A Time to Write

I just got the Opera mini browser for my phone and it's so amazing. Now I can do stuf like posting on my LJ without geting frustrated by the browser being slow and incompetent. Sweet!

Today I attended an artist talk at the Student Union Gallery. It was an event to augment the exhibition Earth and Sky that's currently on display there. The exhibition has really varied subject matter made with different types of printmaking by a variety of artists. The speaker was one of the artists in the show and his talk was about printmaking in West Wales. His talk covered some work from a bunch of different people who had studied or were currently studying at the school where the works in this exhibition were made. I don't remember any of their names.

What I do remember were the images! Most of his story of different individuals at the school and different processes that are taught there and how the exhibition came to be was told in pictures. There were views of the school, of the art department, the studios, other buildings on campus, and the sheep that are visible from the front steps of the library.

It was picturesque, it was small. The buildings were old and the grass was green and the small town was just so quaint and beautiful! A college town out of a storybook. It was absolute daydream material. Maybe I could pursue a Master's there someday?

The presenter talked about traveling places by plane and how one artist was commissioned by the Royal mint to do some images for currency - how cool is that?

And it's near the water! WOW. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=aberystwyth

Questionable content

That's all I have to say.

I think I've pretty well decided that I'm taking a break from taking classes this fall because all the ones I want to take are already full. I'll definitely try for the spring registration when the next window comes around, but in my current mental state of just having a hard time remembering which semester comes next maybe a semester off will do me some good! I'm hoping to devote a lot of this extra time to writing and journaling and generally working on personal projects, but in reality it's more likely that a lot of the extra time is going to go towards working. I can make an effort anyway, and I am doing so beginning right now!

I had an idea for a personal project a couple of days ago - it's a variation on a webcomic I saw (that I now can't find again for all the googling in the world) where the author illustrated the subject lines from spam messages in a literal fashion. I was thinking about the sheer ridiculous-factor in some of the words and phrases I see in legitimate non-spam messages every day, and I thought it might be fun to try illustrating them as a fun personal project. Some of the phrases just sound silly when taken literally, others have terrible grammar and some make no sense at all.

I made a short list of them to get me started. One of my favorites is this one: "If you have a health provider with Carondelet, you may wish to know that they will not be having a relationship with Aetna." This isn't very far taken out of context, though some of the phrases I've come up with so far are much funnier with no background information. This was all of the content of an e-mail message I received relating to the upcoming benefits enrollment at work. Is there some sort of love triangle here? Who is Aetna having a relationship with that caused it to break up with Carondelet? I didn't even know they were together!

I don't know, maybe they're just silly, but that's also kind of the point. :D

So, some of my writing, publishing and drawing goals went out the window this New Years, but it's because I've been busy with something else I really really like: studying art history!

I have to write my paper today, and we have a test on Tuesday that I need to study for, but perhaps when that class is over I can start getting beck to the things I want to do.  Spring classes start on Thursday, and I'm trying to figure out my new schedule.  Hopefully it'll include more posting.  As I always hope it will.

:)

This is the most awesome book cover I've seen in the longest time.  Best use of typography to convey the subject matter.  The book is titled "loneliness" and not only does the all lower-case make an impact there, the tittle of the 'i' is all by itself in the upper right corner.  It's a little hard to see in this picture, but take a look in person - this book cover is genius.

Ouch.  Just ouch.

"Learning Activity for the [xxcensoredxx] online website."

Taken from the actual text that was to be used in said "online website". 

As opposed to an offline website?  What use would that be?

I was holding out until yesterday for a better idea to come along, but for now I am writing a fantasy story about a young girl who lives on a farm with her family.  Magical practice is forbidden in this world, but she is the apprentice of a mystical tutor while maintaining a facade of normal life as a tailor's worker  Later in the story, she will discover that she is heir to the throne in a distant land, and her magical skill may guide her to becoming a successful Queen.

