Well I found out that a job I thought was a sure thing flaked out on my because of my current employment. That is a pain. Oh well. The job was helping with bird surveys and would have been really fun, but would also have been a bit inconvenient with the workload that I am currently trying to maintain.
I am also realizing today that my month is really packed as far as work, school, and other things goes. Wow that is kind of nice but also depressing that I won't have as much time to slip in a few fun trips on the side of things. Oh well. I guess I will really have to focus on editing my pictures and thesis and getting old projects done!
I guess that is all for now, I have class to get to...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Life is good...
I tell you what, each day I am enlightened and lifted up by my wife...I love her. That is why I am hoping you get a good wife in the right time frame for you. Whatever that may be. Did you know that Sam is engaged? He is over 30 and many thought he had no hope. Well I certainly believe that he is getting what he needs and desires in the proper time frame for him.
Okay, so I also need to say something about the controversy that may be presented to you about the schools you got into. I guess if you haven't heard already that in emails you are going to get along with this you got into BYU. They have the program thing that got you in. I guess that I had it out with mom over you and that program. At first she though I hated BYU (and only loved BYU-I). Well I guess I just didn't want everyone to assume that you were going to automatically go to BYU for that. It is possible that program isn't going to offer what you ultimately desire. It is also possible that it will. I guess I was just mad because everyone assumed you were going to go to BYU and do what they think they want you to do, teach wierd srt things in High School. If that is what you want then that is cool, but I think that you still have to deside what is best for you. So I was like pro-choice for Robert, and we have to accept what he decides is best for him. If he decided that Snow college was for him and not BYU's or something else, then he is doing what he needs to. We may wonder for sure, but basically it is up to you. I also want to be sure to point out (because I am biased, true) that BYU-I is actually a more spiritual place than BYU (at least when we were there) in a lot of ways. Especially in the good chicks. I mean it was good for the Reece's mom and dad, groesbecks, Me (and I am like the happiest person in the world, or possibly the universe), and many more. Also BYU-I does offer a better education in a lot of subjects. For example (one that really neither of us is connected to to be fair) Business, they are really doing better things at BYU-I. The last thing is BYU has nightmarish black hole singles wards were good people like you and me go and never escape alive with a good looking wife (often many only escape because they go to BYU-I or worse, UVSC).
Okay that aside, I am most glad that my bro has options. Now you have more choices, that is really sweet. I will still think your cool if you go to BYU...
Last thing is that I am officially inviting you on a trip with Alison, the Kids and Myself when you get home, and we are out of school. I think you might need a bit of help getting used to the bibler again... Basically the time I am inviting you for is about 10 days after your home. So basically before you get a permanent Job and can't escape again and all that. If you can I understand, but I am honestly thinking Yosemite won't work for you when we go because of work and how long we want to go, but your still invited.
I guess that is all. I have to give up this beastly computer so Ali can write her brother. Two missionaries out is really awesome!
Enjoy, I love you and hope you have a great week!
Oh one more thing. My wife is an amazing cook. She totally made up this Cheese pizza breadstick combo thing that was honestly the most amazing thing to hit the buds in a while. She has been cooking such great things for me for a long time but this was through the roof. My advise is find a girl that can't supposedly cook and then discover that she is totally amazing and reap the benefits for eternity...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tetons
Well today we had a good day. We started getting ready to move, and to do this one thing we did was get rid of a lot of stuff. This was not ot bad because we didn't remember having most of it. So that was actually quite liberating to do.
Later we walked to the park that we like (I hope Zach likes it, we certianly head up there frequently... The impressive thing about that is that we walked 2.2 miles to it. Each way. So we got a sweet workout and Zach got to play. This is also part of our goal to not Drive our car as much. It is really a pain to have to pay so much for gas. Argh... We left a water bottle there though so we negated the walk because we drove back to get it. Oh well...
Tonight I uploaded a ton of pictures for a request for pictures from the Grand Teton lakes. I have lots of pictures from there, and so I put up quite a few. Sadly the competition is quite fierce. There is a lot of great photography out there. I think thought that I do have some nice shots from the park and that I have a great chance for getting some shots sold.
Anyway, that is all for today...
Friday, March 28, 2008
What a day...
So I have had a good day, I got lots of work done, had a barbeque with friends and things are going along nicely...
My question in life today is why am I so totally tired? Each night at 9 I am so tired I could drop off for hours. I maybe need more exercise or something. Man I am really dragging! Maybe my kids do it to me. That would explain why Alison gets just as tired, but also that leaves something to wonder because if I took care of them all day I would be dead before the spouse ever got home! She is amazing. Must be something else...
I think I will try and work that out by sleeping on it...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Zach's Daddy
It is funny to see the natural cycle of who I am identified as by other people. This last weekend we were in Provo, and we got to hang out with all of my Nieces (7) and Nephews (3). There are a total of 12 grand kids when you throw my two into the pen as well. Most of the kids 4 or younger, that could talk, identified me as "Zach's Daddy". I heard that only a few hundred times. I got the Zach's dad look at me, or whatever you get from little kids. It was fun to be recognized as my child's father. I really enjoyed it. The funny thing about being Zach's daddy is that all those kids new my real name. It just changed when Zach started to really play with them.
This trip home was a lot of fun because at times (including all family outside of Alison's immediate family of sisters and nieces and nephews) we had 6 babies less than 7 months, and 3 toddlers, and a total of about 20 kids running around. Wow that was a fun bit of chaos!
The hard thing was hearing when you child was the one yelling, or hitting, or being hit (this happened to me a bit), or worst of all who had the messy diaper!
Zach had a lot of fun and learned lots of new words, and made new friends. He also struggled with the issue of sharing toys (he seems to think that all toys on earth are his, or at least toys that are being used by people smaller than him). He especially hit a lot. He has one cousin that would cry and tell mom, and another that would smack him back and scream bloody murder (she has 3 older and rambunctious siblings).
It was a good trip. Coming home was nice, the kids let us drive the entire time except for our gas/pit stop. It was nice enough that I would do it again if gas wasn't so terribly high cost...
This trip home was a lot of fun because at times (including all family outside of Alison's immediate family of sisters and nieces and nephews) we had 6 babies less than 7 months, and 3 toddlers, and a total of about 20 kids running around. Wow that was a fun bit of chaos!
The hard thing was hearing when you child was the one yelling, or hitting, or being hit (this happened to me a bit), or worst of all who had the messy diaper!
Zach had a lot of fun and learned lots of new words, and made new friends. He also struggled with the issue of sharing toys (he seems to think that all toys on earth are his, or at least toys that are being used by people smaller than him). He especially hit a lot. He has one cousin that would cry and tell mom, and another that would smack him back and scream bloody murder (she has 3 older and rambunctious siblings).
