Is it time to change my career direction?

Posted on May 5, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

Last month my unemployment benefits expired and I just hated to depend on it and preferred to have a job or make more income through my CreativeBurn business. CreativeBurn’s web service business has not really met my expectations. My goal was to transition from Web to focusing on Illustration and Pinstripes/Paint automobile. The reason I want to do this is because sometimes I spend a lot of time meeting and researching web-related designs and codes and I didn’t get paid for my time. I just really enjoyed my life a little better when I worked as a full-time or part-time employee on not as a freelancer only.

Don’t get me wrong, I do know CreativeBurn’s business will not pay all our bills and it’s more like a hobby business to me now. I know I will keep my current clients for web-related projects until they find someone else to do the job.

I kind of already knew it was not going to work. I know the income I do receive helps pay the bills but it’s not what we need to survive, so I knew that I’d have to work odd jobs to help my family to enjoy our life a little more. I had an interview recently, I was surprised because I have been submitting to different jobs (web/graphic designer/developer) and the last time I was called back for an interview was over a year ago. So I have a really have good feeling about this and would love to work with the people I interviewed with. But again it might not happen and if so it’s more likely that I will end up working an odd job for a while.

Bottom line, it been two years and I don’t feel that I’ve been rewarded in end through my hardwork. It’s time for a change. I just need a stable income and the ability to enjoy our life. My wife cashes in her vacation time sometimes in order for us to enjoy life a little bit more and that’s something that I wished we didn’t have to do.

The worse part is we don’t have kids yet means we suppose to be comfortable with budget. Gee.

James Scroggs, See You Later

Posted on May 4, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. One is my father in law, James, passed away after a motorcycle accident. There is nothing I can say because there is already so much that has been said. Death has it own time, but it is unexpected to us when the time is up. All I know is we do sorely miss him. I just realized that my grandfather (my dad’s side) passed way when he was 56 and I didn’t really grasp the detail of how his children got through the experience until recently. Boy, do I know now. The situation is a little different, but both my grandfather and father-in-law were gone too soon.

Land, roads, sky: just simple...

This picture was taken a few weeks ago and I thought it was good reminder…like a good song…when riding down the road and you see the road in the mirror as the past, but you keep all the memories of the past as you keep moving forward. Everyone we’ve lost and God in Heaven look down over us.

Fortune Cookie 16

Posted on April 23, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

New and rewarding opportunities will soon develop for you.

Shed: Completed, but not the Backyard

Posted on April 13, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

Mixed of Sunset and Storm over Unfinished Shed Project

Finally, we finished the shed project! It was hard because most of the time I had to work on building the shed myself and it was hard to make time when I had many other tasks like my freelance business and the househusband to take care of As usual, I’m not quite happy with it because it’s not perfect, but it’s ok. The bottom line is it’s really nice to have that kind of storage and finally get my garage back. Unfortunately, there are a few other projects I had to get done, too, such as rebuilding our garden boxes to add more height and make it look nicer and planting some sod and grass seed (it probably will take a while to fix lot of the bare patches that Mindi complains about). A few days ago, we planted some vegetables and fruit (watermelons), but we still have to add some kind of fence around it so this weekend we will complete the garden box project. I will finally be very happy to work in the garage on my bike projects (depending on the plan and my progress) and the painting/pinstriping projects! Can’t hardly wait!

Shed Project: Completed

Shed: Inside

Shed Project and Bad Timing with Business

Posted on March 9, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

Since last weekend and most of this week, a lot of things have gone wrong. I was working on web projects and realized one part of what I’ve done so far was not very effective so I kind of have to re-do and work on that part from the beginning all over again. I started it last weekend and finally it’s good so I dont have to worry about this part again in future.

