The Drawer is one of those two-drawer file cabinets capable of utilizing hanging file folders. It has long been my go-to storage solution when I needed something out of the way, where items could be placed and be out of my sight for years. And it certainly had been that long.

I only tackled the bottom drawer today, knowing I could throw out nearly everything in there. I stumbled across all kinds of fun things:

• An old apartment lease from 2001
• Print samples of my portfolio pieces
• A ton of Veer and House Industries catalogs
• A Mac OS X disc I had been looking for

Tickle me

But the best discovery (certainly the most fun) was my old “tickle” file. Gather around kids, and let me tell you about the old days of graphic design. You see, before there were design portals and stock photo sites, good designers kept a file folder full of inspirational works they could steal from be inspired by.

They could be ads, headlines, logos, illustrations — all kept for the purpose of “tickling” your mind while you were brainstorming. I had a great file going, but it hadn’t been updated in years. Flipping through the pile, I discarded about 90% of my file, as most everything had become very dated. I’ll scan the rest and post it to Flickr or something.

It was a fun trip down memory lane, but I think the time to be “tickled” with a file full of printed materials has come to an end, especially in the world of the web. The end of an era, I suppose.

By the time the afternoon had ended, I had three very heavy grocery bags of paper, on its way to being recycled. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

I have to confess – I have been a lousy blogger. It’s been over one calendar year since I last wrote an entry. But enough about that. Let’s dive in, shall we?

What’s happened in a year?

I sent out a “2007 Year in Review – The First 133 Days”, with all my exploits at the 2007 Macworld, the addition of my little nephew Ivan Gambrinus to the Schmidt family, my attempt at running, and the Relay for Life. I blogged about only one of those things.

Man, was that ever a long time ago. The rest of 2007 was a blur, and 2008 is shaping up to be the same. Here’s what happened since May:

Dad update

As many of you know, my dad got diagnosed with cancer last February. Scary as hell, but I’m happy to report that thus far, treatment has been going well. He was well enough to travel back to Battle Creek for the holidays, the first time my parents had been “home” in over a year. Merry Christmas, indeed.

He just finished round two of chemo, and he is hanging in there. Thanks to everyone who has been sending the positive thoughts and prayers.

Earning Karma

In the second half of 2007, I found myself involved with a couple of major charity drives through the Kalamazoo Jaycees:

• In June, I was Team Captain for our chapter’s Relay for Life, a 24-hour walkathon that raises money for the American Cancer Society. Thanks to the hard work of our team (and your generous donations), we raised over $3,100.
• In October, I co-chaired an event called the Ghosts of Kalamazoo Historic Tour. In a nutshell, it was a tour around various haunted locations around the city of Kalamazoo. Response was overwhelming, and in two nights we raised over $1,100 for a local food bank.

I would encourage everyone to give back this year. Helping out your local community is a fantastic feeling.

Worst vacation of the year

It finally happened. All those years of running at high speed and high rpm’s caught up with me. That sound you heard last September? The one that kinda sounded like two high-speed trains colliding? That was me hitting the wall. Hard. It all came to a head in September….

It was supposed to be a soul-searching week away from work. One full week in the Pacific Northwest, a time for reflection. A chance to recharge my batteries.

And it was. For about 90 minutes.

My annual pilgrimage to Vancouver-Seattle-Portland had barely gotten started. On my flight from Kalamazoo to Cincinnati, I started to get this feeling in my stomach. What followed was 7 days of nausea, loss of appetite and general feel-like-crap-ness, all while away from home.

All the stress of the summer months – hell, of the last 6 years – hit me at once, and my stomach rebelled against me. Fairly certain it was ulcers. Took me awhile, but I have finally gotten it under control, I think.

That damn game

Remember that pro wrestling video game I have been working on? We were on life support, and things weren’t looking good. However, recent developments have given it a huge shot in the arm. Seriously. I can’t say anything right now, but holy crap, do we have something up our sleeves. Stay tuned.

Sellout!

In September I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. LKF Marketing – an ad agency I had been working with for nine years, and loved doing so – started growing like crazy, and they offered me a part-time position. I accepted, so now I have the best of both worlds. Freedom in the mornings, financial stability in the afternoons.

Draw draw draw!

In June, I met a childhood idol: “Commander Mark” Kistler, a drawing instructor I used to watch on PBS. He was in town doing a series of workshops, teaching kids how to draw. When I heard he was in town, I rushed down there on the last day of classes.

He was a tad heavier than I remembered him (heh), but otherwise, he was still the same. It’s a very gratifying feeling meeting a childhood hero – and having him be a really nice guy. Here’s some pics:

In closing

And in keeping with the Commander Mark Kistler theme, here’s the mantra he teaches to kids. It’s just something to think about.

“Have an exciting amazing journey,
may you accomplish your dreams,
conquer your fears,
and laugh with joy each and everyday.

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
For all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

Such was the case with Pan’s Labyrinth, a subtitled Spanish film that has gotten a lot of recognition from the critics (not to mention the Academy). [NO SPOILERS]

The story

In a nutshell: the setting is World War II-era Spain. A young girl (Ofelia) and her mother travel to a military post to be with Ofelia’s new stepfather, a brutish Captain in the Spanish Army. Ofelia’s mother is pregnant with his child, and the pregnancy isn’t going well.

As an escape from all the drama, Ofelia’s begins to discover a hidden fantasy world – a labyrinth near the military post. Ofelia learns she is the second coming of the world’s former Princess, and over the course of a few nights, is given a variety of tasks to perform, proving that she has not become a mortal.

As a parallel story, there is a caretaker named Mercedes who is in charge of taking care of the Captain and his men. Over the course of the movie, we learn she has been aiding the enemy, providing medicine and other necessities.

Thoughts

I have to say: I was pretty surprised by what I saw. I went in expecting a dark fantasy movie – but I wasn’t expecting the intensity and graphic imagery.

In essence, the movie is less a journey through a dark world, and more a commentary on the horrors of war.

There are violent death scenes, acts of torture – my stomach was in knots the entire movie. If you are braced for that sort of thing, the movie is incredible. If not, Pan’s Labyrinth can be a very intense and rather somber two hours.

My rating: 3.5 stars (out of 4)

Naturally, I discovered this program right as the series is wrapping up their second year. In the few episodes I have seen, however, I have really become a big fan.

The gist of the show, for those who aren’t familiar: three groups of three college graduates hop on an RV and travel the U.S., interviewing successful people in a variety of fields along the way.

The key word in the previous sentence: variety. In the three episodes that I have seen, the interview subjects have ranged from Richard Meier, architect of the Getty museum; ?uestlove, the drummer for The Roots; Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters Magazine; and Paula and Lorenz Eber, a couple who biked around the world to raise awareness about asthma.

What’s fascinating is the parallels between all these successful individuals. While their chosen professions may be different, their mentalities and outlooks on life are remarkable similar.

For anyone who may be looking for a little inspiration, I can highly recommend keeping an eye out for reruns of this show. DVDs are available as well, not sure if you can rent them yet or not. The Roadtrip Nation website also has a lot of show transcripts, which make for excellent reading.

You can find the new feed URLs in the right-hand column. Please let me know if you have any problems.

Edit at 11:42 a.m. – Update is now complete. We’ll see how this works.

Edit at 11:45 a.m. – Well, that was fast. I’ve decided against splitting up my RSS into separate Entries Only and Linkage feeds. This RSS stuff is confusing enough for newbies, why add to it?.