It was a good trip. Coming home was nice, the kids let us drive the entire time except for our gas/pit stop. It was nice enough that I would do it again if gas wasn't so terribly high cost...
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Easter!
Well Brother,
Easter has been good to us. Zach has gotten the egg hunts down (he is kind of an egg shark!) and is quite efficient at gathering up the goods. He is quite competitive although he is sadly still just not that observant at locating the eggs unless they are just obviously in the open (do you remember the "where is the cheat? Barely occluded by the box!). It is pretty fun to see him learn so many cool new things. I have attached some pictures that show the randomness of Zach. Jenny made an incredible strawberry shortcake that rocked and we set it on the table and were talking and then we realized Zach was leaning in and taking a bite of that cake. The picture is a redo of the original, but he wasn't complaining about a redo on the freelance bite. I hope that you enjoy those. He is so awesome right now because he is so ready to learn new things. This is the awesome time of his life. He is totally learning tons of words a day, and making up sentences and ideas all the time.
So let me tell you about Jenny. She is getting to be the cook of the house! She is whipping up all kinds of delicacies. Cakes, cookies and much much more. She is awesome! I bet that I have gained some serious weight on account of her! Don't let her tell you that she can't cook! She is especially good at making new random things with strange and unfamiliar recipes. She is awesome.
I am also having a good time shooting down here. We stopped in St. George and photographed the sunrise over the valley and the temple. So that was fun and added to the stock collection. Plus we got to have fun on the way as well, not just the usual death march back and forth with no events of note. Next time we are going to stop on the way up in Bryce canyon. These stops are great because they are barely out of the way. I recommend this because you can see lots of additional cool things without having to pay for a separate trip.
Okay so this about all I have to write about...
Wait, I have one other thing. In honor of trying to increase my photographic skill I got a model for photography and trying to learn lighting. It is only Alison's sister Kaisha (although she isn't an ugly duckling to be sure, in fact I think is better than most models in how she keeps her hair and whatever), but she is excited and wants to do it. That is probably the reason that I am most excited, she is excited. It is a battle to find someone that will let you take pictures of them! So this will hopefully be good. I also asked her to invite her boyfriend (I am not really interested in only the girls to be sure).
So I think that now I am going to end in song! Okay so really pictures not song. I hope that you enjoy!
First is Zach and the cake...
Then the Easter Egg hunt...
Andrea and Cousin Hectare, she loves to roll on top of him and claw his eyes out!
Pictures from the Henderson Bird Preserve...
Pictures from Rock Canyon...
Pictures from St. George (also using the fisheye)...
And pictures from chopping a tree down with dad and the brothers...
Enjoy!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Wednesday!
So today my wife and I went to get our temple recommend interviews with our bishop. Well we got there and we were deemed as not needing the bishop because we are good enough! If they only new that I feel like on a regular basis I am barely holding on by a thread. Today I felt like I was going to have my life fall apart over the topic of what amount of time we would spend with which family when we go home to Provo! That is my biggest trial in life, and I am all worried and oppressed over it. Wow I am a lucky person!
I actually now remember that I love both families and am excited to go home. I wonder why I was feeling stress earlier. I guess it is the natural pretense to defend ones own territory? I don't know, but it is funny to look back and see what points in my life cause stress. I really lose perspective easily sometimes.
Today I was working on my thesis again and today that involved reading lots of literature about the structure and physical properties of elements. It is really interesting and also quite boring at the same time. I am amazed.
That is it for today, I need to get some rest so tomorrow I can keep my perspective and remember that life is dang good!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Major Hangover...
Today I have a hangover from our day trip to Death Valley Yesterday. It was almost a "day trip" at 21 hours in length. Wow that was a ride. We left at 4:30 AM and met friends there played and came home after an adventure to remember (my wife wrote all about it, go here http://chrisandalison.name/?p=128, and got home at 1:30. Wow. Today I just can't quite get myself moving. I think this is what a hangover is like. Wow, this really drags!
Anyway, today was still a good day. We actually got asked to be models for a kids book one of our friends are working on. Well at least the really good looking people in the family (read Mommy and kids)! Actually they didn't ask me because they were thinking that I was busy with work and didn't want to impose...
I am excited to see the results of this trip tomarrow!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A different plan...
Can I tell you that having kids is quite the adventure. I mean you get the fun, excitement, and the crap (think all the messes and hinderances possible...). Well I love my kids and I think that is obvious in how I treat and love them.
I bet that by me writing you on sunday you have deduced that I didn't make it to Havasupai this week. Well we didn't. About 3 days before we were set to go Zach threw up more most of the night. And Andrea was still suffering from a slight cold (a slight cold in an infant means that the world is about to end, to them at least). She sounded like a little diesel motor grinding away when she breathed. So we both felt pretty good about not heading down this weekend. At least good about supporting our children as children rather than luggage. They have needs to I guess. I guess that I have progressed in the world. I mean Zach used to be a "kid". Now we have moved past luggage to little person whos input we try and get. Getting input from a two year old is really maddening to say the least.
So as a consolation we are heading to Death Valley for a quick day trip to add some more pictures to the stock collection and see some fun new stuff. We are lucky that we have such a huge variety of cool stuff within a few hours of Vegas (like 2.5 or less). Tomarrow we are going to visit the racetrack for the first time. That is the place where the rocks slide on the dry lakebed and they can't figure how (they have trails behind them). The really interesting thing is that those rocks are seriously in some cases over 500 pounds. Some a smaller. Also this is the only place in the world that this actually does occur.
I will hopefully have some pics of that for you next week. Today in the email I will send accompanying this I will include pictures of Joshua Tree. It is funny which places I go to visit that really strike me as memorable and I want to return to. Tops lately are Joshua Tree (only when flowers are blooming, which means march), Bryce (we already knew that), and Yosemite. For me Saguaro was cool but not really striking or riveting. I will go back later in life to get more stock pictures if I go that route but overall it wasn't impressive to me. I can't really quantify why Joshua trees are over cacti (I think it is the climbing actually...).
Speaking of Yosemite I finally got reservations for this summer. It is July 22-29, 2008. So mark you calender and come if you can. I have a pretty busy schedule and hope that I don't have to cancel the days. I think that this trip however is going to be a priority for the summer. We also want to visit sequoia, glacier, Kilgore, and backpack in Ruby Valley. We will see what comes our way. Hopefully lots of camping and fun.
