searching for sunshine

[Review] Coffee: Pret and Juan Valdez

May. 28th, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Though I have much better things to blog about, I'm gonna bore you more coffee. ^_^

Pret: Though a bit pricy in other things, their small coffee is an awesome 99 cents. Organic too. Consumers have a choice of "less strong" and "strong." I've tried both. There's a bit of a bitter aftertaste that sticks in your mouth afterwards, but really not too bad.

Juan Valdez: I ordered the Caffe- ummm, the one with cinnamon. lol. Tasted burnt to me. It did taste like cinnamon though.

Location:36-1B
Music:wrrr

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[review] esparks

Apr. 28th, 2009 at 2:32 PM

On my way back from the dentist and I noticed an Esparks coffee shop. No, I didn't have any dental work done. I had wanted to try them for a while, so I went in. I ordered a plain iced coffee "a little milk, a little sugar." it tastes pretty good. No bitterness. A bit too much milk, but it's ok. Atmosphere is nice. The place is located on the tip of a triangle block, with windows all around. Good view of the street. Anyway, this iced coffee hits the spot on a hot day like today. Approve!!

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[review] Coffee anyone?

Apr. 4th, 2009 at 2:41 PM

More coffee reviews! I am defintely not a coffee connesieur, but I can definitely record what I observe.

Today I'm headed into Jersey to meet with my bf. He's finally getting his Beardie. Finally! Anyway, I had a couple minutes to kill in port authority so I gots me a cuppa at Casa Java. I ordered a small hazelnut coffee, advertised to be the best hazelnut coffee around. It tastes ok. It's not too bitter, but it has a sour aftertaste. Bleh, I can still taste it and my last sip was five minutes ago. It's not that bad. I could certainly think of much worse coffee out there.

I went back to the Illy by my work the other day during lunch. I wanted to see how they handled their specialty drinks. I ordered an iced amaretto latte. I know latte are mostly milk and the flavor is just a syrup, but I couldn't taste much besides the milk. I got really hyper though... So I know here was defintely a shot of espresso on there haha. I think I'll stick with getting plan black coffee from them for now on.

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April Fool's Day mission report

Apr. 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 AM

It was a triumph. ^_^ Note: Huge Success.

I haven't pranked anyone in *years*. I think I just made up for it. XD

Just to set things up, I work with a team of 3 people at work; we call it a pod. I nicknamed my podmates Genin and Jounin after the ranking system in Naruto. Jounin, because she's older than me and has more experience; and Genin, because he was hired just a few months ago.

Prank #1: Changed the top sheets of the Genin and Jounin's printer trays to green paper. I got the Genin-- he was delighted to have been pranked at all. He told the Jounin, so she didn't fall for it. Boo.

Prank #2: While the Genin was at lunch, I rearranged the keys on her keyboard to say "RAMBO WANTS TREATS" (Rambo's the name of her dog). I ran out of letters and ended up cannibalizing my own keyboard and the extra one in our work area. When she got back from lunch she was like "I think someone moved a letter on my keyboard....The A....the S.....the F..........." So I kinda pushed her along and said, "What about the R?" "That too..OH. Rambo!" I guess I had to prod a little more. "Look at the bigger picture," I suggested. She looked at her screen. "No, look underneath it." She picked up the keyboard. I had to repeat the instructions a couple times before she saw it. lol. I'm proud of her. she understood the 7 as a T. hahaha.

Prank #3: To prank one of the mailroom guys, I taped an interoffice envelope to my Outbox with clear packing tape. It was strong, clear tape too. When I have mail going out i usually let it stick out so that the mail guys know I have something to be picked up. Haha. So when one of them came by he tugged on it a couple times before looking at me like "What?" He's a really loud and out there kinda guy so he was really excited he got pranked. He told me to leave it there. When he came around later he was like "I'm not falling for that again." but I said "But, there's mail going out." He just stared blankly at me for a second before vigorously shaking his head. "No! No! Not falling for it!!" hahaha.

