It may be miserable, grey and rainy outside, but the internet brings me beautiful things to lift my spirits and engage my covet-drive:
Behold: Art of the Disney Princesses book.
A book full of princesses as imagined by various artists in their own styles.
Some images:
Thanksgiving is blissfully over and today we are getting our first snow*. I have a cat on my lap, my boyfriend is threatening to do unspeakable things to my tea, I have a pile of unfinished homework that I keep trying to forget exists and the Top Gear Armageddon special queued up and waiting.
But before I surrender myself to the fabulousity of British Automotive shows, I had a few things I wanted to share.
1. My Next Internship:
After the prospects for this quarters’ internship ranging from a beer company to a childrens’ educational group, I decided to see what I could do about seeking out my own internship this quarter, as I was hoping to find something at an actual graphic design studio. So, a couple weeks ago, I sent out my resume and sample sheet to every design studio
I could find in the area that actually had an email address.
To date, I have heard back from three.
One informed me that they did offer an internship program, and that it was 12 weeks long, unpaid and 40 hours a week. As I would be attending classes full time and getting ready for graduation, I had to let them know that the position wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
One regretfully replied with the news that they were not looking for an intern at this time.
The third, however (well, chronologically, the second, but it is more dramatic in this order) wrote back and told me that they had just been discussing bringing an intern on board at the beginning of the year and that they were intrigued by my offer to fetch coffee. We set up an interview for the 24th, which was this past Wednesday.
My interview lasted about an hour and forty-five minutes. I got a tee-shirt and they told me that my work was very impressive. They told me about all kinds of stuff I would have the opportunity to learn and work on with them and I am pretty sure I am their intern this coming quarter. I am supposed to get official confirmation around the beginning of this coming week.
2. Star Wars Girl:
By now, you have very likely heard about Katie and her Star Wars thermos. (if not, go here to read about it).
Well, in the past couple weeks, the internet has rallied in a wicked cool way, sending this sweet little geek girl all kinds of mad love. Grown up geek girls (and boys…we don’t discriminate!) have written her thousands of messages, and there is an article about it here, including an interview with the little geekette herself. I admit I got pretty teared up reading/watching this. I wish the internet had been around when I was a little girl to tell me that there was nothing wrong with my love of reading and my use of big words.
Seriously, this is one of the main things I LOVE about the internet. Sure, there are trolls and jerks and idiots galore, but there is also the reassurance that no matter who you are or what you are into or how weird you may be, there are other people like you out there. And they will stand up for you.
3. On the Topic of Things That Warm the Cockles:
This post from IMMD was just kind of charming.
4. To Offset the Mushy, Something That’s Just Cool:
This glowing dress made of knitted clear tubes that move fluid around isn’t really a practical option for wearing, but is certainly awesome. Plus, who knows? Perhaps it will inspire some engineer/designer to figure out a way to make this 
work in an actual functional feasible fashion. Regardless, this is super cool.
5. Tangled
I went to see Tangled last night. It was awesome. That is all.
* application of ‘snow’ may vary. Company makes no promises regarding regularity, density or actual snow of falling snow. Two visible flakes/hour or above constitutes ‘snow’. Snow may be composed of falling frozen water, small pieces of dry leaf, or dirty windows viewed without glasses. Please enjoy your ‘snow’. All complaints and questions should be directed to…we’ll let you know when we have a department for that.
I have been very bad about updating lately, for which I apologize. I keep meaning to post, but keep wanting to wait until something happens in my life other than being busy, stressed out and cranky, as I hate having a blog overflowing
with negativity…so my blog continues to sit empty.
So…today I am busy, stressed-out, cranky, and also decided to make my annual attempt to wear high heels like a real girl, so my feet hurt. Stupid shoes. Also, it’s rainy and the damp is making my hair poof, and I spilled my coffee and missed my bus, and I have a to-do list a mile long.
However, I got frustrated enough by the combination of these factors and the business-y skirt that kept riding up every time I sat down, that when I got to town I threw caution to the wind and decided to blatantly scour the clearance racks at Macy’s for something better. So, my feet still hurt, but my legs have leggings and the rest of me has a cute & comfy stripey shirt/dress thingy that could be warmer, but other than that I love, and so I may be hungry and being held captive by my shoes, but at least I am not wearing a skirt that attempts to flash the room every time I shift.
