First let me go over my goals from last year and see where I stand… Yikes!

1. ) Increase the site visits to this website. If I had to give a number I would say 5,000 to 10,000 visits a month. You can help me with this if you have some suggestions or want me to talk on a certain subject or just plain digg and invite peeps.

I did increase visits, though it is not 5,000 it increased from 350 visits per month to 1,400.

2.) My goal for my business is to expand and have at least 1 other employee helping with the workload. I want the business to make six figures this year.

Not six figures, but Echo did make more than I did at my last job, nice! We did add 3 more contractors doing work for us so this is a step in the right direction.

3.) My goal for family is to spend more time with my kiddos and my beautiful wife. We will be searching for a house to buy by fall of this year.

Maybe fall of next year, have to make sure all things are in order first (want to sell our Corpus house, first). Definately have fun with kiddos all the time, working from home gets crazy but plus is that I can wrestle with boys at a moments notice. My wife and I still date!

4.) To become closer to my extended family brother, sister, brother-in-law and nieces.

We text each other a lot and have been able to keep in touch that way.

5.) To pay off as much debt as I possibly can (college loans included).

We had a setback with Benji’s hospital bills but we should have those and a couple of credit cards paid off by February.

6.) To lose about 20-30 pounds (going on a little diet for the month of January).

Ha! Enough said!

7.) I have been reading a lot lately, from a kid who would pick the books with more pictures than words, to reading 2 books a month is a pretty big change. I would like to increase this and absorb as much knowledge as I can about web, marketing, idea inspiration and business.

Still buying books and magazines!

8.) Make good grades in school, SCAD.

Had to quit because of business.

9.) I guess as some point find a church to go to. Enough Said.

We did it is a great church.

What are your goals for the new year? Post them here or post a link to your blog for your goals. HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THE BEST TO YOU AND YOUR PLANS  FOR ANOTHER PROSPEROUS YEAR!

FOR 2009

1.) Be in an office this year.

2.) Lose weight (yes putting it hear again)

3.) Look for our house.

4.) Increase business sales and clientele.

It is not normal that I do a post like this but because of the holidays and so many changes in our lives right now it seemed to be a must. We went to church this past week and my pastor said something that struck a chord. Yes the old rusted one too that has always been there but I have touched in years. The same chord that gets you to nod up and down to a message, pardon my sarcasm : )

The verse that he shared is below:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (King James Version)

He began by asking us and challenging us to not only thank God for the good times but to also thank God for the bad times as well, “In everything…”. I can’t remember ever thanking God for the bad times. The good times always seem to overshadow those memories or I seem to try and hide them well. They are the wounds that make me who I am. Yes they were painful at the time but all that remains is the memories in the form of a scar. It’s funny our physical scars remind us what happened when we got hurt and we can point out each extra layer of skin that now covers it and say “yeah this happened when I was riding a bike and they dared me to stick my foot in between the frame and front tire”. By the way from experience don’t ever try that at home. Anyways to get to my point here is my post thanking God for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Good I am thankful for:

• Breathing!
• My Beautiful Gorgeous Wife (I am the luckiest man alive)
• My wonder strapping boys who seem to keep this house from any dull moments
• My awesome family
• My God given talents and abilities to be able to make money from home (soon office)
• Two working vehicles
• I love my Job
• Living my own dream and not someone elses
• Excellent Clients
• Great understanding business partner and greatest friend
• A great church that I am finally warming up to

The Bad and the Ugly I am thankful for:

This one is a lot harder for me because the two lowest points in my life has to do with churches. See before I list this know that it is extremely hard for me to trust or even like church.

• The first church accused Elaine and I of doing something that I did not do and pretty much cut all the serving I was doing there. Heads were turn when my girlfriend (Elaine) and I would walk through the church. So we stopped going. It was years before we tried another church, but we did in fact move on. That scar was brutal and deep because I grew up in this church since I was 2 years old, 16 years attending!So why am I grateful for that? If this did not happen to me we would not have moved on to the next church (you will see why that was important next). But we did visit the church again after 10 years of not stepping foot in there. Everything so much smaller than I remembered. The whole time there I kept asking God to bless this church because it was where I met Jesus and where I was baptized.
• Not becoming an electrical engineer. I switched my major to art after 3 years of engineering. I will never regret that decision. I worked in an engineering firm for a couple and know for sure I didn’t want to do this, loved art and graphic design.

