azurite | Entries tagged with visual communication

Truthfully, I don't use my laptop much. As it turns out, I don't really need it. So I wasted over $1000 on something I don't need and pretty much can't use. Yes, it's nice having my own computer when relatives visit, or when I go to school and the Collaboratory comps are all being used, but it doesn't help me when I need to print, or other things. It was nice saying I had this cool piece of technology that was all my own, but... it doesn't work.

I've done a clean install about 3 times now. I've bought and downloaded the best of the best software, only to have it not work. I have tried calling three different customer support numbers, only to be told as I follow the menu options that the number I have reached is out-of-service. I have emailed the return form, only to have my order number (as it is listed on my account page) to be rejected. Remember when I kept calling Dell, and one week after the other, they said they'd send this CD to fix all my computer's ills? And then it turned out... they forgot to send it, they weren't authorized to send it, I had to call this department, and then I had to pay $250 for it!? WHAT. THE. FUCK!?

All that time I spent ended up "expiring" my 21-day return policy. What the hell is the point of having a 90-day warranty (expires in 12 days, shit shit shit) if the return policy doesn't last for the length of the warranty? Besides, in those 3 months, I've hardly used the damn thing, because I've spent so much time trying to FIX it! And now if I can't get ahold of Dell within the next two weeks, I don't know what I'll do. I hate calling tech support, but I hate thinking that I've spent $1300+ (that includes the leather case, the Windows XP Pro, the snap-on cover, and Office 2003 Pro) on a piece of shit. This happened with Dad and the Vaio-clone several years back, and that's still a piece of shit sitting in my closet back in SF.

I wonder if I can go to Fry's and assemble an all-new computer from the craptacular parts that Dell has... I mean, the CD+/-RW drive can't be bad, or the 40GB hard drive, right? And what about my 1GB Kingston Memory Card, and the rather nice monitor? I don't know,

god_101, you've put comps together from scratch, is it possible to do that?

...Needless to say, this whole idea of being pressured for time and not having any options is stressing me out a bit. A review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will come later. Right now, I'm exhausted... and by 7pm I have to be ready to go to King Tut. I still have to find time this weekend to do a smidgen of Japanese homework, BS at least part of my byline clip project, polish my study abroad essays and application(s), work on my VComm presentation for the 30th, AND work on Scott's birthday "present/card" for the 21st (MONDAY!!).

I feel like crying, but even my eyes are too tired.

Current Mood: distressed

Today in VComm there was the historical/television presentation... and needless to say, it SUCKED. Not only did they get their facts wrong (and then try and shift the blame to me, the "dumb" audience member), but they had hideous images ripped from the 'Net, completely without attribution. (And they spelled things wrong! So many things!) And their presentation was so dry, it needed moisturizer. One thing's for damn sure, my group (cultural/world wide web) will top them.

So I guess it's time for me to have another poll, if you please...

[Poll #614459]

( Eitoku Star Power, Make Up! )

In WRP2, the Story #6 that I worked so hard on (and BSed this evening ^^;) ended up being worth extra credit only... and she may or may not even issue extra credit. Instead, we have to edit a badly written (but similar) story that she gave us tonight. That's in ADDITION to the byline clip project with bonus oral presentation that I still have to do before Thanksgiving. This week is SOOOO busy... ;_; I'm finally tired though, so maybe after some more HYD I'll go to sleep. :)

Ahhh I need to make/get icons. HYD, definitely.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Cher - Song for the Lonely

Okay... I'm kind of stuck. Remember those Asian-American Studies courses I mentioned-- AAS 210 (History of Asian Americans) and AAS 430 (Asian-American Pop Culture)? Well, I just came back from the Study Abroad informational session, and Hirota-sensei herself (aka department chair of the Japanese language program, one of my future professors, and a former department chair for the Study Abroad in Japan program) said that Asian-AMERICAN doesn't count for Study Abroad.

I remember there being two other courses-- HIST 400-something, but it was really late at night, and Hirota-sensei's class, which sounded cool, but maybe it was at a bad time, too. Well anyway, I might have to tweak my schedule to find out just what would work for Study Abroad, and HOPEFULLY get something to count for SOME GE/Minor/80-65 while I'm at it. Ah, alas! That AAS 430 class sounded cool!

It also turns out Hirota-sensei is willing to proofread my essays for Waseda and Tokiwa, so I think I'll touch those up and send them her way. Anyone else who's got a spare 20 minutes, I'd totally appreciate it if you could look them over! They're posted here in my LJ (tag: essays) and also in the

writer_girls comm.

