It's Time To Go Rogue

I guess there comes a time when you've just had all you can take and a switch gets flipped and it is time to go all rogue.  A time to say enough is enough, I don't give a shit what you or anyone else says, I have to do what is in my best interest and what is going to benefit me.  I can't wait for anyone else to help.  I'm sick and tired of getting the lip service and no follow through.  Bullshit on you and your needs, it is my time and you better watch the fuck out because you can whine and stomp your feet all you want but I'm busting out of here.

I'm thinking out of the box.  The lid has been lifted and you ain't getting my ass back into the box.  You live in the fucking box.

Well, as you might glean my switch has been flipped..  I'm pulling out all the stops because my very survival is on the line, and this dude will go down in a blaze of glory.  I've been sick for week and I'm better now.  Now I'm just sick of being pissed on.  You better be prepared to pissed right back at.

Tabula Rasa

How's that for using my expensive education.  Tabula Rasa - Blank slate.  Yep that is what my sketch book looks like thus far this week....BLANK.

I could sit here and elaborate on this situation, but I'm at one of those points where the world feels as if it falling down around me and I have to figure a way to survive.  Sorry but survival is not here with you typing away my time.

Summer is Here and Brings No Change In My Life

Non-connected random doodles of the week

I just noticed that my last post was number 200.  I didn't even attempt to do anything astounding. . But it appears the milestone event passed with no fan fare.  Seems to be a common theme.

Well in my neck of the woods, summer is officially here as marked by the end of school for the kids.  Yah!  No more morning hassles of trying to drag two teenage boys out of bed, and get them out of the house at there different scheduled times.  No more having to fret over why the hell they don't ever seem to come home with homework and etc, etc, etc.  Now my mornings will be quite, peaceful moments, just me and my coffee welcoming a new day.

The real bummer for me is the lack of a definitive separation from one event to the next in my life.  Summer means squat.  Tomorrow I will have the same aggravations I had the day before and every other day.  I can't walk around and say, "yep, I'm a ????? now."  I'm just the same guy, same social status, same headaches, same irritations and anxieties.

Talking about social status, of which I have none, boy I wish I'd won that lotto last week.  Just a small piece.  That would surely change my status and I would of embraced that whole heartily.  Yea, I dream of magnitudanal (new word?) changes in my life.  There have been several times I've seemed to be on verge of such life changing events that haven't transpired and the memories of those near misses really keep me doing what it is I do.  It's a kind of 'gold fever".

I visited IKEA last weekend.  They have these sample home layouts set up for various, small square footage footprints.  They have one for 398 sqft.  They completely furnish it to show how little space you need.  I really think I could handle living small.  I even thought about the idea of going to Home Depot and buying one of the sheds intended for backyard storage and outfitting it with IKEA stuff.  Sticking it on some 5 + acre plot of land, landscaping it with some inviting, comfortable layout and some food gardens.  I'd be set.

I looked into it and it seems some others have thought the same thing.  Imagine that.another non-unique idea.  A lot of the small houses are on wheels so they can meet some building code or move them about.  My thought about that was why not just have a motor home or a sail boat.  Both small and portable.  The sailboat idea I think I could talk my wife into.  But as of today, I've got to wait at least 4 years because my youngest is now a big 9th grader.

Welcome to Summer y'all.

Using Cartoons in Business Marketing and Customer Communications

Cartoons, funny pictures, illustrations, comics, or art are not just for newspapers, magazines, walls and greeting cards.  They can be incorporated into any businesses marketing and customer development and retention campaign.  And they should.

The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" really comes to mind here.  What is more boring than a bunch of words.  Words have to be read and that takes time, time is something that is valuable and in short supply for busy people (most of us).  Yet a picture is a short hand communication tool and hence gets a larger message across in a quicker time span.

Ideas of where to incorporate a cartoon:

Emails - Letters - Post Cards

• Meeting and appointment reminders
• Thank you and meeting follow up
• Birthdays and annual events 
• Follow up on quotes and sales pitches
• Invitations
• Fax cover sheet (if anyone uses faxes still)
• Just about any kind of regular, repeated correspondence can be more lively with a cartoon/illustration

Brochures - Pricing List - Information Pieces

• What about a marketing piece that answers the most asked questions
• A piece discussing the process you undertake
• Directions to your office or event
• How to guide to use a product

Marketing paraphernalia - mugs, mouse pads, shirts, stickers

The list is long and nearly impossible to exhaust.  Just about anything you can print on.

The cartoon could be as simple as a black and white single figure or a more elaborate color illustration.  You could even try your hand at some industry specific humor and use a comic strip or gag panel as a regular feature in a newsletter, blog, or on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.
Sure you could spend an enormous amount of time searching images  on the Internet for that perfect picture that  fits your need, but there is two major problems going that route.  First, time is money it will take some time to find something.  Second, most, if not all images you'll find on the Internet are copyright protected, if you use them you are stealing.  No you may never get caught, artist count on your moral bearing, but in the off chance you do get caught, there's an expense.

