Happy Halloween!

Happy Fourth of July! …What do you mean that was yesterday?

Monday, I felt about the same. I basically had a sore throat and was operating at about 95% capacity (roughly one-beer level). I went to work (have I mentioned I’m doing that again? No? Yeah, I’m doing that some days) and had a good day. I was a bit more drained than normal at the end of the workday but otherwise fine. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to sleep that night. That didn’t work out too well; I was starting to get congested, so I began to breath out of my mouth and pump as much air as possible on the extremely tender part of my throat.

After little sleep, I felt particularly drained the next morning, so I sent an email in to work to say that I was going to sleep a few more hours and work remotely. I slept a lot more hours, worked some, and slept a lot more hours again. My sore throat went away, but I was more drained than ever and fairly certain that there was a portal to Dimension Snot somewhere in my sinuses.

Wednesday, I was able to work more hours remotely, but I was still drained and draining my nose inhabitants. My voice was also pretty rough, sounding something like an 80-year-old Barry White (only less likely to garner female fans). Now the congestion has gone down a bit, I have a slight soreness of the throat, and my voice is a bit less rough. The whole illness felt like my kind of illness: too lazy to have more than one significant symptom at a time.

It certainly wasn’t Swine Flu, though I believe that may be one of the few diseases that is worth it. Picture it: You’re eating bacon, thinking, “Man, this stuff is going to kill me.” Then, you’re diagnosed with Swine Flu, and you’re thinking, “Man, this stuff is going to kill me.” Only now you might as well eat bacon with every meal… unless you live somewhere other than Mexico because you’ll probably be just fine. Really, we have what, 40,000+ deaths per year from vehicle accidents and Swine Flu is worth freaking out about? Come on! Cars don’t taste nearly as good as bacon.

Of course, if there’s an image of what it should look like, then there has to be one of what it really looks like:

Yeah, that’s the Flying Spaghetti Monster Blob shirt that I received. I am sure glad I opened the package because I had thought about just giving it to my dad in the plastic mailing envelope. I immediately filled out the RMA form on the CafePress site, adding the following comment:

The printed image quality on the shirt is terrible. Even in the small preview image of the shirt (480px × 480px), you can make out the lettering, but none of the text is legible on the actual product. It is all blurred/pixelated. I assume there must have been a problem with the printing that no one noticed.

A day or so later, I received a reply:

We want you to be 100% satisfied with your CafePress.com experience. I have processed a refund for you in the amount of $28.99. Please allow 3 – 5 business days for the refund to be reflected on your credit card statement.

I know the item received is not up to your complete satisfaction but as our way of an apology please go ahead and keep it. There is no need for a return!

Their way of apologizing (letting me keep the shirt) is really just because they print on demand and don’t keep a huge warehouse of all the printed shirts, so it would be useless to them.

A few days passed, and I received the refund on my card. Of course, the $28.99 is the cost of the shirt. Adding in tax and shipping, the total order was actually $39.01. I suppose I should be happy that I received any refund at all, but I feel that the service falls short. I can’t say I’m 100% satisfied, maybe more like 3-5%.

I looked through a list of over fifty video game companies (an industry that has always been interesting to me) in the area, visiting each of their sites to check for relevant job openings. I found myself drawn more toward the jobs with a heavy writing emphasis, and I began to broaden my search. Using sites like Monster and CareerBuilder.com, I discovered my interest in technical writing jobs. They combine my love of writing with my broad technical background, and I have relevant experience with the writing side and, in many cases, the technical side (web development, satellite communications, etc.).

Interestingly enough, the professor I had for a technical writing course at WWU sought me out when another professor needed a technical writer for documenting a new machine/system he had developed with a small team. The job was intriguing, but I was already working for University Residences at the time as a web developer, which was an ongoing job (the technical writing one was through the completion of the project). I responded with my appreciation for my professor thinking of me, but I declined the offer. Now I wonder if that would have been a better fit for me. As a web developer, I spent a significant portion of my time documenting code, processes, meeting notes, to-do lists, and more. I like to keep things organized and often use writing as the vehicle to accomplish that.

Last night I did more job hunting. Some technical writer positions jumped out at me, so I researched more about the companies. Coming across acronyms and terms that I had not encountered before, I suddenly found myself on a Wikipedia binge. It was four in the morning before I acknowledged that I should have been in bed many hours prior. Another half hour or more went by before I had calmed my brain down enough to fall into the world of dreams.

It seems to me that technical writing would be a good fit.

Every now and then, I have created a comic. Unfortunately, they pretty much all turn out bad because I have never settled on a particular style. My drawings go for as much realism as my skill will allow in most cases, but I have never liked comics that look like that, so I always struggle to find a good balance. Comics like XKCD and Cyanide and Happiness have shown that detailed art isn’t necessary, but if I just do stick figures, I will feel like a copycat at this point. I need to develop my own style, and I ought to do it soon. I have a couple dozen ideas waiting to be drawn.

