Where's Zombie?

I'm in this picture. Can you find me?

Halloween shindig weekend! This one and next maybe. My original plans fell through but I had super low key fun today! I like low key, because right now the up key people are hooting outside and making my ceiling be noisy. I'd rather be irked than irk people.

Set alarm clock so I didn't sleep in too much. Finished my hat which completed my Halloween costume. Got my care package from home, thanks mum and dad for the Emergen-C and candy and Tiger's Milk bars! num num num!

Chatted with Michael who swung by around four and picked me up and we parked downtown and wandered about. Went into Border's and later grabbed lunch in the underground food court in the Pioneer Square Mall. Walked and chatted and then went to Pioneer Courthouse Square to check out the Zombie March going on.

The Zombie March was this gathering of people dressed as zombies intending to wander around Portland and be generally undead. There was a Where's Waldo zombie, a cross-dressing nun Zombie, and some people from the Umbrella Corporation. Pretty sweet. Some Zombies did the Thriller Dance. At 6:00 they did their march, good thing I got there early because I thought it was at 7:00. Stood on the sidelines as all the Zombies emptied out of the Square and onto the street. Michael and I decided not to follow, as did Mollie, Mel and Darya! We were all "hey!" to each other and sat about and chatted.

There was a guy who sounded like a Zombie but just turned out to be homeless and a little mentally ill. He spat and lunged at some police officers and they handcuffed him. There was three at the start when he was making noise and yelling profanities and when they took him away there was two cop cars, a fire truck and about seven to eight cops. He made a loud "RRRAAGHGHHH" sound and someone across the square who didn't know what was going on shouted "Brains!".

I made a quick stop into the Nordstrom restroom, which is the second nicest I have ever been in. It would have been third but the fact it was called "Woman's Lounge" instead bumped it up.

When I got back some more scene kids had shown up and so we five took off to the underground food court. I played with the Wii demo a bit, but it didn't have any fun games. We played some Old Maid while the other girls snacked. I bought a Day-by-Day chocolate calender for Christmas and I now realise that I bought it a month early. Oops, oh well.

We all piled into Michael's two door, technical four seater, and went back to Goose Hollow. I got the cushy front seat while the rest crammed themselves into the back. We bid adieu to Michael and went to my room to play with Ibanez. We also played fetch with Ibanez and Ball. We big some more adieus to each other, planning to reform for an SNL party later on tonight.

Went over to Sean's for some delicious cake. Hung out with him and Mike for a bit and watched Greg the Bunny and The Great Horror Family. Former was not as funny as I remember the latter was hilarious! Can't wait to watch more.

I made some popcorn and we watched SNL. Seth Rogen wasn't that great but he also didn't have many lines. For once the best skits were after Weekend Update. The girls considered Spoon's performance boring (but liked their music) and wanted something better to watch so I obliged them with my dance skills. After SNL we all said our final adieus.

Tomorrow I will be going to PAM, maybe with Mollie and maybe by myself. Have a vase to look at and a paper to write. Whee!

what if the meanings change?

I don't like how out of whack my sleep schedule gets on the weekends. I predict a really tired Monday.

So my Saturday plans fell through, now I'm stuck with nothing to do on Halloween weekend. Have to make my own fun now.

Work goes fast, each task is so time consuming. Had some of the cheap Sammie sandwiches from Quiznos for lunch, pretty good for how cheap they were.

Rode home and started work on my hat. Rode back to school for movie night.

The first one, Red Angel, I had heard of. It was decent though the romance was really forced. At least she lived in the end. The second one, Alphaville, was a sci-fi without any sci-fi effects. Pretty neat but philosophical stuff got lost on me a little at times. The movies ran late so I pedaled back full speed to the dorms and Sean was already at my place hanging with Lindsay so we skipped off to 30 Days of Night with minimal dawdling.

30 Days of Night was awesome for the most part. A few lagging "okay, now what?" moments but overall a good Vampire flick. Josh Hartnett never interested me before I saw him in Sin City and now this movie. Yeah, hes sort of hot when hes dark.

James was also in attendance at 30 Days Of Night and we walked back together and traded off some comics. Transmetropolitan and Sin City mostly, and I got the rest of The Boys back from him and that's cool. I love The Boys, I don't know how popular it is but I really bonded with the story while waiting for it to start again. It is like, my little discovered prize that I put effort into loving.

Macho Adventures: Battlerama

Had such a good night sleep. Sooo goood. The neighbors alarm clock woke me up but it didn't wake him up for about a minute after going off. Ibanez cuddled with me all night long, he likes to lay under the bed sheets. What a sweety. He darted out of bed when Lindsay stopped by.

Yesterday was busy busy. Ish.

Made a color wheel in digital tools. It looks pretty good I guess, but the green looks sort of iffy. Oh well. Also doodled a color wheel on a certain someones Facebook during break. Probably will have to paint one in 2D design in a few.

In drawing, our model was Scott. He's the only male model I have ever worked with, I could paint him naked with my eyes closed. Left my sculpture of him at home with mum and dad and nate, he has a little spangle to cover up his shame.

Mollie revealed that she isn't planning on staying at PNCA past Foundation/Freshman year. Really big bummer.

Spent the last part of Drawing working on a single drawing. I'm not too fond of it as the head is way too small and its wonky in a few bits. But I can't say that in critique because people will always say the contrary. Scott is a good model, he needs to stretch half way through but he always returns exactly to where he was.

Female models always change behind the screen and never look at the drawings. Scott takes it off in front of us (in like 30 seconds, you blink and his clothes are off) and looks at the drawings (clothed) afterwards. I wonder why that is?

During the student council an MFA guy came in and said they had open seats for a trip to Seattle they were taking in a few weeks. Mollie wants to go so I might join her. I hope we won't go to the sculpture park. That sucks. It is a bunch of "do not touch" rich people's sculptures. Our student council made fun of their student council a little bit. Maybe that is why they don't want to join in our reihndeer games?

Rode home after drawing and did my laundry. Then at 6:00 I rode back to PNCA for the Comic Club, I arrived a little late but I brought cookies so all was good. We talked about how to do our Zine, what to name it and what to do. It all came down to drawing words out of a hat. Four our Zine we will be doing short two page comics about three things we drew out of a hat; two nouns and a situation. My short comic will be about an Arabian Dancing Girl with rubber cement is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jim's is a repair man and God are trapped in an attic with a Wolverine. The attic with the Wolverine was my submission to the hat. Sean has my penguins with machete submission.

Then we tossed random words into a hat to come up with our zine title. We went from Shakespearian Macho Adventures Battlerama down to just Macho Adventures: Battlerama. MAB for short.

After that, Sean and I went to Powell's to kill time and hang out. Read some Darwin Awards and Post Secret then I rode my bike home and dropped it off and headed out again to meet Sean at the Broadway Metroplex to see 30 Days Of Night. Ran into Mike on the way there and he joined me in my walking. We got to the theatre and found out the late showing is only Friday, Saturday. Bugger! So we went to Panucci's and had some bread and I played Mike and Chess. His king took my king.

Lounged about on the internet and then snuggled into bed with Ibanez and slept oh so well.

upward facing trillian

Wow I'm tired, don't know why I am still up. Oh yeah, to blog.

Pretty good day, well except for one sad moment but it makes sense so I guess it isn't so sad just unfortunate? Ehh maybe not unfortunate. Anywhoo. What/who I am talking about is Megan; a lovely lady in all of my Monday/Wednesday classes has decided to withdraw from school. She is sticking in her printmaking class but she came to the revelation that school isn't for her and she would rather volunteer and get hands on experience than be here. Shes very self manageable so I have all faith in her that she can do it without PNCA. She has been lovely and kind and I will miss her, hope we stay in touch. She will still come for Time Arts as we are working on a project together and didn't want to ditch us. See, what a great person.

When people leave, I consider my own reasons for staying. Foundation year sometimes for me is really rudimentary and I have the "I know this, I don't want to do this" thoughts. I stick it out and go because I know that in the little ways these exercises and assignments are all the little bits I need to make my official work brilliant. I have faith that this work is fully helpful to me. Also, I don't have a solid direction so I hope being here will help in my full realization of where I want to go. I need training and discipline. Some people, like Megan, are fully capable and can do this thing on their own. I'm not so capable. Not that I am wholly incapable, but just in the fact I need this setting to help me prepare for what comes next.

I left early to pick up some more photo paper. I have more than I need now. I forgot a spare shirt so I was sweaty and unpleasant when I got to school.

I set up the darkroom today, other people were there but I think they had the mindset of "someone else will do it". Namely me. It isn't that it is hard (mix solutions, turn on safety light, turn on water, adjust water temp, wait for safety light to warm up, wipe down edge, shut door and turn off main light if safety light is warmed up) but they are just unwilling. Really, some things only get down because a person steps up and says "someone has to do this now and I will be that someone". The teacher gave us a really long lecture on how to make nice mats for our photos for extra credit. I didn't get my final print, but I'm close. Need to tweak it.

Lunch was Quiznos. The little munchy breakfast bar would not have been enough. Beef dip sandwich, mmmm!! Sat with Jim at what always astonishes me to be the long, largest table of people at lunch. Me, sitting with the crowd? What? Also sat and chatted with Michael who reminded me of the open figure drawing tonight (free for students).

It was sunny in the morning, but looking gray at lunch so I put my plastic bag over the seat.

Time Arts, not much got done. It was a lot of explanation of sound effects and Garage Band and also a tour of the sound room. We had our narration recorded and it should be easy going from there. Just have to time the clips to the audio and add in some background noise.

After that I went to the 3D building and saw a sign indicating me to go to room 110 for the free Yoga class instead. The instructor, Melanie, was one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. Her dreads were epic and nicely balanced with cute baby bangs and soft curls framing her face. Her septum was pierced but in a way that was aesthetically pleasing and not rebellion based. Yoga was tough, lots of bending in ways I can't really bend. In one class I was able to touch my toes and that was fantastic.

