Last Semester

Terribly creative title, ne?

So I was supposed to have blogged yesterday but I didn't get around to it.  Mostly I was in a horrific mood and didn't want to subject you all to an entire post of my whining.  It wasn't that anything had really gone wrong I was just having one of those days that emotionally I feel like crap and every tiny thing annoyed me.  I hate when I'm like that and there's no reason for it, especially with things in my life right now.  I have so much to be thankful for and then when I remind myself it makes me feel that much worse for being such a colossal @$$.

Today is a bit better though, so here I am.

2nd day into my last semester of college EVER.  Thank the gods above because this university is trying my patience this semester, lol.  I pay them how much a semester and they can't even get mobile blackboard for us?  Yeah I can access it via my mobile browser but I just find it a bit ridiculous is all, though I should be used to the university spending more money on getting students here than keeping the sudents they have happy.

Crap.

Maybe I shouldn't be blogging today either.

*facepalm*

So my classes are looking good so far.  Fairly easy but we'll see if they stay that way.  One of my professors is British so that was a highlight.  I felt smarter just going over the syllabus the first day than I have in entire semesters of other classes *cough*Women's Studies*couch* (& the Great EYE!!! class) Plus my photo class sounds really fun, I'm just super nervous about my portfolio.  I'm scared and I need to really remember this:

 Then I think I'll be okay.

I hope.

Okay so since I can't seem to be anything but depressing I'm going to end this here and do some research for a class for a tiny presentation I need to do Thursday.

Oh after some thinking I decided to go ahead and keep the family blog separate.  I tell Okaasan about my awesome ibffs a lot and when I started the blog she asked if they would be commenting there and I said yeah some might and she was pretty excited about that so I'll let you guys know when I update it and we'll go from there.  :D  Oh and uh... I updated it last Wednesday after our ultrasound.

Speaking of awesome ibffs, go give the ever so sweet and funny Aubrey some love.  She lost her Grams recently and could use some extra hugs and love.

Free At Last

So I didn't blog much this semester but a large part of that was how much it sucked and how much work I was doing all semester.  Plus I had big news that I couldn't start sharing until after November 8th, hence yesterday's post.  Which was really hard not to do because there were so many of you I wanted to tell but after telling EVERYONE last time and then having to relive the miscarriage over and over whenever I ran into someone else who hadn't heard yet I refused to go through that again.

Classes were horrific this semester.

I had two history classes which involved two papers and two really intensive exams for each, the one only being 5-7 page papers though but the other being 10-15 page papers.  >.<  And his exams are brutal.  But I think I survived.  You never know with two essays on the final... He has really high standards but you know what, it gives me a challenge, which apparently I needed my second to last semester of my entire college career, haha.

Oh yeah... I'm graduating in May.  I have one more semester left.

*Giant sigh of relief*

Now to tackle that photography portfolio. ^w^

I also had a terrible Women's Studies class that was at 8 am two day a weeks (I do NOT do mornings which you know if you follow me on Twitter, lol) and it had a crap load of reading.  Oh best part... it had a man hating professor.  That was awesome.  It was exactly as I dreaded it would be- nothing but man-hating crap.  Sorry but ladies if you want to change something in the world, whining about shit does NOTHING.  Js.

Then there was photography where I discovered that with our photo prof as you get into higher classes you have less strict guidance & deadlines.  He has everything due at the end which is bad news bears for me.  I totally ended up rushing things at the end and did not get done what I wanted and I'm horrified at what I turned in.  I will however be prepared for next semester though!!  ^w^  The less strict guidelines is good though, be an art and all, it's nice when your professors encourage developing your own style before you leave college.

As for photography, keep an eye on my photography website too, as I'll be posting up some new photos I've taken this semester.  Especially of two lovely ladies I heart bunches who were awesome enough to let me snap some photos of them near the stinkiest lake in Greeley, lol.  It's a wonder none of us lost our lunches.  *shudders*  Especially my pregnant and nauseous self, hahaha (especially with this superhuman smell I have now).  Gonna have to redo some posts though as I didn't realize blogger strips all your metadata from photos.  

