#and yesterday he and i met up 2 plan out the project and make posters and stuff and he was rly helpful and he said he would be in confact w

[pepprs]

god i HATE doing group projects when no one responds 2 any of the messages like are u actually TRYING 2 kill me djfbvddbsnshvejenfnr

[gelo-p]

Cycling Seasons, Fresh Skies: Memories

I knew from a long time ago that if I’d ever go for a T10, this would be it. When the event was finally getting closer, early estimates told me I was 900 flames short; I’d have to buy stars for this event.

(WARNING: A rather image-heavy post)

Perhaps the moment I honestly considered T10 instead of settling for T100.

Definitely the moment I knew there was no turning back. :)))

Believe me, this was not the only purchase I made for this event.

I needed a better Challenge Live team, so I knew getting a 4* Happy Ran is required, to complete my Happy Afterglow team. I’ve never gotten any 4* Ran before, so thank god the 4* Exchange Ticket had the perfect timing.

“WAIT. YOU WERE USING A HAPPY TEAM ALL THIS TIME???”

Yep. ^^ Well, my Multi Live team was Powerful Afterglow-based, but had only 2 4-stars, sooo I knew it wouldn’t cut it.

There she is <3

I’ve always stopped at Skill Level 4, but I really had to pull out all the stops. Ran is my first Skill Level 5 member. ^^ (everyone in my CL team also received the level 5 upgrade)

Alright, let’s do this! Hey Hey Hoh~!

The event has finally begun! I initially found it amusing seeing all sorts of titles being shown off. This one in particular stood out to me. XD

(Looking back, that Sinz person would later turn out to be a serious T10 contender. I think they changed their name to Pyokun after some time)

Here’s a screenshot of a rare T5 GeLö-P. I really wanted to share this with you guys, but I figured I’d jinx myself by revealing publicly what I was trying to do. :>

(I will doubt the existence of God Almighty, but believe in being jinxed. Life is weird sometimes.)

Well, that’s the Grand Room for ya’. Meta songs all the way~

How do you even react to that?

With this. :)))

NEXT YOU’LL SAY FUEEEEE

Home Street...

Home Street.......

HEY HEY HOH~! 

The moment I ran out of large energy drinks, and had to start spending stars. </3 Small energy drinks were still reserved for moments I can afford to wait out the 30-minute refill timer.

The 5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

My first time doing the “recover waaaaay more than 10 flames” thing

Huhehe huhehe huhehe...

I too would like some of those Afterglow pins. T_T

Baby Shak my as-

Aaaand we have a dodger, ladies and gentlemen. XD

I think this guy needs to be banned.

Home Street? Pssh, that was so yesterday. Jumpin’ is the shit now.

Ganbatte, P5.

Himari~

My 2nd encounter with Ghostkillers (who later become T12..?). He chose Senbonzakura the first time, so when he did it again, I thought I’d save it for posterity. ^^

The “I too would like to live dangerously” gang 8-)

The first time I switched away from my dua T100 titles. I figured I’d stop trying to “scare” the competition.

First time tracking T10 scores. This would later prove to be very useful in seeing if my projection will hold (although I shifted to tracking T3 - T12).

Taking a break, so I watched ads for free flames. :)))))

Moca, Ran, GeLö-P, and a weird name. Huh. Okay.

Kyu~Mai * Flower was released! Played this one on Hard.

...this one I played on Expert...

...and thank fuck I got it first try, because oh boy I’m not playing that beat map again. >_<

“Ban me if you can” ?? Why??

Aaaaand this motherfucker right here was cheating and inflating his score. I personally reported him to the game admins over on twitter, and they’ve informed me that they were already aware of this idiot. Saw him just once more after this.

Yes. That’s 91 million, 798 thousand, 346.

I actually encountered them once before this, but didn’t notice anything off about their score (was already dazed at that time). And then a discussion started over at reddit, so when I met him again, I took screenshots.

Ganbatte :))

Had time for a quick hey hey hoh spam ^^

Which day was this..? Anyway I came up with my brilliant pun. Read the comment, see if you can figure it out. :3

MocaRan and YukiLisa. Sigh. I don’t think we can be friends, P5.

