So, its been a couple of days since I got back to Connecticut. So far its been COLD. Well, by cold I mean upper 60s since Pittsburgh has pretty consistently warm these past few weeks.
So this is what I think of my new house: It's HUGE. I didn't think it was very large when it was empty, but once all the furniture is in, you realize its a long long walk from the stove to the dinner table. It's okay, I suppose, if you don't think of all the architectural travesties that our professors teach us not to do in high architecture. I think I'll get used to it eventually, but right now, I still feel somewhat like a guest.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Freedom!
At last, freedom! This years hell week wasn't nearly as stressful as previous, probably because this time around there was help. I managed to get five hours of sleep every night except this last one where I got 20 minutes on the green cushion in the corner of the lab.
I think that the first time I had to work with a partner, it really scarred me. Fortunately, this time's partner and I got along better and I think that together, we made a really great project. Part of it might have been because of guilt from my last parter experience where I basically hid from work because the social aspects of it weren't to my taste.
Our reviews went alright, I suppose. I was annoyed when, yet again, everyone got stuck around one design element, the same one every time. I don't think architects understand that prison is not lollipops and summer camp. I got a little annoyed in after the first ten minutes and after another ten, Brian started getting offended. When he spoke up, I finally got a chance to speak up and I think the critics realized just how offended we were, so we changed topics. Thank god.
Not the smoothest reviews, but they ended on a good note. One of the critics said she loved my section (kudos to me) and the elevations (kudos to Brian). So, something for everyone. I just hope we don't have to present again on Friday. I shall keep my fingers crossed because that was just hell.
I think that the first time I had to work with a partner, it really scarred me. Fortunately, this time's partner and I got along better and I think that together, we made a really great project. Part of it might have been because of guilt from my last parter experience where I basically hid from work because the social aspects of it weren't to my taste.
Our reviews went alright, I suppose. I was annoyed when, yet again, everyone got stuck around one design element, the same one every time. I don't think architects understand that prison is not lollipops and summer camp. I got a little annoyed in after the first ten minutes and after another ten, Brian started getting offended. When he spoke up, I finally got a chance to speak up and I think the critics realized just how offended we were, so we changed topics. Thank god.
Not the smoothest reviews, but they ended on a good note. One of the critics said she loved my section (kudos to me) and the elevations (kudos to Brian). So, something for everyone. I just hope we don't have to present again on Friday. I shall keep my fingers crossed because that was just hell.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Heck Week
So, this semester's Hell Week for some reason doesn't seem particularly stressful. The watered down version has been dubbed by me as "Heck Week" where the work load is high, but the stress just doesn't seem to be there. That's why I'm happily typing away on my blog instead of slaving away on those horrid sections.
I think last semester had me scarred where I started my Rhino model the week of and ended up scrambling for crappy plans on the DAY OF. So, to keep the fear of that away, Brian and I had our plans set two months in advance and everything now is just a matter of tweaking.
O yes, and one of my favorite professors stopped by the lab just now to tell us that she bought $500 worth of Chinese food for the first years and we should help ourselves. Lo Mein for everyone!
I think last semester had me scarred where I started my Rhino model the week of and ended up scrambling for crappy plans on the DAY OF. So, to keep the fear of that away, Brian and I had our plans set two months in advance and everything now is just a matter of tweaking.
O yes, and one of my favorite professors stopped by the lab just now to tell us that she bought $500 worth of Chinese food for the first years and we should help ourselves. Lo Mein for everyone!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Homeless
Today, my parents and sister moved our things out of the home I lived in since I was four. It's very strange that within two days, my home will no longer be my home, but the new home of a little Indian girl. My new home is in a very bland place that I don't know so well.
I used to know exactly how much longer it would be till we got home. I'd see the gas station, the atrium, the high school and then, within minutes, we'd be pulling up the driveway.
It's funny - I haven't felt homesick in years.
I used to know exactly how much longer it would be till we got home. I'd see the gas station, the atrium, the high school and then, within minutes, we'd be pulling up the driveway.
It's funny - I haven't felt homesick in years.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I don't think I ever mentioned: Ben took me out to the Cheesecake Factory a couple of weekends ago. It was very sweet of him. First, we asked for a table, got a beeper thingy and wandered the mall for a good 50 minutes. By then, we were starving and my poor darling was starting to lose his patience. I got back in line to tell the receptionist that we give up and we're going to eat elsewhere when the beeper went off. Perfect timing. We got seated in a nice little booth and our server had to be just about the nicest server ever. She even asked me where I got my jacket (Louise, if you're reading this, the brown ruffled shirt is awesome - I love it). Ben ordered a quesadilla thingy of some sort, and I ordered a breaded chicken with lemon sauce, which comes with a side of mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. While we waited, we munched on bread. Did you know Cheesecake Factory has chocolate bread? Tasty! I ate all the chocolate bread and Ben ate all the regular bread and then the food came. Amazing food, worth every dollar Ben spent (mwahahah). The meal actually only came out to be about $5 more expensive than eating at TGIF or Applebees, but I think the quality was much better. I ordered a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake to go. I ate it later that evening while Ben played video games and I think I nearly died of sugar overdose and went to heaven. All in all, a nice late-birthday dinner.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Aging and Decrepit
I think I'm getting old. Indications are as such:
1) I turned 22 recently.
