You can't spell Anime without Advertising?

Although I'm not completely sold on the whole "networking will get you places" theory. I will use this as a hopeful example of how hammering out communication with people may get you remembered in the long run. Upon graduating college I did what any fresh bright eyed grad would do.. listened to her professors I networked and emailed and handed out resumes and interviewed..etc. NOTHING HAPPENED.. and nothing has happened since.. no job offers.. no internship offers.. nada!

Until a few months ago my family & friends will remember I went on a "working vacation." One of the many companies I bombarded was Anime North a convention located in Toronto, Canada that celebrates anime, manga, music, games and all other forms of Japanese Culture. Well just this Summer they emailed me back asking for my help as their resident graphic designer could not produce their Program Book this year. Yeah that's right, that book you carried around with you the whole weekend that told you what was going on and who was there!

Let me tell all the future graduating IMC's out there that haven't had any workforce experience past our classes & professors.. IT DOES NOT RUN AS SMOOTHLY AS YOU WANT IT TO! Granted I have met many nice business people in the GTA  with great products & services. It was fun to help fix-up last years ad's and even create brand new ones for companies. Along with being the liaison between editing, production, sponsors & printing. Plus as it was my job to put together the front & back cover and the centrefold insert I technically got to play Cover Contest judge and pick out my favourites to put in the middle. What great artists we have in Canada who all love anime - you all did a wonderful job and I wish I could've just filled the Program Book with all of your entries!

With any work that involves so many hands in one pie you are often left waiting past midnight to hear from 5 different people on only two different subjects.. then you have to redo your work once a decision is made and then resend your work to be reviewed again and of course someone will send you something extra just as you hit send you have to start over again, haha! The process was exciting, frustrating, tiring, creative & I'm so thankful that I had the chance to work with a convention I've wanted to long to attend. Of course they offered me tickets as thanks.. but I was unable to go - maybe 2016.

All in all I had a blast, although it took up about 50% of my vacation time, haha but my family was proud and very interested in watching me work so I guess everything worked out... I'm just glad my laptop died after I finished. Maybe they'll even ask me to help next year. Thanks Anime North!

Another Year.. Another round of Disney ICPs coming your way!

I'd like to give a personal congratulations (full of love) to a fellow IMC graduate, coworker & dear friend.. JJ Tinar! She has been one of the newest Walt Disney International Exchange Program entrants for this year - I couldn't be more proud of her!

After weeks (if not months) of nervous preparation and worrying (and picking my brain for support) JJ picked up the reigns and is now replacing me to show Disney & Florida what SLC, Kingston & Canada are all about!

Everyone should be very excited for this marvelous professional, humorous and cultured ball of fun to join the Cast Member family! I know she will have a breath-taking phenomenal experience like I did.

(And for those of you reading this still wondering how long it will take me to come back.. Don't worry, the plans are in motion - I have not nor will I ever forget! I am coming back! I promised after all. But while I'm gone, please welcome JJ with as much Disney Magic and love that you showed me.)

Just tuning into the DIsney ICP program? Wondering where it all began, or just looking to reminisce? Click here to start at the beginning of my journey!

I'll be checking in with JJ during her adventure so look out for my Details on Disney 2.0 posts on JJ's Journey!

"Everyday I'm Struggling..♪♫♪"

I promised you an amazing new video to start off 2015 and I think this is it. I told you all in my last post I would be giving you a rundown of what I've been up to as of late... since Disney, graduation and such. So here is my video inspired by the tasks & torments I go through daily during my workplace & casual life. For some of you that frequent either of my work, or has previously worked or gone to school with me you may even recognize some of this or laugh at it.

Click here to go to the video!

WARNING: I do not take much or any of this video seriously so please don't either. I just like to make the best of my situation through sarcastic humor and hope that you all laugh along with my creativity.
Pita Pit is an amazing "not so fast-food" healthier place to eat (we are totally better than Subway) and I LOVE working at the Rogers KROCK Centre. You just get a little bitter when you've spent three years and all of your life savings to be working two part time jobs, paycheque to paycheque and no one higher than you willing to retire or take you on as an intent for their position. What a world we live in eh?

Either way if you liked it, great! If you didn't like it.. I've asked before to comment on any ideas you'd like to see and I will again so don't be shy!

Peanuts on Pinterest!?

It's been a while since I've posted on my Allergy-Awareness sections of my blog.. and I promise it's been for good reason. Well reason enough...

During school we had a project which needed us to create Pinterest accounts.. I admit before school I did not, nor had I any plans to get.. a Twitter, a Pinterest, a blog, a LinkedIn or be involved with any other social media. Regardless I have been keeping it up during my periodic days of boredom or lack of energy.

I decided to create an Allergy Awareness board, I will be searching for helpful tips & tricks, stories, facts and other things not just related to food based allergies but all kinds as well. For any other fellow "pinners" I'd love to follow you and get your fellowship back so we can continue this widespread knowledge gathering.

More posts to come - Don't forget to check out the rest of my Allergy Blogs while you wait. And as always thanks to everyone for your continuous support!

Guess who's back? Back again? Dunning's back! Tell your Friends!

 Happy 2015 everyone! I know I've been very tardy in my posting & production but I would like to announce my first official creative.dunning video for the new year is up and running!

Click here to go to the video!

I hope you all enjoyed my first Dance Lessons 101 video because it's come back for round two.

If you've been wondering what I've been up to.. I'm currently working on a video to explain my 2014/2015 happenings - I promise it won't be much longer!

(I'll give you a hint.. 'Weeme Jess' is coming back! For those of you who remember her past appearance in my Details on Disney videos)

But while you wait you can read up on my secret rantings! Shh! I wrote this post in secret and waited to see if anyone wandered onto my blog out of curiosity, boredom or because they missed me. Seems like some of you do check up on me - have I ever mentioned how thankful I am for all my my wonderful family, friends & fans!?

