Happy Husband

A friend of mine once told me this saying that I cheerfully relayed to my fiancee, "Happy wife, happy life." Now I kind of regret telling her that because every time I'm reluctant to do something, out pops that phrase "Happy wife, happy life". No, I'm not opposed to that sentiment, but it doesn't seem fair that I don't get a catchy rhyming phrase.

I can't think of a single word that rhymes with "husband". "Happy husband.....err....."

I found a rhyming dictionary online this morning and I think I may have stumbled across a word like "orange" that simply has no perfect rhyme to it. Words that popped up for "husband" included "bludgeoned", "frightened, "orphaned," and "saddened" This doesn't bode well for me.

Another saying that popped into my head this morning. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day...teach a man to fish, feed him for life" How about, "Give a man $20,000...make him very happy for a while"? I'm praying for a day where Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey will stumble across my neigborhood and cough some pocket change near my front door. Would they even miss $20,000? There are so many fun things I need lately...

Here...I told you that the new versions of all the Adobe stuff was coming out soon eh? Speak of the devil they finally anounced the packages and are taking pre-orders. The whole collection of CS3 stuff is $2,499. Can you believe it? Ouch. The good news (or bad depending on how you look at it) is that all the former Macromedia products like Dreamweaver are now integrated all into Creative Suite. So it's kind of like an all-in-one package. But it still doesn't hide the fact it's very expensive software.

So again.... Oprah, Bill..... I'll give you a personal tour around the island. All for a measly price of $20k.

For those of my clients who always ask me, "Hey, why didn't you tell me this software was available?" Here you are! Have at it.

I'm going to tell you all WAY in advance I will be having my next vacation scheduled for about 4 weeks starting from about the middle of June to the middle of July. Yes folks, it's my wedding. There's going to be a lot of traveling back and forth, spending time with my visiting relatives, and finally our honeymoon. I booked my honeymoon package yesterday, and I'm not telling you where it is. Last thing I want is for someone I know knocking on my honeymoon suite door looking to soak their stinky toes in our jacuzzi. (Unless, of course, you're Oprah or Bill... I'll even consider drying your feet for you. Good deal? $20k come on)

I really don't know how this may affect my clients during this period but somehow I'll work it out so as I won't have things disrupted too much. There will probably be periods during this period where I can slip away to a quiet corner every once in a while with my laptop to do some work. But I don't want to fool myself into thinking I'll be very productive during these weeks.

Prority will probably be given to existing clients over new ones. I think the new projects that are coming in now I've already been informing them of this schedule.

Crazy eh?

"Happy husband......................."

Yo quero taco bell

If you manage a website in any way, this tool called Typetester can be helpful. It lets you type in a paragraph of text and then you can test the many different kinds of "web-safe" text styles. Heck, it even lets you see how any of the fonts installed on your own computer look like...so it's good all around.

I'm always eager to show new work, but sometimes in the interest of my client's confidentiality about what they're doing I have to keep things under wraps. This one should be ok, since she's actively going around passing them out already...


Business cards and hangtags. Pretty fun eh? This was one of those rare fun jobs where she's just let me run with almost whatever ideas I've come up with...so I got to do these funky things that would normally be rejected by some of my other conservative clients.

I got some logos that are about wrapping up. Hopefully I can show them off soon. I think I'm getting better and better at using Illustrator now. It's always been my crutch.... I'm pretty confident with my Photoshop skills, but ask me to do all these fancy Illustrations it takes me a while. But with all this practice doing logo work lately, I've surprised myself even.

Talk about surprises, I'm entertaining the fact of getting a MacPro this time around when I upgrade my system. I've always been a staunch PC supporter all these years, which is rare in my industry, simply because I can do everything I need to do on a PC that I can do in a MAC, and at a third of the cost.

So why switch? I don't know really. I think it may be fun to try something else for a change maybe? I've always appreciated how good Apple products looked on the outside...it appeals to my tastes. Plus I will appreciate not hearing the question, "Oh, so you're a designer but you don't work on a Mac?" ever again.

