Blogging Awards

So apparently, sometime when my back was turned, I received two blogging awards. Pretty sweet. I just have to link some people and fill out some bizarre questionnaire.

I don’t really follow too many blogs that haven’t already received this award that would appreciate something like that, but off the top of my head I can think of a few that I love reading.

Door Sixteen: So much house beauty. I want to live in a house just like hers. ;_;

Hygge House: Her blog is so cozy. There’s no other way to describe this.

David Giesberg: My real life friend. He’s totally up and on top of technology and fun goodies that I love indulging in. He also needs to POST MORE.

Belinda!: Belinda and I have been friends for awhile and I’ve always loved her blog. We have tons in common.

Silencios: Lene’s blog is fantastic - full of humor and personality. Always a pleasure to read.

Felisa: I love her blog and I was happy to find out that I was actually pronouncing her name correctly in my head. Another blog full of great personality.

Anyway, if you guys care, go ahead and grab an award and give it to some other people or something.

Oh! Apparently I was supposed to answer this only using one word answers, but … yeah, I guess I fail.

1. Where is your cell phone? I don’t know. I think it’s in my bag.
2. Where is your significant other? Sitting on my bed. He refuses to help me clean and is being a blob.
3. Your hair color? Uh. I don’t even know anymore. Right now it’s sort of a lightish reddish blonde.
4. Your mother? Mum!
5. Your father? Dad!
6. Your favorite thing? I have a lot of favorite things. Currently I’m liking oatmeal raisin cookies, my stuffed bear named Bear, my PlayStation One, and posters.
7. Your dream last night? I had a nightmare that I was taking this test. It was this really big computer science test and I was in a huge auditorium with all the other CS majors. The person giving the test was one of my favorite professors who can be really gruff. Anyway, before we could take the test we were supposed to turn in this HUGE programming assignment, but I had forgotten to turn it in. I started panicking, and I was using someone’s computer to try to turn it in before the test started, but his computer kept falling apart. Then I woke up. Man, what a sucky dream.
8. Your dream/goal? Become an artist.
9. The room you’re in? I’m in my bedroom right now.
10. Your hobby? I have a lot. I crochet, paint, draw, write stories, play video games, go for walks and bike rides, read TONS of books, and make websites. Sometimes I pick up random hobbies like making jewelry, modifying clothes to make new clothes, playing around with computer hardware, throwing fabulous classy parties, and making popcorn right on the stove (does that count as a hobby? :D)
11. Your fear? I dunno. It used to be failure but I’m a lot more comfortable with that now. I don’t think there’s anything that I outright fear anymore.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Somewhere in Northeastern United States, or Europe. Ideally I’d be in Sweden with a graphic design job.
13. Where were you last night? J took me out for Indian food at a really fancy restaurant.
14. What you’re not? Lazy.
15. One of your wish-list items? GTA4 for the PC. Not gonna happen for awhile, but I can still wish for it. Also, a nice long cardigan knitted by Stephanie.
16. Where you grew up? All over - mostly around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
17. The last thing you did? Ate breakfast and washed dishes. Right now I’m buying GTA: Vice City for only five dollars on Steam right now!
18. What are you wearing? Black skinny jeans and a gray and white striped tank top.
19. Your TV? Very small, used only for the PlayStation and Wii.
20. Your pet? Two cats - Henry Clay and Augustus. Henry Clay lives at home with my parents and Augustus lives with J.
21. Your computer? will totally pwn your computer
22. Your mood? Cheerful, as usual.
23. Missing someone? My family. I’m going home in several minutes.
24. Your car? A red Dodge Neon.
25. Something you’re not wearing? A du-rag.
26. Favorite store? Goodwill.
27. Your summer? Consisted of doing TONS of art, going swimming, and playing a lot.
28. Love someone? I love lots of people.
29. Your favorite color? Orange.
30. When is the last time you laughed? Several minutes ago.
31. Last time you cried? Several weeks ago.

September 27, 2008 @ 10:26 am . Comments (5)

General — Tags: lunsh

Been awhile …

A lot has been going on lately. I don’t really know where to start. I’m not even sure if people care what’s been going on. It’s been very hectic.

Instead of making a post about everything that’s been going on, I’m going to make a list of things I’ve learned in the past week:

• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This has been my motto as of late. It applies to so much stuff it’s not even funny. It’s all about knowing what you need to do, not what you can do just because it’s there.
• Taking time for yourself is more important than making near-perfect scores. Jeez, do I need this as a constant reminder. I’m way happier when I have some time to myself, and I feel way better too. This in turn makes me less grumpy in general and more able to tackle the tough stuff. Which is more important than making a high A vs. making a low A or high B.
• Wheat tortillas taste really good with spaghetti sauce. Yes, I’m weird. Then again, I eat pickles with peanut butter on top.

Also, I just remembered I forgot to read the Declaration of Independence for class today.

September 25, 2008 @ 12:27 pm . Comments (4)

General — Tags: Health, lessons, well-being

Cold

It’s seventy-six degrees outside. 76F. SEVENTY-SIX.

I’m freaking out. It’s so cold! People were walking around campus wearing jackets. It was as if the ice age had descended upon us. Hurricane Ike didn’t hit us, fortunately, but it left behind freezing weather.

Okay, maybe it’s not freezing outside, but it’s a bit brisk when yesterday it was 95F. It looks like this weather is here to stay, at least for now - this entire week is going to barely creep into the 90s.

