I'm sick

Hey.

It's that time of the year where I might get a little sick or gravely sick. Doesn't help that I skipped out on getting a free flu shots that was offered at my work last week. Ugh.

So... What I have been up to since the last update? (Warning: I'm feeling super depressed again.)

- Working. I'm still stressing out with the ads. Now I'm working on t-shirt designs for our 2014 shirts. Last year's shirts can be found here: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/109. I'm also nearing my 1 year anniversary next week. I can't really be excited for it because deep down, I feel like I'm going to get fired at some point because I'm not living up to their expectations.

- Vince and I went with his parents and his mom's side of the family to Bryce Canyon in Utah for a day about 2 weeks ago. It was beautiful and we did a difficult hike down the canyon before we left. We basically drove 5 hours to eat Adobo in the cold >_< Also had Cracker Barrel for the first time... and last time.

- Halloween's coming up. Not sure if I want to do my Wendy (from Gravity Falls) costume again or use my Gothic Lolita costume.

- I got my bachelor's degree in the mail from Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I don't feel really happy about it because I've recently started paying my student loans. I can afford to pay for it but I just hate that all of my money is going to this piece of paper for the next decade. I had to tap into my savings account.

- Hopefully I'll be a little more enthusiastic in my next post. I just want to curl up and sleep for the next 2 days.

Wooooooot :D

Well! Today was a pretty awesome day and it also happened to mark my 6-month anniversary with Pololu. Let me backtrack a bit...

For the last 2 weeks or so, three of our engineers, Jeremy, Jon, and Grant (aka Pololu B-Team) decided to participate in the Red Bull Creation 2013 competition. They were given a TurBull Encabulator to work with and they decided to send the Red Bull cans into (the edge of) space. I took pics and video of their progress but I didn't join the team when they launched the TurBull Chiller (I couldn't pass up on the Las Vegas Foodie Fest). The team had one of our guys, Daniel, do all the photos and videos while additional footage came from the the two GoPros that were attached to the Chiller. After that, I reviewed a majority of the clips and edited a few videos.

The first clip was our qualifying video entry for the competition. They originally wanted the video to be a skit but I wanted to incorporate the existing footage we already had. Then they had the brilliant idea of making it like The Office where they will comment on the skit. While editing the video, I went with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "BomBom" song as a placeholder for the background music. I tried to look for a free song to use but we ended up liking the song and keeping it in there. 

The second clip are outtakes from B-Team. I made this for fun but we ended up using it for the youtube channel. Background music is from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" soundtrack!

And lastly, I made a final video that consists of mostly GoPro and HackHD footage. Jeremy wanted to use Ellie Goulding - "Lights" for the video. Luckily, I already had the album on me!

So in short, I did a lot of video editing and it was quite fun :D

Update 5/17/13: Aaaand we didn't win. Oh well :/ Also, I just noticed the clips I embedded are not showing up. Oh well. You can view the clips at their youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/PololuBTeam?feature=watch

I hate my car

© Joel Orduna Rivera Photography

That's a lie. I LOVE my car, which is an '02 Nissan Sentra GXE. I've been having problems with it lately and it's gotten to that point where I should just trade it in for a new car. I wanted to keep this car for a few more years but it doesn't look like it's possible. This car has been with me through a lot of things, such as helping me move out of my parent's place, taking the kitties to the animal hospital (where I learned they should really stay inside their crates), and it bares the emblem of two anime shows I once loved; Naruto and Bleach.

This actually is my second car to own. When I first moved here to Vegas, I didn't have my own car yet and I was either being dropped off/picked up by my parents, riding the bus, or getting a ride from Vincie. Due to my parents' poor planning (i.e. not adding me as a licensed driver to their car insurance and not being able to file a car accident claim), I decided to get my own car. My first was a brand new 2006 Kia Rio, which I bought hastily.This was extremely hard to pay on a monthly basis since I was making minimum wage from my first job. Then I got into a car accident a few months after I bought it. I panicked. I still had 4 years left to pay it off and I couldn't imagine how to pay for it on top of the repairs. Luckily (?), the car was deemed a total wreck and I had no obligation to pay for it anymore. After spending too much money on renting a car from Enterprise (which was also a Kia Rio), I decided to buy a car-- again. And better car insurance! By then, I had a better paying job and reasonable monthly payments.

