drea2design

Great, thanks Ken, another song stuck in my head. New project? Most likely not, unless someone wants to animate my creations. But it is kawaii! Enjoy!

Thanks to Boing Boing for the initial post that got my attention and to U900 for their work. You can see more videos on U900’s myspace.

Melrose

OMG, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally introduce Melrose. Everybody, this is Melrose. She was born on October 4th, 2009. One of 7 pups, but sadly 2 passed away. I first met her on December 7th after a long flight from Arkansas. Thanks to my friend Cindy who gave me pick of the litter, to Celia and Paula who accompanied her on the flight home after visiting with Cindy for the weekend. She is doing well, having gained 10+ pounds in a month. Almost potty-trained, she uses the doggy door to go outside. But on occasion, has an accident on the way out. We have spoiled her and now are dealing with separation anxiety. She’s got it bad.

Photo: Valerie Febre-Yap (thanks for letting me steal her pic!)

I just wanted to take the time to wish everybody a Happy New Year. Yeah, I know 2 weeks late. Sorry.

Well, I’ve been kinda busy. I decided to actively pursue looking for a new job. I really have no choice, I’m running out of money. I organized my iGoogle to follow a couple job boards, made a spreadsheet showing who, what, when I sent out a resume and am working on my online portfolio. I really like the single page designs. I’ve been researching and getting ideas.

But the hardest thing is not seeing any available jobs as a print production artist. Almost all the available positions are looking for web experience, lots of Flash jobs out there. Frustration is setting in. I’ve even sent my resume out for Studio Manager positions. I’d rather not have that kind of responsibilities. But what can I do, especially at my age and with that many years of experience? There have been a couple internships that I was thinking of applying to. I’d get the experience I need and maybe start an new career doing something completely different. Still thinking about it.

Okay, enough of the negativity. I will get a new job or find enough freelance to support myself and my two kids. It will happen!

It’s a bad habit of mine to get obsessed with things. Then go out and need to acquire a small quantity. Lately it’s lunch boxes or bags. I’ve got a couple and, when I was working, used to swap them out on a regular basis.

My favorite, that I used quite often, was my small Harrods bag. It’s the perfect size and I have 3 of them in the house. The oldest bag, that I received many years ago, I used as Rowdy’s bag. Whenever we went somewhere, all his stuff fit perfectly in it. I now can’t seem to find it. Cute, got lots of compliments on it, white with a Westie pattern. Oh, and it was a bad idea going online to find the pics, Harrods has a couple new designs that I liked. I wonder if I should buy them.

2007 Harrods Bags

I also have the Zojirushi Mini Bento. It’s the perfect size, not too big, not too small. I was looking at the lunch jars, but they’re way too big. I also have a couple inexpensive bento boxes. I get them from the dollar store in Little Tokyo, but they’re not insulated. And me being lazy, usually ruin them after putting it in the microwave. I know, you’re not supposed to microwave anything in plastic.

Zojirushi Mini Bento

This past July, I had to buy this cute neoprene insulated bag up in Carmel by the Sea. It’s a red and white floral design, similar to the one pictured below. Not sure who makes it, I found it at a Longs or CVS, can’t remember which drugstore it was. We were getting snacks and drinks for the ride home and I thought it’d be a great way to keep the drinks cold.

Insulated lunch bag

But what started this post was the newest generation of lunch boxes, TAB from Rosti Mepal. Moco Loco featured them on their blog and I really want one.

TAB lunch boxes by Rosti Mepal

I was going to show you the mini, bento rice cooker. They had them at Marukai earlier this year. You can make 1 cup or rice or use it to heat up your lunch. I couldn’t find it anymore. But I did find a USB lunch warmer available at gadget4all.com. For all those that just can’t step away from the computer long enough to eat.

USB lunch bag warmer

And, since we’re talking about lunch and bentos, check out Anna The Red’s latest bento masterpieces. She has so many, I couldn’t pick my favorite. She even has a “How To” section. If only someone would make me one of those cute bentos. I probably wouldn’t be able to eat it, way too cute.

Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything up here. I’ve been busy, but I’m still FunEmployed. Let’s see, where did I leave off last time…

Hmm, last I wrote about was The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. That was about 3 weeks ago. I applied for an online editor position, did a trial for a week, but haven’t heard back from them. I guess maybe I’ll email them and see what’s going on. I did some freelance, just 2 days. Traffic was a bitch and I really don’t want to sit in traffic. I’m hoping I can find a job closer to home. I finally got my first unemployment check. Geez took over a month. Almost done with my HTML coding class and the Letterpress class. Now to figure out my next steps.

The Japan Film Society has also been keeping me busy. Sending out press releases, designing the website, the latest events and all the meetings. We had a special screening of Mothra on the Sony Studios lot. The family of Jerry Ito came to the screening, his wife is really cute. I enjoyed talking to her for a bit. The turnout was great. Next will be The Winter Shorts @ The Royal/T Cafe in Culver City. If you’re in town, come by and check it out. Should be fun.

