Rant Session Needed

There are some days when complaining is just necessary. This is one of those days. 

It's a rainy, yucky 50 something degree day here in Rochester. It's week 5 which is exactly halfway through the quarter which means lotsss of projects and such to complete. I'm also in the middle of a cold complete with sore throat, runny nose and feeling hot/cold. It's wonderful. Today was one of my two long days; classes from noon until 9 pm with two breaks at 1 and 5. Except today my 2 pm class ran over so I didn't end up getting out until 10 minutes before my 6 pm class leaving no time for any dinner other than one of those applesauce cups. So, basically I was in class from 2pm until 9 pm straight. Got out at 9 and then went and got myself a smoothie (yumm, good suggestion mom!). Waiting around until a floor meeting at 10:30 to discuss how the heck our bathrooms are getting so messy and full of junk that.

Now, I should probably end this and go get my laundry out of the washer before someone steals it or spills it all over the floor. 

Blog Worthy

So, you've all heard of a "message in a bottle" but have you heard of gummy philly cheese steaks, soda and pizza and tissues in a bottle?! I didn't think so. 

Eric asked yesterday if this was considered "blog-worthy" and as a matter of fact, it's extremely blog-worthy! Even the person working the post office downstairs had to laugh at it when I went to pick it up. Of course, it did take me about 5 minutes to figure out how to open it :) Ashley must have thought I was nuts. We were looking around for some kind of opening... duh! Under the label. Some guy down the hall walked past and was like "Can't you just take the stuff out of the top of it" Oh goodness. Thanks Aunt Barb, Uncle Joe and Eric for the awesome, awesome package... err, 2 liter soda bottle!

Busy Beaver

It's been one full weekend.. and it's only 8:00pm on Saturday. Friday night after classes Ashley and I went over to Gracie's and picked up waffles for Wonderful Waffle Wednesday! We came back and watched two episodes of the OC until Ashley fell asleep and I had to throw a cow at her. Worked on some homework in the lounge. I didn't want to paint in our room because it gets too messy. I'm working on this project for 2d design. We had to come up with a recognizable object and then make a pattern with it.. I chose pretzels because they're yummy. I think it turned out pretty neat? It looks a little funny on the computer.


After a few hours of homework we watched the last two episodes of the OC! We finished season one, yay! That took forever, there was never enough free time to fit a whole episode in. Went to bed around 3 after talking for a while. This morning I set my alarm for 10 am although i guess I kept pushing snooze because next thing I knew it was noon and my phone was ringing. Turns out it was Nicole.. she's from Columbia too and her family was up here for the RIT Open House. She's looking at the school for graphic design too so I said I'd meet up with her and show her around. Kicked Ashley out of bed and we got ready in 10 minutes or less and made it over to Gracie's to meet up with them. After lunch we came back here and I worked on some more homework until Nicole was done with her portfolio review and then I could show her around the dorm rooms and such. Went to dinner with Ashley at 5 and then Drake came in here and bugged us so much that we told him we'd hang out.. just kidding, we wanted to :) Walked over to Park Point for an outdoor concert they have going on. It was pretty decent, the music wasn't that good but it's really nice outside so it didn't much matter. All of the restaurants are finally open so people were giving out lots of free stuff, yay again! Met up with some of Drake's friends from elementary school back in St. Louis and hung around. Walked back and now we're waiting until 9 for Drake to come back and come to a comedy show at Ingle Auditorium with us. Tomorrow is homework, homework, homework. I have 240 gesture drawings to finish by Tuesday as well as another project for 3d and a paper for writing. Tomorrow night there is an ice cream social in the Sol activity room, wherever that is. It's one busyyy weekend!

Wonderful Waffle Wednesday

I think I'm going to have to do something about this having 4 hours of classes on Fridays for next quarter, it's really a drag. Currently I'm sitting outside of Webb Auditorium after my noon lecture class, creative sources. I like these little breaks between classes where I can just chill on a couch in the art building or library but then again it's an hour wasted because I could be painting or working on some other homework. 

