Personal Blog

Writer's Block: Educated guess

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:46 GMT

How has your education prepared you for your current or intended career? Do you wish you had taken a different path academically? Would you consider transferring or going back to school?

Submitted By feodora

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I do not usually answer the Writer&os;s Block questions, but this one caught my attention as it is a subject I have been contemplating a lot lately. The three Associate degrees I earned in History, Political Science, and Foreign Language have absolutely nothing to do with the job I currently hold, which is a marketing assistant specializing in web design but also responsible for print/graphic design, journalism, and event coordination.

However, I do not wish I had taken a different academic route. Sure, looking back, I sometimes wonder what I would be doing now if I had pursued a bachelors degree in International Relations or one of the other areas I had previously considered. Yet I am content with my previous academic studies. I had a great opportunity of pursuing a wide range of courses that intrigued me and gave me a well-rounded foundation for whatever I plan to do.

At the moment, I am in the final steps of being admitted into a renown university to pursue a bachelors of science degree in Multimedia Design and Development, specializing in web design and development. Web design has been a hobby of mine for twelve years and my profession for the last two. It is something I enjoy, and I feel that it may be the career that I am looking for.

Yet I have not given up on my ultimate dream of publishing my first novel and becoming a fiction author. I am still working on my masterpiece, but I am also developing a few other ideas that have the potential of becoming novels.

Excited.

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:03 GMT

Lila Cervantes&os; concert is today at 2:30pm, and I am so excited. Not only did I put it out everywhere I could possibly think of, but because of a little write-up I did, the concert caught the attention of the local newspaper. As a result, Lila – a Christian music artist – made the front page of Friday&os;s paper! So we are expecting a pretty big community turn out. You know, publicity is basically the same thing as marketing, only instead of advertising an event or program, you are marketing an individual. And that is a lot of fun.

Lila asked my sister to open for her, so Jessica is practicing in her room right now. Jessi has an amazing voice. She sang the National Anthem a capella last night at the 2009 Barstow Community Recognition and Awards Banquet to a crowd of 300+ and received a standing ovation. She was AMAZING, and I am not just saying that because she is my little sister. I can only dream of singing that awesome. She has a powerhouse voice that blows you away, and my voice is definitely not as strong. The songs I sing best are written in minor chords. Anyway, I&os;m happy Jessi gets to open for Lila this afternoon.

I am printing the concert programs right now. Mom convinced Lila that having a program would give the audience something to take home even if they don&os;t buy a CD. (Free publicity for both Lila and our church.) So I whipped something up late last night that, if I do say so myself, looks awesome. Hey, I do this type of thing every day for a living so it is no big deal. I just wish I had a faster colored printer at home so I could print off a batch of 100 programs in a few minutes instead of this slow inkjet printer that I have to do batches of 10. (There I go again, dreaming about having a mini-print shop in my house.) I will probably only be able to print 50 colored copies and the rest will have to be grayscale copies using the church&os;s black and white copy-machine. Good thing I made a grayscale version just in case. (Always thinking ahead, that&os;s me.)

Dream? Goal? Five Year Plan?

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:28 GMT

Last night as I was finishing up some things on my laptop before turning out the light, a strange thought came to my mind.

Wouldn&os;t be awesome to own a vegan bed and breakfast with a few rooms (2 or 3) on the coast somewhere? Be open for the holidays and in the summer, and the rest of the year do freelance design work and/or writing.

I am not sure how realistic it would be, but it sure paints a beautiful picture in my mind.

Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:37 GMT

ADRA, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, is already on the ground in Haiti, but they still need help. They urgently need $1,000,000 dollars over the next few days. Download this bulletin insert to share with at your church!

*ADRA has been working in Haiti for more than 30 years providing relief and development.

Childhood Remininscing

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:22 GMT

I have been listening to a fews songs off Owl City&os;s latest CD, Ocean Eyes, all day at work. The upbeat music and creative lyrics are very condusive to a creative environment.

Anyway, the song "Hot Air Balloon" is currently stuck in my head. It makes me feel like a kid again, back when we lived on Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. There was a neighborhood park right behind our house, and my sisters and I would go there every day to play. Since we three were the only girls in the neighborhood, all of our playmates were boys. We had a blast! Sometimes we would play kickball "down the hill" (which was an open area between two houses that was connected with the park but down a two-foot incline). The park also had a playground where we would use the slide, slings, titter-totters, and tire-swing. It was fun to try to swing the highest on the swing-set and feel like you were flying!