Now the geniouses at Apple finally figured out how to catch us stubborn PC addicts by throwing Intel chips in their machines and making it easy to dual-boot the Macs so they can run Windows if we needed to. Good move.

The only thing that will certainly SUCK is the cost of not only the MacPro, but replacing all the software I currently already have for the PC. All told it could be another $6k just to get me into running condition with all the software I need and the system performing the way I'd like it.

Why is it that all the things I require these days are all 4 figures damnit? What happened to the good old days in Junior High when all I had was $5 a week allowance and I would be thrilled just to buy myself a $1 taco at Taco Bell.

Shit...now I'm hungry. Guess where I'm going?

Jerrrrms

So I've been going to my BNI business networking groups regularly each week. Sometimes a few times a week if there's members to meet or other obligations right? Yeah it's working out.

But lately everyone's showing up to these things sick. Sneezin' and nose-runnin' germ carriers...coming up to shake my hand. Talk about an awkward handshake. My inside start crying out and I feel like running to the bathroom to disinfect myself. Today I met this nice lady who shakes my hand and we talk for a while. She later tells everyone else that she's sick and not to come close to her. Uh..... thanks.

Sure enough..today my throat is feeling a little itchy I immediately ran out to the pharmacy to pick up some vitamin C.

Come on people, if you're sick....stay home! I think I haven't been sick all year. My little germ shelter here at home keeps me SAFE!

Purty Flowers

Spent a couple of hours tagging behind a photographer friend to practice taking some photography of the flora up at Lyon Arboretum. They were closed today so I think what we did some tresspassing on private property. Wouldn't that be special? Getting arrested taking pictures of pink flowers. I can just picture the problems that would cause us in prison.

Jailmate: I killed a guy, what are you in for?
Me: Um.... I took flower pictures illegally.

Downtime

Well, my site had been down for the last 12 hours if you hadn't noticed.

I had successfully transferred most of my domains off of Registerfly and had to go through the pain of working out all the logistics of pointing things like "nameservers" and "A records" -- stuff that I know works somehow...but not exactly HOW it works. Often times, you move your website or your domain name and you just have to wait and see...

Anyway, I'm back. Not all domain names and email addresses have been re-established. If you're a client or friend trying to reach me, it may be best to call for a few days until I can confirm everything is being received.

Love this Job.

I had a fun field trip yesterday to the airport. I have to design a logo for a charter pilot so this was for field "research". You know....sometimes I freakin' LOVE my job.

I had a handful of interesting shots maybe, but the best shot was probably the one above where the golden light from the sunset hit this rare old "tail dragger" plane. The chief mechanic was there and he gave us a personal tour around the thing, inside and out. Pretty damn cool.

I should have enough reference material now to whip up something neat for his logo. I got 4 logo designs queued up right now with more in the way. When it rains it pours. Yeah, it's a little scary wondering if there's enough creative juice swishing around in my empty head, but I told myself to just enjoy the process and DO EEET.

Random Thoughts

So I managed to wrestle out most of my domain names from under the falling tree that is Registerfly at this point. Just 2 more trapped domain names still to go... what a mess. Rumors are that there was this one guy who started up the company and built it... and then he brought in his gay lover somehow so that he gets paid some kind of salary.

Long story short, this "lover" eventually asks for 50% of the company ownership...somehow they have a falling out, and then you have all these allegations of blackmail and sabotage going on now. This has the makings of a VHI "Behind the Scenes" drama doesn't it? Anyway, the company might go under any day now. Just like that....

Business has gotten so good lately I've had to push off some new prospects, which I hate doing...but strategically it helps that I can be a little pickier with the projects I decide to pick up over the next couple months. That's nice isn't it? I just have to keep up the momentum now.

I think it was right around this time of year in 2006 where I was this busy as well. This is something I'll keep in mind next year.

