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Things I need to do over the next two weeks:

Ceramics:
- Complete sculptural dinnerware project
- Make 30 bowls for Empty Bowls
- Make 12-14 slip-cast Gatorade bottles

DAP:
- Finish editing small group recording stuff including making background music tracks from scratch
- Help with large ensemble recording
- Other things as assigned

WAM2:
- Write a descriptive story based on a memory by Thursday
- Make a video based on the story by next Thursday

Photography:
- Process two rolls of film shot on Saturday and make prints
- Study for test on Wednesday

Ceramics is going to kill me.

But anyway, I'm physically feeling all of this and I'm so ready to quit it's not funny. There's one month. I'm sure after the next two weeks things will calm down, even though we'll have one more project to do in ceramics, but I feel like I won't even get that far. I'm thinking about seeing one of the counselors here about it before I blow my top. I'm not dealing with this well at all. I'm tense and my head's killing me. Part of it is because of DAP, which I'm unsure is going to go off the way it's supposed to. Duncan and Dimitri are supposed to be doing one recording and helping with the large one, and Jeannine and I aren't sure they're going to come through. If they don't, there's no way we can do everything ourselves, which might very negatively affect our grades.

I also quit the TSC job, because once I left ceramics last Thursday (when I found out all of the above ceramics projects are due NEXT WEEK), I knew there was no way in hell I could add hours working at the job on top of it. I asked Mom, she said quit. I spoke to Justine, who works full-time at the TSC, about it, and she said quit. So I did.

I just want to sleep for the rest of the night, and I have to meet the DAP group for an hour to see what we need for recording a week from now. And then I have to finish reading for a class. And I really should stop at the ceramics studio, but I really just don't have the energy or the give-a-shit right now.

Lesson learned: NEVER take four creative-output classes in a semester.

First thing: NCECA was awesome. There was SO much to do, and I ended up not doing some of the things I intended just because I was exhausted. You wouldn't think sitting and listening to half hour to hour-long lectures would tire you out, but whoa. Still, I saw some cool stuff, got some good advice, now really feel a need to travel, and am thinking about either applying for residencies or taking part in some workshops. There's also a pottery place in Greenwich Village that offers classes, a residency, AND an internship, so next time I'm home, I'm gonna check it out. I mean, the internship app will have to be in before then, but even if I don't get it, I might take a wheel throwing class. It'll keep me in clay over the summer and give me something to do for about... a month or so. Got a few books and brochures for grad schools. Not sure I'm doing that, but SMFA in Boston really interested me. Totally interdisciplinary--no walls between media--and only about 700 students TOTAL between undergrad and grad? Yes. Although this means getting in would be ridiculously hard, but anyway. ^^; I'm not looking at MFA programs right now, because I'm not sure that I have the self-driven focus that you need for an MFA. I'm looking at post-baccalaureates now. They're only a year long and will help me kind of figure things out before I go the whole way. And I'd get a certificate for my troubles. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, Houston's weather. Oh god. Pennsylvania needs to freaking get with spring already, I want my 60-70-degree temps. It was so sad when we got back to Pittsburgh and the temperature was like 30-something.

I spent WAY too much money there, but whatever, yo. I got stuff I'm gonna use in class. One of those things was a throwing book, which will definitely come in handy considering what I have to do before April 12th. As payback for going to NCECA, instead of writing a paper, we each have to schedule an interview with one of the editors at the Juniatian (school newspaper), write a blurb on the ceramics studio FB page giving one of our highlights of the conference (pertaining to ceramics, of course--I already did that), and make 30 bowls to be donated to the Empty Bowls event coming up. I'm not exactly happy about the 30 bowls, although I would much rather make 30 bowls (or even more, for that matter) than do that stupid dinnerware project we were given. I'm so tempted to ask Bethany if that's an option. Honestly. I come out looking like a coward (or just extremely unsure of myself, which, hey, guess what?), but meh. Meh, damnit. And on top of everything else I have to do? MEH. The stress started creeping back as soon as I got here, and it was not helped by the fact that I processed two of the three rolls of film I've taken, one of which consisted solely of Houston shots, and half of each of which (is that even proper English?) did NOT come out. The film was developed, but apparently there were several frames that weren't exposed. I know at least once in Houston I accidentally took a picture of the inside of the case when pulling the camera out, so it would've gotten blackness... but I have no idea. I wasn't the only one with this problem. I'm not happy about it. A bunch of the Houston shots eitiher look like shit or didn't come out at all, and my slow-shutter speed attempts at home were also crap. Most didn't come out. The ones of my fan came out well, but the panning experiment with Craig failed miserably and other shots show signs of camera shake, even one I had on the tripod. (I was waving a flashlight around in the mirror while holding the Bulb button, though, so I guess that's my fault.) I'm probably going to bomb this photography assignment because of all this. I got a C or so on the last one because I didn't venture out of the greenhouse to take my photos, and I haven't gotten a chance to reprint any of those shots... and I'm running low on paper anyway, just ordered some more.

The only good thing right now is that I finished the video for WAM 2, and the only thing I should have to do this week is a blog post.

A has been staying up here in my room with Heather since I was gone, and she's still up here now, apparently asleep... I haven't looked over there. I hope this doesn't end up with her up here all the time again, I can't take that. This semester's been fairly all right on the roommate front aside from the whining.

Current Mood: distressed

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;;

Current Mood: happy

First of all: I got my stuff done for ceramics and WAM2. The ceramics stuff looks kind of crap compared to other students' stuff, but by the end of the whole process I really didn't care. My headaches had moved to my shoulders and neck by that point and I just could not be bothered anymore. So, I'm not expecting a great grade, although maybe I'll get some good-for-you points for getting on the wheel for, like, more than half the pieces. The audio essay, on the other hand, went well. I was still editing the morning it was due--there were things I wanted to add and couldn't because Heather was asleep, so I had to wait until the next morning to record those parts and add them in. I got good feedback: Everyone liked the essay, and the only negative comments I got were that one song I put in went on a little too long (apparently I picked up the pace during my narration at that point and the music no longer matched my pace) and I forgot to say who an "expert" whose audio I included was. They liked my writing, something that I was worried about: I thought what I wrote sounded stupid, but I guess that was me being self-critical. So that's done: All I have to do related to that is the reflection, 600 words due next Thursday, and that'll be easy.

