light at the end of the tunnel

This past week was very busy for me. This next week is pretty full, but only with a few things that will need my concentration the most. I was able to cross a ton of things off my list. After my exam today, I will really only need to focus on two projects this week.

One: I am making a sort of quilt for my final photoshop project. I have the file ready to go, but now I need to break it up into squares which I will print on transfer paper. Then iron that onto fabric and sew the whole thing together. The sewing shouldn't be too bad... If I can't iron onto a single peice of fabric, I'll break it up into 4 large squares and then use the sewing machine to make it look like it's a bunch more squares than it actually is. I'll take a photo at the end to show you. This is due on Monday.

Two: I have finished reading the French play I've been working on. I have to write 3 more compositions about it. (I've already written 5.) I then need to study and get ready for a test over the play next week. It'd be nice to take the test this week, but I can take it as late as Wednesday next week.

Things I accomplished (in no particular order):
• laundry
• dishes
• read the play
• wrote 5 compositions on play
• studied for comm exam
• bought shower gift
• wrapped shower gift
• went to actual shower (since I had to allow time for this, I count it as a thing to do)
• began work and planned out final photoshop final
• made additional French appointments for next week
• filled out the husband's fafsa application for next year (yes, for some reason, I am in charge of this)

school update

This should be an interesting week...

I just handed in my third photoshop assigment. (Seen below) it was a mapping project.

I have a communications exam on Wednesday, and before the end of the week I need to take a French exam. I really should have worked more on this stuff last week. But, I procrastinated, of course. I also need to find time to do some laundry, clean the kitchen, and buy a baby shower present.

Ugh. Wish me luck.

eye candy

I spent a nice little weekend with the significant other. We saw Childres of Men (liked it) and You, Me and Dupress (pretty good). It's been a quiet week for the most part.

I have attached some images from my last digital art assignmnet. It is from an assignment called Technolandscape. I was supposed to address the idea of technology in our lives. The subject matter isn't very successful, but the images are pretty.

enjoy.

scraping the bottom of the barrel

...er. um...

I don't really have anything super to report. I just figured it was about time I did an update. After all, Librarian has been to Seattle, Quiltbug is rounding home on a major project and neonapple has set up her nursery. I'm feeling rather unaccomplished. I've just been pluggin' away at school. I had a test on Monday. (exciting...) I took a French test today, and I have the oral tomorrow. (I know you guys never get sick of hearing me complain about French...) And I have an art project due on Monday which I am 63% done with. I'm keeping up I suppose.

I'm still waiting to hear if my academic plan has been accepted. I could get an email letting me know any day now, but I won't start to worry until the middle of next week.

So basically I'm scraping the bottom of the bloggin' barrel here people. Blogs, I guess, are meant for people with more exciting lives than me. I'll try tomorrow to put up some pics of stuff I'm doing for work or something tomorrow. I don't have any images to post here on the library's computer.

So keep your fingers crossed my next blog will have actual content...

not a good idea...

I drove to work today. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I mean, it gets me to work in the morning fast. So that is good. But, I usually have to ride a bus back to the car at the end of the day. Which seems redundant to me. I could just take a bus home instead of the two-legged journey of bus then car. Anyway, I digress...

So I am taking the bus to my car. It's after 6 pm. (I'd just finished taking the first half of a french test. I got a 93% but I still have the oral on Thursday. Again, I digress...) I'm on the bus on the way back to my car. Well, my mind begins to wander, and I miss my stop. So I get off a the next one. But! this means I now must walk the length of the parking lot to get back to my car. This is about the length of two football fields.... in the dark... by myself. This just screams after school special doesn't it? I had to do it though, or else it would have been 30 minutes to ride the bus back around the horn. Besides it was only 6 pm and not midnight. Right?

Just so you know I'm fine. Nothing to report at all. I need to be more careful so that doesn't happen again...

finalize your syllabus people

So I spent all day on Monday working on my homework. I got a lot done and was feeling good about myself. Then I went to hand it in (online) only to find out the instructor changed the due date to next week. While normally I would have appreciated any extra time I could get... I'd finished the darn thing. So I was left sitting on my hands. If I'd know it wasn't going to be due, I'd have worked on my French instead. So I'm behind in French and ahead in art.

Below are the images I made for class. They are meant to satire the advertising/marketing of the pharmaceutical industry. Enjoy.

*cough* & *snifle*

Back in the saddle. School is back on. I'm already feeling behind.

If all goes well I should graduate this Spring or at the latest Summer. (If I'm really close to graduating, I'll suffer through some summer classes I suppose.) But until then, it's the grind for me.

