aww craaaap

well, im done with all my school crap for a while, until my one summer school class begins. and even then it meets once a week. but ... i guess im not totally done, i still have a little bit of 340 high street stuff to do, which reminds me, you havent seen it yet! im working on putting up on the portfolio, in which case this will be update with pictures as well. patience.

ive been putting off some really basic crap, like going to the dentist and visiting the optometrist, but i plan on getting that stuff accomplished this week, or at least setting up appointments. i dont know why i hate doing things like that, but its just part of who i am. i absolutely hate talking to receptionists. in any case, i postpone most of my personal upkeep things until its absolutely too late. i think my gums are receding a scary amount, im all out of extra contacts, and i need a haircut pretty badly.

but im in shape. swimming fly is a pretty good test to see where im at physically. last week i was able to easily do a 100 fly at a moderate pace. i ran two miles yesterday. so ive got swimming technique back (mostly) and ive definitely got cardio. thats like the least of my worries. its usually a bigger struggle to press my heart and lungs than it is to wear out my muscles and head.

so, if you havent heard about hulu, you should head on over there to watch EXO squad. its like, my favorite cartoon of the 90s. why isnt there a dvd out yet?

ugh. im practically done with school for the semester. its been a tough one. over the past three days ive been working really hard on exam stuff, but i think its going to pay off. i know for a fact ive got an A in history112, i turned in my final, she looked at it, handed it back, and said "ok. youre good to go." my previous test scores and essays have all been pretty top notch, so i guess she just saved herself some time; but i feel like i was cheated because i spent two hours writing six pages worth of essay just to have her glance over the paper and give me an A. i wrote nearly 8 pages yesterday for history111, which was hellish; and just a little bit of short answer for marketing which was easy. but im done with big writing projects. and thats good because i think its giving me a neck pain from hunching over paper. my final project for communication design2 was pretty lame. i didnt put forth a whole lot of effort into the details, but i dont really care. ive been working on the magazine stuff all year and its really my full focus.

so one multiple choice exam left, tomorrow, and then im freeeeeeeee! afterwards ill be sure to race home and play mario kart all day. maybe with a few breaks to read comics, because i need to catch up like mad. ive been going through back issues of walking dead for a while, and its pretty awesome. as opposed to american virgin, which sort of just ended very abruptly in one issue. i really liked reading av, but the way it closed was so... distracted? that i found it a little offputting. enough to actually change my opinion of the entire series.

i love my wii. im borrowing a bunch of games from joe which are really cool, warioware, big brain academy, and mario party. i picked up house of the dead 2&3 which i have always loved, and it remains a good port. also, it hurts my wrist from keeping my hand tilted for hours on end. i didnt pick up the wii zapper because it looks bulky and dumb.

graphic design is going well i suppose. the visual arts center chose my design and layout for the student art magazine they put out each year. i also entered an identity system in the student art show and won a prize. so maybe i have a chance to pick up that internship in new york?

now that swimming has calmed down, i feel less inclined to swim myself. instead ive started running and picked up a free weights routine. its all new for me, which is exciting. i kind of like running. i think its a good alternative to swimming because everyone runs, and no one except mark can keep up with me in swimming. so socially its better, which makes it much easier to call people up and work out. but unfortunately that also means that im not going to ever get back up to speed in the water. hmm.

the spoon show with the walkmen and white rabbits was pretty awesome. it was really well organized and the walkmen had a good set. spoon played for near two hours, it was... really long. as much as i enjoy spoon, that was a lot of time standing on my feet. you know what i wish they played though?

06 Sister Jack

so last week i walked into a target to pick up some random things and saw a wii just sitting around, so i bought it. its pretty awesome. i picked up smash bros with it, and im loving that. i just wish my friends were more nerdy so they would join in my electronic excitement. they werent even interested in the fact that i have all the playable characters.

so if you havent heard about muxtape, go ahead and check mine out! its a really neat, simplistic site that takes mixtape sharing to a bigger level. make your own and leave me the address!

during march, i spent most of my time away from my house. the first two weekends, i was out of town doing swim stuff. senior champs at uva, and age group champs at gmu (manassas). that was pretty good, except for the whole respiratory distress thing going on –spending four days on a pool deck really kills your lungs. it makes you all snotty and congested and generally a mess. they just dont account for prolonged exposure when they do ventilation. fortunately it was super nice outside during age groups so they kept the doors open which was a huge help. anyways, during senior champs, i managed to do ok. 23.00 in the 50 free, 51.00 in the 100 free. nice, even times. not as fast as i should be, or could be, but you know; its alright for the amount of practice i do. id like to say that im happy with those times, but im really not.
as far as accommodations went, the motel we had in charlottesville was pretty crappy; but the hotel in manassas was really nice. like, totally makes up for charlottesville and having to work that weekend nice. and when i got back home, i went to house-sit for jay who went to junior nationals in florida. i crashed at his place for two weeks basically. it was long enough for me to take my computer over there. but im pretty partial to my computer.

now im back in my house, and its kind of ... annoying. not that i actually spend lots of time here, but still. i guess ill just have to pass the time playing wii :)

so my brother found a website where you play simcity, but like slow. he built a city, and i was checking it, and decided i wanted to build one. so here it is! http://cudinapolis.myminicity.com/
visit it frequently (like once a day) and build up the population so i can have a prosperous place and it will be better than my brothers. and if you get envious, you can build one too and leave a link in the comments

this is basically all ive accomplished in the last week.
all this weekend starting on friday, ive been getting up at 5am for swimming. we had a big meet this past weekend, and a big one coming up next weekend (in which i swim). so this weekend is the first time ill have been free for the last like month or so.

