Entry 31.3.06

The reason for this weekly blog is to keep myself honest by logging my progress in getting my studio organized. I’ve wasted far too much time in getting the studio up and running so, instead of a private journal, I’ve opened this to my wife and any interested readers so as to keep me on my toes.

As of this entry, I’ve finished Phase 1 of the following displays: Horror, Asian and Star Trek. I’ve already begun work on Star Wars. It's challenging since I have a great many vehicles and playsets for that particular collection. I’m trying my best to optimize the space; that means I’ve already rearranged the shelves more than once to accommodate odd sizes.

Phase 1 consists of pulling whatever pieces out of boxes and off the floor and placing them on the shelves without spending far too much time on intricate displays. Once the toys are up, I'll then start on the library getting whatever books I'm going to keep up on the shelves while placing other books that I'm undecided upon in boxes to be read later.

Phase 2 will find me going through the entire studio backwards, starting from the last display and placing any found objects and recently purchased pieces. When Phase 2 is done, everything I own will be up on a shelf in the general area where it will permanently reside. The end of Phase 2 will also find me putting up any posters and artwork I may have accumulated after which I’ll take time to work on my web site and animation projects.

Phase 3 will be an ongoing endeavor with no termination date. Durng that phase, I will work on more intricate displays (designing backdrops, hanging flying ships, etc.), paint and repaint pieces that need it and repair toys that have seen better days.

I'll post one picture with each weekly installment of the boxes remaining to be emptied in a particular display. The reason I won’t be showing the displays themselves is that, once my web site is officially up, I’ll be spotlighting a toy a month from my collection. If I start showing the displays now, that’ll just blow it for my feature.

2006 is going to be a busy year for us here at Doc Monster Labs, so I’ll project Phase 1 will be done by the end of November ’06, as not to be overly ambitious. I’m hoping to be finished much sooner since I’d like to have Phase 2 done by the end of the year. It takes time to animate and I want to allow myself as much time as possible so as to have a healthy amount of projects on this site when it officially launches in 2008.

Hopefully, this will be the last boring entry in this blog!