Jayvee Velicaria

I’ve been seeing a bunch of videos of how other dog owners would prepare their food using fresh ingredients. This inspired me to do the same because I realized that I never really thought too much about my dog’s diet. Initially, I thought it would be a simple change, but it turned out to be more challenging than I expected. Preparing meals with fresh ingredients requires a significant amount of time and effort. It's not as convenient as pouring kibble into a bowl and being done with it. I have to research and carefully select the right ingredients, ensuring they meet my dog's nutritional needs. Moreover, the cost of fresh ingredients can add up quickly. While I understand the importance of providing high-quality food for my dog, it can be a strain on my budget. Sometimes I find myself questioning if it's worth the extra expense and effort, especially when there are seemingly easier alternatives available. Despite the challenges and occasional doubts, I want to continue to feed my dogs with fresh ingredients because I believe it's the best option for their health and well-being. It's a constant reminder of the commitment and dedication required to be a responsible pet owner. Though it may not always be a happy and straightforward journey, I know that I'm doing my best to give my dog the nutrition they deserve.

This week, I had been working on making small furniture to fit my architecture models. We were encouraged to try to make them from scrap materials, which is typical for any models that we make. However, in the past, most of my models were made from new packaged material because I was such a perfectionist and thought that the scrap I find either wouldn’t fit the scale I wanted or just wouldn’t look good. But this term, the whole studio group has contributed almost $1000 in total on our big model for pristine chipboard and cardboard to fit for laser cutting, which makes it about $75 per person for their split contribution. Although that is somewhat the typical cost of the models we make every term, it’s still quite on the higher end and it was only enough to get the base of the model. So we still need to use more material for our furniture. Some of my friends from studio came with me to SCRAP PDX, which is a shop near Providence Park that sells reusable scrap material for crafting. They had a lot of little things, from fabrics, jewelry, overstock books, and big piles of old vintage pictures. I was able to find some fabrics to make the texture of my furniture, some neon pipe cleaners to make neon signs, and some legos for little benches. I even bought a couple other things, like a small gold picture frame to put a picture of my dog, some black and white polaroid pictures to use as bookmarks, and wood samples to use as coasters. All of this only costed me $5 in total and if I were to have bought them as brand new, it would probably total up to $20 or even more. I found it to be really convenient to be able to find the things I need that are perfect for my projects and wouldn’t cost me too much. I’ve really had enough of paying so much for a model that I would most likely be throwing away once final reviews are over. Finding ways to use scrap material for models has helped me to be more creative with the ways that different pieces of scrap can go together to look like miniature versions of real life objects.

My schedule requires me to go to campus four days every week. There would also be days when I would have to come in over the weekends or on my days off to come in to my studio to work on my projects. There would even be days when I would decide to go to Portland to hang out with friends or even to explore the city on my own. However, since I live in Hillsboro, I would always need to figure out different methods of traveling 14 miles to get between my house and campus. My entire first year in college was entirely taught online because of COVID, so I didn’t have to worry about going anywhere for my classes. It wasn’t until the next year that we would have to return to having classes on campus. Since then, I would commute to campus almost everyday by taking the MAX because I definitely did not want to pay a $400 parking pass just for myself plus gas expenses. I also just didn’t think it would be good for the environment to be using up all that gas every week just getting to and from campus. As much as I hate having weird encounters on the MAX and the occasional awful smell, I still manage to enjoy the journey, listening to music and letting my thoughts wander as I look out the window. I just thought that if I had to endure the two hour long journey to get to and from an entire day of being on campus and having to talk to a bunch of people, I would at least try to enjoy the time I get to spend alone on the MAX. But I still do hate taking the MAX sometimes. However, for this term, two of my friends from studio and I have decided to commute to campus together and share a parking pass because we all live a bit far out from campus. We share a mutual hatred for taking the MAX and we also thought it would be more efficient for reducing our carbon footprint by having all of us take one car to go to campus rather than if we were to go from three separate cars. While I do enjoy my alone time, I would rather be stuck in a car in traffic with my friends where we can talk about anything and gossip all we want than to sit alone through public transportation and wondering for the whole ride where a weird smell is coming from.

