lost & found
lost & found.
found a great new graphic design site today. and from there, found this new mag. oh my gosh, and this robot site.
animator
who’s a web designer/animator?
I have the miraculous mis-fortune of having to say no to a whole bunch of freelance work these days. I start thinking I can do it all – I mean, who needs sleep!? Apparently not me cuz it’s already 1:28 in the morning & I’m writing a damn blog about it! jeeshk!
Anyway – my point here is that as PAINFUL as it is for me to say no to work, I simply can’t overcommit myself as I’m still hoping to reach a day where I’ll have any kind of time span where I don’t have a project to work on & can do my own creative stuff!
So I refer people to others whom I feel may have similar talents that were originally sought out in me. It’s a tricky task cuz, although I’m well aware I’m not responsible for how that relationship turns out, with any referal situation – you want the person to feel good about it in the end!
(side note: my cat is flipping out right now over some new gift bow he found. leaps in the air, full spiral half-twists, magnificent!)
So I’ve found that I only have a very very small handful of people I refer work to. About 2 guys and 2 girls that I know will do a really good job – and have good design skills too. Plus, these are people I know personally which is kinda better than referring them to some stranger whom I’ve just seen their site, ya know?
So, do I know you and somehow don’t know you do web design? Do you have a porfolio of designs on-line that a potential client could see?
Do you have a desire to make a animated intro for a independent film? Do you have a porfolio of Flash designs or otherwise to show you have the skills to do said animated intro?
Are you affordable? (i.e. you don’t charge full force studio contract prices, but offer a more reasonable freelance/hourly cost) Do you have (good) experience working with clients?
Most importantly – do you have time to take on new work right now?
Talk to me.
political cartoonists saturday i went
political cartoonists
Saturday I went down to Modern Times bookstore for a Political Cartoonists Panel that my friend Brian Gage was speaking on. Mark Fiore, Tom Myers and Trina Robbins were also there. I was psyched to meet Mark Fiore, as I’m familiar with his work and really like his style. Tom Myers I hadn’t known of specifically – cuz I don’t often seek out political cartoons, but now that I see his work online I see he’s a talented artist!
Brian isn’t an artist, but a writer and then hires illustrators. His books are like children’s books for adults: Snark, Inc: A corporate fable and The Amazing SnoxBox, and actually one out this fall that really is for children, called The Saddest Little Robot. He’s doing really well. It’s awesome to see a friend have an idea, and then watch his success as he moves to L.A., gets published and then goes on tour for it. Very cool.
On my way to the event I remembered my high school history teacher. I hated history and politics in high school. To me it seemed soo pointless. I was “livin’ in the now, man”.. too cool for school I guess. Actually, I had a good 3.7 GPA throughout high school, but I’m sure the class that brought me down from a 4.0 was probably History (well, that & Chemistry, I didn’t get that at all). SO anyway – I had put that teacher through it. I was sooo *not* into history, that instead I just doodled and passed funny drawings to my friend Pat. I was a “distraction to the class”, my teacher had said. But Saturday I remembered that in an effort to extend a helping hand to his student, my teacher came to me and offered that instead of other homework, that I try to do political cartoons. That way I could integrate my cartoons with politics and maybe it would become more interesting.
Well, it’s a terrible ending to the story, but it didn’t work. hahaa I don’t know if it was that dealing with the topic of “politics and history” still seemed so daunting and huge that I couldn’t commit to it – or that it was he didn’t exactly set up an actual assignment with a due date or something. Hell, I may have even done one and I don’t even remember it now – that was about 13 years ago. Either way, because I work with teens now – it made me think of how great it was that that teacher tried to come to my level and help me out.
The panel was great – very thought provoking. And I had a TOTAL small world moment where I finally met Noah’s wife, Erin – and turns out she’s Brian’s ex whom I think I met once years ago. But it was just wild cuz Brian & I had drinks last Wednesday and as we were catching up on relationships & what not, he asked “Did you ever meet Erin?”. He just briefly mentioned how she’s married now… and then to see Noah there by surprise and ask him what his connection was, and he said Brian & then introduced me to Erin – it was just the 4 degrees of seperation deal:
Willo <> Jane > Noah > Erin > Brian <> Willo
What a small town!
And yes, Erin is as beautiful and cute as Jane and Brian had said :) And they’re a cute couple, cuz Noah’s quite the catch, too… I want a man with his style!
buddy boy mania
buddy boy mania
Whenever I’m on my computer, Kazoobie jumps up on my desk for some snuggles atleast once an hour or so. However, along with his loving bonks and purrs, he steps on my keyboard & swishes his tail in my face in hopes I’ll hold him for awhile. So I thought for today it’d be good if I brought over his kitty condo to sit next to my desk so I can give him what he’s trying to achieve in every one of his visits, to be as close to me as possible.
As soon as I moved his condo over – he loved it! He got all hyper and wanted to play, since it was all kinds of new found fun to jump up on his house, now that it was in a different spot. One of his favorite toys is this gold ribbon… I drag it along & he chases it – and eventually grabs it & takes off so I can’t have it anymore :) Here’s a little animation of that game.
