This past weekend was very amusing. Friday nights my wife and I have started a little tradition, Fun Food Fridays. Through out the week we eat kind of healthy, but on Friday we have a little fun and eat something greasy or something that we know is not good for us. Anything from pizza, wings and Philly Cheese Steaks and always with a side of fries, I look forward to Friday. We also watch some movie together. We end up laying on the couch until 11:30 or later depending on what we find on TV. Typically my wife is asleep next to me by 9:30, so that’s when I watch what I want and eat a little more of whatever is leftover. I enjoy Friday night.

This weekend had an extra bonus. My brother-in-law had a birthday and we all went out to eat. We went to a place that all you can eat salad bar and MEAT for $50. That’s right, all you can eat MEAT. Everything from steak and chicken to lamb, it was a never ending supply of MEAT. You have a little card next to you; one side is red for stop the other sides green for go. Red for stop bringing the meat and green for bring it on. The servers come out of no where and just cut pieces of meat from their skewers. Picture it; men running around with big ol’ slabs of meat on a stick at your beck and call to serve you grade ‘A’ cuts of beef, cooked perfectly. On top of that, they had these rolls that just popped perfectly in your mouth. I’ll just say I had my $50 worth. While everyone else was kicked backed and groaning, I was still going at it. I think I heard my name being chanted in the background. Go Jason Go. At one point I looked up at one of the servers that were putting a lamb chop on my plate, “I’ve been waiting for you all night.” There is nothing like topping off a long week with a MEAT fest.

That morning we took my cat to the vet. The devil’s cat as some likes to call him. It was no problem getting him into the carrier. He rode in the car like a dog, sitting in my lap looking out the window. When we got to the vet he sat in his carrier. You could see the confusion on his face. Then a Golden Retriever walks in. Lovable dog, just wanted to say hi to everyone. He got a little close to the cat carrier and my beast let out a might growl. Everyone in the office looked at us. The people next to us asked, “What type of DOG do you have in there?” when I replied it was a cat, they moved a little farther away from us. The vet, after warning her and hearing his roar, handled him like a lion tamer. Grabbing him by the back of the neck and throwing him down on the table. He tried to fight back but once they threw a towel over him, he didn’t have much of a chance. Until they called in a young tech. She was little cocky and thought she could be nice to the cat beast. He saw his chance and drew blood. I saw the look of satisfaction in his eyes, knowing he at least got a good shot at one of them. We took him home and he slept for the rest of the day. I bet they are still talking about him at the vet office, about the cat that fears no dog and takes no prisoners.

Life has been pretty uneventful lately. The most recent development is that I am trying to start a Graphic Design business on the side. I just really enjoy drawing and being creative. I have gotten a lot over the last 18 years as a drafter/designer, but I’m just extremely bored with it. Most of that time has been in the steel stud industry. I could just about tell you all you need to know about gauge of steel, galvanization, and c-studs. Sounds interesting don’t it? I spend most of my day talking to people about how long a 3-5/8”, 20 gauge stud, will span in an interior, non-load bearing condition, where the lateral load is 5 psf, with a deflection of L/240. In case you care it is 15’-9” at 16” O.C. It’s not much to go home to tell the wife about.

So a few months ago I took some graphic design courses. I enjoy combining my creative side with my knowledge of technology. Over time I have been working on ways to promote myself to gain a few side jobs. The image above was a character design I did for someone’s web site www.shipfinn.com. (I don’t think he has it up to date yet) It is about a kid’s story of moving place to place, I had to go through 3 or 4 different drawings to get him right. The guy kept on saying he wanted him to look like his 9 year old son only in a cartoon style. The first one I drew he said he looked too much like a teenager. His very words were “The drawing looks more like it is of an 11-12 year old boy, my boy is only 9 can you make him look younger.” That was a challenge to take 3 years off of cartoon character, but I achieved it by making him a little smaller. Point is I enjoyed doing it.

I am currently trying to get a bid to design T-shirts for a dog training school. They specialize in dog sports like; agility, dock diving, and sheep herding. So I sketched up some quick drawings shown below. I call them “The Judges are Full of Sheep.” I’m hoping to hear something back next week.

 
I like the fact that I am able to go from drawing a little boy in a back of a truck to dogs dancing, it keeps life very interesting. So if you know someone who needs some graphics done, I have a web site I am working on http://www.jason-miller-design.com/. If you need to know something about steel studs, go away or I’ll find one and knock you in the head with it! …. Just kidding.