james polits

Not much to say about this one. I saw balloons today. And I had to hurry and do something before church. The balloons needed something, so they got a fortune cookie… kinda.

Okay, I’m not really proud of today’s design. On the bus ride home from work, I found myself staring at the surveillance camera near the driver. So I decided to try to create an icon version of that camera. After 30-45 minutes of frustration, I gave up on the icon idea and finished with what you see below.

On a scale of proudness, this would be about at 2-3 out of 10.

Are you surprised I am back with another design? I am. Two days in a row, woot!

I was hoping to try to work on something during lunch, but due to a broken copier (I handle most of the IT stuff too), 8:00 PM came around and I had designed absolutely nothing. And because tonight was the season primary of The Bachelor: On The Wings of Love, we have a plane theme.

A disclaimer: one of my wife’s good friends is on this season and so this will be my Monday nights for the next couple months.

I’ve always heard people talk about how you need to constantly be doing that which you want to get better at. It makes sense, right? That’s why people use the adage “practice makes perfect” all the time, I guess.

Smashing Magazine recently posted an article challenging designers to design something every day for 365 days. I blew this off at first because—let’s be honest—I’m not really a designer. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to do this.

So, I’m going to be sharing this journey with you. Every couple days, I’ll post some of the things that I’ve created. Don’t get your hopes up, though. Most of the stuff that I create will probably be junk. But, I’ll learn from it. That’s my goal and my promise to you as well. I will get better (designing stuff following tutorials will help, too).

As a sign of good faith that I will actually keep up this project, here is what I created today (using a vector.tuts+ tutorial).

“When I am consumed by my problems—stressed out about my life, my family, and my job—I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a ‘right’ to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.” – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

What a great quote! This challenges the way we face the struggles and everyday living of life. I don’t know about you, but joy isn’t my normal response when I have a ton on my plate and they all demand a ton out of me. I get stressed and consumed with the issues.

I’m curious on how the world would change if Christians really rejoiced always. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not talking about that fake “Praise God!” or “God is good!” when you are asked how you are doing. That just annoys me. I’m talking about a sincere joy to be facing the struggles that come our way because we have a great God who is walking with us through it all and is more than powerful enough to get us through.

I think it would rock the world if we started living that way.

It’s the little things in life that makes the difference. When I found this in the footage from my sisters wedding, I had to post it. I laughed super hard.

The truth is I try too hard. It’s something I recently realized. I’ve been trying too hard to be who I think I should be compared to others. And the thing about it is that there isn’t any one thing that I compare myself to. There is always something that I’m not good enough at or can’t do.

The reality is that I am good enough and okay. I read a great quote from Oswald Chambers recently that got me thinking about this.

“Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with others as He is with you.”

I am okay with me. I’m going to start living that way. And I think you’ll notice it on the blog too.