Wednesday, August 28, 2002
*sigh* <vent> i'm confused, and getting more discouraged by the day. why can't i even get an interview for a job in my field of choice? i've got the skills, i don't think there's any question there, i've got the experience, the portfolio to prove it - but i can't get a good goddamn interview for a full-time design job. or for anything, really. i've applied to all sorts of things, and nothing. not a fucking phone call. i could do anything you put in front of me, and do it well, but i don't even get considered. my best guess is that it's the law degree on my resume, the automatic presumption that i'm "overqualified" and won't commit to any job with less than a six-figure starting salary or something... despite the twin facts that I DON'T WANT TO BE A FUCKING LAWYER and I DON'T EXPECT A FUCKING LAWYER'S SALARY. on purpose, even. so maybe i'm whining. i'm sure lots of people would love the opportunities i've had to have a law career. but then, maybe it takes a great deal of will, and dedication, and courage, and a real passion for doing something you love, to turn away from something like three years of law school, and the job at the family firm, and pursue something i really want to do? crissakes... "it's a great foundation." "you can do anything with a law degree." "it can only help you in the long run." um, no. unless i want to be a lawyer, it's a liability, a curse. it's something to be glossed over, hidden - removed from my resume, i'm beginning to think - a white lie? unless i want to go back to doing legal work, take the bar again, tail between my legs, ashamed for even trying to do something else i'm good at, and that i actually enjoy and feel passionate about. what the fuck? </vent> Tuesday, August 27, 2002
then and now photos: my submission to the "before and after" project on the SOT designsite. i was a pretty cute kid, eh? wonder what happened... 
this last was a pretty good weekend overall. my friend chad, from college, came in town for a job interview, and so for better or worse i spent the weekend playing 'tourguide to allen's life in new orleans' which was pretty fun. pj's magazine, mythique, juan's flying burrito, mona's, rue de la course - a good cross-section of my usual suspects these days. i even think chad, who's always charmingly negative, might have had a pleasant weekend despite himself. saturday night was one of those nights that makes me glad to be from and of and in new orleans, one of those nights that makes me want to stay, if i can - it was the krewe of oak's midsummer mardi gras, and it was a blast. hot as hell, especially in my safety-orange jumpsuit and helmet, but a blast nonetheless. a couple hundred people in costume, parading down the street on a saturday night, drinks in hand, going from bar to bar behind a rag-tag brass band. i ran into more old friends than i thought i had left in town, which was great. if you're curious, i brought my camera, and i've posted some pictures on the photo page. Friday, August 23, 2002
whew! back online, after six days... computer fixed, check. cell phone replaced, check. now i just need to get the flat tire i had yesterday fixed, and i might actually recover from the-week-when-everything-that-could-go-wrong-did-go-wrong. oh, and no joy yet with the search for a day job, though i have gotten some very positive reactions on my portfolio, which may lead to contract work. which is good, right? right. Tuesday, August 20, 2002
my 'puter's still screwed, and now my cell phone's acting rather badly, too. on the better side of things, though, i just got a fat tax refund check in the mail which may alleviate some of my more pressing problems, and i've had the chance to work on some things i've been meaning to get to for a while... anyway. more when i get my machine back up and running. Sunday, August 18, 2002
arg. something happened to my computer - or at very least, the network card - this saturday during the regularly scheduled mid-day lightning storm. data looks intact, but i'm offline for at least a few days. this is not when i needed this to happen, but then i guess it'd have been worse if it were last week, before the portfolio made it online and all. so anyway, i'll be posting from other people's machines, if at all, for the next few days. like i am now. ick. as for this weekend, suffice it to say that beyond the computer troubles, it's been surprisingly pleasant. friday's nolablogs meeting would've been just poor lil' lonely me if it weren't for simeon and carlene, and we had a nice little chat over coffee... then i had a pretty nice night out by myself, first visiting with the reunion of the 'supahstah' chicas, and then at the shim-sham and mythique later on. happily, jen came in town saturday night en route to her impending clerkship, and we had a pleasant dinner and drinks and walked around frenchman street for a bit; and then today went furniture shopping for her new apartment in tyler, tx, walking down magazine street in the rain. and she actually bought some furniture, which we promptly packed in her parents car, and away she went... anyway, as i said, an all-around nice weekend... Saturday, August 17, 2002
