Coffee & Pulla

Here we go again! My school started up again earlier than usual, and earlier than everyone else, which miffed some people, but we had a good turnout for our sociology class about blogging. I suspect they may have lengthened the semester by one week by starting early, but if I’m not paying more, well… still. An extra 6 days is a lot. Now I don’t know when I’ll take down the tree!

Pulla, a kind of Finnish baking. I ate it.

The big thing, of course, is grad project numero duo for those of us not doing a year-long project, like moi. I wanted to, but I knew I needed to do something totally different. I spent two semesters on social causes, and it’s tiring. I also spent two semesters on food-related websites, so I’m doing a print-based project. Honestly, food is a small factor, but it’ll be my delicious discussion about Finnish food. That brings me to the idea. While I want to focus more on design and improving my design skills, the topic I’m working through is about Finland. So far, it shall be a book about Finland’s culture, geography, and language (and social structures?), with comparisons to B.C. and Canada. I expect to also include a small travel diary with photos from my family’s trip in 2000. That castle really wasn’t as big as it looked on TV. In retrospect, I wish I’d actually kept a proper diary, but I did bring home much memorabilia.

Anyway, it should be a good project and a challenging experience. Hopefully it won’t be an expensive one. If it is, it should pay for itself if I manage to polish my typography and layout skills (or lack thereof). Since I’ll have a fantastic instructor and a topic I’m passionate about, I should meet some success.

On a related note, my friend found this on someone’s Xanga page, which you can only view if you’re logged in. How dumb is that? Anyway…

Quoted from Step Magazine

The top 10 reasons being a designer is the best damn job in the world.

10. Being a whiney, temperamental crybaby is completely excusable.

09. You get to have all the mystique of a fine artist with none of the clean up.

08. “I’m a Designer” sounds great no matter who else is at the table.

07. Throwing clients off by explaining why the EPS on the FTP makes a poor PDF due to lack of PPI.

06. You can rock an all black outfit in the summer that would put the goth kids to shame.

05. You know enough key commands to virtually type an entire layout.

04. The coolest cubicles in the building!

03. In a world chock full of corporate rules you’re bound by none.

02. Given a small budget, a suffocating deadline, and a client-generated concept, you channel MacGyver like skills and get the job done.

01. Creating cool work and having little pieces of your ego printed, published, and plastered all over the place!