I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around.We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.”

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed “How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.

“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.

“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.”

“And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”

Also “If you woke up this morning with more health than illness …you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”

“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation…you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”

“If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.”

“If your parents are still alive and still married… you are very rare.”

“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”

Forbidden LEGO: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against!

Just added this to the Amazon wishlist…

Forbidden Lego introduces you to the type of free-style building that LEGO’s master builders do for fun in the back room. Using LEGO bricks in combination with common household materials (from rubber bands and glue to plastic spoons and ping-pong balls) along with some very unorthodox building techniques, you’ll learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse. Try your hand at a toy gun that shoots LEGO plates, a candy catapult, a high voltage LEGO vehicle, a continuous-fire ping-pong ball launcher, and other useless but incredibly fun inventions.

re:Graphics person able to bring my logo to life ($100)

It is not my purpose to bash the OP, or call them cheap or whatever.
I realize that you might not have a large budget to get the type of work you need. Probably have no idea what the current rates are, and what goes into a logo package.
I’m sure there’s someone out there who will “bring your logo to life” for $100.
That person is not me.
That person isn’t most designers with any real talent and skill.
And this isn’t just for you, Mr. do-my-logo-for-a-hundred-dollars, this is for everyone who devalues the work of good graphic designers.
If only “designing” was my job, life would be so much easier.

Here’s why:

When a potential client comes to me, basically asking the same thing you are, I tell them my price. Never less than $400. Of course, I get scoffed at, and am told any number of things including:
My nephew/cousin/brother-in-law/friend, whoever, has Photoshop, and said they’d do it for $xx or free.
Why should I pay so much for you to design something that I can’t even touch?
Well so-and-so over at logomilldotcom told me he can do it for much cheaper…

the list goes on and on, and I won’t bore you with it.
Working designers know what I’m talking about.
We deal with it every day.

Now, I’m going to tell you why I would charge you $500 –at the least.

When you hire me to make your logo, I not only have to come up with numerous ideas based on what you think you want, I also have to take into account where you’ll be using it, and what for.
I have to explain you out of many poor decisions based on your lack of understanding why your idea won’t work. We LOVE it when you have a great idea, but it happens rarely.

What kind of business are you in?
Who are you marketing towards?
What do you hope to do with the logo in the future?
Is it a trendy look that will blend in and disappear?
Is it too ambitious and full of unnecessary elements that take away from the message?
Does it make any sense in any way?
Am I taking someone else’s work and digitizing it so you have a proper .eps file?
Why didn’t you have them do it in the first place?
Was it because you got it for $50?
I could spend hours rehashing the millions of questions I’ve come across, talking with potential clients.

The last logo I did, I charged 1k.
That 1k got my client almost 25 different ideas to choose from.(could’ve been more, ended up with the original idea -doesn’t negate the hours I spent on other mock ups)
It got him the proper colors that best suit his business and work well in print and on the web.
It got him letterhead and business cards.
It got him branding and marketing strategy.
It got him the proper files so that he could send the logo out to be printed on everything he needed for his business.
Ultimately, it got him more business.

Now I design brochures for him and frequently update his website(that I also made)… because his business is growing, and the strategy worked.
I get emails from him all the time, thanking me for everything.
Why? because it was professional, and it was well thought out and it meant something. I didn’t hand him a cd with a logo on it and say “good luck”.
That’s what 100 bucks gets you.

100 dollars also ensures that no matter how bad your idea is, or how ridiculous you logo looks, the “designer” will keep their mouth shut and give you the exact crap you’re asking for.
Then you’ll wonder why it isn’t working, or why you have to keep getting it in different formats for different people.
You feel robbed, and now think that, what designers do is bullshit.

I can’t tell you how much more than just designing, I do with my clients.
I’m regularly walking them through everything. I’m dealing with teaching them how and where to use the files to accomplish their business plans.
I’m always consulting them. I can be counted on for ideas and strategies to get their business seen, in a market that is flooded.

If you can get all of that for $100… then you’re a lucky man, and should never tell anyone about your guy -Of course, you will also in a way be putting him out of work, but that’s ok, because you got your cheap logo.

I will however apologize in advance if I misrepresented you in this post.
More so than anything, it’s what I want to tell every person who looks for low priced work.
I know from years of experience and hand holding, everything that goes into designing your logo, and everything else I do in that process, is what the future of your business is hinging on.
Stop thinking of designers as people who make pictures, or who do work that has no real value, because you’re wrong. A good designer with any marketing savvy can take your shitty idea for a logo, and turn it into the centerpiece of your prosperous business.
Great design is not stuffing 10 lbs of shit in a 5lb bag.
And it’s definitely not happening with $100.

