Out with the old

Our street had a street sale this Saturday. An ad in the newspaper and some mention on the web brought out the crowds. It was neat to see the neighbours on the street engaged in a different actvity to those we normally see each other... most often we meet shoveling snow or tipping back a beer during the annual street party in the summer.

We kept a lot of stuff from going into the landfill on Saturday. It is amazing what people can find a use for. I suppose there is a time and place for everything and so many things on the tressles outiside our garage were no longer appropriate to our current time. Little Lugs has grown up and much of the stuff we sold was perfectly good but no longer used my him.

I saw a city vehicle driving up and I joked aloud that the city was here to check on our permit.... well, you don’t need a permit but we did learn from the driver of that city vehicle that we are only allowed to have 2 garage sales a year. Huh! As if we’d have that much junk!

Collision!

I first started riding to and from work (about 20 km/day) about 12 years ago. In the early days I had a few accidents. There were no bike lanes on my route in those days... I just had to ride at the side of the rode and, as inevitably happens when you put bicycles and motor vehicles together, there were occasional collisions. I never had any big injuries but it was scary nonetheless. For the past few years it has been accident free for me since the city started installing edge of road bike lanes and exclusive bike paths along my route to and from work.

The other night I was coming home from work at around 10:30pm. Minding my own business when I saw something stealthily coming toward me out from the corner of my eye. It was another cyclist whipping out of a side road, failing see whether anything was coming before he whipped between two parked vehicles into the bike lane. No lights, bell or yelling warned me of his approach. His pedal caught my back wheel and, like two jets colliding over an airfield, our debris paths followed our independent trajectories. As I went down I was less concerned for my bike than the hard drive in my backpack (mind you, it had been backed up just 15 minutes before) I had a few cuts and scrapes but I think he was worse off, in spite of the alcohol of which he reeked. He was one of the immortals... he wore no helmet. I figure those people either know they are going to live forever or assume there is nothing of value inside the skull that a helmet would protect. Anyway, because of the alcohol and his twisted knee, it kinda deflated my anger at his having caused the incident. His bike would need some fixing but mine seemed to be okay. We parted to go lick our wounds at our respective homes. First thing I did when I got home was to plug in my hard drive: it purred like a kitten.

One for the price of two

Maybe I should write two blogs. One would be the blog I planned to write and the other would be the blog that actually gets written. It is a curious thing with me that I never actually write what I sit down to write. Somewhere between the idea and the reality of writing I get sidetracked. So, rather than running out of ideas I accumulate them at twice the rate of my output. Fortunately for anyone reading I only have time for one.

It has ever been this way. Some years ago I wrote articles about using computers for illustration for Step By Step Graphics magazine. I would blithely put a proposal for an article together for the editor and get it approved. A few weeks later I would submit something quite different something that had only the vaguest connection to what I had proposed originally. It was in the process of writing that the article evolved. The original outline might have made a good piece but I always felt quite strongly about the piece that I actually submitted.

The best laid plans

Well, I had intended to do nothing bbut billing today... attend to some of that administrational stuff without which I'd be "skint" as they say in GB. Well that plan seemed to go down the tubes after a couple of calls from clients. Still, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to do this. I should keep in touch with that thought. I still feel thwarted.

New week, new list of "Things to do"

Hah... list of things to do. It is mostly stuff that, even though it's on the list, just gets moved to the next week's list come Friday. Still, having a list gives me the semblance of efficiency, if not the reality. This week I dive back into a massive project in which I am creating a bunch of GUI navigation icons. You'll hear more about it over the coming weeks I expect.

This Wednesday I have an assistant starting with me to help chip away at that to do list. In addition, this icon thing is so big that I need someone to help with all the things that I can't get to. It should be good to have help. I seriously need to do some billing in the next couple of days. If I don't well there won't be any point in continuing in business because there won't be any. Business, that is.

Sometimes I wish it were all free. I suspect my customers feel that way too. Sorry peeps. Not going to happen.

