Dis-Engaged! ;-) Engines at Sub-light Speed!

   "Dis-Engaged!"  No, it's not something Captain Picard would say on Star Trek: The Next Generation!  Although, if I had warp engines and phasers on stun, it would've helped me out of the situation alot quicker~~not to mention having a transporter handy! However, my engines are at sub-light speed, and looking for a new course heading. Can you tell I try to handle my problems with a sense of humor and make a joke out of them?  LOL  Yes, humor helps me relax, and not worry so much about the problem, usually, and then I can handle the problem alot easier, and quicker. Making a joke also helps to make a problem not seem as bad as it is, so you definitely deal with it better~at least in my case! :-)
   Not really sure where to begin. "Start at the beginning," they say"! ... ... ... Well, I was born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in a small country town of Colquitt, Georgia, in Southwest Georgia. Oh! Not that far back, huh?  I know it's an old joke but I had to use it.
  I do want to try to be nice, and keep it as simple as I can.  Basically, I broke off the engagement with Amber.  Everything was going great for about six weeks, and then everything blew up, from out of nowhere, and she was angry all the time, and I couldn't figure why, and then she cheated on me the last two weeks, which a few of my friends, who are very dependable,  witnessed her doing so.  "So, that as they say, is 'that!,'" to quote an old saying and to quote Catherine Hicks on Star Trek: The Voyage Home!  I got the $3,500 one carat diamond ring back, among other things, in great shape~got my money back for the ring; changed email accounts, blocked her on Facebook, changed the locks on my door, and then changed everything else she might have got hold of.  Among part of the disasters in the reasons I called off the engagement, other than the obvious cheating on me, was she had told lies to me about friends being mad, making me mad at them, wondering why they were mad at me, and us, and finding other ways to make my friends disappear and losing touch with them, behind my back. This is basically all I'll talk about online. None of this whole blog is in any way the detail of what went on, just a hint of what happened.  There were some things happening the last two weeks that I found out she does and wanted to do that would make your skin crawl, and to put it nicely, dating a zombie would've been less painful the last two weeks.  At least if you date a zombie, there's hopes of being eaten, and although it's a painful death, you know the end is coming and you won't suffer anymore, because you will be dead, slowly, and eventually! ~~I didn't even have hopes of that the last two weeks we dated, and were engaged. LOL  ~~Sorry about the morbid humor, but it fits. Again, I can't tell the details. The last two weeks her personality changed, and unfortunately, she was like a black widow. Again, I'm just trying to describe the situation, not trying to put Amber down in any way.  Just trying to let you know how much she changed, and again, this is all putting it mildly.  Then, to top it off, she cheated on me with a guy I was a little acquainted with, barely, unfortunately, who never bathes, and probably hasn't bathed in a month, and when he touches his sleeves or any of his clothes, dust flies like a you just opened a mummy's tomb, who is also older than her dad, can't afford to feed himself, much less Amber, and take care of her, whose house looks like Pig Pen's on Charlie Brown, can barely put a sentence together, and all of this is the facts about him, not exaggerating, believe it or not!  Again, he's not a friend, just someone I met, and even she barely knew him.  Roadkill on the movie Rango at least gets a bath when it rains. I don't even think he bothers to do that.  Again, as funny as it sounds, these are just the facts about the guy.  It really puzzles me why she cheated on me with him. Bad enough to cheat, much less with someone like that. It's almost comical and unbelieveable that she cheated on me with someone like that!~Bad enough to cheat on me!
  Again, I got out of this unscathed, and not a scratch on me, well at least in most ways I didn't have a scratch on me. God just protected me, and several things that could've gone wrong, didn't go wrong at all.  He was watching over me, and tons of people were praying for me in this situation. Again, all of this is just scratching the surface, and the real truth is like a Stephen King novel, only this time the novel ends really well, at least for me. In all my years dating girls, I never, ever have had anything this drastic happen in two weeks, that would make your skin crawl, or even come close.  All the girls I've dated have been great, and even the relationships ended great, as good as they could anyway, except for Amber and my ex-wife, Pam, in Georgia, many years ago. Believe it or not, in the last two weeks and the month following after I broke off the engagement, Amber's breakup was worse by far. I treated her like gold, but she cheated on me anyway.  Fortunately, out of all the girls I've dated, those are the only two who've cheated on me.
  So, I'm looking for a new course heading, now. Eventually, I will be looking for another girl to date. I haven't given up on the ladies. Most I've dated have been fine, and fortunately they are all different. :-)  I made the excuse of focusing on my career for a few years or so, not to date, but even my friends back home knew that wasn't like me, since I'm around girls all the time. They encouraged me to get out and date, and within a week I was back dating again. One thing for sure, as good as it was for those six weeks, I know I want to get back out there and date again. I hadn't realized what all I was missing those few years, in dating girls, until Amber and I started dating. So, no more focusing on my career. If anything, there will be a balance of career and dating in my life, but not giving up dating. If anything, I will be dating more, like I used to. After this latest dating experience, I feel like I've been chopped up by Edward Scissorshands, but I came through it and the old James/Jim is back! :-)  Still, those first six weeks were amazing, and I definitely want to get back into dating, and continue dating, because with the right girl, those six weeks I'm sure would have been more awesome, and would continue to grow, as our relationship grew stronger. I know there's hope! The right girl is out there for me somewhere! :-)  I've just got to find the right one and beam her up! :-)