But the best part was the old banyon tree that dominated the park. We would climb all over it, and there were so many interesting nooks and cranies. "The Steps", "the Birdcage", "the Saddle", "the Window"... just to name a few! (I was not brave enough to go up to "the Saddle" often, since it was the highest climb-able area of the tree. My older sister once fell backwards out of "the Window".) And after the locust shed their outer shells, we would hunt for all of the discarded shells.

We would turn that park into the setting of our favorite books and movies... the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin, the forests of Narnia, the Death Star of Star Wars, and so on. Ah, those were great times!

Random Side Note: Does anyone remember the 1980s or early 1990s cartoon with Sonic the Hedgehog (link)? There was Tails and the tail-less fox-girl and they were battling against that red-moustached tyrannical leader, and the fox-girl had this little hand-held device? It just dawned on me this afternoon while I was online via my Blackberry Curve that her device is amazingly similar to the versitile cellphones of today. I just saw a commerical the other day for a mini-projector you can attach right to your cellphone! It is just like that device-thingy from Sonic the Hedgehog...

Productive? Maybe...

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:34 GMT

I enjoyed a quiet and delicious lunch at Chipotle in today. A vegetarian burrito bowl: bed of rice, black beans, sauted onions and green bell peppers, tomato and corn sauce mixes, and guacamole. It was so much that I brought half of it home!

I sat at a table by the window and used the time to plan out the youth night I will be hosting for my church&os;s youth. After a lot of thought, I decided to have a pizza/devotional/movie night. (I need to think of a cooler name!) But to make it fun, the teens will be making their own pizzas! I am going to make pizza dough at home and half cook it. Then at the meeting, they can put whatever toppings they want on their perosnal-size pizza and we will put them in the oven. While the pizzas are cooking, we will have some music (Hopefully, I can encourage them to sing or play guitars, since they are good at it but shy.) and a short devotional over the theme of the movie: good vs. evil. Then we&os;ll eat and head over to the sanctuary to watch Cosmic Conflict on the huge screen.

Now all I need to do is set a date, get the food, and sort out the music!

I also went through Lesson 1 of the Bible studies that John Spellman of Inspirited Network sent me and began brainstorming for the artwork. I ended up doing a full page pencil sketch, too. I would scan it, but my scanner hates anything that is done in pencil. Anyway, I need to do a few more sketches, but it is hard to transfer what I see in my mind down to the paper.

Unfortunately, there is still plenty on my To Do List to accomplish today, and it looks like my tornado-struck bedroom will probably stay a mess for a few more days. *sigh*

Lila Cervantes - Upcoming Concert, Barstow, Jan. 24th!

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:40 GMT

See Lila Cervantes, a debuting Christian artist, in concert at the Barstow Seventh-day Adventist Church, 760 Broadway Ave, Barstow, CA, on Sunday January 24th at 2:30pm. She will be singing songs from her debut album, I Can See.

Here is a video of her performing an original Christmas song, Silent in the Night, at Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church on December 19, 2009.

Songs for I Can See album were written by the talented Brenda Lane and recorded in Nashville, TN. Listen to demos at www.LilaCervantes.com and purchase the CD through her site. Songs are also available at iTunes, Rhapsody, or Amazon.com.

I have the privilege of being the first to interview Lila before her schedule is overwhelmed with concerts. The casual interview will take place this Wednesday, and after it is edited, I will post at In Focus.

"Beautiful"

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:28 GMT

Music Video for Jim Brickman&os;s "Beautiful", featuring Wayne Brady. If you ever watched the comedy show Who&os;s Line Is It Anyways?, then you should not be too surprised at how well Wayne sings. His voice is amazing and Jim Brickman&os;s piano is gorgeous.

This is one of my new favorite songs. (I have so many favorite songs!)

And for a little fanfare, here is another song by Wayne Brady. It&os;s a sad, heart-breaker.

Vegan Dinner

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:52 GMT

It is end of Day 2 of "The Vegan Project", and things are going very well. I made the most delicious dinner for tonight.

