spoiled brat.

i am one. i didn't think my parents were getting me anything for christmas, because they're building their empty nester dream house and thats a big chunk of change. but my mom hands me a box this morning, and i unwrap it to reveal the EF 75-300mm zoom lens. I've been using my stock lens that is 18-55mm. So I'm pretty freaking excited. even though i still feel like shit and hacking up ungodly amounts of phlegm.

Old lens:



New one:




My mom bought Shaun White Roadtrip (a snowboarding game) for their wii. I've been watching my dad and sister playing it all day, it's really freaking funny. my sister gets all into it, and when it's her turn my dad backseat games soooo bad. "oh, don't hit that tree!" "get that crown, get that crown!" the game does have a pretty decent soundtrack though, i'll give it that.

You almost feel bad for them . . .

but it's their damn fault for recording their epic failures.

sicky.

ugh. i feel like death. being sick sucks. damn you, finals, papers, and projects for stressing me out and attacking my immune system.

At least I have christmas movies to keep me happy, because apparently my xbox is a fan of sucking and my internet is being ghey. it's not been a good break thus far. got home, realized i forgot my toiletries and all my makeup. the normal person would say, "oh, just go buy more stuff", except I am a makeup snob. The makeup bag I carry around easily costs $300 between my concealers(bare minerals), color palettes by Mac, lipsticks and gloss, liners, mascara, and especially my brushes. So I can't just go an easily replace that. grrr. Speaking of makeup, 15 year old girls make me laugh. they line their eyes completely in black, and think it looks good. they look more like raccoons. honestly, who came up with that idea, and who continues to let it exist. the best was going out to dinner with my family and seeing a chick in her 20s sporting the raccoon look. seriously? [can you tell i'm an even cattier bitch when I'm sick and feeling like shit?]

Other things that annoy me:

- up and coming gaming websites that try to get publicity by using half naked girls heavily photoshopped. i love the female body, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge supporter of Suicide Girls and alternative beauty, but christ, us women in the gaming industry have enough trouble getting respect as is. when sites pull shit like that, is just further encourages male chauvinistic views that women only play video games in their undergarments for male pleasure.

- drivers who don't understand the concept of parallel parking. whether it's leaving half a car-length on either side when they park, or tailing you ass when you clearly have your blinker on to parallel park. makes me want to punch them in the face

- female biological clock. if you want to be a woman with a sucessful career and a family, you have a short window to do it. Well established career by 25, married by 27, kids by 30. fuck. For me, graduating at 21, that only gives me 4-6 years to build my reputation and find my dream job before I have to worry about popping out babies. Especially since I want a big family (2 boys, 2 girls, preferrably), and to have my own photography studio and Graphic Design firm with 2-5 employees, so I can be a working stay-at-home mom.

- being sick. i'm dizzy, my throat hurts, my joints ache, my skin hurts from even the lightest touch, and i can't talk.

- bluetooth headsets. more specifically, people who wear them 24/7, even though they're not using them. it's like, are you trying to prove how hip you are by wearing one? or are you just hoping that bright blue flashing light will summon the nearest UFO to pick you up? Good luck with that one, I'm pretty sure they only like doing experiments on intelligent life forms. ;) kthnxbai.

I'm a fermata. Hold Me.

I come across music in the oddest ways. Well,maybe not the oddest, but I'll hear something I like, and go crazy trying to find it. One of my favorite artistic works, featured on my sidebar, has the most amazing music to it. I recently heard the same song on a commercial for Slumdog Millionare (which I really want to see), and went searching. The song is Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós, a band from Iceland. And it's brilliant.

Also, I find cool music when cute boys mail me CDs with insanely amusing drawings. of the deathstar. tie fighters. zombies. and raving stick figures.



p.s. 18 credit hours sucks. five finals and two design projects due. hohum.

random thoughts as I study for International business. . .

- just found a typo in my notes "International Bond Market: market of bongs sold by issuing companies, governments, and others outside their countries" lol?

