Every Second Counts

Goodness gracious, time goes by quickly. 

The title of this post was inspired by the Plain White T's 2006 album called... well... "Every Second Counts" I've been listening this CD on repeat pretty much all week. 

I look once and it's Sunday night then the next thing I know, it's almost Friday! I guess that is a mix of good and bad. School is good, i'm actually enjoying my classes for the most part. I am kind of ready for a break though. I'd like to just have a minute to breathe and fortunately Thanksgiving is right around the corner. We are currently in the midst of week seven which means that we only have 3 weeks left until finals week. Art majors are faced with the burden of 7 classes a quarter with 3 of those being studio classes.. however, we seem to be pretty lucky come finals week. Yay for only having 2 finals! It would be nice if they were on say.. Monday instead of thursday, just because then I could go home earlier and not have to wait around for a week but hey, no complaints here. 

I should probably quit wasting my time before dinner and go work on some homework. I'm meeting Ashley and Drake for dinner, working on some homework, going to volleyball practice and then going out to see a movie with Ash, Drake and some other fun kids. 

As long as I'm procrastinating on my homework... I'd like to thank people for actually putting up with my nonsense and coming to read my blog! It's kind of awesome to look at the map and see where everyone is coming from. 

Head of Skate

This is a video worth the full 1 minute and 34 seconds of your life it takes you to view it. 

Click here to watch it now.

Sorry in advance if you do not agree with the views of it, I just thought it was humorous and worth passing on. 

In other related news, I watched the debate tonight (or part of it, anyway) between Obama and Mr. Blinky-Pants. Goodness that man blinks a lot. I didn't really notice it at first but after I did, I didn't hear a word he said. Oops :) 

In unrelated news... today was KIWI day at Gracies!! Before coming here, I didn't even know I liked kiwi so much. Surprisingly, Gracie's (known for their less than average food) has amazing fruit, who would have thought? So on kiwi days, which only come once in a blue moon, I load up on it! 

Hmm, I think I should probably get back to my homework. I've spent over 6 hours painting today.. I'm covered from head to toe in black and white paint. Fortunately I only have one class tomorrow, yay! 3d was canceled for this week which has resulted in lots of unclaimed time (normally occupying 6 hours of my life). Tomorrow night I think I'm going to a volleyball practice in the SLC and then a group of us are going to see Night at the Roxbury, a free movie showing on campus hosted by CAB. 

Paper Bags and Plastic Hearts

Last night Ashley and I went to the Boys like Girls and Cute Is What We Aim For concert in the Gordon Field house (on the RIT campus). We decided to go all out.. and act like middle school girls by wearing the bands t-shirts! I guess it allowed us to fit in more at the actually concert because the average age was about 15.

We had a really awesome spot right up on the stage.. with no one in front of us which was perfect for picture, videos and getting to touch the lead singer of Boys Like Girls!

After the concert, both of our ears were ringing (probably because we were RIGHT in front of the speaker) but we decided it was well worth it and all of my hearing has returned as of this morning. I have a video of Boys Like Girls but it's taking a while to load on youtube... so if you have facebook you can go look at it on there in the mean time.

Tuning Out the Bad?

Ever stop and think sometimes why you like or don't like a particular thing? 

I'm a democrat. I'm registered as a democrat. I'm planning on voting for Obama for the current election. That being said.. why am I voting for him? Good question, I have no idea. Yes, it's alarming, the government has allowed naive people like myself to vote in the election. We're eighteen, legal adults, so what? How many eighteen year olds have a genuine interest in the election? Not a lot. I can't tell you the number of people I talk to who either don't know there is an election coming up, aren't registered to vote, don't know who is running for president or cannot tell you a single issue whoever they are "voting" for supports.

I've kind of always just identified myself with the democratic party although I'm not entirely sure why.  Partly because that's what my parents believe, sure? But not really. Can you feel a certain draw to a party, issues aside? Is it right to vote for one candidate just because you don't agree with the other? I guess. I feel sometimes like I just decided I was a democrat and I saw Obama was the chosen candidate so I decided to vote for him. I guess for a while I just thought all of his plans were great and everything McCain said was horrible and wrong. Perhaps I just glossed over the idea and didn't stop to really think about why I chose Obama. I just assumed I agreed with everything Obama said because of his title as "democratic presidential candidate."

