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This blog is for all the kids who are still in school right now and for the adults who remember better days

So here it is, my annual birthday rant. October 2nd. The birthday of Ghandi, Charlie Chaplin, Sting..... and myself.

I think birthdays stopped being fun and exciting when I reached 26. There's something about getting over the "quarter of a century" mark that really stings. Now here I am. 32. Life is on cruise control and I'm just going through the motions of life. Paying bills, going to work, running errands, etc. I feel like adulthood is just one big repetitious loop.

There's really not much play time anymore. The extent of playtime is sitting down on the couch and playing Halo 3 for a couple of hours or maybe catching LOST on Tivo but that's a rare thing for me. The rest of it is "I gotta do this. I gotta do that."

No one told me that being an adult was gonna be this lame. If I had known that I probably would've been more adventurous in my childhood years. When I reflect on things I really value my time now. My wife only gets 2 weeks vacation a year and we normally save it for holidays, which, when you really think about it isn't a whole lot of time considering the hours of work we all put in every week. A friend from England said they get a month vacation time. That's more like it. I don't recall the exact countries but I know that some of them get up to two or three months! My point is....

ENJOY YOUR YOUTH.

Enjoy it not because you're gonna get old and die someday but because it's the time when you can really experiment and do all the stuff in life you want to do without having to adhere to a schedule or some lame ass boss. BE SPONTANEOUS! Get out of the house! Get in some (not too illegal) trouble. Try new things because I guarantee you, when you hit the working world you're gonna wonder to yourself "What happened?! I have all this money and I can't spend it on anything because I have no TIME.

With that said I have some news to report on the Dantat front.

The picture above is the latest painting I completed for "Ghosts of Luckless Gulch" I'm tellin' you folks, I feel like this is the best work I've done in a long long time.

I don't know why this slipped my mind but if you're an SCBWI member I have an article in this quarters newsletter about being a unique artist. I'll post the actual article up on my site later.

I'd like to announce that I just agreed to illustrate some books....

First off is Lisa Yee's upcoming Chapter Book series "Just Bobby" for Arthur Levine Books. Lisa, as you know, is the talented YA novelist and kinda-sorta neighbor of mine

Second is Tammi Sauer's picture book "Chicken Dance" by Sterling Publishing. I'm not only excited about this book becaue it has a character named Elvis Poultry but becaue this is only the second time I get to actually design the entire book on my own (First time being the Guild of Geniuses)

Lastly, Hyperion Books has asked me to illustrate "Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo" by Ayun Halliday. Hey, the butts of various animals are always funny and a child pleaser and it will give me a great excuse to go to the LA Zoo for research.

OK, that's it. Go out! Be spontaneous!