Understanding students can be quite a challenging task for any teacher. On one hand, how does a teacher grant the developing students the right amount of credit in their abilities to learn more advanced subjects and think critically? Another task is how do teachers encourage their students to learn about themselves as unique individuals? Based on my previous studies in early childhood education and how animation in children's shows can engage young viewers in new insights if well written, I feel that these are the two most important questions one would start asking when working with and taking time to understand children. I have mentioned in a previous post how children’s programming can cover such topics in an effective and creative manner. In this blog post, I will be reviewing and analyzing an episode of Arthur and Hey Arnold to answer the two questions I inquire at the start using the developmental theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. The episodes I will be covering are Arthur’s Substitute Teacher Trouble and New Teacher, starting with a synopsis of the episodes and where the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky play an important role.
        In the Arthur episode, Arthur’s Substitute Teacher Trouble, Arthur and his best friend, Buster are lamenting how hard the work their teacher, Nigel Ratburn gives them and their fellow classmates. They are both seen exiting the school with a pile of books and papers, which appears to make their homework nights extremely daunting. Breaking a fourth wall, (which often takes place at the start of each episode of Arthur), Arthur turns to the viewer, describing the mountain of homework Mr. Ratburn gives them. He adds as an example how Mr. Ratburn must always make everything into a learning experience, even something as simple as a field trip to the zoo. Buster adds that sometimes he wishes their teacher would just disappear after tripping on a crack in the sidewalk.
     The episode proceeds with Mr. Ratburn needing to take some time off due to a sore throat, unable to carry on with the class for the remainder of the day. The school principal, Mr. Haney informs the students their teacher will be absent and during his time off, they will have a substitute teacher. The students are then left wondering who will be filling in for Mr. Ratburn. Later, Mr. Haney informs them that Mr. Ratburn’s sister, Rodentia Ratburn will cover for him, much to the children’s’ dismay in concern that she might be harder a teacher than Mr. Ratburn. The next day, Rodentia introduces herself to the students and it turns out that her teaching style is a far cry from that of her brother’s. The approach she takes is incredibly basic for a 3rd grade level. The subject matters and materials she provides the children is too easy and unchallenging, e.g., reciting the 1x’s table, mixing of colors and narrating in a high-pitched voice while utilizing a puppet. Inevitably, the children find their given tasks boring and look forward to Mr. Ratburn’s return.
     When Mr. Ratburn gets back to work, his students celebrate and welcome him back. Without hesitation, Mr. Ratburn begins the lesson of the day, the episode ending with Arthur and Buster delighted by how challenging the assignment is.         
         This episode adds a new insight into the relationship between Nigel Ratburn and his students. At first, the 3rd class complains that the amount of homework they are given is too difficult compared to what other 3rd grade students from other classrooms are given, (which had been mentioned before in a few episodes prior). Arthur and his friends look at Mrs. Sweetwater’s students and envy how easy going she is on them. It only takes a substitute teacher who fails to grasp how truly capable of learning challenging concepts and subjects that they start to appreciate Mr. Ratburn’s more challenging teaching style. The reason Mr. Ratburn appears to be so strict with the students regarding homework and their studies is because he gives students credit for their capabilities to learn more complex subjects, think critically and problem solve on their own. Those are the types of traits that demonstrate a tremendous sign of respect that a teacher has for their students. Rodentia Ratburn represents an example of a teacher lacking the skills to comprehend what type of curriculum is ideal for the 3rd grade level, which is the main contrast between her and her brother.                   To delve into more detail, here’s where Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory plays a role in this episode. Between the ages of 0-2 years, children learn to rely on their coordination senses via developing motor skills, which this stage is known as the Sensorimotor stage. The next stage of development is the Preoperational stage, which occurs between ages 2-7 years. During that time, children learn to think symbolically and expand their grammar to communication and describe concepts in full. They also rely on imagination as well as instinct despite their skills in abstract thought still being underdeveloped. Once the students are between the ages of 7-11 years old, the Concrete Operational stage involves thinking more critically and plausibly about concrete ideas as well as understanding in-depth conservation. Even so, the types of games children play together involve rules and problem solving. Last, but not least is the Formal Operations stage, which takes place at age 11 and onwards. By then, students can formulate abstract thought and think theoretically and hypothetically, building up on previous knowledge.         
        Given the ages of the main student characters in Arthur, eight to nine years old which places them in 3rd grade, their developmental level would be at the Concrete Operational stage. The way that their substitute teacher teaches and talks to the students falls into a strange mix between the later part of the Sensorimotor stage (age 2) and the Preoperational stage (up to 5 years), which is no surprise as the day goes on, the children start to feel disenchanted. Because these are subject matters they already know and understand, Mr. Ratburn’s class realize that the harder a challenge is, the more they can strengthen their skills and build up on previous ones. Perhaps the Brain’s remark “for goodness sake’s, we’re in 3rd grade, you know” to Rodentia Ratburn sums up the scenario best as well as his desire to run home to his computer in desperate need of a challenging activity.
​       The way that Lev Vygotsky’s theories play a role in this episode is how his theory of Zone of Proximal Development can be applied. To offer a belief overview of what the theory covers, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is represented in three circles ranking from large to medium to small. The largest circle represents what a child has yet to learn and struggles with doing on his/her own, which is outside the zone. The middle circle, which represents the zone itself, is where the instructors come in to help the child master the skill he/she is trying to learn. It covers what the child can do with help. The circle in the center of the previous ones, which is inside the zone, represents what the child already knows how to do on his/her own. As seen in Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble, the students already know all the basic material needed to progress in their skills, but find the more advanced material is too difficult. After Arthur and his classmates endure an entire day without challenging their current knowledge, they are delighted at the end when Mr. Ratburn assigns them advanced math problems and come to fully appreciate his teaching style. What is happening here is that when the students quietly proceed to work on the assignment, they are relying on what they already know. Although we don’t see how well the students perform on the assignment, this would be the time when they will know which areas they have the most hinderance and which areas highlight their forte. From there, it would be the teacher's job to pinpoint where the students need to go back and review upon grading their work, which we see many examples of Mr. Ratburn doing in other episodes.
