Video Game Wood Carvings

Another personal blog. Around this time last year I got into doing wood carving when I was out of work and my mother suggested I take some old derelict barn wood and do some kitchy signs and whatnot that could be sold in her farm store. Sadly, before that could really take off, I wound up getting a job, even more sadly, one that had almost eaten all the time I had to wood work.
Then just recently on a day off I was poking around the garage and found a choice piece of rosey wood, and spent a good hour contemplating what I wanted to put on it. Being an avid gamer, my first instinct was to find something relevant to my interests. A logo or something. Being an even bigger fan of Bethesda Softwork's Elder Scrolls series, I decided to opt for what is commonly now known as the Skyrim logo.

The symbol is known as the Seal of Akatosh or The Imperial Dragon, and if I am remembering correctly, it first showed up around imperial bases in TES 3- Morrowind, before becoming the cover icon for TES 5- Skyrim.

Little bit of gaming trivia for you.

The second photo is the first one I did. Not very deep, as I would have liked, but it WAS a rather thin piece of wood so I didn't want to push my luck. Minutes after posting a picture of my efforts on facebook, a friend asked if she could have one, and how much it would cost her. I told her twenty dollars, to cover labor and everything. By lunchtime I'd found a decent piece, drawn the pattern, and by 4pm that afternoon, I had the first image you see above, which I feel is a better, more accurate rendition of the iconic image.

At my friends recommendation, I tossed the pictures up on the Phoenix Comic Con facebook group, and the response has been positive. I've even offered to do up some for people if interested once I get some fresh material, having used my last two good pieces for what you see.
Even have some friends curious if I might do other woodwork for them. It feels good getting back into an artistic swing of things.

Though I hope Bethesda is cool with me making these.

Good Customer Service begins with being a Good Customer

If you asked anyone who works in the service or retail industries what they dislike most about their jobs, it's very likely the top of their list is dealing with customers. Some of you may even be nodding your heads. Unless you are the kind of person who gets a profound sense of joy and pride out of being in a position of subservience to the whims and desires of every Tom, Dick, and Harry that walks through the automatic-sliding doors, work retail and service jobs can be both crushing, and soul draining. Can be. Operative term.
But, as I have touched on in other entries of this blog, it is all often a matter of perspective. Not just for you if you're in that line of work, but also you, the customer. It's a two way dance, so let's start with a right leg out.

As the customer, you are the sole reason for a business to exist. You're the person who purchases the goods and services and keeps people employed and recieving their paychecks. You are one of many, many stones that make up the foundation of economy and society in general. My first point will be not to abuse this knowledge. You are an important factor of any business, but you do not own or run the business. Don't let the revered status of Customer go to your head.
Never forget that every man and woman in any place you visit with purpose or desire, is a man or woman like yourself. You do not know their business, or their stories. The least we can do, for anyone, is to be civil and polite, if not just simply friendly.
Golden Rule of Good Customership 1: Be Humble.

It is also a good point to bring up, that there are two states you should never go out shopping in. One should never go shopping while hungry, or angry.

I once had a job where for a time me and several other people had to sell memberships to a club. It equated to a lot of standing around and being turned down. One day, I return from a bathroom break taken purely to break the tedium, to a woman seeming to give my partner at the table a hard time about the memberships that we were selling. To take the pressure off my partner, I interjected with a full explanation of the membership and what we offered, very matter of factly and simply. This seemed to offend the woman, and she became even more upset and began to storm off. Merely as a matter of courtesy I tossed out a "Have a good day", which made her spin on her heels and become even angrier. Apparently "Have a good day" is retail speak for "Sit on a tack and die" where this woman was concerned.
The rest of the day I turned the encounter in my head, more so in preparation if she came back for another jab. I came to a conclusion that, she was having a bad day, and she brought it with her and tried to rub it off on us. 
Don't do this. It's not going to make you feel better, you are only going to make things harder on other people, who are simply either going about their business, or just doing their jobs. Misery does not actually enjoy company, so there is little value in sharing your bad day with the rest of the world. In fact, according to the Law of Attraction, you are literally telling the universe you want more misfortune and more bad days. This is not a good mindset to have. The world is full enough of hard hearted, miserable people who just want to make other people just as miserable. Let us not add to the population of them.
If anything, these types of people are the scourge of retail and service.
 Golden Rule of Good Customership 2: Just be nice.

Now, for employee's, just take what we have talked about above, and apply it to your work day. Be humble and civil, and polite. Don't bring your bad day with you, because it will seriously hinder your work.