Prank #4: I put a bit of a post-it note on the bottom of the Genin's optical mouse so it wouldn't read. When he came back to lunch he asked before sitting down, "So what did you do?" He knew about the keyboard thing and had fallen for the printer thing, so he suspected I'd do something else. So he sat down and tried to use his computer. He swore up and down that I had locked the screen or did a screenshot or hid the taskbar or something else. I said that I did nothing of the sort. Then he actually pouted. "But I have eeeeemail...." "So how urgent is your work?" I grinned, then turned back to my own computer. Hahaha. It only took him another minute to find the bit of paper on his mouse. Hahaha. It only worked so well because he expected something really complicated.

The Genin tried to prank the Jounin in the morning. He bought a whoopee cushion, blew it up, and stuck it underneath the Jounin's seat cushion. But when she sat down, it just let the air out without a sound. FAIL!!! Woulda been cool if it had worked. :-P

So yeah, April Fool's day 2009 was the best one I've had. Ever. ^_^

Location:36-1B
Mood: mischievous

Tags:

work

Bag o' Pips

Mar. 28th, 2009 at 2:20 AM

It has been *ages* since I've written a story in one sitting. My last one was done in a couple days. I knew exacty where I wanted the story to go right away. Short and quick. Nothing complicated. Toukan Kouka was like that. Hard Definitions tooka little more work than that. My stories before that were written without a plot or direction in mind. Nowadays, I focus way too much on the technical aspects of the story (damn editing habits). So, it was a big and wonderful surprise when I found myself typing out the bulk of a new fic.

It's a Star Trek: Voyager story with Captain Janeway as teh main character and why it took her so freakin' long to promote Ensign Harry Kim. Humor. Everyone's IC and it's kinda funny, IMHO.

I'm not really sure how I got the idea. I think I had ebay up on my browser, then looked up seaquest out of curiosity, the saw some of the patches and started thinking about poor Eternal Ensign Kim from Star Trek Voyager. I used to be a big fan of his back in the day and it always bothered me and his loyal fanbase, how he was never promoted during the show. I wrote a couple "promotion" fics back in the day for FOLK. I can't believe that I just dug back in, after not watching Voyager for years, and wrote a fan fic. I've been beta-ing fics for a while so it was refreshing to write one of my own for a change.

Well, it's still a draft, and I'll finish it tomorrow. I feel pretty accomplished. :-)

Location:my room
Music:RHCP - Get on Top

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Savage Garden

Mar. 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 PM

[I actually wrote this last month (Feb. 16) but forgot to post it up. ^_^;;]

Going a bit retro here: I've been listening to Savage Garden again lately. I usually listen to easy stuff on the way into work (I nap on the bus and need music to block the bus noise) and Savage Garden fit the bill. Just today during my lunch break I watched the music video to Truly, Madly, Deeply for the first time. Yes, I know I'm over 10 years too late. In my defense, I never could catch it on MTV while it was on rotation and trying to watch a video on dial-up Internet was a pain! The music video was a bit strange to watch after all these years. Darren's appearances in the video seemed kind of random to me. I kept thinking, "what's with all of the random shots of the blond dude with the guitar?" until I realize that it was Darren, the other half of Savage Garden. So sue me; it's been a while.

Truly, Madly, Deeply" was, of course, my first favorite song by them. "I Want You" confused the heck out of me. The first time I heard it I thought it was a Cherry Coca-Cola commercial with Crystal Light. Hahaha. On the surface, I liked them because they sounded good. Then Affirmation came out and my feels ran a bit deeper.

Affirmation was the perfect CD to soundtrack my high school life. Back then I was the extremely peppy, hyper, optimistic, idealistic, and naive teenager girl hell bent on being happy and making everyone happy. Affirmation, the album's title track, epitomized everything I believed in and set it to the upbeat tempo of a swaying, bopping, and highly influential girl.

