new year's resolutions

1. Save money.
2. Exercise regularly.
3. Eat healthier. Cook more. Try new recipes.
4. Be more social. Be less awkward.
5. Blog more.

Wild Thing

no strings

Mayer Hawthorne - No Strings
Free download here.

mr. little jeans

fanfarlo

Fanfarlo turned out to be my most played artist this year. Every track on their album Reservoir is easy to listen to. Even the bonus tracks are repeat-plays for me, which I usually find to be pretty rare. Download and stream two of their songs here. Fortunately, Sand and Ice and Finish Line are both my favorite tracks, though the former has a more elaborate arrangement on the album than the free download in the link.

wallpapers

I decided to make my own desktop wallpapers. I basically emulated this, but used my own photographs. It adds a more personal touch to my desktop.

such a color

Listening to old songs makes me feel nostalgic. Everyone knows the feeling, but rarely do songs mean the same thing for everyone.

Beirut

My coworker recommended I check out Beirut, an indie folk band. They make really interesting harmonies of ukulele, accordion, brass instruments, percussion and the occasional electronic sound. I'm not a fan of all of their songs, but I wish I found out about Beirut earlier.

Scenic World:


Carousels:


Nantes:

Miami Horror

Music posts are easy. I think I shall do them a lot more often. I've been getting into this group called Miami Horror. Dancey. Catchy. The album art looks like it was done by Mark Weaver.

Miami Horror - Holidays

Miami Horror - Make You Mine

new apartment

Sorry. I've been neglecting my blog.

Here are pics of the new apartment. I've been living here for a little over a month now. I really like my neighborhood. I practically live on Sawtelle Boulevard, which is a kind of a trendy area with tons of Japanese businesses. Everything within walking distance. Major. Improvement.

My Room - Part II

Yeah, I have a lot of stuff. Compare with the before pictures.

jk. I'm moving out! My replacement already moved in her stuff, which I seriously don't mind at all. I'm just really happy I'm moving in less than a week. Goodbye, Playa Vista - You were just okay.

I'll post pics of the new place once I'm there! :D

The Bird and the Bee - Heard It On The Radio
This song has been on repeat for me these days. Its got that generic-yet-catchy 80's vibe. It's not a cover, but it was inspired by the songs of Hall & Oates.

Playa Vista

cars say, "kachow"

This is an interesting video I'm reblogging from Kitsune Noir, featuring glimpses of Los Angeles streets devoid of cars. You can see where I live, Playa Vista, at around 0:23 seconds.

I guess I like the idea of a car-less Los Angeles, because the reality is quite the opposite. Neighborhoods and shopping outlets are designed for cars, not people. I've noticed everything is much bigger and sprawled across longer distances. I feel small walking around my neighborhood of tall luxury condos, because I can walk for blocks without hitting a single business or person. I am close enough to work where I could walk if I really wanted to, but there is no sidewalk part of the way. A frequent topic of conversation here is being stuck in traffic. The same can be said about back home, so it's not just Los Angeles that's like this. Fact is, we live in a car-centric country. People love their cars. Like pets, people decorate them as an extension of their personality (wooWOO).

A lot of people might poke fun at me for being so immobile, but even if I were to drive I don't think I'd want to that much. I never liked the idea of so much opportunity for human error: independently moving vehicles swapping lanes and being driven by different people of varying skill levels. At least I can read, sketch, talk on the phone, or study on a bus without increasing my risk of getting in an accident. In that sense, public transportation can be more convenient and can make more sense. I don't have to worry about getting tickets, parking meters, gas, or maintenance costs. Instead, public transit has this stigma of being unreliable, dirty, and for the poor - all of which can be true to an extent.

Oh well. I like to think that I'm proving people wrong when they told me I'd have a hard time relying on the bus.

My Room

Lacks any real furniture, but it works (for now).

LA sketches I

I've had a week to myself before starting work, so I've had more time to sketch. I think I'm going to try to sketch quickly rather than slowly and accurately - "gesture" drawings, as they called them in ED11A. My perspective is wonkier (note the asymmetrical bus), but I figure I'll get better as I practice more. Plus I'd like to get a new moleskine soon, so I'm trying to fill up the pages quicker. New chapter of my life, new sketchbook? I should try to post some old sketches eventually.

The old office

This is where I've worked for the past 10 and a half months. It's a nice cozy place. I'm going to miss it.

That was my desk! And now I'm off to Los Angeles today!

Moving

Turns out I got the job, and I'll be moving to Los Angeles in less than a week. Time to say my goodbyes, pack my things, and get used to the thought of leaving the Bay for the first time. New apartment, new places, new people... I'm excited. Surprisingly I can't think of much more to say about the move. Everything is just moving so much faster than I anticipated.

Jónsi from Sigur Rós. I don't think I know many other people who like Sigur Rós. If you do, lets be friends.

