Kamikraze

When I was little, I wanted to be a singer. Think Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears and you’ll have the image I was thinking of. Mom and dad said it was “unrealistic” and that I should settle being a nurse. As I got older, I realized that looks were more important than talent in the entertainment industry, and that my voice was more suited to “group ensembles” according to my choir teacher. No matter. They win that round.

During my early high school years, I decided to go for graphic/website designing. My dad was okay with it because it was related to computers, and it could be something secure. On the other hand, my mom and her friends turned it down, saying that any type of designing will leave me broke. And of course, mentioned nursing.

Now I have made the decision of staying at home for college, and decided to major in entertainment engineering and design. I chose this field because it combines creativity and technology, two of the standards for my dream job. I’m also taking computer science as a minor so I can have a back-up plan, and be a IT person/computer systems analyst, since that’s pretty secure/high paying.

Once again, I told these plans to my mom, and she replied with the following: “You can’t do that. It’s a man’s job. You’ll get injured! Are you sure you won’t try nursing at all?” Like I have said to her before, nursing is not something I want to do in my life. I don’t want to deal with the body functions in real life, and I don’t want to deal with dying people. Too much squeamishness and discomfort for me already. She knows that I have never been a people person, and although social skills are important for any job, I want a career with less of a focus on people, and more on technology.

If these women listened to the more “traditional” people in society, we might not even have some of the advances we have today! For once I would like to do something spectacular. Not because of fame or fortune, but to show my family that anything could happen, and we shouldn’t be narrow minded to so many good possibilities. Settling for the most reachable goals only makes a person scared, lazy (due to lack of motivation to help them achieve something greater), and miserable. It should be a last resort, if the worst is going to happen, but it should never be the first thing anyone could do.

Screw that lifestyle. I have a right to be an engineer if I want to be. Women have done things that men have done in the past few centuries. I’m sure that mom means well, but I’d just like to be able to accomplish something great and feel that sense of achievement in doing what everyone else claims to be “the impossible”. I know way too many people that hesitate to do something and eventually become lazy. Hopefully I can get rid of that within me. Perhaps this is just one way to combat my laziness.

After all, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

The other day I was alone in the kitchen, thinking, “I wonder what happened to that site…” What site was I talking about, you ask? Why, the site that site that got me to start website designing of course!

All of us bloggers and website designers have had at least one person who we looked up to and said in our minds, “Gee I wish I could do that!” To me, this person was Megan of starlightmks.com. When I still visited Neopets, I noticed a lot of people made layouts for their user lookups (profiles) and pet profiles and they made it very pretty. Also, her name and site URL were seen on a lot of the profile backgrounds and music that were used in these layouts. So, I looked on her website, and found all these cool graphics in my sight. Then I looked on the about page, and noticed that she was only a year or two older than me. Surprised…heck yes! Back then, I thought website designing was limited to adults! Needless to say, I clicked on the links of where she learned from, and the rest was history.

However, she wasn’t the only inspiration. When I went on Kylosa (a site that hosted people for free with amazing benefits), I was inspired by the many young website designers on there too…who made such cool-looking layouts. I met JK on there, as well as the person who got me the domain, Ashley. The community was great, and everyone was helpful when I was getting started. Sadly, the site itself isn’t available anymore, and I haven’t contacted anyone from there in ages. Still, I wonder if anyone that had their websites on there remembers it…and/or other people from the community.

To this day, I still think about both resources of my website designing inspiration from time to time. Starlight is obviously still alive, and it has many of the same graphics and music that I’ve seen from before. And I’m pretty sure the members of Kylosa have gone off to do bigger and better things, both on and offline. Even though I’m not making content for other people anymore, it’s still interesting to look back on what made me want to make a website and design graphics in the first place. Without them, who knows where I would have ended up?

So…which website designer/what website was your first website inspiration? What made you want to start creating a website in the first place?

If you’re following me on Twitter, chances are you’ve seen my latest message. If not, then just click on the link to see the most recent one at the top.

Here’s the explanation to that: Since there’s no school, I’m stuck in the house 90% of the time with almost nothing to do. And because of this, my dad takes advantage of my “knowledge of computers” and asks me for help on what any person would consider the basics of learning how to use a frickin’ computer. Examples include, but are not limited to: forwarding e-mail messages, opening up PDF files, typing up documents longer than a paragraph, printing things, and many other tasks.

As I’m typing up this blog, he yells out my name from the next room to ask for help. I have a decent amount of patience, but helping him with task after task gets really annoying sometimes. Imagine yourself trying to teach something so simple to someone who doesn’t know it such as the definitions of “hot” and “cold”, or teaching variable equations to a third grader. Yeah, it’s like that. But after some thinking, I realize that for him, using a computer is like trying to build a house by himself: overwhelmingly complicated. For me, it’s like breathing: I don’t have to think about it at all. I know I should be more patient with him, but it’s also hard for me to teach because what if I don’t know a specific thing? Then I get yelled at for being “stupid” and my school gets blamed for not teaching kids on how to use a computer. Honestly, common sense on how to use a computer can only take a person so far.

I’ve single-handedly taught him everything he knows about computers, but I don’t know if I could do it anymore. I’ve considered getting him those video professor DVD’s or whatever just so he can learn it on his own. One of my friends suggested I hire a person who specializes in teaching people stuff about computers and “surprising” my dad with some lessons. I mean…how far would you go just to teach someone about something that’s practically like breathing to you? Sometimes you just want the person to “magically” know it all already, or I’d just like to do it myself so that I can get this task over with.

I guess that’s how my sister felt when she tried to teach me how to ride a bike. I kept stumbling and crying so many times, but after a while, she just gave up on how to teach me. I never learned how to ride a bike, and she never tried to teach me again because “I was complicated.” I always hated the people that were like that. I got used to so many people giving up on me, simply because they thought I was inept.

