The Looong Weekend Ahead

Holy crap, I just realized that I don't have class again until Wednesday. That's, almost a full week from now. I only had the one class this morning...

Alright, alright. I DO have one hour of drawing class tomorrow. Right across the street from where I live. Right across the street from where I am right now. Yep, yep, I just checked, and from where I'm at on the sofa in the lounge, I can see that the door to the classroom is open right now for some reason. Just, left open.

Okay, here's how it goes, working backwards from next Wednesday:

This morning I had typography class. I woke up 7:55 for an 8:00 am class, threw on jeans and a white button-up short-sleeve over my pjs, slipped on shoes without socks on (all my socks were dirty anyway) and headed out the door, making it on time. That was my only class today.

I had time during that class to get back home to grab my thumb drive, and time after that as well to slip into the men's room and remove my pajamas from underneath my overwear.

Near the end of the class, anyway, there was an announcement, in the form of good-news bad-news. The revelations held in this order: Brother Franson's wife is getting surgery, a minor operation... but still major enough to warrant him not holding class next Tuesday. No typography class Tuesday, no class at all Tuesday.

No class Monday, Independence Day. Obviously. (I wonder how they celebrate that over here...)

No class over the weekend.

No Art 201 tomorrow morning, either. Can't recall why. Still Art 108 for an hour, but it's just an on-campus meet-up for an online class. Which meetup location, as I mentioned, I a, lookinh sy noe.

I can touch-type, I swear. Just, harder to do when you're craning your neck from your reclined location to peer out of the window across the street.

Also, there was no Religion 200 class yesterday. There was homework due- I managed to get one assignment done, but... apparently, as well, that class doesn't accept late assignments, so that thing last week where I missed turning in three whole assignments... I'm so hosed in that class...

Anyway, how things. I, uh, I'm just leaving the post intended as the day before yesterday's post up as yesterday's post (stupid clock on the computer caused me to be a minute late; I've since synced it from the internet and the time is now reset to accuracy.) And the day before that, I'm leaving before that. Figured it was easier just to fill something in for the day before rather than write some post yesterday to fill in the gap; as for what that gap will be filled with, hmm...

Nick Chinlund!

My A Goofy Movie kick continues, with this video we watched today in Animation Workshop I guess?

Man, I have to do a second post today; I already did one at three this morning... which counts as yesterday's post. Which I poured a lot of soul and blood into, by the way. It just got saddled with kind of a crappy name is all. So for today's post I have chosen a name that could never be crappy.

I say we watched the video above in Animation Workshop, but you know how much time I spend in the Spori downstairs computer lab the other length of the hall from the Workshop. Usually I've got something to scan or some reason to be there, but I just like the company there as well- a bunch of highly motivated illustration majors always working on some project of another.

Frequently also, there's Netflix but anyway, with art-ing going on generally on the Cintiq tablets on the main computer screen there's reference material, maybe photos, maybe the GIS of the work of an artist who's awesome at concept sketches or color or whatever. Sometimes professional, sometimes insanely talented fresh graduates whose names we know by heart they're just that good.

There was a whole spate of awesome, those, featured this evening, here, as winners of mentorships at Motivarti.
https://motivarti.org/2016/03/21/congratulations-spring-2016-mentees/

Also featured this evening, this academy for learnin' how to illustrate:
http://2d.cgmasteracademy.com/

That should tide you. Check 'em out.

Other Things; You May Also Like

My computer's clock is 81ish minutes behind right now, for some reason, which is super confusing and wreaked all kinds of shenaniganage with my schedule today. I think that Google is following my computer's local-time lead?, which means that although it's past midnight here I've got plenty of time according to what the timestamp of this post is going to say, because I've always got until 1:00 am here in Mountain Time before it registers as midnight and thus the next day Pacific Time. So I've got until 2:21. Pretty sure.

I've scanned my receipt from Barnes and Noble, from the IF trip Saturday, for some reason? Maybe it's to prove a point. Maybe it's to show off my comic collection. Maybe it's to show off how much I'm willing to pay for my comic collection.

But, no; I think it's because I love how vaguely passive-aggressive (?) B&N is about pointing out how much you would have saved had you been a member of their program.

And now I'm going to talk about the stuff on top, because I scanned it in upside-down on accident, and I wanted to get to it second. "You may also like." Dead Presidents, Mica was recommending on the car trips there and back; I already own Squirrel Power of course, so, I do also like. Thank you, B&N. You're quite astute. That's a pretty dope feature, book recommendations coming with your books. But that's not why I bring it up.

"You May Also Like." I've been watching a lot(ish) of Talks at Google lately, mostly Brandon Sanderson Patrick Rothfuss that kind of thing, but this is one from earlier just this month with Tom Vanderbilt being interviewed about his new book. Not really about the algorithms that go into calculating suggestions, which is disappointing, but it's still fascinating stuff I was actually going to stick as an unrelated EDIT at the tail end of, Sunday's post I think, one of those short ones.

And then there was this thing I'd been going to append to that as well. That's right; I'm incorporating into this post a post which was to have been incorporated into the other post. I've been sitting on this for far longer, and actually I bring it up because part of the video reminded me of it. The idea is found passim throughout the talk, but mentioned directly when the questions open up for the audience, 34:00, about how the heck the culture of internet affects culture and taste... this strip of Wondermark, which I'd written a post on more than a year ago, possibly even longer ago than that.

So I said this, with the brackets new additions editing my unpolished idea vomit-to-make-sure-it's-on-paper: "if there is anything you can say, David Malki! has already said it in a far more [anything!]-tastic way. Click to enlarge I suppose. [Or just find it here] https://wondermark.com/461/ "

From my original draft, I'd been going to mention something about furries in here?, but "it is pretty nice to know of the existence of say the furry fandom," the only thing written after the strip expo, was as far as I got, and I've got no idea where I was going to go with that, or if that was where I'd gotten to from somewhere else, or what.

It is a good question, how much we can "enable" one another, or how much we bottle ourselves up, or how much we don't care what others think, and... I still can't find the best way to express this concept in words. It's on the tip of my tongue, always, but like a snowflake there; as soon as I try to do anything with it it vanishes.

I had on my mission, not a companion but a roommate, a friend, whose mother allowed the elders to let loose at her house. They need to let off the pressure now and again, she'd explained; we need to be supportive of them and allow them to, be themselves, or whatever. Is what his mom said.

That elder got sent home early, for innumerable naughtiness. I didn't choose very good role models, the first half of my mission...

I was talking about furries, anyway. Snowflakes on the tongue. Enabling-ness. I scanned the receipt up above of TPBs-and-Dresden; what I didn't scan was the receipt for all the Zootopia books I also got at B&N. Or the Zootopia merch I got from Hastings, the receipt from that, either.

Is Zootopia, as mainstream as it is, itself Wild Times? Is it an enabling factor?

