Help Find Chelsea King

Feel free to print out this poster and go post it in different places...i.e. street light posts, businesses, etc...please keep her in your prayers...this one hit way too close to home for many people.

-PrettyPidjun

Tufted!

I have many fetishes (har har, not THAT kind of fetish, you perverts. you know who you are), or manias. I go through a bunch of phases, one after the other, or all at once depending. Currently I have a few, but I would like to share one with you: tufted pillows! and couches! and such!

now do you see what I mean about the tufted??

-PrettyPidjun

The Arts

So I'm taking an online class dubbed Art History: Renaissance to Modern art...which is proving to be a test of my self-discipline and nerve. I suppose I don't mind the reading so much as the actual answering the question part of my homework. However, I have managed to do alright thus far, which is not very far at all. But it is rather tedious material to read at times, granted I am currently learning a bunch about Renaissance Art and should be able to travel through Europe and assume the identity of an educated person in the arts. Or Art History anyway...

As far as me furthering my education in the arts, I have been encouraged (or bribed with extra credit) to go see Tara Donovan, an American artist who has created some very interesting installations at MOCA in downtown. I had seen her stuff before, last semester on a field trip with my drawing class, and like most installation I have seen( alright, so there are some that have been kinda stupid, but most anyway...), it was pretty impressive. I supposed I don't know what to call this sort of art...maybe sclupture? I guess I'll go with that. 

But anyways, her "sculptures" really were amazing. She had a huge wall covered in pieces of straws she had cut in different lengths, and there were hundreds, if not thousands of these straws all over the wall. When you walked by them, you could see a sort of reflection, though I'm not sure how, of yourself in the straws and it would follow you. Today, Yoshi, my sculpture teacher informed us that she would be speaking at MOCA on Saturday about her work, and that is really the only reason I have decided to go to MOCA on Saturday. If any of you read this blog, I'm not pretending to know a lot about art, or that I am an artist by any means, but the prospect of an artist speaking about their work is something to think about. And after all, she's a MacArthur Genius Grant winner, so she's gotta be good right? 

Anyone wanna come with me on Saturday?

-PrettyPidjun

San Francisco Days, San Francisco Nights

Alright folks!!! So finally, my SF blog...basically the trip was a huuugggeee success, with some minor glitches. Depending on what I mean by "minor" (what do I mean?). But anyways...Sylvia slept over on thursday night and we got up early the next morning (6-ish? ya that's early, though according to Kyle, not so much hehe), and got ready and I made some sandwiches for the trip and such. We left around 6:45ish and made our way to the I-5 near villa de la valle after filling my car with gas. The drive through L.A. was nice, since there wasn't too much traffic, and I drove most of the way...until around Santa Barbara or so...but then I start feeling baaadddd. Like terrible stomach cramps if you catch my drift, and Sylvia had to drive for a while.

But eventually I took over the wheel, and when we were in San Jose, I drove around ghetto San Jose State to check it out while she was sleeping (definitely do NOT want to attend that joint). Then we went over to Santa Clara University where she wants to go to school next year and walked around, though fearing we would see one of the many a-holes--I mean, people we knew who went there. We walked through the buildings and classrooms, the church, and some pretty courtyards. I remember how much I loved the school and how it was essentially my dream school. It hit me harder than I thought it would, but I have yearned to go to a school like that for so long. But alas, "there are dreams that cannot be."

After walking around beautiful SCU, we made our way into San Francisco finally!! I love entering San Francisco. It's how I fell in love with the city in the first place. But ya, we got there later at night, not too late, but later, and we checked into the Carlton on Sutter and went out to Fisherman's Wharf to find food. And we ate at Boudin's! The super yummy sourdough bread bakery and cafe(they make bread in the shape of alligators and crab and stuff! pretty neat.), and went to get shakes and fries at In N' Out. Before that, we walked around the shops and enjoyed some of the music and goofy homeless people. I bought a 10 dollar tote bag that had the city of San Fran on it and said "San Francisco". How cliche of me. Oh well, my other one broke, so I got a new one, as expected.