The neck and shoulders thing... I got to get a massage at Health & Wellness thanks to some clinic they have there every so often. They cracked my neck in a couple places. Holy crap, is that a weird thing to go through. ^^; The doctor gave me muscle relaxants (Flexeril) and more Excedrin Migraine Wednesday when I saw her. I didn't take the relaxant on Wednesday night because I didn't go to bed until two and still had editing to do. I took it Thursday night. I was dead all day Friday. XD; Seriously, I missed Career Day (which I was up in the air about going to anyway, and from what I heard afterwards, there were a LOT of science people and not a lot for the more humanities-related majors) and an extra-credit opportunity for WAM2. I slept through both of them. I was also supposed to do laundry. Nope. Basically, my day was this: Get up, go to DAP, run to Health & Wellness, get massage and get neck cracked, go to Muddy for lunch, spend the rest of the afternoon in bed. I got up ONLY to get food last night (also from Muddy, no strength to go anywhere else). I took half a pill last night and I still feel pretty dead. I think that stuff is just too strong for me or something. Or maybe I'm not getting adequate amounts of sleep (nightmare woke me up earlier than I'd have liked this morning) and it's therefore kicking my ass the next day, I dunno. I still have some pain (left side of the neck between there and shoulder), but it's not too bad.

I'm basically free this weekend. I mean, I do have some things to do: I'm going to go to the darkroom at some point to print a contact sheet for my second roll of film and maybe get some prints out of it. Right now I only have one print and I need like five or six. I also have to go to the studio to work on making bottles, and I should try to pour another slip-cast mold since the first attempt went awry. But neither the ceramics nor the photography stuff are like MUST GET DONE NOW like the stuff was this past week, so I'm feeling fairly relaxed.

Think I might go on a Sheetz run. I got breakfast bagels when I went to work at the studio last Sunday, and I forgot how much I absolutely LOVE their breakfast bagels. I'm actually not in the mood to go sit in Baker right now and wait for an omelet. The walk might wake me up a bit. Maybe today will be Laundry and Rest Off the Flexeril Day and tomorrow I'll get to work.

Current Mood: calm

So I'm at the studio, and I decide to get on the wheel for a while because I need to practice, my hand-built things aren't great, and maybe, just maybe I'll make something fairly good.

First attempt turns out to be a fairly good bowl shape. I try throwing a lid for it, since you don't want to really wait, you want to throw both pot and lid at the same time since they're both wet and shrinking has occurred yet. First attempt at a lid fails. Second attempt actually works. It's an overhang lid. It's actually the one I was most worried about because I had to basically separate the clay so there was a flange, something that in hindsight isn't extremely difficult, but I did almost mess up by being a little overzealous with the wooden rib. But whatever, cool.

I'm getting hungry, and it's nearly 5pm, so I start cleaning up. I move the board that has my thrown pieces on it (the bowl, the lid, the first lid attempt and one last bowl attempt, both of which didn't turn out right, but I figure maybe I can try to save through trimming once they've firmed up) to the table near my shelves. Once I'm done cleaning everything, I get some plastic from the bin to cover my pieces.

While I'm wrapping everything, I drop the damn board. ALL the pieces hit the floor.

This is not the first time this has happened. It happened last semester, and I'd been... I don't know if I'd been trying to throw or if I'd been hand-building, but whatever, when I was about to leave, I dropped an in-progress vessel. I swear it's something with my hands getting tired after hours of work and not being able to keep a good grip on stuff.

ARGH goddamnit. I hate it when I go through all that work just to fuck it up. Seriously life, I don't have time for this, I have too much to do this week.

I might go back to the studio later, but it ain't gonna be for a few hours. I need food and I need to chill.

Current Mood: gloomy

Or: CJ Suffers From a HUGE Inferiority Complex.

I have to produce 15 lidded vessels by next Thursday, making three different kinds of lid, on the wheel. And by 15, I mean 15 GOOD ones. Which means probably THROWING a good... I dunno, with my skill level on the wheel, 30 or 40?

This combined with forgetting over the weekend (hello, personal issues) that I had to do an assignment for WAM that I literally could not do this morning because it requires listening to an episode of This American Life and they're too long for me to have thrown something together this morning... guess where my stress level is? Yeah. I am not going to the first class. I won't be able to contribute, anyway. It'll count against my two allowed unexcused absences, but I really don't care at this point.

I'm dreading showing the vessels I made for today's class. I handbuilt all of them (and one isn't assembled because that's the one I gave up on, because it looked stupid--I'm hoping the ones I did throw aren't too small to be counted), so of course they're not nearly as polished as anything on the wheel, which is pretty much what everyone else will have done. Boot may not have done it because both of her wrists are screwed up, and this one other kid--don't remember his name--handbuilt because he messed up one of his hands. I specifically didn't throw over the weekend because I didn't want the aggravation from failing to add to my already down mood. Seems it's gonna be forced on me this time. I feel like I took the coward's way out in handbuilding, and I'm just waiting to get talked to about it. I'm at such a disadvantage, though. Everyone starts somewhere, but everyone else in that class already got their start. I'm just starting now. I'm starting to wish I hadn't taken this class just yet and done Wheel Throwing first, although I don't know if I'd have gotten to take this one before I graduate. I wonder if it would have been worth it to wait on this.