Certainly I've done things I never would have done otherwise (old saw: the mask doesn't hide our true nature, it reveals it); what does that even mean, though?, and now you know I'm acting uncharacteristically, to declaim that any form of behavior, whether human, animal, vegetable, or mineral, would be uncharacteristic of me. Either way, though, it's not every day where I unironically (or, ironically, for that matter) walk down the street with a little beanie on with animal ears sticking out... It's a Nick Wilde knit cap, tag still attached, because I hadn't been expecting to go out in public, but... there I was... nonetheless.

...and <sigh,> I hadn't been going to bring this up...

I got drive-by cussed at. Not the first time this has happened, someone swearing at me from a moving vehicle at the intersection; at least that time with the giant zucchini I'd know the car was there and was jamming along to its 90s-adult-alternative tunes (there's, just, a lot of stuff I hadn't mentioned about the context in which that brief "thanks!" debate took place.) Here, the cussing came out of nowhere, from a vehicle more swiftly traveling, and it scared the stuffing out of me. Could've been the car itself slamming into me, you know, and it would've been poof, candle out. Mementoes mori (I think it takes an internal pluralization) are good; any one of us could get sniped through the jugular at any moment, or be ground zero to an unheralded nuclear strike, or maybe time will just freeze and forget to thaw. Get startled. It could be your death.

But then it turns out instead to be some jerk who doesn't like to see you dress even partially as an animal in real life. And gosh darn it they might be right.

I... I don't think that the internet clock is based on my laptop's local time. Well shoot.

Some Posts Have Obvious Titles Which are Also Clever. I Can't Think of One of Those for This Post, which is Just About Monday, and the Beatles

Listening to the Beatles' White Album in the background right now. I don't need this trippy insanity, "here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul"; I watched the Three Caballeros earlier today, I already feel like I'm on (ALL THE) drugs. But I'm keeping it on. It's a good album.

We've always got something to say if we're open and honest; I don't feel like I've got much to be dishonest about, but what I do have right now that I can be honest about is just schedule stuff, which isn't very thrilling even for me. Especially not for me; I'm the one who's got to get all the errands done that I need to get done, and Tetris them together throughout tomorrow. 

Positives: no reading for Ancient Temple Texts class, not much reading for Eternal Family class; Typography assignment completed and just the reflection module to be filled out. So those waters should be facile to gondolier fo sho.

(Facile to gondolier? Do I talk like that? I think like that, by now, man.

It's a learned trait. I practice hard at it.

Sometimes it works better than others.)

Rockier (Raccoon!) waters, (and the spellcheck suggestion is unironically wondering if I meant Rocket with no thought that I'd be referencing the Rocky,) rockier waters anyway, would be: I've got like four or five paintings that I need to complete tomorrow. So I'd better tuck in so that I can begin on those in the morning.

CBW Idaho Falls Trip II

I hope that getting that project worked on, as detailed in yesterday's post, was worth it. Because finishing that up just before 11:30 local time, then turning around just after to realize that I'd had three separate assignments for my Eternal Families class due 11:30 which I'd managed to overlook, I am just... not very good at getting assignments turned in for that class. What's the policy on late work, I'm going to have to look up again...

Today was the semestural (like annual except once a semester I guess?) Comic Book Workshop trip up to Idaho Falls. I've been anticipating this day for weeks, months even. Because here in Idaho, going from a smallish city to a slightly largerish city is a major occasion (though the size of Idaho Falls sure beats the crap out of the size of any of our little cities in northern Nevada... barring, you know, the biggest.)

I've been saving up my money for a couple of weeks too. Selling my blood plasma as frequently as I can, not buying any groceries for a couple of weeks. This week and last, they've had a (promotion?) thing where you get an extra $10 for donating the second time in a week, and I tried to get all over that. Made sure to get in there yesterday morning, just in case something went wrong like if my protein levels were too low, and I wouldn't have been able to donate (and make that sweet moolah) yesterday, I'd be able to go in today, this morning before the trip.

Which, turns out to be exactly what happened. Having that food from the picnic, the last of my fish and SPAM and yogurt, all for breakfast to make sure that I'd have enough blood protein... my blood protein levels were 1% of a (gram? milliliter? whatever unit of measurement they use?) too low, and, so... well, luckily I'd planned for this; that's why I'd gone in on Friday. I could still go in this morning, just making sure to wake up early to have breakfast and ensure a spot in line that would get me through before the departure time of 10:00.

Only, now I had no food left, to make sure my protein levels were within parameters. So. It cut me to do so, but this was an investment; I spent $10 on really fancy super-high-in-protein protein bars; the extra $10 bonus for the second donation in the week was just on top of the added regular bonus for the second donation in a week. With the awesome protein bars for breakfast, there was no way I'd have that problem this morning.

My hemoglobin* levels this time, rather, were 1% under parameter. Which I didn't even know was a thing they tested for.

Well.

Like Skottie Young has Gertrude say in "I Hate Fairyland," fluff my life.

That's alright, though. I still had... other money... just, y'know... not two-bonuses-on-top-of-each-other money. So, that's okay. Now just to figure out what to do with the couple hours' worth of time I hadn't foreseen being free. Just, whatever. Work on a project or two, get a haircut you want to look nice you're going out. The time passes well enough, and I'm out the door 9:35 to make sure I'm there (the Spori building literally just across the street from where I live) on time by 10:00.

And we can't go. There's only one ride, and we need at least two, and we don't want to leave half the people behind, going together or not at all, and our second ride is absolutely nowhere to be found and totally incommunicado.

Like Skottie Young has Rocket say in "Rocket Raccoon," krag my life.

There's texting and emailing going on, last-ditch efforts to see if any of our bevehicled roommates is awake yet and also without anything planned for the morning, but meanwhile we're preparing ourselves to be let down gently if it turns out those fall through, but it wouldn't even matter if three of us drop out, and I'm put at a dilemma: there's a whole chunk of money, more than $50's worth, that I don't have right now** ($50's? Or would it be... $50'...? because, that'd be pronounced, "fifty dollars," which would take a postpositional apostrophe, plural with an "s" already, but, the dollar sign is put prepositionally...) The dilemma comes from this: meanwhile, Rob Daviau's SeaFall from Plaid Hat Games is now available for preorder, which is gonna be sickdope, and Plaid Hat Games offers free shipping for orders greater than $100 which is all right because there's also new Ashes stuff to get not to mention the new Dead of Winter expansion, so... do I really need to spend my money at Hastings and Barnes and Noble and wherever we go to eat, or do I just drop out even though I've been looking forward to another trip to Idaho Falls since basically last semester?

I don't think it was our very last last-ditch effort that paid off, but the story's more dramatic that way so let's say yes.

Our ver last-ditch effort pays off. And we have a second ride.

We'd planned on leaving 10:00; 11:25 was our actual departure time.

We ate at 5 Guys, is where we wound up going. That "yeaah yeaah yeaah yeaah" song the internet depicts as He-Man singing and whose name slips my mind right now, that plays on the radio while we're in line. There's a good solid decent explanation why we didn't crash Taylor's family's picnic either, which also slips my mind, though I wouldn't be at all surprised if it had to do with the interest of time.

