Domestic Geek

Man, I had just typed up this long, insightful post and went to another site in another tab to get a link I wanted to post that I found this morning and the damned site locked up my browser. Buh bye loooong, insightful post. I so don't feel like writing all of that again right now. Maybe when I get home. *hrmph*

I just about jacked my keyboard at work when I knocked over my water bottle. Fortunately, the water spilled in front of it and I only got a few drops on the spacebar. Whew. Not that I'm doing any work today anyway. I have to beat the art director about the head to give me work to do and I'm tired of it. I've gotten such a bad attitude here. That's what my post was about. Maybe it's a good thing that the browser crashed. Maybe all I really needed to do was get my anger and frustration out and I did and there is no record of it. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I've been doing The Artist's Way for the last week. I started doing it a while back and never made of habit of it. I think I gave up after a week. This time I'm determined to see the process through. I've got a major creative block and some self-confidence issues. I do some serious mental self-sabotaging and I need to get to the root causes and fix it. One of the main excercises in the program is a thing called morning pages. Every morning you write three whole stream-of-consciousness pages of all the crap floating around in your head, no matter what it is. That's probably why I haven't had much to say here. Once it's on paper, why bother typing it again?

I can't remember how I got there, but I was reading this site called The Lazy Way to Success and I read this quote: Man, how true that is. I don't care if I ever become rich, but I'm tired of being an employee. I hate it. I'm tired of my income being dictated by the work ethics of other people.

I. AM. SO. BLOODY. F*CKING. BORED!

Seriously, I have absolutely nothing to do. The production crew is just standing around downstairs. There are no pending jobs of mine whatsoever. I can't even work on the company's web site because the hosting bill wasn't paid and we're not even online anymore. I need to get out of here now before it is forced on me and I have nowhere to go.

I was just working on my Monster.com resume and I'll work on my paper resume here in a bit. I feel really guilty doing all of this on their dime, but I'm broke right now and already had a hysterical crying fit last night because I couldn't pay all of my bills. Having to buy plates for the car last month KILLED ME. Then there is the out-of-control gas prices. I doubt I'll be able to stretch this non-work out for a whole 8-hour shift, though. Ugh, it's only 10:30. I'm hungry, I forgot to pack my lunch this morning and I can't afford to go out. Plus, I did this Friday and I was so freakin' mentally exhausted by it when I got home. I'd rather do 8 hours of hard labor than 8 hours of BOREDOM!

Well, if I leave early today, I guess I'll go home and post stuff on eBay. I need to get some things before I can start my own business and that's not going to happen when I'm not even covering the bills. Grrrr.

I keep trying to be positive. At least I've still got my home and my jobs and I'm not a hurricane refugee. I have a man that loves me dearly (he must or he'd be gone by now, right?). I have a lot more than most, but I have goals I want to achieve and I just feel like I'm treading water right now. I should expect these feelings right now. I always get like this around my birthday. They're reminders that I've wasted another year and am no closer to my goals than I was the year before.

All right, time to quit bitching. Back to the resumes.

I took the site down yesterday and was going to do some major revisions, but I changed my mind. The revisions here are going to have to wait as I have other pressing things that need to get done. Some things have happened recently that have really made me want to start my own business. I am so sick of working for other people. I can't survive right away on any freelance work I do, so I am going to have to find another job, though. I need to quit working at the pizza place sooner rather than later. It really is taking a toll on my physically. The work at the screen printer is also drying up and some employee's paychecks bounced week before last, so I'm on the prowl for new employment. Anybody need a web designer or a production artist? Know anybody that does? My only stipulation is that it pays more than $10/hour. Let me know ASAP!

OK, I'm going to go and work on stuff for my design business and update my resume since there is nothing on the desk for me to do today. If I could afford to, I'd just go home for the day and get the work done there. Sadly, I need to milk the clock here. *sigh*

In a bad freakin' mood today. Between the heat and stupid people, I'm at the end of my rope.

First, I've been bored as hell at work for over two weeks. The art director is going a vacation on Thursday and suddenly we're swamped with work. It's all last minute, I need it yesterday type of stuff. Grrrrr. Hey, if you didn't have the foresight to get this to a printer a couple of weeks before you needed them...tough. I'll get done when I get done. Calling every half hour is only going to delay you getting your stupid proof. Morons. Also, it's hard as hell to print photoshop effects on a t-shirt. Don't use them unless you know how to separate them yourself or expect to get charged art time up the ass. These kind of headaches are not worth what I'm getting paid. I took a low wage for the experience. I've had enough of that experience. I'll take a little bit of absue if it is my own personal client, y'know? I'm also tired of trying to figure out what these people want second or third hand. Trying to pry information out of the sales people is like pulling your own teeth. Let me talk to somebody face-to-face about what they want.

Oh, and it got up over 100°F today. People get stupid when it gets hot. Plus they drive even more crazy. I made the mistake of trying to see where the shop of one of our clients was and it ended up being smack in downtown. Have you ever driven in downtown Dever at 4:30 in the afternoon when the temps are over 100? Not one of my smartest moves. See, the heat got to me, too.

When I was going to get lunch I heard on the radio that three major credit card companies are doubling their minimum monthly payments. Great. The brilliant idea behind this is some government regulation that wants to decrease the amount of time people pay back their debts and how much they spend on interest or some other such crap. I hate to tell these losers in the government, but it's not like people charge once and then pay it off. It's a constant thing. Some people like me will probably always be in debt (although I'm more determined than ever to get rid of the credit card balances). They pull this shit just as the bankruptcy laws are tightening, too. Some people are majorly screwed. You think this could've been phased in gradually until they were up to the magic "4%". Anyway, between that, my newly acquired car payment and my impending student loan payments, I definitely need more cash coming in.

Then I get a phone call about a half hour ago from the pizza place. The message says that she "thinks" there will be oven cleaning people there at 4 in the morning. At least I was warned this time, but I can't make any dough when they're not sure when they'll be there. I can't make dough at all when they're there. They totally disasseble the oven and have stuff spread out all over the whole store. Nice, huh? Not like this stuff can't get planned ahead of time so that I have advance warning. Maybe schedule it on a day when I'm not usually there (like Monday) when I can get two days' done on the previous Sunday. Morons. Oh, well. Since I seriously doubt anybody else will make any, I guess dough doesn't get done tomorrow.

I guess I'll make Marcus a nice dinner since I can sleep in. I'll have to go to the store, though, as I have absolutely NO FOOD WHATSOEVER here. I hate going grocery shopping with a passion. *sigh*

Warning: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Spoilers ahead!

Wait—here’s more »

« All Done!

I spend a good portion of my time at work trying to identify fonts that customers have used in the past in their designs/logos. One of the best sites for this is WhatTheFont at MyFonts.com. You upload a picture and their program tries to match lettershapes with known fonts. If that is unsuccessful, you can leave a message in the WTF Guru Forums and font freaks try to identify the fonts you need. They're pretty darned awesome, I must say.

Anyway, after I post a pic there, I try to see if I can identify any of the other posted pics. I can never figure them out before a guru does, though. There was this one guy today that wanted to know what the "love is..." font was from those Love Is cartoons. A guru had already identified the font (the guy was in luck because it was even a free font!), but the guy couldn't figure out how to use it. I figured I'd be helpful and post a couple of links about how to use fonts and he still didn't get it. I gave up. I figured if he couldn't figure out how to install fonts by reading those two links (one Mac, one PC), then he shouldn't be trying to use fonts at all. Go read the guy's posts...he's a hoot. I wonder if he ever figured it out.