I could go on to talk about shopping habits and the aspects of people buying what they want rather than what they need, but that is your business. You are going to buy what you are going to buy and no one should be able to tell you what you should, or should not. You're an intelligent person, and it's your money.
...Just please don't manhandle the displays...

The 11 Lives Philosophy

I stumbled across this one day, from a webcomic called Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by a Mr. Zach Weinersmith and it struck a serious chord with me about how I look at life and what we do. Please to enjoy.

Hate your job? Let's work on that.

For some of us, going to work is not the highest point in our day. That is usually an honor saved for that moment when we clock out and are, for the time being, free once more to pursue our own adventures until it's time once again to fulfill our obligations to our employers. Some of us luck out, and we wind up in a job that manages to not only be rewarding, but enjoyable.

For those of us who practice the creative method, this is when we are really tested when it comes to maintaining positive affirmations and gratitude. It is incredibly easy to get overcome with the grubs, or panicked, flustered, or just overwhelmed.

And I will be honest with you, reader, I am very far from the finest source to inquire about maintaining good vibes in the workplace. My personal work history is decorated, and in almost every one of them I had uttered the dreaded phrase that would undo all my creative works therein-- "I hate my job."
If you're a believer in the law of attraction, you will want to avoid this phrase like the plague, even if it's something you're just uttering to yourself in the heat of a bad moment at work. You will immediately set yourself on a vibe of your job just sucking more and that explains a lot of my past experience, if I sat down and reflected long and hard enough.

So instead of attempting to BS you about how I would strive make the most out of a less than stellar employment situation, I hit the digital streets and byways looking for answers and varying points of view on the matter.

10 Ways to Survive Your Crappy Job
From: Lifehacker.com

How to Deal With a Job You Don't Like
From: artofmanliness.com (a personal favorite site of mine)

Survival Skills for a Job You Detest
From: The New York Times website
This article even provides a quiz that may help you determine whether you should just leave your current employ.

Hate Your Job? How to Cope With Bad Bosses Long Enough to Get Out
From: Havethelifeyouwant.com

One resounding message in these articles touches on the fact that in a lot of bad workplace situations, it's mostly because our attitude about it sucks and we could stand to get over ourselves. You may be shaking your head and have reasons, but just stop for a moment and think about it. If it's something we don't enjoy, you're probably going to grump about it, even if it's not that big a deal.

Furthermore, there's no shame in rewarding yourself for putting up with it week to week. At the end of my week, I like to treat myself to a nice sit down meal. Somewhere to relax, and stuff myself. Something I try not to do during the rest of the week.

So, you may not be rolling in the big bucks, or having the time of your life in the workplace, but you have a job, and in this economy, that's a step in the right direction. Instead of looking at it as something you have to endure, think of it as a resource that's keeping you moving forward to what you actually want to do. Be the advancing person, and one day you'll find that thing, that you didn't like? Not even an issue anymore.

The Law of Attraction

There is a definite trend in studies and thesis about the law of attraction; how what we think can literally shape the world around us because of a connection we all have with the cosmic, be it god or the universe itself.
Wallace Wattles put it in a very factual manner. There is a universal thinking 'stuff', which works to align the universe to our wants in accordance to a precise science of thought, will, and perception.
As the mentors and professors written of in the infamous book "The Secret" put it, we are thought magnets, and radio towers keyed in to the frequency of the universe, putting out and attracting wavelengths of our conscious and unconscious wants, even so much that we can attract what we don't want, because it's not so much the desire, but the power we put into such thoughts.

To hate something with a great and fiery passion, by this thinking, therefore attracts more of a like something because we are putting out that kind of energy connected with that thing. Like attracts like.
That means that the Thinking 'Stuff' does not respond to the human words of affirmations, but the energy and passion that we affix on what we want, and what we don't want...the Thinking 'Stuff' does not discriminate.

In this, we would have to guard our subconscious and waking thoughts so closely if we are to seriously experiment with the science of manifestation. It doesn't help that often people find themselves in undesirable situations for a plethora of reasons. We work to pay the bills. We have bills because there are things we need and want. To have what we need and want, we must afford it. To afford it we must work, and often when we work, and gain what we need and want, we acquire bills. Thus many take jobs they do not enjoy, purely to step the severity of the cycle we get swept up into. As my mother would say, "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go."

Personally, I feel you can have and be what you want, just as we were told when we were children, and be there truth top the science of the law of attraction, we only need desire, passion, and the willingness to act on our passion, while not allowing the things we do not want to interfere with that desire.

