40/Hour a Week not What You Want?

So you have found your 40 hours a week job.  You're happy, you got a job and a safety net.  6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5, 10 years.  Some time later, you realize that 40 hours might not be for you.  Now this is likely due to one of two reasons (if not a bit of both).  You should trust my judgment because I've been working for over 3 years since I graduated.  That practically makes me an expert on anything related to jobs and I've seen enough movies/TV shows that is the equivalent of a PhD in Psychology.  Now that we've established my credentials, lets get to the two reasons.

One of the reasons is that you don't want to do a 40 hour job.  You want to work on your own time, you work better at night.  You might enjoy working for 14 hours one day, and then spend the next day with your kids.  You work 25 hours in two days and are able to leave for a 4 day weekend somewhere special.  Having a more flexible schedule and working when you're really in tune works out for you.  The other reason is that it's not what you really want to do.  You chose it as it was a good option when you initially started working or/and due to the safety of the 40 hour a week.  However, after some time you realize this job is not really for you.

Unfortunately, I am starting to feel that way with my current 40 hour a week job due to the latter option.  I originally signed up to work on a relatively split 50-50 design and front-end development.  As time moves on however, there is less and less design.  I love writing, designing and digital illustration, and I enjoy doing front-end development.  However for me to love my job, it has to have a sizeable portion on one of those three areas.  I know to many people a job is a job, but I do believe that you should love your job and a Monday shouldn't be something you bemoan when it eventually comes every week.  That's why I chose to go on a creative route, to do what I love.  One recommendation to people struggling for either of these options is that you do what you want on your spare time, something creatively that you yourself enjoy.  It unleashes pent up creativity, and it will help when you're doing your 40 hour a week as well. 

In The Creative World - Use Your Friends

Wait.. wait.. WAIT!!!  Don't run away, it's not what you think.  If you thought this was meant in a malicious way, you are a horrible human being.  If however, you're thinking that the title is a click bait title for the sake of pulling in 1 more viewer than I normally pull then.. yes, that's pretty much it.  This blog post's primary role is for you creative people to do something that seems like common sense, yet a ton of you still don't do it.  Ask other creative people for advice on projects you work for.

My work revolves around illustration, all related design work, web development, and some writing.  I have several friends that I use for all these creative outlets.  In regards to illustration, I use several friends.  Two of them being my good friends I went to school with, another is professional comic book illustrator, and another is my illustration teacher in college that is now my friend.  In regards to design, I use another friend that I went to school with along with the designer that taught me both design and front end development during my 2 month period where you work before graduation as a requirement.  Two of my best friends are programmers, so I can ask them for help on what I need to look for in web development, sometimes via hangouts while I'm at work.  My sister wants to be a professional writer in the future and has the grammar & vocabulary that an idiot like me does not come close to.

My point is use the people around you.  It's very likely some will come and ask for your input as well.  If they don't.. well then, you need to get better because they clearly don't think your input means much.  Before you start crying in a corner how you will never be good enough.. well actually go on ahead and do it.  A good cry as long as noone ever hears or knows about it is good for you.  Now I never cry because I am a man, and men don't cry.. but I have heard that it is good for you...

Recently, I was creating a mobile video game app logo for a company.  Throughout my creative process, I talked to one of my friends which helped me reach the logo to a level I don't think I would have had I not asked for her view on it.  Sometimes no matter how many hours or how long you look at a project, you need a pair of fresh eyes (that sounds creepy...) to take a look at it.  Having another perspective is huge and many times can give you a nice roadmap in telling you if you're going in the right direction.  This is something that sounds so simple, yet a lot of people in the creative world don't do it.

Keep App - Fastastic Free App for Android Users (Keeps You Organized)

I used to write everything down.  Monday to Sunday, a list of things I had to do whether it's drawing, design, freelance, personal project and the list goes on.  I killed a lot of trees.  Fear not android users, for people like me I have come up with a solution.  I'm going to tell you to use the pre-installed app that comes with a lot of android phones that other people have designed and developed...

it's useful and looks might pretty & intuitive

You can make notes for each day of the week and make a list of it.  You can check them off, and even set a reminder for it.  I looked for 20 seconds to find an image online.  As you see above, you can change the color of the background to diversify the content.  I have 7 green blocks created for the 7 days of the week.  The other blocks have different colors to separate the content.  You can even take images and add them there to make a note of it.