Affirmation stayed my theme song until halfway through college when one line of the lyrics just stopped being true for me. I had a huge argument with someone and was so extraordinarily pissed that I shut off my phone. I was just so angry that I knew that I couldn't talk to them straight without cooling down first. The person kept calling back and wouldn't respect my need for space, thus the shutting off of my phone. I had never done that before to anyone, and as soon as I did it, I thought of the song and realized that the song was no longer me. "I believe the sun should never set upon an argument" suddenly became a lie when sang through my lips. It was sad. I couldn't listen to the song for years without thinking about the fight and being disappointed in myself for losing the optimistic and carefree high-school-me.

People have said to me, "promise me that you'll never change." Back then I would blindly say, "I won't," but now, I don't think I could lie. I'm not the same hyper-girl from high school. I'm still optimistic and cheery, but I've got some cynical grey spots among the sparkles and sunshine now. Thinking back on it now, I don't think I completely lost the Affirmation-me. It's more of a re-affirmation song now, reminding me that not everything is so hard to deal with as long as you remember that there are some deep, core values you hold close to your heart.

I still love Savage Garden, even beyond their break up and through the passage of time. I can still lock the door, dial up the volume, close my eyes and dance to "Chained to You." I can still jam in my earphones playing "The Best Thing" and walk home with my head up and a smile on my face after a bad day. And I'm pretty grateful for it.

Location:36-1B
Mood: thoughtful

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music

Coffee time!

Mar. 20th, 2009 at 4:42 PM

I have a new favorite coffee place: Illy! If you can't tell because of the font, the store's name is "illy." Their plain coffee is pretty good; as in, not burnt tasting like Starbucks. It actually tastes kinda light and sweet (without sugar), and is probably what coffee is supposed to taste like (?).

My bf took me to the one by his work down by World Financial. The Illy there is attached to the Financier French patisserie. He tried the coffee before and thought I'd like it. Good thinking!! <3 They even gave me a small Madeleine. ^_^ Anyway, a few days later I was dying to get Illy again. I googled it up and found one close to my work on Madison & 55th. So, I went there and couldnt find the building at all. Turns out it's inside the Sony building and is really little. I went again the next day and was happy to discover the coffee there was still good and not a just a front. It's kinda expensive though. $1.90 (with tax) for a Tall? Ouch.

Oh, a couple things before I go into my whole coffee spiel: I'm gonna be reaaaallly American about this. Plain coffee to me is American styled coffee; grinds, filter, drip, water. I expect it to taste bitter, but not the disgusting burnt and bitter taste you get from leaving the pot on the burner too long. I've never had Italian coffee before, though I'd love to try it. I don't know much about the fancier points of coffee. So, you'll have to forgive me if my only points of critique are bitterness and general taste.

My coffee preference is black (or with a little soy if it's too bitter) with one or two packets of sugar, so that's how I judge coffee shops.

So here's my coffee run-down:

( Read more... )

Location:36-1B
Music:Paramore

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Dammit Jim, I'm an editor, not a detective!

Mar. 18th, 2009 at 4:21 PM

So, I finally got off my ass and applied for the Random House Associates Program. The deadline was last Sunday. I agonized over my cover letter and resume for a solid week. I procrastinated way too much. I had wanted to finish the copy editing class I was taking before updating my resume so I could put it under the Education section. I hate updating my resume. I hate writing cover letters. I just get so frustrated with all of the "rules" and how they all f*cking conflict with each other. Write this, but don't write that. This says that you're pretentious, this says you're eager.

Bah.

I have a bad feeling that if HR sees that you put "Dear Human Resources" or so much as puts a serial comma when their house style says not to, they chuck your resume into the recycling bin. There are so many how-to's on line about applying for jobs. Nearly all of them say never to address your letter "To Whom It May Concern" or "Human Resources." But what do you do when they don't give a name? First, go all CSI on them and go into google overdrive. If that doesn't turn up anything, call. So I did. The receptionist, or whoever she was, said to put "Associates Coordinator." I asked her if that's what they preferred, cuz y'know, i didn't want to be so informal. She said "yeah." Yeah. Ohkay.

