Yikes!

Wow have I been too busy to keep up with this thing! I guess I have a whole week to re-create! That's too much... I'm not going to remember the beginning days of the week, just the past few. Damn. That's why I like to write at least every other day, so I don't forget. But I just haven't had ANY time. It's lame. I haven't had much time to talk with people on the phone either. Which reminds me, since I have some free time tonight, I should at least call Sophie. But I kinda wanted to catch up on sleep, because with the lack of free time to write in my blog, there's also been a lack of free time to sleep. Actually, I think I'll get ready for bed right now and then as soon as I'm done with this entry and can just crash. It's only 8 o' clock, I know, but I could go to bed now except that I'm still digesting dinner, and this blog potentially will take a while, depending on how much I can remember.

Whew, okay. That took a lot longer than expected because I was trying to figure out this stupid registration online for next semester, and all I need to say about that is, if you’re going to bother to “keep up with the times” and make everyone register online, make the effing online program WORK! Because it doesn’t. And I’m fed up with it.

Moving on… Monday? Who knows. Tuesday? Ah yes! No LCD! It was brilliant, it was beautiful. It was sleeping in, it was… Drawing homework… blah. I drew a paper bag. That was out homework. It was tough, and didn’t turn out so well, and then my teacher deemed it “unfortunate” which made me laugh. No, really. I took no offence. I found it rather funny. Uhm. We painted in ink for the figures. Boy, did that blow. It was really really difficult. We had to do shadows vs. light. The shadows were the ink. Duh. Thursday… Oh man, Thursday kinda sucked because I was scrambling to get homework done because Dad was coming Friday morning! I did as much as I could, but not as much as I wanted. I was drawing a tree outside and my hands went numb. Haha.

So Dad’s here! It’s awesome! We went to Long Island and to Union Square and out to dinner and lunch in a bunch of different places, which I’ll tell you about in detail hopefully soon, but right now, somehow it’s already 10 and I need to go to sleep. Dad’s leaving on Wednesday =(

I hope you enjoyed my lame short entry.

Weekend...

So... My weekend was odd, but I don't even know why. Do you ever get into moods that feel like they should have been caused by some odd thing, but nothing actually starnge happened, so you don't know why you feel weird at all? Well, that's how my weekend was and is I guess, because it's still Sunday night. So... I called Adah, and I figured out that she and Cliff had already left for the city and I was sad, but Adah just thought I'd still be sleeping because she knew how tired I was... so I went and hung out with Morgan until they got back at 5, and then the four of us went to Union Square, to Strand, this awesome bookstore that everyone knows about around here, and the Whole Foods where we got a delicious dinner from the salad bar, and I also got Inari, which I haven't had in months! Since I was home! Oh yea, and me and Morgan began our swapping of music because we have the same awesome taste in good music. Hehe. And then last night when we got back we all watched Dogma, which is excellent and really funny. But it'd not a movie for everyone... But yea, I'm glad I watched it because I ended up seeing Eddie today and it was pretty boring, not in a mean way, but neither of us had much to say. So yea, I have to bite my tounge in the future because I ended up enjoying the movie more than I would have enjoyed going to Eddie's.

So then I went to bed at about midnight and got up at 11. I decided to go into the darkroom and develope my negatives and make contact sheets considering that I had 4 rolls to do and I have a critique on Friday and I need to print a few more pictures before that on Thursday and I like to do my negaitves and my printing separate so I can concentrate fully. Does that make sence? So it took me about 3 or 4 hours to develope them and make 4 contact sheets because I was taking my time and eing slow and feeling weird. Adah called me because she and Cliff and Ronny and her roommate were in the Villiage again and she was wondering if I wanted to come, but I had just started developing so I was sad because I really wanted to go. And I had plans to hang out with Eddie for a bit so I figured I'd see them when they got back. But then Cliff left before I got to see him! So that was sad, because I really liked him. I think there's a pretty good chance he's going to transfer schools and come here next year, which would be awesome! He wants to be a film major, so I told him it was a good school for that, mostly because I wanted him to come here. Honestly,I haven't decided what Pratt's good for yet. How could I know? I've only been here for 2 months. But I'm sure it's good because this is a good school in general it seems.

Anyway, so I was sad because I wanted to be there with them! They sounded like they had an awesome time. Instead, I was in the darkroom and Max came in! Oh man, it kinda made my day. She's just awesome, I don't even know, I just really really like her. And we hadn't hung out in over a week so it was just a really nice surprise so we hung out for a bit in the darkroom and it mostly just made me more firm in my conviction that she's awesome! Morgan left this morning for home (Max and Morgan are room mates, incase you forgot) so I might spent a few nights in her bed to keep Max company. Morgan'll be back Tuesday night. Oh! And I'm super excited because Dad's coming Friday morning! We're gunna go all over the place ot Long Island and the store Grama grew up over and I'm so excited it's gunna be awesome! I invited Morgan and Adah to maybe come with me on one of those trips. We're gunna take pictures and see awesome things and hang out I haven't seen him in over 2 months! Sorry if this is really all over the place, but I'm in Adah's room with her and Ronny right now and I'm doing this to keep from distracting them from studying but they're distracting themseleves and me from writting this, hence, it's all over the place! I'm in a better mood now because I love Adah and this whole weekend was full of just hanging out and doing nothing and I think my weird mood came from just winding down. Anyways, I think I've said everything. I'll write more another day! =)b

Well rested

Okay, now I’m all rested after 12 hours of sleep and I can continue! It is a beautiful day out and I feel really good, because sleep does that to you! I got up around an hour and a half ago and ate breakfast and took a shower and now I’m waiting around for Adah and Cliff to call me because they said they’re going into the City today and I’m supposed to go with them. Dunno how late they stayed up last night, they might still be sleeping. But I doubt it, mostly, so I don’t know why she hasn’t called me yet… But anyway, random note, I found out today that Kaiser Hospital recommends 25-38 grams of fiber per day. I just thought you all might want to know that. Whole grain cereal, fruits and veggies, wheat bread, etc. are good examples of that. Actually, just for anyone’s information, you should have 6 glasses of water which is about 48 oz, and that can be any sort of water-based non caffeinated drink, like decaf coffee or tea, or apple juice or anything like that. Or just water. You should have 2-3 glasses of milk, or about 16-24 oz, of course, the 5 fruits and veggies, protein, a small amount of oil, and a multi-vitamin. And then you’re set! Those are the guidelines I try to follow. You’re also supposed to have 30 minutes of exercise a day, but that one is a problem because of how much time I have. Anyway.

So me an Morgan stayed up super late Thursday night and I figured out that she’s on the same level as me on a lot of fundamental things. Which is rare. Mom keeps telling me that she and Dad were worried with me coming to an art school that I wouldn’t find any one who was my intellectual equal, and mostly… they’re right. But there certainly are some, art school has the same mix of people and personalities as anywhere else, surprisingly, so it’s okay. And Morgan seems to be on my level, so it’s awesome! We kept meaning to go to bed but then went off on some other tangent of the conversation, so we put it on hold and we’ll continue later.

Yea, so in the morning me and Courtney made our way to the MOMA and I wasn’t too happy about it because I’d already seen the exhibit, but it turned out that they had a whole new section of current photographers, not just the section I’d seen of really old or pretty old stuff, so it was great! But we were so tired, and like I said, we made it just in time for Art History. My teacher decided to give us our lecture first which was aggravating, but it was short and then like I said, the test wasn’t as awful as I expected it to be. After class, I met up with Adah and Cliff and spent the evening with them. We went to Tillie’s, but I have no money so I couldn’t get anything. But Adah did lend me money to buy tea bags because I live on tea, that’s how I drink enough water =). Tasty tasty. Morgan met up with us later, and Cliff bought us Chinese food and I was so hungry it was delicious! Usually I find Chinese food to be entirely too greasy, but I was hungry. Hehe.

I talked to Naomi, Michelle, and Aissata from home, and that was nice, I can’t wait to come home and see everyone! But I’ve been here for 2 months and I still got 2 months, so a bit to go. But it should be here super quick because that’s how the past two months have gone. So I came back to my room around 10 and then wrote that entry and then I crashed until 11 this morning. Ahh, sleep feels great. =)

Right, I briefly mentioned this, NO CLASS TUESDAY! It’s our “midterm break” which is freakin awesome! That’s so nice of them, the give us a break. Haha, I know it’s for some other reason than to give us a break, they’re not that nice really, they actually couldn’t care less, but I’m sure they have to make they day no classes and they’re calling it out midterm break to make themselves look good. But WHO CARES?! I GET TUESDAY OFF! It’s heaven on a stick, it’s BEAUTIFUL! I get to miss LCD! Yay!

So after I possibly go to the city today, I think I have no choice but to watch movies with Michele and some people because I promised I would without actually promising, which is a think Michele manages to do. She was like, we’re watching movies Saturday and you’re coming! And I’m like, uhm, sure I want to watch those movies, but I never say okay that day is good for me. But then if I say I can’t come, it’s all BWAH you said you would blah blah blah and I really never did. I want to go hang out with my friend Eddie because I haven’t seen him in 2 weeks! But nope, Michele comes first, of course. Garsh. It’s annoying. Tomorrow or sometime soon me and a few people are going to go see The Science of Sleep, which was made by the same person who did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was an excellent excellent movie. I heard the new one is really good too, so I’m excited!

Okay, now I’m gunna call Adah because it’s almost 1 and I have nothing more to explain, I don’t think. I know soon I’m going to get an in pouring of letters from people because I sent a bunch out, and a package from Grama! YAY! I hope all is well with everybody!

