Can a Republican President be a good thing?

This is the question that I'm currently struggling with this morning. Here I am, sitting in my cubicle; a million thoughts going through my head. As I nervously sip the coffee in my spill-proof cup, I'm faced with a horrible reality: I may be voting for a Republican presidential candidate in the upcoming election.

This bothers me because I despise the republican party. Comprised of racist, bigoted, zenophobic greedheads who are more concerned with raping the planet and lining their own pockets than bettering the country, these people are the antethesis of what government is. George "Dubya" Bush, the current puppet in charge, is the reason my car and bike helmet sport "GEORGE BUSH IS PURE EVIL" stickers. Like a retarded child let loose in a toy store, he's treated America and its citizens as his own personal playthings, ignoring repeated comments and criticism from citizens and fellow politicians alike. From his pointless war in Iraq to his gross overspending and everything in between, this barely literate window-licker has taken America two steps from the brink of collapse.

With all this vitriol spilling from me towards this party, why would I entertain the thought of voting for a Republican? Because this guy is different. This guy - Ron Paul - makes sense. I've read what he has to say; listened to him speak in the few clips I can find. He makes sense. Beyond that, he doesn't appear to be cow-towing to the public; telling them what they want to hear - he actually seems to be genuine, speaking from the heart; telling people exactly what's wrong. What's different about Dr. Paul is that he actually has a cohesive plan to fix things and isn't resorting to mindless finger-pointing at the other candidates. No "this is all [other politician/party]'s fault." Just "this is broken. Here's how we can fix it."

It's scary because he's not acting like a republican. He's thinking independently; reasoning through problems and attempting to intelligently solve them. Others in his party would simply advocate a bombing run or tax increases while parroting beauracratic propoganda.

Of course, further research is needed. I must put this boy under a microscope; see how he twitches. Make absolutely sure that I'm doing something close to the right thing.

Readers, meet Laoghaire. Laoghaire, meet the readers.

Third cat post in a row. I think I just won a major award or something...

It's only been a couple of weeks, but Laoghaire Mac Nissian ("Larry") has already adjusted to his new surroundings. His respiratory infection has cleared up, and he's taken to sleeping with the humans when he's not bounding around the apartment or sitting on the table in studio, taunting the squirrels. One of his new favourite tricks is to lay on our chests when we're sleeping and pat our noses. He usually does this early in the morning - think three a.m. - because he wants attention. This could be good if we could set him for six a.m., and teach him "snooze".

He and Manny are becoming fast friends, which is good considering Larry passed on his respiratory infection to Manny. Having never been sick, Manny now thinks he's dying.

Manny is getting better, and he and Larry share space on the bed. This, of course, leaves little room for the humans. It's truly amazing what nifty shapes your body will bend into when two reasonably-sized cats decide it's their bed, and they want to stretch out.

As I said in my last post, right cat; right time. I'm sure there'll be more pictures of "the boys" posted here. After all, every parent wants to show off their kids.

Gesundheit.

In my last post, mentioned that we adopted a nifty new cat from Crash's Landing. Along with the cat, we received a bag of goodies (cat toys, treats, etc.). However, the cat brought along a special treat of his own: an upper respiratory infection. We're not sure if it was something he had earlier, or if he caught a chill during the trip from Grand Rapids to our home, but by Sunday he was sneezing and wheezing something fierce.

We contacted "Dr. Jen," the amazing veterinary force behind Crash's Landing, and she immediately dispatched medicine for our poor sickly kitty. She planned ahead, and included enough for Manny as well. This was definitely great planning, as Manny soon started sneezing and wheezing.

If you've never had a cat sneeze in your face, I highly recommend it. There's nothing like the spray (and taste) of tuna-scented spittle as it splashes against your face. Intrigued? Have the cat do it again for the next two to three days.

The meds came with oral syringes. These are unique torture devices for humans with cats designed by people who have never dealt with a cat in their lives. The basic methodology for dispensing meds via oral syringe to a cat is this:

• 1. Load syringe with the appropriate dosage. Place syringe out of sight and smell of cat; if you don't do this the cat will go missing for the better part of the night.


• 2. Pick up cat. This is harder than it sounds, because any cat worth its salt will instantly read your body language and want nothing to do with you. This is probably a good time to remind yourself that kitty does in fact, have claws and teeth.


• 3. Sit down, and hold the cat firmly in your lap. Brace the cat against your chest. This will aid in getting the meds into the cat, and hopefully will prevent you from getting bitten/scratched.


• 4. Take the syringe, and waggle it around near the back of the cat's jaw until they open their mouth. When they do, depress the plunger, and hope you have a firm grasp on the cat. If all goes well, the cat will naturally swallow the meds. If all doesn't go well, you'll be covered in cat spittle and meds.


• OPTIONAL STEP 5: If you didn't carefully read step four and lost your grip on the cat, you'll need to repeat the above steps after you retrieve the cat from under the bed/chair/front deck.

