That is all.

Source

Source

Work/Jobs
So I’ve been working at my job for a little over a year now, and I’m starting to get an idea of how things work. The people who I’m closest to are on the Creative Team with me. I’ve talked to each of them at least once, and I’m starting to get a feel on their personalities and interests, and I’m also getting a feeling about their favorability of certain people, and I must say, I’ve felt the tension!
My job gets extremely stressful on 2 occasions: 1.) During what’s called “Partner Week” in October. A lot of design requests come in from attorneys for us to design materials that they can use to present with. Despite the creative team providing several options by default, we still get requests. My boss also gets stressed out at this time, and she has ordered us designers to not take any time off during October. 2.) Before the winter holidays. This is because attorneys and their contacts are submitting their requests at the absolute last minute just before they go on vacation, and this is also the time when designers on our team take vacations, so it creates a massive workload for the designers who are on duty.

Natural Occurrences
I do remember it raining a lot this year. It rained so much that my work clothes ended up being soaking wet when I came into my office one day. It also snowed, but we got more freezing rain than anything. Navigating was pretty difficult, and apparently the freezing rain wasn’t enough to warrant a 2 hour delay from the office.

Things could’ve gone better…
- Honestly, I think my mother’s getting worse when it comes to her attitude. She’s still at odds with my aunt. There are times when she tells me that my aunt betrayed her, and there are other times when she says that my aunt is ignoring her and is wondering why she won’t talk to her. With those kinds of excuses, I’m not buying any of them. She’s just hating for the sake of hating now, and I feel like it’s too late to get to her, so I won’t even try anymore.
- In January of this year, I have been assigned what I like to call the “Project from Hell.” I was designing an internal invitation for a fireside chat with the CEO of my company and the CEO from Uber. Unfortunately, the people who requested this clearly didn’t know what they wanted in the invitation, nor did they know what they wanted it to look like, so I kept getting emails with several revisions to change sentences, time and date, names, colors, images, even layouts. Not to mention, they suddenly decided that they wanted an external version of this as well, so I had to do twice as much work. In the end, throughout a span of 2 weeks, I have gotten over 20 revision requests…6 of them being major layout changes. At the end of it, the designers on my team did end up using the theme I used for other materials related to this fireside chat, and yet, I felt so emotionally abused and tired.
- I got 2 colds this year. The second one I got was during Partner Week, which was the time when every designer had to be present at the office, no exceptions. That cold was so bad, that no medicine or remedy I took helped to alleviate the symptoms, and I could hardly breathe.

Entertainment
- In addition to watching a bunch of shit on YouTube, I actually managed to see quite a few movies in the theater this time. I even got opportunities to watch older movies that were considered hits, and I enjoyed those.
I think the best one I saw in theaters was Us. It’s a good movie that’s more entertaining than scary, honestly, and it really teaches you to be grateful for what you have.
The worst one I saw in theaters was the 2019 remake of Aladdin. Half the actors couldn’t act, and the elements that the remake changed were either unnecessary or didn’t make any sense.
- I saw a few stage productions as well this year. I saw Falsettos and recently (as of this post), A Chorus Line. I really liked both of them. I also got to see Arin and Dan in “Game Grumps: The Final Party” when their tour came to DC. It was kind of strange, because it mostly featured them playing games with the audience members.

Vacation
My mother and I went to Cancun earlier this December. It was a much-needed vacation, and it was very nice. We sat on the beach sipping cocktails, tried all different kinds of food, went to the Xcaret park, and saw some architecture in Chichen Itza. The only thing that kind of annoyed us was the abundance of crying and screaming children. They were EVERYWHERE. They were on the beach, on the buses, in the restaurants, in the places we visited, even near our hotel room! It didn’t stop me from enjoying the vacation though. I should note because of this, I’ve developed a small addiction to cocktails…Don’t worry, I’ll drink responsibly. XD

Art
Because I’ve been focusing on my job and real-life matters, I haven’t been able to work on any art at all. If I ever do decide to make a new year’s resolution, it’s to get back into it. Sometimes I feel so drained from my IRL problems and job that I completely forget about the hobbies that I loved.