Yoga, for me, is about getting the other part of exercise and athletics filled out. Biking is mostly cardio and leg strength, but it is just that. I get real sweaty and it gets me pumped for the day but it won't come close to working my whole body out. Yoga should provide some toning, flexibility and much needed balance. It won't be too hard to stay with it, sept next Wednesday is Halloween so I'll be missing Yoga then.

After that I dropped off all my stuff in my locker and grabbed my sketchbook and Stingray lunchbox and palette and went upstairs to open life drawing. I only stuck around for two poses as it is very cold to bike home and the longer I stayed the colder it would be (Michael offered me a lift but he has a small car and I don't think my bike would fit). I did something on my big sheet of paper but my two sketchbook pieces are the ones I really love. My Stingray box is my in-class ink box and it works perfectly. I did the first one with black ink and the second with blue and was amazed at how the blue turned out and managed. I think I'll break out the TRUE ink box and use all the colors of the rainbow. My sketchbook also has been a bit light lately so it really needed some artistic padding.

Biked home, it wasn't that chilly and my seat was perfectly dry after the late afternoon rain. Had some delicious macaroni and cheese and now I am ready to beddie bye.

real life, in 3-D!

Whoo saw Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D tonight! Yeaah, it was awesome. I was too young to see it in theatres so it was a double treat. The 3-D really made the animation pop. It has been a while since I have seen it, sucha beautiful treat to watch every time. Except for that time when I was a kid and mum got rid of VHS because she thought it was too creepy for us at the time. Which yeah, it sort of was. The songs are so amazing, the design, the color, the..everything! When Burton is smart he is a GENIUS.

Before the movie a theatre guy invited us (Brandon, Lindsay, Sean and I) to a secret sneak preview for an animated movie due to release in 2008. They didn't tell us what it is but I think we will still go and see it even if it turns out to be another piece of tripe like standard kids movies are these days. Well, I have a hope for what it might be.

Digital Tools was spent entirely in critique again. At least we all got fare time. Gordon really was nice about how I sort of missed the mark on the assignment. He really seemed like he didn't want to tell me I had done bad, just that I was off. It was really sweet. I was kind of wondering in my head, "does he think he is being mean? That is sooo cute!" I've had bad critiques. I respect Gordon so I respect his opinion.

We moved into ink and washs in drawing. Lots of fun! Had to buy a bamboo pen and rip a stick out of a poor tree. My final drawing, I think, turned out really well. Nice and loose but I still got all the areas I wanted.

I rode home during lunch to get my newsprint pad, some ink, and a palette. Ibanez and I had a power cuddle.

Another brilliant and beautiful day. Way way over dressed, but if I under dressed it would be cold and rainy so better safe than sick with a cold.

I love having no homework. Slack slack slack.

a shopping cart full of body parts

Slept in so much on Sunday. Didn't get much done and didn't sleep too well because of it. Got my last photos shot and read some Art History. Lindsay was nice and helpful for some of the photos.

Was awake for all of Art History; no where near nodding off. Have to make time to go to the museum and see a Greek vase and write about it. Maybe tomorrow? Oh wait, I'm seeing Nightmare Before Christmas 3D tomorrow. Well, maybe I could squeeze it in? Hmmmn.

Played around with graham crackers in the dark room but I decided to take off early and get my roll developed instead of wasting time and printing sheets. Good thing I left early because it took Fred Meyer ages to get my roll developed. I hate biking on Burnside, I don't like riding with civilians on the sidewalk but those drivers are just too nuts to drive with. They really need a Burnside bike lane. Got back and made two awesome prints. One you can identify an arm but the teacher said it was cool that way (hope she isn't setting a trap). I have a week to make one more print. It is good to be ahead. I need more printer paper though. Maybe I'll get it tomorrow. I did another of Lindsay just for fun. The lights and darks are really cool but it isn't flattering.

Time Arts was spent shooting our video. We got some weird looks. I was dressed up in "auntie" clothes, we had some mannequins, and other miscellaneous fun stuff. Not quite as noticeable as the group with the shopping cart full of mannequin parts but still weird enough. Hhaha. Fun to be an art student. We got it all done, despite problems with the battery (not charged, gee thanks last person to use it). I think it will come together...well.

Had a lot to lug back with me so it was slow going. Ate two servings of left overs. Burger meat, cheese and tater tots ALL IN ONE BOWL.

Wrote up my essay about Allan McCollum for class tomorrow. Now to read some textbookles.

24 Hour Comic Challenge Live Blog, 2007

The Challenge: I have from 10am Saturday to 10am Sunday, twenty-four hours, to draw twenty-four pages of a new comic.

10:44 am:
Rained as Sean and I left the dorm. Got two bags. Blankets take up a lot of space. As does snacks. I'm sitting at my own private little desk. It took a while for the wifi to get up. Watching Doctor Who in the background, working on the first page and going over ideas in my head. Not quite sure where I want to go. Slow start, but I left later than I would have liked.

11:51 am:
Still raining. Another Doctor Who episode down. Might watch Spaced or some Tennant next. I dunno. Inking my second page. Don't know how the story will go. Might try a different style, something more speedy. Had a doughnut. Mmmm.

12:54 pm:
Well I'm trying a new style and it is going pretty well. Four pages, but they are kinda sloppy so I feel like I am cheating. I dunno. Might pick up? Might start again? Argh frustrating. Hard to do this when you don't have a real plan because you are not allowed to have a real plan. Sorta wish I was sitting at a table, they are all chatty and making friends. Ehh I also like my privacy. Well I can always walk around. Watching Spaced.

1:21 pm:
I got another wind with this style. Really enjoying it. Sure it is going fast but I can always go back and redo some of it. And I might change it up in some of the coming pages. Six pages. Eighteen left. Switched over to music.

1:38 pm:
Loosing steam, I think I'll redo this page now that I know where I am going.

2:29 pm:
Steam regained a little. Might be adding a lot of filler pages though. On my ninth. I shouldn't really be on my ninth right now, I'm not challenging myself enough?

3:23 pm:
10th page. It is slowing down a little but that is how I intended it. It is coming together. The coming 24 Hour Comic things should go a little better methinks, once I know more about what I am doing. Ate some chips, walked around and said hello to people. Some great artists abound.

3:57 pm:
Jim's been hanging out for an hour or so. Now he is going to leave. Still tenth page? Woah.

4:20 pm:
Wow I've been at this for six hours? Huzzah! 11 pages, almost to the halfway point. Some great art is going on around here. Kinda chilly. Brrr. Watching Gridlock, one of the few good Tennant episodes.

5:46 pm:
Mum called. I'll call back on my break but I have a good pace going so I don't know when that will be so mum you can donate the denim jacket and the red one, it is okay. I left them behind for a reason. Though I could try and sell them...hmmnn. Working on the thirteenth page. Going well! Yeah. Listening to stuff from youtube now. Loads really fast.

6:20 pm:
Page fourteen almost done. Going really well, I'm excited to see this to the finish. As one guy is talking about it does not feel like a "sixth" hour. Raining outside. I think it is time for a break. Hmmn.

7:27 pm:
Thirty minutes till pizza! I can't believe I have been here almost ten hours. Damn! Well I should finish. That free comic is MINE MINE. ALL MINE. Even if I do one page an hour that still makes me done at 5am. Err. Woah. Well I think I will sleep and walk home with the rest of the dormies if it comes to that. There is Sean and Matthew. I'm really liking this story. The guy next to me has 15 pages laid out.

8:57 pm:
Sharks will only attack you if you are wet. Sixteen pages.

9:54 pm:
Twelve hours working. Seventeen pages done. Seven to go. Time to return to computer music. Not yet into my second vitamin water nor the majority of my snacks. My teeth kinda hurt from sugar though. Bugger.

10:25 pm:
Just got my eighteenth page done. Clipping along at a nice pace thanks to some music suggestions to pump me up. Hells YEAH. This story is ending up kinda sad. But it will end happy I swear!

11:07 pm:
Nineteen pages done. Certainly clipping on right good now. Need a break. I know exactly what the next five (five!) pages are going to be. I hope this is as good in the morning after sleep as it is right now.

12:13 am:
Four pages left. There are some people who look to be finishing up with enough time and some that are just focusing on making great pages. In the coming years I hope to make great pages. Hmm. My mouth hurts. Totally all the sugar, will eat some raisins or something. Haven't been to the dentist in a while. Back to watching Doctor Who. Yay for Eccleston!

1:00 am:
Twenty one pages down. Three to go. I can't believe I am doing this is such record time. I hope people get what I am doing with it. Sean just finished.

2:05 am:
Two pages left. Took my ages to do this panel. No energy. Blaah. Oh my word. Well at least I know how this will go. My teeth still hurt.

2:59 am:
This second to last page took forever. The last page will be fairly simple so that should get sorted out fairly quickly. Still, seven hours to spare. That's enough leeway time to go through and make sure I checked her skirt and darkened his tie. La la la. Sleep will be good and plentiful tonight and tomorrow night. None of that sleeping in and then staying up because I can't sleep stuff.

3:30 am:
Done. Twenty four pages in fifteen and a half hours.

4:48 am:
Walked home with Sean. Got my comic all photocopied and turned in to BT. Huzzah. Matthew took off so we didn't walk in a group. I hope he is all right. The streets of Portland at 4am on a Sunday are dead quiet. Only passed two people. The walk was so long lugging all the stuff about. I'm so tired...

2:07 pm:
I set my alarm clock, thinking I would wake up at about 11am so that I would be able to get to sleep easier tonight. Instead I rolled out of bed about 15 minutes ago. Hahah, more tired than I thought. Hopefully not so tired that I can't get to sleep at a reasonable time tonight. Looking over my piece I do like it. Some of the poses are a little awkward but I like how I varied the panels on the pages. As I got more tired it shows but that is how it goes with this type of thing. I'm quite proud of myself.

