"Thanks, Ray" and other musings

I owe Ray Bradbury so, so much. I read and re-read the Illustrated Man anthology of stories so many times  through my primary and secondary school years, that I'm pretty sure his writing has shaped the kind of person that I am today. I saw him at Comic Con in 2006, when I attended a panel of his there. He was ancient then, barely able to hear the audience's questions when they boomed at him from the speakers, but it felt like I had reached some kind of untouchable goal when I was there, basking in his presence as he selflessly doled out advice. At the time of this writing he's been dead for a few weeks, and I'm glad that his energy is back with the universe. Not the frilly, new-age "spirit" sort of energy; I'm talking BTUs and shit. Energy that you can measure. But I digress:

Thanks for everything, Ray.

Right. Moving on to a random string of thoughts!:

I find it curious, how much I need to write. Professionally, I am an artist; specifically, I'm an illustrator. People pay me to tell stories with pictures. Still, I've always had a strong urge to manipulate words in such a way as to stir the imagination. Drawing pictures in other people's minds, so to speak.

Writing lists is one of my favorite things to do. Here is a list of stuff about me, ranging from basic to private:

• I'm a woman.
• As of this writing, I'm 26 years old. Fun fact: I actually needed to bring up my calculator just now to subtract years and calculate my age. >.> Addendum: age is not an important thing to me.
• I'm really good at pretending that I don't give a shit about what other people think.
• I've been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, with a sprinkling of anxiety to taste. While none of these things are severe, I diligently take pills for each of these conditions, because I'm deathly afraid of becoming like some of my bat-shit crazy relatives.
• I'm a gamer.  
• I'm too hard on myself, and I'm lucky to be surrounded by people who remind me of that.
• On most days, I think about sex as much as the average man. After many years of conducting informal surveys, I'm convinced that this is normal habit among women.
• I prefer animation over live action.

The jury is still out on whether or not I'd be okay with being one of the first permanent settlers on Mars. I've been reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series over the span of the last few months, which thankfully does little to romanticize the notion. Still: Earth is kind of fucked. It's also kind of my home. My cultural and psychological sense of "home" is also fucked. Thinking about it has given me a very interesting lifetime goal to accomplish, though: I'm going to learn and refine as many skills as I possibly can, so that I would at least be a prime candidate for initial Mars colonization. I'm also determined to be the first person in my family to visit space. I am a lofty goal-setter.

I need a vacation. I need (crave) human interaction. I need to stop being afraid.

And now, I leave you with this lighthearted GIF: