Acquisition

I acquired a new domain name today and Sijia acquired two herself.  I did more design work on that site that I have a deadline on and I’m not much closer to completing it.  The layout is too strict and I am not inspired by it.  I did create a new icon for it, though.

I’ve been collecting all the information to put the sites together better, so that is good.  I went to bed reading Web Design Magazines.

Deadlines

I’m coming under the gun to get the client web site done.  It is a steep learning curve….and taking time to interpret his need for his web site to look like other people’s sites with the starting spot he left for me.  It is like having to do someone else’s work.  I personally believe in starting fresh and building from the ground up, but what do I know?  I’m only the designer.  LOL

I worked on his site all day and I’m really getting into this whole wordpress thing.  It has so many possibilities, yet some of the layouts are limiting.  The initial design is hard but once it is in place, it is easy to update, etc.  I’ve been furiously opening and closing windows.  My computer gets slow after too many windows open.  It takes some real concentration.  I’ve noticed that while my girlfriend can work with music on and talking to the computer, I cannot…which leads me to work in the middle of the night sometimes.  I don’t do mornings very often.  I want to keep my girlfriend happy by spending time with her, but sometimes my best work gets done when it is bed time or evening when she gets home.

Yesterday we viewed some apartments in New Westminster and have a new agent that is going to help us find a new place.  Again, there is a deadline on that….before April I’d say.

Today we went back to the school where she won a scholarship to figure out if the entry to the school could be put off while we take care of other things this year.  Doesn’t look good but we should hear back in a few days.

New Clients, Getting paid, No Avatar today…

I slept in….woke up wondering if anyone got the license plate of that Mack truck Diesel that ran me down.

I started to organize myself about the work I’ve been coming across lately. Almost had two more clients. That would be 4 in 4 days….I’m on a roll.

Oh yes….last night was spent getting my old desk from the gym setup at home. For the last 3 months I have been using a piece of plywood atop 4 filing boxes. Not exactly the ideal setup for the media professional. Now that I’m all setup, my desk is great. I have whatever I need to do what I want with media…with the odd exception.

I did end up meeting with a client to pick up some money for work I’ve done, so that is good. It went right into the moving of the gym….sucks but at least I don’t have the gym to deal with. It would have been a viable business IF I had enough students paying. When it comes right down to it, times are tough, there are 20 schools in
Richmond, at least, and I messed up the marketing. Tough to make it with those conditions.

Today I ended up going to see Avatar with Sijia. We bought tickets online and had to print them on our printer. Everything sounds good, right? That is, until the printer doesn’t work. Finally I got it to print. We get to the theatre and it is a total Zoo. We ended up ‘scalping’ our two tickets to a similar looking couple for exactly the same price we paid to buy them. Then we went for dinner and came home to watch movies.

In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think about this project I have to do. It is a big project and I really need to get to work on it. I get one more day off with Sijia so I’m guessing it will have to be on Monday.

Urban Rebel Mixed Martial Arts

I spent my entire day moving out of my Mixed Martial Arts gym. I failed at this business. I learned alot about running a business from running this martial arts school. My marketing plan was wrong. I called my school Urban Rebel Mixed Martial Arts. Great name if you want to be in the whole Affliction area of branding, but when it came down to it, I love to teach martial arts to kids….and most parents do not want their kids to grow up to be Little Rebels.

The name itself was more about me than the customer…and it should have been about them. I thought it was a cool name and it kind of symbolized that I was without a master. It was a symbol that I wasn’t going to do things completely traditional. I knew that most people were drawn to Mixed Martial Arts because of the UFC, but MMA started to get a real bad rap in Vancouver because of all the gangs that were being associated to MMA. One guy was shot in the back of an MMA gym. It was too hard to educate the public. If I was a full MMA gym, I should have had mats, a cage, ring, heavy bags everywhere….etc…. People like STUFF. I was starting off new and couldn’t afford that.

I started the business off and got this fancy software to run the school. Now, that is cool but I also had them do my web site. When there weren’t enough students, cause the marketing identity was wrong, I couldn’t afford to pay them for the software. That therefore caused my website to go down…..which lead to the inevitable demise of the school. I should have designed my own website….as I almost did all the work myself anyways….and it looked better when I was done with it.