I have the key, I have the power

My keychain is always expanding. Now I have a little key that opens up the paper towel dispenser AND the toilet paper. Booyah! I also have a card that gets me into the studio building. The training with Robert was pretty brief. He just showed me around and told me to sweep, mop, clean and change things out. Not much too it. Simple job; just time consuming. The wind brought in a lot of leaves so I swept those up. Only one soap needed replenishing, I added some toilet paper but none of the towels were out. Mopping was a challenge, never had to use the mop before. The David Sedaris story comes to mind about how mopping doesn't clean anything and how you have to actually scrub the floor. Also the water gets grungey because of the mop. Need one of those swiffer mops, this thing is just useless. I wish I could have cleaned all the windows, I loved cleaning the windows at the library.

Craig, Mia, Andy, Esteban and Pete were all in the studios today so we were all "hey" to each other. I will get to meet a lot of the higher up artists through this job. And if I don't meet them I will at least see their artwork as I sweep the hallways.

One of the MFA students was working on a project with hay. Had to clean up that mess.

Doing the full job took four and a half hours. The last was spent touching up. Maybe I will get faster at it but it is just time consuming.

Brynne and Dan came into town right as I was finishing. I rode home and dropped my bike off and walked down the the Starbucks on Park street and met up with them. They didn't look out of towney at all, they could have been the Portlanders and me the new comer! We drove into the Pearl District and had Hot Lips for dinner (yay more pizza). Well at least Hot Lips is point at the slice and they heat it up for you and bam, 2 minute meal. Tea Zone would have been about 20 minutes for food and all that. I gave them a brief tour of PNCA and we parted ways. Not a lengthy visit but a visit none the less. Hopefully they will stop by tomorrow during the comic challenge (which is not about comedy) and we can talk more.

Delicatessen was playing first at the movie night. More brilliant than the first time I saw it. Just a beautiful movie, the colors and shots are so well done. Going to art school is really making me appreciate/notice the flaws in movies more. Jean-Pierre Jeunet has no flaws. Pi took me a little longer to get into but it was so brilliant in the end. Trepanation/Trepanning as a way to get the word and name of God out of your head? Woaaah!

The streetcar was 25 minutes away so Sean and I walked back. It was raining softly so I got a little chilled but I had my thick coat so it balanced out. Next to the Hajime Yoshio poster near Anthropologie is a poster designed by Cho-Chan. Digmeout 2006, huzzah!

I am now stocked on snacks/fruits/drinks/yogurt raisins for the 24 Hour Comic Challenge.

It's go-go, not cry-cry

All of digital tools was spent in critique of our video projects and we are only half done. Or a little over half. Sooo long and so tricky to critique. But we spent a long time on them so I guess it makes sense. Can't wait to move onto new project. Sick of Garage Band.

Raining as I went to school and it was tricky managing wearing my long coat and having my carrying tube and backpack. I got the tube sorted out but the coat was pretty much worthless. I need rubber pants to protect myself. Wasn't raining as I went back so that was a joy.

We critiqued our chairs in drawing class. Eva and mine, our chairs were considered coy. Michael's was a player. It did look better from a distance. So that was good.

Student Council provided me with lunch. Tasty squash thing. Mmm. I mean, YUCK! Squash. Ew. We vote to OK everything. We really need to know how much money we have left to spend. Blimey!

Comic Club is trying to start again. That should be grand!

Hit up the stores trying to find the missing piece of my costume, found something close but it costs way too much! In drawing we managed to come up with a good costume for Mollie. It totally rocks. It comes from the SNL inside joke about her name. Wuhld you like some mahble cahlumns? Mahlee Dwaiyuh.

Lindsay and I walked up to Goodwill. She needed to get stuff for her costume and I was bored. I found an awesome pair of pants (go Goodwill!). They are all stripey and awesome and were nice and cheap. She is in the living room working on her dress right now.

After Goodwill I went over to Sean's for, yes you guessed, a movie. This time it was Planet Terror. A few nice little extras and overall enjoyable but it really needs Death Proof to accompany it. Bruce Willis was boss as always. Seems so long since I saw it opening day with Sean way back when in Bremerton.

Tomorrow I have my first day of work. Training! Whoo! And I'll get to see Auntie Brynne and Uncle Dan. See people, I'm not that far away.

negative crinkle

We pinned up our pieces to look at in the darkroom today, to asses where everyone is. I had the most prints and the teacher said they were all successful! Yay. I had a pretty good day in the darkroom. Achieved two more prints and so I should be done without needing extra lab time. Took a wild shot in the dark with one photo that needed four minutes exposure to the light. No pure black but still interesting. Played around with a damaged negative and had a spiffy result.

Karen gave me a nibble of her pastry during lunch. My tooth hurt a little, as it tends to hurt a little sometimes when I chew certain things, but it was a good pastry. Later she invited me to her Halloween party. Yay, party! Board games and food. Whoo!

Sleeping in was nice.

Biking back and forth to school in the rain was not nice. Pants were all splattered and there was a hole in the bag I put over my seat so it still got wet (I always have a second bag). Thanks to my way cool helmet my hair stayed dry. If it is raining tomorrow I think I'll try out my big coat and see how dry that keeps me.

We have our video project in Time Arts pretty well laid out now. Got our shots and our ideas. Some of them are literal, but even if they are it is still pretty nicely shot out. I hope they don't feel I am controlling it because I feel that I am saying more ideas than they are. Hmmn. Well, all is going according to plan. My group rocks.

Relaxed, ate some pasta and hung out. Sean stopped by and we chatted about whatnot. Ibanez has a scratch on his ear. Poor fellow.

Auntie Brynne sent me an email that her and Dan are going to be in town this weekend. Gol' dang! My weekend is booked. I have a small window on Friday, I hope they are open for it.

Arvie Smith's Workout Scarf©

So in drawing we started out doing gesture drawings and we posed for each other. Some people were shy and didn't want to get up there. We didn't even have to stand still, just had to keep a body part in the same position as a reference. I went after Arvie who had wowed us with waving a scarf around and doing all sorts of large movements. I got up quite simply, sat down, and placed my right hand on the platform. Then I laid on my back and stuck my legs in the air and waved them about, did some bike pedaling and general balance things. Then I rotated and sort of moved around my hand a little. The last thirty seconds were spent in a back arch, my other hand holding my shirt up so I didn't you know...embarrass myself after all that flopping around. I had a headache but it was lots of fun and worth it.

After the gestures we drew chairs for two hours. Uhg. Hate to think that the chair is probably the more beneficial of the drawing practices.

I didn't get much sleep so I was dead all day. Digital tools was torture trying to stay awake and focus on the texture project. At least it is finally done. Not so psyched about it but far better than the photoshop assignments Sean is getting in Slappe's class. I acted out the letters of my costume for Jim (after I had whispered to Karen and..ohh shoot I forget her name, she has an awesome mermaid tattoo) and he didn't really get it. Ended up telling him anyway. The little acting out gave me some pep for the day.

During lunch I met up with this maintenance guy in his tiny little hidden office, filled out the paper work and got my work study and hours all sorted out. Starting Friday, 12-5, I am a custodian for the PNCA studios. That is right: I have a job. I will only be working five hours a week, so it isn't enough for me to do it on my own. But it is a start and now I won't have to feel too guilty about spending a little payola on comics. Won't go crazy but it is nice to have some leeway.

There was some construction blocking my route home on 13th so I looped down around it. Another bicyclist was taking my same looping route. He was a cute ginger. Tee hee.

Was dead when I got home. Blah. So tired. Lounged around, ate some ravioli and hung out with Sean and ate popcorn and Trader Joe's "oreos" while watching Transformers. That movie is so LONG, dang. Good effects sure but really long, not well balanced, the color is off on the people and really fatiguing to watch.

I got the confirmation that I am in for the 24 Hour Comic Challenge. Sean registered as well, not sure if he got in. Should email Matt, Craig and Andy and remind them to register. Hmmn.

sand spikes and unique shapes

Tracey was in my Art History class. I remember her now. Wow.

I went to a lecture starring Allan McCollum today. I went with Matt and saw a few of the other MFA people that he knew and a few Digital Tools people that I knew. If I write a paper about the lecture I can get some bonus points, woo whoo!

It was a very good lecture. I liked how his Ginger Jar project wasn't about making art from the mockery of everyday objects, but was more of an embrace of those images. His comments about how art does end up as sort of the background in a lot of cases and it reminded me of Germany's product placement laws and how there are companies that just make fake background products for use in TV and movies. He did a lot of work about arts role in where it is considered and it wasn't hokey at all how he talked about it. I loved where he got his ideas for mass produced unique objects such as the symbolic numerical plates, the sand spikes and the folgerite casts. And he seemed genuine about how he didn't like that his mass produced work couldn't be given out the the general consumer for cheap. It had to be bought as a whole (as per museum's prattyness). I was kind of hoping he had print outs of his individual shapes for everyone in the world by 2050, and he would give us all our own individual shape. That would be awesome.

Afterwords Matt and I got some McDonald's and went back to my place and watched Heroes. Fun time!

I slept in and didn't have time for breakfast so I had to get a muffin at school. The first hour of art history is always murder, I'm never fully awake for it. I always perk up after our break and I can focus real well. I saw Jim in the morning when I got my muffin and again at break, both times he was buying coffee. I'd say it would stunt his growth but he is already full grown and tall.

Punched out one amazing print for class. Teacher couldn't tell what it was so it worked!(then Nell guessed it. I'll still get credit though). The next print still looked like what it was and I think I worked on a third picture but I don't really remember.

I forgot to put a plastic bag over my seat and so it was a little wet but not by much. Saw Mike and Mollie outside. Mike tried to say something about Tracey but it didn't come out right (religious views about death never comfort me). It was still wet so I went back inside and joined Jim, Diana and a large group of people for lunch.