Elf is now done

Often, my September labours are Christmas and holiday related. This one is no exception. I finished the elf illustration today. There's a quietness that goes with working on a weekend. You can really focus on things. I like it, no one is around. No interruptions. Don't need the headphones, you can just crank up the tunes regardless of anyone else because you are the only one around. I like that. Though I am sure I could go crazy if it was like that all the time. Okay. Here's part of what I was working on... I'll upload the full image once the job has been published.

You might notice a distinct similarity between this elf and Little Lugs... yes it was he that posed for me originally, and, judging by the length of his nose he might have told a fib just before the reference shot was taken!

Ever changing, never changing

Some jobs are like a moving target. You think you know all there is to know about them and then they change. Well, that is generally short lived and easy to handle on a small project but on the big ones the change can be massive. That's the way it is on one big job I am working on. It keeps changing over time. Right now it bears little resemblance to what we originally talked about.

That's okay... that's often the way it is in advertising but it is a bit frustrating because the entitiy you think you know and need to plan for is never really the way you think it is. Often, it has already moved on to something else. As if advertising wasn't ephemeral enough already. Hah!

AC is off

The AC is off (they are doing work on the roof). I am painting on my Wacom monitor which I have on my lap and the monitor is very hot. Sweat drips from me and makes my hand slip on the tablet. Need to get these illustrations finished tomorrow though so I am going to have to sweat my way through it. No one said it would be easy.

Power outage

Big excitement here today in Toronto. At 11:50 am the entire downtown core lost power. Most people stumbled around with a bewildered look on their faces staring enviously at the laptop users continuing to work. The atmosphere switched from "studious" to "party" as people realised they couldn’t really do anything. Then the laptop users became the envious ones. Eventually they too ran out of power and people started to go home.

Not me, I just unplugged my hard drive from my Quad tower and switched operations over to my laptop. Things moved a lot slower on that little screen but at least I was able to continue to work and I tried to save the power as much as I could. Actually, I didn’t even need to call on my backup battery... which was a good thing because I think it has drained to just 50% power sitting there in the case. Backups aren’t much good unless you keep them primed and current.

It is 1:00pm now and power has been restored in spite of the rumour that it would be out for three to five hours. The phones are working but there is no internet service yet. Oh, there it goes, it’s up now.... blogging!

The problem with quotes

I have so many quotes out there right now, floating around in client land. Several things might happen:

• I won't get any of them... which will be okay for a while because I have so much work at the moment
• I might get one or two of them... this scenario will also be fine because it'll keep the old machine going.
• I get awarded all of them. Big problem. It has happened before... it's likely to happen again.

The thing is, I send out the quote thinkiung "Phew! There's something else I have gotten off my desk...!" Unfortunately it is like removing the trunk of an elephant from your desk. Sure the elephant might leave and go someplace else, but it usually happens that he only disappears for a short while and then comes back to take up residence right in the centre of my list of things to do. I know, freelancers should not complain about having too much work. It is a nice problem to have. Ok, I'll stop whining right now.

Closecuts, closecuts and yet more closecuts

Thought for the day: If I am on a retainer, that’s good.... but if I need a retainer that’s going to be uncomfortable.

Little lugs is visiting the studio this afternoon. I can hear the sounds of hundreds of electronic bugs being retired through the tinny speakers of my laptop behind me. It's his first day with a retainer (installed by the dentist this morning) and we are off to a Blue Jays baseball game tonight at Skydome... or whatever they call our dome stadium now. I have now closecut 30 of the images shot on the weekend... and I would have accomplished a lot more today had I not had to do irritating stuff like quotes, billing, accounts and all that. Well, if I didn't do them the business of freelancing would grind to a halt for sure... still doesn't mean I have to like it.
Just a few of my closecut images

Weekend Work Continued

So Little Lug's team made it to today's playoffs. I missed the final thinking there'd be another game after it. I arrived to see the team collecting their soccer trophies from across the field. I even forgot the camera. (That's like a plumber ignoring a leaky faucet)

Still close cutting the 50-70 shots... and a this rate it's going to be going on for a while. Still, all in all, progress has been good.