I should have built my own automated software to run the school, too. I did, however, have a hand in the marketing of the school….so good experience doing a tv show, newspaper ads, facebook groups, etc….The only problem with this is…the message was wrong. The entire concept on how to make the school appealing to parents was missing. I did originally try to teach young adults how they could make it to the UFC, but there aren’t enough people that want to do that where I live. The demographic was totally different. Chinese kids primarily are concerned with being good at math, and not wanting to learn how to fight.

I shouldn’t have been teaching kids how to fight anyways….I should have been teaching them how to defend themselves and teaching them discipline in how they could be better at school so they would grow up to be contributing members of society.

I did end up getting on CBC for trying to bring MMA to Vancouver. I was also in the Vancouver Sun for the same thing. I taught a talk show host some self defence moves as well. I didn’t end up getting into the malls because I couldn’t afford it. If I was attached to a non-profit business, it would have been easy….but I wasn’t. This wasn’t like my hometown where everyone knew me. And the stakes were higher. Rent wasn’t just $5 an hour like my hometown. Honestly, I was unprepared.

I’ve since taken a business management course and been designing my own sites. I have found new locations where it would have been a better location. I’m working on building a media company, so that is a good daytime job. That will help if I decide to teach martial arts again in the evening. I’m more prepared now….and I would totally redesign everything before doing it again.

Do I think media is important in business nowadays? Absolutely! You have to be able to get your product line across to the public and it is even better that it works while you are away.

Anyways….I put my stuff in storage until that day comes.

I’m in a diner….I’m in a diner….I’m in a diner. I’m in a *&^%$# Diner.

Supernatural was fun….I’m in a diner….I’m in a diner….I’m in a diner. I’m in a *&^%$# Diner. References to Saturday Night Live there….

The whole crew of Supernatural is great. The little things matter to people….and that crew knows how to take care of the little things.

If you’ve ever read ‘The Celestine Prophecy’, you would know that when you meet someone or if someone’s eyes meet yours….that you really should dig deeper to find out more about them and what is on their mind. I’ve been doing that since around 1997 and it is great.

I did meet some of the guys that would be talking things up and they did…..but it wasn’t so bad. They are excited about media….as am I. We all aspire to do something great and we don’t always have the means to make it happen. When you do get the opportunity, you more-often-than-not cherish it.

It was a great day because I got to talk to a fellow actor who has been following me on facebook. She has seen the rise and fall of my Mixed Martial Arts school….and we talked about why that happened and how it could have been different. I talked and she listened. It was a rather therapeutic chit chat.

I was one of the 4 that got to stay behind until the turnaround for the scene….which means when the cameras turn around in the scene, then you would see me….but not before. Anyways, I stayed in the big white tent with 3 other people…sitting by a heater. I got talking with this girl next to me and as it turns out, she went to Vancouver Film School’s Acting Program as well. We talked about who we liked for our teachers and what they taught us. It was very nice to talk to someone who has been there, too. Being an artist of any kind is difficult. People often judge you on how much money you have or how much you are making.

They say European Films are Art films. They say Hollywood films are 1/10th Art and 9/10 Commerce.

Being an artist means you have to risk it all to get to the performance you really want. You have to brainstorm. You have to hash it out. You don’t just play a character with Cerebral Palsy by flicking a switch. You have to do your research. You have to do the ‘work’. Too many people in commerce or everyday life look at art and judge it immediately and have no vision of what it took to get there. Some art is never done. Some art takes awhile and to read it, look at it, listen to it, see it before it has matured is to not give it due credit. Of course, tons of people expect results without doing the work, too….but those are not true artists.

School was good to risk. You go there, learn your craft. Get a process of how to do things…..just like a carpenter will learn ‘how’ to build things. At school, we risked everything and were supported by people who were in the same boat. You learn ways to pick up skills fast. When I went to acting school, I could barely remember and do a monologue. When I graduated, I could pickup 6 pages of dialogue in 1.5 hours of rehearsal….with blocking, camera movement, emotions, mannerisms, speech, etc…..AND I could repeat it over and over again OR tweak it to however the director wanted it. I also did many short films and we also did some stage work (and singing). Great experience overall!

I really would like to do more acting. I guess that is the reason why I’m writing my own TV Series. That and I want to be part of producing it from the ground up. It is very rewarding.

