Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bok choy Kimchi making

Making of Bok Choy Kimchi - got a bunch of fresh Bok Choy and red Radish from Union Square Green market on last Friday. As I am into eating locally grown food recently I decided to try making kimchi with Bok Choy.

Step 1 soaking bok choy in salty water (I use kosher salt)


Bok choy Kimchi Step 1, originally uploaded by miss oh.

Step 2 making a chili mixture: minced garlic and ginger (3:1), chili pepper flakes (gochugaru), fish sause (kanari jutgal), salt

Step 3 Squeeze water out of bok choy and add the chili mixture and sliced radish

Thursday, May 21, 2009

ICFF09 six things I liked.


Designglut had their 5+ things they liked at ICFF 2009 and I liked it. http://www.designglut.com/2009/05/5-things-i-liked-at-icff-2009/ Here are mine. (I won't mention the robot seal and Italian chairs as it is already covered by many of you)

1) modkat
stylish cat litter (well look like you can buy it from IKEA) that gives your cat some privacy during their business. As I recently purchased an automatic cat litter machine, and realize that it is really not the best solution in so many ways, I am willing to try this. My machine (littermaid) is way too big for my small New York apartment and really loud when it works. It has too many parts that dust gets in and breaks. But in the end I am not sure if I'd spend another $120.00 on this potential landfill. I feel that I can make something similar to this myself...maybe out of wood? I like the privacy concept, simple mechanism (no moving parts) and the fact that it will have cats clean their feet as they jump out of the box. I also like that scoop holder on the side of the box (like a rice cooker and scoop holder) Look! doesn't the picture look like it is from IKEA or Flor catalogue? (or Apple store)
Make sure to watch the cat video using the product on their site.


2) clamps by studiomake
http://www.studiomake.com/domesticclamps.html
I can see how this clamps can be sold and people can buy parts to be able to connect and create furniture themselves... I don't wanna mention it again but...oh well it'd probably fit pretty well with Ikea store where they sell table tops and legs separately. It would be pretty cool jointing solution.
Creative duo from Crankbrook Academy of Art showed their work at Design boom and these clamps were my favorite among their work. David and Im (Im is from Thailand) are moving to Thailand to start a business (find a factory manufacturing ceramic ware and such.) Good luck to them!


3) Porcelain Kaleidoscope
http://www.arita-mangekyo.jp/eng/
It was mind blowing and beautiful... Design by Japan

These psychedelic images just fly in front of your eyes...

4) Ceramic ware by Alexa lixfeld
http://www.alexalixfeld.com/index.php?id=61 I found her slip casted ceramic wear with partline still on extremly beautiful and satisfy my indulgence for objects... Incompleteness as an aesthetic language.


5) Wooden keyboard
Although the production made it feel like scribble pieces put together (flimsy) I loved the concept of having a keyboard made of natural materials. Keyboard is the object that i touch the most in my everyday life at this point. I'd like it to feel good in my hands.









6) Dining agenda
At design boom check out her clever ideas for dining experience...
http://www.saraferraridesign.com/Dining_Agenda_1.html



Overall I felt that there were lots of repeats from last year... I paid more attention to the design of display to be honest. Design by Japan section was impressive - especially with its space design -modern material meeting Japanese style. The background music was songs from Tuvan throat singers. More pictures available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/missoo/sets/72157618450315690/ (to the point my camera died) ... I love you designers.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

how to change the complicated stuff

Mark Rettig's talked about How to change the complicated stuff at IXDA NY event held at Razor fish on March 31st, 09. This is my learning.