I play Neopets for nostalgic reasons!

Sorbetgirl fun facts:
- I loooooove icecream and sorbet. Any flavor, any time of day (or night). My ultimate is Apple Pie flavored ice cream and Dulce de Leche flavor. Also Cadbury Creme Egg Flavor. And Coconut .... ahh... I'll stop

- I own a mini ragdoll cat who watches me play Neopets. She's mini because she was the runt of the litter so she never grew to full size. She's a very pretty fur baby though!

- I've played Neopets since I was a little kid. I love both UCs (old art) and customizing pets. Kacheeks are my favourite to customize.

- I'm really interested in healthcare and keeping fit and I work as a profession in this field

- On Neopets I'm an avid Avatar Collector! Not sure what it is about them, I just love those little things!

Sadly, A-kon had panels separated by curtains so I couldn't hear my panels if there was another panel shouting. They didn't have much time to plan since they suddenly changed the dates and location. Hopefully next year will be better, and they've already said they're going to announce a new venue.

This year they actually had someone in cosplay repair! She had a sewing machine and a ton of glue guns! Which is great for me since mine jammed and wouldn't work. Usually we just get boxes of random stuff, so it was great having someone in there who knew what they were doing and actually had supplies.

I wish I lived closer to Texas though since there's always a ton of conventions down in that area.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/setsuna_kaiba/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/CosplayerKiki/

Fem Kaiba:
Sadly my blue contacts rolled up so I couldn't wear them.
Star Guardian Lux:
You can't tell but I do have violet contacts in

The venezuelan crisis made me want to migrate ouf my country at some stressful point of 2016.
That year I lost around 8 pounds due to the scarcity of food and all I had was the mango I could pick from other people's gardens. Tired of going to a pointless job that simply stopped paying for my time (because as many clinical laboratory, our lab has to stop operating. Why? Scarcity of material), I quitted.

I begged my father for a loan, bought a very wrecked mini laptop (the very same I'm using to type this down), repaired my old and broken pen tablet by myself and started the painful process of getting a Paypal account (took me 8 months).

The plan? Sell art comissions. I was super rusty, but is not like I had a better choice.
I advertised my services every-fucking-where.
Lost money for a few months because of the not-having-my-own-Paypal issue.
Sold my neopets goods and best pets.
Got a little better at art, less rusty, more confident.

I saved some money, at the same time, I was able to bring food back to my table and some weigth to our bodies (a family of five, sometimes six... And a baby on the way).

Spent months, years, so many sleepless nights... Trying to get my passport, the basic right of my identity confirmed so I could roam in this world of outs.
And failed. Every time. A government supported mafia grew around the venezuelan service of Identifcation and Migration. If you wanted a passport you had to pay a bribe of 800, 1000, 1500 USD, in cash. (No need to say I've never had more than 300$ in my power).

Time passed, savings dissolved, and things went worse. The electric system is destroyed (5 days blackouts. Permanent in some places). The Telecom infraestructure let me with no internet. Lost good paid works due to that.

My february of 2019, I was back at the beginning.

With my brother we decided to just go the hell out. We didn't needed to go far. Just far enough to have power and internet, may be find a job.

By April (my birthday month, and his) we have sold almost everything worthy, except my work tools and his car (and...My personal neopets main account! I still have it, lol). Got enough to travel to the border.
Hand by hand fougth for a spot in a bus. Traveled for hours, got extorted by a corrupted military man (He took 50$ from us, it was morally painful TT^TT), went back to the highway and crossed a very dangerous/unsafe mountain road.

At this point I was so anxious and scared I just wanted to desappear.

Now at the border, we walked a muddy path to the river. The river was calm and unusually low leveled. We walked over the muddy, mossy, and slippery rocks to the other side.