- every time I see the word "arbitrage" i think of the arbiter from halo. then i giggle at how annoying the storyline flipping back and forth was. and then i want to play video games. hmpf.

- my cat is AWESOME at laying on top of my notes, just when i'm really getting focused.

- i would probably be better at studying if i wasn't such an internet junkie. or if i was remotely interested in international financial markets.

Uglydoll.

Ugly Dolls.

Seriously. So ugly, they're adorable. Is it odd that I really really want one? or three? rofl.

rawrhelvetica. typography troubles.

damn overused sans serifs! i'm going crazy. i keep wanting a clean, thin sans serif, but haven't found one yet. i've always been a fan of century gothic, but it's just too geometric and round for practical uses. gills sans is another default of mine, i love the interesting slants and angles of the ascenders and descenders, but it just has too playful of a feel for the more conservative work I do at the judicial branch.

blarg. however, i've become addicted to warnock pro. lots of different weights to play with and serifs that are the perfect combination of round and angular. and i'm obsessing about type . . . i'm a nerd. at least i'm in the right career.

life of a designer, eh? [hahahaha, i totally said 'eh'. roflcanada]



also, it's nice getting little self-esteem booster every once in a while in the form of really sincere compliments.

"no when i found out that you were a gamer and were actually not a fucking retard fuckball and had intellectual undertones nobody seemed to notice. even when you were a lil tipsy i could tell you would think before saying something. and that's rare as it is for anybody".

unfortunately, i'm one of those females who's sees through the stupid "you're beautiful" lines. i'm not much of a romantic either.

knitting?

sounds like a fun new project for stress relief.



how epic is this?



and this.



squeee! so cute!





also, thank you to the jerks sitting behind me in finance reeking of smoke. i have a headache now.

ephemeral state of ambiguity.

can you take a sleeping pill after drinking a beer? id rather not cry myself to sleep.

fuckfuckfuck.

im not damaged goods. [thats probably a lie]

new thought. i wanted to go straight to Seattle after graduation, but backpacking through Spain has crossed my mind. i'm in need of an adventure.

You're Fucking Dumb.

the life of a designer. everyone around is dumb. and thinks they know what they're talking about. but they don't. seriously, though, i want to punch a fucking baby. i'm in another long, unproductive meeting for my marketing group. asdfkajskfj. they want stupid things, like putting a Call to Action in the logo. wtf? that's not the point of a logo . . . and they wanted me to describe the loyalty card. what is there to describe? we're soliciting a marketing plan, they can see it for themselves. fuck, if we were doing artwork for a blind person maybe, but do we have to explain everything like were talking to a two year old? and if the teacher really wants that, maybe she should teach at a less prestigious university where writing at a fifth grade level is acceptable.

and on the writing aspect - i don't mean to be a snob, but i've written more structually advanced essays IN SPANISH than what my peers and groupmates write for projects and final papers. i don't get it, seriously.

Deja Vu

I thought the old days of sitting in a Halo lobby with a guy until 3 am were over. Damn you internet.

"See you guys later! I'm going to go have unprotected sex with some NPCs!"

Fable 2 is fuuuun. I'm not sure whats better, though, the game, or the achievements you get, such as "the bigamist" and "chicken kicker". Either way, I am thoroughly enjoying both. My other sources of amusement are halo 3 and Dead Space, though I think i'm gonna have to pick up Gears 2 soon, everyone keeps sending me freaking invites. NXE came out on wednesday, and wasn't nearly as atrocious as I expected. I kinda like it, and cracked up when one of my friends IMed me and was like "Oh my gosh, your avatar looks exactly like you!" Go me?

I'm at my internship right now, which I still love. I'm just stuck in a bit of a rut, trying to design brochures and such. It sucks that I can't use bleeds in any of my designs, poo poo. But I'm getting tons of typography practice, and have lots of pretty design magazines to look at. Yay! Also, I'm giving the computer a seizure my running InDesign and Photoshop at the same time. Silly PCs. teeeheee.

So I totally logged on to blogspot cause I had something sooper intelligent to say. But by time I hit "new post" I forgot. So nevermindey.


