So far 2009 is off and going great.

Yes I am still at my job. Things are going really well here and I still love it. That is like an unheard of accomplishment for me. I recently went to the SHOT Show which I may have explained a little bit about before - it's like the Superbowl of gun shows... 55,000+ people and every manufacturer under the sun. It was a great experience for me to see what other people in the industry are doing and how they present themselves. It showed me that there is still a lot of room for improvement in what I am doing here as long as I have the budget to keep producing! Also here at work I have nearly finished design and construction of our proprietary AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles. Here's a couple pictures from the show!



That's Tony the owner of my company in front of our booth



That's Aric who is our import/export guru



Christopher and myself looking totally badass!



Walter the owner of CAT laser



Rodriggo our rep for Siderlock. He's from Argentina and speaks really fun broken english



and one more of me looking totally pimp before the big Glock party

In other news I am all moved into a new apartment where I am living with Cat now. It's nice to be living together since we were always together anyway, now we can be more comfy and not have to worry about time restrictions and that kind of stuff. I will try to get some pictures of the new place when it is all dressed up. Speaking of dressed up pictures, I need to do some of that soon! There has been nothing really going on lately so it's been a while since I dolled up and took some cool pics.

I wish I had something good to say, but I've been struck with another one of those days/weeks/months where every time I type something I think it sounds stupid and I delete what I wrote. I feel like I have some things I'd like to say and get out but I can't find the words. Have I become this mentally impotent? My vocabulary has gone flaccid.

Penis.

Current Mood: blah

At long last (we're talking 8 month project) I have received the first US Customs / Department of the Treasury, Homeland Security Office of Investigations Special Agent engraved M1911 pistol. I started this project from scratch (we're talking sketching on paper here) moved it up to vector paths, submissions, revisions... Engraving test samples on scrap metal, then on junk slides... sending them to DOC locations in Houston, Washington, L.A... Finally approval came, actual selection of the gun, working with Smith and Wesson to get exactly what the customer wanted. After all that, with approval (and a job offer I was totally flattered to get)from some of the highest ranking investigators, we got to move on to production.

So after all that blah blah blah... check this shit out

Nice looking promo I just made for Walther... that's the company that makes James Bond's gun, in case you didn't know :)

Here is the lower receiver now that it's been anodized. I am so freaking psyched, my assault rifles are gonna rool!

Current Mood: accomplished

I'm twenty seven years old today.

Obviously, this can't be considered any kind of landmark age. I don't anticipate anything particularly new and exciting to happen just because I have made it another year, and at the same time, this birthday means a lot more to me than most of them in recent memory. I'm getting closer to thirty - which I suppose IS a landmark year, and I think I'm the only person I know who is really looking forward to it. Looking back on my twenties, which most definitely were better than my teens, I'm still a bit dissapointed with how the decade has gone and what I got accomplished.

However, I can still finish out the decade strong, and that's exactly what I intend to do. I want to really leave the last vestiges of childhood behind and take my place as a fully grown man. So far I've done a really good job at that goal - my family moving away over a year ago has taken away that security blanket and support. I've been living totally on my own in a studio apartment instead of sharing a place with a friend. I've stuck with this job for a year now and I still love it and it's still going strong. I suppose the biggest hiccup of the past year was losing my drivers license but that was really just the result of inexperience with the court system and a mistake that will not be repeated.

So, I have some new goals for the next year of life here on Earth.

First and foremost, I want to be happy. I find myself wondering, was I always such a grumpy and overly serious guy? When I think back to my past I seem to remember being relatively cheery and outgoing... at some point and I don't know when it was, I lost my sense of humor and my excitement about life. Now when people talk about me they tend to focus on how dead pan serious I am about everything and how I don't smile very much. I feel monotone and flat, and I am desperate to get some of that color and sparkle back into my every day life.

Secondly, I want to continue stepping up my responsibilities. For example, this past week I finally stopped putting off starting payments on my student loans. I'd like to put a lot of money towards paying off old debts that I'm carrying so that maybe by the time I'm around 30 I will have a clean credit record and be able to do things like think about a new car or even a house. I want to stay at this job and keep doing more and more towards it so that my career continues to advance at a good pace.

Finally, I would really really really like to finally have my premier art show this year. I've been talking about doing it for oh... four or five years now, and I still haven't pulled it off.

