November 3rd, 2008
Simply put your craft is whatever you are passionate about. It doesn’t have to be creative (it often is though), it can be anything.
My craft is probably visual storytelling, this encompasses a range of things from writing to illustration. Behind each of the markers pictures that I’ve been doing there is a story. Marita picked up on one of them and put exactly into words what I put into a picture.Â
“I love how she is sort of smiling. The I’m out here enjoying the wind in my hair and the sun of my face kind of happy look.”
It is this really simple statement that just makes my day because Marita just happened to get exactly what I put in. Of course it doesn’t matter what the story is that the viewer does take away, it’s a personal thing and you may get something completely else, like when Arjan and I were discussing what Dr Doom was screaming.
So that’s my craft.
Your craft might be making model trains, collecting stamps, programming, reading novels, writing novels, the list is essentially endless. Your craft could be simply (although simple is not the word I’d use) your family. That’s your passion: your family and that’s what you do when you’re not at work.
The key to the concept of Quit Your Day Job is that when you walk out the door of your day job you leave it all behind and reward yourself with practising your craft. Stop thinking about work and start thinking about your own stuff.
Work will still be there, surprisingly enough tomorrow will march on and you’ll find yourself back at work in no time so there is plenty of time in your working hours to think about it.
So what is your craft? What are you passionate about? It doesn’t have to even be something you’ve ever tried, you might just want to try it. Like those little Warhammer figures, I think they’re pretty cool but I’ve never actually painted one, I’ve never built one of those little castle things that they are always building. But I think I might enjoy it if I did. Which brings me to another very important point about your craft, it doesn’t have to be lifelong and it can changed on a daily basis.
I’m one of those people whose attention is extremely limited. I may be passionate about Lexx today and tomorrow I might be back into Stargate Atlantis (giggle). That can still work though, but it means that you have to be acutely aware of what is taking your fancy that day and ensure that you don’t waste your time and more importantly your hard earned money.
You could for example wake up tomorrow and decide that today is the day that you will paint a Warhammer character, if you have a day job then there is a chance that you have a little disposable income (which is why we have the day job in the first place) then go buy that Warhammer figurine and a couple of paints - don’t go overboard though. Buy a small one and a couple of paints. Give it a go, it won’t be perfect but you’ll know from there on that you dig it or you don’t.
Leave a comment and tell everyone what’s important to you! What’s your passion? Â What’s your craft?
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Categories: QYDJ |
Tags: Arjan, day job, Dr Doom, Lexx, Marita, practise your craft, Quit Your Day Job, QYDJ, visual storytelling, warhammer figures | 7 Comments
October 13th, 2008
I finally started to read Harry Potter & The deathly hallows (in English) last week and it’s just plain evil. Yesterday it got to the point that I went to work later just so I could read a bit more, luckily for me I’m free to plan my hours. I got home late and finished the last 100 pages without blinking (well at least I think I didn’t).
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The book starts off just before Harry’s 17th birthday, when all the protective charms around him will lift. Voldemort is out there and growing stronger and searching for Harry to finish what he started all those years ago.So Harry’s got to get away from the Dudley’s house and will be forced to eventually fight Voldemort in one way or another. Dumbledore gave Harry, Ron & Hermione the task to destroy all horcruxes Voldemort made, to weaken him and so they take up this task without telling it to anyone else.
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The Potter books have grown along with Harry Potter himself, as he aged and went through the years at Hogwarts he became more serious and so did the books. In the beginning there was the death of Harry’s parents and there were tales of others but it was quite distant. But I would say the turning point of grimness came when the Dementors were used as guards for Hogwards. After this, the story became more and more grim. Wizards you got to care about died, wizards which you thought would remain till the end.
And that’s where the books got really strong because if a book can let beloved characters die and strenghten the story with it, it’s good in my eyes (which doesn’t mean that’s necessary to write a good book). Next to that there were so many mysteries that got slowly unravelled and The Deathly Hallows reveals things that you’d never imagined. It ties up all loose ends and finishes up a 7-book series that was one of the best stories I’ve read so far.
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So if you haven’t picked up the last book, or any of the Potter books, go to a store now! The books are surprisingly cheap and well worth it.Â
Read my posts on Deathly Hallows:
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Categories: Books, Guest Post |
Tags: Arjan, Books, deathly hallows, Guest Post, Harry Potter | 3 Comments
August 17th, 2008
With Arjan requesting a photo of me wearing my replica Mark 2 Iron Man helmet it reminded me of something that I thought of a little after I realised that the helmet was actually wearable. Â There is no way I could fit my glasses underneath it so not only will the tiny eye holes (maybe they’re not so tiny, I haven’t opened it and don’t remember to be completely honest) reduce at least my peripheral vision but with no glasses my visual acuity will also be greatly diminished.
