The Manhawk

It's a bird! It's a plane! No...it's a manhawk. Some of you may be thinking, "Tessa, that could be a bird, but is more likely a jet fighter plane." Sorry to disappoint, but it's neither.

The manhawk is a haircut I've noticed an increasing number of men sporting. The part that gets me is most of the manhawks appear to be near or in their thirties. Are these wide spread mohawk wearing versions of Benjamin Button or just douchebag pioneers?

I can't take these haircut faux pas seriously. Now, I'm not prejudice against all mohawks. I only discriminate against the ones who strive to be taken seriously in any way, shape, or form. Look at this guy, he's thinking very hard.....with a mohawk ? I don't think so. Just give it up and shave it off, sir.

Fried Potatoes and Scrambled Eggs

It's two o'clock-ish in the afternoon and having not eaten yet today, I found myself to be ridiculously hungry. Luckily, I also found myself at home. Which means full cupboards (and what appears to be fresh groceries).

Two whole potatoes diced and fried with a side of three farm fresh scrambled eggs all washed down with a tall glass of apple juice. Ohmygod it was so delicious. Just enough salt on the potatoes I barely used any ketchup on them and the eggs were gone before I even touched the potatoes (and I really love potatoes). I believe that any time of day can serve as breakfast time. I grew up eating pancakes for breakfast regularly. Well, I hope all of you are good and jealous of my early afternoon breakfast now. Time to clean up my mess.

I make popcorn for a living

As I have mentioned before, I work at Target. For the most part my time at Target has been spent behind the counter at Food Avenue (all of you non-Target employee folk may know it as the "snack bar") making things like sandwiches, pretzels, cookies, and of course popcorn. I don't mind working over here at all. In fact, you might even say I enjoy the work I do at Food Avenue. I always enjoy working in good ole' Food Ave, almost. 

There's nothing that ruins a good Food Ave day more than a rude guest. Now, let me clarify something, I say "guest" rather than customer because thats what we're told to do at work, but I'm also going to use this to prove a point in a second. People who return a nearly half eaten pizza because it didn't look like the picture on the menu board, yell because corporate (not the person behind the counter) bumped prices up eight cents, return a salad because the chicken was cold (she watched me pull it out of the fridge), or get angry because I didn't save "your hotdog" that you didn't pay for. For some reason some of our "guests" think that just because I'm the one working behind the counter that I'm stupid and it's okay to be rude and repugnant. 

Now, as a Target employee, a "host" at Target so to speak, I am expected to treat the guest respectably and be the most helpful person in red and khaki you have ever come across. I have no problem with this whatsoever. I do, however, have a problem when these so called guests fail to behave as such. People forget that they're out in public and their peers are observing and judging the way they behave. They also forget that the world doesn't revolve around them and think it's okay to treat those helping them as less than. This doesn't just happen in food, it happens everywhere in Target, and nearly any place you go in the brilliant US of A these days. Sorry to sound like your mother, but where have we put our manners? Our common courtesy and sense of dignity? Treat others with respect and they may go out of their way to help you, treat them like a piss on nobody and they'll begrudgingly serve you with as little effort as they possibly have to. If I'm held to my position of host then the public should be required to maintain the expectations of a guest.

A Specimen of Nostalgia

Nearly a full month of summer has passed, and I know a lot of you are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, but I'm ready to get back to school. Seriously. I am so ready to be working on artwork (not the math) and growing as an artist/designer. That's what school is for me at this point, and I'm sure for anyone who is working toward a specific career/life goal they feel passionately about.

College has been the place where my pursuit to be an artist has truly began. In high school I was not presented with the opportunities to start this development. Wait, I suppose that could be considered a lie. I took two classes (8th grade art & a photoshop class as a sophomore) and served as yearbook editor (which was virtually a living hell). These three brief opportunities, especially yearbook, had a great deal to do with my choosing of graphic design as a path to follow. However, when I say I was not presented with the opportunities to begin this, it must be understood that outside of those classes there were not any other art education opportunities that I could have seized. By the time I had the liberties to choose to take an art class our art teacher had retired (he had been there since my mom was in school so kudos to him) and we simply lost our art program. It's tragic really, but you all know that's been happening for years.

