Category Archives: Personal Blog

Entries from my personal journal

Personal Blog

Loot

Another holiday completed. Christmas this year was very pleasant, in spite of my initial sadness due to lack of Carleton. Crazy family time kept me busy and my mind off it.

I got a few books I’d wanted, some other nice things, and my mom got me yarn (so I can knit her a scarf ¬_¬ ). I enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and spent the evening with some friends from high school I hadn’t seen in awhile.

Now that the holiday is over I am overwhelmed by the fact that I still have a week of break left. I have a feeling I will get little accomplished, as I am very tired.

I am excited about winter term, it should be fun to design props and make puppets and such, and it will be nice to have no evening obligations. However, I feel I’ll spend most of that time sleeping and resting. I suppose there is a possibility I will suddenly become motivated, perhaps work on figuring out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, and all that. So much to think about, so exhausting.

I suppose I’ll postpone thinking about all those big things a bit longer, and just work on thinking about what I should buy with my gift certificate to the art supply store.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Carleton’s visit was awesome. Granted, most of it was spent playing Final Fantasy X, but all the better to have time to waste playing video games. We did manage to make it out to visit all my friends, and had very tasty meals thrust upon us. Granted, I was sad to see him off this morning, but the fact that it’s Christmas helped to cheer me up.

That, and the fact that I still have the rest of Christmas break left! Woowoo! Maybe I will get that site redesign underway…or at least get some cleaning done.

Stay safe and warm on the holidays, everyone!

Personal Blog

Cake!

One final down, two to go. The OS exam was ultimately cake, and I’m glad I studied the Dining Philosophers problem, it made a would-be tricky problem very easy.

Carleton will be here in 7ish hours. So close, yet so far, ack! I want to finish my art history paper in the meantime, and finish cleaning, and study a bit for Compilers…but I’m so antsy and excited!

The term is certainly winding down nicely.

Personal Blog

Politics?

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For people like me, who often have no idea where to even start thinking about politics, this was a nice little quiz. Nice, at least, to give me an idea of where to start researching (and they have helpful informative links! Woo!). Unfortunately, it says that even if your highest scoring candidate is in the 80’s or below, their actions in office will likely disappoint more often than not. Doh!! >_< My results

Personal Blog

Art Rant

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I am taking an art history class. The course is entitled “Northern Mannerist and Baroque Art.” Now, the casual observer might make the mistake of assuming that in this class one would learn about Northern Mannerist and Baroque art. Perhaps you would talk about Mannerism until the middle of the term, then talk about the Baroque the second half of the term. That seems like a logical assumption, right? Ha! Fools!

We started off the class talking about the Northern Renaissance in the lowlands, because, of course, it is important to know about the Renaissance before talking about Mannerism, so you know where it came from. A few weeks worth of classes, actually, just to be sure. Around midterms, we were finally getting into Mannerism in the lowlands, and as we neared its end, with the Baroque and Peter Paul Rubens right on the horizon, what do we do? We go back to Germany. We go back to *before* the Renaissance in Germany.

Then we get into the Renaissance in Germany, and talk about Albrecht Durer. Now, I’m as big a Durer fan as the next girl, and I know it’s important to talk about him to see where later German mannerism comes from, but we spend class after class after class on Durer. Then we touch on German mannerism. Then student presentations.

Now, in the last week of class, we FINALLY get to Peter Paul Rubens. We have two days to talk about the Baroque. TWO FRICKIN DAYS!!!!!!! AGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Be aware this is no new phenomenon. When I took the second art history survey class, which was to cover Medieval to Modern art, we got stuck in the Renaissance again, and barely scraped Baroque at the end. Look, I like the Renaissance and all, I know it’s important, and I know it’s Dr. Levin’s “thing,” but as a senior art major, I feel *severely* under-educated in the realm of art history. Ask me anything about the Renaissance, Italian or Northern, and I can probably answer, but Romanticism? Impressionism? Modernism? I am utterly clueless.

And it pisses me off.

But, alas, such is one of the disadvantages to going to a teeny tiny liberal arts college. I wish Sheldon could have taught an art history class. Art history with Sheldon would have been an awesome adventure, if museum trips with him is any indication of his presentation of the material.

Bleh

*end rant*

Personal Blog

For Really Real Life

Another tasty Thanksgiving dinner complete. Hooray! It’s always nice to see my family, especially since I’m in school and don’t get to see them much. In spite of all my fears about graduating, today I’ve been feeling pangs of want to be out of school. I want to clean out my room and Stuff Collection and sort and throw things out. I want to clean the basement and set up a workplace down there. I want to go through things, and see what can be given away. All these things would take a longish, extended-stay-at-home time that I’ve been craving for awhile, though.

Talking to the puppet folk at UConn left me in high spirits, but I’m certainly going to have to spend a good amount of time, a year at the very least, building a portfolio. Whether I do this by getting a related job (John Hickman worked for a puppet place in Tennessee for a year and suggested I check it out) or working on my own (can’t wait for Dave and Brendan’s combined playwriting efforts to complete, wee!) I do not know.

There are all these looming things about my student loans if I don’t go straight to grad school, and I’m going to have to find some way of supporting myself in the meantime. I’ve considered looking into places that need digital image database work done, since that is the sort of work I’ve been doing for the college’s slide library. Just have to find a place with a need, I suppose.

At any rate, I’m not as panicky as before. I would fret and fret about my senior show, and Sheldon would comfort me not to worry too hard about it (but his method of doing this was pointing ahead to post-graduation, which I should spend more time worrying about) but I’ve stumbled upon something that could make for a good exhibit. So no, though I’ve made at least 5 glass armadillos, that certainly won’t be my senior show (it was a good method of clearing my mind), color fade vases might be the right direction.

I still have much to meddle with and figure out, but I think things are going to be okay. It’s just that, after spending your whole life looking ahead to these very short significant time slots–grade school to high school, high school to college–looking ahead and seeing “the rest of your life” waiting ahead is rather intimidating. At least I’m not in the boat alone.

In lighter news, some friends from high school are visiting tomorrow, and I am very excited to see them all. It’s been a year since I last saw any of them, and I’m looking forward to catching up.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Personal Blog

Burrrr…

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It’s coooooooooold in Connecticut (or maybe just in the house). So, my trip up here went smoothly, in spite of last minute planning changes and Carleton’s phone dying before I finished giving him directions to Ali’s apartment where he could pick me up. Madness and Chaos! But all turned out well.

I saw The Christmas Carol and was very impressed with the puppetry, especially the Marley puppet, very cool! Ali introduced me to the puppetry people before the show, and Carleton’s friend Frankie showed me around the puppet lab afterwards. Everyone was very friendly and informative. We also stopped by UConn’s puppetry museum, which currently has an exhibit of works by students and alumni. It was very cool. One UConnite did puppets for Pinwheel, and as I turned the corner to see great, green, glaring Ebinezer T. Squint, I nearly melted with Nostalgia, exclaiming “Ah! My childhood! My CHILDHOOD!” and weeping. Anyway, I got to see the puppet lab and talk to the puppet people and got lots of information and made lots of connections. It was a very successful day.

Yesterday was a lazy just-hang-out day, the bulk of which was consumed by the extended version of The Two Towers. It was very good (and very long) and full of lots of little helpful explanatory tidbit scenes. Today and Tomorrow Carleton has to go in to Hartford to do work, so I am using the time to catch up on my glass sketchbook and such. Being on break is soooooo nice.