A lady came out and talked about Tracy, a man sang a song for her and Michael Hall gave a little speech. I didn't know her so well but I can still feel that void and it was hard not to cry. We all sat there in silence for a while and started talking about how we knew her.

I parted ways for a little bit and talked with Lindsay upstairs and came back down and read some of the "I Saw You"'s from the free weekly the Portland Mercury (oh and read Perry Bible Fellowship. Arf Arf. hee hee). I feel like writing in a fake "I Saw You" and directing it towards Jim. "You: tall, skinny, curly hair. Me: short, thin, brown hair. Saw you on the boardwalk on 10th. I waved as you walked by me talking on your cellphone." Something like that. I dunno, funnier in my head I guess.

Darkroom was really empty, people don't really care enough about showing up for class. Tabitha dyed her hair, it looks great!

Time Arts, we watched a video from the 90's about how advertising blah blah subliminal blah bad self image. Advertising rarely makes me want to buy anything. When it came to buying mascara I just thought "which of these are advertised as having the type of eye lashes I want". Then that kind was too expensive so I got something else and it works fine.

Rose told me how I was doing in class and she said I was doing great, always on time AND she gave me some bonus points due to my animation being totally boss.

We split into groups and starting sorting out the symbology for our video project about doing visualizations of poems and whatnot. I have Megan and...ohh I forget her name. Dang it! Shes really cool too. Well yeah there are three of us and we seem to have some good ideas.

Met up with Matt after class and we headed into South Portland for the PSU lecture.

24 Hour Comic Challenge is this weekend. I just registered for it, I hope there are still spaces and that Jim, Matt, Andy and Diana are able to join me.

where did my day go?

Welp, I finished my three crows picture in time for it being due tomorrow. Way-go! It's, hmmn. Not quite what I had hoped for it to be, it is a little bit rushed. Oh well.

Today was long slow and dull. I woke up at around 9am to the ticking of the thing in my wall and couldn't get back to sleep. I finished up my roll and took it to get developed at Fred Meyer. Went back home. Did something I am sure. Did a quick run into PNCA and back. Got honked at by a car as it passed me but it was just Andy and Matt saying hello.

Had delicious hamburgers at Sean's and watched some of the better bits of 28 Weeks Later. Lindsay was supposed to paint me but she ended up doing a self portrait instead. I did my crow drawing. Was that it? Really? Oh I read a little. Thought I did something more. Oh yeah.

I put a flower on Tracey's memorial.

take the yellow to Killingsworth

Whoo! Did a lot today, was out of Goose Hollow by 11am and I just got back. Busy Trillian, tomorrow I will take it easy.

Matt had invited me to hang out and bike around yesterday and so I did just that. I met him at the PNCA studios and we rode our bikes to the yellow max stop and rode it up into North East Portland. I bought a ticket, he didn't. We rode around and visited a couple parks and took photos. I have to take a roll of things that don't look like things. Yay.

The day started gray but it really cleared up. I think I got some good shots of interesting things. Portland has lots of flat areas and some killer lengthy hills. I least I had a mountain bike for those tricky areas. Wore my helmet, of course.

After some biking around under a nice blue sky (good weather on the weekends is a blessing) we went back to his place and he, Andy and I went to a local diner for lunch. It was too much for barely decent food.

We then went back and watched Factory Girl. It was okay I guess, I wasn't really paying attention. She just had a really bad life prior and Warhol seemed to really not understand. Or something, I dunno. Hayden Christensen was horrible. After that it was time for me to return to the West, I was going to the Endless Ocean Endless Sky performance at PNCA and Matt needed to work in the studios some more. We rode our bikes to PNCA, about 15 minutes and mostly down hill. Really quick and easy commute though you couldn't do it going back.

Sean was at the performance and we sat on our cushions next to each other inside the bubble they put is into. The show really did get a good example of the endless, end of the world feel that occurs at the edge between ocean and sky but it got really repetitive so nearer to the end I didn't enjoy it as much. Still, interesting and serene.

Sean and I split ways after and Matt was still around so we went back to the East Side again and hung out.

Well we were planning to get together with Craig who was going to bring his Wii over and we were going to play that but then Craig ducked out and so then it was going to be Guitar Hero but Andy was drawing so we ended up sitting around, talking, drawing random comics about Heroes, Prison Break and cannibalism (dude, Sylar would totally eat Michael Scoffield's brain!) and we watched some season 10 Simpsons. Around midnight I bid adue to Matt and Andy and rode the Yellow into downtown.

I had bought two tickets today and thought if the yellow jacket checker person showed up I could sort of brandish it and they would ignore me. The second ticket I bought there was a checker but they didn't even make eye contact with me or Matt (who also didn't buy a ticket this time). There was no checker, just a Portland Walking Tour group. Got off on the last Yellow stop and rode my bike the last few blocks home.

Busy, fun day. Tomorrow I shoot more pictures, read some pages and draw some crows.

what it took

What would it take to get me to wear my bike helmet. My ugly, uncomfortable helmet. I always thought I would wear one if I had one that was mine and not something that was given to me that doesn't fit. Today I bought a helmet that I liked. It is white with colorful polka dots. It isn't very aerodynamic but my bike itself isn't very suited to the city anyway. I rode it all around today and am very pleased with it.

It took a death to get me to wear my helmet.

Yesterday I road past a crime scene; Burnside was blocked off and police were milling about. Yesterday, Sean had told me about passing it right as they were pulling a tarp over a body. This morning Sean called me and told me it was Tracey Sparling. A new student to PNCA, a transfer student and communications design major. I didn't have her in any of my classes but I'm sure we have met in passing. She was 19. Even if I didn't know her, just by being here it brings us all together.

I took part in the memorial ride for her. We went up Burnside, hundreds strong, a slow procession dinging our bells. Being there was very surreal, the spot where she was killed was a spot I pass every day on my way to school. I'll bring some flowers to the spot tomorrow.

The day was just an odd haze for me. I went and got my helmet and a little strap to put around my ankle for loose pants (some pants don't roll up well and I don't have rubber bands big enough). I went to the bank, was told to come back in an hour and a half because the lady was going to lunch/meetings. Went to Goodwill and found a close enough to the pivotal part of my costume. Went to Pro Photo and got two more rolls of film (the last I will have to buy). Went to the school to see the memorial. Went back to the bank and opened up an account. Went back to my apartment.

Lindsay lost her voice, I had to call in sick for her this morning. She is still ill.

I left early to see if Red Light/Buffalo Exchange had any of the other key parts for my costume. Buffalo Exchange had the pants (for cheap too, booyah!) and another part. All I need is the hat now. Didn't need to go to Red Light. I then cruised down Burnside and at around 5:45 met at the Bridge and waited for the procession to begin.

After we rode to the spot, I parted ways and went to PNCA for the art film night. More people here this time so that was great. Paprika was fun but I was really distracted.

I left after Paprika, and Jim and I chatted at length over some hot beverages (mine was a steamer with raspberry goodness, his was something with caffeine). We parted ways and I was about the ride home when Nate, Jack and a guy I didn't recognize but he clearly thought my name was awesome came out from the movie night. We talked a little bit and Nate and Jack left and I talked with the mysterious third guy who is named Blair. He was checking out the school and also NCA in Poulsbo so I told him about the area (both Portland and Kitsap). We parted ways and I was about to ride off when someone shouted my name and I turned around and it was Craig, Matt, and Andy. Some more talking at length. Craig left for the studios and Matt and I talked about hanging out tomorrow afternoon. Their ride (Michael) showed up and so then I made my getaway before any more familiar people could show up.

One of my Olympic College classmates died in a car crash. I don't really understand that hole that is created when someone you don't know, but are aware of, dies.

baaa-a-a-a

Got my Internet back up. Easy peasy, reset all the IP's myself with no need to call Nathan. I'll try not to make a habit of blogging the day after.

Worked more on musical textures for our photos in class. I think I am starting to get it, rather out there for me but that is good. It is bending my concepts about things and stuff. Gordon really knows what he is talking about, art wise. He is very smart just a little aloof but I think that is great. He told us about how Allan McCollum is going to be in town and giving a lecture so I'm going to try and check that out.

People are getting sick all over the place. Lindsay has lost her voice, Matt is sick, Sean was sick. I'm drinking my vitamins so I don't too get sick because I know if I get sick I will still go to school. I don't like missing out on things.

Mel's friend Melissa is in town. Mel is short for Melissa. Melissa and Melissa, how cute is that? Arvie let her sit in with our drawing class and she did some really nice art.

My contour drawing, while the head was big I still liked the detail in the folds. My lady ended up being a little small on the page as I was trying to get the whole composition around her in as well (he set up some wooden slats with drapery). She is small but fairly well proportioned I think. I think I'll bring my tube with me today and bring some of my work home.

I had a dream about this certain kind of granola bars with chewey chewey pieces of fruit and tasty tasy pieces of chocolate. My dreams now have commericals in them, dangit! So anyway, I saw it as a sign and went to get said granola bars from Trader Joe's during lunch. I ran into Matt and lunch and we rode up together. The granola bars were delicious. Everything I wanted them to be.

Sean was making steak and had Black Sheep from blockbuster. The steak was tasty and the movie was fantastic. The creature effects were marvelous, Weta really knows their stuff. It also wasn't really a stereotypical creature feature and behaved totally separate from any idea I thought it might have. Wonderful movie. Oh and Weresheep! Those were cool. I think it and Severance would make a good double feature.

No advertisements in my dreams tonight. Whew!

macs have their revenge

The internet was reset at Goose Hollow and I need to get the new IP adress so I can connect. In other words the internet was down for me last night and so there was no post because of it. Guess I shouldn't have made fun of all those people with macs who didn't have their internet for weeks (macs are lame).

