I've got a second friend from India too now. See if you can work this out: Indian curry today, $7 per plate, made by Catherine (said friend); I'm the first customer, and we (Catherine and Jeffrey (another friend) and I) wrangle up some more customers. This guy says sure, but asks if there's change for a 20, and I say I have it. I take back my $7 I'd already paid, hand Catherine $14 for both of us, and the guy hands me a 20.
And then the $14 went missing.
What had happened?
It took a while to figure it out. He took it, the guy did. I owed him for the 20, and he took the $14 thinking I was paying him back. $14 is one more than 13. Thus I am owed a dollar, which Jeffrey gives to me, and now he is owed a dollar from the guy. The $14 out of the way, I hand Catherine a 20.
Is that right?
Catherine must owe me $6. Haha...
boy do I feel like an idiot.
Uuuummm... SPACE!
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Twilights and Rogue Planets and SCRAMBLING THE FAIRIES
The commonality of occurrences of the names of Twilight books? Twilight happens once a day, as does breaking dawn. Noo Moons happen about once a month. Eclipses, eclipses happen less frequently.
Alternative way of thinking about it though: depending where you are on the planet or in space, each of those things is always going on. Woo.
People are beginning to, um, swarm basically. Anyway. Come out of the woodwork, except not? The jets are scrambling...? The flock to eclipse viewing destinations has begun, is what I mean. So, folks are beginning to turn up. Will I be leaving the house for days? There's church on Sunday, but meanwhile hopefully we're stacked with what we need for now, and won't have to shop for anything...
I got interested in astronomy (but it's always been churning in the back of my mind, what would make a good, scientifically accurate astronaut flick) with these posters on the wall at the library, all on astronomical junk what with the eclipse coming up. There's an exoplanet, whose name I've memorized let's see if we've got it right, PSU J318.5-22 (looked it up quickly, dang I'm one letter off, it's PSO J318.5-22) that doesn't have a star attached, not part of any solar system, just discovered by accident looking at something else and it happened to be floating right there by complete cosmic coincidence. You figure that such a coincidence is bound to happen eventually, especially when you figure that they figure that there are billions of rogue planets in our galaxy alone (and by they I mean Neil DeGrasse Tyson.)
From my research of rogue planets and stuff, I was looking into the Alpha Centauri/Proxima Centauri star system (it's a binary system!) which is less than 5 light years away which is holy crap amazingly close in the astronomical scheme of things, and then I started wondering about the Oort cloud and researched how far Voyagers 1 and 2 are into space from there, and all that.
Alternative way of thinking about it though: depending where you are on the planet or in space, each of those things is always going on. Woo.
People are beginning to, um, swarm basically. Anyway. Come out of the woodwork, except not? The jets are scrambling...? The flock to eclipse viewing destinations has begun, is what I mean. So, folks are beginning to turn up. Will I be leaving the house for days? There's church on Sunday, but meanwhile hopefully we're stacked with what we need for now, and won't have to shop for anything...
I got interested in astronomy (but it's always been churning in the back of my mind, what would make a good, scientifically accurate astronaut flick) with these posters on the wall at the library, all on astronomical junk what with the eclipse coming up. There's an exoplanet, whose name I've memorized let's see if we've got it right, PSU J318.5-22 (looked it up quickly, dang I'm one letter off, it's PSO J318.5-22) that doesn't have a star attached, not part of any solar system, just discovered by accident looking at something else and it happened to be floating right there by complete cosmic coincidence. You figure that such a coincidence is bound to happen eventually, especially when you figure that they figure that there are billions of rogue planets in our galaxy alone (and by they I mean Neil DeGrasse Tyson.)
From my research of rogue planets and stuff, I was looking into the Alpha Centauri/Proxima Centauri star system (it's a binary system!) which is less than 5 light years away which is holy crap amazingly close in the astronomical scheme of things, and then I started wondering about the Oort cloud and researched how far Voyagers 1 and 2 are into space from there, and all that.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Mother Nature, Father Time
Probably won't have space-related material to extend till Monday, but the well's not dry quite yet- though it is growing increasingly abstract.
There's a Brook Benton R&B song from, 1963 I think it was, that encapsulates the themes in that, hypothetical sci-fi film from a few days back, perfectly. It's called Mother Nature, Father Time, by Brook Benton (no relation to Mother Nature and Father Time by Nat King Cole. Or, Mother Earth and Father Time from the 1973 Charlotte's Web film. Both are also great songs with similar themes and melancholy mood, but none of them have anything to do with any of the others.)
There's a Brook Benton R&B song from, 1963 I think it was, that encapsulates the themes in that, hypothetical sci-fi film from a few days back, perfectly. It's called Mother Nature, Father Time, by Brook Benton (no relation to Mother Nature and Father Time by Nat King Cole. Or, Mother Earth and Father Time from the 1973 Charlotte's Web film. Both are also great songs with similar themes and melancholy mood, but none of them have anything to do with any of the others.)
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
" "
Trying to keep up with this astronomy theme, but I really can't think of anything. Guess I'm, spacing out! Oooooohhhhhh!
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Voyager Messages and Two Toon Pilots
Took awhile to perfect my composition for #MessageToVoyager. Wanna go through revision history? Let's!
At first I was thinking about Voyager, brainstorming off of that, this idea of this pebble we fling into the grand canyon, how vast space is. Carl Sagan, in talking about Voyager 1, used the metaphor of sending a message in a bottle out from this island earth; that's the kind of thing I wanted to go for. Maybe something about how time moves fast down here but slow up there, how bright and loud it is down here but quiet and dim up there. The idea is to have the message be uplifting, so, what's the thread that connects us and Voyager, in spite of these differences? Hope. Why was it in Pandora's vessel in the first place? Maybe explore that.
But these ideas were all far too complex to fit into the character limit, so I tried a different tack:
Space: a place of mystery. We voyage far and far into an undiscovered land, to discover that land. We look into space and see blackness… of stars!
Still too many characters, and cutting back on it is impossible- it would just throw everything off; I think each part of this is essential. I didn't write it; it was a roommate on my mission, who just sort of, made it up on the spot, and I thought it was so good I wrote the whole thing down. It's supposed to be a Star Trek opening monologue-type deal. I think I'm the only one who gets quite as much a kick out of it as I do, but each detail about it is pitch-perfect and slays me. Calling space a "land," the darkness being of stars somehow... it just opens up like an onion of riot.
Couldn't go with that one, anyway, so I decided to focus my effort on something I wrote for something else, which I realized was poetic enough to go where I wanted, while also focusing on the dichotomy of earth and space:
From the dreamy half-light, to the sleepless darkness, this world of light, wakefulness and sleeping in between.
A metaphor for, life and the world or whatever, but just focusing on the first part I could iterate it into something fitting the stingy character count, while also meaning roughly"voyager."
Our dreamy half-light, into the sleepless darkness.
"Our" to make it clear it's the earth, it's us, I don't know. Into the sleepless darkness. Launching forth. Launching what? Hope.
Hope from the dreamy half-light to the sleepless darkness.
Or not. Weaky. I started carving the sound of the words, eliminating "ness" from "dark" and arranging the words to fit an iambic form. Sticking Voyager at the end after the natural pause of the colon: perfect number of characters, and adding in that note of hope.
From the dreamy half-light, into the sleepless dark: Voyager
Tried also Voyager: from the dreamy half-light, into the sleepless dark, sticking the word at the front, but that distracted from the meter, so I went with the first. Few words, but deep they are. The metaphor of half-light and science, dreaminess and creativity, standing in for the world, the sleepless dark signifying the ultimate unknown while also reflecting the color of space. Hopefully others will see the depth of it???
