15 things about me 2.0

Some more interesting facts about me. If you never read the first one go here

1. I have become a little obsessed with sewing. Nothing crazy, basically if it takes longer than a day for me to complete in my spare time then I lose interest. I have been meaning to post pictures of someone the things I have created recently.

 

2. When I see big black garbage bags on the side of the freeway/highway/street I wonder if there are dead people in them dumped mafia style or something. Morbid I know.

 

3. I can dejunk other people's stuff with the greatest of ease (until they intervene) but when it comes to my own stuff it gets pretty difficult.

 

4. I can't seem to memorize my checking account number but I have managed to memorize my library card number...

5. I decided to try painting on a canvas. What did I dream up for myself to attempt to paint? A dragon. Why? I have no clue. I am not really into fantasy things and dragons are kinda cool but just not me but something deep inside me wanted to paint a dragon... It is a very bright blue dragon that is still taking shape  =)

6. I love graphic design. I would classify myself as a graphic design nerd. I notice, and point out, many random things. The general public (aka most of my friends and family) look at me like I am weird. I usually sigh and think, or say, you just wouldn't understand.

 

7. A new pet peeve that is just beginning with me is how little people know about paper. Not to say I think you are an idiot if you don't realize there is more than just copy paper out there. I know it falls under my design nerdiness but people coming into my work saying they want resume paper. WELL that's not the same to everyone. Some people want linen paper, some want smooth, some want a marbley, some want it thick like card stock, and others want just regular paper. And there are so many different types even within linen papers. Then there are the range of colors. Some want grey, some white and others ivory. It feels like endless possibilities in the world of paper. *deep breath* I'm a nerd I know.

8. I enjoy cooking, attempting to cook, baking, attempting to back, BBQ-ing, and attempting to BBQ. I wish that I were rich that I could try new fancy recipes every week... or twice a week.

 

9. Dogs! Love them. I miss having one but alas I know that I cannot afford one even if I were able to have one where I currently reside.

 

10. If Dr. Reid, from Criminal Minds, were a real live person I would probably date him. Granted he would have to keep his hair trimmed so that he at least looks like a cute nerd. =)

 

11. Number 11 is still my favorite number

12. I hope that my dream house has a spot that I can have an art studio with lots of windows. Not that I am a huge artist but I feel with a room like that I would be more inspired to paint a rainbow or a glorious sunset, etc.

 

13. After graduating with my Bachelor's degree this spring I am thinking about looking for graphic design jobs outside of Utah. If not an official job an internship.

14. There have been 3 songs stuck in my head for about a week now. They just keep rotating. This is one. Number two and finally numero tres. I am pretty much sick of all three of them. My 2 nephews sing the first two ALOT!

15. I love thunderstorms =) Love them.



The 100 Thing

I just finished reading The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno. It is on my ever growing books to read list and I finally picked it up from the library. VERY interesting read, I thought. As I was reading it I contemplated the idea of trying it out for myself. I looked around my pig sty of a room and decided against it. Today I actually counted the number of shirts I own, 102. That right there puts me over the 100 limit. Plus there are all my DVDs, pants, skirts, dresses, and books. All things I would really struggle getting rid of. However, this book has inspired me to do better about the things that I purchase and bring into my personal living space as well as to dejunk alot of stuff. I have yet to get to all the dejunking but I have managed to go through some boxes and throw out notes from my high school chemistry class and things of that sort. You probably wonder why I would hang on to such nonsense for so long. My thinking was these will come in handy one day when I have kids and they are taking chemistry. I'll be able to help them.... Yea I know it sounds really dumb but I finally have freed myself from high school and college notes on the hopes that I'll actually be able to help my kids with it. All that info can be found on the Internet or at the library. It was awesome to get rid of it. I truly believe that every item that we own weighs us down. We obviously don't think about every single personal possession all day everyday but we know what we own and it all lingers in the back burner of our minds.

I have realized that I have increased my shopping/spending significantly in the past month or so. Not healthy for me to try to replace feeling empty with physical stuff, also not healthy for my "budget". Some points Mr. Bruno makes in his book that really stuck out to me were:

"Contentment is an attitudinal choice, not a buyable product."

"The truth is that our material possessions, rather than helping us understand our limits and our place in the world, regularly distort our perspective. Put a Coach purse of the keys to a BMW M series or the latest Nokia gadget in our hands and it's not uncommon for humility, respect for other people, and appreciation of our environment to drain from our brains."