     In the episode of Hey Aronold, New Teacher, the students start their day with an announcement from Principal Wartz informing them that their teacher, Miss Slovak is retiring from teaching to pursue a career in golfing, which the students cheer. They are indifferent, however when they meet their new teacher, Robert Simmons, a good natured, charismatic, compassionate man who is excited to meet the class he will be teaching. Mr. Simmons is seen working with the students utilizing a unique teaching style in which he helps them embrace their own unique qualities. In addition to the curriculum, he even encourages the children to ask the “why” questions. This comes off as rather banal and trite at first, so the class begins to rebel in hopes of getting rid of Mr. Simmons. Once the revolt takes an emotional effect on Mr. Simmons, thus the students successfully eliminate him, the thoughtful and caring instructor is replaced by the ruthless and harsh Mr. Goose, formally known as Lieutenant Major Goose. As his former title implies, Mr. Goose’s teaching style is similar to that of drills that suit the army. It ends up taking a toll on the students’ wellbeing, making them realize how much Mr. Simmons genuinely cared and respected them as individuals. They remedy the situation by going over to Mr. Simmons’ house to apologize. Although he is skeptical at first, the students go out of their way to show they are truly remorseful. They even take the time to demonstrate their appreciation for him as a teacher and a person by taking the lessons he taught them so far and showing how he has helped them grow. Mr. Simmons is deeply moved by the students' display of kindness and wants to be their teacher again. Before Mr. Simmons officially returns, Arnold and his classmates challenge Mr. Goose with a bombardment of ‘why’ questions, causing the lieutenant intense anxiety and quitting the job. The episode ends with the entire class welcoming Mr. Simmons back and then spending a sunny afternoon on a field trip.
        This episode of Hey Arnold shares some similarities to the episode of Arthur mentioned early on. Both Mr. Simmons and Mr. Ratburn have different teaching styles, yet both these characters are seen utilizing unique methods. What they also have in common is that they both encourage their students to think more critically than they normally would. Mr. Ratburn assigns tasks that advance his students' previous knowledge to the next level and Mr. Simmons encourages the 'why' questions, which are perhaps amongst the most important traits any teacher could have. At first, their students wish their situations were different because they do not see the benefits of the ways in which their teachers teach, but once they see the alternative, the latter encourages them to appreciate the former. Although Rodentia Ratburn and Mr. Goose are not the same personality wise, they both represent teaching methods that do a major disservice for child development, one being on the softer extreme of the spectrum and the other being on the rougher extreme.       
       The aspects in which Jean Piaget’s developmental theories can be applied to New Teacher from Hey Arnold would be to evaluate the third stage of cognitive development, Concrete Operational as brought up earlier. Because the main characters of Hey Arnold are around the same age as the ones from Arthur, Arthur’s class being in the third grade and Arnold’s class in the fourth, we see examples of where the students are put in positions where they cover concepts and apply them to concrete scenarios. At that age, aside from learning basic math as a foundation (academics), we see examples of how the children question their own thinking and evaluate their own ideas as well as understanding others. We also see that the characters from Hey Arnold learn how to deal with their everyday stress through critical thought and putting things in perspective. The reason Mr. Simmons’ teaching approaches surpass what an overtly strict teacher does is because the more anxiety inducing the learning environment becomes, the less the student is able to put things into perspective. Worse yet, the less the learning environment leaves little to no room for the student to examine their own thinking and that of others, the less critical their understanding becomes and thus their further development is stifled.
         The way in which the theories of Lev Vygotsky can be highlighted in this episode is that the viewer sees that the students are already capable of thinking on a standard academic level. Before Mr. Simmons became Arnold and his classmates’ new teacher, the students already abide by the standard techniques taught by their previous teacher, Miss Slovak. After her departure, the role Mr. Simmons represents is one that genuinely respects the students’ capabilities as to how understanding themselves as individuals helps them academically and in life in general, that he goes out of his way to inspire and encourage them to reach their full potential. The circle outside the Zone of Proximal Development, (what the learner can’t do on his/her own), in this case would be that the students haven’t learned how to think more abstractly and outside the box, let alone ask themselves the ‘why’ questions. With Mr. Simmons’ assistance, the children learn how to develop this important and often sidelined skill. On a side note, Hey Arnold creator, Craig Bartlett stated in an interview why Miss Slovak was replaced. “She was too much of a caricature. That seemed a little bit too simple – it wasn’t smart enough. What if we put, instead, a great teacher who really cares about the students and is just full of passion?” Bottom-line is that Mr. Simmons is the type of character that best depicts how individual and critical thinking would be applied to Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and the viewer sees examples as such when contrasting him to other teacher characters like Miss Slovak and Mr. Goose. Going back to Mr. Goose, we see he is too far to an extreme that he leave absolutely no room whatsoever for open discussion.
        It’s seldom to see that many children’s programming cover a topic as what defines a good teacher who truly respects their students with regards to their capabilities and individuality. Even so, such qualities are hard to come by with real life teachers. The most important questions teachers might often ask themselves is are they giving the students enough credit for what they can do as independent thinkers and advance in their skill level and are they being respected and encouraged as individuals? Children’s programming such as Arthur (which is geared towards edutainment) and Hey Arnold have had writers on the shows who took the time to study the issues kids face and how they properly confront the situation through teamwork and problem solving. For this blog post, I just examined an episode from both these shows that best covered how a teacher demonstrated genuine respect for their students and describing how the child developmental theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky play a role. In the episode of Arthur, Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, the students feel that the homework their teacher, Nigel Ratburn gives them is too difficult and stressful. At first, they don’t realize how his teaching style benefits them in contrast to their fellow third grades from the other classrooms. Upon enduring an entire day with the unchallenging and over simplistic, Rodentia Ratburn, the students begin to appreciate Mr. Ratburn’s approaches and how it challenges their academic skills. The episode of Hey Arnold, New Teacher marks the introduction of Mr. Simmons, who has a unique way of teaching his students, which Arnold and his classmates fail to appreciate and understand how it advances their development. It took an overtly strict teacher for them to realize how being able to think critically and philosophically improves their well-being, a trait that their previous teacher lacked as well. ​
          If more teachers take time to get to know their students' strengths and weaknesses in academics and in creative thinking, even so find ways to advocate for students to reach their full potential in both those areas, it will make a whole world of difference in a child's life. Students will garner more confidence in their capabilities and understanding themselves as individuals will even spark a greater desire to continue learning and growing. 