This week, I decided to enjoy the nice weather by going out on walks with my dog. Although midterms have been keeping me from having enough free time as I stay cooped up indoors all day, I still managed to spare some time to go out on some days, which definitely helped me to destress. As this week’s topic revolves around community, I realized that I’m not really as active with being involved in my own community or even with getting to know my own neighbors. There have been a few occasions before when I would bring my dogs out for walks and as we pass by people, they sometimes stop to greet my dogs. This even happened during my walks this week and I was even able to have my dogs meet other dogs at a nearby park. I was able to have a moment to talk with the other dog owners, discussing about our dogs to even talking about what we do in our lives. There was even one person I talked to that invited me to this corgi dog meet-up when I brought my brother’s corgi with me. Another experience I had this week was nightlife in Portland. I don’t really go out at night, especially in Portland since I live all the way in Hillsboro. But I ended up staying at the studio overnight on a Saturday, preparing for my architecture midterm reviews, and at some point I desperately needed to get food. As I was walking, I noticed how active it is at night. Growing up in the suburbs, it was always uncommon and just weird to see people out at night. But in the city, it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s day or night, or even the weekday or the weekend, it is always bustling with people. It makes me wonder what city-living is like and whether I would be more social and less shy than as I am now. Even then, I go to campus almost everyday and I hardly ever talk to anyone else other than my friends that have the same major as me. But it’d not like I haven’t had my fair share of weird interactions with other people in the city. I mean, come on, it’s Portland. Regardless, I have definitely gotten used to being in the city but I wish I felt more connected to other people other than Architecture majors. I mean, PSU is definitely a good start with all the events and groups that are kind of meant to bring people of different interests and backgrounds together.

This week, I decided to enjoy the nice weather by going out on walks with my dog. Although midterms have been keeping me from having enough free time as I stay cooped up indoors all day, I still managed to spare some time to go out on some days, which definitely helped me to destress. As this week’s topic revolves around community, I realized that I’m not really as active with being involved in my own community or even with getting to know my own neighbors. There have been a few occasions before when I would bring my dogs out for walks and as we pass by people, they sometimes stop to greet my dogs. This even happened during my walks this week and I was even able to have my dogs meet other dogs at a nearby park. I was able to have a moment to talk with the other dog owners, discussing about our dogs to even talking about what we do in our lives. There was even one person I talked to that invited me to this corgi dog meet-up when I brought my brother’s corgi with me. Another experience I had this week was nightlife in Portland. I don’t really go out at night, especially in Portland since I live all the way in Hillsboro. But I ended up staying at the studio overnight on a Saturday, preparing for my architecture midterm reviews, and at some point I desperately needed to get food. As I was walking, I noticed how active it is at night. Growing up in the suburbs, it was always uncommon and just weird to see people out at night. But in the city, it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s day or night, or even the weekday or the weekend, it is always bustling with people. It makes me wonder what city-living is like and whether I would be more social and less shy than as I am now. Even then, I go to campus almost everyday and I hardly ever talk to anyone else other than my friends that have the same major as me. But it’d not like I haven’t had my fair share of weird interactions with other people in the city. I mean, come on, it’s Portland. Regardless, I have definitely gotten used to being in the city but I wish I felt more connected to other people other than Architecture majors. I mean, PSU is definitely a good start with all the events and groups that are kind of meant to bring people of different interests and backgrounds together.

This week, I have been avoiding plastic from my everyday routine, especially when it comes to getting pick-me-up drinks and food. Compared to my usual routine, I wasn’t so strict with using plastics since I thought it was such a hassle finding things to put food or stuff in. Since I spend most of my week on campus, I’m always tempted to go get food from the food carts or other delicious restaurants around campus. However, I decided to prep and bring my own food everyday. It definitely saved my bank account, since food around the city can be rather pricey and even overpriced. I suppose I just thought it was always worth it since it’s so easy to get hungry when you have to work all day and talk to a bunch of people. It’s very rewarding to get good food, which can make you easily distracted from what kind of material the container is made of. I’ve noticed that some places pack their to-go food in paper boxes while others put them in plastic containers. However, some containers can be rather durable and my parents have kept some on occasion to use for storage or as food containers, so I’ve also gotten into a slight habit of keeping them. But the common habit of finishing a to-go meal is to throw away the container, so it’s a lot more sustainable for a restaurant to have all their customers dispose paper boxes than plastic containers. Even stocking up on biodegradable utensils are great too. Another occurrence of plastic that I came across was the packaging of products. I had to pick up some art supplies and I realized just how many of their products are wrapped in plastic. I guess it would make sense that the plastic wrapping helps it from getting scratched up or damaged, and to also let people see what the product wrapped in the plastic looks like. But some stuff, like a pair of scissors or a ruler, don’t really need to be encased in anything and would be fine with just a barcode taped to it. This doesn’t only apply to art supplies, but literally every single item we try to purchase from the store and especially from online. Production has relied so much on plastic to make their products protected and designed for aesthetics until it gets to the person using it. But I think a lot of things don’t really need that much packaging or any at all.

