Beautiful

Mmmmmhmmm. Yeah ok....I'm still on vacation. Actually my first time online in a while. Not necessarily by choice either, my new ISP took me offline for about 4 days. Which wasn't as painful as it would have normally been since I've been otherwise "occupied" with other things.

How am I doing on vacation? Does the picture tell you anything? Look at that silly grin.

It's been working out great. Can't ask for anything more. I guess I can give more details later but I'm definitely enjoying vacation. It will be hard going back to work after this....

Vacation

I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. "Back" on March 4th.

I'm not actually going anywhere, I'll be spending time with my girlfriend, friends, & family. Well, depending on spur of the moment I may take my GF with me to go to the Big Island for an overnight stay. I've lived here in Hawaii all my life and I've NEVER had the chance to see Kilauea's lava flow which has been in continuous eruption for the better part of 18 years. That's so pathetic.

I had been holding out for cash to come in but at this point it looks like my clients are waiting till the absolute last minute to pay me. Which is understandable but a little painful for me. I may have to charge some of these things and pay them off when the cash comes in. I hate riding on credit these days. But I guess it doesn't hurt to keep some sort of rolling credit sometimes just to build good business credit.

Anyway.... you might not hear from me. I will miss you all...my invisible blog readers.

No, I lie.... I won't be thinking about work or anything at all these next 2 weeks. hahah.

Pacific Fitness Alliance

Another site down. I'm just banging them out aren't I?

This one was fun too. It's got this trendy wispy colored background that has been all the rage in some designs I've seen. I think it works pretty good on this design.

Had I had my way with the budget, my original idea that I had sketched included some way to show a modern day sports activity alongside an image of a traditional native Hawaiian scene showing something similar. For instance one image would show a group of people doing a marathon race -- the image would blend into an image of a native Hawaiian warrior running in traditional garb through the rainforest of Hawaii.

I think that would have been neat. Each section would have a different scene like that. In the end, the budget wouldn't allow for it. It would have been quite pricey to hire a professional photographer, model, cosmetics, costume, to get it done. I would have tried to take the photography myself, it would have been good practice....but when was the last time I was able to find a big Hawaiian friend to stand in half-naked Hawaiian garb taking photos next to a mosquito ridden stream? I don't think so.

Anyway, I think it came out pretty good anyway. Some photos are stronger then others but my client is happy and that's all that counts sometimes.

Check it out: Pacific Fitness Alliance (http://www.fitpros.org)

Now I can't wait till vacation......... 2 more days.

Hectic days

One of these crazy weeks trying to get everything in order before vacation this Saturday. I'll be "gone" for the next two weeks. As much as it's difficult for me lately not to think about work almost every hour of the day -- bills, project status, vendors, etc. I'm going to just tell myself, "OK Raph...just stack up the chips as high as you can this week and deal with how they fall when you come back in 2 weeks"

A little schitzo to be talking to myself like that isn't it?

But I kinda have to do that sometimes where I stop worrying about everything to death. Every business owner I've talked to has given me that recommendation. All work and no play is not a good idea.

It seems to be working. So far all my clients have been more then encouraging about me taking some time off. A few of them have already wished me a good time and told me not to worry about anything. That's nice of them.

Projects that need to be done are somewhat on schedule. I'm still suffering from clients with late payments but I guess that comes with the territory. I just have to keep eye on my budget for a while to ride out the cash flow. I know it's supposed to be a wise thing for a business to do to wait until the last minute to pay the bills....it just sucks being on the receiving end of that cycle.

This week I'll fire off a customer "Spring" newletter to tell my customers about my vacation schedule and show them my new websites. I think it will be fun to do some show & tell. Perhaps that will get some word out or encourage old customers to do some new work.

Doesn't feel like Spring though.... it's actually cool here lately. I would call it cold in fact. Of course I tell an old coworker in Ohio that I'm wearing a sweatshirt and long pants and she laughs at me. Right now she's suffering from minus temperatures up there and she's a popsicle.
So what...I'm COLD damnit :)

A week from now I'm doing the Aloha Run. 8.2 miles of running. Or more precisely this year I will be walking. Christy will be coming with me so it's just going to be a fun thing to do so that she can see the thousands of people doing this thing. I'm race number 13k something.

Well, time to take a break.... eat my fish shaped crackers and watch some TV.

I must be getting old

I'm all excited about the concert tickets to go see this year's Kokua Festival down at the Waikiki Shell. Last year I went and saw Jack Johnson, Ozomatli, Jackson Browne, John Cruz and G.Love. It was fantastic.

This year JJ is coming again but this time I understand he has his old buddy Ben Harper with him and I *think* Willy Nelson. WILLY NELSON?!!? Yeah, I thought that too.... wtf?

But regardless I'm very excited not only to see JJ perform again (how effeminate is that?) but Ben Harper kicks butt. I know JJ started off his career thanks to Ben Harper so in all effect Harper should be considered the bigger act. I guess right now JJ is riding on a popularity wave.

Anyway. I'm excited. 13th row seats and no mosh pit. I'm old now. That sounds mighty fine to me!! My crickety bones can't take it anymore.

I am disappointed I can't go to U2 though. That's another concert I've always wanted to see. I just can't justify spending $150+ right now just to see a concert. I know people are scalping tickets for up to $1000 right now. Isn't that insane?

I used to go to concerts for free all the time because of connections. I used to walk right into shows to see Red Hots, RunDMC, Sonic Youth, Public Enemy, etc etc. I guess I'm still living in that spoiled phase...I just can't see spending that much to see anyone, I don't care of God himself came to play a show.

