#I HOPE my copywriting sounds creative and lyrical

[consolecadet]

New fear: that my fiction betrays that my day job is mostly marketing copywriting

[iankarlo]

My Love for Arts

There is one thing that I am sure I'm good at - being creative and artsy. I am very interested in any kind of arts, writing, content creation, music, photography, film, painting, and crafting, name it, I will surely be curious about it. I enjoyed producing arts materials, I feel like that's where I know I can excel.

As a gay kid who doesn't excel in academics and sports, I found my strength when I express my creativity through my art. I remember the first time I got recognition from my teacher when I was in high school I made a scrapbook and she kept showing it to the other students. I feel like I set a high standard of projects for her class. One of the highlights was when I did a Christmas Lantern for a school competition. Our lantern was made from recycled materials (old CDs) and I did a mirror ball or disco ball theme lantern. I didn't win that competition but, I know that I captivated the eyes of many students as they hung it on campus grounds. Whenever the sunlight hits my lantern it reflects different colors. It looks expensive yet everything was recycled materials.

Since then, I tried different avenues to explore my creativity. I was in college when I fell in love with writing and I remember my professor told me that my writing skills were very expressive and he saw potential in me to do a lot of copywriting. I pursue blogging until 2017. I stopped to do it regularly due to the high demand of my current job.

2018, I started exploring the world of video content. I enjoyed watching vlogs and attempted to do a couple of content. It was fun until insecurities about my looks hit me hard. I had a pimple break out for quite some time and I was scared to position myself as being subjected to be judged.

I still produce short vlogs secretly and I entered the TikTok world. I tried making funny content but I feel like I pushed it too hard and it turned out to be boring.

I enjoyed listening to podcasts during the pandemic. I was engaged and started my own and called it, "Living Alone Diary" and after couple of episodes, I stopped because I cannot think of ways to expound my range of topics to discussed.

In 2023, I came back to podcasting. I created a podcast show called, "anything & everything • the podcast". I planned everything from the album art, contents, scripts, intro, and branding. Unfortunately, I got too busy again at work and felt burned out. I made podcast episodes but I sounded tired and unhappy. Although I love producing them, I easily got discouraged whenever it didn't reach the quality I set into it.

Anyway, right now, I am planning to build the Season 2. My friends kept asking when I would produce new episodes? I don't know what to tell them but my heart is so happy knowing their love and support.

I'm planning to make a radio-style intro and I wrote the lyrics earlier and did a sample record. I kept on laughing at it. I hope I will release it some time this October.

I planned some of the episodes. I can't wait to share it to the world

Artsy marsy,

Ian Karlo

[awww-brain-no]

2020 20 Fact Game

I was tagged by @freudensteins-monster​

1. Do you make your bed? Yes...most of the time. When I’m doing good with keeping my surroundings picked up, yep. I do. It’s often just throwing things back in place rather than a neat and orderly rearranging, but eh.

2. What’s your favourite number? 15

3. What’s your job? Digital Marketing Copywriter for a struggling resort company. I’m hoping I can get them to transition me to a more editorial role before they force me to become a project manager and while I search for a better job. 

4. If you could, would you go back to school? If I didn’t have to pay for it, I would do all the bachelors degrees! I love learning, but I love being taught. I’m not good at self-guiding or research, so graduate studies are not my jam as much. 

5. Can you parallel park? Depends on the moment and car I’m driving. Grew up where you never had to except on your parking test and even that wasn’t real parallel parking. 

6. A job you had which would surprise people? I worked at a Boy Scout camp for multiple summers, so technically, I was a boy scout before girls were allowed. 

7. Do you think aliens are real? Weird looking green beings in flying saucers? No. Life on other planets? Absolutely.

8. Can you drive a manual car? I understand the concept, but lack the coordination to do so. Need much practice. So. No. 

9. What’s your guilty pleasure? Okay, I don’t feel guilty but I recognize it’s a thing that others would hate but I unashamedly love anyway. My family calls it Green Jello. It’s lemon and lime jello, with mixins that include: cottage cheese, celery, pecans, mayonnaise, and crushed pineapple. 

10. Tattoos? Nada

11. Favourite colour? Deep jewel tones, mostly in blue and green

12. Things people do that drive you crazy? Lying. Manipulation and disloyalty go right along with it. *squints in the general direction of my boss*

13. Any phobias? I kind of have an irrational fear of sharks. Like, if I think of them while swimming in a pool I still panic and have to get to the edge ASAP. I still struggle swimming with the vacuum filter my aunt has. 

14. Favourite childhood sport? Uh. I never played sports. But I’ve liked watching American football since I was a kid...

15. Do you talk to yourself? Yep. Off and on. It’s usually practicing conversations for nonexistant interactions. 

16. What movie do you adore? I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I guess you could also call it a guilty pleasure: A Hazard of Hearts. Seriously. It’s a period romance with a baby Helena Bonham-Carter, a brief appearance of Christopher Plummer, and every. Single. Trope. EVER. I mean it. So cheesy. So good. 

17. Do you like doing puzzles? Yep. I’m not always one to get them out and haven’t done any in a while, but they’re soothing and yet addicting. My sister and I used to always commandeer the dining table between Christmas and new years for a huge puzzle that we’d put together. 

18. Favourite kind of music? Whatever sounds good. Like, I’m across so many genres and time periods, I just like what sounds good to me since I don’t process lyrics well and focus more on melody. 

19. Tea or coffee? Herbal tea. I have so many. So yum. 

20. The first thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up? Ironically, a poet. It’s funny now, because I kind of hate poetry...I did wind up being a writer, but not for my own creative things. So....yeah. 

And you know me, so tag yourself if you want to join in and say I did it!