Burning the midnight oil

So I have been crazy busy with work (I work for my self at home) and have been pulling some all nighter or near all nighters. My wife is back to work as a teacher but my daughter doesn't start school until Tuesday so I am tasked with watching her during the day and trying to work while I am constantly interrupted. (not to make it sound bad, that's what kids do..It's all good)

As a result, I am left with no choice but to work evenings and into the night, just to do it all over again. I don't want to sound like an old man whiner but I cant do it like I used to. I was up til 3 last night and boy am I felling it.

Got a huge workload and am just not looking forward to the long hours ahead. The one saving grace is that My daughters grandparents (my wife's parents) are taking her for a couple days so I can crank out several huge projects. I will probably be working 80-100 hours this week. Blahhh

Now I feel a little better. GIVE ME LOTS OF COFFEE!

An now to end this post on a positive note, Check this out!

IM Theater

A quick IM Conversation about the ROCK.


Thurs 10:17 PM

Pete: Hey seskophonic!
Patrick: sup mang
Pete: Do you want to play a show in mid oct?
Patrick:where?
Pete: The Red and the Black
Pete: h st
Patrick: wht kind of set up? full band?
Pete: Christian and me
Patrick: Whats the date?
Patrick: do you know
Pete: 18th
Patrick: Wed Night...
Patrick: How soon can I get back to you. I have to check Camryns school calendar to see if there are any parent events/meeting that I have to go to
Pete: gotcha no problem
Pete: gotta go talk to you soon
Patrick:ok...I will let you know in the next day or 2...send me a list of songs to know
Patrick: and when we can practice
Pete: do you have any of my new stuff?
Patrick: and where
Patrick: How new?
Pete: smart assed angel
Patrick: i have the last album you did
Patrick: no I dont think I have that
Patrick:I would remember that
Patrick: is it online?
Pete: I've got 4 songs at www.purevolume.com/yourpal
Patrick: Sweet. Ill check them out
Pete: I can send you 4 more from e-mail
Patrick: I need the rock!
Patrick: do it
Pete: another man's mess is one
Pete: and I wanted to do we were doomed
Patrick:Send tem over!
Pete: Later on I got shit to do
Patrick:you got it
Patrick: get the 4 now, I'll send the others soon
Patrick: k
Patrick:Iall talk to you later or tomorrow
Pete: see ya
Patrick: Peace

Rock star in the making

It's the Genes that make non-stop rocking possible.

I think I might have skin cancer

Ok so I had this weird pimple on the back of my neck a few weeks ago and then popped it. But then it grew, got crusty and scabby. I picked the scab and then got gooey and scabby again for 4 or 5 cycles of goo to scab.

I didn't think much of it until my wife said I should get it looked at - it might be skin cancer. Im like nahhhh...

The sore is still on my neck, then I noticed another one coming in a few inches from it. This one directly on the back of my neck. Exact same M.O. So I started doing a little research online and found this. The description was EXACTLY what I was experiencing. Freaked me out a little bit. So I have an appointment the first week of sept with a dermatologist. Hope everything is negative

Now, one thing I did notice while doing the research was that there was a high percentage of people who get skin cancer. They said up to 50% of Americans would get some form of skin cancer in their lifetime. I know there are forms that are worse than other like melanoma, etc. But it still is weird to think that I might have skin cancer...all before I'm 35

I don't want to get too worked up over it before I even know that it is for sure. I will let you know how the appointment goes.

wish me luck

I got to get me one of these!

Kitchen is finally done!

Here are the before and after pics of the kitchen. Its been a tough few weeks and honestly I am so glad we have our kitchen back. I was getting sick of eating out!

To see the whole set of photos and the transformation click here

Old Kitchen Ewww


New Kitchen - Ahhhh

A Reflection

Friendship is lost.
Sadness.
Burdens are
No more.
Elation.
To act independently
Without fear
Of judgment.
Freedom.
Truly lost is what I
Don't like about myself.
Fantastic.
Now, I can begin to grow
Again.

The Cons or working for your self

Okay so working for yourself is indeed great. But, there are also cons. Here they are

• No regular paychecks. There are times that Idon't get paid for 2 months so you have to manage finances pretty strictly
• Have to deal with deadbeat clients who slack on paying invoices. Thankfully, I haven' had to deal with this many times
• No company sponsored health insurance or disability or life. Let lt me tell you insurace premiums are expensive. Especially for a family. The only saving grace is that the premiums are tax deductable.
• Working alone in a home office can get lonely sometimes. I miss the social aspects of working in the office, but not the politics
• Although I work for my self, I still have to work for the clients so often have to work late to complete a project or a rush job. And if anyone is in the field of design, there are LOTS of Rush jobs.
• I am responsible for collecting invoices and billing - All administrative aspects of the company (at least until I expand and am able to hire staff) This takes away time from work that I can do. Often times I do my administrative stuff at nights or weekends. Although this IS work, it is fun because it goes back to the satifying part of running your own company. You get to wear many hats.
• Tax time sucks because I dont have any taxes taken out of payment received. so at tax time, I usually get slammed. Granted I do put aside $$ for taxes throughout the year, it still sucks to have to write a huge check.

Thats pretty much all I can think of. It is very difficult to maintain stability when working for your self, but over all I think the scale tips to the side of the pros. The pros definitley make all the cons worth it. It is true that it is "feast or famine". So when the feasting time comes, be prepared to work hard and long so when the famine comes, you will have $$ to hold you over.