There’s so much going on, I don’t know where to start or if it’s even interesting enough to blog about it. Yes, I’m still unemployed and so are so many people in advertising. It’s scary and it doesn’t look good in the near future. Adweek is reporting that BBDO might be shutting down their Detroit shop end of January. About 145 jobs will be cut. And the cuts keep on happening. I just read on AgencySpy that Ogilvy will be cutting 90 jobs today. Many of my friends that still have a job in advertising are worried. Clients are cutting budgets, things are slowing down, print is dying, but interactive jobs are flourishing.

Ok, enough about all this. Need to concentrate on making a million dollars soon. Can’t really say “by the end of this year” cuz it’s coming up fast. But it will be soon. I’ll leave you with pics of my latest crochet projects.

Penny Poo, was so tempted to keep her.

Headbands, still working on perfecting them.

Piglet, a little gift for my friend's baby girl.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I love The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It is one of my favorites. But then again I’m a sucker for the whole boy/girl high school friendship stories. Hana Yori Dango is another favorite. I don’t know what it is? Is it the innocence, the true, non-gender friendship, before the falling in love? Who knows and I didn’t start this post to try to figure it all out.

Anyways, there’s a new live-action movie coming out. Directed by Masaaki Taniguchi, starring Riisa Naka, Akiyoshi Nakao and Narumi Yasuda. At first I was disappointed in hearing that they changed the storyline. But now after seeing the trailer, I’m excited about the movie.

Thanks to Nippon Cinema for your post, you can read more about the movie on his site. I wish I didn’t have to wait until March 2010, well of course after that I’ll have to wait until it gets subbed in English and sent over to the US. Ok, Japan Film Society, make it happen, bring it to LA next year.

Sorry it’s been awhile since my last post. I was going to post an update last week, but wouldn’t you know it, the web servers were going through updates at that time. So couldn’t do it, then forgot. So here I am, almost 2 weeks later. A couple things have happened since then.

Rowdy

Early, on the morning of the 29th, my favorite son, Rowdy, passed away. He hadn’t been feeling well lately and had slowed down quite a bit. I was dreading making the decision. But he made it for me. I took him to the ER vet after he had been experiencing these strange fainting spells. They treated him for anemia and sent him home, it was about 1am. As we were walking to the car, he collapsed and never regained consciousness. They tried CPR but I told them to let him go. It was a tough day and it took me some time to get through it. But he’s home now and resting in peace.

Last week, I decided to sign up with a talent agency/head hunter. It’s been tough looking for a job. Most openings out there are for interactive. I have little experience there. So figured it wouldn’t hurt to sign up. Lets hope they can help find me something.

And lastly, there maybe a new addition to the household. I’m trying to work out all the details. I’ll post them up soon.

Now that I’m home, I’ve signed up for a couple classes. I know, spending money is not what I’m supposed to do. But I finally have time and I decided to take advantage of it. So along with the Letterpress class, I also signed up for a “Re-Invent Yourself” seminar and a Web Design/Build course.

So did I “Re-Invent Myself”? I hope so. It was a small group, all women. We each took turns talking about ourselves and why we signed up for the seminar. Nancy Kremer, the Life Coach, guided us through the process.

What is your perfect vision of your life? What makes you happy? What are you asking for? These were some of the questions. Ignore the Ego! Follow the Bang! The things that keep hitting us on the head, your passions. It’s your ego that keeps stopping you. Telling you to do things you have to do and not what you really want to do. So what is my “Bang”? Is it writing, is it type, is it designing? Could it be all three?

“I’m going to” rather than “I want to.” I need to make my game BIGGER. My ego is choosing to make my game smaller. Make my passions stronger or drop it for good.

“I’m in the process of making a million dollars by the end of the year”! My new affirmation. Million Dollar Year.

Last Wednesday, I finally started my letterpress class at the Armory Center for the Arts. I’ve been wanting to take this class for years, but always used the same excuse, “don’t have time because of work”. Of course, I can’t use that excuse any longer. I should have used the “I’m unemployed and broke” excuse. But, as you can see, I don’t listen to that one.

It’s a small class, about 6 students taught by Denise Figueredo. She lets you print whatever you want, except Wedding Invitations. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to work on. So I started with my name and email, a simple letterpress calling card. They only have a few fonts and no Neutra. Oh no, no Neutra. So, using Futura Lite 30 & 18.

I was having more fun just handling all the type and playing with it. I should be able to print my cards in the next class. I’ll have to get some paper. Damn, me in a paper store, that’s dangerous.

According to the Los Angeles Times, I was 1 of 39,000 Californians let go from their jobs last month. Curious to see how many of these people were in advertising?

California job losses continue to climb — latimes.com

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