Indri at MOMA
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Tag Archives: Indriani
curiosity
I’m loath to write too much about Indri. I don’t want to seem obsessive. But she didn’t seem happy that I edited her out of my last post. It really was just because I thought the writing was bad.
“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”
It amounted to Indri being very inquisitive. It’s not a trait she’s proud of. Fear of being pushy, I suppose. But I love it. When she’s in that moment, she’s got the unashamed curiosity of a little child. (Again with the “cute” shit). It’s also nice to see someone unconcerned about admitting they don’t know something. Nothing makes for a better conversationalist than someone asking questions. And — personal preference — I like nothing more in another person than the ability to hold an interesting discussion.
There were other parts — other thoughts — that reinforced all this. But I haven’t figured out how to convey those thoughts well, yet. (I really wanna sleep).
I’m leaving for New York in about 2… 2 and a half hours. I’ll no doubt be very cranky for lack of sleep. But then again… I am going to New York. I probably won’t stand out.
I’ll miss Pixel. But other than that, this trip will give me good reason to ignore my clients. Stupid thought occurred to me today: There is really no time whatsoever where I can say “Yay! No more work. All free now to do something completely unproductive.”. Not that I don’t slack occasionally. Just that it’s is always a trade-off now. There’s no completely free time left in my life.
All in how you look at it, I guess.
Made another minor discovery about two days ago.I have been doing my second-best to try and avoid concentrated sugar — mainly in candy. There’s not a whole lot of noticeable effect, day to day, other than the occasional need to fight down a urge for chocolate. I still obtain candy, occasionally, such as the package of gourmet sweets given to me by a business contact recently. Couldn’t let it go to waste. But I was getting headaches every day. Occurred to me the only days I was getting headaches were those days I was eating a lot of chocolate or candy. Left the candy alone for the last 2 days. No headaches.
(Somewhere out there, Indri is going “duh!”)
(Somewhere out there, Sara is going “duh!”)
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
a little bit of work… a little bit of fun
Slowly catching up on work. I’ll still be busy through at least the end of the year. And I’ve had two potentially lucrative referrals in the past week, which won’t kick in until after the holidays. And still a dozen jobs on back burners.
No… I don’t have a personal life. Why do you ask?
I think I will have to institute some news rules, for a couple clients. I still very much want to be available whenever and wherever my clients need me. But some of them seem to take more advantage of that than others. If you call me at 11:30 PM, it better be a major deadline. If the only time you call me, it’s after 7 PM on a weekday or before 9 AM on a weekend, you better be paying me well, on a regular basis. I can deal with the occasional or irregular call or email. Hell… email at 3 AM on Christmas for all I care. I can ignore those. But I think I’m going to have to set thresholds for proper communication, and when a client exceeds those limits within a specific range of time, I’ll stop taking their calls at unreasonable hours. You can leave a message, and I’ll get back to you at the next possible chance. I’m not trying to punish the clients. The major benefit will actually be keeping me from cringing every time my phone rings, and getting snarky with clients who are paying me good money.
And god’s honest truth… if you’re going to hire someone to do work for you, you should really be AT LEAST as prepared as you expect them to be. Really nothing irks me more than to have clients repeatedly come to me, completely unprepared, needing rushed work, with specs that change every couple hours… and come back again, and again, and again,… in the same manor. Do you have any idea how much money and time you could save; how much better the quality of your finished product would be… if you simply planned ahead far enough? I’m not asking anyone to be anally organized. But don’t tell me you need an ad in 3 hours and expect me to write it and design it. Don’t tell me the black and white tri-fold brochure we abandoned weeks ago now will be an 8-page letter-sized booklet in full color going to press tomorrow. And god… if you really can’t help yourself… don’t balk when I charge you less than any other respectable designer would for half as much work. I want to do the best work possible for you. All I ask in exchange is enough to live comfortably. And my standards for comfort are pretty damn low.
Eh.
I had a good weekend. Holiday dinner with friends on Friday night, followed by ice cream cones in 20 degree weather, and the biggest love sac I’ve ever seen. (It may have even given Kier a back injury). It’s nice seeing friends from school. Just wish we got together often enough to be able to talk about things other than college. (We do stray into the occasional geekiness, but…)
Finally found that last Christmas gift on Saturday. After the usual awkward apartment building party that night, I went to Chiaroscuro for their closing night. Talk about a complete blowout. Over 500 people showed up. It took 5 minutes just to find somewhere to sit at one point. But the music was great, and everyone came out. So many people, that I didn’t even get to talk to some of those I knew. Took off at an “early” 2:30 to catch the last train home, though I hear the party went ’til at least 4 AM. I can’t complain about any night that ends with a kiss on the cheek from a beautiful woman, though.
Sunday was incredibly lazy, though. Really… don’t think I can point to a single productive accomplishment, outside of some text edits to a catalog I’m working on. Never touched the painting. I still want to work on it. I’m thinking if I can get enough work done during the next couple of days, I’ll cut out in the evening and paint. Or at the very least, draw.
Am I really an adult?
