A new(ish) illustration, intended to post it for Valentine’s Day but didn’t get around to it. The person who owns them knows who he is.

GOAL #1 – RUN A HALF MARATHON

I’ve always been interested in running a marathon, but the sheer length seemed too daunting to me. And the possible damage to joints and muscles makes it a little less attractive to me at this point. However, before the whole appendix issue, I was running a solid 4.5 miles a day, which while it’s not much compared to the 13.1 mile distance of a half marathon, was a good start for distance running, I think.

I’ve caved and bought myself a treadmill, so I’ve already been starting to run again. Once I get back from my vacation at the end of March, I plan to start using the Runner’s World training guide to dictate my runs and hopefully increase my speed a bit. Right now, I’m just focusing on being able to run a steady pace for a good length of time, since it’s been so long.

My friends and I are training for the half of The Manitoba Marathon. It being in June should give us a lot of time to work on it. My goal is not only to finish but to have a fairly respectable time (basically, no walking), so I can keep up with my longer-legged friends.

GOAL #2 – LEARN SCREEN PRINTING TECHNIQUES

Yes, courtesy of the lovely Nik, the much coveted Yudu is now mine. Now I just need to clear out the “spare-spare room” and learn how to use it. This may take some time, due to the amount of work that room needs, but it will get done.

GOAL #3 – MAKE AND SELL MY OWN PRODUCTS

Admittedly, this ties in with Goal #2, since I’ll mostly be producing prints and possibly cloth goods (t-shirts, tea towels, aprons, etc.) with the Yudu. But it’s a goal of mine to be selling my own merchandise. I love working with Cardstore and iStockphoto, as well as the independents that carry products with my illustrations, but I’d like to be able to conceive of and finish something that’s 100% Sam. And obviously, I’d also like to hang onto 100% of the profits.

Well, I have more minor goals to add to these, but let’s not go nuts here. These are the ones I feel require the most focus and foresight, so I’ll try to commit to these. Would love to know what other people have planned for 2010!

Happy, happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends and readers! Hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Got a tree or garland to decorate but short on cash? Or maybe you’re just looking for something a little different? Consider filling a tree with these origami sparrows! Pattern and more, after the jump.

Sure, a lot of us have seen (and love) those porcelain origami crane ornaments, but who’s got $15 (or more) to spend on them, especially if, like me, you’d want an entire flock of them? Hence my simple solution to make your own. You can place a few here and there for a modern, handmade touch or fill a whole tree with them for impact. Grab a pdf for the design HERE and print away!

The pattern for this type of bird is very simple and I’ve included the pattern with a set of two small folding sheets for you to cut out. The detailed toile-esque sparrow pattern on these sheets is an original Sam Posnick creation and you’re welcome to use it for your own personal Christmas ornaments.

Merry Christmas and happy folding!

More of my illustrations can be seen and purchased at iStockphoto.

A long time ago, I worked 2 brief months at Value Village (Savers for you American and Australian folk). This was time long enough to a) save up enough money for a digital camera (and subsequently get ripped off at Don’s Photo, but I digress) and; b) quit. I was thinking about it the other night and thought for some reason others might be interested in some strange facts about the company and the experiences I had there.

1) The clothes at Value Village (hereafter referred to as VV) are NOT washed in the store. Sure, most people wash the clothes before they give them away, but a looooot of people don’t. Do not rely on this when buying clothes there. The smell of the stores alone should alert people to this fact but yet, whenever I tell people I worked there, it’s always the first question people ask. I usually respond with a blank look and ask them if they’ve ever seen the “20,000 new items added daily” signs and ask them if they think there is 100 washing machines in the back.

2) The unseen mascot for VV is a box of junk known as ‘Otis (the OK)’. The box of junk is referred to as an OK as it is the unit of measurement that VV receives donations in and pays the charities based on it. ‘Otis’ is actually kind of cute, but seriously, what the hell?

3) In the same vein as 2), regarding the charities VV works with, a common assumption is that out of the money you spend there, a portion goes to charity. As far as I know, this is incorrect. VV only pays the charity for the box of donations received (when the charity picks it up and delivers it) by the amount of and weight of the box(es). A box full of precious jewels and a box full of dirty underwear will net the charity the same amount from VV. If you want the money you spend at a thrift store to go to charity, shop at Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

4) For the VV price tag switchers: There’s actually a code (coded numerically to the words “BIG VALUES”) written on the clothing labels in an effort to thwart you. Most cashiers, however, are too lazy to check this, so you will probably get away with it if you don’t get greedy.

5) When you first start working there, your training will partially consist of being locked in a small closet with dust bunnies and a computer. The computer training program was relatively well done (for the year 2000) but appeared to be aimed at 7 year olds and featured games and ‘Otis’ doing a rap. About junk. Beatboxing included.