Fortunately it is a helmet which for safety sake might come in handy. Â Although I don’t know what padding may be contained in the helmet either so my head could get banged up a little in there.
People would be surprised to hear that 0.0000000000000000000297% of all household accidents can be attributed to wearing Mark 2 Iron Man Helmets.
It makes you think, or not, then again I wonder how many household accidents can be attributed to stuff like this:
see more pwn and owned pictures
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Categories: Stuff |
Tags: Arjan, Comics, FAIL, glasses, helmet, household accidents, iron man, Marvel, marvel comics | 5 Comments
August 1st, 2008
I only just got the Stargate Continuum movie from our beloved cousin Larry when Lee asked me if I could review it. Well how could I refuse the rising star of the Aussie Bloggers! So here goes:
When you review anything that’s not all that good you start with kind feedback, so that’s exactly what I’m not gonna do, because Continuum is a good movie! But there are a couple of things that, especially if you watch Continuum a second time, catch your eye. Of course we’re used to funny dialogue but there are a couple of times that they say something where you think to yourself, someone should slap the writer. The other minor point is the drama. I never paid to much attention to it in my decade of Stargate-addiction, but there are a few moments where someone looks back for a last second just to see an explosion and then leave or someone dies in an almost Matrix-kinda-way. Finally there’s the time travelling in the movie..the first couple of seconds you thing …here we go again. But they actually use it in a cool way without the public being left with a been there done that feeling.
So down with the ‘bad’ things, on with the good things. As a soundtrack lover I can’t go around the music, which is in short: the great Stargate music that we’re used to! Even after all those years the Stargate music still gives the same epic feeling to the Stargate universe.
Another thing that still makes me love Stargate is that almost (if not all) all of the cast members since the beginning of the series are still there!
Even when they’re no longer part of the Sg1 team they make great appearances and show you that they have grown as characters but have kept their strong points. Jack’s yawning shows he still has the same lack of respect that I liked from the beginning.
The Goa’ulds have been defeated for the bigger part but guess who makes an appearance: Baal!
Last time we heard, he made tons of clones of himself, SG command hunted them all down, this one should be the last of the Baal’s and with that, the last of the system lords. The Ori were a cool enemy after the Goa’ulds, but I still favour those snake-like critters as the ultimate enemy led by competing evil system lords. And that’s what makes Continuum such a cool movie. It continues (what’s in a name) the original sg1 story with practically the entire SG cast and the enemy we love to hate. Let’s hope there are still some Goa’uld left to fight in the future.
I was a bit of a cynic towards the news that the makers of Stargate were going to make movies until the story dried up after the SG1 series got shut down, but after seeing Continuum I’m positive that we’ll be able to enjoy their movies for a couple of more years at least. Last thing I heard was that it’s almost certain that movie ‘#3′ is coming out! I’m already looking forward to it.
You can follow up with Arjan’s soundtrack obsession at Soundtracks of Whatever or view pictures of him getting threatened by a midget Roman Centurion at Dutchnid. Â If you would like to do a guest spot here on the QYDJ couch drop me a line! Â C’mon you know you want to!!
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Categories: Guest Post, Television |
Tags: Arjan, Guest Post, sg1, stargate, stargate continuum | 3 Comments
July 29th, 2008
Well maybe not but I’m worried that there was a Dutch guy wandering around Europe offering ‘Lee-beads‘ (go and read the original post it’s just easier to explain this way) to young ladies and using my formally good name.
What happens now when Tracey and I go to Rome and someone sees my passport and and wants to know if I’m that Lee!?! Â How am I going to explain that it was probably the crazy Arjan trying to pick up women using Lee Beads? Â Then of course he has the gall to send me a postcard suggesting I should check out Rome.
How can I now?
On the other hand how cool is our man Arjan for:
- demanding the Lee beads until I caved and finally sent him a set
- actually producing a photo of himself standing next to a woman who was a good enough sport to pose with them
- asking more than one person to pose with them, risking a good slap in the face thanks to the language barrier
So bravo Arjan, you are cool! Â And bravo also to Katrin from Quebec-city, Canada for being such a good sport and not spraying mace in Arjan’s face, of course if you had we wouldn’t have blamed you.
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Categories: QYDJ |
Tags: Arjan, Lee beads | 6 Comments
