Category: Uncategorized

The weekend of my 20th birthday wasn’t too extravagant, but I still enjoyed the time I spent at home with my family. I got to bring my cat home to meet my family’s cat (which went terribly). I also got a lot of the photos done for my scavenger hunt assignment. I only have two left, so I’ll knock those ones out on Monday before work.

I introduced my two cats, Alice and Pumpkin, and Alice was NOT having it. She started hissing at her, so Pumpkin was confined to the basement for the entire weekend. She found a way to get my bedroom door open, and she’d go up the stairs and sit by the back door looking out the window. I was outside with my mom when I saw her peeking out at us!

Earlier today I decided to go to The Palisades to get my blind composition assignment done, and I had a lot of fun! It was really peaceful since there wasn’t too many people when I was there. Walking and listening to the water was super relaxing, and I already want to go back! The weather was amazing so it was the perfect time to go.

To celebrate my last day of being a teenager, I spent the day exactly as I normally would (not like I had much of a choice, though). I’m taking in and appreciating this day as much as possible and enjoying every moment. Will tomorrow feel different, no! I’m still very excited, and I’m very much looking forward to what my 20s will bring.

The only thing I had planned was to stay up until midnight and buy myself something cake related to celebrate solo. I think it’d be fun to take a walk and get some of my photos done at night, but I don’t know what good subjects would be for darker photos. It will be more peaceful than taking photos during the day, though, so I can get out of my comfort zone a little more with location and photo composition. I can do whatever I want as long as I don’t compromise my safety!

I’m really excited to start messing around in Adobe XD! I’m happy with my app idea, and the development part has been fun, but I’m ready to make take it to the next level. I had the app logo and color scheme thought out for a long time, so it was nice to finally use my graphics. There’s a lot of features in XD that I’m excited to start using and bring my idea to life!

This weekend I had to do something I normally don’t like to do, which is going outside. All jokes, obviously, but I’m not fond of doing things that might make me stand out in public. Over the past couple of days, I had to go way out of my comfort zone with my photography assignments.

The first assignment I got done was the implied motion assignment. I went to various areas around Sioux Falls, set my tripod up, and took pictures of cars. I got anxious pretty quickly so I had to move spots a few times to get enough photos

I took a good amount of my photos Thursday evening to knock them out, but I went out a little more on Saturday. It was a little more of a challenge because I didn’t have the tripod with me. I ended up pulling into a parking lot somewhere on S Louise Ave and I poked my head and camera out of my car window and took my photos that way.

The photograph a stranger assignment was the most intimidating to me. My first plan was to ask my recent roommate who just moved in, but she went home for the weekend after she moved her stuff in, so I didn’t see her too much. My next plan was to photograph one of my friend’s roommates who I didn’t know that well. Both plans were not followed, and instead, me and one of my friends started knocking on random people’s doors to hopefully get an answer. Luckily, one person answered!

I was still limited by my awkwardness, so some of my photos don’t have a lot of variety, but I’m still proud that I went out of my shell a little bit. Hooray for me!

For my Design Development class, we’re making two full-page magazine ads with our own photography. Since I’m taking photography in the same semester, I don’t have any photos I can use. Even though it’s a bummer, it gave me time to think about what I would want my ads to be about. I wanted to pick something that would be easy to photograph, but I didn’t want it to be boring. For my first ad, I was thinking of doing content for a shoe sale. I would take a picture of my shoes with a solid backdrop and edit the photo to make my shoes look cleaner. My second idea was to make an ad for Plato’s Closet with the headline “Sell Your Clothes for Quick Cash!” and within the pile of folded clothes, there would be cash peeking out of a denim pocket. The design for that ad is still in the brainstorming stage, so I don’t know if I’ll actually go through with it yet. My third idea is to make an ad for Oregon Chai’s spiced tea concentrate with the headline “Spice Up Your Morning.”

For my Layout class, we’re making more magazine ads, but they aren’t full-page sized. I have a few ideas of what I’d like to do for those too, but I haven’t done any mock sketches yet.

Once my designs get approved, I’m really excited to jump into the software and start taking my photos!

(I’m pretty sure I wrote my last post in September, too, but who cares!)

I’ve officially finished the first couple weeks of classes, and I feel like I’ve settled in! I feel a lot more like myself during the school year compared to in the summer. All I did this summer was work and rot in bed all day.

