I’m super proud of myself. I found some anti-slip tape, like the kind you put on your stairs so you won’t slip when its wet. I cut a thin strip and then into tiny little rectangles for the two main keys. And ohemgee. I love it. The rough texture makes it SO easy for my fingers to find the keys. I realized I’ve been making and fixing hella typos lately simply because I kept on positioning my hand in the wrong spots. Yay for fingers being able to see again! ^_^

… I also got a little tape-happy and put one on the “0″ at the top row because I go up to that area a lot. w00t.

(Totally sounds like I got hacked, huh?….) Time to do some plugin/file clean ups~

To be frank, after watching several video submission, I got the impression that most folks didn’t put as much time and thought into their videos.

PRESENTATION. A lot of the videos have horrible sound quality, or there’s too many visual things happening, making the video seem like an infomercial. Yes, sell yourself, but do it with CLASS! Craig worked hard to ensure that the sound and video quality wouldn’t compromise the presentation of his message.

For a job application where your video is your submission, I’m glad Craig’s is clean, tidy, and went through drafts. You would NOT submit a messy resume for a job, right?

ORIGINALITY + HUMOR. Most of the videos are simply the applicants talking about their experiences, why they should be fit for the job, with a cheesy clip of them sipping some Murphy Goode wine. Since most of the videos are like this, they really lack personality.

Okay, I’m biased, but I honestly think Craig’s video is very different from the other submissions. Even the CURRENT Murphy Goode Lifestyle Coorespondent gave props to Craig’s video and blog post: Andy’s Goode Life Blog – How to Make a Killer Job Application Video.

The best part is that Craig transparently shares his video-making process, and provides an extensive “Murphy-Goode Job Applicants Video Fail Guide” for other applicants to learn from. Craig’s Video Notes + Video Application “FAIL” list.

Do you agree with me, that his video blows the others outta the water?
PLEASE vote for Craig’s video here: http://tr.im/goode by next Friday, June 19th!

I was cleaning the living room with MSNBC on, where they shared feedback from viewers about the Susan Boyle segment they did the day before. They didn’t show her performance, but shared the commentary from a viewer which caught my interest.

The viewer spoke of the hardships of our time right now, and the stress and financial pressures she’s needed to go through in the last few months, with children to take after too. When she saw the Susan Boyle video on the news, it brought a smile to her face. She thanked the newscast for sharing the story and asked that they cover similarly positive stories like this, even to bring a smile to someone’s face for 5 minutes in their day.

This sincere commentary caught my curiosity and I Youtubed “Susan Boyle.”

If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg

Below are my thoughts and social commentary in response to Susan Boyle’s shocking performance.

Introduction

Unexpectedly, this video greatly affected me. I started crying while watching and continued to cry, 15 minutes after I watched the video. Why did this have such a big impact on me?

Without a doubt, Susan’s singing abilities is extraordinary: grand, beautiful, and precise. The moment she sang her first line, it reminded me of Jodi Benson, the voice actor for The Little Mermaid’s Ariel. When I saw pictures of Ariel’s voice, I was in my teens and was a little shocked that “it was an old lady”! (Perception of “old” was rather skewed back then ;)

There’s two issues that come up for both Susan and Jodi’s examples: the correlations between beauty equating to success, and the preconceived notions of beauty and age. Additionally, the three factors of beauty, success, and age are all related.

Shock

Why is it that we were all shocked the moment Susan sang her first line?

She doesn’t look like everyone else, she’s older, and she’s from a village town. She’s nervous so she stumbles on her words on stage.

Based on previous experiences watching these shows, the editors often depict the abnormal contestants as weird, strange, unappealing to tv audiences, and otherwise unsuccessful. Take a look at the editing, they still made Susan out that way before she began singing. It’s reinforced by the teenage audience member that rolls her eyes, and the middle age woman that’s probably saying, “She’s old; she shouldn’t be up there!”

So then she sang. And it was strong, clear, and elegant. Her voice was so “opposite” of her appearances–or rather, her voice was so opposite of the appearances WE’RE used to seeing.

Beauty and Success

That bubbles down to our concept of beauty and success, both walking hand-in-hand.

Look at all the successful American Idol contestants over the years. All of them have been made-over to be “more presentable” for the mass media. They’ve been cleaned up, styled, and are prim.

Consider the whole idea of make-overs on talk shows and how the audience cheers to reinforce the concept of beauty=success, that now she’ll be able to find the job and man of her dreams with her new look! (Finding a man=success is a topic for another day ;) Magazines, models, celebrities, we hear it all the time about how we’re fed images of beauty. But do we THINK and CONSIDER and DIGEST these things that we internalize every day?

Consider our own individual lives, and how we have to dress up at work. Traditionally, folks at large corporations need to have business attire (though a lot more relaxed in the computer/web company world). White-collar attire vs. blue-collar attire.

I’m not saying that this is bad and we should change it, I’m just saying this is how it IS. We’ve been taught and we are CONSTANTLY taught that beauty equates to success.

Beauty and Age

It’s interesting how our perception of beauty itself has been driven by advertisements, Hollywoodism, and mass media’s goal to just make more money through sexual icons. They all tell us that beauty = youth, and that growing old is NOT beautiful.