Anywho, I digress. It's been a little more than one whole month since I was stressed beyond reason, working on projects til two, waking up at five or six to write a paper, and then going to class at nine to kick some typography/digital design ass with a room full of my friends and one awesome instructor. How could a person not miss that? The learning that I had the privilege of partaking in this past year was at the very least inspiring. As a class we would learn from June (our instructor), she would learn from us, and everyday I learned something new from one of my peers. The environment in which we were learning was one of the most productive that I have yet to see and be a part of. So of course I only want to get back to it. Especially since I don't have the Adobe programming on my computer that would allow me to keep working and playing with type and design this summer (super sad face).

I am somewhat nervous about getting back to this classroom, however. We'll be meeting a new instructor, an entirely new perspective and set of expectations that first day of class. I'm not too happy about this, but what do you do? Hopefully I'll be able to maintain a positive attitude and it won't be so bad. I just want to get back to creating things like my Specimen Book  (click link to view Specimen Book via Google Docs) and my social cause poster.

Change!

No this is not a post about Obama's unkept promises of change. That is a rant I'm not sure I'm ready to unleash on the interweb.

Rather, this post is just to bring to all of your attention to (hopefully you noticed already) the changes on the page. In order to improve readability I changed the background and adjusted the colors of the page (I really like blue). I also changed the page font to one of the same family, but with serifs (fonts with serifs are easier to read and more suitable for body copy).

I want to hear your feedback on this phresh (with a "p-h" ) new look. Is it easier to read? Is there something you can't read? One. Two. Three. Go!

Things My Mom Taught Me

For almost as long as I can remember I've been a tomboy. There was a time, long ago, when I wore a cute little dress to kindergarten class everyday, but then something happened. A pair of jeans entered my life. Along with some hand-me-down T-shirts (hand-me-downs are awesome by the way) and I never looked back. My barbies ended up in mud puddles in the driveway, sometimes in pieces, for days. I still have my collection of Hot Wheels. Early in high school some of the boys in my health class were scared of me in dodgeball. I would rather play Halo or Battlefield than watch One Tree Hill or whatever else it is you people watch.

Now, I did encounter adversity because of my lack of stereotypical feminine qualities. I never encountered this at home though. My brother played catch and pretend army games every chance we got, and living on the farm there isn't a whole lot of time to be a girly girl. If you happen to break a nail chances are you should have probably been wearing your leather gloves.

My mom was always very supportive of me, regardless of how girly I wasn't being. For that, I am very thankful. I don't know what kind of person I would if things had been different. Sure, my mom would get frustrated when I'd cause such a fuss about her fixing my hair. How many of you have moms who, in order to make prom a much less painful event (with the dress and all), let you pick out and order custom Chuck Taylor shoes to match your dress? I'm almost certain the answer is not many at best.

My mom never taught me how to put on make-up. Don't get me wrong, she offered and had I wanted to learn, I know she would have taught me what I needed to know. That's not something I've ever been interested in or felt that I needed. She did teach me many things: how to set irrigation tubes, how to make spaghetti sauce without cheating (aka using the can of spaghetti sauce), how to properly kill a rattle snake, how to lift hay bales (or anything heavy in general) without throwing out my back, how to throw a punch, how to be innovative, and by example how to be self-sufficient and independent even if you only have a little. I still learn things from my mom all of the time. I will be forever grateful for the things my mom has taught me.

Music Exploration

If you all haven't yet noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with music. I genuinely believe that music can serve as an equivalent to medicine. It has healing properties that prescription drugs cannot offer. It's a great place to heal and a safe place to feel. (Stole that line from Mr. Shad) We are able to relate to music in so many different ways and find so many different things within the bars of a song. Sharing music with one another is a way we share parts of ourselves, our points of view, maybe even what's important to us.

It is because of this infatuation with music that I find myself constantly on the hunt for new music. My library grows every time I come home to my lappytop. But I struggle to find "new" music that is worth listening to using itunes and such. I don't know if any of you use StumbleUpon, but I love it. StumbleUpon is a site that you can visit and register with. After registering an account you select your interests then begin stumbling. The site directs you through the web taking you to places that it believes you will find interesting or entertaining. I was stumbling one afternoon and I came across something that may just be the cure to my moody blues (60's music reference anyone?).

