Chinese Antiques

I should mention that I've been casually trying to help my dad sell off some precious Chinese Antiques that are stored away at his house. You'll see the link to them on the right side of my blog, or go here: http://www.raphaellowe.com/antiques/

I think people just don't know that we have them. My aunt hand-restores these with expert detail in Hong Kong where they own several factories and shops. Annually they make several personal trips into remote places of China to find these items, then they take them back to HK to restore them.

At one point, they were selling like hotcakes in some Maui and Oahu art galleries, but then when some of the galleries had to close for business, my dad just lost contact with any resources to sell off these remaining items. So they've been just sitting there in the dark. What a shame.

If anyone knows anyone that is into interior decorating or if you simply need a unique housewarming gift for someone with a new home, consider one of these antiques. They're honestly stunning, if I had my own new home right now I'd take a couple of these. My aunt and uncle use techniques that unique to their shop only...like you will never see a restoration with the natural wood finish. I think those are beautiful.

Help save these precious items before the termites find them first!!

Online Marketing

I get clients asking me if I do online marketing for their websites all the time.

I'm not sure exactly what to say. In many ways, YES, what I do when I determine how to create your website, logo, business card, etc is ALL a form of marketing. How your product looks and functions involves heavily upon what your designer thinks is the best way to market your item to the broadest audience. So in that effect, yeah....I do marketing all the time.

On the other hand, I think what people are most concerned with is maximizing traffic to their website. I do some of that too...when I produce my sites I use standard techniques I think every web-developer should use to try to maximize the site's rankings in a search engine. e.g., using clear titles, metatags, ALT tags for all the images, descriptions, etc.

But when it comes down to it, I find it difficult to say I'm a professional at it. I can't think of one clear website example of when a website just brought millions of visitors overnight by itself. In every case, it heavily involved the effort of the site owner work at bringing people to view the site.

I don't know if anybody SHOULD claim to be a professional at it. I know a couple big vendors who say they specialize in it, but after charging thousands of dollars on it, I don't find that they're any more effective then anyone else. Case in point, I once mentioned a client's website I had worked on once here in this blog. I didn't say anything negative about it, but I just commented about how I worked on it.

Weeks later my client called me back to have me take down this post because it was showing up in the search engines almost as high in ranking if not higher then some of the results that were supposingly done by the professionals. Personally I was a little surprised myself...but it goes to show how much of a grey area these "search engine optimization" services are. I learned to be much more careful how I comment on people's things.

My own site for instance is turning out to be a surprise. Every month my web logs show I'm more then doubling up on unique site visitors. So by doing nothing more then talking nonsense here and there in my blog, it's just drawing people in. I think I'm getting over 1000 visitors a month these days. *wave to everyone* I'm sure they're all pretty disappointed at what they find here haha. (I should put porn or something up to make it more worth the visit.) I'm sure 1000/mo is still a baby in terms of sites that are very popular, but for something that I'm putting very little effort into, that's not bad!

So I'm getting a better idea now on what develops website traffic. They key is then on how to utilize the right techniques to get "qualified" audiences to your site...because you want to target the audience that is most likely inclined to buy your product or service. Not just those who randomly fall on your site just because you mentioned the word "porn, porn, porn" a few hundred times on a comment.

Waiting

OK, I think I need therapy! I think I'm going insane.

Yesterday sucked. I spend 4 good hours whipping up a design re-vamp for one of my good clients. I had JUST about finished the design...maybe 90% there when I decided to step away for a while and take a small dinner break.

After finishing my meal and watching a show on TV I return to work only to find my Photoshop program is going all haywire. All the tools were doing things other then they were supposed to. I'm like "What the fuck?" The magnifying glass was acting like an eraser, I couldn't move my layers, etc etc. Don't know what I'm talking about? Suffice to say things were all messed up.

"Great." I tell myself. I distinctly recall telling myself to save my work before I decide to close Photoshop and reboot the machine.