The next morning we got up and drove to Union Square, which was totally not ideal and was silly because we realized later that we could have walked there, but oh well. Sylvia, as expected, spent about an hour and 45 minutes or so in Zara haha. And don't get me wrong, I spent some time in there and bought these awesome half sandal-half boot shoes, but I wanted to go see other stores, so I ended up going to like 5 the entire time Sylvia was still in Zara. Hah, I went to this secondhand store, and I asked the guy there "is this stuff secondhand?" and he goes "ugh, its vintage". Oh San Francisco gay men who work at expensive thrift stores...and I went and bought Kyle a super cute card for V-day(which I haven't sent because I keep freaking forgetting dammit!) with olives on it that have hearts where the red part is :D!

Anyhew, Sylvia came to meet me later, and we walked up to Chinatown and the Old St. Mary's Church, where we walked around inside for a bit. I lit a candle and we sat there for a while, and walked out. It really is a beautiful church. If I lived in San Francisco, I'd be there all the time. After we got out, we took some pictures and walked around Chinatown. Sylvia bought fireworks(I know random right?), and we both bought those cool metal koi fish things they always sell there so we could put them on necklaces (and she actually ended up buying some beads), and I bought a suuper cute trolley car charm :D. After we walked around for a while, I decided it was time to go to USF and take a look around there (I was still waiting to see if I got accepted again, and when I got home, I found out I did! yay! oh dear..this makes my life soo much more complicated now).

We drove to USF (and we had the garmin gps with us the whole time, mind you) and walked around the whole campus (thought I couldnt see the design department because it was saturday and everything was closed). We managed somehow to get into the classrooms on Lone Mountain and they were really nice and the view from the windows was amazing! Gawwdd, I hope I can go there again. What am I doing with my life...ugh. Sylvia really liked it, so I'm hoping she'll apply if she still can.

After USF, we went to Haight/Ashbury (we parked down the street from USF and walked by all the pretty victorian houses and a grassy park at an intersection, and passed one of the campus for SF city college :D) and neither of us had been to haight, but it was awesome! We went into some boutiques and had dinner at the Squat and Gobble. We went to So Good, that jewelry place they also have in SD with a bunch of every kind of jewelry. After haight, we went to Castro....

...where some shit went down. But before we get to that, let's talk about the walk through Castro. We went by Hot Cookie, where I almost bought Ive(a friend) a very unique and special cookie that I cannot mention the shape of, but refrained. We also went into some other interesting shops, and looped around until we came across a certain bar frequented by certain people who are common in the Castro. We walked in pretty early, so there weren't any bouncers, and Sylvia managed to get us both drinks (I had a beer, mothership to be exact, and she had a long island). We met some fun people and hung out with them for a while, until I figured it was time to go. And by that I mean Sylvia was a bit too happy and I had to walk her around for the rest of the night and had a little freak out sesh with Kyle on the phone trying to guide me through this interesting experience. And I'll just say that my car smelled pretty bad afterward. And as Forrest Gump says, "that's all I have to say about that".

But in the morning, things were better, and I had memories of my first partying experience in San Francisco, and a very hung over friend. And it was valentines day! and Kyle ordered Sylvia and I really scrumptious breakfast (extra bacon and all!) and it was super sweet of him and it made my day! But the fun ended when we had to go find the parking garage I had left my car in the previous night. We searched for, if I am correct, more than two hours for the damn garage but finally ended up finding it (and learning our way around union square!) and heading home.

but oh boy, what a trip! It truly was a success, and a learning experience, and I had a blast! I didn't want to come home. And I still wish I were up there just hittin' up the streets of SF and doing my thing.

-PrettyPidjun

As Soon As I Upload My Pics...

Alright so as soon as I upload my pictures from San Fran, I will proceed to blog about my amaazzzinnnggg weekend there!!! Because through various mishaps, a bit of exploring, and some hilarious moments, I now know my soulmate city by heart.

-PrettyPidjun

Gettin' Ready for the City!

So I'm currently getting ready for San Francisco, and I am super excited!!! I'm going with Sylvia, and she should be here any minute...she's spending the night. Hopefully it'll be a sickk trip!

-PrettyPidjun

Kyle!!!

Kyle if you're reading this, I think you are a huge goofball.

and a dork.

and a stork.

I love you.


-PrettyPidjun

Fieldtrip to L.A.

Oh Lost Angeles. Just the sight of you makes me want to turn my car back around and head back to Sand Diego. But then I remember Little Tokyo and the fashion district. And such.