We go to Hastings first. I can't tell whether that place is heaven or hell. There was Zootopia merch there that I didn't even know existed. My aching wallet. I had to pass up on anything non-Zootopia there. The Marvel TPBs I caught at Barnes and Noble for a better deal anyway, but for now, it looks like I don't have a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Or Ke$ha's Warrior, even though that was on sale and I probably won't find for cheaper anywhere else. That's a (surprisingly?) fluffing good album (Born This Way wasn't the only album I checked out from the library experimenting with music taste.)

Aside from the TPBs and the merch stuff, from Barnes and Noble I also got a copy of "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher. Because holy crap Harry Dresden.

What merch did I score, anyway? POP Vinyls, 2 of 'em, 'cause BOGO 50% off (though no actual, you know, Bogo.) Nick and Flash; Flash was also one of my two Funko Mystery Minis. Also, a couple of those little action figures that come two to a pack, one larger and posable and the other smaller and not. I got one that didn't appear to be anywhere at Walmart, McHorn and "Safety Squirrel"; I also misestimated the other one that I don't have yet, and got another Clawhauser and "Bat Eyewitness" instead of the Kevin and Mr Big that was also available there (really, though, can you have too much Clawhauser?) Speaking of Mr Big, there was also a plush of him (which I don't think I knew existed though actually I may already also own,***) and he was the other of my two Funko Mystery Minis. Nick and Judy hats, and Nick and Judy doll that say things when you press them, and... I'd thought that people were going to tell me that I have a problem, when they saw all the stuff I got, but the comments were more along the lines of, how awesome I am.

I'll accept that.

Not to mention the new books. A couple I already own, as well, though not in these new formats.
Barnes and Noble exclusive edition of the Junior Novelization? Yes please.

I've been gearing up for this for a semester, saving up for it for, as long as I'd thought I'd be able to get away with it. They expressed feelings of, how they wished they had the kind of money I do, but it's all in money allocation (it's called, I eat a lot of oatmeal (fiber ftw.)) Also, when crap goes bad at the Biomat for me, it's usually a less-than, like the one last week I didn't tell you about till now because, it's just a less-than, and I'm still able to donate again within 8 weeks unless another one happens. Poor Mica; got a greater-than yesterday and won't be able to donate for a couple of months...

Other stuff that happened today: Mica GMs Mutants and Masterminds, which is like D&D but with superheroes. They told us about it on the car trips, and, told us where they hold it and invited us to drop by. From 5:00 till 7:00 I did just that. They had a character pre-supplied for me: Sentinel, the flying brick (not literally, of course; that'd be weird.) It was pretty dang fun; maybe I'll be back next week. But that's a week from now.

For now, though. It's going to take a while ('specially with the $50+ I didn't earn this week and the $50+ I'm going to spend on Plaid Hat) to refill my spending pool; it's going to be a mad scramble to get my Color and Design homework done at the same time as the other art for the card project; it's probably going to be living sheol to make up all the dang Eternal Family class stuff I've missed over the semester. But for now, life is good, I don't / won't regret any / many of my purchases, and I forget the third thing, but I'm fairly certain it had something to do with naps.

Astronomical Paintings

I really want to get an early start tomorrow. I'd been, all, like, going to do that, you know? Just about to head to bed. Till I realized, crap, gotta post today.

I already spent all afternoon working on this project, so I figured, why waste any more time, just show 'em that. It's lucky that it also just so happens to be that I'm super proud of my accomplishment on these. That's, you know, fortunate.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gw0ci7qpc409g01/card_backs.pdf?dl=0

The Previous Gallery Exhibit

Today was the first day of a new exhibit at the Spori gallery. Last semester I never got to go to any of the exhibit open houses, but did attend many live events on-campus; this semester I haven't been to any live events, but have been to a couple of the receptions.

I am way too busy/tired right now to get you photos, but do have them- of the last reception. Which was a retrospective of the sculptural work of Professor Geddes, my 101 teacher last semester who's retiring/retired and going on a senior mission with his wife to France.

And this exhibit... it's not of Professor Geddes's work. That one's over; it's no longer being displayed. Was bound to happen eventually. It still kind of stings. Heading in, though, it sure looked like them from behind, Brother Geddes and his wife, leaving the exhibit as I got up to the building...

Picnics: Like Panics, but with an Interjection of Understanding Instead of an Indefinite Article!

All right.

I can do this.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I'm volunteering for, a chunk of hours, at this... picnic, thing, or something? All I know is that there's free food, which is truly the desire of my heart.

Saving up my money all for the Comic Book Workshop Idaho Falls trip on Saturday. Not having gone grocery shopping in weeks, or making any expenditures (save hitting Zootopia at the Paramount 5 a week ago. Again.) The most variety I'm getting into my diet is adding peanut butter and jelly to my oatmeal. It's delicious, obviously, but, other than what I've managed to scavenge all I've been eating lately is what I've already got. I still have a little milk. I still have a little Spam. I still have a little Greek yogurt. I have four fish fillets (serving size: 3 fillets) and one English muffin (serving size: 1 muffin.) All that stuff, it's going to last me, maybe a meal and a half. That's fine; I do have loads of oatmeal...

Potatoes may have kept Mark Watney alive, but that doesn't mean he had to like eating them.

The picnic I've signed up to volunteer at tomorrow (oh yeah that reminds me, there was that barbeque last Saturday that I went to too) should refill my coffers, tide me over until I can make post-spree damage assessment of the upcoming trip. (We're going to Barnes and Noble this semester as well, not just Hastings. As for food on the trip... we did go to IHOP last time, which was great, but apparently this time Taylor's family is having an open-to-the-public family reunion with food that happens to be right where we need it, when we need it? I wouldn't mind paying eating out (part of the experience after all) but, we'll see how that turns out.)

Sounds good so far. But...

But my Art History class always finds the worst place to have tests due. I can take it Friday or Saturday, to be sure- but do I have time for it on Friday? I usually do it Saturday, but I did shoot for Friday last time, a few weeks ago... aiming for Friday this time, incidentally, also in preparation for the trip this weekend; I wanted to be sure that I had time in the morning Saturday to get some work in for pay, helping out with some apartment thing. And make money. I cut it too close to hit the testing center Friday, though, got in Saturday morning... from hour to hour we rot and rot, anyway. Thereby hangs a tail; it's a long story in other words. It ends either way with me not being able to make it to work nor truly even wanting to.

This test is of course on top of other stuff which is also due, just normal homework stuff but it never stops happening, and every time I think that I've got the whole future of every visible upcoming assignment in my view, along comes a hairy eight-legger like this and sends me into a panic attack about how the stuff that needs done is going to take me maybe even as long as a whole hour each and I've only got a few days to get them done oh dear oh dear.

Seriously, you know how obnoxious it is to plan ahead all the tasks that need done, without having the skills or even desire to plan actually getting any of it out of the way?

Things We Talk to Ourselves About

The News: "Anton Yelchin is dead."
Me: "But he'll get better, right?"

