I love the internets

Was it Gore that invented the Internets? I think so!!

Well, I got a few random bits of goodness. Some of it is remotely design related. Some of it isn't. But heck, everything had to have been designed at some point right?

Yoda Plush Backpack
If you're serious about becoming Jedi, see Yoda you shall. Swing from banyan trees with backpack to attract the ladies you must. HMMM?!

Chew-by-numbers Tulips
If my business in graphic design ever dries up, I think I have a backup plan to build an art empire based completely off of grape-flavored bubble-yum.

KidRobot
I like this little place over in Haight-Ashbury in San Fran. I'll probably go check it out next month when I'm there..maybe pick up a few extra toys to end up gathering dust around my house. On that note, I know a certain little boy who might kill to get one of these 8" vinyl stormtroopers. I know I would.

Ace of Cakes
Food Network has got this reality show that's got me recently hooked. This team of cake makers are pretty bad-ass when it comes to making custom cakes. Pretty inspirational if you're into baking & design in general. Nice little fun atmosphere they got there. That's almost exactly what I'd picture my studio office to look like if and when I get one.

Life with the Chongs
Another one of my friends starting a blog of their own. I started a revolution. Viva la revolution!

Projects

Alright, I've been a little remiss at posting some new work up haven't I? It's been a bit chaotic lately as you can probably detect with some of the ranting tones of my posts lately. I suppose that normal, I need to go caveman sometimes and grunt here and there each year to let off some steam.

Have I been working? Sure! Here's a couple of things I've been delayed on posting:

AbeNak International Business Cards.

Lowe Studio LLC 1st Anniversary Postcards

It took me a while to come up with something I wanted to use for my postcards. While I DID want to do something that had a WOW factor involved in it, reason prevailed this time and I opted to go a little conservative this time around and just do this tiny little postcard as my anniversary project. I figured hand-writting some thank-yous to my friends and clients would be a simple & respectful affair this time around.

But I must have gone through about 2 or 3 concepts, I think my fiancee bore the brunt of my indecision. She just about saw everything I did, helped give her opinion one night...only to find me completely scrap it the next day and try another.

Finally, I opted to try on this illustration. The concept I wanted to use was the fact that I thought of my little business as a little tree that's finally taken on a little roots this year and starting to bloom. So the tree and leaves represent my business and clients, while the roots represent all the experiences I got this last year to help my "tree" grow.

Yeah it's a little strong on the metaphor, but I like what it means to me. I'm not sure how many people caught on to the fact the roots form the word "Growth". My buddy Derrin just kind of looked at the tree for a second and hardly noticed. hehe.

Just for the fun of it, I have tshirts for guys and gals available in my store if anyone just likes the design. Nice little thing to kick off the 2nd years for by business. It doesn't say my business name anywhere on it though. Yeah, not a good promotion piece but I just wanted a shirt without all that marketing stuff in the way. If I spot this on someone that will be pretty cool.

I'm currently working on a few projects. Without revealing too much details I can say I got a fish, a dog, and a handbag project coming soon. Yes...........weird collection huh?

Road Rage

OK, I have to post some thoughts as a means of therapy. Tonight on my way home from a great dinner with friends, a crazy Korean taxi cab driver drove up to the side of my car for a reason I can't figure out and started yelling at me, "You wanna die!? You wanna die?!..."

To be honest with you his accent was so thick I'm sitting here STILL wondering what it was that got him so mad. I really couldn't understand a word he was saying. I think it was English. /shrug.

The bizarre thing was that earlier HE was the one trying to take a left turn from one lane over from me...so HE was the one that broke the law. Why was he yelling at me?

OOOOOOOH, I swear steam started coming out of my ears. There must be something about cars, or being yelled at while IN a car that amplifies the agression by 10x. OK, count to 10 Raph... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. OOOOOHHHHMMM!

OK, while I'm on this pissy kick. Let me just say that this "Rockstar Supernova" show is stupid. Yet oddly I'm unable to avoid watching it. Maybe I'm just waiting for this to all fail. We all KNOW that this manufactured band will only last 1 album at the most and they'll break up. I mean these rockers are notorious for having a string of stupid band projects then leaving.

Dave Navarro....he's too full of himself now.

Tommy Lee...he's looking OLD. Send the boy some moisterizer he's going to look like Keith Richards in another 10 years.

Gilby Clarke.... OK. Gilby WHO? Who is this guy? Three years as a replacement rhythm guitarist for Guns and Roses AFTER they already peaked? Come on.

Jason Newsted...I can tolerate him. Seems to be a cool guy.