Leave me your happy thoughts =D

Sleepless

Okay, continuing from… Wednesday night? Yes…? What the hell happened Wednesday night? Uhm I guess nothing important. Maybe I’ll remember later. I went to English and was sleepy…

I forgot to write about how on Monday I donated blood! Yup. I had to fill out a form and they’re SUPER picky, for example, you can’t have EVER been to Africa… ever. But my blood is all good so I donated a pint a WHOLE PINT! Anna (from home) was like, what?! That’s how much ice cream I just ate! And that’s when it occurred to me just how much it was. I had to sit there with a needle in my vein for like 15 minuets. It was interesting and scary, but Michele and Caitlyn did it too so we distracted each other. Morgan was going to do it, but she has a tattoo, and you can’t donate for a year after you get one, another one of the picky things they have. So some time soon I’ll get a donor card that’ll say when I can donate again and what my blood type is and stuff. That’ll be neat and good to know. You can donate about once every two months, and supposedly one pint can save 3 people. It’s pretty neat. I’ll be donating more in the future definitely. I have a cool bruise too. Hehe.

So… Well I did talk to both Anna and Naomi and Hanna for a sec on Wednesday night, that’s one thing. I dunno. I know I didn’t do Art History. That was sorta this week’s trend. Thursday I did my laundry and studied Art History with Michele and had my piano lesson, which went well again and this week I gotta practice and stuff! And in the evening we studied again. But I had a hell of a time getting people to concentrate. I really didn’t mind, but Michele does this thing where she decides it’s hopeless and she gets easily distracted, and one was to make it hopeless when it wasn’t yet is not study at all… So it was kind of annoying because I could have studied on my own but I did her a huge favor by keeping her on track. But what pissed me off was Caitlyn. Caitlyn doesn’t even have Art History because she’s a writer, and she kept coming out and making the RUDEST comments and god, it pissed me off. But I let it slide, it’s not worth my time. And that’s how it’s always been, but this time it’s with the added feature that she crossed the line, like leapt and bounded over the line, and I’ve lost most of my respect for her and don’t really want to hang out with her or be friends with her anymore. I’m not a mean person, I wont be mean, but both Michele and Caitlyn are awfully immature and I’m just not fond of them. I don’t consider them friends because mainly, they’re just pretty mean to me. So whatever, I’ll hang out with them sometimes, but not sharing of the personal stuff, no bothering to try and explain something because I know I’ll be shot down or cut off. Just once in a while so no drama ensues because I’m “avoiding them” or whatever. I have other good friends here and at home, they’re just and aggravating waste of time for me to deal with and with no good reason.

Right! Thursday morning! I got up and I met up with JESSE for breakfast! Jesse is a girl I met in the Jewelry/Metal Arts class I took last summer… did I already say that in my last entry? Well anyways, I didn’t know if I would have time to see her with midterms and all, but she came up from Maryland for a few days to visit some schools (she’s a senior in high school) and it was awesome because she suggested breakfast and that she’d come to the campus and it was PERFECT I couldn’t deny that, right? The hassle would be leaving to meet her, but she came here! So we went to this little café down the street called Tillie’s… I feel like I wrote this before too… maybe it was a dream… I’ve been confusing dreams and reality lately because I’m sooo tired. I should be sleeping NOW but I wanted to finish writing up until now before I forget everything. Anyways, we went to Tillie’s and got chocolate croissants and coffee-like substances. It was tasty and she treated me, which was awesome! We didn’t get too close over the summer because we only had a month, but we got along and had a few excellent laughs, and we spent about 2 hours together yesterday morning, and man is she awesome! We’d be really really good friends if we lived near each other. Maybe she’ll come to school near me, that’d be cool. And at some point I hope to go down and visit her! That would be fun. Point is, now I have a random good friend who lives in Maryland! She’s one of those people that somehow you stay in touch forever and you don’t know why, but months go by and then you randomly call each other or meet up and it’s still the same awesomeness. Do you know what I mean? Jesse is really really cool and I’m so happy she came up and thought to visit me because I really enjoyed seeing her.

Ah! Wednesday night had come back to me. I went to English and then I went to a comedy show in the Student Union, which was being put on by the comedy club here at school, a group of students, yea? Adah wanted me to join her an Zack, so I did even though I practically fell asleep in English but couldn’t because the damn lights were too bright and was soooooo tired. Story of my week… Anyway, it turned out to be really excellent and funny! I quite enjoyed it. Then, Adah’s best friend Clif got into the airport because he’s here visiting her! That’s the other reason I stayed up, I wanted to welcome and meet him. I knew he’d be awesome, and oh, he is. He’s awesome. Of course. He’s Adah’s best friend, of course! We get along pretty well. I hung out with them today before I got back here to my room. I’ll get there. So we ran and did a dramatic greeting and it was funny. I hung out in her room for a while, but I was so sleepy, I finally went to bed.

Okay, jumping back to Thursday night. At about midnight, I called the studying quits because I was drained from getting Michele to concentrate and from clenching my teeth so I wouldn’t curse Caitlyn out. Michele went to bed, Courtney had come out and some point, Caitlyn went to bed, Morgan was still there and had been studying with us, and some girl who’s name I don’t know was there too. So, four of us. For a while Courtney vented about some horrible things her roommate just did to her, and long story short, it occurred to me that she really was confiding in me to a certain extent and that she likes hanging out with me and wants me as a friend. I mean, I didn’t necessarily doubt it, but she gives of a slight vibe that makes you unsure a tincy bit. Point is, I really like her and last night finally made the connection that she is a friend, not like Michele or Caitlyn friend, but like one of the better ones I have here, and that’s awesome. And then me and Morgan stayed up until 4 talking, which is why I’m so exhausted now. And I’m trying to simplify these stories, but there’s so much to tell! I’m falling asleep though, so I’ll crank out the last few basics and write more details another day. This week just left me no time for blogging…

Morgan is AWESOME, we had an excellent semi-philosophical slash also random conversations about a lot of interesting things.

Courtney is also very cool and I’m glad we’re friends.

Michele and Caitlyn immature and blah.

I went to the MOMA today for the photo exhibit. Seen it, but new stuff! So enjoyable.

Barely made it back to Art History on time. Hour lecture. Hour Midterm. Knew more than I thought, most likely passed, no biggie.

Adah and Cliff spent evening with: awesome.

Ecstatic for millions of hours of sleep, excited for weekend and random no class Tuesday (NO LCD! BEST THING EVER!) and Dad coming Friday.

In the process of finding a ballet studio.

Time for sleep…. Will write more details later after sleep…

And all-day entry...

Okay so this morning I'm going to Breakfast with my friend Jesse, who I met over the summer in my Jewelry/Metal Arts class. She's from Maryland and happens to be in NY at the moment, so I'm meeting her at this local cafe called Tillie's, which I've only heard good things about, so I'm excited. But I figured since I have nothing else to do until she calls (and she might have trouble finding her way here, so she might be late) I'd start to ketchup on the last week. WEEK!

This week is midterms, that's why I haven't had any time to write. I still have my Art History midterm for which I will be vigorously (haha) studying for later today. But we'll start with Friday. Nothing too eventful during the day, I had Photo class and Art History, and even if something interesting did happen, it was so long ago I don't even remember. We have to go to the MOMA to see the photo exhibit tomorrow for class, and I've already seen it so I really don't feel like going because it's such a trip for such a short time before I have to get back for Art History =(. It's lame. And I've been so busy that I'm a little behind on my rolls (but I'll ketchup later) and my printing. The printing makes me sad because I wanna be printing and I don't have time! But tomorrow evening or this weekend I must! So directly after Art History, I gathered my things and made for the Subway to meet mom on around 81st street on the west side of Central Park, where she was staying. It was a pretty quick trip compared to have I thought it would be. Then we went out to dinner with all the other APer's at this place called Calle Ocho, which was this fancy Cuban restaurant and was uber expensive! But we weren't paying for it, the College Board who does the AP's was! So oh MAN was it good food! I ate a million of the little breads they give to you before you order and mom got mushroom rice and I got Tamals. THEY WERE SO GOOD! And for 20ish bucks that I wasn't paying, haha. And because everyone else was clearly over 21, no one bothered to glance at me to see that I was 17 (the waiters, I mean) so I had white wine and it was actually pretty good compared to other things I've tried. But me and mom were so sleepy! And then we got desert and tried a bunch of different things and that was of course good too. So I took back some leftovers for breakfast the next day and ate some of them but then stupid room service THREW THEM OUT! I was thoroughly disappointed =( and MAD! What the hell were they doing throwing things out?! I throw MY bags out! I was sad, I wasn't finished!

I wonder where Jesse is...

So then Saturday mom got up and went to her AP meeting and I got up later and gathered my video equipment and started the 20-block treck down to where she was to film some of the people there for my Interview project for class. I asked 8 people 3 questions: Do you think Photography is art? What makes more of an emotional impact, words or pictures? And, Do you think photojournalism is exploitative? They tended to like the questions. Then I walked back to the hotel and got side tracked in Barnes and Nobel Books and at these street vendors that were out near the hotel. At the hotel I worked on my drawing and played around with taking pictures. That evening, me and mom went out for Thai food! YAY! I don't remember what the restaurant was called, but I had the best coconut soup EVER! Seriously, it was soooo good. And again, I had leftovers for breakfast! That night, I drew while mom quizzed me on Art History. Yup.