so elvis, right? give me a break. i don't understand all the commotion. i mean, i understand his "significance" in the world of music, but c'mon, the guy lost it. he let it go to his head, and he lost it - the drugs, the peanut-butter and banana sandwiches, the sequins, the dying on the toilet thing... i guess there's something attractive about tragedy. but he couldv'e gone so many better ways, like some of his contemporaries - johnny cash, namely - who did the drugs and fast cars thing for a while and then eventually straightened out with age, now a respectable elder statesman/patriarch type... Friday, August 16, 2002
yay! just finished some freelance work courtesy of keith, and i'm thinking i'm going to go for a run and go to bed - tomorrow should be pretty busy, but fun - jobsearching, then a nolablogger gathering in the evening, and then to the shim-sham for empire... Wednesday, August 14, 2002
today (tuesday) was a good and busy day, in almost every respect - one of the best in a long time, really. maybe it's the weight off my shoulders of the portfolio being done? i don't know, but it was one of those days when everything went my way... the only thing mildly icky was the insane lack of sleep i'm suffering from, though even there the sting has been salved somewhat: what was insomnia has evolved into a healthy case of near-nocturnalism. i was up all night last night, nervous about oversleeping for an early-morning appointment to take an entrance examination for a potential job with the federal government; i got only about an hour of sleep, but i woke up with time to spare and made it to the exam early; it went about as well as can be expected for that sort of thing, which is really not very, but whatever. upon getting home, i was surprised to find a nice state tax refund check in the mail, which had been a long time in coming; and soon after that, i found out in quick succession that 1) a potential freelance opportunity is looking likely, and 2) i have an interview tomorrow morning for several potential jobs with a certain employer. (i also found out a bit later that a couple of other potential jobs had already been filled, but that was ok. balance, right?) then i took a nap for a few hours, enabling me to get up in time to make it to mythique with sim for the wonderful miss molly's screening of david lynch's mulholland drive, which i'd been wanting to see again since i saw it in the theatre. tonight i tried to watch it with an eye towards whether all the weirdness is meaningful, or is some of it simply random, or bizarre for the sake of being bizarre? or is there only meaning in the mind of the odd mr. lynch himself? honestly, i'm too tired to contemplate very deeply tonight. anyway, it made about as much lynchian sort of sense as it did the first time, but i enjoyed it even more, likely as a result of the guiness and the two coffees and the pleasantness of the company and the surroundings and all. and then, as much as i wanted to stay around for a while, had to get home to get some sleep for the abovementioned interview in the morning. with a short stop to write this first, of course. coffees and insomnia notwithstanding, i think i'll sleep soundly, and soon. oh, and excuse the lack of specifics with the jobs here, i'm just trying not to jinx anything, you know? i need all the good juju i can get. Monday, August 12, 2002
since unapologetic has been around, there's been a link up there in the menubar that says "portfolio", and it's always brought you to a page that says, "the portfolio is coming." i left the link there as motivation, but a combination of fear, doubt and procrastination kept me from ever actually sitting down, culling through the archives, and putting the damn thing together. well, the portfolio isn't coming anymore. it's here. finally, at long, long last, that motherfucker is online. thanks to an exhaustive week, several all-nighters, a twenty dollar bet, and a whole lot of listening to mp3s of the buffy musical on repeat, it's done. it even has it's very own url: www.ab3design.com. it's not perfect, probably still a bit buggy, and i know there are a few edits i need to make, a few pieces that still need to be added, but for the most part, it's there. and i have to say, i'm proud of it, and of the work i've got in there. if you take a look, let me know what you think, and of course, i'm open to any suggestions you might have to make it better. with a real portfolio online, i'm beginning feel like a real live professional graphic designer. now let's just see it land me a job as one. Sunday, August 11, 2002
