back to sunny days

It's amazing how many tweaks one can do to their resume. I found a couple spelling errors...well not so much spelling as saying years instead of year.

Nathan helped me find some job postings. That was neat.

In the morning, Nate, Carmen, and Josh went mountain biking. I'm not into mountain biking, so I didn't go. Just soaked up some sun, read a bit of City of Thieves, ate half a sandwich, drank some tea. It was nice.

When Nate got back, we went to a laundry place and he did some laundry. While the wash cycle was on we went to In-N-Out for burgers. I got the cheeseburger "animal style", which is the special menu that means it has a special sauce and caramelized onions. It was quite good. Yum yum yum. Then Nate switched his laundry into the dryers and we went to Safeway and got some groceries, and then went home. I relaxed. Talked to Chad and Oleg a bit. Went on the internet. Figured out how to livestream, so that I could do an online streaming of my digital art process. For fun!

But yeah, I toodled my resume and portfolio and Nate helped with looking up jobs and stuff. Tomorrow I might join him at this mountain bike thing in Santa Cruz. Fun little outing. I'll draw a bit.

Back to looking up jobs!

Courtney Coles

Courtney Coles

700pixels x 500 pixels

digital

tour at Machine Zone

The lawn was pretty swamped from yesterday's rain. The doggies were in the house, so it was odd to have a day free from their needy whining and barking and instigation of the other dogs in the neighborhood. Edited the text in my resume, and added Freelance Illustrator to my work experience. Now that I get Nate for the weekend, I'll have him hovering so I'll be actually able to utilize his advice for applying for jobs and stuff. Whoo!

I made bacon and eggs for breakfast, and there was enough to give Nate some nibbles. Such a good sister. I ate the last Choco Taco though. Bwhahaa. Nate left at about 11am, and it is 11pm and he still hasn't returned (edit: it is 11:26 and he came home).

I did a quick 30 minute portrait, and another one in the evening. Yay tablet experience!

At 5:10ish, I hopped in the car for the first time in a week and drove to Palo Alto. It was a bit rush houry, but not so bad. Parked visited Nathan at work for a little tour. He showed me the art department with their great Intuos touch screen Wacom computers. Introduced me to several people. Thomas showed me all the different levels of things, like the background painters and texture artists and animators and character designers and all these other things. Got to see the full spectrum. IT. WAS. AWESOME! Justina showed me the photoshop layers she builds up for things. It was really cool. Fun little outing. Should have distributed my business card more (I gave one to Thomas).

Nathan treated me to some Paris Baguette (which is a Japanese chain). I had the chocolate filled croissant, because that is what I'll always get when confronted with pastries. Palo Alto had so many Mercedes, and other fancy cars. No automobile looked like it wasn't built in the 2000's.

It was an easy ride back. Got home at around 7ish. Chilled. Ate the bean rice pastry that was left over from the late lunch. Watched some United States of Tara. I need to get back on track with the job hunt. Back on the track of LOOKING for jobs. I've noodles my resume and portfolio as far as they'll go. I should print out my portfolio though...because one should have a physical portfolio to show people at meetings. That should be something I investigate this weekend. Find a Kinkos and get some print outs, and get a nice binder to put them into. Yup.

Second weekend in California!

Kelsey

Kelsey

700pixels x 500pixels

Digital

it must be a Thursday...

Today I took my resume into InDesign, and added some hand drawn type for the "skills" and "work experience" sections. I was also reminded that I should include freelance illustrator as one of my jobs, because that is something that I've done, and have been paid to do. Now my resume looks very professional. I feel quite good about it. Okay so I haven't applied for a single job, and I've been here for a week...but I think this weekend I'll get Nathan to help me big time with all the things, and get those cover letters and things sent out. It is easy to not be so productive when someone isn't around. Though I did, like I say, get my resume looking quite good. I also brought in hand lettered text to my portfolio, so now it all matches. I used my tablet to do the text, so that is turning out to be quite the useful thing.

