little big day

Whoo what a day in terms of my professional career! I won't go into detail because that would be not on, but it was a big one let it be known.

Work was short, but not as short as yesterday. We ran a job at top professional speed, and it came out looking awesome. It is great to run things on head 9 because lint and stuff only ends up on a couple shirts then you get it out of the image, ya know? Anything that gets in the image on head 1 is in a full rotation of shirts before it gets noticed.

I taped screens and did the egg pickup. Another 5!

Stuck around while waiting for clients to pick up stuff, and then it was done.

I went to the Santa Cruz Public Library and signed on for a card. About time! I checked out the Pricing & Ethical Guidelines book, which is the bible for illustrators. And a comic and a young adult book I've been wanting to read. Yay reading.

Then I got to working on professional stuff, but also taking the time to be calm about it.

the difference a year can make

A year ago today (April 4th) I left Washington for California. I made it to Medford that day, and on the 5th I pulled into Redwood City to live with my brother while I looked for work. Nate has now moved to Menlo Park (or whatever that area is) and I found work in Santa Cruz. Work in my field doing what I dig. And today of all days, I got a raise! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was a vinyl heavy day, but rejoice the vinyl was cut a bit better so it was much easier to weed! And I only messed up once, and it was on one that was inconsequential. There were some big vinyl, and some small ones, and some tricky ones and some easy ones. I finished Odd Hours and....I dunno it was a bit odd. It suffered from that "set up" story problem that series often gets, though thus far hasn't been an issue in the series. I think the world building was a bit too unanswered and some of the characters a bit too...charactery. Ah, oh well. I started Anathem and...I'm a bit confused. But I'll keep with it.

I also taped screens, and cut stickers, and bagged stuff. And that was mostly it. I...I think I did something else? Can't quite recall. The boss asked if I'd like to get dinner to talk about work stuff, and I agreed.

At 6:30 we met at Hong Kong Charlie and I got these not quite spicy noodles with pork, and they were so very good. Mmm. Boss and I talked about travels and other things, and the work related stuff was in regards to how good I am! How reliable I am, how on time I am, and all my other good qualities. And then he gave me a raise! And a not too shabby one at that. I mentioned that I was thinking about asking for a raise, as I have had a lot more responsibilities  A little while ago I mentioned in passing how it's almost been a year since I moved to California, and maybe that comment is what spurred his thinking that maybe I should get a raise, for sticking around and being awesome? Either way, YAY RAISE! And yay for having a damn good boss.

At home I watched Elementary. Just such a damn charming show.

Now to do the adult thing and get a good night sleep!

next step: resumes

Yaaay! I got my cards printed. And they look pretty good. Just went into the shop, gave them my file, and they were printed and cut in no time at all. Mom, pop, and I all drove into town to run that errand. The new Prius I think is starting to lose its new car smell. While waiting for the cards to be printed, we went and got some bird seed, and then we went to Costo and got lots of nuts. Mom really likes her legumes. But whoooo yay! I have business cards! That is another thing checked off and done and dooooone. It is sort of amazing to think that I am a person with a business card. A card that I would give someone in the hopes that they would need to contact me for business. I have 150 of them. Mmmhmm.

I got up a bit early to run mom in on an errand. We went grocery shopping at Central Marker after and got tons of neat food, because they had an awesome import section. Jammy Dodgers! Yan Yan! Crunchie Bars! And other, healthy things. I swear we got healthy things.

It was snowing when we left this morning, but the snow didn't stick. No we didn't go to Mats Mats either.

Mom and I are going to take a mini break together. Saturday to Friday. Las Vegas (meh) and the Grand Canyon (yay!!). Mom doesn't get much actual time off, so we are going to take advantage of it. Then we'll come back and be at Mats Mats for a while. Let Auntie Joyce have a long overdue break.

We ate dinner at Origami Sushi. Num nummers.

Back at home we watched Paul, which I heard from two people whose opinions I trust very conflicting opinions about. Thankfully we found it delightful! Frost and Pegg have a chemistry together that shines in anything. It was silly and fun. A good Tuesday night movie indeed.

it's business tiiiiime

It snowed! Again! And the lame slushy snow. The inconvenience making snow that keeps you homebound. So we didn't go to Mats Mats. Hopefully it will be melted enough by tomorrow. Got some errands to run.

Worked on my business card. I think I'll just go with the one sided card. Need to get it made. Simple for now, I'll step it up for the next print run.

Made a scramble for breakfast. Mmm. Mom made awesome nachos for early dinner. Yum.

errands and thinking about expanding my skills

Had a toast and two cups of tea breakfast. Even woke up at a fairly reasonable hour.

Ma, Holly, and I went for walkies at Scenic Beach State Park. It was a nice beach walk, though Holly tried to pull me into the branches. We only saw one other person at the park.

