Habitualchaos

For anyone interested, I was gonna highlight my plan for my next moves to get back to where I wanna be. If you have no interest in reading it, please see your local librarian for any other, more worth-while subjects to brush up on.

For the next 3 months, at least until the middle of July; I have a part-time (4 days a week) job with one of my freelance clients. Its more or less an "experiment" or test period to get the surge of interactive work they have at the moment done, and see if that will lead to further interactive work that would constitute a better offer down the road. I jumped at the chance, and that offer was one of the deciding factors in coming home for now; as I can put some money away, since thats what I should have done from the beginning.

No matter what happens with that position, I am also going back to basics. After this test period is up, whether I stay with them or they decide not to pursue full-time warranted interactive work, I am doing one of two things so I can get the print experience I need:

1. My parents know a couple local printers, and Im going to approach one (or both) about a position within their companies. What better way to get the print design experience I dont have than working for a printer; where all the magic happens. 2. Do some internships (at least 3 or so), something I never did in college; that I prolly should have. I know its grunt work doing internships, thats what they are more or less... but I am certainly not above that if its gonna help me in the end.

Staying at home temporarily takes some pressure off, and makes it better so I can concentrate on getting what I need, something I didnt concentrate on so much before cause I was so stupidly focused on just trying to get back what I lost (sending resume after resume) and stay afloat. Here I can more effectively get what I need, save some money and it doesnt hurt to have a nice home cooked meal for a little bit. My parents are also determined to not let me get too comfortable, just in case Im dumb enough to try.

Of course the possibility of going back to school is also there. Ive thought of a couple different options as far as degrees Im considering. No matter what Id be going for a 2 yr (associates) degree, but Ive been thinking of: web programming, to accentuate the experience I already have in web design... computer drafting, as Ive heard its a good thing to know if I want to stay local... or photography, as its something I enjoy doing as a kinda hobby and could lead to something.

All this, and the independent freelance projects I still have should make it interesting. so that I can come out of this a little better than I was before.

1) Ive been trying to remind myself in recent weeks to start carrying my camera around with me wherever I go, cause Ive been hitting a lot of situations where IO see something that makes me wish I had it. The pig on Thursday was an example of not necessarily something I really wanted to capture... just a situation where I actually had my camera, and found something to snap a pic of.

Course the reason I had my camera with me is because the camera of my current employer was stolen the Friday before this one just passed... and they asked ever so politely for me to bring mine in cause no one in the place has one of their own.

2) I am also very pleased to announce that I had a hellish week at work this week. Its been a while since I could say that, and even though it was a nightmare while it was happening... its almost refreshing to say I had one. Client deadlines that seem impossible to reach, the usual for work in the field of advertising.

3) Instead of my original plan (or the one someone suggested Id do anyway) of buying $400 worth of video games every month... because of some surplus freelance money thats still owed to me, I will soon be the proud owner of a used, yet still in excellent condition, Nikon Coolpix 4500; which among other things takes 30 seconds of Quicktime video w/ sound. A feature that adds to my no. 4 on our list today.

4) Come the end of this month, or soon thereafter, (hopefully) I will be unveiling version 3 of my little slice of Internet heaven, that you all love so dearly (well most of you anyway). Think Im gonna tone stuff down this time around... go for the old simple approach, focus on the content (pics and journal). As best said by the title on my bud Mikeys overly ignored little site... keep it simple stupid, and thats the approach Im taking this time.

I thinks thats it for our latest edition of the Hab Caos Times. If theres anything you think I left out, or if the Prince of Darkness himseld, Ozzy Os... I mean Satan compels you to chastise me for my lifes mistakes; please either telepathically fax me or direct your attention to the thoroughly enjoyed comments section.

Thank you, youve been a great aiduence... dont forget to tip your waitress.

As Ive mentioned once before (I think I did), currently I actually have a job... working (temporarily) for one of my freelance clients as an actual paid employee because of a surge of web work they have. The status of being an actual employee really is only because this client wants me to make his work a priority right now, and actually having me in the office does that for him.

Hey Im not complaining at all. With the "salary" Im getting for the moment, this is a good starting point for the money I wanna put away. Plus, although Im hesitant to admit it, it is nice to actually get back in the groove of going to work.

Their office is set up with three workstations for their three regular designers. My schedule is coming into the office on their designers off-days so theres no person here without a workstation. It also means I get to work from home on Mondays, because all three designers are here on Monday.

Since I dont have an actual computer of my own, I dont have an email address here and lately Ive been using a Java version of AIM (called QuickBuddy) so I can keep in touch with my lunch buddies and dont have to download anything to anyones computer here.