Remember that old Sesame Street song? "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is kind of the same....can you guess which one is not like the other? Now it's time to play our game...."

OK boys and girls. 3 of these rockers hasn't written good material in close to 2 decades. One of them we've never heard anything good from yet. Can you guess which one?

If they don't pick this Dilana girl they're complete idiots. But then again, any of the top singers left on this show are better of NOT being voted into Supernova. Have you heard their new songs? If these songs were played and written by no-named artists, they wouldn't even be given a chance. They're pretty bad. Mark my words they'll tank after their first album and they'll bring their singer down with them.

Random Goodness

I went around this morning searching for information about how businesses get past the 2nd year. Sure there was a bunch I easily found about starting a business in the 1st year, but I have to imagine the 2nd year has a different set of difficulties too? It's probably just as hard if not harder.

Anyway, my search turned up zilch, zippo...nadda.

But I did turn up a few good bits of information on random subjects I found interesting:

"10 Myths About Self-Employment"
I found this one to be a bit of unexpected encouragement for us self-employed people. Yeah! It does have advantages.

"How to Become an Early Riser"
My best friend is surprised that I still set my alarm to get up early each morning. He says if it's up to him, he'd sleep in every day till noon. Well, I do set my alarm to buzz me up at 7:22am each morning. Why 7:22 you ask? It was just a habit I picked up a few years back, I noticed if I had a weird number like that it woke me up better then a round value like 7:30. Maybe in my dull morning mind I look at that clock each morning and think "What the fuck....it's 7:22! Who's the idiot that set that time?"

"Top 10 Website Mistakes: Are YOU Making Them?"
I think these are all good tips. They're quite common sense to those of us who do website design. But you'd be surprised how many people still ask me to do visitor counters and flashing text. I should print this list out and drop it in front of them "Learn well little padawan"

OK, so still no information about how to avoid 2nd year self-employment trip ups. I guess I'm on my own to fumble around myself.

Tool Part Deux

OMG the 2nd night of TOOL was UN BEEE LEE VAH BUUUULLL!!!

I don't think there were better seats in the house. We had unobstructed seats on the balcony just about a maybe 10 - 12 yards away from the stage. It was just amazing.

No sweaty G.I.s rubbing sweat all over, no banging around, no toes being stepped on..... oh it was an old man's dream concert. I can die happy now.

Tool

TOOL, one of the last remaining great metal bands I love in the last decade is playing here for concert for the past couple nights. I went to last night's show and tonight I'm headed for the 2nd show too.

It was fantastic. Their drummer, Danny Carey, has got to be the best drummer I've ever seen and heard. As performers, they play their music just about album-perfect, but I must say they're rather dull as an overall act. Their singer Maynard, is a fantastic singer, but somehow he's got some problem with lights, stagefright or something because he stands in the back by the drummer with no spotlights on him at all.

Danny plays picture perfect with his drum rhythms, but he's so good he makes it look effortless and almost dull. Kind of like the drummer for the Rolling Stones, how he just sits there expressionless. Meanwhile the guitarists just pretty much stand there the whole time. Which I can understand because their music is so intricate. So as musician live acts, they aren't your typical thing.

On the flip side, they have this awesome film and digital imagery that plays behind the band that's synched to their music....so it's almost like watching some kind of tripped out music video akin to Pink Floyd's "The Wall". I liked it.

It's been a while since going to a good rock concert. I feel like such an old fart. I can't stand the crowds anymore. It always seems like we have the habit of catching the most obnoxious concert attendees in front of us every concert we go to. Why is it that there's always some idiot that feels like they have to act like a total fucktard at these shows? The whole moshing thing is so 90s man. Get over it! Now you just look epileptic when you do that.

I felt my old moshing reflexes come back. You really have to watch yourself when there are others around you acting like idiots at these shows. I've learned several mosh survival techniques:

1. Protect the little soldier. (i.e., nuts, balls, family jewels). Keep that one hand always ready to protect the most valuable part of your male anatomy. Females should be protective of your parts too, for that matter, but it probably hurts us guys a bit more to get kicked in that area with some steel toe boots.
   
2. Keep your legs firmly set. Sometimes you get pushed around a lot at these shows. So you want to do the whole kungfu thing where you keep one leg in front of you and one behind. So you can distribute the weight evenly and not get knocked over.
3. One of my favorites I used to use.....act like an even crazier idiot then the guy next to you. If you can outdo the jerk next to you by being an even crazier jerk. They'll usually leave you alone. Swing those arms around like a big monkey (Mr Peepers?) and they'll give you a lot of personal space.
   