  • Create design brief that focuses on interests of people not of corporations such as how to create the new next thing that changes where food comes from
  • Joanna Marcy talks about great turning (google this) - it's about shit of commerce, manufacturing and lifestyle. It is a value shift. Life sustaining civilization.
    http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html
  • Sustainability is behavior problem, behavior is our medium. Sustainability is our medium. (it goes something like this...) Understanding behavior through immersion techniques were mentioned here.
Cool immersion (or design research) techniques I learned
  • Methodologies to help people how to express their feelings; card sorting exercise (each card will say certain issues such as "Using C-pap machine interferes the intimate moment with my partner" and people will look through about 40 of them until they pick 7-8) I found this interesting - it for sure stimulates people's mind yet I was wondering if this card sorting would limit exploration of new topics.
  • Sticker exercise: you give a family a set of word stickers that describes feelings (frustrating, easy, surprised...etc) to each member and have them place it directly on consumer electronics around the house. Imagine a remote controller covered with bunch of stickers. A great conversation starter idea. A creative spin on participatory design research technique. I like this!
Opportunities
  • Exciting insights from research is often found to be outside client's scope and gets killed. Why not act on it?
  • Boundary objects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_object (google this)
  • Stop waiting for permission to make changes. Establish change - make it to become a new norm.
What's been done already
  • Theory U http://www.theoryu.com/bio.html
  • Laurelee Alben http://www.albendesign.com/
  • dott07.com
  • http://www.sparkcon.com/
  • ecodesigner's guild
  • http://www.designersaccord.org/
  • sustanable minds http://www.sustainableminds.com/ has great email updates
  • http://architecture-of-life.blogspot.com/
  • More bookmarks at http://delicious.com/mrettig

Monday, March 30, 2009

picture the conference


institution, mobilization, action, empower, carrots, anarchist, Marxism, Socialism, david harvey, neo liberalism, occupation, gentrification, rights, history, bikes, organize, cultural producers, take back the land, civil rights, grassroots, collectives, sustainability, community, the lexicon of city from below picture the homeless, housing, represent, urban, re-zoning, power to the poor people, displacement, gardening, affordable, veggie burrito, rolled up pants, knitting, stencil, posters, bohemian beer, soul foods, compost, dog poop, dream, quality, interviews

tuxedo, corporate sponsors, design, research, consumers, branding, 4 star hotels, limo, ziba, ideo, lextant, panels, sustainability, materials, innovations, business week, collaboration, creativity, web 2.0, experience, context, understanding, products, market, target audience, interaction, the lexicon of IDSA conference, students, portfolio review, bars, hotel lobby, carpets, ideas, concepts, awards, education, social issues, international, networking, business casual, give aways, brochures, way finding, art, business, trends, insights, workshops, job search, business cards, i phone, catered dinner

I've been attending IDSA (Industrial Designer's Society of America, idsa.org) regional and national conferences religiously for the last 10 years in the states. This year, I took a slight discourse and decided to try something difference - city from below conference (www.cityfrombelow.org) at Baltimore. It was my very first conference related to social issues such as housing, gentrification. Not An Alternative that I've been recently working with, non profit organization presented on the topic of collaboration between cultural producers and community organizers. Most attendees coming from activists background, I found the weekend to be an opportunity to insert myself as an ethnographer.

$$$
First off, I found it hilarious to see people knitting or chewing on their carrots as the lecture goes on at this conference. The attendance was free (or $10 I think - not sure) which means the door is open to the vast crowd who is interested in the topic. The organizers of the event let our group stay at their house, and provided air mattresses! While attending IDSA conference means you will be spending about hundreds of dollars on flight ticket, 4 star hotel rooms (like 250 a night - the event usually happens at the hotel) and the attendance fee (often a few hundred dollars) that pretty much means you are going to have attendees who is looking for ROI. A great start, open to the poor or the rich, points go to the city from below.

here is what I learned...