Of course, I've done my homework now. I read CNN on a semi-regular basis.. although, I do have to say it's honestly because I mostly just enjoy reading headlines like "Local Mom Finds Giraffe in Toaster with Biblical Symbol Grilled On." No really, I do read the news online; occasionally I'll glance at a newspaper or Time magazine if I have the chance. I can tell you basic points of each of the candidates. I've watched parts of the debates as well as the vice presidential debate (which so did not deserve the title.. "debate" but that's another topic for another time). I'm currently working on a paper about the democratic environmental plan so I can tell you about the cap-and-trade program Obama wants to implement. I support his efforts with the G8+5 summit to bring developing and developed countries together as well as his plan to phase out 125 year old incandescent light bulbs and his efforts to enforce standards to prevent mercury pollution, air pollution and other things harmful to people and the environment. I like the fact that he makes plans for 2060 but then has target goals along the way since he cannot possibly be president until that time. 

Okay, so maybe I do have an idea why I'm voting for Obama. But do you know why you're voting for the candidate of your choice? Regardless of political party, let's try and pick a president who will actually run the country, help our current environment predicament and hopefully stimulate some kind of economic growth so that I do not have to live in a cardboard box in 4 years.. Oh yeah, and while we're at it.. let's go for a president who can pronounce "nuclear" :) 

Brick City Homecoming

This weekend was Brick City Homecoming, RIT's fall event when a lot of parents, families and alumni come to visit for the first time. My parents came up on Thursday afternoon; it was really nice to see them after being away from home for so long. Fortunately, amidst all of our rainy-rochester weather, it was an unusually beautiful weekend. 

Thursday afternoon my class was cancelled so I met up with my mom, dad and Sarah for dinner before my 6pm class. Had an ice cream party at 9pm, Ash and I have been saving up ice cream from gracie's over the past week or so :) Andrew and Drake stopped by too as well as a couple people from down the hall.

Friday morning I had class from 12 until 4. After class my parents took me out shopping to get some art supplies and more winter clothes-- thanks guys! Also stopped at Wegmans, of course, for some food items. Drove into downtown Rochester afterwards to get some dinner from a cool pizza place. Sarah stayed in the dorms with me all weekend and thanks to some idiots on the 9th floor.. I was able to give her the full college experience. Around 2 am Friday night/Saturday morning the fire alarm went off... there ended up being an actual fire on the 9th floor (with smoke coming out the window and everything..) so we were outside until nearly 3 am... Sarah only had boxers and a sweatshirt on..  Welcome to RIT :)

Saturday morning we woke up and Sarah, Ash and I went and got smoothies and muffins from Beanz, a coffeeshop on campus. Met up with my parents before heading off to see Bill Nye the Science guy. After Bill, we went to see a concert on campus with a bunch of a cappella groups.. yay eight beat measure! 

This morning we woke up and went to breakfast with my parents at "Jay's Diner" before they headed back down the road to maryland. It was a pretty awesome weekend, however, now I have an overwhelming load of homework to do before Ashley and I go to a concert tonight. 

Moldy Bread, Smelly Boys and A cappella Groups

This is what happens when you send boys to college with a loaf of bread... Yes, that's BREAD!

They forget about it for 6 weeks and then are surprised to find it has grown a thick layer of blue mold...

(Drake proceeded to dump it in the boys bathroom toilet... I took a picture but it's so disgusting that I'm not going to even expose you all to that.. )

Tonight Drake, Ashley, Andrew and I went to Java Wally's because they had an acoustic night. Three of RITs a cappella groups performed as well as a number of people playing guitars. I apologize for the poor picture quality.. the lighting in the room was dim and it made it hard to take a picture even with the flash.

This is what goes on at 2:30 in the morning....

ashley sits in a laundry basket and..

joey comes and gives us hugs! (and then hides from the camera..)

PIE PIE PIE

Oh man, you know when this list goes out it's getting close to Thanksgiving time! Yummm. Who knew you could have SO many different kinds of pie?!

Apple
Banana Cream
Blackberry
Blackberry Cream Cheese
Blueberry
Blueberry Cream Cheese
Blueberry Crunch
Butterscotch
Cherry
Chocolate Cream
Chocolate Mint
Chocolate Mousse
Coconut Meringue
Coconut Pineapple Dream
Cranberry Apple
Custard
Dutch Apple
Fresh Strawberry
Strawberry Cream Cheese
Fresh Raspberry
Lemon Meringue
Lingonberry Apple
Peach
Peach Praline
Pecan
Pecan Cream Cheese
Pecan Fudge
Pumpkin
Pumpkin Cream Cheese
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Raspberry Cream Cheese
Rhubarb
Sour Cream Apple Blueberry
Sour Cream Blackberry
Sour Cream Lingonberry
Sour Cream Raisin
Sour Cream Raspberry
Strawberry Rhubarb

You see, each year during Thanksgiving week, my Aunt Barb and Uncle Mark so generously wake up at some insanely early hour in the morning and drive far away to pick up hundreds of pies... well, not hundreds, but it's A LOT. Pies are so tasty. Mmmm.

