behind on my homework

I hate being in this situation. I have homeword due tomorrow that I haven't started yet. It's not a big, big assignment but it should take a few hours to do. I just want to go home after a day of work and classes and goof off. Is that too much to ask?! I should have done this stupid thing over the weekend. It's not stupid; I just wish I'd done it early.

organic is in fact a good idea

So for my pursuasive speech/paper, I have chosen to try to pursuade my audience to buy organic produce. (I'm not asking them to go whole hog on the organic thing. This is a baby step in the right direction.) I chose this topic because I didn't really know anything about the subject. I figured it would be interesting enough research, and if I could convince myself, maybe I'll be able to convice others.

I have to say that my research really has opened my eyes. I think I'm going to try to by more organic type stuff. Now due to the fact that money is in question, I won't be able to blindly shop at more expesive stores and such. Hopefully though I can try to start a little better. Over the last year, I've been embracing the idea of buying stuff with few chemicals whenever possible anyway. Let me give you an example: I like to buy pancake mix. You can get one that says "just add water," but it has a laundry list of ingredients you can't pronounce. OR for less money you can buy the box that has you add milk and an egg. It's has a much, much shorter list of those chemical words you can't pronounce. Who doesn't have one egg floating around the kitchen anyway.

In a pure coincidence, I also visited an area natural foods store. Some work friends asked if I'd like to make a smoothie run, and of course I said yes. Who can resist a good smoothie on a warm day? Not me. Well my friend took me to a nearby natural foods store, where I purchased an all organic smoothie. The store was very nice and had a "friendly" feeling. I'm thinking I'll check out the store this weekend for my grocery run. I'm sure it will be too expensive to get everything there, but I thought I'd make a small trip to check it out.

a lot on my plate

I am really looking forward to summer, but there is just so much I have to do in the mean time! First of all classes and homework are really cutting into my "me" time. Plus I have to make some appointments to meet with people. I need to get my major and class schedule finalized. Since I am creating my own degree, I need to decide what classes I want to take, which department I want to be associated with, plus I need 4 people to agree with my course of action. I've spoken with two advisors already.

My first decision is this. Do I want a B.F.A. or a B.A. Bachelor of Fine Arts or Bachelor of Arts. Sounds like the same thing, but it's not my friends. The B.F.A. will take 2 years and has to be mostly studio classes - all of my general stuff would be done though. Studios are a lot of work but more fun. Now the B.A. would be 1.5 years of classes. I could take almost anything I want, BUT I'd need 4 quarters of a language! It's been 10 years since I took a language. So here's the question: IS IT WORTH THE LANGUAGE TO BE DONE A QUARTER OR TWO EARLY? Let's all remember too that college language is a lot more advanced than my little high school experience. C's do get degrees though.... I don't know what to do....

PLUS, I've started my summer job search. I figure all the good jobs are taken early so I didn't want to wait. I will still be working 20 hours a week at my current job, but I want to pick up another 20 hours a week somewhere else. I've updated my resume, and I have a really solid lead on a part-time job/internship with McGraw Hill publishing. There's a career fair Next Wednesday that I'm hoping to get some more leads on, too.

that sick feeling & republicans

I skipped my persuasive writing class on Monday... Man, oh, man do I wish I'd skipped today's instead. At the end of the term, I'm going to have to give a persuasive speech to the class. Fine, I understand; it was on the syllabus. Today though, the t.a. had us get up and give impromptu speeches on general topics so we could get used to getting up in front of the class. WHAT! I hate that. I hate it, hate, hate, hate it. Not only did I have to get up in front of everyone, but I felt unprepared as well. I had to give a 1-2 minute persuasive speech on the topic of trying to get everyone in the room to "buckle up their seat belt every time they get in the car." The topic was fine enough. It could have been worse, I could have drawn persuade the class "to eat tofu" or "buy Nascar tickets." I just hate that sick feeling I get when I stand in front of people to give a speech. I tried to give myself a little pep talk, but I found my heart was just racing while I was up there. Before I began I took a deep breath and told myself to relax, but it didn't slow the chest pounding down any. Bleh. I hate giving speeches.

