Hi everyone,

It's been awhile. Just an update on my life: it's been insanely busy, and the busier things have gotten the more I've wanted to dedicate time to writing on this website, but I have always had issues with time management and discipline.  I know I need to, and I really want to, but a lot of times I just can't bring myself to chip away at the keyboard until something emerges.  Especially after jam packed days of dealing with other stuff.  So, anyways, what's been happening lately? I'll fill you in on this past weekend. I made an appearance in Chattanooga at the inaugural Maker Day Expo. It was an exposition put on by a group called CHA MAKERS and the Chattanooga Public Library to introduce the public to 3D printing and scanning.  I had talked to Mike, the event coordinator, earlier in the week leading up to the event and he placed the expected crowd to be at 300 people or so.  In the end they totaled more than 1,200! Epic success on their part and I was glad to be 1:1200.  Then on Monday, Patrick and I made it down to Nashville to the Frist Center to check out an exhibit on Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch painting, and then we met up with Emily and caught an Alt-J show at the Cannery Ballroom. Pretty incredible set and an awesome night catching up with the pals. Other than that, the last two weeks have been filled with Editlab, Fern, and trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life.  Oh, and I've washed a few dishes at the restaurant on the side as well.  

Anyways, that's what I'm doing. Hope you're doing good too! Until next time, take care!

Oz

Calvin and Hobbes: It's a Magical World 
by Bill Watterson

This morning, my friend Patrick and I were strolling through the neighborhoods around Tech taking in the new snow and trying to walk off the headache leftover from last night.  In one of the lesser neighborhoods of the area, we passed a guy in his mid twenties who had stepped out of his apartment to smoke a cigarette in the cold. I guess what follows says something about me or maybe my state of mind at the time, but from first glance of him I immediately tried to analyze what kind of person he was. I saw his cigarette. I saw his shoes. I saw his basketball shorts. I saw his hoodie, and I'm disgusted to say that my initial impulse was to distrust the kid solely on his appearance. Then I saw him stoop down and begin to make a snowball. As we walked closer, he began to roll it over his deck, cigarette stuck in his mouth and his legs obviously cold in the winter wind. The nearer we got to his house the more apparent his snowman began to be. Shame on me for being judgmental. Boy, do I feel like an ass now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't know the kid at all, and as Patrick and I passed his yard we only exchanged a slight wave, but I can't help in having a little more faith in humanity.  The guy, no matter what was going on in his life, still had enough childlike innocence that he brought himself to step out into the snow on a cold day and build a small snowman over the course of his cigarette.  I feel like the entire world would be a better place if more people took the time to momentarily slip back into childhood. I know I could use it from time to time. My twelve year old self would kick my own ass for judging that guy in the first place because that just wasn't the type of person I used to be. I made a decision as I walked on through the snow to spend more time being conscious of my mental impulses, to think more like a kid, and maybe build a snowman or have a snowball fight later on in the day with my friends. After all, it's a magical world.