Kazoo is ALL BOY and he likes to wrestle and play. He’s a bit of a biter, but it’s never too hard (just like most wild animals, if you pull away it gets worse cuz those animal instincts kick in) But when you learn that and you leave your hand there, with Kazoobie it’s called love bites. He gives a few nibbles, holding my hand in his mouth to show me he’s so tough (tiger! grr) and then while holding it softly in his paws gives me a few licks afterwards, like “just kiddin, mom – you know I love ya”. He likes to give me love bites while I give him little paw rubs.
This is buddy boy in his house, now ready to settle down after our playing. Happy as can be he can sit by mama while she works. This is what we call his “drivin the car” pose. He puts his arm over the side (out the window) and a paw up (on the steering wheel)
See?
All this photo taking inspired me to take a self-portait with my buddy Kazoo. Smile, buddy!
Isn’t he just the most handsome kitty EVER!? :)
cell phone mania
cell phone mania!!
AWESOME!!! I can switch my cell phone carrier! Check it out!
Too bad I just signed on another year contract w/ Sprint (which they made me do just for switching to a higher priced plan!) UG. I actually haven’t minded Sprint that much – but there’s been a few things I hate, one being the limitations of their plans. And the fact that really the most reasonable cheap plan you can get w/ them is still $35 ($45/mo with all the damn taxes!) and you’re still limited on your daytime hours AND that means nighttime minutes don’t start till 9pm!!!
SO many Sprint customers will switch now, I think. The MetroPCS ads sound good to me, but they don’t include long distance in that price, so that won’t work. Well, no matter what – I love my phone number, and the good news is this means I can take it with me – yay!!!!
sorry i mean to post this earlier but…
(sorry, I mean to post this earlier – but left before I could finish it!)
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
If you don’t know what this band is all about, here’s a little summary:
| “Even the band is a little unconventional, its genesis having happened after mother Tina stumbled upon some vacation slides at an estate sale. Father Jason viewed the slides of a 1959 Japanese mountain trip and was hit with the inspiration for a song with a very similar title. He composes the music, based on the photo slides of strangers, on keyboard and guitar. He and daughter Rachel then sing humorous lyrics and play instruments while Mom operates the slide machine.” + |
They were awesome. The dad, Jason, is the lead singer, painist & guitar player and is a character! He’s like a mix between Rick Moranis and a little Mike Myers… with a musical sound similar to They Might be Giants. But I really hate to compare anyone this wonderfully unique, because he really is an individual with a talent to befuddle, amuse and play some seriously fun “pop” songs (as he calls them – haha) in a style all their own.
Little 8 year old Rachel is sooooooo cute. She kept the pace going with a few “chop chop” ticks of her drumsticks – and a yawn and rubbing of the eyes every so often… down to the end where she simply exclaimed “We already started, let’s just finish it! But hurry up, I’m tired!” Her little voice was so cute sitting behind the big drumset that everyone couldn’t help but giggle every time she peeped up. SOOO CUTE!!!! I even got her autograph!
The cooolest thing was that this show had SOLD OUT! We hadn’t expected that – but my rockstar friend John got us on the list which was sooo awesome. I am so glad I didn’t miss it. They’re actually coming back Saturday, July 19th – So buy your tickets now!
Oh! And in line for drinks I ran into Heather… whom I’d met briefly at Min Jung’s party a couple months ago. It was nice to see her & chat a bit. I hardly know her at all, besides being well aware of her sites – but have huge respect for who she is in “the community” :)
Speaking to her briefly lastnight, she actually reminded me a lot of my friend Hilary Harrel (my friend in elementary school who loved ed emberley books as much as me) with a hint of a Canadian accent mixed in :p I love Canadians. Anyway – it was nice to run into her and I was flattered (humbled, honored, geeked, surprised) that she remembered me and knew my site. I’m such a nerd. Anyway…. nice seeing you there, Heather – and hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did! :)
just go read my blog
just go read my blog.
I feel like uber dork sometimes when I’m sitting w/ a friend (knowing that they read my blog every day and not wanting to repeat myself) and find myself referencing to it like, “you know how I wrote about such & such…” for three conversations in a row.
I mean, in a way it’s really cool and I actually love it. It gives me geeky happy butterflies cuz it makes me somehow feel like we’re all connected and communicating on a slightly higher level.
Ok well – this is where I’ll say, “just go read her blog”. Because, I just read Sarah’s summary of our evening the other night, and clearly my post didn’t do it the justice that she did. She’s got quite the way with words, that smarty pants!
Ok, going to make breakfast now & then I’ll come post about how rockin the …Slideshow Players were lastnight.
photos from birthday weekend
photos from the birthday weekend
I hadn’t even downloaded these until today! very unlike me. but oh boy, there are some good ones!! totally reminded me of some of the hilarious things that happened at jane & sarah’s party last saturday night. oy! so much love this group has :)
I have to edit a few before posting them… so they’re coming soon…. stay tuned.
fuzzy hot
fuzzy = hot
my poor kitty has so much fur on him he must be sooo hot!! me being the nice mama that I am though – I pointed the fan on him where he’s laying faithfully on the floor near me while I work. whereas, if he really wanted to stay cool he could go into the shaded bathroom and lie on the cool tiles in there, instad he sweats it out to be close to me. what a good boy. so he gets the fan – and mama sits here, dripping sweat as I type and try to think straight through the heat. :)
p.s. I am certifiably CRAZY for not being at the beach right now.