Jeez, Here I thought that I could actually be consistent with this blog. Although, looking at the dates, it's pretty much averaging out to once a month. Gotta try a bit more frequency. Finally got the bulk of the redesign of the site completed, and it's up. Woohoo!
Now I'm thinking of ways to improve on the look and feel of the damn thing.

Work, BTW, has been DEAD these last couple of weeks, to the point that it's becoming frustrating. I've become quite adept at shuffling papers around the desk-- literally. I keep hearing it's just a very temporarty lull, but still... I've also talked to a couple of other PAs, and what I heard over and over is that they too started as freelancers and after a few months of that landed full-time gigs. I'd like to believe that is a likely scenario for me, but after a day like today (total amount of time actually spent working-- an hour!). Some people would think that this job is a godsend. Me? I'm so used to being overloaded with work that I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I'm not being productive, even though I'm getting paid for it. Hopefully things will pick up in the coming days (my supervisor seemed a bit frustrated that there wasn't anything that needed to get done. Not sure if it was b/c she wanted to have work to give me, or if she was looking to protect her budgeted allotment for freelancers. Maybe it was a bit of both).

I've also been using Stuble Upon-- a nifty little toolbar in Firefox. You set up preferences on subject matter and you get a new random page based on those preferences whenever you click the "stumble" button. Pretty cool stuff.

Man, blog spam (and spam in general) sucks. Takes more time to get through the deleti0n process than i'd like. Malloy's unusually calm this evening talking about DeLay's indictement. Been working here and there on a redesign of the site, and maybe I'll be able to get a bunch of stuff done over the weekend. Need to do that before I go about pitching for jobs out there. Been thinking that I need to get my hands on a digitizing tablet, but other than places like ebay, I can't come up with a starting point for my search.

The search continues...

Got a chance to work on some signage today. Mostly manual labor-- mounting/laminating, prepping posters to go to print. It gave me another chance to fiddle purposefully with InDesign, which I really need to get my hands on (along with the rest of CS). It was a welcome change, considering the last couple of days have been slow on my end of things. Maybe it's just the nature of this place's workflow. Maybe I've been involved so long in heavy-volume/high-pressure environments that I have trouble taking things at a slightly slower, more exacting pace.

Or maybe I just have a need to occupy time constructively at work.]

Last few days at work have been hit or miss as far as workload. I'm either cranking away with several different projects, or things come to a screeching halt. Other than that I'm really enjoying my newfound life freelancing.

Working on a redesign of the site (the original look got on my nerves a few weeks in). I'm pretty sure I'll go through a couple of iterations before I settle on a look I can live with

Drawing very day is not a resounding a success as I expected. I thought I could get some drawing in on the bus ride home-- yeah, that didn't work out. Two words: motion sickness. I've now resorted to doodling at work on a random piece of paper while I'm printing or burning files to disk.

Still need to write to gdUSA to change the address on my subscription. I've been procrastinating this for a few weeks. What is your major malfunction Private Pyle?!

Been a while

Crap. I just had a whole entry written out and lost it. Lousy back button. Anyway, the gist of it was that I had not realized till a couple of weeks ago that (a) I had not posted anything in about a month and (b) that it had been just as long since I started this new chapter in my professional life as a freelancer. Feels good getting up in the morning these days. Work for the most part is pretty interesting (I'm getting a pretty good workout on Illustrator these days, not to mention some hands-on in retail packaging design and production). There have been a couple of days where I've been sitting at my desk with literally nothing to do. But hey, they're still paying me for that time, so you won't hear me complain too much about that.
:-)
On the other hand, I also noticed (mostly as a result of a message board for Art & Graphic Design that I'm a member of. Check it out here) that in boning up on the digital aspect of my design and art-related work I had neglected my drawing somewhat in the process. With that in mind...

Goal for the week-- Incorporate drawing into my day to day and draw for an uninterrupted period of time every day, even if it's only for a few minutes each day.

I'm also trying to figure out how to bring in the blog into the mix. Seems that I have a bunch of different thoughts that I feel I should post, but by the time I get home or the troops have gone to bed, I've already forgotten what it was I was going to write about.
Hmmmm.... Maybe I just need to start jotting down notes as I go. Seems a lot cheaper than going out and getting a laptop or some other portable electronic device.

First week of my newfound life as a freelancer went well. It's surprising to me how quickly I've been able to fall back into the groove of a City commute. It's also surprising to me how much driving to and from work these last three years had affected my walking endurance. Tuesday night-- the first night back into the City-- I had to pop some painkillers just to get to sleep. By Friday, all seemed to have been forgotten. Maybe it was the fact that I was wearing sneakers (after all, it was casual Friday). I'd like to think that my legs are starting to get used to the walking.
Work tself was relatively uneventful. Granted, I knew this going in, since the job is mainly production work. Nothing overwhelming (yet!). Just a steady stream of tasks to be completed. They tell me that it's a temporary lull. I guess we'll find out soon enough exactly what that means...

Of eggplants and podcasts

I'm bumming around the house today, since I'm starting a new gig tomorrow (okay, not so much bumming, but doing random tasks-- cleaning the stove, pressing some shirts, that sort of thing). Just grilled some DEEEEElicious eggplant (courtesy of our landlords-- straight from the backyard) with some pasta, enjoying Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code" (thanks to the podcasting capabilities built into the latest version of Itunes-- v4.9+). I'm all about podcasts these days, to the point I'm looking into buying an mp3 player of some sort in the near future.

On the news-- Bush sidestepped Congress today and appointed John Bolton as US Ambassador to the UN. Can't say that will endear him to the party that he increasingly and, sometimes deliberately, seems to be alienating by going about things in a cavalier, "my way or the highway" sort of way.
Hmmm. I guess absolute (or near-absolute) power does corrupt absolutely after all. I just hope the GOP will come to its senses and notice the kind of guy Bush really is and decides to do something about it before it's too late. GO know's everyone left of center has been raising a stink about this guy from day one.

so you've got a blog...

Well, since it seems like the "it" thing to do these days, and I'm sort of starting a new chapter/phase/stage-- whatever, it feels like the appropriate thing to do, somehow.
I guess we'll see where this goes.