Special Update: The Month That Never Was

December has...not been a great month for me. Some of you may already know this, but close to the beginning of the month, the downward slide started with the Breakfast from Hell. While transporting a bowl of cereal, I spilled milk on my laptop. I tried to clean it all up quickly, even employing a vacuum to aid me, but while things looked good for a while, all of the sudden, POOF! Dark Sojourn, my trustly laptop for not even 2 years, was how I like my bread: well toasted. I still have fantasies that one day, I'll go over, hit the power button, and it will gaily spring back to life, but it never does. Suffice it to say, I was thoroughly depressed, especially when I had some big vids planned for this month.

Then a week later, admittedly due to me leaving my Sirius radio on, my battery died. I managed to get my car jumped, but the next day, the battery was dead again. An attempt at jumping it with my cables failed miserably. We thought the battery dead for good until my dear father, wonderful man that he is, brought over his bigger jumper cables and used a Phoenix Down on Choco-Ra. (Side note: I nicknamed my car that because since it's a Nissan and therefore Japanese, I call it a daikaiju, and its horn sounds like a Chocobo's WARK! Thus, Choco-Ra.) My car's been running ever since, but needless to say, that period of time when the Choco-Ra was dead scared the crap out of me.

Money's been especially tight, too, as hours have been lean at work. It's mostly due to the fact that we did a lot of hiring. That should be getting back on track this week, though, and I'm working to pay off some of my debts (including my student loans) so I can start taking over my car insurance from my dad. I can get insurance on the Nissan Sentra for around $80 a month, if I had the $80 to spare. Right now, I don't.

The one good thing about having a little extra time on my hands due to not traveling as much and not having my own laptop is that I've been able to make some plans for the return of Shadowbird Studios whenever I get a new compie. Yes, I have not given up on Shadowbird Studios; in fact, I am determined to come back better than ever with new episodes and new shows. Among such prospective projects will be a cooking show called Noms TV, once I get a handheld camera and my love and I get better lighting in her kitchen. I've been watching a lot of Iron Chef America and Chopped lately to get ideas for recipes and tips on how to be able to create my own recipes, although I do also have planned some special episodes where I put my own twist on famous chefs' recipes (specifically my food idol, Alton Brown).

I've also FINALLY got full notes on the Shinkenger series! I'm planning on making one big SR for the series, a separate SR for the crossover with Decade, and then SR Shorties for each movie. In a way, I'll kinda be doing a Shinkenger month to make up for the fact that I've had to delay the review so many times! It'll be my first month-long special event when I get to make videos again, so I really hope that all of you will be able to support me in this. I need to get another computer first, though; hopefully it'll be a good editing rig with plenty of storage space. And since I was able to ascertain that my old laptop's hard drive is still good, I can buy an enclosure, move my stuff over, and format it to use as extra space! YAY!

Long story short (too late; apologies to JewWario for that line-steal): this month has been really crappy. In fact, I'm just now finally getting over being sick over the Christmas holiday with a brutal cold. In retrospect, it's a good thing I wasn't able to make vids, because by Christmas Eve, my voice was shot, but I digress. But if anything, I've been able to take time and do something I don't normally do: plan for the future. I normally try not to plan things because, well, whenever I make plans, things usually don't go anywhere close to how I plan them, and usually not in a good way (sole exception: my trip to San Francisco in October 2008 which was BADASS). But I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head, and when I get a new compie, I will be ready to implement them. I even have a loose schedule of vids set up. Now I just need to write all this stuff down...

I apologize for my absence, and I thank you all for your patience. If you need to get a hold of me for something, e-mail shadowbirdstudios@gmail.com or drop me a line on the Shadowbird Studios Facebook page or on twitter (shadowbird712). I still am able to check those, thanks largely to the miracle that is my DSi. Until we meet again, this is the Shadowbird, Jeremy Keil. May the past shape your present, but may it never limit your future. Peace.