So does this mean that they sort the resumes by whom they are addressed to? The ones that say "To Whom It May Concern" get chucked into the recyling bin; the ones that are addressed to "Human Resources" are considered to say the person didn't research enough and got lazy; the ones that say "Associates Coordinator" show that the person took the initiative to call; and the ones that give a name are just plain kick ass.

Am I applying to be an editor or Sherlock Holmes?

Or maybe I'm just thinking too much. Haha.

On a half-tangent, I was assaulted by beta requests last Thursday. Seven of them came in within a few hours of each other. WTH? It couldn't have been a system back up. Even if it was, it doesn't account for why I got so many at all. Usually I get one or two a month, but lately it's been one or two a week. I don't take them all; just the ones I think I'd enjoy...or tolerate...and sometimes I'm just too freakin' busy with other stuff to take on a new project. I still have the regular authors I beta for too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about getting requests. I like betaing. But I have to wonder, why is my name near the top of the lists for every category I'm registered under? I'd love to know what the algorithm is for displaying beta profiles. It can't be because of length of entries. Nor is it because of stories written in a particular category. I suspected that it was because of keywords like "copy edit," "publishing," "English major," but then again, a few of the profiles above me didn't have those words. Hm.

Ah well. Too much thinking for me today. Back to Skip Beat! ^_^

Location:36-1B
Music:Wrrr

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Writer's Block: Passing Time

Mar. 10th, 2009 at 12:05 PM

When you're stuck in a boring class or meeting, what's your favorite way to keep yourself entertained (or at least from falling asleep)?

View 500 Answers

Origami. Once you know how to fold something, you don't really have to think about it. Just halve, turn, halve, crease, halve.... I used to bring paper to class and make cranes under my desk. I got so used to making them that I could do it without looking, and with my teachers and classmates ever knowing. It kept my hands busy enough to keep me awake and thus paying attention in class. I hit 1,000 cranes that way. Once I was done with that, i went on to making turtles. Then stars. Then straw stars. Then modular units.

Needless to say, i got pretty bored. But, at least it kept me awake.

Location:36-1B
Music:Wrrr of the printer behind me.

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writer's block

Useful Grammar Reference

Mar. 10th, 2009 at 11:50 AM

Bear with me people, I know grammar isn't the most fun thing to read about. But, if you ever need to look something up, here are some useful sites. Most of them come up as the first couple google search results.

Useful grammar Web sites (Look Mr. Walsh, I capitalized "Web"):

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/

Great for all-around tutorials and reference.

www.grammarbook.com

No need to buy the Blue Book of Grammar and Style; it's all online, complete with quizzes. The "rules" are very useful.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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grammar

[Review] Forever Odd

Feb. 20th, 2009 at 8:01 PM

Frankly, I liked the first one better. A review that starts with am admission like doesn't make the book sound very promising, does it? In all fairness, the book was very well written: it's by Dean Koonts! Of course it's well written.

This time around we get a view of an off-centered Odd Thomas. A little aimless, a little meloncholy, Odd is no longer the young man in limbo between his 20th and 21st years of life. He's on indefinite leave from his job at the Pico Mundo Grille and helps the dead (or mopes) full time. His friend goes missing and it's up to Odd to find him.

While Odd is in full form, being the lovable character readers connected with in the first novel,it felt like some of the Other characters fell through.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little biased. I hated reading about the psycho girl. Did she really have to be a porn star sex phone operator entrepenuer who was obsessed with the hocus locus occult? Great characterization, but she personally annoyed me. I swear if I heard koontz describe her voice as "smokey" I would have gone bonkers. It's just a pet peeve of mine. Just like how I hate he word "smirk" when describing slytherins. Ugh!! I just didn't like her. While she was a unique character, she felt pretty hollow to me. Not to mention her two lackeys-- her *cheval*. Her thinking odd was well versed in the occult was annoying. Her ending her sentences with "boyfriend" bothered me. Can't you just imagine her dragging out the word? "booooiiifren? Where are youuu?". Gag me with spoon.

