Wednesday, January 31, 2007

We have a Winner...

Ok, my new rule in designing logos for my company: When all else fails, add a car part.
Ladies and Gents, I give you the final approved logo...


When I win the Lottery...

I am going to make CRAZY ass videos like this all the time... and buy all my friends matching suits of various rainbow colors.

Actually, the video uses color very well, if you can get past all the wiggling and that lady's voice.

Just Wow!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Logo Hell

This weekend is my company's Annual Managers' Conference. I usually do alot of graphics here and there for people, and make animations for others. None of it is really that difficult, just time consuming. Ok, let me rephrase that, the Leprechaun animations are difficult, but the stuff I do for other people isn't too bad. But there is one logo that is killing me.

Here is the first one I made:
It got little to no reaction.

Second one:

It got some reaction, but more of a "I don't know what I want it to look like, but that's not what I was thinking." I got a note that it needs to say "The Main Thing".

So, in between doing all my other stuff I come up with this one:Which is my favorite. Simple, good shape, very versatile. They are still not crazy about it. So, now I am basically starting over.

Friday, January 26, 2007

The Office

I love this show... My beautiful bride loves this show. But we love it for very different reasons. She watches it to see the relationship of Pam/Jim or Jim/Karen develop. I watch it to see what kind of Management style I should adopt, if I ever get promoted at work. I am definately going to use "Movie Day", as a motivator. And also to get great ideas for pranks on my co-workers. I found a list of Jim's Pranks on Dwight the other day. I still think the "Future Dwight" one is the best.

I have since Netflixed (look, a new verb!) the British series of the show that inspired the US version. If you think the uncomfortable moments with Steve Carell are bad, you haven't even scratched the surface with his British counterpart, David Brent (Ricky Gervais). If you love the Micheal factor of the US version, you should check out the original British series. Truely funny stuff. I also love the fact that Kevin, and Stanley were 1 character in the British Office.

There can be only ONE!
Go here to show which side you support!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Silly Scientists...

Dont make any plans for 5 billion years from now, because the Earth's Moon is destined to Disintergrate. Yup. Sorry.

But Mr. David Powell could have saved some of his valuable time here on Earth had he listened to the scientists predicting Galactic Cannibalism. Which is set to occur in 3 billion years. I have a wierd feeling the Earth and Moon will not survive the merger, spin happily for another 2 billion years, and then disintergrate.

C'mon, scientists... why worry about something 5 billion years away, when something else 3 billion years away is going to make it a moot point anyway. I know I am going to call Mr. Powell in 5 billion years, see how he feels about his Disintergrating Moon theory, then I will yell " IN YOUR FACE, MR. SCIENTIST GUY!", and hang up on him.... Nerd.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Lame Photographers


I was looking through my Top Stories on Yahoo this morning and saw a story with this picture. Come on.... really? This is the picture you decided to keep as professional photographer? Even better, this is the photo you decided to use from all the pictures your photog took? I have seen this "trick" used over and over. Some have the President with a light bulb over his head, some have another "Head of Big Government Department" with his head in the Seal of Big Government Department.

If this is the best picture you captured out of your shoot... please do the world a favor, and sell your camera. It's a stupid idea for a picture. Why don't you just go find a car parked next to a no parking sign, and photograph that in some crazy dutch angle. Oooo... how cutting edge. That's not an interesting photo, that's not a picture of Irony, its just lame.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Skeewed Data?

I just got done watching the local news.... wait, let me rephrase that. I just turned off my local news. These morons put up a poll on their website, asking people where they were staying during the ice storm. Here were the results:

With Family 40%
Toughing it out at home 52%
In a shelter 1%
At a Hotel 7%

WOW! That is amazing! Only 1% of the people are using the shelters!!! The anchors had some witty banter back and forth about how suprising those numbers were. Hey Morons... did you ever think that maybe the people at the shelters DON'T HAVE A COMPUTER OR AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO ANSWER YOUR POLL?!?!?

I hope tomorrow's Webpoll question is " Do you use a computer?"

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Teaching Troubles

I teach some classes at a local Technical College. The college has students signing up for the continuing education classes all the time. This creates as very weird situation for the instructors (and the students, sometimes) The classes need only 2 students to "Make" a class. If a class does not "Make" it is canceled. The student is refunded their money ( I guess ) and they have to reschedule for a later class. The cutoff for any given class is 48 hours. I have a class scheduled for Saturday. But I just found out today (Thursday) that it has enough students. Five to be exact. I just wish they would have called me when it "Made". Like if two students signed up a month ago, call me then and let me know its a go. As it sits now, I cannot make plans for this weekend until I get the call on Thursday? Just seems like there has to be a better plan. I won't even go into the fact that I just found out they are using a different book than last semester... guess my next to evenings are booked as well... Thanks guys, you just "Made" me cancel bowling with my daughter.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

I have too much time on my hands... Or do I?

Well, a few nights ago I canceled my beautiful wife and I's Warcraft accounts. The past few days I haven't been playing from 8pm to Midnight every night. And I find myself feeling like I am forgetting to do something when 10pm rolls around and I am watching TV, or loading the dishwasher. A strange feeling like I should be talking to a bunch of people or have my headphones on. Shouldn't I be at an Auction? How come I can find Herbs anymore? Aren't I supposed to have 5 backpacks on me at all times, and 2 entire changes of clothes? This is going to take some getting used to...

I went to bed Sunday Night at 10pm. 10PM! What in the world am I going to do with 2-3 extra hours of sleep every night? I can't remember the last time I went to bed before midnight. I guess I wish a had a "Sleep Bank" that I could put those extra hours in. When my new baby daughter comes I am really going to miss them, I have a feeling.

That brings up another "Oh, Crap!" moment I had. With the crazy holiday season winding down, I actually looked at a calendar, and our new baby is only 2 months away! Jeesh. Where is my Nifty Stopwatch when I need it.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Cookie Dough Caper

Ok, so maybe its not a caper, but it sounded good. Looking through the mail the other day, and I found some coupons for Papa Murphy's pizza. A new one had just opened up near my house. I was reading through the flyer, and noticed that the coupons all said "Limit 3". The $5 Pepperoni Pizza coupon peeked my interest, and I thought about getting 3, and freezing a couple... but then the last coupon caught my eye. "Free Cookie Dough". This coupon was good for 1 tub (a pound) of chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Score! But then I look at the fine print, and it also says "Limit 3". WHAT?!? Could it work? Were they crazy? Is it a typo? I decided to call their bluff.
I head up to the shop, and show my $5 coupon, and the lady talks me into getting the "Family" size for just a dollar more. Well, this eliminated the "not valid with any other offers" portion of the Cookie coupon, and I pressed on. I showed her the coupon, and she told me to grab a tub out of the display case. I pointed out the "Limit 3". She froze.

"I am going to have to talk to my Manager about this." she says.

She walks to the back room, and after about 10 seconds I hear:

"WHAT!?! Awwww....DAMN!"

He comes out of the back room shaking his head. Saying that "Normally" he wouldn't honor it. But since it says what it says, and I was the first one to "try" it. He told me to take 3. I told him, I didn't have to take them, but he insisted.

"No, no... Take 3, and because of you, I have to go make a sign for the door."

I felt kinda bad for taking 3 pounds of Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Especially since I resolved to get back down to my Bungee jumping weight ( a whole other story ). But my beautiful bride is pregnant, and she would appreciate the instant fix it brings.

So, thank you Mr. Papa Murphy's Pizza Manager guy. For sticking to your "printed" word, and not reading farther in the fine print to the "Participation may vary" part. You have a new customer, who will spend enough to make up for the printing mistake.