Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Update with uninspired title!!

Ah, another of my frequent blog posts.

Baby news- Today Caitlin is 9 months old, and has discovered that legs can be helpful in crawling.

Book news-

-Lifehack (2nd edition of AZU-1:Lifehack) has it's editing copy in the hands of the 4th (of 5?) volunteer editors. When it's done it's tour, it'll be my turn to look at all the points they've marked, and correct all the ones I agree with. Some editors have mentioned they disagree with some things other editors have marked, so this tells me that they're being picky for little things, which is good..

-Watching Yute- had gone on pause while I was doing my initial edit for Lifehack. Since Lifehack's been out of my hands, I went through what I'd had for Yute, and applied the same standards to it, that I have to Lifehack. Formatting especially. I recently finished this editing pass through what I had written before my attention was drawn to the Lifehack project, so now I'm poised to break new soil in the story. It's 100 pages right now, and I'm approaching an even in the story I've had planned form the beginning, but am also dreading.

-Optimist news-

Well, the chinese newyear dinner/celebration was completed. I won't say without a hitch, but overall, it was a success. Both the MeadowRidge Optimist club and the Pitt Meadows Lions seem to be keen on doing it again next year, with a few more tweaks. This year we mainly stuck to the 'same old' which had worked in the past, but some things could use a bit of freshening up.

On the horizon we have several events brewing.... a walk for youth fundraiser/PR event, which we hope to attach to the Pitt Meadows Day parade, a bike safety event, (personal irony for me, huh?) and of course our eye gazes towards halloween, for our next showing at the Ghost Ridge haunted-house type event, which it looks like we'll have more planning input this time, since our efforts last year were so appreciated. I have a plan for a new exhibit in the haunted house, called 'The Meatlocker', which aside from being new, and not yet another horror movie rip-off, it will also serve to "un-group" clusters of visitors half way through. People tend to subconsciously clump together for safety in numbers, making it hard to surprise anyone but the leading few in a mob- the meat locker begins with a butcher, only letting a few visitors through the door at a time, robbing them of much of the confidence they may have built up at that point. I don't want to leak what happens once they're in.

-Art news:

Wow, there's none, really. I still haven't released a picture for the sake of having a picture, since may. On the other hand though, contracted art has been busy as heck. That would be great news if I didn't horribly undercharge. Last night I delivered a refil/update to a fella's business cards, some new signage for my HQ bookstore, I have a display box design open in another window right now for Wysi Wipes, my wife's mommy club keeps tossing lil tasks at me, I did a sign for a ford dealership which I've yet to invoice, I'm waiting for feedback on a logo for the Pitt Meadows Community Foundation, and a knitting needle 'track sheet' for a client's customers.

Fun? Some yes, some no. But it's been kinda hammering inspiration for my own stuff out of my head. I've been tempted to take a more realistic direction with my art.. I used to do some great realism portraits, then I got the anime bug. Oh well, I'll focus on this new direction when all 5 books I have planned are done, graphics contracts are less in number, and Caitlin moves out.