I've followed the advice of this self-employment book I'm reading to "give myself a vacation at least one day a week". Funny that I actually have to read advice in order to do this. Yesterday I watched the movie "300"

Without spoiling it for anyone... that movie was great. Forget what the critics say. I purposely denied myself from reading any reviews or watching any online previews before going to see it. Pretty awesome cinematography...it was "artsy" but it didn't go over the top. A bit like "Sin City" where it had a comic-book feel but it didn't detract from the story. I haven't seen better battle sequences since Braveheart and Lord of the Rings. I might even offer the opinion that the choreography in 300, specifically in the spear & shield work, was better then the other movies in fact.

The only problem is that you'll come out of the movie feeling like you need to do 300 situps and pushups.

Mixed Bag

This past week has been a story of ups and downs in business.

One of the major problems I had to deal with these past couple weeks was that the company I had registered a majority of my domain names (e.g., .COMs, .NETs) has been going through some internal scandal between it's CEOs and founding members. Read more about the Registerfly debacle here.

What this means is that the company which I understands handles some hundreds of thousands of customers may suddenly go out of business, stranding people without their company or personal domain names. This is bigger then you might think... imagine if Microsoft lost use of "microsoft.com". Can you imagine how much money they would lose each day? They would pay millions to get use of the domain name back either litigiously or directly.

So now thousands of people are trying to move the domain names off of Registerfly...including me. Meanwhile the problem is confounded by the fact one or all of these people involved with the scandal is intentionally sabataging the system. So users account information is jeopardized and domain names with rightfully owned to an innocent party are being stolen under their noses and sold to the highest bidder.

Crazy huh? So this has been driving me crazy for the past couple weeks because some of my domains were trapped. I may be near the point where I've gotten most of them out & transferred to a more trustworthy registrar, but I can't celebrate until everything is confirmed.

Which brings an unintended tip to all of you with your own domain names. Watch it carefully. There is absolutely NO regulating body out there that has any real power to control the sale and handling of all these hundreds of domain name companys out there. There's supposed to be this organization named ICANN that is supposed to govern. But this incident has proven that they can't do much beyond just pulling accreditation. So it's full of shit.

For those of you who don't have domain names and don't think you need one... consider just registering a domain for your own name (e.g., www.myname.com) . You never know when you might want to use it for a personal website, AND you prevent some 12 year old from spending $7.00 to register the name himself and slandering you. Anybody, anywhere in the world can register names willy nilly. It's like the wild west and these domain names are the new gold rush. People will register anything just to turn around and extort innocent parties to paying top dollar for it. There are company's out there specifically staffed just to look for unregistered or expiring domain names and grab it...then it's like an Ebay thing. I want to just grab these muthersuckers and choke their little necks.

If you need recommendations which registrars to trust, or if you're one of the many like me who are stuck at , contact me I'll give you some tips.

Beyond this problem however, business has suddenly moved on the upswing again. Suddenly things are rolling in to the point I once again have to schedule my commitments carefully again. I think this is where I work best... I'm more wide awake today then I've been all week. Funny how business works this way. One week you're scratching your head wondering where everyone is, the next week you can't keep up.

Well, I better get back to work...

Women's 10k run

I did it again. Woke up at some god foresaken early morning hour around 5am to go take shots for my friend's action photography project. I don't know how I got suckered into doing this... I told him "I'll think about it" then suddenly I'm given instructions where to show up and what time. I bet that sucka did it on purpose because he knows I'm a pushover. :)

It turned out pretty fun despite having to get up early. This was a race sponsored yearly by Straub Hospital to celebrate good health.

No no, I'm not intending to do this regularly and turn into an action photographer. But it's good experience for my photography hobby. In this type of work, you don't have time to think about composing your shots, you just act and shoot. In fact, we're told to try not to get too fancy with things and just try to get as many people as possible...but I still can't help myself trying to find shots that I can be somewhat proud of.

Out of the 1000 or so shots I took this morning, I have a few that would sum up my morning pretty well.

