ahhh Saturday

Nathan ended up not going mountain biking, so we spent the day hanging out. Got some delicious burritos from a special little place. Quite tasty, and just the right amount of spicy. We also got some beers at BevMo, and they had Ninkasi Sleigh'r, which is pretty much my favorite beer ever, and it is seasonal to the winter time, so yaaay! So we sat outside, ate burritos, and relaxed. Chatted with Chad and Oleg for a while too. Well they chatted, I listened. I don't have much to add to the programmer conversation.

Nate played games. I watched stuff. It was a pretty chill day. We just watched some Breaking Bad and Adventure Time. I was up late last night finishing a sketch. Going to hit the hay early. When Nate goes to bed, I go to bed. He is getting up for some Sunday mountain biking.

I didn't run the errands that I planned to do, but they are not totally urgent...so long as I don't mind not having the time on my wrist.

Odd Owl Shirt Design

Sketch for a future shirt design for Odd Owl.

Will be hand drawn for extra detail, but I dig this version too.

lazy friday

Can't speak all that highly about today's productivity. I joined LinkedIn, which is good. Got that set up and a going. Can't hurt, ya know? No more responses concerning jobs I've applied for, and there were not any ones worth applying for on my usual sites. Boo.

Played some Skyrim.

Refreshed pages, but found no new jobs. Gah! Come on!

Tomorrows plans include sending a thank you note to the people who interviewed me, and getting a watch battery. I need to do laundry as well.

Talked to Mom and Dad briefly.

Ate pasta. Snacked. Have some drawing to do, so I think I'll work on that. Nathan's back now. Yaaay drawing.

meet & greet

I'm all caught up on dishes! Whoo! Though I broke a small plate. It slid right out of my hand and clattered into the sink and broke. Ah. Oh well.

I played a bit of Skyrim. Doing some roaming and killing of bandits and leveling up and all that fun stuff. I think I'm getting a hang of it.

I also applied for a few more jobs. Yay! My cover letters keep getting better.

At 6:30, I headed to Palo Alto for a meet and greet with Nate's company. Carmen was there as well, as a sound engineer looking to rub elbows. She talked to the CEO, which was neat. I didn't talk to him, but that is okay. I had a couple beers and chatted up Justin, Dean, Other Nate, and other people from the art department. Got advice on portfolios, websites, and those things. It was fun! I high fived Marco. Did lots of chatting.

My car is rattling more, and the check engine and warning lights came on majorly. Tomorrow I'll check all the levels and oils and things, and see if I can figure out whats up. It can't go kapoot now! I need it! For driving!

open house interview

Ahhh had my first interview today. It was an open house type thing for Theme Party Productions. They need carpenters and scene painters, and scene painting seems well varied and pretty cool to do. Yup yup. There were only a couple other artists there, Chico, Jenny, and Carla (?), so it was good that there wasn't a major amount of competition. We got a sum up of the company, and I tried to remember as many things as possible to bring up when I met with Jill, the owner, in the one on one. While waiting to talk to her, I chatted with the other applicants and looked at portfolios. I had some thoughts after leaving the interview about what I should have said, but isn't that always the case? She liked my portfolio, though I don't have the most amount of this type of work. Still, maybe I'll get a chance? That would be cool. I think I would really enjoy being a scene painter. Would be a lot of variance and stuff, and I like when things get changed up. So here is hoping! Good first experience. I need to list out different ways I can make myself be the one people want to hire. Practice practice practice!

Earlier in the day, I went to Safeway and did some food shopping, and I went to CVS to look for watch batteries. I did not find any watch batteries, but I found a squeegee for the glass shower. Hurrah!

I also amassed a list of more jobs to apply for. These ones will need massively specific cover letters and resumes, so that will be my tomorrow. Just gotta keep applying. And hoping.

