Today I reached out to a local web and interactive design firm here in Austin, to set up a meeting to discuss internships and what needs they may have. Rather than just having any students apply, I wanted to be able to only have students that fit the criteria they really want. I called the Internship Coordinator to setup something. The call was horrible. The woman was so rude. She kept saying to read what’s on the site and have them apply. When I tried to explain that knowing more about the types of skills students should have would help me in sending them there, she just kept saying ‘have them apply”. I asked to perhaps talk to the head of the department to set up a meeting she told me “she is a very busy women and doesn’t have time to talk to you”. It was really frustrating and so rude! The call started and ended badly, and since I knew I was doing this for my job (and possibly at the expense of my students) I tried very hard not to lose it and ended it gratefully. But gah! What a poopy-head. Believe me, “poopy-head” isn’t what I’m really thinking. Oh and even though I stated I was from the Art Institute of Austin she said I was from UT!

Part of me really wanted to send an angry email to the main company address. I am still pondering it. Anyone who calls that number would be treated so poorly and rudely. The problem I see is that if I complain, they may not hire Art Institute students since she appears to be the internship gatekeeper. I am annoyed because perhaps because our call went so badly, she might nix anyone who applies with Ai on their resume. Or who knows, maybe she thinks it’s just UT! So I am torn between just calling her a crappy person in my head and leaving it at that or emailing the company. Either way, even though there are many other design firms in Austin, I don’t want to burn any bridges at a large one like this. What would you do?

It has bite.

While I was sick for about a week, I was so proud that I weened myself off of caffeine. My goal was to get off caffeine and then ween off the dark soda, then ween off light soda (Sprite or 7-up) for good. I noticed that I had to have a can of Diet Coke every day. I tried to limit myself to 1 can, but at times, at restaurants I would enjoy more than a glass. I just feel like I need to take better care of myself and this is something easy that I can do and have done before. Years ago, all I drank was water, I did it for several years, then I went to grad school and my all nighters were too hard to stay awake…so I returned to Diet Coke.

I was proud because I was now off caffeine, not craving a diet coke. I was drinking Sprite if I wanted something sweet. But then at a restaurant I thought, “oh yeah, I can have root beer!”. So I ordered myself up one and drank. I didn’t check to see if it was A&W or Barq’s. Anyway, since then I have had about 5 root beers…and at work, they only have Barq’s. Well, at my friend Mandy’s house today, she informed me that yes Barq’s has bite (caffeine). I remember arguing with a friend in the past that yes it did, but he swore it did not, and I believed him. Ugh, so yes, looking it up, while it does not have as much caffeine as Coca Cola, it still has some. Now to add to the story, I have had trouble sleeping, hm, perhaps due to the late root beer!

Am I really caffeine free if I didn’t know I was having caffeine? Ugh, so now I have to see if I need to ween myself off this too. It’s frustrating since I felt so proud and I feel I have to start again. Darn you Barq’s Old Tyme Root Beer!!

The Summer quarter at the Art Institute is starting on Monday. What classes am I teaching?

