Where the heck is Angels Camp?

That’s what one T-shirt read in the lobby of the Worldmark check-in. My brother and I laughed when we saw that. We certainly didn’t know where we were or what we were going to do. The trip turned out not too shabby. We spent Christmas Eve. rappelling 165 feet into the Moaning Caverns and Christmas Day playing mahjong and card games. I can’t complain too much. I’d like to come back to this area when the town isn’t so deserted. Who knew people closed shop and hung out with family on Christmas Day?

Happy Holidays

Thanks for the kind suggestions, friends! Inspiration came quickly after that post and spending the past few days exploring new and old places has been refreshing. While some things have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster these past couple days, I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends to remind me about the simple joys in life. It’s always nice to fall back into the swing of things, cook great food and be merry with friends. I highly recommend Kome Sushi buffet in Daly City (thanks, Ben!).

The photo above, albeit touristy and taken at the token vistapoint, is one of the many reasons why I love this city.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Uninspired

After spending half a morning slumped on my couch the other day feeling awfully uninspired. My to-do list hasn’t grown any shorter and when How I Met Your Mother reruns keep playing on TV, I can’t help it if I’m glued to the couch!

But the other day, my good friend Cee commented on the fact that I just never carry around my camera anymore and my only reaction was to shrug. I’m simply in a rut. My creativity usually comes in spurts and sometimes wanes at the most inconvenient times. I’ve read books. I’ve written a telling letter to someone. I have done things I have never done like going shooting with a parent’s friend and all of it has been wonderful, but it hasn’t kicked the funk away.

What do you do when you are uninspired?

It might be break, but…

I like to keep busy. Is that such a bad thing? Friends have asked me what I will be up to this break, and I excitedly say that I will be teaching myself basic Python, building a website and working on designs for nuAsian. I like spending my days holed up in a coffee shop with Indesign open and good friends all around. There aren't enough hours in the day during the school year to learn everything I want to learn outside of classes, so why not do it during break? 

Call me a nerd or a crazy design geek, but my perfect winter break? Design, coding, tutorials on lynda.com and of course catching up with old friends. Good times.

Latte art

For my Media Design class, I got points docked off because my teacher thought that the photograph could have been better, but I love this photograph more because of the experience than the actual quality. 

It was procrastination at its finest. The design project was due in a day and I had yet to find the proper art or story, so I convince my friends to join me at Kafein and accompany me and my crazy ideas. A waiter wanders over to our table and I cut to the punch. “I have a bit of a crazy request to make,” I say with a smile. He, whose name I later learn is Spencer, humorously grins and cautiously says, “OK.” Upon explaining that I have this media design project to do and I wanted to photograph latte art, his eyes lit up and he left us with three menus. Before I knew it, he was back and recommending drinks that would produce the best latte art. He joked that a barista was on a quick break and resting his hand, preparing himself for an important artistic endeavor. Next thing I know, I had four lattes in front of me because Spencer and the rest of the crew had made two standard latte leafs, but couldn’t pick which one was better.

I left a big tip that day, to say the least, and made another friend. And I left hyped up on a lot of coffee.