23.365

Today was my last day of 3D design. I dressed up to go with my sculpture. A bunch of people took pictures, so I'll post some when they get posted online where I can get them. I feel like my piece was very well-received, and I got a lot of positive feedback. All in all, I feel really good about all of the work I'm turning in. I have a preliminary photograph of my drawing final-> above. Leslie says I should do a bunch more, and I've done about six at home. With what I can do tomorrow and tomorrow night after class, I should have enough to really make it look good.

I received an email today, letting me know that I'm getting a grant from the university, which is nice. I'm taking three thousand dollars in loans, and the university is giving me five hundred. That'll make a dent in the bucket.

22.365

Charcoal, charcoal everywhere, and not a drop to... well... draw with anymore. I've been frantically drawing, working on the final project for Drawing. I'm perpetually covered in charcoal. And I think I'm out of all kinds- Char-kole, Compressed, Kante, Pastels. 

Glad I'm painting this summer.

The Matrix

First of all, Hugo Weaving has an amazingly elastic and expressive face. I loved him in every role he's ever played. Also he has a great voice.

I'm watching the second Matrix on television right now. I am aware that this movie takes itself far too seriously and tries to fit a great deal of subtext and meaning in what would otherwise be an action film (though subtext is being really generous as the film really hits you over the head with it.) I think that because I saw the trilogy in my early teenage years, it made an impression on me, whereas I would look upon it with a far more jaded eye were I to see it for the first time now. It sometimes staggers me when I hear a line, being hit with meaning and depth that I didn't expect from a movie I've seen as many times as I have. 

"But, as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we're here. We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist."

I think my favorite part of the film is the scene with the Merovingian. 

"Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without." 

I wonder, is this a statement I could even really contemplate as a person without power? I really enjoy the Merovingian as a character. A cool, collected Frenchman- stylish and manipulating. 

Now I'm rambling. Mostly, I love this movie. All of the Matrix films, actually.

21.365

Three weeks into my project, and I give you the project that has taken my weekend. This is my bitchin' ass wire mohawk... thing. I spent Friday night, most of the day Saturday and a good few hours Sunday (today.)

20.365

19.365

My manic days are becoming more pronounced. Today, I went to class. Instead of resting over the break, I worked on my drawing assignment. Then I went to dunch/ linner with my friend Katherine and cashed my paycheck. Then straight back to the Art School to work until eight on my 3D project.

Then I got home and went outside to take pictures of the sunset from my spot. Because I was still on an energy sort of high. I have crashed now. I am exhausted. Mentally, physically, etc.

On the brightside, my mohawk spine monkey looks awesome. I've finished applying the fabric to the spikes. All I need to do now it sew the black fabric onto the wings and the sides of the headpeice. Then I will be done.

That leaves the paper, and the drawings. I should be alright. 

I miss Mike.

18.365

Or, paradise by the computer light.

17.365

I forgot. I don't even remember what I was doing when I forgot.

I think I was at Mike's.

My bad.

16.365

Sort of an after and before. Technically, I didn't take either of these. I sort of had something planned for this day, but when I got home, I was ambushed with the opportunity to go to a Voltaire concert, which I took. Below is a rather dark photograph that my roomate took of me. The top is also a picture that my roomate took of me, but with the guitarist and one of the vocalists of the Extraordinary Contraptions. That is his hat. I think he was drunk. 

They were actually one of the only local (Atlanta) bands that I've ever liked off the bat. They were kinda my style, and if I had the money, I would have bought one of their CDs.

What a Tuesday.

15.365

 

I want to get my hair done, desperately.

I am getting concerned. I was supposed to hear from the Office of Student Financial Aid by now about my summer loan.  But I haven't. I'm going to give them one more day before I call in and start getting seriously worried.

I downloaded a cracked version of SPORE. I am pleased. Such a good game- especially when you don't have to pay for it. I do so love the Pirate Bay. 

14.365

I am learning to love myself. Even though I look ugly as shit in this picture.

13.365 or Almost Doomsday

So, neither of these fall into the strict rules of the project. The one above is of me, but was taken on Sunday night, when I thought I had forgotten to take one. 