I need to breathe. I know stressing out over this isn't going to help me, but I can't help it. I think if I just had to throw some vessels, it wouldn't be too bad. It's the lid thing. And everything has to look aesthetically pleasing. The lids and the vessels have to go together. I have to figure out what I'm doing.

I am going to be in that studio all day on Friday. Damnit.

Sorry. I'll stop.

Current Mood: FUCK.

I'm only not saying anything about it because next semester, their friend will be back from abroad, and I've been told by Heather that they'll practically never be here, which is probably the best present ever considering what this semester's been like. Seriously, I love Heather, but damn. A is so frickin' LOUD. How do you talk and not hear your volume? How do you yell at your girlfriend when you're sitting on her bed? It's not like this room is cavernous!

Oy. Anyway.

I'm working on storyboarding stuff for Digital Storytelling. The storyboards are done already, really, but I'm putting the pictures into a Word document with descriptions and dialogue so Maria can put stuff into a PowerPoint and sync the pictures up with the script (because I think we might be acting it out for the class). Everyone was happy with my storyboards, and Jack (who wrote the script I worked off of) said it was pretty much exactly the way he pictured it. Ego boost! It took a lot of work--30 pictures--but I'm pretty happy with it. Some panels are more detailed than others. It doesn't matter, really, it's just a storyboard and a lot of the time, backgrounds aren't so necessary, like when the scenery hasn't changed.

After we're done with this project, I have to turn my attention to designing the poster for Wine in a Vessel. Thankfully it doesn't have to be turned in to the print shop until Sunday at midnight, instead of Friday at 10am. Friday wasn't doing me any good. All my attention right now is on Digital Storytelling; I have NO time for anything else right now. The only other thing I need to do is glaze my final ceramics project, and I don't know when it'll be bisqued... I can probably glaze it early next week. Also, my storage vessel came out freaking AWESOME and I'll take another picture of it once I can reattach the ring that fell off during loading. It's really, really cool. It makes me want to make another one. XD;; If I don't end up taking Intermediate Ceramics next semester, I might honestly ask Bethany if I can still make things in the studio during off-peak times, or maybe make the projects they'll be working on anyway. Maybe I'd be able to get credit. That would be great, because then I could move on to Advanced Ceramics during my final year.

And shit, I have to write my stupid rationale for my made-up major. I want to get that done before the end of the semester. I don't want to wait on it. -_-

Two weeks left, dude. By this time on the 11th, I'll be done with the semester and possibly on my way home, if Mom picks me up.

Urge to draw is kicking in and I have no time, bah. I'll get some drawing in at some point...

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Homestuck - Ocean Stars Falling

I'm heading back home on the 8th! It should've been the 4th, but Sophie's last final isn't until the following Tuesday, and she and I are sharing a storage unit. (She's from California and has no way of moving stuff currently. She's going to drive back here, though, so she'll have a way to move things. Well, I thought she was. Now I'm not sure. XD;) I cannot WAIT to get home and see people and my DOG. You have no idea how much I just want to have a lap full of excited Lola right now. I was hoping Mom could bring her down when she comes to get me, but the idea is really silly. Mom would have to leave early in the morning, she couldn't feed Lola because Lola gets sick in the car if she's eaten... it wouldn't work out. I'll likely have to wait until I get home. And even then, that might actually end up being a night spent in PA before heading back to Brooklyn, as the house is closer to Juniata than the apartment by two hours.

Tuesday I didn't give a crap about anything, and today, my body decided to give me a very unpleasant surprise, and I've been dealing with it all day. I skipped both my classes just because I could not leave my bed. This morning was hell. When I get back home, I need a trip to the doctor to sort myself out. Nothing serious, just major annoyance.

I've been drawing a lot lately... except a lot of that's been in a small sketchbook I picked up just to have a small wire-bound one. The other one I have is six inches square and has a spine, which irriates me to no end. I was trying to remember to draw in the book for Art Therapy--we had the option of doing a visual journal for extra credit--and I kept forgetting to do it until about a week ago, when I found myself missing Oliver a ridiculous amount and decided to recreate one of my favorite photos of him in colored pencil. I was super happy with the result, and my artmaking's just taken off since. I've been experimenting with watercolor in those pages, too. Right now the sketchbook is with Leah, so she can look at the pictures, so I'm using my large book. I've got a drawing of Skyward Sword!Link that I used a screenshot as a reference for in it, and I'm currently working on a redraw of two characters I've only ever drawn once before. I'm noticing a huge shift in the way I go about drawing since going through art therapy: I'm much less likely to hem and haw about what I should draw, and more likely to just start doodling and work it out as I go. This is what I wanted to happen from the beginning of the semester.

My life is in the ceramics studio right now. Lots of glazing happening. I was just in there tonight glazing something that probably won't look great once it's done. :\ I'm not overly happy with that piece; it could've been made in a different way and it would've turned out better, but now it just looks a mess. It's an abstraction of the flashlight I reproduced. I'm kinda hoping the abstract gets dropped by someone and gets destroyed, I feel that badly about it. On the plus side, a student saw my apple reproduction at the Liberal Arts Symposium art exhibition and liked it so much she wants to buy it. :D I only charged her $25 because she's a student probably making minimum wage and it didn't take me long to make the apple at all, but still, I sold something that I made. I think I need to thank Bethany for giving Patrick and me a relatively simple apple to make. Some of the apples she had were crazy, but ours was more or less what an apple should look like.

Also, the Link Making Faces Tumblr is the best thing ever. Especially this post. I'd buy that game just for the name. XD

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Sonic 4 Episode II - Sky Fortress Zone - Act 2

Remind me not to take a group project class again. I might have to rethink taking Museum Education next spring.

