Process revision

For whatever reason it's been very hard this week to focus. I'm betting it's because I see the light at the end of the tunnel. At any rate, I did make good progress last night on my revision and have made the following decisions:

• I won't be adding pages in even though I got feedback to that effect. The reason it was suggested was to make the pages less cramped, so I am adding more breathing room instead by adjusting the leading and removing all of the images. I may bump the page sizes up slightly as well, although it's looking like that won't be needed. I also avoided adding pages in because it would have screwed up my yard-line theme and the math with how the yardage lined up.
• My comp felt kind of rigid, so I'm taking a chance by removing the images and replacing them with X's and O's running through the pages (like plays drawn out on paper). Not only does this make the pages feel more organic, but it adds to the flow by adding that line running through it.
• I changed my title to "Drafting With Purpose: A Guide for Fantasy Footballers", instead of "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", and adjusted the font on the cover from Nueva (you were right Stacey!)

I hope to post examples tonight, but they weren't cooperating before, so we'll see what happens!

favorite words

Disclaimer: This list is certainly not all-inclusive as I hear words every week that I'd add to this list. If I knew we were going to open the door to curse words, I'd have about 50 more on here.

menagerie
sommelier
recockulous
poppycock
Wenceslaus
henceforth

Logo

Okay, first of all the colors on this upload are all f'ed up and I have no idea why...any suggestions? The browns and other colors have gone haywire!!! F it, I'm posting anyway!

My wife and mother-in-law have been making stylized burp clothes and changing pad covers for gifts to expectant mothers and for craft fairs that'll be coming up this summer. My wife's maiden name is Cipolloni, so I actually suggested their business name too of "Cippy Stitches". I designed a logo for them and recently revamped this ("recently" meaning before the Words & Images class...I mean, I'm a glutton for punishment, but I'm not f''ing crazy!) for them. Any feedback is appreciated. I think maybe the start of the "S" thread (bottom of the S) could be faded slightly to blend into the background, but up for additional suggestions.

process samples

I have been trying for the better part of 2 days to upload sample jpeg pages from my booklet: "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", but it's not working. Toot tired to deal right now.

We had to go to the emergency room for 4 hours tonight...apparently Matty (newborn) is allergic to milk. GREEEEAAAAT.....

this and that

I'm hitting a serious friggin wall energy-wise. At times I feel delirious. The baby didn't sleep AT ALL last night and neither did my wife as the baby was up screaming. In think I may have gotten 3 hours...maybe. Just a week and a half left, just a week and a half left...and I'm all about Brewer's Art after our last class if anyone wants to go for a beer. I could sure use one now...and a whole helluva lot of sleep.

I'm adding 16 additional images to my Flash project. That will have to do cause I just don't have time to add more. Tonight I start putting them into the program and try reorganizing things. We'll see if the music still synchs up.

For the process, my idea was coming together and I had an epiphany last night about a design idea, so I will continue implementing that tonight along with my Flash nightmare. Thursday and Friday will bring printing adventures and more Flash headaches I'm sure.

I've had some people say to me "I don't know how you're doing it", meaning grad school with the new baby. You have to want it bad, plain and simple. Not that other people don't want it, but this is an opportunity I've been waiting for for a long time and a little strain on my time isn't going to stand in the way of me attaining my goal. I'm just really lucky that my wife supports me in this. I guess I'm being rewarded from supporting her through grad school to become a speech pathologist a few years ago. As soon as I think I've had enough, I think of how trivial staying up late to do a project seems when you consider there are people accomplishing far greater things such as persevering through illnesses, or fighting for our country, etc. Just this thought alone gets me motivated to stay up and crush whatever I'm working on.

another busy week

I feel better about this week than last in terms of how much work needs to get accomplished, but I'm still going to be busy as hell. We have carpet getting installed this Thursday, but I do have off the whole day, so that day could go either way in terms of how much crap I get done. My goal is to pound out some good work tonight, Monday and Tuesday so the last part of the week isn't so grueling. Good luck to all...almost there people!!

collection

I'm a huge traditionalist when it comes to the holidays...specifically Thanksgiving and Christmas. Big family get togethers, old XMas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas Carol with Alistair Simm, Christmas Story...okay, that's not old), etc. I love the going to Kenilworth mall and seeing the huge train garden. My mom actually started collecting these Dept 56 houses and accessories which are the small intricate houses you typically would see in a Christmas train garden. She wound up getting me into it and now every year she buys our family a new Dept 56 house. Maybe one year I can put them all together and make that train garden myself for our family. At any rate, these houses often remind me of The Christmas Carol since they are replicas of old British homes (they even have a Dickens collection within the Dept 56 brand), so that's why I like them so much...