Weekend work

Big soccer day for Little Lugs. He played several games, most of which they won so they are in the play offs tomorrow. More trophies to find space for. I missed the first few games though because I was working. Continuing with the shooting of 50-70 products in our "home studio"... this is work that Ms Lugs started during the week. The job is an image that contains these products in a kind of mosaic... should look cool once I am done. As usual, I won't be able to show you it though until it has been published.

I started the closecutting (removing the backgrounds from the images) this evening and on this old mac, which was state of the art 10 years ago, the work is going slowly. I bought a brand new 2.8 mHz imac last saturday to replace it but they have to make it because it is the top end one... guess they don't get too many calls for that little puppy. Anyway, unfortunately, it's going to be another week before it is ready. I could really do with it NOW!

Where did that week go?

Last Monday the coming week seemed so rich and fat. Plenty of opportunities for completing projects and starting new ones. The promise of it seemed almost limitless. Friday's here and it ended up being like all the other weeks. Not so much accomplished but what I did do moved all the projects forward a little bit. It all ended up being a bit more messy than it appeared to be on Monday. Who knew jobs that I thought were gone would come back for yet more revisions. Or that a customer would want me to dig into the archives to resurrect some long lost file so they can use it again. Such unlooked for labours rarely figure in one's Monday plans yet when you look at them from the standpoint of Friday the week was littered with them. I'm not a lawyer so it is difficult to charge for many of these things. Freelancers should not have to suck those things up though. Perhaps I take on too much.

I will look on the bright side; a few jobs did leave my desk this week, never to return or be referred to again except only on an invoice. Yeay, money.

Uh oh, there goes summer

I have cycled to and from my little studio in the city for about 12 years now. I love it, mostly. It's a 10 km ride each way and I do it all year. I am such a wimp that I have to have some firm rules as to when I can "take the day off" and go via public transit.

1. I don't need to during a snowstorm (that's dangerous)
2. I don't need to cycle when I'm sick
3. I don't need to go if the bike's broken

That's it, just 3 rules. The rest of the time I ride, no matter what the weather.

This morning I had to ditch the biking short for the first time since the end of spring. It's getting chilly.

Lots to do, no time to do it

Shot the elf last night. He was a better model than last time we did it. I took a variety of poses and then stitched about 8 shots together for the final.

In to work this morning and my email is not working... well, no email since yesterday morning. I switched over to my yahoo account and replied to some phone calls that way and then the regular email started trickling in... where had it been? Today's email was overtaking it. I have visions of these two little emails from yesterday sitting on the beach in Tahiti saying things like "Hey Bert, what are you doing here?"
"Who, me? oh I'm just taking a break. There's no law says I have to be there in 10 seconds or less you know, I can take my time if I want."
"Huh," says the other email, "sounds good to me... I am only a request for a quote. He's already got enough work, I can take my time too."
"Oh look over there, there's a bunch of Viagra spam, what are they doing?
"Dunno, but they don't look too flexible!"

So, work today is to finish off the rough for the elf and do second rev cycle on the Band Aid... which they liked, apparently. They just need a few small changes and it is off my plate.

Band aids

I have to paint a band aid today. Who would have thought they'd be so complicated. All those little bumps and dips. It's midday now and I think I have it figured out... good job too because I obnly have a few hours to pull this off. That's one of things I like about this job; you get to learn all about the strangest things.

For another job, I'll pick up the elf costume this aternoon. Plan on doing the shoot tonight... I am having my 10 year old son do the modeling. He likes to be in my images but he can be a bit of a pain to work with sometimes, maybe because the photographer is his dad. Anyone else and he'd be as good as gold I'll bet.

Not really a diary

The last time I kept a diary was in my teens. Hah... well, that was different, vastly different to what this will be. I have no purpose for it but to be a container for that entity which is Loppylugs. Another part of me that exists mostly on the web.