I submitted my resume to a few places just recently. This includes a job position at Berrydog (a women's swimwear company); I also posted my resume on Craigslist and WorkinBayArea.com.

Now all I have to do is wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Did I mention I HATE waiting?

I am aware I am up against brutal competition here. After all, San Francisco is the art mecca, is it not? But I gotta tell you, I can't stand sitting here on my ass while waiting to hear if I'm getting the job or not. It's been a little over two months since graduation and I have yet to get a job. I soooooo need one and fast--I am getting tired of resorting to mooching off my family and fiance, and I am worried I won't have a salary in time to start paying back student loans in December. Time's running away from me here, folks.

(If there are any employers reading this in search of an illustrator or a 2D animator, I invite you to check out my web portfolio and resume at http://www.starkravingnormal.com/catherinelandaartwork.)

I've also considered applying for a job in visual merchandising in San Jose, at the Container Store that's opening in October. Only problem would be my commute because I don't have a car. What about public transportation, you may ask? It would probably take too long to get there, plus there is no direct route from Caltrain that would get me to Santana Row (where the job would be located).

Damn, I wish I had my car already. :-(

Till then, my job search continues.

Just a quick update on the website:

Almost every page is up except the animation page. I'm trying to figure out how to embed avi files into the coding, so that may take a while. Once that's done, I'll be adding new stuff on a continuous basis.

In other news, I've enjoyed a lot of anime watching these past few nights. GTO, Mahoromatic, Cardcaptor Sakura...sooooo much anime, yes! GreenCine is a godsend for anime DVDs (as well as other DVDs). If you don't know already, GreenCine is an online DVD service that specializes more in avant-garde and indie films; and in anime. Of course you could get blockbuster hits there, too. I highly recommend using this service...it's just like using Netflix but proceeds from a GreenCine membership helps the arts programs in this country. We artists need all the support we can get.

Anyway, enjoy what's on the site. The Animation page will be up soon.

A bunch of stuff happened on the homefront today.

My mom and dad came to visit today, and Dad helped my fiance Joe fix the brake lights on his truck. I learned a very important lesson this week: Make sure your vehicle is registered, insured, and in tip-top shape if you want to avoid forking over $20 a day for public transportation. Or avoid it altogether.

Joe has learned this the hard way...the poor thing.

Not that I'm knocking on public transit--I think it's a good thing: good for the environment, good for your body as it forces you to get exercise walking to transit stops, good for stress reduction, stuff like that. But there are as many disadvantages to public transit as there are advntages. For example:

*Getting to your destination becomes a hassle. Depending on where transit stops are located, you may end up walking pretty far from your stop. Walking back's scarier--especially at night where there is a high chance of getting mugged/stabbed/raped/whatever. There's also transferring to consider. Definitely adds stress.
*Fares are getting ridiculously high these days. When I traveled from Vallejo to El Cerrito, a one-way fare would be $2. Today the fare is $3.25. Fares are just as bad on BART and Caltrain. Like Joe learned, you'd be forking over almost $20 per day to ride BART and Caltrain.
*The worst thing: the waiting. You could end up waiting as much as 20 minutes or more for a ride to come along, depending on time of day and what day it is. I HATE WAITING! You also have to conform your schedule to the operating transit hours if you go anywhere by transit. Don't expect BART to be running at 2am...you're pretty much f***ed there.

This is why I am glad I'll be getting a car soon. Actually in about six months or more, if I can land a job.

Concerning my web portfolio: the "Illustrations" and "Sketchbook" pages are now up. Finally got that script to work. Feel free to browse, if you like.

I suck at understanding Javascript.

Then again, I'm a novice at things like that...so I guess that should be considered normal.

Last night I was working on my Sketchbook page. I was trying to figure out why the script I put on my page refused to work--I was following the instructions given in my handy HTML guide. When that failed, I copied some script I found off this one website...and it still didn't work. After a diagnostic review of my coding, my fiance pointed out that I failed to indicate in the beginning of my code if script was being used.

Grr.

Ah, thank goodness for my fiance, the smart, witty sysadmin guy.

Anyway, I'm also working on my illustration page. Everything else will follow suit. Soon as everything is put up, I then have to scan in my newest stuff and add to the site. I'm looking at maybe another month tops. And on top of all this I still have yet to find a job. I've decided to find a part time job and accept freelance work since jobs in 2D animation are becoming slim. Slim around the Bay Area, that is.

I've considered sending a portfolio to Wild Brain (a studio in San Francisco), but of course I can't do that until my website is finished. I'm still coming up with ideas for a comic strip I'm planning to start up, but it's hard to concentrate on that with all this other stuff going on. It's like I have artist's block or something. That's not good.

I've been collecting manga books lately...kinda like inspiration for what I hope to create someday. So far I've got the first three volumes of Kare Kano, two volumes of Fake (whoever thought a shonen ai (boys' love = gay romance) comic would be so fun to read about), and I'm helping my sister Mel collect the volumes of Marmalade Boy. I've already got a few volumes of Sailor Moon, but only out of reading curiosity since I'm a big fan of the anime. Going to Comic Relief (that's the local comic book store in Berkeley--you should check it out if you're ever in the area) is such a cool experience...great every time. Even more fun when you go with your fiance. :-)

Now if I could only land a job...I'd be able to buy all the manga I want. Video games too. (sigh)

Oh, one more thing...this is the status of my website:

Sections up:
Biography
Resume
Links
Rants and Raves

Sections yet to be put up (so far works in progress):
Illustrations
From the Sketchbook
Life Drawing
Animation
Other Media

When these sections will be displayed will depend on how long I can sort the scanned pics and coding HTML. This has been going on for months now (due to the fact I a novice coder and various computer problems), but they'll be up soon enough so I'll keep you posted on that.

HUZZAH!!!!!!

My blog finally works! So does my portfolio website. Now I have all those digital files to mock up and code in HTML.

Guess a webmistress's work is never done, ne?

Hmm, maybe a speech is in order to celebrate my good fortune in getting this darn blog to finally work. This is like the forty-something attempt to get a blog to work properly on my site. Something usually goes wrong...incorrect paths, server down, the annoying stuff. And just yesterday I had to "lamaze-breathe" through my frustration over server transfer. Imagine my surprise when my fiance tells me the server finally works.

I expected two days of complete, utter hell. Well, no more. I feel so much better now.

Well, I still got them HTML pages to code, and a little Javascript to dabble in. I still have yet to scan in the new artwork I've accumulated over the past semester. Maybe I could take up teaching myself Flash again...or maybe find someone who can properly teach me, so I can make cool animations like Andrew Babb or Erik Bouchard or Laurence Arcadias (she was my teacher for my Animation 2 class).

I'm getting ahead of myself here. One day at a time, girl...one day at a time...

I'm frustrated as hell.

I've been racking my brain trying to get this rants page to work on my site's server...until I find out from my fiance that he has yet to finish transferring everything from the old server to the new one, switch DNS numbers, etc. (Insert pissed-off look here.) Our old server was giving him problems, so he had to switch to a new one.

This, of course, puts delays in my plan to get my website up. My blog, portfolio pages, and other stuff won't be able to display until everything is transferred. The only pages you can see right now are my bio, links and resume. Woop-de-doo.

Well, guess there ain't much to do till then.

test number two...

just a test