Anyway. Also got a couple of cartoon pilots to share! The first is the DuckTales new thing, whose first two episodes were put up on YouTube (legally!) yesterday, on Disney XD's channel. It is amazing and hilarious and I squeed nonstop during the themesong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0Neif7Y4E
Olan Rogers's FINAL SPACE, meanwhile, is also great, and far shorter (in case you only have time to watch one of these.) The full show is coming to TBS this winter.
Plus it's still about space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yco11ZQ0UE
At first I was thinking about Voyager, brainstorming off of that, this idea of this pebble we fling into the grand canyon, how vast space is. Carl Sagan, in talking about Voyager 1, used the metaphor of sending a message in a bottle out from this island earth; that's the kind of thing I wanted to go for. Maybe something about how time moves fast down here but slow up there, how bright and loud it is down here but quiet and dim up there. The idea is to have the message be uplifting, so, what's the thread that connects us and Voyager, in spite of these differences? Hope. Why was it in Pandora's vessel in the first place? Maybe explore that.
But these ideas were all far too complex to fit into the character limit, so I tried a different tack:
Space: a place of mystery. We voyage far and far into an undiscovered land, to discover that land. We look into space and see blackness… of stars!
Still too many characters, and cutting back on it is impossible- it would just throw everything off; I think each part of this is essential. I didn't write it; it was a roommate on my mission, who just sort of, made it up on the spot, and I thought it was so good I wrote the whole thing down. It's supposed to be a Star Trek opening monologue-type deal. I think I'm the only one who gets quite as much a kick out of it as I do, but each detail about it is pitch-perfect and slays me. Calling space a "land," the darkness being of stars somehow... it just opens up like an onion of riot.
Couldn't go with that one, anyway, so I decided to focus my effort on something I wrote for something else, which I realized was poetic enough to go where I wanted, while also focusing on the dichotomy of earth and space:
From the dreamy half-light, to the sleepless darkness, this world of light, wakefulness and sleeping in between.
A metaphor for, life and the world or whatever, but just focusing on the first part I could iterate it into something fitting the stingy character count, while also meaning roughly"voyager."
Our dreamy half-light, into the sleepless darkness.
"Our" to make it clear it's the earth, it's us, I don't know. Into the sleepless darkness. Launching forth. Launching what? Hope.
Hope from the dreamy half-light to the sleepless darkness.
Or not. Weaky. I started carving the sound of the words, eliminating "ness" from "dark" and arranging the words to fit an iambic form. Sticking Voyager at the end after the natural pause of the colon: perfect number of characters, and adding in that note of hope.
From the dreamy half-light, into the sleepless dark: Voyager
Tried also Voyager: from the dreamy half-light, into the sleepless dark, sticking the word at the front, but that distracted from the meter, so I went with the first. Few words, but deep they are. The metaphor of half-light and science, dreaminess and creativity, standing in for the world, the sleepless dark signifying the ultimate unknown while also reflecting the color of space. Hopefully others will see the depth of it???
Anyway. Also got a couple of cartoon pilots to share! The first is the DuckTales new thing, whose first two episodes were put up on YouTube (legally!) yesterday, on Disney XD's channel. It is amazing and hilarious and I squeed nonstop during the themesong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0Neif7Y4E
Olan Rogers's FINAL SPACE, meanwhile, is also great, and far shorter (in case you only have time to watch one of these.) The full show is coming to TBS this winter.
Plus it's still about space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yco11ZQ0UE
Monday, August 14, 2017
Surely the Earth
Space continues to be way rad. And I continue to post on it apparently.
I was studying the Book of Mormon the other day and there's this part in Helaman 12 I came across that's kind of always niggled me. It's in verse 15, part of this section where he's talking about the power of God, and how God could make the sun stand still in the sky Joshua 10-style. But of course he frames it that, it's the earth going back and not the sun- "for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun." It's his going out of the way to explain the astronomy that kills me.
But I've got it figured out. He needs to make the public service announcement about it, because it was totally a political issue in his time whether the earth revolved around the sun or not. We saw it in the old world, too, where the anti-sciencers were all, naah, God wouldn't do that, He'd build Earth in the center, invoking religion (religious assumption at least) into an area where the scriptures were actually mum, just on their idea of how special God would make the earth. 'Parently the same thing happened with the Nephites too, is what I reckon, and Mormon was on the side of, guys shut up about it already, God never said that, look at the science.
I was studying the Book of Mormon the other day and there's this part in Helaman 12 I came across that's kind of always niggled me. It's in verse 15, part of this section where he's talking about the power of God, and how God could make the sun stand still in the sky Joshua 10-style. But of course he frames it that, it's the earth going back and not the sun- "for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun." It's his going out of the way to explain the astronomy that kills me.
But I've got it figured out. He needs to make the public service announcement about it, because it was totally a political issue in his time whether the earth revolved around the sun or not. We saw it in the old world, too, where the anti-sciencers were all, naah, God wouldn't do that, He'd build Earth in the center, invoking religion (religious assumption at least) into an area where the scriptures were actually mum, just on their idea of how special God would make the earth. 'Parently the same thing happened with the Nephites too, is what I reckon, and Mormon was on the side of, guys shut up about it already, God never said that, look at the science.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
#MessageToVoyager
I mentioned yesterday that Voyager 1 is almost 40 years old. Learned about this doing research on it: Tuesday, August 15th (which also happens to be India's Independence Day, on an unrelated note) 11:59 pm is the deadline to submit on social media, a short message that will be beamed to Voyager itself, using the abovementioned hashtag. Learn more about it here!:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/message/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/message/
Saturday, August 12, 2017
AUs
The quality of a space movie is proportional to how astronomically accurate it is. Space is huge though, so... there's a lot of incentive to spice things up. We've got to resist that though.
I had this idea in the car, on the way back up here, about a movie about this astronaut hurtling through interstellar space all alone, who's been on his way for hundreds of years but taking pills that make him effectively immortal and also strip away his emotional drives. Maybe he experiments eventually with not taking selective pills, to gain some sensation again, but at the risk of unbalancing the cocktail keeping him alive. I don't think it would require much of a budget to shoot at all... there's like, what, one set in total, and one actor?
Alright, there'd probably be more to the story than that, but...
We don't even know if the Oort cloud is real, you know that? Voyager 1 just passed the edge of the heliosphere, into interstellar space, just 5 years ago, 35 years into its mission- which means that it's about a tenth of the way there until the Oort cloud would begin, about a lightyear away from the sun. Given that Voyager'll have enough power to continue reporting back to us for only about 8 more years, well...
Yeah, space is big. Why don't we make that a part of the drama, instead of trying to ignore it?
I had this idea in the car, on the way back up here, about a movie about this astronaut hurtling through interstellar space all alone, who's been on his way for hundreds of years but taking pills that make him effectively immortal and also strip away his emotional drives. Maybe he experiments eventually with not taking selective pills, to gain some sensation again, but at the risk of unbalancing the cocktail keeping him alive. I don't think it would require much of a budget to shoot at all... there's like, what, one set in total, and one actor?
Alright, there'd probably be more to the story than that, but...
We don't even know if the Oort cloud is real, you know that? Voyager 1 just passed the edge of the heliosphere, into interstellar space, just 5 years ago, 35 years into its mission- which means that it's about a tenth of the way there until the Oort cloud would begin, about a lightyear away from the sun. Given that Voyager'll have enough power to continue reporting back to us for only about 8 more years, well...
Yeah, space is big. Why don't we make that a part of the drama, instead of trying to ignore it?
