Updating my work site

Know that the screenshot presents a work in progress. Expect to see some changes in the update's completion.

I've decided just recently that I wanted to update the whole look of my work website. I thought its current appearance seemed bland and needed some more visual appeal, so I'm playing around with aesthetics.

I'm not really a huge fan of the over-minimalism you see pretty much everywhere online nowadays to put on my things. Because of that, I'm taking a little more inspiration from the generation of internet aesthetics that came before it which happened somewhere between the mid-2000s and the early 2010s. I also spent a lot of my childhood during those times, so it's something I'm familiar with.

Some ideas for its contents

An idea for its appearance

Completed Barista Training

Just recently, I completed a barista training course! I booked myself in for two tutorial: a 3 hour class on Sunday and an additional 2 hour class on Tuesday. 

The first tutorial was all the basics of being a barista: all the aspects in order to make a coffee, as well as basic information about how to care for the machine and about basic food safety. The second class was where I learned how to make basic coffee art and more in-depth food safety.

Learning how to make coffee was actually much easier than I expected. I remember when I would watch people make coffee and feel kind of intimidated by how complicated everything looked. It just seemed so "sophisticated" from my point of view and made me consider, "maybe I won't be able to do it." Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Overall, I performed pretty well in the tutorials. The tutor even told me that I was one of the "better" students that he's had in the past month(s), which was a major confidence booster for me. But, that's not to say that I didn't have any trouble in some aspects.

Of all the basics, frothing the milk was one of my biggest struggles. Sometimes I would froth it too much and on other times, too little. This struggle shouldn't be too hard to fix since all it takes is more experience, trial and error. 

Doing coffee art was also a major struggle for me. I learned three types of common coffee art: etching, fudge art, and free-pour (this is also my order of easiest to hardest). What's kind of funny is that one of my main hobbies in my spare time is drawing, and seeing my performance in this tutorial was really doing me little justice. 

In order to get better at coffee art, I will need to practice as much as I can. Obviously my coffee art won't look that good to begin with, which is why my tutor gave me a tip: practice on take-away cups where the art will get covered with a lid, anyway. And then, once I get better, I can move on to doing art on dine-in mugs. 

I can more confidently go job hunting now that I've got my certificates, especially since I have no prior work experience as an adult. I hope I find a job soon - hopefully a coffee-making job.

My motivation for studying (or lack of)

I've noticed lately that since the beginning of this year, there's been some sort of decrease in my motivation to continue studying at university. It got worse after the end of last semester when I learned that I failed not one, but two subjects out of three. It's as if it wasn't enough that I was already expecting to fail one of them by not doing well in producing any efficient work on the big project, but failing the other subject where I did actually put time and effort into producing it really stinks. Thinking back on it, I feel like I would've done so much better on the assignment that I chose to abandon.

I feel like my motivation really started to dwindle right after the moment I got my results back for the assignments where I really tried. As in, REALLY tried. I was working my butt off at that time. I was going to the university study lounge every day (except for the weekends) just so I can put in some time to work on my assignments and other things, only for me to submit assignments late and get "passable" grades, hardly changing from the grades I used to get when I didn't try as much.

It's also been happening too often that I get thoughts telling my that university is still totally out of my league, wondering how I'm still in classes after three years, and especially wondering how I even got accepted in the first place. I try to avoid them, but there's always something talking at the back of my head saying it's all true. It also doesn't help that I've got some warnings about my grades recently. I should probably speak to the university counsellor about this.

I actually did have a talk with my dad about this recently. He told me that I should take a break after this semester's over. The reason is, if I get kicked out (or whatever the consequence is) and I eventually want to get back in a few years time, I might not be able to study ever again. It's kind of worrying, but I hope I manage to make things work out. Hopefully.

The things that portfolios do

 First of all, I'd like to mention that the following is probably more specific to jobs and tasks that are more visual and/or require creative freedom, like graphic design, creative writing & other areas. Continuing on, here's something I learned today at uni: some employers are more likely to pick someone who's got a better portfolio of their work than their resume, depending on what job it is, of course.

Now, from what I picked up from this week's class, I guess portfolios basically showcase the areas you're good at, and makes for some real proof to show that your abilities are legitimate. But I also remember a classmate pointing out that portfolios don't exactly give a full picture of who you are. For instance, a portfolio won't exactly showcase things like 'willingness to learn' as clearly as a resume and consulting a referee and other things. In other words, things like a portfolio shows your abilities, but not really shows you as a person.

Thinking about it now, I guess I should start making content for portfolios for areas that I'm interested in working, for instance cartoon illustration and creative writing. I could also consider things like general content writing, web design and probably even try out logo design as well. I really should get back to making more full-on illustrations (as myself and not under my alias) to add to my portfolio. I'll also try out proper scriptwriting for short stageplay skits and whatnot. I have no exact plan on when I'll start because of uni, but I hope to begin soon.