:)))

Told you, Ghostkillers only pick Senbonzakura XD

Tomoe’s Birthday! ^^

Even the game won’t let you have a GF, P5. XD

HEATHCLIFF STOP PICKING BABY SHARK

(almost sure they’re famous in the competitive scene... I don’t know them tho LOL)

I woke up one morning to find there was no internet.

FUCK ME

I knew mobile data was going to result to multiple disconnects, but thank fuck I had lots of challenge points to spare. I passed the time productively, and by the time I was done, internet was back. Whew.

Rank update: currently T8. ^^

More of Ghostkillers x Senbonzakura and JFC that name tho P2

Shitpost comment XD

First time seeing 2 other T10 contenders in the same room: Itsuki and Ghostkillers.

Probably the point where I started spamming Tokimeki Poporon instead of Home Street.

Also there’s a looot of interesting names in Bandori.

As a YukiRan / MocaLisa shipper (well more of SayoLisa nowadays), it is my job to destroy players 1, 3, and 5. >:(

Wallet: IT’S NOT POSSIBLE

Me: NO, IT’S NECESSARY

...aaaaaand I immediately threw away 10k stars hoping for Megane Ran, but got shit. (This would later force me to make 2 more purchases XD Seriously though, I could have saved a lot of money with a better star purchase plan)

I got Loli Rinko tho. <3

Which day was this...? I think this was the moment I knew Ghostkillers has given up. I was laughing my ass off reading the comments. I think everyone of us was half-dead at this point. XD

And so we’re down to the final 11.

I’ve started considering the possibility at this point that I might be the final one to bow out.

OMG I CAN’T SEE PLAYER 2

BUSHIDO~!

I was feeling the despair at this point, and thus started singing Komm Susser Tod

I do mini-sprints in the morning, so I’m T6 here. I usually fall back down to ~T9 in the afternoon.

I usually level up once per event. I started this event from Rank 193. :)))

(well it was technically 192, but I was like 2 games away from leveling up)

XD

There are no experts in this room :v

Jumpin = NO FEVER, but picks meta song anyway. Okay. :v

Hey! All Random!

Game: DID SOMEONE ASK FOR A META SONG

I have a lot of friend requests at this point (probably from people seeing me on the T10 list), but I don’t have enough space to accept them all :((

Bread-themed profile!

Poppin’ Party, Puff n’ Pastry... get it?

Itsuki started spamming BOF at this point.

Doki doki~

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME~ ♪ ♫

P1 is an IRL friend :))) I’d later tease her about how slow she is picking songs LOL

Some Initial D reference for overtaking :P Of course I was badly falling behind at this point (T9 is hella dangerous), but I had no choice but to continue to believe in the math (and that early overtaking is a bad choice).

“Early moves lets your opponents recover from mental shock.” - Ryosuke Takahashi, Initial D 3rd Stage

No seriously, that’s exactly what I was thinking of. And also “Not yet, not yet, now” from Ford v Ferrari.

P1 & P5 get married already...

FINAL NIGHT.

I’m down to T11, and everybody else already did 2.3M-sprints some hours earlier, and have considerably slowed down.

I, on the other, was about to go to sleep. Yes, I, the current T11, was about to let the others pull away. All I could do was believe in the Math at that point, because let me tell you-

I had 105k challenge points left. That’s 3.4M event points I had yet to sprint.

This was during the final morning, 9 hours before event ended. When I woke up that morning, my heart was pounding like crazy. What if everybody has pulled ahead?

When I finally checked, most of the T10′s were still in the 17M-range. Itsuki was on T10, and he was only 500k away. I knew at that point that my chances were pretty good; however, I shut up about it, set my comment to “Now Playing: Running in the 90′s”, and got to work.

There was nothing else I could to but consume all the CP I had left. No more tracking. A literal 5-hour non-stop sprint to 19.2M points. If they can still catch up even after they’ve already expended their CP yesterday, then maybe I don’t deserve this T10 after all.

All I need to do was beat one of them. It was me or them.

Holy shi-

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, had to make sure at least one of them didn’t overtake me. Of course that was more up to them, since I didn’t have any strength left (my thumb stopped working at that point, no seriously, it’s still not working properly even today). I also didn’t have any significant stars left.

I managed to sneak in a few songs, but that was it. I was done. The others managed to close the gap, but I stayed in T6.

And then the event was over.

I fucking did it.

