Comic is Starting Up

Haha. Delayed post. I'm clearly not consistent with this thing, but I bet it's partially because I work on other things instead.

My contract is coming to an end, much sooner than it seems (January 11, 2011) because of the holiday season (although, I am not sure how holidays work in my company since our outsourced team doesn't share the same holidays). But I'm going home for Christmas, so I will be taking a well-deserved break then.

I've learned if you work too hard too consistently, burnout becomes a continual state. Which is not healthy. I think I started to lose the reasons I was doing anything related to games or California, but going home for Thanksgiving really helped clear my head and get away from the work stress. Going back on Monday should be better, even if there is already a line of meetings waiting for me. :-P

In the meantime, I am hunting for my next job. Anyone need a game producer with experience working in web and with outsourcing teams?

I started making a comic as a hobby/side project. Right now I'm in the planning phase, writing out the plot, making sure I get the story flow correct and the characters defined. Next step is figuring out how I want to display this, draw, and update. Maybe it seems weird to be planning out so much, but something frequent with web comics that I dislike is people going on haitus or deciding somewhere in the middle of the comic that they don't like where it's going so decide to start over. I'm sure there are many varying reasons to this, some of which can't be avoided, but I'd like my comic to have a completion date and a consistent update of pages at regular intervals. So for now, I am making sure the story is solid enough for me to start drawing pages for web viewing. Having a plan helps me stay committed to this too, instead of letting my changing life get in the way.

As a producer too, planning suits me well, anyways. :-P

Truth be told it feels kinda funny writing this comic. I don't usually let others know I like writing fantasy (oh yeah, this is going to be a fantasy comic. It's an idea that has floated in my brain for awhile now so I figured, why not? Let's do it ^_^) so it feels silly thinking I'm going to be sharing it online in public soon.

Anyways, updates later.

^_^

Should I start a comic?

Whoo! Site is almost done! All that is left is putting up my ETC projects (of course, I leave out the most important work from my portfolio site upgrade) and changing the UI of this blog to match that of my website.

If you want to check out what's been done, please look at www.tingchen.net. :-)

My contract at EA ends in January 2011. :-( It's a bit of a bummer b/c I really love my teammates here, but I guess the time to move on always comes. In either case, I'm currently on the hunt for my next job, looking in areas like LA, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. The nice thing about being single and fresh from college is that moving around is really only a matter of furniture and lease agreements. I kind of like the adventure in switching homes and being able to pick up and leave so quickly. Kind of. Part of me wants to find a place to set up camp for longer than 6 months, which is probably why my latest apartment, I've bought some of the more frivolous items, like a a digital piano :D, even though I don't know if I am going to be staying here past December. Still, I suppose the moving is somewhat feeding the travel bug in me at least.

With all this focus on work and finding more work and then finding living space and etc etc... I've completely neglected the hobbies which I used to love back in college (undergrad. During my Art School days). It's good that my biggest passion, games, has become my career, but being a constant thinker, I get restless not having personal projects to do. I'm thinking about getting back in to drawing comics. Or do some indie game development on my own. I'm not sure yet. They both seem fun and rewarding, but also incredibly time-consuming and requiring dedication, 2 things which I can't guarantee at this moment.

Another personal question: Why is it all my interests involve being alone? I should be more social, I think. I mean, I'm living in the SF Bay Area and I rarely go to the city. Or even out in general. Either too busy or too tired. :\

Beef Bourguignon

I hear so many people talk about this dish, especially since the film "Julie & Julia" and Julia Child's beef bourguignon recipe. I only had this dish once in my life, and I remembered not thinking it was all that great, but I wanted to give it a go myself in case that one time was caused by a cooking slip-up.

Beef bourguignon has a lot of precise steps and takes many hours, although not all recipes agree on these details. But I was lazy and considering much of the cooking time is just sitting in a pot and simmering, I didn't see why people didn't use a slow cooker on this dish.