Thank you blogger!!!  /sarcasm

So now I'm using flickr to put them up because they keep all your metadata (info about your photo like creator and how it was taken).  Granted people can still be nasty little thieves if they really want to be, but I guess it's kind of like locking your car door, it keeps the honest (or I guess somewhat honest people because what honest person would steal at all) from violating Wheaton's Law, because stealing makes you a dick and being a dick is BAD, Wil Wheaton says so.  :P

Oh!  I almost forgot what else I did!!  Did you see in my novel progress that there's been an addition of a word count AND a little button/ribbon??

I won NaNoWriMo for the first time!!!

Even through all that crap in school (5-7 page paper due the 8th & 10-15 page paper due on my birthday) and going home for Thanksgiving and such I finished a novel!  Well I got past 50k words.  I still need to go back and finish things up, but finals was this week (and for non art students stuff is always due the week BEFORE in art classes) so it needed to take a back seat for a couple weeks.

Then it's edit time!!

(Gomen, just a tad excited)

But also on the to-do list for Christmas break is organizing my ridiculous amount of photos.

Hold me... I'm scared.

I started out my first digital photography semester quite well but things went downhill quick and now it's ridiculous how much organizing I have to do. *sigh*  But it must be done so I can keep backups up to date.

Oh on that note... back up your shit lovelies... trust me.

Wasn't me, but a gal in my photography class lost EVERYTHING 2 weeks before finals and had to re-shoot and edit everything.  Scary stuff, kids.  Well scary stuff if you have a ridic amount of photos, documents and such, not so much if you're one of those weirdos who isn't constantly on their computer. :P

Well that's it for now!! ^w^

World Class Hissy Fit

I watched my professor play drama queen and throw a hissy fit of epic proportions today.

Now really even though his classes are my hardest one (and are two of the three that are making my life a complete and total hell this semester) he is one of my favorite professors.  He tends to flip out a lot.  Normally after paper & exam time because "were just not absorbing the info" etc.  Well his classes is kind of ridiculous expectation-wise some times.  Actually most of the time.  He's one of those that acts like his class is your only class with the way he loads work on.  Seriously we we're supposed to have read a huge-ass book for one of the two classes and I could barely get it started by the time paper time rolled around.

So after we all do particularly horrible on our tests he yells.  Guess one class he even made them put their heads down like they did in grade school, remember that?? *shudders*  I hated the smell of those desks and the germs... *gags*  So honestly I haven't had to experience that, thank the gods above, but yeah he does a lot of yelling.

Well he's already been complaining about how terrible our papers are in my Japanese history class today.  So in our first class of the day we were watching a movie and I can see he's standing there during the movie grading them.  This is when the fit came in.  He's up there reading and making huge disgusted faces, mumbling, mouthing curses and making exaggerated marks with his little red pen.

I lost a lot of respect for him.

He yells about this being college and not high school all the time, but that?  That right there was straight up elementary.  I'm super disappointed in him.  And uber happy that I was dumb and agreed to cover a shift during my Japanese history class so I'll be missing the yelling that will probably take half of the class period if not more.

I understand being mad but if you're students are all doing that horribly maybe, just maybe, you should look to yourself and see what you're not explaining well enough.  Sure asking your peers to check your page about the paper to see if they can understand it is great but they are not college kids anymore.  Most of them probably have doctorates and barely remember their first 1-4 years of college...

Js.

Quickie Post #02

I know, I know. I've been a terrible blogger lately. *hangs head*

Damn school, job, internship, etc.

Internship is over now. I'm really sad that it's over but also kind of happy as it means it's one less thing I have to worry about. Going to miss watching games though! And running into hockey players here and there, though one of my fav players is now gone. :(

Job... still sucks. My coworkers are the only reason I can stand it. I'm just super lucky that they rock or I would go insane.

School... oh school. Wanna hear the news about school?

