How to get from Gatwick to Victoria

Or: An Exerpt of an Email to my Brother

Once you deplane and go through immigration, there is a counter to the right that will sell you a train ticket. You want a return ticket on the Gatwick Express to Victoria - make sure to tell them the return is on Tuesday (more on this later). Go down the ramps and get your luggage, go through the lovely green "I have nothing to declare except my genius" customs door, and exit into the main terminal. You are looking for signs that say "trains" - I know, it's really complicated, but stick with me. You follow these "trains" signs in order to get to the trains. You might have to take a little shuttle train to switch terminals (I think the express goes out of the north terminal, but I'm not sure). Don't be confused by this little shuttle train - this is not the Gatwick Express. When you exit the shuttle, continue to follow the signs that read "trains" until you find the train station. It will be pretty easy to locate as it is the place with all the trains.

There will be a big board that tells you what trains are on what platform. Make sure you get on a Gatwick Express to Victoria. I cannot stress this enough. Getting on the right train is crucial to getting to the right place. There will be non-express trains going to Victoria, don't get on those. Those will take upwards of an hour, but the Express only takes 30 minutes - this is, I believe, why they call it the "express".

You will know you have arrived at London Victoria when the train stops moving, and does not start again. This is called "the end of the line". Exit the train (be sure to get your luggage) and follow the signs labled "WAY OUT". This is British for "exit". There is only one exit, or "way out", so it is quite difficult to get lost. However, just in case you are confused or overwhelmed by the foriegn culture, I have selected a familar landmark where we will meet. There is a Burger King immediately to the right as you exit the platform and enter the station. This is where you will find me.

Clearly you're a jackass

I've been accosted today for a mistake my boss made of which I knew nothing about. But, she is not here, so it's my fault and my responsibility. Honestly, it’s not a big deal and it took all of five minutes to fix, but I don't much like getting phone calls from partners who talk down to me and give me attitude for something I had nothing to do with. I get it, you are paid much more than I am to do a much more important job - that doesn't make me your servant. No respect I tell ya, no respect.

Thus I have come to a conclusion: I could never do this for a living. Secondary conclusion: I need to find a job doing something I like before my will to live is sucked away and I become complacent enough to work here for another year (or worse, the rest of my life).

On another note, I nerded out about this morning's Metro wrap. Often times, the metro sells the front and back of both the first and last page of their paper to advertisers (FYI: this is known in media lingo as a "wrap"). This morning, the paper did some shameless self-promotion in which they filled the four pages with a variety of designs for a "remake our masthead" competition. I've scanned it in for your amusement, which unfortunately means it's b&w only, but I think it's still pretty neat. EDIT: Thanks to Alex over at Zurich Media (who happened to stumble upon the entry), we now have these lovely jpegs - now in color!

I'd like to take a moment to point out that a girl from Texas Creative was doing the hand typography thing two years ago. And when she did it, it related back to the product (it was for the Body Shop and she used all part of the human body, not just hands). In short, the winner here is not, in my opinion, all that special or relevant. Having said that, I'm not sure which I would pick for the winner. Maybe the 7th one on the second page, thrid column. I like their simplicity. A lot of them I find too busy or overly complicated for a masthead (read: the last one in the same coloumn). Anyway, I thought it was interesting....

"You're Kidding"

While I found Jeremy's analysis of the current stock market situation in my previous post insightful, it's his second comment I wish to elaborate on: Heath Ledger is dead.

When I heard the news last night I was, it's safe to say, shocked. In fact, I was much more shocked than I would have expected. While the death of any person is always tragic, I never would have thought that the death of Heath Ledger would upset me so much. Not "upset" in the crying hysterical sense of the word. No, not that at all. But, nonetheless, it has resonated with me in some way. Maybe it was his potential as an actor. Maybe it was his two year old daughter. Maybe it was his youth. Maybe it was how unexpected it was (I haven't heard much of the guy for years and all of a sudden he's dead?!). I'm not sure why really, but this death is - I think -particularly sad. I won't get into how this personally affected me because, honestly, it hasn't. But, I will say, it's truly tragic that we only get one opportunity to experience this:

"America is closed today"

I am sitting here watching the news and, during a report on the stock market, they uttered the above phrase. What a strange thought. Happy MLK day - though, I don't think that is something you send out best wishes for. In any case, I hope you enjoyed your day off.

I don't believe in New Years' Resolutions

Despite how excited I was to come home this Christmas (and we are talking giddy excited), I was a little worried about having to answer the same dreaded question over and over again, "So what are you doing with your life?".

It seems that people expect me to have it all figured out. They want to know if I like my current job. Will I stay with them for a year? Two years? Will I look for another job? What kind of job do I think I can get? How long will I stay at that job? Do I want to travel? Where do I want to travel? When will I travel? Do I have a boyfriend? Do I plan on finding one when I get back? (Like it's that easy.) Do I have any friends? Will I join any clubs or groups to make friends? When will I come back to Texas? Will I live in Austin or Dallas? Have I thought about going back to school? What grad program would I want to do?

Here's the only questions I have: What the hell is the rush?

