Any time that wormhole would like to open up and dump mad cash on me...

I would be eternally grateful. Don't get me wrong. I would love to work for that cash. But right now I would love to get hired. Our job market is so flooded with applicants that I'm going to have to have cold pressed latinum to get in the door. I know. If I had cold pressed latinum I wouldn't have to worry about a job... just a bunch of Ferengi assassins.

Can you tell I'm not handling financial distress with aplomb?

Believe in the dream and the dream will sustain you. Believe Believe Believe

How long can a 3 Post a day habit last?

As long as I an able to procrastinate. It isn't that I don't want to do somethng. It's that I need to occupy my brain with something on a conscious level while the answers are being sorted out subconsciously. 3 blogs a day isn't sustainable. Besides, I am building a foundation for visitors that don't know me. Everyone else can skip right to the prime stuff.

There will come a time when the blogging has to happen between the business aspects. But until then... have ideas will blog.

Heroes

I missed submitting for the assignment on heroes. Typical, I couldn't settle on one or even only three. How do you chose between Sting, SG-1, Batman, MacGyver, Spock, my favorite Kender, Dad or the grandparents?

Sure family first is the heart happy answer. But there are so many people that I admire. And lets be honest... don't we expect those to be the first answers? Ooooh... DaVinci! See, I can't even make up my mind now. I had no hope of meeting a deadline. I guess something to look forward to is a regular posting of hero worshipping (when I figure out how to download).

One bone fide homage coming up....

Font junkie is having withdrawls

I realize that with unlimited choices comes paralysation. Instead of building and posting on my blog I would still be designing it. But I want fonts to reflect my moods. Design sense be damned!!! It is so frustrating to look at my choices for these posts and see so limited a range.

I miss Bodoni, Goudy, Baskerville(and his huge dog too) and even the funkier fonts resembling famous painters' handwriting styles. I love fonts. I love how they were invented. I suppose it goes with being a language geek, like the habit of pointing out the fonts used in adds and movie titles to people who don't care. Although that does make people less annoyed by my habit of providing a running filmography for my favorite actors.

Still... I want more fonts!!!!

When was the last time you Googled yourself?

I did about two months ago so I could see what was going on in the world that made my Karma unhappy. I did it again after I made the blog so that I could see if I'd made any hits. I found me on classmates... top o' the heap. But I also found a lot of other mes that did not come up in searches the last time.

I have a lot in common with those other mes. Several are artists/entrepreneurs, a few are teachers. It really is a fascinating thing to be the subject of your own Google search.

I wonder what, in another Universe, my other authentic self is. Hmmmmm.

art art and more art

New in the studio... composites. Can't wait to see how the perfected designs jive with my favorite techniques. I am still being super picky about how the originals look. So far i am not having speedy success. In many ways i thin that the comp pro grams would make this part of my life easier.

Off to work. (9-5)

and so it goes...

Job hunting and starting ones own business are not easy things to do. You need money for capital which means working somewhere. But you also need to be able to work on the business which means that you have trouble finding the time to get all your contact calls done. Yikes and away!

But at least I know that I have the means for getting a job its just finding the right fit, like jeans. So I am hoping that there is no hold up in getting hired with this place I am temping at. they can keep me on as a temp for 90 days and then I can be theirs. Unless there is a corporate policy that says otherwise. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I am also keeping my fingers crossed that I find good good news regarding business funding. I have been so overwrought with frustration I am surprised I have not exploded.

Yes I plan to get out more. Oh yeah? I'll prove it!

Indiana Jones IV & Star Trek prequel are my next in theater movie dates. The last one I saw was Stardust. So there!

TC film Festival should have a few awesome selections. I passed on Jaws at the Open Space. A 4 story shark with creepy open water behind me? Yeah right. Bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk.

I'll be on a boat this Summer thanks to my mentor... class field trip.

BNI meetings if I can find the dues.

I said out. I didn't say adrenaline pounding exciting.

No, I don't get out much. Why?

Part of the reason is way too personal for a blog and in light of my metaphysical studies...way lame. The other part is lifestyle. I've delivered newspapers for 8 years. The hours aren't bad, made stargazing way easy and left me a lot of studio time. It just kills a social life. With the decline in pay socializing is painfully prohibitive.