Raph the Rubbermaid

Well, in my personal news things are shuffling along.... only 4 months of single life left! So I found some new rings for my fiancee. The debacle from that whole ring incident last month turned out for the best....at least for my girl. I can't describe what I got for her here because I want to keep this part a surprise, but that lucky girl will come out of this with an even better ring then the last one. I figured I'd indulge her a little since the poor girls been working hard to study for her license and working hard to get her US visa.

I'm not worse for wear, this year I've become numb to seeing big wedding cash figures flash before my eyes anyway, so this is just one of them. Yet I still can't bring myself to buy that camera...

Talk about cameras, I'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow around 5am to go photo-shoot the Straub womens 10K run around Diamond Head. I frankly don't know how I got suckered into doing another one of these things....I told my friend I'd think about it, and then BOOM, all of a sudden I'm given directions where to go and what time to show up. That sucker. Ahhh, what the heck it will be fun. I hope I don't get sunburned this time, it's about 3 hours long. I think I'll bring a beachmat to sit on, my ipod for music, & some drinks. That's taking photos in style baby!

I have a small weekend lull period in between projects right now. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up a couple of logos I've been working on. I've even helped out a little to do some product design for some keychains. Unfortunately I can't show these yet until they're fully baked.

I didn't realize how old I was until I was talking to a friend this morning... I brought up the subject about how I found this fantastic miracle cleaning Rubbermaid Mildew removal product at Longs the other day, meanwhile I was busy cleaning the toilet bowl while I was on the phone. Oh my god, I've gone from having a fun life playing live music almost every weekend to this?!

Book Recommendations

Some of you may know I've been stumbling around a bit lately in business. No no... business in itself is pretty good, but what with the everything coming about in this 2nd year of business i.e, taxes, budgets, some successes and failures this past year, it's been easy to just feel a little like I'm drowning my own work.

In search of some inspiration I stumbled across this great book that, thus far, has been a good pick-me-up each morning to get me motivated again. Now I read a good few sections every morning to start my day and it's helping me get back in the groove.

Secrets of Self-Employment
This book wasn't necessarily written to act as a guide to tell you exactly what to do. But it resonates good for those of us who may have already been working for yourself a little while. I'd almost recommend waiting to get this book anywhere from 6 months - 1 year AFTER you start your business because you're going to see sections there that sound just exactly like what you're going through now. So it's almost like the authors are kind of stepping in to give you words of encouragement and advice.

Heck, now that I've started, I'll list some of the other books that have been good reads for me these past couple years.

E-Myth Revisited
This book was once passed on to me from a friend who had his own business...perhaps maybe a month or two before I had just stepped out on my own. He said he had been given this book by yet another friend in self-employment and so he was paying it forward. Now I'm paying it forward to you. This book explains how we fall into the trap of creating our own businesses, only to fall trap into just creating another "job" for ourselves. So it teaches you to look at your own business in a different way.

Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing...
This one is more straightforward. I've had this book for for the good part of the last 5 years now and it's a good reference to help you get started in graphic design if this is your interest.

How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul
This is another good book I had wished I had read much sooner in this career, but it still offered good inspiration to me similar to the first book...it's like you're hearing the direct feedback from other designers about the challenges they faced and how they addressed it. So, it's this book isn't so much good for any reference material, but it's a good book to correct your bearings a bit by reading how others have stumbled or have become successful.

The Richest Man in Babylon
This one isn't so much business or design related, but it's a good book to give you the principles of success. It's just a brief little paperback, I think I just read the whole thing in like 2 or 3 days, but it's written kind of like a parable or storybook, so it isn't heavy reading. It offers good common sense advice on how to build wealth. It doesn't say we need to go win the lottery, rob a bank, or become a rapper...just good tips that we all can do to get where we want to go. I wish I had been given this book back when I was a teenager. I wonder if I would have read it then though?

Holy shit! I've read more then I thought I would this past year or two. Damn...