Written by lainie at 01:37 AM on September 26, 2008 in Daily Life.

Zomgs, it's good to be home.

I've been out the past few days, mostly coming back to shower and leave catfood in the bowl before heading out again. Invitation cards, business cards, letterheads, posters and tshirts to send for production!

I ate just one piece of muruku today, cause I kept thinkin I'm about to run out for food, then I'd forget and end up working. And I usually don't want to stop as long as my laptop doesn't conk out - which is frequent, but today it's been freakishly cooperative. I'm typing gently like I expect it to explode.......(I kinda do expect smoke). 

I need to get some additional illustrations done, coloured and emailed by tomorrow, cause....deng deng deng! I went for a job interview! They're looking for an in-house graphic designer, mostly someone who can illustrate, generate advertisments and do basic webdesign.

I have to draw something they requested as part of the application, which I think is fair. I can handle a few illo styles, but if tak ngam what they're lookin for, then tak ngam la. I hope it's okay though :S.

This job looks fun, and what I find significant is that I like a lot of their company policies - it's pretty much the reason I applied there over some other available options. An example: I learned during the interview that they officially recognise all forms of relationships - so if I were to have a commitment ceremony, my (presumably female) partner and I will share the same medical benefits as a wedded male-female couple.

While I can't envision myself hooked up that way, I like that they recognise it. I'm quite openly gay, and I've managed to work in some very safe spaces so far - yknow, all those artsy fartsy (and slightly tarty) arts scene stuff.

I don't even want to talk about what I'm writing now for rent, but want to see how far I can vomit lightning if it was drawing stuff? I think that'd kill me...illustrating how homosexuality is a Western vice (an opinion I encountered last week), or working with people who use patriarchy as an example of gender equality (at a meeting this month):

Guy: I mean, look at the cigarette girls! They do fine within patriarchy! They know how to work the system! They make money.

Lainie: *puts fork down*.

At that moment, I had no idea where to begin. I was thinking of power, definitions, heterosexist norms, access, Jemufo having an aneurysm, glass ceilings, the gaze, my friends who are cigarette girls, etc etc etc etc - but mostly, I was thinking "ARE YOU KIDDING???? Do you have ANY idea what that word means??". 

I actually had a lot of things I needed to do after the meeting that night. Twas supposed to be a quick drink. Then I took a look at him, beaming with pride that he had spotted a huge flaw in feminism - "no one needs it anymore because women benefit off patriarchy".

Lainie: Okay. I say they're a product of the system, and that we sit down and have a very long talk.

And so we did. Till past 3am. It didn't get very far, but I think we managed to agree on a few things. Kinda. Like.... like.....never mind. I can't remember anything positive, the blast of misogyny is a bit overwhelming in the memories.

Okay, so sometimes freelancing rocks, and sometimes it's more trying. Can you SEE why I'm reluctant about a steady job? I like my flexi hours (which this job offers), and if I have to deal with constant stupidity from colleagues I can't fire, I'd eventually take to bitching nonstop everyday. 

You could say I don't know everyone who works at this place I've applied to, but I have a fair bit of faith that if I work there, I will have good people I can learn from around me.

The downside is, I am sorely in need of a new laptop, but cannot afford both laptop and legitimate software (bloody hell, I don't thnk I can afford even just the software?). If I work here, I'll need to go legit because I get a monthly laptop allowance, and I'm expected to bring my laptop in for work. So if I berpirate-pirate (Ahoy me hearties! Arr!), some people could kena unnecessary crap over my booty la - if it helps, I know my lack of willpower for bad puns is tragic.

I enquired, to get the entire design premium suite that allows me to handle animation, print, photo editing and illustration (ie: Adobe), it'll cost RM7000. Just for the software T____T. I reckon their laptop allowance is calculated to essentially pay for a laptop that could handle word processing, not graphics. Graphic designers need desktops for the processing power, but if a laptop is absolutely necessary (which it is, in my case), we usually need the powerful ones just to handle the heavy applications.

I'm a power user, definitely. This is the 4th laptop I'm busting through, in 4 years. :/ So what're the other software options? Buying second hand, or a license from resellers (although at bloody RM6869, I'm not sure what the point is).

As much as I love trawling Sourceforge to see what's new, or trying out "cheap" software - GIMP can't do half the stuff I use Photoshop for, and Xara (which I once used) doesn't focus on the features that are the reasons I use Illustrator..

GIMP had photo stitching way before Photoshop CS2 did (and twas horible too, before they moved onto CS3), and Xara had vector generated bitmap tracing long before Illustrator, to say nothing of their vector-art-on-crack interface, but the Adobe suite does everything I need , and there's the certainty that versions of insanely popular plug-ins for open source stuff will eventually make their way to Adobe as well. It doesn't always work vice versa.

Hrm. I'm thinking too much. Or rather, I'm too hungry to be thinking at all. I thought I had a fever, so I took some meds - till I realised (or rather, it was pointed out) it's actually low sugar levels causing a headache :/. And I'm quite pansy today, I'm totally feeling the medication. Think I'd better sleep now and draw tomorrow - last part of the "interview"?.

 I liked how the interview went, btw, very chillax. 

I've never been for a job interview, yknow? I'm so used to people just giving me jobs, this is weird. Right before I went to sleep, Smile was asking all these weird demanding questions along the lines of WHADDYA MEAN, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WORK YOU'VE DONE?? WHADDYA THINK?? THEY'RE INTERVIEWING YOU!! I stayed up an extra hour trying to get a list of work I've done, snippets I might need....Arranged for Smile to give me a wake up call.

I slept through her wake up call (or rather, I talked through it and zonked back to sleep the moment she hung up). I think Chen is familiar with this trait of mine. But! I woke up by myself, with plenty of time ahead! Cause I was excited! Hah. I can be quite a nerd. My first job interview! 

I had such an adrenaline rush, in the few minutes I was home (showered, fed the cat) after the interview, I swept the floors AND tidied up the living room a lil, before meeting Chitoo. Our film editing got postponed again .