Hello everyone, 
      I hope your 2021 is turning out to be a better year than the last. Today, I'll be providing a quick update on where the Pascal and the Timeless Hotel remake is at and what I have in store once the current project is completed. 
      As of today, the book is in an editing phase in which I'm going over each page and panel, checking for typos, anything that may need rewording or pieces of the art that needs a few slight touches. Initially, I was shooting for early February to have everything done, but I've ended up moving everything down to late March/early April. 
       In addition to Pascal, I have been preparing my next project, which is a manga series I have kept under wraps since I completed the original Pascal back in 2015​. I won't give away too much today, but I have been taking courses on drawing manga/anime and other drawing courses online to sharpen and hone my skills necessary for this book, plus doing the research needed. 
         More updates to come later this month.  

 Hi everyone, 
      Hope you are all well and staying in positive spirits during this bizarre Christmas Holiday season. I have a few updates in regards to Pascal and Boston Powers 3.
       Pascal and the Timeless Hotel remake is slated to be completed on February 4th, 2021 and afterwards, I will be organizing publication with Dan Mazur via Boston Comics Roundtable's publishing wing, Ninth Art Press. Also Boston Powers 3 is finally available for purchase. It has been a pleasure working with Patrick Flaherty on the project and bringing his characters to life from the scripted pages to full-color illustrations. 
        Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas and Holiday season and stay in hopes for the New Year that 2021 will bring more joy after the sadness of 2020. 

Hi everyone! This is simply a quick follow-up from my previous update, so I won't go into detail about the photo I attached below. Rather, I'll let it speak for itself. 

That being said, I will add another update sometime before Christmas.
​Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone. I trust you all are staying in strong and good spirits even throughout the hardships 2020 has brought us. This is another quick update on the current status of Pascal and the Timeless Hotel. In the spring, because of all that had happened, I moved the completion date and planned to have all the pages ready by the end of this month. However, due to a last minute idea consideration and that I wasn't completely satisfied with the look and feel of the ending, I've decided to spend a little more time on the project to perfect my vision. This is pertaining to the art technique I created myself and because the Pascal remake is my first project in which I'm introducing this concept, I decided it was best to devote my time to further develop it until I feel it's presentable. 
Also, I'm still working on Boston Powers 3. Currently, we're doing edits on the art and should have everything completed by mid-November. As far as my blog is concerned, although I don't have one planned for the month of November, I do have an outline I've been working on. I probably won't get around to writing the completed post until after my contribution to Boston Powers 3 is completed, but I will be adding more updates and details throughout the coming weeks. 
Have a happy and fun Halloween and I will keep you posted sometime next week. 

It's incredibly rare to come across a television station that remains faithful to its roots since its debut. In order to keep up with the times, they'll make drastic changes solely to appeal to the younger generation while alienating the older generation. To use an example, stations like Cartoon Network, which started as a 2/47 channel known for airing all sorts of animation, from classics, to recent releases, to indie, to Anime and giving a platform to rising creators, has become a far cry from its original goal. (That will be a whole other topic on its own). Although change can be good and is also even important, often times stations take these changes a bit too far to  keep up with the times. It's as if their predecessors don't matter as much as when they were most active and/or when they were still alive with the abundance works they contributed to our culture. This brings me to Classic Arts Showcase, a channel known for airing clips showcasing the fine arts. 
For those of you who are unfamiliar, Classic Arts Showcase (CAS) is an American 24-hour channel that hosts a variety of clips based in the classical arts, such as ballet, chamber, animation, musical theater, operatic performances, museum art, etc. The station is non-commercial and runs via satellite. Initially based out in Burbank, California (now Los Angeles) and is still on the air since its launch May 3rd, 1994, CAS continues to carry out its mission. The channel still retains the same format as it did upon its debut, while adding new clips, yet CAS never has to do anything special to keep up with the times to get its message across in order to stay relevant. What is it about the approach that still resonates to this day? To answer that question, I'll start with the organization's founder's early career, the late Lloyd E. Rigler and his vision when he conceived CAS, the reception the channel received over the years and how it measures up today in comparison to stations that fall into the mainstream banner like MTV that have turned away from their roots. 
Lloyd Eugene Rigler (May 3rd 1915 - December 7th 2003) was a businessman, who later became a philanthropist. Born in Lehr, North Dakota, his parents owned and ran a general store catered to their local farming community in Wishek, North Dakota where he and his family resided. In his late teens, Rigler moved to live with relatives in Chicago, Illinois and worked to save up for college. He attended the University of Illinois and graduated 1939. Afterwards, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater. As a means to support himself, Lloyd Rigler worked for a marketing research agency, conducting interviews. He later worked as a salesman at Decca Records in Los Angles. Initially, Rigler signed up to take part in the U.S. Navy during WWII, but due to poor eyesight from the left eye, he stayed in San Pedro California throughout the war. After the Second World War ended, Rigler met Lawrence E. Deutsch while he was working in the food industry. They became business partners, creating the national brand, Adolph's Meat Tenderizers, (which is owned by Mc.Cormack & Company). After selling their company, the business partners started a venture capital firm, the Ledler Corporation. 
After Deutsch's death in 1977, Lloyd Rigler founded the Lloyd E. Rigler - Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation. Among Rigler's other philanthropic pursuits include, Joffrey Ballet in the 1980's during its time at the Los Angeles Music Center, the restoration of Egyptian Theatre in the 1990's, founder donor of the Los Angles Music Center, refurbishing of Carnegie Hall, serving as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors at the New York City Opera and making donations to the Los Angles County Museum of Arts. 
With Lloyd Rigler's years of expertise and background in the fine arts as well as decades of capital saved up, it's no surprise he was the founder of an arts channel. So, what inspired the idea to craft Classic Arts Showcase as a 24-hour edutainment clip show? The short answer is Rigler's immense love for the fine arts and the course in which the times were changing.
​Rigler took note how most Americans were increasingly becoming less exposed to the fine and performing arts. After decades of tracking tickets sales and observing the increasing amount of empty seats, this proved to be the case that a cultural shift was taking shape. As described on the official CAS website: 

"CAS was the vision of Lloyd E. Rigler. It was his lifelong love of the performing arts - and his concern that the majority of Americans are rarely exposed to the world's greatest performances - that inspired this vision. After tracking ticket sales of live performances for decades, Rigler found arts organizations were performing to more empty seats every year, selling fewer tickets and charging more for them. With current audiences aging, and little or no arts exposure in homes and schools to build new audiences, Rigler sought to foster a wider appreciation of classic arts nationwide--through television. He envisioned the creation of a 24-hour non-commercial arts network, designed to bring the classic arts to the widest possible audience". 

The format in which Rigler planned to accomplish this goal was by airing a select number of five to seven minute clips to fill eight hours and run them all day long. The line-up would change each week without a fixed schedule. This was similar to that of MTV's original 1981 format. The Founder's Profile states as follows:

"In 1981, MTV began airing short 3- to 5-minute rock music videos in succession, with no schedule and no particular order of play - and millions of viewers tuned in to see what was coming next. Rigler believed this format would be ideal for presenting classic arts performances - one in which viewers could see a wide variety of short performance videos, each of which would be a rare and unexpected gem." 

The profile indicates what separates their content from other stations at the time:

​ "At a time when most offerings on television consist of "reality" shows, grisly crime dramas, sitcoms and "info-tainment," Classic Arts Showcase presents the greatest recorded performances of all time at no cost to the viewer, and with no commercial interruptions". 