Sunday we got up at 9 and I kept working while mom kept quizzing me. Then we left for Central Park because we had to check out of the hotel, but we left out bags with them. We walked A TON! okay, there's Jesse, I'll finish later! Okay I’m back, 5 hours elapsed time. But in reading, you wouldn’t even know! Anyways, so we wandered through Central Park and it was really neat to see. Tons of runners, I got some pictures of little kids and stuff. And we made our way all the way across and got lunch in a diner and went to H&M which was disappointing, no good clothes! And we went to Godiva, from which I still haven’t eaten the chocolates! I’m saving them. =) then we went back to the hotel, did some more Art History until I fell asleep in the lobby, and then we took the subway with a few complications back. I got off to come here, and she continued on to go to the airport to go home! =( It was fun, but I was exhausted because I was subconsciously stressing about midterms. For which I should still be studying… But my piano lesson is in 15 minuets, so I’m taking a break. Me and Michele were studying, but she had to go somewhere and I have my lesson, so we’re gunna re-convene later.

So Sunday night I finished my drawing, FINALLY, and then planned on getting up early to do other homework, but boy, that did not happen. And once I finally got up, I remembered I had a quiz for film (Video) class in 2 hours. So I studied for that and did just fine. In class, we watched projects as always, and we learned dubbing, which was neat! I like it. We’re going to have a quiz on it on Monday, but it’s so easy I’m not even worried about it. Then I skipped English to do homework but was so tired I ended up not finishing my LCD or doing any Art History and I went to bed around 9:30, so skipping was pointless, but then again, going is rather pointless…

Tuesday LCD was fine. If you didn’t already notice, there are decent LCD days, and HORRIBLE LCD days. Lots of kids think every LCD day is horrible, which is pretty much true, but relatively, Tuesday was fine. We worked on one project the whole time which is my DREAM because I HATE switching projects in the middle, I like to do them in one go and be done with it. It was another painting-type, and I like painting, so I enjoyed myself just because I like the feeling of painting with a brush and mixing cool colors and stuff! The project was pretty interesting, but I’ll post a picture and explain it later. What did I do Tuesday night? I don’t remember. Of course! Open Model session. I only went to the second half and did three 20-minute drawings, which was nice, and to make up for falling asleep the week before. I also organized all of my work for the midterm/critique the next day.

Wednesday I had Drawing, duh. We drew paper bags. Yup. Weird, right? I’ll explain that project later too, along with my Midterm project and the LCD project. So he called us out and we put up what we thought was out best work and he talked to us about where we were in the class. He’s not giving anyone an A at this point because we all start at a C and work our way down or up from there. But I gotta go to my lesson, so I’ll continue later. Kay I’m back. Hour and 15 minutes elapsed. So Drawing, right. So he reviewed all of our stuff and talked about where we were. He said I’m at the top with the general drawing, and at least improving with the figure drawing, which is good because he looks as much for improvement as he does for quality. So he said I’m at about a B right now which is AWESOME because that means I’m at the top of the class! And I don’t mean because I compare my work to anyone else’s, I do my work compared to my own standards, but it means that my professor knows I’m doing a good job and trying! He asked me how many open model session’s I’d been to and I told him 5 or 6, and he was like okay that’s about half… So you’re really taking all of this seriously, aren’t you? It was more of a statement than a question, but I answered yes because I am taking it seriously and I am very interested! But then he kinda burst my bubble because he asked me what major I’m doing and I told him and he said, to be blunt, why? You’re not going to get anything but simple-minded politics here, nothing very interesting, and looking at those drawings that you have up on the wall, I wonder why photography because you have such nice work and you can’t really use it in photography, and to be blunt again, photography really isn’t that difficult to do, it doesn’t take much skill. I dunno, I didn’t find it offensive because what he said was true, but it kinda burst my bubble for exactly that reason… it was kinda true. So then I got to thinking, wow, photojournalism… do I really think I’ll end up there? Is this even the right school for that? Is what I’m doing actually going to head me where I want to go? And I didn’t dare tell him that I chose photography because I knew I couldn’t get into the school undecided. That would have been a whole mess of an explanation. So Now I’m a bit confused, but not severely so, because as always, I’m not too worried about anything. I’m laid back and such. And I came into this knowing I don’t really know where I’ll end up at all, and everything is subject to change. Anything and everything is an option, I just have to keep my mind open and go where I find things I want to follow. Maybe I wont spend all four years here at Pratt. You just never know.

So that was exciting, getting a B so far an all. He said if my figure drawing improves, I’m in the running for an A, which is really hard to do in his class. He gives 2 or 3 out of 20 in a class A’s, so that would feel good. It just gives me that much more motivation to go to the open drawing sessions and work hard on my figure drawing. I do know I’m improving, for sure, but it’s still… eh… because it’s so hard! But I enjoy it, as you know. So yesterday (still the same day) the model we had was a dancer, and I knew it before my teacher asked and she said yes. You could just tell. She had a beautiful body, not freakishly skinny, just really lean muscle, you know, not really defined, how dancer’s bodies are. You could tell she was a dancer by the way she chose to pose. It was really enjoyable to draw her. It got me to thinking, as anything even remotely tied to dance does, how sad I am that I ever quit Ballet. I don’t “wish I hadn’t” because I don’t want to dwell on it, and I know that even the smallest little choice changes entire paths of life, something much smaller than choosing to quit ballet, as simple as eating cereal or eating oatmeal instead for breakfast, and I know that I wouldn’t have had the same path or met the same people or whatever if I’d chosen differently and yes I may have ended up in an equally good place, but I really like where I’ve ended up. Does that all make sense? But really, in all honestly, I wish I hadn’t. Yea? I could have been in a company and been dancing and it would have been wonderful. But I hate to say I could have, because it’s worth nothing. The past is worthless in any way but the way it was. You only have what happened and what you learned from it and what you take into the present from your experiences. So I quit Ballet. End of story. I shouldn’t have. Question, but shouldn’t I have? Then… I should have, but gone back after a year once I started thinking about it again. Question, but was I ready to go back yet? So then… later? I should have. Really? (Are you following me? Haha probably not.) Point is, who knows what I “should have” done. What I did was quit. What I’ve always felt a tinge of is regret. So I went back finally last year, and I managed to go three times, but I was so busy with school that it really didn’t happen more which was sad. And I’m so jealous of anyone who dances, and even more so of anyone who does ballet because I know that I would be as good as them or better if I hadn’t quit. I would be amazing! I’d be so good! And It’s not even a competition thing where I want to be better than other people at dance at all, I’m really not much or a competitive person. What it is is jealousy that they knew better than me and are still dancing, they have what would be practically impossible for me to re-attain now... Kinda like it's too late, a lost cause. I can't be a dancer because I'd have to start from near the beginning again. Well no, from kinda the middle. But the middle doesn't get you ever to the topiest you could have been. And there I go again with the "could" have. It’s just too late for me to be a professional dancer. Not too late technically, but in reality, it is. It's just not possible for me to go to something I'm mediocre at now, at the age of 17. Man this is hard to explain… It’s like this, I’m not supporting myself yet, but I’m already in that mind frame. I’m really conscious of everything I do and buy and how I take care of myself on my own. I’m in the mid-stages, working to being on my own and completely supporting myself both physically and mentally. And because I’m at that stage in my life, it’s not really a possibility to scratch everything and dance because I have no means of supporting myself. Yes? Potentially, yes, I could drop everything else in my life and dance for 5 hours every day of the week and train myself back to where I was and beyond. But rationally... well, it's obviously not rational! And it makes me want to cry and kick and scream and curse, but mostly, it just makes me want to scratch everything and dance. But I like art, and I like music, and I like cooking, so why not stop everything to do those things? See, I just can’t choose dance over the others. And I've chosen art over the others, and that’s why what my drawing Professor said to me about photography kinda hit me at a weird angel… yea? Because I already know that I don’t know where I am or what I’m doing, that I’m just going with the flow, and the flow lead to photography and not to fine arts and not to culinary school and not to a band or music school and not to dance. It didn’t lead to Political science or writing or drawing or spoken word or… dance. But for some reason dance sticks to me and slaps me in the face all the time. Maybe it’s because it’s semi-permanent. It’s irreplaceable; you can’t start when you’re 30… yea? It’s frustrating because I just want to dance but I can’t put the reat of my life on hold or put it away completely to do that! Arg, I just want to dance, but I don’t have time. Time just doesn’t give a shit. Remember?

I really want to look for a dance school, but the internet’s not working right now. It should be like piano, I want to do it, who cares how old I am? I’m still a kid, really, and I only have one life. That’s why I plan to do EVERYTHING. My life’s gunna be awesome. Piano life and I’m gunna be a DANCER. You just wait. I think I’ll go to Michele’s room and see if her internet is working and then go get my laundry, so I’ll finish this later. On hold again! Okay, I’m getting really REALLY frustrated with the fact that my internet only works when it feels like it! AHHHHH! I'll have to finish writing about yesterday and today and tomorrow tomorrow. I have run out of time to waste.

Leave me your thoughts.

Just a little taste...

Of course, I have tons to catch up on! By the time I write tomorrow, it'll be 6 whole days to write about! But I'm super awake right now and I don't even know why! It's rather annoying, it's around 11:30 and I really just want to go to sleep. But I'm up! So I figured I'd just say hello, in essence, and say HEY PETER! YUP I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! I'm looking forward to seeing you and Laura! =D I'm glad you all enjoyed the portraits. I'll have a few neat new assignments to post when I write tomorrow. Man, the stroies I need to tell... I'm so tempted! But I wont ruin them, I'll keep em a surprise =) Oh an Peter, I have done a few drawings of guys, but they were earlier ones hence not so good. But it never occured to me to do a long super good one like those, probably because I find the pictures in managzines and I like ones that fill the page like those do... and the magazines I found those in are chick magazines from my high school years. But next time I get around to doing another one, I'll consider doing a guy for sure! Awesome suggestion =) And Heather... Yup, the white hurts my eyes too now that you mention it, I just never read my own blog! Maybe try copying and pasting it into a word document so it's not so harsh? Sorry about that! And Grama, yup, I'm juiced about piano =D

Guess Who?