We submitted our second rough draft of the documentary on Standing Stone in DVP. Our credits are no good at this point because we're lacking names of people we interviewed and used in the film. Amanda (the producer) is the one that was writing them down as she interviewed different people. This was before spring break and before we posted the draft. Karina's decided that I have them in one of my books. I've looked through all the books I could have possibly brought with me to our filming sessions, multiple times. Nothing. I did leave the red notebook I'd been using for class (when not using the LiveScribe notebook) at home accidentally, but I called Mom to have her look for a page with names that aren't in my handwriting, and she didn't find anything.

So. Our options: Bullshit names of people we'll likely never run into again (the employees we talked to, we can go back to Standing Stone and get their full names), which could bite us in the ass if Nathan or anyone else knows anyone in the video--and two of them are students--OR, cut those interviews from the film, which means more editing, cutting things down, having to rework parts of the film. Or, alternatively, go BACK to Standing Stone and get more interviews, then edit them into the film.

There's a fair level of stress that's building up over this situation. It shouldn't be, really--I'm just feeling burned out already, and this being the spring semester, there are no more breaks coming up. Spring break is it. There are like two days off, one of them doesn't even count for me since I don't have class on Fridays, and the other is a month away.

I'm gonna talk to the group about it tomorrow and see if anyone remembers exactly where stuff was written down. It could be that it was written down in one of my books and removed. I wouldn't have removed it, because tearing a sheet out of a book when it could just stay in there and, you know, not get lost makes no sense. All I know is I don't freaking have it. I'm aggravated. I should've written the stuff down instead of trusting someone else to do it, because I'd know where my shit was. But Amanda was in charge of interviews and gathering names. She should know where the names are.

I want this semester over with, please. -_- Between this class and my general fails in Ceramic Sculpture (not total fails, but I feel like I can do better and all my work sucks, plus I still need to remake my personal house project because it fell apart after cracking so badly... and the current project is freaking me out because Bethany wants me to do better with my sculpting and said she's going to nitpick during our critique), I'm counting down 'til summer. Next semester will be better.

I'm going to bed. I woke up at eight this morning to register for next year's classes, didn't go back to sleep, and have been paying for it all day. And tomorrow I have to go back to the studio at some point to finish the atrocity that is my reproduction of my LED flashlight. -_- (Honestly, it's not that bad, but it's wrong. Then again, I didn't measure anything, just built it by eyeballing it. I'm too far ahead to seriously alter it now. I might be able to chop part of it out, but I'd break it, knowing my luck.)

Current Mood: irritated

We had our critique today.

I think I mentioned this, but my concept was "together alone" (or "alone together", really can't remember how I phrased it when I came up with it). I have three-dimensional figures attached to the outsides of the two lanterns. They're supposed to be standing next to each other. Painted on (because I couldn't decide/figure out if I should paint them or make reliefs of them) are two groups of people, on the opposite sides of each lantern, away from the two figures. The whole thing was a story in my head that I explained: There are two parties going on, one person from each party gets annoyed with it and leaves, meets the other person outside, and the two just kind of stand outside looking at the stars together. The lantern aspect comes from the idea that I wanted to be able to stick candles into them. Light would shine straight up out of the top, as well as out of the holes I poked in near the top to represent stars. The people are together alone rather than with everyone else, looking at the stars, which are also together alone (in the sky)--that part was Bethany's idea.

One girl got completely stuck on the party aspect and was like, "It looks like they were never at the party." Well, a) the point was that they've left their respective parties, and b) it'd be kinda weird for two people that don't know each other to randomly be wearing party hats, wouldn't it? -_- Bethany didn't agree with her on that, but I did catch flack for the forms of the people painted on, which I know look bad. The 3D figures have mass to them, while the painted figures are elongated and skinny. Painting with slip, with a brush, on a tapering vertical surface is not easy. And I couldn't tilt the forms over because I would have messed up the 3D figures. I might take the painted figures off and do them over again after designing templates for them, but that involves having to actually make a stencil, and I hate making stencils. So it's either make the stencils and be insanely annoyed, or repaint the figures freehand, and once either of those processes is done, I have to carve into the clay a bit to kind of make them stand out. I have to open up the holes at the top, too. They're not quite big enough, but I only used my pin tool to make them, so yeah, they wouldn't be big. I'm disappointed with how it went, but I'll just have to revise it on the weekend. This is not getting into how the hell to color the damn things. Regular glazing would cause an issue with the star holes, low-fire glazing would be all right if I don't then use a high-fire glaze for anything, and Bethany did bring up an airbrushing method, but I dunno. She said we'll have to test things out.

Another person said it looked like the 3D figures left to go play in the snow, and I don't even.

EMMA.

The girl is not serious about class at all. As usual, I came back from CS at 12:57 to find her in front of the mirror. That's not the problem. The problem is that she doesn't come straight to class even though she knows she's late. She goes to Muddy to get food, and she brings the food back to our room, and she eats, THEN she comes to class. She comes in, consistently, sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 every single class. And then she spends the entirety of class sketching and not paying attention to anything we're doing, to the point that Bethany had to tell her at least four times today to put the sketchbook down on the table and actually pay attention to what's going on. She also didn't do the assignment right, probably because she doesn't pay attention. I don't know if she's like this because she's planning on transferring to an art school and doesn't see the need to do things the right way, or if she's actually just the biggest ditz in the world. It wouldn't annoy me as much if we weren't roommates. If I didn't know her personally, I would just assume she comes in late all the time because of conflicts or something, but I see what she does firsthand and it drives me up the wall. I'm curious about how she'll fair in an art school. Pretty sure they don't play that shit. Hell, I'm curious what Bethany's going to give her at the end of the semester. She does nice work, but her habits are freaking terrible.

I'm in a bad mood today. -_- I overslept this morning and missed religion, the temperature was 50 this morning, but it was freezing when I left because there hasn't been any sun all day, the critique was fail, and my roommate's a dumbass. Positives? 88 on my math exam, there won't be any homework due since we haven't actually done anything all week, math project's submitted, and the lab and program for CS that were due tomorrow and Monday, respectively, have both been pushed back to Wednesday. This means time to focus on clay and hopefully get everything right. There's no class next week for clay, but next week starts the firing schedule, plus we HAVE been given our last project, and I need to start that this weekend, too.