And here we are, six years later after paying it off. Unfortunately, I've learned recently that this model has had poor head gasket issues. Not to mention everything else has gradually broken down, like my sun visor and my compartment. Nissan is still a good car - it currently has over 103,000 miles on it - but this particular car is sadly not. My car seems to get worse and worse each year whenever summer and winter hits, which is more severe in Vegas. Now that summer is fast approaching, I'm faced with possibly spending even more repairs for the car or taking on another car loan and paying it off for another six years.I have a hard time letting go of stuff o_o

Hey, it's an update!

Hey! I have some free time to blog! So, a few things have happened since starting my new job back in December. For one, I'm busy and I like it-- well sorta. Not in a bad way! Let me explain...

Everyday, I come to work either mildly or super stressed every morning. It's mostly trying to go over a list of things I have to do on a daily basis. I know it pales  in comparison to what the engineers have to work on but for me, it's something I'm still trying to adjust to. Keep in mind that with my last job, as far as I was concerned, I only had one thing to do: show up. It was SSDD: Same sh*t, different day. With my new job, however, I found myself doing different things, like working on ad concept for the next month, taking product pics (I'm still pretty rusty on this), shooting and editing video (I'm REALLY rusty at this) or making signage. Even though I get stressed with what I have to do for the rest of the day, at the end, all that stress is gone because I've completed my work. So that's how busy I am.

A few other things since my last update; my Vincie found a new job last month! Even better, we're just 10 minutes away from each other's jobs! We can carpool and meet somewhere to have lunch together when we feel like it. And best of all, he is appreciated at his job. His last job was ridiculously stressful and demanding but I'm happy that he left on good terms instead of quitting out of frustration. 

I also recently visited my parents out in Arizona for the weekend. I was freaking out because I have never flown by myself before. It was nice seeing my parents, my auntie and their doggie, Buddy! It wasn't just a family visit though, I was the family IT person. I advised my family to get a router, a printer, and a GPS for their car since they get lost easily when they drive. I also had to do the set up. It was pretty interesting to see Arizona. It was a lot more... desert-y than Vegas. Needless to say, it looks like I would be making another family/business trip to Arizona soon.

So that's that for now.

Turn of The Century

Last week, I was sorting through my box of stuff from my previous job and I found 3 CDs that I haven't played in a while. These cases are the first and third album but I can't remember why I kept the 2nd album CD in one of these cases.

I discovered Pete Yorn when I bought the Me, Myself & Irene soundtrack. Back then, I was a die-hard Jim Carrey fan and I would buy anything related to him, which included movie soundtracks. (Stupid fact: My very first CD was The Mask soundtrack). I loved his song and I wanted to learn more about this artist. I remember going to his website through Columbia, which wasn't fully set up yet and it only had 30-second .wav clips of a few of his songs such as "Strange Condition", "Just Another Girl", "Life On A Chain" and "Turn of The Century" (the early recording). I was stunned when I looked at the dates on the back of the CD cases; I've been listening to him for a decade. A DECADE. He's old now-- and so am I! I enjoyed his 3 CDs and I even bought his other album when he collaborated with Scarlett Johansson. I stopped buying CDs a few years ago, thanks to streaming music.

Anyways, I found this embarrassing little gem: The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel. Talk about a throwback! I was 18 years old and have only been in Vegas for 7 months when I went to this concert. (Fun fact: My mom had to pick me up at the Hard Rock and she was in tears while driving because we got lost trying to get back home). I especially liked this quote:

"Eeeehh... concerts are awesome. But it's even better if you're not by yourself."

I haven't gone to another concert of his since then and I'm bummed that I didn't get to go when he last performed at The Palms back in 2011. Apparently he hasn't toured at all in 2012 because he was secretly working on another project: The Olms. I hope he releases another solo album soon.