Rights + Homeless + failing shelter system
  • NYC is a police state. abundance of police force through out the city. 35,000
  • Picture The Homeless group advocates the rights to be in public space without being selectively screened. Penn. station sit in demonstration on St. Patrick's day 09
    - watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fgSQxEAXvg
  • When taken away from Penn station at 2 am, a homeless person would be shipped to a shelter in Brooklyn. At the shelter, one gets to go through all the procedure i.e. shot test and by the time a bed is finally assigned, it is 7 am, time to leave the shelter
  • Building occupation event organized by picture the homeless is seen here. Not An Alternative collaborated on the prop preparation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVwcLkXeYW4
City + Gentrification + their strategy
  • In Hamburg, artists and designers out of town who was not aware of local issues were invited to justify the city's loft development. The city allured them by offering affordable living space. The City also created SQUAT area and supported it as they recognized that it attracted tourists. This is an interesting point especially Richard Florida's Creative Class is often used by cities to justify their inconsiderate development.
  • Cities often promote the gentrification process as aesthetic transformation or brining in creativity in the area. The truth is... gentrification is suburbanization of culture, Adrian Blackwell says.
  • Cities around world are being smart about using its community history and artists/designers to justify their gentrification process. This strategy is also seen in the example of privatization of union square presented by Beka Economopoulos from Not An Alternative.
Creative approach to gentrification, housing issues seen at the conference
  • In Miami, Take Back the Land gives people home. http://takebacktheland.net/
    The goal here is to cease land owned by government or corporations to give people home. Mark Rameau says gentrification or segregation is not the real issue. The real issue is people loosing control over our LAND.
  • Design studio for social intervention www.ds4si.org talks about borrowing methodologies from design practices to come up with solutions for social issues. The workshop at the conference was about coming up with ideas around topics of people facing home foreclosure, young people behind the bar, Darfur refugees, illegal immigrants facing deportation. I thought the attempts of bringing people of different backgrounds was great yet more preparation could be done to help people brainstorm around the topic , i.e. more background information on topic (visual) defining focus area for the short discussion...
What I think the city from below could learn from design conferences...
  • Visualize the conversation. Not every body has time to invest in creating PowerPoint presentation I understand. It doesn't have to be so finished. It can be as simple as a note taker diagramming the talk on a flip chart next to the presenter. It helps people focus and digest the contents easier. Adoptivepath does a great job at this... This is not the exact example but something like that... http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyhatch/2779780851/in/photostream/
  • Utilize the meal time/ breaks to encourage networking amongst crowd. More breakout session to make it more participatory.
  • Keep the open door to everybody!
  • I loved the dinner format and quality of food.
  • Amazing space - church. Yet the space was a little hard to focus on the talk as it was blurred into other areas (books, coffee...etc.)


Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pecha Kucha event highlights

12 designer speaking for 5 minute event in NYC last night - Pecha Kucha highlights here in case you didn't get to be there.

Jay Parkinson fixes health care online - be facebook friend of your dr, follow them on twitter. https://www.hellohealth.com/main/index.html

Turn Brooklyn into meadow http://www.21stcenturyplowshare.com/2009/03/bed-stuy-meadow.html

Swiss design is better - starts with Helvetica. http://www.swiss-miss.com/

These two were great yet I didn't have find connected websites to it...

Jonathan Harris Goes Whale Hunting

Glen Cummings On NYHC-X

Saturday, March 21, 2009

design activism

Industrial designers were the providers of hope for the better tomorrow during the Great Depression by introducing the public to an American Streamline style that represented efficiency. This celebrated occupation continued to grow into understanding people’s ideal experience and create emotional connections between products and its users. Today design is the leading force of innovation in the business world.

Design has brought success for corporations yet has done little for the interest of the public. We are going through a national economic crisis and we can and should bring hope to this time of despair again.

What is our role as celebrated industrial designers at the time of today’s financial crisis? The role of the people who were there to show the better tomorrow to the nation during the Great Depression? This presentation introduces designers to Design Activism. It is an active collaboration between designers and activists to create events and messaging that resonate with the public in order to bring about a social change. Activists will be presenting successful examples of recent events that utilized design thinking into their strategy in order to influence policies and benefit all, including the under privileged.

