I’ve officially finished my final day of work at Partners In Learning Programs, Inc.

Six, long years which actually feel like twelve depending on how you look at it. Now I can officially start the next phase of my life and head out into the great unknown. As the company finds it’s footing in a new world in one form or another, I can look back and say I’m part of the reason it’s lasted and can be handed off to somebody else or our largest client.

With that, it means updating the resumé to reflect this, but it also means taking the long and much needed break that I think I so rightly deserve.

In the new year, there will be big announcements and changes in regards to what I will be doing for a job. For now, I’m keeping much of this under wraps until I’m ready to let everyone know. The things I’ve learned and gained from being part of a hard working small business will hopefully carry me into this new area and I accept it with as much excitement and passion that I have with all of my work.

Happy Holidays, everyone! And have a safe and happy New Year!

I love return clients who are fun to work with. This week has been an exceedingly great week for artwork/freelance jobs, even though the day job lingers and carries on as it really doesn’t know when to stop (which is another story for another time). This weekend I picked up a variety of things to work on, including the next chapter in the very funny and entertaining Operation Adelmo show.

It seems they had a great time in Scotland and now they are back and working hard to keep everyone entertained through the holidays.

I’ve sighed my final sigh, in regards to work and finally knowing more of what is going on.

It looks like my job will be redundant is being sold on to our largest client in some fashion, which means the rest of us will be out of a job as the assets are all taken “in house” by a very large photography company that services North America and Canada. This way, the client will get to continue giving great banners to their schools, my boss can finally retire or move on to other things… and so can I.

This will probably take place over the next couple of months. I’ve got something cooking (ok, several “somethings“) as I’m not one to be caught unaware of things and just sit on my bum waiting for something to happen nor do I make rash decisions. As with everything legal and wonderful, you do it in planned out steps so that it’s above board and takes off right out of the blocks.

I’ll keep you posted. And some of you illustrators that I went to school with – please check your email. I may have a job for you.

Well, that’s all she wrote…

With all the silly and mostly aggravating changes Facebook has made in the past, the most recent ones and the announcement that they plan on documenting your “life” online, I’ve decided that this social network is not for me. While I understand that some of you might be upset over this, and reasonably so, as I know I would be lying if I didn’t say I did enjoy venting, laughing (usually with you) at the expense of the ill-informed in our lives, and just keeping tabs on people from a voyeuristic perspective – it’s time to close the door on it all just like so many sitcoms finally do.

I have to say this new “news feed-like” Facebook within a Facebook is the proverbial straw that broke this camel’s back. A simple exercise in just trying to limit or shut off the constant streaming of people I know and, yes, the things in the upper right corner from people I don’t know or want to forget became too much to bear this morning. I’m here to bear witness and pronounce my Facebook profile dead as of 11:45am, Friday, September 23rd, 2011.

All kidding aside, there are serious privacy concerns with that “news ticker” style running update thingy in your profile. What if you “liked” something that your mom’s friend might find objectionable? What if your ex from 18 years ago is friends of a friend who no has access to your profile and sees some snarky comment you made about them, igniting an internet troll fight bigger than WWII? Or worse, an employer sees something he doesn’t like and decides he now has all he needs to see to it that you are on the short list for a firing? To all that, I have to say “no thanks.” I’ll pass.

While I won’t be posting my crazy antics about certain things that about 170 of you tuned in on, sometimes on a daily basis, because it was such a car crash and it was the electronic equivalent to your morning coffee, know this: It’s not you, it’s Facebook. I  signed up with Facebook, fleeing MySpace when it became a miserable crashfest due to it’s poor coding, never-ending hack attacks, and worse. Facebook was for adults! I loved it. It was classy. It didn’t have all those coding issues. It was strong, stable, reliable. Now, it just feels abusive and it wants to turn you out and make you walk the streets. It’s come between us for the last time and I can’t stand the way it treats you. Pack all your photos, quit all your apps, and maybe run to Diaspora?

Maybe I’ll do something there. I don’t know. Maybe we should all just go outside? I’m so confused. I’m sad. Maybe I should stuff my face again, like I do when I’m upset. But here I go again, making fun of myself.

I love you all. I’ll keep you updated as best I can.

Two weekends ago, we had somebody come out to the house, who wasn’t nuts or a crackhead (read: from Craigslist), and had them dig up the “grass”. I think after the driveway project, I would have learned that you get what you pay for, when it comes to labor/removal.

Having gone through the vetting process of trying to get somebody to our house to do the job a record of 5 times, we left a nice note on a bobcat vehicle that was actually doing a professional job, with the hopes that he’d call. Thankfully – he did!

Below is the work from dig up, to us weed blocking out the yard and then finally putting down wood chips we got from the landfill with help from our next door neighbor:

You know when your parents would say to you, “So if your friend jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, you’d do it too?”

