it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today when I came into work I was wearing my blue jacket I wear for my scooter. I walked up to my computer, pulled open the drawer next to it and pulled out my pink sweater that I wear everyday at work because the A/C is always on so high. I realized I am Mr. Rogers. I come in the same jacket everyday and change into the same sweater when I get to work. I told that to Brad and he pointed out that I had even taken off my shoes like Mr. Rogers does. (we were sharing scars, weird, I know) So there it is, I am Mr. Rogers.

my break through

As I've mentioned before, I really love my scooter. I recently started a new job out by Springville which is a little tricky to get to on my scooter because everyone is driving at about 60, and I'm lucky if I can get up to 40. I thought for awhile I would just get rides and take the bus. Then I hunted out some back roads through a neighborhood and I can't believe how great it works. There's got to be backroads everywhere that I haven't taken advantage. I've realized that I've really been limiting myself to thinking my scooter was only good for getting around Provo. Now I've realized I can go to Orem...Pleasant Grove... Salt Lake....Idaho..........and why not Mexico too?

death for real

Sometimes I wonder if the expression "die of boredom" is acurate. Today is one of those times.

bad lunch ideas

One of my really cool friends recently gave me a bunch of cup of noodle for lunch. I was skeptical if I would actually eat it but then when I was leaving for work one day and realized I needed something for lunch so I grabbed the cup of noodle and it turned out to be a great lunch. And since I have been pretty consistent with not getting up early enough to make a real lunch I think I've eaten 4 cup of noodle lunches. bad idea. Today when I went to eat lunch, once again with a cup of noodle in my hand, I was so unexcited with the thought of another cup of noodle I had to resort to buying a sandwich from the vending machine. Anytime you're buying a sandwich from a vending machine you know you have a problem. So I've decided cup of noodle is good on a once a week basis. And vending machine sandwiches... I just hope I never resort to that again.

great conflicts

At work I heard this girl behind me talking to another guy about how he is using some of her music files that she had saved in some of our public folders on his itunes list. And she was upset because she wants people to have to go to her itunes list on our shared music instead of his. It was probably the most ridiculous (and perhaps only) argument I've ever heard at work. The guy next to me said we should have conflicts like this at work at least 2-3 times a day. That way when we have job interviews we would actually have something to talk about on that question about conflicts with co-workers. I agree. And the drama was kind of exciting. And one of the girls behind me (a normal one, not the itunes nazi one) wrote a blog I thought was pretty funny: http://singingcicada.blogspot.com/2006/05/holy-crap.html

computer life

I've never had a job so computer involved before. I currently have 11 windows open. Most of the designers have 2 computer screens to accommodate this. I'm new and deprived so I only have one. I feel like I should know computers a lot more than I do to have 2 computer screens going. Or even to be working at a computer with 11-15 windows opened at a time. And not just opened because I haven't closed them but opened because I need them. Of course most designers just use their second screen for their itunes, msn and email purposes. I think I've convinced 3 of my new co-workers to start blogs. Sometimes I meet people who don't even know what a blog is or how to use it. I think there is a variety of blogs though so I'm not always sure what the best explanation of a blog is? What do you think?

new job

I'm currently writing this blog while at my new job. I'm doing computer stuff right now that doesn't take much effort on my part but takes the computer awhile to process. So I get to sit here and try to think of new blogs to write. So far nothing very interesting has happened at work to write about. Although Brad and I did form an alliance, I was pretty excited about that. Our mission is to steal a computer for me on the graphic designers side. I'm currently an outcast on the communist side (as Brad referred to it) surrounded by programmers and editors. I need to find a way to get to the other side of the partition. Don't you love office jobs?

crazy man

The other day in the parking lot I was just talking to a couple friends when this random old guy with a huge beard walked by and just started yelling to us about how hard it would be to move a mountain as fast as a rocket or something and how amazing it is that the world moves the way it does. He was really excited about it and seemed to think we were going to start running around getting everyone else excited about it too. We didn't though. However, we were very excited to have the random guy approach us because it reminded us all of the good ol mission days. We don't have that crazy people magnetic power that we once had.

foot lotion

The other day when I was in the bookstore with Katy we noticed some foot lotion on display, one of which was labeled to be used as a tester. My question is who tries out foot lotion in the middle of the bookstore? You just whip off your shoes and see how you like the feel and/or scent of the lotion right there? Seems kind of odd to me.