• Portfolio I – working 1 on 1 with a student on her porfolio. She is about to get her AAS in Web Design & Interactive Media and we need her to be ready for the world!
• Intro to Scripting – xHTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • For some reason my last class got to JS but didnt’ go as for as I’d like to go. I need to manage my teaching better. I need to be better at JS and by teaching it, I really get a much better grasp on it.
  • I feel much better about this class, this will be my 3rd time teaching it and I each quarter I keep finding more interesting projects to try and incorporate.
• Intermediate Scripting – Dreamweaver
  • Last quarter I brought in an actual client, and students created a website for her. The each designed a mock site, and the client chose the ones she liked best.  The client was “The Suzy Guides”, the author creates walking travel books. It guides your through several big cities around the world. What’s awesome is that she gets to do these walks as her job! The audience for these books are people who have already seen the big monuments and are looking for something more in-depth about the city. Right now she has Beijing and Paris, but is adding NYC and London. Anyway, this is the site the client chose. Right now it is on my webspace from school. Once I have the store open I can move it over to her host. While I would have done things differently, the client loves it and so that makes me really happy. She is also hiring the designer to continue to work on the site, which I also love. I do think they did a pretty good job for just learning Dreamwewaver. Don’t worry, you don’t have to point mistake (like the thumbnails and large image, I know).
• Digital Imaging – Photoshop
  • I really love this class. I love Photoshop, it’s so fun to use (at least to me). And I hope my passion for it is spread to the students. Last quarter we had a great class. Students were great and we brought in a local band to be the client. Students created posters for the band and really created some awesome projects. I saw some work students from other classes did (with no client) and I must admit, my class surpassed them! (Okay, so I may be biased!)
  • Right now I have 3 big projects that they must complete throughout the 11 weeks (we move in quarters).
    1. The first is to create an original movie poster. So they have to think of a movie concept and then create the poster to sell it. Students seem to enjoy this one (especially when it’s their movie idea).
    2. The second project is to create a book cover for their favorite book. This one doesn’t go so well. Apparently most students don’t like to read. For the students who love to read I get excited grins and excellent work, but everyone else is kinda blah about it. I really want to think of some other project. Any ideas?
    3. The final project is bringing in a client – a local band usually. The client will decide on what they want, perhaps a poster for a specific gig or a generic poster for use at any show. Students seem to really dig this and the two bands I’ve used so far have gotten them really excited. I really like this one too.
  • Things I don’t really want to do for a project are like CD covers, or DVD covers. Other classes do this and while I don’t think students mind, I do want to make them think of other things. I wouldn’t do magazine layouts or packaging since that should really be done in Illustrator. Someone suggested doing treasure maps. That’s an interesting idea, but not really popping in my mind. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
• Usability Testing(?)
  • I didn’t really want to teach this class, but due to interviewees not showing up, I think I may have to. I took a whole class on Usability Testing in grad school and that is what I plan to teach. I read a lot of Jakob Nielson and his usability testing and findings. There were others, but he really sticks out in my brain to look to, so I purchased an updated version of one of the books I have. I remember hating Usability Testing. The thing is, it’s one of the higher paying jobs in web, people don’t want to spend time doing it, and when their site isn’t up to par, they have to hire someone to go back and figure out what is wrong – that’s where the big bucks comes in. I disliked it but now I kind of enjoy it. It just saves so much wasted time when problems are found before a site is coded. It’s really the smart thing to do. Anyway, I was hoping to find someone who actually did more than my beginning usability testing for my sites and for my past employers, but that doesn’t look like it will happen. Even this guy from Dell says he can’t do it…and I think he kind of part of his job! But come on, class starts on Tuesday and there is no syllabus for it, yeah I am not eager to try and throw the first day together either. We’ll see if I teach it or not (although I am planning to prepare, just in case).

So those are the course I will be teaching, my plate will be full. I must admit, I have some great co-workers who I have just really enjoy being around. Okay, not all are great, but the ones who are, are supa great

"Herzog" - Saul Bellow

Currently, the Faculty Book Club is ready “Herzog” by Saul Bellow. Sadly, I am way behind. I am only about 1/3 of the way through. What’s funny is that I talked to two of my coworkers…and they haven’t finished it either. Our meeting is on Sunday! Oh well, it is an interesting book, I guess. I think I haven’t read to the more action part. Right now he is sort of a loser. It is an easy read though, just if you have time to site and read it.

So Danny is gone for another 4 weeks, just about. I have kept really busy, taking the dog places, working late, trying to hang with friends. But I miss him, and I am sad. I could technically go hang with friends now, but I am pooped. But sort of lonely too. I’ve been taking care of his plants and I think I’ve done pretty well. I picked a large red tomato today. The band did ask if he would be free in August, not sure how long the tour will be, but…meh.
I should paint right now, but I am tired, long day at work and then I met up with Fred and took Nacho to the dog park.

