Did I mention our latest ceramics project? We have to take the jar we made that we think was the most successful of the twelve and make it eight more times, each time changing it somehow. I planned to make two jars each day of the weekend, putting me at six. I only made one on Friday because my neck was bothering me. I made two yesterday and two today. But I forgot that I'd made one the day we got the assignment, so I'm still at six. I only have to make two more by Thursday, which is AWESOME. There will be NO stress this week. None whatsoever. This pleases me greatly. As for the jars themselves, I think I've had varying degrees of success with them, but I'm experimenting with them. I'm not just taking what I originally made and altering it slightly. One of them is kind of a smaller version of the first, but even it has changes. I'll probably take pictures of them once they're all done. I have a few, and I'm gonna post them to the blog I'm keeping for class. I'll link to it.

I didn't get everything done this weekend that I wanted to, but the last thing will hopefully be done later this week. Jeannine and I were supposed to record our small-group (2-3 people) recording for DAP. Sophie agreed to sing for us, and she said Alex would play guitar with her, but it turns out he can no longer do it, so we postponed it. Jeannine's daughter sings (sang?) in high school, so we're hoping the two of them can do a duet. Prof. Rhodes is just happy that someone's recording before break, so I think even with the minor setback, Jeannine and I are getting points for that. XD Our other two group members need to be slapped upside the head, though. Well, okay, one of them, D, might have an excuse. He's on the college basketball team and had an away game for some of the time, and then Duncan (the other guy) said D's father was in the hospital and he wouldn't be in class. D came to class anyway, but there's no telling if anything will change that makes him lose class time. Duncan is just a flake. He's really intelligent, but doesn't seem to believe in communication. We were all supposed to meet one night last week to go over things, and Duncan said he could come for a few minutes before going to meet another group for a class they needed to write a 25-page (!) paper in. He never showed up, leaving Jeannine and I to talk badly about him, because we totally did. He finally sent a message two and half hours after the meeting time to say he took a nap and when his alarm went off, his roommate shut it off without waking him up. (Kind of douchey if true.) There was another e-mail he sent that Jeannine basically had to badger him into. I can get behind the thing with missing our meeting and going to the other one. That's fine. If you're near a computer, get your ass on it and pop off an e-mail. COMMUNICATE. Because otherwise we form very low opinions of you.

Anyway, I'm recording the small-group thing with Jeannine this week if all goes well, we've decided (and by that I basically mean me and Jeannine) to record the large ensemble as a group, and we're leaving the mid-size (4+ people) recording to Duncan and D, because we were the ones to develop the project plan, we were the ones to secure the small-group recording, and we're the ones asking professors if we can record their rehearsals. We've been doing ALL the work and it's only fair. We have yet to hear from them on this. I will not have them fucking up my grade in this class, dude. I will crack the whip if I have to.

And that concludes the negativity in this post. Next topic!

I'm not wearing the binder today, giving my boobs a break, and it's annoying to look at myself. XD;; Can I just have surgery, please? But anyway, I'm keeping it. It feels pretty good on me: The only time it gets bad is when the compression part rolls up on itself, which doesn't happen too often. It seems like it makes the compression worse and I need to adjust it, to roll it back down. Also, I'd be having a much better time with it if my boobs would stop moving. The problem is it's made for cisgendered men, not for female breasts, so... yeah. ^^; I might possibly invest in one from one of the other companies, but I need to measure myself and make sure I'll be able to even fit them. The problems of being an American (where people tend to be kinda large) looking to buy something from a company in Taiwan (where people tend to be kinda small).

I got a JOB, yo. On campus, with the help desk. Two openings, and I got one! I don't know when I start. I'd imagine it would make sense to start after break and after I get back from NCECA, but we'll see. It'll be good to be earning some money, though, even if it's not much. A job is a job. And I'm sure I can use it to find leads to other jobs later on. I swear, I'm bitching quite a bit about this year, but so far it's been pretty damn good, school-wise. Good grades the first semester, I am enjoying my classes this semester even though I'm complaining about them, I get to go to a ceramics conference in Houston, I've got a job, and I was accepted into an honor society. OH, and I found out what my number for Room Draw is. They do it by class and by GPA, so as a graduate of 2014, I already get a pretty high number, and I'm on the low end of the first GPA tier. I expected a good number. I got 3. THREE. You know what that means? That means that when Sophie shows up to pick a room for us (since I'll be in Houston), we can pretty much have any room we damn well please. Also, have I mentioned how excited I am to be rooming with Sophie again next year? Because I am. One-sided crush notwithstanding. XD;

I still have to finish writing something for WAM, and then I am drawing for the rest of the night.

Also, I STILL want a mohawk. XD;;

I've been agonizing for like four days over how to word what I say for my "What Inspires Me?"/"What is Inspiration?" (because I tweaked the original question when I wrote my response to it XD;;) presentation tomorrow, and I was looking through my blog posts for Writing Across Media and realized I wrote down EXACTLY what I wanted to say when I talked about Intro to Art Therapy and finding myself. I don't ramble, I don't lose sight of what I'm supposed to say, I give enough background and then get straight to it. That absolutely wonderful feeling you get when you realize you already said what you wanted to say.