ooh. how odd. i like. (via surfstation) also odd: my question for the moment is this: can you irradiate yourself with microwaved food? a bit of google research tells me that no, you can't, but i'm not so sure. see, when i got home just now, i was really hungry. and there's nothing - i mean nothing - to eat around here, but i managed to dig a pack of frozen brussell sprouts out of the freezer. i'm not one of those people who absolutely hates brussell sprouts, so i figured that was good enough, and healthy, too. but they're frozen solid, right, so i had to put them in a bowl, and microwave them. three minutes, they were just barely thawed. six minutes, they were lukewarm-ish. one more minute for good luck. then i took them out, and put some butter-flavored stuff on them, and some paprika and salt, and sat down in front of the computer to blog (see below) and eat. now, the brussell sprouts had gotten warm, but that's all. not hot - there wasn't a really hot one in the bunch, but they were edible, so i wasn't really too concerned (oh, the pitiful life of a bachelor!) and started in. well, after a few minutes, began to notice that the roof of my mouth was feeling kind of strange and tingly, and within a few moments the skin of my palate was peeling off, as if i had burned it on hot food. distinctly uncomfortable. none of the food had actually been hot, so how did it get burned? radioactive brussell sprouts? unlikely, or so one would think. i still don't get it. you know what else i love? give it a few days, and i bet i'll be the number one google search result for the phrase "radioactive brussell sprouts." then won't i be proud...
just came back from the mermaid lounge... hadn't been there in a while, i went with holly to see the jeff & vida band, which is new orleans' one and only straight-up bluegrass outfit, who i think could give gillian welch and david rawlings a run for their money anyday.they're certainly more energetic than welch/rawlings tend to be, faster... and vida's singing voice, though not as serene as welch's, has the perfect hillbilly-bluegrass hoarseness that cracks and wobbles just right, even as she hits every note. and she sings with her eyes, if that makes any sense, they move with her voice, widening and rolling back, they track the emotions of the lyrics very visibly, so you can tell she's feeling it, not just singing the words. whenever i see jeff & vida, though, i just wonder, "why in the hell are they in new orleans?" - there are so many better cities for that kind of music... but i'm glad they're here. they opened for a band called trouble junction, from kansas city, which was a really great boot-stomping alt-country band with a female lead and a female bassist (why are girl bassists so damn attractive? i think it's a rhythm thing. eh.) anyway, i left without getting one of their cds, and now i'm kicking myself for it. i figured they'd have a website, but i didn't ask, and now i can't find one. so, if anybody knows how to get a trouble junction cd, please let me know... Friday, August 09, 2002
what great english-major/web geek fun! a contest to write a haiku about css. here's mine: simplified design controlled presentation falling like water get it? falling like water? cascading style sheets? well, i like it. i am such a dork. Wednesday, August 07, 2002
you've just gotta love the mellifluous, honey-tongued shaun and the oft-changing nature of fi-del-ite. it's usually a blog. a few days ago it was color sonnets. now it's mediations on relativity. never a dull moment... and while we're talking redesigns, i'm glad to see that jonno's got a brand new bag - and i don't mean prada. very nice. Tuesday, August 06, 2002
 so i have a subscription to food & wine magazine, which amy gave to me while we were dating. i really like it, more for its good design and photography than for the recipes - which are way beyond my daily menu, of course - you'd be hard-pressed to find anything but diet cokes and ketchup in my refrigerator, most days, much less jicama and morel mushrooms. so yesterday, i was carrying in a bunch of groceries, and i noticed the shiny, new, september issue of food & wine - along with some useless alumni magazine thing - in my mailbox, which is downstairs in my condo complex. my hands were full, so i couldn't grab the mail, but i made a mental note to go back for it. when i went back a couple of hours later, the alumni magazine was there, but food & wine was gone. bastards! so, although i have no idea who took it, i decided i'd have some fun, and try a little experiment in criminal psychology - so i made and posted this sign. i think it's kind of funny. i'll let you know if it works.update: hehehehe... it worked! i got my magazine back. i just now walked downstairs, and there it was. the sign, however, was gone... Sunday, August 04, 2002