Current Mood: blah

Apparently, last week, there was something said about signing up for shifts later this month (like, a couple weeks from now) to load the kiln(s) and fire greenware. I think I was in the back getting clay, because I never heard about this until Emma told me when we were going to go to lunch.

We had to sign up for one loading shift and two firing shifts.

My shifts:
Loading: Monday, November 14, 3pm-5pm. Not bad.
Firing #1: Sunday, November 20, 6am-9am. A little early for me, but okay.
Firing #2: Monday, November 21, 3AM-6AM.

._.;;

And now I'm wondering if I should change the second firing shift. I took that one because otherwise I'd have to do a straight six hours of firing, from 3am-9am, on the Sunday, and I felt like waking up that early and having to be semi-coherent for six hours would be too much. I don't know if it's advisable to do six hours. I'm going to ask Bethany tomorrow, assuming the 3-6 slot(s?) haven't been filled. I don't know what the process entails. Like, if there's a lot of downtime and I can keep myself busy with other things, it might not be so bad, but if I have to be awake and know what I'm doing, it probably won't work.

Anyway. I'm tired. I'm taking a nap. I have nowhere to go until my meeting at 7pm with the rest of my religion class. I need to go to the studio and I need to study, but I need sleep above all else.

... is a freaking picky grader. -_- Michelle and I were just talking about it. Not to mention that on today's test, there was question COMPLETELY out of left field... and on the previous test, there was question that shouldn't have been there because we didn't really talk about it and he said he just wanted us to see how the system worked.

Seriously, I like Don, but the class is iffy. Michelle's pretty livid about it; she's a self-described overachiever and knows her GPA for this semester's going to drop quite a bit because of this class. And it's an intro religion class, too. It's the lowest one. But he's nitpicking about our ethnographic notes, like we've done them before, and taking points off.

Made some changes to the design for my next clay project, which I'll go over with Bethany when I see her. Instead of cups, I'm making lanterns of a sort. They're going to be tall cylinders, like the candles you see in bodegas with religious imagery on them, only not transparent (since they WILL be made of clay), and I'm going to make the openings wide enough that you can stick one of those small candles inside. I'm gonna put holes into the form near the top so light from the candle not only comes out of the top, but outward from the holes. I'm making this change because Bethany said she wanted the pieces to be yay high, and building cups, that won't happen. I mean, I guess they could just be very tall mugs, but I like the lantern idea better. XD;;

I'm leaning heavily toward sticking with 3D art while I'm here. In the beginning I'd said I would stick with 2D only, but now that I've gotten my hands on clay, I really like it. I love it, actually. And I feel like that's something I could use once I leave here, if I get enough skill. Plus, Bethany's an awesome teacher. I'll have her for two classes next semester.

Anyway, to class! Thus begins the FUN part of my day. Everything after religion is smooth sailing, haha. And tonight we watch Hetalia in Otaku Culture Club. I'm so glad I found fans here. Happy CJ is happy.

Current Mood: calm

The vessel, fully built, unfired.

Pleased with it. ^_^

I did the 2am thing again like an ass, so I'm not all here right now. My mind's fuzzy as hell. Going to math and CS should be fun. -_- I should really try, next semester, to have classes that start a little later. 10am isn't doing it. ^^;

I let the drawing bug bite at 1am! :D I'm forcing myself to bed after I type this. There's an unfinished sketch of Reilly sitting on my desk. I'm trying not to look at it lest I grab the sketchbook and pencil again.

I keep watching the video of Lola I posted on YouTube, which leads me to watch Oliver's video since it always comes up in the suggestions. I miss my baby. ^^; Lola's not really mine, you know? It was Mom's decision to get her from the Figueroas. I mean, Lola slept in my room the first couple nights and all, but I didn't find her, I didn't pick her out, I haven't been responsible for her. Oliver was my baby. I'm not sad about him anymore, though. I'm at peace with it. I can watch the video now without feeling like I'm going to cry, and that's a good thing. Now I just laugh at how adamant he was that Mom always had food. XD; Next dog I get will definitely be another Lhasa. I really like that breed. Ollie was a stubborn little bastard, but he was awesome.

Oliver!icon just because his underbite still amuses me and makes me "aww". ^_^

Lola broke out of my room yesterday. XD I'd blocked part of my room off for her to stay in before I came back to the college, and Mom and Craig both had to leave the apartment yesterday... and when Craig came home, Lola greeted him at the door. Needless to say, Mom bought her a nice-sized crate to stay in when they have to leave. ^^;;

Been staring at a Java problem for the past few hours, tinkering with the code to fix a bit of an error I'm getting. Not an error, more like a miscalculation. It's something very simple, I'm sure, but I haven't been able to figure it out. It's a problem to do with compound interest. I got the yearly amount to come out right, but the monthly and daily amounts are off, and nothing I do fixes the problem. The program is due tomorrow, so I think I'm going to hold off on submitting my files, and ask John about it after class, before I submit them. I'll run it for him so he knows I've done it. The loops work, and I think that's the most important thing. The issue is that we have to have the program give us a balance, after the user inputs an initial balance and interest rate, with interest compounded over 10 years, and the interest has to be compounded yearly, monthly, and daily. We can't use math to do it, though. It has to be done through loops. Right now I have two loops, an inner and an outer. (Was originally three inner loops, but I realized it wasn't necessary and I could just consolidate everything into one while statement, which got rid of a couple variables. At least, I've done that and there's been no change to the result, so I'm assuming it's valid.) The outer loop was the first thing I did, and that's just a sentinel to tell the program to stop. Easiest part, right there. And the rest, I'm stuck. Yearly comes out perfectly (John sent us his results, so we know what we're supposed to get), but the other two are off.