So I cooked the bacon to get the fat, seared the beef in the fat, then stuck everything and a whole bottle of wine in the slow cooker.



The stew came out more soupy than I would have hoped, but I don't think that has anything to do with my method of cooking. Perhaps I put too much liquid in the pot? In either case, it was absolutely delicious. The wine flavor worked really well with the bay leaves, thyme, and parsley and everything blended together into a really awesome taste. So even though it didn't come out in to a creamy stew like it should have, it came out very well, I think.

- ^_^

Redwood Forest

I've been meaning to walk in a redwood forest ever since I moved up to the SF Bay Area and today I decided on impulse would be the day I went. So I typed in Google "Redwood forest", picked the closest one, and went.

The closest redwood forest to go to was Huddart Park. To be honest, it was kind of dull and uneventful.



While the trees were pretty, I felt kind of bored walking on the trails. Nothing really led anywhere and all the paths just sort of wound around the area. I would have enjoyed the scenery more if I wasn't always looking on the ground for horse manure and getting nervous about the bugs or my footing on the dirt and rocks. I kind of wished there was some sort of destination to reach, like a temple or a vantage point. But this is America and I don't think we have temples atop mountains, although I did see this giant white cross in the distance when I drove to the park. Also, I think this park's trails were more for horseback riding than foot travel, despite what the brochure said. Perhaps I picked the wrong park. I mean, whoever heard of having to PAY to go to the park? There was a $5 per car fee to enter the park.

- ^_^

Affogato

I'm Meeting Becky today for dinner, which is a rare moment considering she lives all the way in Las Vegas. I am so glad we were able to make a dinner meet-up work out while she was here for the weekend.

I left my apartment early to accommodate for the long train ride getting to the city and the walk/bus ride of getting to the restaurant (The Stinking Rose, a garlic restaurant), but then as I exited the door, I impulsively decided to drive. Now that I'm here, I almost wish I hasn't acted so impulsively as this will cost me double what traveling would have coated otherwise. And I arrived really early. -_-"

In the meantime, I decided to stop in this cafe I randomly found called Cafe Greco. And decided to try this lovely concoction: an affogato, which was another impulsive item of the day.






I had only heard of affogato from Kitchen Confidential. As I have now learned, affogato is an espresso with gelato. So if you like coffee ice cream, this would be the more decadent version. It's wonderful.

I sometimes wonder if I could live in the city and I still don't know the answer. The hustle and bustle of so many people makes the place so lively but at the same time, a bit too chaotic for me. I am not one for crowds.

But a good thing about San Francisco and cities in general is places like these where you can just order a drink and take a seat outside.

Cafe Greco is in North Beach, which is where Little Italy and Chinatown border each other.

- ^_^

Time for Cheap Living?

I want to see if I can live on $100/wk. In SF Bay area. This excludes housing/rent costs, the bills related, and tuition debt. So pretty much includes food, travel, and miscellaneous items.

That seems like a lot... But after living here for almost a year now, I think it will be a challenge. Here goes.


- ^_^

Bike!

I fixed my bike today. ^_^
All by myself. ^_^

And did it by removing 2 parts. ^_^

So here is the story:

I got this bike from a guy off of Craigslist who was selling it for $80, which after my research, is pretty cheap in this area. He was advertising it as a Miyata Street Runner hybrid, which intrigued me. Turns out, the bike may have originally started as a Miyata hybrid, but it had seen the shop and the replacement of several parts. In essence, only the frame was Miyata. But, as a non-bike enthusiast who just wants something cheap to ride to work, I paid him $60 and took it off his hands. It was in good condition for it's age.

Unfortunately, 1 month later and the thing breaks. Not terribly, though. I decided to take a stab at mech work. ^_^

As i found out through tinkering, The problem was that my rear-bike wheel had snapped slightly off it's hinge, causing it to run against the frame, making it impossible to move the bike anywhere. Pushing the back wheel back on its hinge and tightening the screws seemed to solve this for the most part, but I noticed that the wheel still touched the frame slightly. Hence why I mentioned the bike shop replacement parts. These wheels were not hybrid wheels and were too thick for the space between the frame's bars.