It's me! Haha.

Just didn't know if you remembered who I was after spending 9 HOURS IN THE LIBRARY! Yup. That's right. I spent 9 hours there. With a 2 hour break for my piano lesson. I was doing the 2-point perspective midterm assignment for drawing, I assume I explained it in my last entry because that would only make sense. I don't know why I wouldn't have. So this drawing was supposed to take 7 hours, but I've spent 9. And the problem is that it's not even close to finished. Maybe... a little over half way. So I asked Yuri (my room mate) how long it looked like I;d taken to her to get an opinion before I said how long it had really taken. She said it looked like 4 or 5 hours. Okay, so about half the time I actually spent. So I told her 9 and she was like oh my god, how do you do that?! People don't really understand my crazy amounts of endurance. But just because she said 4 or 5 hours doesn't mean her first comment before I even ask wasn't "Wow, that's really good!" So I know it's looking good and doing what I need it to do. I just can't figure out why I'm going at such a slow pace. I tried to speed it up, but I couldn't. So at this rate, I figure if I spend 6 more hours on it, it will then look like 9 hours. And don't you worry, I'll be telling him I actually spent 15. Maybe more, if I can find the time. But like I said before, time just doesn't care if you need more of it. I hope in the end it looks like as much work as it was/will be. I hope for obvious reasons... because if it only looks average, that sucks with how much time I actually spent. Blah. But as I said, I don't really mind doing it, I just need more time.

So I'm going to take it with me to mom's hotel. That means I have to bring Drawing, LCD, my cameras, and Art History. Holy Guacamole. *sigh* we'll see how much I can get done. But it'll be good because I'll be mostly just in the hotel without the distractions of dorm life. That's why the Library is a nice place to draw. No distractions. So we're going to get fancy dinners and stay in a fancy hotel and I'm gunna do homework and hopefully see Central Park once. Sounds good to me. But BLAH midterms next week, which means I need to start studying Art History again... Bloody Art History...

So... the story I KNOW you've been waiting to hear! MY PIANO LESSON! I cut out of the Library at about 2:30 (I'd gotten there at 11) and I came back to my dorm, ate, and then went down to meet my teacher. I was worried he'd be weird or something, remember? Well, he was as cool as he sounded in his email, aka, awesome! He turned out to be really friendly and easy to talk to and just all around a really nice guy. He's originally from New York, then from San Francisco, who knew? But yea, so we did the basic basic stuff, but since I've done piano before, even though it was super long ago, and I know so much music already, I caught on super quick and it was really exciting! I can absolutly not wait until I can play all those beautiful songs I love to listen to. I know it'll be years, but I'm ready! So yea, he said it was refreshing to have a quick learner, someone who already understood some of the basics, instead of having to start from complete scratch like he has to do with some of his students. Of course, I already know counting, a bit about scales, I remembered the fingering from so many years ago, and I remembered a bit about reading too, plus reading is pretty straight forward, so all that combined, the super beginner's book is something I'll get through pretty quickly. The only downside to the lesson was that we chose the time RIGHT when everyone is getting out of class at 10 til 4, so everyone was coming into the dorm and seeing me get a lesson! I was kinda embarrassed, but he reassured me by saying, "Look, can they play piano? And if they can, tell them to come down here an play then!" So I felt better. Plus though, I don't care much what people think, I want to learn piano and it's not something anyone should be making fun of anyway. And if they are, you gotta question... why? So basically, he was super awesome and when I left the lesson I had a fat smile on my face and I didn't even realize it. Mostly because he's cute. Haha. Yea. That just makes the lesson all the better, right? He seems like he's going to be a really great teacher, SO I'M EXCITED! And it'll be a nice break in my weeks of art. Piano.

Why do I have to title these lil buggers, anyway?

Sooooo.....

Drawing today! Yup. And on account of the fact that I was all rested (slash am STILL all rested) it was a beautiful day! Amazing how sleep or lack there of can do that to yah, huh? I have officially decided that Drawing is one of my most favoritist of classes! Why? Well, considering the fact that I only like my photography class because of the subject, and as much as film WILL be awesome, I'm still learning the basics, Art History is only as good as it can be considering what it is, we're not doing anything in English and LCD is a horrible horrible punishment, that pretty much leaves Drawing as my best class! Again, why? Because my drawing teacher is amazing! He's just such a good teacher! I really really like him. I remember still how on the first day I thought he was going to be intimidating and strict, but I've learned he's not at all, that's just how he talks. Sure, he's blunt, but I never find it to be in an offensive way. Maybe some people do because they're defensive about their work, but I think I pretty much know my abilities, or to put it better, I can tell where my work stands compared to what would be considered the best possible work or the worst possible work. So when he says my gestures are really bad, welp, they are, no getting around that. And it's not as if he just says it to say it, he's always very constructive with what he says. That's the other thing, he's just helpful in general. And I know I've said this already, but he really knows what he's doing as an artist, he understands in complete and total depth what he's teaching and there for can translate that into an explanation that actually helps us understand. Granted, he's also just really good at explaining things. Both the understanding and the explanation have to be there in order for it to work the way it does. It reminds me of Dad and his science. He just knows it, nothing else to it. So when he reads anything else that has anything to do with it, that knowledge translates automatically. Sorta like language, how English just comes. It's just there for us to call up when we need it or want it on command, or even automatically. More automatically. You get me? Point is, my drawing teacher REALLY knows his stuff. If we have to take more drawing classes in the future, I'm most defiantly switching into his class again.

So what did we actually do in class, you ask? Well, we turned in our homework and had a nice long hour and a half critique first thing. Usually we break it up and space it between drawing other things, but today went a little differently. Well, did I already explain the homework? Or was I being bitter and anti-homework explaining? We had two drawings due today, both 2 to 3 hour drawings. One was One-Point Perspective, a.k.a. a hallway would be the best example, something you're looking down into, an interior... and the other was Two-Point Perspective, a.k.a. the outside of a building, or an all square all parallel still life. I'll take pictures of mine and those of you that don't know one point and two point perspective should get a better understanding from seeing them. And I know this because (drum roll please...) MINE ROCKED! Granted, they weren't A drawings, but keep in mind that he hasn't given a single A in the class thus far, at least I think that's what he said. If not, maybe he's given ONE. So B drawings are basically awesome. Not that I know any of my grades yet, he doesn't tell us. But I figure I have a few B's, a few C's, and probably a few D's. But less D's more B's. He said we start at a C+ and work our way up or down from there, and it's hard work to go either way. No one's getting an A, but no one's getting and F either, at this point. Anyway, so one-point and two-point perspective are a piece of cake. Okay, maybe not quite. Maybe not a fluffy whipped cream piece of cake... maybe more like a dense flourless chocolate piece of cake. (I like my analogy, does it make sense to you? hehe). What I mean is, I get it, conceptually I have absolutely no problem with it. At all. Drawing it can also be simple. But that depends on what exactly I'm drawing, because boy, it can get complicated quick.

Which brings me to my next point. After we went over the homework and he praised mine as good examples a few times, he set us free, or rather, pushed us off a cliff to try and fly. He had us all go to the library, and until lunch, start another two-point perspective drawing somewhere inside there. We had about an hour. Now for the horrible hurdle the main character has to go through in the middle of the story only to either overcome it and make it a happy story or fail and make it a tragedy. Yup. Being rested makes for weird writings. Point is, I chose stairs. Yup. STAIRS! STAIRS?! WHY?! And I'm sure that means nothing to you, but oohhh no, stairs are just about the hardest possible thing to draw in two-point perspective! So I came back after lunch with nothing. Yup. Really. Nothing. Me and about 4 other people chose stairs. We ran into a few problems.... which I wont get into on account of the fact that they're complicated, that's why we ran into them. SMACK. Into them. Oops.

So we talked to him and he helped explain what was going on. See, I'll at least tell you this. Two-point perspective has two vanishing points. If you don't know what that means and are extra super curious, let me know and I can explain. Otherwise, don't worry about it. The problem we had was that it seemed like there were about a million vanishing points, or at least 4, instead of only two. So he explained how there really were only two, like there should be. So I asked him if I should pick a new spot since I was starting from scratch anyway, and he said no, considering what I'd done with the homework. I clearly understood it well, I could do it. It's just gunna be a ton of work. Which actually, I don't really mind, because for some reason, I get a kick out of this assignment. Ever notice how you enjoy things that maybe you're not totally comfortable with, but you're at least semi-comfortable with? Where you build on experiences you already know to discover new things and have those AH-HA moments? Kinda like how I HATE vine charcoal because I don't know what to do with it at all, I swear, it's like trying to draw with... maybe a marshmallow... I dunno... something obscure... and how I love long poses of the figure, which I'll get to next. So I understand object-space relationships pretty well, thanks to just having a knack for it and to the Engineering Academy. But even when I started in the Academy, I got it really quickly. Because of my Knack. Yes?

