Imagine my surprise when I wandered into David’s Tea and saw this! So pleased to see my work on an excellent design and quality product like this. Would love to work with the company in the future, wondering about collaboration possibilities…

Just a screen capture to prove that I had the Featured Illustration on istockphoto.com this past week. I would’ve posted it sooner, but well, I am lame. And this past week was a bit ridiculous. The image that was featured can be seen in its full glory here.

Since this was the first time I’ve run this race, I thought I’d post a little breakdown of how the race went.

The Weather: After pretty much an entire winter of beautiful weather- very little snow and Sunday runs that ranged in temperature from -5 to +5 degrees- the weather decided to take a miserable turn for the worse on race day. The temperature with the windchill was about -22 degrees with a 30kph NE wind. It had also snowed most of the week prior and also the night before, so despite the organizers’ valiant grooming attempts, slippery, powdery snow had blown and drifted all over the course making it really hard to keep your footing. A friend of mine wiped out in Assiniboine Park, luckily I was wearing my YakTrax so I had a little extra grip.

The Course: This would be a pretty beautiful course were I able to see most of it through all the snow. Could’ve done without the hills, they weren’t huge, but there was one that you covered both ways and you hit it the second time after about 11.5 miles. Ouch. But on a nicer day, it would be almost an ideal course to run. I see that the distance wasn’t certified, but according to my Garmin (which measured over-distance, as usual), I’d guess it was pretty dead-on.

A mile-by-mile breakdown of the race comes after the jump!

The Start: You get to wait inside (thank God) before the start. There were people from the earlier waves who had already finished and started eating. I was immediately jealous of them. Jerks. We went to lineup outside about 2 minutes before the start and it wasn’t as bad standing around out there as I thought it would be. When the bullhorn went off, it took about 10 seconds to cross the start line as it was a relatively small wave (about 165 people).

Mile One: Already sort of regretting this. Hit the parking lot and got blasted by the wind. Most of this mile was isolated in the trees. Saw some neat tipis on the grounds. Climbed a smallish hill and passed a woman who appeared to be wearing a full snowsuit. How she was running in ski pants, I have no idea.

Mile Two: Grargh! Why is this in an open prairie field? It looked endless. I ran this mile too fast in an effort to get out of the wind. I spend some time during this the mile cursing my friend Dana for convincing me to do this.

Mile Three: What’s up with this giant hill? We live in Winnipeg, dammit! Why didn’t they just route the course around it, it wouldn’t have been hard to do that? A pacer passes me and tells me to keep my shoulders down, they’ve already been riding up high and tense from the cold. His advice helps me relax a bit though.

Mile Four: A fairly uneventful mile through the trees. One small hill and quite a few twists and turns. Pretty. Until…

Miles Four & Five: Grant Avenue. Oh. My. God. This was a almost a 1/2 mile up one side of the street, than crossing and running back up the other side. Which meant ice pellets whipping one side of your face, then ice pellets whipping the other side of your face. At this point I almost said “Fuck this,” and wandered off the course to somewhere warm, but I didn’t have any money, so I was kind of stuck finishing this damn race.

Mile Six: Back in the trees and onto Assiniboine Park. Not so bad. Not feeling like I want to end it all, the way I did a mile ago. At this point, I notice that my lips are numb, like ‘At the Dentist’ numb and hope I don’t have frostbite on my face. Start holding my gloved hands up to my cheek and mouth every couple minutes.

Mile Seven: Fairly uneventful. Felt reasonably strong here and passed someone. A race photographer told me he liked my jacket. I amused myself by thinking about how much my friend Shannon would hate this race (so cold!).

Mile Eight: Part of this ran through the Park parking lot, which was pretty covered in snow. I ended up running off the beaten path here a bit, as the fresh snow gripped better than the mushed up snow from previous runners.

Mile Nine: I forgo yet another aid station (didn’t stop at all this race) in order to keep up my speed. Choose to instead draw sustenance from the snot that’s dripping directly from my nose into my mouth. Snot is the body’s own Gatorade apparently.

Mile Ten: I get back on Grant Avenue here (it’s mainly an out-and-back course) and so much snow has drifted onto the sidewalk in the last hour or so that I say, “Screw it,” and walk about 30 seconds to give my legs a rest. Then I run the rest of the mile because I want to get out of the heinous wind as fast as possible.

Mile Eleven: Uneventful. Getting majorly fatigued, but other than a short walk I managed to keep up the pace here.

Mile Twelve: That stupid hill again! Ended up walking up it and just burning up the trail on the way down to make up the time. After which I once again faced The Endless Field of Endlessness. Managed to pour it on a bit, surprisingly.