Taco Bell Diablo Sauce: "Can't even take it."
Me: "Hmm. I guess this is pretty spicy. Naming yourself after the Prince of the Air himself, though, that's pretty extr... OH GOSH THE HEAT. LIQUID LIQUID RIGHT NOW. OHHH GOSH I'M SORRY I TAKE IT BACK."

...Me at the CD rack at the district library earlier today: "Hmm, there's sure a lot of Florence+The Machine albums here... When am I ever going to feel like listening to Florence+The Machine, though?"
Me IN THE PRESENT LIKE LITERALLY RIGHT NOW: "...man I could go for some Florence+The Machine right now."

FHE at IF

I find A Real Thing really pretty to look at, but almost impossible to read. Continuing to work on a better formatting style with mutual distinguishability between blogs?

Family Home Evening this afternoon was at the bishop's house. On his ranch, in Idaho Falls. I'd thought that there was going to be, food there, and I guess there was an ice cream stick for each of us, but I'd really thought that there was going to be actual dinner for us, which there wasn't. Which is dumb.

Also, getting there, and having it, and getting back, that took like three hours, on a Monday, which is the day where I've always got everything due. I finished one thing, turned it in a minute late, and didn't do that well on it.

So yeah I really hate stuff.

EDIT and now it looks like I got this post in a minute late too. Maaan.

Juneteenth

Formatting with justification on the latest A Real Thing worked well; I guess I'm now using only spacing to differentiate between paragraphs?

All our messianic figures are aliens. That's kind of weird. Isn't it? Are we really that uncomfortable with the idea of Christ being like us, of our own innate Christlikeness, that we have to place a filter or two between us and our supermen? Or is there something deeper that I'm not grasping? Or, is there something shallower? Superman, of course. Captain America only reflects Superman in terms of patriotism and idealism- to match Supe's powers and messianic symbolism, the Vision is the closest Marvel's got. An android, created by the villain Ultron. That's the guy who represents salvation, who gets the line "I am." Rewatching Age of Ultron yesterday, it's like, we create the things we fear, and Ultron created the Vision. To replace him. To help him... end. We're mad scientists, Stark says, in defense of consummating Vision's creation. We're monsters. He says that to Banner/Hulk, a man who is half mad scientist, half the monster product of his own creation...!

Hulk is the best Avenger.

Age of Ultron is the best Avengers film. As a film, I don't know, I think so there too, though many disagree (these people are what scientists would call "wrong.) But as a film. As a film, it's one of the greatest. Each scene occupies such a complex niche, but it all flows so smoothly you don't even realize unless you start analyzing it. And the dialogue is so tight, during the first fifteen minutes especially (At long last is lasting a little long; I'm going to poke it with something; please be a secret door please be a secret door yay)... when Ultron tries to make out like meteors are pure, boom game over start again, that always seemed kind of shoehorned in, to me, spite of all his talk of extinction it's like, an overjustification of having the climax be a flying city. Ultron, we already know you're insane. Quit rambling about dang space rocks...

That was a weird tangent. I've gone on weirder, of course, but... As long as I'm talking about Hulk, man he's gonna be in Thor: Ragnarok, but we have to wait till after the Spider-Man movie till that comes out. I'm not sure which I'm excited more for. On one hand: Spider-Man. On the other hand: Hulk. On the first hand again: Spider-Man. On the second hand again: Loki! But, Spider-Man? But but, Loki and Hulk, together again?

I guess I'm excited in different ways. I do not want any spoilers any any any for Homecoming, so much so that I'm avoiding the next couple MCU films just in case they spoil anything. (Or at least, asking, first, to see if maybe instead, they set things up.) Thor: Ragnarok, it being what it is, I'm all up on those spoilers. I've even got a few theories as to what's going to happen. (Hulk finally gets to do the "sniff out the real Loki" gag excised from Avengers 1, of course; Quicksilver, having fallen in combat, turns up in Valhalla, and so Banner finally forgives himself for being directly responsible for that death? Because he totally was; him Hulk-flinging Ultron away from getting his head melted in allows Ultron to commandeer that Quinjet, which mows Quicksilver down... I suppose Ultron does have that thing where he, you know, has got more than one body, so it could have been any of the robots... but still.)

So. It's Juneteenth today, and you know what that means... New (final?) installment of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared!†



Oh. This answers everything.

And on Father's Day no less!

(Roy is, Yellow Guy's dad. And methinks the mastermind?)

19th of June also means liberation of slaves, of course. I've been thinking about it a bit. Civil rights. There's been (would have said, there is, but honestly can't remember the last time I heard it, but maybe it still goes on, so...) rhetoric that "gay rights" has only been recently connected as a civil rights issue; maybe the marriage-and-family definition stuff is that way (and maybe that's what was meant; certainly only recently gaining acceptance, as I've will explain* elsewhere) but on a whole of course that's not true.

There's nothing to fight against anymore. Standing up for traditional- not values, but, definitions, cultural structures and orders- that failed, was broken by the breaking waves. It's no longer our duty to ensure society stays glued together; it's now our duty not to be jerks. We're so afraid right now, of losing our religious rights**, I think most Christians have kind of forgotten the whole bit about turning the other cheek and going twain with a Roman, rendering both coat and cloak.

The whole fear is... well, not total bushwa, but... there's way too much justification, of a lot of vile deeds, done in the name of that fear. In the name of it, so, nominally, ostensibly. Ostensibly those are the reasons. There's nothing new under the sun... people kneejerk and assign reasons ex post facto... just basic psychology...

Just read a bunch of (read: two or three) homophobic tweets about, you know, what happened last week. My soul really hurts right now. Don't feel like writing much.

The smart of us throw our hands up in the air and ask why we can't all love each other and get along. But only the wise of us actually attempt to do anything about it.

(I'm smart but lack much wisdom. This is what I do. And this is what I do about it.)

Really feel like I'm making headway with getting writing done. I've almost actually got a plot idea for Finn Michael Moone book 2. Tell you about that tomorrow on A Real Thing, which I haven't been writing at lately but am so excited for that I actually will this week. I say I'm "writing" a lot; I'm (very very very very) much an architect, so as of right now it still just means planning. My favorite book in the trilogy so far is each of them.

Tomorrow's writing at A Real Thing also means that I'll be able to play with formatting over there, so I feel a bit more comfortable with marking paragraphing through just line spacing (for now) over here.

Maybe my soul will feel better in the morning. Right now I'm going to bed. g'night.