I go through all that and when I got everything going again, I open my file which I supposedly saved and guess what?........... something else was saved OVER it.



OK, pause for dramatic impact.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

And you know what I figured out afterwards? The reason why Photoshop was going haywire on me was because I had my Wacom pen tool resting on my tablet. So it was sending competing instructions to my computer...so that's why my mouse was doing different things. SUMMMAMMABEEEACH.

Yeah, not a good day. So I turned everything off and decided I'd spend my weekend trying to re-do the vision of what I had created. Certainly frustrated, but what can you do? I can't blame anyone but myself. I was cautious...I remembered to SAVE! But I made a mistake which costed me time and effort. Nobody to blame. Well, I'll blame WACOM....damn pen manufacturers damn you to hell!!!

Everything else is OK despite the frustration of having to wait for things. Still no movement on the fiancee visa. They do these reports only once ever 2 or 3 weeks or so and watching progress on this is worse then watching water boil. But yet I can't stop checking it.

Waiting on people to either pay me, or waiting for them to give me materials I need to finish their projects. I don't like having to wait on others to move my life along. Life is short people!

On the flip side, I've amped up my fitness regimen. I'll likely try to do the 12km Aloha Run this coming February. Which means I'll have to do a lot more running to get up to that point. I've been diligently running each week, but I usually just do enough to keep me in shape...not so much to push for competition. There's definitely a difference! If you talk to any marathon runners they'll usually tell you how all that running is bad for their body. Of course, I'm not training for a marathon...yet.

I'm finally getting pretty good with my abdomen workouts...so I'm not looking like a total loser when I do my crunches. I know there is a six-pack underneath this little pudgy stomach of mine hehe. I gotta get something to show there and then I'll be pretty happy with my body shape. I'll never be no male model or anything, but I'll be in better shape now then I ever was in highschool! Still got a typical asian flat ass though I should be doing ass exercises or invent me the male butt bra.

No no no, this isn't vanity is it? I figured I'm working hard at my workouts...I should at least reap the rewards in being happy with myself when I look in the mirror each day right?

Rube Goldberg Japanese Style

Pretty neat little contraptions. The Japanese have a way with making silly little jingles that get stuck in your head. All afternoon after each task is completed I've been humming the little jingle to myself. Who knows what I'm singing "Pitagora Su Ichi"

So sad...



NOTE: OH! It's Pythagoras Switch! Oh these songs are stuck in my head. "SHIIIN CHOO NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Recycling

There's no place I can find here in town that can recycle my old all-in-one printer. OK, well, I did find ONE place but she told me that it's not worth it for me to turn that in for just one printer. It's best to just drop it curbside and let the City pick it up. So it will just be another giant piece of plastic in a landfill.

They charge $80+ for any printer dropped off for recycling. WTF.

Well, planet Earth...I tried.

When it Rains....

Work is showing signs of life again. I'm getting some fun projects that involves some gallery artwork, logo work and card design. A lot of the fun "unusual" projects I wanted to get involved with. That's good.... I don't like the feeling of having things in limbo. Am I a workaholic?

I'm working on a new website for Lowe Studio. Well, actually, it will technically be my FIRST official website for my company as I kind of cheated by making my personal blog and website act as my business website.

My fiancee says thinks it's not very professional. In part I think she's right. I pull a lot of personal things into my work. But in a way, a part of me has done all of this intentionally -- what better way to get a closer trusting relationship with my clients then let them know me better, whether it's about my relationships or my near-death experience with an earthquake?

Well, I'm thinking my new site will be blog oriented as well but I'll separate the personal stuff from the professional stuff a bit better. While I like this Blogger engine for it's simplicity, I'm testing WordPress as my next blog engine of choice. So far it seems to be a very flexible and powerful blog platform and I just might install that and customize it for my needs.

