This year so far

I can't believe how much of a slacker I am with this journal, no wonder my online presence is near zero!

Its been a long time since my last journal entry and a lot of new things happened, as exemplified by the situation which I begun to write this*. By new things I really mean new, unpreceded, and all these things seems to be connected in some way that makes my live more whole. Actually this begun last year when I decided to be more like a protagonist of my own life and less of a passive watcher (I should write more about this someday) but I'm focusing on this year now.

The first thing I want to talk about is learning the Polish language. Why Polish? Well, I am a descendant of polish immigrants here in Brazil. Unfortunately, I don't have a strong Polish community nearby (like the Germans and Ukranians) so a lot of the culture was lost. However, I've had a kind romantic drive for the slavic culture and I chose to learn my ancestor's language. Needless to say, I'm liking it a lot.

A little time later I enrolled in a martial arts school, thus fulfulling an ancient unwritten prophecy that one day I'd do exercises. As sedentary as I was before, this have been a huge turn in my life. The cosmo-vision of the human life that I've been developing over the years, physical maestry was indeed predicted among other things (I should write about this too) but I had no idea that it was this huge. I am literally feeling alive like never before. Also the phylosophical nature of the martial arts is opening new mindsets that I could not achieve otherwise and that I didn't knew that I needed.

On the other hand, my biggest hit was the publication of a comics story on a magazine. I planned and drew the story (except the script)
over the end of the year and January, and now I have a copy of the magazine in my hands, with my story as a part of a really cool project and a rich history.
The story is about Vlad, the Impaler, since the magazine is horror themed the graphical violence is very strong, to the point of my own shock and surprise. But it is still fun, it's something that I'd barely considered before and one good thing about drawing, is drawing stuf that I wouldn't do in real life, like free impalements. Also in the magazine is a story (not mine) about Zé do Caixão, a very famous brazillian person/character, how fancy is that?
There was also an interview for the local press Correio do Cidadão, it was published online here (about the story)
www.correiodocidadao.com.br/gu…
and here (about my person)
www.correiodocidadao.com.br/gu…
both in portuguese (but these are kind of old news right now).
Maybe soon I'll be sharing something about Vlad here as well.

And lastly, what is taking most of my time, I've got a job as a teacher. My financial plan for this year was to get a temporary contract for public high school like I did last year while trying to get something as an artist. But fate smiled at me and I got a temporary contract not in high school, but in a University. The work load is heavier than high school and I have a lot less time to draw. On the other hand, the work conditions are great and I won't have to worry about money for a while.

*I'm literally writing this as I apply an exam to the students**.
**I begun while applying the first semester exam, I am now finishing this while applying the final exam.

I've said that these things are connected. That's a fruit of the way I'm viewing life right now. The future presents many possibilities but there is only one chain of events that actually happen, in other words what happens is what is meant to happen. Some people try to fight this chain of events only to create tensions and anxieties, it's like fighting the weather. Life will push you around in the exact direction of the chain of events, the right choices to make go in this direction and create the minimal amount of tenision, even when they are hard choices or challenging tasks. To me this is kind like the phylosophy of the dudeism (props if you get the reference) or, as some (or it's only me) brazillians will call it "deboismo" (could be translated to 'chillism' or something similar). It seems that Buddhism and Zen takes this to yet another level that I still don't understand, but I marvel by knowing even a little about it. It is clear right now that I'm absorbing a lot of oriental phylosophy in a meaningful way.