Why else would you buy the products that reduce wrinkles? Why else would so many middle age people dye their hair to cover up their grays? Our culture is not very good at embracing aging for what it is.

Most older women want to look young again. Most women in their 20s want to maintain their youth as long as they can. And most teens want to look like what folks in their 20s look like.

Our society’s conception of beauty is in youth.

Proving Us Wrong

For the reasons above, when we initially see people like Susan on tv, we kind of cringe because she wears a plain dress, she hair is flopping all over the place, she just doesn’t look appealing on tv because it’s not what we’re used to. She’s 47, way over the age of most contestants in their teens/20s/30s.

So, people have preconceived judgments and EXPECT and WANT her to fail, because that’s what we’re used to seeing when people like her come on tv. She lacks the media’s ideal beauty aspect altogether, so chances are she’s not gonna do very well.

Wrong. Her voice shook us up, contradicted our expectations and conceptions of how WE think she was going to do. In fact, it’s the contrast of our preconceived notions of her appearance that really brought out the success and talent in her voice.

Lucky for her, she’s good and she had a great performance. Consider what would have happened if she stumbled during her song, or if she got really nervous like most contestants would on stage. She was spared by the spears of judgment that loomed over her, waiting to strike at her fumble.

In a completely different experience, beyond the superficiality of appearances, it was her voice, her talent, and her uplifting personality that brings out the beauty in her now.

Final Thoughts

So, why did I cry for so long? Why was I so touched by her performance?

Yes, it was the obviously moving and inspiring ability of her voice, in addition to the lyrics of the song she sang.

Yes, it was the happiness I felt when she overcame everyone’s negative preconceptions of her, which were solely based off of her appearance and behaviors.

Yes, it was the complete turn around that the judges and audience members experienced, where they all shockingly realized that they were proved wrong.

But I cried also because I realized how we’re SO quick to judge, and we’re SO quick in thinking that we know everything and anything about someone in a span of 60 seconds. And that it’s usually in a negative, put down manner.

And it also made me think about all the people that will NEVER get a chance to succeed because of that, and because of the lack of OPPORTUNITY to even SHOW others that they’re extraordinary. There’s likely someone in a 3rd world country right now who could potentially be THE person to cure cancer, but due to the lack of opportunity, resources, encouragement, and BELIEF, it WON’T happen.

Susan Boyle’s performance brought a lot of positive feelings to me, but it made me understand and realize more clearly the negative implications too.

I think the major lesson for me is that every person has a talent, although it might not be completely developed yet–they need the opportunity, resource, and support for it to show. Also, every person has an opportunity to prove you wrong, so don’t get too comfortable in thinking you know everything about everyone.

Thanks for reading my thoughts and commentary on this topic. I’d love to hear what you thought about her performance too. :)

LaidOffCamp was an “unconference” or a “BarCamp“, where the conference sessions are put on and discussed by the event’s participants. This allows a lot of openness, community-building, and networking at all of these events. If you haven’t been to a BarCamp, I highly recommend it! You’ll be sure to take something from the event, feeling positive and productive, and you’ll get to meet folks that have the same interest as you!

I learned a lot of great information at LaidOffCamp and thought it would be beneficial for everyone to know! Below are the notes I took so I could share with YOU. Hope it helps! :)

(If you’re looking for information and resources about to do after being laid off, you can also read my Layoff Survival Guide.)

Interesting Sessions I Attended:

• “Forming a Corporation or LLC”
• “Freelancing Tools”
• “Resume 2.0″
• “Networking 101/Personal Branding”
• “Be a Yes (in this “No” Economy)”

Unfortunately, each session was only about 30-45 minutes, which I felt wasn’t ample time to fully wrap up topics and discussions. Nevertheless, each session provided much shared information and great ideas!

Forming a Corporation or LLC

This session wasn’t necessarily what I was interested in, but seemed more informative for me than the other sessions going on. Thus, I might not fully understand all the terminology nor fully understand the reasoning behind it all. Either way, I just wanted to share in case you’d be interested!

• Keep a separate bank account for your business. This is easier for accounting purposes.
• Open an account with a Credit Union
• Track your expenses. Some services you can use: Mint.com and Outright.com
• Marketing:
  • Create a LOGO – this is your identity
  • Slogans, mascots
  • Business cards (see more below)
  • Promote yourself: go to tradeshows where there’s people of different backgrounds. Social Networking!
  • “Any PR = Good PR”
• Be extremely careful of your reputation: online reputation management.
• Business cards: make it professional. VistaPrint.com offers free business cards, where you just have to pay for shipping.
• Do your homework first before you name your business! Make sure there’s no name conflicts in your county/nationwide. The county clerks will not check if there are conflicts in name. You can check for trademarks with your Secretary of State, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Googling the name. Also make sure that there are no logo conflicts.

Also, here is a Self-Employment Tax Calendar, provided by Outright.com, which I think is an awesome resource!