Where we came from: the occupation that delivered hope and better future during the Great Depression (Industrial Design)
The celebrated occupation of industrial designer rose during the Great Depression. As American streamlined products became the symbol of a bright future and hope in a dark era, the profession was spotlighted as the creator of that hope and change. The time of American streamline design that brought the excitement and pride into this occupation was about emphasizing efficiency. It defined what industrial design means. Eventually, this function focused definition of industrial design met its limitation. Industry people started realizing that the product that looks cool, functions well, and is priced right is not enough - there were too many of them. A new cool came to life...

The rise of emotional design (design research)
Creating an emotional connection with users became the next cool thing. This meant the rise of the design research field within industrial design. As design research combines anthropology and psychology, we all became much smarter about understanding people and the experiences they are having and want to have. We learned that what people aspire to be is more important than who they are. A car is not just a means of transportation but an expression of oneself and his/her aspiration. We realized that products are just a part of an eco-system that helps people love “(any company name here)”! Branding, marketing, the product itself, the interaction system, and advertisement are all components of creating a lasting experience for business. So, industrial design became a study of understanding experience for design.

Where we are: possibly another Great Depression
Today we industrial designers are the masters of business innovation through design and creative thinking. Yet, the world is falling apart and we are in the time of national financial crisis. What is happening? Our consumer insights have been used mainly by the people who could afford our service - the corporate world with their business agenda. Many corporations choose design to be the leading force of their innovation process. Millions of dollars have been spent to understand consumers. We as creative leaders have cleverly helped businesses shape their innovative systems and products and help them deliver a DREAM. But it’s a dream without warranty or warnings.

There are many of my ID peers that I am very proud of who have been the changing agents in the corporate environment, advocating design and people (not just consumers) around important issues like sustainability. This is design activism. What other ways? We are trained to think creatively and sensitively to people’s desires (empathy) yet work within limitations such as business agendas. Why not benefit the nonprofits and public systems that do not have monetary resources? I call this active design activism. Here are some smart design activisms happening out in the world. Not limited to speaking about the current issues but focusing on the dream and desires and the language of the public. What would happen if this kind of smart, creative thinking was applied to our public service system? We are idea addicts. We hold solutions in our hands for this economic crisis and it is our time to step up and pay attention to the less privileged.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

thoughts on co-working

Coffeeshops with change in its social norm
You are probably familiar with people gathered in Star Bucks or local coffee shops with their lap tops. I've even walked into a coffee shop in Williamsburg where it is dead quiet except for the sound of espresso machine and typing keyboards, all seats occupied by people with their lap tops, the energy is focused and says don't disturb me. I was there to chat (not with IM) with my freind and found ourselves whispering not to disturb these cafe workeres. We got our drinks and found the only table that was available in the coffeeshop. Guess why it wasn't occupied. It had a little sign saying "No computer on this table. Reseraved for conversations." I found it quiet funny. Since when you whisper at coffee shops? Aren't they made for conversations? It makes me think of a highschool principal with authoritative voice saying "Kids, play. No study allowed!"

The laptop friendly coffeeshops
It is everywhere. Coffeeshops filled with people with their Mac Pro or rather bigger Dell lap tops.
Since I started working away from my home office in Columbus, OH until I left them recently, I searched for the perfect coffeeshops to work out of. I just simply couldn't work from home. It is just too distracting with my cat Bil
constantly sitting on my keyboards to get my attention. And if I think about it I've never done homeworks at home while I was in school. I maybe wrote love letters. The criteria has been...

  • sunlight
  • good music
  • good coffee drinks and inexpensive sandwiches
  • restroom
  • WiFi (this is the key - but I found it interesting when the system breaks down and peopel are forced to chat with others : ) )
  • atmosphere that doesn't make you feel a total looser for spending more than 4 hours at your seat.