Well anyway I am going to finish eating my birthday doughnuts and then I have to start working. Wish my boss had let me sleep in, it would have been a great present! But, he is taking me and some of my guy friends from work to shoot machine guns on saturday, and that's gonna be a fun party :)

Current Mood: pleased

Well, this may not look like much to the untrained eye, but what you are seeing here is the very first phase of my first gun design coming to life. After having studied the best features of several different assault rifles and working closely with the company gunsmith, we've come up with something that is going to be a very very high end rifle for LE and military use. I really couldn't be more proud of having a large part in the design and creation of these, which are being machined by shop in PA. Cause, you know, made in the USA is a pretty big deal in this industry :)

Anyway, check it out... here is the first piece that has been made, the stripped down lower reciever of the gun. It hasn't even been anodized yet.

Aside from the obvious wikipedia entry, what can you tell me about the Art Deco style and movement? Can you post any pictures or examples of Art Deco that you particularly like?

Sit back and watch me pwn this entire month.

So obviously most of my design work is really gritty and dark. Right now I am working on some promotional materials for my company's presence at the 2009 Shot Show - which is the biggest industry show of the year. It's not a gun show in the sense that most people are probably used to, it's a dealer show, which means firearm manufacturers and distributors like my company set up booths at the show, and people who own gun shops will be the guests walking the floor and buying stuff to stock in their stores. Anyway the Shot Show is very glitz and glam, has over 50,000 attendees, and is where my company needs to put our best foot forward on how we look.

Anyway, the show is being held in Orlando, Florida this year. Normally we are supposed to adjust the look of everything for the show to fit the city that it's being held in, but I just couldn't get into the Orlando vibe. Obviously, the biggest thing Orlando has going for it is Disney, and I am not even going to try to go there. So I decided to bank on the show being in Florida instead of city specific, but to be honest, my theme is pretty Miami.

Our t-shirt give away has an awesome vector graphic of Tony Montana from Scarface on it (you can see that one on my Flickr account if you haven't already). For the show special book, again, I wanted to get away from my dark and textured comfort zone and make something obnoxiously bright. Here is the outside cover that I came up with... the inside pages, though featuring all the products, has some really great Miami Vice scenes in it :)

Current Mood: geeky

Week from hell. So much work to do.
Kicking some serious ass though.

Got a job offer from the Department of Homeland Security. Gotten to be pretty chummy with a high ranking Agent in their criminal investigation unit who says they really need some creative, "outside the box" kind of people working for them. Said I was of the perfect age and disposition. Only catch is that I'd have to complete a 6 year run in the Secret Service first which includes 2 years protecting and serving in Washington DC. Would be top notch training and a pretty crazy government job... The Agent said he'd take me under his wing and give me all my recommendations all the way through to the top so I could come work for DHS after I finished, and I'd be eligable to move on to FBI, CIA or any other number of departments with three letter initials by the time I was 36-40. Pretty cool offer. Doubt I'll ever take him up on it, but it's fun to fantasize about.

Anyways here's a picture I made. Its actually a picture of me where you can see my face! I took it on my lunch break today. Tried to smile but I can't manage too much. At least I can see how big my arms are getting now. Freaking sweet.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: geeky

I told you I had my own line of tactical flashlights ^___^
Here is the box design for the first one up - the M20 WARRIOR! Rawr! lol

( It's a wraparound, slip sleeve box )

Current Mood: accomplished

Made a new banner for the Law Enforcement Division.
( America, FUCK YEAH! )

It's a strange and quiet day today. I woke up and preformed the usual routine of grooming and preparation for work. Took my walk as I do every morning down Park Ave. to Christopher's house so I could catch my ride to work. It was like walking through a ghost town, totally silent and still. Same thing here at the office... it's quiet... a little too quiet... :)

Alright so maybe I've been watching/playing too much video entertainment about zombies or other such frightening apocolypitcs. At least I know now when the shit does hit the fan and the dead walk the earth, I have enough firearms training and resources to make a pretty good run of things. With a few modifications the office could definitely be turned into a defensible position with enough weapons and ammunition to hold out a few years against the tide of the undead. And my cigarette smoking, truck driving, gun toting, redneck co-workers can certainly hunt the Scottsville area and live off the land indefinitely.

