Microsoft iPod Mashup

Okay, so Apple's clean and smart branding is partially why I'm an Apple snob, but I'm a designer. I can't help it! Imagine if Microsoft made the ipod:



My sister just got an iphone, which means she's suddenly cooler than me, I think. I am not caving! Yet? Oh great, now I have that "Cooler Than Me" song stuck in my head, and also Sonic the Hedgehog 2 music, by default. Why? Well, I'm pretty sure that the last 30 seconds of "Cooler Than Me" were inspired by a combination of the Emerald Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, but I can't exactly place it. It definitely sounds like something out of that game, though. (I never even owned it, just played it at family and friends' houses.) You be the judge. Check this out, while you're at it.

On a(nother) completely random and unrelated topic, I was just reading something about the favorite scents of men and women. Look's like lavender and pumpkin pie is a winner for both! Wait, what? When was the last time you had lavender in your pumpkin pie? Anyway, these results make me laugh:

Scents that appeal to men-Lavender and pumpkin pie, doughnut with black licorice, and doughnut and pumpkin pie were the winners. Orange, black licorice, lily of the valley, buttered popcorn, vanilla, pumpkin pie, and lavender (alone). (Doughnuts and pumpkin pie, huh? Me too! In fact, just "dessert" is enough for me. If I meet a man that smells like that, look out.)

Scents that appeal to women-Good & Plenty and cucumber, Good & Plenty and pumpkin pie, lavender and pumpkin pie, baby powder and chocolate, and baby powder by itself. Also, unlike men, women are turned off by scents like cherry, barbecued meat, and...men's colognes. (Baby powder and chocolate? Smells like a biological clock to me.)

I guess those are reasonable, maybe. Good & Plenty, though, ladies? First of all, does that really differ from just plain black licorice that much? Second of all, have you tried them? They taste like black licorice! I just had a flashback to the first and last time I think I had them, which is funny...When the taiko group was in Chicago (well, sort of), we went to Walgreens to stock up on drinks or whatever and Joel gave me some. Ha, I'll have to ask him if he knew about that correlation back then. Maybe this whole thing was rigged!

...Well, I haven't had a random, sleep-deprived post like that in a while. You're welcome and good night!

Eat Pray Love

I just finished that Eat Pray Love (One Woman's Search for Everything) book that I mentioned earlier, after I took a little break from it for a while. The movie with Julia Roberts comes out in a few weeks and I'm sure I'll go see it, despite my apathy for Julia Roberts. I'm actually sad that I'm finished with the book, because I bought it at the Rome airport on my way home and in some ways it was an extension of the trip. The author actually starts her main journey in Rome, oddly enough.

It's an autobiography about a woman in her early 30's who decides that she needs to discover the answers to life's questions on her own. She divorces her husband, has a fling, and then spends a year "finding herself" in Italy (eating), India (praying), and Bali (loving). It was an insightful and witty book and I liked it, overall, but I felt like this woman should have spent more time figuring herself out before she got married and dragged someone else into her personal struggles. All of a sudden she realized that she had been jumping from relationship to relationship since she was 15 and that she never took time for herself.

I think that's a problem for many women, but I can't relate to that part of the story. I always thought it was common sense that a solid sense of self was required before a serious relationship, and so I took plenty of time on that. Honestly, I think people that did that first are better off. Maybe some people think they need that other person to help them define themselves, but it just seems counter-intuitive and riskier than it needs to be. How can you tell that you've lost yourself if you haven't even found yourself yet? Or at least, how can you be sure of it? For me, someone else would have just been a distraction or a complication. The author seems to agree. Relationships are supposed to help you grow, but you have to start on solid ground.

I guess the author's level of immaturity and self-absorption in the beginning just seemed more typical of someone who's 10 years younger. If you suppress yourself for that long and spend your time morphing into other people, though, that's probably where you end up. I certainly am not close to having all the answers, but I am closer than I was a few years ago and closer than this lady was at the beginning of the book. That's my journey, though. I shouldn't project that on other people, but I am my only reliable point of reference. Everyone needs to find their own way and I'm still finding mine. Maybe that never really ends.

Procrastination

I don't have time for this, really, but I can't focus on those posters that I'm supposed to be doing. You know you're having problems with procrastination when you subconsciously create a song about it. The song I am currently replaying in my head is based on the Sesame Street "Cooperation" song from my childhood, only my version goes: "Procrastination makes it happen, procrastination working together (dig it)." Catchy, right? And totally inaccurate. I blame the Sesame Street reference on the fact that Joel is going to Alaska soon, because that reminded me of another old song called "Ookyook." It seems like they played that song all the time. So cute!

