It's been a long time....

Been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.....

Little Zep for you.

But yes, I haven't been around. I've been in sort of a funk which is the result of a multitude of things. The main one being that I'm still without a job. I was THISCLOSE to getting a job I was actually pretty excited about - it's a really long story, but in short it was down to me and another person (out of 300!) and the person they chose was actually a friend of mine...who actually had a job and just decided to find something else. This was an 'only me' situation folks.

I've also been becoming increasingly frustrated with my equipment situation. Since being thrown back out into the pits of unemployment I've learned that things have changed a bit in the last three years. Web design is becoming more and more prevalent in graphic design positions to the point where it seems like they're basically merging. Obviously the web is everywhere and a major part of communications/marketing so that's understandable - but while in college and starting my career, they were still two separate positions. I haven't had much opportunity to learn web as it wasn't needed, but now while searching for jobs day in and day out I'm realizing that needs to change. Here's the issue, my computer is old, rather ancient in computer years. Yes, it still works, but in it's old age has become sluggish. Up until recently I was three operating systems behind (now I believe I'm one or two behind) which causes mannnny incompatibility problems with hardware and software, I'm 3 versions behind in design software which consistently causes roadblocks in trying to improve my portfolio and do freelance work and there's no way I'm learning web without web software. The problem is the catch 22 - with no job, I definitely have no money for a well deserved upgrade, and without the necessary tools to improve my knowledge and body of work it's going to be a little more difficult to get that job. It's a vicious circle. Obviously it's do-able since I was recently very close to a job, but it'd be nice to be able to utilize the best tools in my field - otherwise why would there even be upgrades? It's like telling a photographer, oh well for the next 3 weeks you're gonna need to oil paint your subjects - worked for the Mona Lisa didn't it? Or tell a carpenter, we're cutting off your electricity for an unknown period of time, there's a handsaw right over there for your major projects....or a mechanic - well we don't have any wrenches, your hands work just fine - use those!

This wasn't meant to be a 'woe is me' post - but it's annoying having a creative urge stifled by less than stellar creative conditions.

So if I can find 2000 people that would like to donate a dollar to my cause, that'd be great. You'll get an I.O.U in return and that dollar's all yours once I land that killer job! Haha.