//radio.tamarii

I am alone this Thanksgiving break, primarily of my own choosing, but also sort of as the result of my having taken a retail job this semester. Black Friday quickly approaches and I am not nearly as productive as I should be in regards to my homework.

I'm really looking forward to the sheer skill-building of figure block and the drive of animation 1 next semester. While I know I'm learning this this semester, it really feels like I've been able to get by on sheer luck and residual talent, but not actually by applying myself full force and really thinking about it. I've been slacking on most of my classes, with rendering being the only one that I've really put a significant amount of effort into. I've been doing fine in all my classes so far though.

Then again, the rest of my studio classes are mostly concept-driven rather than acquisition and expression of skill. Rendering is mostly skills-based, with only 2 really concept-centric projects out of...10. Sequential art is practically all lecture and application of information imparted from lecture into a relatively personal project. Same thing with animal drawing, though there's a lot of drawing done in class. Illustration is almost entirely conceptual; in fact, I've been applying what I've been learning in rendering to my illustration projects, even though technically the illustration class is a prereq for rendering. Craziness.

At least I've been a little more social this year than last. I've developed a small group of friends, somewhat similar to the asian table group of high school. Much smaller though, only about 4 or 5 of us. We're all rendering buddies, but other than Nika and Alice, I don't know a whole lot about the personal lives of the rest. Better than in high school though.

It's a nice feeling when my classmates smile and say hi or at least wave to me in passing, be it in the parking lot as one of us is driving away or just walking by in the hallways, even though I don't talk to them much, if at all. It's a feeling of solidarity, a feeling of being somebody. Not necessarily a popular or famous or even well-known somebody, but that people around me at least know who I am and know that I exist.

And now, back to work.

So. I haven't been doing a lot of personal art lately, nor have I been posting anything I've been doing in school as of late. Partially the reason is that I don't have time, but also because I have a fairly crappy scanner. I miss my flatbed scanner at home, the one built into my printer is a temperamental POS.

However...! I did finally get around to making an artblog on blogger for a slightly more professional (slightly) way of presenting artwork (and maybe a vehicle for getting me to draw more...but perhaps I just need to be next to my scanner more often, start working at my desk again), possibly to use as a temporary website-like place. I don't really feel like I have enough portfolio-quality work to warrant a full-on online portfolio.

Anyways, if you guys are interested: annakoan.blogspot.com

Ry, Dom, and I went up to school at 1am last night to watch the meteor shower. There's this picnic table at the top of the stairs that go up the hill where people usually go to smoke pot that makes a great vantage point for stargazing. Bundled up in hoodies and boots and blankets, we laid upon the table and stared up at the night sky, waiting for streaking stars. When we pulled into the parking lot earlier, we met 3 other people who had come to watch the meteor shower and were actually about to leave. They told us that there weren't a lot of meteors, maybe 1 every 10 minutes. No, meteor showers don't usually present themselves as actual showers of meteors, filling the night sky with streaks of fire. So 1 every 10 minutes is actually not bad.

While we were up there, we contemplated the constellations. I'd never been able to identify Orion's Belt before 'cause I didn't know what to look for, but seems that it's the easiest one to spot. There was also this other small cluster of stars that looked like a question mark. Wonder what that one is? I really wish I were more intimately familiar with the different constellations. The greeks (or whoever first recorded the constellations) were really creative people to be able to see such intricate pictures in such simple arrangements of stars.

Apparently the trick to viewing meteors is to stare at a point in the sky and let the rest of space fade out of your vision, allowing your peripheral vision to see the meteors. That way, when a meteor does show up, your eyes aren't distracted by an entire field of stars and you can catch sight of the movement more quickly. You can see meteors just fine without doing that though. Each of us only saw about 5 or 6 meteors, including one very large one that seemed to change colors from purple to green to yellow as it flew. It seemed like I could actually see it burning, whereas the other ones were too small to see the fire, but we could see the streak. That one meteor was worth the trek though.

These days it feels like I'm living day to day, not planning ahead quite as well as I'd like. I mutter to myself things that I want to get done as I walk from my car to the apartment, but once I get inside, the thoughts just disappear into vapor for the most part.

Work has been slow in the sense that I haven't been scheduled much. Now I sort of realize that I may have missed more call-ins than I thought I was scheduled for because I haven't been going into work to check. I really wish call-ins were posted online like regular shifts. Brooke says that she might start sending out mass emails to all of us with a big list of of all our call-ins, but Elyse, one of the other managers says she shouldn't 'cause it's more work for her and that the system works fine the way it is.