The new site should have:

1. An integrated portfolio gallery of my work so it's no longer necessary to view my work on separate sites.
2. A better explanation of my services. I plan to list everything that I do. Like...DUH.
3. An explanation of my business philosophy & business mission. Visitors should be able to better understand what I think makes me different.
4. Commerce. While I'm still very amatuer with my photography, I'd love to be able to see if I can sell some prints here and there. At least maybe sell enough to support my expensive side hobby. I think my new site will have some of the photos as limited prints and some quick way to just order them online.
   
5. Online newsletters. I send newsletters out to my clients every quarter. It would be nice to have archived newsletters and current news on my new site.
6. Access to my client login admin for existing customers. Clients I currently work with have access to an admin they can FTP, post comments, check schedules, etc. I'll see if I can tie that into the new site better.

All coming soon. Ideally before the new year.

Earthquake, flash floods and no power

I woke up to the shaking of a 6.5 earthquake this morning. It was unbelievable! You have to understand these things don't happen in Hawaii that often. This is the first time I actually FELT the earthquake myself.

They say we had one that was slightly bigger back in '83, but I honestly didn't notice that one. Sometimes we have tiny little rumbles like a giant truck rolling by. I usually don't feel those either. I'm usually disapointed too. I hate it when friends come by and say, "OH did you feel the earthquake this morning?" I never do.

Today my bed is shaking for about 5 seconds and I'm wondering if a truck was rolling by or my neighbor was having a bit too much fun, if you know what I mean.

Then it picks up in a 2nd tremor...this one was unmistakeable. I quickly run to the doorway for protection and I'm all wide-eyed staring at my apartment. I'm on the 2nd floor so I think if my building collapses I'm a goner. A couple of my action figures (yes I have action figures what of it?) falls over. Then as quickly as it came it stops. I immediately call my neighbor upstairs and we're both freaked out.

The neighborhood looked ok. I think the Big Island was the epicenter so they suffered visible damage. But to my understanding there has been no major injuries. Only problem was that we were out of power and phone services for almost the entire day. It was bizarre crawling out around down when the entire city was dark. I should have taken pictures.

It's times like this when you realize how dependant we are on power. We had NOTHING to do but just sit there and stare at our feet. I'm going to go out and buy some board games and playing cards for the next time something like this happens. No internet, no tv, no laptop, no playstation, no cell phone, no landline phone..... I almost lost my mind.

Boiling water and insanity

So it's been slow these past couple weeks. Hate to admit it. I don't like the feeling of work being slow...I'm unaccustomed to the feeling I guess I've been very lucky the past year I took off running right from the start.

I've been thinking a lot about what to do in periods like this. I gotta look at old patterns in my work, evaluate my marketing, find out how to drum up new business. I certainly have ideas on what is causing this...now the trick isn't just knowing the problem(s) but to actually do something about it so I can get the momentum going again. Nobody else is going to do it for me.

Certainly this is the bummer side of self employment. You gotta take the bad side as well as the good. Let this be a lesson for anyone looking at working for themselves.

And then I wonder if I'm just being a total workaholic and I should just enjoy some downtime which is natural in every business? Nooooo, that's too scary. When you work for yourself there isn't anybody else out there that can help you when the chips are all down. Luckily I got some emergency contingencies in the worst case scenario it's really dry for a couple months. Part of being obsessive compulsive like I am gives me the benefit of having thought of things a few months ahead.

God I need some hobbies for times like these..... I'm going insane.

Meanwhile I'm considering a new design for my own site. I'd really like to merge all my sites together somehow. The Gallery and this blog are really fun things for me to maintain and I want to really incorporate these better somehow with the main site. On the flip side, that Flash website is not functional to me. That's a reason why I don't advocate Flash websites too much. They are expensive to develop & a pain to maintain. I want any future website of mine to use as little Flash as possible yet still be cool in some way.

My fiancee visa application has been submitted and received from the immigration office. Now it's just a waiting game. From what I can tell, they're 6 months backlogged on applications. Which would put us to about March 2007 before our case is even on the table to be evaluated. That's already tight -- should something go wrong, we have only 3 months till our wedding time to resolve the situation. Yeah, we're keeping positive about it all, but it's certainly nerve wracking. They only issue reports every 2 or 3 weeks about their backlog times... it's a bit like watching water boil -- I check everyday, even though I know the information will be the same as the last.

