So it’s tradition that people list their New Year’s Resolutions on the 1st day of every year; resolutions: a generic list of imaginary hopes and dreams of unrealistic goals to accomplish within the next 365 days. I haven’t the need nor the desire to even waste my own time with such a list…much less yours. I don’t think I have ever in my  29 years of living, accomplished any of the resolutions I so foolishly set out for myself. And I say foolishly because it seems that my resolution list is the same every year! So I have decided to switch it up in 2010. Instead of listing all of the things I hope to accomplish this year, I will instead list five things that I want people around me to do to assist with my one main LIFE RESOLUTION, which is to simply remain at peace with the present. That’s all. This is all I want for today, for right now, for this very moment, is to be at 100% peace with every situation, circumstance, thought and action that comes my way. Here’s how you can help:

1. Do not talk to me about anything that happened in 2009 unless it evokes happy memories and genuine smiles. I am suffering delightfully from selective amnesia. The space in my brain that once housed pain, anger, hurt, sadness, etc. has been vaccuumed clean to make room for renewed faith and optimism. Seriously, you bring up anything other than a positive recollection; don’t be surprised if I look at you like YOU are the one with the mental deficiency…one that you actually need to seek help for.

2. Keep your negativity to yourself. I have lost all interest in hearing about the people that you hate and are jealous of; your grievances and your painbodies, and all the things going wrong in your life just as I have lost interest in hearing my own self speak on things other than ways I can continually show love to everyone around me, enemies and friends alike. You have an issue, grab a tissue, and take it up with God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, the Sun…whomever or whatever you speak to when you are alone in your room with only silence and your thoughts…that’s what I do…I find that the best solutions to my problems are given to me not from “friends” but from that calm voice in my own head. So, do not be offended if I politely ask you mid-gripe to kindly refrain from speaking anymore unhealthy gibberish…and would like to request that you do the same with me…cause we all slip sometimes, now don’t we?

3. Let me be me and accept me for who I am. I’m so over people who call me boring and accuse me of shutting off my life just because I no longer have a desire to go to any of these khara parties and bars and mingle with the khara crowd in this city and choose instead to chill in apt. 72 and play my instruments and read my books and write in my journals. I find this FUN, okay!? Just as I find going to see a play, or listening to the orchestra, or just sitting out on the Corniche to reflect more exciting alternatives to all of that “paaaarty and buuuuulllisht”! Not knocking anyone who prefers that lifestyle…just don’t try to bring me down for NOT preferring it! Please?

4. In the words of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, “Mind your business, that’s all, just mind your business!” If I want to discuss my personal life with you, I will do so on my own volition (I like that word…my little frog taught me that word). One of my favorite scriptures is in Thessalonians chapter 4 where Paul writes that we should “study to be quiet” and to do our “own business”. This is my daily mantra. I have found that one of my biggest mistakes is always wanting the opinions of others regarding personal issues in my life. This is dangerous. I am very fortunate to have one very close friend who I can tell any and everything to and I know she will understand. But not everyone is so lucky and not everyone is that understanding. I have learned that it’s best to keep most things to yourself…hmmm, looks like I may be pulling a resolution out of this one: “In 2010, Kristen Alyce is going to be very selfish with her personals.” So again, don’t take it in offense if you ask me something and I reply, “I’m not telling you.” or “It’s none of your business.” Just understand and learn from my example.

5. Understand that I will be 30 in about 6 months…so I will be focusing a lot of my time of getting my grown woman in order. There will be a lot of you that may not see me as much as you used to, may not hear from me as much. I may stop going to certain places and I may stop associating with certain people. I am going through a continual metamorphosis and thus have to do a bit of a clean sweep. I want to request one last time that those affected do not take it personally. I don’t feel as if I am better than anyone or that anyone is beneath me. Kristen just needs to take care of Kristen during these last six months of her 20’s as she is not going into 30 with any bs or unfinished business. Respect?

Happy New Year, all! May you too take up the habit of studying to be quiet, doing your own business, and ALWAYS remaining at peace with the present moment! For tips on peace in the present, might I suggest you read the book “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle. Changed my life! Let it change yours!

2010, babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!  Peace and Love,

Kristen Alyce

p.s. If this note sounds a bit bitchy, please forgive me…my Aunt Flo was jumping on my back during the writing of this entry.

Now in my

heart I

see clearly

a beautiful

face

shining back on me,

stained

with love

[4]

Here is a meadow where horses graze

amid wild blossoms of the spring and soft winds

blow aroma

of honey.

An excerpt from Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now“:

“The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an unsubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.”

Wow.

(Dedicated to Nika Marie <3 )

So ever since I saw the “Trees and Birds” video yesterday, I have been on this stop-motion  animation craze! These are a few I came across today. This first one is by Kirsten Lepore (www.kirstenlepore.com), who has been officially added to my “List of Uber-Cool People”! ”Sweet Dreams” is probably one of the cutest vids I have ever seen! Have a look!

Also by Kirsten! In a word: Cute!

For more on the amazing Miss Lepore, if you have twenty minutes to spare, check out this cool bio!

The next video was posted by Youtube subscriber “ozzzy88″, and features the story of Meggy and Eggy, by Deniz Yildiz, another on the list, had me smiling throughout!

