So Yeah. No more Job.

I haven't been updating much lately (it's been a whole month!) because, well, my work made it so I couldn't access the blogging part of my blog.

However, that is all over.

Why? You may ask.

Well, it is because I got laid off today. I effectively have no job. More than ever, I need people to help me find something. Keep your ears perked. I am actively seeking (and kind of have been in some respect for the last month or so since the financial meltdown made it evident to me that I probably wouldn't have a job very soon).

If you're a stranger visiting and know someone or have need? Even better (since I hate taking money from friends). Check out my AIGA portfolio by clicking on the little talk box deal to the right. My resume is also there for your convenience.

I guess now I will have time to finally get my portfolio website live in a more lively fashion. Keep posted for updates.

Why I have no Money

So this last weekend has sucked ass in a major way. Tim and I are now extremely broke. We'd noticed that Juan (one of our cats) had been going in and out of the litter box and being otherwise strange. We took a look at him, and his belly was very hard and his anus was somewhat distended, so on early Saturday morning, we brought him to the emergency vet. He had to have a cathedar put in. Juan has urinary crystals again and has to be put on acidifier food for the rest of his life to avoid another blockage. They kept him all day and over night and then for most of the day on Sunday too. They gave him an enema because they suspect the stress of not being able to urinate caused him to not deficate either, and he was really backed up. Oh and when they were trying to sedate him to do the cathedar, they gave him an opiate that he reacted badly to, so they had to flush that out of his system and give him a different drug.
When all said and done, this all cost about $2000, and after paying out the ass for the deposit on our new apartment, we have no money.
The discharge nurse who talked to us stressed that we need to watch him and make sure that he does actually deficate at some point in the next few days after he gets a decent amount of food in him because he might have some problem with his colon. She said that it is usually an issue with much, much older cats where their colons become over stretched and the nerves then don't react to tell the cat to deficate. She didn't go into detail as to what would have to be done in this case, but I don't even want to think about it. Aside from that, we have to also make sure he isn't straining to urinate and is being productive with it because otherwise he is going to probably need a different surgery to open up his urethra more which will probably be an obscene amount of money.
So yeah. Awesome times! This pretty much means I will for sure not be going to MN this fall. Also that I won't be buying a cintiq at any point in the near future cos I'm broke.

This is what happens when I'm bored

Sorry Tim! Kudos to anyone who can guess who anyone is without clicking on the file and revealing their names. Btw, I used this to make these.

tonight's photoshop makeover

None other than that Rodeo Queen lady herself: Cindy McCain.

She used to be a ripe hottie, but years of stress and other personal issues take their toll. Let's see if I can't take off 10 or so years:

I eliminated a number of fine lines and the beginning of a "turkey neck", restored her lips to a more youthful fullness, brought up her sagging earlobe and changed that god awful lip colour to something more suiting a first lady in waiting. Not only that but I also made it so she didn't look like she just dipped her face (and only her face) into a vat of self-tanner.

durrr

I may have spent close to or possibly more than $500 tonight purchasing things for creative endeavours.

Most notably:

1) a bid on 14lbs (yes over 360 rolls) of expired film from a professional photographer (so it was cold stored and most likely very usable with interesting potential results) [max bid = $150]

2) A Print Gocco full kit PG-5. I have been wanting a Gocco for ages; I finally mustered the courage to ask the people at Pearl this weekend if they carry the printers somewhere as I could only find accessories out on the floor (no they don't). I was told to look online. Prices for these things have skyrocketed since they are no longer in production. This kit is used and comes with about 6 different colour inks at varying amounts of used-ness. [current max bid = $100; may increase if necessary]

3) A new medium format toy camera: namely, a Holga. It, like my Lomo TLR, takes 120 film (6cmx6cm negative). Ebay price was less than the lowest price I could find for it new on Amazon. Specifically because I want one with a hotshoe rather than a built in flash (I have heard you cannot turn off the flash; for this reason I'd rather have a hotshoe since I do already own 2 external flashes). It is plastic lensed and being a Lomo, it is famous (infamous?) for its mysterious light leaks and vignetting. I haven't been so excited for a camera in ages; not since I got my big, metal beasty Minolta. [max bid at less than 1hr = $22 (yay free shipping!)]