*sigh* I guess I’m a hypocrite. But nobody’s perfect. Still, I appreciate the fact that he wants to learn it instead of making me do it, regardless of the frustration that his sluggish pace is giving me. As someone once said, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll be fed for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be fed for a lifetime.” Hopefully this experience will teach me how to be more patient. Or if that doesn’t happen, then my dad will learn how to use e-mail. Honestly, I’m only hoping for the latter right now. =P

I now realize that my quick shopping tips weren’t necessarily about spending wisely, but rather, making the most out of your money. And in these tough times, isn’t that what we all should do? I mean, shopping and saving do go hand in hand. So now…here are some more tips! The first one was brought up by Nikki’s comment, but the rest are based on past experiences, and tips I read off of other sites.

1. Keep the change! I know that most of us are used to letting it rot in our purses and losing it in our couches, but dollar bills shouldn’t be used for everything. What if you just want some gum, or candy, or chapstick? These items cost less than a dollar, and all that dollar will bring up is more change. Instead, use the change on items that are worth $3 USD or less. The cashier might give you a stink eye for making them take extra time to count *gasp*, but there will be less jingle in your purse/pocket tonight, and less to carry! A win-win situation.
2. Be careful of who you lend money to. Even if it is a family member or close friend, you have to know when your generosity is being taken advantage of or not. These days, the only people I lend money to are my parents. Sure, they have their jobs, but sometimes there’s just not enough income to pay for bills and necessities. That’s where I come in. I only lend if there are problems with the bills, or barely enough for groceries. My sisters can go suck save it [money], since all they’re going to spend the money on is their own personal business.
3. Keep track of the lenders. If you have a super-spectacular memory, then this is not the tip for you. For the rest of us, let’s move on. I got this tip from my awesome aunt, who suggested I should keep track of the expenses that I lend out. I never lend money to anyone unless they sign my little book, stating that they owe me such and such money. As for interest and collateral, that depends on my mood. But now people will have to think twice before asking me for money, for I shall annoy the hell out of them every second that I go unpaid.
4. Keep receipts! I know that they’re mainly good for item exchanges or returns, but it’s nice to keep track of how much you spend. It’s really important to know where you spend the most, because it could help you decide whether you spend too much or too little on a certain part of your lifestyle. I took a look at my past receipts, and I realized that going out to eat can be quite expensive if you add them up. I saw a few receipts from fast food orders in the past, and combined they were $50! I thought to myself, “This definitely destroyed my budget…and thighs…”

I believe this is all the money related wisdom I have for now, but there’s always more to be learned when it comes to financial matters. Hopefully the economy will be nice to me and give me my first job. *crosses fingers*

I, my dad, and the males on his side of the family have this inborn gift of being able to weed out useful items from the non. However, I feel as if my natural talents of being able to save money and spend it wisely are slowly deteriorating. It seems that the people I hang out with love spending money, and as a result I’m somewhat forced to buy things in order to make myself not look like the “boring one” in the group.

For example, this one time I went to two malls. Out of $46 that I’ve saved up, I’ve spent up to $42 on miscellaneous items (not including gift card items). For those math illiterate, that leaves $4. Not a lot left, huh? Normally, I’d spend about 1/3 of the money I have, and let the rest stock-pile up.

Anyways, what I have down below are a few tips for the money-saving teenager (as well as anyone else who cares to read):

1. Shopping list are your best friend! This may seem obvious, however, when one thinks of shopping list, they think of “grocery items”. Really? Your list skills can do better than that! Make lists for deciding what clothing you need *key word*, and lists for what you want. The items that you need go at the top, and wanted items go at the bottom.
2. Base items are cheaper in department stores. What I mean by “base items” are items that make up the “base” of your outfit. Such examples include: jeans, plain white t-shirts, undergarments, etc. You don’t need to buy such items at a designer store, when you can get them cheaper at a generic store.
3. Save up lunch money. Sometimes the lunches provided at school can be very yummy, but it’s better if you make your own at home. In my case, I don’t even have time to eat lunch, let alone wait in some long line and pay for it. Save yourself the hassle and get one snack off the vending machine. Trust me: it’s fine if you skip one meal, or postpone it until later.
4. If you must go “luxury” shopping, spend (at the maximum) only half of what you have. I think this is a big problem for my sister and me. Whenever we see something at a store, most of the time: we want it. But with me, I know when the item is a “proper investment” for me or not. And this ties in with my next point…
5. Buy things you can imagine yourself using often. I’ve been guilty of this several times. A couple of times I buy a few hats and sunglasses just because I think they look cool. But once I buy them, I never use them. Why? Because I normally don’t wear sunglasses and hats. Same thing goes for me and arm accessories (hand warmers, sex bracelets, rings, etc): I waste money on things that I think look cool, but never use. So buy things that make a good “time investment”, and things that you know you can incorporate into your life for most of the time.

And finally, a rant on designer items. Most of the time, I’m a fairly simple girl when it comes to fashion. I’m not a fashionista, and I never will be. But why do women spend so much money on designer handbags and other designer accessories/clothes?! Most of the time, it’ll just be a plain colored handbag, or a bag with the company’s logo printed over and over again. You’re just paying for the brand name folks! I would have made it a tip not to buy designer items since you can get something that looks better for the same price, but I know that there are a lot of people that like designer items. I really don’t get the hype over it, but then again, that’s just me.

Now go forth, and shop wisely my young grasshopper.

Tags: clothes, money, shopping
Posted by admin at 8:01 pm   Life, Rants   Permalink   Comments (4)