Last night I helped Scott out on ANOTHER photo shoot, because his teacher wanted him to be more specific about his focus and lighting. It took us about an hour before he found "the right lighting" and by the time we actually finished, it was after 12:30am! Even In-N-Out was closed, but since we were both hungry (is this starting to sound familiar yet?) we ended up going to Denny's. ^^ Scott then stayed over (!) because he was too tired to go home. :) Ah, good times... er, sort of. I'll have to elaborate on that later, though.

Oh, and I checked the poll results from that Only 16 poll I posted-- you people answered strangely! An uneven amount of people said they didn't read it vs. what they thought of it... o_O What's up with that? And I suppose I can't be disappointed by anyone's answers, because I intentionally set it up with extremes for choices. I didn't want to make it too confusing. In any case, I'm sorta-kinda inspired to work on it again, so we'll see. Betas are awfully hard to come by these days, but as long as the SMRFF exists, so does ANDI!!!! :O BWEAHAHAH! *cough*

Well, since I didn't get to bed until super-late last night (er, this morning), I had to BS my way through my Japanese test (I think I did well, except I forgot the word for change -as in money- which is "otsuri"). I finished up a short essay on reality TV for VComm, and now I'm going to start Story #6 for JOUR 210, which is due today. ^^; Before I go to VComm class in an hour, I also have to finish reading Ch. 14 on Television and Video... it's pretty cool so far! Did you know that reality TV has been around as long as TV has? And that there are *14* different types of reality shows? Wow.

Anyway, time to try and make sense of all these numbers... how do you calculate a percentage increase, again?

Current Mood: tired

Alright, it might be 3:45 in the morning (but it doesn't feel like it to me-- I blame it on all the naps I had today!) but I'm DONE! (Not with WDKY22, sorry. :P)

I finished my extensively long reading and writing for Japanese.

I typed up a 3 page essay (which, 1.5 spaced turns into 5 pages!) for visual communications, regarding the Ethical foundations of photojournalism.

AAAND best of all, I finished my magazine cover for Visual Communication class! WHOO! The printed copy looks good, if a little crooked on the page, so I'll be trimming it down once the photo-gloss paper dries. I really like it... I hope my class does, too. :> Hopefully if there's another gamer in the class, they'll understand all the sly references I made. This version is actually a bit different from the one I originally intended; I think I tried to bite off more than I can chew and tell too much about the 2 games and the characters in my last version.

baine, I think I showed you an alpha version of this, right? See how it's changed!

Well anyway, enough of me babbling... here is my magazine cover design for Visual Communication class
( newSpira: Spira's #1 news and entertainment magazine )

Current Mood: accomplished

Happy 2nd Birthday, WDKY!!!!

;_; I can't believe I forgot. It was on October 9th (9 days ago) and I forgot! Maybe I can cut myself some slack because of all the insanity going on lately, but really, it's died down since I sliced my fingers. And inspiration has been coming in a slow, but steady trickle. I should thank my lucky stars.

Well, since I didn't post in time for WDKY's 2nd anniversary (I'm still in a state of shock. I've been committed to this fic longer than I've been in a committed relationship. WTF!?), I'll post WDKY19 no later than Seto's birthday, on October 25th. Bwahahah!

I got my stitches out... it didn't hurt, as everyone insisted. I have a hand therapy appointment on Friday at 10am, and then my Mythology midterm at 12pm. An essay for the same midterm will be due on Monday, so it looks like I'll have a full weekend.

I don't even know when I'm going to tutor Leo (and his little sister, Caren) again, but yesterday's session was fun and good. Leo drew a picture of me in rainbow colors, and Caren took quite a shining to me (she called me "Onee-chan") and even gave me a Sailormoon fan! :D Whee, one more fan for my collection!

I've started cleaning my room, too, but alas! It seems as though I never have enough closet space. And to think, I left dresses and coats in San Francisco. -_-;

Speaking of SF, remember my DDR fic "Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?" That's the one I submitted for Creative Writing (even though technically it was against the "rules" to submit something that wasn't written for class)... and even more surprising, despite the length (25 pages for a short story) and the font size (9 pt), people LIKED it. The concrit I got was great, and for revision, I plan on condensing it, fleshing out the characters, and figuring out where the heck I want to go with everything (Akio possessing Alexa's body, Alexa's hesitant relationship with Matt -gag!- and everything else inbetween). I have to admit, it's always a bad idea to write fanfic or stories adapted from real life stories that are too personal/close to you, because when you re-read them in the future, you'll remember things, good or bad.