2) I can't pull all-nighters all the time like I used to.
3) I feel like a mom sometimes with the house-cleaning and cooking and loving cute little babies and all.
I think the worst is this though:
I was talking to a freshman the other day when she commented on how much she liked my black and white striped socks, to which I replied, "Yah, I really like them. They remind me of Beetlejuice." I got a blank stare in response. Apparently the "younger generation" doesn't remember the depraved cartoon wonder of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deets.
I'm old...
O and Lily is coming over to Pittsburgh this weekend. So exciting. Hope she doesn't mind my insane hours.
1) I turned 22 recently.
2) I can't pull all-nighters all the time like I used to.
3) I feel like a mom sometimes with the house-cleaning and cooking and loving cute little babies and all.
I think the worst is this though:
I was talking to a freshman the other day when she commented on how much she liked my black and white striped socks, to which I replied, "Yah, I really like them. They remind me of Beetlejuice." I got a blank stare in response. Apparently the "younger generation" doesn't remember the depraved cartoon wonder of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deets.
I'm old...
O and Lily is coming over to Pittsburgh this weekend. So exciting. Hope she doesn't mind my insane hours.
Friday, March 30, 2007
?!?
Tonight, Ben took to the mall for dinner. As we were walking towards the food court, a couple of kids that looked to be around 13 walk by and one says something that sounded derogatory that ended with, "...at least we're not that white guy with that chinese girl." To which the other replied, "Man, that's totally racist." At which point I turned to look, noticing that Ben and I were, in fact, the only present white guy/chinese girl combo. Then the offending kid yelled, "Yah, you heard me." Turning back, I saw two Asian women walk by and kind of glance at me with that look, kind of like, "Wow....yah...did that just happen? Wow..."
On a funny note, Ben quote of the evening - "MM...dinosaur. MM... tire rotation..."
On a funny note, Ben quote of the evening - "MM...dinosaur. MM... tire rotation..."
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Life as I Know It
I think it's been an incredibly long time since I've bothered to write in my blog. In fact, it's been about a month. I have no idea how a month just passed, but it has, and it's scary. I'll try to catch up on things that have been happening, but I think that most likely, I'll forget something...
Studio: working on the "New Orleans Community ReIntegration Center" with Brian is good so far. We seem to be at a good place in the project and seem to be in relative agreement as far as form and function concern. Little fights appear over things such as structure. I blame it on him, of course.
Roomie Search: At the beginning of March, I entertained the possibility of living with Estee, but she backed out because she wants to live ALONE. Why would anyone ever want to do that? I did for a summer and it was depressing, I tell you. Depressing! Anyhoo, after momentary panic, I managed to find not one, but two roommates. Yes, starting on May 15, Ken and Brian will officially be my roommates. It should be good.
Spring Break: This year for Spring Break, I decided to bring home Waz. I figured she can sort of shield me from my mother and her incessant lecturing. It worked out quite well. I spent most of my days with May, and Waz spent most of her time in CT unconscious. We got to see my new house and mom took us on a little tour of suburban America (Waz fell asleep during the tour). In the end, Waz came away with two important revelations: "Your mom is very loud," and "Your dad is very reserved." I think that's pretty accurate. Then we were off to NYC.
Day 1: Emergency room for Waz - I, being a know it all, forced her to go see a doctor about a UTI. Getting a kidney infection is a sure-fire way to ruin your break. We called my cousin Ni-ni at work at around 10:30 and she said we could catch a ride back to Flushing with her. She showed us a nice little Japanese restaurant just outside her building where we stuffed ourselves with donburi until Ni-ni and her little sis, Lily, showed up. Then we went to their home where Lily, still in high school, stayed up WAY late and we all watched an episode of "The Black Donnellys."