Freelancing Tools

I was highly interested in this Freelancing session, so I ended up taking a lot of notes for this. The session was headed by Duncan from Workstir, Josh from oDesk, and Travis from Werkadoo. A short session but a lot of great information shared:

• Drafting Contracts

  Tips and advice to make sure you’re legally protected as a freelancer:

  Always get the terms on paper!
  Verbal and written contracts are binding.

  Scope
  This is extremely important! Make sure the scope is laid out. Include the tasks that are necessary to be completed and the hours needed for each. Also have on paper the milestones of the project.

  Change Requests
  Always include a methodology for change requests. (e.g. “If changes occur, the process should be…”) Also, if you need to increase the hours/billing, what is the process for this?

  Payment
  Never wait until the project is done to get paid. Have them pay 1/2 up-front and 1/2 at the end of the job. Give an estimate how of many hours this would take, and ask them to pay half up-front.

  Types of contracts:

  • Timed and materials — the preferred method. This is charging your employer per hour for your services.
  • Fixed price — a flat-rate for your services.

  To receive some help, you can try contacting lawyers directly to see if they’d help you for free until you have enough money.

• Calculating Your Rate

  At the minimum, figure out your standard of living. Keep in consideration these factors:

  • Monthly insurance costs
  • Rent/Living costs
  • Monthly food costs
  • Etc.

  Freshbooks.com
  Also, track your time! Freshbooks provides an invoicing system where you input your hours.

• Filing Taxes as a Freelancer

  1099 Forms
  This is the IRS form to fill out when reporting your freelance/contractor income. If you’ve earned more than $600 from your employer for your freelancing/contractor services, the employer has to file a 1099 form. For more information about this, I found this really helpful site: FreshBooks.com – Get Your Clients to Report Your Freelance Income Using Form 1099 On Time.

  Again, here is Outright.com’s Self-Employment Tax Calendar, a pretty useful and important resource!

  Other Tax/Filing Tips
  - Ask a CPA or accountant if you have any questions about what/how to file your freelance/contractor work
  - Look for volunteer grad students that are studying to be CPA/accountants–they’re available to help with your taxes too

• Finding Clients

  Workstir
  A place where business can find freelancers and contractors with ratings, and where freelance and contractors can find jobs. This is a FREE service.

  Werkadoo
  “A remote working environment built for the people by the people. Join the movement in ditching the cubicle, and werk efficiently by working remotely.”

  oDesk
  “A global service marketplace for small and medium sized business to hire, manage, and pay remote freelancers or teams.”

  Self-Marketing
  Reach out and talk to people. Provide a service.

• Converting from Contractor to Full-Time

  Make it clear from the start that you’re interested in the Full-Time position, but you’d be willing to do contract work. Suggest projects/jobs for them that are opportunities for them–BUILD VALUE.

Resume 2.0

A very unique and memorable ideas, lead by Dale Larson (@dalelarson) and Marcus Ronaldi (@hydra1970). The BLOG and YOUTUBE ideas were the ones that stuck out the most for me.

• Social Bookmarking
• LinkedIn – join groups
• Embed your resume and job descriptions into your Facebook and Twitter Feeds
• ResumeBucket
• Have a Public Resume
  • Take out your address, keep the city name
  • Include the area codes you’re interested working in
  • Include your email address and LinkedIn address
• Using a BLOG as a form of expertise — Think of the blogs you visit regularly. Would you hire that blogger without even seeing their resume?
• YOUTUBE — Create a video to represent yourself, like a cover letter. Include your field of expertise.
• GlobalPitch.com — A visual CV
• In Word Docs for your resume, never put your contact information in the Header of the .doc! It can often very and get lost when people view it on their computers.

Networking 101 / Personal Branding

This session, led by Edith Yeung (@edithsan), was a very engaging session. I actually didn’t take many notes for this session as I was mostly listening, but Edith’s biggest point were these:

• GIVE and OFFER yourself — this is the best way to connect with people because you’re doing something for THEM
• Reword what you want to something THEY want.

Be a “Yes!” in a “No” Economy

This session was led by Adryenn Ashley (@adryenn) from Wow! Is Me: Monetizing Your Passion.

• Find what you’re good at, and make money from that.
• Work on your OWN dream, not someone else’s!
  Get the idea out of your head and take ACTION
• Consider: why should people believe in you? Why should they LIKE you?

This. is. awesome.

Go to the YouTube page to read the genius lyrics!

Thanks for the link, Greg!

What have I been up to since being laid off?

The week I came back from Hong Kong, I was laid off. When I got to my art classes, I was 2 weeks behind. It took me about a month to catch up on my assignments.

The classes I’m taking are Color Dynamics, where we learn about the technical aspects of color and their interactions with each other. I LOVE this class, though it requires a lot of work and time to complete all the experiments!

The other class I’m taking is called Figure Sculpting. This class is from 6PM-10PM on Wednesdays, which is a little draining for me. But, I learn an incredible amount every week! It’s great to form, shape, and work with my hands again. This was a great follow-up to the figure drawing classes I’ve taken the last few semesters.

Then, after catching up, I needed to get my web design portfolio and up. So I worked every extra minute on this site’s revamp!

