Well, Atlanta isn’t actually bad at all — I love my new apartment, and there’s been plenty to do around here. I’m just incredibly homesick, Duke-sick, and not used to being on my own. These grown-up chores are no less overwhelming: buying furniture, shopping for groceries, paying bills… did the summer really have to end? And need I mention how wonderfully relaxing this summer was? Family barbeques, driving up the PCH, shopping on Rodeo, county fair visits, cherry-picking Saturdays… complete mental detoxification. My Asia trip was amazing as well. (I was in gastronomical bliss for six weeks straight.)

I still have a few weeks before I start work so that I can adjust to the real world. Call me naive, but I’m oddly excited about starting my new job, probably even more about the prospect of traveling all the time (hello airline points!). Until then, it’s back to this… strange post-college/pre-work limbo.

P.S. My site got a mini-facelift. My desk now portrays my forthcoming new work life!

The past few days have been a constant whirl of packing, unpacking, and repacking. I leave for my Asia trip (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China) on Saturday, which leaves me barely enough time to practice unhealthy nostalgia.

The past four years have been a mixed experience. I loved Duke but secretly couldn’t wait to graduate. I loved North Carolina but couldn’t stand to live there. Then again, I know I’ll find myself itching to return soon enough. People are always the hardest to leave, maybe because I never quite seem to know how to keep in touch with them, or maybe because I hate having to now resign to these small vignettes of their lives.

But I digress. This summer will be amazing. I have a to-do list, a signing bonus, and an enormous appetite (for all things amazing).

Ending on a good note, I recently collaborated with a very talented friend on a final project for my motion graphics class. Watch this full-screen in HD:

And a car commercial with other talented folks:

Mock VW Commercial from Lydia Yao on Vimeo.

I promise a lengthier post of more substance later on to convince you that my life really isn’t as boring as it may seem. In the meantime, here are a couple of projects I’ve been working on in After Effects:

US Open of Surfing Intro from Lydia on Vimeo.

Mock News Opening from Lydia on Vimeo.

Mock Title Sequence from Lydia on Vimeo.

[Edit: Okay yeah, let's not talk about it.]

It’s 24 degrees outside, and I’m out currently freezing my poor face off sitting in a tent in Duke’s infamous K-ville. For those unfamiliar with the insanity of Duke basketball and likely baffled as to why tents spring up out in front of the Wilson Gym after New Years, here’s a quick breakdown of what K-ville is: the Duke-UNC basketball game is the most anticipated event of the year, and because of limited seats in the Cameron Stadium, students who want to see the game must form tents to line up for the game for sometimes as long as two months (because the game’s in February this year, I only have to do this for five weeks). Each tent is allowed up to 12 students and is given a number based on when they were able to set up (we’re tent #46). One person has to be in the tent at all times during the day, and eight people during the night. To ensure that everyone is abiding by the rules, there are line monitors and tent checks called randomly throughout the day and in the middle of the night; two missed tent checks means you lose your place in line.

To sum it up, it’s cold, miserable and altogether a terrible way to spend the spring semester — but still every year about a thousand students weather the elements to live, study, and sleep in K-ville sans electricity like it’s some rite of passage (might as well be). As for me, seeing how I’ve miraculously survived a week and a half of this lunatic ritual, and well, on the bright side of things, I’m sure seeing Duke completely demolish UNC this year will make it worth the otherwise tremendously tortuous experience… Go to hell, Carolina, go to hell!

Won in the looks department, but the filling was cloyingly sweet. Overly-sweet pastries don’t fare too well with our household, so I went for a second try.

Made-from-scratch apple pie 2008 Christmas edition:

Pressed for time, I passed on the fancy crust crimps in favor of a new flakier crust recipe. I forgot to brush egg yolk over the top of the pie before I placed it in the oven, so it lacks the golden brown color of its predecessor. And okay so, it didn’t do so hot in the beauty contest… but it’s the inside that counts!

Brown sugar in lieu of white + more cinnamon + nutmeg + extra buttery crust = a delicious treat and one very happy family on Christmas Eve.

And if I haven’t emphasized enough how absolutely IN AWE I am over how powerful CSS can be, take a look at this technique I used to create my “popping” navigation tabs:

I don’t recall where I first saw this used or how long I spent blinking at the code before I finally realized what it was doing. Nonetheless, by a stroke of luck I’ve somehow tamed it to work its magic on my site. You see, the entire tabs image actually looks like this

Notice the longer tabs on the bottom row? So, instead of creating two separate images for the regular button and the rollover button, I created a single image with one version stacked on top of the other. Clearly, the visitor doesn’t view the entire image. In my CSS script, I defined the visible area to be only the top half (with the shorter tabs) of the image, and in the hover-state, I shift each corresponding block of the image up enough pixels to reveal the bottom image. Thus, the popped-up version of the tabs have already been loaded they were part of the same image, and you’re left with the fastest rollover you’ve ever laid your cursor on. This genius technique is called the “Pixy” rollover (after its developer). Please celebrate it, use it, and spread the gospel so I don’t run into any more of the aforementioned traumatizing moments. Thank you.