Friday, August 11, 2017
Studying Designs
I think I know how to do good graphic design work now. Or, polished-looking, at least; there's just so much basic, layout stuff I'm also pretty bad at, but just use a grid and remember negative space, right? But comparing your work against a professional's, that's something they have us do, but I think it's entirely too late in the process. We do do image source inspiration searching, but we don't go deep enough.
App and website design, man look at it. Try to recreate it.
Just going onto YouTube and looking at the way the graphical elements were handled, it geared me to a much better design in the app project I did for interaction design class.
Look at this interface. The word processor program I'm typing this into, on Blogger, or Google Docs. It's actually super simple; I'd be able to design it in Illustrator.
But then I see the orange elements, and how they knew to put those highlights in there, the publish button and the blogger logo and the post settings section header, and how that's got type hierarchy and everything, and now I'm thinking, no, I don't think I'd be able to design this.
App and website design, man look at it. Try to recreate it.
Just going onto YouTube and looking at the way the graphical elements were handled, it geared me to a much better design in the app project I did for interaction design class.
Look at this interface. The word processor program I'm typing this into, on Blogger, or Google Docs. It's actually super simple; I'd be able to design it in Illustrator.
But then I see the orange elements, and how they knew to put those highlights in there, the publish button and the blogger logo and the post settings section header, and how that's got type hierarchy and everything, and now I'm thinking, no, I don't think I'd be able to design this.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
I'm Teaching Myself Devanagari as Well, BTW
Watched My Name is Khan yesterday (well actually ereyesterday now since I wrote this for yesterday's post, or actually some parts the day before that as well.) My Name is Khan, anyway (the "Kh" is aspirated, "from the epiglottis!") Actually, bought a copy (!) that was fortuitously in the Family Crisis Center thrift store (been hitting DVD places lately looking for the cinematic oeuvre of Park Chan Wook, whom I've known about but only recently discovered) (but finding Bollywood films is also nice, you know?). It stars Shah Rukh Khan as Revzin Khan, an Indian Muslim with Asperger's Syndrome who moves to the United States, finds a wife for himself, and (to make a long story short) is mistaken for a terrorist in the wake of 9/11, going on this big long road trip to try to meet the president. Not my most favoritest Bollywood film, but one of my favorite of SRK's.
Yesterday, had this information been in that post, I would have used it to somehow segue into this stuff, and then tied it thematically with a bow at the end. Right now though there's neither segue nor bow needed, but here's the punchline:
Our new roommate is from India. Thought he was probably French African when I met him yesterday, but learned this morning (*two days ago and *yesterday morning, sorry)(**three days ago and **ereyesterday morning, sorry again) that he's actually Indian? And it was just a few days ago that I was fantasizing about meeting one of those and instantly pelting them with questions about various Hindi grammar things and certain words in the names of certain Bollywood films, and who their favorite actor is and what the worst movie they've ever seen is and everything, and specifics about the differences between Hindi and Urdu, and just the night before last wondering, how do Indians feel about Mother Theresa?, I should ask a few, but... I haven't done those things. The meeting, it didn't fall into how it went in my head, you know? Meeting someone and it being clear they're Indian, Hindi-speaking Indian, with a knowledge of modern Bollywood films... Now it's been a couple of days and it feels like it would be a shoehorn or something.
I've heard him listening to Bollywood movies, but from the song style and audio quality they sound like classics, Raj Kapoor-era 20th-Century stuff, and I don't know what's up with that, why he never plays anything I recognize. Thus there's probably a lot to learn from him, lots in common, but man next to that... the earliest Bollywood movie I've ever seen is from the year 2000. (Still technically the 20th century, but like I said, it's a decade on its own, so...)
Yesterday, had this information been in that post, I would have used it to somehow segue into this stuff, and then tied it thematically with a bow at the end. Right now though there's neither segue nor bow needed, but here's the punchline:
Our new roommate is from India. Thought he was probably French African when I met him yesterday, but learned this morning (*two days ago and *yesterday morning, sorry)(**three days ago and **ereyesterday morning, sorry again) that he's actually Indian? And it was just a few days ago that I was fantasizing about meeting one of those and instantly pelting them with questions about various Hindi grammar things and certain words in the names of certain Bollywood films, and who their favorite actor is and what the worst movie they've ever seen is and everything, and specifics about the differences between Hindi and Urdu, and just the night before last wondering, how do Indians feel about Mother Theresa?, I should ask a few, but... I haven't done those things. The meeting, it didn't fall into how it went in my head, you know? Meeting someone and it being clear they're Indian, Hindi-speaking Indian, with a knowledge of modern Bollywood films... Now it's been a couple of days and it feels like it would be a shoehorn or something.
I've heard him listening to Bollywood movies, but from the song style and audio quality they sound like classics, Raj Kapoor-era 20th-Century stuff, and I don't know what's up with that, why he never plays anything I recognize. Thus there's probably a lot to learn from him, lots in common, but man next to that... the earliest Bollywood movie I've ever seen is from the year 2000. (Still technically the 20th century, but like I said, it's a decade on its own, so...)
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Grade Tanks
I wasn't sure how long I'd be without wifi after the family reunion in Utah (turns out zero days; place did have it) so I prescheduled a bunch of posts in a row, and yesterday's post went up like 2:09 am because I forgot to specify the time to be 11:30 pm when I prescheduled it so it defaulted to the time of day at which I prescheduled it, and so this stuff I have to say today as a follow-up to the train of thought I've been poking down, would be even better yesterday as part (or even replacement to) that post (which was mostly repetitive of earlier sentiment anyway, mostly scrapped material written for an earlier post.) But looking at it, the main thrust of what I want to say wasn't as cohesive as I'd thought, so it looks like continuing episodicity is for the best.
Uncle Gary was talking day before yesterday about undermotivated students- or, bad students actually, students who didn't care about their grades. The average student right now (in, high school?) is failing at least one class. Even when we set expectations so low that there's no possible way the students can fail... Hence my calling them undermotivated? Makes sense.
I used to be such a good student. We've been over this. It's now on my to-do to look back through my grade reports to math out the precise slip from semester to semester; my first college credit I got an A for the semester, and last semester resulted in a C-abouts. Not my lowest grades ever, so, like I said, I'd have to math it out.
I've mentioned before about GPA and I always thought that the lower the GPA was the better, so we really could have seen this coming; I even explicitly said that 3.0 was a C, I guess nobody bothered to correct me. C was what I aimed for as the average in my classes, and I'm not sure if I did my best because I'm never sure of that, but it felt that way, but I should have aimed for B? Should have done my best, but with whatever degree of anxiety I experience in the face of homework, it was like I had a limited reserve of, homeworkicality, I had to mete out, time to be able to work, yes motivation, and... no matter how I try to put it into words it just feels like an excuse.
Gotta get on some form of medication, but there's a lot I've "got to" do.
Uncle Gary was talking day before yesterday about undermotivated students- or, bad students actually, students who didn't care about their grades. The average student right now (in, high school?) is failing at least one class. Even when we set expectations so low that there's no possible way the students can fail... Hence my calling them undermotivated? Makes sense.
I used to be such a good student. We've been over this. It's now on my to-do to look back through my grade reports to math out the precise slip from semester to semester; my first college credit I got an A for the semester, and last semester resulted in a C-abouts. Not my lowest grades ever, so, like I said, I'd have to math it out.
I've mentioned before about GPA and I always thought that the lower the GPA was the better, so we really could have seen this coming; I even explicitly said that 3.0 was a C, I guess nobody bothered to correct me. C was what I aimed for as the average in my classes, and I'm not sure if I did my best because I'm never sure of that, but it felt that way, but I should have aimed for B? Should have done my best, but with whatever degree of anxiety I experience in the face of homework, it was like I had a limited reserve of, homeworkicality, I had to mete out, time to be able to work, yes motivation, and... no matter how I try to put it into words it just feels like an excuse.