Day 2: Hanging out with Ken and Mike C. We woke up early, had a "small breakfast" at my favorite NanBeiHe in Flushing and explored Flushing mall where I nearly died of happiness when I found out a store there sold Cop Copine, and nearly died of sorrow when I found out that since they were unofficial retailers, everything was about double price. Then we took the Chinatown Express and met up with Ken and Mike for dimsum, walked on the Manhattan Bridge, explored Soho and went to dinner at a Texan BBQ place near NYU. We waited there for Waz's physics teacher from high school, who arrived pretty late. We all chatted for a bit before Mike and Ken got going. Then, Waz's physics teacher took us to a sake bar practically right next door to Cooper Union. I was tempted to break in to the building to see what their studios were like. Ken attests to the fact that their spaces are much smaller than ours. I suppose that's some consolation. Evening ended with us getting home around midnight and Waz meeting my aunt who greeted her with a "OOOO, you're so skinny!!!" (which, I would like to note, was the exact greeting my mother used).
Day 3: MOMA with Waz. Ni-ni got us free tickets and we explored the museum for three hours and then played around in the store for another hour. We met up with Ken in Soho to see the Hess exhibit at Fuse Gallery and then Ken's dad was kind enought to drive us down to the South Ferry. We rode on that for about an hour, taking many many photos of the Statue of Liberty. Then we wandered the entire southern tip of Manhattan forever. Ken took us around Battery Park, Winter Garden, Stuyvensant, Ground Zero, Wall Street - we finally ended up in Little Italy where we ate a wonderful Italian dinner while people were filming an episode of "The Sopranos" across the street. Later, Ken's dad drove us up to Times Square. Ni-ni was still working so we entertained ourselves at Virgin Records which was surprisingly still open at midnight. Then we rode home with Ni-ni.
Day 4: Waz had to leave real early. REAL early and neither of us were feeling particularly well rested. After she left, I went back to sleep, woke up and typed out my resume and cover letters. I couldn't get them printed, unfortunately, so I had to wait on that. I managed to make it over to Archi-tectonics after searching half of Chelsea and was rudely greeted. Fat chance of ever working there, I think I'm too friendly for them. Then I met up with Nestor at Whole Foods, the one I worked on, and he walked me through everything. It was a wonderful bit of reminiscing and it was cool to get to see all the stuff I designed actually made. Nestor, his employee and I went back to their brand new, spacious office where I said hello to Fabian and met the new girl. I sort of stuck around a bit until my other former boss, Jonathan, showed up, at which point more reminiscing ensued. I noticed that when greeting them, both my bosses kissed me on the cheek, Euro-style. Is that the new NY way? After that, I wandered over to Rawlings where I dropped off another resume and coverletter. Hopefully I have more luck with that one... Then, I bought some gelato, hopped on a train and went back to blissful, sleepy CT, which I quite enjoyed.
My Birthday: I convinced Ben to take me somewhere nice for our Birthdays. Somewhere REAL nice. We couldn't last weekend since his family was celebrating his, my and his gram's birthdays all at once, so perhaps this weekend. For me, he got Dreamfall. For him, I bought a glass from Urban Outfitters, a business card holder from MUJI, and a cute little voodoo doll I like to call winkie because of something on the doll's pants. Ben likes Winkie best too. My birthday started off on a poor note this year - I taught an extra recitation from midnight to 1:30am and then worked until 3 am, and I had a cold besides. But, the actual day of my birthday was good. I cooked taro nian-gao and egg drop soup for Ben and he actually enjoyed it, much to my relief. Then we watched Rounders, which was most entertaining though I was tired enough that I nodded off for parts of it. All in all, a good birthday, though.
So, I suppose that's it? I suppose so. I feel like everyday is just work and dance, work and dance, and I collapse in a pile of exhaustion around 2 every night. I suppose 2 isn't that bad. I think I'm getting old...
Studio: working on the "New Orleans Community ReIntegration Center" with Brian is good so far. We seem to be at a good place in the project and seem to be in relative agreement as far as form and function concern. Little fights appear over things such as structure. I blame it on him, of course.
Roomie Search: At the beginning of March, I entertained the possibility of living with Estee, but she backed out because she wants to live ALONE. Why would anyone ever want to do that? I did for a summer and it was depressing, I tell you. Depressing! Anyhoo, after momentary panic, I managed to find not one, but two roommates. Yes, starting on May 15, Ken and Brian will officially be my roommates. It should be good.
Spring Break: This year for Spring Break, I decided to bring home Waz. I figured she can sort of shield me from my mother and her incessant lecturing. It worked out quite well. I spent most of my days with May, and Waz spent most of her time in CT unconscious. We got to see my new house and mom took us on a little tour of suburban America (Waz fell asleep during the tour). In the end, Waz came away with two important revelations: "Your mom is very loud," and "Your dad is very reserved." I think that's pretty accurate. Then we were off to NYC.
