Awards I've won at Icontests. Part 1 contains awards up to June 2007 and earlier.

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Post #2 - 14 Icons

So I'm joining the hoards that are trying to revive LJ again! Yay!!! Admittedly I do miss blogging on here, even if I'm too busy to really keep up with it and everyone on my flist. :C Even now I'm typing this up on notepad at work so that it doesnt look obvious that I'm blogging on LJ. xD

Ummm, what's new? Nothing much I guess. I do nothing but work work work work. ;x The usual, I guess. When I'm not at work, I'm working on my Java homework or other projects for different people, or my grad applications. Fun life, huh? xD

My car got stolen last week. xD Crazy stuff. But the police found it on the same day (good going San Diego police!), so it was ALMOST in one piece. When I recovered it on the weekend, it was missing its right rear wheel and my boots in the back trunk. :( But hey, at least now I don't have to buy a new car!!! :)

On more depressing news, Disney rejected me for their product design intern. :( I'm pretty bummed, but only because I would've loved working for a big company like Disney. Otherwise it was in a totally different direction than I would've liked....I really really really dislike doing product design. :S Like, bedsheets and packaging and ugh. It just sounds like a headache for me. xD I guess I'm really more of a web and UI girl at heart.

It's just depressing since, after I got the job with Mitchell, the whole year has been a string of really exciting possibilities and heart breaking rejections. :( Probably the worst was Yelp, I was really amped for that and it was the perfect internship. The rest just sort of weighs down on me too, like Flickr, ScrollMotion, Disney, Hulu....they were all such disappointing rejections. And now I'm scared it's just going to be that; series and strings of rejections over and over and over again. I keep telling myself that I just need to make more high-quality works and that they were all pretty big companies anyways...but rejection is awful no matter what direction of optimism you take. ~__~;;

I'm living in a land of painful mediocrity... ;~; 

At least work got a Lynda.com account, so I can secretly steal some video tutorials and resources. xD

Otherwise things are good! I've been becoming more and more engrossed with the tech world as of late, learning more about the different products and OS's that are popular right now. (Which is why there's an increased stream of hate for the elitist and painfully-difficult-to-work-with iOS comments and anti-SteveJobs comments on Twitter.)

For those who don't know, AppendixSquared is back up live! I would love it if you guys could spare the time to pimp it out or whore it out to any other designers or casual art-makers you know. And I'm planning a revamp of my portfolio, since there's a million bad practices going on in there. There are a few new things, but not a whole lot other than what I add in from work. 

How's life for you folks?  

I have too much to do in the span of a month.

AppendixSquared must be live by the job fair at UCSD next week.
I have to have a working comp of a webpage for my pre-graduate studies by the end of this week.
I have Java homework and a quiz to take by the end of every week (Sunday).
-- This also includes the 80 pages I read a week.
I have a facebook tab comp by next week, a fully finished one by the end of the month, and a website to help finish for charity.
I have a website comp to throw together by the end of next week for a freelance project.
I have 6 personal statement essays to write and perfect, and send off to get drafted and reviewed ASAP before deadlines in mid-December.


....what's happening with my life.

someone please save me. :(

Ok so I had my Yahoo/Flickr phone call yesterday which ended up alright I guess. I have to wait a few days to hear back but I'm not too hopeful. (Although he was EXTREMELY fascinated by my mobile game mockups. Wao!)

The Yelp phone call was today. It was actually funny because the guy clearly did not want to be doing these interviews and he sounded pretty bored to be dealing with me. Maybe it's because I ALREADY MADE IT THROUGH TO THE SECOND ROUND!!! fffffffff so excited! The phone call wasn't even necessary, the UI Manager had already looked through my stuff and liked my background. Whee!

I have to do some design exercises now though. I'm technically not allowed to say, but it involves redesigning a Yelp page for the best usability possible.

I'd be more excited if I wasn't already swamped with my GRE's in a week and my Java homework due on Sunday. :|

Sob.