Anyways, I went on a field trip led by my sculpture teacher (Yoshi) and brought Sylv with me, and I must say, I had a wonderful time. We definitely got the full experience of the day...complete with lunch in Little Tokyo, a look at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and the sick artwork that's housed there (including a room with chocolate paper walls! mmmm), and a protest in front of the museum. I also picked up a collectible Gundam figure from Jungle in Little Tokyo. Which was pretty awesome. I finally have a good Gundam figure to stick on my shelf! Yay.

But besides that we had awesome food at this one Japanese restaurant I usually go to when I'm in Little Tokyo, and Sylvia seemed like she liked it too...and besides besides that, Yoshi took us all to Grand Central Market, this cool market full of fresh produce like fruits and meat and such, and tiny restaurants with different food. I'd never been there, but it was pretty damn exciting. Particularly the food part.

Oh and Sylvia and I parked my car waaaay the heck up the street from Little Tokyo and the market, so we pretty much walked like 4 blocks to get down there. And on the way we got a nice tour of that area of L.A. and talked to some homeless people. We tried to look for Sprinkles afterward, but to no avail. We were too far from Beverly Hills. Oh well,

maybe next time.

-PrettyPidjun

'Bog' or 'Dird'

So one of the first assignments in my sculpture class was to make a hybrid animal out of clay using two animals that represented you in some way (hey that rhymes! 0_o). I chose a bird and a dog. Or a Bog. Or Dird. Perhaps those of you who know me well enough can figure out why I chose the two.

And I also made a small goose. In case you were wondering what the little guy in the background had to do with anything.

-PrettyPidjun

Monster Rancher

Anyone remember this show from the late 90's? Any of my fellow geeks out there?

-PrettyPidjun

V-day Flyer

Alrighty folks! Here's another flyer I just designed for MCC College Hour. According to Nikki(the MCC dean, and ASG supervisor), I didn't have to make one for the V-day celebration. But Ana(friend since 7th grade, and programming director for the San Elijo campus...meaning she is sort of my jefe..) told me she thought the one that was made for V-day was too boring and that I needed to make a different one.

Alls I can say is that they BETTER print this one in color. The texture in the background is too pretty to be in black and white! Also, the filters made it look sick! And speaking of, I need to study for my photoshop quiz tomorrow...

-PrettyPidjun

'I'm so pretty like, be on my pedal bike'

Here are just some pics of Liesel and I when I went bike riding with Sylvia at Mission Bay like a week and a half ago. :D It was such a beautiful day! That was before the nasty storms and cold weather came along...ahh, those were the days.

-PrettyPidjun

Ciabatta

So today was really kind of a shitty day. I have no idea why, but I woke up feeling like crap because of all of the stuff going on in my life right now. But at least it was Kyle and I's 3 year anniversary! Which is amazing and exciting...except that he didn't even text me until the evening...to ask why I wasn't answering his skype calls. Which prompted me to tell him a few things...but anyways..I was at Macaroni Grill at North County Fair with Ashley to sort of celebrate her b-day, which was pretty fun...and also included a surprise guest...Krista Krause! A friend of a friend of a friend (her dad Greg works with Kyle's dad, really nice guy, really nice family, and Krista and her sis' are awesome :D), She had apparently been working there for a couple of months and she came to talk to us.

Now at Macaroni Grill, the waiters and such will sing songs to the customers, and Krista told us they were also supposed to go from table to table asking if they could sing that table a song. And I had heard about Krista's voice, and she asked if we'd like to hear a song...and we heard I Dreamed a Dream from Le Miz (I picked the song hee hee) and it was so pretty! She had a lovely voice, and throughout the night I asked her to sing other songs. It made my day. It really made my day. With the exception of a fun night out at dinner and my sculpture class, that was the only thing today that made it worth getting out of bed.

and the ciabatta bread.

-PrettyPidjun

P.S. If you ever read this Kyle, I love you.

Bird Congregation

So I'm definitely digging this art print. I love birds, and I love the idea of being able to talk to them and have them listen to you. This is a print of St. Francis most likely preaching to some birds, and hopefully I will buy it in time...it reminds me of some birds I saw today on the 101 on the beach in Carlsbad...

...haha there was a "congregation" of several beach birds...you know, seagulls, a few sandpipers, and maybe some chickadees...and there were tens of them! Just all in a bunch on the beach (:D). With one giant pelican  smack dab in the middle. I saw it briefly as I was driving by, but I could see that he towered over his smaller counterparts and it was seriously hilarious. Like he was trying to fit in. We all know what that's like.

-PrettyPidjun