I'll write more later, class is starting and that clickety noise of the keyboard might come across a little rude to the instructor...

feet dragging

My office is having their holiday party. The other student assistants are gone for the break. So it's just me. I'm not good at socializing. I don't' want to go down their again... Well, I forced myself to go to the auditorium where they are having this shin-dig, but there was such a long line for the food... I bailed and headed back for my desk. All I want is get my free food and hide out at my desk for a while. Is that so much to ask? I wish I were one of those gregarious, outgoing people that don't need a month to get comfortable with people. Even people I know a little make me nervous. Plus, I hate that awkward small talk junk. I'm not good at it anyways. Okay, here I go for attempt 2 to get some food... wish me luck.

happy holidays.

relief

What a relief.

I went into this past weekend in a terrible mood. Due to some sort of mix up and a misunderstanding, I thought I was totally screwed over in French course. I missed a couple of appointments with the French department. (I'm taking a French course where you make one-on-one appointments instead of attending a regularly scheduled class.) Now I knew I'd missed these 2 appointments, but it was the first ones I'd ever missed and you are only penalized if you miss a total of 4. Due to some mix up, the department thought I'd missed 2 previously and those plus the 2 I actually missed brought me to 4. So they dropped all my appointments for the next two weeks. Well, school is only in session for another two weeks! I'd would be near to impossible to get all my work done. With no appointments, I'd have to wait around their offices in hopes that someone wouldn't show up for an appointment. With the end of the quarter looming this seemed unlikely to me. Then as if that weren't bad enough... I got a friendly reminder email from the department reminding me that all my French work had to be completed by Wednesday - a week and a half early! Now, I'd sat down with one of the grad students and made out a schedule of the quarter for myself and at no time did she mention this deadline. Well, I was in quite a snit by Friday. If I had to pass two French tests by Wednesday (with no appointments!) I would have to get cracking. I locked myself in the library Friday night, but things looked bleak.

Luckily on Saturday afternoon, the assistant director of the French department responded to my frantic emails and told me not to worry. He fixed it so I could make appointments again and told me the Wednesday deadline would not apply to me. Whew! I am so relieved that he could get back to me over the weekend. Everything is right with the world again.

The only down side is that I have to reschedule new appointments for myself. My previous appointments where all given away during the one day I was without my privilege. This puts me a little behind scheduled, but I am in much better shape now than I was on Friday!

dead end internet?

The internet is like one big, long, never-ending magazine. I'm not all that crazy about magazines. It's a lot of disposable information which tends to either be too trivial to remember or so timely it's outdated in a month. I don't want to bash too hard though; the internet is a wonderful source of information. It is my yellow pages, my movie directory and the host of most of my correspondence. It provides up the minute accurate information about goods and services. BUT when I sit down at the computer and star at the keyboard, I don't know where to go. I sort of click my tongue, my eyes roll around the perimeter of the screen, then I go and check my email. How is it that people (by this I mean my husband) can spend hours on the thing? What is there to do?

I am going to ask you guys to please let me know your favorite(s) website(s) that you would think I'd be interested in...

I'll go first, this one was given to me by Quiltbug's husband....

http://www.angryalien.com/

tricky lighting

It's been a busy week. For once I was able to back-burner French which is good because I've been working a lot on my 3-d assignment this week. I had to create an interior space in Maya. I have attached pictures below. The lighting is bad because I didn't know what I was doing, but I'm proud of it. The teacher really liked it. I made a movie moving through the room, but it was like 120mb file - a bit large for a blog. So you are stuck with the stand alone picks. I'm toying with the idea of redoing the lighting and then trying to render it out in MUCH higher detail, but of course, it will take much LONGER and be much BIGGER files. We'll see if I have time.





I'm thinking about skipping my class tomorrow. I usually don't skip, but I'm really tempted since we have Friday off. That would end my week on Thursday at 4pm.

that's not right

Okay, this isn't right. I just witnessed the oddest thing. So I go into the ladies room. A woman follows me in... eating an apple. First of all, why would you eat in the bathroom?! Not right #1. Then she jams the apple into her mouth and proceeds to thoroughly wash her hands. Then with the apple still jammed up into her mouth, she uses the restroom. So she has food in her mouth while she goes. Not right #2. Then, and this is the kicker, she leaves the restroom without washing her hands again. She grabs the apple out of her mouth and begins to eat again before the door to restroom is even shut again. Not right #3. AND, this is a full-grown adult woman I'm talking about here. She wasn't a student! I think she's an advisor for heavens sakes.

