My Journey

My friend went all out for my 40th birthday on Sunday. She cooked chicken chilaquiles and baked a raspberry cheesecake :)

We're both fully vaccinated so we were finally able to meet up. It just took over a year. We ate, we talked and then we visited a beautiful walking trail in Anaheim Hills. Didn't make it to the actual reservoir, but the nature center was enough, plus I wasn't dressed for an extended walk/hike.

I got home and a 27" ViewSonic monitor was waiting for me!! Courtesy of my friend. Just awesome!

The monitor can pivot! Ideally, it would be nice if I had the space to position the monitor horizontally, but since I don't, positioning it vertically is fine.

Unfortunately, the included cables aren't compatible with my computer so I have to wait a day to receive the proper cable before I can use it. What's one more day?

This outing was much needed on my part. It was nice to connect, in person with another human being (besides my mother and sister).

 *Sigh*

Dreamwidth needs to have the equivalent of the retweet Twitter feature. If it did, I would repost this EVERYDAY. 

This month is on par to be just as shitty with a potential to surpass the last few months. In other words, nothing new.
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Trump and this country continues to be a raging garbage fire. MAGA. 
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Things are good at work except for a passive-aggressive asshole who has vowed to "get back at me" for not attending some stupid award function. Yeah, good luck with that you stupid fucktard. What normally functioning adult gets butt-hurt because he had no one to talk to at an award function? Here's a thought, maybe he should've offered me a ride, instead of telling me to take a cab/Uber/Lyft.

I can see why he has worked with so many different cities/agencies. I give him a good two to three years before he transfers or gets fired. He's bound to get butt-hurt with the wrong person.  
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My family deserves to be eaten by a hungry volcano monster. Those selfish assholes can all fuck off.
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Pet Sematary 1 and 2 are absolute garbage, LOL. Maybe that's the charm?

Dear Imaginary Santa Claus,

Bring me a Surface Studio with 32GB of ram, 4GB GPU and a 2TB hard drive. Oh and my very own place away from my moronic family. Preferably somewhere on a livable Mars. If you have the time throw in a new car that runs on air power and can fly.

Sincerely,

Ana renewed2

Working, school and freelancing is exhausting. I almost told my client to take a hike. I was within minutes of telling him I couldn't work with him anymore. One, because I was extremely exhausted. Two, I was annoyed by the lack of design direction from him. Almost on que we skyped and the discussion helped steer me off the ledge. It felt a lot like God was telling me 'It's ok, I'll help you get through it'. And he did.

School doesn't end for another three months. It doesn't sound like a long time, but juggling all three plus the senior art show is overwhelming. Why did I even agree to the project? Again, like on que it was an opportunity to meet a need. I'm short on my tution and needed almost the extact amount I would be receiving from the freelance gig. Again, God met my need. It hasn't been easy, not by a long shot, but God is with me, so that is somewhat comforting.
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Finally got a Surface Pro 4. Good timing too. My brick of a laptop is on it's last legs and my tabletPC is not only slow but also experiencing some worrisome problems. Hopefully I can prepare them for sale and get rid of them soon. My SP4 maybe much smaller than my 17.3" brick, but it performs much better and the screen is far superior. Where was this awesome tablet four years ago?

So it's April now. So much stuff...

The Good

• I FINALLY got hired and it's local! No more awful soul crushing morning commutes.


• There is three more weeks until the semester is over. I hate school.


• I love my new wardobe.


• Free to exhale. Finished taxes on Sunday and it looks like I'm getting a small refund. Tax software from best to least: Turbo Tax > TaxAct > H&R Block. This will be my first and last time I use H&R Block. There was a reason Amazon had a price cut. Never again.


• Discovered the Prism app. Got all my bills paid and sorted out.


• I have hope again, that my situation will get better.


• Hooked on The Catch.


• I lost weight :)


• Been more physically active, which led to the weight loss.

The Bad

• Burnt-out. I can't bring myself to start on my project or draw...or design. Which is an awful thing considering my job is designing LOL.


• I discovered I hate risographs.


• Got bad news about my cousin. Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. It's not looking good for her :( If anyone happens to read this please pray for her. If Jesus can bring Lazarus back from the dead there is still hope for her.


