Sep 30, 2010

I hurriedly read the paper I had to read for Hottle's class and wrote my response to it in the morning before getting to his class a little late. It turned out we weren't going to get to it today anyway so I didn't need it. Oh well. After that class I went to get food with Brian and we went to Hollybush so I could take shots of one of the statues that no one photographed. It looked like it would start raining at any moment but we made it back to Westby before that happened.

I started over on my website since my files were all gone. I used a different picture and I added a background to the computer instead of using the blank black screen. It makes more sense if it's supposed to be displaying something like it's on. I think the simple addition of the desktop background and the window displaying all of the content adds what was needed. Maybe it's good that I lost those files..

I went to GSA where we talked about upcoming events and then voted on the homecoming banner designs. I like this one. We talked about some of the terrible things that have happened over the past week involving teen suicides. It's easy to lose track of what's going on in the rest of the world when you're confined to a few places most of the time.

Heather and I went to Olive Garden after the meeting. I got the endless pasta bowl of course. Our waitress was pretty terrible. She took forever to come back to us and kept forgetting to bring things. We heard her apologizing to other tables as well for making them a mojito instead of a margarita. She was not having a good night. She was really nice, just not a good waitress. The food was good though and I had leftovers to bring home.

The rain got really bad on the way back to Rowan. We decided to go out in it once I put my phone inside so it didn't drown.

Heather got a little more into it than me. She really wanted to get soaked so she sat in puddles. It was fun to walk around barefoot around campus.

The rain was hard at times and slacked off now and then. I was hoping for a giant downpour which it didn't do for very long. I got some cool shots of the rain and reflections on the wet sidewalk. It was a lot of fun. Luckily I had dry clothes to change into after that.

Once I dried off and hung out for a while I went home and had work to do while I checked Subfinder for a job all night.

Sep 29, 2010

I came to Rowan an hour or so before class so I could sit and sketch some type designs. I actually made a good amount of progress and got some good ideas down. We worked on refining our finished products in Typography while Jan came and helped us individually with our progress. I wasn't having an especially creative day but I liked the way a few of my high contrast pieces were coming out. I left the lab for a short time to talk to Tom and I realized I had left my flash drive in the computer so I came up to get it and it was gone that fast.

After someone stole my drive with all of my type and web work for the past few weeks on it I wasn't feeling like continuing to work so I got some Moe's and went home. I went to the lake for sunset and the water was really calm and reflective which made for nice shots.

I went up to Rowan again to work on things instead of wasting time putting it off. I got some re-done before meeting Shannon to watch Toy Story 3 at the Student Center. Heather joined us halfway through. It was still really funny the second time. Shannon might have cried at the end a little. Or a lot.

I went back to Westby after the movie and worked on things with Alex in the lab. I was there for about two hours before I decided I should leave.

I made some progress today.. even after losing all of that work. I guess I lost more than I gained but after my initial aggravation with losing it I somehow felt more motivated to get more work done.

Sep 28, 2010

I had Art History in the morning and then went to the studio with Keith right after with Alex and Mark to get our refresher course in lighting. There is a lot of stuff I forgot so it's nice to hear it again. I hope to use the studio soon.

I went to Web after that and worked on getting the site up and running. I got a few things done with the links and we had a little critique on our side of the room. Jenn wants me to design more of the inside of the screen so I need to come up with some ideas for that.

We went to Quizzo at night where they were going around taking photos of the teams for the new Facebook page. Shakedown joined us for a shot. We did quite well on most of the rounds this time and we came in first place, 90 points ahead of second. Oh and Heather brought cookies for all of us. They were delicious.

I went home and tried to get to sleep early so I could get some work done early the next day.

Sep 27, 2010

I went to Westby early in the rain, just not as early as I planned. I tried to work on some type things but I didn't get a lot done before the Gallery meeting. I think we actually got somewhere this time in the meeting and landed on something of a direction that we want to head with the book. I don't wanna give anything away so you'll have to join the Gallery or wait for the book.. or later posts.

In Typography Jan looked at some of our sketches and on-screen designs. She actually liked a few of mine but I guess overall the class wasn't progressing the way she had hoped so she stopped the crit and we started doing some sketching exercises by tracing type and working with our title and author only instead of the body of the text.

I can honestly say that doing that exercise made me think about it in a different way. It's hard to go to that method after working on the computer but it definitely takes you in a different direction. I liked some of my ideas even though one of mine was compared to a third grader's work by Jan.

I was not in the mood to stick around school so I headed home and had some food then went to see my grandmom for a bit and ran to the grocery store for her. She's doing much better for anyone who is curious. I came home and watched new House, Chuck and How I Met Your Mother. Yes, another productive evening. I'm planning on doing some real work tomorrow. Seriously.

Sep 26, 2010

I went with Ryan and Erika to the gym in the morning. Ryan and I did a bunch of 4-minute exercises mostly leg things which I was happy with my ability to finish. After changing we went to Peking Tokyo for sushi. I got a Mountain Roll after Chuck suggested it and it was the best roll I've ever had. Doesn't it just look awesome? It was. I want another right now.

The rest of the day was fairly unproductive. Of course because I planned for this to be a very productive weekend. It always happened. I did meet Katie at Larry's II to have some tea and work on some of my Typography pieces. I got some good ideas from her but I still need a lot more.

I came home and eagerly awaited the premiere of Dexter. I watched Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men while I waited for it to come up online and then I finally saw it. So sad. This will be a good season. Such an unproductive weekend.

