Regarding design and craftsmanship: I feel like I'm in the middle of a high school production of The Fountainhead. What bums me out is how few people are really able to discern quality from trend. How folks are not really capable of recognizing good material from shoddy workmanship. How easy it is to fool the public with flash instead of presenting to them quality and beauty. This could break me.

But I'm a fighter. I will not demean my good work just for quick sales. I'm not going to sacrifice my design philosophy for popularity. I will wait for the few who do get it, that's really all I need. Just for the few brilliant, self-thinking individuals who know excellent work when they encounter it.

I think I'll just be the Tom Waits of design. Difficult to understand, but who always follows his own way. Someone who knows his own voice and doesn't compromise that even if he isn't the number one superstar of the world.

So the only real question is, how to keep that little whiner in me from taking over? Hmmm, I guess I'll just have to listen to Tom Waits when I work.