My Van Wilder plan has officially expired.

I will *knocks on wood* be graduating this fall. Those who follow me on Twitter know that I was totally freaking about it the day I finally turned in my major change form (I was still listed as Art Ed not just Visual Arts with a concentration in photography) and I was freaking out about graduating but also freaking about not graduating. Dumb right? Well now my fear is finally just not graduating. Life will be better when I'm done with school. I'll have more time to do the fun stuff I want to do. Yeah I'll still be working but full time classes AND working makes me wanna stab myself in the eye on an almost daily basis, so I am, ultimately, excited that the end is near!

So... uh there's a quick update. I'm off to read and write though... so for now that's it until I find more motivation to write a proper post.

Sorry all... my brain is fried. We're working on moving (and the lease isn't signed yet so I'm freaking we're going to lose it *knocks on wood for the millionth time*) and I just finished a paper and am so behind in photo studio it's ridic... so yeah I promise to try to write soon!

Begone Sad Post!

New post to get rid of my last emo post. I hate emo posts and I rarely do them so now I will write something worth reading.

So I've been working with an awesome photographer here at the Univ who is doing head shots for the theater dept. I've only assisted him one day (was supposed to today but the shoot was canceled) and I will be helping tomorrow. It's Peter Konerko who does head shots for actors and actresses as well as his own work, all of which can be checked out at his website. He's pretty much amazing and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I've already learned so much from him after just one shoot. I'm going to be way bummed when this is over.

As you can see in my sidebar--->
I finished Lover Awakened of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and it was AH-MAZING. Started Lover Revealed and just a couple chapters in was already struggling to not cry. Damnit. Lol. I still love it though. ^w^ I should be reading Matsui's Story and I will but damn it's hard to put these books down. Like tortuous to be away from them. #truth

Plus they have very well written sexy time. Yay for sexy time. ^w~

I am having a terrible time concentrating on homework. Srsly. It's ridiculous. I would rather read anything but a text book. Especially if it's my Asian Civ text. BO-RING!! I like history... just not reading about it via textbook. I did however do the reading and do my workbook for Nihongo (Japanese) though. I'd have what she assigned today done... if I didn't suck at kanji. Seriously I am TERRIBLE at remembering kanji, it's ridic. I know less than a 5 year old I swear, lol.

I got an order from Sephora today. I've been a member of their points thingie for like a year or so and just finally ordered. I got the Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion and the Eyeshadow Primer Potion. The Eyeshadow UDPP was the XL and came with a UD lipstick, lip gloss, mascara and eyeliner...

The verdict?

I'm in LOVE!

Urban Decay is my new favorite makeup and I'm thinking there are going to be a lot more UD purchases in my future. Srsly. My eyeshadow is just as perfect as when I put it on at around 1pm. Oh and the color is so much more brighter and what it should be.

Okay... I'll shut up about it now... I'm just so damned excited about it hahaha.

Oh and Lady A's new album comes out Tuesday... I'm DYING. I can't wait for more songs sung by the ever so sexy Charles Kelley. Srsly anything he sings is a #pantydroppin'song. #truth

Warning: I am about to get on my soapbox and rant about politics.

I'm thinking about getting more involved in elections, more than just my usual voting. Those who know me know that I am neither Republican or Democrat and I pretty well hate those parties because I feel like they have too much power. Most voters see their ballot and only pay attention to the candidates everyone hears about and ignores the fact that there are plenty of other candidates from other parties. I'm not saying I'm gung ho for the communists but everyone goes for the "lesser of two evils". Ummm no. Vote for who you truly support, not who you think is the least amount of trouble.

I voted from who I really supported. Later my G-parents (who I love dearly but we have WAY different political opinions) and I were having a convo about voting and I said that people need to realize it doesn't have to be the lesser of two evils and my Gramps said that if you don't vote for one of the two "main" candidates your vote was wasted. I replied with "Well I'd rather my vote be wasted than to vote for someone I don't fully support." He kinda caved a little with that. Which was awesome because he is stubborn (as am I) so to get him to even lean a little is something, lol.