If you don’t have the money, work out a deal, make payment, but please, stop undervaluing what we do. I swear, once you shop around and talk to some people, you’ll see that if you care about the future of your business, it’s money well spent.

Original Post

It took 15 days, but I got my first satellite outage. I’ve been fairly happy so far, with my connection hovering just above 1MB (I’m paying 1.5MB). Hopefully this isn’t the start of something new…

Web Acceleration Client Error (506) - Suspected Recent Satellite Link Outage
The satellite link was operating properly up until the most recent web page request, but the last request could not be successfully sent across the satellite link to the Web Acceleration Server. Possible causes for this include recent changes in weather conditions or equipment problems in the HUGHES Network Operations Center. Trying again at a later time may result in restored service due to either improvements in the weather conditions causing the service outage or rectification of a network problem in the HUGHES Network Operations Center. If this problem persists, please contact your service provider for additional assistance.

Who needs windmills.

After sitting and listening to all the garbage involved with the proposed windfarms popping up on every corner around me lately, it is nice to see something that actually works. This is exactly what the local, state, and federal government should be focusing on getting inplace instead of handing money to the idiots selling the idea of giant towers in the backyard to poor old farmers. Hey, who can resist the almighty dollar? Even if we could save the environment and all that with windfarms, our world will never look the same again.

Anyway…

I found this link on Mark’s awesome website Modern Homes New England and it makes me want to tear my house down and start over. Kudos to PowerHouse Enterprises for building a home that is healthier for homeowners and their families, is made from sustainable and recycled materials, and built to generate their own power and heat.

they’ll even let me finance this over 36 months… sweet!

Star Wars Cockpit Original Arcade Machine

Check this yo….

Last night we packed up the whole family in the minivan, including my still-nursing-a-broken-leg-fresh-outta-knee-surgery wife and my two foster kids… Mykaila and Darien, and cruised on out to the closing night of Dying 2 Live in Watertown. I totally forgot about Day of Fire playing Friday night, but my kids wouldn’t let me forget about ‘my name is KJ AKA KJ-52‘ on Saturday.

We went early so Trisha could help out at the KJ-52 merchandise table. Everybody was talking about how great Day of Fire, and 33Miles were the night before. I SHOULD’VE GONE!!! I caught the end of Mike Guzzardo, heard a little bit of Infusion (from right here in Beaver Falls, NY) and then listened to “DC Gump” in between chasing the boys around the place.

There was a pretty good crowd of kids there and “five-tweezy” had everybody with their hands in the air… wavin’ em like they just don’t…. *sigh* I can’t stop it now, keep it goin’ now… Anyway, KJ did a bunch of old school stuff to kick it off and get the place movin’. Ha threw in some new tracks from “The Yearbook” and a freestyle jam about 3 random objects picked from the crowd (an empty Tootsie Roll wrapper, a cell phone, and Bill Jepma’s football), the band had the place laughin’ went they went into a rendition of “Jump” by Van Halen, which got them “fired” by KJ, then later they let loose with “Who Let The Dogs Out”, and started some Backstreet Boys before KJ cut ‘em off. Everybody had a blast. Even Gabe was standing on his chair bouncin’ to the beat. Later on after the Pillar concert (which ROCKED… LOUD by the way) KJ hung out and signed anything and everything my kids could get their hands on.

“Whose idea was this, a Christian Floridian rappin’ white kid
whoever did must’ve flipped they lid, he’s bugged out and dances like Taylor Hicks”

Who cares KJ… just keep doin’ yo thang!

Been waiting for this news…

Lyle Lovett’s thirteenth CD (plus DVD featuring exclusive live performances and behind the scenes of the creative process during the recording sessions) ships August 28.

According to the press release…

On “It’s Not Big It’s Large”, Lovett addresses the basics: love, life, death, and the fluidity of time itself. In many different songs the past intrudes on the present and the narrator finds strength to deal with the travails of today by putting them into historical perspective. This may sound heavy, but it’s Lovett’s gift to make the deep thoughts slide down like honey. His tone is not one of resignation, but more one of hope through acceptance, as if to say, “this is what life is; this is who I am, and this is where I belong.”

Already pre-ordered.