Do you ever want to just move away, make a new life in a whole new country? Like see if you can make it in Ireland, or Buenos Aires, Spain, or Mathis? (I’m just kidding about the last one). I wonder at times what it would be like to live like others do. Like having to wear a scarf and mitts all the time, or being in a jungle. Not forever of course, but just to see and learn about the lives of others. I realize that since I don’t have children, I have the world at my fingertips (reminding myself that it takes cash too), but I should technically go enjoy the world or what I can of it before I get tied down with family. Not that you can’t enjoy it with family, but lets just say Danny and I aren’t in careers where money will be rolling in later. I don’t know, I am rambling now. Just wondering what I should be doing…you know?

I have to learn JavaScript for Monday’s class. Not all of it of course, but just enough to get student’s feet wet and get them coding cool stuff. At times I feel like such a failure to my students, at others I feel wonderful, I know with experience it will get better and my rough days will be less and less. I do enjoy my job and the people I work with though, I am learning so much and well, love it.

Just saw this video by Regina Spektor. I really like her music (another girl and a piano, go figure)  and I saw this video and gave a holla to my fellow curly girl. Okay, so in this video her curls are formed to look a little more like “Annie” (the orphan) rather than like a mermaid. But still…when they stand together it made me smile.

Better

I really like this song too…I need to bring my piano up from Portland
Laughing With

So my friend showed me this blog: 8Asians and they had an article about Mr. Sulu (Star Trek). What was funny was when I saw the movie I thought, hey it’s that dude (his name is John Cho of “Harold & Kumar” fame). And I started wondering, well, who else would they get? The number of Asian actors working in American movies is slim, like Latinos. I would actually say slimmer than Latinos. I am sure there are actors/actresses who are part Asian working, but I mean people who have the Asian look.

My mind began to wonder about Asians in the media and who could fill this role now…

William Hung

William Hung, no. Not really a film star anyway, or is he?

Jackie Chan as Sulu? Probably not…

Pat Morita

Pat Morita, well, since he passed away a few years ago, that’s a no too.

Chow Yun Fat

Danny reminded me of Chow Yun Fat. But I don’t think he would fit in with the young cast of Star Trek.

Hm…so I thought my list of actors would be longer…I can’t think of any others. Oh yes, of course John Cho who plays the new  Sulu in the Star Trek movie.

John Cho

Oh and of course, the original Mr. Sulu!

George Tekai

I could throw in more of Asia, like India…but my list would probably only include the cast of Slumdog Millionaire and Kumar (Kutner from House). M. Night S… is a director, but he has starred in his movies…

Hm, my list is so sparse.

Are there any other young Asian actors out there? American films would have us think not. Can you think of other mainstream Asian actors working in American film? Help me think of some!

This is why classes develop and grow each quarter, I keep getting more in-depth questions that I really want to answer and will add to the next class I teach. So keep questions coming!

XHTML/CSS

A student asked me about the psychology of coding things like CSS and XHTML. I was sort of taken aback. I had never really thought about it in that way. My thoughts were that the World Wide Web Consortium created these standards for us to follow. Because of the changes that happen so quickly, they have to create new standards and leave room for changes or additions to those standards. They tried to make the tags self-evident but they can be confusing so there are a lot of references available in books or on the web. By following these rules, you can make a usable, complient webpage that would be viewable by as many browsers as possible.

I also wondered if perhaps in the class “Programming Logic”, if students got some psychology there? I have not sat in that class so I’m not 100% what is covered. I know the instructor does not cover the coding we use necessarily, but did he cover the thought process behind all types of coding?

What is the psychology of coding? Is that something the programmers decide and that’s why I never really thought about it (since I’m a designer)? And how can I make the learning of web coding easier for students to understand?

So I haven’t been posting here in a while. Every time I am on the computer I feel like I should be prepping for my lecture or finding interesting exercises for my students to try. Even right now, I don’t feel fully prepared for tomorrows class so I will be up late.

My parents visited this weekend and it was good. Usually I have more family come at the same time. With so many people in the house it can get really crowded, and that’s because we have 4 bedrooms! But hey, I’m used to it (6 in our family when I was at home). It was just nice to be with my parents though. Just kind of hang out and have fun.
Danny is out of town for some gigs with a guy named Eric Tessmer. It doesn’t look like a permanent thing, but it was a couple of well paying gigs. He’ll be home soon.