So I don't mind this drawing. Even though I have to start from the beginning, making it 7 hours of work yet to do. He asked us to spend 6 more hours and we should have already done an hour, so I need to spend 7. But man, I'm kinda juiced to get the finished product! I'm one of those people who get a rush of energy when I finish something. It feels really good to work really hard on something and then be done and have something freakin awesome. Which brings me to my NEXT point. Long drawings. I mentioned last week that we FINALLY started doing longer poses. A.k.a., we had been doing 1's, 5's, 10's, and the occasional 20-minute drawings. Now, we're doing 30-40 minute drawings, and I love it! It's so great because in the shorter drawings he wants us to get down as much information as possible as quickly as possible, at least it seems that way, but that's not always entirely true, I suppose. well, we have to work quickly but choose our marks carefully. It's freakin HARD! But with the longer poses, he wants us to go as slow as possible. Slow slow slow. And that's how I work! That's how I draw! How do you think I drew all those awesome portraits? Not in 10 minutes! Not in an hour! I spent at LEAST 8 on each, if not 10 hours. I measure. Carefully. I check my measurements. I re-check them. I draw a light line. Tiny. Tiny. Light. Re-check. Darker line. Build up lines. Onward! So now that we're doing longer poses and that's what he wants, I literally get down what seems like 10 lines in 20 minuets. Yup. I know. Crazy, right? But it's because the goal is for it to be perfectly measured. Who cares about the details? The details always suck if the mass and initial proportions of the main parts suck. So it's my nitch. My element. Long drawings. And give me 12 hours, I knock out a life like figure. Yup. Model's just can't sit that long. I can't wait for the day I can hire a model who'll sit in sessions and let me do that. Wait, actually, I can. I have so much more to learn before I can or want to do that! But it'll be fun once it comes.

I've always dreamed of learning to paint the way some painters do, portraits so beautiful, like what I've learned to do in a grey scale with pencil. It occurred to me while I was typing that last paragraph that most of you haven't even SEEN the drawings I'm referring to. Am I right? Well, maybe half of you have. Okay, maybe quite a few of you. But for those who haven't I'll post them. So with the long poses in class, I feel like I'm having some sort of breakthroughs, like I was talking about before. It's so exciting, like candy or something, (I dunno, that's what I think of...) to find that I can do things I maybe didn't know I could do. Or not even quite that, just how when you (you!) make something (you did that!) that's so awesome (how cool is that?!) and you're like BWAH! I DID THAT! LOOK HOW COOL THAT IS! You feel so neat and pound and it's truly exciting! I love love love drawing class for that! It's the class I really fell that progress in, I really enjoy the learning process or it, everything to be discovered. It's not like high school classes where they spit it at you and you have to regurgitate it back at them. No no. You have to learn it at your own pace. You don't have a choice. But that means that when you understand something and have that light bulb shine it's shiny little head off, it's that much sweeter because you did most of the work to get you there! I could go on forever about this... So moving on...

I have to go back to another open model session tomorrow because I fell asleep yesterday (can you believe I really did that? I think it's pretty funny... at least I sat down and I didn't fall asleep standing!) I did the first 20 minutes of the session, which were the gestures, as always. Did I explain how model sessions go, in general? Well, the model does 20-minute groups of poses and breaks in between. The first set is of one-minute gesture poses, generally very expressive with a lot of “movement” in the pose. What I mean by that is, though the model isn’t moving, the pose is dramatic, like they were caught in the midst of a movement. Like bending to the side with their arm reaching upward. Picture it. We then feel out the movement, where the weight is, where a central curved axis is reaching beyond the form. Well, it’s complicated. Again, I can try to go into more depth if anyone is curious. Just let me know. Then the next 20-minutes are generally 2-minute poses. But I can’t do anything with two-minutes. They’re really un-helpful to me. If I use them, I just do one-minute gestures and wait out the second minute. They’re too short for the other things I need to practice. In class, we don’t do two-minutes. That’s probably why I have no use for them. Then generally, there are two sets of 20 minutes with four 5-minute poses. With these we do (or my teacher taught us to do) the ellipse analyses, which I posted a few pictures in a previous entry for your viewing pleasures. The ellipses explore the way the parts of the body are oriented in space as well as the juxtaposition of parts. Then there are 10 minutes poses, which we do what my teacher likes to call Robots. They’re the rectangular cubes (uhm… I’ve forgotten the word for rectangular cubes…) which I also posted in a pervious entry. They explore the planes on the different parts of the body and how the parts are juxtaposed with one another as well. Then come a few 20 minuet poses. Maybe 2. How maybe sets of 20 minuets have I listed? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… 8 times 20 is…. 2 hours and 40 minuets. Okay, so sometimes we do less of some and more of another, but it all balances out to maybe 7 sets so the models have enough time to break. The 20-minute poses we used for cross contour (and mind you, I’ve left out a lot of our problems, we had other things we worked on as well, like axial straight line… or… well there were others I’m sure of it…) But now instead of 20 minute poses, we do 40, remember? Which we use for taking our super-sweet time. There. Whew.

Anyways, so I only did the one-minute gestures yesterday, for which I still and always use my left hand to draw, and then I fell asleep. So since we’re beginning to focus on longer drawings as well now, it’s important that I do those in the open model sessions as well, because the whole point of the extra sessions is to practice! Before, I could leave early and not stay all 3 hours because I didn’t really need the 20-minute poses, but now I super do! So I have to go back tomorrow, and I think I’ll just show up in the middle so combining the two days I’ll have a full session.

Midterms are next week. I’m excited about Drawing’s midterm. I know, aren’t I a freak? We have to bring in EVERYTHING so far, in order, and pick out favorite to put on the wall for him. He’s going to review our things and talk with us about our progress individually and I’m super juiced! And out midterm project is this gigantically long two-point perspective Library drawing. That’s exactly why it’s so ginormous. We’re also allowed to bring in any work we’re re-done because it wasn’t so hot the first time we tried. I really really should re-do the log… But that’s a four hours drawing on top of my 7 hour drawing on top of the fact that I’m not even gunna be here this weekend! Right. That.

Mom’s flying in tomorrow night, and she’s staying at a snazzy hotel near Central Park, so for two days I’m ditching this joint and staying with her. That means that I have to find time other than Friday through Sunday to do that 7-hour drawing… Yup. Yikes. That means tomorrow, essentially. But tomorrow I wanted to go to the open model session… er… maybe I’ll just go next Tuesday instead. I’ll decide. AND tomorrow I have my first Piano Lesson! Yea! I know! I called the guy up and he suggested Thursdays and I was like OH MAN, PERFECT so he knows the piano downstairs in my dorm and he likes it so he’s coming by at 3:30 tomorrow and I’m play some tunes! Slash, some scales… It’s pretty spiffy and stuff. I’m ready. I hope he’s really cool and not a weirdo because I really want him to be awesome so I’m eager to learn and I stay with it. Yay for piano lessons!

Which means… I have to do my drawing around the lesson, which is fine because I’m not going to knock it out in one 7-hour sitting… or maybe I would, knowing me… But anyway, it’s fine, I just need to figure out when I should go start tomorrow. Point is, I decided to rent a camera for this weekend to do my next film project, which I may not even use and I’ll have to just rent it again next weekend because it’s not due yet, I have my LCD which isn’t hard, but I have to bring that with me to the spiffy hotel, of course I don’t have English and I have SO MUCH DRAWING and that’s the one things I HAVE to do here and I don’t have a choice! Either the Library, which is here… or the Log, which I WISH I could get to, which is in the drawing resources center, which is… you guessed it… here. And god, I don’t mind the drawing. He said I could re-do the log in pencil instead of vine charcoal, so now I kinda wanna try it over. But, it’s due in a week if I wanna re-do it. Lame. Arg, and Art History some how always freaking slips from my mind. I’ll have to bring that with me to the hotel, too. I’m getting really behind on my reading… and I’m wondering if I’ll even ever get to it…

And then of course, the part of the weekend will be spent taking pictures in Central Park! YAY! Man, I wish I could have an extra 2 days to get all this stuff done. I want to get it all done and get it done well. But time is mean like that. I’m lying, time just doesn’t give a shit. It’s indifferent. No emotions. Not mean. I managed to develop my film and make two contact sheets today between drawing and English. Now I know it takes about 2 hours to do that, for future reference. I got my paper back in English. He gave me a B+ because he thought it was still repetitious. I wonder if he noticed that I really did edit it. But meh, a B is fine with me. And he talked about Gulliver’s Travels because we were also talking about A Modest Proposal, which made me think that I wanted to re-read that book (weird, right?). But I read it for class in 10th or 11th grade, and I just don’t think I knew enough to get the satire or for it to make much sense at that time. So I want to re-read it now, with more knowledge to refer back to, and maybe get a better kick out of it. I dunno. I wonder if we have it at home…

Ah-ha! Now for a few random things. Did I mention I go a bloody nose the other day because the climate’s changed? Freakin poured for a while today. The bloody nose was awesome, though. I dunno, I get a kick out of them. They’re just so silly. The other thing is that the Pie Shop, which is the pizza shop here at school, serves Starbucks coffee, but they don’t have everything listed, so I was like aw, you losers, you don’t have white mochas! And I’ve managed to get to a Starbucks 3 times while I’ve been here and I got White Mocha Frappuccinos and they were delicious, but that’s it. So today I was just gunna get a mocha, but I automatically said white mocha because they are MY LIFE and then I corrected myself, but the woman said, so you want a white mocha? And I said? DO I EVER! So I had myself a delicious white mocha for way to freakin much money (you know how it’s $3.65 at Starbucks? Yea well it’s $4.60 at my school because they over charge on EVERYTHING! Have I mentioned by 7-dollar salads? Yup.) And I thoroughly enjoyed it. And now I will be thoroughly enjoying them almost every day. =D

Oh and, I’m getting to talk to some of the kids who are in both LCD and Drawing with me some more, and I like a lot of them a bunch. We almost never see each other outside of class, but they’re really cool and I love having class with them. It makes it all better, be it making LCD end eventually, or Drawing that much better. I hope I can become better friends with them so then I’ll have bunches of friends! All right, now I’m going to go ask Caitlyn for her camera and take pictures of my old portrait drawings and of the perspective drawings. And I’ll consider if there was anything else I wanted to show you guys…

The portrait drawings are in the order I drew them (I believe). They're from at least a year and a half ago.