About the bottom one. I was at myt friend Ian's this weekend. He is the boy with the black hair in the background. The woman in the foreground, Amy, knocked my camera off of a chair. Whereas it appeared to be fine, initally, upon removal of the lens cap, I discovered that it (the cap) had impacted and broken the first layer of glass on the lens due to the impact of the fall. The bottom picture was a test picture taken through a layer of shattered glass. So, combined, I am presenting this as day thirteen.

(The camera works fine once the broken glass was cleared away. I have yet to discover the impact it will have on operation of the lens in the future.)

12.365

11.365

I went on an adventure today.

But first, I woke up at the crack of fuckthemorning and waited in front of my classroom for about forty five minutes, until the class was supposed to start. I got up to enter the classroom and saw the sign that said that class was canceled.

So, I napped in the art building. And played Pokemon. Mostly napped. Then classtime came. I thought I would be done with my project in class, but Marijn insisted that I put some structure in the wings. Which I did, and which took the entire class period. I plan to go back in after Art History tomorrow. Then I'll start papering next week- if I don't make it back out there this Sunday.

Then my friend Katherine and I went to lunch. We went to Eat Hibachi- which is pretty tasty.

But then, after I got home and worked on a drawing for a little while, I went for a little walk. I was actually worm-hunting, but there really aren't very many large stones to overturn around my apartment complex. Instead, I found this beautiful outcropping behind some trees in the very most back corner of my apartment complex. All of the kudzu is still dead, so it's a flat plane with bright green grass growing out of it. There's a sheer drop of about fifty feet, and it overlooks the loop. There's a fence that is overgrown with kudzu that completely obscures the spot from view in all directions. I think it might be magical. I think I'll spend a lot of time there.

This is an Adventure.

10.365

Or, GOD this is so unflattering that I almost didn't even post it.

9.365

Or, this is the only picture I got on this day. 

8.365

I seem to forget to take my pictures until the very end of the day, or the beginning of the day. None of them are particularly flattering though.

I was very productive today. I filed for my summer loan, and in the process, filled out and completed my FAFSA. It's nice to have it all out of the way. I'm excited. 

This will be a good paycheck. I worked Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. I have the same schedule minus the Friday this upcoming week. I'm starting to really enjoy work, in that I like the people I work with, I have a good working relationship with my boss, and I'm looking at pretty good hours this summer. It's not hard work, but it's enjoyable. And when there's a comic book class, I have constant access to comics.

Speaking of which, I need to head to the Comic book store and get the newest issue of The Stand and Neil Gaiman's Batman. I should start keeping a log of what I'm reading.

Currently: From Hell/ Mona Lisa Overdrive

7.365

Or, my fridge sexyface.

This was a dull weekend. I worked Friday night, then went to Friday Night Magic for the first time in a while. Sort of invigorating, actually. I'm inspired to build a new deck. I like the new set- Conflux. Then I went back to Mike's place, which was nice. But I had to pry myself out of a warm, comforting bed that had a sexy man in it to go work at what was, in essence, a football game. The bookstore is a hellish place on game day. I'm looking forward to working this summer.

I registered for both Summer and Fall semesters. This summer I'll be taking Math 1101 at nine am every single bloody day. Then I'll prolly end up working until close Monday through Friday after class. In the Fall, I'm thus far registered for Contemporary Art History, Intro Photo and Into Sculpture. I want to take Into Ceramics, but there isn't anything open just this yet. I'm sure something will open up soon. 

Also, the Might Boosh is pretty much hilarious. 

6.365

Or, my Easter chicken poops gum.

5.365

I aspire.

One of the reasons I love what I consider to be my favorite novel- Watchmen- is because of what it tells me. In Watchmen, the reader follows the actions of a handful of human beings (with one notable exception) the actions they take, and how they affect the world around them. These people become remarkable. They become looked upon as almost superhuman. When you look at it, they really aren't doing anything monumental. Dan, Laurie and Rorschach take out minor low-level criminals and save people from burning buildings. In the scheme of things, it isn't major. But the fact that they do care, that they take actions instead of resting in complacancy like so many of us is inspiring. Watchmen shows how normal everyday people- such as a newspaper stand owner, a phychiatrist, etc.- can be moved to take action. I don't know that I've articulated this very well, because it's very difficult for me to render the sort of deep inspiration that it brings me into words.

4/365

Ughhh. I skipped my first class today. I thought it was worth it, though- I got to stay in bed with a handsome man for that much longer. 