To this day, Classic Arts Showcase continues with its 'Expect the Unexpected' format. No schedule, "because the beauty of CAS is that you'll never know what to expect". The reason this approach proves to be effective, especially in an era of instant gratification, is that this delayed gratification of coming across an unexpected clip by surprise can easily draw viewers in. I'll get into what prompted MTV's change in format while CAS is still faithful to its original format towards the end, but first, I want to cover the reception CAS received over the years. 
The overall reception of Classic Arts Showcase throughout the mid-1990's to the early 2000's truly speaks volumes to how viewers hold the station and its founder with high regards. In 1998, The Kansas City Star television critic, Aaron Barnhart starts his article, Classic Arts Showcase provides a midwinter cable treat, with the following:

"Viewers in upgraded American Cablevision zones may have noticed it already: In the last two weeks, some sort of classical-music video jukebox has taken over Channel 17, the local educational access channel operated by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Classical-music lovers will find it hard not to get roped in by the mix of ballet, operatic singing and instrumental pieces, most of them culled from old film stock or European music videos. Yes, many of the selections are beyond the familiar - Pavarotti singing the "Ave Maria," I Musici belting out a "Four Seasons" suite - but unlike a certain radio station in town, there are no annoying commercials or announcers to disrupt the relaxing ambiance on this TV channel. There's even the occasional vintage film clip from Alfred Hitchcock or Buster Keaton". 

Barnhart quotes Jay Francis, Rigler's then assistant for the reasoning behind keeping CAS non-profit. "Mr. Rigler doesn't do any advertising because he doesn't believe in marketing a free product". Tom Brenneman, the founder of UMKC's IVN network and who also programmed for Channels 17 and 18 is also quoted in the article indicating "[t]here are a lot of things that say they're educational but there are lots of advertisements embedded in them , or they're trying to sway your opinion, and I won't put those on", to which he told TVKC. American art critic, Alan Klevit sheds CAS in a positive light in his book, The Art Beat, highlighting that Classic Arts Showcase prompts "habit-forming". Once a viewer catches sight of it, it can be difficult to turn away. From his own viewing experience, he delves into the excitement that he usually is "unwilling to turn the set off, for fear of missing a Buster Keaton vignette, or perhaps Lillian Gish, or Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Rudolph Valentino as The Sheik, or some other classic [he] will treasure" (Klevit pp. 117-19). There's even an article published in The New York Times in 2002 by David Finkle, titled TELEVISION/RADIO; A Video Variety You Won't See on MTV. In the article, Finkle writes about the $26 million check Rigler wrote for the required transporter for the channel's signals to be directed at a satellite, indicating "[t]hat's $26 million Mr. Rigler will not see again. Nor will he recoup the $4 million he spends annually to keep his enterprise going. He figures he's more than $50 million in a hole he's happy to have dug for himself". And from the reception Classic Arts Showcase receives, even from the younger generation of viewers, rightly so. As Finkle continues with one very charming testimony, "[t]he gratification comes, [Rigler] said, from estimates that 10 percent of "Classic Arts Showcase" watchers are college age or younger. One viewer in that group sent a note saying, "I'm 12 years old, and I never knew you could dance on your toes"." Even so, present day CAS has a social media presence on Facebook and is available for streaming on Roku's channel store, as an app on Apple for Apple TV and is even available for streaming on its own website.
When it comes to how the organization updates CAS, (aside from the changes made to the address screen when their headquarters moved from Burbank to Los Angeles), the only updates ever added on CAS are the addition of new clips once they acquire the rights from the respective copyright owners to air them. Other than that, the 'look and feel' of the channel still resembles its 1994 debut, yet is still going strong while MTV (and other mainstream channels) made drastic changes to keep up with the times. Why is that? 
The reason I can best describe is something my voice instructor, Brandon Santini once said when he and I were discussing the differences between classical music and mainstream pop. Classic music is consistent, whereas pop is constantly reliant on trends. That's why when you try to compare MTV from its early days to its current trends with Classic Art Showcase drawing inspiration from its original model and sticking to it to this day, you'll immediately notice that there are specific surrounding factors that contribute to how both stations evolved. Because MTV is so mainstream and thus competing with other mainstream platforms, the channel adds other content in order to stay as 'relevant' as possible. Plus there is also YouTube, which offers easy access to the same pop/rock music videos as MTV with just one instant click, tap or swipe to access. People already are familiar with mainstream music by name because it's plastered everywhere, from TV to radio, to internet, to social media, to streaming services, etc.  Again, instant gratification with no surprises. Once the trend or pop star is no longer relevant, everyone moves on to, what we call, 'the next big thing'. Classic Arts Showcase's model, despite the early 1980's MTV influence still works today because most people know the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy by growing up with a familiar piece written by these composers, but may not know the full story behind the great masters. Some of us might have heard classical music or references to opera from cartoons like Tom and Jerry, The Smurfs, Loony Tunes or even Ren and Stimpy and Sponge Bob Square Pants to name a few or even seen such references from commercials. Some of us who are old enough to remember the Windows 95 operating system came with a few MIDI files of classical music renditions. Any which way, much of our culture and its lush history is easily embedded in our subconscious mind, so it stayed rooted there. We feel connected to it in some form or another, whether we are aware of it or not.  With a seemingly endless library of culture from all walks of life, we feel that connection more than we realize. After all, societies and cultures would cease to exist without their roots and origins. That's why pop culture pays homage to the classic arts. 
This would explain why when people stumble across CAS by chance, be it through channel surfing, internet recommendations, in an article or even through an app store, they feel drawn into it. One video after another, one would be so intrigued to see what they might find next. I think it's also the excitement of seeing something some audiences thought might be boring to watch, especially after being so accustomed to something constantly sold to them via easy access in all their waking hours. The new thing ends up becoming the same old routine and monotony. Because the arts are designed to speak to the human condition, they start to organically click with people. Even young children are surprised when they find they liked what they saw more than they expected. The arts even exceed their expectations. An episode of the educational children's series, Arthur titled Lights, Camera...Opera! (with guest star, Rodney Gilfry), covers this topic as well as the popular Nickelodeon Nick Toon, Hey, Arnold!, in the episode What's Opera Arnold?. (It's also important to note that the episode of Hey, Arnold! not only pays homage to the operatic arts, but also pays homage to the 1957 Loony Toons episode, What's Opera, Doc?, which as the title suggests, paid homage to the performing arts. Again, another example of pop culture drawing references to their roots, in this case a more modern animation drawing from the Golden Era of animation, which I plan to cover in a later post).
I'll even briefly add my own story of how I learned about Classic Arts Showcase. While my family and I were staying for the first time at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach in 2010 (the now demolished 1973 building, but nonetheless), I started browsing the television channels. I stopped at VA Beach's educational local channel, 46 or 47 and saw they were playing a music video paired with classical music. I noticed the ARTS logo at the lower right hand corner of the screen. As someone who was in her early 20's at the time, I wasn't really into classical music. I would just study the material for assignments I was given in school, but not something I would go all in for on my own accord. I didn't think CAS was going to stick with me. Lo and behold, I've been a frequent viewer of Classic Arts Showcase ever since then! 
Times will always change and with that, trends will continue to evolve. Hence why stations catered to the mainstream will always take drastic steps to stay afloat. When it comes to the arts, Classic Arts Showcase is a unique channel that sticks to the less is more mantra. It all started with Lloyd E. Rigler's lifelong fondness for the arts and thanks to his past experience as businessman and his philanthropic work, he saved up and used that capital to bring his vision to fruition. The efforts well paid off, even long after Rigler's death. While other stations steer from their early roots due to pressures to compete for relevance, CAS retains its timeless lure and continues to draw new viewers in. It's also very refreshing that CAS never needs to over pronounce its educational value. Most audiences don't like to be preached to, so Classic Arts Showcase encourages its viewers to explore the world of the arts naturally and organically and sometimes, that's all it takes. All you need to peak people's interest and entice them to attend an upcoming ballet, spend an afternoon touring their local museum or browse through a collection of classic films from the Silent Era is just a simple approach and mission that will resonate for years to come. 