The Pros of working for yourself

As many of you know, I work for my self. I am a graphic designer/art director and have been self employed for over a year full time. In fact, today is my one year anniversary since I have started my company on a full time basis. Working for your self brings about many challenges but it can be very rewarding. Here are some of the pros of working for yourself.
• Sleep in in the morning - No set schedule
• take off when you need to
• answer to no one
• having a home office offers many benefits plus all the writeoffs that come with having your own business, like new equipment, etc.
• I get to spend way more time with my family
• I can be busy or as slow as I want to. It's up to me what work I take
• rewarding in that you have complete control of your company and when things do go right, it's very satifying.
• I can take a nap when I want to
• I can take a long lunch if I want to
• start late and quit early
• I dont have to commute. In fact I have only put on like 1000 miles on my car this year.
• I dont have to shower if I dont want to and sometimes, I don't
• I can enjoy taking my time reading the paper and drinking my coffee in the am
• I can crank the tunes while I work or watch tv
• I dont have to worry about big brother watching me while I Instant message someone
• I can go play golf...AND write off the expense
• It's so much fun
• I can sleep in!

I could probably go on but you get the idea. I will post the cons next time because let me tellyou, there are those as well.

Blast from the past.

I just came across this intro to an old show that I used to watch when I was a kid. We are talking late 70s early 80s. The Great Space Coaster!

My wife and I were just sitting on the couch and we both started singing along and remembered almost every word. Crazy after all those years. It's amazing what stays in your mind. It's these what-we-think-are-trivial moments in our lives that shape us as humans. Kick ass. Remember Speed Reader, and Gary Gnu with "No news is good news with Gary Gnews"?

Decipher Camryn's Grocery List Sweepstakes

Grocery list - detail
Originally uploaded by psesko.

My daughter actually wrote out this grocery list by phoenetically sounding out each word and writing it. See if you can decipher it

I will post the answers in another post.

The winner will receive absolutely nothing except for bragging rights.

A page from my journal

I keep a journal of drawings, doodles, and writings, etc. Here is a selected page from it.

Who said Asian Humor isn't funny?

The Time my car got stolen!

This past February, my car (actually my wife's) was stolen from right in front of my house! Now this could have been prevented because I left the car running to warm it up before my wife left with our daughter.

Here is what happened.
We had a Buick Rendezvous. Yes Lonnie Bruner, we have an "American" car (but my other car IS a Nissan.

Usually in the winter on exceptionally cold days, I would go out and start the car to warm it up. My wife is a teacher and my daughter goes to the same Montessori school my wife teaches at so I would load up the car with my wife's bag, lunches, etc.

So I start the car and go inside. I am standing in the foyer putting my daughters shoes and jacket on. The front door is closed but not all the way. Maybe open just an inch or so. It takes me literally 3 minutes to put the shoes and jacket on my daughter. I open the door to put her in her booster seat and BLAMMO. the car is GONE!

My stomach sunk. I ran around the corner and saw nothing. I couldn't believe it.

This happened at 8 AM. Plain as day. My neighbor was in his car leaving and I asked him if he saw anything. He said he saw the car leaving, but assumed it was us.

We live in a very quiet neighborhood. We got the feeling that someone had been casing the hood as this was pretty much routine for us. Someone had to be waiting in the wings in order to pull that off in such a small time window. NO MORE. To add insult to injury, my wife's laptop and purse were in the car.

Let me tell you that I do feel dumb about the whole thing and it WAS partially my fault for leaving the car running. But that doesn't give anyone the right to take the car. Thankfully insurance covered the whole thing but it was an ordeal.

The thing that pissed me off the most was how it affected my daughter. She was sad because "her" car was gone. Along with many of her belongings and toys.

I only thank god that she wasn't in the car at the time. (which I never do)

I did notice that my neighbor did start her car and left her 7 year old daughter in it while it was running. I told her not to do that anymore.

We had to learn the hard way. The old adage "what is this world coming to" definitely applies here. I remember you could leave your bikes on the lawn, cars unlocked, windows left open, shed left unlocked and even the house doors were never locked. Not any more.

So beware.

Kids really do say the darnedest things!

I have a daughter who will be 4 this August. Over the past few years there have been many things she has said or done that just crack me up! Unfortunately, I don't remember all of them so I am going to use this as an opportunity to archive them, and at the same time, share them on my blog.

Scenario I:
My wife and I are driving with my daughter in the back seat in her booster. I am in the passenger seat and my wife is driving. We are having a conversation about who knows what and all of the sudden my daughter says "Daddy?"

I say "yes?"

She says "What does shafted mean?"

My wife and I look at each other with eyes wide open and there is a moment of silence. Then we just start cracking up. So my daughter sees that she is getting a reaction by saying the word "shafted" and starts to repeat it over and over:
"Shafted, shafted, shafted" We laugh some more.


Scenario II:
This happened a long time ago but it was so funny that I had to include it. I was taking a leak in the bathroom, and my daughter barges in and to her surprise she sees a stream coming out while I am standing up. She was about 2 1/2 at the time (I think).

So she proceeds to walk closer to it with hands stretched out and says
"Ooo...Wash Hands!"

I immediately jerk back to prevent her from "washing her hands" causing me to totally miss the toilet. Again. I was in stitches.


Kids really do say the darnedest things!

More to come as it happens, and it WILL happen.