And this is my One-point Perspective drawing. A hall in my dorm. Like a prison, no? The lines are all either horizontal, vertical, or direct back to the center vanishing point which is on the horizon (essentially, the horizon is your eye level and the vanishing point is directly in front of you on the horizon line.)


This is two-point perspective. Here the lines are vertical, or the trace back from either one of the vanishing points. There are two vanishing points instead of one, and they're not actually on the page. they relate to corners, If that makes sence. Like the front table in my drawing.


And this is the first long drawing we did, this one is from last week, and it was a 40-minute pose. See how few lines you can draw in 40 minutes? It's amazing. And you sure get the proportions right on. =)



And these are the flowers Adah gave me along with the latte the other morning when she surprised me. What an awesome girl =) I really enjoy this picture and the colors in it, for some reason. Grama, wouldn't this make a nice painting?



Hey! Just thought I’d leave you with a Fun Fact. Starbucks online tells you the nutrition information! Neat, huh?

Now you leave me your thoughts.

Good Morning!

Good morning you ask?! Yup. I went to the open model session last night and sat out one of the rounds (the models do 20 minute rounds and then take breaks in between) and I ended up falling asleep, so I decided to book it and go to bed. So unfortunatly that means I have to go back on Thursday and finish up, but I went to bed at 7:30 and woke up around the same time this morning so I FEEL EXCELLENT! it's 8:15 right now, I took a shower, and now I'm eating Honey Bunches of Oats! I'm really glad I decided to just go to bed. You can't draw ANYTHING when you're practically asleep. It just doesn't work. Sleep fixes everything.

So Max? I guess I'll tell you about her because I have a bit of time. She's Morgan's roommate and she's from upstate. She's obsessed with Brokeback Mountain and Hedwig (both movies) and is all around fun to be with. She spent a lot of hours doing homework with me last Sunday night. Yup. I guess that's all I have to say. I can't remember her major. She's good times.

Okay so that LCD work. The crummy one was we had to do a grid that was 1/8 of an inch grid, and color in the little squares to match a photocopy of a rainbow painting so that when you stood back from it the colors matched and you could tell it was the painting. Oh my god, I did not even come close to finishing, and some people spent 20 hours on it and he was like... "not horrible, but...." sheesh. IT WAS A VICIOUS ASSIGNMENT! And the next assignment, we had to draw an apple and color it in and put color aid paper behind it to make it all work as a composition (I'll post mine so you see what I mean later) and then we had to draw nine circle-shapes (aka anything curved, but not bean like shapes) and they all had to be compleatly different from one another, the common thread that they were curved. We had to do the same thing with 3 sided objects and 4 sided objects. I'll post those, too, so you can see what I mean better. But now I should go because this might be the first morning I'm actually EARLY!

Have an excellent day! =D

And... FREEZE!

My title has nothing to do whatsoever with anything at all.

So I just arranged for my first piano lesson! I don't know if I mentioned before, but I saw a flyer on the bullitin board, emailed the guy asking him to tell me about himself, she seems pretty cool and legit, so I just touched base with him and he's gunna come and give me my first lesson at 3:30 on Thursday. I'm pretty juiced! So I'll be telling you how that goes.

I'm freakin exhausted. I really just need to go to sleep. But of course, every Tuesday I'm exhaused, and every Tuesday I have to go to the open model session...

So this weekend I got to talk to Anna, Sophie, and Hanna and IT MADE ME SO FREAKIN HAPPY! I miss them and love them and can't wait to see them and it was so great to talk to them! That's pretty much all I have to say about that...

LCD afternoon went better, mostly because it went quicker. We're doing some new stuff.. Maybe I'll explain it, maybe not. I might not deem in worth my time to explain.

30 minutes til open drawing.... blah... and then as usual, I'm meeting Adah for dinner. I almost always do. I haven't seen Caitlyn in a few days, I wonder what she's up to.

I need Sleep.

I'm grumpy and I don't fell like typing anything about what's been going on and that's why I haven't been posting. I did write a post yesterday, but then it got lost and it was gone so I couldn't put it up. The weekend wasn't full of much. I watched Adaptation with Adah, Zack, and this kid Ronny who I just met. It was a really weird movie, but I enjoyed both it and the company. I did my drawing homework, I didn't finish my LCD because I swear that man doesn't understand the extent of the work her gives... I didn't do anything exciting... Uhm... I ate all my trail mix (sorry grama! I know that was bad...for me... But it was just SO GOOD!) Morgan made an apple pie yesterday which I have yet to have some of, and don't you worry, I will. I spent 7 hours on my film assignment only to not really like it much in the end, but it was an experiment, my first try at editing, so I cut myself some slack. But then of course, Tudor's was frikkin amazing and beautiful and I loved it, so that was a nice added touch... But most peple had trouble getting their projects finished, so if I wanted to, I could re-do mine because we have another week. But I'm not going to. Mom's coming on Friday YAY I'm going to leave after Art History and stay with her in her Hotel which is by Central Park and not come back here until Sunday afternoon. It's going to be really REALLY refreshing. We're gunna go out to dinner and I've never been in Central Park so I'm going to take tons of pictures and I'm really excited! I think her hotel is gunna be pretty snazzy, too. Of course, anything seems snazzy compared to my teeny tiny dorm room. Did I tell you that my room is actually smaller than most of the others? And then compared some some, it's even smaller! Some rooms are so much bigger! I heacka got jipped. I have LCD today which is a pain in my and our assignment last week was a bunch of and I'm just so tired which just makes it all the worse because I don't want to be there! If I can switch teachers at the semester, I'm going to. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MY IPOD! I need to look for it though, hold on. Okay good, it was in my backpack where I left it. That was scary for a sec. I read this book called PostSecret last night. You should check it out.

www.PostSecret.blogspot.com

It's freakin amazing. Those are some examples of the thousands. Uhm, what else? I just mailed 6 letters today! Yup. Pretty awesome huh? It would have been 7, but Grama I'm still waiting on your letter before I write you again so that I can respond to whatever you write. Yea? I'm really enjoying my package goodies =) thank you so much! I don't think I've told you guys, but I'm on a mission to make Nokedles and I WILL! I made a friend with a pot, so it'll come soon =). it'd be this weekend if I wasn't going to be with mom. But that's perfectly alright. I WANT TO BAKE! ARG! WE SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE OVERN IN THE DORM! IT'S NOT FAIR! Molly, dearest, weren't you going to send me cookies? hehe =) so.... what else? Ah yes, I need to post pictures of my newer friends. Or maybe, just Max. And then I need to go to class. And don't forget that today's Tuesday, so I have Open Model session at 6. Blech. But oh yea! I need to write about my friends calling me! I'll write about it later so I'm not late to class. Blogging can get you so carried away...

This is Max. I'll have to explain about her later, because I've managed to be late...

MY FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS!

So here, FINALLY, are my pictures for you! My major! My whole reason for being here! Except not quite, but you get the point! It's exciting, and I really like them! I love doing photography =) These are in no particular order.



This one's super disorienting which is why I like it.




This one is just for fun, it's not actually one I put in my critique. It's here for mom! You like it? hehe















Tell me which one is your favorite, or which ones are your favorites, or tell me the order you like them, just out of curiousity.

Give me your thoughts.

I'm back!

Sorry I didn't get to post for the past few days, I have so much to catch up on... I think I have to start with Wednesday night! So English went fine, I didn't knit, I was sleepy. After class, I went to Morgan's room and hung out with her until about 1 in the morning because I didn't have class the next day. Her friend Will came in for a while, a seriously, he is one of the funniest kids I've ever met. Max, Morgan's roommate, said you can only take so much of him, because he's this crazy hyper kid who's just always saying ridiculous stuff. But I think it's funny, and it's nice to have some one to make me laugh just because every once in a while!

So Thursday I think I got up at around 12 and then I showered and got stuff together to do laundry with Max. (p.s. this isn't the same Max I mentioned in a previous entry. ) I wandered down to her room and we went and did laundry. It was fun, I mean, it was laundry, but I was knitting and we were talking and I realized that she's super cool and I like hanging out with her. She's funny too, but not in the way Will is, just like we can make each other laugh, yea? So then me her and Caitlyn went to Target at around 4:30 and that was good fun, because it was target and because I got off campus (silent victories!) and because I enjoy both Max and Caitlyn. I got 2 things: food and soaps. Oh, and leggings so I can wear skirts when it's a bit cold out. They would have been awesome, but they're too long a bit, which makes me sad, so I'll have to come up with a way to fix that... And I got tea and it had five different kinds and it's super tasty and it makes me happy to try all the kinds! Then what did I do Thursday night? I can't remember. Oh I guess I just stayed in Caitlyn's room and watched Grey's Anatomy because she's obsessed with that show and owns the previous seasons. And I knitted a whole bunch.