Additionally, I’ve been helping out with a few projects:

• Volunteering for Youth Build Immigrant Power (YBIP)
  YBIP is a local group of Chinese immigrant youth that have been empowering themselves with knowledge of the Oakland Public School System. They have recently been trying to ensure that the A-G Requirements (the requirements for admission to UCs and most colleges) become the high school graduation requirements. (Believe it or not, a lot of students aren’t told that these requirements are different!)

  I’ve been volunteering with a portion of their group called “Art Circle,” where I guided them in forming a WordPress blog and keeping it up to date. You can check out YBIP’s blog here: http://ybip.wordpress.com/

• Laney College
  The school has been working on a large website revamp–moving into an OpenSource environment (WordPress MU). I’ve been helping with some of their documentation and tutorials for staff and faculty on how to use WordPress.

So in short, I’ve been keeping myself rather busy!

What I want to do from here

I’m really excited about the future and how I’m in total control of what I want to do. It’s a very relieving and very empowering feeling! A burst of “I’m in charge of my own destiny!!” feeling!

I’m excited to meet new people. I’m excited to reconnect with old friends. I’m excited to build and develop my own designing and art skill sets!!

Here’s some things I have on my list of to-dos!

In the web-world…

• Look for web design jobs!
  That’s right, I’m here to help for any web designing needs that you might have. Just contact me and let me know the scope of your project, and what you’d like me to do. :)
• Create business cards.
  I’ve been collecting and researching business card designs. When meeting folks, I felt so empty handed without something to give them. I need this as part of my personal branding! :)
  Btw, this is an AWESOME collection of business card designs for graphic designers: The Design Cubicle – 50 Creative Business Cards of 50 Graphic Designers
• I will network more on the social web.
  If you’re reading this, I’d love to meet you! Meet me on Twitter! Send me an @craisin reply or a quick message to say hello! :)
• I will begin reviewing on Yelp!
  I currently have 0 reviews, but you can check out my blank site here if you’d like! http://craisin.yelp.com/ Reviewing restaurants has been an important to-do for me. I eat a LOT, and I looovvvee trying new restaurants, so I think I really need to get more into this community.
• Learn more about SEO
• A couple of Craisin.com tasks:
  • Catch up on some posts
    I’ve put off for the sake of getting the redesign out! Including: recap of LaidOff Camp SF, recap of the Super Secret Nintendo Event I attended a few weeks ago!
  • Blog regularly again!
    Goal: post at least once a week!
  • Make my site iphone/mobile phone compatible
    I’ve heard it’s currently all kinds of slow right now! I think this will be a fun design/development project, too.
  • Keep Picasa pics Updated
    Update Picasa photos with some more recent photos, and get back into the habit of doing this often!

Personal To-Dos:

• I should send in my taxes HUHUHUH!
• Since moving in with Brent, I’ve yet to unpack my boxes and completely move some of my other things over.
• Organize my documents and personal files
  • Buy file folders
  • Get a file cabinet — if you have a wooden file cabinet with lock you don’t want, let me know please! :D
  • Buy misc containers Done! :D
• Drawing for roommate Darren!
• Transition from laptop to my desktop to have centralized files.
• Next semester: if time permits, take some web design and/or graphic design classes to develop some more!
• Plan some fun events to reconnect with friends and meet new folks too!

Anything else you may suggest? Are there resources you know about that will help me achieve my goals? I’m open to your thoughts, ideas, and advise! :D

Well? What do you think?? :D

Reasoning

Over the years, I’ve tried different styles for my site. It’s been most recent that I began to (re)understand the importance being TRUE to yourself, and LOVING and EMBRACING who you are. I’ve tried more professional-esque designs in the past, but after a few months, they seem so bland and stale as a representation of ME.

Related to the idea of being true to yourself, I’ve also began to understand the importance of TRANSPARENCY, especially on the internet. Anyone can Google my name and find parts and bits about my life. But I want them to see me as a greater whole. THIS is the central location for your research on Estella Tse.

Thus, I decided to incorporate a LOT more content on my site, just like how I used to back in 2006 and earlier. A few new things you can explore:

• My Portfolio – includes my web designs and a lot of my latest artwork!
• Photos – directly imported from my Picasa account. (No commenting available via my site’s interface yet, but feel free to comment via Picasa’s interface!)
• Find out more about me

Please feel free to take a look around, and ENJOY! :D

Design and Development Notes

Wow I did a lot of research when I was designing and developing this new design–the power of the intarwebz!!

Inspiration

I referenced a lot of GREAT designers’ pages that really inspired me to develop my own design skills further. GREAT sites, with very creative and well-thought out designs! :)

• Chi Garden – http://www.chigarden.com/
• Ali Felski – http://alifelski.com/
• Sugarcubicle – http://www.sugarcubicle.com/
• Li Chin’s Showcase – http://li.pixelmind.net/
• Dawghouse Design Studio – http://www.dawghousedesignstudio.com/

Resources and Plugins

These are the sites I referenced to help achieve some of the functions and features I wanted for my new design. THANKS to you all for your fantastic tutorials, documentation, and plugins!

