Going Indie With What The Interwebs Has To Offer

There’s something quite scary and satisfying when you decide to go out on your own and do things your own way. I may have outgrown working in a controlled environment, and when I say controlled environment, it’s the corporate setting – that has a semblance of professional functionality, but the people there are somewhat oblivious of the fact that artists tend to require a different sort of working environment, and not to forget, no never forget, that when artists become professional, it’s really something to behold. You could bash me for wearing sloppy clothes, scraggly facial hair, but you cannot fault me on my work ethics, another thing these young people tend to overlook.

And so, yeah, this time around going full freelance has me visiting my social media accounts, an acquired skill when I did creatives for a mobile app compnay a decade before. It seems I have been taking these things for granted. And yet, I have been revcising my portfolio online.

Because, honestly, when I created this portfolio on Wix , I was just having fun, building my own website, free of course, by not using any theme or template available. True enough, I learn fast. And building my own has taught me about SEOs and layouts and content generation. This blog with WordPress is actually the first blog I started right after I tried with another blogsite. or maybe a couple obscure blogging sites before. No I am not forgetting that Blogspot and Blogger has been around even before Google acquired it, but there are things you set for one particular use.

Now ahy am I blabbing away about these?

Simple.

I’ve gone ronin. Free agent. Freelance.

Indie.

And now is the time to visit all the stuff I have online and use it to build my own virtual office that could help me feed my family. Just look at what my friends has opened for me: illustrating for adult coloring books . And this has been fun, so far. I mean even with Google+ the fun of extending your friends and acquaintances beyond Facebook. which I admit has gone to some sort of cheap thrill.

All I need is a space to work with my creations and just draw till my hands ache. And use my online presence to boost these creations and have my skills avalibale for those who would like to use avail of my services.

This maybe the proper time to shout out gratitudes to

WordPress Wix Blogger/Blogspot Twitter Paper.li Google Google news Digg Retronaut io9

and these are just some of my ragular haunts.

And I better start making my blog posts a regular thing again.

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

2012 In Review, Pt.2

It has been a very hectic 2012. Not that it wasn’t fun. I really enjoy my work. As a matter of  fact, I don’t know if I have ever NOT enjoyed my job. There’s something new to learn everyday, and all my previous employment  and this one I have now, let’s me be myself and work with individuals that are so full of talent and creativity, I just have to step up to keep up. I am learning from my team as much as from my superiors, and gee whiz, I sure hope they learn something from me too.

So, where to start?

• We have been battered by Hybrid Storms this past year. All those water and rain. And the flashfloods, the deaths. It’s sad and frightening that this could happen with all the communication technology available. TS Quinta is barely gone and we still have eight storms lined up. Hope we could get through this in one piece. I would hate to mention the political and governance aspect that contributed to the losses and deaths that were the aftermath of the tropical storms. But there could have been something done to reduce, if not prevent the damages, but . . . oh well, why spoil the mood?
• My dreams of publishing my stories in graphic novel format got the restart it badly needed. All my previous sketches and drawings, concept art and the synopses. I have never felt that writing bug bite this intense before.
• I guess 2012 is a bit more tumultous than previous years, with my wife suffering heavily, almost succumbing to the next level chemo-therapy for Osteoarthritis. But she’s a born fighter, and a fierce Probinsiyana, she could hack it with the rest of the world when it comes to being tough. We are still looking for alternative medicines and food supplements, and the kids ahve been very supportive.
• There were deaths. In the family. Friends I haven’t seen for ages. Prominent personalities. Philippine Cinema. And in the news. Doing motion graphics and simulation drawings for the nightly news makes it hard for me not to be aware of  the recent shootings in Sandy Hook, and all those lost in the storms that visited us. I still don’t like guns. But consensus says we have a need for it. But when a guy shoots full auto and the target are non-combatants, it really makes it even harder to accept such ease. for want of a better word, to murder and kill.
• I have  my own personal website now. I know I should have built one with WordPress for my portfolio, but I’m reserving this blog  for my graphic novel, so instead I put together something of a rag-tag site with Wix.com, and it looks cool!  Have to earn extra get the domain in 2013. How’s that for positivity, huh?
• Social Networks seem to have some high points and low ones in 2012. Facebook still occupies the top spot, and Twitter is fast becoming the new venue for quick news and connectivity, and more so because mobile technology just upped the ante. And I thought laptops and netbooks are high tech, don’t look now but mobile phones and tablet are getting more memory, more connectivity and what computing power! never have I imagined that laptops could play second to mobile. And it has been the year when apps did create a stir.
• Music. Now this is a constant.  Because music, like art, builds upon itself, and there is really no surprise that I have also began to collect all the music I have lost through the years. And found new ones! The Roxymorrons, Silent Sanctuary, Peso Movement, Slash N’ Burn,  to name a few, and I will see them live in 2013.
• I haven’t shot anything at all in 2012. With a camera, I mean. I have long accepted tha fact that I am not a photographer, just a hack with some hits, and a whole load of misses. Still, I hope I could still purchase a proper DSLR. But the Indios, now there’s a passionate group of people who love the art to have planned and will publish a coffee table book in 2013. Just can’t participate. My photos are, in my opinion, not really worthy of printing at all. But things will get better this year.
• The movies really made a killing at the box office.
• TV5News made waves. And will be more formidable in 2013. Count on that.

I guess there’s so much to remember, and then there are some I need to get past and be done with. Blogs will be buzzing with their own lists,

My only wish and fervent hope is to avoid making all those mistakes, really bad ones, and be more creative.

And write more.

And play my 12-string, back from the luthier for some repairs and maintenance.

And one more thing:

I consider myself a real badass now that my 44th birthday is coming. So glad to have made it this far alive and still full of ideas and dreams.