I N T H E N I G H T K I T C H E N 10.20.2000
In the reality of a new morning, I'm feel a little more grounded. The meeting is at 10a.m. PST so cross your fingers 'round that time anyway. 10.19.2000
I'm so wired right now. If you were sitting next to me, you'd be sure that I was emitting a low, constant hum. I like my job. If the stuff I have done thus far is any indication of the type of work that I will continue to be doing then I love my job. The past few days have been the optimal condition for a highly-creative brainstorming process. I was given a task with fairly loose and open parameters. I was sent in a direction to come up with an idea on my own. Tomorrow, I'll present this idea along with the other designers who have been coming up with their own ideas and we'll see what sticks. Oh, I hope I stick. IhopeIhopeIhope! I think my idea is a good idea. I think that visually it will work. I have, in fact, lined up a kick-ass illustrator to do contract work on it. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll pick him for it because that would be just dandy. Today, I worked up a visual concept for the final sequence. It rocks. It looks just like I thought it would -- even better. I'm on a creative high and just crossing my fingers that it will get picked. We don't have a lot of time to futz around on this project. It's tight turn and tight budget. The upshot of that is that our company is taking on this project in its entirety as much for the esteem as for the money. We are going to eat a lot of the budget. That makes me worry a little bit but it also means that we aren't going to want to waste that money on crap -- this must be phenomenal. I'm bursting with energy. It's a little scary because I should be preparing myself for the fact that another designer may have another idea which is better or the Big Cheeses might not like my idea or be able to get behind it. Oooooh, but I think it's good. I do. hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I've been listening to glassdog.RADIO and it pretty much kicks ass. I get sick of my regular rotation so it's nice to just sit back and be surprised. So far, I approve of all of Lance's choices. That's good stuff. A friend of mine just informs me that the vacation he just took... Jamaica. I'm so jealous. I need a good escape trip. While I enjoy visiting my family, it sucks to spend all of one's vacation time doing so. T. and I need to save up our dough and head south for the winter. That would be glorious. One of our close friends is moving away. She's going to Colorado for reasons that seem... not enough. Not enough for us, anyway. We're really going to miss her and I doubt we can stay in touch that well. Granted, it would give us a great excuse to go to Colorado to visit her and then nip on down to Vail and see Chels. I'm gonna be sad when she's gone though. Speaking of Chels, had a great phone conversation with her the other night. She surprised me by calling but I had been thinking of her a lot. I do wish she was closer. I wish we could go out for beers and laughs more than once a year. That would be swell. I finally have a project at work -- a pretty cool one, at that. It's for a big client and it's a new product which could sink or sail depending somewhat on our success as well as the market response, naturally. The medium is a bit different than we have done before and it's definitely new for me. I present my rough concept tomorrow to some of the other designers and art directors. Dammit if I don't think that my idea is inspired. It would require something of a budget as I'd need a real character animator and possibly a sound editor. However, this is something that they should want to spend money on. If I get this job and my idea is approved I'll also be able to bring in this animator that I want -- I think he's really, really good and I'd be stoked to give him work. Cross your fingers; I'm crossing mine. 10.18.2000
I sat out on the porch last night with a beer and a cigarette (only smoked half of it -- it was the thought that counted) because it was such an amazing night. A twinge of warmth and a swirling wind made everything feel a bit mad. So, I sat on the porch and I thought about this little writing endeavor and I had an epiphany. Blogger(TM) makes for bad writing. See, it's all too easy. I type whatever and then put it in the little form and hit publish -- there it is, live and in color. But, then I got to thinking... really it's the web that is inherently bad for writing. You can instantly publish without any checks and balances. Even though it took a little bit longer to code my entries and then to test my backward and foreward links. Even though I sometimes even used Homesite's really-not-very-good spell-checker. Even though I sometimes read my entry after writing it to make it better before publishing. I didn't have to. In fact, most times I didn't. And now, when I look over my archives, I cringe quite a little bit. So, the web is bad for writing. Surely writing for another medium is better? Not really. I wrote for the campus conservative journal, the campus paper and then a few magazine articles in college. Most of these were somewhat novice-run organizations but we all had editors and proofreaders. However, I can remember more than a few times when I wrote something at the very last second. I wrote quickly and it got edited quickly so that it could get layed out and off to the printers. There were often mistakes... sometimes whole paragraphs were left out. Sometimes there were run-on sentences. The magazine article was a little better but I had a ton of people look that one over. However, if I read it today I can only see areas where the writing could have been improved. I'd go further to say that books and novels surely are full of better writing. But, I've read some really awful books in my time, books that make me think that if this sort of thing can get published then surely I can get published. So, I guess the grand epiphany on the porch is that it's all up to the writer to produce great writing. No matter the medium, it's up to the writer to check and double-check and puzzle over whether the message is getting across. It's up to the writer to make their prose readable, compelling and memorable. It's up to the writer to take the reader on a little journey and make the journey one worth going on. It's all up to the writer. Damn. 10.17.2000
Nothing like waking up to a full breakfast -- ham and eggs and toast and coffee! Yum. 10.16.2000
Another day with nothing to do. I played half a game of Yahtzee with some coworkers. I went to a meeting with the rest of the creative staff. Some are afraid that if we don't get busy that we'll lose people. Hmmm... as the newest employee I guess I should be scared. I am. Sort of. I'm assuming, though, that I'd have more of a hint if I was going to get layed off. I think if I got layed off right now I might have a small breakdown. Not because I don't have options. I feel like I have a good number of options. No, it would be because I just wasted the last month of my life. I just sat around. I left my last company and missed the people desperately and nothing came of it. That would just be a major kick in the head. I'm not going to think about it. . . . T. and I went to a Blazer's game last night. Pretty fun. Saw Pippen score a couple really beautiful shots. The beer is way too expensive -- $4.50 for about half a pint of Coors Light. What a racket. . . . This weekend I bought a 12" statue of a monkey in a fez holding a big leaf. He is now the keeper of the keys and positioned by the front door. In the event of Stranger Danger! it can be used as a bludgeoning device. 
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