Well apparently its been two whole years since my last journal entry... whoops! I apologize to the literally tens of people that may have been reading my journals.

What has changed? Externally not a huge deal although I am currently living in Scotland for the year. Internally I think I have cemented the values I have always had. I try to rely only myself and perceive things with my own measure of worth. Hopefully this will allow me to one day do something exceptional.

I had a dream the other night of taking the idea in my drawing 'when you go down to the woods today' to a whole new level. Its essentially based around a day when for no apparent reason giant teddy bears pop up everywhere and appear to aimlessly wander the earth - freeky everyone out entirely. I have developed the whole thing into a thorough story;
- while the teddies cause chaos and destruction moving about, the most observant will see that they have a special affinity with children, ensuring they aren't hurt amongst the chaos, stopping to wave to a child with his own, normal sized bear etc
- girl meets giant teddy and befriends
- girl realizes giant teddy is not wandering aimlessly but is trying to reach somewhere
- girl and teddy battle all kinds of odds; man made, environmental, through oceans, mountains and snow
- a clear caring love develops between the two, the teddy clearly not malevolent and indeed deeply protective of the girl
- meanwhile civilized society cannot cope with these random events that challenge their perception of what is possible in reality
the natural human reaction is fear, intolerance, the magestic wonders that are these bizzare teddybears are attacked, brought down, destroyed, without anyone pausing to reconsider
- the teddy reaches his destination, a village in Japan, a small graveyard, the grave of a child
- at this moment the girl's mother who has been distraught chasing after her finally catches up to her, pulls her away from the teddy
- but now the teddy sits by the grave and fades out of existence
- the giant wonder gone like that

- the mother and policemen with her all witness that the bear was trying to reach a child's grave
- communication across the globe soon reveal that other bears have disappeared at graves
- all graves of abused or neglected children
- the remaining bears are allowed to reach their destinations
- while nobody can definitely explain it, they acknowledge that this break from reality was some kind of sign

- Children everywhere have new faith in their small fuzzy companions, and everyone else some strange sense of awe and respect
- In future when a child is threatened with abuse, a teddy bear clasped in a child's arm acts as a kind of protective charm, a sign to would be aggressors, even a warning

This would be the kind of film concept i would love to pitch to Ghibli Studious (makers of spirited away, porco rosso, howl's moving castle etc). Also combined with a charity effort, patrons could purchase a bear outside cinemas to go towards children's charities. The production of the bears could be through local volunteer labour (its something fun, easy to get volunteers for). The bears themselves may even indeed become some symbol of protection, a reminder, for children they are given to.

Anyway, just an idea.