of no particular consequence

Thursday is new tattoo day.

So I’ll be adding more on to this big bastard.
I have an Econ paper to write by Monday and a test to take by Thursday.
Some cool design things on the horizon, a couple logos for a couple of people, an ad for a friends restaurant and probably redesigning the menus at the same previously mentioned restaurant.
Don’t think I’m getting that job. I was supposed to hear something about second interviews last week and didn’t. It has made me a touch down, but I’ll get over it.
Oh and I’ve decided that I enjoy drinking again please inform the local hospitals, lock up the women and children, board up the windows, and make sure your health insurance is up to date.

Super Nice

So I’ve said it before and I said it last night over a few drinks. “I’m probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and that’s why I finish last.” It always has overtones of my being self-deprecating but last night for some reason it kind of ate at me after I got home.
I am a really nice guy and I have no idea how I got this way. But I was awake, sitting on the back porch, smoking, having a final beer of the night, thinking about it.
I’m kind of sick of holding the door while everyone else walks through. Being nice has gotten me shit thus far, might be time for a change of pace.

Days

Days like today make me really wish i was drawing comics for a living or doing freelance design.
Because in the wonderful fictional world I’ve built up in the front of my brain today I could be outside running around in the beautiful sun, able to push work off until the small hours of the night.
Instead I’m sitting on a loading dock typing about how great it would be, while reading text messages from a girl in a tree.
Really folks, that’s the dream. Drawing comic books for a living (as I’m sure you know by now). Am I a Geek? Yes.
Is it strange at the age of 30 to be thinking about drawing comic books for a living? Probably
Am I still pursuing something that I’ve wanted since I was a kid. Damn straight!

long gone

I oft times find I’ve forgotten about this blog. I spend more time reading the things other people have to say than saying anything myself.

The storm knocked out my TV tonight and I was thankful for it. It gave me a chance to sit back and marvel at the storm’s ferocity. It didn’t last long; but long enough. I spent some time outside trying to get pictures of the lightening, but to no avail. There are few cool shots that I will try to post soon.
After filling the memory card, mostly with frames of black, I took the camera inside and sat out on the porch. Watching the rain fill the dents in the gravel driveway I ventured out past the shelter of the porch roof and let the drops slide down from the top of my head creeping past the colar of my shirt and sliding down my back. It was good.
Outside of communing with nature it’s been a mixture of economics, drawing, and just having good old fashioned fun. I’m getting the urge for things like rollercoasters and go-karts but at the same time I want to spend time in a canoe or maybe going camping for the first time. Seems I’m living in the extremes.

Rededicated?

So I’ve been having a crisis. I hate my job. I know I just interviewed for a new job, that probably isn’t helping things, but I can’t stand the crap I deal with on a daily basis any more. Maybe 6 years is my threshold for one job. But seriously this job is pissing me off. I get to work in the morning and very quitely say “fuck”. This can’t be a good thing.
So all of this has prompted some very serious thinking on my part. I’ve been asking myself questions and trying to come up with answers. I know I want to stick it out and find out what is going to happen with the other job but if I don’t get it, what next? How long do I stick around? I’m pretty sure I’m going to leave in August, before school starts, and find a new job that will work better with my schedule. I doubt I’ll be able to work on Wednesdays with 2 classes that day. So I’ll probably have to find something where I can work nights and weekends. The real sticking point, as always, the almighty dollar. It’s really the reason I’m still at my current job. I guess I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it, but the throttle is wide open and it’s coming up the road pretty fast.

But now on to the real purpose of this post or at least something that makes sense with the title I’ve slapped on this entry.

Even if I get a design job, that’s not what I ultimately want to do and I’ve strayed to far from that path in recent months. I love comic books. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was 10. I remember getting in trouble when I was a kid for drawing on everything. I didn’t need paper. Walls, tables, boxes, clothes and most often my own arms and legs. Maybe that was the start of my tattoo love?

I’m rededicating myself to comics. I’m getting back to drawing them, I have a script that has been partially illustrated for better than a year now, almost half done. Some panels are blank some pages are just in thumbnails. But I need to get back to the things I love.

Maybe out of the fact that I hate my job I’ve once again realized how important it is for me to be doing something that I love.

Inquisition?