ive been super busy every weekend with swimming. ive been super busy ever day with school and work. i dont get a lot of chill time anymore, and its really starting to affect my productivity and mental stability. i feel like a single parent working two jobs and briefly interacting with my 50+ kids for a few hours each day. ive definitely noticed a sharp lack of enthusiasm in my endeavors and have begun new measures to handle this error. by that, i mean i started drinking coffee. it pretty much explodes my brain and gives me jitters, but it allows me to have a lot more energy with everything. besides, its not like i need steady hands for REAL artwork anymore :p

ive got a lot on my plate coming up. i started writing for the school paper, im interviewing a culinary arts professor tomorrow, and im also helping with layout of the articles and pictures and stuff. im constantly working on my portfolio so i can 1.get an internship and 2.get a job and 3.enter my stuff into the school show and 4.not lose my old work to compatibility issues between cs2 and my fancy new cs3. all the while, i have to prepare for senior champs and work the championship meets here, as well as miscellaneous school stuff like tests and papers.

in a more promising note, the band has started back up. we arent doing anything inventive, just trying not to lose our skillz. im on keys, which means im starting out with zero skillz, and we've got a few covers we're practicing to get back into things. unfortunately, i often fail to meet for practice due to my previously whined about schedule. can i start my life now plz?

speaking of which, why is everyone i meet married? how is that even possible? people in my classes cant be any older than me, in fact most of them are under 21. WHY ARE THEY ALL MARRIED? ridiculous. stupid suburban south and its stupid military population.

i am already tired of valentines day creeping into my online reading. its not even february!

ive been reading and studying for my first tests in business, marketing, and history1. none of this is very exciting, and it all pretty much scares me to death even though they are all freshman level courses and i really should have nothing to worry about. i think im just scared because this is the first time im taking tests where the material isnt "identify this picture, what was said about it in class?" now its like, "tell me everything about global marketing and explain how it affects individual blah blah blah blah capitalism." i dont care about this stuff. history is ok, if it werent stuff ive learned a billion times, but business and marketing are pretty much the devil. im ready for this semester to be over.

just got back from hillsborough, nc. its a small town outside the triangle that has little to offer. but, it does have a pretty sweet sports complex that combines an ice skating rink with an 11 lane competition pool and 3+ lane warm pool. so in fact, it may be even better than most suburbs. but, theres still not much there besides that. i was in charge of driving, so in our off time we took a scenic exploration of the area but were unable to find anything of real interest. we were mostly in search of food, and though they have a walmart and some chain fast foods, there werent any local eateries except for this one place that was a swim meet sponser, vinny's. it was pretty good, fresh sauces, i dont think there were fresh pastas, maybe the ravioli and lasagna, but all in all, just a good local italian place. of course, to get there, it was a short trip from the hotel using two lane roads through the wilderness of north carolina. i did drive into durham, but it was only to scout for food, and we didnt get very far because we were starving so we hit the first reasonable place we could find, only to end up at subway because of the wait. but yeah, maybe one day ill have better reason to go down there and see whats going on in terms of civilization.

overall, great meet. well organized, super effecient, highly effective meet staff. as for competition, there was a lot of mediocre ability with a few stand out stars. olympian chip peterson was there to swim against, as well as some of his college buddies (i assume). but mostly it was filled with normal kids in age and ability ranges. nothing our senior team and advanced team was unfamiliar with. as usual, i placed somewhere between fast and good. dropped a little bit of time, went a 1:57 in my 200 free, 23:7 in 50 free, and 51.7 in my 100 free. oddly, i tied with the person next to me in the 200, and then tied with him again in the 50 even though we werent in the same heat that time. in the 100 i blew away everyone in my heat for some reason, just by going my seed time. so, looks like my weekend warrior tradition continues to be an effective form of exercise. even without being a reasonable form of training. most of the kids did ok, they all dropped serious time in some things, and added in some other areas. but it was a fun meet, mostly because it was timed finals, so we didnt have to wait and come back for another swim, we were simply done by 11 (for seniors) and 3 (for 12 and unders). so we had some good chill time in which we did nothing and i was forced to supervise and babysit - sort of. most of the kids came with their parents, so i only had to really worry about a handful and even then, with their interaction with the chaperoned kids, they were limited to the trouble they could get into.

Photo 4

well, its now 2008, and looking back at what ive accomplished over the last year... fills me with regret. im not too happy about how the "write something every week" project turned out, but i am proud of two or three of the things that came out of it, so i will probably be reinstituting that again. this time, i will be working from my NEW iMAC! its pretty awesome (in the fullest sense of the word). i have so much screen real estate i can pretty much do everything all at once. unfortunately, i dont have all the programs to actually do everything, but ill get there eventually. the student rate for adobe creative suite is actually pretty good, so i might pick that up so i dont have to traverse all the way to portsmouth to get simple things done. so yeah. on to the resolutions list!

1. write more. this includes documenting more of the creative ideas i have, not necessarily limiting me to actually writing. but expect the 52 project back.
2. get things done. i need to stop putting things off for later and really conquer the small things that always seem to pile up and become forgotten.
3. read more. ive fallen behind on a lot of research. all my time just seems to get sucked up into internet, and thats probably bad.