Well, looks like my once a month entry is right on time.  I promise I will attempt to make more than one entry a month from this point on.

I’ve been working on getting my portfolio together for some time now, and finally made the time to do so. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I have applied for two graphic design jobs at Virginia Tech. I got a call late last week about coming in for an interview for one of those jobs. The interview was set for Wed. April 9th. I got my stuff together and practiced my delivery a few times the previous night. I met with 3 people from Student Services at VT. They all were very nice and asked a bunch of questions to test my competency. Things were going well throughout the interview. They all said they liked my portfolio and website, so it all seemed very promising. I got a call today (4/10/08) from the woman who was in charge of hiring. She asked me if I wanted to work with them and I gladly accepted. I need to work out the small details, but as of right now, I plan on starting in two weeks.

I have been doing production work for my previous employer since we moved to southwest VA last September. The work is in no way creative and I’ve come to really not like doing the same sort of work over and over again for them. So I decided it’s time to move on and work towards a more positive working environment. It was and has been a good thing to get the paycheck, but it has been very frustrating not to be able to spread my creative wings on a semi-regular basis. I want to keep growing as a designer and in that sort of environment, it was stunting my creativeness. I have been trying to get my nose into creative magazines and books as much as I can lately just to get out of the non-creative rut that I’ve been in. One book in particular seems to have jump-start my creativity. It’s called “Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to wake up your brain.” They challenge you to do one exercise per day. I’d like to try to do that if I can just to keep my mind sharp. I’ve been trying to sketch in my sketchbook on a regular basis as well. I hadn’t been sketching much for a time and really missed it. So, I’m going to push myself to sketch more often.

I also picked up a new digital camera. My previous camera had an issue with it’s imaging unit. We had sent it back to Canon when it was still under it’s factory warranty, but the warranty had expired before it started acting up for the second time. So, I was camera-less for a few weeks and it really started to bug me since I enjoy taking photos. So I did some research and set my sights on a Canon Rebel XTI. I already had 2 lenses from my SLR that I could use with the DSRL. I didn’t feel comfortable getting something like that off of ebay, so happened to look on the local craigslist. I found exactly what I was looking for. A year old Canon Rebel XTI body. I didn’t need to pay the extra money for a lens, so all I needed was the camera body. This one came with 2 batteries too. So I met up with the guy, took a look at the camera and really liked it. Once we heard back from the tax guy, we made the decision that we could afford it. So I called the guy up again, met up with him and picked up the camera. I haven’t had lots of free time to play around with it, but I hope to in the near future.

I had a few of the local VW guys over for a bbq this past Sunday (4/6/08). I had only met one of the guys in the area before, so I figured it would be nice to have some of the other guys over to meet them. We had  6 vws and 1 audi at the house (my avant and Holly’s rabbit included). It turned out to be a little chilly outside, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m hoping to make the bbq a regular thing and add some of our other friends into the mix. I’m looking forward to the spring and summer.

Our next OBGYN appointment is in about a week and a half (4/21/08). We should find out the sex of the baby at that one! We are quite excited. I still have a big long list of names to go through. I might not make it before the appointment, but I’ll try.

I’ll be gearing up for the show season in the next couple weeks. The first show of the season is Volksfest in Campbelltown, PA on 4/26/08. Any free time will be dedicated to printing. It always comes down to the last few weeks…ugh!

I’m going to bed. Night.

Categories: Baby, Cars, Misc.
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It appears that an entire month has passed since I have written an entry. Wow, I really suck at this, huh? I’ll try to make this as painless and quick as possible since a fair amount of things have happened since my last entry.