Okay, that title might be a bit strong for this little snippet but it was what came to mind when I looked at the subject line.
So today was my first interview for a Graphic Design job.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I got ready. It was at the place I work, so if I get the job I wouldn’t actually be changing much, still a lot of the people I know are around but i would have a completely different job, set of responsibilities, learning curve, building I work in, and possibly, paycheck.
I was nervous and even got a little lost on the way to the meeting room as I have no real clue about the layout of the building I was in. But I managed to get there a few minutes ahead of schedule without the aid of a Sherpa and was pulling things out of my portfolio bag when Chuck from Human Resources showed up. He immediately excused himself to the bathroom and I sat down and waited for Roger, the art director, to arrive.
I could feel the sweat trickle down my spine as I fielded the first few questions. After we got through the questions like, “why do you want to be a Graphic Designer?” I showed some of my work.

As soon as I shifted their attention away from me and to my work I felt more at home. I can talk about my work; I’ve been doing it for years. I know why I made certain choices, what fonts I chose, the color palette I was working in, the things I wanted to make people feel with the work.
It’s really a different experience when you can talk about something else or a piece that you’ve spent so much time working on as able to speak for you.
It this point I can take a critique like a pro. I’ve been able to distance myself from my work and know that while the work is a reflection of me, the comments are directed at the work and not me personally. Not everything you do is going to please everyone. That said, I actually had no negative comments from Roger during the interview. I was surprised, usually there is something, some choice, to defend. So in the end I’m now onto the waiting process to see if I get the call for a second interview but that will be a couple weeks off as they go through the same process with all the other people who applied.

I’ve got a secret

Just home from the tattoo parlor, but you can’t see it just yet.

I also have to say I generally hate mirror pictures but I kind of like the goofy angle in this one.

Crossing my fingers

Yesterday was interesting, it was Friday the 13th but really a lot of good things happened.

I was having problems getting the workload from my two summer classes accomplished, really it was just the English 2 tha was a problem. I had a day to write a 500 word paper about politics. Those who know me, know I hate politics. I wrote it, I don’t think it was bad, but still had 3 chapters to read and write summaries for plus answer the chapter questions all before yesterday at 5. I knew there was no way to get all of that done without sleeping. Yeah, I don’t sleep a lot but I prefer not to spend the wee hours reading about the arguemenative english process. So I dropped the class and got on the phone with the MATC art department. So Jennifer in the office worked a little magic and I have the English credits I need to graduate. I did however find out that I needed a math class. So now I’m enrolled in business math in the fall and have everything set in motion in order to graduate in December.

Now onto the other really cool news.

Wednesday afternoon I was off to get my tattoo started, which fizzled but will get done on this coming Wednesday, but I came in Thursday to find a message from Promega Human resources about an interview for the Graphic Design position. I couldn’t get a hold of Chuck in HR and spent my Thursday wondering if he was going to call. Finally on Friday afternoon I got the call and now I have an interview scheduled for Monday at 2. The job isn’t a lock but I’m happy just being able to get the interview and showing my work to an art director.

So wish me luck. 

Antarctica is for lovers

Someone just sent me this article.

Antarctica Base Gets 16,500 Condoms 

Last Shipment Before Darkness Begins

One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them. The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter “Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable,” Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper. About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo’s population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.

Now I did the math, for a crew of 125 people, that’s 132 condoms each.
Insert joke below.

Room Full of Strangers

As I write this I’m sitting in a class room waiting to start my summer Economics class.

I don’t want to be here; at all. I’m not an economist, I don’t watch the economy. I generally think the government is always trying to fuck me some how and really knowing as little as I do probably keeps me from getting to upset about the whole thing.

Over the weekend I tried to divine two chapters of the book. I think I failed to really grasp the concpets as I was nodding off most of the time. I would mostly have rather done anything than read those 2 chapters on my Saturday afternoon. Yeah it was raining and prevented a lot of the fun making that goes on outdoors but who gives a shit, I was reading economics. I’m an artist for gods sake, when in my life is this shit going to be useful?

I’ll tell you when.

When I’m sitting at some dinner party I don’t want to be at talking to people I have nothing in common with. So what do you talk about, the current state of the economy. Well guess what? I probably will never be stuck at a dinner party I don’t want to go to. Why? Because I don’t want to go. Even if I am forced into said situation, I would hope that there would be someone there to talk about something other than the current state of the economy. Really does it ever change from “fucked”?

Yes I just created a completely hypothetical situation in order to rant about the fact that I don’t want to spend 8 weeks stuck in a room full of strangers.