Tom's Journal
Hey everybody! welcome, once again, to my sporadically updated journal! Also, this is really just news from the past month or 2, so other stuff has been going on I just won't bore you with it.

Tom's Artistic Updates
I have not been doing really any visual artwork lately at all--I know that I always say that, but usually I have something that I'm drawing, or a painting I'm doing in the Art Room, or something I'm sculpting, but seriously, nothing doing right now. It's not for lack of ideas...well I guess I haven't sat down to try and think of an idea in quite a while. I have a plan to do several contour drawings in the future for my art teachers, most likely of other people and myself in some sort of project--stay tuned if you're interested, as I may need more victims...I mean subjects. yes, that second one.

Tom's Writing Updates
Alright, here's where the real action is! I've been writing quite proficiently lately both in terms of poetry (which I would really appreciate if people looked at in my gallery and gave some feedback) but also on my Naruto fanfic, which is now up to chapter 10 including an original character sheet--the whole story can be viewed at [link] under my penname "Sideshowtom" (it's not working right now--I have the link in past journals or I can send it to you if you like. I would really love more people to read it though, as more exposure means more improvement.)
As a final note on my writing, what with the new year upon us, I have decided to take a huge undertaking. as I'll be going to college soon and therefore will start working on getting writing of mine published in a great realm, I'd like to get even more stuff written and reviewed--but how to do that? And so, I set myself what is to be called "The 2008 Shinogami Challenge." Under penalty of...stoning, I swear that I will write something worthwhile (aka not craptastic,) every single day of 2008, starting today with something I'll post later. Everything will come as it is, whether I've had time to get it read by others or even read it myself, and it could be anything from the chapters to a novel, to a poem, to a short story, so long as it is ORIGINAL stuff by moi, Shinogami, aka Nailor. So, wish me luck, and I hope you all get the chance to read at least some of it!

Tom's Work update
In terms of work, I am just about to finish up my Christmas Vacation which, while not necessarily completely so, has been relaxing. I am going back to school on Thursday January 3rd because I have to work practice for the Girls' Varsity Hockey team, which I'm managing, and then I have classes on Friday and Saturday with church on Sunday and most likely homework after that. I have all my college applications, essays and supplements done, they just need to be checked by my college counselor and my English teacher and sent it, which'll most likely be at the beginning of next week God-willing. That'll be a lot off my back and then it's just waiting for acceptances. Other than that, I'll most likely be keeping my grades about where they are (which is about a 3.2 for the semester which, while not as good as last year, is nothing to sneeze at with my schedule this year) and doing all my extra-curriculars. I plan to take it a bit easier than usual though, which should afford me more time for other pursuits.

Tom's Life update
As for my life, things are going surprisingly well right now. School is going well, I'm having a lot more fun with my friends than usual, and my family, while not great, is becoming more bearable. I'm worried about my brother right now because he's doing very poorly in his junior year of college at Colby-Sawyer and I think might get kicked out if he doesn't talk his way out of it. This break has been pretty much just sleeping and hanging out at home, though I went into the city for a day with my close friend Kate, talked to my best friend Adam a bit and cleared some shit up, hung out with my best friend Brett () last night for New years eve which was a blast, and had a semi-sort of-I'm not sure Date type thing with my friend Claire last thursday, which ended with a quick kiss and "I'm just really still into this other guy...but I really care about you and I like hanging out with you." so, while not a complete loss (I had a really fun time and it was good to see her) I'm feeling a little rejected, but I'll life. At least she knows how I feel now and I'm sure she'll come around eventually, or at the very least we'll stay friends. As for any other girls, Dee and I...well I'm not going to say because it's her business but we are never going to date, though we're still best friends, which I can live with. My other...well I dunno if I'd say "friend" at the moment cause she's pretty pissed at me, Vikki (), but nevertheless, I haven't talked to her since thanksgiving break, and I suppose I'm just gonna give her the straight-up, no holds barred, "here's how I feel" speech along with the whole "I hope we can be friends" thing, though I dunno how I'll be doing that yet. I suppose a letter and a CD could work, but I dunno. We'll see.
As for Christmas and my Birthday, I got Scrubs Seasons 1+2 (awesome,) Simpsons Seasons 9+10, at least a dozen books, a Providence shirt, my own personalized Guiness drinking glass with a real nice collared shirt of the same brand, and finally Seinfeld Seasons 1-9, since my brother got the whole series in a boxed set, he gave me all the dvds he already had. I just need to find them in our house/his dorm room now.

Tom's Rant of the week...
haha Rant of the Week, more like the Rant of half-year. anyway, this time I'm going to rant about...poetry.
Now poetry is something that I have countless friends of mine come and say, "Nailor, I can't write good poetry at all, can you help me please?"
But what constitutes good poetry? While there are definitely poets out there that appeal to everyone or that everyone should be able to get something out of (Emily Dickinson, Dante, Zork) there are still others that some people (myself included) really enjoy but that are more difficult to understand (TS Eliot, EE Cummings, Paul Muldoon)(the latter of whom I don't understand completely.) There are people out there who claim new poets are awful but having heard Zork (whose real name I forget) perform, he writes fantastic stuff. Other friends of mine always complain about not understanding poetry--but these two things, writing and understanding, go hand in hand when discussing poetry. To me, poetry is more about heart and soul than any other type of writing--though some beg to differ, punctuation, spelling, even real-word existence hold no bearing, and the true subject of a poem can be hidden deep behind walls of literary device, never revealing itself. A poem can be a riddle, or it can be obvious--the words chosen, their rhythm, the way they sound in our ear, become increasingly important, as does imagery and ideas. But, as an author, I can say that I don't have one clear-cut way my poems HAVE to be interpreted--I have the ideas that I had while writing, and I have the images/ideas I would like to convey to my reader. But in the end, the poetry is up to them, and it is only mine in that I created it. A poem, like a child, grows and changes as others read it, and it picks up and clues them in to parts of their own individual personalities while (hopefully) reflecting some of the authors. While poetry as a form is very different from literature, many of it's missions are the same, though the execution differs greatly. Anyone can be a "great" poet, for "greatness" is defined only by one's self. Next time someone says they can't write or understand poetry, tell them to stop thinking about it so much and merely open up their minds, hearts, and souls. That's what I try to do at least.