Working harder than I ever worked.
Flush.
Posts Tagged “What Am I Doing?”
On this page:
- What Am I Doing? (January 2010) (Jan 13, 2010)
- What Am I Doing? (May 2009) (May 11, 2009)
- What Am I Doing? (Apr 2009) (Apr 10, 2009)
- What Am I Doing? (Mar 2009) (Mar 11, 2009)
- What Am I Doing? (Feb 2009) (Feb 11, 2009)
- What Am I Doing? (Jan 2009) (Jan 11, 2009)
- What Am I Doing? (Dec 2008) (Dec 11, 2008)
- What Am I Doing? (Nov 2008) (Nov 11, 2008)
- What Am I Doing? (Oct 2008) (Oct 11, 2008)
- What Am I Doing? (Sept 2008) (Sep 11, 2008)
What Am I Doing? (May 2009)
All I can say is that for the past month I’ve been busy workin’, and hopefully you will see the fruits of my labor soon.
And I apologize for not attending Alumni Day at my alma mater this year. I don’t want to promise next year’s appearance and break it, but I will try very hard to make it.
Flush.
What Am I Doing? (Apr 2009)
There’s little to update for this month. It’s what you may say a transition period of things that have happened and of things to come. I’m trying to wrap up the final behind-the-scenes stuff with Portal A before I move into a different stage of this freelance life. But this transition period will be no different from any other time of my life; I will be busy busy busy trying to get through the thousands of next-actions from my 100+ projects list.
Just another plug for my client: if you need some video work done, check them out. They’re also looking for an intern for the summer. No coffee runs; real chance to do actual work.
Quote I Go By Lately
“Don’t Live in a Design Bubble.” —Me, to myself.
Flush.
What Am I Doing? (Mar 2009)
Freelance
Things are going well with my freelance project. We’re pretty much wrapping up with the foundation of the site, with a few more adjustments and fixes. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, I’ll be able to present it here with some process work.
GTD
I finally had some time to revamp my GTD system, and it seems to be working better than before. I basically digitized my projects list and actions so that they’re easier to look through (and therefore, less intimidating for me to review and organize). There are still parts of the system that I need to streamline, but things are definitely more efficient already.
I recently started using a public Twitter account. My username is ivanwlam, and you’re welcome to follow me if you want. So far, some of the “famous” people I’ve followed include David Allen (the GTD Guy), Ze Frank, swissmiss, Armin and Bryony at Under Consideration, and TED.
Cut&Paste;
Me. Me. Me. The fact that I forgot to mention that I went to watch my friend Sam Sellers talentedly compete at the SF stop of the Cut&Paste; Competition Tour is unacceptable. Long story short, Sam did a great job and was robbed of his first prize. I love the piece he did for the first round, which was (and will be again) my Facebook profile photo.
Motivation
Something happened in the past week that retriggered and intensified my motivation to advance my career and my life as soon as possible. I can’t go into the details, but I now have a stronger desire to be independent and self-sufficient and to take control of my own life. So hopefully, in the coming months, I will have more exciting things to report.
Really Simple Designer Web Comic
Within the past month, I ended one blog and started another. Really Simple Designer Web Comic was an experiment to create a daily web comic starring Point, Line, and Plane. Every start of the day, I take about half an hour coming up with a concept and quickly draw a comic for the next day on my Wacom tablet. The idea of this project was to become more comfortable with my tablet, and I definitely am now. I ended it after two months because it was taking too much time of my day and the creative juices just weren’t flowing as fluidly as I’d like.
One Per Day
One Per Day is a much simpler project. Every day, I post about the day before, using only one word or phrase as the title of the post, and only one sentence describing the day. This keeps my post lengths short and to the point. It’s sort of a practice for me to pack as much content and meaning into one word and one sentence as I could, instead of dragging on and on about an incident (which I tend to do quite often… like right now).
The idea for One Per Day originated from a revisit to Ze Frank’s The Show, which indirectly kept a record of Ze’s personal life and experiences behind the scenes during its running. I have tried to keep a record of my life ever since I could write and had self-awareness. I used to write by hand with special notebooks and special pencils, and then switched to LiveJournals for a while, then to design blogs with monthly reviews (like this one).
But all these posts were taking too much time of my life to sustain, as I write really long posts, usually about now-apparently trivial things, and I wouldn’t want to return to them if I wanted to recall events of my life at the time.