Mile Thirteen + Point One: Back in the forest, feeling a bit better after a quick walk. I walked only to conserve my energy for the final hill, only to realize that the last part of the race actually routes around it. Wasted time, dang! At some point, the 2:15 pacer sprints past me and I think, “Aww, I’ve blown it again,” (as this happened at the end of the Vegas Half as well). I notice there’s no one with him though and it looks like the rest of his group dropped off so he decided to just gun it to the finish. I decide to follow his lead and manage to get myself a 2:14 for my troubles.

So all in all, a 2:14 in those conditions ain’t half bad! It’s a 7 minute personal best and improvement from December’s half marathon in Vegas. In better weather, I think I could’ve dropped another few minutes, but my legs were really tired and my mental state was… not so great. My ambitious goal is to get really close to 2 hours in the Police Half in May. It’s on my home turf, so hopefully that will present an advantage!

So by now I’m sure you’ve all heard the distressing news: The actor who played “Wheels” on the various Degrassi series died 5 years ago and no one noticed. I read this news earlier this morning and to be honest, it depressed me for several hours.

Now, I’m aware that Degrassi wasn’t necessarily the most popular show worldwide, but it definitely was a Canadian cultural icon (for good or for bad) and it’s somewhat surprising that this wasn’t announced somewhere at the time it happened. The story about the fact the family only just found out as well is just painful.

I remember my friend Julia and I watching a lot of old Degrassi episodes a few years back and googling the cast members on a whim. When we googled Neil Hope, nothing showed up (not even an obituary!). And damn, we were shocked! Wheels being one of the most unintentionally hilarious characters on the show, we thought for sure there would be something out there about him. Hell, there was a whole webpage devoted to “Heather and Erica- The Erotic Twins” (which is, um, weird).

When I was in the hospital with a burst appendix, Julia brought me the official Degrassi “Wheels” book to cheer me up. Upon learning that he died alone in a rooming house, I feel really bad about constantly turning that book facedown whenever a nurse or doctor was coming in.

At any rate, I felt like posting this, mainly just so that there’s something else in the search results out there that’s not a depressing news article.

Cheers to you Neil/Wheels, you had strong thighs.

This illustration was inspired by a couple of friends who had to have heart surgery in the last few months. It was a surprising thing, as both are around my age (under 30), however luckily both of them are on the mend with no serious repercussions (I believe!). At any rate, everything can be fixed. The image is meant as both a literal and metaphorical interpretation of mending one’s heart.

What’s this? Finally a breakdown of my PechaKucha presentation and only one month after it occurred? Why Sam, you are on the ball, I tip my hat to you…

I wanted to post about this much sooner, of course, but the news that it hadn’t gotten recorded dampened my enthusiasm some. It’s of no matter now, but it did upset me a bit at the time. Read on to hear a little more about the presentation and some of the “reviews”!

“Hey, I know I don’t know you but I just wanted to say that I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time, maybe ever. Great presentation! “
– Random Stranger during intermission

The reviews are in! ‘Failing Upwards or How to Succeed as a Creative Freelancer Without Really Trying’ enjoyed by all. The theatre was packed and the audience laughed in all the appropriate moments. I was somewhat nervous about being in the same set as Ace Burpee, but well, I think I actually got more laughs than him, which is amazing. And he did give me a double high five before he left at the intermission. So now I know I’ve joined the upper echelon of the arts community in Winnipeg…

“All the ladies in the bathroom at beer break agreed, Sam had the most charisma!”
– Sara Maximus

So what is PechaKucha? Well, it’s a night where a group of individuals do 6 minute, twenty second presentations (20 slides at 20 seconds each) on a variety of topics. Most of the subject matter is creative, as it is put on by the Manitoba Chapter of the Graphic Designers of Canada. I really busted my ass to get this presentation just right, as admittedly, I feel many PK presentations are lackluster, either due to lack of preparation or unfamiliarity with the format. I’ve been to a few of these events, so I knew that you really have to keep on top of the timer (20 seconds per slide, and woe be the speaker who goes over time) and let your slides speak for themselves.

“It was f*cking brilliant! I know that everyone I talked to agreed with me! It will live on in memory, we’ll talk it up, it will take on vast mythical proportions. Can’t happen with a video”
- Ian McCausland

In all honesty, I really wish I had a video of it, as I feel like those 6 minutes were my shining moment, and I’m not sure when I’ll have the chance to address a large audience like that again. I’ve included a pdf with all the slides and the basic speech here. I made some changes on the stage, but for those who weren’t there, check it out, you’ll get the drift of what I presented.

“@samposnick amazing presentation tonight @pechakucha, you were hilarous ! Loved every second of it.”
- @adesign_girl

Despite my disappointment at not being captured on stage for posterity, I would probably still do this again, if asked. Hell, I almost felt like a real “professional” up there, and I can’t really discount that. I also got interviewed by CBC for the Scene section of their site, which was very cool.