Los Angeles

I ended up changing up the way my blog looks again. The greyish green didn't appeal to me after a while, so I went for something a little more minimal. The layout is still pretty typical, but that seems like it would be a bit too involving to change. I also got rid of the big "DESIGN" in the banner. I feel like I'm more likely to update this thing if I don't limit myself in terms of subject matter.

Job Search Update

I have a second interview with a fairly large online shopping website, and I'm very excited about that. It would require me to relocate to Los Angeles, but I don't think I'd mind that at all. :)

Welcome to Spookytown

I was cleaning through my closet a couple of weeks ago and found this. I don't think I found it funny when I made it as a kid, but now I think it's pretty AMAZING.

"I'd Do It All Again"

I like this song from Corinne Bailey Rae's new album. The music video isn't the greatest, but I'm quite the sucker for mellow and sentimental songs. I like that the song slowly builds up to one chorus, which makes it feel less formulaic and gives the quiet ending more impact. The lyrics describe her relationship with her late husband - in spite of the problems they had, she wouldn't have it any other way and would "do it all again".

Past Work

I actually haven't been doing a great job of updating this with everything I've been working on. Here are some projects that I completed at work:

Carson Grey Photography

High Performance Graphics

 

Redline Mailer

The last one is just a beta in testing, which is why.. its not finished. lol. These aren't quite the best representation of my design style. There are two tiers that prevented my designs from being completely 'mine'. Of course, there's the client, and then there's my boss. But that's not really the point of what design is for (and that's just the way it works), so I'm not really complaining. Plus I get a lot of good feedback from them and I see things I didn't see before. yay learning. But I'm still not a big fan of bevels.

I find it kind of humorous that one of the freelance clients that rejected me hasn't gotten their site online yet. It seems they may have resorted to wix and wordpress. ew.

New look?

So I was just testing out how to restyle this blog. I've never actually tried to, because it's kind of intimidating. Now that I have a better understanding of css from work, I thought I'd give it a shot. As you can see, there are a lot of kinks and weird things going on... but I am le tired for now.

Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere to host the images, so I tried a few quick fixes. I thought that if I uploaded them to blogger, I would be able to call them in my xml and css. I can't do that for some reason, and that really made everything take a lot longer. I also tried uploading my images to flickr, but it converts awesome .png's with transparency to .jpg's, which is not as pretty. Now I have everything hosted on imageshack, which is just a (very) temporary solution.

Not really satisfied with it, so I might try again some other day. But now I know I can do it!

Things are looking up? Maybe.

So, after I told myself that I wouldn't get into freelancing again, five(ish) different freelance opportunities came to me. All of them are through my immediate network, as opposed to friends-of-friends-of-acquaintances. That's pretty exciting and definitely reassuring, although most of them are still very early on in the negotiation process. Projects at work have also started to pick up, which has been putting me in a pretty good mood lately.

Today was the CED career fair on campus. It was a pretty hectic day, and I probably didn't prepare as much as I should have. I rushed to print and assemble my portfolio, and asked a lot of favors of people. I was able to talk to the majority of the different firms there, but that isn't really saying much. This year there were about 12 different firms, which is about half the amount of firms there were last year... and last year's turnout was half the amount of the year before. And to top that off, a majority of the firms I talked to said they weren't hiring (surprise! ...). I found it amusing that when I mentioned graphic and web design to some of the recruiters, their tone sort of suggested I should pursue that instead of architecture.

Overall though, I'd say that reception to my portfolio has been mostly positive, which is a relief considering it took me so long to "finish". I've accepted the fact that my portfolio is something that constantly needs to change and evolve. It may feel complete for about 5 seconds after it's printed, but it will never be "finished"... until I retire. It's just a shame that it costs $40 to print every time. And I'm not making much money. At all.

So now what? I need to stay optimistic and be prepared to wait it out some more. Sounds like a plan..

Day of Remembrance

New Blog

Check it out. I write about my dreams.

Station Hibernation

Jobs applied to: 11

Portfolio Directions

Hmmm... not sure if this makes more sense or not.

I wanted it to be sorta IKEA-ish.

New Portfolio

Again.

Except this time, I finished it under a week's time and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I finished my old 'new' portfolio after 4 months and hate it.

Weird how that happens. I guess I just thought of a concept that I really liked and ran with it, as opposed to trying to make something work that I wasn't really crazy for in the first place. I realized that it's much better to make something clean, simple, and consistent. I thought I was doing that with my old 'new' portfolio, but the end product is hardly that. Anyways, here's part of the new new one:

This time I went with a horizontal format... as in 8.5 inches x 11 feet. I played with that and came up with a timeline concept, and how someone's work is most commonly arranged chronologically. I tried to also factor that into how the portfolio is read in physical form (folds out), and electronically (scroll a long PDF). It still needs some tweaking/polishing, but its more or less finished. Gimmicky, but hopefully unique in a good way.