Yesterday was one long day. I'm not exactly sure why it felt so long but by the time I got back at 11pm, I was exhausted-- and then proceeded to stay awake until 3 am. Okay, so I'm not the smartest person ever. But after 6 hours of intense classes sometimes it's nice to just sit around and relax. Last night I tried something new...after my 6-9pm 3d class I met up with my friend, Evan, and we went swing dancing! It was actually a lot more fun and a lot easier than I expected. I don't think we'll be going to any competitions or anything anytime soon, but it's fun anyway.  

Tonight is Wonderful Waffle Wednesday!! Yes, it is Friday but who wants to say Wonderful Waffle Friday??! Ashley and I have made it a routine that we get a waffle once a week on Friday and we bring it back to our room at watch an episode of the OC. It's nice to have a break before getting right back into homework. I never really feel like there are "weekends" here since there is always something else that needs to get done. Sure, I get to sleep in a little later, but I probably end up staying up until 4 am anyway so it doesn't make a difference. 

It's so hard to believe that next week is WEEK FIVE. How in the world did that happen?! We're halfway done with 1st quarter. You know the odd thing? Someone just told me today that we only have 11 more quarters until we graduate. I don't even want to think that far in advance, I hardly even know what i'm doing tonight! 

Let's Kill the Misconception

I can't even count the number of conversations I've had within the past week that go something like this...

---------------------------

other person: so you're an art major, huh?

me: yep.

other person: awesome! so you don't have any homework and have like 3 classes and can hang out all of the time! that must be really cool. 

me: *stares blankly* actually I drew tinfoil for 30 hours last weekend and then got my piece ripped to shreds and did it again! oh yeah... and I have 7 classes.  how many do you have?

other person: four.... 

---------------------------

I mean, whatever, people can believe what they want. After talking to a bunch of art kids yesterday we've all been dealing with the same conversation. Definitely not saying art is easier than engineering because I have NO clue about any of that stuff but it's frustrating to be seen as being in a "slacker" major when it's really not at all. At least I don't think it is.. 

Time to go draw more tinfoil! 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Who knew Monday could be such a good day?

Well, half of my day was said in the post below this one. So this one will recount the facts since 1:30 this afternoon. Had the 2pm 2D class. Today was a critique day since we just finished up a major project. Critique days mean we sit around for 3 hours talking about everyone's work and what we like/don't like about it. Sounds easy but it gets quite long and boring after a while. I've been working on this project for about 3 weeks now-- I think. I honestly cannot remember if I have mentioned anything about what this project was before, so I'll recap. We had to bend wire, photograph it, cut it up, piece it together and come up with something that uses line, repetition, movement, etc. I had one idea going for 3 weeks, it was pretty decent, however, there was something about it that just didn't seem to work. To get around this I went home and tore it apart. Sounds violent but you never know what else you can do until you try and I have a serious problem getting around my first idea so it's best to just destroy it all together. I'm SO glad I did because I'm pretty happy with my final piece-- and it even got an A! No small feat at this school... so it feels pretty good every once in a while.

I took a picture today of my 3d project too, but the picture came out so horribly because of the odd lighting in the room so I'm embarrassed even to post it up here. I'll see if I can get a better one tomorrow if it's not ripped apart by then.

I've been working on yet another tinfoil drawing tonight--due tomorrow. Went and played volleyball with some guys over at the SLC for a break from homework. Ended up playing doubles because there were only 3 other guys on the court, oh well, not bad for a Monday night. It was pretty nice because two of the guys have played before so there was always someone to set plus I got to pass a lot since the guy on the other side is a huge hitter. I think i'm going to play volleyball tomorrow night after class with Andrew's (Ashley's boyfriend) intramural team. We'll see. My class ends at 8:50 and the game starts at 9.

Anyway, I'm off to watch another episode of the OC with Ashley before bedtime!

Yay Weekends!