(To Paul: Let's try to watch what we say about democrats now. In case you forgot, I'm one. We may or may not be flaky, but at least we try to see the world from more than one perspective. I don't make comments about republicans hiding behind the shield of religion as they try to take away my civil liberties, now do I... No, I don't.)

Wow, my blog got controversial all of a sudden. Please know that I don't mean any offense to anyone. I usually keep my political feeling to myself unless provoked.

take a trip

I know it is safe to write this because my mom doesn't turn on her computer much any more. The odds are clearly in my favor that she'll never see this... Even if she did I practically said all this to her over the phone anyways...

She just frustrates me sometimes. I know I can be flaky, and I know exactly which parent gave me that quality. (I define flaky, as a adjective describing a person who has positive intentions with zero follow through, yet the zero follow through doesn't actually bug you that much because they are soo positive about it. Does that make sense?) She told me she was coming the weekend after my first week of classes to visit me. She never shows, and I get no phone call. Then this weekend she calls and asks if I'm coming to Easter. Well, I have a paper due the day after Easter so I know I will want the day to start/finish/whatever it. She sounds all disappointed like I let her down and tries to guilt me a little about it. Then she gets all excited and says she'll bring Easter to my house! (In type it's a little hard to express how excited this thought made her. Her voice went up in an epiphany type way....) I know she thought this would make it easy for me, but having an apartment full of guests for the day does not actually free up my day to write. In fact it would mean I'd be spending Saturday cleaning instead of writing too. So then her voice sounded all sad. Her disappoint was clear. I felt like I let her down or something. Mom's are great at guilt trips, man.

weekend update

Why is it that as soon as I have homework I really don't want to do, I start thinking about all the household chores I should be doing? At least the house gets a little cleaner on a Saturday afternoon... No progress on the homework though. My goal is not to be doing it at midnight on Sunday...

are you tired too?

As much as I'm loving daylight savings time. I feel so tired this week. I'm going to bed earlier and earlier. I got a solid 8 hours last night and feel a little druggy today. Of course I just got out of the most boring class ever. That could have something to do with it I suppose. At least I got out early so I could update this blog and write some email. So it could be worse. Truly though it can always get worse.

After work tonight I am going to go to the campus library. I need to figure out how to find books and journal articles for my persuasive paper due in two weeks. I'm just going to go and fall on the mercy of the librarian at the information desk. I haven't had a research paper since I was a freshman. And I think we all know how long ago that was for me. If I have to I'll ask Librarianvj, but I want to at least TRY to get the information on my own first.

mining for gold

OH, my GOD! I'm sitting in my photoshop class and this guy across from me can't get his finger out of his nose. He's been mining for gold the whole class! Oh, he's trying to be subtle, but it's so obvious he's picking! I am so grossed out right now. You'd think by this time he'd either find what he's looking for or give up!

nice breezes and black thumbs

I love this time of year! I love the buds on the trees. Tulip are my favorite flowers and should be making their appearance soon. AND I love changing the clocks! While I'm certainly not a fan of losing an hour of sleep, I love the longer, sunshiny days. It just seems like you have more time to do things and don't feel so trapped in the house. Running an errand at 7pm in the winter is a chore, but in the summer it's no big deal. I love opening the windows and letting fresh air in the house. (Brian who has allergic phobias about spring wants all the windows shut so this makes for many disagreements in our house. I open windows and he walks around shutting them so them I have to open them again. It's a vicious cycle, really.)

I got some plants from Lowe's, I'm going to try not to kill. I have about a 50% success rate with new plants so keep your fingers crossed for me. I bought some different varieties so I hope they are hearty enough to survive living at my house.

