November 2004 Archives

One of a Kind continues on, in its juggernaut sort of way. The weekend sales were really good, Saturday being Carol's best day ever at the show. But on Saturday night at about 1am, I awoke to hear her puking her guts out in the bathroom. About an hour later, Campbell started too. So it was a fun night. Campbell also tossed up his breakfast, but then seemed to be fine. Carol on the other hand, was knocked right out and her brother and Barry took over the booth on Sunday. (This is one good thing about coming from a large Catholic family, there's always someone available!). She still looks like death warmed over, but has to go in today as there's no one else to run it during the day. I have to leave work early to get Campbell from school.

I'm now the only holdout on the puking front, and every rumble I get in my stomach freaks me out now. Oh, how I hate puking.

And our dog Kola started my week off in fine form by attacking a puppy in the park this morning -- the second time in two weeks she's done this. Luckily the dog was okay, but I've pretty much had it with her now. She's a lovely girl, but with us having two small kids, supporting a family of four, a self-employed wife and some interest in having a balanced life, the one thing I don't have room for is a dog with "special needs." I love having a dog, and am happy to make time for walks etc, but she needs a big farm where she can run around like a maniac -- not a busy city where the noise and bustle makes her poor little pea brain crackle like a mouth full of Pop Rocks.

Man, I feel stressed out. Thank goodness Christmas is coming, that'll be relaxing.

No, that's not a clever title. Just the name of my garage band (for the few people out there who don't follow my every posting). This is an update, as I know the world is waiting to hear our debut. Did notice U2 wisely released their album in early November so they wouldn't have to compete with us?

So, we've laid down pretty much all the tracks now, with the exception of a few little tweaks here and there. Next step is mixing, which I suspect will tell us whether what we've done is actually going to work. Some stuff sounds a bit dodgy to my ear, but then I tell myself "Well that's the mix, not the track." That said, I think there will be some hard decisions required, and I'm interested to see how we are going to deal with it as three guys who don't do this for a living. Will ego be a factor? Not for me of course, because I'm completely self-actualized, but maybe for the others? Luckily, talent isn't much of a factor, or we'd be in trouble.

Thank God no one gives a shit, because I can't imagine trying to make some of these choices with a label and a million fans basing their income and interest (respectively) on your next move. Hooray for anonymity!

Carol had her first day at the show yesterday, and although it was fairly quiet she did as much in total sales as she did on her best day of the Spring Show. As this one is so much larger, that bodes well for KB! She was pretty tired, it's a hell of a long day for 10 to 10. One of the benefits of coming from a large Catholic family though is that you have lots of potential labour to draw on. At least, for awhile anyway. Yesterday our brother in law Barry and her sister Susan both helped out for a few hours. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem to have a hard time finding people to help out. I think the fact that she does pretty good sales and generates great feedback makes it kind of fun. And of course, you get into the show for free!

Yeah I know. One of a KIND. But it has definitely been one of a kid around our place as Carol prepares for the Christmas Show. The entire house looks like some crazy textile sweatshop, complete with underage children workers. (Except that we haven't taught them to sew.) I'm beat, and I wasn't even doing the manual labour.

I updated the Kid Brother site a bit, trying to make it more "modular" in nature so it's easier to change stuff without renaming files etc. It's not complicated to do -- you just give assets names that reflect their position in the page rather than what they actually are (like spring_item01.gif instead or "greenshirt.gif") -- but it's funny how when you're a designer you always rely on smart left-brainers to do that kind of thinking. As time comes to update my own online portfolio, I'm going to pay the price for not having structured it well. But what can you expect -- it's not like I work in the business, right?

As I was getting out of the shower the other morning, Campbell came in and said, "Hey Dad. I like your penis. It's pretty big."

File under: Things they never tell you about parenting.

I got a call from a headhunter the other day, who had gotten my name from the ADCC awards show, which was an impressive of networking on their part. I had already received a congratulatory candy apple from this company (no that's not an industry term for some kind of gift, I mean a real apple coated with Calabo chocolate), and she was calling to follow up and find out if I was interested in moving on to another gig. Amazing. She didn't really know anything about me, but she was very forward in what she could do for me. She was kinda freaking me out until I realized that she reminded me of Frasier Crane's insanely carnivorous agent Bebe, at which point I began to enjoy the conversation. Bebe is one of my favourite characters on TV, although my scope of knowledge is admittedly limited.

Anway, not going anywhere yet. Especially when one of the gigs she talked about was applying for CD at Henderson Bas. Yeah right. I'd get eaten alive there. There are a few things I find frustrating about my current gig, but I finally feel like we're moving forward and I don't want to leave just as it gets good. If it DOES get good, of course.

The entry that says, "Haven't updated for awhile, I've been really busy." So here's mine. Work has been really crazy, too much going on at once. I'm working on my multi-tracking skills -- not so much multi-tasking as the ability to be immersed in one thing then quickly jump tracks to a different task without residual crap in your head. It's f-ing hard, especially when I'm partway through something or just plain busy. The other day someone came by and said, Hey I wanted you to meet someone, have you got a sec?" I actually started to say, "You know I don't. I've got this deadline and..." Then I caught myself: who the hell is so busy and essential they literally don't have two minutes? Not me, that's for sure. Still, it was tricky for a minute there.

There's an article in the new Communication Arts about how in the creative world, there's this idea that you rise up to the role of Creative Director. Ah, the holy grail of creatives. But in this guy's experience, and I've heard it before, he discovered that he actually liked his copywriting gig too much to give it up for a title where he didn't get to play with words. I still get to design a fair bit here, but I must say, I don't get the time to do it as well as I'd like. It's more something that gets plugged into the two hours between meetings. That ain't the recipe for great work.

As I rode up through swanky Forest Hill yesterday I noticed an odd thing: there were a number of large hoses with water gushing out onto the street. At first I thought there must have been some sort of water system work going on until I got the unmistakable whiff of chlorine. Of course. The rich folks are emptying their pools.

So it's official. Winter has arrived.

I took on this project for a client doing a game based promotional piece. I think it's really going to be a lot of fun, but oy, my poor left brain. I realize I'm much better suited to vague strategies and cool ideas with a bit of design tossed in, not working out gameplay flowcharts and decision trees. If I wanted to be accountable for the specifics of any project then I wouldn't have worked so hard to become a Creative Director. I now realize that even this title may not be enough to protect me, and I may have to start working towards becoming a VP of something in order to avoid any practical responsibilities. The Peter Principle does have its appeal.