             Hi, everyone. This is a follow up post from the one I posted earlier this year. Due to a recent death in my family, I had to shift my plans around. My sister, Nicole Elizabeth Mesa passed away on May 22nd at the age of 33. She was diagnosed with colon cancer at the start of 2017, but throughout those years, she never appeared sick. She passed away peacefully and thank God that despite the rules set in place during this COVID-19 world we're living in, she didn't die alone. Both my parents were with her during her final moments. I initially planned to complete the Pascal and the Timeless Hotel remake roughly around that time, but I postponed the completion date until late October. The book will be dedicated to Nicole's memory. Please keep her and my family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. I know this pandemic has had a major impact on everyone's lives, but if you can, please consider making a donation to the American Cancer Society, which I will leave the link below. Any contribution amount is greatly appreciated. 
             On a positive note and in addition to other recent projects I have currently in the works, I'm going to be participating in the Boston Comics Roundtable anthology, Boston Powers #3. This is my first time contributing to a BCR anthology and I am truly delighted to be a part of it. I will be collaborating with a fellow member, Patrick Flaherty, on his story, Newtrino as the artist. The final art work is due late August. I will leave a link below with more information on the project. Boston Powers #1 is available for purchase on The Million Year Picnic, which I'll also leave a link below. 
              As tough as the times are right now, always remember to be supportive and caring for one another during difficult moments and look towards the future with hope that the best is yet to come. God Bless!

 American Cancer Society              

Boston Powers #1 info and where to purchase.

Boston Powers Anthology Kickstarter page





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        In my previous post on the complicated subject matter of envy, I discussed that despite the negativity that envy brings, there is a positive side of envy that inspires us to improve ourselves. There is a meaningful purpose behind envy and if we come to terms with those emotions, we are able to make better sense of why we feel the way we do and consider the important steps we need to take in order to better our own situation. Falling into malicious envy causes far more damage, not only to the person you are envious of, but to yourself and others around you. Even so, I described my own experience with envy, what it was trying to teach me about myself and from then on, I'd take into account the areas I struggle most for my personal development. In that post, I also covered why attempting to ignore those emotions will cause you more harm than good as denying what you feel will continue to emerge in some form or another. Thus the important role envy plays in our lives goes far beyond self improvement in the physical world, but even more so spiritually, which I will delve into in Part 2. 
        I ended Part 1 with a link to an interview with Embracing Envy author and psychologist Josh Gressel on Business Innovators Radio Network with host, Mike Saunders in which there is talk about living for something greater than yourself, a recurring theme that will come up many times here. There are some brilliant insights brought up in this interview that can and should be taken into account, not only in regards to envy, but in our daily lives in general. Early in the interview, the interviewer and the interviewee discuss self improvement. Gressel describes his experience working with his clients, who appear to have adopted the widely accepted notion that at a certain age, you stop growing and that there's nothing else to learn. In Gressel's line of work, he debunks that mind set by indicating that as people get older, they can still keep learning and growing until death. Those who slip into the mindset of the former end up finding themselves bored in life. On 3:17 into the video, Gressel's observation goes as follows:

"I think for me when I'm working with people is so often people are indoctrinated in a way of thinking that you know you reach a particular age and that's it. You're all grown up. And it's really trying to help them unlearn that programming or that socialization. Sometimes I think it's also a lack of role models...How often do you see somebody who continues growing up until the day they die?...[T]hat's why we're given a lifetime is to make use of it. It's not to retire at the age of 25 into the routines that we've established for ourselves, but...there's so much to us. We are really truly infinite and if you, not only believe in it, but if you have that experience...They talk about the metaphor that's frequently used, peeling back the layers of the onion. There's one more layer and one more layer and one more layer to go and you never stop...I can't imagine being bored in life. When I hear somebody say 'I'm just bored', I'm shocked! How could you possibly be bored? It just means you're stuck."

        Mike Saunders adds to Josh Gressel's insights by describing a time when he was talking to a woman about the word, intimacy. The way she said the word, 'intimacy' prompted Saunders to reconstruct it into the three separate words, 'into' 'me' 'see'. He highlights that "[Gressel] as a psychologist working with clients, [he] need[s] to see into [his] clients and help them to see into themselves, into me see". Thus, his response to Gressel's question over how can anybody find themselves bored in life is from his own observations:

"The problem is they stay looking at themselves and it becomes this selfish thing of 'what's in it for me?' and not looking at 'how can I contribute to the world?' or 'how can I break out of this rut that I'm in?' and you think of some of the people you know in certain economic classes that you go 'wow! Their grandfather was the same way their father was'. What makes that person break out of that realm and many times, it is someone in their life that speaks into their life positive or encouragement or motivates them."