I managed to pack everything I needed for the next day except makeup. Today was one of the first days in a long time that I went around without makeup on. No one seemed to notice, which lends credence to the traditional boyfriend saying of "You don't need makeup." 

My 3D project is coming along very, very well. I started attaching the spikes today, so it's at least started to look like's the final product. Inosmuch as it can without the fabic skin. Not in much of a blogging mood today. Work sapped all of my energy.

3.365

I didn't upload this yesterday. I could have. I was just lazy, I suppose. Mike and I had our big fancy date night, so  I was excited, and busy getting ready and what not. I love that man.

Wow, just realized that I'm in my bra in this picture. I took it as I was getting ready.

In art history, we've finally started getting into periods of art that I am interested in. We focused on Picasso- and I discovered what I now consider to be one of my favorite paintings- Ma Jolie. Then we started on Dada. Not a fan. I mean, on a cerebral level, it's fantastic. But I don't this it's visually exciting at all. However, L.H.O.O.Q is still amusing to me.

2/365

Tuesdays and Thursdays are rough. I have to get up at eight AM in order to catch the bus that gets me to class on time. My class is at nine thirty, so I get there with plenty of time. So much time, that I took today's photograph in our empty classroom.  It was mildly interesting today, mostly because our professor went to Sierra Leone last week, and she gave a presentation on the research facility. At the end, she gave a pop quiz, the prizes for which were jewelry she bought at a market in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. They're beaded necklaces- the beads made of cheap plastic, like you might find in any local craft store, but the length of it is tied in a loose loop, which is how it is traditionally worn. I was pleased. 

Then, later today, I worked on my wire head-sculpture. I'm really liking it. I love this concept. It's turning into a sort of Plague doctor mask, combined with a mohawk. It's going to be amazing. I'm excited.

Dream

One of the reasons I want to start writing out my dreams is because they seem to be linking up more and more. Though a lot of the time I'll shrug it off because I don't think that they're of any substance. I'll just keep this up so that I can better remember how they link up in the future.

I was on a movie set, wearing the Rorschach face, and talking to Jackie Earle Haley. We were getting ready to shoot a scene in this movie, which appeared to be a screen adaptation of the graphic novel. In a previous dream that I had, it was though I was watching a scene from the Watchmen play out in front of me, but it wasn't anything from the preexisting story. I was watching, and yet an active participant. The scene that we were shooting was in a familiar location- I remember it from a previous dream. A sort of washed out, lower-end basement apartment stairwell that had deep cream walls. The scene that were were getting ready to film wasn't one that I specifically remember from my previous dream, but it was in the same location. It was a fact in my dream what I always held true in waking life: that Rorschach is an idea, an identity that was separate and greater than Walter Kovacs. The scene that we were shooting was one in which Kovacs was addressing Rorschach, and since Jackie had to play Kovacs, they needed someone else to be Rorschach- that was me. So, we shoot the scene, and then I take off the face. Then we start talking about our Watchmen tattoos. His makes sense in my dream, I remember saying something like "the best of the nightmare creatures."  I believe that, in my dream, Dan Dreiburg's dream produced nuclear haunts, of a sort, because I think that is what J.E.H's tattoo was from. It looked something like a Lovecraftian creation. I feel a kinship with him, and the entire dream fills me with the same feeling that the Watchmen brings me- I feel motivated to take action. I understand that the actions of the few change the actions of the many, and that it is not futile to care deeply about something. Then I wake up.

1/365

This is the first thing I took, and I thought it looked odd enough to be an appropriate start. I sort of look like I have a muskrat face thing going on, and check the ghost finger. Whut.

Today started out beautifully, bright if not a bit windy. In drawing we had a bit of a filler day, because Leslie forgot that she didn't schedule the model until Wednesday, so we did hand and feet studies. Which are difficult. We're supposed to have a model on both Wednesday and Friday, but I'm unsure if I'll have enough Newsprint to last both days- I don't get paid until Friday, so, as you can see, this presents a bit of a problem. I'll try and budget. 

In Art History, we finally started onto more Modern artists. We did Fauvism and Proto Cubism today: Matisse and Piccasso. Picasso has always been one of my favorite artists, so I'm fairly excited that we're starting to get into art that I have an interest in that predates taking any classes. 

