Post your current thoughts thread

[pirovash88]

I was feeling depressed earlier. Shaved and did some drawing and in a much better mood now. I've been feeling pretty negative as of late, especially with regards to my future of wanting to pursue a creative career.

While i was drawing I was thinking of what I've gone through to get to where I am today. It's taken a lot of self control and good decisions and I should be proud of where I am today, not depressed. I mean I'm nowhere where I want to be, but I'm better off then I was years ago, or even a year ago.

I think similar line of thinking applies to anyone who lives life. So if you are feeling down, think of the things you have gone through/accomplished to get to where you are today, and tell yourself you are awesome for achieving what you have achieved and to keep pushing forward through life

Thanks for the nice words dude. I know what you mean, i've gone through some heavy shit the past couple of years, the year 2012 was definitely the worst year of my life, but i pushed through it and now things have gotten better.

[Happy Cat]

Thanks for the nice words dude. I know what you mean, i've gone through some heavy shit the past couple of years, the year 2012 was definitely the worst year of my life, but i pushed through it and now things have gotten better.

Yeah. We tend to think negatively about ourselves a lot, well I know I do at least. I assume most other people do too, it's what causes depression. Sometimes its good to look back at everything you've done and see how those decisions that seem small have affected your life.

I try not to judge anyone, we are all at different places in life and have had different challenges thrown at us through life. It's how we handle those challenges that make us better people in the long run. We are all different, no one person is going to have the same life story if you start getting into details. We have to stop comparing ourselves to other people all the time.

[max_cady]

Today was one of those days in which I regret getting out of bed. Here's to more pleasant tommorows.

[Happy Cat]

been fighting off depression still, just gotta try and keep positive. continue working towards my goals.

[max_cady]

Think of it as a boxing match. Sometimes life just kicks you in gut a little lower than usual and the ref doesn't see it. Shake it off and hit harder.

[inthesky]

been fighting off depression still, just gotta try and keep positive. continue working towards my goals.

Good luck, Will and pirovash. And to Will, following off of your other post here, I can only imagine how stressful it is not only to be warring with a depression that refuses to leave, but also to experience massive personal angst over future career options. Especially for something creative.

I've never been depressed, though I have been depressive. I've been around depressed people. The feeling of inability to escape that loop of negativity is overwhelming, and sometimes people do need help in the form of counseling, medication, or someone to talk to.

Continue working toward your goals! It's a great way to focus your mind on something, and other than just being "distracted" (and you are not just distracted) motivation is a powerful tool and a great way to combat depression.

I sort of get the idea that major risk is endemic to creative professions, especially for people just starting out. Sadly there's no Basic Income Guarantee in the world, yet, to give people who are interested in underpopulated professions the chance to try things out and see if they like it. =P Not sure what sort of art you're into, but even if it doesn't become a career, under the right life circumstances you may never have to stop, like you could continue to sell things online or at Artist Alleys at Comic Con/any convention, whatever local art and craft festivals.

What sort of art do you like, by the way? What medium?

And yeah, comparing ourselves to others sometimes makes no sense. It doesn't help a novelist to become better by thinking about how much he or she sucks. There's inspiration from your surroundings and favorite artists, there's writing circles where people take a look at others' work, and then there's debilitating fear of rejection. I think it's important that everyone have a little self-esteem to function properly

[Happy Cat]

Good luck, Will and pirovash. And to Will, following off of your other post here, I can only imagine how stressful it is not only to be warring with a depression that refuses to leave, but also to experience massive personal angst over future career options. Especially for something creative.

I've never been depressed, though I have been depressive. I've been around depressed people. The feeling of inability to escape that loop of negativity is overwhelming, and sometimes people do need help in the form of counseling, medication, or someone to talk to.

Continue working toward your goals! It's a great way to focus your mind on something, and other than just being "distracted" (and you are not just distracted) motivation is a powerful tool and a great way to combat depression.

I sort of get the idea that major risk is endemic to creative professions, especially for people just starting out. Sadly there's no Basic Income Guarantee in the world, yet, to give people who are interested in underpopulated professions the chance to try things out and see if they like it. =P Not sure what sort of art you're into, but even if it doesn't become a career, under the right life circumstances you may never have to stop, like you could continue to sell things online or at Artist Alleys at Comic Con/any convention, whatever local art and craft festivals.

What sort of art do you like, by the way? What medium?

