Pizza Doe.

Hey, friend.

My wife and I made it to America ok. It was a nice little 95 hour trip.

Things I'll chat about now: The trip, visas, Google, Brontide, the unrelenting heat, a first.

The Trip.

Getting here was an experience. We were staying at my folks' place for a week before flying out which was nice. After packing up our house for a few weeks and getting everything sorted out there, it was nice to be able to relax a bit.

We set off on the journey back to America on Saturday morning. The 16th. We got to the train station for our 1055 train to London. I was already a little stressed by the car ride to the station - I obviously didn't know there was another 94 hours to go. When we were actually traveling, I was fine - it was in the down time between trains and the underground that I started to freak out about the traveling we had left.

We stayed the first night in a little hotel in London before going to the airport to meet my brother for a bit and then to check in for the flight. After a lovely aside that I'll talk about in a bit, we were finally on our way.

When we got to Iceland - our half way point - we were told that our flight on to New York was overbooked. So instead of going on to NY and spending the night there, they offered us a free dinner that night, a free hotel for that night, a free breakfast for the morning, a free trip to the Blue Lagoon and a free lunch at the Blue Lagoon. And a free ticket to travel anywhere with Iceland Express. Terrible, right? There were some people who complained, but they're everywhere. My wifey and I loved it! Iceland is amazing. We had a great little break on our way over and a nice time to relax.

Heading NY way the day after, our flight had to do figure of eights in the air a few times before we landed because of the bad weather on the runway. A great experience for nervous air passengers...

New York was a really good experience and we got to go to Times Square for a couple of hours before heading over to Milwaukee and then on to Kansas City, where we met up with some good friends and stayed with them for a few days.

The trip was incredible and I wouldn't have done anything different - aside from maybe stressing less!

Visas.

Visas are ridiculous. As I was checking in in London, my boarding pass to Iceland was granted and printed but the pass from there to New York was denied. This was because I hadn't filled in a form online. This form was the I-94W and it put me in a catch 22 situation. The most catchiest, twenty-twoiest situation I've ever found myself in. First of all, this is a new way of doing things - introduced in April. Now, instead of it being a free three month visa that I fill in on the plane on the way over, I have to pay to fill it in. With it, I can't extend my stay in America (I wasn't planning on it, but I'm staying with my wife and her family, so I wanted that option) and without it, I wouldn't be allowed into America. Good stuff.

So I filled it in and went back down to check in again, but it didn't clear and at the time, we were going to have to travel to Iceland and hope that it cleared before we got there so that I could get the Iceland - America boarding pass printed. Which is why the overbooked flight and subsequent night in Iceland was such a blessing.

And now I'm here waiting for my I-130 - the visa that we thought would be done and dusted before we flew out.

But we're here. An that's all that matters at the moment.

Google.

I can't access my other email account. I'm not sure why. I created it in America and I use this laptop to access it, but Google in their wisdom have decided to deny me access to the account because it's a 'different location'... I'll be talking to them this afternoon.

Brontide.

As I mentioned in the last post, my little brother and his band have an album out. You can hear their single 'Matador' here: http://soundcloud.com/brontide and you can get more information on them as a whole here: http://www.myspace.com/brontidetheband

Their twitter link is here: http://twitter.com/#!/FUCKINGBRONTIDE

Twitter name aside, they're a great, family friendly sound, so be sure to check them out and buy their things.

Pizza doe.

It's been a while since I've seen roadkill bigger than a dog.

The unrelenting heat.

The heat here is insane. I'm sure I wrote about it last time I was over here. It's been over 100ºF here for nearly three weeks solid. That's about 35ºC. Constantly. Well, it dips to around 25ºC through the night. I like staying up late to pretend I'm home and that it's a normal temperature. It helps sometimes. The pool is great, though. Nice and cool.

The one thing that gets me down is that it's too hot for me to go outside. I was just stood outside the other day and I was sweating as I do when I run back home. It's weird. I'm pretty lethargic because my energy is at a low and because of that I'm not working out as I normally do. And so now I'm down because I haven't worked out and it's hot. But I guess it'll all be better in a few weeks. Then I'll be fishing and running and lifting again. Feeling better.

It's not the worst thing to be complaining about, though. Not a bad problem.

A First.

And finally. I got a First in my Games Design course! I worked my fingers off - sewed until there was no thread left. I drew until my pens ran out and I typed until the keys split in half. It was an intense year - especially the last couple of months when it was all coming together. It was exciting, too. My wifey was my best cheerleader. She supported me through this year more than I could have asked and I am truly grateful. I'm in the process of applying for my Masters Degree, so hopefully there'll be more drawing and writing and creating in the years to come. There will be whether I do the MA or not.

