My Wagon is stuck

Today’s Daily Create assignment was #tdc1481 Put a Western Reflection in your Front Window

I immediately liked the idea of Arches National Park out my window. However, it wasn’t looking good in photoshop. Instead I decided to take a picture of a Snow Covered Wagon from Flickr (Thanks so much!) and put in my view.

Guess I’m not gonna make it to California anytime soon with all this snow. Dang it!

getting back in the saddle for #ds106

Hi again!

After too long of a hiatus from blogging and making art, I am ready to commit again to #ds106. It helps that I am back in North America after 3 years of living overseas in South Korea. ^^

First assignment for 2016 and getting back : Create a cattle brand.

It is supposed to take 20 minutes or less, but of course I can never just settle on one idea. Luckily my friend Megan Mc, a fellow #ds106 alumnus was there to help me out!

I ended up using my initials for the design rather than my plan to stylize my twitter handle: Cali4beach with C4B…. couldn’t find a good combination of that I liked. Megan Mc said my brand reminded her of some of the ships in Star Wars. Not intentional, but that’s cool anyways.   #tdc148

Everyday I’m trolloling

Haha. I keep looking at this and laughing.

The inspiration behind this?

I was talking to my sister Laura about “Game of Thrones.” I have only watched 2 episodes so far of Season 3. My sister was ahead of me in watching it and threaten to reveal spoilers!

I told her: “Keep it secret, Keep it safe!”

Her response: You sound like Dumbledore.

Me: You mean Gandalf? LOTR?

Laura: Same difference.

Thus the Troll quote was born! 😉

ps. YAY FOR DS106 ART!! It’s been too long.

Portrait Project: Erin

I have always wanted to take a portrait of strangers  ever since my #DS106 class in the Spring of 2011. 

I myself was asked by Tom Woodward to have my portrait taken 2 years ago. I had just met him for the first time, and after a really nice conversation he asked if he could take my photo. I am terrible at smiling for photos [I always give a fake smile], but this was for #DS106 and for art so I decided what the hell! Game on.

But I never have attempted to ask strangers if I could take their photo. This, in large part, is due to the fact I only had a point and shoot for the past couple of years. It would be weird to rock up to a stranger and ask to take their photo with just a point and shoot camera. However,  if I had a DSLR/ more professional looking camera that would be a different story entirely!

This January I finally decided it was well past the time to get myself a good camera. With the help of a photographer friend, I bought a Canon Eos 650D.

My new baby

Although I have had this camera for two months, I’ve hardly had the time to play around with it. I decided I needed someone to model for me as I adjusted the settings. I managed to convince my friend Erin to be my model and we had a photo shoot along the river. Out of all the photos I took that day this is my favorite:

 

Red hair, not blonde

I love Erin’s face in this shot. She seems so carefree and happy. I also love the contrast of her beautiful red hair with the blue sky and the water.

In Korea, people are unused to seeing red hair. People tell her all the time: “You have blonde hair!”

This makes me laugh because if you compare my current blonde shade to Erin’s hair you have to wonder if the Koreans are colorblind! Or maybe it is just they  can’t think of the right word to say…..

My photo shoot with Erin marked my first step into Portrait Photography. I need to keep playing with my camera to find the perfect setting, but I think I am almost ready to take it to the next level and start asking strangers if I can take their photo.

However, I am worried how this will work with the language barrier. I need to learn some handy phrases in Korean that basically say the following :”I am doing an art project! Can I take your photo?” and then show them the link to my blog.

Actually, there is one person I already have in mind for this project. He is the security guard at my school and I see him every morning and every afternoon.

He never talks to me other than saying “Hi! how are you?!” but his big smile and enthusiasm at seeing me makes my day! I want to share his big smile with the rest of the world!

 

What happens when you forget to make a Valentine for #ds106

The Heat Miser is gonna get ya!!

 

This year I had no idea what I wanted to make for Valentine’s Day, DS106 style.  I made my 2011 Superhero Valentine’s with the help of some of my funny roommates, and  I happened upon on the 2012 Romance Novel Valentine’s cards randomly while shopping.

But now 2013 in Korea, I couldn’t decide what to do.  I feel I have been a lot less creative while I’ve been living here; I haven’t converted anyone to the DS106 cult yet here :/

A few days ago, I was looking on Retronaut for ideas when I found this Valentine. I think it is hilarious because it  so weird!

Since I didn’t make anything for Valentine’s Day 2013 and  broke a 2 year tradition @__@, I know that the Heat Miser must be very unhappy. No….not just unhappy. He would be ANGRY.  What would the Heat Miser do in this situation?

Cook the Blondie! Haha.

PS: I am super impressed with Megan Mc’s 2013 Nerd Valentines! As always, she is rocking nerdom!

My favorite from the set:

I want to program a little robot to say this, haha. Megan rocks at life.

 

Graduation: the other side of the looking glass. (Storyaday: Day 38)

Today was the first time that I have been on the other side of the looking glass when it comes to graduation. This is the first time I have attended a graduation ceremony as a teacher.

I have to say I am surprised by how much I will miss some of my middle school students. I only was their teacher for about 5 months (having come into school in the second semester), but I was able to develop a really great connection with some of my students.  Even the kids who I didn’t get to talk to as much, I wish I had a chance to get to know them better.

