Thursday 16 July 2009

Poordem™ matt roach

Poordem™ matt roach as you have probably guessed is the combination of being bored with the added handycap of being very poor.

Me and Matt are waiting for the 17th of august. then our assault on the ad world can begin. Untill then we have to pay rent and bills and then manage to find money for food. Now with the dare I say it "current economic climate" all the crap weekly paid jobs have been taken even the institutional new starters bar job has become extinct! benefits take ages to go through and you can't get a normal job because by the time you get it you will be starting your placement.

So what ensues is poor driven boredem. It manifests itself in a number of ways, for some its buying sainsbury's basic beer (we've all been there!), some take refuge by simply buggering off home and leaving everything and some watch and re-watch there vast collection of dvd's that they collected at uni, only it now seems a lot smaller.

As for me, mine has resulted in me picking up my old game boy and getting lost in the world of pokemon, vicariously living through my little pixelated me through his adventures.

This is something the student books don't prepare yourself for and that is the limbo in between graduating and getting that first job, especially this new super limbo where there are precious little crap jobs to take.

Could this be an idea for a book 'life after death of dissertation'?

On hind site I should have set up a small savings account when I started and put 10% of my part time job pay cheque into it so that I had something after I graduated but a lass I failed to find a time machine and go back in time to tell me this bit of information.

If you do have a bad case of Poordem™ matt roach I suggest buying a gameboy advance. Either that or get some friends either way is good.

Saturday 11 July 2009

Graduation

Graduation is something we see in the movies all the time, you know the films mostly american and its all emotional and vomit inducing but when mine came along I was pleasantly surprised at how much of an emotional experience it was.

My mum came with her sister, my auntie who were the two people who dropped me off on my first day kind of bringing the whole adventure to a proper end.

All my friends were there including those friends that you lose contact with. Old house mates, old random when your drunk I know you friends. My fiance and her family.

It was all very official considering how unofficial uni has felt. When I think of uni i don't naturally think of all my hard work, i think of all the fun i had and how much i am gonna miss being a complete douche and so to be walking up those steps and shaking some womens hand and been given this document of your academic achievement did seem like something out of a movie.

It really felt like the end of something everyone was talking about what they were doing or what they were gonna do and it was all very grown up and mature, no "yeah gonna go to this bar i heard of and just meet someone there and stay with him/her" it was "yeah i have a new flat and have signed on to make sure i can pay for it etc etc 

so sometimes the movies do have it right and it goes beyond a cliche and i find myself considering taking another degree so that i can go back, kinda like a shawshank redemption moment i'm an institutionalized man now!

a lot of people i know missed there graduation and i'll tell you now don't. it was great. 


Thursday 2 July 2009

"I'm not gay, I'm an Art Director!"

This exclamation I found myself making in town the other day was not a jealous attack on employed Art Directors, no it was in fact an act of self defense against my fiance.

Being an Art Director I have a very definite sense of what I think looks good and where it will look at its best and this attitude filters into the everyday aesthetic choices I make. I'm a sucker for an attractive blonde. Did I say Blonde I meant Brand, to me there one and the same. I love fantastic looking packaging with an equally attractive brand on it. If a product hits the magic two, it is in my basket end of.

Like I said I have a strong opinion on what looks good and if your a girlfriend or lucky ;) enough to be the wife of an art director, your clothes and general fashion sense is no different. We're the kind of men that when you ask our opinion we won't shrug our shoulders and be bored. So when my fiance asked what she should wear to graduation she didn't expect me to have already thought about it and had an idea as to what would look great.

A skirt and shirt combo with shoes later and she's giving me a weird look "you can tell me honestly, are you gay or have you ever thought you were or were you once... stammer stammer????"

"NO I'M NOT GAY, I'M AN ART DIRECTOR!" its like asking a gay man if he's straight because he doesn't like Paris Hilton.

You can't help it if something you think looks bad or out of place or even simply amiss its like a little bug biting you on the back of your head. It's the same feeling when looking at a campaign your gut instinct leads you.

Thats how I will always be be it clothes or even the new curtains for the living room, I'm a man who will have his say. There will be no "yes dear" from me!