Meh. [they're adding it to the dictionary, how awesome!!!]

WWIII cat vs. human

seriously. Sake, my 8 month old cat has the appetite of a 17 year old boy. She goes apeshit ovver food. Right now I'm trying to eat some tasty pizza from Papa Johns, and i'm [ ] <- this close to locking myself in the bathroom with it. I have a text book on top of the box right now, and have to lift it up really quick to dip my crust in the garlic sauce before the insano missle, i mean, cat, launches herself at the box. you'd think she was starving! /shakes head. also, flash is being laaaame and going really slow, which makes syncing to music a P in the A. [i have no idea why i just abreviated that, but it amused me]

PowerPoint FTL

Ok, I know the 40 + crowd thinks PowerPoint is like, the greatest thing since sliced bread, but seriously, their abuse of unnecessary features annoys the piss out of me. Pretty much all my management and business courses are done on power point, and it's what we study from. The stupid irrelevant clip art and charts just waste my printer ink and clutter the slides. 37 slides could easily be reduced to 25 if there wasn't so much clutter in there. I just want the text, stuff I need to know, and not tacky little pictures of guys with lightbulbs over their heads or decorated dollar signs. And when they put animated slide movements in the powerpoint when they're presenting, it makes me want to punch a baby. How do we clue them in? Or better yet, created a virus that wipes out all the retarded powerpoint shit and only leaves the text feature?

Fun we=]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

ok. I'm leaving the title like that cause it makes me laugh. it would have been "fun weekend" but my cat thoroughly enjoys sitting on my keyboard when I'm typing. fab weekend recap -

Friday night def stayed in watching youtube videos and playing xbox. it was fabulous. Barats and Bareta are brilliant, I would totally make babies with them.

Saturday my friend Katelin came into town. By time she got to my place, I was already drinking wine and on xbl. We ended up finishing the bottle of wine while catching up. I had been texting various people throughout the evening, so I told them all goodnight so we could pass out without my phone going off. So we climb into bed around 12:30, and five minutes later, my phone rings. WTF? Except it's Eric, who just got off work, and is getting dragged to a strip club by his buddies. 10 minutes later, Kate and I are out of bed and transformed into little sexpots ready to take on the Lumberyard. (i'm not even kidding, that's what it's called. roflololol. ) Anyways, definately got my frist lap dance, and Eric paid for strippers to haul us on stage and pretty much maul us. The brunette was way hott, though, and totally rocking leg warmers. Sooo funny.

Oh, and then this strippers was totally chatting up Eric, and we just thought she was chatting to be nice/take a break. And then this OTHER stripper walks up and asks if he wants a 'private dance' and the first stripper gives her the look of death, gets up, and stalks away. Man, only someone as awesome as Eric could have two strippers fighting over him, though. (sucks, cause the first one was hotter)

Now I'm taking a breaking from studying for international business (EWWWW) by rocking out to some techno and beating bad kids on haaaalo. Rawr.


p.s. Australian accents are ungodly fucking hot. Those guys can pick up chicks(myself included) soooo easily.

Email Lawls

From my mother:

"Gotta get to Wal-Mart. Out of food and toilet paper. I ll look in a bit. I love you. Mom"

bwahahahahahaha.

It's also snowing. Boohiss. I really don't want to go to my silly group meeting for HR class today. I'd rather stay at work/internship doing design work. Yaaay! I'm working on a tour brochure and really liking it. = )

Also, dear justinwhocommentsonmyblogs; who are you? hahaha, i feel bad cause i don't know who you are!



edit: I just got to the library for my group meeting, and no one's here. So I check my email, and there's a message from one of the three other members, telling me that one person is out of town, and the other "can't make it". WTF. We scheduled this on Wednesday. If you can't make it, it's common courtesy to at least notify the other members, so they don't sit around waiting. I'm really pissed off. Especially since I rearranged my schedule and left work early to make this.

newest artwork.

comments?

Single ftw!