Although the ending was a bit sad…

And last on the list, for now, is an animation made with Post-It notes! Directed by Bang-yao Liu, as his senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design. Very cool!

The following are a few colorings of a sketch I did a couple of years ago for a video treatment of the song “Pageant of the Bizarre” by Zero 7. I have recently begun adding more sketches but this one, thought incomplete, will always remain one of my favorites! <3

Here is a live performance of Zero 7’s “Pageant of the Bizarre”; however there is a new soloist replacing the tune’s original songstress Sia Fuller. Still a great performance…although no one can sing it like Sia!

This first video was done by the same stop-motion animator as the “Trees and Birds” video posted before. I love the music…and the symbolism in the story. It’s one of those videos whose interpretation is soley up to the viewer. What story did you come up with?

This is just another groovy Belle & Sebastian song…loving the animation here as well…very cute!

Created by the same artist as the above video…Nicole Benz is her name…and she’s good!

So I came across this video yesterday during the course of my discovery of the music of Belle & Sebastian. I remember an former co-worker of mine at Tower Records in Atlanta being a die-hard B & S fan…I was always curious about their music but the curiousity was sparked again yesterday after learning that Summer Flynn from the film “500 Days of Summer” was a fan as well. The video below was originally created for the B & S song “Piazza, New York Catcher” but I think the replacement song is even better! Adorable animation, very sweet tune!  Enjoy! (Song lyrics below)

The world keeps spinning round and round

Where we’re headed, no one knows

But the sun above’s stillshining down

So where the today leads I will go

And if you’re with me I will smile

But if you’re not then I’ll smile, too

For the love inside will still be there

Where it always is…deep down inside of me.

So I’ll live life day by day

And let each moment flow right through

And as the hours pass away

I’ll forget to think of you

And if you’re with me I will smile

But if you’re not, then I’ll smile too

For the love I feel will still be there

It will never leave…deep down inside of me

For he who sins a second time
Wakes a dead soul to pain,
And draws it from its spotted shroud,
And makes it bleed again,
And makes it bleed great gouts of blood,
And makes it bleed in vain.

—The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

So yea, we have all been there. Boy meets girl-boy likes girl-girl likes boy-boy wants to get to know girl better-girl says why not, besides she’s single now-boy invites over to chill out-girl doesn’t mind that chill out leads to make out-boy doesn’t mind that make out leads to more chil out-girl doesn’t mind that more chill out leads to more smiles-boy doesn’t mind that more smiles leads to even more chill out which leads even more make out-girl begins to develop special feelings-boy begins to develop special feelings-girl begins to think that she may have hooked a mature one-boy begins to become nervous about the special feelings he’s developed-girl maintains honesty and loyalty in the relationship-boy begins to show signs of mistrust and mixed feelings-girl begins to suffer as a result of boy’s insecurities-boy begins to doubt how he feels and looks for a way out-girl picks up on this but feels that he’s wrong as she understands what he is going through and why-boy doesn’t know what he wants: a big part feels that this could be a keeper; a small part feels that there is a safer option out there for him…one that doesn’t involve love.

But girl believes in love although she has been knocked down in love many times. Girl understands that in life, all experiences are those that enable us to grow; and that they are not to be held on to but released into the “universe”, so to speak; just another marking in our life’s diary, there only for reference, not further elaboration.

However, boy cannot seem to forget. He uses everything as a basis for comparison. Every new experience is measured against the last one. Boy holds grudges and makes excuses. He blames his mother. He blames his past. Boy doesn’t trust because he doesn’t want to trust; because he remembers where trusting led him. Boy doesn’t let go of the past because he doesn’t know how to let go of the past. Perhaps he has never been taught.

Girl sympathizes with boy; because she has been in the same predicament. She remembers her last relationship and how she made the one she loved “suffer as a result of her insecurities”. She remembers where that led her…and where it led him. Girl had to learn, through her heartbreak, that she has to begin every new relationship with a clean slate; that she has to never lose faith in love, and therefore always trust her heart. Girl learned that she must never forget God’s promises to her, and that she must continue to live every moment as a promise fulfilled.

Boy wants to believe this; in fact a part of him does. But what boy doesn’t realize is that we live in a world created for love but not made for it. We live in a time of promiscuity and lasciviousness; relationships fall apart at a rate exceedingly higher than those that persevere. We live in an era where people always want more than they have; or so they think. Girl wants boy to understand that if something is meant for us, then this is what we’ll have. We do not necessarily have to overly pursue it. Girl wants to teach boy how to just flow with what he presently has and the good feelings that comes along with it; she wants him to stop bringing unnecessary stress on himself by worrying about the what ifs and maybes; she wants him to just chill out.

Because girl knows that chill out leads to more chill out and more chill out leads to more make out and more make out leads to more smiles…and girl is missing her smiles.

However, girl is a girl after all. So girl begins to think. And girl begins to wonder if its worth it after all. Girl remembers the patience she’s always had with those she’s loved. She too remembers the heartache it brought when things ended up crumbling in the end. A part of her wants to just walk away from it all; let him deal with his issues on his own; find his own way, and in whole, find her own. Yet another part of her feels that everyone needs that friend will be there to tell him/her right when the thinking is wrong. She feels that everyone needs that person who can restore their faith in love. And she feels that there is no honor higher than to be that person for him…for anyone…but presently, him.

And that is why girl just can’t let go…