A matter of timing

I started re-reading The Hobbit recently, not having read Tolkien since before Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings came out.  Fairly early on in the book Gandalf mentions something that happened "On the twenty-first of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday," and as I read that phrase I thought, "Hang on, wasn't last Thursday actually the twenty-first of April?"

So I checked, and it was.  Then I realized that Bilbo's unexpected party happened on a Wednesday, which meant the book began on a Tuesday, which happened to be the same day of the week (and thus the same day of the year) I started reading it.

Now, I'm not suggesting this means anything in particular, but still, when surprised by an amusing little coincidence of this sort, one tends to feel that one is doing just the right thing, at just the right time.

Drawing Exchange

Hm.  I see it's been a while since I posted.  But then, I said I was planning to blog less.

In an effort to get the creative energies flowing better, a friend and I recently began a Drawing Exchange project.  Modeled after the Invention Exchange from MST3K, it simply consists of doing a drawing each week and emailing it to each other.  Right now it's just the two of us, but I wouldn't be surprised if eventually we have a small cadre of artists and weekend sketchers participating. 

The Exchange is still in its infancy; this past week was the first time we tried using an assigned idea (as opposed to the previous draw-whatever-you-want), which was to pose and sketch a Stikfa (since we both have a few standing on our bookshelves and whatnot).

This week's project is to do a copy of the Stikfa sketch, but drawing it as a human figure this time rather than a Stikfa.  We'll see how it goes. 

I'd close with the classic "What do you think, Sirs?" but since the Drawing Exchange was mostly my idea, that puts me more in the Dr. Forrester role.  So instead I shall say:

"Push the button, Frank."