That is the grossest/craziest thing I saw in the ladies room all week. Number two (no pun intended) was hearing a girl on her cell phone while using the facilities. Where, oh where, has our bathroom etiquette gone?

happy halloween

I wish I had a costume today. While I haven't really had the time or the creative energy to work on one, I wish I had made one. Heck, I wish I'd gotten the ol'Halloween decorations out. I haven't even done that. Really the only celebratory thing I've done this year is eat too much chocolate already. Which isn't a necessarily good thing... It's raining today. I hope it doesn't last too long so that the kiddies won't have to trek thru it. The best Halloweens were when it was cold enough that the leaves were falling, dry enough to cut through yards and warm enough not to have to wear a dumb winter coat. How many great costumes are ruined by a winter coat!? too many, that's what I say.

At work today there was a costume party. I thought the best costume was this guy who came as a bartender. He wore a tuxedo shirt and bowtie. But the best part was that he BUILT a portable bar for himself to stand behind. It was complete with a mirror behind and the bar and attached stools in the front. It was quite elaborate. The other costume I liked this year was some kid who wore an Optimus Prime costume. He clearly made it himself. I was quite impressed with that as well. Maybe next year I can be Optimus Prime?

check it out <-------

Please check out the hubby's new blog at sketchscape!

parlez-vous francais?

me neither...

Bonjour! I hate French. Well, that's not true. I hate learning French. Yes, that is much more accurate. I've painted myself into a very fine corner at the moment. I have until Friday to learn an entire chapter of French. Why, oh, why did I procrastinate this! I should have been working on this all weekend! --or at least on Sunday for heavens sake. I am currently locked in the library. I'm sure my pounding on the keyboard is bothering all the acctually studious students behind me. Well, screw them. Wow, this keyboard is very clicky. I kind of like it. It makes me feel like I'm typing really fast.

i've said it before...

...and I'll say it again. I hate throw away design assignments. I'm sick of creating logos for myself. Whether it's my full name or just a symbol, I keep getting this same assignment by various teachers. Here is my latest (and NOT greatest) version of my own personal logo.

If and when the day comes I actually need to make a logo design for myself, I won't be able to take it seriously. It's like interior designers who live out of moving boxes for years and never decorate their own place. Or the computer programmer who doesn't own a home computer. Or the elementary school teacher who doesn't want children. Sometimes the things you do for work just seem like work when you have to do it for yourself.

a moments rest

I just took my second French test (or as my good friend calls them my "freedom" test). The 2nd of a scheduled 10. I passed so I am going to reward myself with no French homework tonight! This is quite a treat, let me tell you. Even yesterday (Sunday) I was at the library studying French. So lucky me is in the computer lab preparing to actually do some work for my other classes. This is good because I've neglected them a bit as of late.

On an unrelated note...
I am so excited! It totally is feeling like fall now. The leaves are changing and falling just a bit. The weather has turned and there is that fall smell in the air. All I need now is some hot cider from ye ol'Starbucks and a pumpkin for my porch. Not that I have a porch... it's more of a stairway, but whatever. OOoooOOh, let's pretend to that I'll get some of those dried corn stalk things too for the the "porch." I love autumn.

UGH!

I'm going crazy. I have back pain today. I guess it all started a few weeks ago. I think I did too much driving over a short period of time, plus I spent a few nights on a rock hard bed. After that my back was a little cranky in the morning, but it would be fine for the day. Now is a different case. I think helping Neonapple build a bookcase this past weekend put me in worse shape. I was okay yesterday, but today is a different matter. I feel like a creaky old lady. I'm in pain. I went to webMD.com for some advice. They said to continue my routine for the most part. Apparently bed rest can make it worse. And I'm supposed to ice it for a few days and then heat it for a few days. Ugh. I can't wait to get home. Work is done for today, I'm in class right now. All I need is to make it to my individual French appointment and decide how ambitious I'm going to be with my homework...

tomorrow

The first day of school is tomorrow. I will actually know somone in my design class. A guy I work with is taking the same class. It will be good know at least one person during the day. Then I have a nice long break and then French. EEk. Then after French I'll go to work for a few hours. It'll be a full day - especially since it's also the husband's birthday tomorrow. Speaking of which, I need to wrap a certain present!

Wish me luck.

an intern looks back

Well, today my internship ends. While I wouldn't go so far as to say I learned a lot, I would say they paid me decently for my work. They didn't pay me all that much, and I didn't work all that much. It all evens out in the grand karmic circle of work. This summer has felt rather blurry. I don't really remember all that much of it. I felt like I spent most of my time running between my two jobs. The daily grind. I'd forgotten how easily it is to fall into it. When I think about my last job which I worked at for 5 years, I can see how easy it was to just stay there. You get caught up in the rhythm of it, and you don' t even notice.

I'm looking ahead now. The nice thing about being a student is that the rhythm of life changes often. It keeps you on your toes and makes you pay attention to what your doing. (Unless you're drunk half the time, and then the reverse is true. Being that I'm not much of a lush, it doesn't apply here.) So in a week and half my classes will start. But for now, I'm going to enjoy a week's vacation.

later, gator