Work is going pretty well, I think. My first project is to make an events poster for the office. All the designers have made one with a range of themes. Mine is going to be in the style of a 1950's monster movie poster because it's a cool style and I was on an old movie kick not too long ago. They pretty much have three things in common: 1. They are mostly illustration with cool, hand drawn type, 2. There is a woman struggling to break free/fainting from the monster (in half of them), 3. People are running/gasping in horror. Since it's for October-December, the monster is going to be a godzilla-sized turkey (Turkilla Strikes Back) possibly flailing in front of a background of fire, maybe carrying a woman, and getting shot at from the ground/helicopter. I'm struggling with turning it into a painting in photoshop, though. Hopefully by the end, I will get it.

I like my co-workers and I've gone to lunch and/or drinks with them (drinks just today and Friday) every day so far. Aside from my boss who's in his early 40's, maybe, they're all basically my age or a few years older. They're either newlyweds or single and most don't have kids. I think our personalities mesh well. I can get along with almost anyone, but that doesn't always (or usually) mean I feel like I belong with the group. I just tend to be kind of "different" in most cases, which is not always a bad thing. It's nice to naturally belong to a group sometimes, though. At an agency, we're like the same or similar brands of "different." We get it. It's nice.

Three people that I work with used to be at Momentum. At least two other people worked with or went to college with friends that are not in the business at all. (Melissa--One is good friends with David from JFK!) St. Louis really is like a big small town in some ways.

I'm still trying to gauge the potential time commitment required for this job, but it sounds like I can leave around 6 most days. As long as it's not consistently later than that like at Momentum, that's fine. I don't know if I could go back to that kind of schedule after I've had a taste of a normal 9-5 job. I was asking a co-worker (28 and newly married, for some background) about what it's typically like and she said that some people at the company work late more consistently, but she makes sure she never stays too late. Her home life trumps work. I told her my concerns and she just said to stay true to myself. I think I've gotten pretty good at that, anyway, and am not that susceptible to being overworked anymore. Sometimes I can get a little lost in it, but that's usually a good sign. The days already seem to be moving 10 times faster than they did at the insurance company and I hardly have any projects yet.

Hmm, sometimes I get lost in writing, too. Time for bed!

What goes around comes around

I went to lunch with someone from Momentum yesterday and it was nice to catch up. I found out some news that kind of made my day, too, and reminded me of more reasons why not moving to Chicago was still a good choice. Momentum unexpectedly lost a lot of Kraft business in late 2008/early 2009 and most of the team was laid off or they quit. The group creative director there, the one and only person I honestly disliked at the company and the person that put me (and many others) on the chopping block, was laid off about a year after me. As far as the person I went to lunch with knew, no one kept in touch with him or was sad to see him go--and he didn't like us, either.

Out of curiosity, I looked up some other old Chicago team members on LinkedIn. Only one person that I recognize on the creative side is still there and I don't know what became of the others. It's probably a combination of things, but my guess is that there were more layoffs than anything else. The girl that took my place on the team in Chicago lasted an entire 6 months, April-October. I can't say for sure why, but it makes me wonder if that would have been my fate, anyway. I can guarantee that she didn't even get to the real crazy parts of that job, though. Toolkit season started in late October! Now I'm pretty confident they really were screwed on that monster project, quite possibly the biggest and most expensive project of the year. It must have been easy if a peon like me was put in charge of it, though, right Mr. Pompous GCD? Surprise!

Getting laid off turned out to probably be one of the best things that happened to me, but I think it came about for the wrong reasons (the GCD's ego, for one). I get a tinge of satisfaction knowing that the Kraft team in Chicago imploded after it's St. Louis counterparts stopped coming to the rescue, anyway. I never wish bad things on people, but I just hope the group creative director got what he deserved. That seems like a fair statement. I hope I get what I deserve at this new place, too. At least, I think I do...

Yesss

I lied. This is what I've actually been doing all day:

Transition

I forgot how nice it was to be off on weekdays. The house is slightly less neglected than it was before because I'm actually here in the daytime. Granted, I've been working on posters off and on, but also sort of cleaning intermittently. I'm reading that Eat, Pray, Love book that I keep hearing about, too. I picked it up on the way back from Rome and I'm just now starting the India section. I agree with the critics that say she complains too much, but I still like her writing style and the overarching point of the book, which is her journey of personal discovery. Go figure...

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with some old Momentum people and going on a shopping spree! I still can't believe my team gave me a $150 gift card as a going away present. Sh*t, I didn't even get a thank you card from the company that laid me off! Some of my friends there took me to lunch, though.

