Mark Bult Design: San Francisco, CA, Established 1988

What I've been doing (Mar 2009)

• Updated some posts:
• The big ol’ list of band names
• The “Whatever happened to...” project
• Organized some more of my fonts. It’s an ongoing thing. I have lots and lots of fonts.
• Scanned some old photos and uploaded them to Facebook, tagged people.
• Met with a former coworker about doing some design work for his new company.
• Went downtown and had coffee with Jason, took some photos in Yerba Buena Park during a break in the rain.
• Moved some stuff in the garage/basement up off the floor and onto styrofoam, since the floor got wet from heavy rains.
• Re-set up our land line, to try it out for two months and see if we still want one.
• Took photos and scanned more stuff for the new portfolio. Since I don’t have proper studio equipment for product photography, there’s a lot of color-correction necessary in Photoshop.
• Added a dozen or so people to my list of co-conspirators (the friends list in the sidebar of every journal entry).
• Listened to the audio on Denis Leary’s website while I researched symbols in a book.
• Read some Wikipedia pages:
• Malcolm X
• Elijah Muhammad
• Yakub
• Black supremacy
• Wallace Fard Muhammad
• Savior’s Day
• Death Angels
• Death Angel (guys I used to cover back in the WFN days)
• Stephanie Elam (who I went to HS with)
• Saratoga High School
• Edited a couple Wikipedia pages for quick corrections/additions.
• Gathered a lot of research and assets for data visualization, for a client project I was starting.
• Spent 61 minutes on the phone with a PG&E rep who was actually helpful and listened to me (instead of interrupting me or telling me to hurry up, like the assholes at PG&E’s Credit Dept.). At the end of the call, I asked to talk with her supervisor so I could tell him/her what a good job she did, and then my call got cut off during transfer. Do’h! I even called back, but of course got a totally different rep, who explained they have multiple call centers and there was no way to figure out who the other rep was, even by looking at my account for her notes. *sigh* I tried.
• Sent another letter to my local supervisor, urging passage of the Do Not Mail Resolution in San Francisco.
• Perused a recent copy of my high school’s student newspaper. Fascinating to see that the more things change, the more things stay the same. But it's definitely cool that they have a pretty good website and full PDF downloads of each print issue.
• Sprayed some WD40 on a couple squeeky doors around the flat.
• Did laundry.
• Let the cat in and out. A lot.
• Made some digital illustrations.
• Made a desktop image with my new logo.
• Did a lot of work on a new client project.
• Went with Velma to Flora Grubb Gardens, the pricey but lovely nursery, bought some plants, and put them in the ground.
• Updated system software, iLife 09, and practically everything in the Adobe CS4 suite.
• Finally, finally, finally found an old copy (from 1999!) of DiskDoubler (OS 9) on an old backup CD-ROM that I could install on my old G4 (which thankfully I kept, because it still runs OS 9, whereas my Intel Mac Pro does not), so I can finally unarchive hundreds of old files I’ve been trying to open for several years. Posted an archive of it on my website for the other people out there who are in the same boat I was in (I’ve been searching, periodically, on obscure Mac forums for a solution to this for about three years, and I’ve seen other people looking for the same thing).
• Moved 75% of my office furniture around one night.
• Designed a quick banner for the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards, plus a black and white version of the logo for laser engraving on the plaques.
• Reorganized a small bit of stuff each day in my office. I’m a big fan of the “Chip away at it” principle.
• Washed a lot of dishes.
• Set to work on the time-consuming task of cleaning up me and Velma’s iTunes library. Not done yet, but tasks include:
• Move the library and all associated files to my Mac Pro, since trying to fix it on the Mac Mini would take a lifetime.
• Trick iTunes on my MacPro into using the other library (easy to do with aliases).
• Consolidate music files from several HDs.
• Try out some de-duping apps, fix broken songs and ID tags, find missing album art, etc.
• Split music into separate libraries over two drives (maybe).
• Run CoverScout to find missing album artwork. Try some other similar apps or scripts.
• Ripped some more CDs to my iTunes. Also imported about 10,000 songs I hadn’t added yet.
• Stayed awake for 32 hours to try to reset my sleep clock. Then crashed for about 15 hours. Now I’m kinda back where I started : \ meh. My body thinks it lives on a planet with a 26-hour day, which really fucks me up.
• Looked into some iPod/iPhone stereos since Velma wants something that’ll play CDs, radio, and MP3s in the kitchen.
• Met with Diane for an hour so she could give me some newly prepped files for her website.
• Made a quick page on a friend’s website so she could make an announcement using an embedded video.
• Created Facebook friends groups so I could keep track of people easier, and filter my Home activity stream for easier reading.
• Made a list of all my hobby projects. 38 and counting, yikes!
• Reviewed Laura Stec’s book on Amazon.
• Revised my résumé and LinkedIn profile.
• Walked to Pancho Villa for a burrito, taking photos on the way, during the best time of day for photography.
• Sent thank you emails to two SF supervisors for passing the country’s first resolution supporting a national Do Not Mail Registry.
• Helped Velma by starting dinner a couple times before she got home, so she could rush off to some meeting or another right after dinner. I’m really not a very skilled cook, so she had to email me directions : )
• Went with Velma to a new (to us) Thai place in our neighborhood: Dusit Thai. Very good soups, but the main dishes were less flavorful than I had hoped for.
• Had a quick Chocolate Chip Cookie Meeting with Velma.
• Ate cookies.
• Kept this list, added links to it, and posted it.

Labels: big ol' lists, misc. personal, Velma

Posted by espd at 10:48 PM | 
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