Gotta get on some form of medication, but there's a lot I've "got to" do.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Schoolwork as a Metaphor for Creativity or Vice Versa
My first semester was fine. Things gradually slipped downhill. I was wondering if my classes were just getting harder and harder, like, the level of difficulty ascends in relation to the number of workshop classes I'm taking, or what, and there might be a correlation in terms of how poorly I do in those classes, with workshop classes taking so much precedence and having so much weight that I stress over those?
But no, I think even then the problem dealt more directly with- I'd have to analyze it more thoroughly, but I think though there's correlation of course with progress in school and advancedness of courses, there are plenty of other factors in play.
Like, maybe I was already dissatisfied with graphic design and so I didn't do my best work, or only did the minimum expected of me? But I realized today, doing just the minimum expected of you is how things like Pirates of the Caribbean 5 happen...!
I enjoyed it ish while I was watching it, and the first half or so actually really is worth watching, but getting distance on it, well I was underwhelmed even in theater. And the Mummy, I mean I still like it, but that climax really could have been more, I was disappointed in it while I was watching it. Same with Dead Men Tell No Tales. Climax was lackluster.
Franchises only run on fumes when the creators are tired; nothing needs to be hackneyed. Let's say, playing it safe: creators don't need to be tired, but in playing it safe, returns guaranteed, just for the money and probably not for the art but who am I to say, that's when you're doing the minimum required of you.
But no, I think even then the problem dealt more directly with- I'd have to analyze it more thoroughly, but I think though there's correlation of course with progress in school and advancedness of courses, there are plenty of other factors in play.
Like, maybe I was already dissatisfied with graphic design and so I didn't do my best work, or only did the minimum expected of me? But I realized today, doing just the minimum expected of you is how things like Pirates of the Caribbean 5 happen...!
I enjoyed it ish while I was watching it, and the first half or so actually really is worth watching, but getting distance on it, well I was underwhelmed even in theater. And the Mummy, I mean I still like it, but that climax really could have been more, I was disappointed in it while I was watching it. Same with Dead Men Tell No Tales. Climax was lackluster.
Franchises only run on fumes when the creators are tired; nothing needs to be hackneyed. Let's say, playing it safe: creators don't need to be tired, but in playing it safe, returns guaranteed, just for the money and probably not for the art but who am I to say, that's when you're doing the minimum required of you.
Monday, August 7, 2017
Geographical Positioning of Summer Jobs
Need a job. Money would be nice. Something to do would be nice. Money would be essential, actually.
Dad offered, Thursday morning I think it was, maybe a Summer job at the movie theater in Fallon, if I wasn't doing anything up in Rexburg. I told him I already have a job in mind in Rexburg, though I'm right now debating the cost of that- staying in Rexburg means paying rent, and of the job in question I've had better entry-level payment in the past. I love the theater and would love to work there.
But. Rent's already paid for the summer. Contract's already signed to be staying there. The big eclipse is taking place literally right above my house, with the precise center a 15-second walk away from the apartment. And when I way I've had better payment for entry-level work, I'm not sure that that's really true. We're going back anyway, so... I don't know why I'm double-guessing all of a sudden. Gives me something to post about I guess.
Dad offered, Thursday morning I think it was, maybe a Summer job at the movie theater in Fallon, if I wasn't doing anything up in Rexburg. I told him I already have a job in mind in Rexburg, though I'm right now debating the cost of that- staying in Rexburg means paying rent, and of the job in question I've had better entry-level payment in the past. I love the theater and would love to work there.
But. Rent's already paid for the summer. Contract's already signed to be staying there. The big eclipse is taking place literally right above my house, with the precise center a 15-second walk away from the apartment. And when I way I've had better payment for entry-level work, I'm not sure that that's really true. We're going back anyway, so... I don't know why I'm double-guessing all of a sudden. Gives me something to post about I guess.
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Last Semester's Grades are In...
So I don't really know.
My grade needs to be 3.0 at least, cumulative, in order to hold onto scholarship. That's a C average. Last semester, I had two Cs, one B+, one B-, and a D (monotype/monoprint class accepted no late work... so all things considered that's a grade quite a bit higher than what I probably deserved.) My total GPA from last semester is thus 2.186...
I'm actually beginning to suspect that 3.0 is actually a B average?
SHOOT I HAD IT WRONG THE WHOLE TIME.
My total cumulative GPA is now 2.93. And I'm juggling in my head whether it's cost effective to pay a grunch of money in tuitions to take a summer class or two, see if I can bring that up in time for Winter semester, or if it would be about the same or less just to bring it up during said winter block...
My grade needs to be 3.0 at least, cumulative, in order to hold onto scholarship. That's a C average. Last semester, I had two Cs, one B+, one B-, and a D (monotype/monoprint class accepted no late work... so all things considered that's a grade quite a bit higher than what I probably deserved.) My total GPA from last semester is thus 2.186...
I'm actually beginning to suspect that 3.0 is actually a B average?
SHOOT I HAD IT WRONG THE WHOLE TIME.
My total cumulative GPA is now 2.93. And I'm juggling in my head whether it's cost effective to pay a grunch of money in tuitions to take a summer class or two, see if I can bring that up in time for Winter semester, or if it would be about the same or less just to bring it up during said winter block...
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Netflix Shows I'd Said I'd See
Series of Unfortunate Events was, well it wasn't way good, but I think it's solidly worth a rewatch, which is saying something. I've grown less enamored of the medium of television, ever since some of the shows that were supposed to be really good and groundbreaking, by the time I got to them, turned out to be... just television. (Litmus, which doesn't always occur but when it does you know for sure: if you get interrupted in the middle of something, is it worth it picking it back up again?)
Stranger Things I got maybe 10 minutes into. Not impressed. Of course, I started on the season finale accidentally, not invested in any of the characters or anything, due to the Netflix "start from the beginning" button after the finished eighth episode it started me out on, starting me from the beginning of that episode instead of from the beginning of the whole show (oops,) and, well starting from the season finale is what ruined day 5 of 24 for me. Some things are a lot more enjoyable in context, but... bad acting is bad acting. Maybe I'll try again at some future date.
Shoot, never got around to Buddy Thunderstruck like I'd meant to.
So the My Little Pony movie's getting a PG rating off of a Y-rated TV show; "some mild violence" what's up with that...
Stranger Things I got maybe 10 minutes into. Not impressed. Of course, I started on the season finale accidentally, not invested in any of the characters or anything, due to the Netflix "start from the beginning" button after the finished eighth episode it started me out on, starting me from the beginning of that episode instead of from the beginning of the whole show (oops,) and, well starting from the season finale is what ruined day 5 of 24 for me. Some things are a lot more enjoyable in context, but... bad acting is bad acting. Maybe I'll try again at some future date.
Shoot, never got around to Buddy Thunderstruck like I'd meant to.
So the My Little Pony movie's getting a PG rating off of a Y-rated TV show; "some mild violence" what's up with that...
Friday, August 4, 2017
ARTiculation of Reality
Documenting life seems to make reality more, something, whatever the word is- real, maybe. In words, proving that some things you have to approximate, lie maybe, to tell the truth quickly; or documentation, in some other real way, going around with a camera, photo or video, living one stream of reality while recording and going back to another stream and watching what was recorded there, and maybe it's different from how you remember, slightly, but either way it's definitive proof in some real way you can't articulate, that the past is real.
But the camera has narrow focus, and limited frame, while in real life, things are so expansive.
But the camera has narrow focus, and limited frame, while in real life, things are so expansive.