I returned Mom and Holly to Seabeck, and headed into Silverdale to run some errands. I deposited my Bitch Magazine check. Whooo! Now to spend it! Just kidding (not really). I went to Best Buy to look at tablets. I don't have a good one to produce digital art with, and while I am generally a traditional artist I should be well versed with the computer, and be able to do computer art. A mouse, hell the touchpad on my laptop, doesn't cut it. So a tablet would be a good buy in regards to my career and move and all that. So I looked at tablets. Don't know which to buy though. Bamboo Create or Intuous4? I'm leaning toward the Create...or maybe the Capture. Hmmn.

After Best Buy, I went to Kinkos to look at their Business Cards. Even without shipping they cost more than some of the online card companies. And they only have three kinds of paper, none of which I really like. And you have to buy like...250 cards. Ehhh. I think I can do better. Need to design a card first, of course.

On the way home, I swung by Kristen's old place, where my hair straightener and book apparently is. Neither Randy or Anthony could find it though. They'll get back to me about it, I'm sure. I should have been more on the ball a few months ago in regards to my straightener.

Back at home, a salad was waiting for me. We watched a bit of Of Gods and Men, but none of us were feeling it.

Mom is resting and listening to American Gods. It is early in the night for me to blog, but I don't see anything else happening.

Tomorrow I shall lay out my business card. That is my tomorrow goal.

bonus artwork!

Today's goals, as I wrote on Tumblr, were to finish editing the work I documented. Which I have mostly accomplished. The next goal was to edit my website and put up said work. Which I also accomplished. Then to work on layouts for business card. Which I didn't quite accomplish. And also Laundry which, oh crap I have my third load in the dryer still. Oops.

Anyway, editing took a while but I got it edited. Listened to American Gods. Such a good story. Listened to Odd Owl. Such a good band.

I snacked all day so I wasn't hungry in time for dinner. Tomorrow we'll make a nice dinner.

Have to get up early to drive Mom to an appointment.

I think I can finally take my website off its "under construction" status. It is pretty well formed, and I am happy with it. It just needs MORE work. Lots more. Fill it up with art. I do like the way the art sits in the website though.

Now I need to move on to my resumes. Get those looking spiffy. It is all starting to take shape once again. I was out of the game for a while, but now my focus is narrowing. The beginning is nigh!

But now to go and sort my laundry. And listen to more stuff. And try to sleep, even though I probably had green tea too late in the day. Hmmmn.

shopping as a family

Dad made Nathan huckleberry pancakes. Dad made me egg and toast. Good Dad.

I called Barnes & Nobel and it turns out that they DID have issues of Bitch Magazine in stock. The ones that have my illustration in them. I am legit published. So awesome. And my peer, classmate, friend Jenn Hayes is in the issue as well. Go girls! We go. And you should go buy the issue. Because I'm in it.

So the whole family hopped in the new Prius and went into town. Ma bought three issues. Good ma. We went to World Market and got sweets. Yummy sweets. And some hard cider, because ma likes it. And this time she didn't try to foist the asking of the cider onto me.

Then we headed to Costco. I got my precious fruit leathers. Nothing beats those. Also got clams and crab and drinks and more fizzy drinks and other Costco things. We got hot dogs after, and mom gnoshed on ours instead of buying her own. After Costco we went to Trader Joe's and got treats and a bottle of wine and more treats!

At home, diner was rice, salad, bread, and panko crumbed chicken. We watched Portlandia and popped open the Bordeaux. After dinner, we played Tetris and all of Nathan's moves were made to block me. Mom won.

Then we watched Indiana Jones. Well, as I write this we are watching Indiana Jones. Mom went to bed. Dad will probably go to bed soon. Then Nate and I will probably watch more Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

time with ma

Got up at around noonish. Had some cheerios and tea. Brought my laptop down, because now I am no longer tethered to the monitor, nor am I restricted by the lack of charge my laptop battery holds. Whoo! At 2:30ish, Mom and I ran some errands and listened to Cabin Pressure. Went into Silverdale and got hot tub salt. Got some prescriptions filled in Poulsbo and then ate some crepe. Got some food at Trader Joe's and then back home! Soaked in the hot tub. I had some rice and seaweed for a late dinner.

Oh and got my piece for the magazine signed off as all done, so hurray! My first real artist job and it turned out awesome! Whooo! Can't wait to see it in print now.

Hmmm. Time to get cracking with deciding what to do next.

bring on the blue

Went to bed quite late, or rather early, and got up at my usual time, however begrudgingly. Slowly got up to speed at around 4pm, and worked on till 8ish, when I finished my piece for the magazine. I can't tell if I like it or not though. It seems a bit messy, but thats also because I'm looking at it in super big resolution. AHh. Yeah.

Had some toast and nutella for breakfast. And tea. Had some pasta and salad for dinner. Mmm vegetables. Now I have some more tea, but sleepy time tea. I think I'll try getting to bed at a decenter hour. Next week: time to make a game plan for the Bay Area. Ohheee!!

Oh, I also transferred everything over to my new computer. Right now I have a kickin' dual monitor set up, with whatever I plan to watch (right now: Sherlock) on the big screen and this screen for Facebook and Reddit and Blogger and whatever else. It is pretty awesome. I adjusted the settings on the big monitor a bit, because I noticed it was dim and yellowish compared to this screen. Huzzah!