So I removed these metal brackets in the hinge whose sole purpose seemed to be to push the wheel forward (if I have removed something vital, someone tell me!). There was no significant effect to the gears or breaks, so tightened everything up. That whirring noise I used to hear when riding? Apparently that was the back wheel brushing up against the frame. No more noise anymore. ^_^

Unfortunately, it still takes me some effort to ride long distance. I blame my fitness level. :P


- ^_^

Indoor garden

My roommate, Nadia, and I have been trying to grow an indoor herb garden for the past month. We started from seeds (mostly because I think it's a really awesome surprise to see a sprout pop up from a pot of what used to be nothing. And then something huge develop from what used to be a little speck dropped in dirt). While the basil has flourished well enough for us to split the plant in to 2 pots, the rosemary and thyme haven't grown much bigger than sprouts. Since I woke up 7 am on a Sunday (more like 4 am and by 7 I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I was REALLY sleepy last night. My bike broke so I had to really work out to get home yesterday so when it go dark I decided to crash early), I decided to visit the plant nursery nearby. Thus I learned that perennial herbs like rosemary and thyme need a year to grow to harvest stage from seeds. So I bought some starter plants to replace our sprouts. 1 rosemary and 1 mint (after standing in front of the herbs for awhile, I realized that I don't usually use thyme all that much. Whereas mint just smells awesome ^_^).

So now our indoor herb garden consists of rosemary, basil, mint, green onion, and 2 starters of cherry tomato and peas (I want to see if I can grow these ^_^).


Meanwhile, I got impulsive and bought a bonsai. As if I don't have enough to take care of. But I remembered seeing a maple bonsai tree and finding it so impressive how beautiful the tiny leaves looked. So I thought I'd give it a go. I got a bonsai starter, pot, and pebbles to mix in the soil (apparently bonsais thrive best when the soil is very coarse and allows water to flow through easily). I don't know anything about the aesthetics of bonsai cutting, but the starter looked like it could use some love and care. It had dead leaves, some deformed, and kind of twisting in to itself in several areas to create a kind of mess. Well, this is the first go at trimming:



It's still kinda messy, but better than before. At least all the dead parts have been removed. I figure, once I let it grow more, I'll know more about where to cut to make it flow nicely.

Oh and I also bought fertilizer. I thought I could go without it, but apparently when grown in pots, plants only have a limited amount of soil to grab their nutrients from. Without nature's flow and insects, they need other aid. I got this seaweed extract fertilizer that the saleslady as the garden nursery recommended.

Puffs!

I bought a pancake puffs pan! You know, the one "as seen on TV" advertising pancake puffs as the new fun thing to cook ball-shaped foods. For breakfast.

Except. It's not all that new.

I knew of this before because of the savory takoyaki of Japan. But apparently, the Dutch have their own sweet version. Ableskivers. That's the kind of pan I got.

For only $12, this pan is of great quality, although small. Still cast iron pan. Nice.

My first test run of this was using the leftover empanada filling and making a quick liquidy mix of bisquik, soy milk, and an egg. And adding a little of this Mexican cheese I bought that was slightly salty. The result tasted better than the dumpling skin empanadas. :)


I also added my roommate's cornmeal because I wanted that texture.

I will try again in the future with cornmeal and hot dog bits.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Davidson's White Tea

I never did write about my disheartening trip to my favorite tea store in Chinatown a few weeks back. In a nutshell though, I went to Red Blossom Tea Company with the specific statement and intent of buying a white tea, but they wouldn't let me try their samples and tried to push the most expensive one on me. Basically they were dismissive and seemingly uninterested in helping me select a tea to purchase. I did write a disappointed review on Yelp.com and the store owner did apologize, so they get some credit back, but that was rude, even for a Chinese store.

Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because this eventually led me to purchase the white tea that I wanted to talk about.

I bought 1 lb of organic silver needle white tea from Davidson Tea Co. at, believe it or not, Amazon.com. It came in a brown paperbag sealed with one of those fold-in twisties. Like the way coffee is sealed. I just tried some today and it was light, sweet and of great quality white.

The price was the coolest part: $45. ^_^

It actually baffles me a bit why their white tea would be so cheap, but then again, I did believe we pay too much here in the US for tea. It could be the other stores are overcharging.... (after all, if this tea is organic, the price should be even higher, right?).

Who would have guessed? For all the high-end tea stores out there, the best deal for great quality is at Amazon.com.

Fake Empanadas

Cooking adventure #3: empanadas

These are so faked. Any Latino would probably balk at the idea, but they were fun. The recipe? Meat, seasoning, onion, some mexican cheese, and dumpling skins!

I took as much of the cooking time out as I could by using dumpling skins and pan-frying the dish. My roommate had told me before of Giada using dumpling skins as a substitute for ravioli making. The result was delicious, if not actually empanadas. Next time I will try to bake instead of pan-fry.

Pan-Fried Curry Rice Balls

Food adventure #2.

Dinner tonight was leftover curry from a few weeks back (don't worry, it was frozen in a tupperware container and recooked on the stove). I still managed to have leftovers, so got in to an experimental mood with the remains.

Pan-fried rice balls.

I got the idea from seeing instructions awhile back for yaki onigiri. This was kind of the same, except it was curry and rice mixed together.

The consistency was thick, but I was worried about it falling apart in the oil, so I added some flour to the mixture. I used my roommate's Venezuelan corn meal, which had a consistency of white flour but made of, obviously, corn (I couldn't find our bag of all-purpose flour, so had to substitute).

To make sure there was an outer "crust", I coated each ball in more of that Venezuelan corn meal. Then into the pan it went.

I pan-fried (as opposed to deep frying) it in order to attempt SOME level of healthiness, rotating it every now and then to make sure every side was getting cooked (the nice thing about the flour I found out was that the white color made it easy to tell which side hadn't touched the oil yet). I'm pretty sure this is probably still just as unhealthy, but still. Yum.

This may end up being a way I get rid of extra curries from now on! Although, next time, I may add peas or corn or some small-cut-up vegetables.

These are going in my lunchboxes for the next few days. ^_^

Chinese Bakery-Style Cake

Whew. Been awhile, hasn't it?

The thing is, with having a 40hr/wk (minimum) job and a 2nd project and dealing with daily life (insurance? taxes? car maintenance? how does the average joe do it all and still have time for the more adventurous things?), and then the NDAs preventing me from talking about what I do with most of my time, having anything to write about is difficult.

So let me interest you in one of my hobbies: cooking!

This was an impulsive decision. I don't usually bake and I've never done something like this before. I made a cake yesterday, which tasted a lot better than it looked. It was one of those Chinese bakery cakes, light, fluffy, and moist with lots of fruit. I don't have an electric beater, so to make this cake, I had to whip everything... by HAND. Never EVER make meringue by hand. You'll get there, but omg it hurts after awhile. A lot of love went in to this....

I got the recipe for this cake from Lucy Zhang's blog. She makes a lot of delicious-looking things, but this one got me especially excited. I don't have a huge love of American-style cakes because they seem so heavy and too sweet. Asian-bakery cakes feel light and just the right amount of sweet to feel refreshing. It was surprising to learn how little was actually in this cake (it's not healthy, but not terrible for you either)! I mean... 1 cake that fed 8 people (small slices, mind you) had only 3/4 cup of flour and a little less than 1 cup of sugar. I suppose the big count was the eggs, which was 6, but if you think about it, each person ate less than 1. For a cake, this is awesome, but oh so much work! I think I understand when Asian Bakeries charge $20-$30 for a standard-sized cake now. Much respect to bakers.