I've got a phone interview(screening? idk) with Flickr/Yahoo tomorrow for a User Experience Designer.

I'm too underqualified for such a job. D: I barely have formal UI training. I barely have a year of professional experience (not including random freelancing). All I can think about is how they're going to ask me some srs questions and realize I'm still just a kid.

AND on Wednesday I've got another interview(screening? i never know) with Yelp for a User Interface intern.

I'm a little more qualified for that, but I can't help but think that it's just another false lead. ~___~ Or that it's going to be Hulu all over again.

The only bright side to this is that they're at least calling me. That amounts to something...I'd like to think *___*;;;;

WAS SO GOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!

This is just a post to remember what happened throughout the days. I don't want to be forgetting.

( Preview Night: Archie and Dinosaur ComicsCollapse )

( Thursday: Wilfred and DaytripperCollapse )

( Friday: Junko Mizuno, Robot Chicken, and SMBCCollapse )

( Saturday: Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy, FablesCollapse )

( Sunday: Buying StuffCollapse )

And that was Comic-Con! Can't wait til next year!!!

I TWEET NOW

If you guys have one, just shoot me an add or follow or whatever they're called. I've always been pretty anti-tweet, but I'm warming up to the concept now! (Admittedly for my blog, but it isn't so bad!)

So like...how are you supposed to customize this thing? ~___~

MY PORTFOLIO

It's done! Hooo omg if you guys knew the history behind making this....all the craziness that went with it ugh. Let me know what you think! Any comments or criticisms would be great, just because I want to make sure this is the best my portfolio can be until I touch it up some more.

In other news, I got a callback from Hulu! lkjsdf;laj;jdf I'm sooo nervous.

I just got e-mailed to arrange a phone interview to be the Ad Sales Graphic Designer for Hulu.

My life just got fast and wild pretty quickly.

BUT

Trevor is coming back to San Diego from June-December to work for Intuit, and the Hulu internship is most likely from June-Sept. ;~; I was really looking forward to him coming back to Southern California and being with him all half-year. Hoooooooo~

But my career must comes first. ~__~ I'll try to see him on the weekends if Hulu gives me an offer. :C The headquarters are in LA, so it's not THAT far away... /superemo

On another note, cloverbooks looks fun, I wish I had signed up. Maybe I'll do it unofficially?

Back to physics, zzzzz

Shittiest lineup since 2008 UGH. Kings of Leon, really? Kanye?!?!? ARCADE FIRE?! Three headliners of serious BLECH. Even the subheadliners are slightly underwhelming. And the undertitled bands? They're...ok I guess. From what I've heard from a lot of them, it seems like blended hipstertrash music that will attract a lot of hipstertrash bros who will snort coke and go party like they could've done if they were in the middle of their rented flat and a stereo system.

The bands I would see skim the amount of 15. Not bad, right? However, the bands I've already seen in the past 2 hours reduces the bands I would see down to....hmm 6 bands. Wow. $300 for 6 bands huh? Sounds like a grand time, Coachellie.

For the sake of being pissy about this horrifying lineup, let me demonstrate and comment on how GREAT Coachella used to be, catering to a really great indie and low-ground alt rock music. Yes, this used to be a rock festival. Who would've thought.

( BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES UNDER THE CUTCollapse )

So that's the end of my rant. My general conclusion is thus;

Kings of Leon? Arcade Fire? Kanye? Sure the latter two are groundbreaking I guess, but they're sharing a stage once occupied by Paul McCartney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, and jesus THE CURE. These guys were such markers in music, and they definitely don't deserve it.

Not to mention that a lot of undertitle bands seem to be sort of hipster-trashy music rather than the classic indie rock/pop/folk that used to be so instrumental and thrilling to hear. I'm seriously disappoint. I theorized that Coachella would sell out at some point and just stat catering towards some younger 15-year old themed crowd, and you know what.....I was right.