I didn't really get how big a first is until a load of people started enthusiastically congratulating me. I worked as hard as I could and I was really happy with it, but it's what I aimed for. Who wouldn't want to do their best?! I worked hard and prayed hard. As much as I have my wifey to thank, I have so much more thanks for God. He's been our rock through this year - He's been my rock for years, but with my wifey this year, He's been our solid foundation and I can't wait to pursue Him even more with her in the years to come.

Thanks again for reading. I really do appreciate it.

Peace.

My mane aim.

AHA! It's within two months. I'm in no way proud of forgetting my blog and not writing here or anything, but here I am, less than two months after my last post. (I was going to quote the last post and be all smug, but it's below this one and you can read it yourself. That and it's not working for me).

Things to talk about this time round... Ubuntu. Brontide. Drawing and work. Church and life. Wifey wife. And AOB.

Ubuntu.
I'm drinking it now and it's good. Try some. Fair trade cola that doesn't taste like fair trade poop water.

Brontide.
THIS IS COOL.
(First of all, this is a really old picture)... Carry on...
So my brother and a few friends started a little band way back in 2007. The Drummer, William Bowerman, can be found under the 'Notable People' section of the wikipedia page for Collingham, Nottinghamshire. Formerly of 'I Was A Cub Scout', he is their drummer. At the time of writing, he also drums for La Roux.
Guitartist Tim Hancock is the band's guitarist - also from Collingham, but found under the 'See Also' section of the page for Collingham, Nottinghamshire.
Bassist Nathan Fairweather Bases/Basses on the bass guitar. Having exhausted four bass teachers of all they knew back in Southport, he moved to Brighton where he went on to learn more.
So yea, they got together in 2007 and have been chipping away at making their big mark on the scene. The niche for instrumental bands is just that. Niche. It's hard, but these lads have stuck at it and it is paying off. Air time on Radio One, tours of venues and festivals (one in Europe coming up). These are ridiculously talented individuals who put their skills together to continually blow crowds away. They have incredible stage presence. They have passion that is second to none. They have put their all into this band for four years and they are all thoroughly, genuinely uplifting to be around. (And Nathan's freakin' hilarious. Always has been. He got the funny gene).

Anyway. Brief introduction aside, THEY HAVE AN ALBUM OUT NEXT MONTH! I have already set aside the money for several copies (I'm not assuming I'm getting a free one, but if that's the case I still want to support them, so I'm going to buy a few for my friends).

This is going to be nothing but music. Obviously. But I mean if you've seen them at a gig, you'll know what to expect. They're the only band I've ever seen play a full hour of music, non stop. And they do it flawlessly.

So mark your calendars. April. That's when the album's out.



Drawing and work.
Drawing is fun. It always has been and it always will be. The fact that I've been able to make it such a big part of my life is a huge blessing. I come to uni and draw. I go home and I doodle. It's fun and it opens up a world that is fantastic. You can be anything you want to be. It's like LARPing but a little less obviously geeky. Instead of donning and cape and hitting things with foam swords, shouting and wailing and getting genuinely angry at people who aren't playing fair, I simply curl up on a sofa or other comfortable place and draw something. One day, I could be an ant with a gun. The next day I could be the best cricket herder in the whole world (of Kry'kn VI). After that, I might take some time out and chill by the huge oceans of th.. oh wait - a massive dog with a tree for a head is running at me. Good job I'm made of fire today. Ha. I can hide this geekyness from most people. Most definately not my wife. But she loves it.

My dream and my prayer is that I can get a job doing this. Whether it's drawing character ideas for a company or selling indie comics. Whether it's coming up with ideas for games and making those games or selling my work at art fairs. As long as I can remember I've wanted to make a living doing what I love.

Speaking of things that I love...
I played bass for a whole service for the first time on Sunday. I was both excited and proper nervous, but I was playing for God and that filled me with peace. See He is the creator of everything and has all power, but I know that He sees our hearts. Although I hit more wrong notes than I can remember, it was just fine for His ears. I had a blast singing as loud as I could, too - right in front of the biggest amp on the stage...

Life is good. I'm having a great time in uni and at the moment it's taking precedence over most other things. I'm finding it hard to keep a fair balance of things, but I think that's just the way things go in life. If everything was doled out in equal portions it'd get boring. Money is tight and food is low, but we're in a first world country with a roof over our heads and a bed to sleep in and we're in love. It's great.

Melissa and I are off to Amsterdam and Germany for Easter. Amsterdam to be with a church there for a week to see how they do things and Germany for a week to meet her Granddad. We're looking forward to it.

Also my best friend, Tim, got back from South Africa on Monday. It's good to hear his voice again and hopefully I'll be able to get back down to Southport and meet up and catch up. Maybe play some footy.

All Other Beans.
Nothing much more to say. I've forgotten my password for one of my blogs and I've lost my video camera - which I use to record videos for another blog. But hey. There's this one and there's my design one (danfairweather.blogspot.com)

That and I need to trim my beard. It's getting pretty scruffy. I lost the length setting I normally use though, so I either have to have it longish or very short.