------

I would later learn that this was the bloodiest (Challenge Live) event in the history of ENdori. In one redditor’s words, I “ ...sure picked a hell of a time to go for it.”

I had no choice. This is Megane Ran we’re talking about. <3

I had some idea tbh, because I managed to read a tweet in the middle of the event, that “this was one lit T10″. Apparently we were on track to beat the previous record-holder, which was Sayo’s Umbrella event.

I’m... really glad to have been part of this event. I feel so darn proud of myself. >:3

But I couldn’t have done it without the help of the Grand Room. Seriously, I only played in the Grand Room.

Remember this?

I don’t have (competitive) friends. :))) So thank you, all. *bow*

I’d like to thank IRL-friend otearaisu over at twitter for putting up with my excessive score projection updates. XD I have a really detailed excel sheet to check if I was on track or not, and whenever there were developments, I’d always tell him about it, even in the dead of the night. XD

------

Would I ever do this again? Probably not. This was the only event that I knew I really wanted to go for, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Maybe I’ll get a couple of T100′s in the future, but that’s it. ^^

See you in the lobby~

[gottaenjoythelittlethingzz]

@mastery-in-procrastination, who is busy doing some awesome things for the community, was kind enough to send me this ask: “How long have you been working on "The Reaper's Only Daughter"?” Tumblr ate the ask, but I was able to save my answer! I may have gone a little over broad in my explanation. Thanks for the question, now sit back and experience the journey. 

Ah yes. My origin story. I remember it like it was yesterday. Allow me to take you back, to before the beginning...

2018! For me it was the year of television (as ‘17 had been the year of the movie). I vividly remember searching for shows on IMDB to compile a sort of list in January. Some well-known, some old hat, but two in particular stuck out to me. Two my mother specifically enjoyed and had for many years. Sons of Anarchy and Shameless. I was finally at the age to where I could start enjoying these shows and so they were added to my list to be watched later. I remember reading the description of SOA and looking through pictures of tough guys on motorcycles. I knew I had to watch it!

Fast forward to May 15th. I was nearing the end of my high school/senior year. I believe I had taken all of my finals at this time and just had a few meaningless things left to turn in for one or two classes. I had just finished The Punisher (thank the godz) and was ready to start the next series. It was again between SOA and Shameless and I have never made a better or more damaging decision in my entire life than when I hit play on the pilot episode of SOA at 7 am as I was getting ready for school that Tuesday morning. Mind you, my school was a dead zone as far as internet goes, but the media godz were shinning down on me that week. I chased the signal every single day.

For the next 6 days, it was all I thought about, all I watched, all I wanted to talk about! I watched 92 episodes, roughly 70 hours of content in 6 days. Though my mother has seen it many times (as it is also her favorite series with her favorite actor(s) in it) I retold her the stories (nearly every episode, or several at a time) as I watched them. She was the first person to see me “live react” to a show in text or otherwise. She enjoyed it because she hasn’t had anyone to talk to about the show in what is now nearly 5 years and she liked hearing my takes on things. 

I stopped talking to friends, I stopped eating (not really so extreme, but I mean...), and on the last 3 nights I hardly slept. I watched it absolutely everywhere! That Friday I skipped school. I reasoned I wasn’t doing work anyway and it wasn’t going to hold me back. If my memory serves me correctly, I watched the finale of S3 through S4 and maybe a little more on either side (but for certain these 14 episodes, technically my favorite in the series) in one straight sitting. In truth, nothing was going to be able to hold me back from this show. I was hard pressed to leave my room, much less my house which made work Saturday difficult. I told my coworkers I was watching it as I jumped up and down waiting to go home (business was slow you see) and I actually left early. I have a bad habit of watching things while driving (don’t do it kids! Listen to your mother!) and actually watched an episode on the way home. 

I ended up pulling an all-nighter on Saturday trying to finish it as I had more plans Sunday. Well, it didn’t work. I fell asleep around 4 am with 4 or 5 episodes to go. I watched a few episodes to and from where I was going in the car, but on Sunday night May 20th, 2018, I watched the final two episodes of the series back to back and a weight had been lifted off my shoulders (it also left a hole in my heart, quite literally). I was no longer susceptible to spoilers and I knew the “secret”. What’s more, I completely, 100% agreed with the creator’s decision as to how and when he ended the show. 