I really need to get back in the habit of choosing my outfit the night before on days I have to be up early.
Of course, arguing with my wardrobe isn’t the only thing I’ve been doing. I have been going to school and mostly not flunking out. Well…really not flunking out at all — which I feel is at least a little impressive, considering my near-meltdown in week 3. I am dealing with some heightened anxiety issues that are making my life sporadically miserable and surreal, and am still searching for an adequate way to curtail their effects, but, still not flunking out. Mostly doing okay. My illustration teacher really liked my book cover, and my Communications Design teacher didn’t 
seem to hate my stupid folder, so yay!
I am also doing okay at my internship, I think. We finished the newsletter — about two weeks later than I originally thought it would be going out and about three weeks later than it was actually due…but the good news is that I totally held up my end, and the lateness was due to people not having stuff ready rather than me procrastinating. My boss/es seem/s really happy with the work I did. Now I’m designing them a Christmas card, which is kind of fun.
I finally got around to taking some initiative and emailing my resume and sample sheet out to some actual GD studios/marketing firms in the area and have so far heard back from two, which is two more than I was strictly counting on. One told me that they had an internship program which was an unpaid 12-week course of 40 hour weeks, which, as a full-time, graduating student, didn’t really work for me…the second, however, offered me an interview for next week, so…fingers crossed! I look forward to seeing what an actual industry company thinks of my work. And hope that they, too, do not require the position to full time.
Other than internship and school, still not a lot happening. I’m in the home stretch and pretty busy + still technically unemployed, so pretty broke. Due to our full full schedule, I haven’t even been getting much time to cook, except on the weekends, and this past weekend saw me couch-ridden with the flu (I think…it was mild but draining) so this week I 
pretty much didn’t. Ugh…I shouldn’t write about food…I’m totally hungry. Stupid shoes.
A couple of other things recently…
Briggs and I spent an afternoon at the Strip market and got all kinds of random and interesting things, including a hat with rabbit ears for me and a bunch of random spices and two bags of delicious popcorn that were gone before we knew it and some biscotti that was disappointingly stale, and a pound of fresh ahi with which I made super awesome donburi that contained a half a pound of raw tuna for each of us. Wow. I made cabbage rolls. I cleaned the house. I finally got the random prints purchased at comic cons hung, but am utttely unhappy with the current configuration, and resolve to change it as soon as i find some framing nails and some time. I continue to doodle in my sketchbook and enjoy it utterly, and will scan and post pictures one of these days. Briggs and I went to see Hereafter, which was slow and long and pointless, and Megamind, which was awesome. This past weekend I finally watched Toy Story 3, which made me cry like the internet said it would, and Deliverance, which was strange but good. I’m currently reading three books simultaneously, which I never do, but I am making work, and experimenting with not smoking, which I am not sure is good for my mental health. Also, I stumbled upon the trailer for SuckerPunch this past week, and have determined that it will be my birthday/graduation celebration movie, because it looks frickin’ awesome, and also comes out in March.
Now I really want some ahi. Stupid shoes.
A mid-weekend, mid-October day…the sun is shining but the wind is blowing brown and red and orange and yellow leaves from the trees and I can tell the weather out there is chilly.
Or I can simply Google my zip code and learn that it is…currently about 57 degrees, with gusts of wind from the North-north-west.
Original plans for the morning were derailed, due to businesses being open only on business days, so the afternoon is 
open and we sit in our PJs wondering what to do with our day until we bring cookies to Bellevue this evening and watch horror movies with other people.
A mild hike through Schenley has been proposed and tentatively accepted, crunching through autumn leaves and snapping pictures at squirrels before stopping for the seasonal salted caramel hot chocolate that is my current obsession. But for the moment, sitting nestled in blankets and a soft sweater on the sofa and telling unknown readers that may not exist about my recent days seems the appropriate activity for this lazy Saturday.