Getting reservations was quite the feat. I had to log on saturday morning (The morning the month of july opened) and the minute (actually at 3 seconds past 7:00 when they opened) that the days were reservable I hit reserve and the original dates I wanted were gone, for 500 campsites. So I quickly adjusted for the next week and I got the last site available for a week straight for all 500 sites, at 7:00:23. So to be clear reservable campsites were gone for the entire month in 23 seconds. That is 500 sites at 31 days for a total of 15,000 camping spots gone. Well there were several other sites available but nothing with more than a single day available. So I guess I could have gotten the week strait by changing sites everyday a minute later but that really suckes. I had to do that last time I wanted to go there. The only place in yosemite that has walk in camping is camp 4, and that is not traditional campsites at all. The format is basically a patch of ground and each person who is able to reserve a spot for the day gets their own little square. If I wanted to camp there I would have to get 4 spots officially to be able to be there because I have at least 4 people with me. So essentially they camp 4 spot isn't an option for me. Plus the spots are all taken by climbers who have a little system set up so keep people there for longer than allowed. I guess they have a climber who hasn't been there past the max allowable time get a site and stay for that time and let "bummers" people who climb all day and hide in the rocks crawl into their tent at night. It is actually a good system for the climbers but hard for other people to get into. Anyway...
So I guess that the fun thing with Zach lately is that he is really getting to be a talker. His latest thing to say that is really enduring is "come here" which comes out come 'er. He just likes us to follow him around and he'll show us stuff and give us stuff and then tell us to leave ("go).
So something else Zach does all the time now is he wants to take pictures. So I give him the point and shoot and stick it on a tripod and he walks around and sets it down and presses the button. Most of the time he just doesn't quite get the button pushed all the way and nothing happens but once he took a video of me talking to Alison about what to have for dinner. So He is getting to be a little paparazi.
I don't know what else to say...
I love you man, and your awesome. Something you should do is read Moroni 7 and when it talks about Charity substitute Christ for charity each time and you will get a better understanding of why charity (ie christ) never faileth. I was actually really touched by the spirit to make charity truly a part of me.
Today work harder than ever before. We may not have the skill of ammon or other great people, but we have the mind and body to work harder and at least as smart as any other before us.
I love you brother!
Chris
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Now that your an artist...
Well brother Nathan,
I just wanted to say congratulations on acceptance into the BFA program. So you are now technically a professional artist. You have decided that this is what you want to do. I know that you may want to teach as well, but that all together is you being a professional artist.
So here are a few things you should keep in mind.
First of all, you have chosen the career that most frequently has people doing other things besides what they are trained in after they are done with school. What does this mean? It means basically you are now in the highest rate of failure career there is. People just can't hash it. This is something that speaks of society as a whole degrading from an appreciation of the arts to the artists themselves failing.
So what is the point of this letter? I am trying to maybe ferret out why artists fail and end up being busboys postmen and whatever else. (I guess this could equally apply to Keven as well).
From what I have observed in the last several years here are some ideas. Artist who go to school to be trained are at a big disadvantage because they seek the acceptance and approval of people that aren't paying the bills for them. What? Okay I mean students like you try and impress their teachers to gain approval, to the point that they pursue techniques and ideas for the purpose gaining that acceptance.
Here is an example. When I was doing the photography classes (I am still way glad that I didn't do a BFA, and I know I could have, I had way more skill than most of the students and a way better work ethic) I took lots of pictures of slot canyons that semester and the teacher kept saying he didn't like it and it was cliche. Well I kept at it and basically ended up with a b grade over it. What is more important, the acceptance of the teacher who didn't care for the work (he still ironically shot similar shots) or most of the class who thought the pictures were really great and wanted copies of their own. So 1 or 25. The one wasn't willing to pay. I ended up selling/trading for 5 prints. Also my focus on what I wanted to photograph rather than what teachers pushed led me to win a scholarship similar to yours, expect I was the only selected winner out of 9 students (6 bfa's by the way, the judges own bfa students).
So don't seek the approval of people that aren't buying the art or supporting you financially! My teachers have never bought a piece from me.
In the same token, you have to master the skills needed to be technically masterful of your subject in all aspects. Otherwise your only a dilettante with no future (you should look that word up and seek to never be this, if you see yourself never becoming more than this then change your major now).
Second, your salary and income must be considered from now on as what you make from art. So an internship that pays to teach art may count. Working grounds is only supporting you as a starving artist, or deficit spending. What am I trying to say...take keven and his camera equipment (and mine). He has spent some huge amount and basically has never made a cent from it. So keep that in mind clearly, your actual salary from art. Along this line, if your an artist and want to buy a house, you will have to prove that you have a consistent income from your art for at least 2 years before you can get a loan and in the next few years, I bet you will have to prove up to 5 years or more. That is making at least 30,000 for 5 years consistently, one low year and you will not be able to get a house. Where will you build your studio? And with what? Things to carefully consider. Be honest with yourself about your art, and work to make it pay for reals. This is something that most students think will just take care of itself and when they graduate realize that they have nothing. This is a reason possibly why so many artist fail overall.
Third, understand now that your most valuable asset for the rest of your career is your time. As you know in art it takes time to do anything (as resources, so keep that in mind and use them very carefully!). You have only so much, and so you need to maximize it completely. For example if you work 18 hours a day and 6 days a week for the next 50 years (you will be 74 by then and may want to slow down) you will have only
280000 hours to work. That seems like a lot of time but remember that you will probably not work that much at all (I doubt your on the wheel more than a few hours a day). So maybe you will only work 12 hours a day for that long and you cut that down to 180,000 hours. Well that is a limited amount of time and you can only accomplish a certain amount of stuff in that time. I struggle with ever having enough time to work on photography. To plan a photography trip takes a bit of time. Cleaning and caring for equipment (cameras, to pictures, tripods (I have 7 I believe), computers and harddrives) takes time out of my schedule that isn't even actual photography and involved in the creation of art. So will you ever really get that much time to work on the art?!?
So focus on never wasting your time again. You need to have fun and relax. But don't waste your time. I submit that watching TV is a waste of time all together. I still watch movies and stuff, but that last time I watch an entire movie was 3 months ago with our family. Last year I watched 3 movies with my wife other than when I was home. I am not trying to brag, but when you cut a time waster out of your life all of the sudden you don't have time for it anymore. Because you only have so much time left.
Last thought on time. When I focus during the week on using each five minute segment of my day I accomplish almost twice as much as I normally would. I am currently trying to spend no more than 10 minutes a day writing emails or playing on the internet during the week. I do better when I hold it to five minutes. You can do a lot more when your spend you time not waste it! I believe sincerely this is possibly Keven's biggest trial, the real reason he will fail at art if he tries the road. He doesn't manage his time. He wastes it away by snoozing, browse the net or catching a quick movie over lunch (who else does this that we both know and always does his bills at 3 in the morning, can you honestly think clearly at that time? It will mess up your next day for sure). Plan your day in 5 minute segments and try to waste none of them.
