Working from Florida

It's a nice change from the regular office this week. I worked from our hotel balcony this morning. I have to say it feels pretty good to be able to get work done nearly as efficiently as I would if I were in-office.. and that I can pretty much do it from anywhere! ha. But I doubt I should take too much advantage of that. (The second image is the view from our balcony).


The Orlando scene is an interesting one. People walk around with Disney characters on over-sized T-shirts, the restaurant food is really expensive, the entire industry here is TOURISM, and Jon had a Mickey Mouse shaped waffle this morning (which the batter tasted like sugar cone batter). I've never been to any of the parks here, but they do make me curious.. despite being very very expensive. I'll supposedly get a partial experience of it tonight for the "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party" thing we're all going to tonight. Should be innnteresting...

Jon and I went for a walk last night around our hotel. I saw a cat sitting in one of the trees and it made me wonder, why did Disney only make one movie about cats and then pretty much ignored them after that one? I guess he isn't a cat person.. but then who is really a mouse person? ha. Weird.

Rita Hayworth Hair

I was just enjoying some photos of Rita Hayworth's hair. The trend today seems to be to straighten and perfectify hair making it appear flat, but hers is gorgeous even when it's obvious that little has been done to tame it's mass and poof. This makes me look forward to growing mine out to her length! It has a similar poof anyway. I can't wait to see what it does when it gets there.

Here's my progress so far ha:

Wow, I just realized that this is the first photo of me that I've posted wearing no makeup and not thinking twice about that fact before posting it. Guess all my crazy acne meds are actually doing somethin'!

ps I'm wearing Jon's shirt ha. It's my new around-the-house trend. It's like a constant hug :)

Rainy Stay-Inside-Feeling Saturday

I get annoyed by football sometimes. It's not always the game itself because it basically becomes white noise to me. I think it's the sucking-in nature of it for those who enjoy it. Since I don't, it feels like a waste of a Saturday for me, even on a rainy stay-inside-feeling Saturday being sleepy from accomplishing all the morning chores.

Instead I drove out in heavy rain (ponds on the road in some places) to go thrift/antique shopping to find a birthday gift for Mandy.

I love looking around good antique shops like Knitting Mill. The kind where not everything is way over-priced so you can feel like you actually have the opportunity to own cool stuff. I found a ton of awesome furniture that I would buy up in a second had we the room for it. I should have taken photos to show.. but there was a really neat dresser, and a cool "wing back" velvet lounge chair. There were also a number of neat desks and shelves and trunks and such.

I'm certainly going back one day when we have a house, with the intent to buy something neat.

I went by the mall afterward, which is a totally contrasting shopping experience for me. Every time I go to the mall I find NOTHING of interest. I find myself asking "why do I come here anymore?" Clothing styles are all the same: cheaply made for expensive prices. There are always groups of people who stand in the middle of the walkway trying to figure out what store to go to (move!) ha.. and then there's the kiosk salespeople trying to give you samples.. even if you've walked by them 3 times already. Don't make eye contact!

I decided that paying shipping for online purchases is worth avoiding the mall things. The only good part of my mall trip was the 6 peanut m&ms I got for 25¢.

Anyway, now I'm back home listening to football again. I want to play Intellivision games. Guess I'll take a nap.

Florida! Semi Sorta Vacation

We're going to Florida next week! Orlando. Never been there. Jon has a conference through church and I'm going along for the ride. I'll still be working since I can't really take all that vacation time.. so we'll see how it goes working that remotely. It'll be nice to get out of the office for a while. Plus! we've got plans to go see Kennedy Space Center, with the Cape Canaveral tour. I'll bring my camera! So I'll be taking Wednesday off for that excursion, and be working from the hotel or the car for the rest of the time (Monday through Thursday)... aside from meeting people at the conference and going out to nice places to eat for free :)

I'm looking forward to the escape.

Mr. Meek Update: The Boutonnieres!

Starting up a small business can be quite a challenge, but for talented people such as my husband and our friend Josh (the worship pastor at the Vineyard) I think they have that certain charisma to make their band The Boutonnieres work for them.

Their focus is wedding live-bandery, as well as any other type of party event that could be enhanced by live music. Their unique selling point is that they offer live music as well as DJing and MCing.. as well as their sheer awesomeness.. that's a selling point right?