4. A good technique is to do a lot of high-fiving. Somehow high-fiving is an international concert-going signal for "yeah I think you're an idiot and I don't know you. I probably will never see you again, but if I high-five you somehow I'm just as cool as you are".
   

Yeah, I'm going to turn into a grumpy old man someday.

Friends

I'm a terrible friend.

When I think about it, I'm pretty much lacking in my normal responsibilities as a friend. You know, just common tasks such as remembering birthdays and celebrating big events (i.e., Christmas, birthdays, weddings, etc.).

I really suck at it. Not only that, I haven't made any real effort for them and it's embarrassing. I got one buddy who got married last year and I didn't even get him a wedding gift, nor could I attend his wedding. YIKES! Yet he always remembers to get me something for my birthday. UGH I hate that feeling.

I got 2 best friends this year I totally skipped over for birthday presents still. I'm horrible. /sigh. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'll blame it on a "guy thing" again but that will only go so far.

1st Year Anniversary!

Today marks the 1st Anniversary for Lowe Studio LLC! YAAAAY!

*golf clap*

Pretty anticlimactic really. Here I am sitting on my desk chair...my unergonomic back-killer chair... by myself. Nobody toasting champaigne with me or anything. But what the hell, it still feels ok.

So I passed the dreaded 1 year business failure curse that plagues a lot of new business ventures and I'm still here! I'm pretty proud of that. Sure I had the help of a lot of friends and family, no doubt.

Looking back towards this first year was something else. If I had to describe this year, I'd say this first year of business is a blur. I think it's best described as chaos.....it's a year full of trial and error with everything from government paperwork to accounting. The rest was came flying by.

I think this coming 2nd year is another challenge entirely. I think it won't be a problem with establishing the business anymore. But this year it will be different because the hype that comes from family and friends will not be as strong so I have to rely more upon my own marketing skills. I think that's natural. My parents and friends were probably concerned I'd be starving to death this first year so I had a lot of help and a lot of word-of-mouth. This year I'd figure I'm not so much the hot topic anymore. :)

So I think year 2 will be another sink or swim year but this time the training wheels are off!

Pressure

I'm definitely feeling the pressure of everything going on around me.

The funny thing is that while it is a period in my life where I feel the most overwhelmed with my personal life, it now seems like I'm getting the most contact with friends & family who need my help as well.

I have to help my parents with potential home renovations, and friends involved in crazy relationships...ranging from crazy love triangles to bad marriages. All of which I feel ill equipped to deal with. Sometimes I sit there listening to the details that I'm given and I wonder "why are you asking me? I've never been in that situation" While as a friend and family member I'm happy to give help, I'm certainly feeling the extra weight on my shoulders as I'm still trying to tackle everything from my own business matters to the affairs of my upcomming wedding.

Maybe that's why my body has been in knots lately and my temper has been so short. I almost lost it last week when a little old lady gave me a funny look at a 4 way stop and she didn't get the right of way from me. She did the whole drive-by stare at me and I felt my temperature boil. "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!", I thought to myself.

No, I didn't do anything but it sure would have felt good to go yell at someone, even if it was a tiny old lady with big black sunglasses in a gold buick regal.

If it isn't one thing with the wedding planning it's another. Now I'm getting all worked up over my fiancee's immigration issues. I'm getting conflicting feedback, while on one hand I have my mom's lawyer friend say it's "easy", it's so unnerving to hear the horror stories about immigration problems online.

I can decide to pay an immigration lawyer to do it, but they don't come cheap.

Bottom line is that the US immigration office doesn't care less that you have wedding plans and you want to see each other. You have to follow their rules, and more often then not, you're guilty until proven innocent because about 40% of their cases are fraudulent marriages. So they're going to go through our stuff with a fine tooth comb looking for problems.

SIGH. I definitely feel like this guy today (courtesy of CuteOverload):

A little pissy

I've been a little confrontational and pissy lately. I don't know what it is. It could be my back has been bothering me a bit lately. I hadn't gone to my Shiatsu massuese on something like 5 or 6 months so when I visited her yesterday she definitely said my whole back was in knots. It could have been a combination of my workouts, stress, and air travel that made it so bad. I've had some trouble falling asleep every so often because of this.

Mom still says it's my chair. I'll grant that it could be a contributing factor as well. I'll just have to go easy on it a while and let my back recuperate a little. Do a few extra stretches before my afternoon jog.

I've held myself in check not to outright say anything stupid to people. But there's a smaller filter between my mouth and my brain lately. How many times have I resisted saying, "You're an idiot"? More times then you can imagine.

