Thursday, January 31, 2008

Good day, birthday, thing-a-day

Well, tomorrow I turn 42. That means, I believe, that I will receive the ultimate answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. Right? Right? No?

Oh well. I actually feel good about another b-day rolling around, and I'm having an especially good pre-b-day. I'm working from home today, doing several illustrations for the advertising team at work. This is the first time I've ever done this...and let me tell you, I like it. I could get used to this (though who knows if or when I'll be able to do it again). I though being at home would be too distracting to work, but in reality, I spend more time working here. I feel guilty if I stop and look outside or something. So I've gotten a good amount done, which has been nice. I'll be excited when I can post some of the work I've done, but I don't know yet when it's all going to be out there...I can say this, though: there will actually be billboards in this country that have my drawings on them. Strange! And cool!

Finally, someone from work sent out a link to this site: http://www.thing-a-day.com/ - Thing-A-Day. The idea is that for the month of February, you create something every day. Presumably you post it on their Wordpress blog, but I'll probably just post mine here. It seems like a great way to keep motivated (and a hell of a lot easier than NaNoWriMo!). So try it out.

That's it - back to work! Oh weird - I want to do work.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

A pleasant weekend

I spent some time working on this pastel on Saturday, and it was wonderful and relaxing, since I don't have any homework, or class prep, to finish this weekend. I'd put this aside for a long time, so I was really happy to get back to it.

Today, Steve and I went to see Cloverfield, at my suggestion. I can't resist a viral marketing campaign, it would seem. The movie was good enough, but I'm still waiting for a really, really scary movie to come along. I had heard such outstanding reviews of this JJ Abrams project that I saw it opening weekend...and while I enjoyed it, I don't think it lived up to the hype. Still, not a bad way to spend some time.

This Monday is MLK day, so no teaching that evening. But of course, it's not a work holiday for me either. Ah well.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

2008: So far, so good

2008 is still moving along, and I like how it's going so far! Two interesting things to report so far...

I'm teaching the Introduction to Photoshop class at the School of Visual Concepts, my second class at SVC. We've only had one class so far; because of the MLK holiday, there won't be class next week, but the full five weeks will continue the week after. It's been fun so far; I really enjoyed teaching the Adobe Illustrator class last year, so I was really glad to go back for this one. I get a little nervous before the class starts, but once I get into the flow of it, it's a great experience.

The second, and really exciting thing for me: the advertising group at work has asked me to do a series of illustrations for some ads! This will be the first time my illustration work will be used for publication (except some pro bono work I did a while back). It's a great campaign, and will be featured in some national publications...I'm very, very happy to be part of it! Once a few of the ads come out, I'll post them here.

I hope the rest of the year goes this well!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy '08!

This is a large part of how we spent New Years' eve; plenty of good food, good friends, and good beverages. Here you see cheese, bread, eclairs...and scotch! Brett and Aaron had a scotch tasting for all who were interested, and I challenged one and all to no-rules ping pong! It was a fun evening, and great to see several good friends. At midnight, we switched on the TV in time to see zombie Dick Clark announcing the new year (to the horror and amusement of all present. What happened to him??).

So now it's the next year; another arbitrary date has passed and the winter celebrations are over. I'm looking forward to the days getting longer, and hopefully fewer of the torrential downpours that seem to be the standard winter weather in this climate-changing world. The coming year should be a good one, with any luck. I'm still taking classes towards my degree, and will also be teaching an Introduction to Photoshop class at SVC in January.

Resolutions? Same as always, I guess: make more time for creative endeavors; take care of myself, my family and my home; keep on living the happiest life I can and perhaps make a difference in a few other lives. I don't like to make specific, sweeping resolutions (losing x number of pounds, that kind of thing) because inevitably they lose momentum in a month or so. I don't mind taking a look at my life in general, seeing what I could be doing better, and so on, but that shouldn't be confined just to the new year.

Anyway, I'm happy to be alive in 2008, happy the holidays are over, and thankful for my husband, my job, and my friends. Life is pretty darn good; I hope it is for everyone else, all year long!