So yeah that turned into a bit of a novel but what I'm saying is that I want to get more involved. Mostly in getting people to realize that in order to get away from this bs we gotta start paying more attention to ALL candidates and what they stand for and voting for who we truly support.

George Washington warned the country over 200 years ago about the negative effects of political parties in a letter he wrote to the nation just before leaving office.

“The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public counsels and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

Our main political parties no longer care about what is best for the people and the parties are too busy slinging mud to focus on the real issues at hand. I think it's time we do something about it and make a movement for a REAL change.

*steps off soapbox*

School, Thou Art a Heartless Biznatch

Thank you blogger for being a hooker and posting just the title of this when I was no where near the post button. WTFH?!

School is already kicking my arse.
Srsly.
I'm exhausted.
Early classes are the devil. Evil in its purest form.

My brain is fried and it's only been a week.

I am SO boned.

I swear I'll post something worth reading soon. Just wanted to pop in and say hello.

Actually to be truthful, I fully intended on writing a real post... but once I started writing all that I was going to talk about ran far, far away.

>.<

Go figure.

*groan*

Srsly?

Srsly.

Well school has started again and I have mixed feelings. Mostly I've grown used to having spare time and I don't want that to go away. Not that I really did anything of value with my spare time but that is besides the point.

Anyway... already this semester I know I will have multiple papers. Two of which are 5-7 pages. Balls.

I also remember now that I really should have worked on my Japanese over break too. >.< Oops.

Oh and yesterday some asshole backed into Ichigo. No damage but I was leaning against her (the road is way narrow and she's a two door so I was waiting for passing traffic) and she lurched. So I'm kinda waiting for said moron to finish parking and get out so I could tell him there was no damage. Well he was moving very slow at getting out of his POS van. So I get my stuff into my car. Then the dick head grabs his stuff and walks across the street!! No check to see about damage, no asking if my car is ok... NOTHING!

I was like are you effing kidding me. I have two theories about why, both of which are scary/maddening.

1. The old man didn't even notice.
Which makes me feel oh so safe and makes me think old people should have more in depth license renewal so old people who can't even tell when they've hit a car are no longer on the road or

2. He is, as said before, an a-hole.
Which makes me want to punch things. Mostly him though.

So yeah I was livid. For those who don't know I love my car. She's a '98 but gets 32 miles to the gallon (so car companies are full of it when they say they can't make new cars that get that without them being hybrid) and she just rocks in general, so I'm very protective of her. She may not look brand new anymore but she's a good car. (& if you want to know where her name came from watch Kamikaze Girls with Anna Tsuchiya. She would be Anna's character in it- acts tougher than she is, lol.)

However, I will end this post with news of awesomeness. I am for the next two weeks, a total of like 3 days, assisting Peter Konerko (an amazing photographer) while he does head shots for the theater dept. I was way nervous, cause he's amazing so I was intimidated, but he's awesome. So knowledgeable and I've already learned some stuff from him (and last night was just the informational meeting!) and I'm excited to work with him and pick his brain. I was in awe as he talked with the theater students about what they needed to wear, do, etc. Srsly.

You can check out his photography here: http://www.peterkonerko.com/

So yeah, I'm stoked.

Oh and I finally posted an intro to me on Ponies Don't Equal Orgasms which is a blog that will someday be known as (but not until we're all dead and gone) The Blog of Awesome. If you haven't checked it out and voted in our poll about what you want to hear us posting about then do it NOW! (Well after catering to me and leaving loving comments). ;)

Goals for 2010

So here it is folks, whether we want it or not it's 2010 and it's resolution making time. Well that means it's goal setting time for me. :D So I figured I'd share them with all of you, whether you care what they are or not. ;)

Number One: Finances
I vow to keep better track of my finances!
I also vow to make a plan to pay a ton of this shit off while actually saving some money away for both rainy days and emergencies and only buying what I have the means to.
Srsly. My finances are ridic & cause me oodles of stress.

which leads me to...