poor unfortunate souls

When I was walking home from work today I saw the cutest kids running around on the grass. The only thing was they had beautiful light blonde hair that had been cut so horribly I couldn't help but cringe. It was more than obvious that their mom had no idea how to cut hair but decided to anyways. She took the clippers and ran it up the side of the little kids' heads to make a nice blunt bowl cut. I don't know what is so intimidating about scissors to people. We've been using them since kindergarden and they happen to work great on hair not just paper. So please everyone, when you have kids or a husband you want to cut hair for, don't give them a bowl cut. I highly reccommend using scissors. Or finding someone that will. Thank you for helping make the world a more beautiful place.

my big rock

So I found this rock recently that is so cool. I started carrying it around with me all over the place because I like it so much. Maybe you think it's weird to carry around a rock all the time but if you saw my rock you would understand. You might think of it as my lucky rock. I think by having my rock with me my day goes better. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it just does. I didn't know rocks could be so great. I always thought they were just dull hard objects that are useful as paperweights.

most embarrassing moment of my life

I only share this because 1. it was hilarious and 2. I hope all of you will share your most embarrassing moments at some point as well. So there I was just cruisin into the parking lot by the wilk on my scooter when my phone starts ringing. I decided I would stop at the scooter parking lot entrance to answer it. I flipped open my phone and told Rick to hold on for a minute while I took my helmet off. I realized that was too challenging with only one hand so I just shoved the phone against my ear with the helmet on.
As I was talking I decided I could slowly drive my scooter towards a parking spot with my left hand (even though the gas is on the right side of the handle bars) while still holding onto my phone with my right hand. But then I started going a little too fast while heading straight at someone's nice huge motorcycle probably owned by someone that could kill me. So instead of having an accident with a parked motorcycle (brakes weren't an option either, that was too tricky to reach with my left hand) I turned to the left, but of course all of this was incredibly awkward and I was still trying to talk on the phone and balance the masonite board and watercolor paper I had by my feet. So I fell over. Not gracefully either. I was laughing and feeling stupid and then felt even stupider when I realized people had seen me because everyone was frantically asking me, are you alright? are you alright? Humiliating. So the moral of this story is: don't talk on the phone while trying to drive a scooter with your left hand.

running with toothpaste

On Saturday I did the Rex Lee Run, my first race ever. I had a great time. I was a little late, that was funny, both for me and the people watching me hear the gun go off while I was still running to the starting line a couple blocks away. Another funny part was these little bags they gave us at the end, mostly flyers, and then a tube of toothpaste. All the writing was in Chinese. I was a little skeptical to use it at first because for all I knew on the back it said is only to be used on dogs or something. But I tried it out anyways. Not bad. Kind of a minty bark taste. Fresh breath in general though. So if anyone is debating doing the Rex Lee Run next year, keep in mind it is good clean fun, you get the t-shirt of course and interesting toothpaste. and remember to be on time, it' s less embarrassing that way.

cooking 101

I will admit that cooking isn't one of my greatest talents. I'm not horrible, I think I can make quite a bit of decent food. Occasionally though, I just don't pay attention to what I'm doing or my non-measuring tactic doesn't work out. Sometimes I accidentally grab the poppyseed container instead of the pepper to throw onto some fried eggs. That's not really a big deal though, they're pretty similar. This morning, however, as I was attempting to make some rice pudding I went to a shelf of baking ingredients, grabbed the vanilla and threw some in. Suddenly something smelled really bad. No, it wasn't vanilla. It was apple spiced vinegar. ehlk. Not exactly the flavor I was going for.

ugliest cat ever drawn in the history of the world

It's going to published. I'm sorry. I just didn't have time to redraw it. I just thought I would warn all of you.

human glow stick

You know your friends are cool when instead of inviting you to go with them to the movies next weekend they invite you to go to puerto rico. What an amazing place, I highly recommend it. One of the highlights of the trip (no, it wasn't when my friend told me I looked like one of those ugly girls in the movies) was when we went kayaking to this lagoon at night and went swimming with bioluminescent algae. I felt like I was a human glow stick. You should try it.

you know...

You know it might be too cold to ride a scooter if:

1. you have to not only scrape your mirrors, but also your odometer, your ignition button and your seat.

