Guten Tag.34

Hwoah. We are looking December in the face already, and I can't believe it. I think it's kind of funny how I only have about two to three weeks of school left this semester, as well as about 5 or 6 projects and exams to do, and yet I subconsciously tell myself it's nothing to worry about. yikes. 

You know, I think I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of Guten Tag. I'd like to put them in a book eventually, but I'm going to have to find time for that as well as several other projects I want to do. 

right. good. week.

-ryan

Guten Tag.33

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone.

Sorry I didn't get this up earlier, but late is better than never.

At the risk of sounding corny or preachy, giving thanks isn't something we should only do on Thanksgiving. Be thankful for what God has blessed you with: your family, house, friends, ability to go to college, anything. These are all blessings that we shouldn't take for granted, since any of them can be taken away so quickly. 

This is somewhat inspired by waking up to see footage of the standoff in Mumbai, India, but tragedy and war, conflict and persecution exist all over the world every day. 

As Americans, we need to be thankful for our military for protecting us from danger abroad as well as within our borders, as well as our police, firefighters, paramedics, etc. who risk their lives to protect U.S. citizens. This is something we take for granted, and it is a blessing from God. We need to thank God for that.

But as Christians, we need to be thankful that our God is not the God of the U.S. alone. His children live in India, Pakistan, Iraq, China, Africa, all these 'dangerous' areas that we watch on tv from the comfort of our living rooms. We need to be thankful that God is watching over them. That God is in the midst of every war, every terrorist attack, protecting his children, and giving them the strength and peace to carry on through conflict and share the joy and love of Jesus with others. 

I know we are almost desensitized by the amount of tv coverage of war in the Middle East and other places, but we can make a difference by praying that God continues to protect his children--missionaries as well as Christian nationals--and works through them in these difficult situations to bring others to Christ. And if you feel called as a Christian to serve in the military and protect our country, do it. We need to be thankful and pray for our troops in general, but also for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have made such a difficult decision, that they always seek to serve God in their actions. God blesses countries that protect their people, and He will bless his children who risk their lives to keep others safe.

I know I usually shy away from long posts, but this is something that I've wanted to share lately. I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving with their families and friends. Okay, I need to do homework.

Have a great week.

-ryan

Guten Tag.32

Once again, a double portion of Guten Tag:

Alright, take it easy.

-ryan

Guten Tag.31

So yeah, here's that Halloween strip from last post that I promised.

It probably would have been more appropriate if it were posted before the election, but I got a little bit busy. 

Alright, have a good week.

-ryan

Guten Tag.30

Wow, October is almost over. yeesh. 

Thankfully my Beard-tober is going pretty well.

Oh yeah, Guten Tag.

I think I might do a Halloween strip next week. I have an older one from last year I could rework.

Alright, have a good week.

-ryan

Guten Tag.29

Guten Tag is back up and running every week, hopefully. School is busy, but I managed to plot out a couple ideas ahead of time, so I'll be able to work off of those for now. 

Time for some things I'm interested in.

1) Appaloosa

I want to see this movie so bad. I haven't spoiled myself by reading any reviews, but I hope it's as good as 3:10 to Yuma or better. Viggo Mortenson and Ed Harris are great choices for a western.

2) Anathallo-Canopy Glow

Goodness. One of the greatest bands right now, and this album is finally coming out on November 18. If you don't know who they are, it's honestly hard to describe their sound besides saying that it's multi-instrumented and almost cinematic. Instead, listen to 'Noni's Field' on their myspace page: anathallo

This song is so promising that if all the songs on the album are as good as this, it could easily be better than their previous album. Which for me is hard to fathom, since Floating World is up in my top 5 albums. Gah. They're so good and from Michigan (although they've moved to Chicago). 

Alright, have a good week. 

-ryan

Guten Tag.28

Okay, quick update since I have to leave for school in a couple of minutes. I say 'quick' because I've been busy with classes and other projects, and I was going to put this up on Sunday, but didn't get to it. Thankfully, I've gotten Photoshop and Illustrator up and running on my Mac, so it's going to make doing my strip a whole lot faster. Alright, have a good rest of the week.

-ryan

Guten Tag.27 (Twice the Guten Tag!)

Sorry about the non-post last week. Last weekend was hectic. I was expecting to roll into the semester like it was nothing and just have all this time to throw around and put to good use, but instead I came to the realization that 15 credits can kick your butt. I had to buy a lot of books and supplies. I think I'm getting a handle on the flow of it, though. 

Well that's a brief break that I wish could last just a bit longer, but I've got to work on my speech that's due tomorrow. The topic is what I would do if I had a million dollars. I don't think I'd do anything outlandish, except provide the financial means to work on comics and music and design without worrying about having money to pay bills. Of course, I'd need a house to pay bills on. So I'd buy a house. Probably in Tennessee or some other state that has landscape nice enough to look out on every morning. And then I'd have room for a recording studio and an art studio. But I should probably invest it first. Whatever. 

Have a good week.

-rh

Guten Tag.26

Happy Labor Day everyone. Hope everyone's relishing their barbecue and family or whatever you're doing. I personally have been relishing my first ever 44 ounce Ocean Water from Sonic--a moment made all the more better by the fact that I got it half off during happy hour. great. 

(Give me a squiggly...)

Not a lot's been going on this week. I just finished my last day working at Walmart Friday, so I'm kind of relieved that I don't have to go back there and toil away aimlessly at projects that just get rearranged a couple of days later.

"Here, take a couple of hours and stack all of these heavy things on that shelf, and make them line up, and make it look like there's a ton of them, and price them all, and make sure they all have clearance flags on them...even though we plan on moving them somewhere else tomorrow. Thanks."

Now, I'm not bitter at all, it's just that when your job is basically moving stuff around so people will buy more stuff faster, you realize you really don't have anything to show for your work. And that's why I don't want to stay at a place like Walmart. I have some opportunities this fall that I wouldn't be able to fully commit to if I were still working there. And this is already on top of a full 15 credit hours this semester. So that's why I decided to quit. 

Trust me, it was nothing against the people who work at my store, because my attitude has totally changed over the past year. I went from trying to distance myself from my coworkers in an immature effort to maintain my sphere of comfort and 'normalcy' to getting to know a bunch of people who are actually really fun to work with. I think people who are there for years are able to do it because they get along with their coworkers and that helps them to get past the stupid things they have to deal with.  

Well, mull that over and take your next retail job with a grain of salt. Hopefully it helps.

Alright, back to school this week. It should be pretty fun.

-ryan

Guten Tag.25

Well well, the Olympics have come and gone. And now it's back to school for most of you, as well as me. Personally, I'm excited to get back into the swing of art classes, as well as being able to work on a couple of projects I've been putting on hold this summer due to work. But I'll have an update on what those are once they've gotten a considerable amount of momentum behind them. (hint: one's comic related, and the other's music related.) So yeah, I can't wait for this fall. 

Alright start crackin some books. learn you some edumaction.

-ryan