My goal this week was to enjoy 1 meatless meal and 1 vegan meal everyday for the whole week. I’ve made several meals on my own using some ingredients at home, such as a mushroom stir fry, Filipino garlic rice, and tofu dumplings. I already only eat two meals a day, so this challenge really limited me to having entirely vegan meals all week. I choose to only eat two meals a day because I enjoy snacking in between them, so it was also interesting to still find ways to make my snacks vegan. My favorite snacks that I made this week were crispy sweet potato fries. At some point, I made the same meal for three days straight then got sick of it. I usually don’t like having the same food for more than 2 days, so I had to figure out alternatives. There were also occasions when I would completely forget about this whole challenge and I end up eating something my parents had made or something my friends would give me that had meat or animal products in them. I would panic when I realize it and it’s the same exact feeling from when I was younger when my family would celebrate Lent. It would be Good Friday, in which we had to fast and refrain from eating meat, and my dad would mention that it’s Good Friday and I would freeze as I remember that I had a midnight snack of pizza rolls. Since I’m actually not vegan myself, it’s easy to forget, and to especially get into the habit of watching out for animal products in the food I buy and eat. Now that the week is over and I’m not doing the challenge anymore, I would still like to explore vegan food options. My eco-change project is a vegan Filipino cookbook, so being mindful about the food I eat and exploring vegan options during the curation of the cookbook would be helpful to get a perspective of who would be looking for it and to also see the benefits from my own body of eating vegan meals.

This week, I went for a walk every day to a park near my neighborhood and spent at least 30 minutes each day to take the time to write in a journal or meditate. I would choose a different spot each day to write about the natural environment around me, or to sit down and close my eyes. Whenever I chose to write, I would write about the weather for that day, the sounds of the birds and the rustling of the trees, the occasional spotting of chipmunks and squirrels, and the plants that look like they have been starting to grow new leaves and flowers. Whenever I would meditate, I would listen to the sounds of nature as I clear my mind. I often come to this park every other week with my dog whenever the weather was nice, but my task was to go alone and it felt like a whole new experience. I didn’t have to worry about making sure to pick up “special chocolate” or getting dragged whenever my dog would spot a squirrel (I have a husky by the way). It did feel kind of weird or off just sitting alone by myself with my eyes closed in the middle of a park, only because I’m more used to having my dog be my guard to watch out for disturbances or threats. However, it was still nice being able to pay more attention to nature while being at the park and even the journey to get there. I think it was more fun and engaging walking around the park and taking a closer look at the plants and noticing what kinds are local to this area. I almost forgot to mention how I saw this huge rat on my way home. There’s a bridge just around the corner of my neighborhood to get to the park that has a small swamp next to it and I would look over the railing to see if I could catch sight of any animals. I would usually see ducks swimming in the lake, but there would be rare occasions where I would see this giant rat, which turned out to be this large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent, called a nutria. It was interesting, to say the least. I didn’t know whether to be relieved that it wasn’t a mutated rat, but it was a cool learning experience.

This week, I have been doing a lot of research about a vacant site in Portland that involves squatting, or informal occupancy, by homeless people. Allegedly, the property owner claimed that part of the building will be donated for homeless shelters and had been collecting funds in order to make it happen. However, the owner refused to pay their dues because they wanted the City of Portland to pay for the cleaning services in order to proceed with the proposal of transforming the space into a homeless shelter. For several years, nothing happened, so the donations were scrapped, and the homeless shelter never really came to fruition. While people would still squat around the perimeter of the buildings, it became a large informal drug market. My studio professor brought us to the site the other day to take a look at the building and it was not what I expected at all. All entries and ground floor windows had been boarded up and scattered with graffiti and the smell was wretched. I found a notice on a wall from the City of Portland that they are planning to clear the building of illegal campsite shelters. If nobody buys the property within a certain time period, they plan to take down the buildings. Our project for studio is to redesign the interior of the existing building into an abundance of mutual aid for people who are in need, such as food pantries, shelters, and even health services and education programs. The most sustainable form of architectural design is to utilize and take advantage of material and structures that already exist. The site we are researching is only one of many that have failed to be claimed because many people would rather see newer and up-to-date modern buildings rather than to work with what already exists. Our studio project is to try to envision how we can make an old and already existing building to thrive again without having to take down the entire building.