Friday, now to the good part! I'm summarizing all of this quite a bit because I can't really remember the details from Thursday, but Friday was yesterday, so I should be okay. So I had Photography and we had our first critique. I put up 10 pictures out of maybe 20 that I printed and first we looked at some slides of really really old pictures (which we do sometimes) and then we just sorta went around and talked about what we liked in people's pictures. It was really informal and all together not extremely helpful I think, but it was find for me because my teacher loved me work! He said I have very good printing skills and that I did a really good job editing out which photos were actually worth putting up. And my photos are so neat! I dunno, there was more to it because I was so excited yesterday, but that's all I can remember. Some other people had some nice work though, but mostly I liked a few pictures but not all of them. I enjoy mine though, and I'm not saying I'm better than any one else at all. But it seemed like almost everyone came in knowing what they were doing, when really, some of the kids prints were too dark or not so interesting which reassures me that I am good at this stuff and choosing this major was an excellent idea! The fact that my professor really liked my work, like A LOT, really made me feel better and excited and all that jazz because I can do it and I can do it well! I was taught well though, Kirstyn and Sean were excellent teachers, and I know that's why I can print so well so easily. The picture part is just my own style, and I like it! Unfortunately, I can’t post the pictures right now because Caitlyn’s not around and I use her digital camera to take the pictures I post. So sorry about that! I’ll post them as soon as I can.


So then I had Art History and it was Greek Art and I was sleepy. Nothing important to say about that… Then me and Courtney went to K and M, the photo supply store in China Town in Manhattan, to get paper because he said we should start printing on 11 by 14 inch paper so hat we can see more detail. The problem with that is that it's twice as expensive to use an 11 by 14 sheet than an 8 by 10! So we both got some and I got some more 8 by 10 as well as some clear sheets to hold my prints, but we both decided that just for the critiques, we're going to use 8 by 10, and for then portfolio at the end of the semester once we've chosen which prints are the AMAZING ones, we'll re-print them on 11 by 14. I'll have to ask him about that and I hope he doesn't make me do 11 by 14 because no one can really afford that! Photography is just about the most expensive major. Just to reiterate, the way my class works is we print any we deem interesting by looking at the contact sheet. We print them well enough, but don't worry about getting them exactly perfect, because they're just work prints. Then we weed out through our own selection and through the critiques the ones that are actually interesting. Then I presume, at the end of the semester we weed through those to find the ultimate pictures, the very best ones we have. So, I don't want to print a work print on 11 by 14 paper that costs a dollar a sheet!

So then, we came home, and I forgot to say I got another package from Grama! It had all sorts of good stuff, and for dinner, I ate trail mix and Chili! YAY! I was supposed to meet Adah, but I couldn't reach her at all! I feel bad, but it wasn't my fault. And then I knit some more in Caitlyn's room watching Grey's Anatomy. Then at about 10 I went down to Will's room because he and Morgan were watching Indiana Jones and I finished my scarf! Almost anyways, I couldn't remember how to bind off! I know it's so easy, but I can't remember! It was fun again. I enjoy Morgan and Will.

So then I came back to my room at about 1 again I think, only to be getting ready for bed and find that my sweet mates friend wandered into their room, was super drunk, and needed to throw up. I was pissed. One of them let him into the bathroom to throw up in the toilet, which is fair so he didn't throw up in their room, but christ! I was in there and I wanted to go to sleep peacefully! And then I was disgusted! I was so mad, and I'm still pretty mad. I hate that kid, actually, I'm not really comfortable with a couple of their friends, and when they're in their room, I DON'T HAVE A LOCK! The bathroom doors don't have locks! And it's really really uncomfortable. I just don't have the nerve to say something to them, but I think that this time I do because that is NOT okay with me. Some creepy friend of there's who I'm not comfortable with coming to their room drunk and then throwing up in what's also MY bathroom with complete and total access to my room! It's not okay and I was really freaked out so I ran downstairs to Morgan's room and Will, Max, Morgan, and Michele were in there so I stayed for a while and then Michele came back up with me to stay in my room for the night because my room mate went home for the weekend. Blah. I know I need to confront them, but I don't feel like I should have to because drinking is just so damn irresponsible and disgusting and they should know to respect my space and how to keep better company. God. Don't worry about it though, anyone. I'll handle it.

So then I woke up at 1 in the afternoon, haha. And Now I have to do my homework after I take a shower, but I'm super mad now because I was thinking about that guy, and I DON'T WANT TO DO MY HOMEWORK! I DON'T WANT TO! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Oh and I forgot to say that Naomi called me last night and we talked and it was nice and I miss her and she reminded me that her Birthday is this month and I though it was next month and now I really wont have time to get her a present! But it was good to hear from her =)

I don't know what to call this I'm running out of names...

So, where did I leave off? I presume I wrote about yesterday yesterday, so I'll start with today.I had drawing, of course. when I woke up this morning it was so hard! And I thought to myself, what in the world is my proffessor going to conjur up today? We've done shoes, we've done logs... Uh oh... But then we did perspecitive which I understand pretty well! One point and two point. It was good times, like the cubes and cylinders, because I've already had experience and practive with it and stuff in space like that just makes sense to me. I guess that's the point though, because we always relate what we do in the mornign to the figure in the afternoon, like I told you before. So then we did some more gestures and axis drawings and cross contour drawings and those were frusterating as ususal. But then we got to do a long one! A 40 minute pose that we had to be super super slow on and get the proportions right and not even bother with the details yet. And frankly, that's my nitch, longer drawings. So I enjoyed it. And he said we'll be doing more of those now. In two weeks, we have our midterm review when he looks at all the work we've done so far and tells us our progress and how we're doing and what not. So today I asked him if there were any drawings he thought I should re-do and he said the only one is probably the log we turned in today. BLAH! But I knew it sucked, and I know I can do a million times better, I just didn't feel like it. But he said not to let in interfere with the current week's homework because that's more important. So I suppose I'll go back and not use vine charcoal and try super hard and get an awesome grade on it. Maybe. Then I went back to my room and finished up my essay, which I already posted, and now I'm off to English, in which I will be knitting my rainbow scarf while I listen. Adios! I'll probably write more later tonight.

Crisis Photography

Warning: This post is an essay. Just incase, hehe. But it's such a GOOD essay, that I really encourage you to read it! I defend Crisis Photography so fervently because this is what I want to do as far as I know, and I know that people like me are far from exploitative; we are the exact opposite in fact. Almost overly (if it's possible) passionate and caring and we pour ourselves into the lives of other people. So, enjoy!

And here before you start is a link to a site I found for you to check out some of the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs that inspire me. I strongly recommend searching around for others because this site only has a few. I got to go to the neatest exhibition with Grama and Aunt Norma in Tacoma, which was called "Capture the Moment" and had all the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. It was intense...

http://www.newseum.org/pulitzer/shock/shock.htm


Exploitative Photography

Crisis photographers can be seen as being pitiless, uncaring people who are not concerned with the defenseless people they photograph, only with the pictures they take. They should be helping to feed, clothe, and shelter the people they encounter in order to bring about an end to the horrible problems they witness, as opposed to remaining detached while taking pictures of desolate people and circumstances. But the problem with the assumption that crisis photographers are exploitative is the failure to differentiate between an urgent personal crisis, in which anyone should immediately help if they can, and a much larger crisis involving many people over a long period of time, when standing back from a situation and gaining information about it can do more good. A crisis photographer attempting to help one person for one day is like trying to build a sand castle to stop the tide. They maximize their power to help by taking pictures to assist more people in the long run. Crisis photographers must use their training, and they sincerely care about the people they are trying to help through their photographs.

One bagel from a photographer’s knapsack is not enough to feed a hundred people. Nor is it enough to feed tens of thousands of people, for that matter. It seems unsympathetic when photographers take pictures of emaciated children, barely skin enough to hang on to what is left of their deteriorating bones, and they have no food to offer them. But the reality is that in the long run, simply feeding them does not help them. Certainly, that instant, their stomachs will feel ever so slightly more filled, but they will still be starving later that night and the next day. And that one bagel only helps that one person at that moment. There are still thousands of other people that need food as well. What about them? How does one choose whom to feed? Maybe the photographer should come prepared, with ten thousand bagels. That should help ten thousand people, right? Well, no, actually. It would only help each of them for one bagel’s worth of time. It would ultimately be a waste of money intended to alleviate the burden struggling people possess because the problem would not be gone. The money should go toward creating a local economy that makes the people self-sufficient instead, which is what photographers hope to illustrate.

The problem people often have in understanding what photographers are doing is the confusion of two different types of crises. The crises that photographers often photograph are large and long term. People presume that photographers could actually do something about the problem they are witnessing, when in reality, it is far beyond their control. Obviously, if someone was drowning and something could be done about it, they should attempt to save the person. Or if someone was about to jump off of a bridge, it would be within their ability to make an immediate impact by stopping them instead of watching them jump and taking a picture, which would be heartless. But those examples are not the same as thousands of people being massacred in Darfur, or hundreds of young girls from the northern mountains of Thailand being captured and lulled by lies down into the cities to be made into slave-prostitutes. These crises are not immediate. They did not happen overnight, nor can they be fixed overnight. It is a hard choice photographers have to make constantly when they realize they cannot really help an individual. Photographers take pictures of disasters to tell stories to the people who have the means to make the long-term differences.

