So why am I so damn busy?  Because I was offered a short term contracting gig on top of my other media production load.

I'm technically a "consultant", which makes me feel a little dirty in these times. It's really odd jumping from small creative firm to massive corporation environment developing a large e-commerce site.

Not only is the coffee weak, but in less than a week I've already had someone try to hijack a few of my ideas in a brainstorming session... I've had many tech problems thanks to poor quality machines bought in bulk...  There are other things, but in general it's just more than a little odd to adjust.

So anyway, it's Thursday, and I have a full calendar for a while...  Fun stuff...

So go Colts! If I see you, I'll beore than happy to hand out high-5's...

It's pretty interesting.  Sure, I've had jobs before with the whole quitting / 2-weeks notice, but none for a job I've held this long.  There are some great people I'm going to miss, but the absence of a few key people is going to allow me to grow professionally as well as be able to remain sane throughout the course of any period of time at work.

Oh well.  On that note, I'm about to have my last lunch here...  And an exit interview soon thereafter.

This is just a meaningless little thing I did in illustrator many moons ago imported into a 3D environment with a little bit of light and camera manipulation.

Who knows if I'll have any more time to do this kind of thing in the near future, but I hope so.

But one very distracting part of the meeting was that one of the clients had a voice that sounds exactly like Barry Corbin who I'm always going to lovingly remember as the general from War Games.

It's a project that I had a good hand in landing, and it's been about 8 months since the RFP meeting. It's been quite the saga, and I've got my fingers crossed that it should leave the building tomorrow and/or the next day in different pieces.

But on top of that, the other big thing is that we're moving from our sheltered condo lives within the next few months. Yup... It's time to go back to the more-traditional home-ownership type things. It's a pretty done deal at this point, there's just a few little details to fill in.

We're both looking forward to having a bit more space and an actual garage.

Work has become interesting in that I've been asked to take more responsibility for my department while also increasing my production schedule and scope. All of this without title or raise. It is a learning experience, so I'll let it slide for just a little bit. But not that long. I've built up quite a lot of comp time since I'm the only one in my department that is here when the doors open at 8. Between that, regular vacation, and paid time off, I could almost take all of December off.

Went to the State Fair last month. Always an experience. Two words: hand sanitizer.

There was an occasion last weekend to dust off the old lemon shake-up skills. It was a pretty successful venture, especially when vodka is added.

I've had a few visions recently about getting back into playing an instrument. I think it's because all the things that replaced that for me in my life (digital photography and graphic design) have become an occupation. I feel like I need a creative hobby that's not something I spend working on and looking at from 8-5 every day. I'm still just pondering about it though.

Looking forward to a friend's wedding next month in Story, IN. The night afterwards, Vic and I are going to West Baden for a night. I'm very much looking forward to that as well.

Anyway, my bloggin' may suffer while such problems persist at work.

Damn you database...

Why you may ask? Our local "Friends of Scientology" chapter (otherwise known as Eli Lilly) has been keeping us quite busy with work.

I only know of two, maybe three regular readers, so this message goes out to you guys... Thanks for what it's worth...

Back to building/formatting/burning/proofing...

Just waiting to hear back on some proofs for a Flash piece at work... I really hate waiting on things like this, but there is no other choice.

For the last month, and especially with my jump into flickr, I've been having a desire to go and shoot infrared, random shots in crowds, and even a few composed shots have popped into my head from time to time. The problem is the lack of time, and I also have 3+ dead zones in the trusty D100... I can fix them all easily afterwards, but it won't fly if I get posted to do photography. Not sure when a replacement will be in order.

Anyway, I'm debating whether I should jump into more personal or political posts here because writing those types of things makes for a good cathartic process. Hmmm... But who knows if the masses that read this would accept such a change. Ha... masses...

I'm in the process of filling out all the benefit paperwork thanks to my recent foray into a salaried position. In reading over the dental plan I had to laugh out loud.

As with all insurance things, there is a list of "CHARGES NOT COVERED". Item number 15 on this list is as follows:

15. Treatment of a problem caused by war or an act of war, self-inflicted injury, caused by commission of a felony, an assault on another person, a riot, nuclear accident or a major disaster.

Come on. No coverage in times of nuclear war? Isn't Strontium-90 good for teeth and bones?

It's been a good week though. I was given time to adjust to a completely different computer (love the Chuck Norris quote widget I installed). On my third day, I started more training on DVD Studio Pro. This is a piece of proprietary software for DVD creation.

In terms of coolness factor for someone that does commercial graphics and production, it's right up there behind the two Adobe staples for me (Photoshop and Illustrator). I took 90 or so images from the wedding and made a fully functional DVD with a menu in about an hour. On my first try.

But I do linger on part of a Primus song today... "Funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed... They don't mean quite so much." I've worked much more strenuous jobs (physically and mentally), but I am going to value this weekend more than most in the past year or so...

The hardest part is getting used to a new platform. I took the plunge and decided to go mac at work - but fear not... I'll always be PC at home. OSX Tiger is very cool, and it'll be awhile getting used to the bells and whistles. Props to the mighty mouse though.

So I'm getting bombarded about memos, TPS reports, Groupwise, and the command key. Thankfully they have tea here so I can continue my healing.