2013

When I sat down a few days ago to write a long retrospective of my 2013, I just got tired thinking about it. So I didn’t do it. Not because I was tired thinking of the many things that happened and many things I did all throughout that year, but because I was just feeling lazy writing on this blog. What could this possibly mean? There was a time I wrote here in this blog almost every day. I think on average, I wrote something like several blog posts a week. But lately it’s become less and less. I just wrote here things that were of extraordinary significance.

I briefly entertained the idea of having a New Year’s resolution asserting that I would write more on this blog. But in the end, I think it’s kind of stupid. I mean, stupid thinking I could change things with a New Year’s resolution. Hardly anyone follows through on resolutions, am I right? Look back last year on all your resolutions and you just might embarrass yourself.

No, if changes are needed in my life, I don’t need a man-made date to make me decide to do it. I just have to do it, right?

So OK, 2013. There have been THREE major things that made 2013 memorable for me.

The first is the re-release of WASTED at Summer Komikon. I had announced the release of the reprint in April 1, which everyone thought was a joke. But the real joke was that it was, in fact, true. I really had fun with that.

The second memorable thing of 2013 was our trip to ALGERIA. It was a trip filled with uncertainty because we didn’t have visas. We were entering a country we knew nothing about. We didn’t speak the language, and we knew it was a culture that was radically different from ours.

But the amazing thing is, it turned out to be quite an experience. I loved our Algeria trip. I loved attending a comics festival there and meeting all these awesome cartoonists from all over the world. I now count them as some of my friends.

The third memorable thing is our trip to PARIS. If Algeria was my first experience with Africa, Paris was my first experience with Europe. For many years Paris was simply an impossible dream. We often dream about going there and having coffee, looking up the Eiffel Tower and eat snails. Those were fun dreams. But they were simply that. Dreams. As late as two weeks before the trip I was still skeptical we would actually be going there. It wasn’t until we did set foot in Paris that we realized it was true.

And it was amazing. I loved Paris. I loved the cold weather. I loved the Architecture. I loved the art, the culture, it’s unique character.

My knee had been giving me trouble in a walking city like Paris, but I didn’t let it stop me. I walked slow, but it made me all the more appreciate of what was around me.

Ilyn and I freaked when we thought we saw Peter Capaldi emerge from one of the Metro stations. At least I thought it was Peter Capaldi. From a distance it looked like him. Ilyn was initially skeptical, but as we looked further, we began to realize it may really well have been him. I wanted to call out to him, but he walked a little too fast for us. And before we knew it, he was gone. Was it really Peter? We’ll never know.

My 2013 was great. I understand that it may well have been a really bad year for other people, but I guess let’s all just wish that 2014 will be a far better year for all of us.