By no means is the app perfect, but it's still fantastic and free.  The reminder for example is incredibly basic and you can't add your own sound effect for it to make it more prominent.  It would be nice if there were different sections or folders.  That way, you have one section where you have weekly list, another section for work list, and another section for other.  Arranging blocks could use a bit more fine tuning, though it's still pretty good.  Add subsections to lists would be nice.  So Project 1, has 2 mini lines with work #1 and work #2 for example.  Enough of these ramblings however.  You need to have some type of list app/routine to stay on top of things, and this app does it for free.

iOS users, the app doesn't exist for you all.  I'm certain there's similar apps for iPhones, but I can only help android users in this case.

Personal Projects & Freelance

So I'm officially back from Europe after two wondrous weeks.  My wallet is rather empty, due to buying a maxed out iMac a few months prior, then going to Europe for 2 weeks visiting 5 countries, and having to spend a decent amount of money on a personal project that I'm working on at this point in time.

Good news is that finally after so long, I am moving towards the end of this phase of the project.  I've been working on it for quite some time and the last few months I've been working so much, I have had 0 time for freelance.  I actually worked on it even during my vacation as sad as that may sound to some people, but I didn't mind much.  Now, the project might either go to another stage where I will be able to talk about it in the future, or stay likely as something that never materialized into anything.

The point here is as I daydream for a bit, it's time for freelance.  I need to make a bit of extra cash and the good news about the creative business, is that freelance work is always an option.  I also realized as I had a conversation with a friend of mine, as we discussed that working on a personal project, you will always give it a bit more than you would working on any other project no matter how much you're paid.  Of course there are people who are just as passionate and are completely ok with working on someone else's vision, I should generalize and pretend I know every creative human being in the world. 

But for the most part, it is the case.  I had to pay someone to work on part of my secret project, and my friend did warn me that no matter what, no one will work as hard on this project as you will, because it's your baby.  Saying that however, the illustrator I have working with me is doing a fantastic job, and I'm not just saying that because he might accidentally stumble upon this link.  If I have to say anything that isn't all about me, I'd say work on that personal project.  At worst, it's a great stress reliever even if nothing happens with it.  On the upside, you could be making money doing the job that you're most passionate about, your own, personal project! 

So get your ass to work on your personal project when you're done doing your 9-5 cubicle job.

Game of Thrones special, how good writting of one series is ruining my enjoyment of others

I am a massive fan of Game of Thrones. I haven't read the books yet, and I'd imagine that short statement is going to send alerts to the snobby GoT book readers who want to ruin the enjoyment of this series to everyone who hasn't read the books because they're assholes. Jesus, what a way to start, insulting the only follower of my blog and making them run away. Upon finishing season 4, I went to see the new X-men movie which many people were raving on about it being so amazing and the best one yet. It's not, First Class is by far the best X-men movie (I tend to forget my opinion isn't worth as much as I think it is).

very minor spoilers of X-Men: Days of Future Past 

After finishing the movie, I had a bit of an awkward reaction. I didn't know what to feel. It ended on a really good note, and by that I mean the typical everything is dandy and happy. Now having watched Game of Thrones where bad things happen to good guys and good things happen to bad guys, it felt weird. Maybe 2-3 years ago, I would have just said allright and moved on. But this felt so Hollywood-like that I ended up being very disappointed for the ending, overall movie was a 9/10. Now maybe I am turning into the people I dislike that are wannabe critics who didn't get much attention from their divorced parents and want to be the most cynical people on the internet to get attention .. who knows.

Can dead characters just fucking stay dead?

Not to mention comics have always been known for reviving and bringing up dead characters like it's a fucking game, something that bothers me overall. You can't kill a main character, to make us all feel and thing bring him 10 issues later. Or you can always go about the way shonen manga and just kill them only to show them 3 chapters later that they're not really dead. Great job everybody, you're really giving me a sense of danger, especially knowing at the back of my mind that they will come back eventually for marketing $. Can characters just stay dead?

Game of Thrones makes me feel for characters, the sense of danger is real and not fabricated nonsense. I like that the bad guys had good qualities and that the good guys have qualities you see in bad guys usually, because none of us are perfect. We're all extremely flawed starting from me and then moving on up to much better human beings. I think great, realistic storytelling may have influenced my preference and opinion on storytelling after becoming such a big fan of Game of Thrones. Cheesy good endings have always irked me a little bit, but it's now more apparent after watching a series like GoT that's brutal in too many ways to list. I hope writers and directors take a note from GRRM and others like him to write more realistic storytelling from now on.