Ramble in the Bramble re: Brandbuilding

Man, how tired was I when I wrote yesterday morning's post? More tired than I am now, but... more motivated too, as well, probably. I actually had something clear to report. Right now, right now, this whole weekend, I have not much that need be done. Neither of my religion classes has required reading for Monday; my art classes do have art that needs to be done, but motivation to art specifically for an assignment, it will come when it will come. With nothing to report (not anything that wouldn't have been amazing yesterday, that is, and, you know what, I think I'll just slap an EDIT back there with that stuff when I get around to also backlogging a post to the day before yesterday) I'm going into this post asking myself, if I were a reader of this blog, what would I want to get out of today's post? And the answer to that is, exactly what I've been talking about. I'd been meaning to get not-boring with this post, but if you're reading this blog anyway I figure you must be invested as it is. Even people who are already ahead are just trying to get ahead, and right now (and I'm not sure if I've ever actually done this but) I really don't care much about "building up a brand" or whatever; I just want to be candid right now.* It wouldn't be selling out to build up a brand- that's not what I'm saying. Go on, care about your followers! It's the least you can do, in a world where people so frequently do so much less than the least and still feel entitled to success. "You're not special," David McCullough said, which is totally (going to be) my inspirational quote desktop wallpaper. Branding isn't a bad thing. Sometimes you go into Walmart and your tanks get filled up again with faith that humanity can and does do wonderful things. Sometimes, though, you go into Walmart and your faith in humanity is crushed grisly, -ly. You know what I mean? I've been fortunate lately; the former option (rather than the latter) is what I experienced last time I was at Walmart, yesterday. (Full(er) story in the EDIT to that day's post.) Didn't buy anything; I generally grocery shop at Broulim's and right now I'm saving up my money really looking forward to the Comic Book Workshop's Idaho Falls trip next weekend. Which is really what I wanted to get to this whole time, talk about that; profuse apologies if this post has been kind of rambly. It has, no "if" about it; it has, though I'm sure it would seem a lot less so if there were any, you know, formatting applied to this post. (This new paragraphing style isn't much fun; I'm trying to write this whole post in one paragraph. Which is, also turning out to be not much fun. Nor is it much fun to read, BAM! big wall of text, so, I hope I figure something out soon.) (If you'd notice, though, the first paragraph here is unindented, so, either way I'm keeping that, figure it's good enough practice.) (Justification. I could try to, justify, one of these blogs, to differentiate the styling between the two... though it would fit better on TTDECBA than over here...) Walmart yesterday was, pretty rad (though way overlong as I missed the shuttle bus departure not once but twice) but, just generally lately, I'm feeling more, everyone's-just-trying-to-get-ahead. So. Don't care much right now to do any brandbuilding, just dechesting this from me-wise to you-ward.

3:00 am, 2:00 Pacific

It's 3:00 am where I am, and...
     And it must be lonely?
     Still not totally satisfied with the new formatting. Hunh.
     Looks like it won't be another all-nighter; I'm finished with my poster design already. So I've got time to go to bed. I think I'll do that. As for the fact that I worked right through midnight and thus missed a post yesterday... well, we'll deal with that later.

KFP3

Kung Fu Panda 3 today! Finally got (around) to it. I'd been meaning to see it, but had never been in the mood, even though I knew it'd been supposed to be good. It was just always like, whatever.
     Trying this with 5 spaces consistently, seeing if this paragraphing format works. Anyway. Kung Fu Panda 3. I saw it! Should I have done homework instead? maybe. Should I be doing that now? Or maybe heading to bed? Probably.
     Man I'm not sure about this formatting. Feels claustrophobic. At least to me.
     And I'm still so used to only hitting three spaces for the artificially induced indent. Oh well.
     It's a great movie, anyway. The best, arguably, of a fantastic trilogy (side note: I am so so so so so so so so glad that they didn't actually go through with subtitling the second one The Kaboom of Doom. I'd imagine that then I'd have quite a different opinion on the capabilities of sequel movies in the series to possess quality.) Just wish that I weren't in the middle of experimenting with format right now. I can't really talk about anything comfortably. Nothing personal, R.L. Stein Po. I was praising your movie, anyway.
     It's the most visually audacious film I've seen in my life. It consistently blew my mind and surpassed my expectations (which just kept ratcheting up beyond 11 the further I got into it) as it went along. They pulled out all the stops in designing the montage scenes-- in terms of stylization, I can't think of a single genre they didn't ape, and gloriously. And always, always when I thought, there's no way they're going to top this shot with the next shot, I was proven wrong.
   I got an Art of Zootopia book just for the Zootopia... now I really am considering getting an Art of Kung Fu Panda 3 just for the art. Because hooooooooly craaaaaaaap.
    Did... did that previous paragraph have only an indent of 3 spaces? Man this is tough.
     And that paragraph had only 4 spaces! *sigh.* Man, now I forget what I was- oh that's right. We've got sites like TV Tropes that tell us the tropes of the story of a movie, with only occasional forays into the things that a movie does visually. I'd really love to see a wiki dedicated similarly, but specifically and explicitly on what a work does visually. Specifically with films, or stylish TV shows. Because in total seriousness, as fun as TV Tropes is and all that, my bucket of creative inspiration doesn't fill from reading it. It's only through actually watching movies that my (visual design) imagination is sparked...
     Aaand one more paragraph with a five-space indent to round things out.
     Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh! J.K. Simmons gets to get angry the way he do, and plus Hans Zimmer doing the score and, apparently incorporating Imagine Dragons of all things into it? And plus plus the generic sappy inspirational song that plays over the end credits is so terrible, you can actually enjoy it ironically in an unironic manner! It's amazing!

¶!

"Paragraphs do not occur in nature. Whereas sentences are grammatical units intrinsic to the spoken language, paragraphs are a literary convention designed to divide masses of content into appetizing portions." 

Ellen Lupton, "Thinking with Type," 2nd edition, page 126

Paragraphs lately! Usually I indent as well as space as well as leave a gap, but that's, like, triple redundant and not that great of typography, apparently. And I want to be a great typographer. Because you've got to aim high, but boring.

Either way it'd be best for the first paragraph to be left un-indented, because it's the first paragraph and you're not really separating it from anything. This being the second paragraph now, maybe this could receive some indentation, but I've already got a line break so... it'd be like mixing TOO MANY different formats, it's just too busy.

The way I usually achieve the indentation is just triple-space anyway.

How's this look, anyway? Look good? Leaving the paragraphs without indents? This is the format I already use at A Real Thing anyway, line breaks line spaces no indents, and I did that to distinguish the look of that blog from this one...
   So how about this. Line break, no line space, with the spacebar-spacebar-spacebar indent. This good? This look... good? I suppose I'm going to need a few more paragraphs to get the full effect.
   Alright, onto a new paragraph. Woo. Anyway, doing a little more research, delving into the history and purpose of paragraphing, I discovered this little gem on archive.org: The History of the English Paragraph, by Edwin Herbert Lewis. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1894. It was the dude's dissertation, and, I hope he got that PhD from it, because, who the cuss else is gonna write a 200-page (including bibliography and appendix!) book on paragraphing?  
   It's exactly as commingled between fascinating and boring as you'd expect. The entire first chapter is dedicated solely to an examination of the history of the pilcrow ¶ and other historical marks used to indicate paragraph breaks; the second chapter opens with a concession of the "rather tedious length" of said examination (43 separate symbols dug up from throughout history, that have all at one point or another represented the paragraph break!) before launching into a thorough dissection of the rhetorical usage of the paragraph, quoting all the greatest, paragraph theorists. Or whatever.
   Man, I don't know. Like I said, it's the exact commingling of fascinating and boring that you'd expect.
   In other news, though (and I'm not sure I like this paragraphing style too much; if I'm not going to have any extra space between paragraphs I think I should increase the indent by some,) I've successfully signed up for my art classes now for next semester. Religion class(es), nope, not yet, but those aren't as harrowing to sign up for.
     Five spaces? This better? Eh, we'll see.
     Anyway, what there remains for me to do, is, find some funding somehow for this extra semester which came from nowhere (and it is a pretty darn important semester to have; like I explain here, Advanced Typography has a prereq I haven't taken yet, and is only available Spring Semester... so either get that prereq in before then, or don't take Advanced Typography at all.)
     Five spaces is a bit more comfortable on the eyes, to be sure, but I'm just so used to space-space-space to start a paragraph that it's not that comfortable on the fingers...