         Mike Saunders then uses motivational speaker, Les Brown as an example of someone who needed someone to see him for who he truly is and who he can become and eventually, he reached his full potential. The point is that what breeds a selfish mindset is the mentality that whenever we set our minds on our own self-indulgence, we see no reason to contribute to the world. Our value is reduced solely to our own pleasures rather than seeking ways to reach our full potentials. Therefore, we diminish our own self-worth. If we limit our learning capabilities to a certain amount, never leaving room for personal growth, we find ourselves less challenged and more disenchanted with life. We then keep chasing one temporary high after another and are never satisfied with anything. Having someone to see us for who we can aspire to become and that we can be more than what we limit ourselves to can make a huge impact on our faith in ourselves and our desire to keep learning. It could be a mentor, a teammate, a co-worker, a teacher, a counselor. Just anyone can make a positive impact in our lives that inspires us to be better. As Gressel adds "we are not the center of the universe. We need to be living for something greater than ourselves and...somebody who really is just in it for 'my own pleasure', 'my own this', 'my own that', if that's your sole focus, you're going to be very unhappy and you're going to end up being bored...Is that all there is?" He then responds to the second question Saunders raised by saying that "we need another person to see us for us to be able to see ourselves". It's one thing for us to hope we are putting our best foot forward, but when somebody reminds us of how well we put our best efforts on the table and that we truly draw our audience in, it makes a whole world of difference. We feel more motivated to, not only keep doing what we are doing, but we have a desire to continue learning, further develop our craft and deepen our knowledge. If we don't garner that mindset that learning is endless, you will find yourself in a rut that becomes an endless cycle. Even so, there is also mention about stepping out of your own little world and reaching out to others as well as having expectations that everyone is capable of something because it's a sign of respect for others. 
         On the main topic, envy and Josh Gressel's book, Embracing Envy: Finding the Spiritual Treasure in Our Most Shameful Emotion, Mike Saunders asks how Gressel got around to writing about the subject matter as it's "not a very glitzy topic". After a chuckle, Gressel described his own experience with envy and his shame of feeling the emotion. Of course, he knew that to an extent, feeling envious of people who were writing books was an indicator that he, too wanted (and felt the need) to write a book himself. Also, there isn't much written about envy on a meaningful level. Typically whenever envy is ever touched upon, either it's academically examined or that it's written about from a moralistic perspective. The goal Gressel set out in writing Embracing Envy is to further deepen the questions and provide the reader with those tools to self reflect "that envy is not a sign there's something wrong with you. Envy is a sign there's something right with you that you're not claiming". Despite the negative press attached to the emotion due to it being among the Seven Deadly Sins, envy is all good if you are kind to yourself. If you feel shame for it, take the time to learn from your envy.
​         On a spiritual level and going back to what was discussed early on, we are aware that we are blessed with unique gifts, yet we still feel envious. Why is that? Gressel uses one of his patients whom refers to as 'Bob' as an example. Bob is an acupuncturist with a special approach to his profession. He found himself being envious of famous people, but didn't understand why. When he started asking himself the harder questions, he realized that it wasn't so much about the object of envy itself. It was what the object of envy was pointing him to. In other words, it wasn't about wanting to achieve fame, but for this acupuncturist to be more present in his line of work. The less he was out promoting his uniqueness to his clients, the more it felt like he was depriving them of what he had to offer. It wasn't about garnering more customers. It was about being the person who God needs him to be.
         We realize we have talents and we know that the more we continue to hone them, the better we are at the skill. The less we spend doing so, we never improve. Thus, we find ourselves stuck in the rut, going nowhere. Once we learn about our talents, find away to improve them to reach full potential and bring those talents out into the world, we learn more about what we have to offer and discover our true identity. Going back to the idea that we need to be living for something greater than ourselves, there is a reason why we are given talents and that reasoning is that that's who God needs us to be. To elaborate on this point, Josh Gressel delves into it in full detail on Chapter Ten: Envy through a Religious Prism, to which he writes: 

"Envy suggests that we are somehow not pleased with how God has created us...It's as if we're saying, "You made a mistake with me. Give me other things--like You gave him or her--so that I will be the way I should be".
       Implicit in this is a hubris that we know how things should be; that God's manifestation is limited to that which we admire or envy. If we are truly enveloped in a spiritual way of looking at ourselves and the world around us, we will understand that the surface manifestation--material reality--is but a small fraction of the total picture, and we are usually blind to the enormity of what lies behind it" (Gressel 110-111). 

        In this context, Gressel is referring to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, the sons of the first humans, Adam and Eve, which is found in the Old Testament (Genesis 4:1—16). Like Cain feeling inferior to Abel when God favors his brother's offering to Him over his, we feel a twinge of discomfort when one is favored over us. Gressel points out that Cain's punishment from God is not because of his envy, but it's how he chose to react to his envy, which was that he killed Abel. God grants human beings free will and in the story of Cain and Abel, Cain had a choice to make when he felt envious of his brother. He could have used it to better himself and see the bigger picture that God had a different plan for him than the one He had for Abel, but instead, he chose murder. Gressel writes in regard to Cain's story as follows:

"If we stop a moment and think of all the examples with which we're familiar from in our life, or from that of public figures whose poisonous rivalries make up the nightly news, isn't this warning borne out in reality? Have we ever known anyone to find a life of happiness through acting out her envy on a rival?" (111). 

         Because we as a species have free will, we have a choice to focus on self-improvement or bring out the worst in ourselves in response to our envy. Upon choosing the latter, we end up causing more harm, not only to the envied person, but to others around us and even our own well-being. If we choose the former, we walk down a path of self-discovery and growth. We start to discover who we truly are and what we are capable of becoming. There is nothing wrong with us wanting to uncover what we know we are most capable of doing and seeing someone in a similar position that we aspire to be in is fine as long as we put things in perspective. What was meant for one, might not necessarily be the ideal thing for someone else. The other person's success can inspire others to do better, but at the end of the day, we all need to forge our own path the way God has planned it uniquely for each of us. Josh Gressel adds "[t]here is something innately altruistic about this urge to share a part of ourselves with the world. It is also an act of generosity: to want to be of service, to want to offer a service, to want to give of ourselves" (111). 

          The more we learn about ourselves, the more we have that desire to contribute to the world because we know we have something that will speak volumes to others. The unique ability to create and produce contributes a great deal meaning we have in our lives and to the world around us. Others are able to see us for who we truly are and can become, so we go out of our way to bring out our best selves. To conclude the sub-topic, he highlights the most important point of view in his analysis:

"Finally, this biblical tale might help us understand that, when properly aligned, the doing will be its own reward. When we are more aligned with our true nature, the service is the primary thing. The acceptance is still lovely, but secondary ("For whether you offer well, or whether you do not"). Staying focused on doing it for God, for something larger than ourselves rather than for our own gratification, keeps us in this correct balance" (112). 