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Those 3 Days
Can I just say that Sarah makes incredibly beautiful Christmas cards? I was so totally clueless that she had made them herself. I am so jealous. Always want to do that, but never do. And the few ideas I bat around in my head tend to be more sarcastic than beautiful. But then, Sarah is special.
And yesterday I found out Indri was seriously looking for a job, again. I thought it was a very… good thing. But I didn’t want to say that. Right now, I can’t remember exactly why. But yes… I was happy. She IM’d me today while I was working, to tell me that she got the job. And you know… even more happy now. Happy that she has something to do again. Happy that it sounds like it’s in her industry, again. (At least remotely). Happy that she has one more reason to stay here, where she seems so… um… happy. (As if I was gonna let her leave.)
Pixel is sleeping and being cute, as always. Well… usually. I did wake up the other morning to find her wandering around the apartment with a plastic shopping bag wrapped around her middle. She was perfectly fine… no potential injury unless she had found a way to gain 15 pounds overnight. But she had somehow gotten halfway through the hole for the handle, and couldn’t make it the rest of the way through. (I was too tired to even think about where she found the bag in the first place.) I de-tutu’d her and carried her back to bed, where she immediately curled up and fell asleep, without a care in the world.
I finished up the final details on my most recent painting and shipped it off to New York, this morning. I did forget to take a picture of the finished work, but oh well. Assuming UPS doesn’t succeed in destroying it, I’ll see it again in a little over a week. So now I REALLY want to work on the new painting. But my schedule is so full, I don’t know when that’s going to happen. I have enough work to keep me busy through the end of the year. Tomorrow night I have a holiday dinner. Saturday I have errands to run during the day, a party in the evening, and a club closing to attend at night. Sunday SHOULD be spent doing more work. But depending on my mood when I wake up that day, I may throw common sense to the wind and work on the new painting. Much more fun than my last one, which had way too much purpose behind it and not enough … release. I still owe someone some drawings too, though frankly they can wait, since I doubt they even remember.
Only one Christmas gift left to buy. And it’s really just a little something extra. So I won’t feel bad if I don’t manage to get it before going home. It involves a lot of potential walking on Saturday. But if they weather is still as nasty as it has been, I may just say ‘fuck it’. I’ll be in New York for the few days around Christmas. (Rob my place if you want, but I take all my valuables when I travel, and you would be left just to face the wrath of the attack cat). All bets are off as soon as the plane touches down in NY, but so far it seems like it may be a fairly calm holiday this year.
No idea what to do for New Year’s Eve yet. But it wouldn’t be the first time I just ignored it when nothing better came along.
Um…
yeah. That’s all, I guess. Just wanted to talk for a while. Thank you, and goodnight.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Indri in New York City
I spent last night in NYC, with Indri. Two words to describe Indri: disgustingly cute. You know… in every possible way. She’s got chipmunk cheeks, big anime eyes, and bouncy little outfits to match a bouncy little personality. She rambles on about anything and everything, and still comes across as fascinated with life and her surroundings. And those occasions when she doesn’t seem to know what to say, a look overtakes her face like she just stepped in pudding. In the nine or ten years I’ve known her, she’s never once let on that she’s anything more than sweet and polite, with a little bit of innocent mischievousness, which I take as reality, since it would be a shame to believe anything else. In her presence, I can’t bring myself to spout my more lurid innuendo that someone like Sara might experience. It would be like drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. I can’t even be as stubbornly negative as I occasionally still tend to be.
I swear… she’s a living pixie.
(There, Indri. NOW you can be embarrassed.)
Hopped the Washington Deluxe each way, which turned out much better than expected. I’d heard them referred to as the “pauper’s limos“. But I personally think it’s a pretty amazing service, for only $35 round trip. Top of the line busses, that make Grayhounds look like mobile shithouses. Clean and well kept up. Televisions with movies at the start of each ride. convenient pick-ups and drop-offs in the heart of each city. Couldn’t get all that if you drove your own self.
New York City always fascinates me. I came from New York to DC almost exactly 8 years ago. And although I’ve dug out my own niche, I’ve never fit perfectly here. And each time I visit New York, I’m reminded why. While I grew up in Geneva, somewhere up in central NY, there’s a certain ruggedness of personality, about any New Yorker, no matter where they call home. And no where does this essence seem more concentrated than New York City. It’s especially visible in the women, most of whom have the air of just having castrated a potential mugger with their umbrella, and are now on their way home to slip into pink, fuzzy slippers. Where women in DC confronted by lurid behavior may go the other way, cry, and sue, (not necessarily in that order), the same New York woman would probably grab the man by the balls and threaten to remove them manually if the assailant doesn’t grow a brain cell. You know, it’s there in the men too, but harder to notice since aggressiveness is more universally common in them. I remember a line from Crocodile Dundee that was supposed to be funny, about how New York City must be the friendliest place on earth, if 20 million people all wanted to live together. Joke or not, there’s a tiny bit of truth in there. I don’t know if you can call it friendliness. But the residents all seem to realize they’re packed in like rats, and naked hostility and apathy aren’t going to help anyone. New York City is really one of those places you can only experience first-hand.
Oh… yeah… happy birthday, Indri.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!