the masses. This was for my good friend Phil. A four-armed rabbit man. I also sent him a little wire man and a handful of tootsie rolls. I'm glad they got there.

Time for bed.

Peace.