exterior illumination

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Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

this is a two-story reindeer that we found driving around looking at lights. i think it's the highlight of the evening (OH! no pun intended!)

benny the bull

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Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

i love when he divebombs the crowd

halftime ballet show

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Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

i didn't think you'd believe me without some kind of documentation.

lebron

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Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

i'm so close to the court that i could throw something and hit him. not that i would, A) i'm not violent and B) i'd get frogmarched out of there and it would probably be televised.

commercial break

went to a bulls game last night.
had SECOND ROW SEATS.
don't ask me how. but there will be pictures later.

in the meantime:
short films that explain who i am and what i do as a designer.
better than any sad little impotent try at this manifesto, anyway.

armin vit's stream of consciousness presented by veer
interview of milton glaser presented by hillman curtis
interview of paula scher presented by hillman curtis
interview of james victore presented by hillman curtis
the shell movies presented by the fine fellas over at madhouse

starbucks line was too long for coffee

so now is "next week" and i'm still employed, but for how long? at least friday, so that's nice. and this saturday i go back to Borders (never gave up that job, but had to leave for two weeks for Wunderman) which means working Christmas Eve. [insert deep sigh here, wondering if this is all worth my time]. i'm sure my sleepy-ness is impacting my post this morning, i just don't sleep enough and i'm somehow convinced that if i keep it up long enough i'll condition myself to only need four or five hours to run. so far... not working like i'd planned.

depending on Common to keep me all awake, which thankfully is doing the trick. him and Mike Doughty, former frontman of Soul Coughing. have we all listened to Haughy Melodic??? it's unbelievably good. like i can't stop listening to it even when i deliberately try good.

AWAKE AWAKE AWAKE!
gonna go get some water.
come back later.

gonna keep on keepin on

i think that title's a quote from dazed and confused. anyway, i FINALLY got confirmation yesterday that today's my last day at Wunderman, land of the lovely monkey work and home of the marketing Titans that i absolutely love being around.

yesterday was unbearably annoying. that's an exaggeration, because i did bear it and it wasn't so bad. but it was the day of the office party, which meant every employee got some door prizes (zip up hoodie, lunch, awards party) and they set up a mini golf tournament AROUND THE OFFICE. that was awesome. one hole involved hitting the ball onto THE ELEVATOR and going upstairs. it was a par 5. but you know who didn't play? that's right. me. the freelancer. too bad i only had 90 minutes of actual work the whole day (which i kind of saw coming). on the other hand, i got paid to be there - wasn't sent home as i'd expected - so i brought in my laptop and had some of my own personal work fun. take that, par 5!

then the office had a real party and they all got smashed together. this morning there's a table of Burger King (Wunderman client) greasy breakfast to take the edge off the collective hangover, and any crankiness i had at yesterday was totally alleviated when i witnessed the Parade of Rampant Hangovers. now THAT was funny.

after listening to the confessions of last night's fun, i swung by one of the top people here to let him know today's my last day again. this guy, who i won't name, has always been someone who i secretly thought if we were the same age and in the same environment we'd totally be buddies. but since he's probably twenty years older than me and a family man, he sits in his corner office and i stop by and we just make each other laugh. he's so cool. so i stuck my head in to say goodbye, and - even though this time working at Wunderman i only talked to him twice - it was the most satisfying conversation i've had here. he was openly surprised and disappointed to see me go, and told me he was impressed while i was here and hoped to see me around again soon. and then someone was at the door so i scooted out - which worked out great, since that killed any chance for awkwardness.

just now i had to pause because an HR person stopped by to tell me COME BACK NEXT WEEK. i am still. employed.

all this and more before 11am.

song of the day

"Carnival"
Our Lady Peace/Clumsy LP

still snow on the ground

yes, yes, yes it's FINALLY DECEMBER. it's finally white season. for those that don't know: in chicago there are three seasons -- mud, sun, and cold.

hmmm so last night i went to a Braddigan show back at Schubas Tavern, which was strange to be back in the same place for the same musician after what's come of it before. i didn't actually hang out with mister B this time around (my nana sighs with relief because talks with Brad lead to other countries), and it occured to me that i've just now known him for a year. in that year this blog began, and there was moving and job quitting and movies and owen and sunburns and marketing strategy and not-for-profits and many, many children. many of them stoners. many of them very sweet kids out to have a good time. case in point: last night i was the 24 year old among 19 year olds. i felt really old when the kyle working the merch booth asked me to get him a beer. "WHAT?" i yelled above the music. "ROOT BEER" he said, overemphasizing the words so i could lipread in the back of the room.

i'll be 25 in february. i feel old. but not tired old, like the good parts of old, liking what i like and who i like without wondering how it measures on the cool person's scale of cool things. standing up for myself a little more. trying to streamline who and what gets the best of my attention... i've started sketching little studio apartment layouts, anticipating my Great Imancipation which probably won't happen for six months but maybe sooner? maybe this Wunderman thing will work out in the long term. i interviewed to work on a new account yesterday, which went brilliantly. then a buddy i ran into last night at Schubas is apparently an old dear friend of one of my bosses, one that interviewed me. so who knows. i'm still tired of saying "who knows," but i feel better about it at least.

on a wholly different note, i made the cookies i was talking about a few posts ago. they turned out GREAT, so if you want some email me your address and i'll hook you up with some yummies.