Okay so along with the time thing, your at school and doing a BFA in the department and have access to the resources. Do everything you can to learn all you can now. Do you want to master something someday? I say do it now. Don't pull the I will wait until I get my own studio... I will have time later... You have at your disposal resources that would take you arguably a decade or more to get, and most ceramics pros may never attain. Use them to their fullest capability. For example throwing cylinders like Roberts teacher taught. Sit down and with two fists size of clay throw a cylinder two feet tall. Then do it again 500 times. This seems kind of crazy, but can your teacher do it? If he can, can he do it in 1 minute? Well practice so that you can do it. If you get really good, imagine throwing 500 of these in a day, at 1 a minute. That would only take 8 hours and 15 minutes. Imagine the amount of pottery you could produce if you were able to throw that fast and that consistently. Learn this skill now so that later you won't have to waste your time doing this when you will need the skill.
Consider the professional fly tier. There are guys who tie for a living and make 50,000 a year or more. They essentially get paid by the fly. So at at a dollar a fly how many flies do they have to tie each year? well let us say 50,000. So take a person who wants to only work 5 days a week, so they can fish and have time for other things. So break that down, to 50 weeks of work (even they go fishing in exotic places, so take off 2 weeks of vacation), 5 days a week, and they have to tie 200 flies a day, or 17 dozen. They have worked things out to be efficient and fast and consistent (you don't want to have only one or two mugs work with each batch of ten attempts, you want only 2 or 3 from a 100 to fail because of things out of your control) so that each fly looks exactly the same. So to tie 200 flies a day will only take them 4 hours. How you say? They waste no time doing anything. They wrap the minimum thread, use only as much feather as needed, and work quickly. Most tiers will tie 50 to 70 flies an hour with easy flies, and 30-40 with hard patterns. I tie about 3-10 and hour depending on the difficulty. So really I could improve a lot. You can get to the same way. Art takes time. But somethings you can accomplish very quickly and and efficiently with beautiful results. I take my very best photography in 10 minutes of the light of day. Knowing that and maximizing that I can do and accomplish much more. If you found that you could sell 3000 mugs a year (at $10 profit a mug that would be $30,000 more than dad makes...) wouldn't it be nicer to produce those in 10 days rather than 2 months? I submit you could easily do so. The have months more to work on other things, like teach or projects you are working on that are more complicated. Take another example, Joe Bennion. He works only a few months a year at pottery and then rides the river as a guide for 5 other months a year. Well he can produce a full years worth of pottery on only a few months so he has time to do that. Also the woods teacher at Provo High. He makes the hand cut dovetail cedar chest and sells them for $300 or more a box. Materials aren't more than $50 and when he makes 100 at a time material cost goes way down. He makes those on the side and probably makes more money from that than actually teaching. He sells 50 a year at $300 then is making 15,000 on the side. Robert told me at one point he was sure he was making 3 or 4 a week.
Use your time wisely.
Forth, When you buy things only cry once. What? Only buy the best and save yourself time and effort. For my example take tripods. I use them a lot. So this is an important tool. Possibly the most important tool that I use besides the camera and lenses. I started out with a wal-mart special. This is great for people that never really use them rigorously. After 4 days of serous us on a trip it broke on me in Redwoods national park. I was hundreds of miles from a new one. I was taking pictures that had to have a tripod. I cried a lot over that (figuratively, actual I use some pretty choice words that Carl said he hadn't even heard in Paraguay). I thought I was saving money. So I stepped up to what Keven and Rex thought were the best tripod at the best price. I spent 150 dollars on a Promaster tripod. It still didn't hold the camera steady and I went through 4 of those before Rex finally admitted under rigorous use they just don't last that well (thank goodness for warranty). This was after I bought a carbon fiber tripod that was nice and expensive and he convinced me to return it (this was the last time I listened to someone else over what my own research had led me to, I suggest that you always research and completely understand what you need and want before you buy anything or listen to someone else. Like with the ipod. I avoided it because it was to cliche, but in reality it was better than my sony mini disc player (have you ever heard of those? I think that illistrates my point exactly) saved me time and was the best product available by far). So eventually I got the tripod I have now, the most expensive tripod (not a video tripod those are far more expensive) by the leading brand that had no bells and whistles, just made to last for a really long time and actually do its job. It cost $250, and since has supported me well in snow, ice, sand, dirt rock, water, waterfall, mountaintop, slot canyon, and tons of other places I have taken. The preceding sentence I think indicates that I do use the thing a little bit and test its abilities. When I bought the $250 tripod I thought it was to much money and cried over that. But I haven't regretted it since then, because I finally bought what I really needed and wanted. If I had bought it sooner, I am positive that aside from not spending my money on other dumb tripods (I would have spent less just buying this to start with) I wouldn't have missed many pictures because of bad tripods. My only regret ever with this tripod is that it is not Carbon fiber but aluminum. So it is heavier than I want, at 6.5 pounds. The Carbon Fiber Version is 3.5 pounds and works just as well to be sure, but is $400 dollars more. That is next on my list of non camera camera gear.
A note about this, only buy as well what you really need. I have bought a lot of camera gear that I really don't use but thought I would use. I was buying before I actually understood my real needs. Your job as artist is to really understand what your needs are so that you can best meet those (by cost, efficiency, and what ever parameters you need to meet). I need a computer for fast processing. If my computer is slow I may only be able to work 30 photos an hour instead of 50. Also remember that there is a happy medium, if I had the faster computer available to the consumer it wouldn't increase what I can do to more than 55 an hour. So the huge additional cost isn't actually worth it overall (like the Carbon Fiber Tripod, I skipped that and bought a lens that has been far more profitable than 3 less pounds to carry). Keven here again is having a hard time. He doesn't understand what he needs, so he thinks he wants the best and fastest. Having this doesn't get him anywhere at all. So be sure to consider what you need, why you need it, what it will do for you, how it will increase what you can do and then move forward. The other thing is don't buy on impulse, but don't put something off that will benefit you now rather than 3 months from now. Lastly don't buy things only good for a while. Maximize you purchase so it will last as long as possible. Obviously a computer won't be great for 10 years, but my tripod will likely be good for that long or longer. I may not be able to wear this one out, I was able to get something so well made. I suggest you buy these types of products, but only when you need them. You as ceramics person won't need a sweet action computer, a simple but efficient one will last you likely 5 years or more.