Sad to put aside my old computer, though I'll keep it around. It still works and could serve a role of backup computer/stay at home/dvd player. I could have it run tasks so that it isn't all happening on this computer. Of course I'll have to get an external monitor, but I think Nate was planning on getting a new one anyway. Hmmn.

Okay, time to relax!

goodbye Heart of Gold, hello Bistromath

My new computer arrived! A little blue HP, not quite as pretty as my silver and white Dell, but considerably more powerful, with more space and youth to its hardware. Gots to replace computers before they implode and you lose everything. Not that I was in danger of that, just wanted to avoid that situation. Plus my old laptop's screen is black. Plus I'll be moving, so new start needs some new technology.

It is taking hours to transfer files over. It goes much faster from the external drives to the new computer. Just getting stuff off the old computer onto the drives, uhg. I have pictures transferred, working on some written things and audiobooks now. Photos can be a real doozy, now that digital resolution tends to be so high. AHh, oh well. Since I have this laptop to work off of while waiting, it's all good. Though I need to work on my magazine piece.

Had a good chat with art director this morning. Then went back to bed. AHh. So warm.

Mellowed out. My computer arrived so the rest of the evening was spent with that. I think after this last batch of transferring, I'll work on my piece. I need to figure out if our scanner goes up to 300dpi. If it doesn't, I'll need to go in to an Office Max type place and get it scanned there. Guuh. Gotta do what ya gotta do.

it is a Tuesday, what more do you want?

I figured that if I set the alarm volume on my phone to a higher volume, it wakes me up more. Got up around noon instead of 1-2ish. Whee.

Had some cheerios and tea. Drew a bit. Chilled a bit. Got an email about the sketches I sent for this assignment I'm working on. Edited and redid the text as per the suggestions. Emailed the new look of the thing. Tomorrow I will have a quick call and then everything should be finalized and painted and sent off, ohh la la!

Watched some Star Trek and Twilight Zone and some Mission Impossible 3. A lot of sitting around. Tomorrow I shall finish my assignment for ze magazine, and when it is available for purchase, I'll tell y'all to go buy it! And then the next thing to do is to get on with my life.

ze magazine

Heard Dad loading up wood, so I got out of bed, showered, and went to help him haul wood up to the stacks by the house. Then had some tea and...chocolate for breakfast. Not very healthy. Snacked on some turkey. Worked on my magazine assignment. Talked to zee Art Director for my current assignment. Sketched thumbnails for ze assignment. Scanned and emailed them to Art Director. Now I'm relaxing and all that. Trying to figure out what to do with the rest of 2011. Movie tomorrow, maybe a movie the day after. Seattle after that.

Should make a list of things to accomplish.

Todays Portrait Is: Brian Cox.

deadlines can be a real....

Just met my Friday deadline. Supposed to be early Friday, and you don't get much earlier than 1am! Booyah!

Got up around noon, and had tea for breakfast because Mom made a non Me friendly breakfast. Boo!

Dad fixed my headphones. Yay!

I worked on a portrait and at around 4:30ish I drove into Silverdale to do some Christmas shopping. Got a couple things easily, but had to go to dreaded Wal Mart to get one thing. Uhhg. That place puts me in a panic. Do not like it one bit. At least I had Cabin Pressure to listen to.

For dinner there was cous cous and salad and I ate some rice crackers with hummus and I worked on achieving my deadline early. I'm fairly pleased with how much I managed to fit into the scheme of the image. Go me! I can't show it to you, not till, like, June 2012. But I'll tell you when to look it up, yeah?

Todays Portrait Is: Eli Roth.

mello yello trillo

Ahhh lovely sleep. Sleepy sleepy sleep. I set the alarm, but I still relaxed in bed.

Got up. Had some oatmeal. Talked with the art director for the thingy I'm working on. Watched Miranda. Watched Work of Art and Project Accessory. Worked on portraits. Helped haul wood up. A nice Friday.

Tomorrow we get a Christmas tree!

Todays Portrait Is: Tom Hiddleston.

moist plinth

Last day! Well not really the last. My final exam for Film Directing is on Monday. But done with classes and stuff. Ma made me a poached egg on toast with melted cheese.

In class, we got through about half the scene presentations. I sat in the back and drew and didn't present. Some people really needed to learn how to be succinct. Some talked too much about this and that. Probably nerves. After class I put my class files onto a thumb drive and went home.

At 8pm I managed to meet a deadline. Whoo! I'll have my first business type call tomorrow. That is exciting! I'm not sure how much I can talk about what I am doing, so I'll err on the side of caution and keep it mum.

Watched Miranda as a reward. Damn it is late. I ate a bunch of candy as well.

I'm done with schooooool. Pretty much done. Time to chill.

Also COMMUNITY WAS HILARIOUS!

Todays Portrait Is: Tilda Swinton.