Day: January 15, 2023

Some people talk about making their own luck rather than waiting for something special to happen “TO” you. I on the other hand sit someplace in the middle. I’m open to the world, but willing to put my work out there on multiple platforms, the good, the bad, the ugly and all, in hopes of sparking… something useful. I see a long road ahead, so my gambit was to produce a long string of provably quality materials, and push it out into the world, and see if any of that hard work, and personal labour comes back to me. So far… not so much, but at this point it’s about being in the groove of the process, and doing things, good or great. I don’t believe I have attracted any new work or clientele via this route, but rather from former working relationships, and word of mouth from people I know. On the order of creative sparks I’m not so fickle as to wait, with baited breath for inspiration. I’m a clock in clock out artist. Pulling on learned patterns, a hard won process, and fundamental knowledge to produce quality artwork/product. I’m not a temperamental flake – like an artiste. A tad eccentric, sure, but I say graphic designer, not artist. Even if I do sculpt and paint, and do all manner of art like things. My father was a tool and die maker. Pedantic and exacting. Being told to “pull your finger out”, and to “not be so bloody idle”, for decades, rubs off on a guy. So I’m a doer of things. Expectations of hardship be damned. If you don’t want to help, step out of the way, don’t join in just to drag me down, or put your foot on the scales against me. It might take an age, and be ugly, or slow and methodical, but I’ll get you there. He was exacting in his professional responsibilities, and I can understand that. As much as I want to be a cravat wearing, black beret wielding art fop, I can’t. I’m a blue collar, work a day guy building artwork, and reports alike.

I’m reading the second book of the year, and it’s Tom Segura’s “I’d like to play alone, please”. And I find it fascinating, and very funny. His written voice, much like his act, is pretty distinctive. You can imagine the half twist at the waist, the gruff imitation of his Nam vet dad, or his mocking huf-huf-huf “…but why?”. Made me think of that title joke that I’ve seen countless memes of. Though I can’t give any credit, as I don’t know where the quip originated from. Sorry, random human with quicker wit than I. Not that that is a challenge in and of itself. Some people found me funny, I don’t think I can tell a funny story to save my life. I don’t have that innate sense of timing. I can say something off the cuff, but I don’t have no ‘tight five’.

Just me thinking on paper. Watching playoff football, and reading on a Sunday evening. Kids are out of the bath, finalizing their night time ritual with their mum. Domestic Duties Monday looms large on the horizon. I got a good portion of my report started ahead of Monday morning, so as far as I know, I’m in a half way descent spot. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Start writing…

Sure sounds easy enough but some days that blank page just sits there mocking me, or feeling too far out of range buried until a massive number of potential topics. Spoiled for choice most days. I’m not sure what is worse, not having anything to say, or being paralyzed by indecision over which in a plethora of topics I’d like to spout off about. What’s worse, having nothing, or too much you can’t get out from under it all? Hm. That’s a good question. I’m sure people much smarter than I have an answer for that if you know of a reliable place to seek it out.

Winter seems to have settled down a tad. The last two days has seen the local temperatures settle into the mid teens, on the minus side of zero. We have snow, so I took the oldest to a nearby hill to blow off steam, and get reacquainted with the GT Snow racer we’ve had for a couple of years now. Luckily ran into a few school friends, so the forty odd minutes on the frigid hill were more fun than originally planned. Good. Our household has been experiencing some larger than usual feelings the last few days. I think a sense of jealousy over grandpa going to Florida, in the sunshine and warmth (not minus seventeen like here atleast) and enjoying some international air travel. We haven’t flown in years now. Mostly due to Covid putting our Florida/Disney trips on hiatus. And school friends, and family are traveling while we are not. The kids hear this stuff and wonder why. I don’t know why trying to protect ourselves from such a nasty bug is so divisive, but it feels that way sometimes. We will make up much of our sacrifices in the coming years, and hopefully avoid the ill effects of LC, or the more immediate body scrambling after shocks of SARS-Cov-2. One can hope, I suppose.

It was big feeling days like yesterday where I miss being able to whisk the kids off to a matinee movie. Or go out to lunch to dine in. Or wander a far away mall just to stretch our legs away from the frosty weather, and look at all the fancy stuff, and eating ice creams, and getting take out for the ride home. We haven’t done much of anything that isn’t outdoors. No bowling, rock climbing, concerts, bars, dancing, restaurants, library, theaters of any sort, amusement parks… so dull without it all. Limited in what we can do to keep the kids entertained and engaged without fighting constantly.

I will say this though. We went hard in the paint for the extra curriculars for both kids, in an attempt to let them get out and enjoy themselves. With the caveat that they mask up, and keep a reasonable distance if at all possible. We’ve been fortunate that a good portion of their activities are in large high ceilinged locations with limited attendance. One group meets outside for a huge chunk of the year, so… yeah. A balancing act for sure. I’d be more likely to take the kids to do more things, if more people were at least masking up. It seems that unless we are all forced to, very few are willing to do so. C’est la vie!

In other news, the kids are off to a birthday party today, held in one of the better, higher quality locations that we frequent. So I have two to three hours to work. I have a new large paid project I want to start before Monday. It came in later in the day on Friday while I was finishing other things. So rather than wait until Monday, I’d love to knock out 10 or 12 pages today, so that I am ahead of the curve come 9:00am Monday morning.

In other news, my first round of tidying up the house went smoothly. I worked more than I thought I would last week. However, it turns out I had done the bulk of the work in previous years. We have cardboard and tissue bits laying around, more so than actual junk or broken toys. Sorting all the toys will be a bigger key to success moving forward, rather than purging stuff. Though my wife and I desperately need to declutter our closets. I hate to turn around and find random stuff we are just holding on to for no real reason. I’d rather have the space, and the breathing room, than bags of old, or unused clothes, and bags, boxes and knick knacks. The urge to purge is growing as the house grows tighter & tighter with stuff, things, junk. Blargh!