Fxguy Buzz

News and Updates in the life of the Fxguy

Well I turned 30 yesterday. Another milestone. My family came down to visit us this weekend and brought my best friend Jeff. It was a sobering experience. I haven’t seen my family since Thanksgiving. I had to work on Christmas day and this was the first time in 30 years I haven’t seen my family for Christmas. I used to think I hated my family, but the older I get the more I realize how close we really are.  They mean well. The hardest part for me was seeing my friend. I miss my friend. We really feed off each other well. Whatever I was into, he was into and whatever he was into I was into. From airsoft to sculpting, to concept art to computers. We would hang out a lot after school, work, whenever we could. I miss the ability to do that. I hate being so far away from everyone. I mean Champaign is nice. I love the town and the lack of traffic and congestion. We’ve found a great church here and have become involved heavily in the Children’s ministry here. But I can’t help but feeling that moving down here was such a mistake. If we hadn’t moved down we’d be $15,000 less in debt. I’d still be working for Jewel Osco (still my all time favorite place to work) and I’d probably be that much happier. But the grass is always greener right?

So now that I’m 30 and in another age bracket on all the forms (joy!) where do I go from here? I’ve spent the last 30 years getting to this point. I spent 5 years getting a BA in chemistry, 4 more years getting a PharmD (to be a pharmacist, which by the way I don’t want to be) and then the last 3 years moving to Champaign and generally digging the hole we are in. I know some of you who read this are saying what in the world do you have to complain about? At least you are working you might say. But hear me out. The money is really good. But only if there is little debt to go with it. Yeah I may make $100k a year but we have $250k in student loans to pay back.

So what do I do now?

Well for starters one thing I’ve come to realize is people are a lot alike. For all our differences we are much the same. I used to stereotype people, a lot. I used to think the majority of society went to work, came home, and then drowned their sorrows in drinking. I could never figure out how getting drunk until you puke was “fun” or a good time for that matter. I thought people just drank to forget about life. I realize now that not everyone does this. I still think most people feel frustrated because they are “stuck” in society. They either can’t or don’t know how to better themselves. So they give up hope of ever changing. Many of these thoughts were when I was in college, so the “college” crowd had a big influence on my thinking. Since turning 30 though, it has dawned on me why I miss my friend so much. He was constantly spurring me to get better, at whatever I do. The motivation to strive to accomplish that one step further. He kept me involved in a LOT of projects while I was in school. That’s what got me through. Since graduation I’ve lost those projects. I’ve lost the desire to strive further. I was , no I am tired. I’m tired of the constant struggle. What I need is a project to keep me busy. I can set things up so that eventually I will be where I want, but it’s still going to take time. In the meantime I need something to keep me busy and keep my mind off the passing time. A project to work on until the bills get paid off.

So what do I do now?

Well for starters I need to take time to reflect on my life up until now. I also need to get things in order to lay a foundation for the next 10 years. I need to get finances in order and make some decisions as far as work and where we live. Then I need to figure out some career goals and work on them. For now I have to go to work. Look for more posts as I think out loud here.

Tim

Well it seems as though I still have a website and a blog, so I thought I would update it. Why not? I’m updating everything else in my digital life. So from here on out, look for more posts and possibly more relevant posts!

Tim

Ok, here is my blog for Week 4. Halfway through the semester! 4 Weeks to go and counting until school is done! Hopefully by the end of the semester I will become a little more proficient about this blog thing.

This is a sketch I did quickly for our Childrens Ministry Leader showing the different types of stages. Procenium, Thrust, and Surround.

This is a clubhouse / tree house design idea for our set.

This is a very rough sketch of a set that a church in Georgia does for their Kid Stuf program, which we use the curriculam they use. I like it the most because it is compact and visually interesting.

Ok here are some sketches for week 3. Sorry it took so long for me to upload and update its been insane at work.

This is a sketch of a shed I built for our Childrens Ministry at Church. Right now I am becoming more involved in designing for the Childrens Ministry, everything from a stage to lights to technical stuff.

This is another quick sketch

Phew! What a week! I am finally off work for a few days and can get back to my life. Now I have time to update my blog, work on the TON of homework thats been building up and all around catch up. Here are my sketches for the week:

So this sketch is primarily how I felt all week. I felt as if my life were nails on a chalkboard. I couldn’t get any time to slow down or even sketch. I work as a pharmacist and so the days are 12 hours 9AM to 9PM with no breaks. Don’t even get a lunch and so if it’s busy that day I don’t get much of anything but work done.

Me playing around with some architechture stuff

This sketch was how I felt as well, depressed that I cant sketch on a whim, I have to force myself to do it just for a grade.

Ok, since I had someone ask me what the heck is with Fxguy anyways? I thought I would post a quick explanation. I have gone by the nickname Fxguy since I was probably 12 years old. When I was younger, I wanted to go to film school and be the effects supervisor and do special effects for movies. So I came up with the idea of FXguy from the movie FX. Basically on set someone could yell out get me the effects guy now and so I shortened it to get me the Fxguy. Hope this helps!

Well, after a CRAZY week (why did I ever think I could handle 4 classes over the summer for 13 credits while working full time? ) I finally am updating my blog. Currently my blog is going to be devoted mostly to my graphic design class sketches and thoughts. After the summer I can get back to posting some of my thoughts but in the mean time I have to post my sketches. Please click on the thumbnail to reach the full sketch.

This was a quick thought for a design for church. Basically the idea was the old ball and chain with the Earth as the ball and the tag line being something to the effect of “Are you feeling chained to the needs of the world? ”

This was my first sketch, me playing around with some comic book like characters with different expressions.

This was my sketch of an idea that poped into my head about the thought conveyor belt!

This was a sketch tryign to illustrate my thought about being chained to the wings of freedom.

This I sketched while thinking about standing at the edge of tomorrow, not knowing what is on the other side.

This is a sketch of the Stargate, a main set piece from one of my favorite TV shows, Stargate: SG-1.