That’s kind of where I’m at with this whole social networking thing. First it was MySpace and that was terrible and everyone left for Facebook. Everyone was on Facebook and then they started doing things to try to monetize you and your friends and other wonky stuff that makes any designer want to bite somebody. And now we’re all supposed to act like lemmings and run over to Google +?

Count me out. You know how to find me. You can call me on the phone or send me email. I’m not playing this jumping around thing anymore.

That’s my two cents.

This was my birthday week and in my household, we typically plan to do fun things during that week, like go out to eat at a nice restaurant or go to an event. Also, I’ve made a concerted effort to be less cynical (negative) in my thinking. Then I found out Mercury is in retrograde (please note, I don’t really believe in this) so things are really weird.

So when the universe hands you lemons, as they say…

We’ll see soon enough. I found something online that said this:

“When I was five years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down “happy.”  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t  understand life.”

Words to live by. I’m going to get happy.

The lack of creative jobs in the San Diego area has me completely baffled. Even worse than the lack of options is the jobs that do get posted. Exactly how many people do you know who do graphic design, marketing, a sales person’s job, and code programs? Anyone? Anyone? The people on Monster.com and other “creative” job postings need a reality check.

My level of frustration with the lack of options out there has me considering going completely out of my field into something that may not use my illustration degree at all, like gardening, but I know that would be a serious pay cut and possibly disastrous. Sure, I love gardening and baking cakes, but do I seriously want to consider a future in either of those?

The problem with creative types of jobs is that they usually come about when the economy is hustling and bustling, opening up areas for people like me to come in and make things look better. Hearing how our unemployment rate is hovering between 9-10% in California always gives me pause. What about the people who can’t claim for unemployment benefits anymore because they’ve been out of work for so long? They aren’t being counted, so that means the amount of people looking for work is higher than that. Even those of us still in a job look at the “opportunities” out there and cringe when we see things like “Those of you who are long-term out of work, don’t bother applying.” Seriously? I imagine signs at the front doors of these businesses stating ridiculous things like “No Irish Allowed.” and having white and “colored” drinking fountains.

Something seriously needs to be done with the United States job growth. I ran into a friend of mine, who is an extremely talented graphic designer, at the grocery store the other day. He said he can’t find work and he’s had interviews, but it’s always the same thing: nothing. And this has been going on for two years! When people like me (art directors) post a job, we are deluged by hundreds of resumés in the first week. We sift through the stack to find viable candidates and narrow it down to the first dozen or so and start the process of interviewing. We are very busy, but would it kill some of these people to write or call the final candidates and tell them why they were passed up? I make it a point to always tell runners-up what they could work on more to make them a better candidate and I never send out canned, robotic responses telling the person that their application will be reviewed. I actually write them back. I take the time. It’s incredibly disheartening to talented and qualified applicants that your only contact with “Company X” is one of these sorry pre-generated “We have your resumé. Thank you.” responses.

Short of opening up a bakery or taking a pay cut by moving into a non-parallel job, I’m not sure what else to do. My father did that when I was just a kid. I’ll have to ask him if he regretted that move.

I’m totally at a loss. I did write my congresswomen and even the President to do something similar to the New Deal, but of course, that falls on seemingly deaf ears. I’m a bit tired of waiting for somebody else to do something.

I put some screen grabs of sites that are live on the web into the gallery as well as the two illustrations from a previous post into the gallery. Since I don’t have access to my original files at the  moment, you don’t have the nice mouse over description of what they are and it just appears blank in the sidebar.

Also, I’m now thinking about installing a WordPress theme for the gallery instead of having to code everything from scratch, as it will be more drag, drop, and upload making it easier to update.

Stay tuned.

Isn’t it funny how some of us spend all our time texting, emailing, chatting, talking on our iPhones, Tweeting, Facebooking, and blogging but very few of us can comprehend what is communicated, process said communication, or simply get out of other’s way while attempting to do it?

Technology enables people to stay in touch superficially while making them targets for scornful looks in restaurants, the highway or in passing on the sidewalk.

Personally, I turn my iPhone on vibrate and would never think to answer it during an important client meeting or while out with friends or driving. When I email somebody, I spend time making sure my thoughts are complete, I spelled things correctly, and separate my points out so that people can address them. So why do so many people screw it up?

I think human beings are some of the most obnoxious life forms outside of, say, viruses. A simple look at any YouTube video commentary underlines my point and technology is merely a magnifying glass for behavior that is already there.

Many people agree that by age 7, your attitudes, manners, and interactions with people are pretty much set for the rest of our lives. I just wish people were more thoughtful and kind to others.

Barring that, I wish people would read email.