And yeah, comparing ourselves to others sometimes makes no sense. It doesn't help a novelist to become better by thinking about how much he or she sucks. There's inspiration from your surroundings and favorite artists, there's writing circles where people take a look at others' work, and then there's debilitating fear of rejection. I think it's important that everyone have a little self-esteem to function properly

Web Design, or maybe a better term would be graphic design. Print seems to be dying out and the two fields seem to be merging. Of course print will never completely die out, but it's not important as it used to be. I know that's probably not what you thought of when i said creative field, sorry...

When I first got into web design it was from the coding perspective. When I was a teenager i was amazed how you could make things appear on screen with code. So i learned HTML, and eventually CSS, but I struggled with CSS for a while, found it confusing.

Anyways, I just really doubt my skills in designing. When I first got into web design i was really naive and thought code did everything, but of course actual creativity is a huge part! It's been a struggle for me with my classes, but, I appreciate those classes for pointing me in the right direction.

I designed SEGAbits, if that is anything to brag about.. i don't think it is, but people tell me it is. I'm trying to take things more seriously, I've been drawing everyday since August, no matter what kind of mood I'm in, even if I have a throbbing headache or am super tired.

I feel that getting better at drawing will help me a lot. Even though I've seen there is a lot of web designers that don't draw well and still make a living, they just aren't as well off as people that can draw. I started doing some hand studies yesterday because I really need to get better at drawing hands. I also need to practice getting better at shading. I drew this on the 8th, don't look at it if you hate weird things, it was a quick sketch for body drawing practice and i wanted to draw something weird/awesome http://i.imgur.com/HshQhLB.jpg

Sometimes I wonder if i should just purely coding.. but then I try to do some simple Javascript and fail horribly! Programming is really something that confuses me. Although I have coded a simple CMS in PHP before. For some reason i find PHP to make more sense then Javascript.

Anyways, yeah, working towards my goals definitely helps me manage my depression, I used to get deeply depressed, and if I wasn't working towards my goals everyday, I imagine i would still be getting that deeply depressed feeling a lot. Ive been on medicine, been to psychologists, none of that helps me. What helps me is feeling happy and working towards my goals.

But yeah, you nailed it, i just feel really inadequate when I compare myself to lots of other work I see. Makes me feel like I'll never make it as a web designer. It also doesn't help that I'm very socially awkward to begin with. I find it really hard to talk to people sometimes. You might not notice it here, I actually feel just fine on the internet, but in real life its a completely different story.

Of course I want to get good at drawing for more reasons then just web design. I like to create things. Getting good at drawing and being able to create things that I see in my mind would be a really satisfying feeling.

Ah damn, sorry If i went on too long. Realize I've almost made a 1-2 page length paper... just kinda got emotional and let a bunch of stuff out. XD

Thanks for the good luck wishes.

[Emmett The Crab]

I really admire the look of the SEGABITS site, and have been trying, and failing to get my site to look similar.

www.clivebarkercast.com

Maybe you could give me some pointers?

[inthesky]

 @Will

Totally fine to share that, no need to apologize. I don't feel put upon or awkward or whatever. It was cool of you to share, and I think Segabits is a great website. It's not a big deal that I was wondering if you were trying to make a living selling clay pots or something either , if I'm wrong on my guesses it's okay. And I don't see what's weird about the sketch...

I actually find your comments on the death of print interesting. I mean it seems obvious, since advertising was the main way to make it profitable (and I guess prior to print there was no alternative), but since online stuff eliminates the cost of distribution for traditional print, it's interesting to see that the eclipsing of designing for print is already underway, in the form of what gets taught, or reflected in conventional wisdom.

It sounds like you naturally have an inclination for art, and you already know what you want to do, having a sense of self. Kudos.

Full disclosure, I am an abominable artist, can't sketch or draw to save my life. I like creative visual arts, as self expression, and took a class in high school and college for both. Whenever I moved past the theory parts, I struggled. I performed about as well as one might expect from someone who's not actually an artist, usually getting B's, but it was rough. Also, I took a programming class (Java) and web page creation class (using some very training-wheel, guided program that removed a lot of the difficulty from programming) and it was torture . I liked the complexity of programming and how different functions and pages and etc could be connected together, but I also just didn't have the patience for it. I withdrew from the second class after a month. So kudos for your ability to handle both.

I've since not really taken it further, but I still do love to read books, watch movies, as far as my creative side. One of these days I'm going to get into cooking more and creative writing.

[Happy Cat]

I really admire the look of the SEGABITS site, and have been trying, and failing to get my site to look similar.

www.clivebarkercast.com

Maybe you could give me some pointers?

Thanks for the kind comments!

There's not really much I can say to help make your current wordpress theme better. You're currently using the default wordpress theme. It's a nice theme, but since lots of blogs use it, it's not super unique. To make it unique you would have to get into the code and make your own modifications.