Well, I sold my beloved GTI and upgraded to an Audi. I sold the GTI to a kid in PA. I had lots of offers and interest in the car, so it only took a month to sell it. Once it was sold, I could seriously start looking for my ideal wagon. There were a few choices, but I narrowed it down to the B6 chassis Audi A4 Avant (wagon). There didn’t seem to be too many used A4 Avants out there that met my needs. I had a salesman at the Roanoke Audi dealership looking for me. He ended up finding one, but it was available through an online auction, costed way too much and was in California. So that was definitely out. I had been searching on autotrader.com and cars.com to see if there were any out there with the combo I was looking for. A 2003 Ming Blue Pearl Effect A4 Avant 30v manual with tan leather popped up in Kentucky, so I called them to make sure it was still available. I made some calls to the bank and got pre-approved. So I set up a trip to Louisville, Kentucky starting early in the morning 2/8/08. A friend of mine, Derek, expressed his interest in coming along since he had been to Louisville not-too-long ago and wanted to show me around since I had never been there. I’m really glad he came along since it would have been a very boring drive alone. We drove a rental there and dropped it off at the airport when we got to Louisville. We got there, took the avant for a spin, signed some papers and were on our way. We went back to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat at a local brewery, then downtown to a few bars. The drive back didn’t seem bad at all either. It was a fun trip and I’m loving the new car. I just got it inspected and the VA tags put on it, so it’s ready to roll! Here are some photos of it:

The following weekend (2/16/08), Holly and I went to a local park, Pandapas Pond. It was a great weekend weather-wise, so it was really nice to get out and enjoy our surroundings. Here are some photos I took while we were at the park:

Our cat, Smokey has staked his claim as the head of the household (over our other cat, Selena). It seems like he wants to play, but I also see him instigating a fight with poor Selena. She has lost a lot of weight lately and seems more frail than ever. I’m sure the weight loss has to deal with the stress of Smokey picking on her. Here are some pics of the kitties:

I got a chance to play in a game of pick-up roller hockey on 2/28. I found out about a student-run roller hockey league and got added to their email list. One of the guys that organizes the league sent out an email asking if anyone was interested in a pick-up game before the students left for spring break. It’s been over 3 years since I last played, but I felt like I did really well for not playing for a long while. It turns out that the school has torn the rink up and are going to replace it with more parking. The guys who run the league are trying to get local businesses to donate some money for a new rink in a new location. They hope to have enough money donated to get what they need by the Fall. I hope to join back up with the leauge when it starts back up again.

We went to visit Mama G’s on the weekend of 3/1-3/2. We wanted to finish taking the wallpaper off in her kitchen and paint her kitchen and dining room area. So, we made that our main priority for the weekend. We finished up mid-afternoon on Sunday and headed back home soon after we cleaned up. It looks a 100% better than it did and really brightens up the place. It’s amazing what a few coats of paint will do for a dark room. Mama took us to a Ham and Oyster Dinner at the local Ruritan Hall and we got to see what the locals had to offer. The food was really good and we left very full. I never thought that I would be an oyster type of guy, but they were quite good.

I’ve been working on my portfolio website for some time now. I finally got it up and running. I bought a new domain to put it under brianyohndesign.com I’m pleased on how it turned out and have had lots of compliments on it. I plan on getting to Kinkos this week (maybe tomorrow) to get my portfolio pieces printed.

On 3/6/08, we went to Roanoke Memorial Hospital to get some testing done on Holly and the baby. We were having testing done to see what the likelihood of the baby having downs syndrome. We had another sonogram taken and got to see Captain Peanut moving around for the first time. It was quite exciting! The doctor said from the sonogram, the baby appears not to have downs. They drew some blood and will do some more testing on it to give us a more accurate percentage. As of right now, things are looking good. Here are the latest sonogram scans:

We will be going up to PA this coming weekend (3/14-3/16) to visit with my parents and my brother’s family. We haven’t seem them in a while, so it will be good to see them.

I’m sure I missed some things, but I’m going to wrap it up. Night.

Categories: Baby, Cars, Misc.
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Well, I’m just now getting to write another entry. Although it seems as if I haven’t done too much in the last few weeks, it also seems like I haven’t had a moment to rest. I’m going to try to keep this short though.

I’ll start this out with some big news. Holly and I are expecting our first child. I found out January 5th. We had our first appointment with the OB-GYN last week (1/25/08) and everything went well. They thought we were farther along than we were so we have to go back tomorrow (1/31/08) to get another ultrasound. They checked the heart rate and it was 102 bpm at 6 weeks, 1 day which they said was normal for that amount of time. Here are the first pictures of our little “peanut.”

