twentyseven 👂

Welp, at this point I always do these late—although this isn't quite as bad as when I posted it in November last year—but I turned 27 back in May and it's been my tradition to always post a mirror selfie wearing this Birthday Girl shirt ever since I was 15!

....
There's no logical reason to do this but I'm going to do the exact same thing I did last year and hijack the post to share my recent DIY + purchased earrings LOL.

26.6

OOOOOOPS.... It's a personal tradition of mine to post a mirror selfie with this shirt every year for my birthday, except I always forget to do it around the time of my birthday on May 2nd.... This is a record worst—7 months late!!! I'm closer to my next birthday than the last one!! I've already changed a lot since May!!! LOL. It honestly surprised me to see such a big stylistic jump from last year's post to now.

I'm now 26 (and a half), still not really a competent adult, but I don't let it bother me as much these days looool. I'm just doing what I can.

So grateful to my "fairy godmother" for introducing me to clip-on earrings because they were absolutely the Low-Effort Big-Glow-Up accessory I've been looking for ✨ Such a simple but striking visual upgrade; I love it! It's been really fun to alter my look with different earrings and doing some crafty work by making my own. Feels like the possibilities are endless and I look forward to exploring them 💞

And then this became a selfie dump post, sorry. I really like earrings now. My life is forever changed.

"Poetic Justice"

Baby's first Gundam;

The gallant Justice Real Grade!

Fome made me do it.

The first foot forward

Always trembles, uncertain.

Did I make this right???

Palette

Mimi gave me watercolor pencils for my birthday so I've been giving that a try even though I totally lack artistic and aesthetic skill haha. It's been a nice thing to do as I'm trying to rest when I'm not working. 

Last Friday, I got back from a weeklong business trip to LA where I worked on videos that were shown before audiences of 2000+ people. ;u; That's huge—and so was the screen it played on... All of the footage was shot in 4K in order to be big enough. I was the on-site producer/sometimes camera op/sometimes director for a video that included high school finalists from the 78 countries that made it to the top of a science competition, which meant long days spent standing but it was fun and rewarding! Afterwards, I edited the video shown during the closing ceremony that summed up the kids' week and their awesome experience and achievements. ^^

The reward and being proud of the students aside, it was really exhausting. I still hadn't recovered from being previously tired, so I was in poor condition to work a taxing, stressful, little-sleep, nonstop week. ;; It was probably the physically and mentally crappiest I've felt in...I can't remember. Unfortunately I have a lot of work left these next two weeks, so I can't take a vacation, but I'm trying to rest when I'm off work at least.

This is my first piece (through which I found out I have no idea how watercolor works lolol) and kindergarten-doodle-lookin' practice from Saturday..

Today, I tried to draw a palette.

I've been obsessed with IU's new song "Palette" ;v; It's a song about being 25, but that's Korean age so even though I consider myself 24, I'm technically the same age as IU! There's something mystical about her music where it feels relatable even though you can't actually relate.

Yesterday, I watched IU's LieV, which is a live broadcast that airs Sunday nights in Korea designed to help one sleep in peace despite Monday blues. A celebrity (or multiple, but the effect is very different) carries out the show lying down on a bed, and they talk comfortably for an hour about whatever they want, while reading comments from fans. I love love love this concept! Certain ones I listen to regularly to fall asleep. ^^

IU's shed a lot of light on me as to what kind of person and musician she is, and I've so much newfound respect and love for her. <3 It's no wonder everybody admires her~ I could go on and on now about how pretty it is that she loves her music and is passionate about making music and writing lyrics that tell a story, and how down to earth she is especially considering her fame, and how awesomely candid she's become, and how thoughtful and talented and—oops I'm going on and on. She's amazing and there's much to be learned from/about her.

In her LieV, she discusses inspirations for her songwriting, especially for Palette. One of the things she did during her hiatus was take art lessons, although she claims to be bad at drawing haha. She said that rather than the painting, she had more interest in the paint palette—which one can think of as just a tool to make art, but she thinks that it can be considered artwork itself, with its variously pretty colors and endless possibilities.

She then relates the palette to herself and says, "Rather than painting each and every color to show you, I wanted to show you the palette that I am," which I thought was fascinating but didn't really understand. *^* I'm still trying to digest it, but right now this is my guess... I think one way she meant that was to say that while her songs are great and her repertoire has some diverse colors/genres, she wants to show that she—the songwriter behind the songs—is the true work of art. I think she wants people to understand her identity stripped of the veil the stardom, and the complexity of the work she puts into her music, how all those contrasting images are all a part of her, and how she's got endless possibilities. 