this has not been a good weekend for strengthening my resolve to leave new orleans. the city's been on its best, most decadent behavior - friday night was jazz quartets playing on balconies, parties and friends and tequila and interesting new people and it was wonderful. maybe a bit too wonderful, even. yesterday was quiet and productive, and then in the evening i headed out to white linen night all by myself. it's a series of coordinated art gallery openings in the warehouse/arts district downtown, a big block party/festival, and usually more about seeing people than art - but all by myself for the first time this year, i was able to see all the galleries and do some good peoplewatching as well, before running into my sister and her friends, and being whisked off to the contemporary arts center for the post-party, which was also fun, and the museum had even more things to see and be creatively inspired by - in terms of both art and people... white linen night may be one of the few times when you can actually believe, for a moment, that new orleans is populated by inspired, creative, intelligent, beautiful people. favorite piece from last night: a ten foot tall painting, kind of a rusty colored, stylized image of a face with mickey mouse ears on, looked like it was probably annette funicello as a mouseketeer, on a slightly off-white background. striking, and kind of fun, until you read the little card with the name of the piece, the artist, and the medium: "the artist's blood on white clay." at which point the thing becomes somehow much more powerful. strange how the medium so affects the message. Friday, August 02, 2002
scary article. police cameras on street corners. anybody ever see the wim wenders movie "the end of violence"?
can't sleep. my parents called at 3:35am, freaking out that my sister hadn't gotten home, after last calling at 1 o'clock and saying she'd be home soon. they live in the 'burbs, and i live uptown, so of course i (having only been kind of half-asleep on the couch, and half-marveling at the utter stupidity of some old jerry lee louis movie) immediately got dressed and jumped in the car and headed out to all of her friend's houses and all the bars in the area that might be open at this time, just to try and find her car, and make sure she was alright. not the first time i've done this, though now my sister's twenty-one and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, so i really wasn't too worried. checked everywhere, and no sign of her; double check a few places, still nothing. as soon as i go home and walk in the door, the phone rings again, and it's my sister, she's ok, at a friends house or something. good. now if i could just go to sleep. saw some very strange performance art tonight at mythique. to the sounds of some kind of homemade laptop glitch-pop, someone with a box on his head that had the number 4 painted on each side sat on the floor and painted black, drippy, concentric borders on an old tv screen tuned to static. until there was just a little circle of snow left. a bit later he got on stage and read some big cue-cards with odd phrases on them in a mysterious voice, again over a background of electronic bleeps and blips. although this was at least as utterly absurd as the jerry lee lewis film i was to watch a few hours later, i found it oddly intriguing, in the same way morbid way that horrible car accidents are: no matter how much you don't want to, you can't stop staring at it. also tonight, i figured out that inkjet printers print excellently on canvas, if you cut it to 8.5 by 11. which seems to open up all sorts of doors of opportunity, though i really can't think of any off hand. i used it to print out a little canvas ganesh mask. don't ask. i for some reason am strangely fascinated by images of the elephant-headed hindu god of ganesha. whatever. i think it has something to do with the magnetic fields' song "crazy for you but not that crazy".(from disc 2 of 69 love songs.) did you know that lemony snicket of "a series of unfortunate events" children's book fame, plays accordion for the magnetic fields? well neither did i 'til just now when i was looking for those links. but he does. |