I hope to have some more photos from the second sonogram. Apparently it will be two times larger than it was last week.

Our cat, Smokey has taken a liking to a foam pickle. Holly got a whole bag of foam fruits and vegetables at a conference. We also found out he is mostly of the Korat breed.

Korats are a shorthair with a small to medium build and a low percentage of body fat; their bodies are often described as semi-cobby, and are surprisingly heavy for their size. They are an active cat and form strong bonds with people.

Here are some photos of good ol’ “lead belly” with his pickle.

We got about 5″ of snow on 1/17/08. It was pretty nice to finally get some snow, but it’s melting now and I’m ready for spring. Here are some photos:

We (Holly, Krista, Greg and I) also went to D.C. for the day on Saturday 1/26/08. We went to the National Gallery of Art for most of the day. Here is a link to some of the photos I took: Click here.

My work out routine  has been on a hiatus since my shin injury. Now that it’s getting better and it’s warming up a bit I am able to get out and walk, run or bike around to get some much needed exercise.

And in other news, I’ve been working on my website and portfolio. I’m hoping to get that stuff wrapped up and find some sort of creative job in the general area.

That is it for now. Until next time…

Categories: Baby, Cars, Misc., cats
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I’m working on selling my beloved GTI. I’ve had the car for over 5 years now and I’m ready for a change. I really need to have something with more space for hauling my shirt vending gear to car shows. I posted earlier about being on a wagon search and I have narrowed it down to the Passat wagon. The Passat ticks all of the boxes (price, mileage, safety, reliability, it’s a vw). I took some photos of the GTI and posted them on several different online forums to see if I could get any interest there. I received the correct textured rub strips from TMTuning a few weeks ago so they are on the car now. I also bought a spare set of mirrors , sanded them down and painted them low gloss black. I am very pleased on how they turned out. I finally got the winter tires mounted to my Montreal I wheels and put them on the car as well. Here are some of the pics:

After I cleaned up the car and took pictures of it, I decided I would powerwash the side of the house and clean out the gutters. I used a wooden 8′ ladder that my landlord has hanging on the side of the storage building to get to the gutters. I used the powerwasher to blast the leaves and dirt out of the gutters. I was doing well until I got to the awning over the front door. I was on the ladder and leaning with one foot on the hand rail of the porch. Since the railing was wet, I slipped and fell off of the ladder. On the way down, I skimmed my left shin and left forearm on the railing and landed on my side. Just as the ladder fell (luckily I had moved both of the cars before I started this project), Holly poked her head out of the door to see what was going on. I was back on my feet hunched over trying to catch my breath. I got really dizzy and was really freaked out. I could have very easily smacked my head on the front porch and done some serious damage. I then decided that I was done working for the day, cleaned up and went inside.

We made a 2-hour drive to Mama G’s place on 12/28 on our way to visit with our friends, Greg and Krista at Greg’s parents condo in Wintergreen, VA the next day. It took us a little over an hour from Mama’s house to get there. We exchanged Christmas gifts, walked around the resort and checked out the shops. Greg and I had intentions of “hitting the slopes” as they say, but discovered that the only trails that were open were beginner areas. We both are nearly pro status so it would have been a waste of our talent, time and money. Haha. Here is a panoramic photo I took from the condo:

Holly and I drove back to Mama G’s house after the day at Wintergreen and stayed the night there. The next day (12/30) we went to Holly’s Aunt Carolyn’s house for Holly’s side of the family’s Christmas celebration. It was a nice relaxing day and it was great to see some family we haven’t seen in a while. We drove back to our house later that night. New Year’s was one of the more laid back ones I’ve probably ever had. We made dinner, went to a movie (Walk Hard – it was pretty funny) and came back to watch the ball drop on TV. We made some new year’s resolutions including our lack of traveling on weekends which I really hope we stick to. We need some free time on the weekends to recharge.

I started a contest on a Central PA VW enthusiast forum (cepavw.org) for the best placement of my “IHEARTSHEDPRESS” sticker. I had about 50 more stickers left so I figured this would be a fun way to get some laughs and get some free publicity. Shedpress merch will be awarded to the top 3. The contest will go until 1/31. It should be interesting! Haha.