Relationships are great. Really, they are. But being 21, single, and ready to take on the world is pretty fab. Court Ave last night was hilarious. First, I was on my way late, and remembered they had a $5 cover, and had noooo cash. So I run to the nearest gas station, pausing to ask the officer outside if they did cash back while I adjusted the gun holster on my thigh. It took him about 2 minutes to stop staring and give be a coherent answer. After being in a relationship, I stopped noticing guys noticing me. Now I am again, and loving it! Except when they're old, creepy, dressed as Tom Green, and don't take "GO AWAY!" hints. Then again, it's a blast to make fun of them, and give them the fail sign.

Halloween is seriously the bestest holiday evar! Haha, we did a Kamikaze shot for every Sarah Palin we saw, and a Vegas Bomb for every Joker. Needless to say, I was pretty drunk. But I saw Tony Stark! It was prob my fave costume of the night, his chest piece was awesome! He told me half the people didn't know who he was, and it was like, wtf???? Iron Man is teh awesome! Then again, no one really got me, I got called Lara Croft a lot. I kill zombies, not hunt for treasure! And I'm going to stop blogging because coffee is making me retarded. And hyper. Also, I am watching Disney's Ice Princess. wtf. o.0

Periodic Table of Awesomeness.

My find of the day:

http://www.dapperstache.com/index.php?contenttype=ptoa




and fail of the day, which totally relates to me!





In other news, internship is going well at the judicial branch. Currently I'm waiting for my latest design to come off the printer. whoopie! A lot of what I'm doing right now is reformatting documents. Not terribly exciting, but excellent typography practice and as there's no precedent for how documents should look, I have free reign on design! [and by free reign, I mean conservative free reign, after all, this is for the judicial system of iowa]

Today I've turned this into this.







And here comes rant of the day. Notice how I spelled 'a lot' above? TWO WORDS. A. LOT. I'm pretty sure we learned that in 4th grade. We were critiquing our classmates projects in my typography class, and someone wrote "alot of white space" on one of my spreads. Seriously? Drake University. You need at least a 26 on the ACT to get in. And this person writes alot? Makes my brain hurt.


And to end; When is a boxer like an Astronaut?

. . .
. . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . .

When he sees stars!!!!

Getting Over a Broken Heart

Haven't done much on the blog front lately, mostly because I've had nothing blogworthy. Just nights of crying myself to sleep, and days of starting blankly into space wondering when I will stop feeling so worthless. My mom says it's called heartbreak. It's something that happens when you fall in love, but that someone who lights up your world decides they don't love you back. It's really hard to lose your best friend, your lover, and your reason for waking up in one blow. I pretty much fell apart, but I've started taking steps to get my life back on track, and discover the girl I used to be.


Sake. I got a kitten. She's pretty much amazing. I got her from the Iowa Animal Rescue League, and she is an ornery ball of fire, but incredibly sweet and cuddly at the same time.

I started working out at my dad's recommendations. Endorphins and such to make me happy. Pilates in the evening and Jillian Michaels in the morning, who makes me want to cry. Seriously, I'm like a fat person trapped in a skinny person's body when it comes to working out. Owowow.

Also, I landed an internship at the Iowa Judicial Branch, redsigning their website to make it more user-friendly and handicap-accessable. I'm excited for my first "solo" website project and all the experience.



In my quest to find my former, single-loving self, I started playing Halo again. My friend Brent and I have a doubles team for fun(tactical tampons, lololol), but I'll see how much I improve, and decide wether to start competing again in the MLG 09 season. It's been fun reconnecting with old friends and teammates. It's funny how you make lifelong friendships with these people you spend time with online. You can not talk to them for 6 months, a year, and pick up conversations right where you left off, as if no time has passed at all. Joking about old teams, strategies, fun stories from tournaments, and "the good old days" before game tournaments became so popular and everyone jumped on the band wagon.







Seattle plans are shaping up, too. I'm starting to look for jobs out there after graduation, and my mother and I are planning on going apartment shopping over spring break this year. yippee. With any luck, I'll be out on my own by this summer with a big kid job all of my own. And hopefully in an apartment that will have my zoo, Sake, Sophie, and Mia. I <3 them.