365

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to restart a project that I was doing a while ago. The 365 photo project is something that most people have at least heard of. I started it a while ago, and then stopped around day 24. I think I'll keep it here rather than on Flickr, because it's really more for me than it is for anyone else. And no one reads blogs anymore.

I'll try and upload a photo a day, but likely I'll end up doing a few photos every few days.  I do plan to stick to the rules of the project and take one photograph a day.

This should be fun. Tomorrow I begin!

Purgatory.

Contrary to the inherent possibilities of Fridays and Saturdays, it seems that Sundays are universally dull. The day in which most recover from the previous two days in preparation for the upcoming week. A day of rest, as it were. 

Unfortunatelty, I do not get to use today to rest. True, I did sleep in well past the amount of sleep that I needed, however, I awoke to a lengthy list of things to do before tomorrow.

I need to create and finish an exterior landscape drawing that highlights depth of field.

I need to finish the laundry that I started yesterday.

Erm. Well maybe the list wasn't as lengthy as I thought it to be. Perhaps it's just the prospect of starting and finishing a drawing. This isn't usually that daunting, I'm just filled with an extreme lack of motivation or desire to go about the matter.  Which I imagine is why I'm still blogging instead of doing what I should be doing.

Le sigh.

I love Married to the Sea.

Dream

In the style of my boy, I will attempt to write out accounts of my dreams. It's not that expect anyone to be particularly interested in them- I just would like to remember them better, because some of them are really quite fantastic.

I had a dream last night, and since I've taken so long between having it and writing down, I've lost some of it, but a large amount has remained with me, which has prompted me to document it.

I believe that it started in some sort of ballroom or courtroom with a high ceiling. It was in shades of light blue with gold highlights, and there were people spotted along the sides, with a deep red carpet running down the middle and leading to a door. I was walking down the middle, heading towards the door. I think I asked the room if I were fat or not, but I don't remember actually vocalizing it. Most people either shook their head no, or didn't say anything, except one person. It was a girl from my class, who is perfectly nice and chatty, but who seems as though she might be the very worse sort of enemy. She told me very frankly and aggressively that I was quite fat, unattractive and that no one liked me. 

This really bothered me, in my dream, and I think I fled. I don't remember much else, except for being in a hospital-like place. My classmate was there, but she didn't have the same attitude before. She was being suspended, or supported by a winch or stand of some sort so that her legs dangled. She was wearing a long coat that swayed around her feet. When it moved, I could see that she had three legs, and another sort of dangling, distended looking appendage that had a red bulb-like thing on the end, and was accompanied by several long rope-like hairs. The third leg was like the normal legs in thickness, length and color, however it seemed to not have any bones in it. I remember viewing all of this from laying down. She seemed to be looking at me pleadingly. 

That's all I can really remember. I should write them down closer to when I have them. Recently, I've been having dreams that are essentially like watching short films. In that I know that I'm watching a movie, and I'm aware that it's a movie in my dream, but I'm just watching, and can't do anything else. I'll dream these movie scenes in great detail- and they always seems to be really gruesome. I remember two scenes that seemed as though they were from different movies, but with one common character. The first one introduced a nurse, and the last one, was a scene in which someone was brutally murdering the nurse. I remember flashes of it: the pelvis of the nurse- both legs severed off. Unwrapping the bandages off of the severed arms, and I think forcing the nurse to lick the thick, clotting and dripping blood off of the bandage. I think it took place in a bathroom.

Saturday mornings.

So, I did manage to find myself an adventure yesterday evening. A friend of mine was having a small party, and considering that I hadn’t seen any of the attending people in some time now, years in most cases.

I eventually hobo’d a ride over, being quite the pedestrian, and enjoyed a small party for several hours. A handful of friends from high school were there, but for the most part it was people I did not know. Being particularly gregarious, this never poses a problem for me, and I had a pretty nice time.

However, Jello shots and Hunch Punch are not my chosen method of approaching intoxication. Nevertheless, approach it I did. I smoked and drank my way to feeling awful in the morning, and sleeping longer than necessary.

Most of the hangover happened while I was still awake, though. I stopped drinking at a certain point and retained consciousness long after my eyeballs started to hurt.

Happy Birthday, Rose!