       This ties so well with the discussion in the Business Innovators Radio Network. Upon putting into perspective that you have a talent that needs to be nurtured and it should be put into use that is greater than yourself, the more fruitful your growth journey will be. The end results are secondary to what your main goal is. If you are improving yourself for the right reason, which is that you know your were blessed with your gifts for a reason, you will find more fulfillment. As I mentioned in Part 1 about my own envy, I don't really want what the young indie game developer has. The reason I'm envious of him isn't so much about his success itself, but what seeing someone like him be successful in his early 20's means to me. What I really want is to continue illustrating graphic novels and teach art and therefore I know what steps I need to take in order to achieve my goals. Success is desirable, but it's more about what I have to offer and how can I contribute to the world that matters in the end. The thing to keep in mind is that the thing I envy about him is something of the world as well as what I hope to accomplish. However, it's important to remember that while we are living on the earth, we are not of the earth. It's what we contribute during our lifetime and letting the spiritual guide our motivations and ambitions. Gressel writes:

​"The truly spiritual intrinsically conveys within it an experience of plentitude and generosity, and we pick this up automatically on some level. When the spiritual is mixed with our more earthly passions—whether they be for prestige, possessions, or some other material prop to our being—we also respond instinctively by recoiling, envying, competing or experiencing some other earthly passion" (120). 

         This goes to show that envy occurs naturally and because we always hope to aspire to reach our full potential, inevitably we are going to glance at what someone else is doing to achieve a high goal we hope to achieve ourselves. So long as we remember what the object of envy gained is not what was meant for us and that no one is the center of the universe, envy has a significant purpose. If we have that desire to continue developing ourselves upon letting our curiosity of our envy be explored, we start to gradually discover our own path to get to know our true selves better and what we have to contribute. When all is said and done, the positive side of envy takes us from our myopic perspectives to show us the greater image of who we are as a whole, which is what God created you to be. I'll end this post with a link to another interview with Josh Gressel from Savvy Broadcasting. Again, he brings up his mantra around 13:50, "envy is not a sign that there's something wrong with you. It's a sign that there's something right with you that you're not claiming. Trust that!" Also, he adds that "[w]e are not defective human beings. We don't feel those things unless there's a reason for it". If we allow ourselves a deep understanding behind our envy and that there's a reason why it exists, the better we understand that deeper purpose we were missing all along. 