That is the reason I began dissecting and analyzing ways to "make the most" of life's ups and downs. When we can take anything life throws at us and make good on it, then there is nothing that can get in the way of out passion, when our begrudgements give way to being the things we can be grateful for instead.
And how awesome is it to say "Bring it on" to life's toils, seeing them more as challenging of our skill and resolve, rather than burdens that weigh us down? Or to be able to take the smallest of life's pleasures and make them the things that we look forward to the most?

Life goes on, with or without us, I like to say. Take hold of the reigns and ride it. Come high or low, let's make the most of it.

Life up to bat

Does a situation have to be so bad? This is the founding question of my "Make the Most of It" series. Every day, thousand of people let themselves get wrapped up and bent out of shape when life tosses them a curve ball. Well, life is full of ace pitchers in that regard and to go further with the ananlogy, you either strike out at the plate, or swing the bat.
Sure, you can either hit or mess even then, but the batter is there to swing, never knowing whether that next pitch might land him a home run, or bounce into the foul line.

Making the Most of it: The morning Routine

=Making the Most of It: Where we take the little things in life and make it all worthwhile=

It's finally happened. The moment you've been dreading has at long last rounded the corner. Just a moment ago, you were snugly burrowed in your bed, maybe having an awesome dream, when right through the ether you're jolted awake by the sound of your alarm.

It's time to get up...

The morning routine can, if you allow it, be as bad a drudge as going to work itself can be. But it doesn't have to be, if we just make the most of it.

Like a lot of things in my life, I find that I appreciate the little things more, when I have time to appreciate them. I am not like my brother, who has the uncanny ability to simply roll out of bed and right into his work clothes and tie and be out the door in thirty minutes. For my current job as a baker, I have to be in to start cooking at 4:00 in the sodding morning. I am sure I could get away with waking up at 2:45, giving myself just enough time for a small cup of coffee and some toast in my belly and one or two ten minutes youtube clips while I'm packing my lunch for the day before having to be out the door for the five minutes drive (small blessing) to my place of employ.

However, I don't like to be rushed in the morning. I like having a little big of wiggle room, time to enjoy the toast and coffee, and time to relax just a little before having to bounce out the door.

I wake up instead at 1:50am. In that time, I go to the bathroom (I am convinced it's a universal law that you have to pee when you first get up), and put on the clothes I've laid out the night prior. There is simply something refreshing about a change of clothes, even if I don't have the mental faculties yet to master the art of putting on socks. Loin's girded, I venture forth into the kitchen and beseech my Keurig to make my morning coffee. While it brews, I packed a simple lunch and make a little something for myself to eat...Usually yogurt, toast, or a humble bowl of cereal. By now, it's 2:05am. I have a little more than an hour to myself before I need to even provide thought to finalizing my pre-work arrangement. That hour is mine. And it comes with coffee. What I do with that hour varies, and for you, your situation is more than likely different...And, my condolences if you are a kindred early rise employee. We're all in this together, mate.

Getting up that little bit earlier before work. You effectively create some 'you' time before your time becomes your boss's time. It is YOUR time. You can do with this window as you please. Some people exercise. Some people meditate. Some people try and squeeze a little gaming in, if you're the gaming type. And some people just kick back in front of the TV with their coffee. It's all cool.

-Prepare for Tomorrow before it's Tomorrow

I tend to suffer regularly from the need of a cup of coffee before I can make a cup of coffee. That's why I make sure to prepare the coffee maker to be good to go for when I'm ready for it.

I also make it a note to have my clothes for the day ready for when I lurch forth from my bed.

These two acts help me effectively get started into my morning routine so I don't have to waste time fussing over them when I'd rather just kick back with my coffee and breakfast. Get those pesky little bits out of the way early, and you'll feel a lot lighter when you wake up.

-Do something that makes you happy

It is YOUR time. Not your boss's time (yet). Don't start your day on a glum note. Kick it off with something that brings a smile to your face. Listen to some good music, watch something funny on Youtube, catch up on the news or some podcasts. Read some blogs. Heck, catch up on a few chapters of that book you've been taking a break from for awhile. Leave the house early and visit the 24 hour coffee shop. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that you enjoy yourself during your time.

-Hate your job? Don't think about your job until you have to

Finally, don't stress during your 'you' time. Work hasn't taken control of you yet. If it helps, set a time when you allow yourself to focus on getting ready for work. Until that time comes, don't even give a single thought towards your job, and any anxieties or worries that might entail. You can deal with those when the time for them comes. Just sit back, and enjoy your breakfast. Work doesn't even exist yet.

Remember, the time you have before work is your time. Make the most of it.