Now I can actually focus on the revised outline draft due on Sunday. Except not tonight, because now it's too late for that. I've got most of the week to agonize over that. XD;

Also, I'm totally gonna start writing snail mail letters with Monique again. Blast from the past, dude. (17 years, even. Almost positive the year we met, I was 13. Possibly 14.) I'm with her, though, I miss writing... and maybe if I write to her, I'll be able to get over this evil block I've got going lately. ^_^

Emma: *makeup* See you!
Me: Okay!
Emma: *walks out... comes back*
Me: ...?
Emma: *makeup... walks out... comes BACK*
Me: ... *eye roll*
Emma: *MAKEUP. walks out*

HONESTLY! Slap me if I ever get started. Please. I know most of you are too far away for that. Kirsten, I think you're closest. I'll give you directions. Come find me and slap me. -_-;

ANYWAY. I didn't open Semagic for that. (Well, I kinda did just this moment, but I was going to open it for another matter entirely.)

The time spent at Grace's was AWESOME. She's such a cool woman, and her partner's nice, too. And there was this really cute five-year-old kid, Braxton, and more animals than I could count. Like 20-something ducks, some chickens, a rabbit in a hutch (maybe more than one, I didn't go check), three horses, five cats (though I only saw two today--one was loving as hell and the other was like, "Who the hell are you? Whatever, I'm going back to sleep." XD;;), and a golden retriever named Sammy that kept butting people's hands like "YO. Rub me. :D" and staring up at them if they stopped rubbing him. He was SO happy we were all there; he got so much attention. XD We played kickball (well, I didn't--and I got no opposition from Grace, meaning that iether we were lied to about how insistent she is that we all play, or she could tell I was older and didn't push it), ate delicious food, toured her house/barn (which is pretty cool, actually), and most of us shared something about ourselves. (We ran out of time before everyone could get their turn.) I shared this, which is the thing I drew/colored one or two nights ago, and everyone was all impressed by it... including Emi, which amazed me, because her artwork's so much nicer than mine. I have been accepted by my peers. ^^ Boot told me I need to come to her room sometime; she's always playing video games. I told her I didn't bring any systems because I worried I'd play them too much and not get any studying done. If I'd wanted to bring something, I totally could've--Mom and Dad would've gotten me a small TV, or I could've used an HDMI cable, because this laptop does have a slot for it. All I have is the DS. Of course, that'll be fine. Professor Layton and the Last Specter is coming out next week.

But yeah, fun time, really enjoyed it. They do this at the beginning and end of the year. Definitely looking foward to visiting Grace again and seeing her on campus. I've taken all my communications classes, so maybe not... but if I see she's teaching something and I'm interested, I might try to take something. She's awesome.

The vessel... ahahaha, the hard part is NOT going to be the top. The hard part is the tapering in. There's one thing I forgot to consider, and that is that, rather than having the coils come up and out like they have been, they're now moving up and inward. This means having to be VERY careful, for balance's sake. If I move too quickly, or the walls are too thin, CATASTROPHE. I've built it up to the point that I'm starting to come in, and I stopped, because hell no am I going to have to do it over. I'm going to go back in there tomorrow after my classes, before IA at 4pm, and hopefully it'll be pretty sturdy and I can continue to work. I'll ask Bethany about it, too. I'm sure she can give me pointers. I'll just have to take it slowly and carefully.

Meanwhile, my base is getting dried out enough that it's starting to change color. I'm going to rub some water on it tomorrow and try to keep a little moisture in it. It still needs a bit of work, specifically at the bottom.

I'm makin' a grilled cheese sandwich. Desire to eat, but it's already after 10:30.

Rooster Teeth released four songs from Red Vs. Blue Season 9. I practically flew to Amazon to purchase them. I forgot that Citibank gave me a slightly different debit card number because one of the stores I shop at was compromised (probably Michael's... and if so, way to jump on it months late, Citibank!). I bought the songs, they're saved on my computer and in Amazon Cloud. I realized after I bought them that Amazon got the wrong card info.

Hours later, I receive an e-mail from Amazon. The order's been canceled due to lack of payment/incorrect payment option. The tracks still work, and they're still in my Cloud.

I don't know if that's supposed to happen or what. It's kinda weird. I basically just got $4 worth of music tracks for free.

In other news: Anyone who watches me on Facebook may have seen this. My professor for What Is Religion? He's a Doctor Who fan. He said he'll burn me some old Tom Baker episodes (he has pretty much everything except the missing episodes) and showed me his red Dalek. XD He would've had it moving and talking had the batteries not been dead. The man was already cool, but now he's just awesome.

And, I have a weird mark on my arm. No idea where it came from. It's a few reddish-colored marks. I won't even call them bumps, because they're not at all pronounced. They don't itch, they don't hurt. It's just a little cluster of like five or so little red spots. Took a picture and sent it to Mom, and she said to tell her if it starts changing colors. I'm not mutating yet. It's probably nothing, but I get weirded out when I see strange marks on me.