Asides from my clear aversion to such annoying villian characters, the plot was very straightforward. Odd seeks out friend, finds him, encounters the enemy, tries to escape.

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Like it never existed...

Feb. 19th, 2009 at 10:48 PM

I've been listening to Savage Garden again lately (in depth blog entry to follow), and a special memory came to mind: Years ago, I had a website. It was a cute little website with a starry background, a side-frame, guestbook, counter, and a cute scrolling marquee, all painstakingly coded out in elementary HTML. It housed my random bits of poetry, fanfics, and whatever I felt like posting up at the time. I was on a couple Star Trek: Voyager related mailing lists, so I had a few links to them. Ah yes. I remember FOLKs and GWAPES quite fondly. I also remember my very very embarrassing attempts at fan fiction. I think a couple really stupid ones are still floating around somewhere.

Among those silly attempts at writing was a song analysis I wrote relating Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres from Star Trek: Voyager to Savage Garden's song, "To the Moon and Back." It was quite good and very detailed. I always think of that pairing whenever I listen to the song.

I tried searching for my website and, to my dismay, it doesn't exist anymore. I really shouldn't be surprised; it has been years since I've even thought of the site. Usually I can find really deep, old stuff though googling, but not this time. I found the old mailing list sites, but not my website. On the one hand, I'm glad it was cleaned off the Internet,it was pretty embarrassing, but on the other, I'm kinda sad that it's gone. I might have it backed up on a floppy somewhere, but who knows. All I want is that song analysis...

Maybe I'll redo it for old time's sake...

[EDIT] Ohmygod. I found it!! I found it in one of my old fan fiction folders. OMG!!! *happy dance* reading it, ehhh,well, it's not as spectacular as I remembered it to be, but DAMMIT! It's still awesome to me. I'm gonna clean it up and maybe add a bit more to it before posting. ^_^

Location:my room
Music:Savage Garden - To the Moon and Back

Tags:

star trek: voyager

RL progress and some book reviews

Feb. 10th, 2009 at 12:50 PM

Kickin' my rear into gear! Rawr!

I applied and was accepted into the Intro to Copyediting (One word? Hyphenated? Two words?) class from mediabistro.com. Though, it's not like getting accepted is a very hard thing to do, I think. ^_^; Classes are once a week on Tuesdays from 6:45-9:45pm for 4 weeks. I gotta buy the book before class starts. Just my luck that it's not available at B&N, Borders, or Strand. Thank goodness for online shopping. ;-)

Anyway, I need to study even more before class starts. I really don't want to sound like an idiot and most importantly, I want to get the most out of the class. I definitely do not want to spend my class time playing catch-up. I'm still reading The Elements of Style Strunk & White and Style by Joseph Williams. I finished reading The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh and I'm reading his Lapsing into a Comma right now.

Speaking of reading, I hit the jackpot at the library a couple weeks ago and found a few books to read. Usually, my trips to the library result in a hit or miss; I either have something in mind or it's an impulse-read.

( Child of all Nations, Real World, Odd Thomas )

Location:36-1B
Music:Wrrr

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[Review] Gilgamesh

Feb. 5th, 2009 at 12:34 AM

For lack of anything better to watch while I work on crocheting a dog blanket for my coworker's pet chihuahua, I looked up Gilgamesh. I spotted the manga in B&N last week and thought the summary sounded interesting. So, I thought I'd try the anime.

Frankly, after sitting through 26 episodes, I'm not quite sure what I just watched. There's not much to it, yet it's complicated to the point of needing scientific explanations in the subtitles.