record setting

i have a friend who spends half her year as an anthropologist in the Himalayas and the other half teaching at Berkley. she once made fun of me for loving four wheel drive, claiming that her moutain home was the only justifiable reason to get that kind of power in your wheels.

meanwhile, this December 8th was apparently the biggest snowfall in years. got stuck in my no-wheel-drive-machine three times.

maybe that's why it took me FOUR HOURS to DRIVE HOME tonight.

that's right. four.
one for each wheel drive i don't have.

spoonful of sugar for the bitter pill

target fell through.
my heart is broken.
now let us never speak of it again.

starting the job search fresh on sunday.
and baking Christmas cookies.
i will hibernate for a few days
and reemerge renewed.

but for now, i'm sorely disappointed.
it sounds like it would have been pretty sweet.

j'ai pensé j'ai oublié tout

there's a FRENCH guy SPEAKING FRENCH to his wife in the cubicle next to mine and i am SHOCKED at how much i understand of the conversation!

it's very mundane. he's asking her to find the keys at the house so he can go on his trip later to seattle, telling her what cabinet to open, etc. so whatever, the POINT is that i haven't studied french in about eight years and now i want to go to the Alliance Française de Chicago and take french classes. i found the AF Chicago when doing a project with AIGA Chicago and it's such a neat place. they offer cooking, language, travel groups.

anyone wanna come with?

feeling silly and altruistic

Sesame Street says:
today was brought to you by the letter R
and the number 3

Wunderman says:
today was brought to you by the songs of Modest Mouse
and the shortcut "indent to here" (shift + apple + \)

set 'em up and knock 'em down

this past weekend was a mess. it all began with trying to take a group to the museum of contemporary art... out of thirty invites, NO ONE showed. which is surprisingly very understandable when we consider the facts: it's money, it's the holiday season, it's snowing, it's cold out. moral of the story: we're rescheduling for january. it's the first fridays program, so there will be other chances unless i move again.

which is still a major possibility. i called miss Rachel at Target, and we're setting up the times for me to have a phone interview with the hiring director, who will determine when to fly me up to minneapolis for the big in person interview. already nervous. let's be honest about this. nervous nervous nervous. if this works, i'll have just about everything i'm craving right now: stability, income, apartment, city to explore. if it doesn't, well, square one is never a terrible place to be.

i'm itching to get some real work going. i'm loving Wunderman, as demonstrated, but yesterday my computer wouldn't OPEN FILES and the IT kids were down here from 8am to 2pm trying to coax it back into working condition until one was almost in tears from frustration and they looked at each other, looked at me, looked at evil grey box, and decided it was time to get me a new machine.

meanwhile, i charge six freelance billed hours to admin.
rock on.

i work on a team of three right now, i'm like the loose-ends-kid (as opposed to the Sundance Kid) and if Kawi (pronounced cow-ee) has his ducks in a row, there are no ducks for me today. i am jack's waste of space (obscure fight club reference, for those who miss it).

last weekend did have some shining moments... went out with mandy, who is the coolest person on earth. she's getting married in march, asked me to be her maid of honor, and we went out to get started on this tuxedo thing. more on that in the months to come :)

contact sheets

more reasons i'm spoiled today:
- got a ride to the EL from mom this morning
- although my wallet's gone, my security badge was easy to replace
- we share music here, and i'm listening to the Daily Show audio book
- i also listened to common, kings of leon, and gypsy kings today
- after doing the contact sheets, now i get to choose picts for layouts
- which means my job is E-A-S-Y today
- and i'm still making three times what i do at Borders

spoiled. rotten.

i'm working right now (literally, RIGHT now) with wunderman chicago, which was my first job out of college and is to date still the best paid and most stable place i've sat in front of these machines that run my life.

today i'm sitting on the fifteenth floor, overlooking michigan avenue and laughing at the kid two cubicles over who found his nerf gun was not so broken as he thought. i've been here since last monday - four days now - already i've been asked to a movie and to lunch. the people that are still here from three years ago, all of them at least act happy to see me except one guy who was a real buddy of mine before so he's freaking me out a little. but this job is so comfortable, it's such a nice change of pace. it's easy monkey work, which is why i left in the first place, but now that i've gotten that creative freedom, i realize the beauty of the mundane. i can save my creative juices for the pro bono projects at home. today at work i'm making contact sheets, which means i take pictures, make them smaller, and grid them page by page so we can print them as a reference to what's on a CD. so a CD of picts comes with an index (the contact sheet) and i'm making the sheets. dig?

part of what makes this place rock are the cubicle setups. we sit in groups of four, each person has three walls with the fourth open to the middle, and these things are like little playpens. we throw things at the other groups, and because we are typically seated by project, there are territory lines drawn and inside jokes in the playpens. in our crib, if you will. this place has the best environment EVER, which is why i fought a little to get back in here.

let's not kid ourselves though, of course i would PREFER to have a creative job over a monkey job, one where i can take the creativity to work for clients i care for - that's the collective dream of design, i'm not alone here, but at the same time we all kind of know that it's one of those pedestal dreams and the prize exists only in theory. but the possible Target job is a step closer, which is why it's so ideal. the guy at Target i need to do the final interview with gets back to the office tomorrow, so i'm not expecting to hear from him until next week. check back for details :)