• The used copy of Adobe CS5 didn't pan out. The seller is a lying sack of poo. Good thing I bought it off of Amazon and was able to get my monies back. But this leaves me without software. CC? Yuck. I guess at this point I have no choice. I just wish Affinity would hurry up and release the beta for Windows already.


• Had a mini spiritual meltdown and axed bible study. In my defense my bible study partner had very little life expereince in well...everything lol. I'm sure once she goes through more gut wrenching trials she'll grow some empathy until then...BYE! LOL

I wish there was a remote that I can use to fast forward the bad parts of life and just experience the good. If there was any doubt before, there is none now. I'm definitely in the wilderness.

On a unrelated note I forgot to pay my insurance premium. Oops!! I paid it today :)

PS I want the Surface Pro 4 so bad, but I have spent nearly $4K on medical and misc bills, which leaves no monies for tech toys.

Lots of eBay, PayPal, school, Amazon and hospital bill shenanigans.

EBay seller cancelled the transaction and refunded my monies. Great. Now I have no software. Back to the drawing board. Maybe God's looking out for me. Perhaps the serial was no good?

Dropped my last class. Coming back from surgery to a full time schedule was just a bit too much.

Amazon seller refunded my transaction. Why list a product if you're not 100% sure if it's compatible with the listed model number? Bleh.

I feel my hospital bill is wrong. I don't see my co-pay payment being applied to the final bill. The difference can be $374 if I'm right.

Work has been very slow and a bit frustrating. I was fuming for a bit when they arbitrarily decided I didn't qualify for the weekend bonus because I was three calls short. Strange, they didn't note this supposed requirement in the announcements. This was their underhanded way of cheating their workers who also qualified for the customer service bonus.

God made it right for me :) A week later I was invited and accepted into a new pilot program testing out new features. With this I get more money than I would have gotten with the weekend bonus. Whatever the enemy meant for my harm, God used it for my good :)

To be honest this job is only temporary. I don't see myself as a long-term worker there. This company is just too dysfunctional for my liking. Yes, I know all companies have some type of managerial dysfunction, but the level of gross mismanagement is just...too much. I'll give it another month or so, hopefully I'll find something better by then.
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The iPad Pro is supposedly coming this fall.

LOL

The iPad is a great CONSUMPTION device, but what about a business device? If the pro version comes with a hybrid OS X then I could see it being a hit with business customers. Otherwise why even bother with a mobile OS? Why spend so much money on a bigger glorified iPhone? Eh. Just buy the Surface Pro.

Speaking of which, where is the Surface Pro 4 Nadella? I'm waiting!
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I LOVE my birdies. They are so cute :)

Cheesecake has a girlfriend and it's he's honey stick snack. LOL. That isn't the worst object my birds have fallen for. My late budgie Snickers used to have a cookie monster toy that he was madly in love with. Peaches is the boring one out of the bunch with an oven mitt that he fancies LOL.
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School is right around the corner.

Bleh.

I'm ready to graduate. I'm just over it. I hate having to socialize with students 10 years younger. I just wish there were more students my age that I can connect with *sigh*.

Yays! Livejournal is back up.
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So...I'm doing much better :) I almost feel normal. Strange that is took me close to three weeks to be rid of the vertigo and brain frog. I'm guessing it's side effects of the general anesthesia.
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Twitter has been hilarious as of late. Especially with all the Paula Deen/Confederate flag business. As much as I love twitter, it doesn't compare to Livejournal. Yes I know it's passase and all the cool kids are not on here, but I have not found any other blogging/social media platform quite like Livejournal. Don't even suggest Facebook. Facebook is an abomination that I no longer use (I deleted my personal account back in May). I hope Lj can be sold to someone who cares and can reinvigorate this site. It's a shame what poor management and neglect can do :(
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WINDOWS 10 IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! GIMME IT NOW!!!!! :D
 

The last few weeks have been pretty shitty. Just got my tablet back from repair and back it goes again. This will be the 4th time I've sent it back to HP. Pathetic! I vow to never buy another HP product ever again. They design and manufacture junk.

I got sick for a week, which put me behind in everything. I hate school so much. I've extended my stay by one too many years.