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Spent most of yesterday working on my 2d project-- lots and lots of gluing. Too bad I forgot that rubber cement has latex in it and i'm allergic to latex.. that was interesting. Went to quiznos for dinner last night with Ashley around 9 because I guess we were such good kids doing homework and we forgot to go to dinner. Yeah, the dining hall closes at 7 here. How stupid. Anyway, worked some more on projects and then two of the guys from next door came over and watched 60 minutes on our tv so I stopped to watch it since it was an interview with Obama. Later I went and watched some really dumb show with Drake called Stella. He tried to convince me it is better that gilmore girls (which he says is a biohazard...)... I don't think so. Worked for a few more hours and then hung out with Ashley and watched the OC until around 3:30. I love weekends! 

It's been a rather relaxing morning. Woke up at 9 to get ready for my noon class (had some printing and gluing to do) only to find out that it was canceled! Yay! I'm not exactly sure why, but we got an email around 10 saying that it was not going to be held today so I've been wandering around getting stuff done until it's time for my 2pm class. Re-organized all of my drawers/closet so that my clothes were easier to find. Finished up my project for 2d, worked a little on the tinfoil (due tomorrow), caught up on emails, and put up more pictures on my wall. It's kind of nice to have an unexpected relaxing morning since I finished most of my homework this weekend. 

Got a few more things to do and then i'm going to head over to building 7 to pick up some things before 2d. 

Yayayayay It's a good day and it's only 1pm =) 

Arts & Crafts

"Look Mom, I can balance a water bottle on my head!" ... So this is what our Saturday nights look like...

This is what happens when you have to work on an art project in a 10 by 15 room. Luckily, I just finished so i'll be able to sleep on my bed tonight, yay! This is a project i'm working on for 2d design. We had to take wires, bend them, photograph them, manipulate the photographs, cut them out, and then glue them all together on a 10 in by 40 in piece of paper. I'll post a final picture tomorrow.

Ashley and I went to NRH on Saturday afternoon to paint bricks to hold our door open.

Turn Right

Friday afternoon Ashley and I took Heather to the airport (well, Ashley drove since she has a car on campus.. i was just the direction-er). Having not been out much lately, we got a little.. uhm, lost? But it was okay. My favorite part is when I was reading the mapquest directions and they said "Turn Right" that's IT. No, turn right at elm street, just turn right. How silly of them. 

park point, the shopping place that RIT just opened in August.

After dropping Heather off, we went to Red Robbin! Yummm. It was nice to have some non-gracie's food.

How Many Kropogs to Cape Cod?

Ever feel like just dropping everything and taking a full day break? Unfortunately that is not really possible around this place. 

It was so nice outside yesterday, hard to believe that 60 degrees can feel too warm for a jacket. Maybe i'm adjusting to this whole cold weather thing? I hope. Woke up around 9:30 and went to this FYE "coaching meeting" which basically just means I had to sit in my professors office for 45 minutes and talk to her about adjusting to college, it's some mandatory thing we have to do twice a year. After the meeting I went and got a wrap from gracie's and then took a walk around campus before picking out a spot under my favorite tree for lunch. 

Spent the rest of the morning/afternoon in the 3d studio working on my clay sculpture. Had class from 2 until 9. Except we got out early, yay! Drew models in drawing class, it was okay. He mostly just told us stories all class and then we worked for the last half hour. Next class were drawing for three straight hours. 100 gesture drawings, anyone? I actually really like that class. After that was 3D and since we just finished a project yesterday we had a whole class critique.. which went pretty well! My piece was picked top 2 in the class. Not to brag or anything, but it's kind of a big deal when something goes right around here because there really is not a lot of praise. College is a huge shot to your self-esteem (if you had any to begin with..). I actually like critiques a lot, except when they make you talk to the whole class about which piece you think is the crappiest and why. 

Pretty much just hung around the dorm room/hall  last night. Went to get frozen yogurt with Ashley! Yummm. Watched hour and a half of football with Drake in the lounge.  Hung out with Andrew and Ashley. Then, stupidly, we decided it would be a good idea to watch a 45 minute episode of the OC... at 3 in the morning... Whoops. Luckily, we got to sleep in until 9:45 today. Yay for Fridays! Just had my creative sources class which is a giant lecture for 50 minutes and then we have to write an essay about it. Really easy. In half an hour is my Raster Imaging class which is easy as well. I sit there and do work for another class or play around on the computers. It's kind of annoying because I already know how to use photoshop and last class we were learning how to zoom in and out of a document... for about 15 minutes. Oh well. One easy class every once in a while is not a bad thing when you have 6 other hard ones.. 