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Some Common Khans
So having Netflix here has seriously allowed me to catch up on my Bollywood quota. Still a few flicks from the creators of some of my favorites, which aren't offered via Netflix so I may have to track down renting over some, streaming rental service or other:
Need to watch Main Hoon Nah- written and directed by Farah Khan, the same woman who did Om Shanti Om and Happy New Year. Also starring Shah Rukh Khan like those other two. Yay.
Also need to watch the Munna Bhai films- written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, same dude who did PK and 3 Idiots. Not starring Aamir Khan like those other two (sad, I love that guy.) But which are supposed to be really good anyway (both are in the top 100 Indian films of all time list on IMDb.)
I'd also like to catch Kal Ho Naa Ho at some point ever, since the only Saif Ali Khan movies I've seen are none of them, except he does voice Romeo in Roadside Romeo so there's that I guess that counts, and he also cameoed in the Deewangi Deewangi number in Om Shanti Om, alongside like everyone. That one's supposed to be way good. Plus it's also got SRK. Mmm, King Khan...
(...I mention 4 different Khans up there: though Bollywood does have some dynasties, I'm like 85% sure none of these Khans are related even indirectly. Some names are just surprisingly common.)
Need to watch Main Hoon Nah- written and directed by Farah Khan, the same woman who did Om Shanti Om and Happy New Year. Also starring Shah Rukh Khan like those other two. Yay.
Also need to watch the Munna Bhai films- written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, same dude who did PK and 3 Idiots. Not starring Aamir Khan like those other two (sad, I love that guy.) But which are supposed to be really good anyway (both are in the top 100 Indian films of all time list on IMDb.)
I'd also like to catch Kal Ho Naa Ho at some point ever, since the only Saif Ali Khan movies I've seen are none of them, except he does voice Romeo in Roadside Romeo so there's that I guess that counts, and he also cameoed in the Deewangi Deewangi number in Om Shanti Om, alongside like everyone. That one's supposed to be way good. Plus it's also got SRK. Mmm, King Khan...
(...I mention 4 different Khans up there: though Bollywood does have some dynasties, I'm like 85% sure none of these Khans are related even indirectly. Some names are just surprisingly common.)
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
A Post
It's been a full month since Mom's posted on her blog. But Andrew posted just this morning. And I have no time to post now.
https://agamedesignersblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/3-videos.html
https://agamedesignersblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/3-videos.html
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
I'm Trying to Tell You the Truth About Myself (PretzelsVlog no 5)
I just realized that it isn't much anything I haven't already discussed on Pretzelize Me, Cap'n, but... I dunno. There'd been more I was going to put in there, but you have to know when to kill your darlings... (maybe at some point I'm going to have a bunch of those showcased for the first time, and the title will be, "Have a Good Day, My Darlings...")
I shot this all fourish days ago, but only have everything together now. Took a while to edit. It's probably the best editing work I've ever done... not the best writing or delivery, but you can't win 'em all, and I guess I'd say I'm pretty proud of this one.
I shot this all fourish days ago, but only have everything together now. Took a while to edit. It's probably the best editing work I've ever done... not the best writing or delivery, but you can't win 'em all, and I guess I'd say I'm pretty proud of this one.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Vlogloadin'
It may take till about 3:00 a.m. to upload onto YouTube... does that mean I didn't technically get in a vlog this month?
Sunday, July 30, 2017
The '000
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| https://xkcd.com/1849/, shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License |
Saturday, July 29, 2017
A Couple of Bollywood Numbers
India doesn't really have a music industry in the same way we conceive of it in the west; all music is basically tied to their musicals, which goes very far to explain a lot about Bollywood. Here are a couple of numbers I just can't get out of my head.
Chhoo Le Nah from Roadside Romeo, which is a real, honest-to-Bob Disney movie (Disney does have something of a Bollywood branch, and their latest, Jagga Jasoos, came out a couple of weeks ago; not only does it look amazing and heartwarming, but is currently the #1 most-trending Hindi movie on IMDb.)
I was literally just reading the YouTube comments to "Let Me be Good to You" from The Great Mouse Detective, and they were saying how Disney hasn't the guts to attempt pulling off something like that again... hoo boy.
You'll never, ever, ever be able to get it out of your head now that this is a thing that exists. You're very very welcome.
Secondly, I've told you about Om Shanti Om before; this is probably my favorite song from it. It's called Dhoom Taana.
Chhoo Le Nah from Roadside Romeo, which is a real, honest-to-Bob Disney movie (Disney does have something of a Bollywood branch, and their latest, Jagga Jasoos, came out a couple of weeks ago; not only does it look amazing and heartwarming, but is currently the #1 most-trending Hindi movie on IMDb.)
I was literally just reading the YouTube comments to "Let Me be Good to You" from The Great Mouse Detective, and they were saying how Disney hasn't the guts to attempt pulling off something like that again... hoo boy.
You'll never, ever, ever be able to get it out of your head now that this is a thing that exists. You're very very welcome.
Secondly, I've told you about Om Shanti Om before; this is probably my favorite song from it. It's called Dhoom Taana.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Cabin at the Lake
Okay, so last night we spent at a cabin up in California? Because we could. It's not very often we go holidaying because we can- picking up Andrew we visited some states swinging by on out-of-the-way routes there and back, just to say we visited there. And Mom said something in the car ride about visiting Arizona while she was pregnant with me. This trip was... well, the cabin had been rented for some other thing, which fell through, and while it was rented and nobody was going to take it we took up the, being there, part.
So it did serve some purpose. Insuring the rentance was not in vain.
So it did serve some purpose. Insuring the rentance was not in vain.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Wrong Creative
Guess creativity is something I'm always thinking about, and I've concluded a few things. All value judgement of a creative work boils down to alien versus familiar (I must also concede construction/ craft plays an aspect of course).
Creative work is also being judged within cultural context.
There's no such thing as being "wrong" creative, there's only more creative, which is something that anything can always be- no matter how creative [thing] is already, it always has the capacity for more creativity.
Creative work is also being judged within cultural context.
There's no such thing as being "wrong" creative, there's only more creative, which is something that anything can always be- no matter how creative [thing] is already, it always has the capacity for more creativity.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Spider-Man III (In a Sense)
Spider-Man for the third time reveals that Vulture had indeed been at his business for eight years. It's said that Iron Man, released in 2008, takes place 2010, just a few months before Iron Man II, but what if Iron Man II, rather, takes place a few months after Iron Man I instead? Avengers takes place 2010 now, and... meh, whatever.
2008 was when I was 16. Alex's age. Just... a thought.
2008 was when I was 16. Alex's age. Just... a thought.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Miss Atomic Bomb
I've told you how good this album is, right? It's as an album supposed to be pretty hit-or-miss, but, the Killers, man.
Three music videos for (probably?) the most underrated track from it (so you took your place, but the fall from grace was the hardest part...)!
It's been five years (!!!) but they're finally coming out with a new album, releasing later this year.
Three music videos for (probably?) the most underrated track from it (so you took your place, but the fall from grace was the hardest part...)!
It's been five years (!!!) but they're finally coming out with a new album, releasing later this year.
Monday, July 24, 2017
The Dark "Web"
Thinking about how the Spider-Man poster thing isn't actually delving into any dark underbelly. There's hosts and hosts of the truly b- and c- grade in this world, and criticizing on the surface, hovering at the mainstream, is dealing with strict missteps rather than anything hopelessly flawed, the product of lack of knowledge-of-what-you're-doing so vast it depresses our faith in the human spirit. We like to hover at this level (the mainstream I mean); it's really very comforting. But there is, like, this whole internet place, metaphorically, our engines don't even delve to...