Dr. Seuss' Birthday! ;-)

          A window that I painted for Christmas, for a friend of mine, of the Grinch.

   Dr. Seuss was born, today, March 2, 1904. He was one of the most talented artists, and creator of children's books with his own unique style.  As an artist, myself, he has inspired me in all kinds of ways with my own artwork.  As an artist, you are only limited by your imagination, and you an take it anywhere, and twist reality in many ways to make things that you, yourself, wonder where they came from.  My talent is a gift from God, and I don't care how a scientist or medical person tries to explain how you do a talent~you can't.  You can mimic in all kinds of ways, artwork~but it is God who give a person talented in such a way, that gift. There is no way I can take credit for my talents~especially art.  I can't even explain where I begin, but God gives me the gift. There's no scientific way to explain talents you are born with. Dr. Seuss, with his art, is such an example, that it is hard to explain how his mind worked. He created wild worlds for kids to explore, and relate. The animals and people in his books look similar to us, but they are not human~nor are his animals real animals. His imagination has taken kids and adults everywhere, and taught morals, and educated along the way.
   Something about artists, they never really grow up.  They may act mature in lots of ways, but they are almost always a child at heart. I'm sure Dr. Seuss never really grew up.  I was given advice, when helping to illustrate a children's book, myself:  If you really want to write a good children's book and illustrate it well, draw and write something that you'll enjoy, yourself.  Don't draw and write specifically for that age group, or you will mess up every time. Draw and write something that is dear to your heart, that you would love to read, and look at the pictures, and you will have a best-selling children's book every single time. Draw and write it from the heart.
   If you look at all the popular artists and writers who have done children's books and things children will love, this statement is true.  Dr. Seuss was drawing characters he loved, and poetry that was his style, and eventually he captured the hearts of kids around the world. He still does. Charles Schultz, A.A. Milne, Roald Dahl, James Howe, Beverly Cleary, and many others, just drew and wrote things that they enjoyed themselves, and kids everywhere still love their books and movies.
  Just reading a Dr. Seuss book makes your imagination run wild! If you have artist's block, reading one of his books opens your imagination, no matter what your style of art is. Yes, I still read Dr. Seuss books, still read the comics page, buy comic books now and then, watch Saturday morning cartoons, and occasionally will pick up a good children's book to read.  Am I crazy? No, not really. It's the adults who write and draw the children's books, cartoons, etc. If it weren't for adults doing this, there would be no children's literature nor Saturday morning cartoons.  Dr. Seuss paved the way for writers and artist's today.  He really took us where no man, nor child has gone before, and we loved it!
  So, stop doing what you are doing. Download a good children's book from your childhood, that you enjoyed, on your Kindle, iPad, or just go buy the book again in a bookstore somewhere. Look at all the things you used to enjoy, and enjoy them again. It's alright. If you enjoy it, there's nothing wrong with it. It at least made you smile. It will probably even bring back a good memory or two. It doesn't make you any less of an adult by doing that. After all, it was written by an adult. Go buy The Cat in the Hat, or Green Eggs and Ham, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and enjoy them again, in a new way. Begin to dream again!  I'm sure Dr. Seuss wrote his books for young and old, alike, so that they could laugh, and always keep on dreaming!