I am two weeks into my internship at the educational lobbyist non-profit organization. On the day that I interviewed, I was asked if, as my start date was four days into October, I might be able to complete layout and design of the quarterly newsletter that was due at the end of October (I would be supplied with all written articles and photographs), and though I knew I would have to be attentive in management of my time, I thought I could manage without too much problem. On the day I began, I learned two things: the newsletter was due to be complete by the 22nd of the month, not the 30th or 31st (a slightly tighter squeeze, but one I thought I should be able to appease) and, though I had thought I might start my first day with a complete set of articles and photos to be input into a 12-page layout of my division…great fool, I — only one or two were even written! Today is the 16th of the month, and to date, I have not received anything but promises. Instead, I re-designed their membership brochure into something highly functional and was then told to redesign it twice in increasingly less functional fashions, stretching a two-day job into a two-week trial.
I feel I am learning a lot about the industry.
Meanwhile, school is at once overwhelming, and a heady experience. So far, at least, the quarter is exciting and so are the classes. With one quarter remaining after this one, I feel balanced on a precipice — at once ready to leap into the real world, and also sure that I need more feathers in my wings first and that the wax has not yet dried nearly long enough.
On the subject of wings, and school and the real world, however, I have finally designed a logo that I intend to be my long-term professional identity, rather than a stop-over until a real logo comes along. Perhaps I’ll post it some day.
I have not been interested overmuch in cooking over the past week or two–at least not cooking meals and nutritious things. Baking and notions and culinary adventures, have, however, grabbed my fancy. I made:
My own chai (for which I will not link a recipe, as I looked at a few and surmised that one simply throws into a pot with black tea, whichever portions of the appropriate spices one desires, and then allows to simmer for a while.) 
Pumpkin spice bagels (Two recipes — the first is more dense, and though the blogger comments on the excessive amount of spice, even more would still be appropriate — they were delicious but could have been spicier. Oh, and the directions were for using a mixer like KitchenAid or Hobart, but you can totally mix and kneed by hand. For the second, I didn’t have vital wheat gluten, so I ended up having to add a great deal more flour than is in the recipe…they came out quite tender, however…but i think not as sweet as the first set.)
Molasses Ginger cookies (very good, but make sure to read the comments, as they give some pointers that really make the recipe better and easier.)
Other obsessions of late:
Starbucks Salted Caramel hot chocolate. I know I have mentioned this at least twice before…once perhaps in this very post…but it is incredibly good, if you like that kind of thing. Which I do. Almost a little butterscotchy. Almost tied for the position of ‘favorite drink of the month’, however, is the raspberry hot chocolate we got at Penn’s Colony — it is made locally, but can be ordered online, and is PARTICULARLY delicious mixed in with morning coffee.
The art of Tara McPherson. I mean, seriously….look at this stuff:
Her work is just kind of awesomely weird and bright and cute all at once, and I love it.
My third obsession of the week is my new sketchbook.
You see, since getting my computer, I have drawn pretty much no traditional art at all…but even before that, pages in my sketchbooks had become far more focused on pages that were scannable line art for finished pieces. I did not work loose and fill my space…I hardly ever had more than one drawing on a page, much less interfering with or overlapping each other. I sacrificed loose, care-free drawings in favor of neat, space-conscious work, and that is not what a sketchbook is for. A fact I realized and bemoaned when I stumbled across some beautiful sketchbooks full of random drawings everywhere. (I posted about it here)
Well.
I had to get a new sketchbook for unrelated reasons, but the combination of those lovely books lingering in my mind, and the knowledge that a school friend of mine had begun a full on sketch-journal, which she was filling with every medium she had on hand, and experimenting and going crazy, and then seeing the inside of a classmate’s sketchbook…I tore into the pages of my own spiral-bound with a vengeance. Well..with a couple pencils and a ball-point…but I have been spending free time doodling, drawing and depicting, trying to fill up all the space that pages provide, for the most part…playing as much as I can with ideas of form and shape and concepts of characters and shapes of faces and eyes and mouths and shading and so forth.
Perhaps I’ll post a few pages soon.
And with that, two weeks of my life are mostly neatly condensed into a medium-length journal entry. So, for now, I shall shower and prepare to meet the day.
None
A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) by George R.R. Martin
Crossroads of Twilight (The Wheel of Time, Book 10) by Robert Jordan