Plot: A group of scientists discover a power called "dynamis" in the Tomb of Gilgamesh. A being called Tear appears, the head scientist, Madoka Terumichi shows up and the tomb explodes. As a result, the sky developed a mirror-like sheen and all of the world's computers and wireless communications systems shorted out, causing the world to fall to chaos and famine.

Lost me yet? Too bad, it gets worse.

I've got beef with the series and the following definitely has spoilers. Seriously, don't watch the show. Just read the summary on wikipedia or your anime info site of choice, look at a screenshot of all the characters, hum a little bit, and there you go- the entire series.

( Spoiled beef behind the cut )

Stupidstupid anime, yet I watched the whole series. I guess I did it because I was kinda curious what was going to happen. Maybe I should have heeded the warning a disgruntled view posted on the streaming site: "Worst ending EVER."

Gilgamesh: Fail.

Location:36-1B
Music:Wrrr

Tags:

anime,
review

Beta stuff

Feb. 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 PM

Just so I have it all one one place....Here are the fics I've beta'd so far:

Bleach
Blazing Caravans - (Chapters 5 & 6)

Harry Potter
Lucius Babysitting - (Chapter 2)

Naruto
Genius of Konoha - (Chapter 16)
GF is Gay Friend: The Exquisite Tale of Hyuuka Hinato - (Chapter 6) Yeaaah. I went "...^_^;;;;... too. lol.

Death Note
What I've Done - Death Note/Naruto (Sorrrrta....kinda. The only Naruto element in it so far is a female Kakashi ^_^;)
Yesterday's Feelings
D-Tecnolife - Death Note/Karin/Odd

I have a pretty wide variety of genres, ne? lol

Location:36-1B
Mood: amused
Music:Wrrr

Tags:

fan fic

Chain 1, comma?

Jan. 23rd, 2009 at 12:29 PM

A couple things going on:

On the crafty side of things, I'm working on a crochet blanket for my coworker's dog. Yes, he's a little chihuahua and yes, his name is Rambo. >_< lol. I said I'd do it if she bought the yarn; and she did. Drat. Anyway, it's going to be white and light blue checkers with maybe a scalloped border. The squares are going to be rippled and alternating. I'm just doing 10sc row squares of sc BLO only then attaching them together. Honestly, they kinda look like white and blue Sunchips. Hahahaha. I don't need to take a picture. That's exactly what it looks like. ^_^

I recently bought a cupcake pattern from Etsy. I had been scouring the web trying to find a decent cupcake with swirly frosting. I finally found it!! I made the cake part so far but I haven't done the swirl yet. I read the pattern and I like how she handled it. :-) I hadn't thought of doing it that way. But then again, that's why I don't make a living selling crochet stuff. :-P I haven't tried making the cupcake paper cup part. It calls for cotton thread as opposed to yarn; something I haven't done before. Well, I'll try it this weekend and rest assured I'll post a picture if it works.

On the editing front, I just finished betaing a Naruto story. It was longer than my previous projects and needed actual consistency checking; unlike the other fics I've had to beta which, oddly enough, were all AU and had practically no connection to story canon. >_< It kinda made me realize that I really do go overboard in nit-picking. Honestly, I think it's because I just don't get enough opportunities to seriously critique, edit, and discuss something I really enjoy. My bf dislikes hearing about grammar as much as I dislike listening to him talk about financial stuff. Haha. But I really don't blame him for it. :-P To quote Vampire Weekend, "Who gives a f*ck about an oxford comma?"

I do, apparently.

Location:36-1B
Music:Wrrrr

Tags:

A step back on track

Jan. 12th, 2009 at 11:25 AM

In an attempt to forcibly kick my rear into gear, I've decided to sign up for a copyediting seminar hosted by mediabistro.com. I've been stalling, procrastinating, and generally cowering from the fact that I need to start looking into a new career. I've been at my current job for 2 years and have built up a decent amount of administrative office experience. When I first graduated college my resume was nice, but irrelevant. For 3 months I grew increasing upset at how every internship I applied to required a previous internship as a prerequisite. I finally got an internship at a small magazine only to be offered the administrative position I'm at now just a couple months later. A step off track but still a movement forward, I said to myself.