I am half half about the neighborhood I live in.
On one hand it is at times called the ghetto. Last week a cop shot a kid (18 yrs old) in the face and riots broke out. Okay, small riots, but that happened about 3 blocks away. Not too long ago, there was a hostage situation and they called my house and a recording said to “stay indoors”. That was 2 blocks away.
But on the other hand…even though stuff has happened nearby, I like our house and our neighborhood. We live in a cul-du-sac and don’t have many problems here. It seems to be “over there” or “those houses” that have issues. I think the neighborhood is changing. We are considered east central Austin which is good, especially since a big development is nearby. Our house value has grown too, so I think it was a good investment.
But today I was pretty annoyed. My mind started pondering the thought of moving out of here. I have found I can’t go walking alone (even with the dog). I get honks and shouts from trucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m so amazingly hot that they can’t help it, I think if anything with legs and long hair was walking – the low lifes would honk. Today I got the honks and shouts, but then I had someone pull near me and ask if I was “selling”. I did not look up and I ignored him but…grrrr. I went straight home and decided that I can’t go alone anymore. While my neighborhood is changing, it’s still has a way to go.
I do think it’s interesting that our neighborhood is predominately black, yet we have pockets of Mexicans. Like our neighbors who go back and forth from Mexico often. They speak a different Spanish than what I am used to and tend to wear more cowboy clothing. Not sure if being a “cowboy” is a Mexican thing or what. Corpus was like the birthplace of Tejano but I didn’t see nearly as many cowboys as I do here (and that’s because most Tejano bands have matching cowboy shirts!). I know that’s a weird observation but it just stood out to me. To bring this back to my original point, those are the people who I keep getting honks from. *sigh* I was happy moving into our area because there was a mix (and more whites are coming in too). I like the diversity and it reminded me of Taft (my birth town). But today I was reminded why my parents worked so hard to move our family out of Taft. It wasn’t the ghetto they were worried about, it was the barrio. Why am I back when they worked so hard to get us out?
No rash decisions need to be made now, but just something else to think about that we’ll probably need to do before we have children.

Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I must admit, I enjoyed “Running with Scissors” much more than this book. “Dry” A Memoir” dealt solely with Augusten’s alcoholism and his trials at becoming sober. It did give me a view into the world of rehab and AA meetings. I found it hard to relate to a lot of it since I barely drink, but his writing is witty and clever and he does a really good job at letting you know the crap that goes through your mind when trying to break a horrible habit.

It was an easy read but I realized that I haven’t really read about the gay lifestyle much in main stream novels. His relationships were of course a side note to his road to sobriety but he weaved it in pretty well.

If you plan to read Augusten Burroughs, I recommend “Running with Scissors” and maybe leaving “Dry” on the shelf.


View all my reviews.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very short and easy read.

I am finding that I am treating books like a fine mint or chocolate. Something to savor and think about, not to chomp through and prove I read something (or to make my “read” list longer).

At times I will read something and then either re-read the paragraph or even the chapter to take it all in. I noticed I did this with the book “Caramelo”, also by Sandra Cisneros. In “The House on Mango Street” I found myself reading chapters over (they are very short, 1 – 2 pages at most) to make sure I savored all the flavor from her writing.

She writes without any quotation marks to show spoken word. It’s almost as if she is remembering what happened and you’re hearing it in her head.

It’s the story of a girl, living in a low-income area and the people who live around her. The whole book is about her observations of the people she sees, but also her own feelings about living there and realizing what it means to live “there”.

Some chapters make you laugh (she can be very clever in her writing) and some chapters can make you tear up (I’m sure my own background fueled some of the tearing up). The observations are all made through the eyes of a girl, so things like abuse, machismo, and heartbreak are very straight forward, simple, almost romatic. Not romantic in the horrible things that happen, but in the way she sees it and tries to make sense of it.