Applying for jobs!

I had an interview the other day with a Japanese company. Whoa. I know, right? It's like a dream come true... getting interviewed for a corporate job at a corporate company and for a Japanese company. I got the interview through a recruiting firm. Now I just need to wait for the recruiting firm to let me know if I got the job or not. The interviewer said they would be doing more interviews this week, and would want someone to start in early February. I did let them know I would be available February 1st and can commute there easily. However, I'm not too sure about how my interview went. It could've been better... my answers might have been too generic, and I didn't know where to look except for at the interviewer. There were other interviewers too, so I would just look at one as they asked me the questions.... :S

I applied for a Freelance job today as well. I only submitted my resume, since it seems like they need a lot of people... but maybe I should have done a cover letter as well, but I think my resume says a lot about my experience and skills. We'll see.

I've been obsessed with The Sims 3 lately. It's so addicting... and so nice to play it on a computer that can actually handle its graphics and everything! My sim is out there. Really.

Hope I can find a job soon. I should probably write up a thank you letter soon for the recruiting company. They literally emailed AND called me to notify me of anything... such as the interview scheduling, and location (the initial address they gave me was incorrect and I emailed them about it so they emailed me and called me back to confirm the one I looked up was the right one).

Keeping myself busy!

So lately I've been keeping myself really busy. Asides from work, there's not too much I have to do when I get home. I usually just game, eat, sleep, and watch YouTube videos or anime. Now it's time to actually embrace my free time and do something productive with it, because when I get a full time job, I might be too tired after (probably for the first few weeks until I get accustomed to the new job) to do anything fun and stimulating, so might as well start now.

I've been working on my website. I downloaded the Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop trials to my laptop so that I can start making my site right away. It's time I gave my current design a revamp, with a touch of my style to it. The version I have now just has some text, videos, and a premade WordPress layout. I want to stop using WordPress and just create an HTML site like how I used to back when I was in junior high. I'm giving myself a week to do this, so hopefully by the weekend I'll have it up and running. First, I need to make a layout in Photoshop, and then I'll figure out the positioning and text stuff later. I'll also have to make some new content as well for a few sections for my site, and I'm also looking into getting a domain name too, but for now I might just stick with a free domain name or my sub domain, since I don't have many visitors just yet.

I'm also relearning Japanese. My friend actually bought me this awesome Japanese learning kit with CDs a long time ago for my birthday, and I never had a chance to use it because back then I used a Macbook, and the software only works on PC. Now that I have a Windows laptop, I can finally use the software. It looks really promising too. Along with that, I also have some free podcasts I've downloaded to help my studying as well. I just need to find my old textbooks and relearn grammar structures. And writing too... that's probably going to be the most difficult to relearn, since it requires memorization of so many different Kanji, but if I'm really determined, I can definitely do it. I'm studying now so that I can visit Japan once again :) Of course, I also need to find a stable job to fund that trip as well.

And I've been trying out SMITE lately, which is like a first-person League of Legends. So... basically I'm trying out different games now because I can. :)

That's about all the stuff I've been busy with. Oh, and I'm also going to start doing more vlogs again, and make review videos on products. Adobe Premiere Pro looks pretty easy to use, after I watched a tutorial on it.

Really happy I've got lots to learn and do on my free time. :D Just need to make sure I don't procrastinate. I tend to do that a lot!

New goals!

I didn't go to work for as long as I needed to today. Slept in a tad bit. It's fine though, I stayed so that I would only need to work one hour next week on whatever day to make up the one hour I didn't complete today. S'all good.

I have some new goals. The other day on my way to work I pondered about going back to school. Before, I had wanted to go and take makeup and hair courses for fun, but then I realized I have more fun just experimenting on my own, and it would be an expense that I didn't need to invest in, so that was out of the question. The other day, however, I thought about going back to college and taking the culinary arts program. Not because I want to be a chef, but because I just want to learn how to cook; how to cook well, how to make good meals, etc. But then two years might be a little too much, since I do need to get a career going pretty soon. So I figured, maybe I'll try taking some evening cooking courses? Also, earlier last week, I wanted to take singing courses. I know, it's weird that I'm thinking about doing all these interesting courses straight after I finished my post-secondary undergraduate and college studies. There's SO much I want to learn and so many skills I would like to enhance, singing being one of them. Although, maybe that's something I can teach myself, not sure.