I've found about 3 to 4 good places that fits this criteria "Eat records and Champion in Greenpoint and Phoebe's cafe in Williamsburg. Although I've got all these I wanted I felt irritating when I had to be on the phone because coffeeshops can be loud. I also wanted more human contacts. I went to Williamsburg coworking space that my co-worker Dan found for me on google prior to my move to NYC.

Escape coffeeshops and go coworking

I've joined a coworking group last summer when I moved from Columbus Ohio to Brooklyn, New York. There are this co-working communities where people gather and work together out of home or an office all over the world. This group I joined is located in a Williamsburg gallery called the change you wanna see (http://thechangeyouwanttosee.com/) and it is ran by an art activist group called not an alternative (www.notanalternative.net). Since I have a lot of people looking confused when I say what it is I will explain it here.

the fun part
I got to participate in several fun events in the last few months held by the gallery organizers.
- Guantanamo sewing project, twitter vote report, election day party...and more.
- One of our coworkers said it right - water fountain talk minus politics
- Stay up to date with multiple industries -I've got great exposure to IT world and non profit sectors as I am constantly around people in the industry

Finally...
I recommend full time office workers and freelancers working from home office to step out of their office and spend a couple of days a week and expose yourself to the world of co-workers. There are open house events. Go look it up here at Jelly. http://wiki.workatjelly.com/

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

the negative airport lexicon

Why do we hate airports? I've recently had this conversation with a few friends and thought it is worth a new blog post. I am a frequent air traveler for work and fun. Since my clients and family are about 18 hours away in Korea, I've got used to the idea of surrendering myself to what airports have to offer... but I still like to talk about it as I had rather difficult experience as a visa holder in the last 9 years of living in the states.

When I think of the word Airport, these are two events I think of immediately...

Jail night 2001
: This one explains why I dislike airports pretty obviously. I've been put in an airport jail before I got kicked out of the country in 2001 for some stupid mistake I made with the travel documents. I got lock up in an airport cell with a Latin lady who was wearing a bright yellow pants suit, long curly hair and lots of makeup. She completed the look with yellow high heels. I wasn't sure why she was getting kicked out of the country since she didn't speak much English and me Spanish. During the 6-8 hour lock up until I was escorted out by a policeman who kept apologizing for the way I was treated (no water or food) I sat in the cell filled with minimum amount of stainless steel furniture; a toilet you can't flush from inside and a bench under bright florescent light. The yellow woman sitting down next to me, would not stop LAUGHING. I was pretty upset by the thought that I was not allowed to go back to my home / my boyfriend / my life in Savannah after 2 month of backpack trip. I felt that I have no control over the situation and felt anxious. Well it was not the time to be sad and teary anymore. This yellow lady was going to continue laughing and drive me insane. I made her teach me how to count in Spanish. UNO.. DOS.... I say that was the longest night in my life. What followed this event was even worse - but I rather keep this event to myself and close friends since it is somewhat embarrassing to blog.

Minority among the minority 2004: Again, I was backpack traveling in 2004 winter and returning to the country. I was nervous about coming back into the country with my OPT card (optional practical training) that you get after graduating a school in the states as a foreigner. Well, you never know what would stop you from coming back to the country. As I was flying in from Mexico, I was in a long line with most Mexicans in the Non-residential alien line. While American citizens go through their lines quickly with their proud passport or green card, I was waiting nervously in my line. Right on my turn, as I have this fake smile on my face to look nice waiting for the immigration officer to stamp my passport, the computer system for the entire airport went down. Since there are lots of Spanish speaking people go through the airport, there were Spanish airport guides helping them out about what to do. Me, pretty much the only Non-Hispanic, Non-American, No Idea. Three hours went by and I finally went through the line but missed my connecting flight. I stayed at a near by hotel in Houston. I say to myself "What am i doing in this country?"