And also, my friend Thom is asking me to draw things for a webcomic. We have a few ideas and I'm excited about it. I just hope he is more punctual than I am with this updating thing.

Just to add the pictures to this one and I'll be away :D
Peace, friends.
Thanks for stopping by.

What's the dele?

Gosh. October was the last time I wrote things here?

Apologies.

And apologies again that this is to say that I will post something more substantial soon.

I've put up a little doodle of what I'm working on at the moment. I'll have a bit more over at my other blog - danfairweather.blogspot.com

Basically, I'm married and it's amazing. I've been having an amazing time with my wife and a lot has taken a back seat. I'm more than happy about that. We're finding a balance between life with each other and life with each other. It's great!

Anyhoo, I'm going to nip off, now. I've had a long(ish) day (I'm not complaining - my long days consist of me drawing for hours. I love it.), so I'm going to grab a snack, pick up a film for my wifey and me to watch later and go home to my wifey.

I had a thought about Christmas that I posted on Facebook. It's a bit late for it here now, so I think I'll post it later this year. It's still going to be relevant because it's how I feel and I don't think that will change drastically over the course of the next 12 months.

I love God. I love my wife. I love life.

I'll post a bigger entry soon. Most definitely within the next two months.

Bless.

Oh. I looks as though my blog hates the 'enter' key now. Hey ho.

Sharing the loute.

So I finally got the internet. And I began a blog post with the word 'so'. Two new things that are happening at the moment. My wife and I got online, as they say.. as some say.. a couple of weeks ago. And yet I haven't found the time to post. Until now. Now being 27 minutes before showing my fellow students things that I have been looking at in regards to insects and jeeps in art and film and pop culture.

...

26 minutes...

I'll have to get back to you.

Not really rood.

Big theme for this blog, kiddos. Inspiration. Or lack thereof. A little nagging feeling has been sat at the back of my little brain for the past few weeks. It was - for the most part - because I (attempt to) maintain several blogs of various themes and under various guises. Since I have been married I have updated all of them once. It's coming on to three months, now. The happiest three months of my life - may I add. But three months nonetheless. So I am now going to ramble at you, dear reader, for a short while to fill my self-set quota for this here blog.

I went to Camelot yesterday. It was amazing. Camelot amazing. We had a great time on the rides and although it's a bit of a trek with a wheelchair, it wasn't the busy. I'm always amazed at people who seem to be either completely oblivious to someone pushing a wheelchair or being completely oblivious to the fact that they are unable to phase through objects. People just wander towards it, fully expecting it to be as easy to move in a different direction as walking itself. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. If it weren't for my unwillingness to cause people pain by knocking their shins with the bottom of the chair, people would have a lot of sore shins from being knocked by me with the bottom of the chair. If you see someone in a wheelchair, don't be afraid to step to the side. We don't mind.

The X factor is back! Once again, we trawl through the dregs of Britain's... voices, I guess. That's probably most accurate. It's what it is. We'll see outward-panning shots of people being told to cheer and shout; sweeping clips of everyone waving; quickly fading in and out footage of the judges arriving in their various idioms; cheery shots of groups; blue-tinted images of people on their own talking about how someone died or how their dog's last bark sounded like it was telling them to sing; Simon winking at a pretty lady; the judges shouting at each other; slow piano music playing over a solitary figure walking somewhere; and - as it would appear - one girl punching a former friend in the face. I can't wait.

That's all for now. As always, here's a promise to keep updating more often and all that. I'm off to pack up the rest of our things with my wife and get ready to move fully. It's exciting. I honestly couldn't recommend marriage enough. It's so much fun. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next - we're needing to save up for some sort of internet connection at our new house. When we have one, I will write more. Maybe I'll have something to write about then, too.

Not so much a theme, but I've at least said the word inspiration twice. That was the second time.

Until next time, folks. Please come back.

My deer, Melissa.

June 4th. 2010. I got married. The fourth most significant day of my life. In first place, we have November 12th, 1986. Quite significant, I hope you'll agree. It's when I was born. Second; one Sunday in 1992, when I gave my life to Christ and decided to follow Him. Third was September 15th, 2009, when my girlfriend became my fiancée.

Looking back at her prayer journals, we found out that exactly a year ago on the day of our wedding, I'd asked if we were together. She said no. It's been quite a year...

When our friends talk about being in long-distance relationships we are, at first, sympathetic. It is hard being apart. Even when it's working well and going smoothly, it's still quite the task to keep it working well and going smoothly. But when they reveal that they are a whole three hours away - by train, no less - then we become a little less condoling. You see while we were dating, Melissa and I were - at the closest - 6 hours away from each other by car. Really long distance. For the first two and a half weeks, we were together in America, one week in Arkansas - her home State - and two and a half weeks in Missouri, where I studied for the year. After that, we were apart for 5 months whilst she did an internship for a church in my hometown. We were now about 8 hours apart. By plane.