Elyse hasn't been at the store lately 'cause she's been helping out at another BBW, but she seems a lot less amicable than the other managers. She seems very much hardcore into the retail thing, efficiency, etc. Which is a good quality, I'm sure, but she gives off this kind of scary vibe. I'm not sure if I like her or not.

Excited for the CTN Animation Expo this weekend. I imagine it being something like Comic-Con, but more aimed toward industry professionals and those hoping to break into the industry. Like SIGGRAPH, but just animation industry? It's in Burbank though, and I haven't driven that far before. It'll be roughly an hour and a half drive, probably up to 2 hours or more. I don't have anyone to go with me either. I may go with a classmate on saturday, but I don't actually know her very well. I'm also scheduled to work on sunday, but I found someone to potentially switch with. In any case, I was able to let Brooke know that I can't work that weekend, so she said she's going to try to find someone to take my hours. Kind of a shame, since I do want more hours, but we'll see. I said I might be able to work, considering that the shift starts at 6pm, but I could end up being stuck in traffic. It all kind of depends on how the drive between Laguna and Burbank.

My mom doesn't know I'm going to this convention, nor does she know I'm driving to Burbank. Maybe I'll tell her that I'm getting a ride from a friend. Although it's not like she could do anything about it either way.

After making some new friends at school, both of whom happen to be con-frequenting doujin artists, and spending the day stuck in a car in LA traffic with them and discussing a variety of things, my interest in anime and cosplay has suddenly been somewhat renewed.

Moreover, I think I know what I can cosplay as now! If I maintain a short hairstyle through the summer (which I may very well do, I rather like how I look with short hair), I can probably pull off a fairly successful Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran Host Club. Particularly the first episode version, pre-makeover. Messy short hair, baggy brown/purple sweater, white collared blouse underneath sweater, black trousers, black shoes....and most of all, glasses! It's perfect. I can look for a plushie of Hunny-sempai's bunny to hold too. ^^

I could probably do the post-makeover version too, but I'd have to look for the blazer and tie.

But for halloween this year, I've decided to dress up as Where's Wenda. :) I kinda figured I'd save the cosplay for Fanime.

Yay, I'm employed now. :P

The interview with Bath and Body Works went well, though there was definitely a girl that outshined all of us. It was a group interview, which I hadn't expected. The manager, Michael, had the 9 of us each take a product that we liked from the store with us into the backroom for the interview; we were supposed to pretend he was a customer and try to sell the product to him. I'd grabbed a bottle of mango mandarin lotion and kinda did my BR spiel but with Bath and Body Works stuff instead...sounded really cheesy, but I guess it worked?

He also had us describe situations in which we've had to sell something to someone and what we did; also had us describe what we would do if we were working the cash register and there was an unusually slow customer at the register holding up the line behind them. The dreaded "why do you want to work here" question was asked as well; my answer was honest, but kind of bullshitted. Oddly enough, "I need money" never actually crossed my mind, though I think that's because he did add "as opposed to somewhere else" to the end of the question. I do honestly want to work at Bath and Body Works for the atmosphere though. It seems very fun and inviting and kind of soothing, though not in a having-time-to-relax kind of way.

The easy part about selling ice cream is that people usually come in specifically looking to buy something, as opposed to a mall retail store where there's a lot of "no, thanks, I'm just looking."

So...I have job orientation tomorrow at noon. I guess it's kinda like group training? The lady working in the store when we all came for the interview did say that it's a very team-oriented job environment.

Scheduling seems fairly open to what we put our availability as and Michael did say straight out that we wouldn't be getting very many hours to begin with, so that should give me some time to figure out time management. I guess technically I should be working on homework right now...he did mention the possibility of 8 hour shifts later on? I'm kind of worried about those, but I guess just deal with it when it comes. I don't want to work more than maybe 20 - 25 hours a week though.

Sketch-a-day is a failure. I've missed so many days, I can't catch up anymore. I should really just go back to sketching when I feel like it instead of trying to force it without direction.

Drove to Westminster again today to buy more art supplies. (again, income will definitely help this semester, considering how much money I've already spent on art supplies, and not even the best ones) There wasn't any traffic today so people were going fast on the freeway. To Westminster was okay, I stayed in the middle right lane for the most part and it was relatively smooth (though the lanes seem smaller than back home somehow).

Back to the apartment from Westminster was traumatic.