Also tomorrow there is a Machine Zone open house, so that will be a good chance for networking and talking and advice getting. And maybe I'll stop by the Swatch store in Stanford and get a proper watch battery. Hmmm.

portfoliooo'd

Still no responses from potential employers. Ah. Just have to be patient. They probably got oodles of applicants, and have to sort through them to get to awesome me.

There is a job open house thing tomorrow, so today I went down to Kinkos and got a decent print out of my portfolio on nice cardstock, some copies of my resume on blue paper, and a holder thingy to put my portfolio into. Booyah! Now I have a portfolio to show people, and I can slip in new things as needed. And it flips through really easily, on account of the cardstock. Professional Trill!

The available jobs were quite lacking today. Boo.

Almost all caught up on the dishes.

Tonight put a controller in my hand and had me play Dead Space 2. I got about ten minutes in and was all "NOPE, TOO SCARY!!" The lighting and interface is super cool, but it is scary as all get out. So yeaaah.

Excited for the job open house. They'll have no choice but to talk to me. Ha ha!

But if potential employers are reading my blog right now, rest assured I am quite professional and a good worker. You'd do well to hire me.

back to the hunt

I posted about my Sunday in San Francisco. The post is right below this one. Yup yup.

Today I did two dish dryers full of dishes, but still have more to go. I don't know how Nathan used up so many plates! Free rent comes with certain responsibilities. Nate is hovering and said "We had a barbecue!". Ah. Mystery solved. Still, he could have let the dogs lick the plates as a form of pre-wash.

I looked at the jobs on Craigslist and applied to a few more. Still no responses from other jobs. Come on guys! I need to at least get to the interview stage with a few people.

I joined Twitter, though I don't think I'll tweet much. But now I can tweet at people.

Took it easy. Tomorrow, more jobs! Yeaaah!

Also Nate brought home Jack in the Box for dinner. Go Nathan! Yum yum. I didn't eat all the burger, saved some for tomorrow. I also finished up my bacon and eggs. So I should do some grocery shopping.

Sunday in San Francisco

Got up at 8am. Being around Carmen and Josh makes me want to get up early and be productive. Carmen also said I could stay with them for a bit while looking for work. Which is awesome. Hopefully I'll start getting some interviews and I won't have to take them up on their offer.

Carmen made oatmeal for breakfast and put fancy healthy things in it, and it was DELICIOUS! Thick and hearty and wonderful. Best oatmeal ever.

Their was a picnic planned at Fort Cronkhite, so Carmen made lovely little sandwiches. I made the cucumber, dill, and creme cheese ones. Because I love cucumbers. At 11, Odd Owl's drummer Adam and his lovely wife Vanessa showed up for picnic time. They were both friendly, awesome people all through the day. Actually most of the people that I met today were cool. Such a friendly community, and so full of hugs! Anyway, we all piled into Adam's car and drove North to Fort Cronkhite. While yesterday was hot, today was foggy but generally not that bad. I had my light track jacket, and that was enough.

At a picnic table, we gnoshed on sandwiches of all sorts, cookies, chips, and other good treats. We talked thesis, among other things, and I can't quite believe that it has been a year since I defended my work. A year! I've been graduated almost a year! Whaaat!?

Anyway, after stuffing ourselves, we took a nice walk along the bluffy hills. There was poison oak, but I don't think any of us got it. I certainly am not itchy today (I was wearing pants). There were lots of clusters of people, educational looking clusters.

The walk took us to some bunkers, where a couple asked us to take their photo together, which was special because the guy had just proposed! Ahhh! How sweet. Congrats to them.

From the bunkers, we went to the lighthouse on the point. I like a landscape that is immersed in fog. Something lovely about the hint of shapes of things. Sun is nice, fog is nice, different weather is just nice.

After descending from the lighthouse and bluffs, the five of us put our feet up at this little house on the hill. A nice breather. Then we drove to the Mammal Center, which was just a place to rehabilitate seals and the public was allowed to watch from a safe distance. The elephant seals were loud.

I start a fair number of paragraphs with "after", I should come up with better transitions.