4) This is another huge one. I bought a bunch of stuff specifically FOR the Holga. Namely a square filter holder, a "grab bag" of various filters (30$ for about 40 some filters, sure I'll take that), some Polaroid 669 film (yes polaroid film for...wait for it...) and a Polaroid film back for the Holga. This was the big thing. I am VERY excited for this. It uses the Polaroid type 100 (or now, 667/669 type that has a 4x5 print area) peel-apart pack film. It was $129. I am really hoping I do not regret getting this and that it makes some awesome prints. I've loved pack film since getting to play with it in independent photo in High School, and the way the adapter is set up, I could probably also hook up a sort of deal like Ms. Hansen had with the slide projector focused on the pack adapter to make prints from slides (since both are a positive print, the negative of pack film is the "gunk" side that gets peeled away from the paper back).

5) I also ordered toothbrush heads for my toothbrush. This is not for a creative endeavour, but they were like $22!

In addition, I also photoshopped this woman to actually look like she belongs in the magazine she was pictured in: Young and Modern Knits.

sleepy at work

Well I got the one week tryout for the calorie king software thing. It is pretty neat; its foods database is much more extensive than any other tracker I've run across in the past. It might actually be worth paying for, especially how on the daily reports it tells me how much weight a "normal person" would lose in a month with that day's eating habits. I have been trying to plan menues with it, but I usually end up eating somewhat differently than what I initially put in every day (usually less food, sometimes a little more). Like today I had made a big salad for my lunch (Tim's dinner) and entered the calories as though I'd be eating half of it, then put in that I would have a sort of naan meatball sandwich for dinner at work tonight. Well, I ended up not eating half of the salad (just like 2/3s of the half), and Tim packed it up for me to bring to work for dinner. Where I did not eat it because I'm just not hungry. I also had some trail mix and wasabi peas that I hadn't factored in yet. So yeah. It's good for like doing the basics of what I think I am going to be eating, but it is in depth enough and flexible enough to allow for easy changing of what I do actually end up having.
My scale is in need of its first new battery ever (I've had it since I don't know like 2004 or 2003?). It just registers as low battery if anyone tries to weigh themselves on it.
My tightest pants that formerly gave me one hell of a muffin top are now fitting like they should. They are still very tight, but they don't fall down and also don't make me look chunky. This is good. I wore them during the weekend a little at pitchfork (mostly just to fly out there and then home again). They were fitting like this shortly before I left, but travel and eating out a lot makes me get hell of bloated (stress and sodium mixed with a lower water intake? I don't know) so they were very uncomfortable for the flight home.
I haven't had any diet sodas for a week now. I'm a little headachy around this time in the morning due to pretty much halving my caffeine intake, but I do feel a lot better for it, and I have been sleeping more restfully too (ie, I am not waking up every two or three hours to every little noise outside or the cats getting up and walking about). The only real issue with it is that I am just exhausted every morning when I am leaving work. This makes the bike ride home much less enjoyable---not that it is terribly enjoyable to begin with.
I almost can't wait for Lynn to come back totally from her baby leave so I can maybe walk to work a one or two days a week. I don't even know if I would though considering my commute makes up the majority of my exercise, and if I get sent home at 2am, I sure as hell am not walking through the TL to get there. My white girl ass is taking a taxi home. I guess I could throw in an extra or extended weights session on those days, but that might end up being an every-time-I-walk-to-work occurance.

The Watercooler is Broken Again

This is from its breaking this week. Also coffee maker troubles.

As a post-script to this, I only put just enough water into the coffee maker's reservoir to get it to heat it and make just my coffee (which takes about 5 minutes as opposed to 20 for the whole thing) as it seems I'd been the only person refilling it for the last 2 weeks. Teach those lazy bastards.

Also I'd like this for my birthday, please.

Tim is angry at Muni Passengers

Broken Watercooler

This is from one of the first times the new water cooler broke

Holy shit maple cookies

I leave for Chicago tomorrow afternoon. Part of the way there, we will be deboarding and changing planes. The location of this being in Denver (SWA's primary hub). At this juncture, we will be joined by such as Azver and Fei; from which we will embark to the magical windy city of deep dish pizzas and shiny beans for the Pitchfork Music Festival.