Page-specific:

• Clean Archives Reloaded — used for Archives by Date page
• Contact Form 7 — used for Contact page
• kPicasa Gallery — awesome Picasa plugin used for Photos page
• Search Suggest — used for Search Form results page
• Sociable — used for the bookmarking icons located at the end of posts and pages to forward to friends
  • jwloh’s Social.me Web 2.0 icons — used for the bookmark Sociable icons at the bottom of posts and pages
• Style Gala – Bullet Madness — bullet styles for lists

Sidebar:

• Blazek Web Design – Clickable links through a transparent image in CSS — to achieve clickable RSS button behind the sidebar girl’s backpack strap
• A List Apart – CSS Design: Creating Custom Corners & Borders — to code the green sidebar border
• One Tip A Day – How To Control Text Inside Search Forms — to control the behavior of the Search form text
• WordPress.com Popular Posts
• Twitter Tools

Comment section:

• Theme Lab – Add Gravatar Support to Your WordPress Comments — to add more imagery to the comments section
• Inner.Geek – WP Plugin: Official Comments — changes the class for admin user comments
• Pro Blog Design – Separating Trackbacks from Comments

Navigation Menus:

• The Pink & Yellow Media Blog – Highlight current page in WordPress menus — to style current page on top navigation menu
• JT Pratt’s Blogging Mistakes – WordPress Hack #5: 10 Ways to Improve Navigation — to create navigation menu at bottom of pages, with a lot of other great information!
  • WP Page Numbers — JT Pratt recommended this plugin, which is the one I currently use for page navigation
• WordPress Support Forum – Custom Next/Previous links on posts — this helped me figure out a way to code the POST navigation to similarly match the previously mentioned page navigation menus

Back-end:

• Smashing Magazine – 10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress
• All in One SEO Pack
• Google Analytics for WordPress
• WordPress.com Stats
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade
• WP Dojox Syntax Highlighter
• WP Super Cache

Extremely Helpful Sites for Web Designing

These sites I kept coming back to multiple times during designing and development. A lot of these offer great tutorials and overall advice about best practices and trends for the latest web designs. THANKS for having such abundant information up on your sites for others to learn from! :D

• Smashing Magazine – http://smashingmagazine.com/
• A List Apart – http://www.alistapart.com/
• WP Designer – http://www.wpdesigner.com/
• Blog Design Blog – http://www.blogdesignblog.com.
• Vandelay Design – http://vandelaydesign.com/
• w3schools – http://www.w3schools.com/
• Color Scheme Designer – http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Let me know what y’all think!! :D

Per my previous post, I started an email thread with some of my former colleagues yesterday, the day after we all got laid off, so that we could keep in contact with each other, while also pooling our unemployment resources and knowledge together. Here are some things we’ve done and discussed:

1. File for Unemployment IMMEDIATELY

CA Unemployment Webpage: http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/default.htm

Per batz’s suggestion, it’s important to file for unemployment immediately because it may take a while to process. This takes at least 30 minutes, and wasn’t too difficult to understand/fill out.

Former part-timers: YES, you are eligible for unemployment insurance and you should file ASAP.

One of the questions I got kinda stuck on: Question 33d about the “Wages Earned” for my previous positions. I found my answer here. Since Embark pays out twice a month, I wasn’t sure whether to calculate per week or month. As long as the numbers match, I don’t think it makes a difference.

2. Finding Insurance Coverage

This is different for everyone. So far, it seems like COBRA is extremely expensive for us to afford (I’ve heard that it would be around $300/month for some folks to continue our previous insurance coverage).

One of us was able to find a “temporary” insurance for now with Blue Shield:

Blue Shield was pretty good to me on insurance. I got a plan that has a moderate deductible and high coinsurance BUT allows a few Doctor visits a year for a small copay. Perfect for those without major health ailments in case you want to go to the doctor every so often and be covered in case of an accident. I got Value 900 plan (and the fact that you already HAVE insurance via Embark currently for 2 more days through them could help you get accepted).

Also, regarding paying cash for medical visits:

As for purchasing individual insurance, in my personal experience it actually turns out cheaper to pay cash. Many medical providers have substantial discounts for cash patients.
For instance, [this clinic has] this plan: http://marinermedical.com/vip.htm
There is also this place, although I have never dealt with them: http://www.quickhealth.com/faq.htm

When I was a part-timer, btw, I had insurance with Blue Cross/Shield(?) that was the minimal life insurance that would pay for any emergency hospital fees, but it didn’t include coverage for any doctor visits or medication. That was $62/mo for me, but I’m unsure of the pricing for the plan anymore these days. Also, my dad was able to find this via an agent, so I’m unsure if this is a publicly available plan somewhere.

For the ladies: I was concerned about birth control coverage and someone suggested:

If you go to a free clinic and when filling out the paperwork you just have to indicate that you would like to keep your files confidential and so you would qualify for Health Access Program card. Basically this would cover your prescription costs since the state would pay for it all.

Also regarding birth control coverage: I was talking to another friend regarding birthcontrol coverage, and she reminded me about Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org. Planned Parenthood is all about providing services to uninsured folks, or at lower prices. (I think I’m gonna find general insurance coverage, and then go to Planned Parenthood for the extra stuff.)

