2013...so far

I made it! It's my birthday! It's 2013. It's now.

This is my 18,263rd day to be alive. In case you were counting.

So, what's happened in this year, thus far? Some neat stuff:

I finished I Want My Hat Back.

I contributed animation and title screens to String City, a show sponsored by the Country Music Hall of Fame (and Museum!), the Nashville Public Library Foundation, and Wishing Chair Productions. Very fun project.

I've done a bunch of smaller animation projects, including a book trailer for Laurie Keller's new Arnie the Doughnut book. (I also got to voice Arnie!)

I recorded the role of Doctor Dozous for a musical about Bernadette of Lourdes, written by Brian Hull and Sarah Hart.

We had a big screening of eight of my Weston Woods films at the Belcourt Theatre here in Nashville. It was almost sold out! This included the world premiere of I Want My Hat Back. Wonderful to see the films looking so fantastic on the big screen, and for such a large and appreciative audience.

We completed the first scene of Cosmo Kimball and the Perfect Hat, as a tool to get funding to finish the rest of the project.

And Laura and Burton have hardly been idle either! Laura has opened Whites Creek Flower Farm, with beautiful results. And Burton shot a zombie movie with his friends, which is still being edited! We're hoping for a Halloween release.

Our cat Dash died...that's been the only downer. That makes our running total, as I type, 6 cats (Keypot, Petunia, Indy, Shadow, Mary, and Sparta), 2 dogs (Cornelia and Missy), and 2 goats (Buddy and Milo).

And so, that's the first two thirds of this year! What's going to happen in the remaining third? I have my hopes and wishes...but who knows?

It's been an interesting experience trudging back through my life like this. Doing a year a day is kind of like living your life all over again, at 1:365 scale. I know that I began my life being so lucky to have such generous and supportive parents. My father continues this, to this day. I can take only slightly more credit for having the great fortune to marry Laura. And together, we've helped make Burton the awesome 13 year old that he is.

I have had a wonderful life thus far, and am so fortunate to have been in a situation that I could try to do what I wanted with my life. I pledge to try to be even more productive in the years to come, and to try "to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here", as someone once said.

Help keep me on track, okay?