Spent like five hours at the ceramics studio today. The hollow sphere I made yesterday was WAY too small, so I ended up making two more, and I'm using the original one for extra credit. The whole process of forming the clay into a sphere is time-consuming if you're looking for a perfect sphere, but I sat there and worked that clay to death. The second sphere was definitely easier than the first; I'm getting used to making pinch pots and keeping the cracks from getting too out of control. The first pot had major cracking issues, and the third had its moments, but the second was basically flawless. ^_^ Tomorrow we make spouts. I believe once this first project is all done, we'll have a teapot and teacups to go with it. Emma's also in the class now, so she and I can work on our stuff together.

Her memory's still terrible. XD;; She's great, though. Glad I have her for a roommate.

http://www.amazon.com/ICO-Shadow-Colossus-Collection-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0J5FG/ref=pd_sim_vg_18

And the version of ICO they're including has elements from the PAL version (AKA, the superior one--we got screwed over here). And The Last Guardian appears to have a release date.

Motherf... Wait 'til I get laid off, you bastards, to take my money. And they'll be released RIGHT at the end of the year, supposedly, which means I wouldn't get too much time to play them before having to head back to school. But still, yay!

Birthday was uneventful, but I guess that's a good thing, right? XD No news is good news and all that. Well, I did get to see the piece I submitted for the Talk Like a Lady exhibition at school put up on a wall along with other works. Pretty cool, actually. Annoyingly enough, looking at it at the exhibit made me realize there are a few things I want to change, such as the line thickness on the two characters, but whatever, it's done. Mine was the only one that looked the way it did, but I wanted to submit something that represents what I do. I kept thinking of doing other things, but it didn't feel right. It felt like I'd be faking it. I'm happy with my decision.

Woot! is having a woot-off right now, and Windows is bugging me about restarting the computer for an update that I think it tried and failed to install. According to Wootalyzer, I have 47 minutes before this ugly headset sells out. Wondering if I should chance it. I'm waiting for a Bag of Crap since I missed the last two.

All right, screw it, restart! 42 minutes.

MICA. I got accepted.

Holy shit?

I'm going to eat first, because I'm starving, and then I'm going to look at my acceptance packet.

How the hell did I get into one of the best art schools in the country?!

My admissions counselor just e-mailed me a few minutes ago. :D

So, that's #1 of 11. (Because I did indeed send off my application materials for MICA, and ordered transcripts to be sent to them, and will be finishing the self-portrait and maybe painting something else small before uploading my portfolio. Holy crap, CJ grew a pair. :O)

Plans to visit Juniata are moving forward; I had to call, since I think my e-mail address has been getting treated as spam. I'll be down there from the 23rd to the 25th.

Now, have to get ready for class. I've been in my pajamas all day, resisting the need to enter society. XD;; I can't miss class today, though; important information regarding the final assignment and an optional assignment I can do in lieu of a revision. I might still try to revise the last assignment, but the flarf poem is kind of hard. Might be easier to just do a new poem, but that wouldn't be revision.

I'm emoticon-happy because I can't stop grinning, sorry. XD

This tabletop easel? It's at Blick, under Blick's name, for only $44.49. List price in store is $129.99. It's the exact same one. To be fair, I did see a written tag near some other easel that said "Jullian by Blick", so it seems like they might be the same people.

I finally went down there today, because Mom drove me (SO LAZY this weekend; we were supposed to go out yesterday, but I felt like crap and thought I might be experiencing the beginning of the flu), armed with me $75 e-gift, expecting to walk out with one $72 easel. I walked out with two $45 ones that got discounted further thanks to my Blick card. Long story short, $13 out of pocket hfor both. I ran back downstairs for the second one, and the cashier looked at the papers I'd left up there (with printouts of the three easels I wanted to look at) and said she might get one too. I haven't worked on it yet, since I'm trying to tidy up a bit in here, but I've set it up on the drafting table to play with later. Yay for paying less than I thought and getting more for it!

Ordered a second set of transcripts for OWU. I think the first ones might have gotten lost. Well, maybe lost, or maybe sent to the Registrar's Office, which is the address the transcript company has on file; they might have gotten tossed out. Everything should have been there already, so I ordered new ones; I put the address in myself this time. The Registrar and Admissions are both in the same place, but that doesn't mean one office would give stuff that doesn't belong to them to the other office. The orders won't go through until tomorrow at the earliest anyway; no one is at either of my colleges to verify the orders.

I like my FPA class, but there's one smartass (who answered questions twice by reading word-for-word from her opem textbook and then said "I did the reading" in a smug manner) and one... overachiever?... who's gone ahead and answered future chapters' questions on Blackboard. And there's a guy that came to class for the first time on Wednesday, and kept bothering me about what the teacher was saying when I was trying to listen to her. Nice guy, but dude, listen. I'm not sitting next to him tomorrow unless he purposely seeks me out.

Going to walk my dog, come back up here, and do... something. My room, I guess.