I make my own luck

Generally, I find that I tend to end up feeling like the music I'm listening to. So to a certain extent, I can regulate my mood by carefully choosing the music I listen to. It's not completely foolproof though, because if the music is in too much contrast to how I feel, I usually end up getting really irritated and angrily skipping songs. But if it's a gradual shift, sometimes I can fool myself.

This afternoon I was in a less than awesome mood. Not a bad mood, just a little bit down. I was finding it impossible to do my research, so I shifted some boxes and dug around the back of my closet for one of my large sketch pads and my box of oil pastels. Not to be confused with oil paints, oil pastels are rather similar to crayons, but more awesome. They have great blending capabilities. If you've never used them before, they're kind of fun to play around with... and draw pirates... anyway, I had an idea for a scene I wanted to sketch out, but my first figure (done in blue and purple) was so appalling I had to reevaluate. The second face (red) was somewhat better, but still rather sad. I determined maybe I ought to use a reference point, so I found a picture of a friend sporting a rather stylish fohawk and created a highly proportionate version of my friend after a strong overdose of spinach. I really ought to draw more. It's rather therapeutic.

I think that perhaps it is simply human nature to want more. No one wants one cookie if they can have two. And sometimes it's good to set your sights high and go for it. But I think it's also important to recognize which events are out of your control, and in such cases be happy with whatever falls your way. Regardless of what the situation may be, it's important to never take any joy for granted. Life may not have a lot of great moments, but it has many small ones.