I read about Whitney and the other "NPCs" in the story, and I think about how I don't talk to Will anymore; I hardly see Amber, and any friendship I had with Benji has dissolved. The story is nice only in that it captures what was once, but what can never be again. It also captures that horribly embarrassing, ridiculously stupid crush I had on Mike. -_-; Worse, anyone that's read it can tell, because even if you didn't know me back in high school or the things I babbled on about (my first LJ post was after the Mike drama; I have older entries from FreeOpenDiary and Greymatter on my comp, but I've never got around to backdating them. Anyone care?), some things are just obvious. People in my critique workshop could tell "I" was Alexa. :P

Tomorrow I have my bulk of classes, including the usual Japanese (need to do Listening Comp. Blah), Mythology (prep for test!), Visual Communications (I might have to leave early for a leadership institute meeting. One of the groups is doing a presentation tomorrow though, and that might be the basis for what my group -the Cultural perspective/World Wide Web- does at the end of November, for our presentation. Argh! It's not like I paid for the workshop or anything, but it WOULD be taking up an hour of time after VComm class ends (it goes from 3-5; I'm supposed to be in VComm from 2-4) and it MIGHT just help out the Anime Club meetings... even if few people seem to care.), and Journalism. For the latter, I should be getting my Study Abroad rec. back from Professor Salido. I hope she said good things... >_>! Plus Story #3 is due, so I have to get to work on that tonight.

And then there's FFX-2. I'm at 96% and holding, and that remaining 4% might come from the random Episode Completes I didn't remember the last time around. I have several more zones to go to, plus Chocobos to send out, credits to trade in... ^_^v It's all about getting the Perfect Ending! :P

I've also got to make more icons, because the bulk of my icons are Yu-Gi-Oh (see my userpics page), when I have interests in so many other areas.

I need to catch up on journals, memes, contests (something tells me I neglected to post something for

ygo_offtopicon,

30kisses and

ygo_lyricwheel... Catch ya on the flip side!

HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY 'WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU'! WHOO-HOO!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Everything But The Girl - Missing

I am the Queen of Procrastination. Me and Atlantis have something in common: we're experts at busying ourselves with the things that need to get done, but could have been done later, and thus, we're the best at making to-do lists and never really getting around to doing them. ^^; I keep telling myself I'll clean my room, because the piles everywhere (clothes, books, papers) are getting a bit much-- even for my big, nice room that I have here! But during the week I feel like I never have enough time, and during the weekend, time just flies by when I try to relax and have fun!

I know I spend way too much time playing FFX-2. ;_; On the bright side, it inspired me to work on my Japanese (finished assignments for today and Tuesday) and my Visual Communications magazine cover. Yes, it's FFX-2 related. So basically I have to think of an interesting magazine cover layout that fits my FFX-2 theme... so I chose "Luca" as a destination. I grabbed a screenshot from FFX, and I'm trying to balance it out on either side with pictures of some big characters that I'd do "stories" on. That is: Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Brother, and Buddy (the Gullwings); Gippal, Baralai, Nooj, and Leblanc.

I was also thinking about having a "story" on Lenne and Shuyin, Maechen, and the return of Tidus (and something big to go with him, like he joins the newSpira -my magazine name. Isn't it kitschy!?- staff as a blitzball statistician, or for an exclusive interview about how he plans to rock the world of Blitzball once more. I was even tinkering with the idea of the Gullwings vs. the Aurochs in Blitzball-- whose side will Tidus take!? It's either that or "The Rumors Aren't True: Why The Gullwings AREN'T Disbanding". Any other ideas? What do you think?

I've managed to get the game up to 96%, and even though I just started Chapter 5, I have the New Game Plus option. I'll need to do another game just so I ensure that I get the Perfect Ending plus all the good accessories that you can only get through failed missions (Enterprise if you fail the 1st Moonflow mission; Key to Success if you get all the Moonflow missions, but you fail the Mt. Gagazet youth uprising mission). Geez, how lame it is not to be able to get those unless you screw over Spira in some way. And there's also the Japanese I+LM game...

Anyway, I think the remaining 4% will come from the Den of Woe (3%) and... uh, a random 1% that I haven't determined just yet. I already know I missed out on 0.2% (possibly; assuming I didn't get it my last go-around) by not watching the Calm Lands Chocobo Ranch CommSphere scene; it's either that or (I THINK) the Mascot Dressphere. I totally plan on getting it this time around! :O! As for The End garment grid, I really don't think there's any way I can possibly oversoul all the monsters just yet. I haven't caught that many chocobos, and you have to send chocobos to get things and to discover places... and I haven't done it! I hate the way the Brady Games guide is arranged... it explains why whenever I play a game, I always end up printing loads of stuff from online.