Another thing I recently made my goal... getting an Adobe Certified Expert (A.C.E) certification. This is something I see in a lot of movie credits next to the video editor's name! [Update: I just found out this is NOT the same thing. A.C.E is actually for American Cinema Editor, which you have to join this honorary club for. ACE is the exam I will take. Ah, the things you learn on Wikipedia.] And luckily, the test can be done in my location. The only thing I need to do now is pick a program I want to certify in, use it as much as I can, and study up. It costs $180 to take the exam, and 71% is needed to pass for Adobe Premiere Pro. 65% pass for Adobe After Effects. I might do both, but the one I should probably focus on first is Premiere. I'll definitely make this one of my new years resolutions for this year. Hopefully I can get certified before the Summer. :) That way I can keep up my video editing skills and have a certification I can use when applying for jobs.

One more goal I might pursue is going to school for graphic design. In general, I know how to make layouts and do typography and basic graphic design stuff, but it would be really nice to actually have proof of this for any future jobs that may catch my interest. I have experience from my junior high days, but I don't think that will be enough/actually impress employers. I need either a strong background in graphic design or some school/certification of some sort to convince them... and well, to be honest, nowadays it's difficult to find jobs that just require video editing skills. Employers either want a video editor who can also film video too. Or they want someone who can do graphic design AND video editing. Oh and not to mention I find way more companies looking for graphic designers, rather than video editors. So hey, if I've done it before, I can definitely do it again. I may just take a one year course in graphic design, or maybe some evening courses. Or online courses? We'll see.

I think that's enough about my intense career/interest goals. For now I need to sleep after having a big sushi dinner.

Snowfall once again!

It snowed so much yesterday. So glad I took today off. Today I was going to have lunch at Original Joe's with my friend today, since she had a three hour break, but she texted me an hour before asking if we still wanted to go for lunch since it's crazy outside. I looked at outside and we negotiated that we'd meet up sometime later next week instead. Everything is covered in snow... and I would be relying on public transportation, which doesn't function at its best right after a snowfall based on past experiences. I did however, want to go to a food court and get some A&W since I had an Uncle Sirloin coupon for $4.50, but as soon as I took my dog outside, I realized I should stay home. It started snowing again so I decided to cook some sunnyside up eggs with some toast! So yummy :) My dad came home shortly after and made some fried rice! I ate that too, so my cravings and tummy was pretty satisfied.

Tomorrow I have a longer shift at work, and I was actually debating on whether or not to make my lunch. I usually have some veggies to cut up or place in my sandwich, but I couldn't find any in our fridge. So I thought to myself, I'll make my sandwich with no veggies, but I'll get a salad tomorrow too at work. Then I realized a salad at work would probably fill me up anyway, so I did the dishes... but then remembered I had a longer day at work, so I should make lunch anyway as well, since I get pretty hungry on longer shifts. I made my sandwich and packed it away in the fridge I'll probably get some Starbucks tomorrow as well, I'm just three stars away from the Gold card... Oh, I should probably refill my card now. XD

I did laundry yesterday and folded it all today. I am getting in the habit of being more tidy nowadays, which is always a good thing. Once I'm actually doing the activity, it's not so bad, but just thinking about it makes me procrastinate even more. Ah, willpower.

Grad photos, new work schedule

Got my grades back today. Guess what? I'm graduating!! Yay! I am officially finished my undergrad... minus the piece of paper. o_o

Yesterday I found out the website to book my graduation photos, and booked an appointment for next week. I just realized my bangs won't grow long in a week's time, but I think I've developed a makeup routine to make them look good in photos. I will have to practice my best smile!

At work we have a new payroll schedule, which means instead of my flexible working hours where I would just come in and work, then write down how many hours I worked, now I need to estimate my hours I WILL work and put them on my time sheet. Basically, it means I need to commit to a schedule now. I decided to make an easy schedule for myself consisting of only 3 hours a day until I can get my internal clock to wake up earlier in the day. Lately I have been waking up early without hesitation, but not early enough. I need to sleep earlier too.

I think this year I will wave/curl my hair more often. I used to hate curling my hair when I was little, but I've found a way that makes it look pretty casual when I use a hair straightener. I've grown pretty fond of it ever since I used this reference picture for my haircut. It has a girl with burgundy-colored hair, but her hair is long and she's got loose flowy/casual curls at the ends of her hair. :) Also, it goes very well with my straight fringe. Balances it out!

Work makes me sleepy!

Back at work now. It feels nice yet when I sit at my desk doing work, I get really sleepy. It's probably because I sit there for hours just typing up a script I've already typed. Usually my job is pretty easy, I just import the script into my caption program and I'm ready to start timing. However, something went wrong with the program and now it just won't read my script properly, causing it to import only some captions. I came back to work from holidays hoping the Technical Director would be there to help me out, but he's sick. :( He'll be back next week though, so hopefully we can figure out a solution so I won't have the same problems in the future. Retyping a script can get pretty time consuming, and I'm kind of behind on projects since I had to study for my exams. Oh speaking of exams...