SOA was the first show that ever captivated my attention in such a way. I was never bored, not for a minute. I wouldn’t call many of the episodes fillers even now that I’ve watched each a couple of times (too many to count, for research purposes, I assure you.) And it is one of the most consistent as far as new ideas and character development/design I have ever seen. What's more is I absolutely adore the main cast and characters alike. It honestly took over my life and has changed it for the better. So much so, that it was still all I thought about for several weeks after I finished it. To the point where I had to watch it again top to bottom, though it took me about 2 weeks while sleeping that time. I’ve never watched a show like that, before or since, no matter how much I like a series.

Alas, life goes on, there were more shows to watch, and for the next month or so I turned to watching Shameless (another story entirely) and, though I didn’t want to, I stopped thinking about SOA for a time. That was, until I started thinking about moving to college. My mother had an SOA poster that use to be in her office that she gave to me to put in my apartment. I wake up every morning to see it hanging over my bed and I am reminded that I should be writing TROD. I went down to my college apartment about a week before term started. It was the first time I was technically on my own, though I have roommates, and you will never guess what I did during that week. Go ahead, guess. I did 2 things, actually.

I rewatched SOA, though this time I stopped on series 5 (and if you’ve seen it you may know why) and I “broke down” and created a Writeblr. I’ve always loved to write and actually was in the process of shelving what was originally meant to be my first novel length WIP (on the grounds that it did not have a plot to hold the characters together) that now hasn’t been updated in 6+ months. During this third rewatch an idea came to me. “What would it be like to be in this world?” More specifically, “What would it be like to be a woman in this world”?

This was apparently the right question to ask. The rest is history, swirling into a big black and crow feathered blur. I spent a few months creating Schuyler. I slowly stopped talking about the shelved WIP online and started answering questions for her instead. I figured if I was going to shelve 1 project I had better have another to replace it with, and so TROD was born! I nearly immediately had a character personality and a title when I started. The name Schuyler and her family lineage to link her to the canon story took more time. But while I was thinking of all the technical stuff I was also imagining all the fun scenes that would take place in this imaginary novel I was picturing.

I spent so much time thinking about it, specifically the first chapter which you have seen is now available to read on this blog, that the first time I sat down to write I wrote out 5,000 words flat. Many remained in what is currently “the final draft”. This had never happened to me before and I was inspired! I have been working on it ever since. As far as physically writing for it I have only been writing TROD for about 4 months. But in actuality, TROD has been a project a long time in the making. Nearly 9 months of thought and devotion to a Fandom nearly gone, but I’m here now to carry the torch!

9 months in and I have 6 moodboards, a chapter, and far too many tag games/posts to count. I have roughly 30k words written (continuously, obsessively tweaking the first 3 chapters) and another 2k or so of notes (outlines, dialogue lines, and ideas for scenes). This is actually the first story where I’m consulting a sort of outline (my own that I’m always adding to, but also the canon story) and it’s been my best writing experience to date!

This project is going to be long. Longer than anything I’ve ever dreamed of taking on before. I still have much to explore, plot kinks to work through, and many months, if not years, of work to go. But w/o SOA I would have never become so involved in media (as now I want to make it my career), met some of my favorite actors, created my Writeblr or been inspired to continue writing, and I certainly never would have entered into this inclusive community or met so many awesome writers!

*Whew. That was a lot. But SOA and my WIP TROD means a lot to me as you can see. Thanks so much for the ask. Feel free to stop by anytime! 

I’m also going to tag @themildestofwriters as I know you may be thinking about diving into this series yourself and I want to both warn you and wish you well if you choose to do so!

And @aspire2bu, as I believe I saw you post recently about how you first got into K-pop in the first place and I found it interesting. Hopefully you’ll find this interesting too!

[lazuliblade]

AnimeFest 2017 Day 1

I fell asleep yesterday before I could make the post...

Dealer’s Room opened late, but I stood in line for quite a while before then, so as soon as it opened, I was into the room and searching out YOI stuff (plus a couple of things to give as presents). My haul (for the first half of the day):

The can badge sets were actually on sale for $10 each, which was amazing. The embroidery of Yurio’s eyes is so pretty. The small poster (wall scroll, I guess) I got was of Yuuri and Victor in Moscow’s Red Square.