Having the internet down gave me time to tidy up the apartment and to read the new volume of Exterminators. I just love that comic, it is setting everything up wonderfully and the story telling is brilliant. The colorist does such a good job, really lovely piece of work. I love how Mrs. Perez became an exterminator and whooped butt on those roaches. I need to reread it all, so much is going on and there are only three volumes out.

I got all my six photos in for the line/texture/value assignment. My value pieces were a little iffy but all in all I had some dynamic photos. The last one of the surfers looks great, all the fancy burning and stuff worked out wonderfully. Had to time it for 23 seconds at 75 magenta and burn in the sky for 10 seconds at 45 magenta. Oh how I wish it were as easy as taking a photo but like abstract art it can't be done by just anyone.

We moved onto video in Time Arts and we spent time fooling around with some clips of kids washing a dog and getting familiar with iMovie.

Mum emailed me saying dad might not be home for Thanksgiving.

And Happy Late Birthday to dear ol' Grandpa Pedersen.

Tyler Durden works at Trader Joe's

Broke in my new bike baskets. Okay not broke but I used them. After the darkroom I went to Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries. Great prices not much in the selection department. They had orange juice, cookies, grapes, bananas, apples and those really good Terra chips so I was set. The nice guy who wrung me up (I believe it was at the "Flanders" register, as all had little street signs from the streets in the Alphabet District) had a name tag that said "Tyler Durden". He made my two bags even in weight so it would be better to bike with. The mass of the baskets made me rethink how I was biking and what I could squeeze between and I bumped into them with my leg on occasion (but it wasn't at all painful so it's all good). Got back home nice and safe with lovely groceries to stock my cabinet.

Wrote up some post cards and sent them out. Sean came over and brought with him UBER GOODIES!! He bought me a tube for carrying art (it is blue and semi see through and has a shoulder strap and is awesome) and he made brownie/cheesecake combination that was delicious and total face stuff worthy. I stuffed my face good and we watched the awesome that is House. They do mix it up occasionally on the show and when they do the episode has more impact and meaning. After House we watched the last hour of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Horrible movie, just bad acting and general lack of...yeah. Silver Surfer silver surfed for about 10 minutes and then Doom wrecked up the place (okay I kind of like Doom but only because the actor who plays him is also one of the doctors in Nip/Tuck and I totally need to add my address to the parents Netflix so I can watch the fourth season of that show).

I spent my time in Digital Tools trying to figure out the audio texture of bubble wrap, skirts, jackets, doors and hula hoops. Yeah. It made a lot of sense at the time and now when I think about it, seems a little crazy. But hey! It's art school.

We have returned to models in drawing class (hurray) and for the first part we did gestures and a subtraction figure study. The second part was a more geometric/measuring way of drawing the figure and we were introduced to crosshatching. My first drawing looks snazzy, the second ended up being unfinished.

Went to Subway with Michael for lunch. Thank GOD someone else out here likes Heroes. And it turns out that Matt and Andy are Michael's roommates. I put two and two together and figured out that Matt was the guy that was with Michael at Stumptown Comics Fest and Craig had been with a tall fellow that I realize to be Andy. Small world!

After drawing I spent two and a half hours in the darkroom. Did a bunch of shots of Ibanez and a few shots of Diana and Chervona for fun. 5/6 of my images done and will have time in the darkroom tomorrow to work on that final one. Huzzah, I am on top of things!

basketed

Woke up with terrible pains all up my legs. My thighs hurt when I put pressure on them and my calves ache when I twist my legs in different positions. Not sure if it is vitamin deficiency, dehydration, or just the extra funtime exercise I did over the weekend. Either way, it has stuck with me all bloody day. Ahhg. Advil worked a little bit.

Art History, we went over the pre-Greek art. Pretty spiffy and I was able to contribute to conversation. Got a B on my test, which was pretty spiffy because she only took away points from the areas I know I missed (locations and titles). We got out a little early so I called mum and asked her to send me some important top secret documents.

Felt all confidant and stuff when I was helping set up the darkroom. Walked about like I knew what I was doing (and I mostly did). Sally liked a great deal more of the photos from the two rolls, and I did too. Some of the night shots look great and maybe two of the photos I took of Chervona has parts in focus/not blurred. The beach trip photos have a thick blanket of gray. I developed a smashing picture of grass and plant life blowing in the bluff winds and a shot of the street at night, both of which she was all "oohhh!" over and said that "I got it". Huzzah. I'll probably work in the darkroom after class tomorrow, just gotta do two more prints for the assignment. And about six prints just for fun. And go to Trader Joe's and go shopping.

Rachel brought in her baby Byron during lunch. Cute little kid; wasn't scared of me or nothing. Rachel also had dyed her hair with the same bang dye job as Diana's. Well similar to it, looked really great.

Finished up my animation during class (about 10 people still did not have theirs finished; I thought they were due today and I was behind?). Put it into the animation lunchbox and it looks AMAZING. Exactly how I wanted it to be. I forgot to draw the clothes on the lady (she climbs over the box and it tips and she rolls over the front of it out of frame) but you can't really see anything...Hahaha. If I have time I think I'll ink it and reshoot it. The pencil lines are soooo light. Oh and put clothing on her. Diana was helping me animate it and when I finished and hit play she went "woah!" and Rose came in and went "woah!" as well. After class she complimented me with some more "great job"'s. I'm so proud of myself. I doodled a bit more of the lady in the animation. After speed drawing it is hard to slow down.

Rode home with the aching legs and swung by the front office to see if a package had arrived for me. And it did! I have side baskets for my bike now. I attached them all by myself too (Lynsey helped with one of the screw/nut dealies but I did the other five all by my lonesome). Really hard to do it by myself, lots of maneuvering around the basket and back tire and reaching around with a wrench and screwdriver. But I got them attached just faboo.

Sean stopped over right as I was starting to work on my sketchbook assignment so we sat on my porch drawing together. I didn't have time to not do my city scape perspective assignment (to ignore it and watch tellie) tonight so I moved my TV onto the porch and we watched Prison Break and Heroes as I drew the city around me and Sean drew whatever.

Prison Break: OH MY!! THE BOX! Ahhhg how why what? Prison Break always amazes me with their lack of compassion for main characters. It really moves along. They could have drawn out the "what is in the box?" bit for a few more episodes but NOPE. They didn't. And ahhg I can't believe they did that. And Michael doesn't know. Oh gee, at least he is smart enough to not trust Bellick. Hee Hee and Sucre is back, they can't get rid of all the characters.

Heroes: Okay, so he doesn't care what is in his box and he snogs bad-accent. Pfft. And Sylar can't quite recoup his powers which is a bummer but he did need a cap on his abilities somewhere along the line. Haha I loved Kensei's expression as Hiro ditched him. That was brilliant. And HRG as the enigma is back (I'm wondering if their is a second guy in those frames but probably is Bennet as Bennet was sorta bad). And Claire snogged that guy? He was a peeper! Ewewew!! Those twins and their plot line bore me, maybe because my reception is fuzzy and I can't read the subtitles.

Not so happy with my cityscape, oh well.

Legs hurt, blaaahh.

missing pipes and a little drizzle drizzle

Got my two rolls developed at Fred Meyer today. Both were done in twenty minutes with no problems at all. Take that Rite Aid and Pro Photo! The Fred Meyer was on 20th and Burnside, when I biked their I remembered it as the area I got so lost in when I was first biking back to my dorms over a month ago. It is all so familiar and easy to navigate now. Well easier. I don't know why they don't have a bike lane on Burnside, seeing as how it splits Portland into North and South. Sort of a major road.

After that I went to PNCA to work in the darkroom. The darkroom had the chemicals ready to go but the water was weird; there was a missing pipe and the temp gauge said the water was well over what it was supposed to be. I didn't want to fiddle with it alone so I just cut my film and put it into the sleeves (some of the shots look great, booyah!).

On First Thursday, at Floating World Comics, Jason told me Exterminators volume three was in my box. I picked it up today and still have not read it (whats wrong with me? It is AMAZING the only trade paper back I'm actually splurging on). Its my reward, I have schoolwork first!

Biking back from Floating World Comic's it started to rain. I am now familiar with biking in the rain. Bike gets good traction, I just get chilled.

I'm a little over 2/3 done with my animation. The last 1/3 is the fast part so it shouldn't take as long as the first thirds took. Watched Death Proof while working on it. It's much longer with the added scenes but I don't really like the added bits and without Planet Terror the first part is painfully boring. But that car chase is AMAZINGER since I last saw it.

Earlier today I did my laundry, wheee! Oh and I had some of Sean's stew for dinner and watched a little bit of 5th Element. And I ate some more delicious taffy.

The sprinkler is still leaking.

I lie, I do hike

Another day, another movie. But after the beach trip I just wanted to sit back and not move. Hoo boy am I exhausted.

PNCA organised a beach trip, free for all students. They didn't get the full number of people and only about 20 of the people that signed up, showed up. But that's probably good because it might have been hard to keep track of everyone otherwise. I rode and left my bike at school. I was the third one there, after Mollie and Vasee. It took everyone else a long time to show up, lazy art students!

We were heading out to Cannon Beach and Falcon Point. Long bus ride, the scenery was really beautiful but sort of standard in Washington. I sat next to Diana and we chatted about wooden chopsticks versus plastic ones (non biodegradeable/reuseable vs biodegradeable/cutting down forests). Rachel, the student services lady, had lots of delicious Trader Joe's snack goods for us to munch on. I made myself two sandwiches for the day, egg salad and tuna fish.

The beach was cold and I had many layers. I opted for the hike with Rachel and so we set out. Lots of ups and downs, similar to Washington as well. I had my camera with me, need some nice shots for the darkroom. There were some nice photo oppurtunities, I think these two rolls will have some really nice shots. Don't wanna go in tomorrow and put in extra hours..waahh!!

