9.30.2005

look what i found



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

www.world66.com
you register for free, you maps of all the countries you've visited, and access to the coolest person-to-person travel site anywhere... VERY helpful stuff.

the places i've traveled are colored red :)

drinking

tonight after work i'm having coffee with my pastor, and then going to roscoe's to get schnockerd. at least i have my priorities in order.

after two years of talking about it

i've written and am starting to lay out the manifesto. anyone want a sneak peek? i'm looking for a few editors. email me and i'll send you a couple pages...

it even has a priggish title (AND subtitle!):
"Weary and Restless
Or
Songs in the key of my self-destructive behavior:
iambic pantameter as sung by my nomadic tendency.
"

9.26.2005

song of the day

colin hay
waiting for my real life to begin*

*with no sense of metaphor for my actual life right now. my life is picking up speed at just the right rate. it's just a great song of its own merit. unfourtunately i could only find the non-acoustic version to link to. the acoustic one is unbelivably good, soulful.

9.25.2005

internet politics and contradictions

• design for democracy, an AIGA initiative
Mark Fiore political cartoons
• the best news team you'll ever see
• a comedian i saw last night
• the only news i bother to watch
• a special link for graphic designers recovering from Katrina


read 'em and weep, boys.
this country's getting nuts. i never thought i'd say it. i still haven't informed myself enough to say anything better or more important than anything that's been said already, but i really am reading the communist manifesto and i think the time is approaching for me to develop some actual political ideas.

it's tough, because at the same time i'm very much of the opinion that whatever point i make will always have a valid counterpoint; the only thing you can say universally is that nothing can be said universally. that's usually when i step out of the argument and always try to point out the other side in discussions regardless of what i actually believe (REALLY fun). but last night my nana and mother were talking and it occured to me again that i'm very liberal for a conservative, totally conservative for a liberal, mildly buddhist for a christian, and very socalist for a capitalist. where does opinion end and belief begin?

can i really be anti- something? anti- G-dubbyah? anti- news media? anti- corporate? can i be absolutely opposed to anything? i don't think i can. there are two sides to every coin. we are all birthed of the same desires (another link - Maslow's hierarchy of needs), and that philosophy is what keeps me from becoming immobile on anything in this world.

9.22.2005

starfish and coffee

anyone else feeling unnecessarily introspective today?
i've suddenly snapped back to some habits i've been missing.

today i wore black. i watched the Daily Show, started reading the Communist Manifesto at a coffee shop. i read articles about design on the AIGA website, and i wandered through a small set of feelings i have about sending a wedding present to the first person i ever really fell hard for (i sincerely don't think he reads this) (if he does, well, then the secret's out). i also worked today, a good full day over at Mobium. i also got two job offers from other design firms in the loop, thanks AGAIN to my AIGA designjobs portfolio. i really need to write some thank you notes to the AIGA. how do you write to a corporation?

i took a train home and found myself laughing to no one while walking to the station from the office. i walked home in the rain, splashing in puddles with absolutely no sense of irony. i clipped out a quote from a magazine that reads, "if you want to know about a man's soul, ask his dog." maybe i'll get a dog.

what i learned today

"Perhaps the most obvious loss is what we call our sense of reality. Television combines news about the war, Paris Hilton’s career, global warming and Geico commercials into events of equal importance. The result is an enormous population that believes nothing matters....

When one is informed, one is strengthened. Persuasion does not guarantee the same result."

milton glaser, the designer/citizen. published on AIGA.org september 20, 2005

9.19.2005

[insert jeffersons theme song here]

so today i cleaned off my hard drive. it's like a brand new computer. which is great, but only because i backed things up - a habit i developed ONLY THIS SUMMER. if this had happened six months ago? would have lost EVERYTHING.

LESSON. LEARNED.

so tonight i'm filling up my laptop again, with some oldies and some goodies. what is rather nice about this is that i can kind of keep an eye on organization stuff, something that seems like an insurmountable task unless you really really have to do it.

and tomorrow -- tomorrow i work my new part time job, which is fine, but then in the afternoon i get to interivew with Crate & Barrel! apparently they have an opening in the corporate marketing side of things. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the AIGA, where i found the job posting and where i was able to post my portfolio. seriously, that portfolio link on the right has gotten me job offers. rock on, AIGA.

9.17.2005

nowhere to go but up

broken things surround me like cotton on my skin
MAN DOWN. i call my laptop napoleon because i secretly believe that it can take over the world without my help. i found out that you can't sell my computer in several countries because it is technically a SUPERcomputer. today, napoleon officially started to bite the dust. i'm posting from my mom's presario POS b/c my dear silver bullet is sitting across the room with his orange creepy screen. i have to apparently clear off the hard drive and reinstall everything. my worst electronic fears have been realized. i have to mess with the inner workings of napoleon, and the apple kids at the "genius" bar aren't going to help me. it's outside their jurisdiction. wonderful.

my digital camera needs replacing. not fixing. replacing. but i've said that several times already. sorry for the redundancy.

my cell phone doesn't work out here in the magical land of glenview, so when people call me it's a tease and i can't pick up or else they will think i'm hanging up on them. people have been offended, it's no big deal. friends, who needs 'em. wait. i totally do. that's why i call them back on the house line if my phone even registers that there's someone calling.

today i started a part-time job at the Paper Source and i'm upset tonight (ah, the reason emerges) because they all think i loooove it there and i'll work there forever [insert "the shining" twins here]... forever... but in reality i'm just biding my time until crate & barrel interviews me tuesday and offers me a job. then i'll have a great decision to make: mobium vs. crate & barrel in a knock down drag out cage match, who can give the better offer? the suburban desk job at the global homegoods megastore vs. the crazy little downtown marketing firm That Could. fight to the death. last job standing gets me, the wild card designer who's willing to bribe via a currency of baked goods and pirate smiles.

i just feel terrible about Paper Source. it's really not a bad job, there's nothing wrong with it. it's not the job i hate, it's being in a place where i need this job for money. i hate living at my parents' house, i hate being in the BORING suburbs, i hate that i'm in this state of waiting for my real life to begin. but wait, THAT'S IT.

THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON. i think about this job, any job, and i realize that working today made me just feel numb. what happened today? nothing. no-thing. people came in, some of them bought stuff, they left, i parroted "can i help you with anything" for hours. i am so understimulated, and that's why i'm having such a hard time these days. that's why i travel, why i volunteer, why i like church, why everything with me always ends up with an element of drama even though i'm not dramatic: i get so bored so quickly. without my computer here, what is there to do at home? watch TV. i need to get downtown so when i go for a walk, i can see more than the same block every day. every time i feel my routine starting to form, i derail my train and do something crazy that puts the rest of my comfortable little life at risk.

what am i here for? what's around the corner?
it's ironic because i really, truly desire to feel settled. to feel peaceful. but there's this malcontent inside me rearing its ugly head and saying DON'T YOU DARE stop moving until you've actually moved.

church tomorrow morning. that will make me feel better, like it always does. nice company, good learning, sincere hugs. all things that ease my soul (no pun intended).

9.13.2005

things to aquire before design camp

a new digital camera.
it IS the camera, i've discovered. for the LOVE of PETE.

business cards.
what am i gonna do, write my email on a bar napkin? come on.

paychecks.
let's see if i get anything pulled together to fund this jaunt up north, eh?

iPod converter. my friend griff still has my toy that plays the iPod in the car. it's a ten hour drive, after all. if i have to rock NPR the whole way, i'll show up in Nisswa twitching.

9.12.2005

if i was the swearing type, i'd do it now

EXHIBIT A
i go to the camera store and explain my problem. the girl takes my camera, turns it over in her hands, sighs, and says "Well, the problem is either with your camera or your memory card. Your camera would be $200 to fix and $250 to replace, and they don't make this model any more, so you should get a new camera. Or, your $70 memory card might just be corrupt. Memory cards don't have warrenties."
THANKS. FOR NOTHING.

EXHIBIT B
Credon, Inc. embodies everything evil on the internet. i go to my blog and i see four comments posted on my latest entry and i foolishly think "oh! people missed me! maybe people DO enjoy my writing!" i absolutely understand that blogs are inherently narcissistic, but i like to pretend that i'm entertaining here. but no. all four comments are from some morons who actually think i won't DELETE THEM AND ALL THEY STAND FOR. credon inc, i smite thee and thy comments. jerks. who do they think they are, to try and ursurp my comments to get free advertising?

EXHIBIT C
this morning my mom had company and i had to clear out of the house. two starbucks and one panera later, i returned home without finding ANY free internet. precious. time. lost. morning ruined. then i went to the camera store.

FINIS

9.11.2005

the times, they are a-changin

so because i haven't posted in so long, i felt it was time to compensate by shaking things up. quite a bit. from green to grey, as Virginia Colition would so eloquently say it.

man. lot's happened since the last time i said something here. Katrina, interviews, church stuff, family time, and now that sound in my backyard that sounds like an unholy cross between a frog and a duck being throttled by several crickets. the suburbs are a strange and unchartered place to these urban ears of mine.

i'd do some retro-posting like i usually do, except i'm in a mild panic over my digital camera, whose screen flashes "memory card error" when i try to take pictures. so i'm having trouble remembering what i have been doing every stinking day. i'll go over a few highlights. catch everyone up.

JOB. i've had three stellar interviews, and i'm starting a trial period at Mobium Creative Group on thursday. you can read about them by clicking here. it's been a cool process, i COLD CALLED them, which is not something typically done (with any success, anyway) between the unemployed and the marketing firms. but they're just that cool, and i'm just that blessed, that it might just be a perfect fit. i'm sure i'll have more to say about it on thursday :)

FAMILY. spent labor day weekend with my dad's side of the family hovering around the ohio/michigan border. i haven't been out there in a couple years and it was a TON of fun. i wish, wish, wish that my camera wasn't having such a crisis because not only are my cousins the most beautiful people around, but i also got a driving tour of my dad's childhood. and i'm finally old enough to get it, to internalize where he came from and how that relates to where i come from. and downtown toledo is crazy, man. absolutely nuts. the oversimplified way to put it is that there was this car industry, and part of it fell apart, and now there are 25 story office buildings that sit unoccupied. kind of wierd.

KATRINA. my church is, this very second, is filling up a truck to bring to jackson, mississippi. we've teamed up with a church down there to distribute non-perishable foods and first aid supplies. if you HAVE ANYTHING, LET ME KNOW. i will come get it and it, and it's guaranteed to get there. this is another reason i'm madly in love with my church. we're not just collecting stuff, we're working out a plan in the long-term as well to stay involved in the rebuilding of their community. so if you have anything to give, or not otherwise sure how to help, here you go.

i think those are all the big topics.
that and i'm getting the camera looked at tomorrow.