Bitching

Man, I am bitchy today.

I didn't get enough sleep last night, and it is sure making me grumpy.  Here are some of the things my mind is filtering out before they make it to my mouth...

Guys, if your shorts cover your knees, whether they're just long or you're sagging them, they are no longer shorts.  Generally, pants that end below your knees but above your ankle are called capris.  Get some friggin' shorts that fit.

I was driving through a residential area, and a daycare group was walking back to their building from the public pool.  They were crossing the road at a crosswalk like a nice little line of ducklings.  I slowed to a stop half a block away from them.  The teacher walks out into the middle of the road and puts her hand up signalling me to stop.  What?  Not only was I already stopped, I was two to three car lengths away from them, it was obvious that I had no intention of coming anywhere close.  It's like telling a dog that's been hit by a car to play dead.

Forget you, T-Mobile and Radio Shack! Brian's phone and SIM card got into a domestic dispute yesterday.  I tried to act as a mediator, but divorce is inevitable.  Time to get a new phone, and quick.

• Forget ordering from T-Mobile, it would take at least a week to get here or would cost enough to buy 2 phones.
• Going to the T-Mobile site on my Blackberry redirects me to a log in screen.  Since I'm on prepaid, my account isn't authorized to log into T-Mobile's mobile site.  There is no option to go to their regular site, or do simple things like locate the nearest store.
• Using a Google search, I finally get into the T-Mobile store locator, and search for stores that carry their prepaid phone kits.  They say that I can buy one from our local Wal-Mart.  They are wrong, which of course, I didn't find out until I drove across town, while already bitchy.
• They also suggest Radio Shack or Target.  I try Target, but they only have the high end phones in stock, not the type that Brian wants.  So I hop onto Radio Shack's website.  They claim that they do carry prepaid T-Mobile phone kits, including the basic cheap phone that we're looking for, and that it's in stock at out local store.  Happy day?  Oh hell no, the big liars.  I get to the store to find out that not only do they not have them in stock, they haven't had them in months.

The only reason I stay with T-Mobile is that they are the only cell phone provider that has the prepaid options I want.  I can pay by the minute or text, not by the day.  There's no service charges.  And they have a 24 hour unlimited data pass for when I want to actually use my Blackberry as a smartphone.  Maybe I should switch to AT&T.  Oh, wait...

Finally, I am friggin' sick of so-called graphic designers who don't know the basics of printing.  Making the brochure that your mom wants for her business look pretty does not qualify you as a designer, especially if you don't know what bleed is.  When people ask what I do and I respond, "I'm a graphic designer," I get 2 reactions:
Genuinely impressed.  "That's cool!"  Well, not really, my days are mostly filled with making other people's substandard work printable while trying to stay in their budget.  But sometimes, I do get to genuinely create something that I'm proud of, so I won't burst their bubble of thinking the design world is a glamorous one.
or, "I'm a graphic designer/I used to do graphic design."  Most of these people have pasted a picture that they stole from a website into Microsoft Word and called it print-ready.

The major problem I have with the graphic design world is that going to school for it is useless.  In school, they teach the elements and theory of design, but none of the practical stuff.  And the people who don't go to school think that anyone can do it, because someone who hasn't taken a single design course can make something just as pretty as someone who has.  That doesn't mean that either of these people can make it printable.

But we've all got to start somewhere.  I love to teach, so when someone is having a problem getting something to the point that I need it, I have no problem showing them how to get there.  I don't even charge for it, although it's saving them money in the long run, so I probably should.  The people that I have issues with are the ones that act like I don't know what I'm talking about.  I have the silly assumption that people will want their materials that they've put all this time into designing to come out as sharp and nice as they can be.

I'd love to teach a Printing Essentials class at Ivy Tech or something.

Although after reading my long rants like this, I don't think they'd want me to.