This brilliant innovation is TuneGlue. This is site that allows you to type in an artist in the search bar, then as that artist appears in the screen you can "expand" and it will display related artists. You can also expand upon those artists until you've got yourself a musical family tree of sorts.

I've been using this site for a week or two now and I am throughly excited with the exploration of music that the future holds. So, of course I had to share it with all of you. Just follow the link above and find some new music to love, sing to, dance to, rock out to - whatever it is you do while you listen to music.

Time to get a few things off my chest

So I've noticed that my blogging habits do not improve during the summer months. In fact it's quite the opposite. I can't say that I'm too worried about it. Regardless, this is the first I've blogged in a little while and since I've last blogged there's a few things that have been building up in my mental "rant" filing cabinet. I want to say that I have only a few things to say, but as just noted - this has all been filed under "rant." This means that the second I begin to unleash them, they grow. So buckle in.

First off, my good friend Christi and I recently (around a week ago) met up at Shari's to shoot the shit over coffee and french fries. Well into the conversation we found ourselves in a "heated" debate about Christianity. I use the quotes not because we were yelling at each other and left the restaurant hating one another, but because our perspectives lie on nearly complete opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to this issue. Now, I'm not going to get too far into the detail of the conversation (let's avoid the rant), but as somewhat of a summary I feel as though it is wrong for Christians to view themselves as better than others. Now, let me elaborate on that. For some reason, simply because these individuals hold these beliefs they find it necessary to not only pressure individuals into believing the same, but tell other individuals/groups that their decisions/beliefs are wrong because they disregard or are outside of Christianity. Who are you to say that my choice to not partake in your religious beliefs and practices are wrong? Have you actually been to the here-after? Because as far as we all know this so-called heaven could be full of atheists, agnostics, and Christians alike. Until you've actually been there and seen that I will indeed go to "hell" because of my beliefs get off of my case and stop judging. That's a sin you know. Also, a great deal of my own argument during lay in the idea that Christianity is not simply just what is written in the Bible. Ohhhohoh no. That's not how it works, you see. Is Adolf Hitler viewed as just a politician? Ghandi simply as a monk? PITA as a group who doesn't want to harm animals? Absolutely not. Each individual, group, organization in every part of the world is viewed and sized up by the rest of society based on not only their core beliefs and values, but their history, actions, followers, mistakes, accomplishments, failures, and impacts.

Moving on. As some of you fantabulous readers may know, I work at Target. At Target I have to deal with all sorts of people everyday. Sometimes directly and other times indirectly. The other day I found myself zoning (straightening out the products on shelves) by the shoes and overheard a father who was frustrated with his toddler aged daughter. She had apparently taken off her shoes and they were having difficulty getting her back into them. So what does dad say? "If you don't get your shoes on now you don't get any supper." As expected the little girl burst into tears and I could hear her all over the store for the rest of the time they were there. Now, I'm no parent and the only "parenting" experience I have is the time I spent babysitting from around age 12 to 17 or 18. And I feel like the whole situation with this dad and his little girl could have been avoided. I saw this little girl and she looked no more than three, so I can imagine all she heard her dad say was "No supper." Way to go jerk. Patience really can be a virtue. It would save you time and a headache and it spares everyone around you from the aftermath of your hastily made decisions and harsh words.

This is the last one.....I think. Friends. They come and go. You make new friends and lose old ones. Its a cycle that I have found myself caught in far too often. Sadly more on the losing end I feel like. At least that how I've been feeling recently. I hope I'm wrong in thinking this, but recently something happened (I still don't know what) and in short I may have lost a very close friend. I've been in this exact position before, so this isn't alien territory. It's definitely shitty territory though. I seriously don't know what to do. And when I say that, not only am I at a loss of what to do as to how to reach this friend and effectively communicate with them, but I'm also unsure of what I would say or do if this whole situation were to get better. This is a slightly different note, but all in the same rant file, it's my belief that you can't be fickle when it comes to friendship. You either are or aren't friends. And when it comes to that friendship you can't just flick it on and off when it suits you like the air conditioner. I'm frustrated and maybe even angry, but most of all I'm sad. I like to think that I'm a good friend to those that I call my friends. To lose one of those people to (insert silly drama here) really freaking sucks for lack of a better term. I miss them.