Trips 2008: trips went beautifully & flawlessly since I finally got my green card. Well I have to mention though it was after I got stuck in Mexico City for a couple of weeks as the Green card came out while I was traveling outside the country for work. But I definitely prefer Sheraton jail to the airport one.

Here are my summary of reasons why airports get a bad rep for both citizens and aliens:
  • To my friend's point, there are only the beginning and the end - no sense of the process. Time and space completely lost. Eurail trips would be the opposite example of this with beautiful scenery outside. I haven't tried Amtrack yet.
  • Artificial space with artificial air like chain fast food joints - no characteristics. It is like a gigantic machine. Walmart tops this category though.
  • Extreme example of public obedience - you open your bag, you stand in lines - obey no matter how many times they ask you. No naughty items. you will be judged. I was even sprayed with some unknown germ killer by a polite flight attendant on the way to Mexico from Sao Paolo in 2008.
  • Clear class distinction - the rich gets treated like human being. The rest not much better than being in a chicken coop for 18 hours. How about the members only club? Being a Delta Medallion member makes me a "special citizen" yet not quiet the king and queen like people with more millage. I only have a limited access to the "crown lounge" with my current status. This becomes even more obvious during the holiday season when there are delays.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

your online accounts after your death

What happens to your emails, facebook account, all the pictures you posted on the web...etc. after your death? I have over 6000 emails in my yahoo account. And since I hear that these days some parents would start their baby's facebook account from day 0 I can't imagine how much information the new generations would be storing in this cyber world. I guess after inactive use the account would close up automatically. You would have less chance of your personal memoirs being found out by your family or friends after you are gone. I am private person so I prefer that. I spent many my teenag years feeling paranoid by my mom reading through my diaries.

But it makes me sad in a way. The love letters that carry so much weight and meaning to one's life will simply disappear. No process of paper and ink decomposing and becoming a part of the earth. It just goes away. boom. Like it never existed.

What would be a smart solution for that?

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

thoughts on twitter, blogger, and facebook

I've done it all. I've joined my space, i love school, cyworld (these are Korean popular sites), facebook, twitter, and bogger. Not to mention other sites like flickr, myfamily for photos. But especially with Twitter, I have been amazed by how powerful it has been especially for the last presidential election as well as any kind of events - you will know about it through twitter first.

Twitter and facebook drive certain social behaviors...
Last night, I joined over 100 people meet up technology event and had interesting discussion about cyber identity over $7 Heineken in the city. My friend, xxxx (identity protected) a greenpeace worker first brought up how it is uncomfortable for her that she has hundreds of followers in twitter and facebook that she shares her daily thoughts with, regardless of the audience group. This actually happend to me inside and outside cyberworld. I don't necessarily let my coworkers know how I spent my saturday nights in details but I would with my close friends. I am selective about the kind of information that I share with my parents too. They probably don't want to know that I am traveling to Mexico city all by myself and staying at a drag queen hostel over christmas. (unfortunately they are pretty religious and anti gay. and yes I am a blacksheep) Even among friends, I have groups of people that I don't mix up. Facebook and twiitter naturally removed that categorizing behavior - and I'd water down my comments or avoid certain topics to make sure that I am not offending anybody.

This is a positive aspect of the selective identity.
When it comes to blogging, i had to carefully choose which role I am going to play. I've been writing about my experience being unemployed in the last couple of weeks because I feel that it'd be something I'd want to know if my friend is going through especially in this economy. But how would it affect my job searching journey...? Well I'll find it out soon.

So I chose the "unempoyed me" when my friend chose to blog about going through a surgery and getting stuck in bed for a week. She told me that how her friend she hasn't met for over 20 years wrote her about her own experienc getting stuck in bed over 8 weeks. Another example, I recently read through bunch of ladies' blog who were cheated by their spouses and how they are coping with the pain. The anonimosity allows people to open up and be connected in an unimaginable scale. Before blogging, if you have such event, you cope with it yourself.