Tess, Sijia and I had dinner tonight and talked about the blogs each of us are doing. I had a moment to talk to Tess about her blog and the goals I saw for each of the sites….so that was good. Then Sijia ended up getting part of that storage solution that we have been talking about. Now if it will only build itself….sigh.

I’m dreading tomorrow but that is another day.

I wannabe Clint Eastwood…

I’ve been set to play on the set of Supernatural since mid December…and today is the day. Doing extra / background actor work is alright. They feed you. You are not digging ditches. Sometimes they pay well. I’m an Apprentice with UBCP and it is very hard to get in the union. I really wanted nothing more than to be in that union with full benefits, but over the years, all the Indy films (Helix Project, The Insomniac’s Club) and Short Films that made it on Steven Spielberg’s On the Lot (The Bullet), and the shorts that were in the 24 hour film festival (Renion – Hansel and Gretel Grimm’s)….after all that, and 7 years of background work on hundreds of shows….over 20 years….after all that…you realize that your time to be a big-time actor like Clint Eastwood are pretty slim.

I have always been inspired of Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme who wrote scripts and acted in them, making them huge stars. I started writing screenplays so that I could act. I learned how to direct so I could act. I should have gone to film school but went to New Media instead because the waiting list was 6 months. I like digital filmmaking. I like film. My training at VFS for New Media was technical. It was not until I went to Acting School that I realized that it is the emotional aspect that people want to see. It is the same in all media. As long as there is no emotion, there is no audience. Maybe that is why people like blogs.

After Acting school, I realized I did not want to do action as much as I wanted to do dramatic pieces. I like action…but it has it’s time….and should not be pushed. Nothing is worse than actors that are pushing….trying too hard. I take my worst pictures when I try too hard too smile.

Anyways…it is late in the early morning of the 7th and I’m to be on set at 9 am…all shaven, etc…my usual schtick with 3 changes of clothes. I will see all the people I’ve seen before. Some of them will rub it in my face that their prospects are better than mine or that they’ve been making this film with their camera….or that they shot this project. Ya ya….it’s all the same. It is just another day in media world. My time will come.

A step in the right direction…

The day started off alright. I did some tweaks on the Boss Management site then went for a bite to eat. I love to go to a nice restaurant, do some writing, eat good food and….wait…I had to leave…it was already 5 pm and Sijia would have already gotten home.

We did some Web Design before heading out to meet the new client I’ve spoken of to get my first payment on what is to be the first of 3 sites…and could be more after that. The first 3 are going to be quite involved….as I’m learning new things. I have a good broad knowledge of web design and can pick up new technologies fairly quickly and this one has some new technologies. Since I’m charging on a flat rate for the site, I better work fast otherwise I’ll lose my shirt. Either way, I am producing rather nice looking, functional sites as of late and this should be no less smart.

We then headed to Chapter’s where I picked up two new Web Design magazines. I love design. I wanted to get a new Computer Music magazine or something similar, but there were none by that name and the others was pretty much re-hashing things I already have in other magazines I’ve bought. Now if they create some really cool samples to use, I’m there. I may go back for the Reason magazine as it has a cool Funky House how-to in it. I’ve been buying these Magazines and CDs/DVDs for some 12 years now. I have quite the collection now in various styles of music.

We then went for Pho…well Sijia did….I ate earlier. From there we headed to IKEA to look at shelves. We couldn’t decide on how the storage room should be completed. It really is her decision to make. I will leave it in her hands.

I got home and used some of the info from one of my new magazines in the Boss Management site. So far they are quite happy about the site….but I’m not done just yet.

What is nice about having clients is they are able to inform me of some technologies that they want in their site. Because I have the base in design, it is easy to put it together, but people are generally very specific about what they want and I’m happy to give it to them. I get paid to learn some new things and to rely on what I know. Win-win.

Blogs, Remix, Clients

Woke up to find that the Tess Fitness Blog looked exactly like the Urban Design Life blog and was quite frustrated because I spent time putting a proper theme on it. Before freaking out, I checked gmail to see if there was some kind of message that Tess had sent before changing the theme. In the end, I realized that the link I had in my Internet Explorer Favorites Bar was to a Preview of a different theme and not actually the site itself. When I shortened the URL, the ‘actual’ theme for the site showed up. Whew! Tess can actually see the site as I have intended. I sent her a link….and it is nice because I was able to back-date the posts she had emailed me to the actual date that she sent me the blog entries.