No one stopped us. It's usual for people go that way to take food from Colombia to Venezuela (yet, is dangerous, sometimes the river is raging and hell yes, it will drown you if you are not careful).

Since no agency would sell me a bus ticket to our destination, we got the tickets overpriced from a middleman (paid almost double price; yeah, more mafia. Venezuelans taking advantage of desperate venezuelans). And crossed the ominous, beautiful and cold Paramo de Berlín, a mountain pass (Thank your for donating so I could pay that ticket, you know who you are).

I saw many people walking the Paramo road, wearing summer clothes, carrying little children, exposing their lives. At some point I couldn't hep it and cried.
Despite the medical aid points in the way, an important number of venezuelan walkers have died in the cold mountain.

(In happy note: I saw more cows in 4 hours in the mountain that in my whole life in my hometown.I love cows.)

We arrived at night to a room in a guesthouse, occupied by other 4 people, friends of my brother.

Internet was terrible, the space was very reduced, there wasn't enough power outlets and the window so tiny the air smelled ugly and we had to sleep on the floor. Still, I slept like a baby.

We spent 3 weeks in that place. While roaming the city in the search of a job and an internet contract, because I need internet to work.

No job was granted and I was madly desperate to leave that room.

My best friend sent me 100$ on paypal.
We tried to cash them out to rent our own room.
Got scammed.
Cried out loud because of the curse of being with literally 0.00$
Lost a week recovering that money with a paypal chargeback.
Got them back.
(I told my friend nothing, they will never know!)

The landlord was already telling the room was overcrowded.
We had to leave.
And in order to achieve that we searched around the city.
Didn't choose any place.

At some point, my brother started talk to the landlord about whatever manly topic, conviced him to let us use a small warehouse-like-room in the building as office. Conviced him to let us have the good office internet for a small monthly fee.

In a week or so, most of the things in the room were sold by brother, following the landlord's instruction.
He is old, and asked my brother to help him sell those things online.

Now, with room almost empty we just rented it (and unlike the other rooms, this have it's own kitchen sink and private bathroom.. but no shower... I've been washing my humanity in the bathroom sink for weeks).

Our landlord is a really god man. Everyone in this guesthouse is venezuelan, he knows they are all struggling, don't push them to pay, offers to help them start with something humble (like a grill to sell meat brochettes in the streets, or let them use the house cooking gas to bake cakes to sell.), welcome anyone who has a child under their care, tell them how to get the kids into public schools...

So far, my brother have:
-Dealt with the cash money and bus travels mafia in Venezuela.
-Negotiated with corruped military men so we could keep our laptops and most of our hard currency.
-Found a place to rent when there was any available.
-Basically, protected me.

Two and half months later:
We still sleep in the floor (I got a little inflatable mattress, it's like sleeping on a marshmallow).
We still have no jobs (Brother got to go to an "interview", later, when he got no response, he was told the employer expected any inmigrant applicant to beg and almost cry for the job. We are poor, yes, but let us have some dignity. Jeez).
We havent been registered in any sort of local governmet database as refugees.
I'm a refugee, yes, but a ghost one.
With no one ensuring my rights.

He uses his laptop to do the same microjobs on pages like Hivework or Spare5, like he did back in Venezuela. Too many time invested for too little money. Makes me sad... a man with his talents is not allowed to work.

Most of the income comes from what can I get as freelance digital-artist.
It have to be enough for rent, food and for sending money back home, where four of our people are still enduring the crisis.
Hint: Most of the time is not enough.

Sometimes we don't eat and send a message explaining we can't send money for the week.

Despite all the bad tings, I'm here.
I'm alive.
I will keep fighting and working.
For me, for those who count on me.

If in this long period of 3 years you have ever bought art or neopets goods from me, let me say Thank you. It means a lot more than you think.

[Aw, man, this is so long... I'm sorry.]

I know the Bludberry Urgoni Cupcake is a common thing, but I got a Bludberry Urgoni CupcakeÂ.

The " Â " at the end of Cupcake.