Number Two: Let it Be!
Quit being such a frikkin worry wart.
It never helps the situation and just gives me a tummy ache, tears and wasted time.

Number Three: Finish Novels
I have two novels I'm writing.
One I started summer of '09 and one that I started for NaNoWriMo '09. I ran out of ideas for the first (until recently) and then ran out of time and energy (One I started summer of '09 and one that I started for NaNoWriMo '09. I ran out of ideas for the first (until recently) and then ran out of time and energy ($&^@ing school) for the second so...
amp;^@ing school) for the second so...
I vow to finish them both this year!
As in "ready to send around and get lots of rejection letters" finished! :D

Number Four: Lose it!
Lose the weight that is!
I vow to lose 40 to 50 lbs (haven't weighed myself so it may be 50 now. >.< ).
AND keep it off.
I want to feel comfortable again, and wear all those cute clothes I refuse to donate/throw away so I have an excuse to not donate/throw away.
My plan: Exercise, eat smaller portions, less candy and pop (little to no pop, it tastes like syrup anymore anyway), and watch calories when possible.
Also with the exercising it's not only to lose the weight but to build me some muscles again, lol.

Number Five: Rock the home biz
I'm going to rock it this year. Hopefully enough that my puny two days at my job won't depress me so much. This means revamping hostess specials and everything.
I will succeed at this and it will help me greatly with resolution #1 when I succeed.

Number Six: Be a good student!
I have a happy bunny cell phone charm that says "I want to be a good student, unless that means coming to class." and that's kind of how I was this last semester and it screwed me out of a B+ so no more screwing around.
I vow to miss as little class as possible (2 days at most for art classes and 3 days at most for others).
I vow to stay on top of my homework this year and if possible stay ahead.
&
I will graduate this year! Even if it scares the shit out of me to do so.

Number Seven: Become a better photographer
This pretty much goes along with #6 since I'm a photography major but also involves some work outside of classes. Meaning grabbing some books and stuff that aren't required and asking my adviser questions to the point of being utterly aggravating. Be prepared John.


So that's what I've got so far everyone. I think it's important to always be working on goals for yourself so this may change (as in get bigger) throughout the year. I am determined to be the procrastination queen inside of me down and show her who is boss around here.

So what are your goals/resolutions for 2010?
Have a same goal and wanna be resolution buddies? :D

Art History Final- Survived.

So our professor for our Art History class is also a professor at CSU and they're still in classes this week or he had a final there at the same time or something so he said we'd have a sub. "So if you walk in and someone else is standing here, don't freak out." Lol. This prof was awesome but the material and tests were a total bitch. Like stab yourself in the eye just to have an excuse for sucking on the test, hard kind of tests. We're jamming tons of artwork, artists and art periods all on one test. This final was over- 17 art periods (all of which we need to know the time period for), 80 artists and 82 artworks (there were more talked about but slides to study was only 82). Yeah, pain.

So our tests are a bunch of multiple choice of identifying an artworks either art period, date, or artist as well as a few multiple choice of just random info like "What psychiatrist's work inspired the artists of the ___ period?". Then there is the dreaded essay in which we have two artworks which we much compare and contrast in addition to knowing the artist, art period and dates.

So our sub was Chip, who is probably the most hilarious prof in the entire university, no joke. He collects shoes. Yes HE collects shoes and he has quite the impressive collection of funky colored sneakers. I once watched him teach a student how to knock on a door. He opens the door, tells her to stay right there and then do what they talked about. He shuts the door and she knocks. Then he opens the door and says "Hey! How are you, come on in!" Then says "See how that works?" and I almost fell of the floor in laughter. It was nothing less than amazing.

With that being said, here (finally) is the funnies from today's final. Chip cracked a few jokes here and there "oh this is definitely Monet" on works that weren't, etc. Then the best comment all day was made.