My hi key/low key assignment is going well so far! I took a few pictures on Thursday, and I’m planning on doing the rest of them today. I went to Michael’s and bought some more paper so I could make a 3D box to take some of my pictures in. I glued the two square pieces together and folded it in half, and I’m gonna have my larger piece of paper on the floor so I have a solid background on all sides. I want to take photos of a lot of objects with different angles.

I also bought some blank shirts to do some work on, too. I wanted to buy more black shirts, so I bought some in different sizes and I’m gonna crop them to the length I want.

Moving onto a more schoolwork-focused topic, I’m starting to enjoy my marketing class. The only reason I’m taking it is to get the necessary credits to graduate, but I feel like it’ll give me a small advantage once I start learning more about it.

Sometime last year, during registration for spring semester classes, I told my mom that I’d be taking photography. Both of us were curious as to what camera I’d need to get. After some research, my mom said she’d get me the camera I picked out for my Christmas present. Many many months later, I’m finally using it.

For my first photography assignment, I had to experiment with depth of field. I had to take a picture of a plant, person, animal, and any random inanimate object. The plant pictures were my favorite. I went home for Labor Day weekend and my parent had a bunch of colorful flowers in their back yard.

After messing around with the camera simulator, I went outside and started messing around. I had a lot of fun! I’m even thinking about buying an old digital camera online from the 2000s. I see a lot of digicam photos and I love the look of them. I’m really excited to take more photos!

Before classes approached, I started organizing my supplies and getting a resume typed out. During the summer, I didn’t have too much confidence, and I was nervous about starting classes again. Now that I’ve gotten settled in, I realized that I had nothing to worry about.

My only issue with classes is my 8AM marketing class. The two times I’ve had it, we got let out after half an hour. We covered the syllabus one day, and we got a semester overview on the next day. I woke up at 6 to be in the classroom for half an hour each day. I even wasted a good outfit on Monday since it was my only class that day.

Over the summer, I did some looking at job postings, but I didn’t end up applying for any of them. Now that there are a few internship positions opening up, I’m actively working on a resume + a small portfolio. There’s a few internships I’m interested in, and I’ll probably apply to them this weekend!

Im pretty sure things will start to pick up after this week, and I’m a little bit scared for all the assignments I’ll start to get. I’ll be able to handle it, though!

I’ve been wanting some new ear piercings for a while, and I finally decided to get them when payday hit! My paycheck was larger than normal because I worked 40 hours + some overtime last week. The piercings were a fun treat after a terrible workweek (it wasn’t that awful..I just complain a lot).

I ended up getting my triples + my conch pierced. Surprisingly, my conch hurt the least. I’ve never gotten three piercings in one sitting before, but I think I handled it pretty well. The only downside is that I can’t sleep on my side for a while until my ears stop hurting.

In addition to that, my friend and I hung out and went on a shopping trip! Overall, I think I had a really good week! No blog post from last week was due to work and not feeling too well. I’m glad things are looking up a little since then! I’ve noticed I go into a mid to late July slump every single year.

My Animal Crossing town is progressing very slow. I don’t visit as much anymore, but I try to play at least once a week so check how everything’s doing. I haven’t made anything with my software in a while either. I haven’t thought of anything I genuinely want to make as of right now. Work has made me a little burnt out, so I’m glad classes will start soon and I’ll work less hours.

July was a pretty bland month for me, and I didn’t do much of anything, but I’m hoping to make August a little more interesting!

I decided to enjoy my day off by being out of the house for 4 hours. I planned to go to two of my favorite thrift stores, go to Ulta afterwords, and later stop to get gas and groceries. Yesterday I was telling my coworkers how excited I was to go thrift shopping again since I haven’t been in a while.

I decided to go to Union Gospel Mission first. They usually have pretty good finds, and their prices are incredible (most clothing items are under $5). I don’t go there that often, though, because it’s a far drive, and it’s not located in a safe area (not so funny story, but when I was there today someone got threatened with a knife in the parking lot, and there were a whole bunch of cops outside when I was in line to checkout). I found some really good stuff there today, and had a safe trip back to my car after. It was a win for me!

After that, I went to Savers. They always have something good, but the store is gigantic, and all the good clothes are expensive. I am NOT spending ten whole dollars on a second hand shirt. I found a few good things, but got tired of looking since it was crowded and I was getting tired. I didn’t get as good of a thrift haul compared to my first stop, but I’m still very happy. Yet another win!