Day 1: Emergency room for Waz - I, being a know it all, forced her to go see a doctor about a UTI. Getting a kidney infection is a sure-fire way to ruin your break. We called my cousin Ni-ni at work at around 10:30 and she said we could catch a ride back to Flushing with her. She showed us a nice little Japanese restaurant just outside her building where we stuffed ourselves with donburi until Ni-ni and her little sis, Lily, showed up. Then we went to their home where Lily, still in high school, stayed up WAY late and we all watched an episode of "The Black Donnellys."
Day 2: Hanging out with Ken and Mike C. We woke up early, had a "small breakfast" at my favorite NanBeiHe in Flushing and explored Flushing mall where I nearly died of happiness when I found out a store there sold Cop Copine, and nearly died of sorrow when I found out that since they were unofficial retailers, everything was about double price. Then we took the Chinatown Express and met up with Ken and Mike for dimsum, walked on the Manhattan Bridge, explored Soho and went to dinner at a Texan BBQ place near NYU. We waited there for Waz's physics teacher from high school, who arrived pretty late. We all chatted for a bit before Mike and Ken got going. Then, Waz's physics teacher took us to a sake bar practically right next door to Cooper Union. I was tempted to break in to the building to see what their studios were like. Ken attests to the fact that their spaces are much smaller than ours. I suppose that's some consolation. Evening ended with us getting home around midnight and Waz meeting my aunt who greeted her with a "OOOO, you're so skinny!!!" (which, I would like to note, was the exact greeting my mother used).
Day 3: MOMA with Waz. Ni-ni got us free tickets and we explored the museum for three hours and then played around in the store for another hour. We met up with Ken in Soho to see the Hess exhibit at Fuse Gallery and then Ken's dad was kind enought to drive us down to the South Ferry. We rode on that for about an hour, taking many many photos of the Statue of Liberty. Then we wandered the entire southern tip of Manhattan forever. Ken took us around Battery Park, Winter Garden, Stuyvensant, Ground Zero, Wall Street - we finally ended up in Little Italy where we ate a wonderful Italian dinner while people were filming an episode of "The Sopranos" across the street. Later, Ken's dad drove us up to Times Square. Ni-ni was still working so we entertained ourselves at Virgin Records which was surprisingly still open at midnight. Then we rode home with Ni-ni.
Day 4: Waz had to leave real early. REAL early and neither of us were feeling particularly well rested. After she left, I went back to sleep, woke up and typed out my resume and cover letters. I couldn't get them printed, unfortunately, so I had to wait on that. I managed to make it over to Archi-tectonics after searching half of Chelsea and was rudely greeted. Fat chance of ever working there, I think I'm too friendly for them. Then I met up with Nestor at Whole Foods, the one I worked on, and he walked me through everything. It was a wonderful bit of reminiscing and it was cool to get to see all the stuff I designed actually made. Nestor, his employee and I went back to their brand new, spacious office where I said hello to Fabian and met the new girl. I sort of stuck around a bit until my other former boss, Jonathan, showed up, at which point more reminiscing ensued. I noticed that when greeting them, both my bosses kissed me on the cheek, Euro-style. Is that the new NY way? After that, I wandered over to Rawlings where I dropped off another resume and coverletter. Hopefully I have more luck with that one... Then, I bought some gelato, hopped on a train and went back to blissful, sleepy CT, which I quite enjoyed.
My Birthday: I convinced Ben to take me somewhere nice for our Birthdays. Somewhere REAL nice. We couldn't last weekend since his family was celebrating his, my and his gram's birthdays all at once, so perhaps this weekend. For me, he got Dreamfall. For him, I bought a glass from Urban Outfitters, a business card holder from MUJI, and a cute little voodoo doll I like to call winkie because of something on the doll's pants. Ben likes Winkie best too. My birthday started off on a poor note this year - I taught an extra recitation from midnight to 1:30am and then worked until 3 am, and I had a cold besides. But, the actual day of my birthday was good. I cooked taro nian-gao and egg drop soup for Ben and he actually enjoyed it, much to my relief. Then we watched Rounders, which was most entertaining though I was tired enough that I nodded off for parts of it. All in all, a good birthday, though.
So, I suppose that's it? I suppose so. I feel like everyday is just work and dance, work and dance, and I collapse in a pile of exhaustion around 2 every night. I suppose 2 isn't that bad. I think I'm getting old...
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Moola
Yay for income! One of my professors offered me a TA postition for next fall teaching at the Heinz School! Yay!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Happy Chinese New Years!
Xin Nian Kuai Le! I think this is a great way to start off the new year with fluffy white snow falling outside and much less work to do.
