Zine: After the connection breaks
This is a little story about telepathy...or something like it.
Zine: What I learned from studying abroad
Zine: How to spot a time traveler
A handy little zine for how to identify potential time travelers.
To make the background for this zine, I started with white cardstock paper. I used distress oxide inks (3 shades of blue) and blended them on the paper with a sponge applicator. This ink reacts with water, so I used a gear stencil and traced the gear shapes with a brush and plain water. That's what made the sort of ghost-looking gears. I used watercolor brush pens with the stencil to create the darker blue and purple gears. The blue and orange clock faces (most of the cover page and the clock faces on the inside pages) are scrapbook paper that I happened to have and fit perfectly. :)
Zine: So You Met Your Doppelgänger
“So You Met Your Doppelgänger” is a hand-drawn mini zine printed on an 8.5"x 11" sheet of paper and hand-folded. The finished zine is 8 pages and approximately 4.25 inches x 2.75 inches.
This fictional zine is a handy guide for what to do when you meet your doppelgänger (whether they’re a clone, from an alternate universe, or a time traveler).
This is my most popular zine! You can read it below. Physical copies are available to purchase on Etsy.
Zine: Music Discovery Without An App
My inspiration for this zine came from my freshman year of college. The women who lived in the dorm next to me were both radio DJs and often had music blasting in their room. I didn’t mind—they had great taste!—and I found lots of songs I like through them.
The idea of finding music you like through people around you expanded into the pages of this zine.
I tried something new for me—monochrome. Only gray and black pens and markers in this zine. I like how it turned out.
Escape the Zine
I made an escape room zine! Check out the puzzles below. If you try solving them and have questions or want to check answers, please send me an email.
Happy puzzling!
Bullet Journal: Evolution of my monthly log
I use my bullet journal for personal writing and notes (nothing work-related), so I don’t have much that needs to be tracked on a daily basis.
A couple years ago, I started tracking how I spent my spare time. More specifically, days I spent consuming media vs. working on creative hobbies and side projects. I played with a few different formats and settled on this one, back in May 2018:
My first monthly log
It’s similar to the monthly log in the official bullet journal method, but I added columns to track activities for media consumption (pictured in the yellow columns above) and creative work (pictured in the blue columns). I also had a column for "social", which was any time I spent hanging out with family or friends. My "other" column served as a catchall for everything else, like chores or errands. And there was space for brief notes for each day.
I liked this format, but the blue columns were mostly empty month after month. That's because I cycle through what kind of creative projects I work on. For example, I'm rarely drawing and writing at the same time. It's typically one, and then the other. And I have times where I'm not working on any creative projects at all, for whatever reason.
Also, it didn't really matter to me what kind of media consumption I spent time on (reading, writing, or listening). Having separate columns for those didn't help me.
So, I simplified.
A simpler monthly log
A few iterations later, this is what my monthly log looked like:
Fewer columns. I had three, plus a section for notes.
CBA = Creative Bank Account
The first column is for "Creative Bank Account." This is an idea from Jake Parker (see his overview video). To summarize his video:
- To produce art, you need to build up a “bank account” of inspiration
- This could be movies, books, TV shows, music, live performances, museum visits, hobbies...anything that inspires you or teaches you
- Inspiration doesn't have to be related to what you're producing
- When you aren't feeling inspired to produce art, it might be because your bank account is "low." So, that means you need to make a "deposit"--surround yourself with inspiration to build up your creative bank account again
I marked this box when I spent time making "deposits" into my creative bank account. What were 3 yellow columns the year before were condensed to one column.
CO = Creative Output
The second column is for "Creative Output." This is for time I spent working on a creative project. That could be drawing, writing, or making something. And it included practice time; not only finished work. The blue columns from the year before were now condensed to one column.
The asterisk
The asterisk (*) column served as my catchall. I marked this for social events or running errands. Anything that was not CBA or CO.
I liked the simpler layout. At the end of the month, I could see at a glance where I spent my time when it came to creative work.
This format served me well, but I noticed a trend over time. I marked the CBA and asterisk columns every day. The CO column was the only one that varied.
I didn't need to have columns for things that happen every day. That didn't help me see a pattern. So I simplified the log even further.
Simpler still
Starting in May 2020, this is what my monthly log looks like:
One column to track CO, and then space for brief notes each day. And that's it.
Besides being quick and easy to fill out the log every day, this simplified format is also easy to draw. Fewer columns, fewer lines, means a faster setup every month.
I like looking for ways to simplify my journal. The less time I spend on layouts and formatting, the more time I have for writing and working on projects.