6) Your biggest trial as an employee at VV will be trying to get out of your turn to organize the Men’s Underwear aisle at the end of the evening. Eventually, you will fail and find the XXXL men’s briefs with the crotch ripped out. And despite your best efforts not to touch anything, you will totally accidentally touch it.

7) Everyone who works with you and shops there will be ‘colourful’ characters, to say the least. Expect to be covered in angry old person spittle if you forget to apply Tuesday’s Senior Citizen’s Discount.

8 ) Speaking of characters, there was a guy, perhaps named Eric (though maybe not, I didn’t pay much attention), working there. I was speaking with him in the break room once and he was telling me about his attempts to curb the amount of times he used “like” in his day-to-day speech. I thought there were other problems he should focus on solving first, such as the fact that he worked at Value Village.

9) On my second day working there, a female employee introduced herself to me:

N: “Hi, I’m Nhu.”
ME (thinking “Great, we have something in common!”): “Oh, I’m new too! I just started working here yesterday!”
N: “No. That’s my name.”

We never spoke to each other again.

10) The Jeans aisle is the bane of an employee’s existence. The hangers are so cheap that any slight breeze or cough will knock one pair onto the floor and the rest of the pairs will fall like dominos. Once there was a pile of jeans on the floor about as tall as I am and I’m pretty small children were making a fort in there.

11) One time, I saw two elderly women fighting over a gilded frame, black velvet and backlit picture of Jesus. True story.

In further proof that Muppets are pretty much forever cool, here is a most awesome video of them singing Bohemian Rhapsody (found this via Geekologie). I already tweeted this, but it bears repeating because Queen plus Muppets cannot be denied.

Have a nice(r) day!

I’ve been wanting to make and sell my own illustration-based products for some time but it seems that all the online companies and people that do it offer either poor quality products or take too much of a cut for it to be profitable to me.  And I know that screen printing can be done with fairly minimal supplies, but I’m not really interested in the mess and sourcing of materials.

Enter the Yudu. A screen printing machine that does prints up to 11×14″ in size, which is definitely a decent starting point for a newbie like me. It prints on fabric, paper, wood with no problem at all (or so it seems). The website makes it look like it’s aimed at younger people but all the reviews I’ve seen for the machine have been from adults, so I think it’s a fairly professional piece of machinery. I think this might be a good starting out point for me and I could finally start that Etsy shop that I’ve had an account for forever. I’ve really been wanting to do a line of prints and home goods and people have suggested it to me as well, so I know there would be some interest out there for the products.

The only issue is that the machine is puh-ricey, it goes for around $400 at Michaels. I suppose one could use those coupons from the flyers, and I did see it on sale for only $300 a few weeks back (actually it is on sale this week, according to their flyer). I’d go out and get it, but due to my the appendix bursting and the complications that came with it, I’m only just recovering on the money front right now.

So I guess I’ll just have to have this blog post hinting about what a great Christmas gift this would make. *nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more *

Oh, and do yourself a favour and watch the product video on the link above, it’s hilariously bad.

Most of my friends and family know the gist of the story, but for the sake of documentation, I’ll try and get some of the main points down here. Hey, it might be of interest to other people googling the same thing. I know I would’ve appreciated reading some other people’s accounts of the situation.

So, in short, my appendix burst. Well, to be accurate, according to one of my surgeons, it straight-up exploded actually. Imagine a bag of microwave popcorn after someone slams a fist down on it, that was my appendix. Blown out on two sides, apparently.

I started having an achey stomach on a Friday night, but I had started a new ab workout that week and figured that it was just residual muscle soreness from that. I should’ve known something was up the next day when I could only get 2 miles into a 4 mile run because my stomach was too sore when I lifted my legs, but again, just thought it was the change in workout.

Saturday night brought the pain, I actually woke up and googled appendicitis, but decided to wait until the next day to be sure. Sunday, the pain was a lot less but unfortunately brought with it, um, digestive tract issues (detail I do not wish to go into). So I thought, “Well, this isn’t typical of appendicitis, I probably just have Gastroenteritis or something again,” since it seemed similar to my symptoms from that in the past. The GI issues lasted until Wednesday, but faded a bit everyday, so I assumed I was getting better, but made an appointment with my doctor for Thursday anyway.

Thursday rolls around, I’m feeling pretty good, probably at around 90% of my usual self. I go to JYSK before the appointment and lug a new comforter around. See the doctor who agrees it’s probably just a stomach virus, but orders tests anyway. I get home and everything starts to go bad, I’m in massive pain, can barely walk and can’t eat.

