Friday, December 2, 2005 1:14 pm  <|>
<234> What It's Worth: Things are changing a bit lately... good changes I think are coming. At least I hope so. I'm making headway in a few areas at least, though I still have my hands in too many things I'm sure. I know I take on a lot, but somehow it never really feels like it's that much unless I try to explain everything I'm involved with. I have a good time even though a lot of frustration can come along with it too.

I can't believe it's already December. The year is just about over. 2006 promises to bring a lot of good things to my life, including our wedding and the mid-point in my grad program. Who knows what else too. I really feel positive about this coming year and I'm looking forward to it, but I do feel like part of my resolution needs to be to straighten out and order up my list of ventures and the like.

Let's see what they are: I always have my regular day job, then also grad school/projects... then there is Sticky Art which really has the potienial to go somewhere if I can just put aside enough time to devote to it to get it jump started again... then there is my own art work and street art stuff that can always use attention especially when I'm feeling inspired to do it... then of course I've started my own company Metatative, which needs attention in its startup state. Also, I must plan the wedding, put enough money aside for Austria in the summer, and Concetta and I are thinking about starting to plan the collective/company/whatever it might become soon too.

I'm sure I'm leaving things out, but that is a good idea of it. There are plenty of other side things I should tackle, like reevaluating my health care things and taking care of little tasks that are easily put off... these things too should be considered when I make my resolutions. I try to make my to-do lists, categorized of course, and prioritize them - I do, I do all that, but still by the time you make these expansive lists sometimes you think maybe you should have just been 'doing' something instead. I feel like they help though. My whole life is one big to-do list, it's a good thing I like them so much.

It's cold out today and I think I overheard someone at the office say that it's snowing. Great. I think that would make it the first snowfall of the year, but I could be wrong. Becky (Dan's sister) is coming over today to play video games after work. Dan and I have recently addicted her to playing Mario Kart and Mario Party because, well, everyone needs more video game addiction in their lives. Actually I've gotten a chance to hang out and get to know Becky a lot more in the last few months and it's really been nice. She is my sister-in-law-to-be afterall and I've always kind of wanted a sister. I have Stacy too (Dan and Becky's older sister) who I like a lot too, but being that she just moved to England I know that we won't be getting to see her too much. I've known Becky since my sophomore year when I first dated Dan and in fact, it is because of Becky that I became friends with Concetta because she was her roommate. That's how we all met Concetta.... man the way these connections of randomness work! I love that kind of stuff though.

I wish we could go home now. I'm glad it's Friday and I'm hoping the weekend won't spin by too fast. I turned in my research paper last night, but my art project still needs to have its documentation completed so I need to spend some time getting all that together. Dan and I are going out with Kristen and Lee on Saturday night to the World Cafe Live to see a band called Carbon Leaf. Kristen and I used to go to see them back in our 2 years of concert craziness... ahh I miss those days. This band is pretty laid back for the most part, which is good because Dan doesn't actually like concerts at all... this is more like going to a restaurant or bar though were live music happens to be playing (well we're going to say it's going to be like that anyway and see what happens!).

My computer was out of commission for this last week. Turns out the RAM died... my brother gave me some to use for now until I buy more. My computer had been freezing and restarting ramdomly since back in September, but lately it was getting worse and worse. I even spent $70 bucks to upgrade the BIOS because it seemed like that might be the problem, but after I did that last weekend the computer won't even finish loading Windows before restarting so something had to be done. I'm usually good at fixing things, afterall I used to build my own systems... this is actually the first desktop I've had with a brand name (Sony Vaio) attached. I ended up taking it to my brother, who admittedly is (slightly) better at fixing the hardware side of problems when it comes to these things. He wasn't sure what was wrong either, but since he had extra RAM lying around he tried that and sure enough it did the trick. I'm glad I don't have to buy a whole new motherboard at least.

I finally asked for a raise again at work. The process is moving, though I won't go into all the details just yet. I'm confident something can be worked out so that I'm not forced to look for another job. I really feel like after 2 years of making the same amount, the amount I STARTED with as a STUDENT still, it was needed to have some sort of raise anyway. I had asked last year and it got put off and dropped between the sale of the company's building portfolio and me being so sick in the winter and then the issues with sickness and grad school by the spring. When they made me an independent contractor after I got back from Austria in the summer it seemed like that was going to work out for both me and the company, but I ended up making so much less money with 7.5% additional tax at least, paying health insurance out of pocket, and no paid holidays. I don't want to have to waste any of my time looking for other jobs just so I don't have to worry so much about even paying my basic bills from month to month. Two years out of school and 10 years of design experience under my belt, I just think I should be slightly above all that soon. Here's hoping...

So that's that. Now it's time to plan for Christmas. That means finding gifts and affording them. I also have to pick out my cards to send. I was good with it last year and I'm going to try to be again. I've been looking for an excuse to buy some cards from this site I found at random awhile back called Terrapin (http://www.terrapininc.com). I really like the guy's work. I found him when looking for birthday images or something last year I think. I usually buy my holiday cards from the WWF, but this year they only have two types of boxed designs with two slightly different designs each. I think polar bears are cute, but that's what I used from them last year when they had a much bigger selection. Oh well, I'm already a member, so this year I might pick my card cause as helping out an artist instead. Maybe it's not as charitable, but I guess everything doesn't have to be all the time. Until later!