Last night, Waz and my two months of intensive frustration and labor paid off as we watched out models strut their stuff at the Lunar Gala show last night. I think that the moment the first models started out, I decided it was well worth the trouble. No more sewing knowing there's a deadline approaching, no more working at Waz's till 2 or 3 am. No more hurried trips to JoAnn Fabrics. It's done and it was great.
So far, we've had offers for the hoodie, the word tunic, two pairs of pants and my assymetric sports coat, so maybe we'll make back some money. So exciting. Not only did we show our collection, apparently its still wearable enough that people are interested in buying. I think we ought to just start making lots of clothes for ourselves. We'll be our own advertising boards and everytime someone asks where we got that badass shirt, we can say, "Well, we made it. If you would like one, just let us know." Or something. It'd be cool. Though I told Waz that I don't want to design officially next year. "I'll help you out, but I don't want to be a designer." Mostly, I think I just want to dance, or maybe model. I should model just to say I've done it all for Lunar Gala. Except I'm nto too good at walking...
All in all, a wonderful experience.
Happy Chinese New Years!
Last night, Waz and my two months of intensive frustration and labor paid off as we watched out models strut their stuff at the Lunar Gala show last night. I think that the moment the first models started out, I decided it was well worth the trouble. No more sewing knowing there's a deadline approaching, no more working at Waz's till 2 or 3 am. No more hurried trips to JoAnn Fabrics. It's done and it was great.
So far, we've had offers for the hoodie, the word tunic, two pairs of pants and my assymetric sports coat, so maybe we'll make back some money. So exciting. Not only did we show our collection, apparently its still wearable enough that people are interested in buying. I think we ought to just start making lots of clothes for ourselves. We'll be our own advertising boards and everytime someone asks where we got that badass shirt, we can say, "Well, we made it. If you would like one, just let us know." Or something. It'd be cool. Though I told Waz that I don't want to design officially next year. "I'll help you out, but I don't want to be a designer." Mostly, I think I just want to dance, or maybe model. I should model just to say I've done it all for Lunar Gala. Except I'm nto too good at walking...
All in all, a wonderful experience.
Happy Chinese New Years!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monkeys
Tonight was Lunar Gala practice. As usual, Waz and I lug over every outfit we're working on and spend time putting them on the model and have Sophia hem and haw over it. Sophia, yet again, was displeased. In fact, Sophia is always displeased. And mean. And rude. We keep getting threatened over and over about how we have to be completely done with all our stuff by Thursday despite the fact that we technically have two weeks left till show time. I don't see what the hurry is. Really. We'll get it done in time. Don't worry.
We got all the models together to go over stuff. Being that earlier I was sewing in my black jacket, my black jacket was covered in tons of tiny gritty things and pieces of thread and muslin. What I found particularly amusing was that first, model Justin started picking things off of my back and shoulder, and then model Grant joined in and picked a thread right off my "bust radius" (aka my under-boob), to which Justin stated, "Yah, that one bothered me a lot too, but I didn't think I should try to get it." I suppose it's okay since Grant seems quite ..um...flamboyant. Still, very funny. My monkey models.
We got all the models together to go over stuff. Being that earlier I was sewing in my black jacket, my black jacket was covered in tons of tiny gritty things and pieces of thread and muslin. What I found particularly amusing was that first, model Justin started picking things off of my back and shoulder, and then model Grant joined in and picked a thread right off my "bust radius" (aka my under-boob), to which Justin stated, "Yah, that one bothered me a lot too, but I didn't think I should try to get it." I suppose it's okay since Grant seems quite ..um...flamboyant. Still, very funny. My monkey models.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hapa hapa
So you remember how for a while, it seemed like everyone new I met thought I was a halfie? Well, it quieted down for a bit and for a while I thought, wow, I guess I'm sufficiently Chinese now. So... I just got invited to join the Hapa dodgeball game this Friday..... Maybe I should just start telling people mom is Mexican.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
First Day
Happy New Years! I keep forgetting to update and what do you know, it's already halfway through January. I suppose it's time for an update.
Winter Break: Fun. I slept a lot, saw lots of family, ate lots of yummy food (I actually lost weight over break...fancy that. I blame you, Waz), went to Manhattan with my sister where we visited the Met, fashion ave. and her comic book store, "Forbidden Planet." All in all, a satisfying break.
2007 so far: Pretty busy. I got back a week early and Waz and I did what little we could based off of the shitey measurements the girls at Lunar Gala took. Way to go girls, way to not measure a guys inseam correctly. We've been making the outfits for a couple of the models and a lot of things are far off mark. We seem to have a very poor understanding of the male body. I think that the girls will be much easier. Still, things are going well, and hopefully it will be well underway by the time classes pick up.