Now I'm just geeking because nobody's stopping me from typing sorry!!! But she's so cool!! The song "Palette" is interesting because it's so IU-identity-centric and personal... It's brave and thoughtful. G-Dragon's rap part is a message to IU talking about how she's at the age where she's shining, how it's tough being not quite a child or an adult, and persuades her that she's beautiful and blooming. In the live performances, she does the rap herself while replacing some of the lyrics, but still addresses herself with a message. This song is really all about giving the audience a window into what she's like, her thoughts, her interests, how she's changed in the past few years, how she's accepted that people will hate or love her, how she feels like she's growing into her own skin. Ugh!!! How cool is she!!

Doodlin'

I'm trying to make the best of my relax time before maso hell begins ehe~ Gonna have a chill weekend before the LSO mix gets passed to me and I'll be working on it every night after work until the deadline on Friday :'D.....

For the first time in likely over 5 years, I tried to draw again! It's not very much, and it's not very good—but it's a refreshing, nostalgic, fluttery feeling. In middle school, I drew so much that I even started working on an anime that had a whole story written out.. Somehow sometime in high school, I just...stopped. I wish I didn't because my sense of creativity since then stopped flowing. :c

Hahaha....I can't believe the one thing that motivated me to pick up a pencil again was Zen from Mystic Messenger LOL! This game has me in shackles and I'm currently on Zen's route after finishing Yoosung's. Honestly, Zen's is sooo much better. He's such a sweet, caring character whose worries feel almost realistic. The game is giving me such feels!! It's fun, interesting, and sometimes even comforting. ^^

Oh and a few weeks ago, I started using Overtone's dye conditioner! My pinkish coral ombre hair from May had faded to plain blonde for a while now, and the awesome Gino recommended this as an easy and effective way to redye my hair. I like it a lot! I love that I can just apply it in the shower without worrying about it getting everywhere, and it smells like yummy spearmint. The color turned out pretty well even after one use, although the spread wasn't as balanced as I hoped.

Pastel pink~ This color was back-ordered when I bought it so I expected to wait a few weeks, but surprise! It came 4 days later!! With shipping, it came out to $23.50.

Blonde before using Overtone~ My company got an air hockey table recently so sometimes I practice when I'm the last one to leave the office lololol (still suck tho)

After Overtone! Featuring the Gemini girls <3 Chiisana and Mimi, who had just gotten her hair done with a pretty ash blonde balayage. *__* (if you've seen my last post, she seriously doesn't age, right!!!!!!)

SHINE ON ME

LET IT SHINE ON ME, YEAH!
(insert Red Velvet's Happiness)

After dabbling in film and photography stuff, you really realize what a big difference lighting makes. Brightness, color temperature, softness/harshness, positioning—they're all surprisingly important. With my interest in videography growing (or at least intent to try my hand and improve at it), I figured I need lights and hopefully some kind of flexibility with them.

For now, my first purpose requires soft, diffused, even, flat, skin tone-flattering, bright, [and cheap...........] light. Think soft, prettily lit K-pop idol MV. That's what I want to attempt.

So today, Fome and I did some shopping at the dollar store, Home Depot, and Staples
...then built softbox lights! ;u;
It works out because his band Phoenix Ash is looking to upload more videos in the future, which is why he's interested in building lights too. They're actually gonna upload a new cover soon (OF AN AWESOME SONG) so look out for that~

Materials are:
white foam board, aluminum foil, vellum paper, lamps, light bulbs, and a shit ton of duct tape.
(we ended up being SO happy with the white duct tape because it would've looked much uglier otherwise heheheh)

First version, we wanted to see what it'd look like just as a white foam box without foil and felt like there was wasted bounced light escaping from the sides? So we added foil after the box was assembled and that was comparatively messier than doing the second box.

I decided I wanted to be extra meticulous huehuehue and so the second version is slightly prettier.

HEH. can you tell which was the guinea pig and which is not? HEHHH. (he's jealous because I'm technically the owner of the second one)

Yehhhhh !!

(Bonus: Without the vellum paper as a diffuser, having the box open actually works to make the light more spotted because it's all concentrated in one direction without spilling on the sides. It's harsh and not what I want, but for certain purposes, it works!)

We tried duct tape as the lamp mount on one of the softboxes, but mmmmh we're still trying to figure out an alternative that would be sturdier and hopefully with less potential to melt off. For mine, it'll be extra tricky because I require the softbox to be collapsible so that I can more easily store it disassembled when at home.

(Upper) No softbox light! Light source is the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, which give off a bit of a green tone.

(Lower) One softbox light from above! We made the mistake of leaving the fluorescents still on, but oh well..

Definitely a huge difference, which is emphasized by the original green'ish tone of the room. But the effect of the light is noticeably less harsh, a bit more flattering on the skin, cleaner, clearer?