They had a booth this past Sunday at the Chattanooga Bridal Show where they handed out over 200 brochures and gained the interest of a number of potential clients. It was funny listening to Jon talk about being a salesman at this booth. I imagine him over-exaggerating being salesmanly, but he's pretty good.. he could probably sell an igloo to an eskimo... must be his friendly nature and trustworthy smile. The guys played live during the show, and had samples playing at their booth. They're good.

Josh came up with a pretty sweet suit ensemble: a black button-up shirt, black pants, white tie, white belt and a red boutonniere, made by Josh's wife Terra. I think having matching attire makes a band look really nice and professional, and it automatically creates an iconic nature - something that not a lot of bands do much anymore.


They've played a few gigs already, non-officially as the Boutonnieres, such as the Vineyard Thank You party a couple months ago, as well as at the Meek Wedding. I want to take some "pro" photos of them at their first official gig, which I believe is October 10, and a second on October 11 for some friends... but they need some nice representative photos for their website.

I'm excited. I really hope this endeavor works out for them.. I mean, people are always getting married and live bands are always more fun than entirely canned music.. plus I think it's a business the guys could really enjoy.

Ponderable.

Why is it called "mixing" when it's actually "layering" tracks of music? Mixing blue and yellow makes green: mixing bass, drums, keys and guitar doesn't make a basrumkeytar .. it makes a song, ha.

The "Curse" Of Eating Healthy

I have a problem. I'm admitting it now...and while it's not really a bad problem, I think that sharing my views on it or even sometimes as I put it into practice... annoys people.

My problematic non-problem is EATING HEALTHY, ha.

I think I have a pretty easy time doing so for myself. I try not to consume greasy, fatty, high cal, high sugar foods or caffeinated drinks as my staple items, but I will indulge in a specialty sweet here and there. When I bake or cook I try to use mainly healthy ingredients: healthier butters or substitutes, and smaller amounts or lower fat versions of things like cheese and oils. I never eat fast food, and if it's the only option I get their salad with the dressing on the side.

I've been able to maintain this practice for about 10 years now and continually it's been pretty easy for me to do (except when it comes to animal crackers and some cereals because those dang things are addictive! .. but they are low in fat and low in sugar, so there you go).

The problem becomes a mental conversation with myself: "Do I care too much about being healthy?" and "Do I inflict my constant care about it too much with others who have food tendencies that conflict with my own?" I can't help it if I actually CARE about the people I share my thoughts with on this matter. If they get frustrated with my comments, I think it's because they continue to eat their way, even if they know another way would actually be better for them, and maybe it's just too hard to consider? I find myself holding my tongue a lot because I don't want to be that nagging person or seem too good about it... but I do want people to make realizations and commit to doing something good for themselves. Committing is difficult I know, but that's what makes it such an accomplishment once they can.

Anyway, the other part of my "curse" tempts me to comment mentally or verbally about certain foods, mainly restaurant foods (which I've noticed I do more often now because we tend to go out to eat more often than I had before we were married). I look at the menu thinking: "Okay, what on here is relatively healthy?.. a salad? soup? a wrap of some kind?" (as I examine the actual ingredients).

The thing is that most of those items aren't really healthy at most restaurants because they all add some "special thing" to them to make them taste better than something you could make at home (which is exactly the key that makes customers come back for more). The special thing is usually butter... butter! arrgh! Last night at Chili's I had a Chicken Caesar Pita (lettuce, chicken and I swapped their Caesar dressing for honey mustard). Three bites in I notice the outside of the pita was slathered with butter, probably grilled in a buttered pan, ugh.

Now, those 3 basic ingredients should not be too unhealthy for you: pita bread, romaine lettuce, honey mustard, and pepper-grilled chicken. I just looked up the nutrition info on this Chili's dish: 700 calories, 41g fat! and 8g saturated fat. That is like a McD hamburger.. thankfully I think the honey mustard switch saved me a little bit but come on!! I can make this at home for cheaper and have it be 200% more healthy. I'm glad I only ate 1/2 of it.

He won't want to know this, but Jon got the Quesadilla Explosion Salad: 1270 calories! 76g fat 23g saturated fat! A salad that is 2 times worse for you than a Big Mac... Holy Lord save our arteries! Bet you wouldn't have guessed all that in a salad... unfortunately and apparently: salads are NOT as healthy as they seem. The healthiest thing Chili's has on their menu is Chicken Noodle Soup, but its never been the soup of the day whenever I've been there, and apparently you can't get it ever.