Fifth, You need to start cultivating you presence as a professional artist now. Do you think you would like to have your stuff displayed in galleries for sail? Both artistic and functional? Well I suggest you start now rather than when you graduate. Getting into galleries can take years. Even longer. So if you have a jump and start learning from mistakes now you will be years (seriously) ahead of those students around you. Approach galleries and representation by them now. You have the luxury currently of being so close to Jackson hole. Talk to them regularly, even if they say no in the past. Show them the new stuff. Talk to the owner and managers not the meager sales people (though sometimes they are the owners, so be careful). Approach places that don't already have art like yours for sale and try and get them to show it. Like at photo galleries. Maybe they would like something to make the place look nicer like ceramics in the corners to spruce the place up. You can often get into places like that. Don't dream that one place will cover you for your living. You will need lots. Once you get them and it works out, give them the best service possible so they will treat your art with a high priority. Also be willing to give them a big cut. Like 20-60%. But wouldn't you rather pieces sold rather than not at all?
Sixth, attend fairs shows and other places you might be able to sell. I suggest always checking it out before you sell there. This is long term research that can really pay off. Pick the brain of the artist there especially ones similar to your style. Ask how selling there is, how the management of the event is and so on so you can find if it works for you.
Seventh, develop a web presence. You can't easily survive in the modern world without some time of presence. Overall I am positive that more will always pay off as well. I have told you about to do this. You have to spend years becoming a big presence. It can really take of though and pay off. You feasibly could develop a presence that would allow you to support yourself entirely over the net. You have to start now and work on it consistently or you will end up years behind.
Eighth, you need to develop your own style. Figure out what you want to do and do it the best in your way. For things that everyone does, like mugs and whatever, be technically perfect so that you can stand out from the crown as being skilled rather than flawed. This goes back to mastering skills now rather than later. Think about the Harry potter series. 4 big characters can teach you lessons about this. They are
Tenth, Start planning for your retirement now. Try and save a certain amount each year. You have to create your own retirement fund when you are self employed (I know this isn't the goal but it is a long term possibility). For me I am trying to save 5,000 a year so that when I am 55 I can retire. I want to retire then rather than ten years later at 65. You can accomplish retirement by planning now. Even if you only save 50 bucks a month. Money you save now will be 800 to 1600 percent more valuable when you 65. For dad it will only be 200 percent more valuable. So for example, if I save 5000 now and get a reasonable return (about 8-9% with little or no risk), I can expect that to be worth by itself $52,000 when I retire. If dad invests in the same accounts for only 15 years (time till he is 65) he will expect only 15,000. So start now. I suggest making a part of your budget. We have decided that we will always use our tax return to invest with and try and save about 400 dollars a month in addition. So in good years we will be able to invest up to 10,000 a year and hard years only 5,000. This will give us at the age of 65 more than 2 million saved and invested and pay out more than 100,000 a year to live on with out touching the actual initial funds. We are poor people honestly and we are still able to plan ahead. You can as well, and will need to to cover your future and families. For example we will likely need to help support mom if dad passes away soon. I hope he doesn't and I think he will live to be a lot older than his dad, but he isn't 40 any more. The same thing will happen to us. The guy who died in Zion was only 62. He had retired 1 week before (my main motivation for retiring at 55, plus if I plan ahead I can).
Well I guess for now that is all I have to say, but seriously you have potential. You have the option to do so much. I am optimistic that you will succeed if you really apply yourself and never take anything for granted. If you really work at this career you will be able to always do what you want. If your just hard headed and refuse to look at reality and spend you time just ignoring mom you need to practice this little phrase, "would you like paper or plastic"? Mom is not optimistic, but really she can't argue with success, so work hard and succeed and she will stop nagging you about things.
I love you man!
Chris
P.s. I would really enjoy a net of pottery (kind of like our own china...). You know, a set of 12 plates, big and small, cups, bowls, and some serving dishes...I would even fund the project, but as with all consumers I would only want to pay for good stuff that your so proud of you can hardly bear to part with it. I mean Robert is coming back and will want all his pottery we have (and enjoy).
I just wanted to say congratulations on acceptance into the BFA program. So you are now technically a professional artist. You have decided that this is what you want to do. I know that you may want to teach as well, but that all together is you being a professional artist.
So here are a few things you should keep in mind.
First of all, you have chosen the career that most frequently has people doing other things besides what they are trained in after they are done with school. What does this mean? It means basically you are now in the highest rate of failure career there is. People just can't hash it. This is something that speaks of society as a whole degrading from an appreciation of the arts to the artists themselves failing.
So what is the point of this letter? I am trying to maybe ferret out why artists fail and end up being busboys postmen and whatever else. (I guess this could equally apply to Keven as well).
From what I have observed in the last several years here are some ideas. Artist who go to school to be trained are at a big disadvantage because they seek the acceptance and approval of people that aren't paying the bills for them. What? Okay I mean students like you try and impress their teachers to gain approval, to the point that they pursue techniques and ideas for the purpose gaining that acceptance.
Here is an example. When I was doing the photography classes (I am still way glad that I didn't do a BFA, and I know I could have, I had way more skill than most of the students and a way better work ethic) I took lots of pictures of slot canyons that semester and the teacher kept saying he didn't like it and it was cliche. Well I kept at it and basically ended up with a b grade over it. What is more important, the acceptance of the teacher who didn't care for the work (he still ironically shot similar shots) or most of the class who thought the pictures were really great and wanted copies of their own. So 1 or 25. The one wasn't willing to pay. I ended up selling/trading for 5 prints. Also my focus on what I wanted to photograph rather than what teachers pushed led me to win a scholarship similar to yours, expect I was the only selected winner out of 9 students (6 bfa's by the way, the judges own bfa students).
So don't seek the approval of people that aren't buying the art or supporting you financially! My teachers have never bought a piece from me.
In the same token, you have to master the skills needed to be technically masterful of your subject in all aspects. Otherwise your only a dilettante with no future (you should look that word up and seek to never be this, if you see yourself never becoming more than this then change your major now).
Second, your salary and income must be considered from now on as what you make from art. So an internship that pays to teach art may count. Working grounds is only supporting you as a starving artist, or deficit spending. What am I trying to say...take keven and his camera equipment (and mine). He has spent some huge amount and basically has never made a cent from it. So keep that in mind clearly, your actual salary from art. Along this line, if your an artist and want to buy a house, you will have to prove that you have a consistent income from your art for at least 2 years before you can get a loan and in the next few years, I bet you will have to prove up to 5 years or more. That is making at least 30,000 for 5 years consistently, one low year and you will not be able to get a house. Where will you build your studio? And with what? Things to carefully consider. Be honest with yourself about your art, and work to make it pay for reals. This is something that most students think will just take care of itself and when they graduate realize that they have nothing. This is a reason possibly why so many artist fail overall.
