I've Drawn for Three Disney Films and Study Three Astrologies

In every high school, you have one guy who seems to master every sport, one gal who gets straight "A's" seemingly without effort, one person destined for great eminence and achievement, and one person who drew anything and everything. As I was never a jock, I forget who was good at sports. There was a fair handful of young women at Renton High School in Washington State who got straight "A's." The one person of great eminence and achievement in the Class of 1973 was Sally Jewell, the Secretary of the Interior under Barack Obama.

I was the guy who drew.

With a four year interruption from the 8th through 12th grades for Theater Arts/Drama, I drew constantly from age 3 1/2 to age 48. When you draw that avidly, eventually you get good. Good enough to draw special effects for "Ghostbusters," draw "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" for Filmation, "Cats Don't Dance" for Turner, and "Hercules," "Prince and the Pauper," and "Tarzan" for Disney.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119282/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100409/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120855/fullcredits

In high school you can be the Ace Artist in the whole school. When you work in the animation business everybody was the Ace Artist of their school. The contact is both humbling and rewarding.

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The astrologies I study aren't the "Scorpios are Sexy, Pisces are Airheads" type of nonsense:

1. I study ancient Greek astrology from Robert Schmidt, who simply knows more about the original system of astrology invented/codified by the Greeks in the 3rd or 4th Centuries B.C.E. than anyone else in the world. Curtis Manwaring, whom I've followed to Steemit, studies with Schmidt as well.

2. India has more astrology in the world -- and takes that astrology more seriously -- than anywhere else. Properly, the astrology of India is called: Jyotish, or "The Science of Light."

3. I was first introduced to the Four Pillars Chinese astrology by a young Korean woman working at Filmation, when both of us were drawing "She-Ra, Princess of Power." At the time, I was an enemy of astrology, but she still patiently explained what the quaint little marks on the piece of animation bond were, on a lunch break. I already knew something about Taoist philosophy, so when she explained the birth charts, I thought: "I don't care if this is nonsense; if I can already understand what she's telling me, this is INTERESTING." Eighteen years later, I published my own book on the subject: "Pillars of Heaven: Chinese Astrology Explained." Regrettably the book run (It was a 400 page paperback) was very small, and I don't yet have the money for another printing.

4. In the beginning, I had to learn how to program so that I could study Chinese astrology better. You would be amazed at the code shenanigans I pulled to make Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.5 give me the rather primitive results I wanted. Later I moved to Borland C++ and even later to (what is now) Embarcadero Delphi. If you are going to be an astrological researcher, I advise strongly learning to program a computer!

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You'd never see me writing this much on F***book! Happy to be on Steemit!