I was looking through the kimono stand (I’m always looking for pieces to finish my set)  and the people helping are AWESOME. Not only is the booth/stand filled with gorgeous pieces and simple pieces at all price points to fit a budget, the ladies are very helpful to both the people who have no clue what any of the names are for pieces, and to those who have worn a full ensemble and need specific little things. They shared the story of how they got this business running (3 years of research, planning, and connecting with Japanese salesmen), and were always ready to turn around and answer another question - even though they were running on little sleep. While they had super nice kimono on the racks (the furisode were so gorgeous I wanted to cry), the booth also had grab bags which ranged from $20 to $50. The $20 bags were usually haori (the coat that goes over kimono), $30 were simple kimono with obi, $40-50 are nicer kimono with obi. Some of the descriptions on the grab bags were hilarious! ( “It looks like a basket. Seriously. If you don’t like baskets, don’t get this.” “What a jedi warrior would wear if he wore kimono” “Green and black and [...] perfect for a SLYTHERIN~” “It’s Blue. ‘Nuf said.”)  I should have taken pictures....

I dashed from there to wait in line for the Japanese Guests Autograph Session, but the line was ridiculously long! I was in Block C of the waiting section and not even half of Block B got signatures. If you were there for people besides the YOI trio, they would let you go to those people you wanted to sign your stuff. Apparently some people in the A block of the line were waiting since 10am even though the staff said you couldn’t line up until an hour beforehand. For the remaining days of the con, they’re apparently going to be roping off the area until the hour before, so I guess we’ll see how Day 2 goes?

I went back to the kimono booth to actually buy stuff (they had set my stuff aside), grabbed a snack, and then went to wait with friends for the first YOI panel -- “Yuri!!! On Ice: Meet the Creative Staff”

While waiting in line I met Denki and won a poster for answering her hard question! (Thanks, @sachiro for pointing her out and encouraging me to go ask.)

My question was: “Which four skaters can do the 4Lo?”

I met a mother&daughter couple in the line (the mother was just as much a fan as her daughter. It was so touching!), gave the daughter a small push to actually approach Denki, and she did well to get her own poster. Denki isn’t scary!

There was some amazing cosplay and itabags I saw while waiting through the hour. One person was dressed as Chihoko! Golden fish tail and everything.

When the door opened, we filed in and were directed down the rows to fill every seat. They gave us posters (I guess?) at the door which were printed on fairly thick paper. I ended up second row left-of-center, right in front of Sayo and Kubo!

I’ll put the interview/talk in a separate post because I took notes on what they said and it deserves a separate entry. To make it short, they talked about American figure skaters (Nathan Chen, Adam Rippon, Jason Brown, and Max Aaron), how they learned of each other and met, the relationship between them, and a few notes. When talking about character designs Hiramatsu has formerly done, they mentioned about the dynamic poses in figure skating and the plentiful crotch and butt shots... I believe some people have already noted how Kubo spread tissue-box-Makka’s legs while Hiramatsu covered him. They were so great. At the end, the threw some freebies to the crowd. I managed to catch a pair of gloves!

After the panel was over, a few of us went to go check out the art show where some of Kubo’s pieces were hanging - both YOI and previous works. I was amazed at seeing everything up close. Her line quality is absolutely gorgeous. I browsed through the rest of the art auction pieces and as we were leaving we saw Kubo-sensei! She was looking at her hanged pieces and just starting to leave. Sayo was waiting outside of the room (her sunglasses were off!), and then Hiramatsu-san passed us to get into the room (he greeted us “Hello!”). 

From there, I browsed through artists’ alley (”Bizarre Bazaar”), bought some gorgeous prints from someone whom I reblog a lot of fanart (I’ll put the links to the specific art later!), dropped off my stuff, grabbed a quick snack, and off to Opening Ceremonies at Dallas’ Majestic theater.

It was amusing and interesting to hear what the different guests had to say. Sayo reiterated how she was invited to Anime Fest years before YOI - ever since “Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.” She was in contact with the guy from then on and would tell him about the cool figure skating project she was trying to have green-lit. She said that he invited her again to come to the con after the anime aired and he had more faith in her project than the producers did. So this is why AnimeFest was one of the first cons that confirmed Kubo, Sayo, and Hiramatsu as guests.