One of the multiple choice questions was this work by Jeff Koons:



And Chip says "Oh those Italian pornstars" and the entire room erupts into laughter. Some of us are even giggling three slides later. It was epic.

Then comes the essay and yay I knew both of the works, their time period and their date and one of the artist's name. Crap. So I shit you not this is what I wrote:

The first work is a feminist work by a woman whose name escapes me at this point and time. Heh, oops. So then I just kept referring to it as "the feminist work" and then as I'm finishing the last paragraph, BAM! Barbara Kruger! So I go back and go to change it and realize how lengthy my little sentence was, and hoping that my prof and his sense of humor can appreciate my intial effort merely cross out (with one line) my orginal statement from "a woman" on and write her name above it. Hope he gets a laugh out of it anyway, I know I sure did.

Beer & Art History

So I told my dear Twitter followers I would explain why I need beer to study for Art History. So yeah, here it is.

When I went to NJC (a 2 year college in CO) I took Art History I & II. I met my friend Jared in that class, and he was also a model for our life drawing class the second semester (when we were also taking art history II). Oh the memories. Like the time we embarrassed out professor so much with our dirty jokes (of which the quietest and most innocent girl in our class was also involved) during which Jared was a model that he never asked Jared to model again. Oops. LMAO. Anyway so Jared and I started hanging out and then we were texting one night and he was at the bar, studying, to which I was like "yeah sure, studying the female form." So then one night before a test I go with him to hang out at the bar and studying. We started with the books, but ditched em quickly for a game of pool and a pitcher of beer. So then we started quizzing each other as we were playing pool. The next day I ACED my test. It was freaking awesome.

Yeah this class... not going so well and I blame Jared. He knows it too, lol. ^w~ How dare he go to one of the best colleges for his major and leave me here to study by myself? Lol.

Mental Exhaustion

I had to take a break from my attempt at homework. I have to vent and do it quick or I may explode. Warning- my sailor mouth is exposed in this post.

My day has been crap. Migraine which I fought all day, and having to go print photos in a brightly lit room while staring at a computer screen was not helping at all. Then I've finally got it down to a dull roar so I can work on other stuff and I'm so damn stressed I can't focus. I keep bouncing from one thing to another and I'm not getting a damn thing done as a result. I keep bursting into tears, which definitely isn't helping matters either.

So I have a little "interview final" due in Japanese tomorrow. Sensei will ask questions and I have to answer them. Simple right? Yeah you'd think so other than the questions are in Japanese and I'm having a hell of a time translating them, and well without knowing what the question is asking it's a bit hard to answer it. Don't tell me to try online translators either. I've tried them all and nothing ever fucking works and I've had it.

Then I have a final photo project due tomorrow which I'm stressing hardcore. Still not sure how I want to present it and what's in my head looks spectacular, if only I had the means to make it reality. Then I'd like to have resubmitted some photos from previous projects and done extra credit for this one as well but it just ain't happenin'.

Then on top of all that I'm pretty well failing Art History III. That class if fucking ridiculous hard. As in I don't know how anyone that doesn't have a perfect photographic memory could ever pass with anything more than a freaking C. Oh the best part? I have to pass it with a B. _^&!_#^&!#(_^&(@#&^!!!!!!!!!! So I decided to do all the possible extra credit available, which is a whole 4 art work comparison that will help me out with 40 test percentage points, which may help had I not failed two of the three tests we've taken. It would also help me out greatly if I could just stop bursting into tears from the stress so I could read the damn textbook and see the computer screen in order to write it. At this point it would be better if I could fail it outright, then at least I could do grade forgiveness...

Then on top of it all my dumbass agreed to do a party tomorrow evening. Why? I'm a glutton for punishment apparently. Normally it's something I look forward to. I get to have fun, crack jokes about sex, educate women on keeping things spicy and make a some money while I'm at it, yet I'm so stressed out that even that joy has been sucked from my life.

Pretty much I hate everything right now.

