Tom's Journal

Tom's Artistic Updates
Artistically all I have right now is to post a few projects from Advanced Drawing including my final project (which I've been told is one of my best) and the completion of one of my large, overlapping contour pieces. I've also got a few sketches of different members of Akatsuki going right now, some of which I'll finish in the next couple weeks now that I'm on vacation. I've also got a few sketches of some original characters that will be used in my upcoming fanfic (see below) that I need to send to my good friend so she can draw good versions of them for me. I'm gonna be trying to sketch as much as I can in the next couple weeks, in between studying Latin, finishing all the books I just got, and working on my fanfic. Stay tuned!

Tom's Writing Updates
Well on the fanfic front I will most likely be discontinuing my current Naruto fanfic in lew of another one I just started. The reasons for leaving it? well I realized I hated most of my main characters and they are rather key to having a good story. Also many parts of it were very cliche to me and I just plain didn't like it anymore. It just didn't have any of the....feeling of a good Naruto fanfic-when I read it I didn't hear "sadness and sorrow" at the depressing bits, or "Raikiri" at the awseome fight scenes. The new fic sprung from an idea I had while I should have been studying for my AP Latin midterm and a 20 minutes "study break" that sprawled into a 2 hour writing session. Stay tuned for that. I recently got about a dozen books from various sources (birthday, my own money ect) and I'm hoping that I can be inspired by some of those to improve my writing. While I've been doing plenty of fanfics and newspaper articles lately I haven't been able to write anything particularly original (and good) in a long time. So on the list are the new Artemis Fowl book, A Christmas Carol, The Best American Unrequired Reading, finishing Kurt Vonnegut and The Dragons of Expectation, and numerous others. Hopefully I don't get overloaded and I can remember all the good advice Emerson gave about books in his speech "The American Scholar"

Tom's Work update
I just finished up with my 2nd semester of school and midterms. I believe my English and Math midterms were the best, and my history midterm went pretty well. I don't think my AP Latin midterm was particularly good but my teacher told me she wasn't going to drop me from the class which means it's probably above a 70 or so. I did particularly well on my last couple Advanced Drawing projects so I'm glad about that. Next semester I'll be taking Sculpture class (unless I decide to give my spot to my friend Tina which I probably will) along with Model's For Writers as an extra english class. I'll also be more actively searching for colleges and such which should be pretty fun. Wish me luck!

Tom's Life update
As for the life update...things are going surprisingly well for me right now. Managing Girls Varsity Hockey is still quite fun though I had to work a totat of 14 hours at a Hockey tournament in which me and my friend graham were meant to work 6 hours tops...why? cause our athletic director is an idiot. I did get to stuff myself silly with sushi and other japanese goodies on friday night with the team which was quite fun (especially after tricking my friend D into grabbing super hot yakitori barehanded, eat a large quanitty of wasabi and caviar. oh and teaching everyone "itadakimasu!") I sorta gave up on my one friend Amanda though she still complains to me about boys a lot (without realizing she could get them quite easily!) I'm sorta considering my friend D just cause she and I started talking a lot more a little while ago and I realized how cool she was. Tina is still my number one and most of the team (and everyone else who knows) is pushing me to just go for it. I'm on vacation right now so I have plenty of time to mull things over before I get back to school. She's never had a boyfriend before (Shes a junior) so people keep telling me that she just doesn't know how to express how she may or may not feel about me. I dunno...hopefully everything works out. I plan to hang out with my two best friends brett and james ( and :iconmihlorv12: as much as I can this break and I'm going to hang out with a buncha school friends at my buddy Jared's place over new years. Other than that...nothing much else going on. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Tom's Rant of the week...
This weeks rant will be without costumes or props. It is a simple questoin that sparks this rant, but one that plagues all of us Anime fans at one point in our lives. And that question is:
Is Rock Lee really that strong?
And the answer? of course he flippin is! I mean look at him! he's a taijutsu master! He beat the crap outta sasuke and Naruto with no problem. He took on three sound nin and even took having his eardrum destroyed while still fighting to defend sakura! he got up after having his leg and arm ripped apart! he got out of the hospital, got drunk and kicked some bone wielding ass!
"Oh but Tom" you say "Rock Lee never wins a real fight!"
well of course he doesn't! he gets pinned against the best of the best! Gaara? oh yea Naruto beat him WITH FLIPPIN DEMON CHAKRA! if Lee had a Biju and could summon a huge frog I bet he woulda won too. "oh but tom" you say again "he got powned by Kimimaro" hey news flash HE HAD JUST GOT OUT OF THE FLIPPIN HOSPITAL FOR DESTROYED LIMBS! you try having bone shards embedded in you, getting it fixed and then after no recovery time getting drunk and fighting a bone wielding freak! even flippin Gaara couldn't beat him for cripes sake. it was his disease! and look at Lee-he can't use ANY and I mean ANY nin or gen jutsu. Oh shuriken coming at me? replacement. oh wow you attack me with hidden shadow snake hands? haha thats a bunshin! NO! he doesn't get ANY OF THAT. and that is what makes him the best. pair him against almost anyone below like kage level strength and he'll beat em, and if he can't beat em, keep flippin trying until he does. He is a true genius-a genius of hard work! and that is why the one we all affectionatlly call "fuzzy eyebrows" is one of the best ninja in Naruto. cause you can always count on him. and he's got his own montage! like Rocky!
thanks everybody!