I met Matt and Andy, who are more MFA students. Matt was reading Watchmen on the bus and was wearing Spiderman cutoff globes. SpidermAndy.

The top of the hike put us on a bluff and it was really windy. Like, my scarf was trying to choke me and escape windy. Quite magestic. Rachel had said it was similar to standing at the edge of the world. I got more of an "edge of the world" feeling from Dungeness Spit than this place, but the hike was worth it. We tried to climb down this one embankment that was a narrow pathway cut into thing bushes but it declined to fast and was too muddy and none of us were in shoes that had any sort of traction (myself being in not distinctly muddy converse all stars) so we went back up. Matt slid into me a couple times and I got my legwarmers muddy from it.

I was cold at the top of the bluff but hiking up and down I went inbetween chilly and boiling under my layers.

I had my egg salad sandwich in my pocket but I only ate half of it as I had munched on snacks pretty constantly on the way there.

At the bottom we walked along the beach and Diana remarked about how hard and stiff the sand was. Californian's are so cute. Amina wasn't too fond of a poor banana slug that was minding its own business and didn't need some teen being all scared of it. The beach was cold and there were surfers doing their thing.

After the hike and the beach we went into Cannon Beach for lunch proper. Rachel and I split an over priced, nothing special fish and chips combination. Skippers/Ivars is better. Then I got some taffy. MMMMMM.

I fell asleep on the ride home.

I finished off my Stephen Colbert icecream and munched on taffy while watching Secretary with Lindsay, Brandon and Ibanez. What a fractured little romance.

Its the good life.

night rider versus pizza

Just got back from the Friday Art Film night at PNCA. Again, weird movies I didn't quite get or understand. The first was a Japanese film about uhm small terrorist groups I think. The guy gave us a heads up for some lewd behavior. The scene he warned us about took place about two-thirds of the way through. He should have warned us about all the other gratuitous lewd scenes that took place one after another and were really uncomfortable to watch/badly acted. I didn't enjoy that film. The next one was Mirror by Andrei Tarkovsky. I loved some of imagery in it but I didn't quite get it as a whole till the very end. Beautiful and rather spooky. Not next week but the week after the movie guy will bring in Delicatessen, as per my request. And there might be a horror night later on in the month, that will be fun! These art films aren't quite my thing but I'll continue to go to support it. I know I'll see something amazing and not like I have any other plans.

Slept in. Worked on animation while watching Shaun of the Dead. I'm now at about 22/45 frames done. Another movie on Sunday should do it.

I left the place at around 4:40 to go to PNCA. I locked my bike up at the school and ran into Noel.

I was planing to meet Lindsay after her job and walk about and take photos, Noel joined us. We looked into a yarn shop (fabulous!) and a used/vintage clothing shop. Both places were fine with me taking photos and I think I got some great shots. There were some fabulous pieces of clothing in Ray's Ragtime (the vintage shop) but nothing for my Halloween costume. At 5:45 we split from Lindsay, Noel and I were both going back to PNCA for clubs.

It was good walking and biking weather. Really loving this night riding thing. Going to the beach tomorrow. Wheee!

Lindsay and Brandon are watching Big Trouble, I think I'll go join them and work on my animation a bit. Lots of movies today.

night rider versus the boxes

Whoo! I rode my bike around for First Thursday (big art show opening day around Portland) and had so much fun. It was really cold but so exhilarating. Left at about 6:00pm to check out PNCA. Wore my leather pointy shoes and leather jacket. Nice animal cruelty combination going on there. My hair was still flattened back from the days hairstyle so I just gelled it into shape and headed out looking all sleek like.

There wasn't much going on around PNCA so I rode down to 5th&Couch to check out the galleries there. People in the Pearl don't have a lot of respect for bikers (yeah you share the road with us, we will obey the stop signs and you should too). Didn't get hit but there were some dummies. I always get a weird start when I am turning left towards Couch, like I never have been able to get the pedals started right so I falter. Didn't help that I was wearing shoes not meant for biking in. Got there alright and locked my bike to a gate. The gallery in the Portland Art Center had a nice installation in the front half, the back half was annoying (we are forced to deal with people crying really fakeily and awkwardly...deep). Upstairs was some New Renaissance work, some of it was really brilliant and so well executed. Wasn't so inspiring but really purdy with some great technique. Another annoying installation tucked away(shes swimming in an endless circle...deep). Also annoying kids running about.

Floating World Comic's exhibit was all female artists and I think they may have been Portland-based female artists as well. A good premise but ultimately I was left disappointed. Is this all we could do as a gender? Nothing really stuck with me except for some nice line art and a few colorful pieces but even then it is hazy.

Ran into Gordon, my Digital Tools teacher. He recommended I check out the gallery "Motel". He looks exactly the same in class as he does in reality, I guess the perks of being a computers teacher at a small private art school. He is a cool guy, while I may not be interested in all that he teaches us he gives a good energy so I enjoy class. Today we worked on piecing together our images and making them into a video. I was starting from fresh when I came in this morning and I was the only one done by the end of class. Huh. My video is about a sea monster attacking people, finding a bride, having a family and attacking more people.

The Motel gallery had this really insane hyper-rendered in pencil artwork. I spent so long looking over all the little bits, noticing how people just breezed right past them not taking the time. I took the time and I saw so much. Really surreal zombie women and portraits and people walking along floating rock formations with spears. Ghostly and ethereal, loved it! They had silkscreen tee shirts with the designs but you know, I'm trying to be save-y here.

It was getting dark so I got on my bike and decided to ride home. Somewhere around 12th and Washington I decided to circle back to PNCA and see if anything more was going on. There wasn't anything going on at PNCA, no new shows (there is something from Casey Oney but I saw it earlier today). Down the street was where they close off traffic and have tents set up. It was about 2-3 blocks last month, now it was about one. Walked through it but nothing caught my eye.

Looped around and went into this poster-making place that was having higher end (or rather commercial) looking wares. Chatted at length with Jacob Kaup, a local potter who had some spectacularly colored wheel ceramics on display. They were sort of drab at first glance but when I got close it was just WOW. So many little reds and blues, turquoise and...just wow. Gazed and gazed at them. There was a nice jewelry maker lady who made these really fancy bracelets with lots of little beads. The paintings upstairs, some of the abstracts only half looked planned out and the Italy street scenes were childish. The works composed of bits of wood were nice...but like I said it was commercial and not so indie and edgy.

I left the building and heard Chervona playing so I skittled over towards them. They were not playing the first time I went through the tents on 13th, but they were now. Much of the same music they played last First Thursday, but it was still amazing. Bounced along in rhythm and took some photos (no flash, probably blurry but we will see). Just love these guys.

Continued through the network of tents back towards where I locked up my bike and saw this display I missed the first time through. The work had a very gestural quality to it, but it was made using bent wire. There were mobiles where each direction produced a new face and there was a large piece on the back of just faces (the artist, Spenser called it "Schizophrenic on Coffee") melding with one another. There were smaller little movable toys and wire birds. I was enthralled. I stuck around for a while and chatted with him on and off between him making sales and me admiring the 3D skull earrings. We talked about octopuses.

At about 8:30, my fingers well and truly numb I decided to ride home. Second time today I made that trip. On the way back I stopped several times to take more night shots of the city. People were really nice about it as they walked past. No one mugged me or looked like they would mug me.

So from 6-9:15 I was out and about and freezing cold but like I said, exhilarating and worth it! I'd like to bike at night some more if I didn't worry so much about drunk city drivers.

Oh and in drawing we drew boxes for three hours. I thought I had bested that old foe but it rose again. The platform was what gave me the most trouble; I want to take an axe to its irregular angles.

hugs and mambas

The darkroom is really taking it out of me. Got my negatives and the teacher just looked over the contact sheet and said most of them were not that interesting (yay another roll to shoot/develop in a couple days). The ones that were interesting had these spots on them that looked to be caused by the developing process, which doesn't make much sense because it was Pro Photo and I'm not sure if it is the Pro or the Photo part of their name but they should be capable of doing nice prints. I did like some of the contrast on the lavender shots but her whole "not interesting" comment left me with a bad feeling for the whole class period. Maybe I should just take pictures of things I like instead of looking for what she wants. The things she wants should be present in pictures I take that I find interesting, they should be present in any good photo, huh? Probably another week or two in the darkroom left. AHHG.

I missed the morning rain shower (also apparently the shuttle bus didn't come) and the afternoon rains as well. I had a plastic bag to put over my seat so it didn't get wet and in turn make the seat of my pants wet as I rode. Smart thinking. I'll have to ride in the rain eventually. When the day comes, I'll just bring a change of clothes.

I worked through a large portion of lunch in the darkroom. Chatted with Jim during the span of time it took me to eat my egg salad sandwich.

Ran into Michael on my way to Time Arts. He gave me a little sideways hug that really made me feel better (I think he detected I was fairly miserable). Then Mel swooped out of nowhere and poked me with her umbrella, I in return poked her with my cellphone antenna. Michael got out of there before he got poked. Hahaha. Dropped off my stuff and went and got some sweet to make myself feel better.

Time Arts was spent drawing pages for my animation, eating Mamba's (Mambo's?), and watching animation shorts and talking about common traits in video. I am 1/3 of the way done with my animation, I don't know how many other people started drawing theirs. All of ours start with a box and we modify it somehow. Mine; a blond climbs a top it and then the box swings forward (sort of like it is on a hinge and she tipped it) and she pitches off it. Right now I am to the part where the box starts to flip. I love her expression and poofy hair. Hee hee. Shared some of my sweets with Diana and Daniel (I believe that if you have treats you should share, even if it just with the people around you).

Lindsay sent me a text saying she had some banana bread from a coffee shop for lunch but it wasn't at all good. Mine was better. Well. Isn't it always?

As I said, I missed the rains coming back. Pretty brisk bike ride.