We are starting to get some people following Tess on Twitter.
I’m finally getting a chance to catch up my blog entries for Mark Bishop Media Blog. I’ve started off by entering into notepad.exe. That way I can save it to my hard drive as one big entry and it will not take up much space. Also, I don’t like to fiddle around with formatting when all I want to do is type in what I’m thinking. I have installed Windows Live Writer as part of the Windows Live experience and will try to manage several blogs with this software.

Now to be clear, Mark Bishop Media Blog is about me building a Media company from the ground up (Digital Fork Design). I have tried this several times over the years, but not until now have I had some really good concepts to go with, some good possible clients to pursue, some real expectations, some business experience, a new business management course and some people who are working with me that will also get what they want by working harder. They are as driven as I am that I’m happy to be in their company. The difference now is…we each have someone to bounce ideas off of. I have been designing a plan for each of us to follow to keep us on track. We are accountable to each other and we have a way to make a difference in the lives of others while hopefully making a difference in our own lives.

It may seem like I’m all over the map with my own blog, but I do have a lot of projects on the go. I’ve been writing lyrics, songs, music, screenplays, book ideas for nearly 20 years now.

I write lots of music but I don’t release lots of music as Sanctuary X.

I have one song released on CD which made it to itunes (Urceus Exit’s – Why Must We Think This Way? (Sancuary X Remix)). I did the remix for Richard Duggan in 2003 while I was in Acting School at Vancouver Film School. I had met Richard in 1993 or so and he had his first CD released shortly before that. The original song was on that CD….and those were the original vocals that I used on my remix. I have always been a fan of Richard. He showed me his studio in Kelowna in 1993 and he told me some valuable advice. He said, ‘While my friends are out at the bar drinking and partying, I’m at home in the studio creating music.’ It is some 17 years later and Richard has released around 10 albums and toured Europe and many other locations. Obviously it was an honour to be on his album of remixes. What I also like about doing that remix was….I had a deadline to finish it. I finished it on time and he liked the remix so much that he asked me if I would extend the song as he had a few extra minutes on the CD. He said it was like none of the other remixes and completely different from his style of music. I was inspired by Moby. I wanted to see Richard finally get some notoriety on local radio stations. He had worked so hard but I always thought his music was too underground to be accepted by the mainstream here in North America. I personally love his music and it is a great treat to see him live. I saw him at the now-defunct Richard’s on Richards in 1999 (I was in New Media School at Vancouver Film School) with a fellow New Media Designer [r]campbell. Richard performed a remix of ‘You Spin Me Round’ and it was wicked! He had his stage with many tv screens and multimedia sync’d with his music. It was great. Of course this was when he had a ‘band’ behind him. The review in the Georgia Straight in the following days was ok and I was glad to hear they also appreciated his ‘You Spin Me Round’ rendition.

I just got a call from the new possible client. I’ll be meeting him in the same area as where I picked up my girlfriend, where my acting agent is, where my new web client is and where the school is that my girlfriend just won a $5000 scholarship to. I’ll get to pick up some money from working on 4 TV Shows in December. I love it when a plan comes together!

I better get out of here! I have a client to meet downtown in less than an hour and a half.

Busy Day

The Boss Management Client acquired but I had a problem actually getting into the Hosting space for the actual site so that I could change it. The Hosting company is charging way over what most hosting companies are charging so I will have to find a way to make this work out for Boss.

New Client emails all day.

I posted a Resume on Craigslist and Services Ad on Craigslist looking for new Web Design Clients. I have met one possible client and that didn’t workout. I ended up designing the navigation (10 hours), putting a proposal together (3 hours), meeting her (2 hours) and several emails and I didn’t get it. Apparently I was quoting too high. I had originally asked for a budget but still have not received one and it is over a month later and now I have lost this job to someone who will do it cheaper and lives closer to her home. I asked for a referral. I also did not have a portfolio site up of any of the work that I have done. Since starting negotiations with her, I have posted my Digital Fork web site but all that I have posted at this point is the index page which has an animated flash logo. I will have to spend more time on my own portfolio.