Facebook and twitter has been a great tool for me to stay connected with friends and be notified about events, and also get the latest news professionally. BUT.
I realized that when I meet somebody in person and I want to actually get to know the person, I don't give them my email address because it would turn it into a cyber relationship. I give them my phone number. I call them. I've often noticed myself connecting with people on facebook and feeling that I did a homework. Putting them in my friend's list and getting their status updates every now and then means I know them? The relationship often dies there.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Unempoyment week4

So couple of weeks ago, I filed for unemployment and now I found out that one of the requirement is to register under labor exchange system to find a job. After searching for a labor department website in Brooklyn, I found a location 15 minutes subway ride from me in down town Brooklyn. First thing I noticed as I walked in this "workforce 1" center? Me being total minority out of minorities. It was mostly blacks, and some Hispanics. On top of that, me being the only person with I-pod and Mac Book (well and my $300 boots) in the waiting room stood out pretty nicely. It reminds me of my friend Josh's experience at a sleepy Waffle house somewhere deep south with his laptop checking his work emails. Well, anyways I got there around 11:30 am in a good spirit (I had a nice cup of Cappuccino in my polish neighborhood bakery) and found out that I have to wait for about an hour until they have an "orientation." I waited until the security guard told us to make a line - which was quiet long. And we were told they only take 40 people at a time. I was at my 33! Bunch of people had to go back home. Obviously there are more demands for the service that the supply here. Mayor Bloomburg extended office hours since last December.
So after sitting in the classroom for registration for about 4 hours here are things I learned from a serises of Powerpoint presentations (well of course I enjoyed Bad art on each slide)!

1. You make $9/hour as a tele marketer if you are bilingual - spanish/english (not korean / english i understand) and 7.25~7.50/hour just for english.

2. Telemerketer entry level position doesn't care about your criminal history

3. You gotta MARKET yourself to join the today's WORKFORCE

4. They also offer a GED classes along with basic computer skills, resume writing...etc.

5. no FUNNY email addresses or DJ style voice mail greeting if you wanna be taken seriously by companies like time warner (well as soon as I heard this comment I started brainstorming about how to make my voice mail greeting GROOVY :) )

6. Today's employers seek people with COMPUTER skills OMG

7. The offered areas of available position this week are... health care, security guard, cable technician, ah and something else I forgot

8. Of course you gotta be quick standing in a line

Finally, I have to say I am being a total smart ass about this public service and people who are trying to help me...but seriously, I have to say it was pretty tough to get through the program learning what opportunities lie there + having to explain what a design researcher does.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Unemployeed week 3

It is Trebuchet kind of day today. Chinese new year's day and sunny

I've started my week 3 of unemployment with calling my 401K account for roll over. And then reading a booklet about unemployment compensation and realizing how much work it actually is to file for a claim each week.

Even though I do not need to distinguish weekends from weekdays, I made a point of not working during the weekends to establish some sort of routines. I've honestly feared being unemployed for so long and I realized that what I feared was the "freedom." Now it is all in my hands to decide how to fill my days. I've never not belonged to a school or work except for a short period of time in between school and job. Now that it is all up to me until I land on to what is next, I have to proactively decide what I will do each week, each day and each hour. (well yeah it comes with the limitation of $$ of course) So I started a lot of things in the last 2 weeks of unemployment besides job searching. Things I've done are...
  • shortening my pants that I've postponed in the last 2 years
  • brushing my cats teeth which I've planned to do so in the last year or so but stopped at purchasing the kitty tooth brush and paste
  • started a branding project for none profit organization - art activism organization called :the real estate industry
  • listening to NPR religiously - today it is home depot's turn to lay off its employees
  • actually posting blogs that my x coworker Dan told me to for years!
  • meeting random people - it was incredible how easily I made friends when I say I don't work!

So far it is getting better. I still can't sleep at night but it is not from worries and stress but more from excitement and my restless mind for expectations.