Sunday, July 23, 2017
A Couple Spider-Tidbits
There's a lot I don't want to say about Spider-Man: Homecoming yet because my brothers still haven't seen it. Tom Holland is the greatest. Everything about his Spider-Man is the greatest. Don't want to belittle the awesome efforts of Maguire or Garfield, but Holland, Halland is the President Workman.
Maybe the "8 years later" is actually a flash-forward to 4 years after the end of the movie, showing that Toomes is back to his operation and that "business is good." Because business didn't look good during the plot itself, what with them having to sell to Donald Glover to move merch.
Maybe the "8 years later" is actually a flash-forward to 4 years after the end of the movie, showing that Toomes is back to his operation and that "business is good." Because business didn't look good during the plot itself, what with them having to sell to Donald Glover to move merch.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
The Blame for the Saccharides
I'm not sure but I don't think the family is doing the sugar challenge right now anymore and it's probably basically all my fault, or my sugaring during finals is/was contributory. Ryan still seems to be participating. But man is there really this much sugar in a normal person's everyday? It's a lot.
Anyway it kills me how Bagi survived her own death at the end, there's just no way, "monster of mighty nature" or no...
Anyway it kills me how Bagi survived her own death at the end, there's just no way, "monster of mighty nature" or no...
Friday, July 21, 2017
Short Sentences About School Stopping for Summer
Finished off the, everything, or if not everything something very close to it. Enough to be considered done with the semester. Even if there were a choice in the matter, which temporality does not present. So yeah that's done. Hope I did well.
Home for the first few weeks of the summer, now. Home.
There's Netflix. I've already completed the first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe I'll get time sometime for Stranger Things. Buddy Thunderstruck also looks PDG, if you've heard of that? There's a rabbit hole here obviously, but circling the drain is better than being flushed down it, and isn't as tough as it sounds.
I'm just now finishing up with school, and funny thing I've already been seeing Back to School advertisements in places, shopping-type venues. Maybe haha funny. Whichever.
What to do with the summer? Well, I'm here with my family, and that's enough for now. After that... we'll see. Hopefully some epic thing.
Home for the first few weeks of the summer, now. Home.
There's Netflix. I've already completed the first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe I'll get time sometime for Stranger Things. Buddy Thunderstruck also looks PDG, if you've heard of that? There's a rabbit hole here obviously, but circling the drain is better than being flushed down it, and isn't as tough as it sounds.
I'm just now finishing up with school, and funny thing I've already been seeing Back to School advertisements in places, shopping-type venues. Maybe haha funny. Whichever.
What to do with the summer? Well, I'm here with my family, and that's enough for now. After that... we'll see. Hopefully some epic thing.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Reginaphobia?
Don't know what to talk about so I'll talk about this.
But it's actually good stuff I promise.
Figured out how to not freak out during finals, by sort of ignoring that there was a deadline but that I still had something that, hey, I should get on. So instead of going nuts on it and doing nothing but projects, I interspersed doing projects with watching internet videos and reading the latest Dan Wells novel (Ones and Zeros, it's called; the latest in his new YA series Mirador, which I absolutely LOVE.)
And I didn't die. So there's something to be said for the strategy.
But the YouTube I watched was mostly songs from animated Disney films. And I guess, smoothest segue in the world (only the very smoothest even invoke the fact that you're making a segue), that WHAT THE HECK EVEN IS THE RENAISSANCE AGE OF ANIMATION. The first movie in the Disney Renaissance age is the Little Mermaid, of all things. What's up with that? Oliver and Company comes right before, and... and it's a much better movie, just judging off of my memory of it and the songs whose videos I can't even now stop watching. Little Mermaid is... meh. And that's how I feel about most of Disney's animated films from the Renaissance.
Princesses, I guess. I'm analyzing how strongly I feel about each film of the Disney animated oeuvre of that era, and: the perceived quality of the film, though ostensibly having nothing to do with princess content, is inversely proportional to how much princess there is in any film. Movies starring princesses I dislike the most; movies featuring princesses but focusing on the male leads I find meh; movies that have non-princess female love interests I enjoy the most. I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence, though it'd be a pretty spooky one if it were. (Megara and Nala may be technical royalty but they're not within the Disney Princess canon; they rock, but do they do so coincidentally? I think so, but I'm not disinterested enough to say for sure my own motivations.)
Going backwards outside the 90s, as well, the pattern seems to hold up: can't remember Black Cauldron, whatever, but- Robin Hood, love that film natch, but Maid Marian also not within the Princess canon.
But it's actually good stuff I promise.
Figured out how to not freak out during finals, by sort of ignoring that there was a deadline but that I still had something that, hey, I should get on. So instead of going nuts on it and doing nothing but projects, I interspersed doing projects with watching internet videos and reading the latest Dan Wells novel (Ones and Zeros, it's called; the latest in his new YA series Mirador, which I absolutely LOVE.)
And I didn't die. So there's something to be said for the strategy.
But the YouTube I watched was mostly songs from animated Disney films. And I guess, smoothest segue in the world (only the very smoothest even invoke the fact that you're making a segue), that WHAT THE HECK EVEN IS THE RENAISSANCE AGE OF ANIMATION. The first movie in the Disney Renaissance age is the Little Mermaid, of all things. What's up with that? Oliver and Company comes right before, and... and it's a much better movie, just judging off of my memory of it and the songs whose videos I can't even now stop watching. Little Mermaid is... meh. And that's how I feel about most of Disney's animated films from the Renaissance.
Princesses, I guess. I'm analyzing how strongly I feel about each film of the Disney animated oeuvre of that era, and: the perceived quality of the film, though ostensibly having nothing to do with princess content, is inversely proportional to how much princess there is in any film. Movies starring princesses I dislike the most; movies featuring princesses but focusing on the male leads I find meh; movies that have non-princess female love interests I enjoy the most. I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence, though it'd be a pretty spooky one if it were. (Megara and Nala may be technical royalty but they're not within the Disney Princess canon; they rock, but do they do so coincidentally? I think so, but I'm not disinterested enough to say for sure my own motivations.)
Going backwards outside the 90s, as well, the pattern seems to hold up: can't remember Black Cauldron, whatever, but- Robin Hood, love that film natch, but Maid Marian also not within the Princess canon.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
From Tuesday to Wednesday
Why, WHY did I not accomplish a single thing yesterday? I mean, I think I remember I posted about, I did do some thing, that's right I remember it now, the one thing I did all day. That was productive instead of either neutral or active regression. Today was grueling, and it's still not over yet, though maybe it would be if I hadn't spent Tuesday doing SERIOUSLY I CAN'T REMEMBER.
Wait- yeah I can. The first halfish at least. There is much haze there, moreso of than answers.
Didn't get as much as I'd thought I would, done today- I thought that I'd be finished with everything by now, but nope guess not. Luckily this day after the end of the semester wasn't the actual final day where things are finally due; there's still till Friday at 11:59 pm when-- yes pm okay good- when the final PDF is due, all the process books of the semester combined into one massive file. I'd totally be good for that, if the productivity of tomorrow weren't in question. As it is, I am only probably good for that.
Wait- yeah I can. The first halfish at least. There is much haze there, moreso of than answers.