Overall, after my first semester teaching English I have had a really positive experience. My students were a lot of fun (for the most part) and I hope I will stay in touch with the ones who have meant a lot to me.

I am curious where my students end up and how their English will improve over the years.

I didn’t get a chance to take photos with everyone I wanted to, but here are some photos of me and my students:

 

Hee Jin & Yeji

Oo Jin & Do Geun

As a rule, Korean boys don't like to smile in their photos. He looks so unhappy!

Thinking about this makes me really appreciative of all my former teachers who have impacted my life for the better. Every teacher has left some kind of mark on my life and I am grateful to those who made class interesting and fun.

One of the classes that has had the longest impact on me has been #ds106. Even now, years later, I am still thinking about #ds106 and how I should be creating art and other materials for it.

I might not have as much time as I would like to devote to it, but I still want to be a part of it whenever I can. #ds1064lyfe.

 

 

2012 recap & 2013 resolutions

2012 Recap:

Again, another busy year! I was working a really horrible retail job that made me hate my life. @__@

But then I quit the job and travelled in Europe for two months! I definitely hit my goal of trying to go to as many new countries/places this year as I could!

I met a lot of really cool people, saw amazing sights, and reconnected  with some of my favorite people.

The biggest life change for me was becoming an English teacher in South Korea. I had never been to Korea before, nor taught English before so it definitely turned my life upside down.

I have been living in Korea for 4 months now and  I  finally feel like my life is starting to settle down. I like going off and having adventures, but it’s nice to feel more comfortable with where I live and the job I am doing.

Last year for my 2011 recap and 2012 resolutions I said that I wanted to blog every week. That definitely did not happen! I think this is in large part due to the traveling I did this year and the fact that I fell behind on posting my #366 Creativity Journal Project.

I already mentioned this in a recent blog post, but  #366 Creativity Journal did not turn out exactly as I had planned.  I am no where close to being finished posting this project and certain events happening in my job the next few weeks will make it difficult to play catch up.

I am disappointed in myself for not trying harder this year to get my act together. But I will count this as a learning experience as I finish up #366creativityjournal and I move into my next yearlong project.

This brings me to my 2013 resolutions:  

1) Storyaday project: I decided that this year I want to hone my writing skills. I’ve decided to write a story (fictional AND/OR nonfictional) everyday for a year. Ideally I want to write both a fiction piece and non-fiction/autobiographical piece. To keep track of my progress I will be using these handy notebooks I found.

These are 100 days storybooks. In Korea one of the big moments of being in a relationship with someone is when you have been dating your partner for 100 days. I am not sure why; this will require further investigation. Regardless, this book one way you can keep track of your dating life, or really any life event that requires you to count specific days.

The reason why I like this kind of book is because  it will be easy to track  365 days worth of writing. If I were to use a blank notebook it would be easy to miss some days or to say, “I am too tired to write tonight, I will do it tomorrow.”

Sometimes I don’t want to sit down to write because I know when I do I will end up writing a lot and it will take FOREVER. But since each page doesn’t have that much space to write, it will be easier for me to keep myself motivated with this writing project on the the days I don’t feel like writing.

One of my biggest regrets when I was living in Australia in 2010 was I didn’t keep up with a journal as much as I would have liked. I was too busy living in the moment which was great at the time, but now there are some moments that I wish I had written down so that I would remember it better.  Pictures can help jog my memory, but it doesn’t always help with capturing emotions or the conversations I had with people.

 

2) Blog, Blog, Blog. I have a blog. I should use it. Otherwise this is just a waste of my money and superior writing skillz 😉

3) Koreausa Project. I have been terrible at posting photos. Megan Mc is getting swamped with work too. But it’s a great project and I would love to keep working on it.

4) Travel, Travel, Travel! Travel to as many countries and places as possible this year.

5) Learn more Korean. It’s so useful for everyday life and also to communicate with my students.

 

 

#366creativityjournal PANIC MODE

I already tweeted Megan Mc about this, but felt this deserves its own blog post.

I just realized that today is December 10th. I also realized I am 21 days from supposedly completing my 366 creativity journal project.

I definitely will have over 100 plus photos / art projects to post, not to mention a good 20 plus projects I have to catch up on/ make.

How did this time slip away from me? I have no idea what la-la-land I have been living in, but time to get serious!!!

Jeez. This next couple of weeks will be intense if I want to get this done on time!!! Time to get in Panic CRUNCH MODE! (Because if I don’t then this will never get done!!)

Ideally, I would like to be done with this project by New Year’s so I can start my next year long project.

I have an idea in mind for that, but I need to hone it a bit before I talk anymore about it.

GAHHHHHHHH. SO. MUCH. WORK. TO. DO.

I need some of my #ds106 homies to move to Korea so that they can motivate me!

New project! KoreaUsa Collaboration website

Ever since Megan Mc and I took DS106 in Spring 2011, we’ve become digital BFFS (and real life ones too!)

Megan MC

We are constantly challenging each other to be more innovative and to make more art. Continue reading

GAME ON: Rainbow Brite hits the big time

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but for some reason had gotten totally distracted and forgotten about it until now.

Every so often I check to see how people have been linked to my photos. One day I found that some of my Rainbow Brite photos had been linked to this online game. I was intrigued and decided to check it out. Continue reading