     When we think of envy, typically what comes to mind is that it's one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It's an unpleasant emotion that occurs when we see others in the position, place or social status we aspire to be on par with, but yet we find ourselves below the person in those areas. Envy is also a ubiquitous emotion, commonly arising in one form or another in our everyday circles, whether we ourselves are conscious of it or not. At first glance, it seems like we should try to suppress it and do our best not to feel it, but no matter how much we try, envy continues to appear. If you feel envious of someone, there might be an important meaning behind it than you realize and instead of feeling guilty about it, taking the time to learn about your envy can eventually lessen those unpleasant emotions and inspire you to engage in proactive behavior, growth and personal development. According to Josh Gressel in his book Embracing Envy: Finding the Spiritual Treasure in Our Most Shameful Emotion​, he writes in the introduction that he is "of the opinion that God did not make any one of us defective or inferior nor are any of the emotions with which we grapple defective or inferior. This means that envy, while shameful and shunned, is every bit as much a part of God's plan as joy, gratitude, anger, or hatred. Yet how can we uncover its part in creation if we won't look at it, explore it and feel it?" (Gressel, page 2). If anything, envy is felt because there is a greater purpose for it than we realize. The problem is that because it's such an uncomfortable subject, we avoid it at all cost, exacerbating the problem even further. In this post, I'm going to discuss my own experience with envy and my main takeaways from the subject matter so far and in Part 2, discuss ways to make peace with the emotion on the spiritual level. 
     Before we begin, I'll start by clarifying that the words envy and jealousy tend to get used interchangeably many times in the English language, but they actually aren't synonyms. Jealousy is the emotion in which you want to protect what is rightfully yours, which is less shameful than envy. You go to great lengths to secure what you've already earned. Envy on the other hand is when you look at another person's gain in contrast to where you are lacking. Openly admitting that you feel that way sends the message that you feel inferior to the other person in some form or another. For example, if you say, "I'm envious of Jimmy's ability to play chess" or "Andrea's skill to market and sell", what you are really saying is that you know you are lacking where you feel like you need to improve most. Seeing others successful and feeling a tinge of discomfort is neither good nor bad, but it's how you choose to respond to your current situation that makes all the difference. Thus comes the two sides of envy, benign and malicious  envy, benign envy, being constructive in which you spend time improving yourself and your skills to get to where you need to be and malicious envy is where you try to bring the other person a peg down. Of course, choosing the latter yields to causing harm not only to the person you envy, but to others around you including yourself. You gain nothing out of it, whereas benign envy encourages proactive change and the right mindset for you to grow and reach your full potential. The YouTube channel, Psych2Go has a deftly made interview with psychology professor, David Ludden on the topic. Their video, What is the Psychology of Envy? [Interview] delves into the concept of envy thoroughly and thoughtfully gets the viewer to ask themselves the right questions, reframing and taking on a neutral view on the concept of envy. (I will discuss a point brought up in the video later in this post). 
     To answer the question asked at the end of the video and to describe my own experience feeling envy, positive or negative, I'll start my story off with a similar goal to that of Josh Gressel's when penning his book, Embracing Envy. I'm not going to conclude with any one definitive answer, since no two people's experience with something is ever exactly the same, but rather I too, want to go through this post deepening and furthering questions. The way I see envy is that it's a learning process that if approached constructively, will contribute to our growth. I started to feel envious of someone who I never even met, but he and I went to school in the same area around the same time. Although we've never met, I have met friends and acquaintances of this person. He went onto create an rpg (role playing game) video game that became massively successful a few years ago and while I didn't think much of his success at first, the more people talked about this kid and boasted about his game, the more I started to feel myself cringe. I can easily say without hesitation that I quite liked what he made. It may not have been the best game I've ever played, but I was impressed with his ability to bring life to very simplistic characters, collaborate where he needed an extra set of hands, and especially compose all of the music. And yet, that uncomfortable feeling of cringe started to hang at the back of my mind. What made my feelings even more strange was that he is an indie game developer and the area I aspire to be in is comics/illustration.
     Upon fully accepting and owning up to those sentiments, I finally began to ask myself why am I envious of him? I'm not interested in pursuing game development, so why am I envious of someone who is pursuing something seemingly different than what I'm doing? Thus my main takeaways start to come to mind. First, I needed to take a step back and reevaluate my situation compared to his. One of my main weaknesses was that I was very disorganized when it came to setting up goals for projects that I hoped to accomplish. I piled up a slew of projects I wanted to get done, but found myself spreading myself too thin whereas this developer had his mind on one project and that one project alone until he finally completed it. Another thing is that we tend to envy those who are similar to us in some capacity and are geographically close to us. Like this young developer, we have animators, comic artists and musicians as connections and, as I mentioned earlier, we attended school in the same area around the same time. To top it all off, we both live in the same town and I've met people who know someone who knows him or know him. Last, but not least, this part goes without saying, but I feel that the most important root of my envy was that he seemed to have had everything in his life all figured out in his early 20's than I did. 
     Although I don't know how other people respond to their own feelings of envy, I think we all have our own approaches to learn from it upon thoughtful self-reflection. Upon embracing the emotion, there are a variety of ways to improve your situation and loosen the grip envy has on your life. One path I took after accessing my situation was that I not only started setting long term goals for myself, but I started narrowing specific goals. I now ask myself 'what do I hope to accomplish by such and such a day?' and stick to the project without letting myself get distracted by the other ideas I have in mind. Finish what I set out to do now and prepare the next one afterwards. Currently, it's the Pascal and the Timeless Hotel remake that has been on the forefront of my other projects. At the time of this writing, it's now 95% completed. Finding my target market and exclusively centering my entire focus is another component to lessening envy. The main reason I was scattered around the way I was had every bit to do with me trying to get too ambitious, yet never specifying who my audience is. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but did I want to be an animator, graphic novelist, game developer or musician? The problem was that I wanted to be innovative, so I put all my focus on being innovative, but never found the right approach to do so all because I never really specified my main medium. In the end, I learned I had to stick to one medium, continue developing the skills in that specific medium and thus, innovation starts to take shape. I chose to stick to making graphic novels primarily, but rather than letting myself get caught up in other forms of media to incorporate into my books, I should practice the techniques of making a basic comic. From there, once I had my rock to stand on, innovation can flourish. I can experiment with other artistic techniques as long as they are still within the realm of my medium and my target market, which are people who read graphic novels.
     This is a lesson I've learned from taking Moore Art School founder, Rod Moore's Udemy online course on starting a business teaching art, and of any skill I feel I need to practice the most is identifying my role easily or what they call the elevator pitch. The lesson reminded me of an article I found on Your Tango, entitled Stop Feeling Envy & Focus on Yourself With These 3 Steps Instead by Jane Evans. The second step Evans discusses upon examination of the root of your envy is to '[d]efine your aspirations', in which she poses the questions, "[w]hat aspects of your personal and professional life do you feel that you lack? What dreams, wishes, aspirations, and goals did you leave behind?" She concludes this step by reiterating the main point and encourages the reader to write down their aspirations "so that [the reader] can think about them proactively" in order to "make some meaningful changes". Although Rod Moore's lesson seems unrelated to the suggestion made by Jane Evans, from my end of things, being able to identify your goals effectively has a huge impact on how you feel about yourself and the progress you're making. If you find yourself stuck trying to identify what direction you're heading, you don't have a specific goal to serve as a blueprint for your foundation and you find your brain is scattered all over the place, that you never get anything done and, worse yet, your audience is left confused. As a result, you might find yourself abandoning everything you set out to do as was the case with me. Being scattered was one of the main factors that weighed into the roots of my own envy, if not thee main factor. 
     Maybe what worked for me might not be the right answer for other people in a similar situation. Nevertheless, there are many ways to respond to envy appropriately. Thus I'll describe some additional takeaways. The short answer I found that the best way to mitigate envy is by accessing your situation and also asking yourself not 'how could I be envious of anyone', but rather 'why am I envious?', examine what lead up to the envious sentiments, evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and build your plan to improve yourself. As stated by David Ludden in the Psych2Go video, "emotions provide us with information about our current situation and motivation to do something" and the role envy takes is to "provide us with the information about our status and the social structure". When on the topic of mindfulness, Ludden makes the point that some may feel a twinge of envy if they see others in the position they wished to be in, "but if you're aware of your habits, you can change them. This is especially true when you understand you can turn your negative envy into a positive motivation to improve yourself...[I]f we give into negative envy, it draws us into a vicious cycle that can be hard to escape". At the end of the day, you yourself have more control over your envy than your envy has over you if you mindfully reflect. The worst that you can do is succumb to bad habits, which potentially lead to the dark side of envy. There's more to add to the discussion of envy, plus the most important question worth exploring, 'how does spiritually play a role in it?, all of which I'll cover in Part 2. I'll end the post by leaving a link to an interview with Josh Gressel on Business Innovators Radio Network, in which both the interviewer and the interviewee himself touch upon some valid points I want to delve into in the next blog. Until then, stay safe, everyone. God Bless!

Update: As of now, the Boston Kids Comics Festival has been postponed for a possible September date due to COVID-19. Also, my next blog post has been postponed until early May. 

         Good afternoon everyone! As this is the first update I've written in the New Year (and New Decade, of course) and wasn't able to provide any updates before the end of 2019, I'm going to take the time to address the current status of the Pascal and the Timeless Hotel remake and my goals I have planned for this website going forward. 
            Currently, Pascal is close to completion, (roughly 75-80% completed). However, mid-way through the project, as I was deciding how to illustrate the most important moments, I came up with an idea that I've been wanting to experiment in comics for years. Ever since I started drawing comics back in late 2014, I've had big dreams of finding innovative ways of storytelling and implementing new techniques into comics that are often used in other forms of media such as animation, (which I have a background in from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). I began experimenting with this new concept I created back in September of this past year and continued to perfect it. I decided how to incorporate the new technique into the Pascal story. As a result, it's possible I may change my original deadline. Because this was somewhat of a last minute decision and not necessarily part of the original plan for the remake, I may or may not be able to present Pascal and the Timeless Hotel this year at the Boston Kids Comics Fest, (which is taking place April 25th) as my original goal was set to have the physical book completed in the Spring of this year. Whether I decide that I need to extend my deadline or I'm able to finish before mid-April, I'll be taking as much time as I need to make sure the new art technique 'blends' naturally with the story and setting.
            Once Pascal and the Timeless Hotel is completed, the introduction and unveiling of my art technique also means major changes for my upcoming projects. Going forward, this new technique I'm working on is going to be my signature-- a huge staple of my writings and this website in the coming months and years ahead. The first presentation of Pascal will mark the official debut of the new art technique. Thus not only will I be doing my first book publishing since 2015, I'll also make this an introduction to the technique I envisioned for my comics and will finally bring to fruition and into the public eye. 
             On that note, I'll end by saying I will still be running this blog from time to time and should have a new post by early to mid March. I am very excited for what this year and decade will bring and what is to come for both this website and upcoming presentations with the Boston Comics Roundtable!