The frosting was whipped cream. Since this was my first cake, I didn't know better but now I do. Whipped cream does not equal whipped cream frosting. Hence the melted look.

As for fruit, I added peaches, nectarines, blackberries, and strawberries. Next time, I may go a little more traditional and use melon and strawberries (no kiwi for me...).

La Mar

Last weekend my roommate Nadia, her sister Tatyana, and I went to La Mar in San Francisco for some Peruvian ceviche. It is completely unfortunate I didn't even think to take pictures.

With the exception of a ceviche salad I had at the Apple cafeteria, this was the first time I got to eat ceviche. I sort of knew what to expect from watching Bourdain and Zimmerman on the travel channel. But for this trip, I let Nadia and Tatyana take lead and do the ordering, given their expertise. ^_^

If you've eaten sushi, then ceviche is no different in terms of the "gross factor". It is essentially raw seafood that has been "cooked" by marinating it in lemon juice and onion. The acid supposedly kills the bacteria that would otherwise be harmful.

La Mar is really nice. We sat at this lounge-like table in the bar area, which suited us. We each got an order of ceviche and shared an appetizer of empanadas and a dessert sampler. Expensive, of course, but I think well worth it for the special trip it was. I think anyone from Peru or Panama would balk at the prices, but then, the atmosphere was really good too.

I was really surprised how full I was from just eating the ceviche. We didn't even bother with the entrees we were so full.

Funny thing though. I went to the bathroom there and it was like complete night and day between the environment in the restaurant and the bathroom. The bathroom looked like it had no place belonging to as nice a restaurant as La Mar and it almost made me suspicious of the restaurant (sanitation of a bathroom should be a measurement of the sanitation of the restaurant, I think. Everyone there has to use the bathroom at some point). But then as I walked out, thinking "man, maybe this restaurant isn't as awesome as it is pretending to be" I see this sign by the door that says that the bathroom exists b/c of historic preservation. And in my head I go "ah... I see." The plaque answered the question in my head. Guess they knew. :P

INTJ

Have you ever taken a Myers-Briggs test before? They are long and tedious, but I don't know. I think they can be accurate.

I am an INTJ. And I laughed at how well the test had nailed me down, especially the faults. Heck, all the reasons of why I dislike/have-trouble-with/don't-understand/tend-to-end-early dating fit the INTJ persona.

Try googling Myers-Briggs test. They have ones that charge you money, but there are plenty that are free online too. Tell me what you get?

Update

Well I'm not good at this. Seems when life gets busy, my time with my hobbies goes away. Perhaps I should learn some better time management or prioritization? Or maybe there just aren't enough hours in the day. Although lately, I've been needing less sleep and feeling more energized, which has given me more hours in the day to accomplish stuff. I think I give credit to 2 factors: being back in CA (and thus, being away from the more severe of my allergies) and taking high dosages of Vitamin D. 

I've been researching the supplement since I started taking them. Clinically they are only given credit to bone health and prevention of osteoperosis. But for me, since taking them, I feel like I am more energized and therefore, more happy and motivated. Sun does that to people, right? I'd assume Vit D could too then. In either case, that's how I feel. 

Work started at EA where I am working as a contract web producer for the Sims Online team. It is not gameplay production, which is where I want to be (I think...) but I am still having a lot of fun. And learning a lot. Being on the Sims team, one of the largest games in the world, definitely teaches you a lot about production and management and how things get done on a global scale.

Haven't been going anywhere new lately, but I've been cooking a lot more often. Maybe I should start sharing those photos?    

