Tag Archives: centre

I hate leading zeros

Ultimately, I suppose it’s been a good week. Discounting a few things, of course, like the fact that I did not finish my comp sci project that’s due tomorrow. When I have to make a decision between pulling an all-nighter to get something done and not getting it done, I opt for sleep, it’s more important. No worries here.

Meanwhile, Kay, the hard core grad assistant at the studio who happens to be my glass partner, convinced me that instead of dividing up 4 3-hour slots to half an hour each, we should each take 2 slots and work the whole 3 hours. My first long slot is tomorrow, we’ll see how it turns out x_x

This weekend has potential to be very nice or rather dull. A large chunk of my friends, namely Sam, Will, Meghan, and Flora are going to be off to some enviro-theatre conference, while Ken and Evan go to Louisville.

I’m trying my hardest to convince Brendan to have a sketchbook party with me Saturday night, since we’ll be the only ones about. Brendan is my hero.

Friday, even he will be gone, so I’ll be all by myself. No worries, though, i need some time to myself to get some things done, me-time is always nice to have. So it seems the weekend will balance on the thing line between pleasant, calming rest or boredom, we’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, Ken has joined the fray.

Will Johnston Doesn’t Believe in Binomial Nomenclature…

Tonight we had auditions for Shenanigans, the improv troupe of which I belong to here at my college. It was a great bunch of people, very talented, very witty, and a million times better than last year’s audition lot. Until this I’ve never been in a position where I had to take part in the casting process of something, and it’s quite tough!

Narrowing it down was a tough call, and we let many people go to “simmah in da pot” for a year, in hopes that they’ll try out again next year when all the Shenanigans seniors graduate this year.

They were good. Better than me by far, and sometimes I *still* wonder why I’ve been kept in the group up to this point. I don’t consider myself particularly quick-witted, all of my humor comes in 10 minute blocks at the very least. Granted, I’ve had my moments, I was particularly proud of my 1 minute speech on Polly Theism, but I just don’t know. Perhaps I’m good to play off of? I don’t know.

So, our goal is to beef up our performance frequency, and after this year the infamous Will Johnston will turn the project over to D Flo, and then we’ll have to find capable hands to leave it in after we graduate…

…after we graduate. Good God, I’m graduating next year.

::runs to the bathroom to hurl::

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Since I alone make up the painting III class this term, I’m being bombarded with independent projects left and right. Whereas the painting II kids are doing an extended self portrait, I have chosen to do an extended self portrait smiling.

You see, anyone who’s tried a self portrait knows that their default expression is “concentration,” and it just so happens that my “concentration” face is also the same as my “demonic possession going to eat your soul” face. This is a hindrance because, in spite of what anyone may tell you, I’m not a demonic soul-eater from day to day.

So I thought, dammit, I’m going to make a portrait of myself smiling for once, maybe I’ll have an easier time making it look like me. It seemed just the challenge (painting someone smiling is rather difficult to pull off). Well, after a rough, preliminary painting sketch tonight, I’ve found that not only am I more recognizable, but smiling the whole time also has beneficial side effects. I’M IN SUCH A GOOD MOOD!!!

Here I was dreading and whining having to go paint tonight, and instead, I’m all cheerful and skipping-round like. This project is going to be the most enjoyable one yet. Hooray for loosely proven psychological hypotheses! Hooray!

I’m going to the store and I’m going to buy…

The Wednesday-Thursday block is an important time for me. I have no classes after lunch on Wednesdays, no blow slots Wednesday nights, and no classes Thursday. Thus, I have a huge block of free time that is perfect for getting homework and projects finished. I had it all scheduled out, down to the hour, from after dinner until dinner tomorrow. First I would paint, then Calculus for an hour or so, then start early on my Comp Sci project due next week, then plan in my glass sketchbook.

I began my schedule by promptly dropping the whole thing and playing Halo all day.

However, the day was not totally unproductive. After a few rousing battles, the Halo Crew (or Krew, as Brendan puts it) made a trip to Walmart (with a brief stop by the pet store to get crickets for Ken’s frog). I’d been needing to go anyhow. We bought, among other usual grocery items, a plastic mullet. I’m sure that’ll be popping up more than once.

The moral of the story is: I’m a slacker. I’ll have to be extra diligent tomorrow to make up for all the crap I didn’t get done.

Aforementioned Halo Krew:

WHO’S HALO MASTER NOW?? Well…still Ken, BUT…

Halo Stats:
-I won, I actually won! I can’t believe it! I beat Ken and D Flo, blam blam dead boom win!! Wooooooowoo! Of course, they punished me by not letting me have the big screen on top anymore and by ganging up on me as much as possible. Punks.

Morg–I totally empathize about the move/aim synchronization thing. It took me FOREVER to get it down, and I still get confused sometimes!

In today’s news, I had to sacrifice a pair of pants. You see, it is physically impossible to step into the painting studio without getting paint on you, and I need a new pair of painting pants. My other painting pants are a pair of jeans which I’ve had for 6 years, barely held together by weak threads, homemade patches, and the unholy powers of all the dark clerics in the land. So it’s time to doom another pair to a life of being consumed by paint day after day.

I had two pairs as candidates, both of which I use in glassblowing, so they’re a little rugged, but nothing I can’t keep clean. On the one hand, I have the green pants, and I love the green pants. They’re my favorite green pants (at one time, I would’ve followed up with “they’re my only green pants,” but this is no longer true). On the other hand, I have the black pants, which I also love, but which I also use as tech ninja pants. You can’t dash around behind stage like a good tech ninja with luminous splotches of white gesso all over your clothes.

So, after much turmoil, I’ve decided to condemn the green pants, as I noticed I got a little sliver of gesso on them already. No worries, though, they will still be loved, just not wearable outside the context of the art barn.

Said green pants..

By the way, thanks for the welcomes, all!

Dun dun dun

Well, here I am! Special thanks to Synnabar for hookin me up, and to those who suggested, peer pressured, or used idle threats to convince me to start a journal.

In recent news, I have a nasty burn on my forearm from glassblowing, my partner accidentally bumped the steel jacks I was using, and one of the blades smacked my forearm. Ouch! No worries though. Another day, another battle scar.

I think I’m finally recovering from the Centre Plague, which seems to run rampant at the beginning of each year. I’m in the coughing/sneezing phase, and thanks to Kim providing me with tasty tea and sudafed, and for the Rhodes Hall crew for letting me turn their living quarters into a health spa, I’m on the mend.

Current Halo stats:
-Ken still reigns as undisputed champion
-I beat D Flo once, and I’ll never let him forget it
Brendan still yells at me for looking at his part of the screen, a technique I developed in my Mario Kart days and still think is a perfectly legitimate survival skill in first-person shooters.
-I’m getting better. No, really! I promise!

I think that’s a reasonable first post. Stay tuned for more bite-sized pieces of life!