LM.C were hilarious. Aiji gave well-thought-out answers, while maya gave short somewhat deadpan responses that had us laughing. *holds hand up to eyes to look out into the crowd; turns head*  “I’ve memorized all of your faces. You’ll come to the concert tomorrow, right?”

After it was over, my group went to In-N-Out Burger for our first decent meal of the day. When we returned to the hotel, I meant to just curl up to absorb some warmth, but then fell asleep...

I’m planning to go to a lot of evening and night events in Day 2, so I’ll see how tired I am after all of it.

[gabrielsinternship]

Weeks 10 & 11 (21HRS)

Monday | August 07, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

Today, I finished designing the posters. I finished creating Erin & Mich’s posters, as well as fixing minor details in the overall design like simplifying “Your Library, Your Library Expert” to “Your Library, Your Expert” and tweaking it’s size and placement.

Here is the final design for the library posters:

I shared them with Carina & Brian and they both loved it. I then began to think about the digital signage. Brian told me that we could only put up 2 or 3 digital signs on the monitors that are broadcasted all around campus, so I began brainstorming ways to merge the posters into one design. I figured that I could somehow jam two or three librarians into one sign, but I feared that it would feel crammed with all of the information that each poster had. I sent Carina an email to see if she had any ideas, and I will continue to work on this when I come in on Wednesday.

Wednesday | August 09, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

While I was at work yesterday, I got to talk Carina a bit about what she wanted for the digital signs because we were only allotted 2 or 3 digital signs. She mentioned the Brady Bunch themed idea that I originally had for the animated characters when I was thinking about poster designs and this sounded like a great idea. She sent me a photo of the Brady Bunch in their squares as a reference…

…and with that, I started working on the digital signs. It didn’t take me too long to create the Brady Bunch themed design in terms of placing the characters where they should be and reframing them from Circles to Rectangles, but it did take some trial and error for the font choices and verbiage. I then tried merging multiple posters into one sign to see if this would be a better route to take instead of “The Library Bunch”.

Here’s what I sent Carina to see which one she wanted to continue working with:

Since we were limited on the amount of signs we could put up, it became a matter of choosing which one design to go with and depending on which one Carina liked, that would be the one I’d continue to work on.

Towards the end of the day, I got to sit through a small meeting that Communications had with Dr. Manulani regarding some future events that she would like to have advertised. I felt that this was a great opportunity for me to see Leila, Brian, and Greg in action as they ironed out all of the details and just witnessing the entire interaction.

Thursday | August 10, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

Carina emailed me back with some feedback for both designs, and though this was great to have, I think there might’ve been some miscommunication as I tried to clarify that we could only move forward with one design. I then had a conversation with Brian about both designs and I got some great compositional feedback from him. In terms of the merged library poster sign, he told me to try and keep it simple with not too much on the sign because each sign would only display for roughly 8 seconds and it’s hard to catch everything. After that, I then discussed with him my dilemma of which design to continue moving forward with and he then mentioned that there's actually a fourth screen in the library that the library was free to put however many signs as they pleased on since it would only be featured in the library.

With that being said, I had another meeting with Carina to discuss all of this, as well as design information for these new signs. We mapped out all the details as far as what they should read, for instance "#LibraryHacks" and "DRY SNACKS - Eat Responsibly" for some newer signage, and we came to the conclusion that the design that we would use to promote the library all across campus would be “The Library Bunch” design, and all other ideas would be utilized on the extra monitor in the library. I also sent the final Library Bunch design to Brian to post on the monitors.

Here’s the final “Library Bunch” design:

Friday | August 11, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

So the Library Poster digital signage that I showed previously became the new template for the “#LibraryHacks” design that I mentioned yesterday. Prior to creating the library posters, Carina had sent out a Google Form to all of the Librarians with questions like “What’s your favorite dry snack?”, “Give a library hack”, and “Favorite place to study in the library” just to name a few. This was initially meant to be incorporated into a possible library poster, but since we went a different route, we figured that we could still utilize some of the information gathered from the forms into the digital signage (i.e. #LibraryHacks).