I thought it would be a good idea to spend a while drawing in various styles to see where they would get me, if anywhere. One problem that I have continued to wrestle with is the digital vs. tradition question. If I do a drawing digitally, I can create it as vector art, which will scale to any possible size. That is a huge benefit later on for creating t-shirt designs, posters, etc. The obvious disadvantage is that I need a computer to create the art. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but what happens when I meet someone, start talking about the comics, and am asked to draw a sample? Suddenly the +2 cool points I would have earned turn into -2. So, the other option is traditional (i.e., drawing it on paper). In my opinion, this requires a bit more skill but has the advantage of spontaneity. It also requires a bit more up front planning because copying and pasting in real life is a pain…. A third option is to draw the comics on paper, scan them, fix the lines, do coloring, and add the text. This is a lot of work but combines the best of both worlds.

What have I decided? I really haven’t figured out anything at this point, but I have developed a deeper appreciation for comic artists who do spend that extra bit of time doing something more than stick figures, such as Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Questionable Content. I think these two are a lot closer to the style I would like to develop than the previous two or the ones you typically see in a newspaper. The issue I have to worry about is spending so much time on the art that I don’t have fun with the actual humor that is supposed to get across.

Of course, then there’s always the question of whether each comic should completely stand alone or whether characters should recur…. Yeah, I have some work to do.

Since my laptop died on Wednesday of last week, I ordered an external enclosure for the laptop hard drive. I believe I have all the files I need from it, but the enclosure was only $8, shipped, so why not? The package is taking an interesting path to get here.

Leaving from Rowland Heights, CA on the 8th, the package made it to Carson, CA that night and shipped out early the next morning. About 26 hours later, it was in Auburn, WA (which is roughly 1/2 hour south of Seattle, for those unfamiliar with the area). At that point, DHL gave the package to USPS. The next entry in the tracking data shows that on the 12th, the package was in Spokane with the details saying “enroute.” I’ve included a map to clarify how dumb this is.

A – Origin – Rowland Heights, CA
B – Tendered to USPS – Auburn, WA
C – USPS… no idea why it’s here – Spokane, WA
D – Delivery location – Bellingham, WA

Maybe they were just trying to see how much of a pain it is to cross the mountains (twice, since I hope they’ll be coming back) during the craziest winter weather I remember.

(Map courtesy of Google Maps)

Those are my three current goals for 2009.

For “traditional” art, this goal was going to be to create fifty entries in my sketch book, but I reconsidered. I didn’t want to come to a weekend with a major desire to paint and decide to sketch instead just to meet the goal. I also lowered the number slightly, since I’ll almost definitely be moving this year, and things will be hectic for a bit. I’m going to be shooting for much more than forty though.

Music has been a big part of my life. I didn’t really get into music until a lot later than most of my peers (I guess around high school), but it has since been a big part of my life. When I was in the Middle East, I was a bit jealous of people who could play guitar because there was one on the base that people could borrow, and that gave those people something to do. A lot of my friends at that time played at least a little, so I ended up buying one when I got back to the States (a Fender Stratocaster). Later I bought an accoustic as well (Fender Dreadnought), but I never really learned to play either very well. Without giving the list of excuses, I’m just going to say that this year I will be able to play (and hopefully sing) at least one song very well. I’ve been playing “Hey Ya!” by OutKast most of the day, trying to get my chord changes up to speed, so I think that is quite likely to be the song. Other more challenging possibilities are “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and “Save Tonight” by Eagle-Eye Cherry. Of course, I may also have to learn some fun classics such as “Twist and Shout.”

One of my presents for Christmas was a crockpot, and I’ve been making frequent use of it. I’m trying to eat better foods, and I want to get back on a regular (as regular as it can be) work out schedule. Since “eating better” isn’t easily measurable, I think that a goal of gaining fifteen pounds is good. That may sound easy to some, but it will be a challenge for me. If I do accomplish it, that will put me just above the most I’ve ever previously weighed (I’ve always been slim).

I was actually going to create a much bigger list of goals, but I think that if I focus on these three, I can definitely achieve them. And that would be a nice accomplishment for the year.

This past year was a rough one in some regards for me, and the new year looks like it will bring a lot of changes. I’ll be finishing my teaching internship at the end of January (though I’ll receive my degree when the university’s quarter is over in the middle of March). After that, I’m quite likely to be doing something very different for a while, and then I’ll see where life takes me. I have mixed feelings about a variety of things now, so I have no idea where I’ll be a year from now (physically, career-wise, etc.).

Though I’ve tried to keep this blog from becoming too personal, I suspect I’ll have quite a bit to say about the changes in a month or two, and writing is a good way for me to vent/reflect/etc. Either way, I know I’ll be continuing to create plenty of art to post on the blog, so I hope you’re not sick of it yet.