I recently shared an ONION meme (satire periodical) about how a local sketch artist draws on trains to make people uncomfortable. I hash-tagged #me. I gave it a long thought. Seriously, that was something I fuckin enjoyed doing when I was young. Sketch drawing on the train, in the park, at the beach, wherever. It was always a joy. And yes, back in the day, some people would get uncomfortable about me sketching them. That said, they kept it to themselves, and I was able to do what I needed. Also, to be fair, I did make sure that I did not make anyone too uncomfortable. That would just be obnoxious. It was a great time to pull something like that off. People (especially on the trains) did all sorts of interesting things with interesting poses. Reading a book (real book), reading a newspaper, sleeping, talking, daydreaming, sleeping while standing up, sleeping on another person, etc. So many interesting results, clothing, and gestures. Now that has all changed. Almost everyone is engaged on their devices, making the same faces and the same uninteresting poses. To make matters more difficult, people get visibly vocal about their agitation when you sketch them, which is bizarre because the same people don't seem to have problems videotaping themselves or others with their devices. That makes me sad.

Despite this, I've decided that analog sketching is something I want to pursue again in the future. While I may not sketch on trains, I definitely plan to do it outdoors. It's a part of me that I want to explore and rediscover.

So, what's the point of this blog? I suppose it’s to remind us that we shouldn't get too comfortable with the idea of making others too comfortable. I'll leave it at that!

“We're all awkward understudies wearing comfortable shoes, getting comfortable with doing it wrong.” - Frank Turner