2. you are wearing half of your wardrobe to stay warm.

3. you are wearing so much head gear you can't turn your head.

4. your arms are frozen to stick out in front of you when you arrive at your destination.

5. you can't find your scooter because there is so much snow covering it.

But other than that, a scooter is great year round. (although, more fun in the summer for sure)

changing the world

More like, changing the way I look at it. I mentioned before that my new hobby is science. What I especially like about science is how I look at everything differently the more I learn and I think about science, even though I hardly know anything. I can only guess how different life would be if I had a career studying this stuff. I've noticed myself just walking around recently looking at objects and thinking about what it is made of and all the tiny microscopic components that combine together to create whatever I'm looking at. Or sometimes I just think about breathing and how many billions of things are going on with my body right now to make it function the way it does.
Maybe lots of people do that but I used to only look at the design of objects, the way the light falls on it, or it's hue but I guess I'm branching out in the way I think. An example was today when I was washing my hair I was thinking of why we shower and how the chemicals work to make it so we don't smell. (I had just been running and...well, I smelled bad)

I used to think it would be cool to marry someone who got an undergrad in accounting then went to law school (there's a ton of legal stuff and complicated taxes with freelance art) but I think I would like to add a Phd in microbiology or physiology or something equally fascinating. Actually, maybe it would just be easier to get those degrees myself. That's more realistic than getting married.

successful vs sellout

So as I've mentioned before in some blogs that I've been doing more and more freelance work lately. I love it, it's so exciting! I feel like I'm really going to be able to be successful at this. The only thing is that my professors keep telling me to make sure I'm getting paid what I'm worth. However, their perspective and mine is so different. They obviously are very picky about the work that they take because they have been successful illustrators for many years. I'm glad they think our work as students is worth so much but I really don't put the same price tag on my art that my professors do. Take the amount I would accept and put a 1 in front of it, that's typically the difference of our perspectives. I figure if it's paying me more than my current job, then, hey cool. (If it's less than that then it's pretty ridiculous, come on, this is Provo) I'm getting valuable experience, published work and I'm getting paid for it. And it's not like they're paying me to scrub floors or something, they're paying me to draw stuff, which is my well known addiction anyways. What could be better? Last year I drew all the time for free. What am I talking about? My whole life I've drawn for free. In my eyes, anything is better than nothing.
However, as Michael Dudash pointed out (a visiting illustrator who came to BYU last week) when students and young artists consistently accept smaller paychecks than the industry standard then it hurts everyone because publishers start to expect to pay less and then everyone, young and old, gradually are forced to accept less money for their work. I guess the idea is that we're not just getting paid for what we complete, but the billions of hours of drawing and experience that it takes to be able to produce professional art. My professors are my professors because they know more about the illustration world than I do so I should probably listen to them. I've tried asking for more money and it gets me a little progress, but not a whole lot. Should I just hold out for the better jobs and more money or be grateful for what I'm getting?
I'm curious about other people's opinions, at what point are you a sell out hurting the industry, and when are you just a student getting a foot in the door by having some published work under your belt because you draw really fast to make it worth your time? (obviously I would prefer to be the later but I know I have to choose some type of ground where I reject work)

And by the way, the reason Michael Dudash was talking about this subject was because when I walked into the middle of a class to sit and observe my professor pointed me out and asked about the bargain freelance work I had been doing and what his opinion was about it.

BYU perks

There are a lot of great things about BYU. And of course some not so great things, but isn't that always the case? One of the things about BYU that I especially appreciate is the (usual) efficiency of the Lost and Found. I have had a couple of items never show up there, a favorite scarf and a homemade hat I really liked, but that nothing compared to the many, many, many, *pause* many items that I have gotten back. Quite often I'm in there every week or 2 to pick up stuff I brainlessly left somewhere on campus. The other day I left a project at the library but I was already on my way home when I realized I left it. Instead of going back for it I just thought, I'll just pick it up at the Lost and Found tomorrow. Very irresponsible and naive of me to always expect things to turn up there, but what can I say, it works. So the next day I picked up my project worth about $200 (it was some partly finished freelance work). When I had to write down on the lost and found paper how much the item was worth I realized maybe it would have even been worth going back to the library to pick it up. but oh well, it all worked out anyways. yeah byu!