I'm going to go now. I plan to do all my homework during class and I need to set up so my prof doesn't get suspicious...

can't take it

I CAN'T TAKE IT! IT'S SOOOOO NICE OUT! I AM GRIPPED WITH SPRING FEVER! MUST GET OUT! MUST GET AWAY FROM THIS DESK! I NEED TO UNPLUG AND RUN FREE! I NEED TO FEEL GRASS BETWEEN MY TOES! I NEED TO FEEL THE SUN ON MY FACE AND THE BREEZE THROUGH MY HAIR! I CAN'T TAKE IT.... CAN'T TAKE IT! 45 MINUTES! I'LL NEVER MAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a quiet moment

Today was such a nice day! Well at least it was before the sun hid behind the clouds and a cold wind blew through. But the morning was so nice. After I was released, er I mean... got out of my communications class I had some free time before my next class. I sat outside on a bench and took a few minutes to enjoy the day. It seems like it's been so long since I sat outside. Autumn quarter I sat outside a lot between work and classes and really enjoyed the 15 minutes or a half hour breaks. I think I may adjust my work schedule a bit so I can have more time on campus that I'm not running somewhere...

of course I don't mean to complain

I am very concerned. I returned to school to be challenged. Yes, my ultimate goal is to get my degree, but I would actually like to learn a few things along the way. I don't think I'm going to be learning all that much this semester. Oh sure, I'll have homework and projects due. I'll be quite busy some weeks I'm sure. BUT I don't think I'm going to grow as an artist. I'll have to hope that maybe next year I'll get more of a challenge. My two design classes are a joke. I felt like I could teach my photoshop course and my design class today was beyond simple. We actually practiced drawing straight lines and circles. Its funny a few weeks ago I was complaining that I was sick of proving that I could draw. This class actually assumes I can't and wants to teach me! My homework is to practice writing my name in a cool looking way. My college homework is to write my name cool. This is literally an exercise I did in high school. I'm trying not to be too down on these classes though. I'm sure if I pay attention and hang in there I'll pick up a couple of nuggets that will prove beneficial in the future. It's just going to be tough staying awake until then...

I won't lie to you

Today was the first day of spring classes. I won't lie, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I'd grown used to having free time. I enjoyed reading books and spending time with my husband. I watched movies and window shopped. I daydreamed and took naps. It was the good life. But that's all over now. Today it has begun again. I think I'm just looking forward to summer break where I will "only" work. Working doesn't seem like an "only" I know, but it does to me now.

I had two classes today and will have a third tomorrow. Today's classes were a communications persuasive writing course and a design photoshop course. The persuasive writing will be my nightmare this quarter. 4 papers with citations and footnotes AND a persuasive speech at the end. (I am currently taking suggestions for topics I can research and write about. The whole class I will be researching the same topic so it needs to be good...) The design class is a snore. I could teach the darn thing so far. I'm planning on doing my homework for my other classes during that class time. It's going to be a hassle more than a challenge that's for sure.

So now I will go off to bed. I have a long day of work of school ahead of me. I'm already behind in my readings! Wish me luck.

miss the bus?

What a fool I am!

So I got up and got ready for work/school as usual. I went out and stood on the corner waiting for the bus. I waited and waited. No bus. I finally looked at the posted sign attached to the bus sign's post. No bus today. WHAT! I knew there would be no bus during spring break and in fact I'd considered buying a west campus parking permit so I wouldn't have any issues getting to and from work, BUT that isn't supposed to be an issue until next week. The dam buses are still supposed to run during finals week or so I thought. I had two options at this point. ONE: walk to campus and wait 15 minutes for a loop bus to cart me out to work or TWO take my car, drive to the parking office and buy a parking permit so I can drive my car to work. I figured both options were going to make me equally late for work so I called my boss, left a message that I'd be late and drove off to buy myself a permit.

It's odd knowing that my car is outside my work building right now. I've gotten so used to relying on the bus. Sometimes I actually really like the bus. I mean I can read and not have to think about anything. On the other hand, it of course takes longer to get home. The extra time either relaxes me or frazzles me depending on how much I feel I have to do for the night. But I figure, with the new parking pass, I'll probably only take the bus to school 2 days a week instead of 5. It will depend on my work schedule. Since my pass is the cheapest one, it's only good out in the boondocks where I work.

finals week/spring break

Well, I am officially on break now. I have no finals or obligtions for school this week. Technically this is finals week and next week is spring break. My only obligation is to work, my Stephen King book and my new video game. I got the next expansion pack for the sims2. I played it on Sunday night and a good chunck of Monday.