Two years later, I think it's time to get back on track.

I am still woefully ignorant about the state the publishing field is in today. I don't know anything about new media, I don't know much about how a publishing house works, and my grammar-while decent-is hardly up to "grammar Nazi" par. Needless to say, my feelings of inadequacy overrode my desire to find a new job for a while.

Do I really know what I want to do? Why do I want to go into publishing? I'm not quite so sure. I just know that I'm a fair hand at catching grammatical errors and awkward sentences in other people's works. I love to write, but I'm far from being an intriguing writer that captivates her readers. I graduated with a BA in computer science and an BA in English; two fields that couldn't be more incongruous. My computer skills are hardly competitive enough to get a job as a programmer. I'm not even a bookworm by "intellectual reader" standards. I read for fun. I like fantasy, sci-fi, manga, and occasionally pick up a general fiction book. I don't know the latest books on the bestseller charts, nor am I interested in analyzing the works of Shakespeare and "fill-in the blank."

In other words: my direction sucks.

I just want to find a career I could be good at. I want to be interested in what I do for a living. I want to be an "expert" at my job. From my current job I realized that I'm pretty good at multi-tasking, being detail-oriented, and handling administrative work. I like knowing what's going on and that people can come to me for quality work. I learned that I don't have to fear my boss, I don't have to be formal all the time, and I could actually have a good time at work.

I've known since sophomore year college that I like editing other people's work. I like nit-picking and getting things right. I like discussing how effective a sentence is and the alternatives in style. From making newsletters and publications for the cultural student organization I was in, I realized that I liked editing, writing, and organizing things and having a substantial end-product I could be proud of. That's what I want, really: a job that has an end result I could be proud of. I want to be able to hold a book in my hand and say, "I helped make this."

I haven't been completely idle these past few months. I just started seriously reading The Elements of Style by Strunk & White and Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace by Williams. I read online grammar tutorials. On the more casual side, I still read and write fanfics. Granted, i haven't really finished one in a while, but it's still writing practice. I try to keep up my LJ, though, if you look over at the nearly empty posting calendar to your left, you'll see how successful I am at that. I guess my biggest effort at improvement is betareading at ffnet. Not only do I get editing practice, I get to read stories from genres I actually like! I try to take whatever comes my way know that in a real job, I wouldn't get a choice. I've liked most of the stories I've betaread so far. Some weren't my cup of tea, but I enjoyed helping the authors nevertheless.

I think that's a major part of it. I like helping people. I like being able to apply what I know to help others improve their work.

I'm taking the copyediting seminar to get a taste of what editing is all about. It's only a 3-hour class, no strings attached. Every position in editorial seems to require some kind of copyediting experience, so taking this class won't hurt. It's just an informational seminar, so why am I getting all worked up about it?

It's that feeling of inadequacy rearing its ugly head again. It's that same ugly head that pushed me to review my grammar books all over again to prepare for the class. I'm scared of sounding stupid and ignorant. >_< Wish me luck!

[Note: Just for my peace of mind, note that my LJ entries arent exactly editied to perfection. I'd much rather get the bulk of my thoughts written out rather than check grammar. Bleh. Feelin' a bit hypocritical now. lol.]

Location:36-1B
Mood: intimidated
Music:Wrrr

Tags:

real life

Not so top secret: Plushies!

Jan. 9th, 2009 at 11:29 AM

Finally! After months of planning (and stalling), two (of the four) Roadtrip plushies are done!!

For those who are not in the know (or care), "Roadtrip" is a series of drawings and comics I made based on my friend Laura's Vampires & Werewolves story (WIP). It's supposed to be a serious story but in my hands, I turned them into cute little chibis. ^_^ "Roadtrip" is the name of the first comic I made of them. There are four main characters: Leon (vampire), Jezabel (werewolf), Cailyn (werewolf/vampire hybrid), and Alexis (vampire). Leon and Jezabel are siblings. Here's a Halloween picture of them.