Anyways, yet another perk of working where I do is that I get to use some really cool military and law enforcement photos for all kinds of things. Most recently I used these to create another really cool flier for a show I'll be going to in December:

I'm really nervous about going to this show. It will be the first time in around 6 years that I actually went out somewhere in Buffalo. I have been there for some parties now and again, which are always contained in a friend's house or apartment. I haven't actually attended a club/social event though since I tucked my tail and ran from Buffalo after everything went sour. Perhaps my more long term readers will remember and understand my reservations about the whole thing. It's strange because so much time has passed, and I have grown and become such a different person than I was then... However, I am not sure that THEY have... not speaking about any one in particular but using a general they. I am not sure if they will give me the opportunity to be the different person I am, or if they will just pigeon hole me as the same guy I was.

Either way I am wearing a mask the whole time I'm there. It may not actually hide who I am, but it's a damn good excuse not to talk to anyone ;)

And finally, just because I can, here's a picture of me with a Colt M4 military carbine with all the trimmins!

Current Mood: bored

Park Avenue, right outside my apartment building, taken this morning.

Current Mood: restless

( 1998-2008 )

Current Mood: nostalgic

Work has been going really really well. I am all moved into my new office, which is shaping up really nicely. I have my desk facing a window, a production table where I can take photos or work on my cutting mats to make presentations and whatnot. I have two huge color laser printers, a high volume electric cutter, and a small desk for my assistant. Hehe I still can't believe I have an assistant now! It seems like just the other day I was the college boy trying to find a senior designer to take me under his wing. Now I'm the front man! I make sure to fuck with him pretty regularly :)

So my grooming to take over as the Director of Marketing for my company(ies) is nearly complete. Pretty good for only being here about 10 months! I am still psyched about this job which is another first for me... generally when I've had full time jobs I tend to get sick of them after about 6 months, but doing design work for guns and knives just comes kind of naturally to me. I'm gonna stick it out for 4 or 5 years if possible, then I'd really like to move on to FNHUSA. So far I've taken the smaller company here (American Tactical Imports) from nothing to a multimillion dollar company through my branding and marketing on nearly no budget, so I can't wait to get my hands on a company that has a several million dollar marketing budget. Besides, as long as I am at AmChar I will still have to do the garbage with commercial sales and hunting rifles... I am really eager to get into a company that does way more military and law enforcement sales.

As for feathers in my cap, for those of you who haven't been in touch with me, there are now 500 special agents for the Department of Homeland Security who are now carrying pistols which have been engraved with seals and designs by yours truly. I have a line of custom designed combat knives coming out soon. I am directing and designing $25,000 advertising campaigns.

On a more personal note, things are looking good there too. I am living in a fairly posh apartment building on East Ave. I just got myself a 42" hi def television. All these little things that I've always wanted that are some kind of proof to myself that I'm not a failure. Cause you know, that's still probably my biggest fear, aside from whales. Damn whales... I went to see my family in North Carolina not too long ago and left really kind of unsettled by seeing the depths of failure that my parents have sunk to. I tried to convince my dad to swallow his pride and get a freaking job... He still thinks he can make it as a freelance marketing consultant, but he's pushing 60, his experience and ideas are dated as fuck, and he still has this attitude that he knows better than everyone else. I thought maybe the fact that my mother is now working stocking DVD shelves at Best Buy would snap him out of it, but no such luck. So I came home with a vow that I wasn't going to end up like that. He should be getting ready to retire... it's not like my parents put my sister and I through school or anything...

Current Mood: geeky

Screw that other journal of mine. Maybe I felt like I was too good for this one or something last year, but going back and looking at my recorded history, this is where I belong. Besides, I've posted all of like 10 entries in the other one since I got back from Los Angeles, which was around this time last year. I'd really like to get back on track of posting to my journal cause I always did enjoy it very much... Myspace really has never done it for me in the same way. So drop in and say hello, spam me with community invites, anything really... I just want to get back into the LJ spirit. In celebration of my return here are some cool things I've made recently:

( I can still make a LJ cut? )

Current Mood: busy

So due to some slight emotional issues and a temporary lapse of sanity I couldn't sleep at all last night. So at 10am Gerrixx found me gibbering madly to myself in the living room and threw me in his Kompressor to hit downtown LA and take me on a walk through the clothing district.

After some light shopping and a few spanish lessons, I still wasn't feeling super good, so he aquiesced to my demands, and took me to the beach.

I look and sound wicked drunk. Oh dear.
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13094978

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=12983843

My first video cap for the Gerrixx. Watch me spazz out and shout at the camera with strange audio glitches.