There is something you could do though, there is a lot of sites that sell great looking wordpress themes for people to use

http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/blog-magazine

This one comes to my mind right now, but there is many more sites out there. There is also free themes you can use if you are satisfied enough with one of those: http://wordpress.org/themes/ there is a lot of free themes to look through.

@Will

Totally fine to share that, no need to apologize. I don't feel put upon or awkward or whatever. It was cool of you to share, and I think Segabits is a great website. It's not a big deal that I was wondering if you were trying to make a living selling clay pots or something either , if I'm wrong on my guesses it's okay. And I don't see what's weird about the sketch...

I actually find your comments on the death of print interesting. I mean it seems obvious, since advertising was the main way to make it profitable (and I guess prior to print there was no alternative), but since online stuff eliminates the cost of distribution for traditional print, it's interesting to see that the eclipsing of designing for print is already underway, in the form of what gets taught, or reflected in conventional wisdom.

It sounds like you naturally have an inclination for art, and you already know what you want to do, having a sense of self. Kudos.

Full disclosure, I am an abominable artist, can't sketch or draw to save my life. I like creative visual arts, as self expression, and took a class in high school and college for both. Whenever I moved past the theory parts, I struggled. I performed about as well as one might expect from someone who's not actually an artist, usually getting B's, but it was rough. Also, I took a programming class (Java) and web page creation class (using some very training-wheel, guided program that removed a lot of the difficulty from programming) and it was torture . I liked the complexity of programming and how different functions and pages and etc could be connected together, but I also just didn't have the patience for it. I withdrew from the second class after a month. So kudos for your ability to handle both.

I've since not really taken it further, but I still do love to read books, watch movies, as far as my creative side. One of these days I'm going to get into cooking more and creative writing.

Thanks so much for replying! I really appreciate it. I was feeling soooo self-concious about the post I made. xD. was afraid to look in this topic. Would of assumed i did something wrong if i never got a reply. Glad you don't find anything weird about the sketch, it's one of my favorite ones as of now. I just know some people are weirded out by guys in skirts and such, heh

Making websites is fun, but yeah it can be a bit confusing. HTML isn't true programming though. It's just another markup language, similar to bbcode but more advanced. CSS isn't programming either, but its more confusing then HTML. When you do PHP/Javascript and stuff like that, that's real programming.

Also I wouldn't say I'm naturally inclined when it comes to drawing, maybe have a knack at arranging info and images in a visually pleasing way. Lots of it though is just training yourself, it takes effort to know what looks good, to be creative, to be good at drawing(i dont think im good at drawing yet). Anyone is capable of becoming an artist as long as you put the effort into it. Of course there is some people that are born with crazy good talent, but most artists are good because of all the effort and time they've put into improving their skills.

Cooking sounds fun. I've always been interested in cooking something, but ha, always end up taking the easy way out.

[Emmett The Crab]

thanks Will, but it's not the default theme.  It's called "Zombie Apocalypse."  I assume that's not default.  I spent a long time finding it.

[Happy Cat]

thanks Will, but it's not the default theme.  It's called "Zombie Apocalypse."  I assume that's not default.  I spent a long time finding it.

wow really? it looks just like the default wordpress theme.

http://wordpress.org/themes/twentyeleven

well, the old default theme. it has a new default theme now. There is an option in that theme to change it black, even though it's white by default. The theme on your blog just looks like the black version of that theme.

anyways, the SEGAbits theme is a custom template i made. what i did when i made the SEGAbits theme is code it in plain HTML/CSS first, then put in the wordpress specific PHP tags to make it work as a wordpress theme.

Not the worst thing in the world to do, but is tedious and time consuming.

[Emmett The Crab]

I bought a new theme at the link you provided.  I'm much happier with it now.  It as $45.00, but totally worth it.  Check it out.

http://www.clivebarkercast.com

[Happy Cat]

I bought a new theme at the link you provided.  I'm much happier with it now.  It as $45.00, but totally worth it.  Check it out.

http://www.clivebarkercast.com

Awesome! looks much better. You're banner is way too big though and is making the page stretch. See if there is a setting in the theme somewhere to set a banner width, if not, you'll need to go into the code and set an image width on the logo element. not sure what else to say, ive never used their themes before, but since you payed for it, they are obligated to provide you support :p send them a request for help if you have to.

edit:
also the individual article pages seem to be broken
http://www.clivebarkercast.com/2013/11/09/episode-57-elizabeth-howell-and-krysi-king-official-hellraiser-fb/

[Emmett The Crab]

Yeah, that was bugging me about the posts.  With the banner, couldn't I just shrink the banner a little?