However, I find that I am so very tired. I don't know if the stress bubble just popped and took all my energy with it or what. I'm getting enough sleep a night and taking at least one nap a day and yet I'm exhausted. I kept yawning at work today. I'm sure it doesn't help that I got the new video game. I didn't play it at all today though.

I wish the weather would take another turn for the good so I could enjoy it properly. I want to sit outside and read, but now that the weather has turned again, I don't see that happening over break. But I'm not complaining. It feels so good not to have a ton of things I ought to be doing!

silly hats

Well today was my final pottery class. We wore silly hats and ate food be brought, served out of our own work. I made brownies which I brought most back home with me, and wore Brian's Mad Hatter hat. Ironicaly I tried to convince him to throw out the hat when we moved and it ends up being me who wears it next.

I'm excited to say that my house is fairly clean. My mom came over yesterday and I felt the need to spruce up the joint after a quarter of procrastination. Now I can certainly goof off guilt free. Awesome.

final project

Here is my final animation. Go to this website

http://homepage.mac.com/rabrn48/FileSharing6.html

and dowload the "connecting" file. Use your internet browser to open the file.

enjoy. Oh, let me know if the music is fading out before the animation is done. I don't know why it's doing that. It's fine for me except when I open it using my browser. Oh, well. You'll get the idea...

sprint to the finish

Well after an intensive day of work, I have 40 seconds of animation done. It's not awesome, but it's good enough to get a good grade. I still have another 20 seconds to do today. Luckily, I only work a few hours and then I go to class to work on the assignment. Then after class, I will lock myself in the lab until I've finished it. I want to get it done tonight because I have to write a 350 word artist statement and formalize my storyboards to turn in. I want to be able to do that work tomorrow.

Lucky for you guys, my boss is at a conference all day and didn't leave me any instructions on how to spend my two hours this morning. I decided to catch up on emails, update this blog and then I'm going to sit in front of the interactive plasma tv and learn more about my new employers. My boss encouraged me to check it out, but with getting ready for the conference I haven't had time to. So for work this morning, I will be playing with an interactive tv. not bad. Plus it's one of those touch screen ones. very cool.

I am already looking forward to Thursday afternoon. I won't have to work, all my schoolwork will be turned in and I will be taking a monster nap! I woke up this morning convinced I hadn't slept at all. I hate that. Plus, I woke up ten minutes before my alarm went off. I hate that. It's like my own mind is trying to cheat me out of ten extra minutes. I think it's just stress and my body wants to make sure I'm up on time. dam body.

let there be light!

WHEWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did it. Or rather the gods have smiled upon me. The clouds have opened and a shaft of pure light has fallen upon my undeserving head. Can you hear the choir of angels?... I got an A on my communications test last week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't have to retake it on Thursday. I only have one impossible task instead of two. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, I really need to get to work now. Thank you gods of destiny...

he says to "foo off"

It's one in the morning. I'm tired, but I know the fans are restless. It's been a busy week followed by a busy weekend. And this week is only going to get worse. Last week I had a lot of pottery to work on because it was our last "wet week," and I had a test in communications. This weekend I spent 6 hours in pottery lab and many frustrated hours in front of the computer trying to get my new animation started. I say started because I barely have a few seconds of it done. I am planning to go to the lab at school and work until it's done. I'm not putting on my shoes and leaving right now or anything, but I will spend the next few weeknight in the lab. (Start praying for my VJ, I need it.) PLUS, I may or may not have another communications test this week too. If I did well enough on the last one, I can skip it. If I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, I have to start studying and say goodbye to sleep. Plus I'm busy at work tomorrow. While I'm really liking the new job, I have a lot of new responsibilities to go with it. They are having a conference on Tuesday, so I have to print out hundreds of programs, name badges, lunch tickets, and signs need to be mounted and printed - not in that order. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited by the work, but I wish it were a week after this. Please forgive me for the communications block out. I'll try to be a better friend after Thursday. I know I make this promise all the time, so you're just going to have to forgive me for that too.