I have now officially unlocked every achievement that can be gotten in Fable Pub games without having Fable 2. My first character is a 5-star, and has every game type, item and concept art image unlocked. But instead of saying "oh what a nice game, I've done everything, now it's over" like any normal person would, what do I do? I pick another character and start over from the beginning.

Terribly addictive. :)

And though my parents told me I shouldn't go to a casino after losing so much virtual money in the game, my character ended up with zero debt and 56,560 gold at the end of it all. So there.

I really enjoy the attention given in the making of the game to everything in the world of the game - the texture of the dialog boxes, the playing environment, the music - but the one thing that really bugs me is that by my best guess (on an old-fashioned not-HD TV) the typeface used throughout the entire game for all text is Maiandra I know that sans-serif type is better for reading on screen, but wouldn't it have been more historically accurate with a blackletter or Roman face?

So, I'm trying to consolidate some of my online presences, and my Blogger identity has always been a bit troubling. It's my Blogger blog which caused conflict that got me fired from my job the first time (I've recently been fired a third time.). It's my blogger blog that I was encouraged to replace with another to avoid association with my gmail identity. It's caused so many problems that I'm almost ready to delete it completely.

Almost.

The granular post privacy options here on LJ make this the perfect place to put posts that at one time needed to be hidden and now could be shown and vice-versa. I've got 34 posts there which I've accumulated over the past 2 years (which is when I first discovered Blogger and decided to play with it.) I plan to migrate the posts I really liked over here, to my LJ. Anyone on my friends list will probably see something in the neighborhood of one post per day from me, that is, unless backdating prevents it from appearing on the friends page current, I don't know how that works!

I'll try to integrate the two as much as possible, backdating the incoming posts to the date they were originally posted on blogger and evaluating the privacy level for each post one-by-one. Actually, since I didn't know that some folks cared enough to come and read my LJ, I've had to hide a few posts here in the past as well. Here, it's a lot easier to make a post private or friends-only, so it seems perfect for this sort of thing.

And now, after weeks of silence...Some content!

I played a bit of Halo 2 tonight and encountered someone with the screenname "fearthief". I don't know how the user meant for it to be seen, but in the quick peripheral vision of a death screen, I somehow transposed the e and i. I thought it was meant to say "Fear the if."

I fear the if. I totally fear the if.

So, we're on vacation. No better time to post! We're staying at a really nice Hilton, but just for tonight. I was planning to study, but that plan is slowly falling through as I can't seem to get my operating system installed again. An error every time, and I don't have the luxury of being at home with another machine to help with the install.

Either way, they usually publish on time.

Does your magazine tell you "Our next issue will be published May 20th?" No, not exactly, but at the same time each month, a new issue is on the shelves of your favorite bookstore. Complete with advertisers, nice printing, good content and at least a little time devoted to proofreading and checking. Why does this work for a magazine? Because they have something called internal deadlines. Actually, it's not because they *have* internal deadlines, but it's because they *follow* those deadlines. The advertisers know they have to have their final artwork in by a certain date or the publication goes to print without them. Writers know they have to have their text ready, proof-read and fact-checked by the time the layout process begins. The art director knows that the illustrations and photographs have to be ready, edited and done by the time the layout process starts. Most of all: they DO IT. The writers HAVE their items read and edited on time. The art director HAS all the illustrations and photos ready to go on time. The advertisers probably had their work in EARLY. There is an established layout process, possibly by spread, possibly by whole shebang, where the group of designers work with everyone to literally create the magazine.

How do newspapers do it? They have to publish EVERY DAY! What would happen if some very important writer asked a morning newspaper to hold production until the afternoon because his story was SO important and SO critical, but he didn't have time to actually write it yet?

What if a magazine photographer, at the last minute before going to print, holds the production because the headshot of the bigwig is not QUITE right.

How can a publication be on time if the internal deadlines are COMPLETELY IGNORED?

It can't.