This 15th markes my 1 year anniversay for Lowe Studio LLC. How fast!!! I'm proud of this accomplishment really even though it's not like I'm suddenly a millionaire or anything. Well, I'm sure to remember to celebrate this for myself at least even if I don't have to shout it to the world. I'm wondering if I should take that day easy? Or maybe I should hit the beach I haven't done that yet all Summer.

I did this little mailer that I'll be sending out to everyone. It certainly took me a while on that. It's a simple postcard but I must have tried 4 or 5 concepts on that. Only my fiancee's had the privelege of seeing them... I'm sure she's been sick of seeing me keep changing my mind on it. Certainly the most frustrating a work that a designer can do is the stuff we do for ourselves. We're never satisfied with our own work. That's why you'll find if you talk to a designer, they're never happy with their business cards, portfolios, or websites. It's a rule of nature.

Anyway, after the 15th I'll put up the different ideas here just so that I document the progression of thought.

My 2nd year will be just as challenging I'm sure. Maybe even MORE challenging because the hype that I generated my first few months with everyone has past. So now perhaps friends, family, and old clients are less inclined to randomly help. I suppose that's natural.

Now I'm on my own this year. The new phone book arrived at my door the other day. I had my own little dance after seeing my ad in there. It's right at the top of the page for some lucky reason. That's good. It's still a tiny ad compared to all the big half pagers that are there....but it's a start. Celebrate the little things Raph!

I got to thinking what this is all for. Will I struggle with Lowe Studio as a job for the rest of my life? What about retirement? Do I just work on this design till I lose interest or I'm too old to think? Will Lowe Studio end with that?

Hmmm....I think it would be a neat thing to have Lowe Studio grow and keep on without me. Just like my Aunt in Australia built her therapy center over the years and recently sold it for a healthy retirement. I'd like to have my business fashioned for that end-goal as well.

So I guess in the following years I'll have to try fashioning that vision. Maybe hire a designer or two to work with me, maybe one of them might eventually take over my business one day? Get a nice little studio somewhere...

Happy Thoughts.....

Fool me once...shame on you

This is my 2nd Epson printer that's died on me. One day it works, suddenly the next day it doesn't. Fair enough I bought this printer relatively cheap, knowing that it isn't built to last. I knew from the first printer that Epson's technical support sucks and that their strategy is to sell you printers below cost and then make all their money on cartridge sales.

So this one lasted 3 years and now, overnight, it's become a big hunk of unbiodegradable plastic.

That's it for me. I'm going to avoid Epson like I avoid Sony. Inferior quality products.

Fool me twice.......shame on me.

DC Stamps

I got my superhero stamps in the mail yesterday. They're very cool. I originally bought them just for work, but I must say it's tempting to just put them away because they're so fun looking. I think I'll buy a couple more sheets and just keep one sheet for fun. The best looking heros in this collection is Batman and a Green Arrow one further down.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13938520/

I wish I could make a website that's all old school comic book style like this.....HMMMM! That would be fun!

Somehow I just felt like a good laugh this morning. Here's the original 5-minute South Park short that was made in 1992 before they became all popular on TV. NOTE: it's not work or kid-safe! You have been warned!

I remember when this first became popular on the Internet we all took turns at work to watch this. OH, I couldn't stop laughing.

Getting old

I bought a new vacuum cleaner last week. Costco had a coupon for an upright Eureka vacuum that has the hepa filter and bagless system for $100. I had originally wanted to save for one of those fancy Dyson ones with that "hurricane" system, but that's something like $400 instead. My dad said, "Son, it's just a vacuum, you can go through 4 crappy vacuums with the same money you'd use to buy one of those Dysons". I figured he was right.

So far this thing has been amazing.... it's like I can go "OOOOH, what else can I vacuum so I can watch the little plastic collection cup swirl the particles around?" You know what's truly sad and pathetic? I must have vacuumed my house about 3 or 4 times already this week...it's sadly been a source of fun for me.

You KNOW your life had taken a downturn when the highlight of your day is vacuuming.

And here I am contemplating some cooking classes too. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm OOOOLD. I might as well let my gut out and start farting and burping freely because I'm on the downhill ride baby! Yeah, my fiancee better not hear that.

One of my best friends started his own blog. OOH? Did I start a movement among my friends? Hmmm. It's only 2 days old but it's already a fun little read....check it out at: The Adventures of Kinohi and Ka'ili. I think that's a clever idea to use a blog as a way to log the experiences of your kids. I might try that someday when there's a little Raph running around.

