What do I call myself… I’m a Father, miniature hobbyist and I’m a professional cook…

No, let’s start over.

I am a Father, miniature hobbyist … and a graphics/prepress professional.

I’m done trying to be a professional cook. I’ve got the theory down and have some experience under my belt, but I just plain suck under the gun in a high-volume kitchen.

It became obvious to me in the middle of March when I was buried under steak orders while working saute/grill at the Emerald Grill. I over-cooked a couple steaks and was generally slow due to a minor burn on my right hand. I was let go a couple days later.

It’s two months later and I still have a mark to show for that burn. Up until two weeks ago, I’ve been cooking at a nursing home for alzheimer/dementia patients. I didn’t like it, to say the least. I was handed a menu and pretty much expected to make up whatever I could not find a recipe for in the house books.

Time for a serious change.

Three weeks ago I started a prepress/graphics job at a company that makes tension fabric structures for trade-shows. It’s pretty neat stuff, really. I manage, preflight, troubleshoot and output graphics onto one of four large format inkjet plotters. One of them is 10 feet wide!

Yes, I’m actually using some of my old graphics knowledge. No it’s not design, but I really don’t want a design job right now. I also definitely don’t want a web monkey job right now.

I like what I’m doing. It’s valuable experience for a lot of different reasons. I get to see what’s being done in the design industry. I also get to see what not to do when putting files together for output. I’ll stick it out for as long as they will have me.