It’s been quite a while since I updated this site. Since Dunked.com started charging for their services, I have deleted my account with them and am in the process of moving my portfolio to this website. I’ll be delving into Jekyll once more to work out a suitable template for my portfolio.

As far as school goes, I’m currently in Game Pro I, where we build two game levels - one personal level as a solo project and one collaborative effort with a group of classmates. I’ll probably post work from the group level when we are further along in the project. For my personal level, I decided to do a shrine haunted by spirits who manifest as blue lights in lanterns and other lit objects scattered around the level. The architecture is heavily influenced by Japanese Shinto shrines as well as Buddhist temples in Korea and China.

Just before I launch into know-it-all preachy mode, just an quick update on my life -

I went up to Oregon last weekend for my cousin Brian’s wedding! Brian and Lindsey had one of the most touching ceremonies I have ever witnessed and I am honored to have been there for them. I took dozens of photos but my parents are still up north with the camera so those will have to wait. My family is going to Patrick’s Point and Agate Beach without me since I have school all week; I flew home early Monday morning and am staying with friends.

It’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it? There’s been so much going on that I haven’t been able to do much - and when I have, I don’t feel like doing anything. Quite the dilemma.

We finally finished our documentary project - it’s up and running on YouTube with over 1000 views and 500+ notes on Tumblr!

Finally got my new design up, after over a month! I’ve been getting more and more busy with school. My final Bootcamp project turned out to be much, much better than I expected. I think I’m actually a better artist than I thought! I mean, I do know that I’m decent at design, but I always told people I was not good at drawing, and yet here is undeniable proof that I can do more than scribble.

It’s been quite a tumultuous few weeks. School’s never been busier, and tomorrow I start working on weekends. I want to keep this blog updated as often as I can, but it’s been quite a challenge to even keep up on my other websites.

Sarah helped me bleach my hair. I’m prepping it for purple tips, but I decided to leave the brown in for a bit. Bleaching the color out took forever, so I’m giving my hair a rest before I try it again.

Today was certainly one of those days. Sore throat, stuffy nose, coughing and sneezing and all sorts of nonsense, but not bad enough that I was incapacitated. A nice day in bed and lots of fluids did the trick, and I kept myself occupied by creating a mockup on my future business cards in Photoshop.

I’m sitting in Sarah’s room while she sleeps - we both skipped out on lab today. I’m still dealing with a cold the old man gave me that incapacitated me yesterday while she… well, she partied hard. We’re both in the process of recovering.

I went ahead and splurged for a wireless Apple keyboard for my iPad. It was pricey, but definitely worth the cost. I love my iPad and everything it does for me, but the simple fact remains that a physical keyboard will always trump a virtual one. Yes, I know, I could have waited and bought a Surface Pro with a keyboard cover. Whatever. I am satisfied with what I have and if I don’t want the keyboard, I don’t have to bring it with me.

This week has got to be the most exhausting week in my entire existence.

On Sunday, I started work on a group project only to discover that over half the work needed to be redone, so Sarah and I stayed up until 4:30am at her place to finish it, then took a precious two hours to sleep. We woke up again to go to school early, armed with Starbucks coffee, and printed out all our documents. We then zombied our way through eight hours of school. Seriously, we were lying on the floor and killing ourselves giggling at the ceiling.

I’m learning more and more to enjoy the little things in life, and today was a beautiful day.

It started out a little rushed, because I had to go to the ophthalmologist and get my eyes dilated. Not. Fun. Basically they numb your eyes then dilate them to a ridiculously large size so they can poke around and generally make your eyes ache. But it was over quickly, thank goodness, and nothing changed with the scar on my retina (more on that another time) and I was on my way.

Once in a while, I get a really sweet, thoughtful message on my tumblog, and here’s one that really made me smile:

I left you a long, personal ask this summer that I wonder if you got around to reading. It’s probably buried underneath hundreds of other messages now, but basically it was a sort of “hey, you’re amazing and I used to follow you for quite a while and you should never ever give up” thing. Still holds true now. The reason for this message, though, is entirely because I set up a new side blog and finally got the chance to using the Wood theme you once had as your own personal theme, and as I was customizing all the details I was just thinking in my head, “Thank goodness for Gabrielle Wee. I doubt there’s another theme artist on tumblr who approaches versatility and personal customisation as thoughtfully and uniquely as she.” Seriously, I’ve used your themes from the start, and in the last few years you’ve only gotten better and better at what you do, and for the .005% of my life where I’m an obsessively nitpicky theme-adjustment-maker, you just make everything so ridiculously convenient and the amount of appreciation I have for that is almost excessive… yup. I do have a few coding questions I intend to ask on your main site sometime later when I have the time to address them as well, but for now, this is all. Last notes–you have such a limitless capacity for life, and although I know things are hard right now, don’t forget that our God will never let us face more than we can handle :) in Him you can do all things! I hope school is going well for you. Don’t forget to smile.

 

I used to think iPads were useless toys parents bought to amuse their children, but no longer!

When the new iPad came out in March of last year, I had no plans at all to buy one. What would I use it for? I already had a new iPod Touch from Christmas and a 2010 Macbook Pro. I thought I was perfectly satisfied with what I had.

Other than school and work, tonight was the first night in a long time that I’ve been out with friends. I went to church with my sister and one of our old buddies from karate class, and it was really, really fun. Our fellowship is comprised of both college students and young adults, and though it’s a smaller group, I feel like we’re that much closer for it. There were quite a few new people today, including college students (which you can never have enough of, btw), and we had some good discussions. Of course, there’s always that awkward moment when the leader asks a question to the group and there’s a deafening, resounding silence, but I figure that’s what I’m there for, right? I like answering~ And being back at church after missing it so many times reminded me I need to get back into the habit of studying! Work + school kind of killed my Bible reading for a while. Not that that is a valid excuse!!

I consider myself a wanderer. In high school, I seemed to fit in with all the different social groups and thereby belonging to none of them; online, I wander from social network to social network, trying to find one that suits me perfectly. For a long time, I thought Tumblr was my home to stay. I love Tumblr, with its eccentricities, networking, silly gifs and fan wars. But it’s not a place where I truly feel at home any longer. A month or two ago, I discovered that .ee domains existed. After much thought and consideration, Mitch and I decided to purchase gabriellew.ee. It’s a bit pricier than buying a .com domain, but it’s definitely a domain worth keeping, at least for myself. Since then, I’ve searched and searched for a blogging platform that I could use on gabriellew.ee.