Drained

I got 2 things taken away from me today....money & blood.

Tax time for the 3rd quarter. Paid a good chunk away to the State today. Apparently this 3rd quarter I did better then the 2nd quarter but not as good as the first. It certainly didn't appear like I had that much this quarter but I think it was because of some of my new wedding expenses. It all went POOF as soon as I earned it. I like being out of debt so I pay them off as fast as I can...only that doesn't leave me with a lot of room for expendable fun money.

I gave blood again today too. I know I've given over a gallon since 9-11 as I got this little "one gallon donor" card from the Blood Bank this year. It's not much but somehow I felt a little proud of it. I hope it's been helping someone...because I certainly don't enjoy the actual act of sticking needles in my arm. At least I can say I do SOMEthing good for others.

But there I was today giving away blood, thinking I was the most generous person in the world...but then they sat me next to this guy who was the top donor on the board. He's given over 216 pints of blood. They have a top donor board on the wall....he's the ONLY person who's given this much. I can't even get ON the board till I've given 56 pints. So it sure outshadowed my little donation. Laaaame! Next time I'll let them suck my blood out dry so I get a headstart on catching up with this guy hehe.

Been wanting to either take a basic photography course down at Pacific New Media labs or a cooking course down at KCC. I'll wait for the new schedule. I need to do something constructive other then working and staying home all the time or else I'll certainly become the dull boy.

My photography needs work. Even my fiancee says so, how brutal. I think I want something that will help me with composition. I mean, it's ironic that I'm in design so I can recognize what a good photo should look like...but taking one myself and getting the result I want is another. I got books that have taught me the standard "rule of thirds" but I think I need live people to give me tips and critique.

Cooking...well, anyone who knows me knows I don't cook. Not that I don't want to... I actually quite enjoy getting dirty in the kitchen and creating something. Only that I find I never know what to shop for and how I would combine them together. Experimenting with food ingredients would be too prohibitive in costs without knowing exactly what I want to do. There's a basic knife class I will probably take first...then I think there are "quick meal" classes I might be interested in. I gotta learn to cook for the wifey don't I? :)

Random Thoughts

It's been a while since I just grabbed a design out there to talk about. No, I haven't stopped observing design out there. Once you have a focus on doing design for a living I don't think you can avoid not looking or criticizing things.

I saw a couple of things the other week that I liked in the paper.

Yeah, my camera phone picture sucks but you get the idea. I don't know what it is about this logo but it really attracts me. I think this pattern of designs is repeated across a whole bunch of Bahama promotional pieces. Some kind of organic floral pattern. I love it....anything so wacky and assymetrical like this just me. And it's got to be designer with balls to decide to use just about every color in the crayon box for this design. That's not easy to do without making it look very cheesy.

I would have loved to have heard how this designer convinced his clients to try this. "Oh, I want to make this abstract floral pattern stick out at a weird 45 angle and it will have every color imaginable in this so it will cost you and arm and a leg to get this printed on all your print material" I think that's often the huge challenge that they don't train you in school....making the design is one thing -- convincing your client to like your idea is another.

I like this ad too. The pose works. Good proportions between the colors and the negative space. Refreshing color choices. I think there's a pattern of these figures surrounding the construction site over on Kapiolani where this design center is being built.

Life is chugging along. So far so good....

Visit from down under.

I got this pretty nice shot of the sunset sky today. OK, THIS is why I love Hawaii. I was heading around town for lunch the other day with a buddy of mine and we kept pointing out things about Hawaii we would miss if we lived anywhere else in the world.... blue skies, lots of green trees, clear oceans, nice people, warm weather, women in bikinis (I must convince my fiancee to get one), and fresh air.

