SUMMARY: Up late, Melatonin Night 2, Late Wake. Desktop Wallpaper. Ordering supplies for new product.

This Friday is getting off to a slow start. I went to sleep much too late (1AM) finishing some work I could have pushed off to this morning, and ended up waking up two hours later than normal (8AM). On the positive side, the second night of taking Melatonin seems to have also contributed to falling asleep more readily, and I was able to stay asleep for longer. I awoke feeling a little under-rested and low on energy. After sitting up for a few minutes, shaking off the sleepiness, I evaluated whether the low-energy state was due to lack of sleep or just needing to eat something; I judged it to be a combination of both, but mostly needing food. It seems that these days I’m more susceptible to balancing my caloric intake just right.

I cooked a smaller breakfast than as in the past two days, and this seemed to be about the right amount of food. I didn’t have the two slices of buttered oatmeal toast, figuring I would have an asiago bagel w/ cream cheese instead when I got to Starbucks. Having the protein-rich breakfast and the carbs later seemed to help.

I broke a couple of rules: I turned on the computer while I was eating breakfast and surfed my social networks. I felt myself falling into it, though (the hint is when I find myself clicking on something twice, like email).

Upon arriving at Starbucks at 845AM, I got my bagel and a larger coffee than usual, and immediately hit two setbacks: I had left my mouse somewhere (probably the studio), and I absentmindedly started reading some news that popped up on my Internet connection screen. The topic: job recovery. I’m fascinated by jobs and job recover. It’s now 9:07A, and I’m not really feeling like working. The mouse issue is a problem, because I had planned on doing some illustration work. This might be just the trigger I need, though, to get a small wireless tablet. I may go shopping for one later.

Today’s main client challenge is to draw the finished wallpaper for a pro-bono client project, but I can’t do it really without the mouse. I could go home, but I don’t want to. I may go to the studio later with Sid gets there in an hour or so, but it will be incredibly warm and humid. Comfort seems to be on my mind today, amplified by my slight sleepiness and the pending weekend. I am feeling slightly stressed for the first time this week.

Deep breath. In the meantime I can work on the gun safety poster, doing a last visual check and ordering a few.

0915 to 0945: Ordered a small run from Digital Lizard Print for test purposes. I’ll have to look at the paper samples for the other print vendor; prices are in the 6-10 cents per page range in quantity, versus DLP’s average cost of 40 cents per page. I need to look at shipping supplies. The Uline catalog has poly bags for $66/1000, which seems really high. I also need flat envelopes. I think I will head out to Staples in a bit and look around.

0945 to 1000: First, update current activity partners on progress!
1000 to 1115: Shopping at two Staples and Best Buy, purchased new tablet.
1115 to 1230: Set up, test tablet. Also, look at some polybag prices.

Resuming work on the desktop wallpaper. Am not really feeling it right now. I might have to go home and start this. Though it’s nice to stand up and work at the studio.

1230 to 1330: drew 4 outlines of doors
1330 to 1415: Polaroid break, check mail
1415 to 1500: drew one fancy door outline

I gotta go get some food now, and take a break. It will be a longer day of drawing! But first…

1500 to 1545: Order packaging supplies: bags, envelopes. Research packaging options for stickers.

1545 to 1715: Had to go home! Stopped by supermarket and bought meat for dinner. Installed wacom drivers on home PC. Surfed Facebook, caught up on goings-ons. Updated Wave. I am feeling VERY sleepy. Maybe it is the sweetened ice tea I drank.

1715 fell asleep until 1830

1830 Check STO auctions. Cook dinner. Eat dinner. Watch 2 episodes of “Covert Action” on Hulu. 2015

Time to resume work. I stayed up to about 12PM working on desktop wallpaper, and took a break to check in on Star Trek Online for no real reason, since there is little to do there. But I like visiting.