Didn't get as much as I'd thought I would, done today- I thought that I'd be finished with everything by now, but nope guess not. Luckily this day after the end of the semester wasn't the actual final day where things are finally due; there's still till Friday at 11:59 pm when-- yes pm okay good- when the final PDF is due, all the process books of the semester combined into one massive file. I'd totally be good for that, if the productivity of tomorrow weren't in question. As it is, I am only probably good for that.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
It's the Semi-Final Countdown
I'd been going to say something about being that day gnawed on by a dog and then watching the emergency service vehicles turn around the corner and stop and sit, watching the streetlight come on as the police peeled away leaving only the ambulance in limbo; maybe something about giving a talk in church Sunday making it up mostly on the fly, but with a little preparation, and being told by someone I'd make a good writer. Not sure which anymore; probably the latter, so that I could report on the later-occurring event later. I probably would have gone into some detail about either subject. I'm tired.
I think the semester's officially over, but that doesn't stop me from still having things due Wednesday... I hope. Today I generally spent generally "out of it;" tomorrow needs to be busy. I'm actually well into having the final project done (I mean it's not like I accomplished nothing today); I estimate maybe 5 or 6 more hours tops. It's the multitudinous other things that also need to be done tomorrow that mean that I need to work, perhaps not "hard" but "much." If we weren't leaving the day after, that wouldn't necessarily be the case, but before then I've got errands plentiful.
I think the semester's officially over, but that doesn't stop me from still having things due Wednesday... I hope. Today I generally spent generally "out of it;" tomorrow needs to be busy. I'm actually well into having the final project done (I mean it's not like I accomplished nothing today); I estimate maybe 5 or 6 more hours tops. It's the multitudinous other things that also need to be done tomorrow that mean that I need to work, perhaps not "hard" but "much." If we weren't leaving the day after, that wouldn't necessarily be the case, but before then I've got errands plentiful.
Monday, July 17, 2017
You Can't Break Me Down?
Some of the time my posts are just short because there's too much to say so I have no choice but to retreat back to the basics (and especially when I've got too much to say, and I'm busy.) Other times genuinely nothing's happened that day, of course not the case lately.
Sometimes I mean to write much, but am prevented from doing so by the computer crashing on me the way it always does when I watch the music video for The Killers' The Man, for some reason...
Sometimes I mean to write much, but am prevented from doing so by the computer crashing on me the way it always does when I watch the music video for The Killers' The Man, for some reason...
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Other Things for Other Blogs; You Know Who You Are
The semester technically ends Tuesday but stuff in Interaction Design is due Mondays and Wednesdays with this week being no exception... so I'm not sure if my stuff needs to be in by Monday at midnight or actually Wednesday at midnight.
Anyway THINGS:
Anyway THINGS:
- StoryForge is a non-game with Hero's Journey elements, like cards representing, among other things, actual specific Hero's Journey plot points. Found out about it here: torforgeblog.com/2017/07/10/5-gaming-tools-to-help-your-writing/ Of the 6 games mentioned, I've played or seen played all but that and 99 Chances, neither of which I'd heard of until that article. Not a game though, so!
- Half Alive are pretty darn good, but too 'millenial' for my taste (and no I can't define that either.)
- The primary scariness against Lion Kinging every day would be, it'd take so long, with 90% of that being who's going to edit that together? I don't mind watching movies every day, 'course, but if I were going to do (I'm thinking vlog format for it now) I'd have to like hire someone willing to edit together a video once a day for a year, 'cause, I ain't doing that.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Nostalgia for the Weirder Days
The internet speed right now is very good, not in that it's fast but in that it's so excruciatingly slow it's giving me fond memories of the 1990s.
That is all.
That is all.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Two Finals(?) Down
All I've eaten all day is: like some scrapings of what was once a taco probably, several handfuls of Shredded Wheat: Wheat and Bran, and a doughnut. It continues to be nobody's burthday, but it also continues to be finals.
Spent all day more or less finishing up my "Mentalities" final project for Information Design. It's over. It's all over. (Though actually at press time I've yet to upload the final images after receiving feedback on them. They are in my process book though so the teacher does have them- just not organized in any coherent way is all, the individual graphics minus the copy. The copy I will also be uploading.)
https://pretzelizemecapn.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/mentalities/
Meanwhile I also had my final portfolio review for figure drawing. As an illustration major, my work would have been about a C; as a graphic design major, which I still am so he's going lenient on me, he gave me a B-. Or B+. Whichever. Can't recall. The advice given is more important than the grade itself.
He did tell me that I have promise. And that it's the best illustrators, the toppity notch ones, whose work is grounded by not just illustration skill but design skill. He could tell that I was searching for form and not just shape, like a lot of graphic designers do, focusing just on the 2D layout. I had the design pretty well, but what I lacked was application- personal application that is. He could tell that I never sat down with a, "okay, we're going to be really working on figuring out specifically how to do core shadow well." It's true, and it's typical of me. Application. Gotta learn to buckle down on, like, anything.
So yeah now all's left is the interaction design stuff. Nice. Due Monday midnight... but there's a lot to do.
Spent all day more or less finishing up my "Mentalities" final project for Information Design. It's over. It's all over. (Though actually at press time I've yet to upload the final images after receiving feedback on them. They are in my process book though so the teacher does have them- just not organized in any coherent way is all, the individual graphics minus the copy. The copy I will also be uploading.)
https://pretzelizemecapn.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/mentalities/
Meanwhile I also had my final portfolio review for figure drawing. As an illustration major, my work would have been about a C; as a graphic design major, which I still am so he's going lenient on me, he gave me a B-. Or B+. Whichever. Can't recall. The advice given is more important than the grade itself.
He did tell me that I have promise. And that it's the best illustrators, the toppity notch ones, whose work is grounded by not just illustration skill but design skill. He could tell that I was searching for form and not just shape, like a lot of graphic designers do, focusing just on the 2D layout. I had the design pretty well, but what I lacked was application- personal application that is. He could tell that I never sat down with a, "okay, we're going to be really working on figuring out specifically how to do core shadow well." It's true, and it's typical of me. Application. Gotta learn to buckle down on, like, anything.
So yeah now all's left is the interaction design stuff. Nice. Due Monday midnight... but there's a lot to do.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Final(s) Hours Remaining
It's like a week ago, counting down the hours until Homecoming, only now I'm counting down the hours until my last finals are due.
Seven and a half hours until the final portfolio review for figure drawing. I've got which drawings I want in the portfolio figured out, but the lab computers refusing to load, the way they do, I couldn't print out any of the reference photos tonight. Which are optional to have, as part of the portfolio, but still important. Maybe I'll get that done in the morning.
23 hours until the Info Design final is due. I'm estimating 12 hours' worth of work there, to get everything finished and spitpolished: 3 hours to block out the basics, the rest to fill in the details. Might take less time; hope it doesn't take more.
After that it's just the interaction design stuff I'm catching up on and chipping away at. 71.5 hours to complete that, with an estimated completion time of three question marks.
Seven and a half hours until the final portfolio review for figure drawing. I've got which drawings I want in the portfolio figured out, but the lab computers refusing to load, the way they do, I couldn't print out any of the reference photos tonight. Which are optional to have, as part of the portfolio, but still important. Maybe I'll get that done in the morning.
23 hours until the Info Design final is due. I'm estimating 12 hours' worth of work there, to get everything finished and spitpolished: 3 hours to block out the basics, the rest to fill in the details. Might take less time; hope it doesn't take more.
After that it's just the interaction design stuff I'm catching up on and chipping away at. 71.5 hours to complete that, with an estimated completion time of three question marks.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
LIME TIME (Look, I aM Extremely Tired, I Mean anyway that's the best post title I can come up with on such short noticE.)
I had four slices of lime meringue pie today, even though I already used my sugar day this week. It was art night, the final one of the semester. It was the only thing they had to eat there this time... It's finals? Which was my excuse last time, stress eating or whatever, but that time I was exonerated by the fact that it was also technically Ryan's birthday the whole time which we had forgotten about. Maybe this one was for Andrew's birthday??