Sonoma

My friend Lauren came up to SF (oh yeah! I'm back in SF! :-D ) to spent Memorial Weekend with her aunt and uncle, who live in the the city. They were going to spend the weekend at their vineyard in Sonoma and guess who Lauren decided to invite? ^_^

I spent the weekend at a beautiful vineyard in what I will call an estate. There were 2 gates getting to their home and a long driveway up to a beautiful house that overlooked their vineyard and had a spectacular view of wine country. There was also a deck & porch with lovely decor, a vegetable & flower garden, a heated in-ground swimming pool, a lower viewing/picnic point, and two separate cottages for their 2 sons who come up on occasions.

We spent the weekend cooking and eating and went out for wine, olive oil, and balsamic tasting. Most of what we did was in the house though, which was fine with me. It was really nice.

During my stay there I kept thinking, "Wouldn't this be an awesome place to retire to?" Not that I am thinking of retiring any time soon (hello college debt), but I think a quiet country-side, when life is good and the night sky is so clear you can see the stars, seems like a perfect place to simply enjoy the rest of your life. Good food, good wine, relaxation... it was like a retreat. ^_^

Unfortunately, my allergies didn't want to agree with me. :P

Still, when your bedroom has a view like that, I think it's something to be grateful to have.



It's good to be back in SF. :-)

Jen's Wedding

I was in Detroit last weekend for my cousin, Jen's weekend. It was kind of awkward for me to be there. I didn't really know anyone, other than my dad. And while you could say she's family, I hadn't seen her in over six years, and even back then, I had only seen her for maybe a weekend on Thanksgiving?

I can't really comment much on the wedding. She's Lutheran (I think?) and the wedding consisted of family and church group friends. I guess you could say I'm not a very religious person (or at least, that I'm not a Lutheran myself) so the culture and traditions were something new to me. Her dress was beautiful though, and she seemed happy to be marrying her husband. :-)

So it was nice to be able to go.


(no that is not stock footage. That is me messing w/ Photoshop....)

Harbor Inn

Harbor Inn is a seafood restaurant in Portage Lake, OH. My mom had been talking about taking me for years, but we never seemed to make it due to other, um.. food priorities (see previous post).

But last week, we finally made a trip.

Truth be told, when we arrived I was a bit disappointed. My mom painted the place as a nice relaxing lake-side seafood restaurant, but as we walked in, it was, well... a lakeside pub, complete with plastic wine glasses (the frosted colored kind) and burgers. I guess when I hear "seafood restaurant", I don't think of fish and chips.

But, as it turns out, inside was a nice restaurant. Outside was the pub-like bars. My mom asked for the indoor menu and all was well. We got a bottle of wine and ordered our seafood dishes. I got freshwater trout with almonds and amaretto cream sauce and for dessert, I ordered a butterscotch crem brulee to share.



Both dishes were delicious. :-)

I am very happy to find a good seafood restaurant in our area of Ohio. Most restaurants around my hometown are either chains or involve burgers & chicken wings (which I do not mind. :-) Yum). There was once this nice place even closer to our home but it has unfortunately closed down due to lack of business (The food was very good and the environment really nice, but I suppose what they offered wasn't of interest to the neighboring residents because despite the good food, classy bar, and jazzy live music scene (and being the only place around like this...), they still had to close).

I do wish Harbor Inn could offer the niceties of the indoor restaurant outside as well, but due to regulations (no glass on the deck), they leave outside to the bar hoppers. But I also think this combination is what allows Harbor Inn to keep up a nice seafood place in our small town area. In either case, I really liked this place. :-)

Mom's Famous Steak ^_^

Wow. Being home is a non-stop eating fest. Mom's cooking is the best. I'll show.

Les Halles

One of my goals in life was to eat at a restaurant of a famous person (I know, lame goal, but it seemed like a fun idea at the time). Since my visit to Liz's place meant being in the capital city of restaurants, it seemed like a good place to try and fulfill that wish. Anthony Bourdain's restaurant was also a rather well-priced place with decent ratings on Yelp.com. I love his show. Even if his depictions of countries are not entirely accurate (his visit of Shibuya Tokyo, I want to know what part of Shibuya he went to. It was nothing like that for me), they are depictions of one point of view and make for fun entertainment and a good way to see a non-touristy side of a country (after studying abroad, the tourist side just doesn't hold the same appeal as truly living there).

