Random Tidbits: The past week/weekend, 9/8 edition

Let me start off by saying that this past week at work, it was slloooowww. I know that some things can't be helped (i.e. waiting on other people to provide you with material to work on your task) but I guess that's something I still need to get used to, as opposed to depending solely on myself to get stuff done (like back in school).


Speaking of which, the one thing I could depend on myself for, I was utterly unmotivated to do.


I had some technical issues in Microsoft Word where it wasn't working (properly) on my computer, obstructing my workflow in copying and pasting text or reformatting pictures (that tiny little hack... the little technical things I've learned this year...) for my version of the annual report (yep, the one I mentioned in the previous post), but that doesn't deter from the fact that I looked at the task on hand with dread and groaned repeatedly to myself. Normally I don't complain that much in the process of getting things completed, so this was a bit unusual.

Was it having to look at a drab original version multiple times that knocked the ambitious wind out of me?

Or were the scarce sources of recent/relevant layout (or lengthy book/editorial) inspiration leaving my mind dry?

Perhaps it was this conditioned mindset that even if I do put in good - exceptional effort, the client is almost never fully satiated, or that they have restrictions that would, in my own eyes, hamper the design and make it something I would just disregard as something I did in the past and not "something I was happy with once I finished it"?

It could be all three.

And while I spent a good majority of my weekend working on this report (I could've saved myself the trouble and worked on it earlier in the week like I was supposed to, but I also fall victim to being a typical 20 something yr old making poor decisions sometimes), I found myself waking up at 5 AM in the morning to get the remaining 3 pages done, so the design student procrastination is still simmering quietly inside this one.

The end result is decent I guess, for someone who wasn't having their most design A game.

Then again, after having tried at the graphic design section of this trivia app called QuizUp, I definitely do not feel confident at all. A good portion of those questions are pretty hard. I mean, do the really hardcore graphic designers really know the designers behind the most recent (insert movie or event name here) poster (that probably didn't generate that much of a buzz anyway)?

But aside from that, the annual report and a couple of other little things that picked at my usual mellow/decently confident demeanor, it's been alright. I do need to work on being a little less sensitive to certain things, which is also a bit unusual for me too.



On a brighter note, I went on a food adventure on Saturday night with the group of friends I went to Il Mulino with. We went to a Korean restaurant that was actually not in the downtown area. That was a nice change. Here's a sneak peak photo (clearly I will be writing a post on this later)...

Man I haven't whipped out my micro-four thirds cam in a long time! Ya, I got a couple of teasing looks from a friend in the group for being a "hipster", but I miss taking these kinds of photos. I got lazy the past couple of weeks using just my Android phone, until there was a puzzle piece I realized that was missing in my life.

Huh?

I hadn't figured this out (until last night), but there was something about my VSCOcam photos that I uploaded to my Instagram that bothered me. Then, as I was tweaking my photo of my mooncake dessert, it hit me — why couldn't I edit the white balance???

Because there was none. Damnit VSCOcam developers, what native functionality on the Android phone causes you to not be able to include white balance tweaking in the interface?



My plates will forever have the slightest yellowish tint unless if I export that photo to the gallery just to tweak the white >:/

Anyways, we also played Catan later on in the night, with six people. I haven't played with six people before so having all those houses invading into my space and blocking my way was definitely an obstacle. Needless to say, I didn't win, though that didn't really faze me anyway.

What else has happened?

Well in the past two weeks, after getting acquainted with Alex during my usual Sunday morning badminton sessions, I have unexpectedly been led to being a part of a whole badminton posse, (with Alex being the ringmaster of course) and getting reacquainted with an earlier acquaintance and an old friend in a collective experience rather than in isolated situations. It's funny how small a world it seems sometimes — I hadn't realized that Alex knew my old friend Elvin until I mentioned his name.

It's also funny because for most of my life, I hung out with the older crowd, sometimes by obligation, sometimes by choice. And now I find myself in a group with people that are still relative to my age, but younger. Most of them still have school to attend to for their remaining couple of years, but hanging out in a large group at Pho that night and then pool was fun while it lasted. It's been awhile since I've been that comfortable in a decently large group (especially with people I'm not actually close with), and maybe the magic of summer had something to do with it.



Though, being in a group of almost all guys with only one other girl, does make me miss my INC friends and my other "holy trinity" elementary female friends too :/

Speaking of badminton, I guess I got tired of people of exploiting my weaknesses in a match and myself repeating the same mistakes, so I'm occupying myself another day a week with an old instructor I had. I'm hopeful of improvement, but I'm also nervous about the first day. I know I should stop (as my friend Joyce would say) "potato-ing" around, lol.

That's it for now I guess. I know this was a long post, but I hadn't written a decent one for awhile...hence this, lol.