Classes are going well. The ones I've had so far anyway. My Digital Fabrication assignment is to make a crazy cube thing for Tuesday. I thought I had it. Nearly had it. It'll be cool, though. Except that I have to actually document everything and put it on a website. I'll be borrowing people's cameras for a few weeks.
Then there was Jazz. I'm actually horribly low on the waitlist, but I think there's still hope of getting in. The teacher let everyone who showed up stay, so maybe she'll let me in. Pretty please, pretty please. It was, all in all, an amazingly fun class. One of the acting majors said to me after class, "It's such a pleasure to see someone doing what they were born to do." I guess I was born to dance. Hope mom and dad don't mind.
My next class which I was also on the waitlist for is GIS, aka digital mapmaking. I think I'm going to enjoy it, it's so wonderfully structured! We have a calender and a syllabus, regular homework assignments. All very exciting for a person in art school.
After class, I attended a boring TA meeting where we were all reminded yet again (fourth time for me) that we can't date the student. If we are in a relationship with a student in the class, please quit the class not the relationship. Yes, I know, thanks for wasting an hour of my day. Then it was rush over to Waz's and sew sleeves, then rush to Point Park. OK, so, Point Park's community jazz class is NOT WORTH $15. Five maybe. The warmups were horribly disappointing after my earlier jazz class, though things picked up towards the end when the teacher started getting a little creative. If she had a better warmup, I'd be tempted to keep taking, but no. I might take a try at Dance Alloy next week and see how I like it. And I'll finally get to meet the mysterious heartthrob Estee has been raving about.
After dance was LG practice. We measured models, talked with models, Waz pointed out I only said the work "crotch" around girls and gay guys. So I'm shy, and I don't like to touch boys unless I'm dating them. So see me and my prudery. See May, I'm a prude too!
So here I am at home at midnight. Time to start the homework! Joyful fun!
Winter Break: Fun. I slept a lot, saw lots of family, ate lots of yummy food (I actually lost weight over break...fancy that. I blame you, Waz), went to Manhattan with my sister where we visited the Met, fashion ave. and her comic book store, "Forbidden Planet." All in all, a satisfying break.
2007 so far: Pretty busy. I got back a week early and Waz and I did what little we could based off of the shitey measurements the girls at Lunar Gala took. Way to go girls, way to not measure a guys inseam correctly. We've been making the outfits for a couple of the models and a lot of things are far off mark. We seem to have a very poor understanding of the male body. I think that the girls will be much easier. Still, things are going well, and hopefully it will be well underway by the time classes pick up.
Classes are going well. The ones I've had so far anyway. My Digital Fabrication assignment is to make a crazy cube thing for Tuesday. I thought I had it. Nearly had it. It'll be cool, though. Except that I have to actually document everything and put it on a website. I'll be borrowing people's cameras for a few weeks.
Then there was Jazz. I'm actually horribly low on the waitlist, but I think there's still hope of getting in. The teacher let everyone who showed up stay, so maybe she'll let me in. Pretty please, pretty please. It was, all in all, an amazingly fun class. One of the acting majors said to me after class, "It's such a pleasure to see someone doing what they were born to do." I guess I was born to dance. Hope mom and dad don't mind.
My next class which I was also on the waitlist for is GIS, aka digital mapmaking. I think I'm going to enjoy it, it's so wonderfully structured! We have a calender and a syllabus, regular homework assignments. All very exciting for a person in art school.
After class, I attended a boring TA meeting where we were all reminded yet again (fourth time for me) that we can't date the student. If we are in a relationship with a student in the class, please quit the class not the relationship. Yes, I know, thanks for wasting an hour of my day. Then it was rush over to Waz's and sew sleeves, then rush to Point Park. OK, so, Point Park's community jazz class is NOT WORTH $15. Five maybe. The warmups were horribly disappointing after my earlier jazz class, though things picked up towards the end when the teacher started getting a little creative. If she had a better warmup, I'd be tempted to keep taking, but no. I might take a try at Dance Alloy next week and see how I like it. And I'll finally get to meet the mysterious heartthrob Estee has been raving about.
After dance was LG practice. We measured models, talked with models, Waz pointed out I only said the work "crotch" around girls and gay guys. So I'm shy, and I don't like to touch boys unless I'm dating them. So see me and my prudery. See May, I'm a prude too!
So here I am at home at midnight. Time to start the homework! Joyful fun!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Finally
It's been a long semester and I finally feel free to relax. Almost all of my grades save one (I have a feeling my poor professor was recently inundated with a semester's worth of work from every single student) are posted online, and most of them were surprisingly better than I expected. So, even if I end up with a bad grade for the last one (by bad, I mean B because he's apparently very lenient) I'm still pleased. I only ended up with a B in studio, which is a little disappointing because this is definitely the best semester I've had in a while studio-wise, but I think it was a good strong B, not like the just barely I got last semester, so I'm still okay with it. After all, its not the grade but the portfolio that matters, after all.