The good part about this is I can walk places without dying. The bad part is they’re still air conditioning the buildings. I have issues with air conditioning in Texas. Yes, it’s hot outside. Yes, we all hate it. But do you really have to crank the air conditioning down to 65F? You’re just wasting money and making everyone really, really cold!

I used to work in the Flawn Academic Center on campus. This place is always frigid inside, which is a shame, since it’s got beanbags and is really pretty nice. Every single person in there would complain, save one or two. Unfortunately, those two people were always the most vocal, complaining about how it was so hot and if we turned the temperature up they’d die.

I’ve often heard people say to me, “Well, you can always put more layers on. I can’t take my clothes off.”

This is ridiculous. I can’t carry a parka to work when it’s 99F outside - jackets are often too bulky and I shouldn’t have to carry something extra JUST so I can not freeze when I’m inside a building.

I, and others like me, have to suffer every single day just so the one or two vocal people in the building aren’t hot. What ever happened to just dealing with it? I used to know a girl who would crank the air conditioning so the temperature was as low as she could reasonably make it, and then she’d blow fans in every single room. This is insane, folks.

But really, what’s going on? Why is it that every single store, building, and house has to be like walking through the north pole? Why is it I have to brace myself every time I walk into Target because I know it’s going to be freezing? If they were to put the temperature up just a few degrees, they’d save tons of money. So why don’t they do it?

I just don’t get it. And I don’t get why people are using air conditioning when it’s 76F outside. Urgh. I’m going to wrap up in a blanket to THAW myself off.

September 15, 2008 @ 5:48 pm . Comments (7)

Culture — Tags: annoyance, trends

A little bit of nature

Prepara’s Power Plant is amazing. I was being bored, browsing through random webpages when I stumbled across this. I don’t know how well it works but I like the design and I love the idea of being able to grow herbs and things inside my apartment without a lot of hassle. Actually, the fact that the shape is long and skinny is a definite plus, because it can fit on my windowsill.

I’ve been thinking for awhile that my apartment could use some green. Slowly, as I acquire pictures and furniture, it’s becoming a really nice place. I’ve had quite a few people admire it when they see it for the first time. Still, I feel like I really want a huge plant for the corner.

You guys don’t know what I’m talking about because I haven’t posted up pictures yet. But I promise they will come soon.

But growing my own food! That means I won’t have to buy it, which is a definite perk. That, combined with lining my (tiny) window with some nice green - it’s great. The Power Plant is a little expensive, though, but maybe I can find some similarly shaped pot (the less round, the better!).

September 12, 2008 @ 7:17 pm . Comments (6)

General — Tags: apartment, design

Creativity

Stephanie recently made a post about how she’s going to challenge herself creatively, which is also a contest at this knitting website. I don’t really care about the contest (but you might), but what I do care about is thinking about how I’m going to challenge myself in the next year.

This year is a lot of upcoming craziness for me, with the whole “finding a job” thing. The number one thing I am going to do to is going to happen in the next few weeks, let alone the next year! I’m going to convert my main domain lunsh.net into my design portfolio - a collection of my web designs, patterns, art, etcetera. My blog will sit on a separate subdomain (probably tasty.lunsh.net. :D).

The second thing I’m going to do is create business cards and distribute them to potential employers. That’ll put my contact info and my portfolio at the center of their attention. Ideally, I’ll be hired at a web design firm, or at a Small, Pretty Software Company where I can make usability and design the focus of my work. Ideally. We’ll see.

Another challenge is decorating my apartment and TAKING MORE PICTURES. My lack of pictures has been twofold - I don’t really have a camera. I borrow J’s for all my camera needs but obviously I can’t just steal his camera all the time. Secondly, I don’t like Flickr because of their upload limit (and do not want to pay for a better account), but I still would like a place to put my pictures. In all honesty, I’m probably going to have to end up with a server-side gallery on my domain. Either way, though, I’d like to take more pictures of random stuff, to make it seem more like I’m a real person and not a robot. Plus I love blogs with pictures - they’re just more interactive and fun to read.

These are the main ways I’m going to be challenging myself and I think they’re good ways. Creativity is so fleeting that we can’t force ourselves to be creative - we can only search for that moment of inspiration and then go with it. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but good ideas are few and far between. What can we do but try to find them?

You cannot wake up and suddenly BE creative. I also don’t believe that by doing things you’ll come up with ideas more frequently. I fully believe that you already have the creativity, you already have the ideas. Ideas come frequently and subconsciously - maybe you see something and get an idea for something you want to create, but you don’t even realize you’re thinking about it, not consciously anyway. Or you think of something but forget it. The key is tapping that well, and forcing yourself to become conscious of the thought when you have it. You will lose some, but you will win some too if you force yourself to write it down. Creativity is like a dream, easy to get, easier to forget.

I also believe a lot of people simply put creativity off, and instead do other things first. They often talk about how they want or need to do certain things (people who talk about the book that they’re writing, that they’ve been writing for the past ten years, or people who tell you about their latest cross-stitching, which has been half-done since they were fifteen). Creativity doesn’t work like that. Once you let it go, more often than not it’s gone.

Here is the secret: when an idea comes to you, do it.

Do it right that minute. If you can’t do it, start planning it. At the very least, write it down. But get to it as soon as you possibly can. Creativity WILL NOT wait for you.

And don’t be afraid of it, either. The act of creating is joyful, even if in the end you do not like the finished piece. It is the process that matters more than the result.

September 3, 2008 @ 5:51 pm . Comments (4)

Art — Tags: creativity, well-being