Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da, I love my life

Awesome cutting and formatting work here:



Hm... I'm due for a rant sometime soon, aren't I? I haven't posted anything really meaningful recently.

But, oh well! On Sunday, a co-worker and I will watch How to Train a Dragon after a lunch of Thai and a stop at the local confectionery for FUDGE. With plans like this to look forward too, I'm feeling too good to rant.

The quarter's only started as well and every single class is fun and interesting! I'm doing well at work and while updating my resume so I could apply for that teaching ESL in Korea job, I've realized I've had enough jobs to merit a TWO-page resume! *beams*

My current angst, now that I know I'll have no problems finishing my dual English and Design-visual communication Bachelors, is WHAT AM I GOING TO DO AFTER? The majority of the verbal freaking out and physical panic has receded to a deep-seated dread and uncertainty: what if my decision turns out to be the WRONG ONE? As such, I've been bothering all my relatives, professors, friends, people who I end up talking to in line at grocery stores for advice, opinions, and their personal experiences post-college.

I have two major routes to choose from: should I teach English abroad for a year, or move back home and look for work as a graphic designer? Note that I'll be doing the latter no matter when--teaching abroad will only be a year.

See, the issue at hand is that I did not realize that there was an Education minor until too late to actually take it and my grades aren't pure enough to enter grad school for the Master's in it. Also, illogical children baffle me for all their cuteness and I had no illusions about myself as a teenager, so a teacher for life I am not.

Why, you might ask, would I consider teaching abroad then?

It'll only be a year, including a 6 week summer break, and I'm torn between South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China and Hong Kong. I'm wondering if my inability to interact with children extends to ALL of them and if cultural backgrounds really make any difference.

I've also never been outside of the States, and a week-long vacation isn't the kind of experience I'm yearning for. I want to experience another country in all its aspects, which means interacting with people beyond the level of a tourist asking for help, and I want to be able to take as long as I'd like. I want to experience life as how a native of the country might, which means a job and all the little things about daily life that no one truly pays attention to until they undergo it themselves.

Teaching will not be my life's vocation, so in my free time, I'll still be working on my portfolio, maybe try to freelance work overseas, or see if the language barrier will be an immovable obstacle for design work in which ever country I end up. Of course, no matter where I am, I always observe color, form, and function. If I go to Seoul or Taiwan, I would go with a designer's perspective of the environment. What influence might a foreign culture's design work have on my own?

Or would it be better to immediately begin job searching for designer positions after school, when my connections with professors and friends are still fresh? Especially as I'm not the most social creature?

Teaching abroad means another year of job security as I'll be applying through Teach Away Inc, with estimated salaries of approximately 2k a month. In this economy, that's a truly lovely thing. But after that year, will the job scarcity have improved any? Or would I just be an out-of-touch graduate competing with recent design students just as desperate for work? Would my foreign experience count for anything?

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If I DON'T teach abroad, I'll be moving back home and looking for design work in the Bay Area. Or else, since my mother has not stopped urging me, attending a master's program of some sort for graphic design. If I apply and am accepted.

I'm twenty-one, and I don't feel like an adult at all. Ninety percent of my life has consisted of schooling and I've never been independent from my family. Would teaching for a year in another country be away for me to grow up? Should I force myself out of my comfort zone... For a whole year?

Next year, come spring, I'll be going though lots and lots of job interviews if I'm lucky. As such, I'm thinking about joining my local toastmasters club.

Anyone have personal experience they can relate?

Too busy right now, but maybe next quarter, I'll look into it.

Yesterday, I was doing my laundry around midnight. When I went to take it out of the dryer, the dryer was empty and I went to sleep depressed and curious: why would anyone want to steal my spring wardrobe? Out on a limb--perhaps it was a mistake and they returned everything to the laundry room?--I returned there in the morning. And realized that some bastard or bitch had taken offense of my 5-minute-tardiness in taking out my clothes for everything was on the ground outside the window. There was dirt, pebbles, and a freaking SPIDER in my formerly clean laundry. All I cam hope is for karma.

On a similarly disheartening note, I have many, many deadlines next week. On Monday, I have a CSS/coding/internet protocol quiz, a short history paper, and a longer English paper due. On Wednesday, I have a history final, a web site redesign final project, and a huge English paper due. On Thursday, I have TWO huge design projects due. Let's see... That makes EIGHT deadlines in FOUR days. Kill me now?

On a more entertaining, completely unrelated note, I have gained a new 'ship! Hurrah for the awesomeness of Sulu/Chekov-love! Too bad I won't be able to really explore this pairing until after this week. T^T

Oh, and I was rejected from a job and club officer position these past few days too.

Remember the post of DOOM a few days back? Lucky for me, two of my projects had been saved to my laptop at an earlier stage so it was only an hour or so more of work to catch up. One of my type projects had been totally erased though, and there were three variations. But I should get the hard copy back from the professor soon and since I've done it once before, it shouldn't be too hard to replicate should I ever need to send an electronic copy to any possible employers. XD

Lost a lot of my pictures though, so I had to comb through my thousand again to find the deleted twenty-five or so best shots. Took me about three and a half hours that did.

