Glasses

If you wear glasses, you should really check out this website before you buy your next pair.  They have glasses for as low as $6.95.  You might think that for that price, it's just the frames, but you would be wrong.  Prescription lenses are included.  You just type in your prescription.  They aren't just reading glasses where you have to choose from 4 different prescriptions.  You type in your exact prescription and they'll make them for you.  Now you're probably thinking, well these glasses must look pretty dorky if they cost only $6.95.  You'd be wrong again.  They have at least 30 cool looking frames for only $6.95, lenses included.  And possibly the coolest part of this site is that you can upload a photo of yourself and try on the glasses.  You can even compare up to 4 different pairs at a time.  They also sell sunglasses, prescription or not.  There is also an option to get magnetized sunglasses attachment that will fit your new frames for only like $4 more.  Even if you don't wear glasses, if you ever wondered what you would look like with them, this site's good for that too.  And you don't have to register for an account or do a special offer either.

Whoa!

Have you heard about how if you click the first link not in parentheses on any Wikipedia article, you will reach philosophy? Well, I haven't found an article where it doesn't.  Also, if you do the same thing on the philosophy article, you'll come back to philosophy.  It's pretty crazy.

Project Time

I have a new follower! Greetings to lucky follower number 13, Sarah from Perth.

I recently started an account on artfire.com, so now I'm making stuff to sell there.  Yesterday, I made this bracelet.



photo taken with my scanner, because my new camera hates me

Today, I am going to go to the art store and get supplies to make feather earrings.  They look awesome and people sell them for quite a bit.  I was inspired by these ones that I bought at the street fair.

photo courtesy of my webcam, which takes slightly better pictures than my camera

So that's what I'm doing today.  Well, I'm doing that and selling some more books so I can get clear nail polish to put on the sides of my glasses where they touch my face.  You know how rings made out of cheap metal turn your fingers colors where they touch your skin? Well, that's what my glasses are doing to my face.  I kind of need to get some new glasses, since these get bent really easily too, and have a big scratch across one lens as of two days ago.  Hopefully I can make enough money for new glasses off of my jewelry sales.

Now I Know How it Feels

Firstly, the street fair was so much fun that I ended up going three times.  I'll post pictures of the two pairs of earrings I got as soon as I figure out how to make my camera not take blurry photos.

Secondly, I went swing dancing last night with two of my friends.  Remember back in elementary school when you played sports at recess and there would be two team captains and everybody would line up to be picked for teams?  Maybe you can't relate, but anyway I was always the only girl who played sports with the boys at recess, usually soccer.  I was pretty good at soccer, and despite the fact that I was (well, still am) a girl, I was always one of the first picked for a team.  I had never been picked last for anything.  Until last night at swing dancing.  Let me tell you, it really sucks.  Sure I hadn't been swing dancing since I was 10 years old, but one of my friends is at the same skill level as me and she was asked to dance at least four times as much as I was.  She is pretty gorgeous, but it's sort of a self-esteem crusher when you only get asked to dance 5 times in three hours and only by one person your own age.  The other four were old enough to be my dad, if not my grandfather.  The highlight of the evening was when the drunk guy tried to hit on us before we went in, and said we were all really beautiful, and could he have 12 cents, so he could get drunk.  We ignored him, partially because he was clearly already very drunk.  Then he tripped over his own foot.

I Am so Busy

But most of the stuff I'm doing is fun.  I'm going to the Seattle Art Museum with my best friend today.  Than doing more job searching.  And meeting another friend for dinner tonight.  Then Saturday and Sunday is the U District street fair.  It should be fun, though a bit bittersweet, since last year I went on my first date there and then the guy moved to California a week later.  Oh, and I need to contact the people I'll be renting from and figure out some stuff there.  This is the second day of sunshine! And It's supposed to last until tomorrow.  Then, rain just in time for the street fair.  Whatever, I'll go anyway.

Oh yeah, the world's supposed to be ending too, in case you haven't heard.  May 21st to be exact.  It must be true.  This guy named Harold Camping predicted it.  Sure, he was wrong about the world ending in 1994, but he wouldn't dare to make that mistake twice, right? Yeah, I don't believe it either.  After all, everyone knows that the world is ending in 2012.

