Stylin'

My first CSS-styled web page.

I would like to make it abundantly clear I did not write the text.

Note to Self

If you're having dreams about Facebook, you should probably cut back on the Facebook time.

Yours Truly to be in the New Yorker

Albeit anonymously, as the designer of a little one column by one inch ad that cost more than my monthly salary.

ZOMG SHOOZ!

These are now the girliest things I own.

Kitchen Confidential

From the moment I moved in, I've hated the counter tops in my kitchen. They've been coated with some sort of spray-on granite type stuff, and it's gritty and nubbly and never comes clean. Plus, it's just plain ugly:



After nearly two years of procrastination, I decided to do something about it. I decided the simplest thing to do would be to simply cover the nubbly stuff with Contact paper. I measured twice, cut once to fit the smaller counter space to the right of the sink, only - surprise! - the paper wouldn't stick to the damn stuff.

The "rock" has been flaking off in spots, revealing white counter top underneath. So I started scraping. After about an hour and a half and half a bottle of Sally Hansen Pro-Vitamin B5 nail polish remover, what lies beneath was revealed:



Not a bad counter top, really. A little stained and now scratched up from my scraping. Point of no return-I've got to cover it with something now.

Voila. Contact paper now adheres:



Much bettah. I might wait for slightly cooler weather before tackling the larger counter top though.

Brand Timeline

In response to this post, my day Friday, May 23, in major brands.

I left out some repetition. You don't need to know how many times I used toilet paper. Also, I didn't include small, local brands, like the locally-owned grocery and meat producer.

One-Word Answer Meme

1. Where is your cell phone? Dunno

2. Your significant other? Big

3. Your hair? Wet

4. Your mother? C.

5. Your father? J.

6. Your favorite thing? Me

7. Your dream last night? None

8. Your favorite drink? Water

9. Your dream/goal? Land

10. The room you’re in? Living

11. Your ex? Which?

12. Your fear? Alone

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Somewhere

14. Where were you last night? Here

15. What you’re not? Male

16. Muffins? Cranberry

17. One of your wish list items? Shoes

18. Where you grew up? Pennsylvania

19. What are you wearing? Pajamas

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your pets? Cat

22. Your computer? Mac

23. Your life? Started

24. Your mood? Good

25. Missing someone? Yes

26. Your car? Hyundai

27. Something you’re not wearing right now? Glasses

28. Favorite store? Grocery

29. Your summer? Busy

30. Like someone? Yes

31. Your favorite color? Purple

32. Last time you laughed? Today

33. Last time you cried? Thursday

Pictures from an Exhibition

Set-up phase.




Portfolio available upon request.

2008 Student Exhibition

If you can't make it to my portfolio show on the 30th, here's a link to some low-res samples of what you'll be missing.

Happy Birthday

I spent my entire day working on the final project for a class: a magazine redesign. Okay, I wasn't working on it for the two hours I was at Paesano's being fed pheasant and bigoli pasta and a big juicy glass of wine. For the redesign, I've been working on WildBird because a) it needs it and b) I like birds. (I especially like them in a ragu with bigoli.)

The project really came together this evening, and I keep looking at how...now, this might sound silly...but how real it looks. Like, this could actually be on a shelf in a bookstore:



Like, holy shit, I finally feel like I'm good at something.
Like I'm finally real.
It only took 34 years.

Thanks

Ten Things I am Thankful for that Money Can Buy:

• Computer with connection to teh Internetz
• Food from the farmer's market
• Hot water
• Hot tea
• Bubble bath
• Pencils and paper
• Yarn and knitting needles
• Reliable transportation
• SmartWool socks
• Contraceptives

Ten Things I am Thankful for that Money Can't Buy:

• Furry purry Sylvie
• Friends who feed furry purry Sylvie while I'm away
• Literacy
• Birds
• Nearby woods with trail
• Low-crime neighborhood
• Sunshine on autumn leaves
• Snow
• Thunderstorms
• Krebs cycle

Ten Things I am Thankful that I Do Not Have:

• Warts
• Loved one in the hospital
• Terminal illness
• Long commute
• Abusive relationship
• Unsafe living conditions
• Food stamps
• Trolls on the blog
• Windows Vista
• First guy I ever thought I loved

Stripes with Plaid

Last year, in a fit of desperation at being unable to find a pair of grown-up girl shoes my size in any store at the mall, I bought a cheap plasticky pair of loafers out of the little girl section. When I saw REI had an online sale on Dansko clogs my size last month, I snapped up a pair for casual business work day wear.

I was glad to set aside the little loafers, with their heart-and-key charm accents. However, I have discovered that most of my pants have been hemmed while wearing some other pair of shoes. I am waiting for certain coworkers to tease me about wearing floods. The comfy Danskos seem to show an inordinate amount of sock.

