What have you been doing?

I'll tell you. Over the last few weeks I've had quite a bit of work to do. For the last two weeks I've been working on a slide show, media loop, and small web site for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. They have a Pre-AUA conference symposium faculty meet and greet at the end of May on ED. In short - I'm making cooler than Power Point presentations for erectile dysfunction. I have all kinds of facts on ED now (I haven't been reading the text, just copying - I don't want to bum myself out). Working with this stuff definitely makes those spam e-mails a lot more personal. Brandon is now in Spain for two weeks with his girlfriend, a The Bachelorette contestant, and a Maxim model. I've assumed responsibility for the project.

I just finished a feature story layout for Create Magazine, which is a nationally syndicated magazine for designers that just recently started here in San Diego. The story will be out in the Fall edition.

I've been doing quite a lot of PR/client meetings and such as well. Trying to get projects lined up so I'm not out of a job. A few web sites, a few good new contacts, a few good contractors, a few good demonstration/marketing ideas, and a few ideas for new companies. I'm talking to Kallie about making clothes and selling them online sometime soon. Her dad and bro (Travis) have an embroidery company, and Josh's dad does screenprinting, so we have the hook ups.

I have officially signed a contract for my adjunct professor position at PLNU for the fall. Now I'm going through books, articles, and coming up with project ideas and a curriculum/syllabus - seeing as it's a completely new class to the school, I have to create the entire class. I have some good plans, but plenty more to go. Luckily I have more than enough time.

I'm going back to OKC in two weeks for Drew's graduation. I won't be there long - only Thursday evening through Sunday morning - but it will be nice to be back home for a bit. Maybe I'll work in some meetings? Anyone interested?

I recently put some of my art up at the Creations Cafe around the corner from my apartment. It will be up for 3 months and we'll probably have a grand opening reception next month sometime. They're still renovating and adding on, so we're waiting for the dust to clear and the WC to be built. Stop on by - it's on the corner of 30th and Adams Ave.


Photo taken with my new Treo 650. Not bad, huh?

Next week I'm on a panel review for Michael Matosian's graphic design show. A couple weeks ago I went to PLNU for Chris Clippinger's panel. I've had a few other students ask as well, but I just wasn't able to make them work due to lack of notice/time with work. It's great to feel like I'm starting to get back in the department and "the scene". I love being around art, the artists, and just the constant environment of critiquing, consideration, and concept (like that alliteration?). I look forward, though anxious and apprehensive-ly, to the fall semester.

I'll end with a fleeting thought on confidence and ego. Last night I downloaded Tuesday's episode of Scrubs (I missed it because I was at a business meeting with Brandon at The W downtown - thanks for the grub Brandon, tre bien) and watched it before heading to bed. The theme of the show was ego, arrogance, and confidence. I realize I have, even if it's not incredibly obvious to others, a complex of self-confidence. Specifically in the work that I do - both personally and commercially. Mainly for the fact that I'm never satisfied with my own work. I think this is a good thing, though. If I was satisfied with my work I would become laxidasical, content, and never push myself to try anything new or grow. But this also stems from never wanting to let people down. If I walk in to a client's office and tell them I'm the best person for the job, then I end up designing something that's pure crap, and let them down - it ruins me. This definitely comes from my personal life. Even though I'm sarcastic, critical, and at times callous, it still kills me (not literally) when I know I've let someone down or really hurt someone's feelings. I'm a people pleaser when it comes to stuff like that. Now, I'll also not care and try to push people's buttons and attempt something new as often as possible, but it's normally just so people will roll their eyes and breath a sigh of "that's just David." So do I show over-confidence on the outside? Should I become astronomically arrogant? Or should I be coy and allow my work to speak for itself? I suppose I can be both. I'm a situationalist, as I like to say. You aren't the same person you are around your girl or boyfriend as you are around your grandma, why pretend that situations and circumstances don't matter? I guess that's the struggle of living for compliments, cheers, and acceptance - but being awful at responding to them, accepting them, and believing they're always out of obligation.

Dr. Cox [to Turk]: Ego is good, ya dumbass. it's the reason that guy [random patient] wants you to be his surgeon. It's the reason she [Carla] is borderline attracted to you. And it's the reason she [JD] so desparately wants to marry you. Bottom line, in medicine, half of pulling it off is believing you're the biggest, smartest, badass of a doctor to ever walk these halls. You want to see how you end up if you don't believe that?

[Enter room with Doug trapped under a corpse]

Doug: I don't know how it happened again, but it did!

I think that applies... somehow...

And the next line is fantastic:

JD: As I gangsta-leaned down the hallway in the rad new wheels I found by the dumpster, I coudn't help but think how ego effects everything. Without a healthy dose of it, you can't trust yourself to do something you really want... of course with too much ego you can end up losing something you wish you still had... but with the right amount, nothing can get in your way.