Rediscovering old music! So glad I brought the 2TB HD with me. I was able to put ALL my old files on, including all of my music. Sometimes I get the urge to look through the really old stuff, plop some music onto the laptop so I don't have to have the HD connected, and just remember. This band was one of my gateway groups in terms of Japanese music. I think it was them, GLAY, and Chisato that dragged me into it. I still have the Chisato stuff I downloaded a good ten or rmore years ago. (Was it that long ago? Napster wasn't targeted for infringement then... but I didn't use Napster. I used to get my Japanese stuff from Audiogalaxy before the RIAA screwed everything up. And then AG became Rhapsody.) I need to find my GLAY stuff. I don't recall seeing it on the drive, and I have a bad feeling it was a casualty from the laptop crash of 2004.

Tomorrow, hanging out with Heather again--she wants to play more Sonic. I whupped her ass last time we played. XD Of course, I am much older than she is, and I've memorized so much of old-school Sonic it's ridiculous. I've lost all my skill at Sonic Spinball. I only got up to the very beginning of The Machine before I died. Hate that level with a fiery passion. -_-

Okay. Bed. Two classes tomorrow morning, and I am done. This weekend I have to glaze three cups for Clay, and maybe fix up my vessel a bit more. I meant to take a picture of it before I left today. We had our critique, and everyone liked my design, but it did have some flaws I needed to deal with, like the horrible rim and the handles. Those were the last things I did last night, so I was TOO through with the entire process and didn't really do as well as I should have. I stayed behind after class to fix the issues, and it looks much better now. I can't wait until it gets fired. :D I'll probably go back this weekend and fix the coloring. I needed a much smaller paintbrush than the one I was using, so the slip is really messy in some places. Not terrible, but I drew figures on the surface and I want them to look good.

Holy crap, 1:36. All right. Good night.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Luna Sea - Tonight

You know what? I had a whole long thing typed in here about the disappointing score I got on the math test today. I deleted it. To hell with it. I'm not wallowing in self-pity/hatred over this anymore. I'm gonna do as well as I can. I can't decide if that's apathy talking or resolve. The latter, I think. Or a mixture. But it is what it is. It'll be what it'll be. Quit yer bitchin'.

Tomorrow, there are going to be cats on campus. PAWS is holding a stressbuster event, and the cats will be here from 5-7pm. I am going up there at some point tomorrow, after I'm satisfied with how much I've built my vessel up (because I didn't get to the studio at all today and MUST work on it tomorrow, as it's due next Thursday and I won't be here for three full days) and playing with kittens.

Actually, that's a whole other problem. The vessels--the completed vessels--are due next Thursday. That means they have to be built and the slip has to be applied. The way I'm seeing it... neck of the vessel built tomorrow, very top built Tuesday when I get back, slip applied Wednesday. That's the schedule I HAVE to follow, or it won't be done. And I need to cut away part of the base, because the whole thing is slightly off-center, so that should be fun.

This week is almost over. Then, family. Going to give Mom a huge hug when she gets here. Uncle Arnie died yesterday, and she's had a stressful day getting everything together for his funeral. Momma needs a hug.

There was a sneaker/shoe/hat sale to raise money for one of the women's sports teams here (basketball, I think). I got a couple of hats and a pair of Skechers shoes. They're black and clunky. They have zippers on the side, though. I was completely taken by the zippers.

If you ever see that a guy named Matt Glowacki is speaking somewhere, go see him. He's awesome and hilarious.

I'm still awake and not really tired, or at least not as tired as I should be. I want to skip religion so badly. ^^;; I have a headache right now. My eyes hurt. Possibly my body telling me to shut this thing down and turn the light off already. I'm just in a mood to stay awake, listen to music, maybe do something creative. I think after all the feeling down on myself, I want to cheer myself up, and the easiest way I know of is to work on personal projects. This isn't really the time for it, and if I don't go to sleep I risk sleeping through class. I'll stay awake until two. My watch will get me up at 9:30. If it doesn't, it's no big deal. We're only talking about writing field notes tomorrow, and I have the PDF on that.

EDIT: Oh, this is so cool.

The shoes I bought yesterday are called Tredds Interactive, and I was wondering about the "interactive" part. Turns out the zipper on the side of each shoe is an actual small pocket you can stick things in.

I'm getting the brown ones. XD The ones I got are black. The brown ones are actually less expensive, so yay!

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Bastion - Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)

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.

Current Mood: content

Haha, posting this everywhere. Sent the family text messages, posted it on Facebook, and now here. I've been meaning to take a picture of the thing for the longest, though, and kept forgetting. This time, as soon as I decided I'd added enough coils, I cleaned up my hands and whipped out the cell phone.

So anyway, next project's progress:

It's about 11 inches high right now, maybe slightly more, but I'm sure less than a foot. There's not much more to go, maybe a couple or three more coils, before the pot starts to taper in, and then I'll be rolling small coils for the neck. There's another wide part up at the very top that I have to figure out. I'm going to end up letting the clay set before attempting that part, because if I don't, the very top might collapse. Right now, I need another nine or so inches of height, and once that's all done, I'll be able to attach my handles. The handles are supposed to jut out about ten inches. This is going to be a fun project to lift, ahahaha. It's already pretty heavy and will get worse. I'll have to be very careful with the handles, make sure I build them thick enough to handle the pressure of holding the vessel, but nice enough that they're aesthetically pleasing. I managed with my teapot, so...

I think this is what I love most about being an art major. I said this to Charlie in a comment on Facebook. I love starting with nothing but a big lump of clay and ending up with something like this. And it's not even done yet. The process is so much fun. The end result is great and all, but actually working on it? If it weren't for having to let the clay set, I'd have finished long ago, because I could spend hours in that studio. I know if I finish this during class one day, and others are still working, I'm going to make some more bowls for Empty Bowls. I might just do it in my free time anyway.