While the weather was good, I walked down to Safeway and bought sandwich fixings and choco tacos and mustard and mayo and other food stuffs. Nathan says he'll just give me money to buy food, seeing as how he eats what I buy. But that also means I'll have to share the choco tacos. Booo.

It was stormy tonight, with thunder and flash lighting. Lots of rain. I thought I escaped this! Boo.

Nate ate a burrito and played Assassin's Creed. Then we watched the new Community, which was hilarious.

Now that I've calmed down from my early week freakout, time to get back on track with things. Yup.

Will visit Nate's work later in the day, and say hi and see what is up.

Arthur Shappey in the Helsinki episode of Cabin Pressure.

500pixels x 700pixels. Digital.

shappeying up

Oh man, Blogger changed its layout. I suppose it is supposed to be more cellphone interface friendly now, but ehhh. I don't like it. Everything is boiled down to more icons and stuff. Anywaaay. Feeling a lot better today. I worked on making a .pdf portfolio, one that I can email to people and also get printed out for when if I make any face to face interviews. Didn't look at job listings. Just listened to Cabin Pressure and working on the portfolio stuff. That was nice.

In the evening, I did a drawing of Arthur Shappey from Cabin Pressure. Working on my digital skills and whatnot. Starting to get the hang of it, I think. I'll post the finished version next.

Don't really have a good rant to accompany yesterday's minor breakdown, just that I do feel better. Though maybe once I start searching and making cover letters, I may break down again. Who knows?

cowardice

I'm having a bad day. All the jobs I looked at on Craigslist had massive qualification lists. Some of the stuff I got about half way there. It was really disheartening. And a lot of this stuff are things I'm not even sure I want to do. How do I feel about designing packaging for wine bottles? Ehhh. Do I want to design game art? Ehhh. I have a feeling of "well, if I can get it I'll do it" but shouldn't it be a feeling of "I REALLY WANT THIS JOB!". It's more a feeling of I NEED TO FIND A JOB! Which isn't good. I should find a path that makes me happy, not a path that gets me to some imaginary stage that I think I have to do. Maybe I SHOULD apply for flight attendant school. Be up in the sky, go places. And then I could have more freedom of choice in where I want to live. It would be customer service to an extent, but I could go to a training school. But I'm also in a way trying to find an escape route to be anywhere but here in California looking for work that I'm pretty sure I can't get. Other people believe in me, but they are not the people hiring me. If I got a not art job, would I be self motivated enough to continue with my art? If I assigned myself another art project, I think so. I like to sketch, and I have been sketching. I could develop myself as a freelance artist on the side of it all. I think I have a lot of qualifications that would be good for a flight attendant, then again I think I have a lot of qualifications that would make me good as an artist person. I'm hard working. I show up. I've got ideas. But I also have a marginal amount of knowledge in the computer programs that people want. It is all kinds of distressing. I want to draw and travel. Those are my main things.

I'm working on some lists. Jobs. What I want to do. Would I like to do... Would I be happy... What I can do/strengths. Weaknesses.

I don't know what I want to do.

I can't say what would make me happy.

I don't know where I want to be.

I know little things that I want to do, but can't see how to make them my job.

I know little things that make me happy.

I want to travel.

I also think I can talk myself in and out of many things. Avoiding this and that. But maybe I should apply for flight attendant school, because the classes don't start till June, and I only have a month here to find a job. So I could apply, and if I get in, that will be on the back burner. And if I get a job, then awesome! I don't have to become a flight attendant.

A month isn't that long. Can I do it? Can I find a job? I don't know.

Should I apply to have a safety net? But I'll be more a mooch from my parents.

I've been so safe, so coddled.

But what do I want to do with my life? Or rather, what do I want to do for the next few years?

I just don't know. And it spins me into a panic/feeling pathetic/then panic because I feel pathetic/then feel pathetic because I panic downwards spiral.

I need to get courage.

And not have a breakdown.