"What we really want we cannot buy."

The point of this book isn't to necessarily get rid of all your stuff but to realize the whole American-style consumerism idea that we need stuff in order to be happy or to get to where we want to be. My thing is that I think buy new cute clothing will make me more confident because I will look great in it. It usually works until the new thing gets cycled into the closet with everything else that had that effect and eventually it is just another piece clothing I stare at while thinking I have nothing to wear. Which isn't true I have 102 tops to choose from that's a shirt everyday for almost a third of the year. And my shoe shelves and flip flop bin are over flowing as well. I definitely need to cut down the crap that I own and figure out the things that I like to wear and actually wear and get rid of all the rest. I hope I have the strength to make the tough decisions that I need to and be honest with myself about the things I don't wear and that as much as I say, "well I might..." that I can just get rid of it.

I am glad I read this book. I encourage you to read it too even if you don't accept the challenge, cause I certainly didn't. I still have found it very helpful and interesting to see the few struggles the author had with accepting his own challenge.  =) Thanks for reading.

Social?

This is more or less a social update. I really suck at blogging and my blog is just completely random... which I guess is just like me. =)

Still not luck on internships. Or new jobs that deal with graphic design. I guess I've kinda fallen into a "I don't care" state of mind on pretty much everything. (oops) I haven't really been actively searching. All the effort that goes into one application is a pain. Maybe I am just doing it the hard way. I look at the companies website kind of get a feel for what they do and then I revamp my portfolio to show stuff that I have done that are kind of similar to the ones that I looked at. Plus I write a whole new cover letter for each place usually sometimes I cut and paste and edit. Its alot of work and I think I have done it about 30-40 time so far this year and I've only gotten a first and second interview for one place. It's so discouraging that I just can't handle it anymore. However, I know that is not going to get me anywhere where I want to be. Oh and talking about this reminds me of school... yea still haven't registered. (oops)

I am basically trying to stay busy. Semi recent events have left me feeling like a rug was pulled out from under my feet so quickly that I ended up doing like 3 backflips in the air and came crashing down on shards of glass. Its been rough but I am surviving and just trying to stay busy which is hard to do when one only works 22 hours a week. I'm sure all you people that work 40+ hours of week are like I would love all that free time to get my huge list of things to do done. But lets be honest when you have all that free time you eventually waste it by watching whatever is on your netflix, or cable tv or just even thinking about all the things that you should probably do. Well I have things that I want to do but I just don't have the funds to do it. 

To Do (when funds come):
Paint my room a light blue on 2 opposite walls and maybe white the rest or a sandy yellow
Buy a Luahala mat to put on one of my said painted walls
Buy white frames to put hawaiian style pictures in to put on my luahala mat

I have actually been working on dejunking my room.... well I started. It kind of ended when my mood dipped back down into the "I don't care about anything" mode. Currently my room is a pig sty (thats what my mom would say). Maybe I'll feel motivated this week to clean it. Not only is my room a mess I have a little area in my condo I call my art space. It has basically turned into the stack anything that resembles something that could be used for art here. It's one huge pile of stuff. Even more overwhelming than my room.

I have a lot of art projects in my room that I don't know what to do with. I guess I get too attached to my art work and I can't bring myself to throw it out. Maybe I'll take pictures of it and "auction" it off. Basically if someone wants it they can pay to have it sent to them lol. Some of it is really just garbage and I need to photograph it and throw it out. sigh more hard things in life.

OKAY- Good things. I have been doing some graphic design stuff. Designed a logo for my uncle

And I've gotten into making cards. I made one for my dad for father's day, a friend's birthday card and a bridal shower card (funny story: the font that I used on her card actually matches one of the fonts one her wedding announcement. I didn't get to look at her wedding announcement until after the bridal shower. Yes I am a nerd and I would notice that). I also had a design challenge for one of the internships that I applied for where I had to make icons for a computer program, very new and interesting. Designing a thing that is 64x64 pixels is difficult. I think I may start making a bunch of cards some occasion specific and maybe some just random blank ones. Its been fun and kinda keeps me busy. I love design =) Oh so if you know anyone that needs something designed let them know about me or let me know and I will do my best to help.

I am doing good. Not back to where I would like to be but I can now honestly say that I am okay and that feels like a miracle after the past month and a half or so. Thanks to my awesome friends and of course always my family I love you guys and always will =0D