Third, understand now that your most valuable asset for the rest of your career is your time. As you know in art it takes time to do anything (as resources, so keep that in mind and use them very carefully!). You have only so much, and so you need to maximize it completely. For example if you work 18 hours a day and 6 days a week for the next 50 years (you will be 74 by then and may want to slow down) you will have only
280000 hours to work. That seems like a lot of time but remember that you will probably not work that much at all (I doubt your on the wheel more than a few hours a day). So maybe you will only work 12 hours a day for that long and you cut that down to 180,000 hours. Well that is a limited amount of time and you can only accomplish a certain amount of stuff in that time. I struggle with ever having enough time to work on photography. To plan a photography trip takes a bit of time. Cleaning and caring for equipment (cameras, to pictures, tripods (I have 7 I believe), computers and harddrives) takes time out of my schedule that isn't even actual photography and involved in the creation of art. So will you ever really get that much time to work on the art?!?
So focus on never wasting your time again. You need to have fun and relax. But don't waste your time. I submit that watching TV is a waste of time all together. I still watch movies and stuff, but that last time I watch an entire movie was 3 months ago with our family. Last year I watched 3 movies with my wife other than when I was home. I am not trying to brag, but when you cut a time waster out of your life all of the sudden you don't have time for it anymore. Because you only have so much time left.
Last thought on time. When I focus during the week on using each five minute segment of my day I accomplish almost twice as much as I normally would. I am currently trying to spend no more than 10 minutes a day writing emails or playing on the internet during the week. I do better when I hold it to five minutes. You can do a lot more when your spend you time not waste it! I believe sincerely this is possibly Keven's biggest trial, the real reason he will fail at art if he tries the road. He doesn't manage his time. He wastes it away by snoozing, browse the net or catching a quick movie over lunch (who else does this that we both know and always does his bills at 3 in the morning, can you honestly think clearly at that time? It will mess up your next day for sure). Plan your day in 5 minute segments and try to waste none of them.
Okay so along with the time thing, your at school and doing a BFA in the department and have access to the resources. Do everything you can to learn all you can now. Do you want to master something someday? I say do it now. Don't pull the I will wait until I get my own studio... I will have time later... You have at your disposal resources that would take you arguably a decade or more to get, and most ceramics pros may never attain. Use them to their fullest capability. For example throwing cylinders like Roberts teacher taught. Sit down and with two fists size of clay throw a cylinder two feet tall. Then do it again 500 times. This seems kind of crazy, but can your teacher do it? If he can, can he do it in 1 minute? Well practice so that you can do it. If you get really good, imagine throwing 500 of these in a day, at 1 a minute. That would only take 8 hours and 15 minutes. Imagine the amount of pottery you could produce if you were able to throw that fast and that consistently. Learn this skill now so that later you won't have to waste your time doing this when you will need the skill.
Consider the professional fly tier. There are guys who tie for a living and make 50,000 a year or more. They essentially get paid by the fly. So at at a dollar a fly how many flies do they have to tie each year? well let us say 50,000. So take a person who wants to only work 5 days a week, so they can fish and have time for other things. So break that down, to 50 weeks of work (even they go fishing in exotic places, so take off 2 weeks of vacation), 5 days a week, and they have to tie 200 flies a day, or 17 dozen. They have worked things out to be efficient and fast and consistent (you don't want to have only one or two mugs work with each batch of ten attempts, you want only 2 or 3 from a 100 to fail because of things out of your control) so that each fly looks exactly the same. So to tie 200 flies a day will only take them 4 hours. How you say? They waste no time doing anything. They wrap the minimum thread, use only as much feather as needed, and work quickly. Most tiers will tie 50 to 70 flies an hour with easy flies, and 30-40 with hard patterns. I tie about 3-10 and hour depending on the difficulty. So really I could improve a lot. You can get to the same way. Art takes time. But somethings you can accomplish very quickly and and efficiently with beautiful results. I take my very best photography in 10 minutes of the light of day. Knowing that and maximizing that I can do and accomplish much more. If you found that you could sell 3000 mugs a year (at $10 profit a mug that would be $30,000 more than dad makes...) wouldn't it be nicer to produce those in 10 days rather than 2 months? I submit you could easily do so. The have months more to work on other things, like teach or projects you are working on that are more complicated. Take another example, Joe Bennion. He works only a few months a year at pottery and then rides the river as a guide for 5 other months a year. Well he can produce a full years worth of pottery on only a few months so he has time to do that. Also the woods teacher at Provo High. He makes the hand cut dovetail cedar chest and sells them for $300 or more a box. Materials aren't more than $50 and when he makes 100 at a time material cost goes way down. He makes those on the side and probably makes more money from that than actually teaching. He sells 50 a year at $300 then is making 15,000 on the side. Robert told me at one point he was sure he was making 3 or 4 a week.
Use your time wisely.
Forth, When you buy things only cry once. What? Only buy the best and save yourself time and effort. For my example take tripods. I use them a lot. So this is an important tool. Possibly the most important tool that I use besides the camera and lenses. I started out with a wal-mart special. This is great for people that never really use them rigorously. After 4 days of serous us on a trip it broke on me in Redwoods national park. I was hundreds of miles from a new one. I was taking pictures that had to have a tripod. I cried a lot over that (figuratively, actual I use some pretty choice words that Carl said he hadn't even heard in Paraguay). I thought I was saving money. So I stepped up to what Keven and Rex thought were the best tripod at the best price. I spent 150 dollars on a Promaster tripod. It still didn't hold the camera steady and I went through 4 of those before Rex finally admitted under rigorous use they just don't last that well (thank goodness for warranty). This was after I bought a carbon fiber tripod that was nice and expensive and he convinced me to return it (this was the last time I listened to someone else over what my own research had led me to, I suggest that you always research and completely understand what you need and want before you buy anything or listen to someone else. Like with the ipod. I avoided it because it was to cliche, but in reality it was better than my sony mini disc player (have you ever heard of those? I think that illistrates my point exactly) saved me time and was the best product available by far). So eventually I got the tripod I have now, the most expensive tripod (not a video tripod those are far more expensive) by the leading brand that had no bells and whistles, just made to last for a really long time and actually do its job. It cost $250, and since has supported me well in snow, ice, sand, dirt rock, water, waterfall, mountaintop, slot canyon, and tons of other places I have taken. The preceding sentence I think indicates that I do use the thing a little bit and test its abilities. When I bought the $250 tripod I thought it was to much money and cried over that. But I haven't regretted it since then, because I finally bought what I really needed and wanted. If I had bought it sooner, I am positive that aside from not spending my money on other dumb tripods (I would have spent less just buying this to start with) I wouldn't have missed many pictures because of bad tripods. My only regret ever with this tripod is that it is not Carbon fiber but aluminum. So it is heavier than I want, at 6.5 pounds. The Carbon Fiber Version is 3.5 pounds and works just as well to be sure, but is $400 dollars more. That is next on my list of non camera camera gear.