I somehow managed to get into the middle left lane, next to the fast lane. No traffic, so I sped up to 75, 80 mph to stay with the flow. My little Scion was shaking pretty hard on the old, uneven asphalt and from the wind resistance. Ry says my face was scrunched up in concentration; I was terrified. People were also coming up very close behind me and passing me...while I was going 80 mph. Apparently 80 mph is still too slow for the middle left lane. O.O I don't think my babycar could handle 85, 90 very safely...

Got called back for an interview at Bath and Body Works today; interview is on Friday at 11:30. I'm both excited and nervous. I really do want the job, but I also have a pretty substantial workload this semester. Must learn time management, yes. I believe it's just a seasonal job, so I probably won't be able to keep it through to next semester and I also probably won't get a lot of hours, but a little income is better than none. I'm perfectly fine with 2-4 hour shifts.

Also, this will be my first job interview ever. I hope I leave a good impression.

School started yesterday. Three classes so far: rendering, western civilization 1, and world cinema. Not too bad so far.

Rendering is probably going to be a lot of work; I started on our first assignment this afternoon and after a couple hours of work, I'm barely a fraction of the way there. It's a gradient strip in black colored pencil, but there is a very specific way to lay down the colored pencil so that it doesn't create lines, but rather builds upon itself in and on top of the tiny nooks and crannies in the illustration board so that it doesn't look like pencil at all. It is very tedious but sort of therapeutic process. It's not very beneficial to my wrist in its current condition though, so I force myself to take breaks and have figured out a way to hold the pencil so that it is at a steep enough angle, but moved with a combination of my elbow and wrist, rather than just my wrist.

Someone upstairs is practicing either guitar or piano, it's kind of hard to tell. They were playing a pretty upbeat, jazzy piece earlier. Sounded fun.

Western Civ is interesting, but the professor is getting up there, age-wise. I heard he was nearing 90. Rumor has it that he had two strokes in class last semester, but he claims that the lights were making him sort of off-kilter and fuzzy. He was taken away by ambulance the second time. He also says that he's taught this course at Berkeley and Stanford and he'll be teaching it the same way with us, but will grade us less severely. Not sure if the business about Berkeley and Stanford are true, but I have to take the class anyway. We'll be looking at Greek and Roman culture and history. Reading Iphigenia right now.

World Cinema turned out to be a history of film class. It appears that most every meeting will be comprised of taking roll, a lecture a feature length screening, and a discussion. So...a new movie every week! We started off with the "Hollywood classical style" this week and watched Casablanca. (She gave us a choice between that and Some Like it Hot, which I wanted to watch since I've seen Casablanca before.) I think she may have mentioned that we would watch Rashomon and Citizen Kane later on.

My first Sequential Art class is on wednesday and goes from 4pm to 10pm. It'll be my first time driving around here at night. I'm a little scared, but by then there probably shouldn't be too many people on the road. I'll be okay.

Moved into my new apartment on Monday. Same complex as last year, but new unit. We are quite hidden away for the most part, though we do get a little bit of foot traffic along the pathway to the pool, which happens to be pretty much right next to our unit. Still, it's nice. There's a wall of ivy between us and the walkway to the pool (we have our own little hidden pathway to the pool apparently).

Roommates this year are very quiet. Ry and I are probably the loudest ones here, and that's saying something. Eunji has her own room, but is also pretty quiet and actually hasn't spent all that much time in the apartment. I think she hangs out with her boyfriend. Also, there seems to be fleas in her room? Ry told me that Eunji's gotten some flea bites since moving in, so that may be another reason to avoid her room. Dominique is really quiet, more so than me. She also seems really shy and kind of awkward, but that might just be her adjusting to new surroundings and situations. She's a freshman and the three of us are sophomores, so Ry and I are trying to give her advice and help her out.

There are two bottles of beer in the fridge that belong to Eunji, but she is of drinking age so I'm not quite so worried about it.

I'm the only one in our household this year with a car, so I've had to chauffeur Ry and Dominique a little so far. Ry is used to the bus system here, but Dominique is really quite nervous about it. She said that back home she had a car, so she's used to that kind of independence, but now she feels bad about having to rely on people for transportation. The bus system here is a little convoluted, but thankfully there's really only one bus that goes in and out of Laguna Beach so not too hard to get used to.

Driving in the Laguna woods/Aliso Viejo/Laguna Niguel/Laguna Hills area looks easy, but the speed limit in most areas is 50 mph and everything is hills. I personally don't feel very comfortable driving 50 in non-freeway situations, but maybe I'll get used to it. I recently got a GPS for my car, so that's been very helpful.