Carina gave me some more feedback on this design, which specifically had to do with the center part not being blended and she wanted me to somehow make it more seamless. At first, I wasn’t so much bothered by the harsh contrast because I was pairing complementary colors together (with the exception of some) and it looked fine to me, but I figured I’d try to apply this feedback. I used the Auto-Blend feature in Photoshop and chose the Panorama setting to blend the center. I then used the Gradient overlay for the top bar to blend the two colors more smoothly. I sent this…

…to Carina and she liked it much better. I then continued to work on the other “#LibraryHacks” signs and I finished them. I gave Erin her own sign because her hack was slightly longer than everybody else's and it was a very important one.

Here’s what all the other #LibraryHacks signs looked like:

After designing these, I then designed the Dry Snack sign idea that we had and was able to finish it as well. This idea incorporated Carina’s idea of utilizing a brainstorming visual map of a central idea in the center with everybody’s answer surrounding it. This is what the Dry Snacks sign looked like…

…and now, I just had to wait to hear back from Carina to see if she wanted to follow through with all of these signs. It definitely looks like we may be wrapping up on this project very soon (candy joke).

Monday | August 14, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

When I first came in today, I saw that Carina had given the #LibraryHacks design and the Dry Snacks design the green light and they were ready to posted on the monitors, I then had an idea of putting the "INFORMATION" music video that I created for the library up on the library monitor and I ran this idea by Brian, as well as asked him if there were any restrictions to this idea like how long the video could be. Brian told me that since it's the library's monitor that essentially we can put whatever we wanted to on there and that if we wanted to put the entire 2-minute long video on the monitor that we could. With that said, I sent Carina an email to see how she felt about that and what she wanted to do.

After that, Brian had me go to the ACM lab to print some pledge cards for Aloha United Way on cardstock. After printing them out in the lab, I planned to use the paper cutter in there to cut out all of the cards since there were 4 per sheet, but there was a meeting going on and I felt like I was making too much noise so I went back to the library and used the paper cutter in the mail room to complete the job.

After I finished cutting those, I brought them to Brian and we headed to the cage to sign off on the green screen equipment with Jeff and we went back to the ACM lab to retrieve the equipment. It was cool getting to see all of the equipment used in setting up the green screen and well seeing a green screen in person.

With the remainder of today, Brian discussed with me what would be happening tomorrow at PD day and what my possible involvement would include, which was basically being extra help to anybody that needed it. We also mapped out the rest of the week and talked about me being on call after this week and coming in whenever they needed more help with other projects and Brian suggested that I would come in whenever they need more digital signage done, which I felt was very appropriate and that it would definitely help to give me more design experience.

Tuesday | August 15, 2017 | 730am - 1030am (3HRS)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY!

I came in earlier today to help out with PD day. When I first came in, I helped out by placing the Aloha United Way pledge cards that I made yesterday on the tables in the Multipurpose Room.

After passing those out, I met up with Brian & Chelsea (Communications Student Assistant) in C-225 and Brian tasked us with walking around and reminding people to go to C-225 to have their staff photos taken. A lot of the staff that we approached had either already taken their photos today or they already took their staff photos previously and with everything going on, we kind of just stayed by the entrance to the multi-purpose room and just waited for more staff to arrive. Once PD day began in the multi-purpose room, Brian went to take photos inside and so he had us man the tables in C-225 and he told us to let him know if any staff stopped by for their photos. It was pretty dead since everyone was in the multi-purpose room, but we had the refreshments (fruits, muffins, granola bars) in our room so we just relaxed in there and talked with some of the other staff that was in that room that were handling the silent auction and the bake off.

Around 10:30, Brian let me go since they didn't really need extra help after that.

Thursday | August 17, 2017 | 830am - 1130am (3HRS)

Yesterday (08/16), I had an orientation with the Library so I was unable to come in. When I came in today, I began editing the staff photos that were taken on PD day. When Chelsea exported the images, there were some weird settings that caused every photo to have ".exporting" as the file extension, so I had to manually delete that extension from every photo so that it would be recognized as a “.jpg” file before I could begin editing. Some of the staff photos temperature was also warmer than others and Chelsea said it had to do with the settings that Brian was shooting with. I believe they forgot to change something back after Brian took the camera to shoot in the multipurpose room. They didn’t look too bad, but you could definitely see a difference between these photos…

…and these photos.

I finished about half of the staff photos today and I told Brian that I would come in next week Tuesday to finish the rest.

TOTAL HOURS: 132