Evidently I made the mistake of buying tickets for Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday as no one told me that Friday is basically a big snorefest only highlighted by the fact that both Sebadoh and Public Enemy will be playing one song each. Yes. ONE SONG. What the hell? When I bought my tickets months ago, they hadn't nailed down a solid line up for any of the days, just what some of the bands were and Sebadoh was a big selling point for me. Me and Sebadoh go way back all the way to high school days listening to them on Radio K (KUMN---University of MN main campus's radio station, listen to it anytime on radiok.org) and reading about them in the CMJ (College Music Journal). The fact that they are only playing ONE song on Friday sort of irks me on many levels, one of which being the whole feeling of "just who do these assholes think they are?". Needless to say, Tim and I are likely skipping Friday to go tool around the city with the Joneses and try to scare up something interesting to do.

In other news, Thomas (a coworker) has returned from Canada and brought delicious cookies to the office. They are maple flavour and in bilingual packaging.

Things

I leave tomorrow (Friday? Well it's midnight Friday at any rate) to go to Minnesota for Moose Lake. I hope it doesn't rain all weekend, but I also hope there is at least one good thunderstorm so Tim can see what a thunderstorm should be.

We played a boxed D&D campaign over at Zac and Lucia's tonight (with Zac and Lucia); it was pretty fun. I'm really excited for starting our main game with Az. The first real 4ed game we'll be playing; this one is like a warm-up which is also a good time to introduce Lucia to the game since we're all kind of newbs at this new system.

I hope to do some drawing up at the lake, but that generally doesn't happen too well since I am easily distracted. It will probably only occur if I can get Mari into doing a co-op with me (her writing some words and me doing a drawing to go along with it); or maybe her future hubby may be willing to co-op on something. I feel like I need some level of co-op to not feel like what I'm doing is trash.

Either way this trip should be good for me. I've been mighty antsy lately, and I really just want to get out of town for a while.

In other news; I bought these yesterday. You know, since the cats lost everything but my can of d6s.

Dear Kate Beaton: an email to be read that I was afraid to send from my work address.

Hello,

You do not know me, nor do I know you, but from reading your comics I have discovered you found a way to procure massive (?) amounts of money so as to pay off your college loan in a quicker way.
I also have a fairly useless degree (at least in the current economic state my country of US is in) and quite the sizable college loan. How does one go about procuring dreadful work that though dreadful will possibly pay off my college loan much more quickly than the dreadful work I do now? I have heard that it is not difficult to get work visas in Canada if one has a college degree and knows some amount of French (I have and can do both!).
Perhaps your dreadful workplace has an equally dreadful place that is also equal in money-making capacity somewhere in the United States (Alaska?)?
Please let me know if you know anything (or not!). Either way, thanks for the laffs; your comic is a hoot.
From a confused and broke Minnesotan in California,
Jen Dockter

PS. Don't be fooled that I work for Goldman Sachs, I work in their services department through a 3rd party staffing company. I make very little money; particularly for the cost of living in such a place as San Francisco.

Every day, there, just waiting to suck.

I hate my job. I would like a new job. Do you have a job for me? LET ME KNOW.

She asked for it..

Hey people, all maybe 5 of you that read this blog. If you use this page as a comics bookmarker, you will be pleased to know that Anders Loves Maria is back in production. Ms. Rene asked people who link to her to get the word out, so yeah. There is the word. It's back; go read it.

Thanks for the heads up

Thanks to the wonderful author of Alma Mater (you can find their link over in the ridiculous comics and blogs roll), I now know the comic I was looking for is The Non-Adventures of Wonderella; which is now added to the roll as well. Check it out! It is fairly tongue-in-cheek funny.

A blog and comics roll of ridiculous proportions

So my list of things I read over on the right just doubled in length. Yes, these are things I read pretty much every day (save the ones that only update once or twice a week). I am afforded a lot of time for reading, and I love comics, so there you go. One thing that does escape me, and I forgot to bookmark it at the time, and I have been unable to find it since is this comic that is a parody of Wonder Woman. I cannot remember for the life of me what it was called, but it was excellent. If anyone knows of it, send me a link so I can add it to my daily reading as it is genius!

