Illustration. It isn’t a thing where I’m at, and settled for graphic design (which is still barely a thing here). After graduation I applied for scholarships abroad, and got accepted on a full ride in a private university in Hamburg for illustration.

Weeks before I was supposed to leave I got cold feet and looked up all the info I could about the university. Turns out it’s a scam, the degree’s worth fuck all, and the university seemed to have this MO of recruiting aspiring legal migrants from third world countries (like myself) into its curriculum, voiding their scholarship, offering shit education, and charging exorbitant rates until they leave or graduate.

I was despondent for months since this seemed to be my big break after a pretty tough few months. Then AI image generation took off.

I’m okay at illustrating characters, but it’s immediately obvious I’ve learnt by myself and have done very little diligent study on the topic. My inexperience, how prevalent AI images are, and the uphill battle that gaining clients is, are keeping me away from trying again.

Yeah, I’m multilingual from a hispanic country, and due to job experience and the media I consume I’ve ended up with a real mess of both accent and lexicon. Nowadays, most of my english and italian interactions are limited to online gaming, and half the time people catch on to my accent, and guess I’m either quebecois, german, or french, despite not being fluent in any of those or ever spending more than a week in any of those countries.

In day to day life, I mix all three (spanish, english, and italian), using the first word that comes to mind. It feels really jarring trying to convey a complete idea in just spanish, and end up translating foreign words in my head. It’s faster for me now to communicate in english than it is in spanish.

That’s about it. Clients often have an idea of what they want, inspired by stuff they’ve seen already. It’s just safer to request stuff that already works than innovate. So designers might have more interesting and readable ideas but they end up doing what the client wants anyway. Good way to see this is designer’s online portfolios.

A good client provides some guidance but offers a fair amount of freedom in regards to exploration, the average client has an idea of what they want already, and the worst kind of client tells you what they want from the go (because most often it just won’t work).

I see your point, but… I don’t know. Nowadays, attention is a prime commodity. The easier something is to consume, the more people it will reach. And while that doesn’t matter as much in entertainment media, it has to be considered when designing for more important topics. Thus, media has to be designed to be read efficiently.

I don’t love how media is designed nowadays, precisely because it is monotonous and boring often, but I don’t long for the days when I had to look an entire page over for the bit of information I’m after. A balance can be struck through clear layout design and following trends that respect hierarchy. Maximalism does neither.

Though, I feel like I have to differentiate artistic media from informative media. Art can go bonkers, in fact art should challenge established tropes, but design should prioritize function over form, keeping in mind there is some room for aesthetics in there.

Again, I’m approaching this from an efficiency and ease of use point of view.

I’m a graphic designer, so maximalism and antidesign. It’s taking a bit to become more than just a trend, but it’s getting there. I understand minimalism is getting stale, but the answer is not going for something hard to read. Even with proper hierarchy the sheer clash of colors, sizes, etc., will lead to a jumbled mess. Form follows function to make life easier.

A balance must be struck between maximalism and minimalism.

Running through the most golden wheat field I could’ve ever imagined (I swear I’m not a british PM), on the side of a hill that went on to the horizon. Behind me, hauling ass, was the mystery machine with no driver. On top of the mystery machine was Cliff Burton, Bo Bonham, and Jimi Hendrix playing purple haze. I woke up as I stopped running and just started floating.

Either that, or the time I dreamt I accidentally killed a romantic partner in my sleep in a huge hotel that looked like something out of Brazil. As I woke up (in the dream), the bed was covered in blood and the police was banging on my door. I pushed an armoire into the door frame, broke a window, and jumped out. Then I woke up.

Wdym, all landlords are already leeches!

In addition to what others have said, I’d recommend two things:

1. Deliberately understalt food. You can always add more salt on the table, you can’t take salt away.

2. Prep compound butter beforehand with someone helping you taste. Grab roasted garlic (2-3 heads), red wine vinegar (a couple drops), 400g of good quality butter with no added ingredients (eg avoid garlic butter bars), handful of fresh chopped thyme and rosemary, and bit of pepper and salt (same thing as before, underseason). This will give you an already prepped flavour bomb to add to savoury foods. I usually add a couple bones’ worth of marrow as well, and the resulting butter goes well with any meat (non-fish), vegetables, bread, even plain rice.

Puuure pazaak

To add to the film thing: if travelling with film, keep it in carry-on bags and ask for hand checks. Film gets exposed by the radiation from machines at checkpoints; the higher the ASA, the more it’ll get ruined. 400+ will for sure be destroyed by a scan or two.

I ruined 4 rolls of the best street photography I’ve ever done from a trip to chicago because I didn’t know about it.

Reading, honestly. Though I don’t read on my phone, too many distractions. I read whenever I’m out and about and waiting, which isn’t much these days.

Not OP, but the community used to be so much better before. Game is fun, begun playing it on launch, but quit about three years ago because the people that play it are pretty toxic nowadays. Also, can’t trade stuff now. Some people really enjoyed that aspect of the game (not me, but still). A shame there isn’t anything else like it.

In december last year I had to put down my 15y/o dog, named Santino. He was a little stupid and couldn’t keep still, so I named him after the guy from The Godfather (a bit grim I know). I also have two cats, a three color grump called Hollie (named after Billie Holiday) and a tuxedo lovable fuzzball called Louie (named after Louie Armstrong).

Edit: Oh, I almost forgot. I also had a kitten (who died of complications from being weaned off too early) called Curie.

Lol, that’s what I tell my friends when they inquire about sustenance storage in my beard.

RE: the centre stache thing, yeah. The bit isn’t a problem because that part I do trim meticulously. The sides are though, but those achieve the look. The problem is those hairs don’t grow outwards in an imperial fashion, but inwards. Think the guy with the beret from myth busters.

For the last three years I’ve let my hair grow out and donate it once its about 15in long. My hair is probably 2c if I let it air dry. It was annoying but I learnt to live with it by tying the sides of my hair back and tucking my crown’s hair underneath the tie. Some strands will sneak out eventually but it’s manageable.

However, what I have not found a solution for is my moustache. I like to have my moustache grown out, Tsar Nicholas style, but eating anything is a chore. Sandwiches, burgers, and pizze mean I’m munching on my own stache and pulling some hair out, soups and stews mean I’ll be patting dry the contours of my mouth down to my chin. The only things I can eat comfortably are things I can skewer with a fork. Really puts on a damper on my hair game since I have to trim it a lot for it not to be a bother.

Agreed. I’ve tried Ramsay and Oliver’s recipes and they always end up just a bit bland. Their technique is great and all and is a valuable learning resource for technique and some general principles, but the flavour is not all there.

Jacques Pepin however is great all around.

Pretty much, lol

Oh I needed it for college. I was impatient and pushed myself too hard during my last 2 years, some weeks I slept fewer than 10 hours collectively.

I’ve since cut it almost entirely, and because of that my usual cup gives me the jitters. I still love coffee and would like nothing more than having one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but my body can’t take it anymore (nor can my mental health honestly). Aging sucks, lol.

Coffee. I used to be a coffee fiend, I drank up to 12-13 cups a day, and only stopped because it was worsening my anxiety. I live in a coffee producing country and learnt how to make a good cup in an espresso machine, even got all the doodads to make the process standardized and get the exact same cup every time.

I can only drink coffee made by select hands now. Everything else tastes like jet fuel, and it’s worse when travelling.

Leftovers. Making sandwiches/tacos with leftover pork and chicken makes the 25th and 26th the two best days of the year, honestly.