I attended the PechaKucha event last night and wanted to take a moment to commend you on your presentation. You obviously put a lot of effort into your materials and your delivery was great. I am sure you have heard nothing but wonderful and sincere comments about the great job you did and I wanted to add mine as well.

Thanks for the putting the pants on and entertaining us:)

- John (via email)

While I claim this post is here for those who didn’t attend PechaKucha that night, it is actually mostly for me. I don’t want to forget that I put myself out there and did something special that people really enjoyed. It will keep me warm on those cold, self-doubting nights.

Earlier last week I was alerted to the fact that Chapters has been selling a bunch of paper products with some of my iStockphoto illustrations on them. How novel! How… noteworthy (pun intended). So, of course I had to venture down to the local Polo Park Chapters to check them out.

It looks like there’s still more to come, given that part of the display isn’t filled yet and a few more licenses were purchased on the same day for retail use, so I’m hoping to see a design with my typewriter or bicycle on it. They’ve paired them with some products that have similar (but not my) illustrations and they’re looking good. Some of the colour/cropping choices aren’t what I would’ve done, but it’s great to see my stuff available to a broader market! Now if only it had my name on it…

Please ignore the poor quality of my sneaky iPhone photos and enjoy!

Oh, and if you wanted to purchase them, or see some of the other designs up close, they’ve made them available on the Chapters/Indigo website.

Just an illustration of a jellyfish… Had been working on this one for a while, but never really seemed to get my mojo workin’ with it. I like the final piece, but I feel like maybe it needs more detail or something…

Of course, if you disagree, you can purchase it on iStockphoto.

Here’s the latest illustration I have available on iStockphoto. Just wanted to do a more modern take on a traditional, hunting-style image. I like the way this one came out.

RUNNING GOALS

So most of my goals this year are running related. I think it’s easier for me to post these since they’re a bit more quantifiable than other life goals.

1. Run more consistently
Trying to build up my base mileage to a bare minimum of 20 miles per week, preferring to be closer to 30 miles per week. I was at around 25mpw before the half marathon last year, but that was short-lived. Currently I tend to do about 60 miles a month, which isn’t really enough to show improvement.

2. Run 1000 miles this year
This is simple enough and relates to the previous goal. If I can make the previous goal, then this one pretty much comes with the package.

3. Run FASTER
I’m already working on this one by mixing in some tempo, interval and 5k pace workouts. I’ve already chopped about 0.5mph off my pace time and I’m hoping to get to an average 6.5mph speed by the end of the year. Which leads me to…

4. Run a less-sucky half marathon
Yeah, I already ran one. And I enjoyed it. But man, I find my time so embarrassing that I’m hesitant to even talk about it with people. There were a number of reasons, most of them probably based on the fact that this was my first race. So this year, whether it’s the Manitoba Half or an alternate one, I want to get a better time. Even if I decide not to race, I plan to at least run the distance at a much faster pace.

LIFE GOALS

1. Have more fun
I feel like this is a constant goal for me. I always have a good time when I go out, but lately things have been holding me back. I let other people’s moods affect me too much, which in turn affect my social priorities. Me staying home and being miserable won’t make the other person feel any worse or have any sympathy for me (obviously), so why make myself upset? Life is so short, wasting my time sitting around sulking when I could be having fun is stupid.

2. Stop over-thinking everything
A big contributor to my unhappiness is the massive analysis I seem to HAVE to do for every event, every word, every action. I feel I’m able to shrug off some things, but I really spend way too much time worrying about people’s emotions and feelings. I’m not vowing to be insensitive, just vowing to spend less time thinking about other people’s motivations.

WORK GOALS

1. Draw more
Just want to submit a bit more to iStockphoto and work on more custom illustration projects (though some of that is up to chance).

2. Just get things done
I put stuff off mostly because I worry about doing the best possible job on things. I think the key is to, as Nike so eloquently put it, “Just Do It”. I have enough talent that I’m probably not going to disappoint people even if I don’t feel it’s my best work. And most clients would probably rather have their stuff done faster anyway.

3. Improve my web skills
This is kind of a given. Despite my reluctance to do them, I still continue to get web design jobs, so I might as well have an easier time doing them.

4. Be more responsive to emails/requests
Whenever I have a new client contact me, I almost always seem to sit on it for a few days. Why? Do I have some kind of problem with making money?

I feel like I may be forgetting some goals, so I may update this post or add a new one somewhere along the line. Honestly, 2010 really sucked the butt as far as personal achievement or growth goes, so let’s hope 2011 works out better! What are your 2011 goals? Feel free to post them in the comments!