A Small Adventure

Hi Mom. So today my phone decided to leap off my desk and face plant onto the hard tile floor of my dorm room. Luckily my case and screen protector did their jobs and a new screen protector is on its way. Praise Jesus. That's pretty much the excitement of my weekend, aside from the new Dragon Age Inquisition DLC trailer being released (and it comes out a few days after my birthday). Coincidence? I think not! Sorry for the language in trailer grandparents who read this. 

Hi Mom. I'm not sure why I'm surprised that my TV bingeing and film watching has stayed at a steady pace after starting college. Having it on in the background is pretty habitual and now I even have opportunities to see free movies thanks to the school. Every Thursday night the school is offering students and the community to come and watch free films that are usually obscure world cinema or film noir. Last night, roommate Emelie and I went to the first of the series, White God. And had I read the flyer carefully I probably would not have sat through it. White Go d, or   "Fehér isten" in its original language,  is a 2014 Hungarian film directed by  Kornél Mundruczó that follows a mutt (half Sharpe half Labrador), Hagen and his owner, 13 year old Lili. And boy howdy this movie was intense. Set in Hungary, mixed breed dogs have been put a tax on them. No one wants them and shelters put them down by the hundreds. Enter Hagen, an innocent, happy...

Hi Mom. Today started out really rough. At 12:09am Public Safety decided a Wednesday night was the best time to have a fire drill. I honestly would have rather there have been an actual fire than needlessly be woken up at midnight, tromped outside and stand around until told we could go back in. And I know it was a drill because they legit just walked to each room while the most annoying/terrifying alarm went off. No urgency, just inconvenience "let's test this alarm at fricking midnight". That's what really irks me. Really? MIDNIGHT? Not 10, when a lot of people will still be awake? Midnight. When most people have JUST fallen asleep and the mass population has an 8am class the next morning. Kinda pissed. After taking at least an hour to fall back asleep, I knew the day was only going to get worse because I woke up and it was pouring. I had a backpack full of stuff, a GIANT portfolio that weighs like 20 lbs and I have to take it all to class, while balancing an ...

Hi Mom! Today I woke up at 10 (yay for sleeping in on Wednesdays) and got up to do laundry. While waiting for laundry I also did the second half of my Drawing homework in which we had to draw a one point perspective version of a room. The first one is the laundry room and the second is my dorm hall. Hate the dorm hall one it's just kinda bleh. The laundry room has a little more character. I also did it with no ruler in the final drawing because I got REEMED by my Drawing teacher on my last homework assignment for having an obviously ruler heavy final drawing (I ended up redoing that homework and will be resubmitting tomorrow). So. No Ruler = No straight lines. Sigh.  The lighting is obviously different but they are the same color. Before my Film and Narrative class, Mr. Salamander got stuck inbetween my window and the window screen. So of course I set on a rescue mission to help him get back out. And he was stubborn. So rather than getting him back out the hole he c...

Hi Mom. Today, when my alarm went off I was not ready for it. I wanted to throw it out the window. I'm officially exhausted. Schools kind of like reps of a dumbbell. The first one is great. You think to yourself, "I've got this, I could keep doing this." And then you do it again and you falter in that confidence. "Did this get heavier? No that's impossible." It's just harder to do it again and again. The weight doesn't change you just get tired. But I'll keep going. The more you do it the more comfortable it becomes.  Aside from being a zombie this morning, Figure Drawing was good. Our model today was good old Carl, Sixty+ year old Carl, my very first nude male model that I'd had back in 2013. I mentioned him in an earlier post. I started feeling my first shoulder pains, which is common my teacher has said, because you basically hold your arm up for 3 hours of drawing. And when the model poses only for 30 seconds per pose, you really ...

Hi Mom. First off, Happy freaking Anniversary to my loving, supportive, funny, best parents in the world. Look at these cuties, all young with that no-kids glow. This next one is my absolutely favorite photo of them. I actually think I'm going to print this one out and frame it for my desk. Plus me and her have the same hairstyle going and we're both adorable. On another note, Facebook is exploding with everyone's "my kid's first day of school photo!" And my mom was no different. Below is me and my brother on our first days of 2nd grade for him and kindergarten for me. If I look a little more excited than he is,it's because young me has no idea how hard the next 12 years are going to be. Now that we've gotten past the nostalgia for today's post, lemme tell you about my day in 2015. In Drawing 1, we sat in the hallway and drew the hallway, and holy crap that was a long 2 hours. Because perspective is hard. Don't let anyone tel...