2.0 Sticker Poll Closed

   Previously, on Die Like a Disney Villain: my laptop got dropped, my hard drive shattered (aww) but replaced with a new one, which meant a fresh start (yay!) The laptop, different on the inside and also partially on the outside, now christened (it is a Christian laptop) 2.0, undergoes a process of receiving a new totally unique identity, to contrast it with the fresh-out-of-the-box appearance of its previous life. One poll has come and gone for its new wallpaper, and now the results of a second poll, regarding exterior adornment, are now in.

   Of five votes, with multiple selections enabled this time, "a bunch of little colorful miscellaneous stickers" received 3 votes, "fauna of an anthropomorphological persuasion unironically enjoying ice cream cones" received 1 (that was mine!!), with the same number of votes (1) for "leave her naked." With the multiple selections possible, I'd come up with a complicated little system of parsing how votes would be tallied, which I never actually told you because none of the posts lately really seemed like the place for it... Nonetheless, I will run it down for you now:

   The winner of the poll was (to be) based off of the top two or three vote-earners. If "leave her naked" was the top earner, however, I would have done just that, not fancily adorning the laptop back with anything at all. If it was in second place, the case would be this, that the laptop back would be left unadorned save for the sole sticker that was voted number one.

   I clearly did not count on "a bunch of little colorful miscellaneous stickers" coming in first place with "leave her naked" coming in second. I mean, how would that have worked? Nor did I count on ties occurring, particularly not with "leave her naked." Fortunately, the two converged, and I think we can all walk away happy, and have the outcome fit perfectly within the "grammatical" laws I'd set up for myself:

   The back is blank, save for stickers, colorful and miscellaneous, but of only one variety. That variety being FAPs eating frozen dairy treats from waffle cones, of course, which came tied in second place just as "leave her naked" did.

   I'm pretty sure that that solution makes sense.

   I for one am really satisfied with how that came out. With the ASUS's back being concentrically lenticular, though, it's going to be tough to stick stickers on there; I'm going to have to, prime it, perhaps with gesso or something, on the areas where the stickers are to be stuck. But that's just as well, because the stickers are also to be custom made, so may as well incorporate that as an end goal in mind as part of the manufacture itself...

Stay Lovely (Contagion)

   I don't usually post in the mornings anymore, and never this early (the 12:00 am post time of Fandomonium II pt 2 actually from my being a few seconds late on the post-up trigger from 11:59 and then just deciding to backdate it a full 24 hours, only making it look like I'd posted a minute after Fandomonium II pt 1.) But just now, after posting up yesterday's post, there was just such a bizarre confluence that I knew what I need to post about.

   I had the choice between finishing the last few minutes of the film I'd been watching and then only having a few minutes to post, or pausing the film right before the end at an awkward spot but actually have time for some compositional craftsmanship. I chose the latter, stretching for a post topic and just following up on the post of the day before (though I did get enough time in there to take the photo that I knew I wanted to take for the post, which the extra time putting off the end of the movie afforded me.) After that, then I finished my film... and with that, everything from the previous day clicked into place. The post that actually needed to be written.

   See. It all comes at the end, and it all ties into a perfect way to explain myself. I just finished watching Matt Leacock's Pandemic: the Movie, also (less awesomely (but more officially)) known as Contagion, which... first of all, the end credits reveal that it, turns out was directed by Steven Sonderbergh. Just a few hours ago in drawing class I'd been wondering and trying to remember what the heck other movies that guy's directed besides Ocean's Eleven.

   Another thing I was also really wondering, during the movie, what the song they'd play at the end would be-- and really hoping, from Cliff Martinez's kind of groovy score, that it'd be Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" for some reason, always the exact last song you'd expect to play over the end credits in this kind of movie. That song being, also from drawing class, and also more specifically after it, when the it's complicated* three of us went up to an abandoned classroom in the art building to work on our perspective drawings together.

   Turns out, though, that very very nearly, the song played over the end credits is... the very song that could play over the end credits of any movie, or so at least Collin thinks. Seriously. Same song. Which I certainly wasn't expecting. The movie doesn't actually go so far as to have it over the credits, but All I Want is You is the last song we hear in the film, a little around a minute or less until we go to credits for real. The last song? Heck, it's one of the only songs.

   Another thing that makes Contagion fit in perfectly for the day: I'd also been trying to remember the word "triage" today, which the film helpfully provided for me.

Summer Plans Continual Update

   Apartment number 4 is one of the few that's going under renovation (one of the few that are going under renovation? shoot, is "few" singular or plural?) over the summer, so although I may not have to "pack" all my stuff were I staying (which, it's looking like) I'm still going to have to, relocate to a new apartment for the summer, at least temporarily. Which is disappointing, because halfway through the semester and I've finally gotten my bookshelf unpacked and set up. My books, my CDs, everything, all taken out of the closet where they'd been in storage over Spring Break, and now proudly on display.

I've seen this image dozens, maybe scores of times, and I just today realized, I've got no idea what's going on here.

   Meanwhile, though, the problem with signing up for classes? Looks like it has to do with my track schedule, being all Winter/Spring track with no Fall in there. Working on getting that cleared up. That's about it.

   Meanwhile, though, someone's watching Zootopia in the room where I'm right now at, and I really need to quote along ('specially since they're watching with headphones on now... sheesh. Though that probably has something to do with the fact that I was quoting along a bit too loudly earlier...)

As It Stands- Next Semester (Fall 2016) Plans

   Making plans for next semester? I don't know; I'd thought that we'd be going home over the Summer ("next semester" being Fall; there IS a Summer semester of sorts here, but it's, I don't know, like, unofficial) but Ryan says now, he's planning on staying here and finding a job or something over the Summer? What's really here for me... but what's really at home for me... I GUESS it would be easier just to stay here; wouldn't have to pack up any of my stuff or anything...

   Meanwhile, trying to sign up for classes, it looks like all the classes I want are still available, even the ones that are notoriously impossible to sign up for! Every class has room. Not every class, though, has a little add/drop button next to it, for me to add (or drop) it...? which doesn't make any sense and shouldn't be the case; I mean, I've cleared up all my account holds. Stupid computer error; if all the slots get filled up between now and when that thing gets fixed... then, they'll probably allow me to register for those classes anyway. I hope.