One Per Day reaches a compromise between wanting to document every experience of my life and cutting down the number of words that I would have to read later on. One year from now, the individual events that happen every day will mean very little to me. In the end, a day is just a day, even on special occasions. What’s more important is the overall mood.
I just started blogging on One Per Day on WordPress (my new friend, perhaps my fortune cookie best friend?), and I haven’t gotten to redesigning it. But the presentation is going to be more streamlined and intuitive. Subscribe to the feed, and stay tuned.
Quotes I Go By Lately
“A day is a day. Every event, however trivial, will, by definition, influence and change the rest of my life.”
“Keep it simple (and easy), stupid.”
Flush.
Posted
11 March 2009Tags:
2009, comic, cookie, fortune, freelance, gtd, life, mar, motivation, moving, one per day, quote, sam sellers, simple, tablet, Tweets, web, What Am I Doing?, wordpress, zefrankCategory:
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No Comments Yet »What Am I Doing? (Feb 2009)
What am I doing? Not blogging here, obviously. Not a single blog since my last update. As I’m writing this, I am in the middle of a semi-deadline to get my client’s site up and ready to go because they’re going to a convention in a few days and passing out business cards that I designed, and leading them to the site that I also designed. (I just realized how I don’t like saying that I designed these things because it really was more of a collaboration, and I just happened to be the one who knows how to use the tools the most.)
It’s been almost three months since I’ve learned about this project and met these awesome people that are my client. And mostly it’s been an exciting and a great learning experience for me. I sort of wish I will always have clients like these in the future. And every day, I become more comfortable and have a better idea with what I want to do, at least for the next few years. I enjoy waking up every day, looking forward to do something that I love.
Post-Peet’s
Since my last monthly update, I had left my job at Peet’s. It was probably a good time to have done so, both in the short term and long term. Because soon after my last shift, I put this freelance project into full gear and started working on it almost every day, putting in more hours than at Peet’s. As I had said before, some things took longer than I expected. Had I kept working both “jobs,” I’d still be sketching the layout for the site or, perhaps more likely, I would have been fired by my client!
I probably went through a week or two of old job withdrawal. I liked my job at Peet’s; I really enjoyed working with the people and seeing the regulars. It was a real bittersweet moment to have left that job. Only a few days ago did I notice how I don’t really remember how it feels to steam milk or pull shots. Ever since I left Peet’s, I had devoted my life into this freelance project; I literally couldn’t imagine working at the bar. I still love the people, no doubt, and I wish I could see them more often (if I could get over the awkwardness of going back to my old workplace).
The Future (Always Thinking About the Future)
As I’ve learned to enjoy my new “job,” my mind became more free to think about the possibilities of where I could go. It’s probably okay to say it here since my family doesn’t read this, but I’ve been thinking about moving south. And by “south,” the range spans from the South Bay, near the San Jose area, to SoCal, around L.A. and San Diego. I want to do it mainly for independence, and also for the weather. But what’s as important, if not more, is my career. If there’s a job that’s fit for me all the way in the East Coast, I wouldn’t mind giving that a try. My family’s probably not so keen of that idea, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world for them.
A “Historic Moment”
I’ve been so engulfed by this project that I haven’t really had the time to digest the fact that we’ve just witnessed what so many people apparently without a thesaurus have described as a “historic moment” in the country. It still hasn’t fully hit me yet, just as it hadn’t hit me eight years ago with the previous administration change. There are moments, though, where I realize that this man is our president.
Right now though, it seems that none of that matters. It must be a sobering feeling for him and everyone that the world and its problems don’t stop for this “historic moment.” (Maybe for a day, but that day has passed.) It’s time to get to work, employed or unemployed.
Flush.
What Am I Doing? (Jan 2009)
Happy new year, all. The holiday season is behind us, and as much as I had enjoyed it, I’m glad to be at the start of the new year with a few optimistic things to look forward to.
Freelance Client
The project with the freelance client is still in progress and is still very exciting. One thing I learned from being a freelancer is that it’s almost an art to have to know how much time tasks actually need to get done. I haven’t done enough freelancing at this point to provide a more accurate estimate of time required to do a project, and it’s easy to imagine an overall picture of the steps in my head, but it’s something else to actually do them. That’s why I feel bad sometimes (or often) because my current client needs the project completed ASAP, but it’s taking longer than I expect to churn out results. But one of the things that are motivating me to continue is my vision of how it’s going to look and function when it’s up and running.