What I want to talk about is pretty taboo in the church at the moment. It's mentioned, but seldom talked about. We know that it's on everyone's mind, yet we only really keep it superficial. "How do you feel about it?" "Alright, I guess." "OK." Next question.

This is true to me, too. I don't know my friends' thoughts or positions on the subject.

Sex. The what-to-do and the what-to-not-do in a Christian life. Everyone says that the Bible tells us not to have sex before marriage. While this is true, I've not met too many people able to tell me where this is from. The Bible doesn't outright say not to have sex before marriage - it tells is not to commit adultery. Which is sex outside of marriage. As in - if you're not married to someone, don't have sex with them.

I've waited my whole life for my wife. I'm 23 years old and then some. I can tell you in all honesty that sex is worth the wait. I can tell you from experience that sex is worth the wait. I can tell you that having waited for over 23 years that sex is worth the wait.

Through this last year, when the deadlines for my classes came along, I was working as hard as I could. I don't think that there's a much better feeling than going into class on the last day and seeing everyone frantically getting work together or drawing it really quickly and shoddily in an attempt to meet the deadline whilst you sit aside, knowing that all you have to do is wait for the teacher to some in and collect the work.

It's a much, much better feeling knowing that on my wedding night I will give my life saving to my wife. The best gift I can give is myself. I know that a lot of people roll their eyes and think that calling myself and calling sex 'the best gift I can give' is soppy and wet and outdated, but I challenge you to find a better gift. A set of wine glasses more beautiful than your most intimate moment. Silverware with a gleam that outshines the twinkle in their eyes. I can't think of any other wedding gift examples, but you get my point. There's nothing you can buy, nothing that you can be given, that will be as valuable as your virginity. Big word. It's not as heavy as you think.

Two more things. One - I would argue to the death that waiting is what makes you the man. It's not the sex. If we're going to chalk up number of times you've had sex and work out how manly you think that makes you, then I know plenty of dogs and a fair few cats with more manhood than you. "Oh, but Dan, everyone does it and I love them, etc." No. Not everyone does it and if you truly love them you can wait. When has self-control been a weakness? When has self-control been unattractive?

Two - why be so scared of commitment? That's the only thing I can think of being the reason to not get married. I mean. If you're in a long-term relationship and you're living as if you're married, what's so hard about actually getting married? What's so difficult about putting a weekend aside and showing and telling people how important your partner is to you? Is that too much? If it is, then is that love?

Truth is, waiting is great. Truth is, we're blessed if we do. The truth is also this - that if you made one mistake once, make this a regular thing, or everything in between, you can still put things on hold and wait. You can be renewed. That's when my God is in the business of doing. He can help you.

It's worth it.

Oh. The deer in the title is a Songs Of Solomon reference. Well done if you got it. 10 points.

[sic]

My fiancée's dog got hit by a car last week. Not the nicest of news to start with, but rest assured I felt a bit worse than you, the reader, as not one week before that, I took that dog by the head, cradling it gently, looked him square in the eyes and in the sweetest voice I could muster, said "You're not going to heaven, because you haven't got a soul." ... Yea, I felt a little bad.

One thing that I've been thinking of lately is algebra. I don't know why. I got a C in my GCSE maths and I pretty much left it there. I'm good at remembering numbers, but not so much working them out and making them do things. I just don't get algebra. I don't know much about maths, but adding letters to an already infinite number of - well... numbers - doesn't seem like the most problem-solving method of doing things. But hey. I don't do numbers that much any more. If at all. I've talked before about tax in America and how a dollar burger comes to a dollar and eight cents. That's the extent of my number life at the moment. Exciting stuff.

I was sick this morning. I have had maybe three bouts of being sick in my life. The first was when I was 15. I did not know what was going on. The second was when I found out I'm allergic to Salmon. That's right. Tasty, tasty salmon. I can't eat it. Well I can. But it won't stay down. Then last night I ate something that disagreed with me. All I had was pizza, so I hope I'm not becoming allergic to that... You're more than welcome for the update on my stomach movements.

And finally. I am incredibly pleased to inform you that this is my last post as an unmarried man! I am very excited. It's quite possible that I may post again before the big day, but as there are only 17 days left, I doubt that there will be another update beforehand. I'll definitely post again afterwards - let you know how everything went. Melissa is amazing. Absolutely perfect. The bounce in her step and the twinkle in her eyes make me somersault inside every time I see her. Her heart for God and her heart for the people around her make me jump for joy. It's truly an honour and a privilege to be able to grow old with her and live life together forever.

Until next time.