Edit (02/02/09): It is BEST to apply for new insurance so that there are no breaks in-between; applying for continuous insurance coverage may be key to even getting the coverage. Per Scott’s comment below:

If you have any long term conditions that you may need treatment for in the future (and have received treatment for in the past) you should NEVER allow any gaps in insurance. i.e. do not rely on paying cash for medical visits.

If you are ever uninsured for a period however brief, when you apply for insurance in the future, the insurance companies are able to label some things as pre-existing conditions, meaning they will not cover them. They cannot do that if you have continuous coverage.

3. Figuring Out the Severance Package

(Former Part-Timers: we did not get severance packages)

I’ve read this all over the place, and this seems to be one of those huge things to really consider and think through before signing anything.

If you have not seen a separation agreement before, I urge you to read it carefully. There are important rights you are giving up if you sign it. It is very beneficial to Embark for you to sign, thus you should be properly compensated for that. You have 21 days by law to consider your agreement and 7 days AFTER you sign it to re-consider.

A bunch of folks are pooling resources together to visit a labor attorney to help navigate through the separation/severance packages. Former colleagues, if you’re interested in joining us, PLEASE let us know. It will cost a nominal amount if we’re a group.

* Article: Employment Separation Agreements: Should I Take the Bribe to Sign My Employment Separation Agreement?

4. Saving Money

To try to save/make some money, I’ve been researching which have the best interest rate return and found this site: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/online-savings-accounts-and-comparisons

I’m planning to open a savings account with ETRADE for their current 3.01% APY rate, plus they seem to have pretty good reviews. As advised by former colleague:

I use etrade for my savings. Great rate, total liquidity, thumbs up. Only downer is if you need money fast, it takes a few days to transfer out of etrade to your bank (which could be helpful actually for impulsive shopping trips or drunk nights). – so you need to plan ahead of time when you need the money.

Response from another:

Another high interest bank is INGDirect.com – been using them for checking, savings, AND my mortgage… been very happy with their service and rates. They don’t beat ETRADE’s current saving’s account rate though – but have no minimums – and if you’re looking for a high interest checking account, you can’t go wrong with them.

Let me know if anyone’s interested and I can send you a referral email – you’ll get $25 for free for opening an account of at least $250 and I’ll score $10 for referring you.

BTW – having internet banks, while great for interest rates, is not that practical – especially if you need to write out checks (ing only has echecks) or make a bank deposit. I still keep a local free bank account open to work with them for deposits at times that I just later move into my higher interest rate internet bank via their website.

This was helpful for me in deciding.

5. Finding a Job

NETWORK!

* Here’s my LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/estellatse If you’re not sure what LinkedIn is, I recommend it–it’s like a social network site but with your resume, connecting to people you’ve worked with before. People can write recommendations for you there, and it’s otherwise a good resource to see if you know people who know people in places you want to work at.

* Find job fairs in your area – Anyone have a link I can provide here?

* Going to school? Try checking the student center to see if there’s any employment opportunities there that are right for you.

Edit (02/02/09): Sites I learned about from the She’s Geeky event on 01/31/09:

* http://novaworks.org/ — might be geared more towards the Silicon Valley area. Some lady at the session kept stressing this site.

* http://www.indeed.com/ — this apparently searches for results on all the Craigslist, Monster, etc etc. sites AND on the companies’ own job pages. This sounded skeptical to me, that a job search engine would be able to pick up the content from the employers’ sites. It seems like it does (or it just links to their jobs pages). Either way, doesn’t hurt to help searching on this, imo.

* http://startuply.com/ — directory of startup companies, if this is where you want to be.

(More of my commentary about what to do while you’re job-hunting per my comment below: VOLUNTEER!)

6. Interesting and Links I Found Useful

* What to do if you are laid off…
* Got Laid Off? What To Do When You Lose Your Job
* Laid-Off 101: What to do once you’ve been handed a pink slip

* Jobs in a Recession Survey Results 1: Recent Hires Got Jobs Via Referral from Friends, Colleagues, Alumni, or Family
* New Legislative Efforts to Aid Unemployed Californians

Events:
* She’s Geeky: http://shesgeeky.org/
January 30-31, 2009 in Mountain View
Check the website to find out more info about this. Geeky tech women! w00t!

* Peninsula Job Fair – (Gov’t Jobs?) http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/gov/1011802508.html
February 3, 2009: 10am – 3pm
Please see link for more info.

* LaidOffCampSF: http://laidoffcamp.com/
Tue, March 3 in SF
LaidOffCampSF is like BarCamp, where basically a bunch of people get together and talk and gather together to talk about topics/sessions that are created that morning. It’s like a day-conference where the attendees create the agenda and topics that they want for the day.

Phew! Hopefully I was able to capture most everything we discussed in the thread. PLEASE continue the thread via comments here–I think it would be helpful not just for us, but for any visitors during this downtime to use this info too. (Also, this is easier than adding people to the email thread, kakaka)

If comment thread goes well, I’ll keep the above updated!

Goodluck and THANKS everyone for all your help! <3

(Boring. Not many pics this year.)