The reality is that crisis photographers make an enormous impact simply doing their jobs. Photographers have much more of an impact in people’s lives overall when they bring back information. The entire reason photographers are on site is to take pictures of what is going on. As a crisis photographer, the bigger pictures must be kept in mind, which is precisely what makes their job so difficult. They would almost certainly not be there at all if they did not care. The misery of thousands must be told to thousands for help, and TV, newspapers, and magazines have thousands of people they reach, so they attempt to make their information mainstream. Photography can also tell a story in such a way that writing cannot. The emotions that are caught in a moment can be astonishing. Photographers end up doing a greater service by doing well what they are trained to do.

The problem with a lot of people is that they are extremely hypocritical. They point their fingers, probably sitting at home doing absolutely nothing to help, while the photographers are actually making a difference. It is a wonder why just because photographers are already involved, they are expected to fix up the problem quickly and entirely. And is it not ironic that some may be complaining that the photographer is doing nothing about the situation, when they, in fact, learned of the situation from the photographer in the first place? The whole point of the photographs are to inform people that the crisis is not something that can be fix so quickly, and it is a rally for support so that it can hopefully and eventually be fixed. Another name for crisis photographers are photojournalists. They are no different than any sort of journalist, but no one seems to chide the writers for not helping directly. If people see pictures and cry for a change to be made in the lives of wretched people, the photographer is clearly doing their job effectively, and the people calling for that change need to get up and do all in their own power to make the difference they seek.

Pictures make an impact. Aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina, all the money that was raised, could not have been as generous without the pictures taken for people too far away to understand the damage by words alone. When the public sees pictures that really move them, they do rise up to do something about the problem being presented. This notion is shown clearly by the fact that the current administration is filtering what pictures can come in to be shown to the American public about the war in Iraq. The people in power know the vast impact pictures can have. They are not allowing pictures of the coffins of soldiers killed in the war or sickening pictures of what is really going on to come through, they do not let photographers and journalists go into certain places where they could obtain information that would help sway public opinion to end the war, and they have shut down some Iraqi television stations. They have done all of this because they know that if the public really understood the truth, they would rise up like they did in Vietnam and otherwise to pressure the politicians to put and end to the war, and in all probability, it would have long been over. The war in Vietnam was ended largely because of the horrible pictures the public saw. It would not make sense for a photographer to try and stop a battle in a war alone let alone the entire war; they would need to get a picture so the people at home could stop it. Pictures of crises cause uprisings of the public who want to become involved, who both raise money and pressure politicians to do something to help.

The most absurd notion is the idea that crisis photographers do not actually care about the people they are photographing. Many photographers actually do all the things they might seem not to not do; they attempt to help feed starving people, clothe the cold, bring medicine to the sick, and befriend the friendless. In many cases, in fact, they do all that they can, but there is simply nothing more they personally can accomplish aside from taking pictures. Born into Brothels is a Documentary about a woman who lived with the prostitutes in Sonagchi, Calcutta's Red Light District, for three years, how she befriended the children of the women there, and her attempt to help them. She taught the children photography and worked to get them into schools in a place where children of prostitutes were seen as just as bad as the prostitutes themselves. But as hard as she tried, she still could not help some of them who dropped out of the schools and were forced into prostitution as well. And more proof comes from the fact that so many photographers have been killed in Iraq, trying to bring about a change. If they did not care, photographers would not put themselves into danger the way they often do.

Though it may seem harsh when crisis photographers shove cameras in the faces of people who need something far from their picture taken, the truth is that a picture could save hundreds of lives later on. Photographers do not have the power to feed thousands of people nor make their lives better in one day. They do their job in the best way they can, and it is hypocritical for people who are doing nothing to point fingers at them when the photographers are trying really hard to make a change and they are not doing much. Pictures can have a vast and lasting impact on the lives of everyone involved, both the viewers and the subjects, and they are taken because crisis photographers really care about the vulnerable people they are trying to help. Crisis photographers simply are not exploitative.


So, did I convince you? What are you thinking about now? Where did I lead your mind? Leave me your thoughts.

Left Handed MADNESS!

All I wanted to say was that I went to the Open Model Session and I used my left hand for the gestures and it was so much good fun! They're still pretty crummy, but so much better than they were! I wonder if my professor will like some of them tomorrow... yay! =D

Now I need to correct my essay for English tomorrow. I'm somehow really awake and in a decent mood even though it's Tuesday night. I suppose it's because in general I've settled all in, and I had such an awesome weekend! Which calmed me down times ten, from an already fauirly calm state. So... I'm a bit sad at homework, yes, but mostly doing alright.

There's a reason to be pissed...

First of all, Grama, I'm so glad to hear that the card motivated you to paint! That's awesome and it makes me super happy! It did turn out pretty neat, huh? Oh man, that's so cool! I'm glad you're painting! You'll have to send me some pictures.

Next, LCD went okay today, except that we got the most tedious assignment we've had so far. So that's what we did all day, and 4 or 5 hours of that only got me 1/9th of the way through, so I'ma have to figure out a way to speed things up or something... I might be being too careful and that's the problem. Dunno, but that's our only homework. We have to reproduce this painting with all sorts of crazy colors in a tiny 8th of an inch grid with colored pencils by color averaging, which I explained in an earlier entry. BLAH!

But now to the point. So you remember that group I just mentioned? SDS, students for a Democratic Society? Yea, so the first thing I was a part of was today. We handed out chalk to everyone and told them to "take back our campus" because apparently, you're not allowed to draw in chalk on the sidewalks on campus but there's no rule. And security here is really anal and rude and full of it so they make people stop if they are. Like, there's a four square club (awesome, right?!) and they have to use tape to draw their squares! It's ridiculous, it's not as if it's spray paint or something! So anyways, someone in the group had a personal tiff with security because he was drawing in chalk, so we decided to hand it out and get people to draw because we should be allowed to, first of all because it washes away, second of all because it's our campus, we're paying for it, and we're art students! Of all things, drawing in chalk should be encouraged! So me and Morgan went around writing "Why Not?" and we wrote "We love free speech" and drew rainbows and bunnies and everything harmless. For a little while, nothing happened and security passed us by and didn't say anything. Until finally, this crazy lady comes out and starts yelling at us to stop and next thing we know, here comes security and a few other old men who I assume were part of the administration and this lady is there telling us it's silly and a waste of her time and we could be spending our time better etc. and we're like, okay, it's silly to you, so effing LEAVE and go do whatever you were doing that was so important to you in the first place because we're just drawing in chalk and we don't think it's silly. And what a stupid woman, because of COURSE it matters to her if she's out there bothering! So blah blah she was helluve annoying and they ended up taking our IDs and I guess putting them in the system because we were "defacing school property" when of course, it'd be gone in a matter of days because it's probably gunna rain soon. I managed to not get my ID taken, but regardless, I'm sure they wont do anything much anyways. I mean, come on, if they hadn't bothered to come out and bitch about it, we'd have been satisfied and most likely never drawn in chalk again! And we kept asking what exactly was wrong with it, and you know stupid people, they don't really have a reason at all, so she just kept saying it was silly, and we said, good for you to think that! So leave, because we don't think it's silly, we want to be able to draw in chalk.

Point is, it was ludicrous, and not even something important. But hell, we proved our point, at least to ourselves. I honestly didn't think it would cause such a scene. It was absolutely ridiculous. So I called Dad to see what he thought and he had a lot of interesting ideas, depending on what our goal of it all actually was. My favorite was to actually paint ourselves and lie down on the ground instead, because then we could get up and walk away and the ground would be unharmed, so they couldn't really yell at us. I'm going to suggest it and we'll see how it goes over with everyone, but no matter what, I think if done right, that's an awesome idea. And the thing about SDS, as we were telling that arrogant clueless woman, is that we participate in things we think are important, like Protesting Bush at the UN, or going to the Darfur Rally in Central park. We asked her if she would like to come with us and see. Now, I know chalk is just chalk, and personally, whatever, I doubt I'd have had the urge to use it otherwise. But what if I did? What if I had a project or something? I just don't understand. I just don't understand.

So as you can see, there's a reason to be pissed. There's a reason my life is headed the way it is, a reason I need to help start the revolution. If the administration is going to get so worked up over Chalk, then clearly it means there is terribly more to be worried about... If we can't write in chalk... what else can we not do? And what's going too far? What's wrong with chalk? It's our right and our free speech. I know, it's chalk. But eventually, the train of though leads up to the very essence of our society.

And then, of course, I should have taken pictures, but I was trying to avoid getting my ID taken, even though I’m allowed to take pictures and stop if they ask me to stop. In the future, I will be documenting like a mad woman. It’s gunna be my life, right? Better get used to it and get some practice on not as epic things.

Give me your thoughts.

a few things...

For those of you that are wondering, I will be posting some of my photography work soon. We have our crit on Friday, so I'll post the ones I use for that slash any more good ones I manage to print! =D I loves it! I'm behind on my rolls though... we need two more by Friday, not that he's counting really. But hopefully I can go somewhere this weekend, get out of here, and take like four rolls and kill a buncha birds with one stone because I NEED to get off this campus every once in a while! And when Thanksgiving rolls around, I'll have Ithaca and the rest to make up rolls on! =) now I gotsa go to LCD class. Blah.

This is an example of a contact sheet. It's a horrible picture and really hard to see, so sorry about that.


And this is a negative sleeve, what you keep your negatives in and make the contact sheet from so that you can see what pictures you want to print.



This is the Birthday card me and Morgan made for Tudor! Isn't it the best thing ever? He loved it and he's so cute, he said he now has to match it's awesomeness when our birthdays come around and he wont be able to! I quite enjoyed making it and I quite enjoyed the final product.


Oh and Annie? We needs to talk! Call me or something, pweeze? I lub you!