Schadenfrauden.

I love crack.

When it's in video game form, that is. I've been looking forward to Viva Pinata for the DS since I heard about it's release a few months ago, and on a mad sprint between classes to two Targets and once Best Buy, I finally acquired a copy! And it's everything I dreamed. They made the interface a lot more friendly from the original Xbox version(which was addictive as hell anyway) and did an excellent job transferring from a console game to a duel touch screen game. I must say that's my biggest complaint about DS games is that they might as well be made for the Gameboy Advance if they're not going to make good use of the touch screen. My only problem thus far is the inability to partially zoom out on the garden, but other than that, the game is flawless. I'm super excited for the new species, I've already seen a few, but haven't been able to make them residents yet. I'm glad my favorite feature is still there; creating different evolutions and colors of species. Yayfun!

Spore was also released on Sunday, but the graphics looked terrible for the DS version. I'd rather have the full, pretty version for my computer, however that requires money. And I think I would rather have food to eat. I can't wait to graduate and no longer be in the social class "poor, starving college student".

I was going to bitch about my marketing class some more, and about how haughty and condescending my teacher comes off as, but I'd rather be content with the excellent real world knowledge I gained through my internship. I'm pretty sure I learned more about marketing in three months there than I will at my entire career at Drake, but hey, that's what internships are for, right? Seriously, though, the notes we take in class are over such common sense concepts. Did you know that choosing a candy bar to purchase is a low involvement decision??? (sarcasm) As far as I know, there are no classes that go in depth on HOW to effectively market, and as much as the professors preach about taking advantage of technology, they don't seem to tell how to. (i.e. how to avoid email spam catchers, SEO words, how search engines flag words/phrases)


I suppose it is time to go research for my typography project on Dadaism. Then I can get back to my pinatas!!!!!

Growing Pains.

So I'm 21, and outgrowing college already. Oh, wait, that was two years ago. I think I've traveled too much, seen too much, and been in the "real world" too much to appreciate what's left of my adolescence. I'm ready to have a job and make something of myself. I'm in upper level classes now, with other seniors, and the ignorance and naivety shocks me. People honestly have no idea wait is waiting outside of their frat parties and meal plans. Maybe it's my fault for going to school in the midwest. Half our class examples/suggestions, from both professors and students, are about production factories or farming. You never hear about consulting firms, marketing firms, software companies, or anything other than something a 5 year old would think of. Maybe that's my creative side coming out, and I'm just being cynical, but come on! There's so much more out there. Speaking of being narrow minded, in some of my marketing classes, the professor asked us to list our interests and what we want to do. Every guy in the class lists "sports marketer" or something of that nature. I guess at least they've advanced from the realization that they're not going to be an pro NFL or MLB player, but seriously, there's more to the world than athletics. No wonder it's been so hard for me to find a guy to date.

Aside from classes, the bar scene is pathetically ridiculous. I know I may be a bit old fashioned being catholic and all, but wow. Sooo many drunken girls going home with random guys. The bars are a complete slutfest, and no lines are drawn. I wish girls would realize there's a way to get attention other than maximum grinding and boob exposure. It's called class. My favorite was watching some pathetically plastered chick last night grinding (quite out of time) with this guy. She was wasted, no idea what's going on, meanwhile the guy is pounding his friends and making crude gestures about what's sure to ensue later that evening. I almost felt sorry for her, but honestly, grow up, and learn how to not get incredibly drunk and hook up with assholes. [don't even get me started on how chicks need to either lay off the beer or not wear such tight clothes. it's called moderation, and exercise. plus, just ewwwww.]

And it's only two weeks into the semester. Oh lord. So I am sending out applications everywhere I can, in eager anticipation of getting into the real world where I can start my career, meet intelligent individuals, and go to bars where I can at least get a fucking Cosmo instead of a nasty "rum and coke" with shitty college bar booze.

Good to Be Back

Ahhhh. It's good to be back at work/school.