I didn't fail! Well, I didn't do so bad in the one course I was struggling with. I got my marks the other day, and I'm really happy. I still have one more grade to receive. Today was the due date for instructors to submit their grades to the system, so hopefully I'll be able to see my grades on Monday.

Since I sit a lot at work, I get up every hour or so to walk around. Usually it's just to the garbage can to throw out my garbage from the food I ate. I tend to get hungry while working away. I decided to visit Starbucks and get a green tea latte with soy milk, half-sweet, in my new Teavana tumbler that I got for Christmas. :) After drinking a few sips, I still felt really sleepy. But then an hour later I perked up and the green tea was working its magic!

Later I went to the gear rental place and helped my boyfriend carry his snowboard rentals to his car. My friends and him are going snowboarding tomorrow. I was invited to, but I'm a wuss. T_T Maybe I'll try it sometime... when I'm not a wuss.

I worked on my cover letter too tonight, I've got the bulk down of my experience, now I just need to write about the programs I can use, and just general qualifications I have for the job. I'm still on the search for other positions at other locations to apply for.

I also got a haircut yesterday. Decided to go with a straight fringe. I wanted to look like a gyaru I guess. Took a while to get used to, I don't mind it too much now, but when I was at the salon, I kept giving myself weird looks. XD Ah I'll grow it out eventually, it looks pretty good when swept to the side though. :)

I'm not too sure what I'll do tomorrow. I'll work on my cover letter some more, but I think I want to go out. On Sunday I have plans with some friends I haven't seen in a while, not exactly sure what we plan to do though, but it'll be really good to see them!

Chillin' with some friends, new years eve and Earl's!

It's been a while since I last blogged. I actually just didn't feel good enough to blog these last few days, and I really needed my sleep. I'm feeling MUCH better now than I was before, so I'm taking this opportunity to blog again :)

I did go out to the pub with our friends and it was really nice seeing our friends who we haven't seen since they left for Japan. One of them is an actual resident, and the other is a teacher, teaching English. I still wasn't feeling well that day so I ended up just sharing a buffalo chicken wrap and fries with my boyfriend, and I also had some cranberry juice in hopes that it would calm my stomach. It definitely didn't upset it, and the meal was really good! I was surprised how I was able to have an appetite for it, let alone actually finish some of it. XD I felt a bit icky afterwards, but it was good to spend time with our friends. We ended up leaving after 10 I think, and headed home where I spent more time sleeping.

On New Years Eve, I went shopping and finally had the stomach to go out and get some BOGO at Starbucks for their holiday drinks. :) I got to use my card, and I'm happy to say that I am just five stars away from the gold card... I'm not sure why getting the gold card is such a big deal to me, perhaps it's because I get a shiny new gold card with my name on it that appeals to me... After Starbucks, I headed home and played with my new laptop. It uses Windows 8, which I find is hard to get used to... it's like having half a tablet and half a computer in one... if I had a touchscreen that would probably make it more useful to me. For now, it's not so bad. I can run things in the background in the "Start" part of Windows 8, and not have to worry about bringing things down when I'm working on my "Desktop" which is the actual computer portion... o_o Afer that, my boyfriend and I decided to attend the annual New Years Eve Bash downtown. We got there after 11pm, since we didn't want to stand outside for three hours to wait for the countdown. By the time we got there, we had to find parking about 20 minutes walking distance from the event. It was cold that night but we had a good workout walking the distance! There were lots of people there, music, and then two fireworks... literally, to ring in the new year. Ah, it was interesting.

Yesterday I just played some LoL and then attempted to use Cinema4D... it's harder than it seems. 3D modelling is something I definitely want to learn, but I need to start with some beginner tutorials/exercises. o_o

Today we went to Earl's for a super late lunch/early dinner. XD We wanted to use a groupon for The Auburn Lounge, but we kept walking around and really couldn't find the location... gave up, and just ended up going to Earl's. I got a Grilled Chicken and Baked Brie sandwich (my favourite!) and my boyfriend got the Buttermilk Fried Chicken burger, which was also really good. We ended up getting fries for sides, and also got a gingerbread cake with icecream and caramel apples for dessert. We were pretty full after, and then did a bit of groccery shopping. Played some Miracle Mask, and watched a bit of the first episode in season 2 of The Walking Dead. I also worked on my cover letter for a job I'm applying for, and drank some green tea. :)

Tomorrow I am back to work, so I need to sleep soon. It's 2AM O_o.