In my e-mail was a message from mom nagging me about employment and House. Bah!

Lindsay and I trekked down to Safeway and got some Chinese food for dinner. We scarfed it while watching Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Lindsay thinks it would be a great idea for me to go as Trillian as Darwin from the movie for Halloween. I say, two people would get the joke and they would be Sean and Lindsay. I want to see if I can get my costume to work, if not there are other options.

Never, ever will I choose a teacher just because they have a funny name.

I needs the moneys

House is on in 40 minutes. Whoo House!

Brr cold cold day. Brought my big coat and hat and scarf and was plenty toasty for the most part (hands still nippy). No rain during my commute but certainly a lot after.

The power went out twice in Digital Tools. Thankfully I had saved before each power outage so I didn't loose anything. First time was a close call though. My video got all screwed up as I was saving it so I will be starting from scratch. Oh well. Jim lost a lot of stuff due to the outages. There is a lot of construction going on all over Portland. I had to bike through it later today, bah!

Drawing was two point perspective. Okay it is a little more complex than the doodle I did on my arm. Michael, Mollie and I all sat around the Jamison Square Fountain drawing the surrounding buildings. I fashioned a hat out of my scarf as I had lent my hat to Mollie (who has really closely cropped hair). My drawing was very minimal and lightly pencilled in. Drawing geometry is hard!

These Red Bull people were giving out free Red Bull to students during lunch. I grabbed one to give to Lindsay later on.

Got my film from Pro Photo Supply. See Rite Aid, it can be done!

I need a job, I'm not anywhere near any trouble amounts in money lacking I just know it is time to go about getting a job so that I won't be really stressed later on when I need to get a job because I have no money. I am applying at the temp agency Lindsay works through, rode down to the office to make my presence known. Lots of construction zone navigating, uhhg. And it turned out I had to apply online FIRST and then they will call me and schedule a meeting. They said something about needing seven years experience but I don't know the specifics. We will see how it goes.

Stopped in at some stores trying to find the key piece to my Halloween costume. No luck.

Lounged, ate spaghetti with sauce that Sean made and gave me some of the remainder from. Good sauce, just needs to be put through the blender.

House in 30!

one hour photo my TOOKUS

Due to the fuzziness of my TV I can't quite read the subtitles on Heroes. So what exactly is the whole deal with the twins. Crossing the border for the cure and what not? I think I can figure it out on my own but I'm not sure. Both Heroes AND Prison Break both ended with a "whats in the box?" ending. Prison Break has the likelihood of being a part of anatomy from Sarah or LJ (box big enough for a head but I sure hope not). Heroes is, uhm? I dunno...photos? I like Peters new haircut and the fact he has amnesia so he can't remember what a wuss he was. Can't wait for more Sylar, yaaay! Claire descendant of Kensei perhaps? Har har, the Haitian got Mohinder. And I hope Claire smacks that flying kid. Hes outside her window in the middle of the night, that's creepy.

Dropped my film off at Rite Aid at 7:50am.

Review and first exam in Art History today. Knew the importance and era all the pieces were from, just not uhm..the titles. Well, I made up for some of my lack of knowledge with lots of fun facts. I don't feel much panic/fear over it. Felt it went quite well and now I know how she tests (I'll study names a bit better).

After test went to Rite Aid to pick up film at 10:40am. They said the film was really wound tight and they had to go get a special tool to open it.

Went to class without the film that I would be printing that day. Listened to lecture about balance and rhythm. Got back my color assignment (B) and my previous photo assignment (also a B, argh!). Looked over old prints for good examples of line, value, and texture. Went to lunch.

Ate at Hot Lips with Cidney. Blackberry Soda is goood.

Went to Rite Aid at 12:50 for film. Said they couldn't get it open and they were sorry. Biked to Pro Photo Supply on 19th & Marshall and dropped it off. They said it would be ready tomorrow. Argghh. I don't like being behind when I don't have to be. Probably have to put in some extra darkroom time this weekend so I don't get marked down for lack of creativity again.

At least at the end of long Monday there is Time Arts! Whee! My animation looked pretty cool and I have an idea the teacher seemed happy about for my next animation. I really like that class, the people are nice and fun to talk to and Rose Bond gives us a wee bit of a break if our work isn't picture perfect. We are learning new techniques and she gives us a little leeway with that. I feel that I should be better in the darkroom, I don't know why I'm not.

Grr Rite Aid. They should have given me some free candy in apology.

goddamn the rain, goddamn!

Wow, I've had over 50 entries in this blog. Whoo! Hard to believe I've only had four weeks worth of classes. The pacing is similar to Olympic College so it isn't hard keeping up. People whine about having essays due in a week and its like "yeah? and?" for me. More people should take classes at a community college for a year before moving on to a four year. It will give them good college habits.

Today was dreary. Weather wise it was gray and raining on and off. Of course rain was on when I made a grocery trip to Safeway, but it wasn't so bad. A little moisture but I had my leather jacket on so I was dry for the most part. The gray stayed strong but Lindsay and I shared many laughs over various things so it was great in doors. Except for homework.

I always get my homework done and I don't like that I know that. There isn't the worry that it won't get done, just the "uhg I'm going to get this done today" feeling. If that makes sense.

I watched the first hour of Hot Fuzz which took me through my Time Arts assignment. Lounged, laughed, biked and read some history of art. Sean invited us over for burgers and they were delicious. Good to be friends with someone nice and generous. Overly generous really, quality meat is rare in student housing and someone who knows to prepare it is a precious commodity. Sean is awesome. Lindsay and I walked to Safeway to get some sweets, the rain had subsided by then. We got the Stephen Colbert ice cream and the Heath Bar coffee ice cream. Read the rest of my art history assignment in good time. The book uses words like "manly", "flabby", and uses exclamation points when talking about hunts depicted in art. I find it rather silly but it holds my interest. I love the Egyptian stone sculptures. So massive and beautiful. Really majestic and immortal looking. I love how art is one of the few things that lasts.

Mum, you ever find the full poem about damning the rain and whatnot?

Stumptown Comics Fest (or OCTOPUSES GALORE!!)

Yeah so today was the first day of the two day Stumptown Comics Fest. I'm not going tomorrow, had enough UBER FUN today. Highlights: $2 comics at the Oni table, Shannon Wheeler, meeting Christopher Mitten and octopuses EVERYWHERE! Also not going tomorrow because I spent about $20 too much (but it was spent supporting indie people so I don't feel bad. I never buy things at cons and fests that I could buy elsewhere (except for the $2 comics)). But it was great, really close and comfy and lots of super nice people.

I planned to set out at 10, left at about 10:20. Was going to walk to the Max stop in fareless and then just decided to pay for the ticket and got on at the stop in Goose Hollow. Turns out this weekend they are closing down a chunk of the Max line for construction. Course they couldn't do that without giving us options so the shuttle but took us across the bridge lickety split (probably faster than the Max). Got right on the Max again and went to Lloyd and thought, "crap is this where I get off?" But I didn't scoot off in enough time to follow through on the possibility of it being my stop, but luckily for me the next stop was right outside the front door for the Comics Fest so it worked out great!

The fest was only $5 to get in, and was relatively uncrowded when I got there. Did a look checking out everything. I didn't want to browse everything serious during the first walk through because that's how I would end up spending all my money (gotta be specific!). Made my way to the back where Jim's table was but Jim wasn't there, only his friend. So I went back. Ran into Karen at the Oni table and then we saw the prices on the scuffed comics. $2 each or 6 for $10. I got the first volume of Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (it wasn't scuffed it was just on sale) and the first two volumes of Wet Moon. Karen was buying two comics and they said we might as well buy six between us and save some dough so she picked up this Marquis de Something that we both went "ooohh" at the line art in. Shes holding onto it for now, sort of a trade off thing I guess. We parted ways after that, I'll see her Monday. Jason from Floating World Comics had a table. Lots of neat things, but nothing I couldn't just go and buy later.


Octopuses at the Fest:
One girl had this really cute style, big eyes and brilliant colors. One of her prints had this girl with an octopus draped over her. I didn't want to outright buy the print so I bought her postcard collection instead, which had more variety so that was cooler. Plus I don't really have room for lots of prints right now.

Talked to these guys from San Fransisco (at their table). Actually I came to their table several times throughout the day, they were really cute and sweet and I was bummed to find out they were not from around here. The red-head drew an octopus next to his autograph in one of the comics I bought from him (I had previously complimented him on his octopus art in a poster he was selling). The other guy did a quick sketch and wrote "hugs and kisses" next to it. Tee hee.

I bought a mini figurine from this nice lady. She had these two molds; one was a mutant chicken that had a mini-comic accompanying it and the other was an octopus attacking the space ship. You can figure out which one I bought.


Panels:
Carol Lay, Shannon Wheeler (with Stacey Murdock) and Matt Wagner were the major guests at the Fest. I only saw Matt Wagner, I didn't talk to him (I'm not familiar with his work). I love Carol Lay and Shannon Wheeler so I was just tickled that I talked to both of them in person.

Carol Lay's panel was a little under attended which sorta made me sad but I think shes the type that's loved by people that know her work but she isn't so much out there as other cartoonists. She advised me to be bold. And I shook her hand. WHOO!!! Didn't get a picture with her but I'm happy having met her.

Shannon Wheeler and Stacey Murdock did a panel about the Too Much Coffee Man opera. And there is going to be a second one which I will try my darndest to see (just gotta remember to buy tickets around December for the show which is in April). I had a good laugh. Stacey Murdock plays Too Much Coffee Man in the opera and he sung a little from it, quite brilliant. Afterwords at their table they autographed a postcard for the show for me. Booyah!


Autographables:
The first comic I bought was Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star. He was really nice to talk to and warm and friendly. Generally if people were approachable and nice I was more inclined to buy their stuff. Plus he was downright adorable! The comic has great art and I look forward to reading it. He doodled in it and wrote "Thanks Trillian! Hope to read one of your comics sometime! ♥ Kazimir."