The weather here is finally turning sour: I'm hearing thunder rumbles outside, and this morning I helped Baba and Grandpa clean out the gutters in case of rain. We got a light drizzle, but it might start getting heavy again... Yeaaa... /sarcasm

I've also taken up meditation... and the purchasing of 2 meditation books at Border's on Thursday also led me to a job! When I was poking around for a specific meditation book, I ran into this Japanese family: a boy, a girl, and their mom. The girl had on a cool Pretty Cure shirt, so I told her it was pretty cool. Her mom was surprised I spoke Japanese, and after a brief conversation in English, we parted. After I bought my things downstairs, the mom came up to me and asked if I wanted to tutor her son in English! I got her phone number, called her back this afternoon, and I'm going over to her house tomorrow! It's near school. I told Dad and Grandpa about it, and they both think I should charge $20/hr. O_O I mean, I'm good in English, but... geez, I can't see myself charging that much. Even if it's not an every day for six hours kind of thing, that would mean I'd be making more money than my parents (I think!). So what do you think I should charge? The kid is 5 years old and in kindergarten. What should I teach? How should I teach it? (Surprisingly, his mom said he's not into manga or games. I wonder if that's because he can't read yet, or because he's just not one of those nerds like me! :P)

Aaand with Scott, my uncle Fred has possibly hooked him up with two backup plans, if Nova falls through (or he just wants something to do in San Diego after he graduates): (1) Apply as a stock photographer for this group that travels around the world 10+ mos out of the year. Sounds exciting, though Scott's more of a person-photographer than a thing-photographer. But it came highly recommended and hush-hush from Fred, so... I hope if he applies (and doesn't get Nova), he'd get this job, because it sounds fun. Sad thing would be, at least with Nova, I would know where he is and how to get ahold of him; with this, there's hardly a chance of that. With (2), it's a similar kind of stock photography job, but working for my uncle specifically, and during the months when Scott would be in SD, presumably waiting to go to Japan for Nova. January-April, I think.

As for me and him, well, like I said: we're not exactly in a relationship, but we still love each other. And he's said it, and made it clear (finally!) exactly what he meant. I don't need to tell him that I still love him, though admittedly, my feelings have changed. We can hang out like normal people/friends, and even sleep together without having sex. That's saying something, IMHO, just because people, given the opportunity to have sex usually will. It's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of your brain switching off and your genitals switching on. That's it.

*yawn* In any case, I better get to sleep soon. Damn Squatter Monkeys.

Current Mood: aggravated

zOMG I got Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission today... and given that you shouldn't start Last Mission without a completed FFX-2 save (and it can't be US, it has to be either Japanese or Japanese INT.), I started a new Japanese FFX-2 International file. Dialogue and such is in English, but MAN is it hard trying to do anything else! So far, I can read "potion", "dressphere", and "result plate", and that's about it. I don't even know what Ether is called! I did manage to get the Festival-goer (Omatsuri-something-or-other) dressphere though, which makes battles loads easier; Yuna just blows everything up with fireworks.

In order to get the Psychiccer dressphere, I have to battle in Shinra's new Battle Cup system, using fiends captured or sampled by the Creature Create system... all new to I+LM. I know you can "capture" really amazing character (Tidus, Auron, etc.) and from screenshots I've seen, you can swap them INTO your party, and their stats can be amazing! >_> I still don't understand how you can Break HP limit and Break Damage Limit outside of battle though... I mean, don't you need some special grid for that? (The End?)

I'm definitely going to be consulting a lot of guides for this. I still want to get 100% complete on the US game though, so I'm still playing that.

I also got Persona 2: Eternal Punishment today... whee, and it's everything I remembered and more! I actually opened my old save and I had NO frackin' clue what I was doing or where I was. Something about a Secret Casino. Methinks I'll probably start a new file for that one too, just to refresh my memory. I do remember this, though: Katsuya x Maya forever! :P

More good news: I am not going to spend all my days parked in front of this computer or the PS2. Matter of fact, I plan on taking a quick nap and then cleaning my room. After anime club, more sleep, then lather, rinse, repeat-- clean again! I have tons to do and a deadline to get it all done by.

Speaking of deadlines and other journalism-y stuff, I was on my way up to the 4th floor of the library to go to my locker, and these two guys were talking behind me on the escalator. One said "I bet she's a journalism major," but I didn't know who they were talking about. Then they actually said "Hey" to me, and asked if I was a journalism major. So I said yes, and asked them how the guy who asked knew, and he just smiled this weird way and said he guessed.