Of course, people could always choose to eat less of their serving (knowing that it's usually so heavy).. but they rarely do. Satisfying hunger doesn't have to mean finishing the entire plate. To be full is not the goal. Stop before you get there and you'll be much better off.

*sigh*. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it really does. It's not like I'm super freak-o healthy-eater type person who only buys organic and substitutes soy and tofu for anything that has real flavor. I just don't think it's that hard to make things healthy and tasty at the same time.

Yes, it costs much less to eat fast food, but what you're saving in money, you're losing in health, if you do it on a regular basis. Have you seen Burger King parking lots at 8:45am? GOOD LORD! Bad way to start your day people! I just don't understand how they can place taste and convenience above health & wellness. It's not necessarily a long term thing either. Most fast food will give you a stomach ache after consumption, or at least bad gas or the belches or something.. and who wants to be around you when you're stinkishly airing out?

There's little I can do to help other people, even though I try. It's something they have to genuinely want to do to help themselves. I wish our restaurant chefs cared more. Taste and health can certainly go hand in hand. While at Chili's I said they should have a restaurant only for healthy things where you can be guaranteed that your meal is very good for you. I'd go there all the time.

In the meantime, I'll continue to eat 1/5s of my restaurant meals, and walk out feeling able to walk out, thank you.

Note

I asked Jon to leave me a note on the white board and he wrote this:

I added the smile.

Another Post About Nothin'

*sigh* I wake up every weekday morning to the sound of kid upstairs running, and every morning I WISH! I could have more time for sleep. I've been internally whining to myself about going to work, the commute, and not really knowing if I'll have a project or nothing to do all day...

I had a bout of designer mediocrity yesterday. I had a project and just couldn't decide to be creative with it at all. It feels really bad to be like "eh, I give up." I guess it happens. I just get tired of designing and tired of screens for so long every single day.

Maybe I just need a vacation... a good one, where I don't have to worry about working during it, since recently finding out that I still only get 1 week of vacation after being here a year. I feel like any "off time" I take should be spent working from home so I can still save those 5 precious vacation days.

It's raining really hard outside. I like potential catastrophes that could give me a reason not to be working.

A Designer's Catch 22

Sometimes I get so tired of the internet. It's too fast and too changing and pretty time consuming whether you're using it or creating it..

It's a changing technology, with tons of possibilities and good stuff, but also tons of limitless STUFF to know. I'm feeling very overwhelmed by all the coding-related things I'm "supposed" to know or be learning right now: javascript, html, xml, php, actionscript 2.0 and 3.0, loading internet ads.. I feel like I need to go back to school to ingrain this stuff for real rather than just watching other people do it or watching tutorials online, since I'm not really required to actually do this work just yet... but I should be slowly knowing it... or something.

I know these things are supplementary to design and to being creative, because they allow me to do more things with it... but it's technical, and not creative... it's not my realm! It's weird, and Sometimes I miss being creative. I find myself thinking 'when can I be creative again?'

At work the designers are basically going to learn to be coders and loaders.. and to be put into the rotation of having to work 24/7 when your weekend comes up.. glued to a pager for "OMG URGENT!!!!" requests for ads that must! go up at 9am on Sunday morning. I do not want to work in the evenings and on Saturday and Sunday.. even if it is just for 1 weekend or less a month. If I have to, there should at least be a considerable amount of compensation for this. Designer pay plus loader pay. The loaders make more than we do already and they never do design work. I have to commend my supervisor though for stressing to us how we shouldn't be stressing so much about this stuff, and that "it's JUST a website" which is good, so hopefully things won't be as bad as I pretend they might be.

I start to question how feasible it would be to have the time to actually be creative and to have all the technical stuff to do as well (like these loaders are typically working on stuff all night long, until midnight). Sometimes I think there is a point where you have to be one or the other.. and that there isn't enough hours in the day, or enough mental sanity for both.

My other thought is this: am I going to be a webber/coder/semi-designer from now on? I never really thought of myself as such. I'd like to be more creative... which leads to thinking about the possibility of distant-futuristically switching my focus back to design for print rather than web.

