"Compliments Journal"

I told a fellow intern that she has a good reputation for her computer skills and she looked really happy.

I told my intern employer that his show made me laugh a lot and that everything he’s assigning us to do sounds really interesting.

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One of my teachers assigned me to be a group leader, which I take as a compliment, since he makes up his mind about people…so there must’ve been something good in what he saw from me before (previous class).

Someone I’ve been talking to said that she noticed I’m very strong. I didn’t really understand or believe this, but I guess it’s a kind of strength that doesn’t “give in” to emotions. I mean, I do, but not completely and utterly. There’s always a part of me that stays detached.

Lots of people have commented on something I designed and helped to make :).

The final evaluator of our project (before we can go and work on the set itself) said the gates looked good (I rendered and designed the gates!).

The director of my program called me bright, sincere, and a hard worker. She really affirmed her belief in me…that I can do good in this program. She also kind of implied that if I raise my GPA before graduation (I’m halfway through the program), I could be a candidate for the Mahoney award. She also confided something personal to me, which touched me. She also said I was a good listener. HAHAHA how is it that people think I’m a good listener? I don’t get it. I mean, I do…but I just find it sort of funny…that even people who, essentially, don’t know me that well think that. Talk about validation when it happens all too often.

I have a new mentor! Sort of! I guess two, since I’d count the person above as a mentor too.

This presentation I whipped up about Vivienne Westwood apparently blew the class away. Two people told me it was really good (and lots of clapping, wow). :)

We had to do a collage for my photoshop class and mine was about my alter ego (that I half made up as I went along). I put in stuff like a sniper kitty and I made the alter ego a pole dancer that performs in a hello kitty plane and loves panini. She also collects gnomes. Anyhow, a lot of people complimented me on the ideas and how I blended it together.

My teacher was so amused by it (and his sense of humor is…interesting) so that’s good. He told me I had good retention (using techniques the class haven’t learned yet but he taught them in another class I took).

In another class with the same teacher, he was really surprised when I said I’m really not a hands-on person in general (it’s true, I’m not making excuses) and I was saying that my mother is really good with her hands and being resourceful. I, however, did not attract that gene/trait. He was really surprised and said that it’s probably deep down and that I haven’t tapped it yet. He’s actually the second teacher to express surprise on that….I wonder if there’s something about me that makes it seem like I’d be good at that stuff.

So while I was on my road-trip to Sedona, my two sisters and I were frequently asked “so, what part of Texas are you girls from?” Now first of all, let me say I LOVE being called a girl. At 54, 58, & 61, we just don’t get called ‘girls’ often enough!!
Second, I have no problem whatsoever being accused of being a Texan. I have always thought they had charming accents (for the most part, a notable exclusion being W) so being asked what part of Texas were we from was amusing and complimentary. The highest form of that compliment came from the Texas state trooper who pulled me for speeding and thought we were from Texas and wondered aloud why we didn’t have a Texas inspection sticker until he saw our Virginia tags (my sister’s car). And he was a black man from upstate New York whose accent deep in the heart of Texas blew our mind!

I got my hair cut soon after I arrived in Hawaii (back “home”) and I got so many compliments on it that it just makes me feel really good. I think it’s definitely different and at least is something OTHER than what I usually have, medium-long layers. It’ll be even better when I get back to California, I hope, since the climate where I live is cooler and my hair will not feel so gross because it’s so short I can’t really tie it up anymore. I hate it sticking to my neck when the heat gets me all sticky and sweaty. Ugh.

My subtle change of style has garnered comments as well. I’m still into the jeans and slippers (flip flops) but I also wear flats now (not too popular in Hawaii) and I like certain tops that deviate from what I usually wore as my personal uniform when I still lived in Hawaii. That’s good, I guess. I don’t know what to make of this change – I just know I had to change in order to better fit in at my new school (I really look like a hippo among flamingos at fashion school).

someone said that i was very intelligent :)

ps. note the “very” part, lol.

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
Christian Friedrich Hebbel

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In Survey of Visual Communications, we had to choose a couture designer and use inspiration/perspective from that designer through the entire quarter. We then have to create a point-of-view board (which depicts what kind of target market group that we are focusing on for the entire quarter – ie what collection we are inspired from), a shopping bag as if for a boutique, a scale-model fashion runway, and a triptych containing a presentation of a fictional store layout/elevation/fixtures.

The designer I chose – Valentino. Bearing in mind I am fashion-clueless :O_o:, I basically knew nothing except what little research I did. Anywhoo, my bag came out utterly horrible. Loved the idea but the execution was the worst thing I’ve done since I’ve attended this school. My fashion runway also sucked to death. So I was pretty stressing out about it and I was fearing the humiliation (we have to do an oral presentation on the last day—yesterday).

So the teacher kind of “sprung” on us what exactly we have to include in our talk, and then gave us 30 minutes to practice, which…I didn’t do because I was just so distracted. I went fifth and after I finished, my teacher said mine was the best oral presentation so far (that was nice to hear – and he didn’t say anything like that to anyone after me either). That’s just very ironic because I used to be one THE worst oral presenter in any class. Just so ironic. (Yay debate team!!!)

Here comes my shock:
After everyone presents, he made us choose our top two favorite projects overall and a lot of people chose mine as one of their choices! I was just like :O O_o ”...whaaa?? What’s happening? How is this…what?” confused But it felt nice.

And here’s the frosting on the cake (even though I don’t like frosting):
Our teacher said he’d name HIS top 3 projects and that he wanted the 3 people to take photos of every element for him.

I WAS ONE OF THEM. OH MY FUCKIN’ GOD!!!!!!!! He said, “Valentino, Sonia Rykiel, and Benjamin Cho.” OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. alternates floating and bouncing

I feel airborne but I am still confused as to why they would like my projects. But wow. I feel so honored!!!

AND THEN – my counselor told me that based on what she knows about my teacher, he is very particular about feedback. I guess that’s comforting.

but I felt like I need something positive to focus on.

One of my teachers seem to love my ideas a lot – and while he didn’t like my previous project (I have to redo it), he liked my new idea. So I’m really glad…and he offered to help me assemble. He told me that he was really surprised I wasn’t a “construction person”...which I took it as a good thing because I guess my ideas are good so he expected me to be able to carry them out? I have no idea.

My teacher liked my shopping bag project (although he’s going to grade me down for the horrible execution). If I were to look at it critically, I think the idea and design is fair, but the execution is the worse of the entire class.

Lots of people that I talk to about my runway idea liked it (and were impressed) which makes me feel good! :) Now if I can PULL IT OFF, that’ll be something.

Several people has added a bunch of my photographs on dA as “favorites” which makes me very happy! AND a new person added me to their watch list. Whee! It’s motivation to go take more photos, haha.

A friend wrote in a card to me that she likes how I can strike up a conversation with strangers. :)

1. Comp. rendering teacher said my pattern looked great (except that pattern I had done in the past in another class and took HOURS doing it so yeah…whereas most people were just learning it).

2. So there’s this group project for one of my classes in which we have to design a complete event (we’re talking full scale event and planning from budget to contracts to interiors). Because I’m the least technically skilled, I volunteered to do all the writing (I’m very confident about that). One girl joked I better not be lying about my writing and a former teacher (who I like) happened to be there and he goes, “I had her in my intro class and she was doing stuff that you do in computer rendering.” I don’t remember that but hey it was a NICE compliment…plus it affirmed some kind of faith for my group in me. I hope. I think. :) But it was really nice to hear…