Last Week of Peet’s
Next week will be my last week at Peet’s. It’s almost a bittersweet departure. Half of me knows I’m going to miss it, and the other half is glad to be moving on. The past few weeks, I feel that I’ve dramatically improved at the bar, and all I wanted to do my whole shift is to make drinks for customers. It’s like I’ve finally gotten used to how things work there and I’m just working like a well-oiled machine. But, I don’t want to get too comfortable to the point where the quality of my service and product goes down and I get stuck, which is why I needed to leave.
This job has not been all for nothing, though, and I never thought it was. This has been an excellent environment to learn about teamwork, customer service, multi-role relationships, and immediate problem solving. I would not learn anything like this or to this extent in an office environment. Of course, the office environment has another set of valuable skills that one would learn. So when you think about it, in a way, I’m glad that I took this chance to work in a fast-pace, high-volume, not always predictable retail environment before I presumably move to a more “corporate” or business-oriented world for the rest of my career.
Outlook
2009 seems like a great chance for improvement, in all fronts, no matter what the news says. As usual, I always see the future as a positive time to spend the rest of our lives.
Quote of the Moment
“The world is not waiting for you.”
Flush.
Posted
11 January 2009Tags:
2009, client, freelance, jan, office, outlook, peets, quote, retail, skills, What Am I Doing?, worldCategory:
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No Comments Yet »What Am I Doing? (Dec 2008)
I’ve done enough anniversary/milestone posts for the time being, so I’m not going to dwell on the anniversary of the “What Am I Doing?” series. Besides, I have something interesting/productive to talk about this month.
Freelance Gig
Mid-last month, a college friend of mine contacted me about a freelance gig that I might be interested in. His friends from high school have created a startup, doing viral videos for clients, and they need a designer doing the site and create a logo and all that jazz.
I don’t know how much liberty I have with talking about this gig, since it’s still in progress, so I’m going to be conservative in the details. But what I would like to say is that I am excited for this project, and I am excited to see this company grow and succeed. I see real potential with the guys who created this company, and it’ll be interesting to see where it will stand six months or one year from now.
Last night, I spent two or three hours watching all the videos that these guys have created for their old project, Huge In Asia. You might have heard of it, and I think I have, too, back when I was still in college two years ago. To be honest, back then, I probably thought it was really cheesy and silly. But it’s so cheesy and silly, that it’s also entertaining and good! These guys seem free to let their creativity lead their journey, something I wish I have a lot more often.
Luckily, I am now a teeny part of their next project, and I am not going to screw up, not that that happens often anyway. I just have to balance this with my job at Peet’s. So whenever I’m not making lattes, I’m working on this project. Sorry to those who tried to contact me and I haven’t responded. It’s going to be pretty crazy for the next few weeks, especially when you add on the holiday season madness.
Last Month at Peet’s
Speaking of Peet’s, I will be leaving this job sometime next month, after the holiday rush. It really hasn’t hit me yet. But no matter how I feel, I think this needs to happen. The time for change has come.
Flush.
Posted
11 December 2008Tags:
2008, anniversary, dec, freelance, huge in asia, job, logo, peets, portal a, site, What Am I Doing?Category:
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1 Comment »What Am I Doing? (Nov 2008)
End of the Year, End of an Experience
In the past month, Peet’s had been getting ready for the holiday season with special blends of coffees, teas, candies, chocolates, drinks, promotions, etc. And that has gotten me into the holiday spirit earlier than usual. But it also serves as a daily reminder that this is the grand finale of my employment at Peet’s, after which I will hopefully be working somewhere that has more relevance with design and/or environmental issues.
Having said that, I’m beginning to make some progress with my portfolio site. The structure of the site is pretty much set; I just needed to fine-tune the content. Once that is done, I could move on to other areas of the site, including this blog.
Good Will Hunting
A few nights ago, I caught the latter two-thirds of the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting. I probably haven’t seen it for seven or eight years, and I noticed a few new things that I hadn’t before. (One would be the frequent use of the late Elliott Smith’s music throughout the film.) I also couldn’t believe how young and thin Matt Damon and Ben Affleck looked. It’s one of those things where you can’t believe how fast ten years go by, yet so much had happened.