It seems that, as far as work flow.. a print project has MUCH more detail given to it, because once it's sent to print, it's done. Web is too easy to change.. which is why clients can make revisions on such a whim like it's nothing (well it's something to those poor folks loosing sleep and time for Life during their nights and weekends)... It really is a time thing I think.. giving detail to things means not rushing.. which seems like a more relaxed environment to work in to me.

However, the Catch
The catch is that the way of the web is the future of everything. Design for print is becoming outdated... or so I hear. Not that I would support such a thing totally, nor that it will be eliminated totally despite web intervention. But is it smart to look for a job in print design?

I don't know, but comparing the two- I felt like I had more creative initiative with print design. Design for web (at least ad design) so far has been using other people's work or stock photography to create layouts.. nothing too inspirational there... not that I don't enjoy it because I really love working mindlessly on stuff sometimes, it's very worry free.. and I also enjoy working in Flash, especially on animation.

Here's the thing, seemingly:

A) Large amounts of high-end creative work = more stress, more planning, more long nights, more constant thinking of concepts and how to take it to final product.... but more ownership of the creative.

B) Large amounts of templated-like ad work = pretty much merely busy work that can generally be knocked out in short amounts of time making a 9-5 day full but short and stress-free.... but less real ownership of the creative.

Just some observations. I think it's safe to say that it's quite a challenge for a designer to find that *perfect* job where they get to do a little of everything, it's not overwhelming, it's enjoyable, and provides a secure position for years.

Grounded.

I thought about going to St Louis for Halloween this year... but since it sounds like I would be going alone (and driving alone isn't a survivable option for me) I may not be able to consider it, for financial reasons. I wish flights weren't so expensive, and I kinda wish their process was quicker.. OR that there was a direct flight from Chattanooga to St Louis, at least.

But if I went I also would try very hard to see if some much-missed Springfield friends could come as well.. I probably won't get back to Springfield for years and I want to see people.

I think during the post-marriage stage of life, people typically tend to stay grounded... and when they've moved away that makes it hard to get together, if even like once a year. I guess I know why this happens, but I don't think it has to.

I suppose if I was a better lone-driver, I could go more. I'm not sure if that's something I could improve on though. Maybe I need a backup driver option for when Jon can't/doesn't want to make a long trip. Unfortunately my other friend with St. Louis family moved to N. Carolina. Oh well.

Neat Photo Albums

I've decided to go "very neat and classy" on our wedding photo album. At first I wanted to make a sort of coffee table book (through blurb.com) but it really didn't feel special enough for the documentation of such an event. I did a ton of research on customizable/printed photo books and just wasn't feeling thrilled about it.

Then I stumbled upon jennibick.com and got excited. They had a number of really cool leather-bound photo albums. They are, however, regular photo albums so we'll print our photos and affix them to the pages with archival-safe adhesives and those little photo corner things (they have them in gold which would be nice). I think it'll look really neat and using photo-quality prints will produce the best final result. It'll definitely have an "I care enough to spend a lot of time on this" feel to it. I'm looking forward to configuring the page layouts.



(I'm going with the largest size on the most left. It's 10"x 12".)

It'd be neat to have a whole bookcase full of books with bindings like that. I LOVE old books and how ornate their leather designs used to be.

Religion, blech.

I was reading my sister's blog about religion and spirituality, Christianity versus other religions and her opinions of it all. Of course this is a topic we've shared many times.. and we always come to the conclusion that what religion you claim really isn't important, but rather how you love God and others and that you love God and others.

This was my comment:

"I still believe it's indefinitely difficult to have a conversation about spirituality among other spiritualities and "religions". It's crazy.

I agree that this world is confusing as heck (and it's also very unjust across probably the majority of it). I think that, while there are some similarities between religions, the point of all human life is the same.. to love others and to love God. That's ALL! It's so simple, yet actually doing it all the time and during the course of our lives can become difficult. However, I think some religions lose sight of this ultimate 'point of it all'. Cultural traditions or whatever can become the focus instead, but as I've stated before, that is the part that is made up by humans; it isn't necessarily a means to God, although "being spiritual" in that regard can be. Actually, I think my opinion is that many cultural things that are linked to "bringing you to God" or "this is required for you to be right with God" have merely become cultural practices rather than actual spiritual ones.. I think what God really wants to see is you working for his love and giving love to others.

The point is still the point no matter what country you're in. And it's also true that God's gonna love you no matter what you do. *shrug* He just does. Knowing him really isn't so complicated."