*blink* I didn't recognize either guy, but maybe one of them was in my class? I dunno. The two of them were laughing about it after I got off the escalator. o_O

Oooh, and more on the FFX-2 note... so we finally got our assignment in Visual Communications the other day, to design this magazine cover, right? We'll have to explain why we chose the things/style we did... and I got SO inspired just as Prof. Blumenkrantz was talking about it! *grin grin* I don't want to spoil my idea lest someone somehow steal it, but it IS related to FFX-2, and it WILL be good! Bwahaha!

My hand has actually been kind of hurting lately... not really serious ow! pain, but kind of that numb, hard feeling (if that makes any sense). I'm getting my stitches out on the 18th, thankfully, and Grandpa assures me that a) it won't hurt and b) my hand functions WILL return to normal.

I also went back to Red Robin and talked to Francis, the GM. He said that they have to train people to become trainers to train NEW people (like me), so I should come back in 2-3 weeks after they've likely sent people to the trainer's conference and tested them and all. I guess that's good... I can wait. Besides, Francis told me that I'm a very energetic, memorable person and that I'd be a great addition to the team. I'm hoping he remembers that and feels the same way in 2-3 weeks.

Also, I think I've made up my mind as to what I want to be for Halloween. More of a cosplay than a Halloween costume, actually... how about Téa, ala

atlantian_magic's "Once Upon A Halloween" fic. All I need is a handsome prince, a cute puppy, and Tinkerbell along for the ride. Hey, -

cutieme4u, what's up for Halloween, anyhow?

Current Mood: bouncy

Okay, so I'm stepping up my process for going to Japan again, be it through study abroad, internship, or post-graduation, as a career to teach English. I have to admit, with Scott having interviewed for NOVA (and possibly GEOS or ECC coming up in the future), I kind of lost my thunder and mojo for the job that had been my dream for a while.

I still really want to go back to Japan, I'd love to interact with people, immerse myself in the culture, and even live there for a while... my desire to be an International/Foriegn Affairs journalist is still strong, so I'm going to go for it!

I have Takase-sensei my Study Abroad recommendation form today; she should have enough time to get to know me and fill it out (it's a short form) by Thanksgiving. I'm also going to give one form to Professor Salido, since she's already known me a year, and I need a letter from a teacher in my major. If worse comes to worse, I can also try asking Professor Blumenkrantz, the VComm teacher who likes to pick on me :P

There's a Study Abroad Fair today at school; I picked up some info on the JET Programme. The Japanese director/coordinator here at CSUN happens to be a JET interviewer and a professor I will likely have next semester for my minor/Japanese courses. So I'm getting prepared now! JET recommends taking the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foriegn Language) test, and they do have courses here at CSUN taught by Oxford Seminars (and others in the area, I'm sure), but the cost is a whopping $800! You can get minor discounts if you register early, but the next week-long session coming up is in January, and I don't know when I'll be getting my second financial aid check (though it WOULD be able to cover the cost of said course). Does anyone know about any cheaper certification courses for the TEFL? On that note, how long does certification last? Should I not bother getting it now?

Professor B also passed along some info from the State Department about internships... how cool, working for the CIA! :O Or something like that, anyway. I had to email myself the PDFs though; they're over 40 pages long!

I have to get going to Mythology class now... we have a quiz. Hopefully when that's over I can come back here to the library, catch up on my driver's ed, do some VComm reading, get some lunch, and head to my next class at 2pm... I still have to figure out if I'll be missing some VComm or canceling the workshops I registered for a while back, for the Leadership Institute. Same goes for my WRP2 class... I'd only miss an hour of both classes at most, but still, I only have those classes once a week... >_>

I'd also like to mention that the story of FFX/X-2 is melting my brain. I'm confused about how Sin appeared, what Yevon has to do with anything, who picks the Guardian that becomes the sacrifice that becomes the big bad, what summoners actually do... and all this jazz. I think I'll post a what-I-know story over to

fanthropology later on today.

Current Mood: busy

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Page Summary

I hate Dell.
People who can't spell piss me off
Meet Pinky and the Brain, they want to rule the universe
Whoo-hoo!
Oh. My. God(s).
The stitches eleven come out tomorrow, huzzah, huzzah!
Squeenix!
Nihon ni ikimashou!

Page generated Jun. 19th, 2025 09:53 pm

MILES to GO || before I sleep

lovely // dark // deep

Entries tagged with visual communication

I hate Dell.

People who can't spell piss me off

Meet Pinky and the Brain, they want to rule the universe

Whoo-hoo!

Oh. My. God(s).

The stitches eleven come out tomorrow, huzzah, huzzah!

Squeenix!

Nihon ni ikimashou!