Holly and I went over to our friends Brian and Ashley E’s house to watch the Orange Bowl game -Virginia Tech vs. Kansas – Thursday night (1/3 ). As we were leaving I tripped over an old wash pail that had been converted into a planter in their front yard. I hit my left shin on the rim of the pail. It hurt but I didn’t think anything of it until the next morning. I got up, got a shower and as I was getting dressed I realized I had a hematoma on my shin (a collection of blood, generally the result of hemorrhage, or, more specifically, internal bleeding). It looks pretty nasty and it still hurts, but if I elevate it and ice it, it really seems to help and hurt less. Here are some photos:

So I got a call from my boss Thursday (1/3) morning. He expressed his desire to change my employee status from full-time salary to freelancer. At first I thought this was his way of slowly firing me and I freaked out. Holly and I got really worried about not being able to get by if I were to be let go and be on only her income. But I spoke with my boss the next day and he explained that there would be a fair amount of work for me to do for a while, but there might be a lack of work at some point. So it made sense for him to do this business-wise. I told him that I would be looking locally for a full time job since I would need a steady full paycheck. He understood completely and we are going to go from there. So I’ll be working on my “get a job” website and my printed portfolio as well.

Well, that’s all for now. I think I’m caught up now. I hope to make weekly ink tub entries in 2008. Til then, Happy New Year. I’m out.

Categories: Cars, Misc.
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Well, it’s been a while since I last made an entry, so I figured I’d catch up a little.

Holly and I hosted our version of the Ugly Sweater Party here in the holler. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Here are some photos:

I also made a short video of our place in VA. Check it out —> click here.

Our new cat Smokey has taken a liking to my press room. He likes it so much that he’s spraying in certain spots in the room. We are not too thrilled about that, but think if we were to discourage him from going into the room, he might decide that he likes to take pisses on our bed or other furniture. The press room is probably the best room for us to “allow” him to mark because of the plastic and canvas we have on the floor. Plus we keep spraying Nature’s Miracle Stain & Odor Remover which works really well. He likes to run around and dive under the canvas drop cloth I have in the room (when he’s not pissing of course). Here is a photo of him playing in the press room:

We went up to PA to spend Christmas with my family. We drove up to my brother’s house Saturday 12/22 and had our family gift exchange there. Everyone seemed to get what they wanted and then some! Here are some photos:

I’m going to end this entry here. I’ll fill you in with rest in the next one. Until then…

Categories: Holidays, cats
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Well, another couple of busy weeks have passed. I got caught up on some things that have been looming overhead for a while which I’m happy about.

On 12/5 we got our first snow. It wasn’t much, but it made the holler look really pretty. Here are some pictures:

The cats are still fighting. Selena has been instigating fights with Smokey and he seems to becoming more depressed/generally pissed off. I hope they can work out their differences soon. Smokey sprayed the wall in the guest bedroom the other day. We put some aluminum foil down where he sprayed. We read that cats don’t like walking on the foil but we’re going to keep the door to the guest room closed for a while just in case he would “strike again.”

We were up in PA again for a quick visit with my family and to attend our friend’s annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. We had a great time as usual. We were able to stay the night this year so we didn’t have to cut the night short. Here are some pictures:

Well, that’s it for this one. I’ll be writing another one this week to catch up before the holidays. Night.

Categories: Misc., beer
2 Comments »

Well, we’ve been pretty busy the past week. We have a new addition to our family. A few weeks ago, Holly and I went to the local Humane Society to look at some cats. We picked one out, filled out some paper work and waited to hear if we were approved. We got a call a day before Thanksgiving saying that we had been approved and that we can pick Smokey up over the weekend. Since we already have a 12 year-old cat, Selena, we did some research to get some tips on how to make both cats comfortable in their new shared environment. We tried a few different things, but found the best way to let them get used to each other was to let them coexist together in the entire house. Selena doesn’t seem to care for Smokey all that much. I don’t know if she’s depressed or just eating Smokey’s food, but she seems to have put on some extra pounds in the past couple weeks. Selena hisses and growls at Smokey if he gets too close, so he seems to keep outside of her buffer zone.