Hi Mom. So for my first Saturday post classes, I slept for a good 11 hours, woke up, took a shower, played with styling my new hair and got to doing homework. For Drawing 1 we are learning about the dreaded ellipses. And to do so we had to find 5 cylinder-like things in our room and draw them from four different perspectives. So that's been hard. Midway took a break for "brunch". Which I call BS because school's 'brunch' doesn't start until 11:30. That's lunch. Fricken own it Ringling. But they do play cartoons on Saturdays, which is awesome.  After that I started on my Figure Drawing Homework in which I had to find a "master" drawing (so naturally I chose a DaVinci work) and attempt to render it as close as possible. This one is called, "Study of an Old Man" and granted my old man is quite muscular but what are you going to do.  This evening my roomies and I decided to actually leave our dorm room - none of us have ...

Hi Mom. I'm really not putting off homework, considering I have all weekend to do it - and I WILL start tonight, but I would rather be writing this post than doing it so...here I am. Today started 'early' (7:15) today with Figure Drawing which was a work out. The entire class we did sets of 10 two minute poses, a bunch of three minute poses and then what seemed like forever of 30 second poses. I was exhausted after, but I loved it. Spent lunch in the cafe in the Academic Center, and then read my book until my first Storytelling class, which I think will be kind of awesome. There will be lots of writing involved, but it's the best kind of writing: creative/fiction. The fact that I will not be writing about grammar and research essays, like I would have had I not dropped Writer's Studio, makes me very happy. My teacher is an interesting character for sure. He's relatively normal, as art teachers go, and he makes lots and lots of movie references, it's re...

There's something nerve wracking about waiting for people to take off their clothes.  This thought popped into my head at the beginning of my Figure Drawing class today and afterwards I heard Sissy Spacek's voice in my head, "Write that down." (Blast From the Past reference). But truly, it doesn't really matter how many figure drawing classes I've taken. The moment the model walks up onto that podium, their robe loosely tied around their waists, the fear in the room is tangible. Especially among a class full of freshmen. Now, this isn't my first rodeo. I'm not proud to say the first man I saw naked was a 60+ year old who happened to be my very first figure drawing model ever (back in 2013)- it was slightly traumatizing considering one of his poses that day was to lay flat on his back like a dead bug. You get the picture. But still, even after years and years of drawing naked people, as artists tend to do, there will always be that first moment of ...

Hi Mom. Attempting to add something as my school gmail signature and google is being stupid and won't let me add the file directly, it has to be in the form of a URL. Feel free to ignore this post as I throw my computer across the room in the name of professionalism. *edit: it worked. Thanks blogger.

Hi Mom. Second post for the day, so gonna keep it short. I had my first two classes today: Drawing 1 and 2D Design. Drawing 1 I think will be good. The teacher has a wicked beard and seems passionate and knows what he's doing. My 2D teacher on the other hand...I plan on dropping that class when my official transcripts come through. Maybe it's just because I've taken 2D many many times before, once at the college level, but it seems dull and the teacher rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn't anything specific, sometimes you just get a feeling. It didn't help that this computer based class is being taught by a Fine Arts painter who told us straight out she didn't hardly ever work digitally. I would like to learn more than the basics. I'd been having problems getting my "official" transcript over, so the second that happens hopefully I'll be able to ditch 2D and Writing Studio (both of which I should have credit for) and do something more fun. B...

(Hi Mom.) On August 17th 1995, my best friend, my soulmate, my other half was born. I didn't know till a long time after we met that I would want to spend the rest of my life with this goofball, but better late than never. So, today's post is dedicated to Jason, the guy who puts up with me and makes me laugh.  I don't think I've ever actually put into words our story - how we met, the rocky path we took to get to a relationship. I'll do my best to relay it. Jason and I met during the 7th grade (about 7 years ago now), ironically in gym class. Jas says he saw me first, across the field where we were being forced to run the timed mile. He says, "thats when he knew." That it was love at first sight for him. Which, I mean, kuddos to him, because I know what I look like running and it is not pretty.  We became fast friends, having similar senses of humor and laid back introvert spirits. I developed a crush on him rather quickly, evidence being...

Hi Mom. During Orientation week, each incoming freshman/new student is forced into the "Volunteer" Project. I say "volunteer" because really, saying it's mandatory kind of defeats the purpose. Anyways, I knew about this project long before I even started at Ringling and after reading the possible options I was dead set on scoring the Marine Mote Aquarium trip. Because unlike all the other "volunteer" projects, it was indoors and didn't involve any intensive labor. I'm quite prepared for a lazy person. And luckily, I got what I asked for and sat comfortably on an air conditioned bus all the way to the shaded, air conditioned aquarium. Our project was simple. The aquarium is celebrating its 60th Anniversary and wanted us to walk around, take photos and spread the word through social media. For a college student, this was something that could have been done by just letting us loose through the aquarium, no instructions needed. I really lucked ...