Now the QuickBuddy system works just perfect, just like normal AIM does... except for one little quirk. The company Im currently working for uses an Internet filtering system called Content Barrier, mainly cause the guy running this place is semi-religious and feels the need to have it.

The funny situation this brings about concerns AIM QuickBuddy, mainly cause Im a chain-swearer... I use profanities like I drink pop. I found out one day, using AIM, that when I (or someone talking to me) type a profanity into the IM window and send it through... ContentBarrier recognizes the profanity and disconnects me from AIM. Never fails... every time. Of course, upon learning this, my lunch buddies swear at me all the time through AIM, and get a kick outta me getting disconnected... and I have to admit, it is pretty funny.

The one day I was feeling particularly annoyed with this thing, and I kept swearing over and over again... getting disconnected and logging back on just to do it again, which was catching a good typed laugh from my buds Marc and Devon.

It does get painfully annoying too, as I cant type profanities into my Movable Type entry window when Im doing posts, cause Content Barrier blocks the post from being put up.

Well, its actually been more like 8 or 9... but I remembered that little blurb from a local hot dog place, and thought what better situation to use it in than my own lack of something to say for almost a week and a half.

Ive made a new friend in that time, and Id like to take this time to introsude him... as I got nothing else, and even Im embarassed by not posting anything for as long as I have.

Everyone I know agrees, hes the perfect little Teddy Bear for me.

I dont have a name for him. Didnt really think of giving him one. I had this whole little joke planned about Mr. Teddy Bear being sick of having to be crushed under your pillow every night... but then I thought, nah.

As Ive been reviewing some things I have to do, Im not so sure the end of this month is a realistic deadline for habitualchaos 3.0. Just to be able to say I went above the call of duty, Ive taken some of my current workload home on some occasions. It ranges from excess that I can only do at home (explanation below)... to times I just wanted to go home early and asked if I could put in a few hours at home to make up for them.

Not complaining at all about the excess as its still work that Im glad I finally have, it just cuts into my time for my own personal stuff sometimes and has slowed down the process a little. Considering the "less is more" approach Im trying to take to version 3, shouldnt be too long (I hope).

Its been a weird situation with the work too. Ive been doing a little interactive (if you wanna call it that) Flash presentation CD for a local church planting company for the past few weeks, but Ive developed a tiny cinflict in the process.

Recently, working on the project at the office... the 733 MHz G4 I occasionally work on crashes every time I try to assign an action to a button in Flash, every time. Ive tried rebuilding the desktop, allocating more memory to Flash, making the file size smaller and reinstalling Flash to try and fix this problem... but nothings worked so far. This is where some of the excess comes in, as I do the animations and stuff at work... but then have to bring it home to assign actions to the buttons Ive created.

Peculiar situation where a powerful G4 cant handle opening the actionscript panel, but my 333 MHz G3 does it no problem. Ive noticed a trend in that category though... as I always swore my G3 at home worked faster than my 933 MHz Dell at my former workplace too.

Theres, of course, a much broader network at the offices than the two-computer network I have here at home... so that could have something to do with it.

Either way, that situation and my other freelance projects have been cutting into my redesigning habitualchaos time... but Im still hoping to get something done soon.

Man, even in the face of my own disappoitment about not posting as much as I used to... I still havent quite gotten back in the knack yet. Just as in the past, its not because of a lack of something to say... Im just stupid is all. To update a little...

- My best friend is soon to be moving to California to accept a teaching job. Im actually happy, sad and envious all at the same time. Happy, of course, for the opportunity this presents to him and the career hes building for himself. Sad, wel duh, because my best friend is moving across the country... making visits just a tad bit more than the just under 1.5 hours it takes now to visit him in Cleveland. And for anyone thats read more than a couple posts over the last year and a half... the envious part should be obvious.

- Just a few minutes ago, I got confirmation from my friend in Texas... that my check to him to buy his Coolpix 4500 from him cleared and hell be sending the camera out to me on Monday. It isnt the same as $400 worth of video games, but Im sure I can manage.

[sarcasm] I think the only way Id ever be more excitited is if he was sending me a Palm Pilot that took pictures. [/sarcasm]

- Ive been thinking more and more lately about going back to school. Just last week I stopped by the local ITT Technical Institute to get some information. We went over a couple posibilities like their web development program, their CAD/drafting program and their multimedia program. The thought of adding more to my current student loan debt isnt very appealing... but now might the best time to go back.

- After all this time, Im happy to report Im working on a new picturejournal to chronicle me and a couple buds dinner at Dicks Last Resort while waiting to videotape another buds bands performance. If you dont know, Dicks is a restaurant where the waiters and waitresses are deliberately sarcastoc and insulting... so in other words, my native habitat.

There was plenty to take pics of... hence the new journal coming soon.