Now I DO have just ONE band I would consider paying more for, only because I've wanted to see them since I first started playing bass. AC/DC. Too bad those guys will never ever seem to play in Hawaii. WAAAAAAAAAAH!

Deep thoughts

I sometimes feel bad when I do my client estimates...especially for new customers. It's easier for existing customers because they know me already, there's a trust already developed there. They know that I usually do more then they expect and I try my best to give them their money's worth.

My last proposal to one of my clients, she said "Wow, this is reasonable...I thought you must be giving me the inside deal!" It's not uncommon I do that for my good clients whom I now consider my friends, but in this case, I really didn't do that. I just gave her my number and she was more then happy with it.

New customers on the other hand don't have this relationship with me. They can only look at the numbers and often it stops at that. I don't yet have the name recognition of some of the huge designers in town who can likely ask for whatever they want. So it's often a gamble how much I can ask for.

I've always had the difficulty with giving a worth for my work. But it's a necessary part of business.

Anyway.......

Vacation is coming up in 10 days! Yaaaay!! Can't wait!!!

Tiki's Grill & Bar

Just finished another site! Tiki's Grill & Bar down in Waikiki. Prior to working with them I had only one opportunity to eat there. Bad yeah?

But it wasn't because I didn't like it there...but strangely enough local people don't go into Waikiki as often as we should.

Anyway, I've since had the chance to eat there more then once now, no small thanks to the complementary lunches they've given me (THANKS TIKI!!) and I must recommend if you eat there, try the "Grilled Island Mahimahi with Seafood Salsa". That dish is definitely "Broke da mouth". Very delicious.

Anway, check out the site at: http://www.tikisgrill.com

There are still a few things that needs to be worked out on the site. They need to update the shopping cart system with their merchandise, but otherwise I didn't pull any punches with this site. It's got Flash, PHP, e-commerce, a full admin system, & CSS -- all thrown together in this concoction.

Style wise I had fun with this site. Originally I had difficulty figuring out what I'd do with this site. If I show you the original sketch of this design I originally gave Tiki, you'd find it almost looks exactly like this...I came up with this first idea within one hour just drawing out this Tiki character.

Originally I thought I'd go hunt down photography to render out the Tiki along with the torches. Hours of trial and error later it just was not working. I even asked the help of one of my best friends B.D. to help sketch something for me but it still didn't turn out the way I imagined it.

Eventually I stopped fighting...I thought, "Well, if they like my sketch, why change it?". Turns out it works out good. It's kitschy...what I would describe as "intentionally tacky". But that's the spirit of the whole restaurant anyway. So it works out well. Rarely do I get a client that would allow me to fly with some of my own crazy ideas.

So in this project I had 2 best friends help me, and even my sister in Taiwan helped out a little too. In the end, it's all good. I'm very happy with this site.

A package finally arrived for me yesterday for an order I made before Christmas. It's a case and some cables for my iPod. I hear it scratches super easy so my brother said the first thing I should do is get something to protect it. I may want to resell the thing one day who knows?

Anyway, I ordered this online through a company in Florida. I won't name their name but if anybody wants to know just email me. Anyway, the Apple website itself has this company's products so it's not like it's a tiny little mom and pop shop.

It turned out to be a really cool case. Very sleek looking, durable, and doesn't pick up fingerprints. Another well-designed product.

Get this though.... the reason why this took more then 1 month to get to me? They shipped it international. A couple of idiots figured Hawaii was out of the country and this needed to go through customs. UUUUGH! I had called once to check on my payment and I remember the lady who answered saying that shipping for me wasn't free like they had advertised. She briefly mentioned something about customs but before that sank into my head the call was over.

Then later when I emailed them asking why it seems like I could have swam to Hawaii faster then this package was taking getting here, some idiot told me it's probably a customs issue.

It wasn't until they hired a new sales manager that the guy apologized to me and explained that they're trying to get their act together in realizing Hawaii was one of the States. He promplty sent it to me 2nd day air after that. Dear god...

Anyway, at least I got it and it's cool.

Now I have it hooked up to my entertainment system....which is neat because it's like a long random jukebox. But I must say, MP3s really do sound inferior to the source CDs, I don't care what people say. No highs, no lows. I guess it's all you can expect pumping tunes out of a little tiny jack.

Now I wonder how many songs from the Sound of Music it will take to drive my neighbors crazy?

Random Rants

Expenses come from the most stupid things....

My buddy Kev had a client grand-opening event to do the other night. I wanted to just visit to offer support then ended up staying for 3 hours to help out because it was so busy and crazy. The parking in Waikiki turned out to be $15!!! OUCH! Are you kidding me?

Yesterday I went in to donate blood in downtown. I had no choice but to park in my old building of my previous employer. Figured I would be in and out in 15 mins or so. An hour later I drive my car out and it was $9. GRRRRR. Summmamabeetch they rape you with parking in Hawaii. Perhaps if I had any blood left after donating, the parking people might have wanted to suck more out too.

I'm finding a decent portion of my budget is going towards either paying for parking or giving tips to valet people every time I head out for something.

Work has been crazy....I've been jamming trying to get things squared away before my vacation on the 18th. I really intend to do absolutely NOTHING during these two weeks that's business related... I've practially continued rolling since leaving my previous employer and so I really can't say I've had any chance to goof off. This time, I'm letting everyone know it's what I'm doing.

Luckily it's very likely I'll have work lined up as soon as I return from vacation as well. Always have to think ahead. I get a lot of verbal agreements but not a whole lot of solid committed action.... we'll see. I have my fingers crossed.

Anyway, my coffee beckons....