Since I don't have any answers to these questions I started telling people I was living on a six month plan. This is something I used when I first decided to move to London six months go (side note: can you believe it was six months ago?). I discovered it was acceptable to not know the answers to these questions so long as you explained that you knew you didn't know. Weird, right? But it worked. I've been leaning on this as a crutch, all most, to keep myself from having to think too far ahead. What I didn't realize until this Christmas is that it's true. I am living in the short term and I am really, truly, happy with that.

I came to England in September with absolutely no plan. That's terrifying and down right stupid. But, do you know isn't terrifying and stupid? Coming to England for three months. That's not scary at all. So I lived from September to December and I found a job, and I kind of enjoy that job, and I get paid well, and I travelled to Dublin, and I visited Holland, and I made a couple of friends, and when I came back to Texas for Christmas I was considered successful in my venture.

Now, I just have to make it to April. I'll keep going to work, maybe even find another job better suited to me skills and interests. I'll visit a few more countries and experience exciting things I otherwise wouldn't be able to. I am thinking about joining a theatre troop. I have set a few "professional goals" for myself that involve becoming more active in design again - rebranding my website and my business cards, building my portfolio on my own, reading more design and ad books, visiting museums, and trying to get more design projects at work. You might say these are "New Years' Resolutions", but I don't think of them that way. If something is important to you, you shouldn't have to wait until January 1st to promise yourself you'll drop 10 lbs or quit smoking. It's just a coincidence that I have promised these things to myself at the beginning of the New Year. I am going to take active steps towards these "resolutions", but I have no idea if any of it will happen. It could be that I'll never find a proper job, that I can't travel, that I find myself lonely and homesick, and that I suck at design. Maybe. I don't know. But it doesn't matter, does it? Not in a long term king of way. This next three months is so miniscule in the grand scheme of my life. All I have to do is live as best I can and wait to see what might happen next.

This isn't to say that I am now completely passive in my life and will just wait for the tide to pull me where it will. No, not at all. I have an idea of what I think I would like to do and I am going to do my best to achieve that ideal. But, I am not going to stress myself out if something doesn't go "according to plan". I feel like people get too caught up in the future and forget about the now. I just want to enjoy what I am doing without having to taint it with fears and worries. I am too young to tie myself down like that. I'm not sure when I'll hit that magic age when I have to "grow up", but I figure I'll know when I get there.

So, for now anyway, I am playing it by ear. I was explaining this to a family friend and his response was, "you really have your shit together". I kind of laughed and said that it's really easy to look like you have it together when you, in fact, have nothing to put together. I find that this outlook really simplifies things for me and makes it (life) so much easier to handle.

I said it once, and I'll say it again: Puppets really are smarter than people. I'd like to believe that my life philosophy is a bit more complicated than a spoof Sesame Street musical could understand (and, honestly, it is), but I find this lyric to be a nice little cliffs note version of what I am talking about here: "Everything in life is only for now".

This is what I look like on my way to work

Except, not Asian.
Anyone want to buy me a gustbuster??

Also, for Lauren (of the Dawson variety):

I am amazed with just how many hits "wrinkly puppies" gets on getty. I promise not to punt your puppy, but only if you promise to let me hide things in his folds. How could I not?!?

Across the Universe

I have done a lot of thinking over the last 3 weeks and I have a lot to say, but I haven't quite collected my thoughts yet. So, bear with me and be on the look out for an analytical post about life (or rather my life and how I want to live it).

In the interim, I'd like to recommend a movie to you called Across the Universe. It's like Yellow Submarine meets The Wall meets The Science of Sleep on Acid. I think it's really incredible. I watched it on the plane and surprised those around me with my very obvious reactions, which I guess you aren't supposed to do on a packed plane surrounded by strangers. But sometimes you just can't help laughing out loud, or smiling, or gasping, or crying (though I didn't do the latter, but that would have also been frowned upon). Anyway, it's a really fabulous film and one I would never had expected an airline to show. Way to go American Airlines.

In fact, this is the first time in a long time that I have really enjoyed flying American. There seemed to be more space than BA, they give you more freedom to watch as many movies as you want, they had half of the first season of the American Office, and they had video games. I found the flight attendants to be more obnoxious and the food less than tasty, but when it comes to nine hour plane rides the crucial factor is the entertainment package. I give a big thumbs up for American's international service - just you remember that next time you are flying over seas.

The "e" button on my lap top is acting up. Do you know how many words include the letter "e"? It's a lot. I know this bcaus vry tim I come to th "" in a word I hav to paus and really push down th button or els my sntences nd up looking lik this. Annoying, isn't it?

I was reading my latest copy of one. a magazine (the publication for one of the most accredited advertising organizations in the world) and, low and behold, they mention Sean - my Creative prof who runs the Texas program and is all around a pretty awesome guy. This made me happy and rather proud. Hook em'? I think so.

I'm about 90% sure I am happy to be back in England. I miss my family and my lovely friends and, perhaps more than both of those combined, I miss having a shower. But when I looked out the window of the train and saw Big Ben, and when I emerged from Mornington Crescent and turned towards my house, I got that contented feeling I always get from being back somewhere familiar. It's dark and rainy and I'm going to have to lug 40 lbs of groceries up two flights of stairs and I think I kind of missed it. I'm telling you this now in case you are worried about me. Don't be. More on this later.

For now, just know I had an absolutely fabulous time in Texas and, if I were you, I would prepare for an on slot on abnormally long emails and random facebookings - I plan on staying in touch so much you'll never want to see me again. =)