I know a person has to get out some. But I rather like my books, TV shows, and studio work. I also like being buried in the library stacks. I will get out more. This passed Fall I went on a shopping trips with my friend Karen. We bought art supplies in Houghton Lake. Not mecca... definitely not rockin' any town inside out... but it was out.

nope, I haven't forgotten

I'm still trying to figure out why I can't get pictures to scan somewhere that I can grab them to post. When I do they will be here.

Does a hyperlink have the same power requirements as a hyperdrive?

Just being funny?

Does size matter or... is anyone else frustrated by word counts?

I wish I had nearly infinite writing space here that others have. I realize this is free so there will be limitations. I'm still getting me feet wet so I don't want to spend the nonexistant cash.

I am having the same problem I did in school the word limit is too low. I'm sure a few teachers dreaded my happy face when it was time to turn in a research paper. They must have thought that I was writing for the Nobel prize committee. Still... the freedom to write with greater expression... to soar!

But brevity is good. I still don't know how to link so I should be glad for baby steps.

All New Added today!

A quote of the day gadget and a space views gadget have been added to the blog today. I have no control of the quotes. If I can find someone who knows about these things I will get one made so that i can quote myself and friends in style.

Space views are randomly selected for our veiwing pleasure. In other wordsI have no control over them either. All I can say is that it satisfies in some small way the inner geek.

Of course I know my geek is showing.

beyond comfort the Intrepid goes cruising

I went to an introductory breakfast meeting today. My friend Karen invited me as a way to lock in referrals for my jewelery and other artwork. I am quite excited about my prospects with BNI.

It almost works the way that Amway networking does except you are the product. BNI will teach us how to make one on one contacts especially for those of us who aren't public speakers. Yea! Essentially every member is a sales rep for someone else's company. So if today's meeting was any indication I an look forward to employing 25 reps without having to pay them cash.. only referrals.

But the best thing is that I get to be connected with people that I would be too scared to approach in any other setting. Relationship building 101!

is it sick and wrong to like homework as an adult?

I've been a Somerset Studio reader since it's beginning. The magazine seemed to be made especially for me. Through it I have learned more than in all my print making classes. One of the features doles out homework. It is usually to create something on a theme. I've sent in homework 5 times and been published 5 times.

The last issue is what has brought me here. Consider a blog. I've been thinking about it since I started drooling over at Wil Wheaton's site. And I love Michelle Ward's stuff. But can I do it? So I really want to? Can I slay the technophobe?

I don't know. But I am willing to try. I will get better. And... I'm already drooling over the gadgets that Google has to add some pizazz to sites.

The more one chases the quanta the better they hide themselves. -Albert Einstein

I'm sure the quote reflects Heisenberg's principle that observation changes the observed. It struck me that anything substituted for quanta would be a profound reflection of one's own life. Example: hot new stamping technique, newly unearthed gemstones, the next chapter of a book, the next lyric... unless you're Sting and the lyric fairies have left goodies in the garden. Lucky Sting.

The closer I have gotten to some of my goals the further they have seemed. I'm not sure why that should be so. It seems to fly in the face of logic... but then so does the quanta. The nearer your destination the more you slip slide away.......

technophobic for a reason

I'm a pen and ink geek for a reason. Pen and ink don't ask you for impossible commands before performing an operation. I have been trying to figure out how the bloody hell to scan an image to my e-mail like the buttons say I can so that I can put artwork up on this site.
"It's easy!" say my friends. "How hard do you make things?" asks everyone else.
Well let me tell you. I don't. The buttons tell me that my station is set up to do what I want. I click on the button. And then it tells me that it lied. I really don't have those things available to me without knowing the double secret password. The tech help that I have here today keeps telling me the same thing... I can't do what I want to do. It isn't set up that way. But that damn little paper clip keeps insisting that I have the tools at hand. Who do I listen too?
What's the penalty for unbending a smug paperclip? And I will spell colour with a "u" if I want!

technophobic Geek

I know, it seems wrong to be a Geek and be technophobic. That's the traditional part of me that really likes the touch and feel of cotton rag paper. But the part of me, the social animal (despite previous post to the contrary) that wants to safely see the world has been a lot of places with the Internet via other peoples' blogs to want to be part of the bigger picture.

I was at Wil Wheaton's site today and got the good goosebumps all over when I read about some really geekworthy events happening in his area over the weekend. I would love to have been at a comiccon (comic convention) or the noncon (non convention) convention as well as be at the brewery where he was doing a reading. It's not because he's Wesley Crusher or famous. It's because he is so much like me... a Geek. We have to stick together after all.

