guys like us

my cold has hit full force and i'm thinking that a day off work will be good for me. i need to just curl up in bed in my pajamas reading stephen king novellas and drinking pomegranate tea. all. day. unfortunately i also have to hunker down this weekend and finish a bookmark ad for the centre wellington/elorafergus.travel websites bahh. i also need to start putting together a booklet on the fergus 175 anniversary and i still have no idea where i'm going with it. i don't know how to say this to the powers that be at work but i am not a graphic designer. period. i am a-okay for copywriting and i can do fairly decent art direction if i put my mind to it but i can't crank out these brochures and booklets and have them look as good as something done at a design house. that's a little depressing but then again i've never studied design in full and the only photoshop tutorials we received were two classes at seneca in which we did the lamest stuff ever, nothing near this. i wish i'd gone creative side in the last semester and practiced art direction a little more thoroughly, i KNEW i wouldn't end up on the account side, we all know suits don't suit (aha!) me anyway.

i miss crookshanks less and less each day and it's making me sad to think that. i am happy to reconnect with big ol babes again and he's good company when i get i have the mean reds or whatever audrey hepburn called it. blue funk? yellow jazz?

my brother and i are potentially taking a six day trip to las vegas and l.a. at the end of may. i am crossing my fingers so badly on this one for several reasons, the main being hello venice beach and cheesy casinos and the second being that my brother and i rarely ever have time to connect, and in the past our relationship has been somewhat rocky due to the four year age difference let alone the gender difference. dave is all airplanes and high-falutin cigars and i'm more one part drama queen two parts dashboard confessional lyrics. in my defense i'm getting better and dave and i do share a common passion for guitar hero and making fun of people. i think all laings have this certain humour gene passed on from generation to generation, we inherited the exact same sense of humour as my dad and my grandpa and i daresay great grampy alexander was in the same boat.

i'm at the point of swallowing mucus so i'm out. my dad's health went rock bottom the last couple weeks but he seems to be about 90% okay now so it's like this huge weight off my shoulders. i cried every single day for two weeks straight but now i can actually breathe again. boy oh boy.

oh-last night went to see jeremy fisher and the proclaimers play at jackhammers in brantford. killer show, especially jeremy fisher - i bought his new cd, "goodbye blue monday", and cannot stop listening to it for even a second.

of family and photoshop

i learned how to make a water droplet in photoshop, as demonstrated on the right..pretty easy stuff, just basically playing with blend modes and copious use of drop shadow and inner glow. my current graphic design projects are: an ad for the centre wellington rotary, posters for the fergus scottish festival military tattoo as well as their sunday "family day", poster for a johnny reid concert, and a spread for elora & fergus tourism that will be featured in the GRCA summer guide. sweet bro. it's nice having actual portfolio pieces under my belt. speaking of which a buddy and i are tentatively starting an ad agency, not sure of the name yet but things are under way and i'm really excited as i've now got somewhat of a base to begin from in terms of clients.

my dad's leg has been hurting him since yesterday and automatically we all assume it's something to do with the cancer but you can never be sure. it scares me a lot and i find myself going through the same process every few days: everything gradually starts to fill up inside me like a flooded well, slowly rising up, up, up until at the last moment i push it all down really fast. rinse, repeat. it's draining and it hurts but it's working, i can actually get through the day and find enough inside me to joke around with the pops and genuinely smile. i think the important thing to remember is appreciating every single second, and always hoping for the best even if others would say its unrealistic.

my favourite poem of all time is "do not go gentle into that good night" by dylan thomas. at first read it seems almost morbid and depressing but when you think about it, its telling us to not take any moment of life for granted and fight for every breath in our body. he puts it best though: rage, rage against the dying of the light.