I had an email from a new client that wants 3 web sites designed and he sent me tons of links and a few applications about what he would like on his site….primarily a membership and a forum on a blog site. That is fine. Then he proceeded over several emails to tell me that he has been quoted by several designers in the $500 range and that he would like to use 3 designers for 3 sites. In the first email I sent to him, I asked him a budget and he didn’t reply.

We decided on Urban Design Life for the site that Sijia posts to. Sijia and I hashed through some ideas before Christmas about how she loves design. God, tell me about it! We spent nearly every night for the last 6 months shopping for things for our apartment. Everything we got our hands on was design related. We went to all the big stores and to some small ones to look at magazines, antiques, furniture, knick knacks and whatnot. We spent tons of money decorating our apartment from the ground up and I must say….it is starting to look great! Of course along the way we had to put up shelves, build furniture, reroute wires, wait for utility installs, find solutions to our specific problems and we did our fair share of returning items, too. Anyways, the blog is just a continuation of this process, while we blog about it, take pictures of it and yes, we have more grand plans for this as well. We’ve also acquired the Twitter account for Urban Design Life

We watched Julie and Julia just before Christmas and while we had the tools to write good blogs, we didn’t have a good concept to run with. After some conversations, Sijia, Tess and myself decided on some great concepts. Also, it would not happen if I didn’t be firm that we were starting on January 1st, 2010. The date slipped for the P90X workouts but this cannot. We will get to the workouts eventually…that is Sijia and I…Tess’s blog is about fitness…lol.

Sijia created the WordPress site (Urban Design Life) for the blog and then got the Twitter site (Urban Design Life) and then created a fan page on Facebook Fan Page (Urban Design Life) for it.

Sijia and I went for dinner then went shopping for the laundry basket to put into the storage room. She was too tired from being up the night before going through domain names. I guess that is what I get when she gets caffiene at 11 pm at night!

Mark Bishop Media Blog
I found a theme, but not completely impressed with it. I also did not get a chance to write to my blog.

We decided on Tess Fitness Blog for the site that Tess posts to. Tess and I hashed through some ideas before Christmas about how she enjoys fitness, enjoys writing, could use an extra income and how I wanted some media clients.

We came up with an idea for her to blog about her fitness goals, trying new activities and how she does with them.

Acquired TessFitness@gmail.com, Tess Fitness Blog, Tess on Twitter (twitter.com/tessfitness was taken)
I went into the text file of the emails that Tess sent me in the past couple days and posted those entries into the new blog.
I changed the site to a new theme that suites Tess’s personality and is super clean.

I went into Tess’s Fitness Twitter account and went to my own Twitter account to follow a bunch of fitness related people. She is now following almost 100 people in media and sports that do fitness for a living. Some of them may also end up following her and eventually we may even get press from her blog.

I was up until 5:45 in the morning tweaking Tess’s site and adding links to my blog (Mark Bishop Media Blog) and my design company (Digital Fork Design) so that if people want to hire me for similar work, it will be easy to see what I’ve done.

A Crazy Night

Sijia and I took a crack at designing the storage room for our apartment.  I used the application from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/rooms_ideas/splashplanners.html) and installed their solutions into the space.  Sijia started up Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com/) and found models for the shoe container we had already bought.

I found it really hard to maneuver around the IKEA app.  Whenever I wanted to move the shelf up the wall, I had to delete it, bring in a new one and then move it up the wall before doing much else.  It was no 3D Studio Max! (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13567410)  Also, it was highly frustrating that all the items from IKEA were not in their software.  The shoe rack(http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/00148563) and coat racks (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/00147851) that we bought were not there.  Those were key elements to our storage room solution.  Also I also thought that the laundry solutions they had were not that durable.

It was fairly easy to do designs with the IKEA Application, though.  I mapped out the other closet we have and brought in a bunch of bedroom items into a bedroom, but had no specific measurements for the bedroom.  The application also did not allow me to make any other objects in the space….such as building an existing chair we have.

I was thirsty and needed a coffee so we went for a drive to Tim Horton’s.  The first one didn’t even have an Ice Capp so we drove to the other side of town to get one.  Sijia had some coffee and it was 11 pm.  OH MY GOD…that was silly.  She became so silly and some of the domains that we came up with once we got home were outrageous….I cannot even write them here!

Went through at least 512 domain names to find 55 that we might consider registering.  We were up until 3:30 in the morning.