Has anybody seen this before?

Worth if it meant more people posting blogs.

Conundrum #2 - Answer: Angelpuss Smiley

• Neoboard themed.
• All the horizontal boxes were the English subforum names for the boards.
• The "English only" was originally meant to be a reference to TNT shutting down every other language for neopets. I wasn't 100% sure on this case, but it worked out because there were only enough boxes for the English variants of the board names.
• The hint referred to a warf. Check out the item description for said petpet.
• Answer found here. Scroll all the way down.

Conundrum #3 - Answer: Royal Potionary

• It's a literal journey from the three outside maps of the medievally themed worlds. Subtlety is my forte.
• The water tidbit means she can't travel over direct water.
• I am proud of the last picture's drawing. It's my first drawn OC. I named him Mappy the Justice Feminist Krawk. Everyone loves him and he punches evil in the left tit.

Work/Jobs
-I started working as a temporary graphic designer for one of my college’s programs, The Early Identification Program. I didn’t learn much from it, but it did feel rewarding contributing to their program. I actually kind of wished I knew about the program when I was in high school, ‘cause I could have used it to focus on science studies, and gotten a job related to science. Oh well... I knew for a fact that this job was temporary, so I was looking for jobs on the side. I left the job in May, and searched until I found a full time job in August.
- The place I started working at is called Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. It’s a HUGE-ASS law firm with over 30 offices around the world that specializes in several law practices. My job as a Production Artist is to create (or help create) design materials advertising their events. It’s a fun job, but sometimes it can be a little frustrating.

Natural Occurrences
Nothing major that I can recall. It did snow a lot, so I had to drive carefully in some conditions.

Things could’ve gone better…
- Mom was still being an asshole, especially beginning this year. She did get really sick though, so despite my differences with her, I put my anger aside to take care of her (That, and I was the only one who would do it. My brother was at work and my father was too lazy.) She also got into a heated argument with my aunt who I love so much. It got so bad apparently that she told her to not come to the house or call again. So my brother, father and I pretty much can’t see my aunt unless we leave Mom behind. Mom accuses us of “abandoning” her. She can call it whatever she wants, but she’s not going to stop us from seeing my aunt.
- The battery in my car died while I was in the parking lot of the university I worked at. It was freezing cold. I couldn't wait for my dad in the car because I couldn't turn the car on, and I couldn't go inside the buildings because I had to keep an eye out for my dad, plus all the buildings were pretty much closed. Not fun times. He did manage to jumpstart my car so he could get the battery replaced.

Entertainment
- I’ve been watching YouTube mostly. I’ve gotten addicted to this theatre company called Starkid back in May. I haven’t been able to stop watching their productions and videos on YouTube ever since. XD I think my favorite musical they’ve done is Twisted (It’s a parody of Aladdin, and I strongly recommend it if you’re a super fan of Disney movies).
- I think I may have seen 2 or 3 movies at theaters this year. Movie tickets are just too damn expensive, and I refuse to waste my money on movies that I don’t think I’m going to like. My mother always makes me watch movies with her, but she never wants to watch any movies I want to see. She always complains that I don’t see enough movies with her.
…really…?

Food
- I’ve tried all different types of food and restaurants this year, and I liked most of them. My favorite one is this place called Jinya Ramen bar. They serve Ramen in a pretty neat environment. If I had any friends, I’d invite them with me to eat there.
- I DID, however, get sick twice from a Thai restaurant I liked to go to a lot, but despite that, I keep eating there because my parents can't stop eating their "usual" dishes (They keep forgetting the names of the dishes, but I have to remember them because I'm the one always ordering them). I need to stop. It’s funny how an upscale place like that makes me sick, but I’ve never gotten sick from Chipotle or McDonalds. XD

Art
Because of job hunting and the fact that I play on pet sites, I’ve pretty much abandoned my art, and I fear my artistic skills have suffered because of it. I’m going to try and take a sketchbook to work to practice on my art during my breaks, because I miss doing it a lot.