Made the mistake of going to Misericordia ‘Urgent Care’ that night (which I will later find out is NOT Emergency, which, oh, I don’t know, they could perhaps TELL YOU or refer you to a different hospital if you come in with a serious problem). Waited about 4 hours to see a doctor who told me I was very good at describing the pain but that it doesn’t help him (which again, what the hell? What else am I supposed to tell him about?). They took an x-ray, blood and urine (which at this point, looked like rust) and basically did the tests my doctor ordered, decided that I had a Urinary Tract Infection despite a complete lack of evidence and the fact that I have had that before and trust me, it was nothing like this was. They put me on an IV of antibiotics and told me to come back the next day for another.

I hobbled around for most of Friday, feeling a bit better, but still terrible and with a horribly swollen abdomen. Went back to Misericordia on Saturday morning, where a nurse snapped at me for not being able to walk. The doctor administering the IV was at least decent and said I should get a CT scan, but the office at Misericordia was CLOSED on the weekend, so I should schedule one for the week. I agreed and we left with a prescription for more oral antibiotics.

Took the antibiotics and attempted to eat and drink on Saturday but I started throwing up anything I ingested, to the point where it was pure bile coming out. Idiotically, we went back to Misericordia one last time, where the ONLY decent nurse there hinted that if we went to the Health Sciences Centre, we could get a CT scan done right away. Why no one told us this earlier is beyond me. My mom showed up and we left to go to HSC instead.

And I should note, that on the way out of Misericordia, Nik overheard the nurse saying something to the effect of, “The nerve of some people, don’t they know this isn’t an Emergency department?”. The answer is: NO, MAYBE THEY DON’T. PERHAPS YOU COULD INFORM OF THIS FACT WHEN THEY COME IN WITH SERIOUS PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF LEAVING THEM TO PERISH IN YOUR WAITING ROOM. Also of note, the first night we were there (Thursday), the doctor and nurses were within earshot making fun of one of the other patients. Now that’s care! Also, the floors of the (non)emergency patient area, with the beds, were filthy.

Now, HSC, I only have nice things to say about. They got me into an Emergency room within an hour, the doctors were very caring, they listened and also took the time to explain to us what was going on. They diagnosed the burst appendix pretty quickly, with a CT scan to confirm it. They waited a day to do surgery as they attempted to reduce the massive stomach abscesses I had with antibiotics, and performed surgery on Monday evening.

The surgery, presumably, went well as I’m still alive. Along with removing the appendix, apparently, they also had to essentially take out most of my organs and wash all the toxic stuff off them in order to get rid of everything that was in my stomach cavity and to prevent my organs from shutting down or going into septic shock. My details may not be perfect here, but that’s pretty much how it was explained to me and after the fact, it quite frankly scares the hell out of me.

I spent another week and a half in the hospital, full of IVs and tubes and drains that went straight into my abdomen to drain all the excess bad stuff out of me. Good times. The only positives about the whole thing was getting the chance to watch ‘The Price Is Right’ (the choice of invalids everywhere) everyday and learning the lesson that Misericordia is easily the WORST hospital in Winnipeg and will almost kill you and not even care about it.

So that’s the story. I still kind of feel like hell, my stomach is still insanely sore, I lost about 15 pounds I didn’t need to lose and I now have a giant, crappy scar from my naval down. Yay.

And because I’m totally bitter, I will pretend for a moment that this blog isn’t attached to my professional design site which I use in order to attract clients and issue a giant ‘fuck you’ to Misericordia for almost killing me. I hate to come down on hospitals because I honestly think they do the best they can with their resources and our healthcare in Canada is still very good, but honestly, everyone there, except that one doctor and nurse that were decent, can go to Hell as far as I’m concerned. Everyone makes mistakes but the lack of care and concern there was absolutely appalling.

To end on a more positive note, cheers to the doctors and nurses at HSC, particularly the first doctor (whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch) that saw us when I was admitted and Mulleina (probably spelled this wrong too) that saw me most mornings. A bit of care and respect go a long way.

Just blogging here to advertise my participation in the Week of Hope with Hope Is In the Cards. From September 1st to the 7th, my partner- Cardstore- will allow anyone to personalize and send out a free card from the HOPE collection (including my design above) to anyone else worldwide. This includes postage! It’s a great way to show some love and encouragement to a friend or partner, so my “hope” is that you’ll all participate!

Feel free to personalize the card’s inside and back with your own photos and sentiments. Then just go through the motions and enter the promo code SENDHOPE at the final checkout point. Easy as pie!

Tell someone that they’re Number One! >

After some consideration, I decided to change my username on iStockphoto to samposnick instead of the previous sposnick. Given that when I initially signed up for iStockphoto, it was as a buyer, so I really didn’t give my member name much consideration at the time. I thought that using samposnick would be more in line with my business and domain name, etc.

So, in case you are linking or bookmarking my portfolio directly, please change your links to:
www.istockphoto.com/samposnick

Carry on then and see you on iStockphoto. Lord knows I update my portfolio there more often than I update this blog.