This is fine by me, because I love socks. I have an entire drawerful of socks that have been longing to see the light. Holiday socks, traditional Scandinavian patterned socks, socks with cardinals and pine boughs on them, socks with cats and fish on them, socks I knit myself with deliberately mismatched stripes. All now much more on display than before. The rooster socks have been worn so much they're threatening to chicken out at the heels.

In the absence of any plain socks, today I opted for this combination of argyle socks with striped trousers. They remind me of a favorite quotation, which I've posted before but deserves to be repeated:

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.

– Albert Einstein

Withdrawal

I have been battling fatigue (Grendel) and depression (Grendel’s mother) for the last three weeks.

The weariness is as bad as I’ve known it. I move through the daylight hours disconnected and dazed from lack of sleep, wanting nothing more than to eat a plate of buttered noodles and go to bed. The other day I had to ask a caller on the phone at work three times who he was trying to reach because my comprehension of the spoken English language momentarily ceased.

At night the ice weasels come* and I lie in the dark and stare at the ceiling. I’m up at one for some milk and crackers. I’m up at three to play mah-jongg solitaire. I finally fall asleep around 4:30. The alarm goes off at 6:30.

Caffeine is not the answer. Nor is a bottle of wine before bed. I’ve tried both and one is the path to the roller coaster of jitteriness; the other the path to puking up a piece of watermelon in the sink.

Better diet and bubble baths feel good. I finally joined the gym like I told P. (for two years) I would. But the fatigue lingers. The well is dry.

My friend moved, I lost my lover. I have to answer phones and enter checks at work. At the heart of the problem is the fact I have not had a truly restorative span of time away from work or school for over a year. My life and my creativity have been sucked out through my eyeballs by the 62+ hours a week sitting at a computer.

And I hate the Flash class. I abhor the Flash class. I spent an hour flipping off the computer yesterday because I could not successfully create the simplest of animations with Flash’s clunky drawing tools. My kingdom for Adobe Illustrator.

Why am I in the Flash class? Because it’s a requirement for the graphic design tech degree at the community college.

Since the last week of June, I have applied for five full-time, good-paying graphic design jobs in Ann Arbor. Just in Ann Arbor. I’ve been half-hearted and sporadic in my job search. Yet I was called for interviews for three of them. Two of them called me back for a second interview or requested to see more of my work.

Too much of my time is spent on unsatisfactory activities. Phones and data entry are not moving me towards my goals. Neither is the Flash class. My nearly eight years of on-the-job experience is what getting me those interviews.

I need time away from the desk to be out in the world so the well can be refilled. Time to draw and write and walk and find a new friend and put a better portfolio together and get more interviews.

The Flash class is the casualty. I will go in to the college offices tomorrow and tell them to put the big W on my transcript. I feel better already.

* I stole this from Matt Groening

Sleepy

Only 9 o'clock and I'm ready for bed.

Why I Should Not Go to the Grocery Store When Tired/Hungry/Lonely

I bought a bouquet and a pumpkin cake with an inch of cream-cheese frosting on it for dinner.

D'You Think I Could Get Someone to Mow my Lawn This Weekend?

Please? The push mower doesn't cut the tall weeds, the rip cord on the gas mower is evidently longer than my arms, and I don't have a boyfriend to do it anymore.

Also: WANT

What I'm Not Doing Tonight

Tonight I am not going to the showing of Helvetica at U-M, though I wrote it in my calendar and had planned to attend. I am simply too wiped out after the past two days (today alone delivered 10 hours at the office, with staff meetings and too much cake and brownies and sugary punch and massive internal organizational upheaval) and really just want to lie down with cucumbers on my eyelids. So I think I shall. With a fan pointed at me. Why did it get so $*%&(@ hot again?

Where I Spent My Day

Apart from a brief foray to (one) class and into the grocery store, I have been at the desk most of the day.

1. iTunes Internet radio to keep me awake
2. flickr for uploading this picture
3. Yahoo! Messenger for maintaining pretense of human contact
4. Meowy one for company
5. My Pantone colors. Let me show you them.
6. Three-buck Chuck (corked)
7. Pencils for sketching concept for possible new client
8. New journal for recording minutia
9. Syllabus for dreaded Flash class (skipped today)
10. Mouse for sale/barter

My Passport

is expired and I have been loath to renew it, because I would have to turn in my old one with all the stamps from my travels before most of the European borders were "open."

The Russians inexplicably used page 21 for my comings and goings at Sheremetyevo.

I will have to renew it though, as P. and I want to go to Finland in 2009 (and depending on who the president is, we might not want to come back).

Tomorrow is the First Day of the Rest of my Life

This is my schedule for the next 15 weeks.

I am gonna hafta feel my Ginsana.