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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Love to Kristen and Kris

Nathan was waiting for a package containing a gift for me, sadly it did not arrive by the time we absolutely had to leave at. We ate this egg thingy for breakfast and set out on the road. The time flew for me because I was watching Iron Man on my laptop. Yeah! Iron Man!

The closer we got to Kitsap, the thicker the snow became and the more likely it was that I couldn't make the wedding, which was pushed up to today to accommodate the projected heavy snowfall. We picked up Rubie, and hauled it out to Seabeck to avoid the roads getting too terrible.

Mom was making gingerbread cookies and we gobbled them up with hasty decorations. It was quick to settle in to old times with a fire going and fat animals darting about. I'm resting in my cozy bed. The walls are now an orange color and mom set up lots of my art and knick knacks about the place. It looks so...guest bedroomy.



All my love and fondest wishes go out to Kristen and Kris. Happy wedding and I hope you have a lovely life together! I so wish that I could have made it and shared this day with you.

the return, part two: more returning!

Things I forgot to mention from yesterday:

When Karen and I returned from the puppet show, we saw in the parking garage the same truck that smashed the cars. We took down its information and talked to the front desk if it had been reported. She said there was a report but I don’t trust the front desk so I called the police anyway to see if there was a report in progress. It turns out that there was a report but on a totally different car! The red car had moved so that couldn’t be included but if it gets reported than there is at least one case to tie it to. Hurray. And all that jerk had to do was leave a note.

I burned my fingers on a metal spatula that I was unaware of it having conducted heat from the stove. I picked it up and dropped it in surprise and picked it up a second time, figuring that the pain had been mostly shock and that it wasn’t so hot, but nope. It was hot. I’m burned on both pointer fingers and thumbs as well as a part of my hand. It sucks but it is doing fine. In a day or so it will be ripe for picking.

Today:

MORE SNOW! It snows and then it melts and then it snows and then it melts and then it snows again. Make up your mind Portland! I got everything packed and headed out with more than enough time to get to school. My shoulders were aching and I was over heated when I arrived at school. And it was snowing again. I dropped off everything in the Illustration room and went to photocopy my sketches. Chatted with Jim a little. We will probably see how bad The Spirit really is when I get back from town (provided I don’t see it with Chris first of course).

The first chunk of Illustration was devoted to this lady from the Rose Parade Council coming in and telling us about the history of the floats and what not. She just loved our ideas. She was also a little off her rocker with caffeine as she works on the 9-1-1 line and was just coming off a 6pm-9am shift. She loved them and Chad said we all got A’s. Yay! Bekka won the grand prize for idea (hers had LCDs, a carousel, a moving sculpture, lights, and an umbrella), Dominic got second and Robin got the prize for quirkyness. The prizes, in order, were $50 at Powells and $50 at some eatery, $50 at Powell’s, and $25 at Powell’s. I would have liked to have won but oh well. The winners were fantastic. Robin had a human pyramid sculpture, Dominic was the bridging of Aliens and Lumberjacks. It would be nice if some of ours get picked.

Chad brought in VooDoo Doughnuts for the class. Some of them were Maple Bars with BACON ON THEM! It was too much delicious for me and it made me a little ill. There were fruit loop doughnuts, Cap’n Crunch, and some other insane ones.

With that for breakfast, I just had to get a good salad and a smoothie for lunch. Have to balance all that crap out. Mmmn.

The rest of class was spent figuring out the winners and deciding on prizes. Madeline helped carry some of my portfolio to the other building. Luggage, backpack, portfolio, and purse. Uhg, so heavy and cumbersome but worth it. Once I start making comics, I’ll just be able to tote those around instead of the pieces.

This has been a really hard semester. A lot of work and stress was demanded of me and I don’t know how much I conveyed that in my daily writings. It was a lot. It has hit me, this is college. This is the challenge. Yeaah! And now I get a break.

I’m typing this up while sitting in the commons at school but I’m thinking about writing it as past tense from the future tonight when I normally blog.

Sat with Charlie and chatted for a little bit. I showed him the drawing I did of his wife during his thesis proposal and the one of him, of course. Ohh, I need to put the images I scanned from the school computers onto my thumbdrive.

Well that is done now. With plenty of time to spare I decided to embark on the half loop to the train station. It should be a straight shot from the school but the Post Office Headquarter Place is right in the way of it all. Normally I walk to Glisan and go down that to get to Union Station. This time I tried out the method of walking down Lovejoy. Sort of a mistake. It may have been a block shorter but it included going up the sidewalk that was on the route to go onto the Broadway Bridge.

Heather was in front of me at the ticket pickup. When I checked my bags, the man said that my train is actually a bus! Argh, the train is so comfy and the bus isn’t. And the bus may not have food and I’m hungry now. A granola bar can’t get me through 5 hours of sitting and commuting. Boo!! The people at the Greyhound station informed me that Amtrak has its own buses so thankfully I won’t have the Greyhound passengers to deal with. No apple being spat on me this time. The food kiosk at the station is closed so right now I am thinking about how to get some food before 6:15. I don’t think there is any fast food around here. Hmmn.