It's been awhile since I've taken the time to reflect on my day.  Today I have a moment and would like to do so.  Today seemed really uninteresting compared to the weekend prior!  I went with many friends to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday.  Then ran around the park with some more friends on Sunday.  In those two days, the amount of my physical activity exceeded what I usually do in a week, and my sun exposure probably exceeded two weeks.  I am so sore and sunburnt, but I like having a physical reminder of the things I've done.  It reminds me of raves, where a dirty, sweaty body, soreness and sometimes sickness (Colds spread really fast when there's a small space packed with people) from the party.  Tiredness and caffeine for the whole week thanks to the messed up sleeping schedule served as a reminder of the weekend fun.

I can't believe I've lived my entire life in Arizona and I had never once been to the Renaissance Festival.  It's pure fantasy on sale for modern-day American cash.  Amazing.

The response to that is - I suppose - I guess I haven't really lived my life at all!

I have so many projects - art and work and necessary (taxes - yech) - but I feel better not getting caught up in them so much as to forget to take a minute of reflection.  No matter how it will be judged.

see more crazy cat pics

My online presence has really been suffering lately because I don't have internet at home.  Should be getting some awesome Comcast goodness tomorrow, though, so I need to get all my homework DONE so I can spend the weekend loving the interwebz and playing Xbox Live!

:)

I've been doing so many new things lately that I really feel like a new person.  I've been studying, going to lectures, taking informal classes to learn new things and recklessly taking jobs I have a passion and enjoyment for that often have little or no salary.

I've missed journaling, though!

This situation should improve - I'm getting internet in my apartment again on Friday.  But then again, internet means I'll have Xbox Live again too...Damn distractions.

I can't wait to play some Halo!  It's been so long...

It's weird though, because I logged into xbox.com to check my account status, and it looks like someone else has been playing on my account.  Rainbow six three, Call of Duty...I don't like those games.  I think it' was my ex, but oh well, I wasn't using it anyway.

This reading assignment is particularly difficult to do. First because the book was set in a high contrast typeface, and it appears to have been run through a photocopier a couple of times before it got to me. The type is hard to read and punctuated with my teacher's meaningless underlines and boxes around words. The material is poorly written and though it might be a school book it has a "we" behind the author. It's not long at all, which my teacher felt compelled to stress in class as if we wouldn't do the assignment or read the works unless she assured us it was short AND threatened to quiz us on it on Monday. She failed to photocopy some of the figures referenced in the text and photocopies are no way to view art that's to be looked at critically anyway.

I wanted to see the actual book in its physical form because it would be easier to read the type and I could see the artworks printed instead of butchered by a photocopier. I could also see the pieces she left out of the handout, either accidentally, or because she thought that would make it too many pages for us to read. She even labeled the section we were to read with the words "Start" and "Stop" Just to make sure we read the right portion. None of the libraries in the city have this book. Or this author.

Now I am attempting to improve my class experience.

( More on my boring class reading )

Gah! I was doing so much better at updating my online writings and then I started working! I'll do my best to get back on schedule. I'm enjoying my new job, but I'm finding that it's really highlighting the difficulty I have talking to people.

The funniest thing is when unobservant guys express their insecurity by asking where the men's section is. There's really not much rhyme or reason to the way our store is organized. Most of the hoodies and T shirts go with either gender, but the athletic section has decidedly mens and women's garments. I separated the men's and women's shoes because so many guys were becoming confused. I did it without asking a supervisor or anyone, I just arranged them and no one's changed it back yet, so I figure it's OK. I try to explain that the store is organized more by TYPE of clothing rather than gender, and they usually reply with a nervous laugh. I don't think I've ever heard a lady ask a question like that, usually they ask for very specific products.

I have a feeling that my supervisors don't have much experience with merchandising and if they do, they don't share their knowledge with the peons. For the most part, folks in my department don't seem to care how things are arranged. I worked with two people last night that seemed to know more about how the store was supposed to be organized, but they are definitely a minority!