How the do you get a cartoon cheap that is just right?  Hire someone to draw one for you.  I'm not going to go into pricing right here, it is considered professionally inappropriate and quite frankly there are too many variables. That said, I assure you it is less expensive than you would probably be thinking.

Pricing and Quotes: booncartoons@comcast.net

It is time to bring some cartoons to your marketing and customer communications.

Don't wait.  Time is money and it moves fast.

120 Hours in a Work Week, 60 of Them Just Frustrating, a Few Highlights

Many times this week I found myself groaning out this one long song, "AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!"

Only a few highlights in the whole week. 

I cut time out to create a drawing to include in a birthday acknowledgement email for clients.  It can be seen under the Illustration Tab.   That was fun.  I opted to use a dip pen, and I really like the effect.  Next week I'll knock out a newspaper assignment that is coming due and after it appears in print I'll post it up here.  The birthday illustration was posted up on several LinkedIn and Facebook pages which drove more traffic to the Blog site.  Still working to increase the weekly views.  So please share with your friends if you enjoy.

I think I've mentioned this in the past, we foster kittens for the local humane society.  We got 5 males about two weeks ago, all ginger in coloring, and some hints of Persian, Siamese   Normally, I've not been bothered by any of the kittens, but his batch I seem to be allergic to, so I've had some days of being stuffed up and just a bit short of breath (almost asthmatic).  Throw on top of that a cold my son brought home from Prom and it has been a wonderful snotty week.  The kitten are lots of fun though.  

We are down to one kitten as of today.  My wife is really good about finding "Forever Homes", and I think in general our family is pretty darn good at socializing the kittens to be loving, purring, cute, balls of fur.  You just can't resist them.

Finally, I heard something on NPR the other day regarding the three girls in Cleveland, Ohio, who escaped their kidnapper after 10 years, that put a smile on my face, besides the girls triumphant survival.  It was a mere mention and not really elaborated upon, but it was a gem in the rough.  Evidently, the mother of Amanda Berry was very much out there leaning on the press and authorities to not give up on the search for her daughter.  She eventually made an appearance on the Montel Williams show in 2003, where a famous "psychic" pronounced the daughter dead and she would be reunited in heaven.  I read the original account of this from 2003, now there are current links all over the web regarding this WRONG vision.  Just Google Amanda Berry Montel Williams.  The fact that one of these charlatans can be unmasked is what put a smile on my face.

Have a great weekend.  Thanks for dropping by my little corner of the internet. Hope to see you here later.

A Random Week - Prom, Wrestling, Stress, and Birds?

Well here's a random few pages from this weeks sketch pad.  Truly random mental wondering.   It has been a hard week and I have felt completely out of sync and disorganized.  I've got this incredible urge to just pack my back pack and head into the wilderness for an undetermined amount of time or head to the bar and drink.  Neither of which has been a realistic option.  My oldest is attending his first Prom this weekend, and my youngest was going to be wrestling. So my weekend was planned, and my wife has been consumed so escaping to the bottom of a pint glass during the week was not a smart husband thing to do.

To the former, part of the comment, "first Prom", he is only a junior and around here it is Jr/Sr prom.  Where I grew up it was only a Senior prom.  God forbid kids wait or be denied.  Everyone has to do more than the last generation.  Have you seen all the crazy, over the top ways guys are getting dates to prom.  Really, whatever happen to just asking at the locker between classes.  My son went to the effort to lay out old dip cans (Copenhagen, yea he dips, he is far from a redneck, mostly a prep, we figure he could be doing worse things) to spell P-R-O-M-? on our patio with tea light candles each can.  He had his brother light them before the prospective date was presented with the display.  She'd already committed to coming back from college to attend, so it was all a moot exercise.  But it was something to post on FB, Twitter and Pintrest.

To the latter part of the comment, "was going to be wrestling", the tournament closed out before I could sign him up.  My bad.  So nothing to do during the day.  I think I finish my latest cartooning job and put it to bed. I'll post that after it publishes.

Happy Naked Gardening Day, May 4th

World Naked Gardening Day Website

Feeling just a little sorry for those folks in the middle of the USA where it is snowing and 20 degrees below normal temps.  

Her Sleeping Nighty, not her Sex Nighty, Get it Straight

OH, HUSBANDS....Mother's Day is around the corner.  This is a perfect gift for the mother of your children.

Guys think every time a women makes a trip to the bedroom it is a "come hither" moment.

Women do have a way of broadcasting their mood.  Guys are just idiots at understanding those messages.  So for the woman that wants to make her mood perfectly clear, this image leaves no room for misunderstanding.  It appears on some very comfortable pajamas.  This nighty, is for sleeping, not sex.



Click Here