I find this movie more relevant to me now than seven or eight years ago because of where Matt Damon’s character, Will, was in his life. While I can’t say that I am just like Will, we both have something that we’re good at and we both have the potential to succeed.
The problem is that we don’t know what we should do for the rest of our lives, or that we’re afraid to figure that out. And as Robin Williams’s character pointed out after Will’s monologue of all the bad things that would happen if he had taken a government job cracking some enemy code, Will is so bright that he thinks ten or twenty steps ahead and would envision a bad outcome, resulting him to not act, to stand still, and to not go anywhere in life, something that I can relate ever since I became self-conscious.
Current Plan
This movie made me realize that while I cannot confidently decide right now which of the two or three of my desired paths would be best for me in life, I should start at one of them. If I end up not liking it, or that I get bored with it, I can move on, while I’m still young and unattached. One thing I like about being me is that I have so many ideas about the things that I’m passionate about, but at the same time I don’t like that part of me who doesn’t have time to pursue all of them. If I explore one idea, ten more will emerge, but I become frustrated and I wouldn’t be able to get to them in a timely fashion.
With that in mind, I have more or less an idea of what I want to be doing in the coming year. If that doesn’t work out, I would have a few back-up plans, and that should probably last for two, three good years.
Flush.
What Am I Doing? (Oct 2008)
Web Languages
As I had posted in the past few entries, I’m teaching myself the relatively basic web programming languages by working on my site, mostly the portfolio section. I’ve conducted a couple experiments to get a better understanding and grip of these languages. Learning Cookies, Ajax, and PHP has been very exciting and has stirred up project ideas.
Every day I wish I would have enough energy after work to work a little bit on my site or an experiment. I could see myself doing this as a career, although I haven’t been with the big kids yet, so troubleshooting one line in the haystack of hundreds that others have written might make me think otherwise. Still, it’s exciting when things work the way you want it to, and that might make it all worth it.
Economy and Job
So the economy’s not doing so well. Just when you think you’re at the bottom, you’re wrong. This isn’t really affecting me as directly as other Americans, since I don’t intend to buy a house or borrow large sums of money in the near future.
But when others suffer, we might, too. I’m talking specifically about companies’ ability (or inability) to keep their finances in the black, which may require them to lay off some employees, employees who might now compete with me in the job market, or employees whose positions that I desire but seize to exist because they’re laid off.
So that makes me reconsider the length of my employment at Peet’s. But then again, if I worry too much, which I probably already have, I won’t get anywhere.
Flush.
Posted
11 October 2008Tags:
2008, ajax, cookies, developing, economy, job, language, october, peets, php, portfolio, site, web, What Am I Doing?Category:
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No Comments Yet »What Am I Doing? (Sept 2008)
Peet’s
It is discovered and decided that I will be working at Peet’s for only four more months, through the holiday season. Hopefully, this gives me a sense of having a deadline again and I can get more things done.
Olympics
I don’t know if I had made it clear a couple of posts ago that I love the Olympics, but I do. Not only did I enjoy racing home from work to watch Olympic history being made, but I was also impressed with the level of detail with which the Beijing team executed the events and their appearance in the world.
The opening and closing ceremonies were the best ever in my opinion, but not only that, it makes me want to take part in performances like those for a living, mainly in the planning and conceptual stage. This goes beyond “graphic design,” but I never said I am interested in graphic design alone. It’s times like this that lift my spirits and believe the best of days is always ahead of us.
Beta Portfolio
I’ve been working on the portfolio section for the past few weeks, and now I’m working on the coding before I pump out the images and make the link available, although you can still access it by manually entering the URI based on the site’s navigation. Constructive feedback is always appreciated.
Future
With a four-month timeframe in place, I now have a sense of what I’m doing in the near future. After that though, I don’t know. I’ve been revisiting the idea of a road trip a lot, and it seems like there’s no better time than the present (or asap, e.g. four months from now). I would have some money saved up, and either get on a train or drive myself across the country, maybe with a friend or two.
I might have a revelation in the four-month period and know for sure which path I want to go on after Peet’s. It might not be far from what I had been planning all along; it could be a regular graphic design job right here in the Bay Area, or it might be somewhere in the East Coast. Or, I could be in Asia, or Africa, or Europe, following some hint of an opportunity that is remotely related to design and more related to the environment or humanitarian work.
Flush.
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