This is what my iCal has for Leah and I this weekend. Thats right. College Football and REO Speedwagon concert. Both of these events are for Leah’s work. What a tough work day huh?
Archive for September, 2007
I really don’t like looking for jobs… but yet I enjoy working. I at least like staying busy with projects and work that make me feel like I accomplished something with my day. Unfortunately… the freelance stuff is starting to dry up a bit, so I am praying for more work to make me feel validated on a daily basis. The job search is really not that fun. It seems that every employer is looking for Jesus himself to do the job. Now I know that they shoot for the moon in the rare occasion that they actually find Jesus to do the job they are hiring for, but it gets depressing.
I have a sticky note on my computer that I place there the night before to act as a loosely based TO DO list for the following day. It acts as a “quit being lazy and do THIS” kind of note. Today’s sticky note was lame. It had a few things that I knocked out in the morning but two of the ‘to dos’ were things I have tried hard all day to avoid. One is ”look for a jobby job” and the other is “update my MySpace”. The first one I have worked on today. The second one, to me, is about as much fun as the first. I hate myspace and all the junk that goes with it but I have been given lots of grief about not updating it, adding friends, blah blah blah. I think I’m gonna make a huge graphic and place it on my myspace that says
“Hey. I’m not in high school anymore. I really don’t like myspace. Its not my thing. I have a blog and email and IM. Use that instead. If I wanted to stay in touch with you I would. So….you do the math.”
I just can’t get into it. Virb is ok…but still not my thing.
The world needs more graphic deisng jobs and less social networking.
Finally – my resume is done and I’m trying to figure out what stuff to add to my portfolio. Its terrible to not remember the good (or somtimes bad) design projects I have done over the years. I have been rummaging through my hard drive to find decent looking art to put up online. Maybe later I’ll post some really lame stuff I found from a few years ago.
In happy motivational news: I have been up to my elbows in freelance design work lately. Even DiscRevolt is contracting me for some light web and graphic design work. You won’t believe who this is for though… Jennifer Lopez. Its a long story but somehow they are partnering with DiscRevolt on some in-CD promotion. Its wild, even in my craziest imagination, I never thought that in one month I would have done design work for Brooks and Dunn as well as Ms. J-Lo. God has a great sense of humor. Of course I never get to work with artists I am madly in love with, lots of indie bands, but rather I get to do work for super-huge platinum-selling crap. Its great though. I’m not complaining.
Can I brag on myself a bit too? Ok… I will. Yesterday Chad got a call from a botique in Miami Beach requesting some Panda tshirts to sell. The best part is that the guy called requesting ’stuff designed by Brian Manley.” I guess he really digs the stuff I’m doing – so Chad sent him a bunch T-shirts. According to Chad he even said “… and if Brian Manley does anything else, I want that too.” That was probably the most encouraging thing I have heard in days in regards to my new found vocation. So if you live in or near Miami,FL – go check out Underdog Denim.
Who knew there were LOTS of t-shirt blogs. So many that about twice a week someone writes a bit about P is for Panda. So… woke up this morning and Chad showed 3 more posts about the Panda. check em…
Tshrits Around the Internet
Tshirt Island (terrible blog design but they used a photo of Andy rockin’ the CMYK panda shirt)
Shirts2.de
This is what my computer now sees all day while I’m working on freelance stuff as well as cleaning up my portfolio. One thing I learned yesterday was that even an out-of-a-job graphic designer still can do work. Its not like my skill in life requires heavy machinery or a deep-fryer. For that I feel blessed and encouraged.
Today I’m feeing better. Better is a pretty loose term but lets just say I’m feeling better than I was yesterday. I had some good conversations with friends via email, phone, and IM and I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But the real boost to my emotions came from Leah when she, in her amazing wisdom, told me to do NOTHING yesterday. She reminded me that I had been running full steam for over a week and I needed to love on my self and take it easy. So I just cleaned my office, cleaned off my new 17″ MacBook Pro (removing unnecessary files) and watched the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which was terrible. I feel well rested and a bit more mentally stable.
I also have been rocking the new Kanye West record and that seems to be lifting my spririts up. I sure hope he sells more records this week than 50 cent.
Thanks again for your prayers and conversation. I’m sitting at my computer all day so if you’re on AOL IM – hit me up and say hi. I’m : musicismath78. I would love for you to bother me while I’m working on my resume and portfolio.
I never liked the idea of a blog being like a diary. But for some people it works and for us right now it might be therapeutic.
When this crap storm went down, I had to really set aside the job thing and focus on Grandpa. The trip to Ohio was great… but the entire time I couldn’t think about the job situation. I had 2 things to grieve/stress/work through in my head and I could only focus on one at a time. I’ll tell you what really sucked was at the viewing when I had to lie to everyone about what I was doing. No one wants to hear our sob story in a funeral home. You are there for one reason and thats it. So I acted like I was still working at DR and told them how great it was. I can’t believe what a lying jerk I am. Now I sit here not knowing what to do next.
I am really grateful to everyone checking up on me via phone/text/im/email and asking how I’m doing. Here’s the thing… I don’t know how I’m doing. I’m not sure I know yet. Ok… I know this much, I’m somewhere between totally pissed off and totally sad.
Oh… and if you have my discrevolt email saved somewhere – get rid of it. It stopped working 2 seconds after we were all canned. You can hit me up at – brian@funwithrobots.com.
Do you want to hear about a bad day? I mean a really really bad day. Like one that could make most people fall apart. If so, keep reading. If not – continue living in your fantasy world where George Bush is considered a ‘good’ and everything is puppy dogs and ice cream, you should probably leave this website.
Ok – so Thursday afternoon I was called by my dad and was told of my grandpa’s passing. That sucks. That makes for a bad day. Well after I got done crying and was consoled by my awesome work mates, i was encouraged to leave for the day and go home to take it easy. Fair enough.
As I was walking out my boss stopped me and said “can I walk with you?” This is never good. Its either going to be a “God’s in control” speech or something worse. It was the latter. He told me that as of Friday, I no longer had a job. Thats right. I was let go. Me and my buddies were all let go. So Gramps passed away and 30 minutes later I no longer have a job.
Suffice it to say I am a miserable wreck. I emotionally swing from being sad about Grandpa to being angry about the job situation. It sucks. Really really really sucks.
I’ll tell you what… I really feel that God spoke to us before we moved and reminded us “its about the journey not the destination.” Well… the journey is sucking right now. Please pray for us right now. We could use it.
“The people you work with, are people you were just thrown together with. You don’t know them, it wasn’t your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family, but probably all you’ve got in common, is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day. And so, obviously, when someone comes in, who you, you have a connection with-yeah.
But if I’m really being honest, I never really thought it would have a happy ending. I don’t know what a happy ending is. Life isn’t about endings is it? It’s a series of moments, and erm…it’s like if you turn the camera off, it’s not an ending is it? I’m still here, my life’s not over. Come back here in ten years, see how I’m doing then. Because I could be married with kids, you don’t know. Life just goes on.”
-the office
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