I'm wearing my tightest jeans tonight; this paired with also wearing new slip-on shoes (so very stiff canvas) and having just risen my bike seat by another inch created a fairly unstable environment for my biking to work tonight. Suffice to say, I managed to bork up my stalling at one particular stop light near the Tenderloin and basically fall head-first into a large black gentleman who was crossing the street very close to me (he was part of the reason I fell being I was going all of .5mph waiting for the light to turn [approx 3. seconds left on the count-down] and had to turn very sharply to avoid running him over with my bike) which caused me to just kind of gently tip over. Thanks to my shoes being new and slippery and stiff canvas and my bike seat being at a height I am yet to be used to, I couldn't really steady myself before just more or less falling on this guy. Sorry guy! You broke my fall very well!

There was also another cyclist near me when all this happened. Most embarrassing!

Here's some art I did

Brought the ole stylus and wacom to work tonight to make some non-pressure sensitive art. This probably won't appeal to many tastes. OH WELL.

On Deceptive Labeling of Products

Today I was reminded by myself that I really need to read ALL of the nutritional information on items (particularly convenience food items I might purchase for my work dinner). I was somewhat pressed for time this afternoon as I went shopping for groceries for my lunch (and Tim's dinner), I came across a seemingly innocent and healthful food item I might procure for my work dinner.
Wrapped with a green label showing a wheelbarrow full of delicious vegetables, how could my eye not catch the Roasted Garlic Hummus Wrap with Crunchy Vegetables (both vegan and complete protein!) produced by Fundamental Foods of 463 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (emailable at: michael@fundamentalfoods.com—feel free to email them with comments on what I am about to discuss). Oh and 142 Calories? How can I not get this? This way I can have a peanutbutter toast with my dinner too. How grand!
Upon eating it, it was not as to be expected: it consisted largely of the (much too generous in my opinion) Lavosh wrap with sparse amounts of hummus, no descernable garlic or red onion, two sad carrot sticks and a stick of celery. Oh, and what's that when I am compiling my calories for the evening? 3.5 servings per wrap? You mean to say I unwittingly blew over a third of my daily allotment of calories on something this unsatisfying? Yes. This sad wrap had 497 calories (and 17.5 grams of fat, mind you this is almost all my fat for the day). It didn't even have CHEESE. This is all from the fat, way-too-big, taking up so much space that all there was were one-carrot-stick wide space for vegetables Lavosh. All from a company that touts its being run by a certified nutritional consultant.
Really. I am sick of companies misrepresenting serving sizes in this way. If the food item comes in a package that is not easily resealable. If the food item is not such as one where there are individual pieces that can be metered out (such as chips, cereal &c). If said food item comes wrapped in such a fashion as to even suggest that it is to be eaten, as is, in whole form. I want the nutritional information to reflect the information for the entire food item. Not "per 2 oz serving of which there are 3.5": no one eats a 1 oz (or HALF) serving of a wrap (a single food item). Might I add that it was 7 oz. For the 7 oz of food this wrap represents, I could have had a giant spinach salad (like the size of my big salad bowl with bell pepper, pepperocinis and olives), and for HALF of the calories, I could have had it in a reasonable amount with tomatoes and fat-free feta.
I really don't reach for convenience items very often, and I don't ever eat fast food (unless taquerias count). This just really pisses me off for what I got out of what it was; especially since it blind sided me after I'd thought I'd finished with my calories for the day to find that because of it, I went 300 calories over my daily allotment. Oh and I did write them a letter. Hopefully I will get retribution.

Bored at Work

Painting I did in photoshop after watching some Seiken Densetsu Let's Play on YouTube. The light keeps turning off in here, and I'm alone, so it makes me very sleepy.

Who needs consistency when you can just use one brush size

Tim did enjoy the snow. He did not die. Drew this on my wacom in about 40 minutes on my work computer because drawing on my laptop (though allowing multiple brush pressures) is not easy due to screen size and brightness (it is really dim).