Dokusei Design

I’m sick again. How pathetic is that. Sick twice in barely two months. My other cough had just gone away and now this one successfully took over. It takes me about a month to get the coughing all out of my system. Just awesome.

Tuesday through Thursday were my toughest days. I didn’t get any sleep on Monday night, so my 9 hour Tuesday was unbearable, followed by headache, body temperature fluctuations and shivering. The rest of the week was simply shrouded by fits of coughing.

It’s been a huge challenge lately to figure out what to eat. I cook all my meals everyday and sometimes the same meals just become monotonous. I’ve been trying to eat more raw veggies, but raw carrots are my greatest enemy (baby ones are o-k). So I found a recipe dip and made a really yummy dip problem solved! Also bought some steak meat (I think?). I haven’t really had red meat since… since… uhm. Yeah. It’s good once in a while!

Last week I prepped my weeks worth of salads. They’re separated in layers so as to keep the spinach as fresh as possible at the top! It stays fresh for so long and I don’t have to worry about taking out ingredients all the time just to make one salad. The only thing is that… I got overly excited about the extras and didn’t allow for more room for spinach lesson learned! + baby sprouts YUM

(salad dressing, corn, mushroom, walnut, carrot, stringed beets, cranberry, quinoa, baby sprouts, spinach)

Our first run-through manifesto poster was due on Thursday. I added fluroescent pink stripes + silver onto mine… since we really had no time to go and outsource  print it (other than at school, which is CMYK)

It’s 4AM and just finished my Type rough cut video. Yipee!

Overall this week was quite the emotional roller coaster again, with my cold. I woke up Friday morning with my Grandpa in mind. I dreamt about him and miss him so, so much. I woke up disappointed that he wasn’t here any longer. I was so excited. I guess the disappointment got to me and I just sat crying. My grandpa passed away 11 years ago.. I think about him every day . I called my grandma and chatted with her for a little – it made me so happy, and hopeful to hear her voice stronger with life.

I don’t have that much homework. It’s probably because I dropped a class . Smart choice imo. I really need to focus on this manifesto shibang. I’m also taking Web 1… just because it’ll be good for me to actually learn html/css/etc professional rather than Googling. Everything I basically know is self taught, rather – Google taught. 

I had a great weekend Saturday evening Chris and I were dying of boredom so we (Chris, Ahndi and I) went to Black Box in Hollywood.  It was the oddest atmosphere ever… lots of hipsters, men in oxford tux’s.. and really, really good looking people! There were odd performances involving several naked men and this theme of spiritual manifestation – at least that’s what I got out of it :\. We got free ice cream from Coolhaus and attempted to awkwardly blend into the eccentric crowd.

On Sunday I had a mandatory field trip to the Norton Simon museum in Pasadena. They make us go the furthest museum possible to make our lives so much easier. At least it was free for students and had free parking – winning on that part! It was also a beautiful day… so that was a positive point. Nothing really impressed me.

That evening we decided to go back to the Black Box to see what improv performances there would be. It wasn’t all that interesting. We left pretty early

This is one of the moments where I feel like everything was going well… and then the ends start unraveling. It’s only the second week of school and I already feel abnormally stressed. I assume it’s all the other issues around me that are the villain, but what can I do but to push it to the back of my mind and attempt to focus on my main goals. I tried calling my mom to no avail; which made me question myself about what I would talk to her about. I don’t talk to anyone really about my personal problems. I don’t usually push my problems or weight onto other people so that they feel burdened.

The sun is shining, and I was just sitting on my porch in a tank and leggings, in attempt to read The Da Vinci Code, but living literally right next to the airport is more of a challenge than one would imagine. Every 5 minutes, an airplane would either take off or land (landing is much louder). Concentration level = 0. Can’t enjoy the 20c+ weather.

For this semester, we are working on a Manifesto where we define our principles and beliefs in terms of design. I think? It’s killing me. I am probably the worst person to go to, to bring words together in one, cohesive and understandable… paragraph? It’s even more difficult when the Manifesto is about myself. I can’t wrap my head around my design principles and beliefs because I simply because it’s too hard. I just do it. I can paint you a well composed piece, but if you tell me to write down my design practices… good luck.

I’ve been re-doing my portfolio book and resume for internships.

My favorite class right now is packaging design. It’s not even in the Comm Arts major – it’s in Product, but I actually feel like I’m getting somewhere in this class. It’s not this ominous project where the teachers just hint at what the final product will be like – for example, in comm studio.

Water bottle design + label – short one week project! Was really fun to do though.

On Friday evening there was an explosion at the Burns Lake sawmill close to where I was born/lived for the majority of my childhood. Reading this article made me cry, thinking about how devastating is must be to the minuscule community. I hope all goes well for the community.

I’ve re-designed my resume AND portfolio. I think my expectations for myself is a little high.. I am never satisfied with what I have. . The reason I did this, though is because I’ll be applying to Nike in hopes for an internship. I’m pretty certain I won’t get a call, but I’ll try.

Basically during Winter break, I.. worked, spent time with my Grandma, read Angels and Demons (so good), and played Plant vs Zombies. I rarely ever get addicted to games.. but oh baby, this game was made for me.

My kind brother allowed me to take his monitor and borrow it until summer . I was going to buy one, but since he’s not going to be using it anyways, I decided to bring it to LA. This will allow me to work at home more, rather than walk home at 3AM in the morning from school. My laptop is good, but 13″ just results in neck ache and back soreness. No good! obviously I’ve made a mess already…