sketch by susan

(I drew fanart!!)

The downfall of “I’ll do it later.”, aka procrastination

1. Experiential - doesn’t feel good, it snowballs, you get comfortable, it’s hard to change

2. Implications - actions speak louder than words, saying things will change while still on this trajectory makes a weak argument

3. Applied - “real world” theory, you can no longer hide behind the veil of schoolwork and grades, the real test of brilliance: it’d meaningless to be brilliant unless you put it to good use, also explains the surplus of presence hard working but average people running around calling the shots

Open letter to brilliant people: you are not allowed to mock and deride UNLESS you come out of the basement yourself.

Open declaration of fears: becoming one who hides behind a veil and never doing anything significant.
So long as I can help it - this won’t be the case.

Please excuse choppiness and format, post written iPad

…until you have or don’t have it.

Three vignettes.

Donating unused clothes. I moved away from wearing black tops and beige capri pants college sophomore year, mostly due to social normative pressure. In experimentation, I’ve garnered too much clothing for my own good. Now, after establishing a rotation, I note articles which never get worn. The test of packing goes to show which don’t make the cut. So, instead of huddling it all, I’m letting it go. I don’t really want it anyway. (Except on laundry day.)

Observing the work of others. Or, a masked phrase meaning I’m back into anime. I moved away from anime also college sophomore year, writing it off as a poor use of time. The transition wasn’t gradual. I went cold turkey. My proud, growing list came to stop and I haven’t thought much of it until recent. Now, after a series of ultimately fortunate events, I find it to be something I missed dearly and truly refreshing. I do want it after all. Screw the jerk who convinced me otherwise. (No, really, screw him, but those experiences are for another entry.)

Starting fresh by appropriating. I find my means of motivation to be interesting. It’s almost unintuitive actually. I start initially out of spite, in order to prove the means wrong or to beat the system. I’m a fool for fighting words when it comes to my abilities. I’m also a fool to do it the hard way if I see serious flaws in the way it’s always been done. I mean, this is how I got started in this field. No one’s laughing more: I managed to combine creation into my daily rotation. This is also how I get started on projects. For those who still dare to laugh: keep doing so, it motivates me. Challenge accepted, thank you very much. Plus, it’s a good thing, because I never knew I wanted it, until I had it.

As much as I do have hard time getting over certain incidents from the past, in the end, I have to admit, it’s made me as foolishly, bat-shit ambitious as I am. So, thank you all who were involved. Everything that initially began from such a spark has turned into something quite magical and beautiful.

It dawned on me last night, at 4:30am, the reason my life has been turned, flipped upside down recently was because it was ripe for disruption.

Whether this is self propagated or a force outside of my control, the state of being comfortable, too comfortable, is a stagnant one. The only means which it can pick itself up again, is so if it were to be disrupted, just like a dated way of life by a new innovation.

And with that, I come to closer terms with my inner peace and the way things are now.

Being rejected on accord of “not enough industry experience” is a fine and fair reason, but please, please, please do not put the candidate through the stress and strain of interviews and/or exercises, ultimately leading them on, and then later crushing them. You can tell from a candidate’s resume how many years of industry experience he/she has. Seriously. At least give another reason. Here are some examples -

• “We don’t think you’re a good fit.”
• “We are looking someone who errs on the side of ______.”
• “We think you’re all right, but we are talking to others who are a better match.”
• “You looked better on the outside.”
• “We don’t like your face.”
• “JKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK, at least we gave you some interviewing practice :)”

Is that too much to ask?

SO, this is what I actually spend most of my time doing during the day. Not iPad sketches.

Preview of something beautiful coming together. Going to invest in a hard copy this time.

Looking back, I’ve come a long way from the college freshman who got chewed up for using IE as her main browser (I know, am ashamed, don’t judge) to this: proficient at clicking really fast in succession. Er, I mean, interaction and visual design. Testing designs in Chrome and Firefox. Yes.

In other somewhat related news, while walking home, we geeks spotted our first firefly for the summer, but not without exclaiming “a firebug!!” first.

Test run with Sketchbook Pro desktop version. Putting a face on anything makes it look legit.

Anyway, I like, just wish it used similar keyboard shortcuts like the ones in Adobe suite.

See the full gallery on Posterous

2. Zen pad, just a notion.

That is all, for now. Project crunch time and the end is near for my time with academia.

Someone please do inform me if there is an easier way

1. copy javascript from browser into Evernote
2. sync to iPad
3. select and copy from Evernote app
4. make new bookmark in Safari app
5. edit bookmark in Safari app by copying+pasting javascript

edit: Did a quick search (via Quora) and found someone who has aggregated commonly used bookmarklets http://static.chrisbray.com/bookmarklets/, Still doesn’t quite solve the design problem though it does axe steps 1-3.