• The next church we attended was new and hip, like a fad. I ended up working here for several years and I gained lots of technical experiences about web, graphic and video. Everything was running great, it was lots of hard work, more work than family which was preached against. However, I was ready to stay there for the rest of my life. Then like that I was fired! With a lame ass excuse that “my God given talents and abilities don’t match where the church is going”. WTF!!! Tell me where it is going so at least someone would know. This led me to question my gifts from God. Lord am I good enough? Why do you give me talent and desire but yet my talents that are not good enough? The worst part is that I walked outside and of all days my wife had the car so I started to walk down the sidewalk as she was coming to get me… I can’t even say the next part without tearing up. Here I am walking down the sidewalk with some of my possessions on my back and it begins to rain. I know God has a sense of humor because you could have picked that scene out in my life from the saddest movie ever. This was the single most lowest part of my life. I loved these people they were my friends, my brothers and my mentors and yet I am not good enough. N - E - WAYS! If this did not happen I would not be in this beautiful city. I would not own my own business full time. I would probably still be slaving away, and for what?! To accomplish someone elses dream? What about my dreams? I think God has a different way of kicking my ass to get me to do things. He knows me too well. He knows that hurt fuels me to accomplish more. Sometimes it is in a bad attitude but it is definitely forward. He knows that my attitude would be “You hurt me?! Well ‘F’ all you see what I am doing now” attitude.

To tone it down now. If these two lowest parts in my life did not occur I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be who I am today. God and my family are the most important things in my life right now. Maybe that is what God wanted all along, and sure let’s throw in a dream come true in there somewhere. I just pray that I am finally here at my destination and that God doesn’t use a church to hurt me again, ha! I really want to get close but it is hard to. Because of this I focus on God, his message through the pastor, my family and my business. Will I get involved again… who knows I am still in this chapter in my life and sometimes it is hard for me to turn the page. Sometimes I try to lose the book marker too so I can claim that I am lost.

Don’t forget to thank God for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

In everything Lord I give you thanks! Happy Thanksgiving!

My family and I tried a mexican restaurant here in town and I took some snapshots of the movie posters that were hanging. I love looking around for older designs, it just seems to bring you back to the basics. Design before the computer.

Una Gringuita en México (1951)

Trotacalles (1951)

Actor Miroslava Stern

Que Idiotas Son Los Hombres (1951)

My son (4 years) and I were playing with a flashlight. It was his idea to go into the dark and tell scary stories. Usually when him and I play any game it evolves into something that is totally different than when we started. The great thing about this is it evolved into some great experimentation. I took my camera out while he was moving the light and left my shutter open while he moved the flashlight around. Of course I was having fun and decided to paint the air with my flashlight brush as well. Click the photos below to visit my flickr page. Sprint Ad Fun.

1. ) Increase the site visits to this website. If I had to give a number I would say 5,000 to 10,000 visits a month. You can help me with this if you have some suggestions or want me to talk on a certain subject or just plain digg and invite peeps.

2.) My goal for my business is to expand and have at least 1 other employee helping with the workload. I want the business to make six figures this year.

3.) My goal for family is to spend more time with my kiddos and my beautiful wife. We will be searching for a house to buy by fall of this year.

4.) To become closer to my extended family brother, sister, brother-in-law and nieces.

5.) To pay off as much debt as I possibly can (college loans included).

6.) To lose about 20-30 pounds (going on a little diet for the month of January).

7.) I have been reading a lot lately, from a kid who would pick the books with more pictures than words, to reading 2 books a month is a pretty big change. I would like to increase this and absorb as much knowledge as I can about web, marketing, idea inspiration and business.

8.) Make good grades in school, SCAD.

9.) I guess as some point find a church to go to. Enough Said.

What are your goals for the new year? Post them here or post a link to your blog for your goals. HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THE BEST TO YOU AND YOUR PLANS  FOR ANOTHER PROSPEROUS YEAR!

I will admit that I thought for more than a bit of what the title of this post should be. Yesterday for the first time in a while (long while) my wife and I actually unplugged ourselves from technology. We sat and chatted about life, goals, our kids, our relationship, the future, her dreams, my dreams and my business Web Design San Antonio (shameless plug or unplug to go with the theme here). It was the sweetest and most needed conversation we had in a while.