My cousin Michelle and her husband Daniel are in town for a couple days from Australia. I haven't seen them for a few years it's nice to see family. Mich's already got a nice Hawaii tanline. Daniel's just got this friendly Aussie nature that always takes me a bit to get used to. Something about Aussie humor is a little different...but they're good folk nonetheless. He's not crazy enough to tackle any crocs anytime soon, but I wouldn't doubt he could throw me around in a game of Aussie-rules football.

Business Policies

The way I handle my business has always been a concern of mine. Especially in such a small State, my business reputation spreads fast. I know it's very difficult and time consuming to build a good reputation, only to have it washed out within days with a bad reputation. Everyone knows someone else here in Hawaii.

There have been certain things I do now as a rule of business that I adopted from my last job:

• I never bad-mouth another competitor. There have been potential clients who have asked me, "what do you think of XXXX?". I just don't give my opinions one way or another about them. I know for a fact there are my competitors who bad-mouth all their competitors...while they may shake my hand when I see them like they're all cool, I know as soon as I turn my back they are happy to take business away from me in an instant. It works for them but that's not what I feel comfortable in doing.
• Always be honest. If I can't do something for a client, I'll let my clients know at the risk of losing the contract. That might not be very aggressive. I know some colleages who grab jobs first, then figure out how to do it afterwards. I can see how that might work, afterall, isn't that how we learn to solve problems? But I think the key is whether my client understands they are taking a risk with me, versus being completely blind to the fact they've chosen the wrong person for the job.
• Pass a referral. I have no problem at all giving away business to a competitor if I think they will do a better job. The hope is that one day, this same business will return the favor.
  

Lately I've been trying to see how I can pick up this new policy:

• Eco-friendly services. I'm a bit of a closet tree-hugger. No, I'm not the type who would chain myself to a tree anytime soon. Heck, I haven't even developed the habit of recycling my cans yet. But I'd like to do my part....I use less paper at home. I turn off as much lights as I can in my home office. I pick up trash on the sidewalk when I see it. etc. Little things that I hope will be a new beginning. I'm going to look for opportunities to suggest eco-friendly printing and materials when I complete my projects for clients.

I think if I stick to these little ways of doing business, it will help me get a good reputation heading into the future.

Back to life...

Back to reality. /sigh

Back home again. It was another great time seeing my fiancee again and hanging out with my brother. It went by so fast I'm not really sure what happened. It seems like only yesterday when I was standing at the SF airport waiting for my girl to walk out the arrival doors. Then POOF....there I was yesterday watching her as I left.

I left earlier then her yesterday. She was in for a tough time....her flight out was 7 hours after me. So she had 7 hours to kill at the airport, PLUS then she was headed for a 12 hour flight back home. That really sucks. I think it made it so much harder for me to part with her this time because I knew this time around she was really going to suffer. I know she's still in the air for another 6 hours as I type this.

Otherwise we had a great time as usual. We seem to make a pretty good team. She became my map reader for most of the trip. While at first she was a little uncalibrated with her orientation, by the later days I must say she got really good at pointing out where we were and how to get where we were going.

I must admit it's gotten really hard to part ways with my fiancee. But the one thing that's keeping me going is the knowledge that in roughly 9 months from now we hopefully don't have to do the long distance thing any longer. Even for the 2 of us...independant, career-minded, mature (am I?) individuals....it's HARD to walk away from each other after a particularly fun time together.

We went to the Golden Gate Bridge, walked Haight Street, visited the Museum of Modern Art, got lost in the Golden Gate Park, drove down to Monteray Bay Aquarium, drove the coastline down Highway 1 and saw some cold beaches, ate a Fuddruckers (the worlds "Greatest" burgers), walked a giant mystery mansion, rode a genuine Trolley, fought our way through rush hour traffic, and sampled chowder at Fisherman's Wharf. I'd say we got a genuine SF experience. Next time we're going back I think we will certainly drive up to Tahoe for skiing and visit Alcatraz.

I got a new gallery up of our trip....