The Strange Mystery of the Magic Pen Editions

   Found some dope new ZOOT merch at the local craft hobby store yesterday. Only... there appears to be two different print editions for some reason? At least as far as concerning the covers. I'm not sure if the inconsistency extends as far as into the book itself, but... the wording on the copy I've got is the "nobody is sure" one; I wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't been struck by the wording of "the person who is turning the animals savage" one.

Click to enlarge, and toggle between the two using the arrow keys.

Try and count the differences; I count three,,,

   But really, even bigger mystery: how the heck do those magic pens work? Magic, I guess; I dunno...

Have a Doug'nut, Copper!

   I mentioned high and low points in a previous post, as ingredients to a memorable day. Today started out not great, but then it got awesome, and now it's... well, I'm writing this right now instead of watching Zootopia for the third time today, so, go tell me about low points.

   I am currently trying- and failing- to make it through Lady Gaga's 2011 album Born This Way. I don't cuss, generally, but dang does this album make me almost cuss. Several times per song. Even the title track, which I remember vaguely as being actually pretty good, sucks. Lady Gaga is a parody of pop stars, I understand that. And her songs are parodies- travesties!- of anything resembling music. And her fans are all only pretending to like the music, because that's the amazing thing to do, because this stuff is so over-the-top bad that it's impossible to be taken seriously, but is presented so unironically that her fans must present themselves as being genuine. The more they claim to enjoy it, the more they claim that Lady Gaga's vocal style comes anywhere close to resembling singing or the disharmonic grinding smutstream comes anywhere close to resembling music or lyrics, the more hilarious the joke becomes. I understand all that too. Heck, I was myself going to play along with everyone, until I realized that my level of pride is at the exact mix of genuinely caring what people think and realizing I don't, actually, that, no, I don't think I'll play along, and I don't care how much it disrupts the world's greatest performance piece to call a spade a spade. It's this exact mixture level of caring about my face and realizing there's not much to lose, that provided today's low points, funnily enough.

   I don't speak up. Well, I do. I think. But when I try to talk to people they seem to ignore me, and it's only when I'm talking to myself that people say, "huh? you're going to need to speak up." I'm going to tie this into the idea that it has something to do with the combo platter aforementioned, because it makes a complex tangent-filled narrative almost insultingly convenient to swallow. I suppose that it does tie in, because half the time I vocalize my thoughts is in the vague hope that someone overhears my thought process and goes, man that is one cool dude. And if I'm talking to someone and they don't acknowledge my having spoken, it's like, well never mind you're clearly busy and I'm sorry to have bothered you.

   I woke up this morning with more than an hour to spare before needing to head off to typography class. I still have this thing that I need printed, or whatever, the business card project which was due, so I figured, maybe I could head out for that, find a printing place. Though first I'd need to format the card so it had margins and crop marks and, I just realized, this story has nothing to do with the rest of the day, and I didn't even make it to any print places anyway. I guess this part's important because heading off like that meant I had no time for breakfast at first?

In the Scroll a month ago, I drew on a photo that was beaming at me all pristine, perfect to practice the planes of a human face with. Until I realize, oh crap that's dead student face, sorry sorry sorry.

   The Scroll, college newspaper, sudoku contest in the back, all that, now is apparently also running this predictably medocrish comic on the back page. This week and the week before last. This week's strip was about the difference between normal bishops and YSA bishops- YSA bishops introduce the topic of the importance of going out on dates and getting married, into every subject, apparently. Dating was exactly what we talked about yesterday in my eternal families class, and it was really inspiring, and, exactly raw combo of face and having nothing to lose, I texted the girl I'd dated, again, then and there, random awkward time, wondering if we could maybe go out again sometime. Knowing that there's no calling back any bolts shot forth, I did this. She hasn't gotten back to me, and I'm admixtured of relieved and worried by this turn. Admixed, I guess?

   Why do we build up courage to talk to one another? We love our faces, but at a certain point we realize that we could lose everything if we don't go out on limbs.*

   The Scroll displays Instagram... Tweets, or however Instagram works... as selected by the editors for display, which had used the hashtag #byuiscroll. One of them this week, staring me in the mug on the page opposite the sudoku puzzle, really pissed me off, because I'm a bad person who did a bad thing, attempting to understand only after judging instead of doing it the other way 'round:

   What the heck is "gluten free problems?" Do you have some form of Celiac disease? If so, why not say that? Or do you just not eat gluten because you're a sheep and somehow think that it's bad for you? Hashtag sprinkles? That's the most hilariously inane thing I've heard in my life.

   Also, you misspelled doughnut.

   So yeah. It wasn't the best morning, in typography class. I was hungry. I was sweaty. I was fantasizing tracking down this Jessica Marie, and stabbing her in the throat and eye socket with a cheap plastic mechanical pencil. Because that's a rational sane emotional response for people who... food photography?, it's a photograph of food, they're not the same thing... And then there was that comic strip as well, above the sudoku, also staring me in the mug, reminding me that being reminded to date isn't a unique thing and that I'm not special in being told to go out with people. And when I tried to talk to anyone, they'd turn deaf ears.

   Finally I managed to point out the dougnut thing to someone. So... man, I guess the low point in the morning had anything to do with my apparent lack of speaking up?

   The day got better when we took a big chunk of time in the middle of class just to work on designing a type poster. Like, a big chunk. I could lie down in the middle of the elevator for no reason. Realize that I judged Jessica Marie Ceramics before attempting to understand. Realize that it should be the other way around. Realize that getting the order of that mixed up is just the human condition. Realize that Humans are just animals that invented elevators. And Wikipedia. I had time to get a drink. I had time to go home, bake fish filets in the oven for breakfast, lounge around at home while that cooked, eat with some nice plain Greek yogurt that sort of simulates sour cream. I had time to grab my laptop and head back to class. Then time to design. And time to go downstairs to print out. Not enough time to realize the problems the printer was having, though. That part kind of overstepped the time allotted.** But I did get my poster design printed out, and my weird anger issues ironed out, and the day was good again.

I actually have a photo of the printed poster, if you can believe that.

Ben Behunin book of all things here as well. I took this photo and the previous one in the library heading there after class this morning, snapping in order to disguise my really wrong-looking surreptitious snap of ...

this girl. All watchin' My Little Pony vids on YouTube. Doesn't she know that that's dangerous for small children to do? This one, for example, is apparently about Spike getting Rarity pregnant...?
Also, yeah, snapping pics of 7-year-old girls. Told you I had to disguise what I was doing.
Why am I even showing you these...?

   I could even sell my plasma again, for the first time in... a good half-month I'd say. People who sell their plasma and have the ability to do so weekly, but don't, these people are major jerks who should give me their money that they're not earning, because seriously, blood clotting problems and random drops in protein levels.