I'm not really afraid of technology as in the "Replicators are coming!" it's that technology makes it too easy for some people to find me. I know... mad people skills-get them. I will. It's that whole anticipating bad vibes thing. So what do I do? Normally I would dive down the rabbit hole. This time, now that I have put myself on the web, I will simply anticipate making good friends and better business networks in the name of artistic expression!

Fie on any one who would stop me!

Did I mention my grandparents?

Gramma & Grampa were the best encouragement that a person could have. I think I mentioned that Grampa was responsible for fostering my geekhood. He instilled the exhausting standards that I have embraced with zeal. Gramma was the one that encouraged dreaming, exploring the spiritual world and sharing joy.

Because of both of them I am an artist and almost everything else that I am. I never heard "no" or "can't" from them when it came to trying something. Gramma said "Tell me about it." And if I ran into a topic that made people uncomfortable Grampa said "Let's have a look." He came at issues from several sides before rejecting or assimilating something. Where he accepted things with curiosity and appreciation, I accept and embrace with irrational zeal. Grampa was a tempering influence that I am sure my family misses dearly when I start to prattle.

I named my company AOG STUDIOS to honor them and the qualities they have helped me to cultivate... whimsy with a dash of tradition.

I cherish Alfred and Olive Gerbstadt every day.

Goals and Accountability

If you can dream it "you can do eet". If you write it down you have a better shot of getting things done. If you have to hold yourself accountable you slide. If others hold you accountable then you've got reasons to stick with it. So, step by step, this is my goal:

• get money for equipment
• purchase equipment
• print catalogs/fliers
• register for local craft/art shows
• take my merch on the road and sell! sell! sell!
• attend CHA as a vendor in January 2009
• go to Scotland to get my black belt in creativity
• new designs drafted every week
• add other products to line in time for CHA '09
• be able to take a real vacation in April of '09
• have income worth taxing and still have money in the bank

Now that I have listed them for anyone and his/her brother to see I have a huge lump in my chest where my heart should be. But if I keep everything to myself there is no accountability and no do... only try. That don't pay the bills.

Tentative Steps

I've had two people invite me to business meetings. One is a local chapter of BNI that a friend of mine belongs to with her husband. The other invite came from a total stranger and that is next week with Traverse Angels.
Tomorrow morning I am meeting Karen for the early (7:30am) meeting of our local BNI. I don't know what the letters mean. But for me it means that I will be introduced to local business people under the auspices of one of my many hats... that of jewelery designer. I will be the only jewelery designer allowed to join BNI since they take one person per specialty/business type. I am nervous.
I am a good designer- competent, fastidious and particular. I've sold a few pieces of an inovative pattern. That isn't the issue. I don't have mad people skills. I have mad research skills, mad typing skills, mad paint mixing and compositional skills. Mad people skills I have not. I get conversational and let the Geek out after a good settling in period. Unfortuneately, in the biz world that half hour is paleolithic in scope. I don't know what to expect; Karen's descriptions are rather brief.
So I take tentative first steps into the local business world tomorrow morning. Yikes and away!

The Greatest Hazard to a Geek's Life

Contrary to popular belief, a Geek's worst enemy is not the neighborhood noogie-swirly-wedgie artist. It is, in fact, the Geek him or her self. We think too much. I think too much. I always have. And my attempt to induce a more rational mindset through self taught kolinar hasn't helped matters any. Instead of being the flighty Geek with her head in the clouds I am now the flighty Geek with her head in the clouds that can't decide on which daydream to settle. I am my own worst enemy.

I am forever reinventing my own wheels and spinning them for the monotonous joy of it. I keep wanting to analyse everything so that when I go to ask for help from some local Angels it will be so perfect that no one will refuse me. I want it to be so perfect that the people who tell me I can't will see that I can. I want an insurance policy. But what I have instead is a big ol' shadow of doubt... the Boogeyman in Davi's quote at the bottom. For two years I have been so immobilized by what could have cast the shadow that I never bothered to turn on the light to look at it.

All it turned out to be was somebody with bigger fears than mine... just like Davi and my friend/mentor Verta have said.

I VOW THAT I AM A HAZARD NO MORE!!! yea me!