The day out done, Adam and Vanessa returned us to Carmen & Josh's house, and we parted ways. The rest of the sandwiches and sushi were consumed while we watched a couple Enterprise episodes.

I drove Carmen to the open mic night that she was assisting with. We got parking right outside the venue too! No sooner was I in the door at the Fish Bowl than Eric handed me chalk and asked me to do the sign for the night. I obliged, because chalk signs are fun and Eric was enthusiastic about what I whipped out. It was a fun night, and everyone was very nice. Jesse on the ukulele was lovely, Christopher played the guitar, this guy did an acoustic cover of Jump Around. Jesse and Melody did a duet. Everyone was lovely and friendly and easy to talk to, and because I know Carmen and because people know Odd Owl, for once my reputation precedes me! It is awesome.

I dropped Carmen off, hugged her goodbye, and returned to Redwood City. No traffic late at night. Tis good. Nate and I watched the new Game of Thrones episode, and it was inteeeense. And tired from a day of hiking, which followed a day of biking and hiking, I went to bed. Nice.

I'll real blog tomorrow, okay?

Ahhh man, it is like 1am and it is time to go to bed and it was a long day. Too long to sum up right now. I'll do a proper write up tomorrow. During breakfast. Promise!

oh darn these hills!

Wheee! My San Francisco minibreak hath arrived! Whoo!

Had a wee little breakfast, toodled around on the internet (still no info about jobs), and then at 12:30 I hopped in the car, plugged Carmen & Josh's address into the GPS and off I went! And I promptly got on the freeway headed south instead of north. Durrr! But I managed to turn myself around and boom, off I went!

It was a beautiful, brilliant, sunny, warm, lovely day. Wonderful! Was wearing short pants and Dad's Cambridge tank and feeling quite happy with everything. Got all the right turns coming into the city. Traffic was dense on 19th, but not intolerable, and soon enough I was at their lovely cute house. It was squeezed right in, and it has wood shingles and it is darling. They have much art, and everything is designed and wonderful. One of the top houses I've visited, it must be said.

We had pina coladas and lounged in their little back yard area (they have a back yard! Fancy that). I applied some sunscreen, because we'd be outdoors and I think my skin is just about tan enough. Sure it can take a little more sun, but if I didn't apply it today, I would have been properly burnt for sure.

Up the hill we went to this mini park that overlooked Sunset and Inner Sunset. I drew a little bit. Down the hill we went to 9th and got some gelato. Yum. I had the creme brule flavor. So good. From there, we walked back to the house and rested a bit. Then it was biking time! Josh moved the seat on a mountain bike as far down as it would go, but it was still a smidge too high (I have short legs). But I managed. Zoom! Down the hill, down through Golden Gate Park, and down to the beach! Yaaay!

The water was cold, but the type of cold that I am used to. If I had a swim suit, I would have swum in it. But I didn't, so I didn't. I waded a bit, and that was nice. We three sat in the sand and absorbed warmth. Josh and Carmen mentioned that it was the nicest day in a long while. Is it all downhill from here, San Francisco weather wise? Hmmm.

The ride back was killer. All up hill, and me massively out of shape. Back in the day (aka a year ago) I could have done it without stopping, but I definitley ended up needing a breather after the park. Wheeew! My bike was also a bit heavier with fat tires, but that isn't the best excuse.

I drank several glasses of water upon my return. Boy howdy I did.

Dinner was sushi, which I helped roll! Salmon sushi. Eel sushi. Delicious sushi. Yum nums.

My bum hurts from the bike riding, and my thighs are pretty spent as well. Blimey!

I showed Carmen Adventure Time. I couldn't quite gauge her reaction, but she did seem to dig it a bit? I think?

We played a couple rounds of Dominion, and I came up last both rounds. Nate and I should play Dominion. I think he has his own box of it, somewhere. Get our skills up and then take them on! Yeah!

After that, we watched an episode of Enterprise, chatted, and then it was beddy bye time. Tomorrow will be more fun! Yay!