eri-chan*com

I suppose its fitting that with the new year fast approaching (2012 arrives in 3 days? Where did the year go?!?) I’m back and FINALLY updating this site.

Its also fitting that it took me until now to get my portfolio of design and illustration work up and running… but, New Year’s resolutions and all that. And now that its up, I’m ready to start taking on more freelance work! I’m experienced in most forms of design and traditional media illustration, and also have some experience in developing multi-platform marketing campaigns. If you need some help in that arena, take a look at my work, and then drop me a line if you like what you see! No project is too small, and I’m happy to work on larger campaigns with longer time commitments as well.

Just a note: my portfolio is rather more extensive than what appears online at the moment, but right now I’m just trying out the Carbonmade service while I decide whether or not to move my site off of WordPress.com and onto an external host running WP as a CMS. If you’d like to see more examples of my work, just let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige as best I can.

Like so many people today, I’ve been glued to the CNN website following the news out of Japan in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami that have devastated the small island nation. I am absolutely shell-shocked by this display of the awesome, awful power of nature.

Watching the videos, seeing the pictures, hearing witness accounts, the whole thing still seems somehow unreal. Entire communities are just decimated, picked up and swept along and drowned by walls of rushing water. Hundreds of people are reported dead and injured, but the final count is expected to be in the thousands, which this statement posted on Listen Before You Buy makes particularly poignant…

“I’ve watched towns being swept away, generations upon generations of families and friends living and working in one place being wiped off the face of the planet in one giant swipe.”

Its hard to look this sort of disaster in the face without feeling something pretty profound. First, its horror and disbelief, an unwillingness to accept that something so horrible could even happen. Then the heartbreak of realizing how many people’s lives have been ruined, and the apprehension at how much that country and that society will now have to overcome in order to recover. There’s sympathy and empathy for all those people who have lost their homes, lost loved-ones, or been critically injured or killed. And there’s an inevitable sense of relief that this time, it wasn’t you.

And then you think, what if it was me? What if the next time Mother Nature decides to swing a fist, she aims for my home, my loved ones, my life? Would I be strong enough to bounce back from what must feel like the end of the world?

I don’t know how to answer that question, but I do know that I’d want someone to be there to help if what happened in Japan happened here. If you feel the same, find a (reliable) charity or aid organization who will be giving assistance to the Japanese people in the coming days, weeks and months, and make a donation, whether its money, objects, or time. And then take a minute to appreciate all that you have and all the people you care about, because the universal truth these events force us to acknowledge is that you just never know when it could all be taken away.

I’m not the praying type, but my thoughts are with the Japanese people today as they watch the waters recede and wait to begin cleaning up the ruin of their world.

After roughly 3 months of sporadic work (which could probably have been 3 weeks had it been more regular work), eri-chan*com is now 100% up and running!

I’m trying something new with this, so I expect some bumps and a few stutter-steps as things get rolling, but you can’t get things right if you never get started. So… here I go!

I’m currently writing two blogs about my biggest passions:

• eri-chan*eats is my food blog where I’ll share recipes and reviews and talk about whatever food-related topics happen to catch my fancy. Some of you may remember my old blog titled “Table for Two?” which was hosted on Blogger – all of my old posts have been ported over here to WordPress so you can still check out my old content, some of which is pretty ok, I think.
• eri-chan*listens is my music blog where I’ll share commentary and reviews of all the music I love, whether its new or old. This is a new topic for me to blog about, but I’m having a lot of fun with it so far.

I’ve got plans to add more blogs in the future, to write about things like movies, cartoons, and books. But, one step at a time, right?

I’ve also set myself some goals for each of my blogs to keep me motivated and challenged in the coming year – check out my eleven in 2011 for eri-chan*eats and eri-chan*listens.

And finally, I’m making myself available as a freelance designer again, offering services in a variety of areas both in print and on the web. More info is here if you’ve got work that needs doing.