2008… (the factual stuff)

Where did you ring in 2008?
Sacramento at Peacock’s place! We almost missed the New Year’s mark because we were playing the Every-Time-Estella-and-Eugenia-Laugh-During-Lemony-Snicket’s-Series-of-Unfortunate-Events Drinking Game. We had a ton of orange Cuties to eat. The infamous Family Portrait (below). Left over Carl’s Jr. chicken sandwiches. THE EPIPHANY.

The Epiphany

Family Portrait

Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions?
- Buy a 1 tb harddrive — DONE!
- Possibly renetwork the silly setup in our house — NOT COMPLETE (I don’t think I really considered this thru the year)
- Start writing stuff down again — DONE!
- Get back to 110lbs — NOT COMPLETE (At least I’m the same weightish as I was last year! And the back dimples make an appearance every so often)

How did you earn your keep?
Web developer @ Embark
Operations Analyst @ Embark

Did you move anywhere?
Not officially. Spent most of my weekends in San Jose or now back in Oakland with Brent.

Where did you go on vacation?
Vegas, LA, Lake Tahoe, and Hawaii!

Describe your birthday:
Went to Buca for dinner with mostly Embark folks, and went to Fenton’s afterwards for dessert.

My bday was on a Wednesday and I took my 2 floating holidays the following days to get an awesome 4-day weekend! Went to Academy of Science, Brent made sushi, and went to a winter oyster BBQ with Brent’s friends.

What did you do for Christmas ’08?
I decided to skip out on the trip to Las Vegas with my mom and Conrad (to meet up with our Toronto friends–Chan family) because I was sick and so I could spend more time working on my website revamp. I got a LOT done being home by myself, though I realized how much more was needed.

Norvelle came over for a pity visit. *shaking fist*

What sporting events did you go to?
Probably none. Wellll, actually… Flag Football with Embark’s T^2 counts! I think I went to 1 Warrior’s game too, to see my fav player: Steve Mullins!!

What concerts did you go to?
- Ozma – May 19, 2008 @ Bottom of the Hill
- Weezer – October 13, 2008 @ SJSU Arena

What was the best thing you bought in ’08?
I’ll go with practicality… Either the new digicam SD1100 since my old SD400 broke, or the new Inspiron 1525 laptop (tho this is still kind of new and I’m still getting used to it.)

Where did you spend most of your money?
Food, and the September Hawaii trip. And probably a lot of electronics/gift-type things. Wow.

What did you purchase that was over $500?
New laptop, Hawaii plane tix, etc.

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Yes! I went back to school!! Took Beginning and Intermediate Figure Drawing classes at Laney! Suuuucchhh a great move for me!

Favorite TV program of ’08?
LOST, of course. I don’t really watch anything else. Although Ace of Cakes is a pretty awesome show to watch!

What was the best book you read and/or movie you saw?
I didn’t read much this year :( No specific movies come to mind, though I’ve started watching more, since I now manage Brent’s Netflix queue.

2008… (people)

Did you know anybody who got married?
Janelle! What a funnnn wedding! And Brent’s friend Danny!

Any new additions to your family?
Uncle Darryl had a daughter!

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Taylor and Vicki got Karli!

Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yee-goong (Leland Dea)

Did you fall in love in 2008?
Same as last year’s response: Always. There’s ALWAYS something to fall in love with.

Did you get your heart broken in 2008?
No.

Do you hate anyone now that you didnt hate this time last year?
Yes. But solely due to work’s relationships with schools. (e.g. PSU, Harvard, Oxford)

Who was the best new person you met?
Brent’s crew is really awesome. I don’t think I’ve met many new people this year other than folks at work, though. I didn’t get out much this year ^_^

Who did you wish you did not meet?
No one in particular.

Who was your best friend?
Eugeniaman, Norvelle, Pean, Brent, Christine

Who was your enemy?
Ehh…. *shrug*

Who do you miss?
Pohpoh.

2008… (the stuff that requires more thinking)

Are you happier than this time last year?
Uncertain. I’m happier in a sense that I feel a lot more settled and professionally accomplished. I feel more mature and that I’ve learned a lot. I know more now about what I want. (Does that count as happy??) I feel much more accomplished, and that I’ve definitely come a long way, for sure.

What song will remind you of 2008?
Nothing in particular.

What’s the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
- Drink only “girly” drinks. Not drink.
- Go on a LOST-fanatic trip around Hawaii
- Become so involved in work that my social life had to get put on hold.
- Be able to find someone that I can connect with on SO many levels; and to be okay with seeing him just about every day.
- Revert back to the “their always together” status–which I don’t seem to mind!

What is one thing you regretted this year?
Hmmm… nothing in particular comes to mind. I’m pretty content with 2008 and where I’ve come along the way.

What’s something you learned about yourself?
- Not everything’s as black and white as they used to be.
- You never know until you’re put into the situation.
- Always follow your heart. “It may hurt, but when you look back at it in the future, you’ll always know that you’ve done what YOU wanted and not what someone else wanted.”
- I should have got more into art a long time ago.
- I’m not perfect; I don’t have the best attitude; I’m not immune to selfishness. But… these are the things that I am, and I can learn to give and take, and it’s comforting to know that he knows that, and that he’s still willing to overlook all that. I’ve learned a lot from that, and how I should be as forgiving and understanding. This is feeling of mutual understanding in conjunction to all we have in common with and for each other is worth it all.