So my plan was to make the four characters into plushies as my xmas gift to Laura. I finished only half due to time constraints.

Now for some pictures!! Sorry, I couldnt get them to rotate so you're going to have to kinda tilt your head to view them. I'll fix them later.

[Edit: Err, I guess it fixed itself?]

( Pictures behind the cut )( Pictures behind the cut )
Now for some technical stuff:

( Technical stuff... )
I'm working on Cailyn now. The bodies for her and Alexis are done, but I still need to do the details. I did Cailyn's hair though. Here's an WIP shot:

( Picture behind the cut... )

Location:36-1B
Mood: creative
Music:wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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plushies

[Review] Ender in Exile

Dec. 28th, 2008 at 2:32 AM

Gdi. This lj app for the iPhone sucks. It just deleted the painfully typed out entry I wrote out. Sigh. This thing needs a save button. Here goes take 2.

After partying it up with lots of good food, late nights, and activities for christmas eve and day, I ended up sick in bed the day after. On the bright side, it gave me the opportunity to catch up on a bit of reading. I started with one f the books I got for Christmas: Ender's Exile by Orson Scott Card.

As the direct sequel to Ender's game, Ender in Exile covers ender's life right after the war. In my opinion, the book can be divided into two parts.

The first half flows in a pretty straightforward manner. Ender right after the war all stressed put and obsessed (I particularly enjoyed Petra's observation that Ender's like a widow), the journey to the colony ( complete with some drama), right after they arrive at the colony, and the scene from the end of Ender's Game. Personally, I think the book could have ended right there. But no, it had to continue.

The remainder of the book reads like a DVD's deleted scenes set on auto play. It's just a bunch of scenes that clarify what we didn't get to see in the previous books. His correspondence with peter, his parets, the missing son of Petra and Bean, and etc. They're great little gems presented in chronological order. Granted, we could reason out that it's acceptable to present them in such a disjointed fashion because that's just how Card structures his books. I can't think of another way to handle all of the time jumps that happen in the story. Just thinking about the Ender timeline gives me a headache.

All in all, it was a great story to read and it was fun to dive back into the Ender universe. I can't wait for he new Bean story that supposed to come out soon. ^_^

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Location:my room

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Tis the season!

Dec. 24th, 2008 at 4:13 PM

Happy holidays! To those who celebrate it, merry Christmas!!

On my way home now from work now. Lame! For making the office work on Xmas eve!! Only half of the people I assist were in. My coworkers had either none or just 2 of their people. It was overall pretty quiet at the office today... If you don't count our shenanigans. Haha. Coquito, cookies, and "coffee" in the afternoon made the day pretty inyeresting. Even better that our corner office guy joined in. :-)

So I'm on the bus home with a bag full of gifts (both received and to be given respectively), and the spiked coffee I didn't have a chance to finish. So awesome.

And you know what's the best part about this awesome office day? We got out 2 hours early!! OMG there's still sunlight outside! In my coworker's words, "omg, I feel like I have a life!" LOL.

Lots of stuff to be done when I get home. Need to polish the furniture. Sounds
East and quick by it's not if your living room and dining room furniture consists of redwood furniture that's mostly intricately carved Chinese designs. Gotta clean my room too. Oh dammit. Need to wrap the rest of the presents too.

A little belated to clarify this but my family hosts an Xmas eve and Xmas day party. My dad's side on the eve then both of my parent's sides on the day.

Hm I think this will be my first completed LJ entry done on my iPhone. Woot!! It's mostly just juotted down thoughts instead if a well thought out post, but hey, isn't that what mobile blogging is about?

More later after the holiday madness!

Cheers!!

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Location:US, New York, Queens, New York, Flushing Ave

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