I am a little surprised with one very difficult class I had, in a couple of ways. 1) I definitely bombed the final test and somehow I got by with a 99.... and 2) The teacher hasn't posted the final project grade yet so I'm assuming it hasn't been factored into my final grade. I think that it might be that this time around, I got what I did solely because I sucked up to the professor (I swear I didn't do it on purpose).
Still, the semester's over, and I'm looking forward to next semester where I'll be taking only a whopping 6 classes with one of them being a mini (and it's just CSW - aka how to use Excel because apparently one can't graduate CMU without knowing how to work Excel) so that doesn't really count. Five classes, what a vacation...
I am a little surprised with one very difficult class I had, in a couple of ways. 1) I definitely bombed the final test and somehow I got by with a 99.... and 2) The teacher hasn't posted the final project grade yet so I'm assuming it hasn't been factored into my final grade. I think that it might be that this time around, I got what I did solely because I sucked up to the professor (I swear I didn't do it on purpose).
Still, the semester's over, and I'm looking forward to next semester where I'll be taking only a whopping 6 classes with one of them being a mini (and it's just CSW - aka how to use Excel because apparently one can't graduate CMU without knowing how to work Excel) so that doesn't really count. Five classes, what a vacation...
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Cursed
I wonder if someone has placed a jinx on me for the last week of classes. I feel like my luck is usually pretty darn good, and for some reason this week, small things have been going wrong.
My laundry card: I can't even remember which day it is, but I was doing the laundry this week and I somehow managed to drop the laundry card into that horrible little crack between the wall and the machine. I tried to move the machine and obviously it was way too heavy. I fortunately was able to get it out with the aid of my ruler and a lot of duct tape. Later in the week, I lost the laundry card yet again while walking down to the laundry room. I suppose it was because it was early, but I remember looking down into my basket as I walked in and seeing the card, but when I set down my basket, I found the card wasn't there. I looked through the basket, looked all over the room, traced my steps and found the card lying in a sad little corner outside the stairwell. I suppose it flew out while I was struggling my way through that horrible doorway (whoever thought having a 5' doorway with two 2.5' doors is an idiot because it's so hard to get through with a laundry basket).
My wallet: On Thursday, I ran down to the vending machines to grab a couple sodas for me and Waz. I ran back up, supposedly with my wallet in hand, but I didn't realize it was missing until about 4 hours later. Panic ensued and I ran through the hallways looking for it, and I suppose some girl recognized me and could tell I was upset about something and told me she found the wallet a couple hours ago and turned it in to the UC info desk. I got it, fortunately with all my affects intact.
My flight: normally I breeze right through ticketing and just hop on a flight. This time around, I walked to USAirways, realized my ticket was for United, so I went to United. At the United counter, I was told that they had NO flights to NY. "But I bought a United ticket online, United flight 2758!" The lady told me as if I should've known, that it was moved over to USAirways 1096. I go back to USAirways where the machine says there are no tickets under my name for the flight, so I panicked. Then someone behind the counter made me wait 20 minutes while she discussed baggage with another person. Fortunately, she was able to print out a ticket for me. Upon arrival at the gate, I found out that the flight was delayed 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, they informed us it was delayed again by another 45 minutes. All in all, our plane took off at 10:10 instead of 8:30, and I ended up arriving in NY at 12:30.
So yes, I think I might be jinxed.
At least I got to chop off all my hair so now I'm comfortable.
My laundry card: I can't even remember which day it is, but I was doing the laundry this week and I somehow managed to drop the laundry card into that horrible little crack between the wall and the machine. I tried to move the machine and obviously it was way too heavy. I fortunately was able to get it out with the aid of my ruler and a lot of duct tape. Later in the week, I lost the laundry card yet again while walking down to the laundry room. I suppose it was because it was early, but I remember looking down into my basket as I walked in and seeing the card, but when I set down my basket, I found the card wasn't there. I looked through the basket, looked all over the room, traced my steps and found the card lying in a sad little corner outside the stairwell. I suppose it flew out while I was struggling my way through that horrible doorway (whoever thought having a 5' doorway with two 2.5' doors is an idiot because it's so hard to get through with a laundry basket).
My wallet: On Thursday, I ran down to the vending machines to grab a couple sodas for me and Waz. I ran back up, supposedly with my wallet in hand, but I didn't realize it was missing until about 4 hours later. Panic ensued and I ran through the hallways looking for it, and I suppose some girl recognized me and could tell I was upset about something and told me she found the wallet a couple hours ago and turned it in to the UC info desk. I got it, fortunately with all my affects intact.
