Drove up to Springfield, Missouri with my dad today for a little shopping. We stopped by the Wilson’s Creek civil war battlefield. It was fairly interesting, but we didn’t take a lot of time to look around. We basically did a drive through, and I took the following picture:

Found the following items in the pocket of a coat that I have apparently not worn for quite some time:

A pack of Swisher Sweets, a token from the Reagan Years Arcade, and ticket stubs for A Might Wind, Bruce Almighty and Dumb & Dumber 2.

I can’t promise pictures every day, but once in a while I’ll post a pic of something I like. And so, for your consideration:

New desktop wallpaper.

I’ve been languishing in this little town for just over half a month, and I haven’t really accomplished much of anything (I guess that’s technically implied in the meaning of the word “languishing”). Here’s a little video I shot with my iPhone on the first day I arrived here. It shows the downtown, main square of the town:

So, yeah, nothing very interesting has happened to met yet, and my situation has not improved. However, in my defense, I was sick for a whole week with some kind of stomach ailment. Don’t know if it was the flu or some other as-of-yet undiagnosed intestinal issue (probable). Just one more thing to add to the the long list of physical impairments. I have a dream of one day being physically whole and healthy, but motivation, like gasoline and gold, is at a premium.

I did have one job interview so far, and I’d thought it looked promising (though far from ideal). But I got a message saying that, though they didn’t want to hire me for the open position (the dangers of being overqualified), they did want to talk to me about some type of managerial training program. When I called back I was told that the person I’d interviewed with was no longer with the company and that they had no information regarding the fate of the people he had contacted.

So, my days consist of hanging out with my dad and planning my next strategies. There really aren’t many employment opportunities here for someone like me. There are a lot of medical job and a lot of manufacturing jobs, so that pretty much excludes me. I’m still hoping for some kind of miracle and that some low-stress, easy-going job will materialize in the next week or two.

Despite the small-town vibes, this place is really quite lovely. Lots of nature to enjoy. The other day two does and three fawns came prancing through our backyard. That was kind of cool. And I took this picture of some kind of moth hanging out on the patio of our local library:

The downside is that it’s so hot here, it’s nearly impossible to spend any time outside. But it’ll cool off in a month or so which will make it possible to spend some time in the great outdoors. Until then, my posts may be a bit dull.

In other news I’ve decided to concentrate as much as possible on my writing. It has been my intention for many, many years to write a book. I came pretty close to doing so several years ago, but I unfortunately got sidetracked along the way. I think I’m a decent writer and capable of accomplishing such a task. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and when I was in high school I actually won a couple of writing contests for short stories (yes, I realize that was eons ago). Now if I could just think of a story idea. The story I had begun to write all those years ago is something I hope to one day return to, but it’s not the story I feel I want to tell right now. Maybe only other writers could understand that.

That’s it for now, I think. Pretty dull, I know. But who says I can’t write 500 words on nothing?

The journey to my place of exile was rather uneventful. I drove half the distance myself in my six year-old Jetta before renting a trailer to tow my car the rest of the way. There was nothing wrong with the car; it just made more sense to tow it behind the moving truck.

We (my dad and me) didn’t make many stops. There’s really not too much to see on the southerly route out of California. Just a lot of desert. But there was one place we stopped so I could snap a few pictures, an old art-deco Conoco station in Shamrock, Texas. Here are a few of the better ones:

Now, I don’t pretend to be some great photographer. I like taking pictures, and I even took Photography 101 some years ago. Unfortunately, that was in the days of film cameras, and I’ve forgotten most of what I learned. Plus, I have no idea how these new cameras work. I have a pretty decent camera (a Canon 7D), which I bought for its video capabilities, but I’m pretty much lost when it comes to taking decent pictures.

But I wanted to get some pictures of this old Conoco station because I love art-deco. If I could live in a city that was all art-deco I would love that. Fun fact: apparently this Conoco station was used as the inspiration for one of the buildings in Pixar’s Cars. Pretty cool.

I’ve decided to bring back The Art of Stu, my old personal blog that has been defunct for many moons. The reason for this? Life-altering events.

Several factors, among them and most prominent being the wretched estate of the U.S. economy but also a “perfect storm” of other circumstances, have forced me to relocate. So, this weekend I’ll be leaving Southern California (where I’ve resided for the past 26 years and also where the mecca of my chosen profession lies) for an indefinite period of time and moving to stay with my dad in northern Arkansas.

The being with my dad part isn’t what is bothersome to me (that’s actually the part I’m looking forward to). It’s the relocation to an 11,000-person, semi-rural town with little prospects of any interesting employment for the foreseeable future. But that is the fate (albeit, fingers crossed, temporary) I’m being forced to accept. The economy is in shambles and work is scarce, especially for a compositor of moderate skill who had the misfortune of working for a company that was not headquartered in Los Angeles when he got sacked. So, without many prospects and with no money, I had to do what I had to do.

But I’m trying to look at it like some kind of adventure. Who knows what will await me there? Maybe I’ll meet some interesting people. Maybe I’ll now have the time and focus to work on my writing (something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time). Life’s a journey, and I’ve recently (in the last few years and especially in the last few months) encountered some major hurdles and roadblocks. I’m sick (literally), broke, and jobless, and I guess I’m hoping that this blog will be therapeutic for me. I’m hoping that slowly but surely I can find my way back the Stuart that is physically whole and making progress toward a more secure future. It’s going to take a lot of soul-searching and some hard work to become that person, and I guess this blog will be the record of my progress. I’ll try to make it interesting along the way. Where I’m headed that seems like wishful thinking, but one thing’s for sure. I’m going to give it my best shot.