Thursday, June 30, 2005

Onward and Upward

So last night I met with my buddy and advertising guide, Mike, and we had a good conversation about what I need to do to land the art directing job that I want to get. (You might have heard Mike's "Turtle Song"...he's kind of a celeb within the Portland ad community.) We looked at everything I already had in my portfolio, decided what worked and didn't work, what needed revising, and what needed to be removed. I really respect what Mike has to say, because he went through this whole process a year or two ago.

What it seems like I need to do is totally immerse myself in improving my book by reading layout and typography books, cutting out cool illustrations in magazines and pinning them up on a wall, thumbing through the advertising annuals, people watching, and just overtime-working the creative parts of my mind.

You may be asking, "But Matt, how will you be able to make car payments, college loans, and rent without having a job?" Well, starting in a week, I will be collecting unimployment checks. This last for up to six months until I find work. The checks are not quite, but almost enough to cover most of my monthly bills, so while looking for work, I'll use the next few months to remake my portfolio. I also might be able make a couple bucks from my parents by rebuilding their deck. And then there's always online poker. So we'll see how the next few months go.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Sleeping in and then playing some X-Box

So, guess what?

I ain't got no job. As of Monday, I was "let go" from the ad agency I was working for. Financially, it sucks because I need to pay bills. Job-hunting-wise, it sucks because the market is hard to get into.

But I'm keeping a positive outlook for now. I wasn't doing exactly what I want to be doing in my career. I was doing more execution and production work and not the more creative and problem solving part of the process. But I was learning. This was one of the reasons my boss decided to let me go. He didn't want me getting stuck and trapped doing the production role.

We'll see what happens. Right now I'm evaluating what I want to do. I'm going to talk with all my contacts at different agencies and then take it from there.

Also, I'm running a lot lately. I need to train for the Run Hit Wonder. Already lost seven pounds. Boo yah!

More to come about the job later....

Saturday, June 11, 2005

I'm on holiday

Going for a week with The Fam to Eagle Crest, a SunRiver-ish / Black Butte-ish resort out near Redmond, Oregon. I hope to get a lot of reading and writing and running and golfing done while I'm there. My dad and sister are bringing their laptops, so hopefully I can get a few posts in. Hope there is a ethernet hookup somewhere there. Maybe one about my one year anniversary since graduating--a year in review as a real adult.

Happy graduation Andy. Sorry I couldn't come down.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Run with Sporks pointed down

Okay, so I'm sorry that I didn't post the next day. (And I thought the useage of swear words was a little harsh.) Apart from my brother's middle school graduation, my sister's high school graduation, a whole bunch of family stuff, my first advertising campaign where I get to be the art director, and my 23rd birthday, this weekend was pretty busy.

With that said, y'all need to fly out to Portland for the Nike Run Hit Wonder Drew Willis, Messa, and Jolly ran it last year. And they can tell ya it was awesome! Running to the music of 80s reject bands. And then after you run 10k (6.something miles for you Americans) you get to drink a beer and listen to Devo. Yeah!!! So fly out and join me running. Jolly you in?

Okay, lastly I've always wanted to get this in print, so here it goes. Back in high school my buddy Jeff Herbage and I were on a ski lift when this dialogue happened: "Dude, it's f***ing cold!" "You know what would be awesome right now?" "Hot chocolate." "Yeah, okay, but I was thinking strippers up here with us." So then and there J Herb and I thought up our line of Matt and Jeff's companies starting with our "Ski lift Stripper Gondolas--winter transportation and Entertainment."

From there we came up with a new sport "Putt Putt Bowling (or maybe Bowl Bowl Golf)" where it's like normal bowling except with putt putt obstacles--windmills, moats, clown's mouths, and lanes that bend and you have to bank your shot.

Another idea was to open a nice sit-down restaurant called "Sporks" where you receive a spork and knife. And I'm talking full on metal spork. I've never seen any spork except the plastic 3rd grade lunchroom untensil. These metal sporks would kick so much ass that people would steal them. And while we at Sporks don't condone or promote theivery, we do understand.

These are just a few ideas for "Matt and Jeff's" combination companies. If any of y'all have any ideas for combining two things into a singular store or service that Jeff and I can use, you are encouraged to post them.
Aight. That's all.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Quick hit and then back tomorrow

I was waiting until someone posted a post telling me to blog. Thanks Rancher.

So I moved this last weekend Sunday-Tuesday. I just got Comcast set up just now, kind of. Internet acting up. Phoenix just lost, dammit. And Steven A. Smith is yelling at the video camera. He needs to learn to just talk. Anyway, real post coming soon. It might involve a spork! Stay tuned.