I think they're showing Horrible Bosses on the quad tonight. I'm freaking exhausted. I don't know why. I haven't done that much today. Went out, got breakfast (that omelet was crap! The egg wasn't cooked enough and the ham wasn't crispy like the bacon I'd been expecting), made the trip to Weis right after that, and went to the studio for a couple hours or so. Then I came back to the dorm, went BACK out to get something to eat, and here I am again. And I think, now that I know I don't have to go anywhere, I've fallen into this very relaxed state that has me sitting in bed as I type this and this close to hibernating the laptop and curling up under my blankets. It's Saturday. It's not like it matters if I sleep for a couple hours now and stay up all night. I do have one thing to do tomorrow, though, which will require some energy on my part. One of the professors here, Grace Fala, is the club advisor for AWoL (All Ways of Loving, the campus LGBT-and-everything-related club), and she's invited club members to her home, so we can meet her and her partner. I've never met her, but she's supposed to be the greatest woman ever. I have not heard a single bad thing about her from anyone. When we were asked if we'd like to go, I immediately shot my hand up. It should be a fun time. I know we're playing kickball. 'Cause I know how to play that. XD;; (I was never a kickball person. I was more of a dodgeball person.) And apparently they make some REALLY great food.

Anyway. I will need energy for that, but we're meeting outside of Ellis Hall at 2pm, so I don't have to wake up first thing in the morning or anything. I have food now, so I can always heat something up and eat breakfast in my room if need be.

And I drew again! It's on my wall. I think whenever I draw something I really like, I'm printing it out and taping it up. I still have a decent amount of blank space to cover. I'm waiting for the inevitable "What is that?" from Emma, but I haven't gotten it yet... possibly because both the drawings on my wall are anthro ones, and she sees it as weird, so she doesn't even bring it up. Fine by me. I really don't want to have to explain to her. She gets on my nerves a bit. She told me the other day that she used to talk to someone (I think it was a guy) in one of her classes, but now he won't talk to her anymore. The first thing that ran through my head was, "Well, maybe it's because you made it seem like you thought he was an idiot because you kept 'explaining' something that didn't need explaining, and he got tired of you." I didn't say it, though.

I think I am going to nap. XD; It's getting darker by the minute, and it's just increasing my fatigue.

... I was supposed to post this a couple hours ago, haha. Oops. *posts*

Current Mood: accomplished

Went to Prof. Escuadro on Tuesday, even though I'm not part of the group that HAS to go to the optional math class because they have less than 80% in the class. (It seems like there might be two guys and that's it. I was there to go over something, two other girls were there to ask a couple questions, and we all ended up leaving, but the guys stayed behind.) I needed help determining the formula for a line. It's been EONS since I had to concern myself with that, whereas pretty much everyone around me's done it within the past year or so, so everyone was getting it and I was kind of lost. He worked with me one on one and walked me through the process, and I slowly got it. Now I could probably do it in my sleep. XD Glad I went. It was the one question on the homework that I couldn't even begin to answer, and I showed him the trendline I got from Excel, but like I told him, I could just do that, but I wanted to know HOW to get the line.

So yeah, that was done, and I think my standing with him increased a bit for showing up when I didn't have to. He wrote something on my attendance index card while I was there.

SO GLAD tomorrow's Friday. I need to make a Weis run. I'm out of breakfast foods, out of milk, and I've been meaning to get cheese, because I have a mini George Foreman grill just lying around waiting to be used. I want a grilled cheese sandwich like you wouldn't believe. I'm also hungry at the moment and toying with the idea of heating up a lasagna. I'll have to get a few more of those, too. The cafeteria never has lasagna. Every once in a while I want some cheesy goodness. I hate the microwave, though--it never seems like it cooks the lasagna enough (although that could just be the cheese failing to melt the way I want it to), and the last time I made one, the microwave actually shut off on me. I guess there's a safety cutoff or something. I'm hoping that's it. It completely shut down. It came back on again after a while.

Screw it, lasagna. I'm starving. I don't think I've eaten enough today or something. I only had one actual meal today. (I was down to about 174 lbs this morning. Wanting desperately to reach 170 just to prove I can without the cause being side effects from antidepressants. ^^; The next step is going to be working out, which will most definitely mean either waking up early and going to the gym, which I have yet to do because I like to stay up until two in the morning, or zumba twice a week in VLB, which I haven't gone to yet because I get lazy.)

We ran out of gray stonewear at the ceramics studio, so progress on our vessels has been halted this week. Instead, Bethany gave us the task of making bowls for the school's Empty Bowls project. They do it every year; they were making bowls when I came to visit in February. Students/townspeople come to the studio to throw or hand-build bowls, and they're decorated, and then they're brought to the soup kitchens and people are fed soup in them. Those that get soup get to keep the bowls. This year the food pantries of Huntingdon (and probably statewide) took a huge budget cut, so they really need all the bowls and donations they can get, which means Bethany's trying to get as many people to make bowls as possible. So we weren't wasting a day, she told us to make five hand-built bowls or three wheel-thrown ones, whichever we wanted. I tried throwing on the wheel today. Holy CRAP, I can't do that. I fail terribly at it. I don't know. I think the introduction of an automated tool in the process threw me WAY off. So anyway, I remembered what she told us about making pinch pots and built five bowls by hand. I hated the process the first time, but it came pretty naturally to me this time. I did have to redo a couple, because they got too big, but they came out pretty well. I had so much fun with it this time, I might make more. I'm sure if I ask her if I can make some more, she'll be cool with it. There's something right about building straight with the hands, not with a wheel. Could be because I suck at the wheel, but I feel better working with my hands and manual tools.