Brrrrr. Scary thought!

A good chair

As I've said before, design is everywhere. It is a rare item around us that didn't have the involvement of a designer at one point or another. I find myself thinking of the poor designer slaving away at some of these things....often doing it so well, you and I don't even notice it on our day to day activities. Good design just naturally fits...it doesn't call attention to itself. It just DOES.

My mother recently suggested I should get a good chair. The one I got now is a leather office chair I got for under $100 down at OfficeMax. It has a high back which allows me to lean back pretty comfortably, and it's relatively comfortable aside from the fact it's a bit hot on a humid day. Its got none of the ergo enhancements...the armrests are rigid, the lumbar support is pretty weak, and while sitting straight upright for computer work, the backrest does not reach my back at all.

The more I thought about my mother's suggestion, the more I thought she was right. Here I am spending most of my day sitting on this one piece of furniture in my house, why do I choose to suffer from back & neck pain because of this chair?

Well...... HELLO? Most ergo chairs start between $500 - $800. OUCH! For just an office chair? "Well, you sit on that all the time!" I hear my mom saying. So I go about doing some online research.....

There are apparently a handful of really good office chairs out these days that have been engineered to do everything short of giving you a pat on the back for good work.

There's the standard that was set 12 years ago by the chair known as the Aeron. Yeah, you KNOW you're paying big bucks for a piece of furniture if it has its own name. It might be fun to have a house full of named furniture wouldn't it? Imagine inviting guests over to your house, "Welcome! Why don't you make yourself comfortable over here with Aeron. Or if you want to relax, please lie down on Samantha over here and put your feet up on Paco."

However, apparently I'm old school. The Aeron isn't considered all that great anymore being 12 year old technology. A couple of other, not-so-well-named, chairs have lately been considered the pinnacle of a good office chair.

One choice is this chair called the Humanscale Liberty. OK, that chair should be downgraded a couple points for the dumb name. Ordering the options for this chair is like building yourself an exotic car.

Another promising option is the Steelcase Leap. This one looks like it's way more adjustable then the HumanScale Liberty.

Can I really afford putting so much money into a chair? /sigh. I might go sit my ass on these things to see if they're really worth that amount of money. If it saves my back and neck I suppose it might be worth it.

Certainly if I get one of these chairs I'm naming it right away.

Floating by

I DO feel a little bit like I'm just floating on a raging river lately.

While work has been stable, I certainly don't feel like the level of phone calls I've been getting lately is to my comfort. I know as a self-employed owner, no matter how many projects I'm working on now, I should always dedicate a portion of my time on getting new work 2, maybe 3 months, in advance. So I must say that's a concern.

I have my phone book ads coming up with I paid for almost a year ago and they'll finally be showing up soon when this year's books are distributed. I don't predict that will suddenly ramp up my business, but if my calculations served me right to begin with, landing just 1 or 2 jobs out of those books this year will help that pay for itself.

Meanwhile I've been putting regular time into meeting with my BNI group each week. But I must say that I've been putting more time into that then I've been getting back. Not because that group doesn't work, but because we have to recruit enough members into our group in order to be a real working chapter. That's been the frustrating part because until then, the practice of giving and getting referrals for business hasn't really begun. So so far that's just been a time & money sink. At this rate, I may not get anything out of BNI until perhaps next year. But I have benefitted from being able to routinely talk about my business to other people though, so it's not a total wash.

I have 3 projects in queue right now. Yeah, fantastic. But I'm in limbo with each of them because I don't have their materials. So right now, they're just "floating" projects for another week or so. That can be frustrating because I want to get these things going.

So I've been looking for other things to pre-occupy my time now. I've been studying a typography book I had bought on my last HK trip, checking out locations for my wedding, working on a mailer postcard for my 1st year anniversary.

All my routines are out of wack. My normal exercise and gym schedule has been totally screwed up these past few weeks. I've been either sick or I have a client meeting each morning. Which is in part my fault for not making better schedules, but it's hard to say "No" to a good client when gym time is really just personal time. I think I SHOULD say no sometimes though...keeping fit & healthy should be a reasonable priority.

I'm debating on whether to join a cooking class some evenings. I think they offer these at night once in a while at the culinary school. I think it will be helpful when I settle down into domestic life next year huh? I doubt microwave food will DO it anymore once I'm no longer a bachelor. I think cooking looks fun..... perhaps I will!

I must say, life is never "boring" anymore. I got some strong currents pushing me this way and that lately...am I going the direction I want to? I think I need to try paddling more...