Also, feel sorry for my husband who sat here all evening, watching me burst into tears every little bit and not knowing what the hell he could do to help. Poor man.

Goodbye NaNoWriMo, Hello Week of Hell

So Thanksgiving was great. Okaasan made it and it was a good thing she got here when she did as the turkey got done an hour early so then we were rushing around trying to get everything else fixed, lol. My rolls failed. They're edible but they didn't rise cause I wasn't thinking when creating them, hahaha. It was still awesome and we all ate ourselves into a turkey coma and I had to take a quick nap before work. Oh and speaking of work... it was the longest four hour shift EVER. It was pure torture. Plus I accidentally knocked one of those big ass bottles of the "smart water" crap and it fell on the lid and busted and I ended up with a good portion of the damn thing in my shoe. It was super and of course it was as I was putting the last item on the shelf before I left for the night. >.<

But then we drove around and got some photos of Christmas lights as there is a house here in town that is just effing INSANITY. Seriously it's like daylight surrounding the house. It was a lot of fun though. Then we came home and watched Star Trek. For those who don't know I am a HUGE Trekkie. As in while in Vegas on our honeymoon we went to Star Trek the Experience (where I got my pic in a borg regeneration chamber, in the captains chair of the enterprise and with a Klingon that was hanging out in Quark's bar.) Proof?



Yeah my face is way red. It's what happens when I'm buzzed/toasted, which is about the only way I would have the balls to ask a Klingon to get a pic with me. Yes I'm sure these guys get this all the time but they don't break character for anything. Hell they prolly don't break character for a freaking fire, LOL. Yeah I really want that job. No joke. It is on my list of dream jobs.

Though the original series is not my favorite (They go in this order- TNG, Voyager, DS9 then TOS) I was excited to see this movie as it looked awesome so finally we rented it. And?


IT WAS FREAKING EPIC! I loved it. Plus JJ Abrams is my new hero. He uses some of the most simple things that most wouldn't even think of to achieve certain effects and he is totally going to be a huge influence in my photography in the future. So yeah it has my official seal of approval! Even Cody liked it. Yeah I'm totally going to turn him into a Trekkie.

Then today we put up Christmas decorations. Tree, the furkids' stockings, some garland, well loved nativity set and a few other odds and ends. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few shots of the nativity set and stuff put up and explain about my nativity set and ornaments in the next week or so. Someone remind me. Kthx. ^w~

So I have officially thrown in the towel on NaNoWriMo. I just don't have the time to write 30,000 words this weekend and most of tomorrow, Sunday and likely all night Monday, I will be spending on a painting. Also at some point I need to take glorious photos of said awesomesauce Christmas decorations for my final photo project. Oh the joy. Then finals are next week... AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! So not ready for them but so ready for this semester to be OVER! I have decided though that I am going to finish my novel though. It just isn't going to happen in time to submit it for word count. Super disappointed in myself but I just can't let my grades take a back seat so I'm going to finish the first week or two of winter break. :D

Anyway... enough babbling. Hope everyone had an AMAZING Thanksgiving! <3

^w^

Quickie Post #01

I say quickie... but we'll see how quickie it really ends up as I have a tendency to babble like a brook.

So first...
I got by best grade of the entire semester on my most recent assignment and get this... it was the only one I totally hated and it was a last minute decision (rather forced decision) to hand in. Here's what happened. I shoot hockey games and when I do so I change my camera format to jpeg. There's no reason to shoot in raw when all I'd have to do is convert it to send them in. In class we have to turn in originals in raw (or dng rather but my camera takes the photos in dng to start with which saves me a good 20 minutes- I love Pentax). Well I went out, took some photos and edited one in class no big deal. Well I was working on it again early Friday morning when it was due and I realized I had forgotten to change that setting. FUCK. The one good photo I had was now shit and I could never turn it in, so after bawling and screaming into a pillow and making my headache even worse, I went with a photo that was in raw that was one of many I took for my painting and then took a pic of flower, that was now dead, and boom. My two best grades of the entire semester, which are STILL only B's. Don't get my wrong I'm happy I finally made a B+ but son of a biznatch this entire sitch was well beyond frustrating.