I thought I would just take a moment and write about my favorite holiday ever. Usually Thanksgiving is a spectacularly wonderful week of hanging out with family however this year will be ten times better because I WILL HAVE NO HOMEWORK! RIT conveniently schedules finals week right before we go home for break which means I will have no obligations other than hanging out with family, swimming and, of course, eating lots of pie and Grandma's yummy rolls (which i hope she is bringing?!). Oh man mashed potatoes... Guys, we need some of those too please. Gracie's mashed potatoes are just disgusting!

Speaking of family.. mine is coming tomorrow! Yay! This weekend is Brick City Homecoming so there are lots of activities and such around campus for families. It'll be nice to see them since it's been foreverrrr.

Tad Chilly

Well, isn't that a pleasant thing to wake up to on an OCTOBER morning. It could start snowing if it was 5 degrees cooler...

Featured Artist #1: Chris Johanson

As an art student, I feel it's necessary to expose all of you, non-art-kids to a little art culture.

Today's featured artist is... Chris Johanson. He is an artist from San Francisco, California and his work is mostly with painting, drawing and sculpture. If you wanna read more about him you can click here.

We've just started a new project in my 2D class where we had to pick an image or poster and then turn it into our own image with a different meaning. I picked one of his pieces (not pictured below) and found his stuff to be kind of awesome. It's very contemporary and almost cartoon like. We're just on day two of the project so we'll see how it turns out!

(all images found by google image search...)

Say Something

Busy, busy, busy. That pretty much sums up my life lately. I'm finally not sick anymore! Yay. We just made it through week 5 which means there are only 4 weeks left until finals... what a weird thought?! I'm currently working on a giant 30 by 40 inch self-portrait of my face, writing a paper on the democratic plan for the environment, working on a 2d project, making apples out of everyday objects for 3d and trying to have a life in there somewhere. 

No really, I've been pretty good about setting aside certain time for homework and then making sure that i'm getting out too. It definitely helps that my floor is awesome so I can just walk right outside my room and find a ton of people to hang out with. Funny thing is that the other night when Ash and I were hanging out with a bunch of people we looked around and realized they were all deaf. It never occurred to me that the majority of my friends now are hard of hearing or completely deaf. I think it's kind of awesome, really. I've been picking up a lot more sign and I can actually hold an entire conversation without really awkward pauses. My finger spelling is still pretty slow but eh, that'll improve with time. 

greg and ash

drake dancing like always

he wanted me to teach him to draw so i said "here draw tigger" 

then he got frustrated so i just drew tigger... 

i got bored and drew on a bunch of people's whiteboards

Wednesday Drake, Ashley and I went to the girls volleyball game. Thursday after classes I met up with Ashley, Drake, Andrew and a couple of other people to see 21 at Ingle Aud. RIT has this thing Friday night after classes, I went to dinner with Ash and Drake (at Gracie's of course...). We came back to the dorms and ended up running around our floor until nearly 4 am. We did make an attempt to go out to Ritchie's, a free game room in the tunnels but the couches smelled really bad so we just came back here. Saturday morning we woke up around noon and then went out shopping. Ashley needed some ink for her printers and a couple of other things and I needed to pick up some board from Home Depot and some rag paper and more charcoal for my art project. It's super nice and super convenient that I have a roommate with a car :) Today looks like it's going to be very homework filled. I can't remember if there is anything else that needed to get done today. The huge, creepy drawing of my face needs to get done as well as the paper for writing. Since my parents are coming next weekend (well, thursday..) I'm trying to get as much done now as I can. 

We're going to be signing up for classes for winter quarter here in a few weeks (Oct 22nd). I met with my academic advisor the other day to go over which classes i'm going to be taking...  

Monday

8-10:50am ASL 1

2:00-4:50am 2d Design

Tuesday 

9:00-11:50am 3d design

12:00-1:00pm FYE

2:00-4:50pm drawing

Wednesday

8:00-10:00am ASL 1

2:00-4:50pm 2d Design

6:00-7:50pm Design Survey

Thursday 

9:00-11:50am 3d Design

2:00-4:50pm drawing

Friday

10:00-11:50am Vector Imaging 

So it'll be about the same course load as this quarter except slightly more challenging. We'll see how that goes, I'm taking the maximum number of credits they allow you to take without getting special permission. I've decided to "minor" or "concentrate" in american sign language. I'm still going to pick another thing to minor in but I'll probably wait to declare that until sophomore year. 

Maybe i'll see if I can get Ash out of bed now so we can go get some brunch :)