Today was rainy. I had doughnuts and tea for breakfast. I looked online for jobs. Got discouraged. Talked to mom. Researched flight attendant school. Haven't had a substantial meal really. 9:30 and Nate isn't home.

books and resumes

I couldn't find the resume that I constructed for my internship applications all those years ago. The one that has my skills and the various shows that I've been in. Thought I had it saved somewhere on my computer, but evidently not. So I spent some time digging through the tags on my blog (thank God for my blog!!) looking up shows I've been it, things I've helped with, and all the other activities that I've done. My resume is looking good, though. And Nathan suggested tips on ways to configure it based on the various jobs that I will apply to. Listing out the things I've done makes me feel good. Especially the extra things. I've accomplished some pretty nifty things in my years, I just need to play them up.

Anyway. I got a bit pink from the sun today. Finished reading A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan. Damn good book. Need to digest it for a while. Loved the way in which the story unfolded. All the different narrators.

I went to Safeway and got fixings for lasagna, and some doughnuts. It was a lovely day.

I made lasagna for dinner, and Nathan came home just as I was removing the foil. He ate two servings, and we watched Immortals. Stylish movie. Great costumes, but you can expect as such from Eiko Ishioka.

I think I'll read City of Thieves next. By David Benioff. I've been reading a lot more. Sitting in the sun is good for encouraging reading. I dig it.

Nate on the Computer

Digital sketch.

Rabbit Sunday

Nathan is playing Assassin's Creed and I'm...not doing anything of note.

I had toast and tea for breakfast. It was another beautiful day. Though maybe I should make note when it isn't a nice day, as I think California is typically nice.

In the afternoon, Nate and I went to the Palo Alto Ikea. Unlike this Portland Ikea, this one had patio displays. Patios are not big in Portland. Ha. We got shower organizers, a proper dish drainer, a computer chair for yours truly (in red, which goes against Nathan's color scheme of black), some cloth organizers for the cubicle divider, and other miscellaneous stuff. A good trip for some good essentials. Afterwards we got meatballs, because meatballs are awesome. Also shared a slice of cake. Nathan is treating me so nice. I'll make lasagna tomorrow night, then Nate can have some for lunch. Booyah!

For dinner, Nate, Oleg, and I went down the street to Milagros. Tasty Mexican food. I had the chicken mole enchilada, and it was scrumptious. We had chips aplenty. There are some really nice places in the neighborhood. The theater is just down the street a bit, need to see a movie there.

After dinner, we just are chilling out. If I don't have my resumes sorted out by next blog post, feel free to call and yell at me, okay? Deal? Deal.

hopping in SF

I sent off some emails today to people asking if I could use them as references, so that was good! Another step. I also put Microsoft Word on my computer, so I can edit my resumes and stuff. Get those in order.

Nathan, Chad, and Oleg went bike riding. I sat out on the lawn area and read. Then I got tired, so I took a nap. I caught some sun on my collar bone. I am determined to get my freckles back and in full face force!

The boys came back from bike riding, and we went to get some pizza from A Slice of New York. Good pizza according to Oleg, and it was indeed good. We also swung by a BevMo and I was wowed by the selection. We four gnawed on pizza and chatted and drank some beer and pushed the hyper dogs out of our laps. It was a good afternoon.

In the evening, Nate and I went to San Francisco for Carmen's birthday drinks get together thingy. We met, after driving in circles and finally finding some parking, at Medrone Art Bar. I got a fancy drink. Met Erin and Frank and Alisha, and all were very nice. It was Prince night at the bar, so it was crowded and they projected videos. I whipped out my sketchbook and did some drawings. I wish I could scan the drawings I've been making, as they are quite good. From there we walked down the street and got some food at Burger....Burger...I can't remember the rest of the name but they had awesome onion rings and sweet potato fries. Steven joined us. Chatted with Erin about art and things. After food, we hopped to the bar next door, and I had a beer and did more sketches and it was all quite swell. I gave Carmen one of my Banana Slug prints, and she was enthusiastic about receiving it. It is becoming quite my signature piece, what with it being on my business card and all that. Nathan, who had nothing to drink because he was an awesome designated driver, drove us (him and I) home at around 1:20ish. Fun night.

Tomorrow we might go to Ikea. I need to get my resumes in proper order. Then I start Googling jobs and trying to become this thing called "employed". Yay.