28 posts tagged “school”
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 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.
one of my final projects is creating an online portfolio. its hard as crap because i have a lot of stuff, and mostly all of it is mediocre. i also decided to throw my writing up on the site, and thats very difficult for me since all of my writing is like, two years old. ive changed quite a bit and the poetry left over no longer reflects who i am and what i consider good work. but i do feel that its an important facet to understanding my creativity and may ultimately help me with getting a job.
so anyways, its kind of hard to work on this stuff when im not in lab. i dont have the programs, and the lab is open from 7am-midnight (although the guards kick us out at 11:30ish). so basically, i have to work like crazy tomorrow, and maybe i can skip the meet on saturday at ft eustis and work some more. its going to be a hellish weekend. also, im pretty sure everyone else in the world will be in the labs working like crazy too. who is ready for energy drinks, lots of driving, and dreamweaver frustration?
the portfolio is practically the only thing left for me to do for the semester. i have a final test in art history2, and a project for communication design, but im almost done with it, i spent all day today putting it together and i just have to paste it all up. i had to create a bag and a stationary system for a company i made up and create all the branding for it. ill put up some stuff next week when i stop grinding my teeth.
well, i dont think ill be graduating on time. i think im going to go an extra (full) semester so i can 1.get all 3 associate degrees and 2.work on getting a job before i lose access to creative suite.
also, im being a bigger part of school. this semester im part of the student art league (which doesnt mean much) but i suppose its some form or support? also im joining the staff of the tcc times, the school newspaper. i dont have an assignment yet, but it should be pretty cool. so yeah, im being active!
ive been catching up on x-statix and its REALLY good. im almost done, which is very disturbing because i dont know what ill do with my life after this. perhaps move back to reading bone or blade of the immortal.
yup. lots of free time in that class.
well since i guess everyone else is trying to start posting regularly, i should too. new school year resolution as it may be. good to see people are back!
well this year (book 6 of college for those who are still counting) im taking a few good courses and a few bad courses. its out of my hands now, im on a pretty strict path in terms of what i can and cannot take. especially if i want to graduate this year. im in computer graphics2, interactive design, communication design, and art history2. i was in normal world history1, but i dropped it because i was taking it online and was too lazy for all that shit. so i might be cramming stuff in next semester. so yeah, only four classes this semester, but two of them are four credits each. so its still a fairly full load. cg2 looks like its going to be hell. our teacher is completely new, came out of business and has no idea what the hell is going on. she basically takes all the assignments previous teachers have given out and hands them out to us to be completed each class. no big deal, but then on top of that she gives us a project due each tuesday. one week for a project? without any class time to work on it? its fucking ridiculous. how does she expect us to make anything worthwhile for these things? they certainly arent going to be portfolio quality work. interactive design is looking to be pretty good. i know the teacher from last semesters typography class, so im fine with everything. she knows what shes doing and web design looks fairly easy from my standpoint; i spend tons of time on the internet, have a pretty good wealth of knowledge about technology, and have cs friends. communication design is run by an organization nazi who has intensely precise standards, but seems to be ok besides that. lectures a bit too much, and doesnt let us ignore her by using the computers because she LOCKS that shit. she uses the teacher network tools to mimic her display while she talks so we cant do anything but stare and fall asleep. art history is art history. i didnt know we were getting a new teacher for history, thats always been done by one professor, but i guess since she does like, legitimate art history research shes only teaching a few classes this year. sucks because i really like her. this new guy isnt half bad though. besides using really big words and comparing things to artists we havent heard of, he does a good job of being entertaining and prepping us for his tests (i think).
so besides school, football is here! i once again have student season tickets, so im driving up to tech this weekend for the ohio game. not ohio state, ohio university. i was up in blacksburg for the ecu game; that was a blast. there were a ton of people that i ran into that, like me, had no reason to be there. it was fun! i expect this weekend to be similar.
i cant believe how long its been since ive posted pictures of my drawing stuff.
we started pastels with a still of a bag and some apples, i didnt post that because it was boring compared to these. i started with the butterfly (we picked a bug photo and went to work), then moved to the self portrait, if you go to my flickr account you can compare the pastel to the original photo. then i moved to the degas master copy of the dancers, put that on hold and worked on the pastries and finished both of them up for my portfolio presentation.
i really like my dinosaur cookie.
if you get a chance, come see them in person, theyre really colorful and neat. im pretty proud of them all. the degas took forever, layering all of the colors, trying to find blending matches... ugh. but its nice looking. thats pretty much the last half of the semester.
also, i got deans list again. woo.
i finished all of my stuff for this semester. we're supposed to have finals and junk, but since im in all art classes, its all "turn in your portfolio and pick it up later." i like this. heres what ive been working on for the past while (im missing pictures of all my pastel drawings, ill get to that later; along with the uploads of my photography junk.)