A note about this, only buy as well what you really need. I have bought a lot of camera gear that I really don't use but thought I would use. I was buying before I actually understood my real needs. Your job as artist is to really understand what your needs are so that you can best meet those (by cost, efficiency, and what ever parameters you need to meet). I need a computer for fast processing. If my computer is slow I may only be able to work 30 photos an hour instead of 50. Also remember that there is a happy medium, if I had the faster computer available to the consumer it wouldn't increase what I can do to more than 55 an hour. So the huge additional cost isn't actually worth it overall (like the Carbon Fiber Tripod, I skipped that and bought a lens that has been far more profitable than 3 less pounds to carry). Keven here again is having a hard time. He doesn't understand what he needs, so he thinks he wants the best and fastest. Having this doesn't get him anywhere at all. So be sure to consider what you need, why you need it, what it will do for you, how it will increase what you can do and then move forward. The other thing is don't buy on impulse, but don't put something off that will benefit you now rather than 3 months from now. Lastly don't buy things only good for a while. Maximize you purchase so it will last as long as possible. Obviously a computer won't be great for 10 years, but my tripod will likely be good for that long or longer. I may not be able to wear this one out, I was able to get something so well made. I suggest you buy these types of products, but only when you need them. You as ceramics person won't need a sweet action computer, a simple but efficient one will last you likely 5 years or more.
Fifth, You need to start cultivating you presence as a professional artist now. Do you think you would like to have your stuff displayed in galleries for sail? Both artistic and functional? Well I suggest you start now rather than when you graduate. Getting into galleries can take years. Even longer. So if you have a jump and start learning from mistakes now you will be years (seriously) ahead of those students around you. Approach galleries and representation by them now. You have the luxury currently of being so close to Jackson hole. Talk to them regularly, even if they say no in the past. Show them the new stuff. Talk to the owner and managers not the meager sales people (though sometimes they are the owners, so be careful). Approach places that don't already have art like yours for sale and try and get them to show it. Like at photo galleries. Maybe they would like something to make the place look nicer like ceramics in the corners to spruce the place up. You can often get into places like that. Don't dream that one place will cover you for your living. You will need lots. Once you get them and it works out, give them the best service possible so they will treat your art with a high priority. Also be willing to give them a big cut. Like 20-60%. But wouldn't you rather pieces sold rather than not at all?
Sixth, attend fairs shows and other places you might be able to sell. I suggest always checking it out before you sell there. This is long term research that can really pay off. Pick the brain of the artist there especially ones similar to your style. Ask how selling there is, how the management of the event is and so on so you can find if it works for you.
Seventh, develop a web presence. You can't easily survive in the modern world without some time of presence. Overall I am positive that more will always pay off as well. I have told you about to do this. You have to spend years becoming a big presence. It can really take of though and pay off. You feasibly could develop a presence that would allow you to support yourself entirely over the net. You have to start now and work on it consistently or you will end up years behind.
Eighth, you need to develop your own style. Figure out what you want to do and do it the best in your way. For things that everyone does, like mugs and whatever, be technically perfect so that you can stand out from the crown as being skilled rather than flawed. This goes back to mastering skills now rather than later. Think about the Harry potter series. 4 big characters can teach you lessons about this. They are
- Voldemort - He was the best student (not just skill wise, but study and persistence wise) to ever go to hogwarts. He worked at taking over the world and basically almost succeeded. Except for some serious good fortune on Harry's part. He was overcome because of his servants faults, and the ways they failed him. You can really learn about dedication and focus from old Tommy.
- Dumbledore - he was also brillant, but he was successful because he was possibly more persistent than Voldemort and he maximized all options available as best he could, like learning about Voldemort, he left no stone unturned. You can learn all you can about whats available to you and know what you have at your disposal.
- Hermione - She was dedicated to learning and understanding her problem, and as well was ever persistent in what she was focusing on. She is also a dang hard worker. So work hard like her, she accomplished more at hogwarts than any of her class mates.
- Harry - He is notable mostly for sticking to his goal and beliefs when the going got rough. He didn't waver when it was time to have some action.
Tenth, Start planning for your retirement now. Try and save a certain amount each year. You have to create your own retirement fund when you are self employed (I know this isn't the goal but it is a long term possibility). For me I am trying to save 5,000 a year so that when I am 55 I can retire. I want to retire then rather than ten years later at 65. You can accomplish retirement by planning now. Even if you only save 50 bucks a month. Money you save now will be 800 to 1600 percent more valuable when you 65. For dad it will only be 200 percent more valuable. So for example, if I save 5000 now and get a reasonable return (about 8-9% with little or no risk), I can expect that to be worth by itself $52,000 when I retire. If dad invests in the same accounts for only 15 years (time till he is 65) he will expect only 15,000. So start now. I suggest making a part of your budget. We have decided that we will always use our tax return to invest with and try and save about 400 dollars a month in addition. So in good years we will be able to invest up to 10,000 a year and hard years only 5,000. This will give us at the age of 65 more than 2 million saved and invested and pay out more than 100,000 a year to live on with out touching the actual initial funds. We are poor people honestly and we are still able to plan ahead. You can as well, and will need to to cover your future and families. For example we will likely need to help support mom if dad passes away soon. I hope he doesn't and I think he will live to be a lot older than his dad, but he isn't 40 any more. The same thing will happen to us. The guy who died in Zion was only 62. He had retired 1 week before (my main motivation for retiring at 55, plus if I plan ahead I can).
Well I guess for now that is all I have to say, but seriously you have potential. You have the option to do so much. I am optimistic that you will succeed if you really apply yourself and never take anything for granted. If you really work at this career you will be able to always do what you want. If your just hard headed and refuse to look at reality and spend you time just ignoring mom you need to practice this little phrase, "would you like paper or plastic"? Mom is not optimistic, but really she can't argue with success, so work hard and succeed and she will stop nagging you about things.
I love you man!
Chris
P.s. I would really enjoy a net of pottery (kind of like our own china...). You know, a set of 12 plates, big and small, cups, bowls, and some serving dishes...I would even fund the project, but as with all consumers I would only want to pay for good stuff that your so proud of you can hardly bear to part with it. I mean Robert is coming back and will want all his pottery we have (and enjoy).
Friday, March 14, 2008
Home Work!
Okay so not school homework...I actually don't have much of that for the next 9 days or so. I worked at home today for ten hours. It was really productive actually. I was able to avoid the 40 minute or more commute and just work during that time.
Today I read for hours. Unfortunately it wasn't fun cute little novels about furry bunnys or things you would want to read about. It was all about the technicle side of chemistry of elements in sediment within rivers. I am often surprised by the range of work that is out there as well as the lack of depth in areas that you have a question about (that is typical it seems when you are trying to solve scientific problems and questions).
At the end of the day I was able to spend a while editing pictures and make some serious progress on getting things online. Anyway, it was going good. I wish I could spend more time on this only. I guess that is what we all want though, time to spend endlessly on our hobbies and dreams...