So Much To Do!

So let's see. Last week was my birthday, it was great cause I got to hang out with my Mom, Grams and Aunt for most of the day and we ran around and went shopping. My Aunt got me a necklace, my Grams got me a card and Okaasan (Mom) got me the Twilight Saga Journals and yummy Ferrero Rocher chocolates. She almost got me a calendar too, lol. I had taken a pic of a RPattz Calendar for Kat (I take pics of RPattz stuff all the time for her, lol) and my mom thought it was because I liked it. I was just glad we figured it all out before we got to the checkout, lol. I got the rest of my gifts this weekend. A Scentsy warmer and three new yummy scents from my hubby, some $ from my in laws, a card from my gran-in-laws and lots of fun. :D

On another note I am stressed the hell out! Classes are totally kicking my ass as is my financial sitch. Ugh. I am so done with stress... unfortunately it doesn't even seem to be close to being done with me. >.< Big photo project due Friday and needing to start a new painting. Think I may have finally come up with an idea for this painting though, which is a huge step.

Going to take a study break (yeah that's kind of what I'm doing now too but let's not dwell on technicalities) later with Kat to check out the Leonid Meteor Shower. I'm excited (gonna hopefully be a photo or two that works out) since I've missed the last few meteor showers. Just hoping we don't get killed by gang bangers out in that area of town. I'm kind of hoping there will be a few other peeps with this idea parked out there so maybe there's a less chance of us getting raped or murdered. Yeah... The more I think about it the more I want to find somewhere else to park to watch it lol.

Anyway... that's about all that's new with me... oh other than being over 10,000 words short on NaNoWriMo. But since most of my homework is photos and painting (which I don't have the money to buy my stretcher bars til tomorrow anyway...) so maybe I could bust some out after taking some photos!

Here's to hoping I don't go insane soon....

Today was good, er bad, er... alright?!

I'm currently super irritated. I dunno wtf the deal is other than after I got out of class I had a voicemail from my boss telling me to call her because we needed to "have a chat". What?! What did I do? Well now I gotta wait until tomorrow to find out. I realized there is a training I forgot about, but I remembered that today and was gonna call and see if I could do it tomorrow. That's the only thing I can think of that I could possibly be in trouble with. The waiting is what's irritating me though. I hate waiting and not knowing. Now hopefully whining about it here will help me forget for the night.

The good news for the day- I got my painting finished (after pulling an all nighter to finish it) so that was a relief. I was nervous for the critique, this painting was so much more personal than the previous ones, so there's that putting yourself on the line with your subject matter, technique, etc. Got really good comments from my critique group and then I was talking to my professor about possibilities for my next project and she said that if I could just add some green in my background she'd like to display it in the hall! I almost jumped for joy. She's a pretty tough prof too so I'm really excited about it. She said it was "really beautiful" and during this semester I have really learned a lot from her and come to respect her and value her opinion, so this was HUGE.

Here is my painting (You'll have to rotate it so the blue is at the top):

http://twitpic.com/p0q8w


It's a cross between the technique of Anselm Kiefer (a german artist who used mixed media in his paintings, such as straw) and Georgia O'Keeffe who did the really big flowers to help illustrate their beauty and inspire viewers to look more closely at nature. I combined the two by doing a flower like O'Keefe did but I used grass to bring out the beautiful veins of the rose petals (and if you didn't know rose petals have veins you really need to pay more attention to them! I spent probably a good 20+ hours on this painting. It's 30" x 40".

Plus on top of that I get a night to myself, which is nice, though really it needs to be spent preparing for my next painting and next two photo projects. *sigh* Guess I don't really get a night to myself but I'm going to take it anyway... I'm running on no sleep so that's my excuse. I may post another blog later if I feel like it, but who knows. Damnit I hate having good news and then depressing news... it's so much easier when it's they other way around.