Thursday, August 25, 2011

I was just pacing my apartment

A minute ago, rather furiously too I might add. I didn't even realize I had been pacing for a full minute or so, as I was brainstorming equally furiously.

I re-read some old journal entries and one page chronicled how bored I was in that particular point in my life. This was in the fall of 2010, when I was a sophomore at Oral Roberts University, studying graphic design. My actual words went something along the lines of: "I feel like I have nothing to be excited about in my life."

Of course I had some cool things going on, mainly my upcoming mission to Brazil (which was amazing of course), but I can only live one week at a time after all. I'm no stranger to being bored, of course, I always tell people I'm easily bored. Not to mention, Tulsa is an immensely, well, boring town. This was before I had decided that I was going to transfer to AiC and pursue what I really wanted to.

I look back and chuckle, because I feel that statements and thoughts like that over a period of time was almost like I was daring God to actually do something about it. And here I am, good job Buck.

Anyways, to get to the point of this post before I lose you, the reason I am awake at 4:50am when I have a 7:30am class is because I am excited. I longboard and recently my friend coerced me into learning to power-slide. I've wanted to learn how to for quite a while now of course, in my pursuit of pushing the sport, but to be honest I was mildly terrified of the prospect. Power-sliding is such an intense adaptation of the sport, it's almost as if you're defying the very construction and purpose of the longboard while doing it. And it's dangerous. I assumed I would get to it sometime next year-ish.

But what really has plagued me with insomnia yet again, is an idea I have whizzing around in my head for a pair of sliding gloves. It's a common piece of equipment for advanced riders who enjoy sliding. The construction is basically a work glove, with a polymer (usually) 'puck' velcroed onto the palm, and sometimes on the fingers. They allow the rider to get nice and intimate with the pavement and yet keep it all business. Anyways, gloves professionally manufactured cost anywhere from $35 to $80, and I'm a poor college student. I used a pair of work gloves I've had laying around in my closet for our sliding session the other night. They ripped on the third slide.

I've heard of people DIYing their own pair of gloves using anything from chunks of granite to slabs of cutting board. Being the industrial design major (not to mention a man) I of course set out to research how to make my own pair. My mistake was doing that tonight.

Instructables.com is quite the addicting website if you let it pull you in. So of course I spent the next hour and half (this was at midnight) looking at longboard related Instructables. What I found inflamed my brainstorming center so intensely that now I'm not just planning on making the gloves, but I eventually want to make my own longboard deck, press and all (the press gives it a concave profile). Anyways, I'm actually considering pursuing this glove project to the degree of making it my capstone project. I may recant that later.

To return to my beginning thesis, I would like to again expound upon something I'm really quite good at making. Mistakes. When I wrote that journal entry I had no idea what I was sacrificing in exchange for more 'excitement'. I've learned this past year (gosh, I can't believe it's been that long) that having true friends around you is worth it's weight in gold. My friends are like family to me.

I've been told by a couple people from ORU, when I was leaving, that just because I'm moving doesn't mean I will have a change in support structure. Well, yes, but I'm afraid it doesn't quite work that way. A phone call doesn't quite equate to a hearty sit-down.

Bottom line. Keep your friends close, and don't ask God for something you can't handle. He might just do it.

-Buck the Undead Dragon

Thursday, May 26, 2011

More Visual Pandering

I happen to be halfway creative from time to time. Lately I've been doing a fair amount of sketching, Digital and otherwise, and I have to be honest with you; I am having a blast with it! It's one of the few things I get to do in school that isn't tedious. Here is some of what I'm talking about.
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I love this one, it's actually not even finished. I'm planning to market it as a climbing gear backpack. The assignment was to create a soft good, and thats something I never expected to enjoy, but I rather like it.
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The drawing in the lower right corner was the original drawing, and it's shamelessly goofy. But thankfully I realized it was a piss-poor drawing and drew another.
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Ok this isn't an exceptional drawing by any means (sci-fi assignment) but I would like to draw your attention to the tracks. Those are some good looking tracks right? I think so.
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And this was my first digital sketch; it's what got me hooked.
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Perhaps this next drawing is my favorite to date.
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Sketching is addicting.
Hey while you're at it, check out my photobucket. Most of my old photoshop work is on there so it's like a time machine into my creative life!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Tonight I was thinking about

A girl I had a crush on for a rather long time. It was a slow smoldering interest, and I never pursued it for reasons both in and beyond my control (although I still nurtured some hope). I know her heart, as we spent some time together in close proximity, so I know her potential. However her actions and lifestyle today don't reflect a life on fire for God (but then the same could probably said about me) that I saw in her.

I have always wondered why she chooses this lifestyle. There's a myriad of social perks to be sure. Perhaps the idea of changing the way she takes on the world is too daunting a task, on account of the friends she may lose. Others still may say she is even running away from God.

But I think it's a little more simple than that. Be aware this is purely speculation. I think she is simply living the way she wants to. The fact is God's plans for her just aren't at the forefront of her plan. I know this because I catch myself walking down this path time and time again.

My generation has been implanted with a desire to follow in our parents footsteps (an impossibility due to the immense social and economic changes wrought from generation to generation), and settle down, find love, make a career for ourselves, and live the easy life. The baby boomers by-and-large lived that out. Our country saw a relative period of economic leisure during the 90's, in which time I grew up. I believe that decade is a large reason why the aforementioned influence is prevalent in my mindset.

This post isn't about that girl that I knew who eluded me for so long. I certainly will never criticize anyone in writing without due cause. It's about worldviews, and deep seeded desires. We all have them. And in the end we will be asked to surrender them completely.

God asks us to give up our lives and follow him. The extremity of that request is still shocking to me, but my heart longs to do just that. At an Ignite conference I helped organize at ORU, Matthew Barnett said "We must die to our dreams of success."

Those words struck true with me and still do. God's plans are so much bigger than anything we can cook up on our own, let alone achieve. Certainly I'm not advocating that we crush anyone's dreams, some of them may surely be planted by God. What I'm getting to, is that God is in complete control, and His plans will come to pass. Do you understand what I'm saying? The almighty sovereign God will make sure our lives carry out to His will. That excites me, as I hope it does you, because I've received some hints that His plans for me are Huge-well beyond my wildest dreams.

To close please take anything I write with a grain of salt, I'm no theologian and I haven't researched any of my statements in great length. This is for the most part just off the top of my head. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.

-Buck Beymer, Happy New Year!