That Really Just Happened

I was just sitting on my bed wasting time with online riddles when I should be filling out a job application.  I'd like to emphasize that I was not eating anything.  And then my tooth just randomly got chipped.  I just happened to rub my tongue against it and a piece fell off of the top.  It's about one-third of the width of the tooth gone right out of the middle of the top.  It's not a whole lot, but that is so bizarre.  And now my tongue is going to be all raw since I can't stop running it over that spot.  It's not like my tooth was rotten or anything disgusting like that.  I brush my teeth at least twice a day and I've never had a cavity.  I just don't understand how this would happen.

Stuff I Like

This post will mainly consist of me geeking out.  This is basically a list of things I want and things that I think are good ideas.  So without any further ado.

I pretty much adore Alice in Wonderland.

Remember this necklace? I still want it.

How cool is this ice cube tray?

I can't even begin to tell you how badly I want this!

Its'a me, Mario.  Oh, and Toad too, but I want the Mario one more.

This might be a sign that a play too much Mario Kart. Blue shell!

Tauntaun sleeping bag!

I've wanted a Goomba plushie for quite a while.

My newest pet peeve is when people think that they're a gamer because they play Angry Birds.  And if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a job now.  A little over-confidence never hurt anyone.  Actually, it probably has, especially when it's a guy being overconfident about his ability to hit on women who have big strong boyfriends.

Photo Retouching

I applied for a job as a photo retoucher.  I have the skills to do a good job of it, but I am not of fan of making people look fake.  In my opinion, Photoshop is great for correcting bad lighting and stuff like that, but I can't stand in when people use it to supposedly "improve skin" and they end up completely removing all of their skin texture.  Seriously, in real life people's skin has texture.  I can't stand all these Internet tutorials that are basically about how to make someone look like some sort of creepy android trying to pass for a human.  Here's a pretty extreme example of what I'm talking about.

 There is really nothing wrong with this photo, but the retoucher is thinking,

"Oh noes! Freckles! Quick, to the unreality maker!"



And then this nonsense happens.  I don't know who in their right mind would think

that this looks better.  They basically just blurred her entire face and removed all of

the texture from everything except her hat.

Unfortunately, there is quite a large job market for people to make other people look fake, or supposedly "perfect".  And the other big problem I have with most photo retouchers is that they constantly make people's skin lighter.  Like they'll take a perfectly fine picture of a woman who has darker skin, remove all the texture from it, and then lighten her skin until she looks Caucasian.  And then she's pretty, according to them.  Newsflash people, there are plenty of beautiful women of all nationalities.  It's not like you can't be pretty unless your skin is white.  That is just not true and incredibly racist.  Haven't you seen Megan Fox?  I'm a straight female and even I can say that she is smokin' hot.  Yet, some photo retouchers feel the need to lighten her skin too.  I just don't understand what is wrong with people.

Anyway, without any further ado, here are two photos I retouched.

I did not make this girl's skin lighter.  I just corrected the lighting of the entire photo,

so this is her actual skin color.  The other thing I did was make her eyes look

more lively by adding a little reflected light to them.

I diminished the appearance of this guy's scar.  Mostly just because people don't like their own scars.  I didn't remove any of his skin texture.  I actually sharpened it a bit.  And I removed the dark circles under his eyes a little bit, while still keeping the photo looking realistic.

Your Daily Dose of Adorable

This is pretty much the cutest thing ever.  I love the part where he's yelling, "We kissed on the lips! Wooooo!"  And the little nod he does is awesome.  And that little girl is awesome, with her Batman shirt and skeleton backpack.