Didn’t get any food. A long announcement about cancellations and delays indicated that we had to line up for buses now. There is a group of us on express to Tacoma and a packed train of Seattles just left. So I think it will just be on way no stops or whatever. Woah. It is snowing again. Here’s hoping all will go well eh. I’ve been reading Deadpool in preparation for the Wolverine movie.

I sat next to a very nice man named Jason. We chatted about the iconic relationship a viewer has with the stick figure. He asked for my number after all of our chatting. Did I give it to him? Find out next time on Days of Trillians Life.

Tacoma has snow but the roads didn’t seem too bad, still mom told us to stay here for the night. Played Left 4 Dead (zombie game) on Nate’s comp. We ate breaded chicken and potstickers for dinner. Played some Wii. Now to sleep and hopefully get to Seabeck in the afternoon. Snow is scheduled for Sunday. I really, really hope that it doesn’t snow. I want to go to Kristen’s wedding.

Friday, December 19, 2008

dry ice for the puppets

Science Friction has been called off so I get to sleep in! Yay!

Karen drove me to school for the Puppet Show final. They were still setting up so we went to get dry ice from Fred Meyers. As we exited, huge fat snow flakes fell from the sky. Juicy ones and they were sticking! Karen got stuck in a pot hole and I got out to push (imagine that, me trying to PUSH a CAR hahah). A bum came to help and then two other Portland dudes came to help as well. All four of us made a mighty pair and pushed that sucker out of the ditch.

The puppet show was a little timid but there were some awesome highlights. There was a well constructed muppet. Morgan's audio baby from Babylon was surreal and disturbing. The head pivoted open using a pair of scissors and he cut open the dolls head and stuck in some vampire fangs. So when he talked, he moved open the head and amplified the sound of his voice. It was a wonderful performance. Very disturbing. My play was a little mumbled and lack luster. Oh well, I should have picked better? Eh, it was what it was. Morgan bought us doughnuts.

Karen drove us home after class. The snow was turning to snow. I worked on my Illustration final. I watched the latest Pushing Daisies episode. I packed. I tidied up. Everything is coming together.

The painting critique was fairly painless. Yeah I get it, my handwriting is illegible. Otherwise, it went down well. Nothing was extremely like WOW but there was some nice technique. It was clear that this was not anyones main focus. After that, Farel gave us all individual critiques and he decided to go in reverse alphabet and I went first! He said I have great potential and inspire other people. I need to slow down and really study what I am doing so that it doesn't get sloppy. It was nice. He was reading off of a sheet and seemed really sheepish when he was reciting. So that is done.

Only one final to endure and then I go home.

Finished my final. Packed. Tidied. Hung out with Karen and Adam for a bit. Now to sleeeeeeeeeeep!! See you guys soon!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Importance of Being Earnest Cast

The Paperdoll Puppets for my performance of a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (for my Figure Drawing final).

The cast in their clothes:

The detachable clothes for the cast:

Starring:
Atlas Mason as John Worthing

Geraldine Geraldine as Lady Bracknell

Happy Green as Gwendolen Fairfax

and Shepard Yes as Algernon Moncrieff


All together now!

I'm ready for my close up.


Each paper doll is roughly 15" tall. They bodies are painted with watercolor, the clothes with gouache. I was going to sing the part I was going to perform. Yeah...

eye witness

I woke up to the sound of screeching tires. A truck was being driven by a moron. He was trying to get it up a hill freshly covered with snow and with no prior tracks to indicate that someone had made it up before him. He screeched and screeched and barely scooted. The ice won and his car reeled back and side swiped two cars. It took out both of the smaller cars mirrors and he dented and scraped the sides majorly. I went to check it out after the truck vanished. He didn't leave a note, I should have gotten his plate number or something, so I could leave a note with the busted car owners. Poor people, they are going to come out and their nice looking automobiles will be hit and runned.

Finished the costume for my last puppet. Need to practice the play a little more.

Did another couple shrinky dinks for my SciFri final.

Need to start in on Illustration work now. I hate how near the end they suddenly demand a digital copy of your work. They should be in practice to have us digitally document our work as part of the turn in process, that way it isn't so hard to just put it on a disk instead of getting it all together when we are busy enough.

I promised some food to be made for class but with the snow and cold in full force, I couldn't leave to get supplies. Oh well, people will just have to be disappointed I guess.

I had a headache and a stomach ache.

a cold wind blows, a pink hat moves

I was going to walk to school with Karen but she decided to sleep in due to reasons of it being too cold. I put on leggings, jeans, socks, boots, long shirt, button up shirt, sweater, jacket, gloves, the bigger gloves, scarf, hat, and finally my coat and off I went with my backpack, tube, and purse. It trudged along 14th, keeping pace with a song and didn't fall at all! I only slid a little.

Figure drawing was on! 8am classes were not cancelled! Hurrah! Due to the small numbers, Morgan treated us to hot chocolate! We drew Anna. I gave her my last drawing of the class (she said she wanted samples of what people have drawn of her). It was a nice little end to the class. Our thought web ended with the idea of Bettie Page as a patron saint of smiling and doing it all in fun. Hmm.