Sep 25, 2010

We called off hiking since everything was so far away and we had a time limit for the day so we went and got blueberry pancakes at Prof's and planned to go see a movie. Forrest Gump was on one of the TVs while we were eating and it made me want to see that.

We got back too late to get to the movie we were going to see so we went out and took some photos along the train tracks. And balanced on them of course. It was pretty hot out so after walking around for a while we went back inside and watched The Breakfast Club. It's a great movie that I haven't watched in a long time.

I went home and went to the lake for sunset. I took a few pictures but I mainly just walked around enjoying the scenery for once. It was nice and calm out. The weather had finally cooled off and the breeze coming off the water was great.

I came home and gathered wood around the yard to get ready for the fire. There's still a good amount of firewood lying around from the tree falling down. I got it started just as people were showing up.

Steve and Jamie were in town for the weekend from Denver for his birthday so we had to hang out for a while. We had some beers and talked about the stupid stuff we used to do before we drank beers. I got Brooklyn Oktoberfest and it was really good.

Ryan and Erika joined us after a while and Ryan took over as the tender of the fire. I got to sit down for a while and enjoy it. I really like this picture. We were sending Sketch chasing the ball over the fence to keep him busy for a while as we avoided the smoke from the fire and quoted Arrested Development. Good times.

Once everyone had left I put the fire out and came inside and got right to sleep. Fire always makes me sleepy. As does beer. It was a lot of fun catching up with Steve though.

Sep 24, 2010

It was a very foggy morning that I didn't get the chance to photograph because I had a job at Wood School. I started out with a fourth grade class that did some worksheets and then watched the first half of Sky High. It wasn't so bad. After lunch was a different story. I had a second grade class that was uncontrollable and just out of hand the whole time. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I went home for a short time before going to my mom's house for dinner. Aiden was there also, but he didn't like the broccoli and cheese macaroni that we were eating so he had an alternative meal of pepperoni and cheese. He seemed to enjoy that. I stayed there for a while after dinner looking at photos and talking.

I went to Heather's later where we had a few beers and looked up things on the internet for a while, trying to find somewhere to go hiking around here. There really isn't anywhere less than three hours away that's worth the trip.

Sep 23, 2010

School was school. Art History was alright. I went to get food after class and realized I didn't have my wallet.. but I came back and Alex loaned me some dollars so I could get my eggs! We did some critiquing in Web but I just worked on my site and realized that I have a lot more to do.

I was not having a great day at all so I came home and hung out by myself. The night was really nice so I went out for a run listening to the Starting Line. It's amazing how quickly that picked my mood up. I ran about 5 miles around the neighborhood and then when I got back home I really didn't feel like going inside. I took a walk all around and took some night photos. The weather was perfect. I want every night to be like that.

I finally came inside after my run and walk feeling good. The feeling didn't last too long but I'm glad I had it for a while.

Sep 22, 2010

We had a critique on our first five type pieces in class this morning. It was supposed to be the finished products but everyone got suggestions so I guess that will not be the case. I have a hard time being creative with type it seems and one of the hardest things is figuring out where to place a text block on a blank page.

After class Brian, Matt and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. We got this monster pizza for a good price. It was an excellent visit that satisfied the hunger we endured throughout our class.

Brian and I went out in front of Bunce to play some frisbee after eating. I was surprised at how well I was able to throw an ultimate frisbee after not playing for a while. I miss that game. It was pretty hot out but we ran around for quite a while.

Heather joined us after her class and we threw the disc around for a while longer before Brian left and we hung out for a bit.

I went home and met Ryan at the gym where we did 4-minute sets of seven exercises, mostly arm stuff. Basically, you do as many reps as you can and then rest 20 seconds and do as many as you can again, repeating that pattern until you get to 4 minutes or 60 reps. It works well and you can feel it.

I came home and did some laundry and watched Weeds and other new episodes.

Sep 21, 2010

I went to Rowan early again to work on homework and then had my weekly meeting with Keith to show him the images I'm using for my book. He gave me some good suggestions on how to organize it and then I went to get some food before we met again.

For our little Portrait group Keith took us outside to talk about natural light and then we went into the men's bathroom to look at diffused light through the window. Alex was our model. It's good lighting.

We had Web next and we did some demos and then spent the rest of the class working on things and trying to get stuff to work. It wasn't going so well. It's starting to get frustrating. I hope I can get these things working soon. I have about a week before it's due.

After class I went around to the Seward Johnson sculptures on campus to shoot them in interesting ways for possible inclusion in the reception they are having in a few weeks. I took some that were decent but some are just hard to work with.

This was one of our images at Quizzo. It's Lindsey Lohan and Chuck said, "Oh yeah, because of the ankle bracelet." That was just the first of quite a few hilarious things that happened. There was some question about methane being the most prevalent gas on Venus and we joked about Uranus before a later question turned up asking if methane was found on Uranus. And finally, after the question of which celebrity was arrested for selling bongs on the internet was answered as Tommy Chong, the woman behind our table said, "Well, that was a joint effort.." A Joint effort. It was a good quiz.. but we missed third place by ten points. Damn Happy Burgermeisters.

After the quiz I took Heather home and went home to watch new TV shows.

Sep 20, 2010

I went to Westby early to work on things for Web Design and other classes before the gallery meeting. Alex brought melons to the meeting for us. We're trying to narrow down our design ideas for the publication and we have some good ideas to start with.

Then I had Typography, where we critiqued some of our work and worked on it for the rest of the time. I got a lot of suggestions that made me realize I'm still not very good at designing type.

After talking to Tom about my possible sculptures, I came home and didn't do much for the night besides some grocery shopping and sketching some ideas.