If you're into Punk Rock you may remember an album called, "Year of the Iguana".  The album was made by Iggy and The Stooges. 

Some of you may remember the group.  I called my son up to find out if he knew about the album and he told me that he actually went to see Iggy Pop on his Las Vegas honeymoon. 

What a hoot! 

I just happened to draw an Iguana.  He's rather a colorful beast with dreadlocks and a party hat. Cause that's what you do when you're an Iguana.  He's a rockin' island iguana.

I feel like I know this guy.  He's a little rough round the edges but really wants to be smooth and have style.

I'm declaring 2018 the Year of the Iguana.  I hope we all get to put our party hats on and feel real loose like a long necked goose.  Oh baby, that's what I like. 

As I'm apt to do sometimes, at this time of year, I think about time gone by; what's happened and what has yet to happen. I've been a lucky guy all my life.  I don't know how it happens but somehow it does.  It really does.

​I think of it like the stock market. 

My life has been a "Random Walk". 

"The random walk hypothesis is a financial theory stating that stock market prices evolve according to a random walk (so price changes are random) and thus cannot be predicted."  

Like the stock market my life has been a "random walk" but it has been in an overwhelmingly positive direction. 

So I take it all, the good and the challenging, and make of it what I can.  Which is really all anybody can do.

Celebrate the opening of the Year of the Iguana with me and make it one full of wonderfulness and joy! 

Remember:

Yesterday told me to learn.
Today tells me to yearn.
Tomorrow never comes. 

Yesterday is only lingering vapor.
It's the breeze that built today.

Today’s big plans are only silent dreams,
Only a specter of what tomorrow might be.

Tomorrow will be the same as today
Unless you’re willing to take a chance. 

Before today becomes your yesterday
Do something positive and wise.
Do something you can be proud of.

Learn yesterday's lessons

Build today
Dream today
Live today
Love today
Laugh today
Cry today

What of tomorrow?

Tomorrow will never be.

I've found it's  impossible to know where an idea will come from or what it will be.  I'm amazed at what pops into my head. 

There are so many projects running around in my head. I'm sure they won't all get done.  I seem to complete one thing another two sneak their way in to my grey matter. 

Prioritize boy!

But those ideas keep showing up all the time.  Do I really want to do them all?  Some of my ideas are pretty horrible.  

Who knows where the ideas come from? 

• Can they get sprinkled over my head like fairy dust? 
• Do they charge you like 10,000 stampeding stallions across the open plain?
• Are they wedged into my mind when I least expecting it?  
• Do ideas prowl the dark matter waiting to make a quantum leap into the present? 
• Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow Knows!!!! (Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha ...)

Well the shadow may know but I haven't a clue. 

All of those things are probably true. 

Most of the time though, ideas come to me when I'm trying to think of them but just as often they come to me when I'm not paying attention.  I'm always trying to solve problems and my mind is always looking for solutions.

I've started to list my ideas out every day so I don't lose them.  When I come back to them days, weeks, months later some of them stand out like real losers even though I thought they were brilliant when I wrote them down.  I suppose they're not all worth pursuing. 

​Oh - Animal Crackers! 
​
Life is a strange old bird. 

So I guess what I'm saying is - at least write down your thoughts and keep the ideas coming.  You aren't going to be able to do them all but at least if they're written down you can see which ones are no good and which ones still have potential down the line.  Less wasted time.

While ideas and studying and education are important and learning needs to be lifelong, there's no substitute for putting on your waders, hitching your braces, rolling up your sleeves and getting down to business.

I spent years thinking about painting and drawing and writing and making stuff but it was all happening in my head. It wasn't until I picked up my hammer that I saw what I needed to do. 
​
Nothing every gets done in your mind though.

It's in the doing that the job gets done.   

I'd better go pick up my tools and get to work. 

Christmas is sneaking up on me yet again.  It's like Elmer Fudd stalking Bugs Bunny.  Waskelly Wabbit!  

I don't often send Christmas cards.  I want to but I never seem to get it done.  Then it gets too late.  Then I feel like a total failure. 

Please don't tell anybody.  Let's just keep it our secret. 

I envy people who have the discipline to send out Christmas cards.  Part of my problem is I don't have a very good or up-to-date address list. For Christmas cards you need addresses.  Okay - I'll use that excuse this year. (again)

Now, look at me, Christmas has tip-toed in yet again.  It's really too late to post anything.  But it's not too late to let you know that I appreciate knowing you.  I appreciate hearing about your ups and downs and life's little miracles.  

Please consider this my Christmas card to you. I am thinking about you. I'm making plans, as I always do, to be more successful next year.  

So I hope you have a very Merry Christmas with tinsel and trees and garland and lights and baubles and turkey and potatoes and ... and ... and ... 

Whatever you celebrate, and I hope you do,
I hope it's a grand time and a big to do. 

We don't have much time on this tiny rock
Put on your bestest festivist partyist  frock. 

Find time to be kind to folks on that day. 
It makes this life worth living in every way. 

Be kind to your neighbors, be kind to your friends
Be the kind of person you'd like to know in the end. 

Celebrate the passing year with greatest of cheer
And remember we can all do much much better next year!

​Promise. 

Becoming unique is so incredibly difficult. 

When I started drawing I was just trying to be good enough.  I would practice and practice to see how well I could represent something that was real. After that I  started to try to draw things that suited my eye a bit more. I guess I'm still there trying.   

There's lots of advice on the internet and a lot of it is completely useless.   

I found a piece of advice that I think I can put into practice though.  They said that you need to try as many styles as you can until you come up with something that is uniquely you. Something that is recognizable as your own. 

You know a Picasso or a Matisse or a Van Gogh when you see it.  

If you look at some of the early work from those pioneers, you can see that they experimented with different styles until they came up with something that was uniquely their own.

I guess a unique style grows out of all your blood, sweat and tears.  You have to put in the work.

Some resonate with you.  Some don't.  

I have learned that I just have to keep on trying until something pops out. 

I don't think I have it all figured out totally but I'll keep on trying until I do.

This little something popped out recently.  I like it cause it makes me happy.