I'm always surprised by some of the people that do nice things for me on my way out. For example, someone brought me lunch from Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday, my last day! It was the person that I carpooled with to Toastmasters, but not someone that I talked to much otherwise. Awkward guy wasn't even there on Tuesday, by the way. Maybe I'll find another creeper at my new place to keep up the tradition...but hopefully not. It's statistically less likely at a smaller company.

The gift card is a perfect example of why it was hard to leave the insurance company. Even though I was bored to death most of the time, they really appreciated everything I did for them, no matter how small. They even praised my great work ethic, which baffles me. That was nothing! If I was working at my Momentum speed, I could have come into my insurance job like once a week. Maybe I don't even know what a bad work ethic entails. I guess I should have taken naps. I actually prefer to work at work, though, which is why I like the challenge of crazy deadlines. Sometimes, I would fake a crazy deadline at Midwest just to make it more interesting.

My year and a half at Midwest really did as much as it could do for my career, though. This move is another step in the right direction. Oh, this is the new place. Joel calls it "Four-orce," which seems valid, based on the spelling. They just changed their name/site, so there's not too much on there yet. They're making a big push towards the user experience of a website, so they have a new testing lab and "Usability Scientists." It seems like a pretty good idea.

This all came out of nowhere, but I think that's a good sign. This new place seems to really want me there. It recently occured to me that I had kind of given up on looking for/recognizing "signs" altogether, actually. Maybe I was afraid of what they might tell me or that I would read them wrong. Since my career is getting back on track, though, I am reassessing everything. As I have been reminded so many times before, often the key to navigating life is simply knowing when to let go and when to hold on. Except, it's usually not simple at all. All things considered, floating with the current has gone pretty well so far, but when does it become necessary to fight the tide?

I'm back (sort of)

It's been a while since I've posted much of anything on here, huh? It's not because I lack material to write about, that's for sure. I guess I lack focus because I'm not sure how to write about everything at once. I also lack time, but that's pretty normal. Sometimes I wonder how my version of "busy" compares to everyone else's. I tend to think that "normal" for me would qualify as "busy" for a fair amount of people. If I say I have "no time," for example, it means that I literally have maybe 30 minutes free to change clothes/eat dinner between 8am and 10pm--for a few days in a row. I just like to be out and about and I can usually relax and have fun once I get to my intended destination. Still, it doesn't leave room for home activities.

I keep myself especially entertained in the summer, so recently, I have had to practically force myself to stay home and work on some freelance. Luckily, it's fun stuff. I'm creating some posters for "The Producers" because a co-worker is in charge of a production of it. "Springtime for Hitler" is coming right along (but I can't get the song out of my head!). Next up is a "Funny Boy" poster, a musical of Hamlet.

Tuesday is my last day at my current job and then I start the new job on Monday. That means I have 3 days off and I'll be in town! Imagine the possibilities: the drive-in, Muny free seats, lunch with old Momentum people, and Third Friday at Third Degree Glass Factory top the list so far...and taiko? Uh, we'll see. I'm already bummed that the Aug. 6 performance botches my plans for Back to the Future at Union Station and the Star Party at the Science Center! Those things only happen once a month and only through Sept., I think.

So much to do, so little time. I'm still trying to squeeze a Blues Cruise, Grizzlies game, Boathouse night paddle, Live on the Levee, Jungle Boogie at the zoo, Joel's band thing, another MoBot Wed. concert, more Muny shows, a bike "amazing race" style competition, horse races, and Parties in the (old post office) Plaza into the next month! I'm pretty sure I'll get to most of it, too, because that's how I roll. :) That's why I was "busy" even when I didn't have a job, by the way, in case you were wondering.

Oh, and Italy was amazing! It's an entire country of art, history, food, wine, and ambiance. I'm really glad I got that new camera, too, because I think I got some nice pictures. I've been wanting to go there for a long time and I was not disappointed by anything...well, except the bathrooms. Most of the public ones didn't even have toilet seats and only about half of them flushed! Plus, some of them expected tips or an actual set amount of euros! I definitely appreciate even gas station bathrooms in America now. I also appreciate ice. No one goes to Italy for those things, though.

The Maryville group was a diverse mix of people, ranging from 24 to 80 years old, but we got along well. They want to continue the tradition every year, and next year they are going to France. I'm not sold yet, but I haven't ruled it out, either. I've found that it's really hard for me to turn down an opportunity to travel, though, because I think now is the perfect time to do it. I'm looking forward to San Francisco in November with taiko, at least! Then I'll just have to go to Boston, Austin, and possibly Maine and Alaska for my personal tour of America to be complete. I think I've been to 42 states so far. Maybe I'll go to the rest of them, too, at some point.

Well, it seems I have run out of time, but that should get you relatively up to speed. There's more to my story, of course, but who has time for that?