We had our friends over tonight, the Allards. They are fun to hang out with and play games. Jennifer was baptized a while ago, and she is doing well. Robby is having a hard time with keeping up with work and the bills. I guess he just hasn't ever really had to support a family and a specifcally a baby. The hard thing is that he has a difficult time being consistent and working hard. So that makes it hard for him to get a good job, and pay the bills. Things are even harder because he doesn't help around home at all, or with the baby (I think they have trained her to be pretty high maintanence, to a point. I guess we have trained our kids to not be high maintanence). I guess today they have only a few daipers for the baby left. So they are going to ask for help instead of trying to solve the problem themselves. It seems to me that I would just go out and try and solve the problem myself.
Anyway, I won't dwell on that. I have tried to help people before and giving them what they need temporally has never really benefitted them. That is the hard thing for me. I see what they want and I often see what they really need (in this case maybe some more stability and work ethic, I could be wrong though I don't know the situation...).
That is all for tonight, I am not even writing about what I thought I might. The funny thing is now I can't even remember what I was going to write about...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A day...
Today I am excited because I will officially start spring break! This means that basically I will have all day to work on my thesis! This is exciting but spring break used to mean vacation. I guess that as I am getting more grown up (I think really this means older) I have less vacation and fun. If is interesting that the more I want to earn money the more time I need to spend working, and not going on vacation. This is weird...
I guess it isn't weird, but it is how life goes. I will still take it, I enjoy what I am doing!
I guess it isn't weird, but it is how life goes. I will still take it, I enjoy what I am doing!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Mid terms and stuff...
Well I think that I am blessed (as always I am very fortunate). I have two tests and a paper and presentation this week in three days. I have been dreading this week all semester as probably the worst next to finals week. Luckily however I am cruising through it. I had a test last night that was a bit easier than I thought it would be. That is always nice. The hardest part was that I continually had the person next to me shaking the desk. I was actually really annoyed. At one point before I realized I was about to lose it I was considering disturbing the silence and yelling to quit shaking the table. That would have actually been quite hilarious but it didn't happen.
Today I am about finished with the paper and presentation that I have to do. I am not really worried about this one because I am pretty sure that the teacher is having us do presentations so he doesn't have to teach at all. That would be typical. There will be benefit for me in getting to practice presenting a bit more than not.
Last night our little Zach decided to barf a few times. I guess he would avoid it if he could but that always is really hard for little people. The ironic thing is that since we have had kids we have had more trips canceled for them then people would realize. It is pretty funny to look back and see that. I think we have done about 15 trips since being in Vegas (I believe for more than a month of camping overall) and have moved or canceled more than 7. So we do love our kids. That is for sure.
Another side note, I found yet another stock site that I may be able to be represented by. So this is exciting for me, more opportunities to sell and market my work. I am willing to pay commissions if I can get the sales for sure. I will be up to about 5 avenues if all goes well. Someday money might even come!
Today I am about finished with the paper and presentation that I have to do. I am not really worried about this one because I am pretty sure that the teacher is having us do presentations so he doesn't have to teach at all. That would be typical. There will be benefit for me in getting to practice presenting a bit more than not.
Last night our little Zach decided to barf a few times. I guess he would avoid it if he could but that always is really hard for little people. The ironic thing is that since we have had kids we have had more trips canceled for them then people would realize. It is pretty funny to look back and see that. I think we have done about 15 trips since being in Vegas (I believe for more than a month of camping overall) and have moved or canceled more than 7. So we do love our kids. That is for sure.
Another side note, I found yet another stock site that I may be able to be represented by. So this is exciting for me, more opportunities to sell and market my work. I am willing to pay commissions if I can get the sales for sure. I will be up to about 5 avenues if all goes well. Someday money might even come!
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Time doesn't fly...
Well I can say that time really doesn't fly when your have fun. Well I guess I am having kind of a forced amount of fun? I am working on lots of different projects and it is going really well. I would however rather be home getting ready for our camping trip this next week. We are going to Joshua Tree National Park. I am quite excited. I have wanted to come here for a long time. This trip is nice because we think that we are heading down when it is likely the best time of year as far as blooming flowers and trees goes. I guess we will see.
We are also getting ready to head to Havasupai Indian reservation again. I am excited about that as well. That trip is a bit for extended because of the fact that we have to backpack in 10 miles. It is getting a bit commercialized, but it is an amazing place. We are going again because we enjoy it so much and we are quite close. I am excited. This will also be a kind of first serious backpacking trip for the family. We are trying to work it out so that we have one pack, and one kid backpack. That means Alison and I would be pretty balanced on our weights we are carrying. I guess that we will see again if this works out. We are really trying to get everything as light as possible...we will see how we do!
We are also getting ready to head to Havasupai Indian reservation again. I am excited about that as well. That trip is a bit for extended because of the fact that we have to backpack in 10 miles. It is getting a bit commercialized, but it is an amazing place. We are going again because we enjoy it so much and we are quite close. I am excited. This will also be a kind of first serious backpacking trip for the family. We are trying to work it out so that we have one pack, and one kid backpack. That means Alison and I would be pretty balanced on our weights we are carrying. I guess that we will see again if this works out. We are really trying to get everything as light as possible...we will see how we do!
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Diet...
So I decided that I am a bit overweight. I was sitting at 205 over the holidays. That is more than I have ever weighed. I wasn't even having a baby. Today when working out I weighed in at 198. So I have my holiday fluctuation behind me but still have a ways to go. I would like to get down to 175. That is maybe dreaming but really I have some flab. I am going to try and start building up my muscle as well because that gradually goes away after 25 naturally and I want to not be a shrimpy 50 year old. Normal is my goal. I am lucky that I have a place to easily workout at when I am here at school. So I will try and use this consistently.
I have also been working on my website for a bit today. I am fighting code issues and the like. That is hard stuff. I will be done soon however so things are looking good in that respect at least. I will soon start to really add pictures to the site and that will hopefully lead to further SEO optimization and then hopefully bring people in to the site. That is the ultimate goal. I am quite excited about the new structure that I have established on my site though. It is the Pixaria engine. I am pretty pleased with it. I was hoping that it would require a bit less code but once I get it in place it will be what I am going for.
That is all for today!
I have also been working on my website for a bit today. I am fighting code issues and the like. That is hard stuff. I will be done soon however so things are looking good in that respect at least. I will soon start to really add pictures to the site and that will hopefully lead to further SEO optimization and then hopefully bring people in to the site. That is the ultimate goal. I am quite excited about the new structure that I have established on my site though. It is the Pixaria engine. I am pretty pleased with it. I was hoping that it would require a bit less code but once I get it in place it will be what I am going for.
That is all for today!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)