We should have new clay in the studio by now, so over the weekend, I'm going to build the vessel up some more. I keep forgetting to take a picture of my progress so far. It's looking pretty good. I can't wait to get to the top and figure out how the hell I'm gonna fix it if it needs fixing, though. There's one girl that's got hers almost done, I think, and she's at the point where she's got a huge hollow structure, but she's had to take the paddle to it a few times to even out the sides. I'd be scared as hell to do that. I keep thinking it'd be so easy to hit the structure too hard, and next thing you know, HUGE crack. Worst nightmare, that. It takes way too long to build that stuff up because of all the waiting inbetween.

Emma had to start hers over. She was making a box (I'm still floored by the fact that everyone else is making these cool/crazy things, rounded shapes, cones, etc., and she's making a box--reeks of laziness to me, but Bethany accepted it, so whatever, I'm not the teacher), and either she left it uncovered, or someone uncovered it and didn't cover it back up, so hers almost completely dried out. She couldn't work with it anymore, and I think she set it down somewhere and it actually broke apart. She's now made a new template and a new base, out of red clay since we had no gray at that point. I guess all this weekend she'll be in the studio. She spends a lot of her time outside now, and she's hanging around with this guy. She said something to me a week or so ago about having a boyfriend. (Mind you, she HAS a boyfriend already, in Ithaca, but she's probably going to break it off with him. She's not too into him anymore, I think.) Her being preoccupied = me alone in the room = happy!introvert. XD;;

Bad thing about next week: Two tests, one in religion and the other in math. (We get a review day for math, no such thing for religion.) Good thing about next week: FALL BREAK! Mom picking me up! Seeing family again! PUPPY! Yeah, I'm excited. :D I'm sad the break's only four days long. And one of those will be a travel day, because I've been forced to take the train back to Huntingdon. It's cheaper, and Dad would have to drive me back here if someone did drive me, and the old man can't do that, hehe. Driving me down is one thing, but having to drive the four hours back, with no one else in the car with him? No. So, I'm going to spend the first couple days at the house. Marcia's coming up there to pick up a puppy as well, and I think on Sunday or Monday, we're going to head back to Brooklyn. This is good, since there was a story I'd written that I thought I'd put on the external HD, but I hadn't. It wasn't even on my flash drive. I know I did this. I have a feeling I put everything on the smaller HD, and then decided at some point to bring the 2TB with me (because, why not?), which did not have everything on it that I wanted. This has been irritating me, because I've wanted to draw something from that story and can't quite remember the details of what I wrote. Like, I do, but there are little annoying things that escape me. XD;;

If only Follicles was open on Mondays. I could get my hair retwisted. It needs it. I actually haven't washed it since I've been here. That's partly because Roger said to go as long as I could without washing it, and it hasn't been itching at ALL (is my hair maturing? Maybe...), and partly because I'm afraid that if I wash it, my hair will be frizzier than ever and I won't be able to fix it... and some of the locks will unravel. Not completely, but enough to bother me. And for that, I'd rather wait. This also sucks, because it means going until December without getting my hair retwisted. I'd say November, but the break doesn't start until Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I wouldn't get home until, at the very earliest, 6pm that day if I took the train. I'd have to go STRAIGHT there, after a six-hour train ride. Hell no. Not worth it. So, mid-December it is. Maybe I'll wash my hair this weekend. Maybe.

Oh, and someone (a Hetalia fan, but that's slightly irrelevant) has come up with the idea to have an International Dance Day next year, on June 3rd, 4pm her time (in the Netherlands)--10am EST. I might spread the word about this. No idea if it'll actually go on, but it might be fun. And I'll be back in the city by that time, I think, so if the Hetalia fan group in NYC got involved, it could be fun, and it might make up for me missing Hetalia Day this year because I'm in the boonies. XDD; (I say I think I'll be in the city because there are plans for a 10-day trip to Germany, after classes are over, I believe. We'd be giving presentations to German students. The most important thing, though, is travel! I think it'd be pretty cool. Other than England (and only a small piece of it), I have seen nothing of Europe, and I really want to. And who knows? I might decide I want to study German, after years of saying I never would. And then I could study abroad there. Well, money situation permitting. I still don't know how much THIS trip will cost. I could be getting my hopes up, but damnit if I'm not gonna try to go.)

And I'm going to stop typing this now so I can eat! The lasagna smells so good~

... and damnit, LJ's down. Will post this up whenever.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: HetaOni - The Contract of Italy Veneziano (All Faith is Lost)

I will never start wearing makeup. Ever. It won't happen. Emma has been putting her face on for at LEAST 15-20 minutes. I just don't have the care for that. -_-

I'm too much of a guy for all that, anyway. I don't think I'm ever going to hit a point where I'm all about cosmetics and dressing up. I balk at that sort of thing. Just leave me my jeans and t-shirts and sneakers.

Worked on the vessel again. Didn't get as far as I would've liked, but I know if I'd added another later on, I would've made the thing collapse again, and that would've been disastrous. I have about 7 1/2 inches of height right now, and I need it to be at least ten inches by Thursday, because that's when our progress check is, and the vessel has to be half-built. The problem is having to wait. I can't build the thing all up at once or it'll fall apart, so I have to put a few coils on it, somewhere between 1-2 inches of height each time, and wait until the next day. I didn't get into the studio as much as I wanted to this week, so I'm trying to make up for it. It should look pretty awesome when it's completed, though. I just need to make sure I keep my symmetrical! It's crazy how difficult it is, especially since the clay keeps shrinking and I keep having to add to it to get it to line up with the template.

Dad might be coming to visit tomorrow! And I get to go home for a few days in two weeks. I'm happy. Puppy then. Also family, but excitement for the puppy is in overdrive right now. XD;

Geez, she's finally done. Dinner, yo. Hopefully good stuff.

I am not used to a roommate yet. I'm still not sure I like it. It's not my room, you know? It's our room. That's still very, very strange to me.