As for the shed project, well right now it’s really affecting my work time because it’s very hard to find the time to build the shed during a week that doesn’t have any rain but…I finished the foundation about two weeks ago, then I had to cover it when it rained, which was often for a week. Then, last Sunday I resumed building the wall frame and it was a very windy day. I was glad that Mindi and our niece, Haley, helped me out some. Then, I thought I could wait until the next weekend to work on the shed because I really needed to focus on my CreativeBurn business.

Mia and Milo, they're not really helping

Shed's Foundation

Mia and Milo: Enjoying in the sun

Mindi's bring some lumbers

Mindi's wanted to be in photo for evidence

Haley's Helping

Shed's wall frame

Shed: Trying to get front sliding done

Unfortunately, rain was coming last late night so I had to build as much as I could while coordinating work on the web projects, too. It has been a very exhausting week. My goal was to get the roof done last nite before the rain hit, but for some reason I struggled with getting the correct angle/size on roof for about two-three hours and finally realized it was not quite a perfect square. I knew it! Because a few days ago Mindi helped me to put siding up on the side wall of the frame and it was kind of dark. I felt that it was not quite right, but Mindi kept saying “It’s only a shed, it doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re not living in it.” I always say it should be almost perfect because it will make a big difference in end. Now, it’s kind of like a chain reaction that nothing is fitting on a perfect angle and I’m trying to race against time and my schedule to complete the project. It’s getting a little bit worse and worse unfortunately, I’m working on the roof and it’s not fitting perfectly either because of the wall! Dooh, but I finally fixed it…it’s still not perfect but it will do. Now I sticking to my philosophy and trying to make sure the shed and other projects has the perfect balance and angle so it will make the rest of the job easier!

Mia, Milo, and the Shed

Milo the Puppy: Why are you taking so low to ground?

More stuff for Shed and Not Enough Room in the Garage

Well, today it was rain and I didn’t finish the roof, but at least I did make a small hole in the floor so the water will drain without a problem. I should finish the roof and maybe the door over this weekend. Oh boyie.

Garage Projects: Welding and Automobile Paints

Posted on February 28, 2012 by monkeyleo13theboss

Like I mentioned before, the weather seems warm and we practically had no winter. Finally, I made time to focus to building a stand to hold my motorcycle gas tank and fenders so I used some old IKEA desk metal, then I cut and welded it together to create the stand. I just love doing welding things, but I realized it requires more time to practice and practice and I’m kind of thirsty for knowledge on welding. I would love to get TIG welding ($$$), but it can wait so I used MIG instead. Finally, it’s ready to use. It’s purpose is to hold the motorcycle’s fenders, which are old, so I can strip off the paint and practice painting it properly before I actually start painting my and other friends/family bikes in the future.

Welding Legs and Pipes Together

Building Holder for Fenders: Almost there...

Oh yea, a while ago before I started working on the stand, I got a really old sandblaster from my father-in-law and I knew it might be a little bit messy but I thought it might be worth a try to test it in the driveway. Boy, it was too messy and there was not a lot of pressure to strip the paint off. It was sort of like very light sanding. Then, I noticed some sand all over the garage so I knew I would not use it for sure. I probably will take it apart and make use of the materials for something else…unless my father in law wants it back

In the past, I used an aircraft remover. Now, I thought maybe auto stripper might work better. I mean aircraft remover is very strong, but I think it depends on what type of paint they used on fenders in the first place. So I decided to get both and spray them to test it before I buy a quart of paint stripper. Auto stripper works very well. It seems to work better the aircraft remover I used, but I realized that a spray can is way way way bad idea because it waste into the air and I worried it would come in contact with other objects that are painted like the car, truck, lawn mower, etc…

Anyway I went and brought a quart of auto stripper from a different company and I think it’s not so great. Hmm. Well all the paint is almost completely off so now I just need to sand it.

Auto Stripper or Aircraft Remover

Testing on Old Fender

Working on Two Fenders to strip off the paint

Kind of Fun to see this process

Getting there: Close-up

Now, I have to halt because like I said, there is too much clutter in the garage and I’m starting to work on building the shed project. I should resume in the next two weeks.