We put a lot of thought into choosing the color temperature of our bulbs (which btw are amazing in brightness output, especially for the wattage and price of 4 for $10) and yet I wonder if we settled too low. In particular, I was looking for color temperature ranging between 3500 and 4100 Kelvin because that's the spectrum of slightly warm to neutral white to slightly cool. Yellow disgusting ass household bulbs of 2700 Kelvin are out of the question. 5000 Kelvin looks too blue and inhuman.

But we couldn't find anything at Home Depot between 3000 and 5000 K, and so we got the 3000 K bulbs which didn't look too bad in the display.

It's a huge improvement compared to the yellowness of household bulbs, but still a tad too warm for my taste. I don't want to replace the bulbs because I am a frugal cheap ass who already thinks this shit was too expensive for a homemade project (those foam boards are fucking rip-offs I tell you ok) so I'm thinking about trying some kind of blue filter or fabric on top of the paper to counteract the yellow? Or just rectify it in post production color correction lololololol.

Well, we both had a lot of fun! We learned lots! And here's a song of the day which we found to be hella rockin'.

FTISLAND - Hold My Hand

The Adventure of Libby

After her transformation, Libby went on to tie for 1st place in the company pumpkin carving/decoration contest!

But unfortunately, all good things come to an end.

I'm sure many pixies unbeknownst to our sight and senses were able to enjoy the warm welcome of Libby's hospitality and the company of her turtle friend Shelly. ;u;

Libby was able to spend a wonderful and joyful couple of days on display with her pumpkin siblings, all of whom she was very proud of. She was loved and admired by many, gaining a surprising abundance of remarks at the girl that the design was creative and cute.

Libby's one regret in her short but worthwhile lifetime was that she couldn't be lit up with a candle like the rest of her siblings. But she couldn't do that to the pixies anyway.

And now that mold was starting to become a problem, it was time for Libby to resign.
Today, we've let Libby go.

You were the best pumpkin friend an overly sentimental girl could ever ask for. RIP Libby (? - 11/1/2013)

The Little Pumpkin

There once was a pumpkin named Libby.
Libby wasn't very big and, well.. "pumpkin-like" like other pumpkins. She was small, round, and could easily be mistaken for an orange.
"No one would want to make a jack-o-lantern out of me," lamented Libby. "Even with the most frightening of designs, I wouldn't be able to scare a fly."

She happened to be in the batch of pumpkins sitting in the lobby of a company in California, all anxiously waiting to be taken home and carved into something spectacular. They would be contenders for the company's upcoming Halloween pumpkin carving contest. But Libby didn't have much hope to be chosen, thinking she'd be left to rot in the dumpster.

Just then, a girl walked in, grumbling about how her boss was forcing her to join the contest--even though she had never even thought about pumpkin carving before and was also a busy college student. She eyed the bunch and reluctantly picked up the pumpkin that fit in the palm of her hand, thinking it was cute. And now Libby had a home.

The girl quickly grew attached to Libby, firstly taking a picture of Libby with the newly reddened leaves outside the company office to signify the arrival of Autumn, and later even taking dumb selcas with the tiny pumpkin.

Even the girl's alpaca wanted in on the action.

But now they were posed with the question of what to make Libby into. Luckily, the girl didn't want to do something scary, which Libby found relief in; she didn't want to become something scary either, even if all of her brothers and sisters boasted about being carved into the scariest. But what could they do then? Libby started to feel apologetic, as though she was no help and was just making matters more frustrating and burdensome. The girl didn't even want to enter the contest in the first place, after all.

But the girl's friends came up with a wonderful idea, and suddenly the girl became inspired and enthusiastic about the contest. Libby still wasn't sure, but surely anything would be better than the dumpster.

After enduring painful hours of carving (on both the pumpkin and girl's ends), Libby started to change.

She could feel many of her toxic feelings emptying as her seeds were removed, and replacing them was a growing air of self-content.

Upon seeing herself, Libby was ecstatic, though this quickly faded into regret, feeling as though something were missing. "This is wonderful! I wish I could win you the contest, but I'm still not too confident..." she trailed off.

And who would appear at this time other than [the female, Asian, 20-year-old] Santa Claus [her]self?!
"I hear your wish, young pumpkin. Now let's make you even more beautiful."

With Santa's magic and hours spent waiting for glue to dry, Libby finally transformed into a full-fledged petite pixie pumpkin house.

The girl had never been so proud of a pumpkin before.
"Look, Libby! You're beautiful, and helpful to boot! Imagine all of the pixies that will be able to make a home inside of you! And you don't even have to be scary to be spectacular."

Little Pumpkin, you can become anything you want to be.