Imitation: There is a Limit

My boyfriend actually posted this on my Facebook wall. At first I was amused, especially with the couples and the matching underwear. Seriously, though. Who does that? Ain't no one gonna see your underwear except you and (maybe) your significant other. Nobody is gonna see your matching getup. Eventually, the video got to the topic of going under the knife to change your appearance. Now, I'm not bashing on the South Koreans for developing a culture wear it is socially acceptable to get plastic surgery. It just makes me kind of sad. I understand the pain of taking the time to put on makeup in the morning to make yourself look prettier, but getting plastic surgery is rather extreme. And for it to be acceptable for girls to have such easy access to this stuff just makes the Koreans seem a bit shallow (at least in my opinion). You can't always be fixated on looks. There are risks involved in the process as well as pain. Like, the story the doctor tells towards the end about the girl who came in for plastic surgery after her boyfriend left her. That made me just super emo. That being said, I'm not a supporter of this trend. For me, plastic surgery should be used on in cases where your health is at risk (like with cleft palates). I hope that there is a way to reverse this unhealthy trend. 

The Texas State Fair and the Chinese Lantern Festival!

So yesterday, Tien and I hit up the Texas State Fair (even though I had a marketing research class in the evening). It's okay. What do kids say these days? YOLO. Anyways, they had a special for admission. It was $2 a person if each person brought 3 canned foods for the Kroger canned food drive. Total admission cost: $7.50 for 2 people.

We didn't go on any rides just because I can't really stand carnival rides. Roller coasters at Six Flags are fine, but the carnival rides are so shaky and make me sick really easily. Last year we went for Tien's birthday and that did not turn out well. We ended up just going to the car exhibits, window shopping, watching a pig race, visited animals, and ate.

The main attraction this year was the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was pretty pricey for entrance at 28 tickets ($14) a person, but it was worth it. Apparently, the exhibit took 3 months to put together and it was freaking amazing. Like, pictures and videos will not do it justice. So if you haven't hit up the State Fair yet and plan to do so, remember to shell out $14 for this thing. You won't regret it. Unless, of course, you're one of those people who aren't easily impressed. Seriously, though, it'll rock your socks.

For more of my photos from the State Fair, click the link below:
https://plus.google.com/photos/112994609708042405063/albums/5800840313742030289

Cube, What Are You Doing? STAHP.

Okay, seriously. Cube just took HyunA to a new level of crap. No offense, but she's not that talented at all. All she's got are looks, which, quite frankly, aren't that redeeming either. I don't know why Tien thinks she's so hot. The only way she sells is through sexualizing herself. Alright, I understand that she doesn't make the creative decisions in how she's presented. But geez. Have you guys tried listening to her performances with the MR removed? Just terrible. She's not great as a rapper either. The one time 4minute did a cover of "Pinocchio" by f(x), you could barely hear HyunA. 

"Change" was an okay song but I won't listen to it voluntarily. HyunA just got lucky with "Bubble Pop" cuz it was catchy. Otherwise I would've flushed that down the drain, too. This new "Ice Cream" song doesn't sound too great. Then again, I might be wrong. What the heck is with the bubble bath? Is that necessary?! Makes me wanna puke. This is called taking it wayyy too far. 

Don't Be Afraid to Aim High

So here's my official rejection email from the marketing team for the Dallas Mavericks. My buddy Leon was surprised that I even applied because he said he wouldn't even have the confidence to try. It's not about confidence. It's about going after what you want. 

Long ago, back as a senior in high school, my advertising design teacher talked about when her son was going job hunting for a graphic design position. He applied starting at the most prestigious ad agency in Dallas and landed the job. When you aim high, you have a chance of actually starting out with a great job without having to climb from the bottom. Plus, it's not like your chances of getting hired somewhere decreases just because you were rejected somewhere else. I'm taking the tactic of applying at the most prestigious places first and moving down to the least prestigious. Rejected by the Mavs? Fine. Let's see if the Richards Group will take me. If not, there's still Reynolds and Reynolds. Worst case scenario is that I'd be stuck making brochure templates for printing shops. Let's hope I never have to apply for a job at that level. 

That being said, I will accept my rejection with a smile. Why? I've managed to impress a senior designer AND he gave me good tips. His advice actually does make sense, though. I use too much sans-serif fonts in my design and don't branch out into other typefaces. Adding logos to my portfolio is going to be tricky, but I can try. I'm not sure about going to portfolio school, though. I don't even know any portfolio schools nor am I really sure what is the definition of a portfolio school. I tried Googling it and all I got was stuff like the Art Institute and I cannot afford that. What to do...

Welcome to the Real World, Alyssa!