My flight: normally I breeze right through ticketing and just hop on a flight. This time around, I walked to USAirways, realized my ticket was for United, so I went to United. At the United counter, I was told that they had NO flights to NY. "But I bought a United ticket online, United flight 2758!" The lady told me as if I should've known, that it was moved over to USAirways 1096. I go back to USAirways where the machine says there are no tickets under my name for the flight, so I panicked. Then someone behind the counter made me wait 20 minutes while she discussed baggage with another person. Fortunately, she was able to print out a ticket for me. Upon arrival at the gate, I found out that the flight was delayed 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, they informed us it was delayed again by another 45 minutes. All in all, our plane took off at 10:10 instead of 8:30, and I ended up arriving in NY at 12:30.
So yes, I think I might be jinxed.
At least I got to chop off all my hair so now I'm comfortable.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Ridiculously Busy
I remember how at the start of the semester, I was raving to my parents about how easy and carefree this semester has been. How wonderful it will be and how much free time I would be looking forward to.
Well, pretty much since mid-semester, it's been non-stop work that just intensified after Thanksgiving. In the process of all that, I somehow managed to fit in spending time with my boyfriend and celebrating my best friend's birthday. Other than that, this is what I've managed to achieve this semester:
For Figure Drawing, I completed my portfolio (which I still need to pick up. For dance...well...I've been dancing. I just made it by this mini with two absences, both due to hell week. It's a good thing I saved up for those. I've also managed to make a sketchbook, a book arts info book, a different from the normal, portfolio worthy box and a lab plate in book binding. For my two enviro classes - well, I feel bad about those because I have been just hanging on all semester long. As for studio, this has been one of the best semesters ever, and I hope that I can continue to do this well. (I think that I have a good solid B this semester, keeping my fingers crossed for something better....doubtful though).
I'm also really annoyed, because before I leave tomorrow, I have to help my acoustics group put together a project, work with my mechanical systems group to put together another project, and work with another group to do the heat gain calculations and construction diagrams for yet another project. I love how all of that has to be done by the end of today.
Other than classes, I had the worst DS show I ever did, mostly because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to really go over the dances or, for that matter, show up to people's extra rehearsals. I feel like I wasn't that great a statics TA, but oddly enough, Oppenheim asked me to TA structures again, this time not even waiting for me to ask.
In my personal life, my relationship with the Benny-bean is going well. He seems oddly okay with my leaving for a month. I suppose after three months of me being on the other side of the world, three weeks of me being on the other side of the region is quite all right by him. I only wonder if someday he'll get fed up with my leaving all the time and just dump me. Who knows...boys are fickle.
PS I just had a mini heart attack when I checked my account and saw I owed $11000. I wondered for a moment how it was possible to spend that much money on printing, before I noticed the money was for spring tuition. Yah...I'm good...
Well, pretty much since mid-semester, it's been non-stop work that just intensified after Thanksgiving. In the process of all that, I somehow managed to fit in spending time with my boyfriend and celebrating my best friend's birthday. Other than that, this is what I've managed to achieve this semester:
For Figure Drawing, I completed my portfolio (which I still need to pick up. For dance...well...I've been dancing. I just made it by this mini with two absences, both due to hell week. It's a good thing I saved up for those. I've also managed to make a sketchbook, a book arts info book, a different from the normal, portfolio worthy box and a lab plate in book binding. For my two enviro classes - well, I feel bad about those because I have been just hanging on all semester long. As for studio, this has been one of the best semesters ever, and I hope that I can continue to do this well. (I think that I have a good solid B this semester, keeping my fingers crossed for something better....doubtful though).
I'm also really annoyed, because before I leave tomorrow, I have to help my acoustics group put together a project, work with my mechanical systems group to put together another project, and work with another group to do the heat gain calculations and construction diagrams for yet another project. I love how all of that has to be done by the end of today.
Other than classes, I had the worst DS show I ever did, mostly because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to really go over the dances or, for that matter, show up to people's extra rehearsals. I feel like I wasn't that great a statics TA, but oddly enough, Oppenheim asked me to TA structures again, this time not even waiting for me to ask.
In my personal life, my relationship with the Benny-bean is going well. He seems oddly okay with my leaving for a month. I suppose after three months of me being on the other side of the world, three weeks of me being on the other side of the region is quite all right by him. I only wonder if someday he'll get fed up with my leaving all the time and just dump me. Who knows...boys are fickle.
PS I just had a mini heart attack when I checked my account and saw I owed $11000. I wondered for a moment how it was possible to spend that much money on printing, before I noticed the money was for spring tuition. Yah...I'm good...