Ulta was my third stop of the day because I wanted to try fancy shampoo and conditioner. It was a very quick trip, but I also spend $50 on two haircare products. I really hope it’s worth it because it was quite the investment. My bank account took a massive hit over two days. I had to buy some other things online anyways, so I decided to get all my in person and online shopping done all in one go so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later.

After going to Ulta, I wanted to fill my gas tank back up. I looked on Upside (an app where you can get discounted gas and cash back) to find my usual gas station. I claimed my cash back offer and pulled up directions. I found out today that there are multiple Casey’s locations on Benson Road, and I went to the wrong one. I ended up going on 229 and going on a super long route to get to this gas station. I already claimed the offer and was on the interstate so there wasn’t a lot I could do from that point.

Once I got my gas I needed to go to Aldi, which was another freakishly long drive. All the driving I did today was pretty fun, though, because I got to see some new and unseen areas in Sioux Falls. Nothing too interesting happened on my grocery trip except for finding my favorite grapes in stock.

I also finally signed up for HBO Max after thinking about it for months. I was able to get the original monthly subscription price for half off because of a student discount app I signed up for last year. I’m only paying $4 a month so I’d say it’s a steal (even though I still have to watch my shows with ads).

My work schedule was a little different this week, so I had to do everything I could today because it’s the last day I have off for a while. I’m exhausted now, though.

I didn’t feel like I did a whole lot this week, but laying everything out makes it feel like a lot. I had my first customer complaint to corporate, I made garlic bread, my mom bought me new shoes, I did my own eyelash extensions, I started an oil pastel drawing, and I read for almost 4 hours straight!

Getting a customer complaint is a very laughable story because the problem the customer was having wasn’t my fault. Our self checkout machines don’t always work the best, so he had to be moved to a new register, and while he was in line he was on the phone with corporate. While on the phone he asked me who our manager was. I said who he was and I walked away. He then shouted “No, I need his manager’s name” (referring to our regional manager’s name, which I didn’t know). I apologized, told him I didn’t know who their name, and I walked away. I later heard from one of my coworkers that the customer complained that I was rude, unhelpful, and I was bad at my job for not knowing who the regional manager was. I might’ve not handled the situation perfectly, but what else am I supposed to do if I’m getting yelled at in front of a whole bunch of customers and employees?

Speaking of work, my mom bought me tennis shoes for work so my feet wouldn’t hurt at bad! (I’m skipping over garlic bread because there isn’t a whole lot to talk about). I still had to buy insoles because my heels still hurt after standing for a while. Hopefully my feet get used to the insoles. The shoes are very lightweight and comfortable, but standing in one spot for a really long time is going to hurt my feet regardless of what shoes I’m wearing. I’m still very thankful that my mom bought me the shoes, so I will in fact be wearing them every time I’m scheduled to work.

Not a lot to mention about the eyelash extensions, but they do make my eyes itchy. Once my application skills get better it won’t be a problem, though. My oil pastel drawing has also been really fun! I had two days off in a row, and I started to get really bored. I haven’t touched my art supplies since making my mother’s day gift, but I thought I’d give it a try! It’s not finished yet, but I’m not too worried about the outcome of it. I’m really just adding stuff to it as I go along.

My long day of reading wasn’t me reading a book, but I was reading manga online so I’m still counting it. I recently finished watching one of my favorite animes, Haikyuu, and I decided to read the manga starting from where the movie left off (there’s an animated series and a movie that recently came out which is one of the main reasons I decided to rewatch the series in the first place). I started reading it yesterday, and I did a lot of reading today. I read from around 3:00 until 7:00. I hit a stopping point, so I had to take a quick break and do something else for a while. Once I finish this post, I’ll definitely finish the rest before I go to bed. Over spring break, I did the exact same thing with another anime I watched, Jujutsu Kaisen. I have a habit of getting fixated on a series, and I feel the need to consume as much of it as I can. Once I finish the manga I’m reading, there won’t be anything for a while, so I’ll just have to jump to a different anime.

I didn’t do any designing this week (mainly because of the adobe licensing issue…oops), but I was planning on making a food magazine cover for the garlic bread I made. I obviously just wasn’t able to do it because the software stopped me. In all seriousness, I hope that gets fixed. There’s always next week! Who knows, I might find a solution on my own!