We both have computers here, she has two (lucky, one for her work), and our week usually consists of Elaine and I switching off with the boys. She needs to make calls and do data entry on her laptop for her job and weekly home visits. I tend to work a lot on the projects that are sitting on my desk or making new contacts. In our off time we are playing, cleaning or watching our boys rule our lives. We have a 4 year old and a 2 year old boy. When the bubs are in bed Elaine and I have our own relaxing outlet. She spends some time on Myspace posting pictures of us or posting a new blog on her website. I tend to create my own list. Updating my twitter, updating mypsace, posting a new blog (which I love guys, so please keep coming back), create some other idea that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while.

Yesterday I told Elaine let’s not jump on the computers at all, let’s not turn on the tv and let’s just talk. Elaine is the sweetest woman and the best friend that I will ever have.

The point
There are a lot of great things to do online and a lot of great things not to do. Through all the emails, text messages, phone calls, business transactions, social networks please do not forget the things that are important to you in life. Remember to love, remember to create memories, talk with your significant other, play with your kids, laugh A LOT and live life without any regrets. My challenge to you is to unplug yourself so you can connect!

I am sitting here at about 1:45am. I just finished working on a logo for a client, I glanced down at my to do list and was astonished to find out that I crossed out everything. Wow this is the first time that this has happened. I realized I only had four things on my list today and usually I have like 20. The point is keep your to do list short (realistic) so you will accomplish what you need to. If you do have a long list then prioritize it so you can accomplish what really needs to be done.

Additional reading: Six Slam-Dunk Time Management Tips

I read an inspiring article about staying motivated and creative in whatever field you are in. Link to article: Staying Motivated

Since I am a web developer/graphic designer I usually do the following:

1.) Keep a sketchpad close. Whenever I do a website, design or logo I usually do mock ups on paper first (I am going to post the sketches and mock ups for the new Web Design San Antonio site as soon as I can reveal it). It makes a huge difference when you design on paper first because you are not limited by a digital world. The only thing that limits you then is your imagination. Trust me my mind is way out there, wait did I say that out loud.

2.) I have my Nikon D70 anytime I am in the mood to shoot. What do I shoot? Whatever I see that is visually appealing. Composing objects in the lens is the same as composing images in Photoshop except all the layers are provided and you have to move around physically to finish the design.

3.) Wrestle, run and play hide & seek with the kids always keeps me physical and revives the kid in me. The kid in me is more creative than I am.

4.) Surf the net to see other’s work always inspires and motivates me. I created folders in my Fire Fox bookmarks that I call “Daily”. Here I have the list of blogs and forums I visit to stay up with stuff. I also have a folder called “Spark”. This folder contains galleries of websites, logos and other designer’s works. Just to list a few in Daily: Boagworld, Web Design Book, Smashing Magazine. Few in Spark folder: CSS Remix, Best Web Gallery, N.Design Studio, Logo Pond.

OH Almost forgot! I had to share this line and it ties into this theme well. I was watching “Flip That House” and Armando Montelongo said one line that inspired me. “You ever heard the saying, ‘The best comes to those who wait’, well those people are still waiting”. This is classic because creativity and motivation will not fall into your lap, you have to go after it.

So what are you waiting for? Seriously stop reading and go sketch!

There is no doubt about it I am a workaholic. I admit it and do not deny it. If my computer is on I am on it and my computer is never off. I do admit that I sleep here and there but only when I fall over and can’t deny that I am sleepy. I lost my job about a month ago and my whole world crashed. During this time I have had time to reflect and remember what is important in life. At my old job I worked 6 days a week and even brought work home, there was no way around it. Now that I don’t have a job I have had some time think about what my next move will be, I have had time to patch up old relationships become friends again with people I lost touch with. I called an old friend today that I haven’t talked with in years. I have played with the kiddos, went out with the wife, kept clients happy, made good school grades and been able to blog about it!

I encourage you to get out and live!!! Sketch, draw, photograph and talk with people who you never met, paint, play, date and love like there is no tomorrow.

Sketch of my son, then my 18 month old got a pencil and added some detail while I was away (got to love them).

We visited the city we are moving to and it is so full of art and culture I love it. Below is a photo of a painting from the restaurant “Pico De Gallo“.

My point (yes there is a point) is simple. Remember what is important in life get out away from you computer, live, then create. Living, having a life and loving is all part of the creative process. Cradle this “love for life” and interpret it with your mouse in Photoshop, your eye in photography and your pencil in sketching.

GET OUT, LIVE THEN CREATE!