/rant over

So that last kitty was totally adopted THE MORNING BEFORE we got to go check it out. So she was bought out about 4 hours before we got to even go see her. :( Bummer.

But then we started playing with the other kittens....and adopted this adorable orange maine coon mix. :D (Michael and I were very specific when we said we wanted a Maine Coon mix!) I'm in love with him, he's the sweetest tiniest thing.



Ok so here are the names... XD

FINCH - As in, Atticus Finch. My favouritest protagonist from none other than To Kill A Mockingbird. :) I've always told myself I'd name my child Atticus one day, so this was the next best step.

PHOENIX - I thought it was appropriate cause he's a red kitty. :D

RENARD - French for "fox"! It'd be shortened to "Ren" perhaps, but it's also the name of a very cute fox in Fables. :p

KITSUNE - Japanese for "fox"! Shortened to "Kit".

ZISSOU - Named after Steve Zissou from The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou. I just thought it'd be cute because the name is quirky and I love Wes Anderson. XD

♪ Ok so I'm giving GameStop my two weeks notice. I haven't been working there very long, like 6 months really, but I think it's about time I throw the towel in. It's not like I was bad at selling the stuff there, I just stopped liking the whole work environment and it was originally just a fun temp job anyways. I originally planned on working there until January, and now here I am an extra 4 months later. XD Plus it doesn't help that I don't really dig my manager. D: But I'm going to miss everyone. T_T

♪ I'm on Chapter 13 of FF XIII!!! I seriously can't wait for this game to be over, there's very little I like about this game. @_@

♪ So I got a PSP! I actually picked it up some time ago, but I got a really good slew of games to play with. :) Right now I'm skimming through Dissidia, Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley, and Brave Story, although I have a good selection of other games like God of War and Crisis Core. (CAN'T WAIT FOR KINGDOM HEARTS!) I even got a Hello Kitty hard case for it!

♪ My camera died...but my friend is helping me deal with a photoshoot this Saturday so it should be really fun and cool. :) I get to style it and direct it myself!

♪ SUMMER is going to be AWESOME!!! Stars concert on June 22nd, my birthday. 21st Birthday Vegas Trip on fourth of July weekend, most expenses paid by my uncle. Distant Worlds Final Fantasy Symphony on July 22nd. Comic Con on that weekend. I'm actually aiming for New York again this September, but it seems very unlikely. :|

So how are YOU guys?!

Was greaaaat.

Didn't shower for 3 days. Ended up washing off my bodysweat and hair with water bottles cause the lines for showers took 4 hours. Lines to get to the grocery store took 2 hours, and we all woke up like clockwork at 8am because the heat in the tent got INSANE.

The bands I saw this weekend:

Sleigh Bells (DISAPPOINTMENT MUCH? They didn't even play "ring ring"...)
Yeasayer*
She & Him
Grizzly Bear*
Vampire Weekend*
The Temper Trap
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros*
The xx*
Hot Chip*
Muse
Julian Casblancas*
Phoenix
Yann Tiersen*
Gorillaz*

with bits and pieces of....
Deerhunter
MGMT
Matt & Kim
Florence and the Machine
Echo & The Bunnymen
Owen Pallett
Jonsi

Anything with an asterisk: I was lucky enough to be really close to the stage! Especially Hot Chip and Gorillaz. *o* I stayed at the outdoor theater for 5 hours in order to be as close as I was for Hot Chip. D: But it was well worth it! I was maybe only 3 rows of people away from the front. For Gorillaz, there's a open-space partition for the pit and for the general audience, and I got to the VERY front of the general audience. (Which was only maybe like...30 feet away from stage?) It was great...the two best shows I saw would be Vampire Weekend and Gorillaz. Vampy Weekend just had amazing energy, and Gorillaz...well....do I really have to explain?

You can check out my public facebook album here, and currently no videos...but if you guys want I could post the youtube links later on. (Either way, I don't care. xD)

I miss being on LJ often! :(