Camilla D'errico autographed the postcard book for me.

I chatted at length with John C. Worsley about materials and methods and how he produces his work. he was doing live digital drawing and it was cool seeing his process. He had two issues of his comics and they were both bound really nicely and you could buy the set for $5 so I went for it. His autograph was a simple thanks with his squiggle autograph.

Christopher Mitten was one of several artists at the lengthy Oni table. One guy earlier, a writer, he was nice but I just didn't feel like talking to him right then and there (he apparently works at Floating World Comics on Monday so I'll see him again most likely). The thing that caught my eye about Mitten was Wasteland. It is one of those comics I keep seeing around, on shelves and store fronts. It is a very distinct cover and I said this to him, that it was sort of lurking around. I flipped through his portfolio and asked him about his comic methods and whatnot (he has really nice ink skills). I gave in to fate and got the first volume of Wasteland interpreting it as a sign I must buy it because it keeps showing up (same thing happened for Palahniuk's Rant). When he was autographing it we got to talking about my name. I boasted it being the queen of nerd names and how I once heard a dad refer to his daughter as Arwen. Mitten teased me a little saying Arwen was more nerdy than Trillian. Once I finish Wasteland I'll email him an apology for the name I called him. He signed the book, "To Trillian, Thanks for following the signs! Christopher."

The last guy I talked to, Jeremy Tinder, he had a whole comic about all the mean things he has done. I would read a snippet and look up at him in shock or with a slight glare. Hilarious in the end, I bought the little mini meanness-comic and he drew a self portrait with a speech bubble saying, "blah blah blah" next to it on the inside of it.


It was great, so much fun! I only spent maybe five hours there, the two panels I sat in on were sandwiched between three chunks of time spent wandering and admiring people's octopuses. Saw Michael and Phil from my drawing class, Jim showed up eventually and we had a good chat over coffee (well I had root beer) about comics (like usual). I boinged his curly hair. You know, I lightly grabbed a curl and let it go and went, "boing!". Craig, who I met last night at the movie night, was also at the shindig. We chatted a little and ooed and aaahed over the octopus and chicken figures. He mentioned buying one of the chickens but I don't know if he did.

I feel really inspired to do my own little indie comic to pitch for $5 at things like this.

Road the Max/Shuttle/Max back and relaxed. Our RA was having a little get-together tonight. Hung about, chatted, ate brownies and cookies. Busy day, most of my energy was spent in the afternoon chatting up the comic honeys and looking fabulous.

the man in the (cheesy) mask

Movie night at PNCA. Saw Fantastic Planet and a Japanese movie from the late 60's about a man whose burned and gets a mask for his face and seduces his wife. There was also a tangent about this brother and sister which only made half sense and a scene with a guy talking that was filmed all in x-ray. I keep forgetting the Japanese movie's title, something about a man who gets a mask? Oh and there was a girl with a yo-yo. Fantastic Planet was cool, lovely animation. It was in English and the dub was horrid. I'm glad it didn't end up where the Om went to a new planet and treated the inhabitants there like they were treated. Really really odd three hours. Met some new people and had some free pizza. It is every Friday so that's fun, something to get out and do.

Lazy day. Went to the clinic again to sort out the fax to there to get it to fax to here stuff. As per Moms advice, I crossed left using the crosswalk this time. Really easy. But you know sometimes you just don't think right you are just thinking about going left and you can't think smart.

I could swear I did something between the clinic and the movies but I really don't recall. Hmmn. Oh well.

Oh, right! My stove, some really nice guys came in and swapped out my stove for one that works. One guy was English and the other had lots of piercings and burn marks from his adventures spinning Poi. Another group of people came in earlier to assess the situation with the stove and the sprinkler leaking. Turns out it is probably leaking due to some problem in the drain of the people above me so they have to fix that to fix ours. It only drips when they shower so yeah, drip drip drip in the morning. Gah!

I've been shot!

I just got back from Sean's. Because I was over at Sean's you know we were watching a movie. This time it was Severance. It was great. Just the right amount of scary that doesn't leave me worried about Soviet war criminals lurking outside my window and enough scary to make me go EEE. It was shot really well; the colors were nice and clean with good greens and blues and the darks were nice. Enough character development to make you go "AWW DANG NO" when they died (and I went "AWWW NO" at every one of them, I felt bad every time). Didn't try too hard to be a commentary about weapons companies, sure you could get that out of it but I just found it to be a well put together thriller/suspense/action/sort-of-really-violent movie. Plus it had the guys who played Howard in Death at a Funeral and Gustav Graves in Die Another Day in it. It bugged me every time he was on screen where I had seen them before, yay for the Internet.

We made popcorn in a pan, not from a bag, to enjoy with the movie. Turned out a little salty but it was good.

I wore the nice coat that Jeanette gave me today, it is always cold in the morning and you never know if the gray will stay or leave. It left, and the sun was oh so radiant. Had to lug the big thing around with me all day. Errg.

More audio work in Digital Tools. It is interesting but I am starting to get tired of it. Gordon said we might make zines int he end which I think would be super awesome and cool. This is his first year teaching, I think hes doing pretty well but I am well and ready to move on from Garage Band.

On the way to my next class I ran into Daniel who said class was cancelled due to Arvie being sick (possibly food poisoning). Chatted with Mollie, Michal, and Michael a bit. Michael wasn't quite sure about the specifics of two point perspective so I whipped out a pen and drew a quick little tutorial for him. On my arm. He took my pen and drew two little dots above the drawing and said, "there, now it is a smiley face."

Outside I was unlocking my bike and a nice lady with her bike was looking around for a spot to park hers and I mentioned to her how I was leaving in a minute. She was very grateful even though she probably would have seen me leave, even if I hadn't told her). Nice to be gracious and friendly.

I didn't get halfway down the sidewalk when I encountered Jim and we talked at great length about comics (great length=I'd say 20 minutes?). Noel joined in for a little bit, so many good comic people around here. Very awesome!

After that I went to make my comic run and decided to go up to Trader Joe's (I knew it was on Glisan and somewhere around 20th). Comic run proved successful, sort of. Well the only thing in was American Virgin and Becky Cloonan wasn't the artist for it again and if she isn't doing it anymore I don't know if I can stick with it as I had only bought it in the first place due to her artwork. Story isn't so great, it has it's moments I just don't know what it is leading into. Picked up a couple indie comics on a whim (bad Trillian, whims are bad) but well, you gotta support the indie comic maker. God willing that will be me some day!

It was alllll up hiiiiiillllll to get to Trader Joe's. And it was hooooot. Uhhhg. Got there alright, my fear of biking near cars is almost all gone (not so good at trying to achieve a left turn when I am on the far right side of the road. Got honked at when I did it and I couldn't get enough speed to do it not-wobbly. Ahhhg.). I wasn't really in need of anything from Trader Joe's, I just wanted to see where it was and what they had (also it is fun to adventure). Ended up getting some cheese puffs, jam, and Emergen-C. Biking back was down hill and easy peasy. Got to 13th alright, even though I had to go West on 16th for a bit. No worries about it, I knew I'd find a place to cross eventually.

Relaxed at home for a bit, ate some lunch and kicked back. Did my laundry. The people will be coming TOMORROW to fix our stove/sprinkler.

I had an appointment at the Portland Clinic so I left at 3:00 for that. They were very helpful and kind to me at the desk and at the counter on the 3rd floor. And when it came to giving me my third Gardasil (what I was there for, needed to establish myself somewhere to get the third shot) they did it without the proof I had the first two. I'll call my old doctor and have them fax the proof I wasn't tricking them tomorrow (they closed at 4:00 and I didn't get to the point of getting the shot until 4:15). But yeah, they did it and that was super nice of them! I think they were more willing because I was mellow about the possibility I may not get it today ("oh yeah that's cool, I understand. I live like five minutes away, I can come in whenever right? No biggie.). I know the attitudes that get people behind the desk to be nicer to you, but it wasn't much of a stretch. I'm really happy and content down here. Wonderful place Portland and PNCA.

Went back home, talked to mum and Nathan on the phone. Lindsay and I went to Ole' Ole' for dinner (we needed the hot meal) and I had one of their burritos. It was HUGE and the owner and waiter seemed really impressed that I got through 2/3 of it. Sort of complimented me on my eating prowess almost. Nothing on the menu went over $6 and the food looked great with large portions.

Sean stopped by (he knew we were back because I was went "whooo!" in his open door as we were walking past it in the hall) and I wasn't sure if I was up for a movie tonight but OOOHH I am so glad I saw it.

for the birds

The Audubon Society is doing this fundraiser through Art Media. Basically you fill out a form and get a canvas and draw a bird on it. Then you give them the piece of art and they sell it and keep the profits. They get the money, you get the pleasure of having sold a piece for charity. I'm thinking about drawing that old song from my childhood about the three crows on a wall, or the three craws who sat upon a wa'. Its 6"x6" with nice sides on each side so I think I'll put a few of the lines on each side and the first part on the front. Complete with crows! Wheee!

A lecture and critique was all that went down in 2d Design today. Lots of interesting examples of line, texture, and value, no one really pointed out my work and went "WOW". But then again they weren't the most dynamic of shots.

I had Yo's soup for lunch. Ohh that stuff is GOOD.

In Time Arts was another lecture, this one about animation. Rose really gets into her discussions so they don't really feel like lectures. We put our zoetropes into the animation machine.

I have another roll of film to shoot and some animation stills to draw by Monday. I think I'll start taking my camera with me so I can get more "oh I must take a picture of that!" shots for the darkroom. I'm really proud of myself, I'm no where close to being behind in anything.

I reported the stove/sprinkler thing to the Goose Hollow people. It should be fixed tomorrow.