When I got home from work last night, this was waiting for me on the stairs to the bedroom. It felt pretty cool to hold it for the first time, but then I opened it and I immediately remembered how tired I am of seeing those pages. I’m proud that I did it, and I am really glad it actually got printed and something didn’t prevent all my hard work from ever seeing the light of day, I’m just still sick of seeing the content right now. However, holding this and seeing it has made the idea of doing the other book James wants me to do much more tempting.

If I could iron out some deal with him that involved a retainer, a phone schedule, and a slight increase in wages (I’m no longer amateur, he should know that…), all based around my John Deere schedule I would definitely do it. For now I’m guessing that project is on hold, regardless of whether or not I’m involved, based on one of our last conversations. I believe the plan is to try and recuperate some of the overhead from this book first, before proceeding with the next. I’m also contemplating the idea of just doing the drawings, and letting someone else handle the layout (since it was a large part of the problem last time around, but that being said I’ve done all the work and essentially just have to switch the content and rearrange things).

Anyone who wants to buy a copy can do so here. It is pretty awesome.

More like take a JERK to work day!

Someone doesn’t seem pleased to be spending the day with mom making funeral arrangements. I think his mind will change once he spends a few minutes with her in the prep room.

Some of you may be aware that last year I wanted to start my own annual facial hair tradition much like Movember called Decembeard, where I would be permitted to let my facial hair get longer than an eighth of an inch – something Holly frowned upon. But here we are a year later, and now Holly and the rest of the general populous are madly in love with my beard, so I’m forced to pioneer yet another tradition.

I hereby declare 2011-2012 as the dawn of Janu- (or possibly Febru-) hairy. I hope to avoid trimming my beard (and hair) until the end of which ever month I actually decide on, but I’m guessing the minute Holly reads this she will turn to me and say something like “If you don’t trim that thing you’re not getting sex.”, and I’ll respond with something like “I’m going to trim my beard, can we do it?”, and she’ll roll her eyes and say “Good god, what’s wrong with you?”, and I’ll take the fact that she didn’t say no as a “Oh you know I wanna do it, bad!”.

Absolute fact: Chicks dig beards, the only reason some of them make us trim/shave them is jealousy.

Here’s a sign I made for Lisa months ago. It’s not as impressive once you realize that’s just a toy and not an actual gigantic space defending robot holding it, but it’s still decent. I stained it with the same coulour I used on her yarn racks, but I wiped it off right after applying it so that it didn’t set too dark and the burning disappear.

One thing I realized while doing this is that cobra cursive is crap. My day to day hand writing for the last 20 years has been all caps, all printed. When it came time to do the small writing on this I was having a real rough time. Small text doesn’t seem to work out well for me at all.

This is from a while ago. Although the photo is great, the best part was that even though he knew it was there he didn’t think it was that bad that he had to wash it before hanging out with his friends all day.

I wonder if he would be mad if I showed his brother and friends where my Magnum Sharpies are kept…

Looking through my ever-increasing pile of drafts I found that I have yet to introduce the cobra community to Pilot. Pilot got adopted by the famous fisherman in the photo above and his lovely lady a few months back. She’s gorgeous and very well behaved. I look forward to going for a walk real soon with both those happy mammals above.

Fact: Working real work sucks for hanging out.

I made this a couple months ago but haven’t bothered to do anything with it yet, or even post about it here. If you followed my link in a previous post to my Carbon Made profile you might have already seen this. I designed it in Photoshop, then Holly printed it for me and I transferred it onto some basswood which I then burned. I originally intended to sell it for some extra cash, but since I’m working now I’m far less eager to try and profit from my little hobby. I have much less time to do these things lately, and I was thinking I might miss them if I were to sell them.

This is definitely my favourite so far, and more than one person has already expressed an interest in buying one if possible. Someone else said it would be a great shirt design, and I might have to agree. If I saw this on a shirt somewhere, I’d buy it.

This blog is suffering and it makes me sad. I miss writing daily, sometimes hourly, but at least I’m working a real job and contributing more. I also don’t feel comfortable writing too much about work since I’m in a weird situation. By that I mean since I’m a Manpower employee I still have to go through all kinds of stuff to be hired by John Deere and who knows who could stumble on something I’ve written that could hinder my chances. Work obviously takes up the majority of my day so there isn’t much for me to write about.

I haven’t even hung out in my shed since I started working. No wood burning, no robot stacking dolls, nothing creative to post about. Instead I’m forced to bore you all with the unfortunate loss of one of my favourite accessories, like it’s in anyway newsworthy. As you can see above the bathroom floor won the battle against my favourite  pair of tunnels. Luckily I have a spare set of plugs, but Holly hates them. So the next day she ordered me a pair of these.

Last Monday began a new era in Cobra careers. Thanks to Holly’s hard work I am now a full-time employee of John Deere Canada… sort of. I got hired via Man Power, which means I get paid less than a normal Deere employee, and have less vacation and freedom. Hopefully this is only temporary though. Either I will find something else entirely, or I’ll get hired as an actual Deere employee. So far I like everyone I’ve had to deal with, and it’s a place that absolutely has to work as a team so people have been very willing to help thus far. I am still bummed that I’m back working in a warehouse and not building anything cool, but at least I’ll have paycheques!

My first one will mostly go towards maintaining The Sword, which is overdue for tranny fluid and a serpentine belt. Now that The Sword is slashing up the QEW daily it’s important I get those things done sooner than later. The remainder will be going towards getting Holly a laptop for her birthday that passed a week ago today. Once I finally get money I can spend on “other things” I want to get my laptop some new parts. I need a new wireless card, and I have had a bunk hard drive in this thing since almost day one.

The thing I’m most looking forward to with the new job (aside from the pay) is learning to, and being allowed to operate the following on a daily basis – both because I dig things like these, and I look forward to not having to walk quite as much every day.

Taylor-Dunn

Crown

Drexel

So here’s the just of what’s taken place recently…

The book is finally done! I finished it last week really, but was apprehensive to say anything about it for fear that this was yet another false finish line. For the record, the end was the most painful part, and I am greatly relieved it’s over. Because the book will be printing soon (apparently it takes a month or so to setup, then a month or so to print), and I will be credited for layout and illustrations, I needed to secure a domain I could list in case someone feels like recruiting me for more of this type of work in the future. Fortunately for me, my good friend Jon is fast acting and always willing to help me out. He secured cobraconcepts.ca for me, which will soon be directly linked to my CarbonMade.com portfolio you see in the screenshot above.

On top of finishing the book and setting up my portfolio, I’ve been attending multiple job interviews, doing orientation with ManPower and even working a few days at a shitty job. One would think I was a highly motivated go-getter, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Holly is the one to thank for all the opportunities that have come my way. She’s the one who found the jobs, wrote the cover letters and did her best to keep me positive through the whole process. Although I was incredibly stressed last week, I think things are about to change.

I start a new job on Monday, which in all honesty the only thing I’m looking forward to is the paycheque. I will still do my best, and I’m going to try to stay positive, but I really just want to be swinging a hammer all day. That being said, I need to make money so I’m taking what I can get.

If it wasn’t for Holly I’d only be starting my search this week, and still stressing about not knowing when my next paycheque will come. Now, thanks to her kindness and willingness to help others (especially me), I not only have my last cheque from James coming soon who knows when, I will also have regular weekly paycheques to look forward to.

Money? Lack of Sunday night phone calls?

Twilight Zone!