Worked 5:45-9:30 tonight at Customer Service at BestBuy. Spent the last 20 minutes on a phone call with a customer who had the attitude of a very irate hornet. Even for the constant yelling for that amount of time, I still couldn't quite tell you what exactly he was so angry about. When I first answered the phone, I had to listen to him rant for 5 minutes while speaking spanish to the Brazilian customers I was currently helping purchase GPS devices. When he shut up, I politely asked him to hold until I finished with my current customers and could devote my full attention to him. When I picked up the phone again, the rant began again. It was the worst type of rant though, where the customer starts at the beginning of the story, gets madder and madder and louder and louder, then briefly apologizes for yelling, and then starts the story all over, getting increasingly more angry again. Three cycles later, huffing and puffing, asks me how I would feel, to which I replied,

"Sir, we can go two ways here. You can tell me how I can get started helping you solve your problem, or you can just rant at me. I can go either way."

That seemed to get him to start communicating a bit more rationally, until I told him I'd have to ask someone else to look up his order information. It seemed to really infuriate him that I didn't have a file listing his entire exact Best Buy history and current situation status. What am I, an FBI agent? I told him in a perfect world, we would have that ability, but for the meantime, I would have to get a manager to access order information I could. A bit more was exchanged, including him wanting to know my name/work hours, and a final FUCK! and click, he hung up. After customer service for 5 + years, I can really only shake my head and laugh.

Now I am home buying class books on eBay. I won't spend more than $50 per book, and am debating what to do about one of my marketing books that is brand new going for $180, that I probably won't even open. Also, I'm trying to get into a course an adjunct professor is teaching, and it's a bitch trying to track her down. /sigh. No office, therefor no office hours, and adjunct profs neeeever check their drake email accounts.

On the bright side, there is World of Warcraft and Fat Tire to come home to. All is good.

el oh el.

Don't we look spiffy? Aras took me to see Wicked in Chicago for my birthday. It was absolutely amazing!!!!





Now, a collection of some of my recent favorite videos. Thanks to failblog.org and idiots with access to the internet. = )

























School starts in a week. Laaaaaame. And because I am bored at work after wrapping up all my client projects, here is your word of the day.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


lackadaisical \lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl\, adjective:
Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Some recent eCards I've made at work.

AlienAbduction.swf

Seattle Road Trip Recap in pictures

The weekend of the fourth Aras and I flew to Seattle to see friends and pick up his car from his sister. On Monday we started our long cross country journey home to Des Moines, IA. Pics or it didn't happen, yo!


Leaving the beautiful Seattle mountains.




Super cute inn we stayed at.




Wyoming, I think?






Devil's Tower. lol.





Rapid City, the city of presidents.




Picking George's nose




Ooooh, pretty.




El oh el.





Six foot rabbit.




How many random things can we take pictures with?




rofl.

I suck at this.

I'm seriously the most sporadic blogger ever. Maybe it's just cause I go through periods where I'm immensely boring and have nothing to write about. Or I'm sooper busy and just don't have time to write about what I'm sooper busy doing. So recap since the last blog.

1. Finished last semester with two D's, which blew, but I was taking 18 credit hours, working 20 hours a week, and managing the PMS COD4 division which took 15+ hours a week; hence no time to blog. Boo hiss.
2. Started my internship at SoftVu in Kansas City. Some stuff I've done.
   North American Savings Bank
   SoftVu Webpage Updates
   
3. Renewed my addiction to
   • http://www.icanhascheezburger.com
   • 
   • http://www.failblog.org
   • 
   • http://www.redvsblue.com
   • 
4. [interjection]for some reason, my work computer is freaking out, and the enter button is not working. seriously. wtf?
5. Ok, back at home with a working enter button. Whoopee! Went on an amazing road trip with the love of my life, which shall be saved for the next blog
6. Decided to pursue my career in graphic design once I graduate in the spring.
7. Stepped down from the role of the Call of Duty 4 divisional leader to focus on other aspects of my life and play WoW.
   

umm, and that's all for now! <3