   I can now afford to purchase a ticket and go see Zootopia in cinemas, though it's out on DVD! Don't you judge me, it's cheap-ticket Tuesday.*** All the snacks I bought, though... that, that is slightly less easy to justify.****

   Also see Zootopia again, on DVD this time, at the Library!

What's that they say? Never, under any circumstance, pause a Disney film? This isn't a pause, technically, but... yes. yes.

   I'll tell you about those on my writing blog. When I get around to it. Two viewings today, two entries, one screening in the theater, one Zootopia party at the library. But, like I said, I missed the second Zootopia party. She was right there! Right there!

Right there!

   But I... I thought I spoke up. I had a project that needed to be printed*****, and by the time I was ready the DVD owner had left with all those who were also going. Which was like, one other person, because seriously it's the middle of the school week, nobody has time for non-homework things. But nobody left behind knew where they'd been headed, back to the apartment obviously but where is that I don't know, so...

   I don't know. It allowed me this time to work on my reading assignments for tomorrow. Or just completely shirk that and write a super long blog post nobody's going to read all of. Whichever.

Monday is Over (Zootopia Parties I'm Party To)

   Monday is over, again, finally. It being past midnight in the timezone where I write this, I guess that means that Zootopia is out on DVD/Blu-Ray/digital now? Huh. I could probably download a digital copy from Amazon right now...

   ...nope, just pre-order still. Still, that will be available by the morning; it's coming out, it's here. All over the country, I know, there are going to be Zootopia parties... I can say this for sure, being firsthand witness to two of them... neither involving anything of my direct participation of course (really I hadn't given it much thought, and if anything my plan would be just to go see it again still being in theaters.)

   I'd been going to talk about how terrible homework is on Mondays, again, but actually telling the story of the second party I'm privy to ties in perfectly with that. Down in the computer lab, my second primary haunt after the Crestwood lounge, after hours it's the hangout of the illustration majors working on their homework, using the Cintiq tablets and the Photoshop and the Pinterest boards to get their projects done, usually with Netflix open to an animated film in another browser. I feel much affinity toward these illustration majors. Graphic design is way too fascinating to me for me to want to switch majors (the two majors are very similar,) but I can still live the illustration life vicariously through my contact with them. And, the reason I'm down in the lab in the first place is, I've still got art homework myself, of the non-graphic-design variety, which frequently needs scanning. I got my composition homework and my graphic design homework done on time, at the expense of some other stuff apparently, but it was still a nuisance.

   I hear them make plans, anyway. Zootopia party.

   (The other one, I might as well mention as well; there was a billboard display set up in the district library, I saw, advertising a movie-night-at-the-library deal, with a screening of that. Phew.)

Fandomonium[!] II pt 2: Also There Was a Proposal

   This is the closest thing I got to a good shot of it, being in line for the cosplay competition while it happened:

It's, the tiny dude up on stage.

Fandomonium[!] II: 20% Cooler

   Fandomonium[!] Spring 2016 was today, from 1:00-4:00. I've got, a lot, of photos to sift through, if I want to convey the experience. And I don't have much time for that now. Preliminary report, though?

   I collected a surprising amount of Pokémon. There's a scavenger hunt every Fandomonium[!] with these little Pokémon pieces of paper are stuck around the room, and whoever finds the most wins some prize of some sort. Pokémon-related, of course. The winner was this girl who was handed most of hers, since the actual finders were just little kids, a boy and a girl, who'd run around and found a bunch of the Pokémon using their little kid power of being incredibly short, but who not being students I guess couldn't actually win the prize so just handed their slips of Poké-paper off to someone else, that someone else of course winding up being the winner by a slide.

   I stuck my Pokémon to my camera which of course I brought. At first I'd stuck them to my fingers but that had been just annoying. Sticking them to my camera, of course, presented its own challenge- like the Discord of last semester, or like my efforts at cosplaying at any time, as the person behind the camera and the camera being the camera, how am I supposed to convey the story through photography? With my cosplaying I could just hand the camera over to someone else, but to get the state of the camera itself, we have to get... creative.

   Oh yeah.

   More tomorrow.

In My Car Diggin'

This wug,yo. Way too dax to ever be zonged.

   So yeah. I spent way too much time today hopping from fascinating blog to fascinating blog, and, this is what I've got for you. Though maybe some things are better off unexplained...

The Waffle Face is a Metaphor for How Tired I Am

   This guy again, the waffle photo, because I used him for a photo this morning for my typography module. And, my old files all being dead, in order to paste it into the project I had to access the only copy left, straight from the blog drive. Which means that I opened up a new post, inserted an image, and copied that into my module. And didn't delete it then, or now, so here he is again.

   That's just so great...

   I stayed up until 6:35 this morning finishing off the project, which was business card design if you want to know. I took a nap then, from then until my alarm clock rang at its designated 6:59 time. I also got a nap in at the library, and one or two on the sofa which is where I'd done my project and gotten the first nap/rest for the night anyway. That's, basically all I did all day, was nap in unusual places. But however much sleep I got from that rest, I'm not Buckminster Fuller, my rhythms haven't been trained to be so efficient in REM access and are still used to getting sleep in large chunks at night. And all throughout church.

   There was also a, print, component, to the project; it should have been printed out. But obviously I didn't have time for that.

   Whoa, that was a tangent. What was I talking about? How very little sleep I'm operating on? Alright, then. I'll get quick with it.

   Hey! The poll results are in. 4 votes; I hadn't been aware that this blog receives visitors, much less voters... 2 votes for something Zootopia-related, 1 for, Homestuck, and 1 for something inspirational. It would appear that Zootopia wins... it would appear. Only, I kind of want to cast my own vote toward inspirational as well, which leaves it a tie. I guess. Not that the two are mutually exclusive... but I don't want to executive trump the polls either. So time to narrow things down?

   I'd put up a new poll right now, if it weren't so late and i had the abilitytoforma choreten thought.

Still Not Caught Up

   I go to bed terrified by the concept of infinity; I wake up every morning excited by it. And, for the second day in a row, all I have the time and inclination for is a report at how much I'm being swallowed up by the continuously onrushing avalanche of my homework schedule.

   Though in the meeting for drawing class today, it turns out that, basically, everyone else feels that way too, how having Monday thrown off by Memorial Day somehow made everything worse, and caused us all to fall a day behind instead of catch a day ahead. I don't think anyone in class was prepared for it today; we all basically just started in class what we should have already completed.

   Drawing class homework, I got it finished and scanned and turned in on time, which I wasn't expecting to have been able to do, honestly... The scanned assignment from last week was still on the scanner's computer's desktop, so I figured I might as well grab that and show it off here. On top is the construction drawing of the meter maid cart toy, followed by a photograph for comparison, and for extra spicy cheese on those metaphorical nachos (???), on the bottom I overlaid the two so you can see how badly I messed up at some of it.







   There's one day left to vote for, the new desktop background for the new identity of my dropped laptop...

   My typography homework that would have been due Monday is due tomorrow, as I've said. Not at 11:59 PM like it would usually be, but 8:00 AM... I should probably get started on it...