I hope this satisfies your viewing pleasure for now.. I promise my next crazy creative calamity wont take much longer and it should be quite funny (I think it is anyways.)

The NOT so 'royal treatment' at 720 Princess Street..

I know it's been so long since I've indulged your creative side with my posts... Believe me there are 3-4 videos waiting to be done and I have missed you all so much! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and good New Years start to 2015!

So let me catch you all up to speed on my involuntary-hiatus in hopes you will forgive my tardiness..
As some of you know (if you have followed the various frustrated therapeutic rants on my Facebook) after moving from my glorious house on Newcourt Place at the end of school, I have apparently been going from one bad place to the next worst.

Churchill Street was full of more 'roommates' than I could handle.. and by that I mean it was infested with giant house centipedes.. Not that I blame the bugs.. There was construction going on outside our house during the time I was there so the poor things were probably just scared and looking for a place to go BUT that does NOT mean it had to be in my room between midnight and 6am every other day. Or in our kitchen sink... Did I mention they don't die when you spray them with RAID!? It's bad enough I'm horribly arachnophobic but to deal with what looks like two spiders fused together is just too much to handle when your trying to find 1-2 jobs preferably in the occupational field that you just blew your entire life savings on for the past three years.
Speaking of roommates... At Churchill Street we were a band of misfit roomies to say the least.. One was hardly there but when he was made a DISASTER of the place along with letting his whiney tiny lil 'rat' of a dog roam everywhere. The other girl and I barely spoke but she always felt the need to leave a mess of the kitchen, leave rotting food in their fridge (we had two thank the lord) and sabotage the rest of us. Our final late coming foreign roomie was at least 10-20yrs older than us and instead of helping us two girls clean the house, felt the need to always chat us up for hours about our life choices and then complain for the same amount of hours about us being too loud.
By the time I left that house.. we all hated each other, I had gotten sick about 4 times and we all lived reclusively like hermits in our rooms and bluntly avoided one another like the plague. I was the only one to collect and take out the garbage (which became so gross that even the garbage collectors didn't want to take it..) and no one cleaned anymore.
But hey don't get me wrong, the landlord was an absolute peach! I loved her and always hung out with her when she came to visit. It's not her fault she rented the house to the people she did.

Moving on the true monster of the story.. the cause of my frustrated pause in posting.. 720 Princess Street Studios. Now you would think the idea of cheap & affordable single (all-inclusive) bachelor apartments would be a dream come true! Taking an old Super 8 Motel building and renovating the inside into apartments. (And I'm sure that for some of my fellow neighbours here that have.. a lesser tolerance, higher patience and lower hygiene than I then it really is a dream come true) But the fact of the matter is... this place is NOT worth it!
The promised September 1st 2014 Opening was to offer a fully renovated downstairs lounge, equipped with a gym, study area, kitchen, internet cafe, 4 big screen TVs among other things... A mailroom was to be provided along with two Laundry rooms.WELL it is now January 10th 2015 and NONE OF IT is even close to being complete.
But isn't it generous of them to offer to buy us taxi's ever Saturday morning to take us to the nearest laundromat in exchange for the delay...(I would like to personally thank my friends whom let me do laundry at their house, THANK you!) And it was so convenient for them to take the first 3 months of us all living here before they got what is the worst internet service available. We're all students or recent grads here.. computers are our lives either for business, educational or personal reasons... I for one have racked up my phone bills cause I've had to tether my data from my phone to have any glimpse of internet at all!
I had the first 3 months of my mail either missing or stolen.. and JUST received it last week (a lot of good it does now.) And how do you get your mail? Why they slip it under your door! So I hope you don;t order any big packages while living here.. I've been locked out of my room twice because the door locks are so old and faulty.. not to mention it will take you 10-15min to even get INTO your room cause the keycards are fault also. Speaking of faulty locks.. we have already had the ONLY door into our building broken into (as they haven't finished giving us cto the front door!?) and it stayed broken for almost three weeks.. Did I mention we have NO security or anyone monitoring our 'front desk' area? I feel real safe..
I haven't even mentioned when I moved in, in the first place... There were 3 mattresses, two broken lamps.. thus broken glass EVERYWHERE, two tables, two mirrors, two dressers, a chair and a desk ALL in my room when we came to move in. Which I was promised would all be cleared out before we got there the night before. The carpet was disgusting (and after having them "professionally" clean it.. and cleaning it myself 5 times.. it is STILL horrible) the drainage was never cleaned OH and again.. living with centipedes...
So what do you do if you want to complain about any or all of these problems!? Well you EMAIL them! Because that's the only form of communication you have because noone is ever around (no wonder the renovations aren't finished) and a reply will take between 3-7 days.But hey! At least I have no roommates to share my space or my stuff or my food with.. no one sabotages my laundry and throws theirs in with mine instead of taking mine out (even if they threw it on the floor instead of in the dryer for crying out loud..) I have no ones mess to deal with but my own.

THIS is a prime example of Project Management at its WORST! I now understand what our teacher was trying to teach us in IMC@SLC.. although he could've tried teaching it to us in a less dry manner. But I get it now! 720 Princess Street Studios was a great idea on paper.. Just HORRIBLY executed! They shouldn't have let us move in without getting their eggs all in one basket... actually they should've waited for their chickens to finish laying all the eggs first!

But despite all the hardships & heartache I DO still have my creativity! As I;ve said I have a few videos that are just dying to be finished and a few I will be redoing with better imagery. In between STILL looking for a job befitting my college education (or at least my dignity) and a better place to live. I'm telling you the next place I live better be back in Orlando, FL at Disney.. or in Macau, China with my sisters or I'm going to lose it!