Erik’s Blog

This is forcing me to question what I’m really getting for the tuition money I’m spending. No kidding around, I’m almost to the point of literally getting nothing out of the classes I’m taking (actually my letterpress class is still managable, and when I’m not sweating over all the crap I have to do for my other two classes I actually enjoy it. However, the other two? Pfft…).

I sure as hell hope there’s a plan behind all this madness. If it was just me, I’d write this off as me being whiney. It’s not just me, though.

<

p> Argh. Is this major really worth it??]]>

I recently purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 wide format printer. You have no idea how much I’ve needed a printer like this, one that can print on 13″x19″ borderless. It’s worth it even to just give Kinko’s the ol’ Up Yours.

The problem is this: the printer seems to have been designed to excel at printing photos through Photoshop but at least on Macs it sucks when printing through Illustrator and InDesign.

I began having problems with a recent magazine project where the printouts severely lacked saturation. Looking around the ‘Net, I saw that this is not an isolated thing. These printers have a great rep with photographers but graphic designers steer clear.

So now I’m returning it. I’m not going without a printer, though; at the same time I started the Amazon.com return process I also purchased a new Canon i9900, a printer that folks in my class are using today with great success.

<

p> This is a severe disappointment, folks. I was so excited to get this thing, and now I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully the i9900 will be my salvation. ]]>

Not so for the John Mayer Trio, though. I just heard a snippet of a track on iTunes — Who Did You Think I Was — that is Stevie Ray Vaughan and then some.

<

p> Could it be that John Mayer is growing up?? I have no idea. I definitely want to hear more from this group, though. Wow…]]>

In May, 2003, I sold it for $81k. The money I made from the sale helped convince me it was time to invest in my future by returning to college.

It’s September, 2005. I just found out those same efficiencies in that same building are now selling for around $250k.

<

p> Shoot me. Just shoot me, ‘kay? ]]>

Over the years I’ve seen items that UPS shipped coming out of their boxes crushed, scraped, and/or gouged. I experienced this myself a few years back when I shipped to Florida a large, detailed stained glass window project that took me weeks to produce.

I enclosed the piece between two bolted-together sheets of plywood padded with foam rubber. Then I put the plywood package inside a U-Haul mirror shipping box with 4″ thick styrofoam corner pieces at each corner to keep it secure. So, there was not only plywood protecting the glass, but a few inches of buffer space existed between the plywood and the outer box, plus each corner was protected.

Somehow, UPS still managed to inflict a severe trauma to the center of the ~20″ square of plywood packaging, splintering the wood and crushing the glass. The process of trying to get UPS to take responsibility for this was frustrating, and the end result was infuriating: UPS was not responsible because I evidently did not pack the glass according to UPS’ standards.

Folks, I don’t give a damn how much you pack around a plywood enclosure; if the package is man-handled or somehow endures a more-than-just-a-bump trauma the glass is going to break. Plain and simple, UPS broke the glass because the package was handled unprofessionally.

Fast forward to today. I don’t use UPS for ANYTHING unless I’m forced to do so. Recently I ordered letterpress paper for a school project and the company gave me no choice but to use UPS. I received the package a few days ago. I just opened it today so I could start flattening out the paper (it was rolled up).

Of course, UPS managed to crush one end of the paper in spite of the tight packaging job.

You’re probably thinking “big deal, it’s just paper.” Unfortunately it’s $35 worth of paper, 14 sheets of 22″x30″ Somerset Velvet (Antique) and is not something I can simply write off.

Am I going to complain to UPS? Maybe. And I’m sure it’ll produce the same results as last time: UPS is not responsible.

<

p> This is pure incompetence. How can one company be so consistently negligent in its handling of packaging and still manage to be successful? I have no idea.]]>

I just now noticed that the port forwarding that I set up on the gateway was pointing to the wrong machine. I fixed it, and now email to my old address is rolling in. Most of the email is spam.

<

p> Like I said, crap… It’ll be nice killing that email account and starting over.]]>

put in charge of the “reconstruction” of New Orleans.

<

p> Rove, the king of spin, put in charge of rebuilding a hurricane-ravaged city? Gee, why am I not even slightly surprised? (Re-constructing Bush’s poll numbers is more like it.)]]>

1. My Actiontec 1520SU DSL gateway’s ethernet support died for the second time in two years. Same symptoms, everything. So, I gave up and decided to rent a gateway from Qwest. If this new gateway breaks down all I need to do is mail it to Quest and they’ll mail out a new one. No more BS. The 1520SU is sitting in its box waiting for a pointer from Actiontec regarding where I can send it for repair. Maybe I can sell it. Who knows. It pissed me off, that much I do know.
2. The no-broadband-for-a-week crap obviously knocked out my mail server’s connection to the Internet so I wasn’t getting any mail. Every time this happens I begin to reconsider why I’m handling my own mail. This time I had officially been pushed to my limit, so I’m decommissioning the mail server. My old email address — erat [at] canyonjam [dot] net — is being replaced with canyonjam [at] gmail [dot] com. Replace the stuff in brackets as you see fit.
3. School is insane. No kidding, it’s official. I blame it on the fact that I’m in school Monday through Thursday plus I’m working. Normally, classes are offered in pairs on Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. They’re also generally offered in one of each pair of days. Not so this semester: I have one Monday/Wednesday class and one Tuesday/Thursday class. That means I only have a few hours each day to do homework for the next day’s class. This may sound fine if you’re not a college student. College homework doesn’t get done in a few hours. All things considered, though, I guess I’m still managing to have some fun. I want the hell out of school, though.
4. I managed to convince myself that a project was due this past Monday when it’s actually due October 12th. I spent $30 having it printed at Kinko’s and everything. Boy, did I feel stupid (I must have MS or something). That, and broke. So what am I doing about it? I’m buying a ~$500 printer so I don’t have to dick around with Kinko’s anymore. Believe me, there actually is logic to the decision. If you’re not a graphic design student it would be pointless to discuss it, though, so I won’t bother. Just trust that I know what I’m doing. Sort of.

There are other things I could mention, but those are the ones that popped off the top of my head.

<

p> I’m just happy to get the network back on the Internet. I tend to take things like that for granted until I no longer have them, then I freak. I’m back, and that’s alright.]]>

AIGA is jumping in with financial aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but limiting their support to displaced designers seems wrong to me. Send the money to the general relief effort and everyone benefits; send it to a few designers and only a few designers benefit.

If I paid more for my membership I’d call and bitch about this, but I’m just a spec of a student so my opinion probably doesn’t mean much. I will be severely upset if I find out the design community in general condones this myopic form of relief, though.

By all means, help designers get back on their feet. But don’t give the rest of the victims the ol’ up-yours. If everyone did this, most of the folks who are homeless (hell, EVERYTHINGless) would be screwed.

<

p> (Update: Okay, so I didn’t call and bitch… I emailed and bitched.)]]>

<

p> Why am I telling you this? Who knows. Who CARES. This will be fixed by August, 2006, I promise.]]>