So Here's the Plan

For now, I'm going to try to find another job, but do some freelance graphic design in the meantime, like logos and stuff.  So I'll at least be making some money.  And I need to find a place to stay.  I promised my mom yesterday that I wouldn't stay with anyone I don't know, so now I'm trying to find someone from church or something.  In other news, I have about 25 cents in my wallet right now, so I'm going to try my best to sell all of my textbooks today, and take the cash instead of the in-store credit.  I'm also going to sell some of my other beloved books.  Parting is such sweet sorrow :(  I hate to have to do it, but I really only need so many books in my life, so I'm going to sell all of the ones I have read, even my favorites.  It will be tough, but I'll manage like a trooper, and get some cash in my pocket.  I may have to sell some of my video games too, though I'm not sure how much I could even get for them, and I am not willing to part with my Nintendo DS.

And another thing, I'm putting ads on my blog.  I hope you understand, and I'll be just as annoyed by them as you are if that's any consolation.

Back to Square One

Disclaimer: This is just my opinion and if anyone from this company reads this, please don't sue me for libel.

So, word on the street (and by street, I mean Internet) is that Kirby vacuums is not a legit employer.  And it turns out that KM Distributing is a Kirby vacuums seller.  And that's where my new job is.  So much for that.  To succeed in the company, you have to be pushy and rude.  They lied to us at training.  The company knowingly hires criminals.  Some people never get paid.  Supposedly, you get $2000 a month, no matter what, but that's not true.  So I'll be looking for a new job now.  Oh, hey, Target is hiring.  At least they're legit.

Lesson learned: If something seems like it's too good to be true, it usually is.

Guess What

I got a job!  It pays $2000/month. And tomorrow I start my training.  And tomorrow night I'm checking out a place.  A place where rent is $400/month.

One Giant Step (Warning Super Serious Post)

Yesterday I made the biggest decision/realization of my entire life.  College is not for me.  College and I haven't been too close at the best of times.  I never even really desired to go to college.  It was just expected of me from the time when I taught myself to read when I was 3.  My parents have always been like, You are so smart. You will go to college and do great things.  Sorry parents.  I'm dropping out.  I don't need college to be a graphic designer.  I'm terrible at academic writing.  And every single class I've ever taken except one hasn't even been relevant to anything  about graphic design.  The only reason I'm here is that I got scholarships and I feel bad giving them up, but hey, more money for other people who actually want to go to college.  I don't want to disappoint my parents, but I can't go around my entire life doing things just because they are expected of me.  I need to be in charge of my own life, and that means that I am done with college.  Well, I'll still be living in my dorm room until I find a place to stay, since I have paid my tuition and housing for the entire quarter, but after that it's "Sayonara, University of Washington.  Hello real world and job and rent.  I plan to wait to tell my parents after I find a job and a place to live, so I can show them how responsible I am.  It just wouldn't be right to give my mom a mother's day card that says, "Happy Mother's Day, I'm pregnant and dropping out of college.  But don't worry, I'm really not pregnant."  Sort of like, I may be dropping out of college, but hey it could be worse.  Didn't you want a heart attack for Mother's Day?  Yeah, that's not going to happen.  So now I begin the hunt for a job and a place to stay.  I want to stay in Seattle.  There's a new restaurant opening on The Ave, called the Rock and Roll Grill.  Sounds like a good place and they're hiring, so I'll check that out.  I need to get some "I'm a responsible person, you can tell because I'm dressed nice" clothing to wear when meeting prospective employers.  I may only have $7 to my name, but it's 50% off for students day at Goodwill, so I could probably get a couple business-y shirts, and I already have some nice pants.  So I guess this is close to the end of this chapter of my life, and I'm about to enter the real world.  Wish me luck.  Oh, and it's May 4th, so May the fourth be with you.  Watch some Star Wars and be happy.  I'll be watching Empire Strikes back later, which is my favorite.  Farewell for now.  Hopefully I'll have good news to share soon.

I would scream but it would probably hurt

I woke up this morning (11 is still morning) to my tonsils trying to commit suicide.  My throat hurts sooo bad and all I have that's helping is some salty chips.  I will not let this ruin my movie night tonight.  As if it knows how I feel, the sunny weather has been replaced with gray and overcast skies.

In other news, I got some camo short shorts and some bright green sandals.  Also, Nutella Mug Cake is enjoyed by many, but it is way too rich for me.  And now I'll have to bake some cookies to get rid of all the leftover flour and sugar.