Carina’s (Kind Of) Scary Life Plan: Part II. // July 27, 2010

In which we talk about goals.

Now, there are many types of goals. I, for one, have a variety of them, falling into a variety of categories including health, organization and personal growth. But I suppose being a recent graduate, what seems pressing to me are the goals that fall under the career variety. Having graduated in March, a lot of my schoolmates are now in more-or-less stable jobs, and some are in careers that they more-or-less like.

I took a job in May, found out, quite unfortunately, that it wasn’t the path that I wanted to take… and I quit it a month after. Kind of a sucky story to tell, but it must be told. Now, to avoid similar career blunders that I foresee in my future, I’ve been trying to narrow down my “action points,” choosing to concentrate on the ones that will lead me to the things I most want to be.

Which brings us to the first step…

ONE: Outline Your Goals. The simple task of listing down major goals is a big help. Personally, I feel like something is way weightier if I commit to it, and write it down on paper, instead of having it float around in my head. For this blog post’s intents and purposes, my goals involve a) Being a Writer, b) Being a Designer (Also), c) Working Primarily From Home, d) Learning How To Paint, and e) Selling Stuff. Learning How To Paint seems a little out of place in this list, but I suppose I put it down so that it would seem more urgent. I find that writing stuff down really works better than thinking about them, no matter how well-meaning the intent is. Ink on paper is a glaring reminder, whereas fleeting thoughts are not.

TWO: Produce Attainable Steps For Each Goal. Brainstorm and write all of the tiny steps you could take that you think will eventually lead up to the attainment of your big goal. Just write down whatever you can think of, that will help you achieve said goal. For this example, I used goal a) Be a Writer, and have outlined the following steps.

The possibilities are basically endless (unless you run out of them LOLJK), so list down everything you can think of that might help. If it turns out to be a bad idea, you can cross it out anytime, anyway.

And lastly, a bonus step involving…

See which goals go together. You might be able to kill birds with one stone. All the goals are related to goal c), for example. You can be a writer, a designer, a painter and a MERCHANT (I just wanted to use the word, sorry), while working at home. You can e) sell stuff that you d) paint. And so and so forth. This way, there is a quicker progression, and you end up really getting down to business. (Or something.)

My actual list is pretty scary and ambitious and I have weird-ass diagrams and lists and things. Maybe I can post that some time, when I’ve polished it. There are just so many things that I want to do, and too little of time and too little of me to go around. And then I end up really just wanting to do nothing, but feeling bad because I know in my heart that I want to be somebody great.

Is that lame? That’s kind of lame. But, it’s true. So, here’s an attempt at putting the more important goals first, and maybe actually getting them done.

 

A Not So Lousy Sunday. // July 26, 2010

While I am a firm believer in the age-old adage, “There’s something about Sunday night that makes you want to kill yourself,”¹ this Sunday night was pretty good. First, even though I had no money, I got some books from the Powerbooks sale:

“Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life” by John Sellers (I have no idea what this is about.)
“The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet” by Reif Larsen (Mikka lent me her copy and I needed to have my own.)

“Akimbo and the Elephants” by Andrew McCall Smith
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz
I peeked inside the second book and it is… pretty much amazing. I’m excited.

We also went to Nona Garcia’s house. Pretty sure I’m not allowed to post photos of the works (for the upcoming exhibit this week; troop down over to West Gallery, y’all), so here are nondescript photos of things around her house, and exhibit-y things up-close. Oh, and of her cute (but snobby) little dog, Jacob.

Also, got this on Friday, from the Meiday gig/Hato send-off over at The Collective.

Also, today, my sister and I got a session of IPL Hair Removal done. But there are obviously no photos of that. Unless you want to see my kili-kili… in which case, I will probably not show you, anyway.

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¹ OK, not age-old… more like, from 1994, as articulated by Angela Chase. (back to top)

 

Carina’s (Kind Of) Scary Life Plan: Part I. // July 19, 2010

Since graduating, my life has pretty much been haphazard and disorganized, no matter how much I make it appear otherwise. Recently, I’ve been thinking about ways through which I can try and “hold the reins,” so to speak. Not a lot of changes, but then I suppose most things take a few tiny first steps before incredible things are expected to happen. Anyway, here are a few of my mostly organizational steps. Over the next few days, I will try to document and report (!) the steps I have been taking towards being less of a bum. The thought is at least already there, right?

My arsenal! Probably kind of overkill, but whatever works! In the photo, there are two books, and 4 blank books to essentially write on. I will explain the use of them all. Because they do have their specific uses, okay? Okay.

• Cyan July Moleskine Daily Planner — I got the stupid idea to use a daily rainbow planner, which has resulted in several failures at organization. (Here are the ones for January – June.) I have since found a use for them, which is planning my day. It works because I get pressured to cross off things by a certain time. Sometimes, results are disastrous, though, and I don’t cross any items off at all.
• Field Notes notebook — for when I don’t want to bring big notebooks. That’s it, really.
• Dark Blue Moleskine Blank Cahier — for sketches! I draw raw sketches here, scan them and tweak on my Mac. Sometimes I just try to sketch out ideas for layouts, etc. This mostly stays at home.
• Large Muji Lined Notebook — I have drawn on this cover! (See below.) In lame lettering. This is mostly for notes and plans… I find that I process things I read better if I take down notes. I have been using 43Folders.com as a guide, for example, and it just translates better when I take notes.

As an extra organizational procedure, I caved in and bought myself an 18-month Moleskine Weekly Planner + Notes. I know this sounds like rationalizing and justifying a probably-indulgent purchase, but I really have been more productive ever since I got this planner. I have been using this format since freshman year of college, so I suppose that has something to do with that as well:

Okay, so I’ve been meaning to make a stronger portfolio… and I’m going to do that by actual reading up on design. Not to dis anyone, but I really felt like my formal education is lacking, in terms of preparing me to take on actual design jobs. Talent and skill can only get you so far, I think. So I’m going to try to learn stuff.

Currently concentrating on absorbing information from Ellen Lupton’s “Indie Publishing,” which I actually have had for a long time. I’ve only just browsed through some sections, though. I also hijacked my brother’s copy of Timothy Samara’s “Making and Breaking the Grid.” I think this will really be useful to me. And then, there’s magazines I can flip through for inspiration… or you know, to read when my brain needs a break.

And then I cleaned my Desktop, which still features Sara Frakking Quin, because she is an amazing human being:

Click for full size, Nosy McNoseface.

Also revived my TeuxDeux account (Teux Deux, geddit?). Crossing things off of a To-Do List really is gratifying.

This post was actually laid out much better in my head. This is all probably just useless information for you, whoever you are, reading this. You’re lucky this is a series! The next one will be more insightful, I promise.

(It really did come off as a better post in my head, though. Apologies.)

P.S. One of my goals is to make five or so posts under this series. Fingers crossed and stuff. That I actually stick to this goal, and also that the posts will be useful and, at the least, make sense.

 

 

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