Going to try to make a trip out to Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster before school starts, but I'm still too nervous to get on a freeway here. Maybe I'll try going out to Irvine this weekend first. Or I can look for a non-freeway route to Westminster.

School starts next week. I've already gotten job apps for two places, Barnes & Noble and Golden Spoon. I'm thinking of maybe applying at the movie theater and probably going to go job hunting around Laguna Hills Mall. I know a lot of places are going to start hiring seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday season, so I'm looking forward to that. I probably won't be able to keep my job through the school year, but a few months worth of income is fine for me.

I need to get out of this place and see the world, get inspired, and become productive again. Also, I need my wrist to go back to normal, plz.

Sketch-a-day project is falling behind, need to get back on that. If only my hand wouldn't hurt after each page. Seriously need figure drawing practice, my people and their proportions look like crap.

I need an outlet to let loose in; maybe I'll set up that canvas that my uncle gave me so long ago and just start slapping paint on it. Although Wanda has my paints. Abstract work kind of scares me, or at least the thought of making abstract work does. Representation with stylization, that is the natural route my mind seems to want to go.

I miss figure sculpting and working with the clay, even though I wasn't really all that good at it. I can't make it up, but I can copy from life. Never got down to the really detailed stuff, but I've always kind of liked the sketchy, unfinished, devil-may-care look with the chunky brushstrokes and bold lines in the paintings and drawings and really natural and earthy textures in the sculpture. Maybe I'm just afraid of pushing it forward and causing the work to lose spontaneity and life. Now if only I could capture that with clean lines....

More like if only I could start drawing regularly again. I want to go to the zoo and observe the animals, people are starting to get repetitive.

Considering chopping off my hair with the suggestion of a friend; I haven't gone "short" since 4th grade and that was a disaster, but maybe this time it will be different. Research is being done, pictures are being manipulated, experts should probably be consulted. I said I would go to the salon today, but maybe next week instead. It's too impulsive of a decision, and most people who know me know that I am not an impulsive person for the most part. I deliberate and agonize and calculate when I shop, sometimes when I dress (though if I'm lazy, a tshirt and jeans will do), sometimes when I go out to eat. I usually end up regretting impulse buys, like those purple shorts that I like so much but have yet to find occasion to wear because they suddenly feel shorter than I remember and the weather is inappropriate.

Maybe a modified combination of an inverted bob and a pixie. I just wish I could try it on before I actually get it cut. I want something low maintenance that won't require much product at the beginning of the day for it to look right; my hair doesn't seem to like defying gravity much without the help of a clip or a hair tie. It doesn't like to hold curls, it doesn't take all that well to teasing (then again, neither do I), and whatever fabulousness it gains after a trip to the salon it just loses after I wash my hair that night.

My room never seems to stay clean for more than a couple of days. The copious amounts of empty waterbottles tend to accumulate mere moments after I purge my room of them. The desk space I cleared away to use my laptop on has mysteriously become cluttered once again, as if I hadn't touched it at all.

My wrist splints could use some febreeze, but I can't seem to find the bottle of it anywhere. Maybe I left it in Laguna for the others to use. I can always pick up another.

Sketchdump, if you guys are interested. The vast majority of this stuff is from my sketch-a-day project and in rough chronological order. Only the stuff I deemed worthy of scanning though.

( sketchdump under here )

Yay, another meme! Although somehow I feel like I've done this one before with John Mayer song titles.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Re-post as "my life according to (band name)"

( Read more... )

My right hand wrist has been acting up more as of late. Probably because I stopped sleeping with wrist splints for a while, also probably because I've been working a lot. I wear magnetic bracelets to help manage the pain, but it's mostly a placebo effect. I've taken to wearing wrist splints during the day when possible, such as at home. I know a lot of treatment involves changing habits and being more mindful of how I use my hand, but it's kind of hard to do that in a work situation where often it is impractical and inefficient to switch active hands and difficult to get adequate rest for the overworked hand.

I'm not sure if its carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis; certain symptoms of carpal tunnel include numbness in the fingers, especially in the pinky, but I don't experience that. Sometimes I get a little bit of radiating pain, but it's mostly concentrated in the wrist. I imagine its probably something to do with the tendons, as well as not getting enough rest overall. I need to get back into the habit of sleeping earlier.

My mom is allowing me the day off tomorrow to rest my hands; she herself suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome but has since learned to manage through the pain and the numbness. Nonetheless she drops things constantly and her fingers are too stiff to even twist open bottles. I need to preserve my hands though, especially if I want to continue in my chosen field.