Tonight after class Ashley and I are going to the airport to drop someone off and then going to Red Robbin! Yayy. We decided it was a good Friday thing to do. Making, yet another, trip to the art store and then coming back here for an improv show in Ingle Aud. Yay for not doing homework on a Friday night! 

Humans vs Zombies

Today marks the start of a campus wide game called Humans vs Zombies. Over 480 people are participating (not me...). Basically it includes people tying orange bandanas around their arms and then running around tagging people, throwing balled up socks, hitting people with nerf guns. It certainly makes the walk to class interesting... especially because inside is out of bounds so if you happen to be standing in a doorway, you will be steam-rollered by people trying to make it to safety. For more information.. Click here!

Anyway, it is going on 4am in the morning and i'm still plodding away at homework. This is my 5 minute break to make sure my hands cramp up and fall off. 

Had a floor "party" today to celebrate all august/september birthdays. It consisted of our entire floor (or most of it) piling into the lounge, eating brownies/chips and playing games. Silliness occurred. 

Aside from a 45 minute break for the floor thing as well as 30 minutes for dinner, I've been working on homework since 5 pm. Lovely. All I have to do is make it through Thursday at 9 pm and then I can sleep (guess what genius already finished their homework for Friday but not tomorrow...) Oh well. Luckily I do not have class until noon so I can work until 5 am or so and then get a good 3 hours of sleep until it's time to wake up to draw some more and write a paper! Woohoo, gotta love college life. 

Noise Level

Lately, the noise level around here has been insane. Between people running up and down the hallways at 2 in the morning (drunk...) and banging on all of the dorms and pushing the stupid flashing doorbells and the greek bids that happened today (the sororities ran around the halls singing at the top of their lungs and banging on doors to congratulate the new members). 

Then there is the issue of police cars. I've seen more police cars, ambulances, firetrucks in the past 3 weeks than I can count. There were the three firetrucks last week that surrounded our building with no explanation and then just last night (well, technically this morning) at 3 am there was a firetruck outside our building and a bunch of people were just hanging around outside. 

I've been doing a ridiculous amount of work lately.  Last weekend aside from a 2 hour game of volleyball on Saturday night I pretty much worked from Friday night after 5 until Monday morning at noon on homework. Every night after class, I generally work from 5 (or 9pm on tuesdays and thursdays) until 2 or 3 am. I mean, it's all art stuff but it's really overwhelming.  This weekend I have 3 projects (well, i had a forth but i finished it yesterday), as well as 2 papers all due on Monday or Tuesday. Woke up at 8:30 this morning and went over to the art studios for an hour, came back had lunch with Ashley and then went back until 3. Since then i've pretty much been doing... homework. Ashley's over at a friends house today so I'm lonely :( It's so weird having the room all to myself. You'd think after being in really close quarters with people ALL of the time i'd get sick of it, but i actually prefer being around people. Got some more stuff to work on tonight which I can hopefully finish before Sunday night (probably not happening...)

Aside from homework and class, school's good. There isn't a whole lot of time for socializing and what not. I go to lunch/dinner with people sometimes. I've been hanging out with some people on our floor too. Most of the time it's just Ashley and I hanging around. Everyone else is so busy it's hard to fit stuff in. Earlier this week Andrew took Ashley and I out to dinner to Ruby Tuesdays which was a welcomed break from Gracie's salad everyday. Wow, this is pathetic, I need to get out more. Maybe after Tuesday when everything is due. 

Roll the Dice

Roll The Dice
By Charles Bukowski

if you’re going to try, go all the way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.

it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance,
of how much you really want to
do it.

and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like that.

you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.

you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
its the only good fight
there is.

8 am Laundry

Alarm went off at 7 am this morning. That was not a very pleasant sound. 