You'll also need to be prepared for the cat to sulk afterwards. There's nothing quite like a sulking cat; they have an innate non-verbal method of making you feel like the scum of the earth. Picture this: you've forgotten your significant other's birthday, your anniversary, and just killed their fern. All in the same day. This, my friends, is nothing compared to what a cat that believes its been wronged will throw your way. Be prepared to make amends with treats, tuna, and - in dire circumstances - catnip.

On the plus side, both cats are feeling better. Larry's runny nose is down to a trickle, and Manny's snot-bubbles have decreased greatly in size and number. Once the tuna-scented spittle stops billowing forth, I'll know they're completely healthy.

Until then, I'll be pointing the cat away from me.

WE CAN HAS KITTEH?

Yes, we can.

We made an appointment to travel to Grand Rapids specifically to visit the cats at Crash's Landing. Yes, I know this sounds a touch insane and normally I'd agree; however, Crash's Landing impressed us from the first visit. The entire history of Crash's Landing can be found here. Check out their site, especially the pictures. of the facility. They'll give you a very good idea of just how unique this particular shelter is.

When we first visited Crash's, it was too soon after we lost Caerbrae. The cats certainly knew it - while they didn't avoid us, they weren't overly friendly. After we got home, we felt it too - it was too soon. We knew Manny missed having another cat around (as did we), but we needed to let some time pass. After we moved to Saline, TinyBlackKitten was thrust upon us. The timing was better, but the cat was wrong - peeing on everything in sight was a BIG sign. This time, both the timing and the cat were right.

Ellis was sleeping when we got to Crash's, but sleepily staggered out a little later. My wife picked him up and placed him in her lap, where he immediately settled in and started purring like an amplified lawnmower. Throughout the visit, we kept coming back to him, and he turned up in whatever room we were in.

Right cat, right time.

Ellis is now comfortably wandering around our apartment, investigating every nook and cranny. He and Manny went through their initial meeting just fine; the only snag was Ellis taking a bit of offense to Manny sniffing his ass ten minutes after we got him home. As of Sunday afernoon, they were sleeping together on the bed.

Right cat, right time.

Dear Adobe,

Please make Illustrator not so stupid in the next update. Thanks.

Specifically, could you correct the little glitch with rendering boundary boxes when you use CMYK and Pantone colours? It shouldn't be that much of an issue, really. After all, for all intents and purposes, a Pantone colour is just a very specific CMYK colour. So why, then, does Illustrator print the bounding box of a CMYK object when I apply a drop shadow and put it over a Pantone-coloured object?

Please note that I spent nearly two hours trying to correct this problem before finding the brilliant solution of "just convert everything to CMYK." This resulted in me spending another two hours trying to re-create the Pantone colour.

Please also note that I found said solution (after an hour of searching) in an old Q&A tech column dated a year ago, and not on Adobe's website.

How about it? Could you please make this tiny little update for me? It's not like I'm asking you to lower prices on Creative Suite, or anything.

To-Do List:

Wednesday, November 7th
At work:

• Design November sales mailer.
• Update and print salespeople flyers.
• Design and print proofs for folder inserts for subsidiary company.
• Work on proof print for dealership brochure.
• Monkey with website backend.

At home:

• Call landlords and find out what's going on with the laundry hookups in the basement.
• Do dishes before small colonies of hunter/gatherers rise up.
• Cook food in a vain effort to eat before 10pm.

On warping young minds

Recently I spoke to two classes of freshmen art & design students at the University of Michigan about graphic design and what working in the field is all about.



Without being too brutal, I told them exactly what to expect if they continue to pursue a career in graphic design. Most of them had declared graphic design as their major, so they should know what they're in for after graduation - something I had to find out for myself. Nobody really prepared me for life after the degree; gave me any help in preparing a portfolio or resumé. These were things I had to learn on my own. Through trial and error, I eventually got it right and was lucky enough (in Michigan's current job market) to find a job in my field.

In a nutshell, this is what I told them:

• Don't expect to be the next great graphic artist right after graduation. It's not going to happen. You're going to be on the bottom rung for a while unless you get incredibly lucky. Most of the time you'll be doing production work, but there are some times when you'll get a project where you can show off your creative skills.


• Be diverse. Don't just focus on design; study anything and everything you can, including typography, colour theory, photography, etc. The more skills you have, the better designer you'll be down the road and the more attractive you'll be to potential employers.


• The term "graphic designer" is a misnomer; it really should be "graphic artist." As a designer, you still deal with composition, colour theory, etc. - everything fine artists deal with. The only real difference is the tools.


• Graphic design is a very technical field, with its own exclusive vocabulary and dialect. Know what each term means and how to apply the related skill (ex. "kerning" means spacing between letter pairs; "tracking" means spacing between groups of letters or words).

Hopefully I didn't scare them away from a career in the graphic arts.