Pasta (a mixture of mini-shells and pinwheels) with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and fresh crushed garlic topped with sauteed bell peppers and onions. I drizzled a tiny bit homemade balsamic vingerette on top.

I added just a tiny bit of taco meat made with Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), black beans, chile peppers, garlic, and corn.

And I am taking the leftovers to work tomorrow! Yay!

Except for substituting the TVP for ground turkey meat, this is actually a typical dinner for me. So it is not like I am changing my diet super dramatically. And, yes, I do eat with chopsticks. I cook with them and use them to eat about 75% of my meals. I even take chopsticks to work so I can eat my lunch. XD

Vegan?

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:03 GMT

I never thought I would ever say this, but I think I am going to go vegan. Yup. Cold turkey. (Pun totally intended.) Over the last six months, my lactose intolerance seemed to have transformed from very mild (I did not even realize I was suffering from it for 24 years) to rather bad. (I cannot speak for you, but I call a debilitating stomachache that lasted two weeks "bad".)

I was on a verge of vegetarianism anyway. Due to my issues with dairy, I was cutting out cheeses and milk and only rarely ate chicken or turkey or tuna.

Then last week, I watched the documentary The Cove of the slaughtering of thousands of dolphins in Teijin, Japan, every year. Watching the footage of the fishermen stabbing those poor creatures and watching them writhe in pain as they slowly bled to death...

A day or two later, I happened to watch a few health videos by Dr. Walter Veith of Amazing Discoveries that discuss the science and medical aspects of a plant-based versus meat-based diet. I was shocked at how harmful animal protein actually is. It not only shortens our life span, it plays a role in many diseases that people suffer from today and is physically crippling to our bodies. Yet our society teaches us from infancy that you must eat a lot of meat to get enough protein to be healthy. Yet you can get the same amount of protein – healthier plant protein – from broccoli then you can a steak or chicken.

For a triple whammy, Barstow SDA Church hosted Chef Mark Anthony [link] this weekend, and he gave a vegan cooking demonstration Sunday afternoon. I only need to substitute a few ingredients and the meals I have been cooking/eating lately would become vegan... with no flavor loss! (Flavor is very important to me. I love experimenting with spices. If something does not taste good, I will not eat it.)

All of these seemingly random experiences combined to help form my decision to go vegan. As the saying goes: "Ignorance is bliss." But now that I know, I cannot turn a blind eye and pretend everything

So my mom and I went shopping this afternoon at the tiny health food store in town and picked up some textured vegetable protein (TVP), vital wheat gluten, brown rice flour, and a few other things. For dinner, I made a delicious taco meat mixture using the TVP instead of the usual ground turkey, and it actually had a better flavor than the turkey because the TVP is, on its own, flavorless yet soaks up the flavor of the spices nicely. And I love spices! Especially chili powder. Chili powder is my current favorite spice (followed by sage, oddly enough). Anyway, I also added fresh onion, jalapenos, black beans, corn, and some other veggies I found in the refrigerator. When it was done, I put it on a wrap, added a secret salsa mixture, and some lettuce. It was delicious! I saved some to take to work tomorrow for lunch.

Yup, I think 2010 is the year I will be going vegan. It will be a little challenging to keep fresh fruits and vegetables in the frig and the dry ingredients stocked in the cupboard, but I think I am up for the challenge. There is no way I can go back to eating meat, not when the only thing I see in my mind are those poor dolphins thrashing in the water or the deformed legs of the sheep given too much animal protein in their diet or my co-worker eating fish head for lunch. It is too disgusting. And I will not eat dairy. My body has been rejecting it my whole life, but my brain has only recently caught up.

The whole time I was writing this post, I was listening to Owl City over at YouTube. My older sister texted me about the song Fireflies and said it reminded her of me. (Is that a good thing?) I have not listened to the radio in about three years, so I am out of the loop when it comes to the latest songs. Anyway, call me weird, but I love Owl City&os;s sound and the lyrics are random yet make sense to me. (Hey, I have shared some of my bizarre dreams and random thoughts here on LJ over the years, and there are definitely some similarities.) I will have to keep my eyes peeled for the CD next time I am in Wal-mart or a music store. And the band Annasay. Yup.