We started to decorate the house for Christmas. I got the tree out of the crawl space and put it up. Holly and I decorated it together. I also started to put some lights on the outdoor trees. Here are some pictures of the cats and the tree.

I put some of the items/mods back on my car that I had to temporarily replace in order to pass VA state inspection. The B3 Passat Wolfsburg Side marker covers and the Japanese euro rub strip went back on the car Friday, 11/30/07. The car still doesn’t have any side rub strips on currently. I took them off to replace with real black textured euro rub strips, but it turns out I had 2 sets of the same side. So I had to send the wrong ones back and have the correct ones sent from the company (TMTuning in Germany). They are supposed to get here this week so I’m hoping for a warm day where I can finally put them on. That way, the car will look a little less stupid.

I am also in the search for a new vehicle. I plan on selling my GTI in the late winter or early spring and get a wagon. The cars on the list are as follows:

1. B6 or B5 Audi A4 Avant (wagon)
2. B5 or B5.5 VW Passat wagon
3. Volvo V70 T5

The stipulations are the car has to be manual transmission, should be around or under 50k miles and be around $15k. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for any cars that meet my criteria and hoping to learn a bit more about the cars on my wish list. If I would find the perfect car, I would hope I could put my car up for a quick sale and get the new one. We shall see. I’ve been wanting a wagon for a while now and it’s getting closer to becoming a reality. I’ll be sad to see the GTI go, but it’s time for me to move on and move up.

On 11/30/07, we were leaving to do some things around town when we noticed the dogs were looking at something on the ground at the bottom of the driveway. We noticed it was some sort of hawk that appeared to be hurt. We assumed it was it’s wing since he was hopping away from the dogs, but wasn’t attempting to fly at all. We looked it up and saw that is was a Cooper’s Hawk. I don’t think I ever saw a hawk that close up. It had really cool red eyes.

I did some screen printing for the first time in months. I need to reclaim (clean off, re-coat with emulsion and expose) some of the screens since they got screwed up while printing in preparation for H2O International VW/Audi Show.

I went up to PA this weekend for my niece Rachel’s baptism on Sunday, 12/02/07. It was great to see a lot of family and friends I haven’t seen in a while.

I’ve started my “get in shape” program this morning. I ran for about a mile from our house to the mailboxes and back. I will also be biking and hiking as much as possible. So, I’m going to end this one here since I need to get up a little bit earlier than usual. Night.

Categories: Misc.
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I’m going on 3 hours of sleep right now and I feel like I’m going to pass out. Holly and I took our friend, Ashley, to the the Roanoke Airport at the crack of dawn this morning (left the house at arond 5:30 am). Then Holly and her mom started working on dinner when we got back while I straightened up the house and washed the cars. The cars get really dirty since we live off of a gravel/dirt road, plus it was a really nice day in the morning (sunny, around 65º). Our friend Derek came over to join us for dinner/lunch. The food was delicious. Mama G. and Holly did a great job. I commend them in their hard work. Here are a few photos from today:

I tried the Sam Adams Black Lager and it was really good. It had some characteristics of a stout, but finished like a lager. It was a good mix in my opinion. I’ll definitely get it again.

It was a good day. I’m still full from today’s meal. I think I’ll go to sleep now. Night.

Categories: Holidays, beer
3 Comments »

I guess this calls for an introduction. My name is Brian and this is my first entry on the ink tub. I don’t like the word ‘blog’ so if I refer to my “blog” I will say “the ink tub.” My friend Raf helped me with the name, so I thank you, sir. I hope to update and add to this often. I would like to share with the reader(s) what goes on in my day-to-day life. As boring as that might sound, I’d like to document my business and myself as both grow and change. So I welcome you into the wonderful world of brian yohn and shedpress.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I am very anxious to eat good food and try a beer I picked up at the store the other night. It’s Sam Adams Black Lager. I’ll write about it later. Over and out.

Categories: Misc.
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