Are there things you like to track monthly? How do you go about it? Please let me know in the comments, or send me a message.
Localized: A short story about living abroad
I was organizing some old files and found a short story I wrote in 2009 while studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I thought I had posted it here at some point, but no, I hadn't. Now seems like a good a time as any. So, here it is.
Every Wednesday between classes, I have two hours to kill. Two hours to be productive by reading a long article in Spanish about magical realism and the writers who best exemplify the movement. Two hours to drink tea (I don’t like coffee and it’s terrible here anyway) or watch the news on TV (la presidente is visiting Chile this week, the highlights of yesterday’s fútbol game). Two hours to pretend to be a local while I sit in this café.
This is routine for me now. After Art History, I take the B-line two stops east to the “microcentro,” the business and theater district of Buenos Aires. It’s not actually in the center of the city. It’s more northeast, but that’s how it is in Buenos Aires—people say things they don’t mean.
I come to this café every Wednesday morning at 10:30, give or take a few minutes. The menu here is huge, physically and in terms of options for breakfast and lunch. I’m not much of a breakfast person, so I order té con leche (tea with milk) and medialunas. The tea is a British brand, nothing special, but medialunas are the best food I’ve eaten in Argentina. They’re palm-sized croissants with flaky dough and come in two varieties: plain or sweetened with a thin coat of syrup on top. Most places have only the sweetened kind, and I won’t complain about that.
The waiter comes back with a full tray. I ordered two things, right? But not even the menus here are clear on what they mean. Té con leche means I get a large mug with a saucer, a tiny pitcher of warm milk on a saucer, a small teapot of hot water on a plate, and a tiny glass of orange juice.
The first time I ordered tea in Buenos Aires, I thought it was a strange custom of mixing orange juice into your tea. But no, the locals drink the orange juice separately. A little bit of vitamin C never hurt anyone.
Medialunas come in a basket. If they’re larger ones, you get three. Smaller ones, four.
My square table that is supposed to seat two is covered with excessive glassware. I rearrange everything into an arc around me to make space for that magical realism article. The page I’m on is talking about Julio Cortázar’s use of time. He likes to jump around a lot.
I unwrap the tea bag and drop it into the teapot. I look up at the TV and see that the public bus employees are striking this afternoon. Fine, I take the subway home on Wednesdays anyway. After the tea steeps, I fill my mug halfway. The rest I fill with milk.
Some of my friends back home joke about how much sugar I put in my tea. As in, I have some tea with my sugar. That didn’t change when I switched hemispheres. Most people in Buenos Aires have too much sugar and caffeine anyway. It’s because they stay up late and wake up early. Every kiosk on every street corner has a variety of sweets and candy bars to give you a sugar boost any time of the day. The waiter probably doesn’t think anything of the three sugars I put in my tea. Either that or he’s used to it by now. I always have the same waiter.
When you walk into most shops in Buenos Aires, employees will immediately walk up to you and ask what you’re looking for. This makes sense for two reasons. One, they want to make a sale, and two, direct contact with customers reduces shoplifting.
Restaurants and cafés don’t work that way. Usually you walk in and find a table yourself. When the waiter notices you, he gives you a menu. You have to wave him over when you’re ready to order. You may take your time eating and sit for as long as you like, and then you have to get the waiter’s attention again for the bill.
Americans are used to attentive waiters so the first few times I ate out were frustrating, but I don’t mind as much anymore. The locals are better at it than I am, but I’m getting there.
Steal Like An Artist: Routine Art
This is the best advice I have read about creative work:
Be boring. (It's the only way to get work done.)It's from Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon, which is an excellent book for anyone interested in creative work. It's full of practical advice.
Most people have to practice their art for a while before they can make a living off of it, so in the mean time, they need a regular job. Austin says, get a job you can tolerate, pay your bills, and build a routine. When you have regular hours that you work, you know what time you have left, and you can carve out time to write stories, compose music, take photos, draw…whatever it is that you do.
Better yet, Austin points out that if your job doesn’t take a lot of creative energy, you’ll be happy to pour that energy into your hobbies. You take care of yourself, and you keep your mind in the right place to produce art.
This is more useful than the advice I’ve seen that focuses on craft. Other books I’ve read on writing tell me to set a daily word count goal and find a distraction-free space—which is fine, but they don’t connect creative work to the rest of your life.
Steal Like An Artist is the first book I’ve read that blends creative work with the average, day-to-day things. It’s the first time I’ve said, “Yeah, that’s something I can try today.”