What was your best month?
September: Hawaii trip. That one week made up for the troubles and stress of the rest of the month. It was a big epiphany moment for me, too, to take the time off and figure out what the heck I’m doing with my life.

Best decision made all year?
One of the biggest decisions I’ve had to make before.

What will you remember 2008 by?
Hell months and the amount I’ve learned; finding my own management style; Brent.

Will any date from 2008 stay etched in your memory forever?
Septemberish – The Hawaii trip.

What was your biggest achievement of 2008?
Being able to handle the Leads position; managing a team of 7.

What was your biggest failure?
Not hanging out with my friends enough.

Did your behavior change over the year?
Yes. I’m totally more of a hermit and a grandma now. Please find me in my peaceful underground dwelling.

What do you wish you would have done more of?
Exercise; more activism; see my friends more; get more of my site updated.

What do you wish you would have done less of?
Nothing.

What was your greatest discovery?
For some reason, I have a new addiction for any type of sushi, sparked by just plain ol’ California Rolls. Not sure why this happened so late since I’ve been eating sushi my whole life. Very bizarre.

Also discovered the BEAUTY of Kauai, Hawaii!!

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I knew I was healthy. hahaha
Also if I got my revamp up :~(

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Part of growing up is knowing WHEN to make decisions. Sometimes you have to take the opportunity available to you even though you’re not ready, or even if you’re not sure if you even want to take the leap. The key really is to follow your heart, to know that your decision is truly the best thing you can do for yourself, and that it’s the truthful choice for you. People may get hurt, but you just have to be honest with the parties involved and especially yourself.

Another lesson learned is that bad things happen, and they will KEEP getting worse and worse. But they’ll always get better; there’s always a pay-off. It was important for me to keep this in mind in order to pull out of the tough times. “Everything will be okay in the end. If things aren’t okay right now, it’s not the end.”

What will you always remember about 2008?
Learning to live independently while “living at home”; the lessons I’ve learned.

The New Year…

What are you doing to ring in 2009?
Went to Liz’s place in Sac (why the heck did she invite us over???)

Any resolutions?
- Be healthier
- Save more money, including: money hunting (finding best bank rates and such), budgeting my monthly expenses, making financial milestone goals
- Find an art-related job
- Not be a coward when it comes to art and activism
- Continue organizing all my archived photos on Terry
- Move out

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
An artish job.

What do you want to do in ’09 that you couldn’t in ’08?
Budget.

Anything you want to change about yourself for 2009?
Hmmm… haven’t figured it out yet.

Own Notes

Since it always happens, favorite passing-out/drinking experience:
- Most eventful: Getting x10 wasted at Janelle’s bachelorette party in Vegas, passing out to have Paul wake me up, and then getting kicked out of Palms, wahah
- The standard: I totally didn’t drink that much at all this year.
- The comeback: Playground for Gilbert’s bday; 6 soju shots; sleeping crew. wahah

Favorite Embark Moment:
Undecided.. it was the culmination of moments. Some good ones: Embark Prom, BBQs at Shults-Foster Manor, All the good times in the Leads chatroom!

Favorite Brent Moment:
- Most memorable: the whole Hawaii trip + all the LOST touring!
- Epitome of us: Tie between 1) chanting “Sushi House! Sushi House!” at 8:30AM like 3 year olds in bed. (Then going to Sushi House at their opening hour.); 2) 2AM Taco Bell run to eat in bed.

- Most delicious (local): Harris’ Steakhouse!
- Most delicious (travel): Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant
- Most delicious (homemade): Suuuuushiiii!!!

Restaurant of the Year:
The truck. hahahahha

Highlights of 2008:
- Embark Holiday Party (Face-Your-Fear CLASSIC!)
- Ugly Sweater Party!
- Man’s Bday: Everett & Jones + Fenton’s + couchcouchcouchcouchcouch!
- T^2 games!
- LOTS of E&C!
- Caden visits!
- 90′s Game nights
- Lots of trips to San Jose
- Nancy’s Bday (stupid UCLA shot!!)
- AWESOME LOST season 4!!
- Roadtrip to LA and up the CA coast :DD
- Embark Prom!
- Brentwood (Nectarine Pick Your Nose!)
- CA Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage
- Janelle’s Bachelorette Bday
- Shults-Foster Manor!
- SARS-Bikini Spam party!
- Janelle + Ryan’s wedding
- TECHKARAOKE SF!
- Brent’s surgery
- August Tahoe trip! Soooo fun!
- Banned! the Band practice
- VHS Night
- Hawaaaiiiii!!
- BFF’s Bday in Vegas
- Prop 8 Protests
- Karli’s born!
- 24th bday at Buca’s + Fenton’s
- Academy of Science!
- Meeting Phyllis Lyon @ GSA Network’s YES Summit
- New Years @ Sac!

Happy new year, all. Have fun, and be safe <3