I should probably rethink applying for a cake decorator position at Vons in the fall. I hope I can get a mall job that doesn't involve repetitive, strenuous use of my hands. I should also stop typing. x_x

So I started up my sketch-a-day project (again; the first time I had a kind of small sketchbook that was glue-bound instead of spiral, so never felt comfortable bending back pages 'cause I thought they'd fall out) and so far it hasn't been too bad. It's a good place to brainstorm ideas and my little notes make it into sort of a daily journal. I'm only two pages in. I may find another sketchbook similar to this one later on for regular drawing/doodling (this one is solely dedicated to the project, after all) .

I'll take pictures/scan stuff soon. Also wanted to start a sketchblog eventually.

I actually hope to someday get to the point where each page of my sketch-a-day sketchbook is a little comic strip about my day (or some interesting moment of my day) and maybe even start doing a webcomic in the fashion of Ellerbisms or Johnny Wander. Y'know, maybe build up some...like....indie comic cred. Maybe even attend a comic convention with a comic to show for myself! :P After all, the best stories I have to tell are from my own life experiences or those of my friends. I actually am not very good at developing story arcs or long, drawn out epics that many webcomics kind of become. The one relatively good short story I've written (which, I need to find the revised draft of somehow, I deleted it from my devart a while back thinking I had it on my comp) was more like an imagined scenario involving a future version of myself and my friends.

I was looking at something I'd written in my sketchbook today with my laptop in front of me and wanted to change a word. So I instinctively started trying to move my cursor to the word in question to highlight it...until I remembered that the word was physically written on paper. *facepalm*

I'm in the mood to do a meme/survey...but I haven't seen too many posted on my friends page as of late (and that's where I get pretty much all of the ones I do). So...anyone know of some good ones? No facebook-specific ones though that require friend participation or something like that...

Whoo, journal post #1000!

My summer has been consumed by work, sleep, and sims. XD I don't even have the energy to draw; I guess I'm back to my regularly scheduled summer art block. Sorry any devart watchers of mine out there, no art yet. I work 6 days a week, but my mom said that she's going to start giving me an extra day off so I can actually enjoy life a little bit this summer before going back to school. Maybe then I'll be able to sit down and have a full day of art-ing.

Also, I has a car nao. A "nautical blue" Scion xD. Yes, it's actually called an xD. I'm not sure if that awesome or annoying, but probably a little of both. Unfortunately, it's only been about a month since I got it and already it's gotten into a scrape or two. About a week after I got it, one of those pocket motorcycles crashed into my rear bumper; thankfully the guy, his bike, and more importantly my car were all perfectly fine. Didn't even leave a scratch. A couple weeks after, I scraped another car really lightly while making a turn and just yesterday I accidentally backed into my mom's car. (though in my defense, I was backing out of the garage and she was on the driveway and I honestly couldn't see it, nor should her car have been there in the first place) Really minor scrapes, nothing a little bit of cleaning and a little touch up paint can't fix.

This doesn't really bode well for my car in the coming years, but then again I'm still a relatively new driver. Also, I'm usually a lot more careful. I swear I'm a good driver.

I need to find some time to dust it off and wash it as well; as pretty as the dark blue is, it does collect dust really easily. I kind of want to go through a car wash, but my car has one of those roof mount antennas and those don't really do too well in the car wash. I'll just have to do it by hand some day.

Also wanna get one of those LCAD decals to stick on my car when I get back to school, or maybe even one of those LCAD license plate frames. :P

Ugh. I've been exhausted since I got back home last Monday night. Mom's got me scheduled to work almost every day...I need the money for next semesters living expenses, but I forgot how tiring work is.

However, I might be getting a car pretty soon. Just need to find a good deal on a good, not too old car. Maybe even a new one if possible. I test drove a 09 Beetle and a used Jetta the other day when my mom took me to the Volkswagen dealership (I told her I wanted a Beetle), but my dad's angling for a Corolla. A Toyota man, he is.

Still need to research more cars and dealerships. Internet at home isn't great though...

Finally done with all the art-related finals. Just have an essay and a half to write, one due Monday at midnight and the other due by next Friday. Also probably by midnight. Quick presentation of my animation final to my Perspective class for our final in that class Monday afternoon.

Parents coming to take me home Monday evening/night. :D Serious packing/cleaning happening this weekend. Also, Star Trek sometime on Saturday.

Mmm, can't wait to see my friends back home. :)