Les Halles is Bourdain's restaurant and he has 2 locations in NYC with different items on their menus. We chose on the one on Park Avenue due to distance and had no trouble getting a table without a reservation. I really have no idea how busy the place usually gets, but we were going on a Monday at dinner time. I got the "Magret de Canard au sauce grenade," or "roasted duck breast with pomegranate sauce" and a turnip & potato gratin. It was... okay.

The duck was cooked very well and we absolutely loved the bread and fries I had ordered as a side for the table. But honestly, I didn't really care for the pomegranate sauce at all. "Interesting" is probably the best word to describe it. It was enjoyable for the first bite as something new to try, but I didn't think it complimented the duck very well and really just clashed as another flavor to mess with on the plate. It wasn't terrible, but to me, it just didn't fit.

My friends weren't crazy about their dishes either. The "Poulet Roti, frites" (Roasted chicken w/ fries) was bland and the "Confit de Canard" (duck confit) was flavorless on the inside.

In hindsight, I probably should have ordered steak or something off the grill or specials sections of the menu. I recall an episode of Bourdain talking about the proper way to cook a steak and even a burger with a demonstration in his restaurant. But... I had steak at Liz's the night before and I have a huge bias for my mom's steak which I don't think anyone can beat (no one ever thinks to prepare it like her. It's real fusion food, not this "soy sauce & miso makes it fusion" crap). I never feel like paying $20+ for steak when I know it won't compare to home's. They can cook it as perfectly as they want in an oven, pan, or grill. It won't compare.

So my opinion of Les Halles? Affordable compared to other famous-people-restaurants I've looked up. But worth it? Not really. The meat is cooked well from what I tasted and saw, but they do not do anything inventive or inspiring with the flavors to make the food worth the costs. It's fun to say "I went to Bourdain's restaurant" but for the prices you'd pay on the menu at Les Halles, you could probably pay less at a smaller bistro elsewhere and get more satisfying flavors.

Still... I got to eat at Bourdain's restaurant. :P

Graduated!

Ha! Graduation! We have mastered the entertainment tech! Achievement unlocked! Lol.

It's a weird and happy mix of joy and bittersweetness from having finished 2 years of a great experience and knowing that we are all going our separate ways. Looking back, I really did love this grad program which, as a result, made this graduation ceremony very meaningful for me. Much more meaningful than my Art graduation ceremony two years ago (sorry guys... but then again, I think the feeling was mutual with my Art School friends.... Also, you can't really argue with a graduation ceremony that involves dinner, an awards ceremony, and lots of photos and laughter). Graduation felt like a completion, which I guess is always a bittersweet moment in itself.

I'm glad for these last two years with my wonderful classmates, faculty, and staff. In pure honesty, it is the people that make the whole experience worth while.

Sketching w/ Liz

At Liz's place for 2 days. I miss hanging out w/ old art school friends. For fun, we decided to try out some of her new art supplies and then do some collaborative drawing.

Me messing w/ her "walnut" ink. We're not sure if it is made of walnut or just labeled walnut because of the color. It's supposed to be a natural ink.... So we're not sure. But this was me messing w/ ink painting and diluting washes.


Both of these are from Liz and me doing a drawing game. We'd draw for 2 minutes, 1 person on each picture, then switch images after every 2 minutes. Towards the end, we changed it a bit to be 3 minutes, then after we felt like we were done, we both took one to just polish up so it looked more complete.

Tada! :-)

First Post

Hi. So... I like blogging. And I don't know why but I never tried making a public one before. Oops.

Here's me starting a blog. Maybe later I'll get adventurous and actually sign up for Twitter. :P