::ugh. i just spent 15 minutes trying to get vox to accept another project from cg, a isometric product box. but, i dont know why it wont show up. everything i upload is saved as a jpeg, and they all come from the same computer, same program, same export settings. i even threw it into photoshop here at my own computer to make sure its a normal picture. argh!
typography: a timeline of events, or calendar. basically i created a folding flyer for my swim team, and its completely usable, so we might print up a few dozen of them. theres two per page, printed full color front and back.
and finally, my last project for type: an interpretation of my choice of text. so i pulled an old favorite, the last page from dickens' a tale of two cities. i had a really hard time at first trying to create a layout for this, originally trying to create a human figure from the text. that turned out to be too dull, and not interesting enough; so i broke it down and focused on hierarchy.
so all i have left is critiques tomorrow for the box of headphones that you cant view and the tale of two cities interpretation to the right. the only thing ive got wednesday is a pizza party!
oh, also, my type class went on a field trip last week to the comtemparary art center of virginia beach. it was alright, there was a temporary exhibit for the magna carta, which was pretty neat. but on permanant display is this GIGANTIC blown glass chandellier by dale chihuly. its pretty much the most amazing thing ive seen in a really really really long time. its like this one, but more colorful.
i spent pretty much all day at school working in the mac lab on some stuff, and brought my usb hard drive to save all my stuff to it since itd be easier than burning a cd. problem is, the stupid hard drive doesnt like macs. i plugged it in, and it turns out im only capable of reading files which is crap. but good enough i suppose because i also wanted to listen to music while i slaved away. its just very irritating to not be capable of backing up my files in an easier fashion. ive got 4-5gb worth of photos that i was going to try and transfer as well, but i guess ill have to do that from my computer here (which is troublesome because ive only got 2 usb ports, meaning ill have to unplug my mouse and use the touchpad; also, i dont have bridge which is a fantastic way to view and organize pictures). anyways, im looking into getting a new computer soon. a real one, hopefully. ive been trying to decide between a mac or a pc, id really like to have a mac so i could work with the same interfaces and stuff as school (and most of the real world), but then that would rule out me using the portable hard drive. i dont understand why macs dont have writing permissions on this drive. did i set it up wrong last time i formatted?
while i was sitting around at school, i resaved a bunch of work into jpgs so i could post them. here you go:
so, i had spring break last week; and boy, im pretty tired. it was a break from the ol' routine, but i was unable to escape from responsibility. the first weekend, i took saturday off and spent some time up north in dc. met up with my old roomate tommy and my old friend joe at the hirshhorn. they had a super cool exhibition on light which provided some interesting thought on something that we take for granted. outside they had a sculpture by kenneth snelson which i was made aware of by reprographics. also, we stopped by the smithsonian air and space museum, which was regrettably boring. the most exciting exhibit in there was actually a pop culture (through history) thing on loan from the american history museum. great time in nova! i played wii pretty much all the time i wasnt sight seeing and partying.
i was back for work on monday, met up with the tech kids back on break, and did some work on my ink wash master copy. repeat through wednesday.
- thursday through sunday (yesterday) i was working the senior champs meet in charlottesville. picked up the van, picked up the kids, then jay and i drove out to uva for the last meet for most of our senior swimmers. it was fun, i even got to swim in a few relays. it didnt occur to me before, but after the remarks they made about my swims, i discovered that the kids had been previously doubting my skills. did they just assume i got the job because i was a part of the team before? anyways, it was a good time; despite the repetition of a handful of songs they liked to play at any point we were in the van. i learned a great deal about crappy rap and radio. heres the short list:
- gangsta gangsta
- where da hood at
- ass jigga jigglin
- ballin
- snap yo fingas
- raise hell (by hedPE who surprise me by being popular during any point of their career)
- crazy bitch (hedPE)
- some rammstein songs (who also surprise me by being popular)
theres a bunch more but i neglected to learn the names of the songs. im fairly bitter that people actually enjoy this junk. spiteful that people will buy into the ghetto fabulous lifestyle. regardless, it was a good trip. got back really late, went straight to sleep and got up for school this morning after a few extra snooze hits. after arriving at school, i found out my photography portfolio was due, so i threw a bunch of things together and turned it in. then i found out the master copy was due in drawing so i turned that in too. im glad i worked on it earlier.