I actually don't even have class until noon but I have so much nonsense to do.  Spent 13 hours so far on a drawing for one of my classes-- i'm 25% done and it's due Tuesday. Just ask Ashley, i've been eating, sleeping, breathing art. Basically didn't do anything except homework and sleeping all weekend and because of this my laundry did not get done.. so solution is to wake up at 7 am, draw for an hour and then go do laundry. To my surprise there was no one else who had that idea so I had the ENTIRE laundry room to myself. I thought about putting one shirt in each washer just because I could but then decided that sounded like a bad idea. 

Now I'm headed over to NRH to print out some stuff in the computer lab (doesn't cost anything, so why use your own?). Probably spend another hour or so drawing and then get breakfast/lunch before class at noon. Classes until 5 then drawing for an hour, dinner, working on my clay duck and then more drawing... you get the idea.. 

I'll try updating something longer and more meaningful on Wednesday once I finish the drawing. Of course, then I'll have three papers to write and another project to do. So hope you all have a happy thanksgiving, a merry christmas and I'll see you when I come out of the cave in four years at graduation! 

Clay Ducks, Wire and Stuffed Mooses

white board right ouside of our dorm room-- greg drew us some pretty pictures

tinfoil that i'm drawing for one of my classes

clay duck i'm working on for my 3d class

this is greg. he put on a puppet show for us with this moose he found in the stairwell. he's also been teaching us a lot of sign language.

this is a wire piece i'm working on for my 2d class. 

Firetrucks, Tinfoil and Uncle Plum

I've had far more adventures in this past two weeks than I have ever had before. Anyway, so yesterday morning I woke up around 7:30 and after a shower and breakfast I headed off to barnes and noble to pick up some clay. The store is only about 1/2 mile away so I just walked over. On the way down the elevator it started smelling really funny and I was on there alone so I pushed the nearest floor and got off and walked the rest of the way down. I was probably 200 feet from the building when I start to hear firetrucks and then 3 of them drive up and surround my dorm building. I was going to turn around and go back in (dumb, I know) but I just decided to keep on walking because I really needed that clay. I still have absolutely no idea what they were doing here-- but at least the building wasn't on fire :)

After coming back with the clay I headed over to the art building to go sculpt some clay for two hours. We have this project in 3D to make a banana out of clay (ironic? i think so). I went up to the professor and I was like dude uhmm, I'm not touching that. So he gave me a duck. Worked on the project for a while and then I had to go to Creative Sources. That class is basically just a lecture that happens once a week. They bring in some artist and they talk for an hour. Yesterday's artist just happened to be my drawing professor, Clifford Wun. It was pretty cool to see some of the stuff that he's done in the past. It's pretty nice to be able to bring your computer into that class-- i just recorded the entire lecture on it! I haven't checked to see if it worked yet though.

Last night Ashley, Drake and I went to a CCC meeting just to check it out. It was alright, we all agreed that we didn't really fit in all that well, although the people there were super nice and inviting. It wasn't really that overly pushy either which was good. Walking back from the meeting we came upon a concert, Uncle Plum. Ended up staying and watching that for over two hours and then watching the fireworks afterwards. Came back and watched a few episodes of the OC before people started bombarding our room. Talked with a few of the deaf guys on our floor which is kind of neat, it's a great way to pick up sign language quickly. They stayed until nearly 5 am, although I fell asleep at 3 so I missed most of it.. oops :P 

Woke up this morning at 8 and drew for a few hours. Waited for Ashley to get up and then we went out to breakfast/lunch around 1:30 with Andrew. Went to the art studio and worked on my clay duck for about 3 hours. Tried to do my 2D homework but the stupid printer in the lab wasn't working, oh well that's what tomorrow is for. Ashley and I went to dinner (at gracies...) and had some... SALAD! Who woulda thought. About halfway through two guys came up to us and asked if we wanted to come join them for dinner. It's college and we're supposed to be social so we accepted and it turns out that they were sitting at a table with 8 other guys (yeah, the ratio is obvious around here). After dinner two of them invited us to go back to their dorm and play wii and rockband with them. Hung out for a while and then we ended up going to the Gordon Field house and playing volleyball with 10 other guys. They all seem pretty cool and it was nice to play volleyball again. We played against some guys from the club team and almost beat them. Came back here, watched an episode of the OC and then we ended up just talking for the past two hours. I think it's bedtime though! Got a ton of work to do tomorrow. I'll try and post some pictures later of my project, I took some today but I'm too lazy to upload them at the moment.