I'll have to redownload a lot of the pdfs my professors sent out, but all and all, after I got over the depression of loosing so much info and stressing over printing problems, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

But for more recent news, I'm applying to a summer internship. If I'm lucky enough to be selected, I'll be teaching three kids in two classes one core subject. Essentially, I'll be a small time teacher. It sounds AMAZING, thought rigorous. I've been blessed with many, many awesome teachers and they've been my inspiration. I hope I can follow in there footsteps. Then too, this will be a valuable experience to test the grounds of a possible career. ^^;; Anyone ever hear about Breakthrough? It was known in the past as Summerbridge. I'm hoping to be selected by my hometown and therefore not have to worry about living costs, but as long as I can part take in this, I'm good anywhere.

The application consists of two essay questions and a sample lesson plan. It brings back college application memories. XD

On a more negative note, my router's not working. XP Wireless AND ethernet is "connected with limited connection", but the modem works fine.

I dropped that suckah like a hot potato! Thanks for all your guys' help and kind words, but this girl isn't going to quilt anything at all. *is hopeless with fabric*

Got up at 9, took a shower, went to school, talked to the design advisor (yay! no line!), and found out I have enough units to be of senior standing. \o/ I'm in my third year, all DES classes are crammed full with looooong wait lists and with my standing, I get a pass time earlier than everyone else! I can get in the classes I want and finish on time! Oh yeah, those $80 AP tests were worth it. ^____________^

From 11 to 3:40, I worked on sketches for a type project in the library. At class critique the teacher complemented my progress: success! And after class, I actually BONDED with the prof! \o\ /o/ *flails* This rarely happens as I just don't tend to talk about myself much, so it was very cool. It turns out that my graphic designer/professor teacher has a B.S. in mechanical engineering. o.O Then did a Masters in design at YALE. Seriously, with people like her floating around by the millions, do I even stand a chance? ^^;;

Oh, so right now, I'm scoffing down yummy toast with my mom's tomato-beef, but all day, all I had were two granola bars and a bottle of water. It's 8 pm. XD

Ow, dang it! First final project turned in late by 13 minutes because the online submission took so long to process. Then discovered template for design brief AFTER I'd already submitted it. Think I wasted time by cleaning roughs up too much in Photoshop.

Am sad. Am trying to repress horrible job done. Am getting depressed.

I love my major, honestly, but I hatehatehate this professor so much. So anal beyond belief in the silliest, stupidest of ways. Is sad.

So I'm taking TWO short story writing classes right now, but while one of them's a pretty serious one where most the stories I'm peer reviewing are aiming to be the next GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL and failing miserably, the other's a dinky little frosh seminar that I don't take really seriously. Thing is, I have about a page of about 4, 5 different stories written and can't think of which ones to continue.

Anyone have a free half an hour or so and might be willing to give my snippets a look and then give me an opinion?

Also, I have rediscovered Due South thanks to an icon featuring the BEAUTIFUL PAUL GROSS.

To do: FIND MY GLOVES. Fingers of ice do not make typing easier.

Loving MY 92.5 FM right now because I can listen to Nickelback, Pink, and David Arculeta's new albums without paying a cent. <3

"This used to be a funhouse,
but now it's full of evil clowns.
It's time to start the count down.
I'm going to burn it down, down, down."

NEW FANDOM that is so full of awesome that I cannot give any measurement. BBC's Merlin with the hottest Prince Arthur in just about FOREVER and the subtext is so prevalent it's like OBVIOUS. *squishes the two boys* Thanks to elandrialore for writing an A/M fic to get me into this in the first place. My current source is merlinxarthur and at the rate this fandom is growing, I have a good feeling it's the next big thing. Maybe even bigger than Torchwood! XD

Also, the engineering office got their logo-printed sweaters this week and my roommate, the peer adviser got me one. They're like, official school gear and ONLY $20. XD I'll walk into my upper division English class tomorrow wearing an Engineering sweater, because it's now cold and wet enough that my normal jacket just doesn't cut it.

Also, everyone should read Kuroshitsuji (aka Black Butler) because not only is the art GORGEOUS, but the story is INTERESTING.

In no particular order of importance:

1. I have discovered the total hotness that is NCIS's Dinozzo/Gibbs. Methinks I'm developing a military kink.

2. UC Regents will be voting this year on whether to lower admission standards or not, WTF. From requiring a 3.0 to a 2.8. From needing an SAT II subject test to not. After all my slaving away to get into my university, I'm not giving some slacker the easy in! HELL NO! They should be rising to meet standards like the other millions of us have. The UCs shouldn't need to lower to their level. Honestly.

3. I really, really hate my DES 1 teacher. Housefield wastes about half the class time EVERY SINGLE lecture on trivial, unimportant things. He's patronizing and teaches this basic, core class like a freshman seminar and assigns the most ridiculous projects. I'm not the only one who thinks so. In a class of over a hundred people, he ALWAYS, in EVERY lecture, ask for hands.

4. maderr sent me some awesome ebooks. I can't wait until this weekend!