Poor poor US of A

God, if you're ever in a good mood....avoid watching Micheal Moore's "Sicko" documentary.

I mean, sheezus that film made me completely sick to my stomach about the state of affairs here in the US lately. Even before watching this I never really cared for our retirement, health care and insurance systems here.... now I'm just disgusted. I should have known too....both my brother and a couple of good friends had watched it before me and told me how depressed it made them. And how did I end up thinking, "Oh great...let me rent that so I can get depressed too?" Perhaps it's in our blood to want to challenge out way of thinking every once in a while.

Yeah you bet I'm going to vote. Always have since reaching voting age....but the last 2 elections certainly made me feel jaded and useless. Let's hope this time around people are disgusted enough with what's going on so that there will be real change. ANYBODY is better then these jerks in office now. I have a clear conscious I didn't vote for them the last 2 times.

It took 8 years to fuck up a country. Let's hope it doesn't require another 8 years to lift us out of it.

*breath Raph breeeeeeath* OMMMMMMMM. OK, let me step off the soap box.

How do I segway (sp?) this into a topic about design? Well, I think the state of affairs this year will certainly be something I have to watch out for. They say there's a recession, people are less willing to spend this year, tons of foreclosures, etc...will people find the desire to start new businesses or spend more money for marketing in a slow economy?

I'd like to think so. Logic says when things are going slow is when you need to push hard to market your business. But I know it's easier said then done when you gotta pay payroll and the difference between paying a few extra thousand dollars for new stationery could mean paying an employee and extra month or two. I hope there's a good balance.

Meanwhile I'm hoping for some change in gears this year. A little organizational restructuring, *maybe* pursuit of a new small office towards the later half of the year, some changes in some of the marketing I do, along with some new consultants. Let's see if they'll make any significant boost in my business this 2008.

Now that the opportunity to teach a course at Chaminade this semester is less likely as the days pass by....I've come to thinking that might be a good avenue for me to pursue. A part time teaching job could not only reinforce what I do, it will give me added credibility & maybe provide me with fresh sources of inspiration coming from the creative young students. I'd still be scared shitless teaching for the first time though. I can't imagine standing in front of a class of students for 3 hours each, several weeks in a row and trying to stay informative and interesting.

Maybe I'll teach them blogging....