Tough Times

There are times when it's hard being the only art kid on the floor. 

Example:

It's currently Thursday night (well, technically friday at 12:42 am but whatever).  Everyone on my floor has either gone out once already and is getting ready to go out again or is going out now for the first time. By "going out" i mean to parties and stuff.  It's THURSDAY night guys, come on, can't you wait for a weekend?? Everyone else on my floor is a liberal arts major and that particular college doesn't schedule classes on Fridays so this is technically everyone's Friday. And then there's me: I have class from 12-5 tomorrow and then the thought of three large projects due next Tuesday as well as two papers and about 50 pages to read in a book which all needs to get done this weekend. According to the teachers time estimate, the three projects together should take anywhere from 30-35 hours to complete. This is wonderful. 

Now, of course, don't get me wrong. I'm absolutely loving the classes. I got to mold a duck out of clay today in 3d! I'm really happy with my new 2D design professor and drawing is amazing as always. It's just kind of frustrating because I feel like if I had a Friday off I could get so much more done on my homework before Saturday rolls around but oh well. I am still looking forward to the classes tomorrow. 

Guess it's bedtime for me. Need to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow morning for some more clay and then I think i'm going to work on homework until my noon class. I'll try to post some pictures of my current projects tomorrow if I remember/get a chance. 

Morning Wake Up Call

It's day four of classes, two weeks into this whole college thing and I have not once slept through my alarm. Go me! 

Of course, I have had a little help from the NOISY CONSTRUCTION OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW. Who knows what they are even doing out there, I just hope it doesn't cause a giant sink hole outside of our dorm. It's been going on since about 8 am this morning and I was just a tad annoyed because I don't have class until 2 pm. Luckily due to my amazing sleeping abilities (thanks dad!)  I was able to fall back asleep until 9:45. Woke up, took a shower, got a package from home! (cookiesss, mmmmm) and then went out to lunch with Ashley.  We even had something other than salad for lunch... a wrap! Which I guess for me is technically just salad in a tortilla but oh well it was very tasty. Now i'm just waiting around until 1:30 to walk over to class. I finished all of my homework last night like a good kid so I just get to hang out today! Yay. Two classes today, both 3 hours so I won't get back here until 9pm but i'm looking forward to drawing today so I don't mind it's such a long class. 

(hole at 10 am)

(large ditch at 12:30)

Had class yesterday until 5 pm and then met up with Ashley for dinner at 6:30 after her class. We've taken to eating outside on this giant concrete thing (which i've posted a picture of before). We're trying to take advantage of this really nice weather before it becomes too cold to eat outside. It's 72 degrees outside today, so nice. After dinner Ashley was kind enough to drive me to the art store (for the second time this week) so I could get supplies for classes. Unfortunately the bus system does not reach the art store so I'm lucky enough to have a super awesome roommate with a car. 

Let's see what's happened since I last posted... I switched out of one of my classes because it was way too easy. I actually just switched to the same class but with a different professor who seems really good and pushes us a lot more. Went to Walmart on a shopping run with Ashley to buy animal crackers and other things we needed. I had a professor for the first time that made me realize why I came to RIT in the first place. He's seriously amazing, tough but good. I'd rather be pushed than learn nothing and get easy As. Went out for pizza with Ashley and Andrew on Tuesday after my 9 pm class.. it was a nice change of pace from salad. 

Yay! Tomorrow is Friday. Unlike everyone else on my floor, I have class tomorrow but I'm actually looking forward to them. I haven't had raster imagining yet so I'm thinking that's going to be a good class. Plus for my creative sources class my drawing professor is coming in and showing all of his work so that'll be pretty sweet. Not really sure of any plans for this weekend. We're having waffles tomorrow for dinner which is exciting-- Ashley and I have declared Friday to be waffle friday. Got a project and two papers to do this weekend. There are also a couple of greek events going on around campus on Saturday so we might check those out. I think there might even be a lazy river/hot tub run.