So I haven't really written a post in a while, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know why. Anyways, this is a just a little update about me getting thrown into the real world after living in my ivory tower so long. Recently, I've started a job at the new Studio Movie Grill that opened on Spring Valley. Honestly, I kinda hate it. I work as a server so my pay is really unstable since most of my pay depends on tips. Base pay is only $2.13 an hour, which is average for a waiter job. Everything else is tips, tips, tips. It's like the first week that this location has opened so the managers kind of overstaffed just cuz most of us are new and might need help. The bad thing is that the more people that we have in our little team, the more times we have to split our tip pool. Saturday I walked away with an okay amount of money for 10+ hours of work. Sunday was okay. Monday I only walked away with $10 for the 6 hours I was there. They put me in a 6-man team for a 2-man job. Bleh.

Another thing I hate about working at SMG is the fact that we don't have a definite end time for our shifts. They give us a start time and they'll keep us as they need us. Saturday I started at 10am and got stuck at work til 8pm. Sucked balls.

At least the people I work with are pretty cool (for the most part). I just hope that everyone I work with is reliable. Sunday I had a team member barely do anything. Every time I saw him, he was in the kitchen taking a drink break. And he walked away with an even share of the tip pool even though he didn't do scrap. Seriously? Ugh.

On to life after college. So you know how I went to a job fair back in September with Hien? Well, I got a call back from the Reynolds and Reynolds place. Went through an interview on Skype and got to the second step of the interview process. If I get this job, I'll be set the moment I graduate from college. The thing is, I know nothing about what to ask for for a yearly salary. It says on most of the websites I've been to that the average starting salary of a graphic designer is around $30,000 a year. Landing a job at Reynolds and Reynolds means that I would have to pack up and move to Houston. Can I live on $30,000 a year alone in Houston? Maybe. My parents were making a huge deal out of it saying that I should've tried to push for more and whatever. Ugh. I don't know what to do.

In the meantime, while that second step is going through, I'm still trying to find a job closer to home. I applied for an internship at the Richards Group and got rejected. Now I applied for a full-time position as a designer. If I can land this, then I can drop Reynolds and Reynolds and live at home and stay close to the people I know. I also applied for a graphic design internship for the Dallas Mavs. If I can land either of those jobs, I'll be fine.

So the moral of the story is, start applying for jobs before you graduate so that you'll have something lined up as soon as you get your diploma. That way, you won't have to bum around for a few months after graduation waiting for a job offer. The second moral is that waiter jobs are hard. Don't do it.

Movie Marketing: You're Doing It Right

For those of you who don't know, Disney and Pixar have created a sequel to Monsters Inc. called Monsters University. The movie isn't set to come out until June 2013, but the Disney company has already worked on marketing it. There was already a lot of hype about the trailers that were released, but now Disney and Pixar have added something else to their marketing scheme: a website for Monsters University. Now I'm not just talking about the movie. The companies have created a university website complete with information about professors, alumni, and even financial aid. There's even a store where you can buy actual Monsters University merchandise. I believe that  Disney and Pixar have raised the bar for movie marketing. The site is already viral. This is one of the reasons why my ultimate goal is to work for Disney. Their advertising creatives are top notch. I really, really hope I get to be part of their team one day. Until then, I gotta start small. Hooray for being a server at Studio Movie Grill.

To see the Monsters University site, click the link below:
http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/index.html

To see the Monsters University trailer, click the link below:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/monsters-university/trailers/monsters-university-teaser-trailer-29717274.html

South Korean Coca Cola Campaign and Other Ways to Happiness

So here is a Coca Cola campaign set up in South Korea. For those who don't know, the guys featured on the machine are part of a boy band called 2PM. This was a really cute and interesting idea. Dance for your Coke. If you didn't notice, many of the people had smiles on their faces while they interacted with the machine. The concept behind this machine isn't new for Coke. For a while now, Coca Cola has always tried to associate their brand with happiness. Coke has created several campaigns internationally to go with their happiness theme. Here's a couple of more:

Do you guys feel that Coca Cola's advertising strategy is effective? Would Americans buy into the idea of the dance vending machine? I know that some of the YouTube comments joke that Americans would be too lazy to dance for their coke, but come on. I'm pretty sure that someone would try it because it's such a novel idea. I know I would.

Click the link below to see more of the Coke Happiness campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL35A497C9C1B48A4E

Photoshop Tutorial: Different Colors and Overlaps

Requested by my buddy Angelina. Haha.

First, set up the text that you want to use. Make sure they overlap.

Duplicate one of the layers and rasterize it.

Make sure the rasterized layer is still selected and then press and hold CTRL then click the rectangle with the T next to the text layer that you didn't make a copy of.

 Click and hold CTRL, SHIFT, and 'I' to inverse your selection. Then press delete to get rid of the parts of the layer that you don't want to recolor. Then click and hold CTRL and 'D' to unselect everything.

 Double click on the copied layer and select 'Color Overlay.' Click on the color box to change the color of the overlapped font area.

The end.