History of Design was a few thesis re-presentations out of nowhere. After lunch we put up our pieces and looked at them for a little bit but none of us really talked about them. It was weird, all that work and no discussion or explanation at all. What? What sort of final was that...

Lunch was hectic. I was frazzled and running about trying to get a big photocopy of my piece for History of Design(thinking she wanted a copy of our work but she didn't) and then got some food from Safeway and had to run about trying to find a fork (Yo gave me one, he rocks). The microwave was taken and I was late returning to class. I don't know how I got so worked up but I did.

Lounged about. In painting class, I finished my final. It is muted and a little easy looking but none the less good. It was a fun, good group. I'll miss them.

The weather is fore casted to be bad and some of the finals may be cancelled. In that event, I would post my work online for the class to see. So the puppet show and science friction may be a no go. I hope not though, I worked hard and had a lot of stress over those pieces. I don't want it to be just some Internet blip.

Took the streetcar home. Cold! No work tomorrow, I get to sleep in. Nice!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Grandpa John


Grandpa.

Ink. Gouache.

my stomach hurts

Another ghastly markdown shift.

At 6:15 am I tumbled out into the weather. I slipped and shuffled along the ice which lay just under the stark white snow. I had neither hat or gloves and the windchill temperature was 5 degrees fahrenheight. The Max was there as I shuffled and I was prepared to wait for another as it scooted away in my narrow miss of it, BUT the nice man behind the controls smiled and waved me aboard. Thank you kind sir! Best wishes to you. My fingers had only begun to unravel when it was time to get off and the trek to the Lloyd was hellish. The parking lot I cross to get to the West Entrance was a barren wasteland of ice and wind. My fingers burned that icy pain and my hooded jacket wouldn't stay up. The feeling took so long to regain, I was so thankful that the mall was open (I'm afraid that one morning the door will be locked).

It took me a little while to warm up but we got right to markdowns once it hit 7am. We did it off the sheets and I thought I was doing well but still, not fast enough. The store simply cannot be done all over by 11am, that's crazy! I was only able to get to the mass of velour when my shift ended at 2:30pm. Paula bought the morning crew hot drinks from Starbucks (I had a tall caramel steamer, like always). During my break, I went to get some tights to go with the dress I am wearing for Kristen's wedding. Picked up some super sale socks as well, some fancy snug gloves that are not fo the worker variety, and a present for someone someone. There were not many customers untill afternoon. Probably due to everything being covered with ice.

Thankfully it was not quite so cold on my return but it still left me pained.

Finished three of the four costumes for my puppet final. Hurrah! One left and to practice the play some more and print it out.

I did an illustration of Grandpa tonight. I never noticed but we sort of have the same eyes...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

shinky drinks

Egads! I've lost my keys! I had them in my hand when the door lock was jammed and somewhere between then and Cece letting me in, they vanished. I need those!

It snowed! Snowy pretty snow. Jen messaged me, demanding we meet and frolic and enjoy hot chocolate. I can't resist her so we met at Pioneer Place. I walked there and on the way I stopped in at Bike Gallery to check the prices on tubes and tires (ouch). The guy was very helpful. It isn't even ice yet and all of Portland is at 5 miles per hour.

I arrived before Jen. She had her hair cut in the most adorable way. It is all short and demure. We had some warm food and ventured into the cold. It was below freezing but only our legs were really numb. I showed her the shrinky dinks that I have been making and I managed to pick up on her hints (after she told me) to hang out at my place and make some more! We grabbed a cozy max to the Goose.

Most of Portland closed at 4pm today.

A loud knock on my door presented me with a gift! From Karen! It was a Playmobil! A pirate with bows in his beard and lots of cool swords and stuff! Totally wicked! The three of us gathered around my table and made shrinky dinks. I used the scraps to copy images out of magazines. I know some some Malkovich shards that rock. Jen made a beautiful pendant and an image of a lady from my magazine look book. Karen made some little detailed people.

I had the most wonderful dream. I was on the Max and it crashed into the future and I was walking about. The images were so awesome that I am going to make them into my final for Science Friction and I am using the medium of, you guessed it, SHRINKY DINKS! I LOVE THESE THINGS!! I have two images done already and I'll just do as many as I can because they are really fun and end up as great little images.

Due to snow, some of school is cancelled tomorrow. That doesn't affect me unless Tuesday is missing classes as well. I'll be getting the tires and tubes after I return from Washington.

So I'm on track for finals again.

Hung out with Karen and Robin a little tonight. Lots of chilling, maybe a little too much but don't worry about me. I'll get it done.

dang

The idea I started with for Science Friction had a comment from the teacher as being too broad. So, crap, I'm back to square one. Or maybe square two. I don't know. I really don't know.

Knocked off a huge chunk of my painting final and finished another puppet. Practiced the play. Tomorrows goal is costumes and some part of the SciFri thing.

The tube on my back tire popped. I think it was overinflated. Good thing I wasn't riding on it when it went. Now I have to get new tires. There goes my paycheck. Well, at least I have a paycheck.

I thought I worked through much of the day but it doesn't seem like I did a thing.