I got a third Jean Grey (Phoenix) cover in MPQ today. The system wigged out when I tried to level her up using my well-saved ISO-8... froze up the first couple of times, when I tried to do it all at once, and then the third time trying to do it level by level, it ate the 2,000 ISO-8 but didn't level her up any. So I had to complete another level even though I'd totally been able to afford leveling the whole thing up.
But now she's level 300. It worked the, fifth time or whatever that was.
Meanwhile in homework stuff, I sent in my last assignment for New Testament class. Guess I'm... done? Man that was anticlimactic. Probably going to spend the hour tomorrow that isn't class, doing, important, other class, stuff. Yeah.
I got a third Jean Grey (Phoenix) cover in MPQ today. The system wigged out when I tried to level her up using my well-saved ISO-8... froze up the first couple of times, when I tried to do it all at once, and then the third time trying to do it level by level, it ate the 2,000 ISO-8 but didn't level her up any. So I had to complete another level even though I'd totally been able to afford leveling the whole thing up.
But now she's level 300. It worked the, fifth time or whatever that was.
Meanwhile in homework stuff, I sent in my last assignment for New Testament class. Guess I'm... done? Man that was anticlimactic. Probably going to spend the hour tomorrow that isn't class, doing, important, other class, stuff. Yeah.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Finals Week Progress Woo
I found the thumbnails for the screens of the app project I'm working on in interaction design, and can proceed at last with this final project. Other classes, sure let's make a bullet list:
- New Testament: There's one last assignment, but no more classes. Assignments take about an hour, depending how invested I am in the readings.
- Information Design: Friday at 11:30 pm is when everything is due. There's class tomorrow I think, but it'd just be a workday. Great opportunity to keep chugging along on creating the final processbook and/or refining designs after receiving feedback from the R&CW Conference.
- Monotype/Monoprint: Final portfolios due Thursday. I've got fresh improved prints of most of the processes we're supposed to have. Maybe all of them. I'll have to double-check.
- Figure Drawing- there's a 15-minute long final portfolio review which I've got scheduled for Friday morning. There is class tomorrow, but just to keep working on things we've already started, from reference photographs. No live models tomorrow I shouldn't think.
- Interaction Design. Everything due Monday evening. I'm a couple of weeks behind on the current app project, and there's still one or two things I need to do in the previous website design assignment just to cinch that done.
I had some cookie dough yesterday afternoon, and apparently the sugar grace period is for 24 hours and not a calendar day and so I also had one doughnut in monotype/monoprint class. The cookie dough was okay I guess but the doughnut was delightful, plain glazed though it may have been. With these sweet consumptions I am prevented myself from wanting to go to the cinemas this week, which means that I can spend time doing finals stuff as would be best for me.
Monday, July 10, 2017
Anxiousness
Always trying to find some cause or blame for my growing anxiety, which itself is the cause/blame of my slipping grades. Grades going down leading to anxiety, sure I guess I can see that snowballing off of itself, and progress in school leading to more difficult coursework leading to higher stress, that might also account for some. But it never felt like that. It felt like a lifestyle thing, unrelated to school. Using a pressure valve allows/creates excuse for continued use of that valve, leading to greater and greater procrastination, perhaps? But the procrastination doesn't cause my anxiety.
Looking back in the revision history of a Google Doc of a stageplay I'm working on (Google Docs saves all changes you make, and allows you to look back through all revisions and even restore them) I can find mention of a character's "panic attacks" going back to first being written in on February 10th 2016, during my first semester here, quite a ways back. (The character is based on me, of course, or at least the version of me present in the original dream that inspired the premise of the play.) So they've been with me for at least that long, the anxiety attacks, but haven't/hadn't been that big a problem, judging by my 3.75ish GPA back then...
You still have the panic attacks? one character asks, and on a revision dated 3 March, I write in a reply, (which had been the intended one from the beginning if memory serves me correctly, but not put in until 22 days later for whatever reason): They come and go. And only when I'm paying attention.
This response is nonfiction. That's how my anxiety attacks worked for me. If I paid attention, I'd be able to get anxious, and kick into fight-or-flight. If I zoned out, it couldn't/didn't happen. It was all fairly mild stuff, and it went away for a bit after that; I'm not sure when it came back. Or why. Or hadn't at least, but maybe that's still true...
I was reading an interview between Tony Attwood and Temple Grandin yesterday, and something that Temple says stops me cold:
Though of course if the anxiety really does get worse and worse and worse like Grandin's suggesting...
Looking back in the revision history of a Google Doc of a stageplay I'm working on (Google Docs saves all changes you make, and allows you to look back through all revisions and even restore them) I can find mention of a character's "panic attacks" going back to first being written in on February 10th 2016, during my first semester here, quite a ways back. (The character is based on me, of course, or at least the version of me present in the original dream that inspired the premise of the play.) So they've been with me for at least that long, the anxiety attacks, but haven't/hadn't been that big a problem, judging by my 3.75ish GPA back then...
You still have the panic attacks? one character asks, and on a revision dated 3 March, I write in a reply, (which had been the intended one from the beginning if memory serves me correctly, but not put in until 22 days later for whatever reason): They come and go. And only when I'm paying attention.
This response is nonfiction. That's how my anxiety attacks worked for me. If I paid attention, I'd be able to get anxious, and kick into fight-or-flight. If I zoned out, it couldn't/didn't happen. It was all fairly mild stuff, and it went away for a bit after that; I'm not sure when it came back. Or why. Or hadn't at least, but maybe that's still true...
I was reading an interview between Tony Attwood and Temple Grandin yesterday, and something that Temple says stops me cold:
Another really bad thing, especially in the high-functioning end of the spectrum, is that as the people get older, they get more and more anxious. Even if they take Prozac or something else, they're so anxious, they have a hard time functioning.So maybe there isn't an environmental cause after all. Nothing Freudian, it's seriously just part of my brain chemistry for whatever reason. I'm not sure if there's any research out there on the cause of this increased anxiety, but I don't think it really matters either. The important thing is this: it's not in my mind, it's in my brain, and it wouldn't be inappropriate at all to seek medical attention for the issue.
Though of course if the anxiety really does get worse and worse and worse like Grandin's suggesting...
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Audience Reaction Thing That I'd Meant to Have Earlier Somewhere
There was cheering in the theater, when the Marvel Studios logo began playing. Sony logos, Columbia, we're used to seeing that at the beginning of Spider-Man films, but after the opening scene of villain introduction... the familiar comic-book page flipping started, and people just lost it.
And, instead of the normal epic fanfare theme, Michael Giacchino orchestrations, of the original 1960s Spider-Man theme...!
And, instead of the normal epic fanfare theme, Michael Giacchino orchestrations, of the original 1960s Spider-Man theme...!
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Contact with the Enemy
Even having a plan for what to do to get my schoolwork done, I was paralyzed for a bit there, so maybe it wasn't as simple as just having a checklist, like I suggested yesterday. Giving myself plenty of space to work, meaning cutting down exactly how many accomplishments I expected of myself, allowed me to work smoothly and panic-free. I'm done with I think half of the prints I need done for my final portfolio on Thursday.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Finals: Attack Pattern
Um so okay like there's one week left in the semester basically and so I don't know I guess I'm not going to panic because at least I have my work cut out for me, but, for sure I've got my work cut out for me. I should have spent today doing homework or something, but the opposite of homework, whatever that is, happened instead. And nothing but. I mean I did spend a little bit of time writing down most of the stuff that I need to have done so that's good, but even then I don't think I caught all of it.
- I'm basically done in Information Design since the R&CW thing yesterday, though there is the final module to assemble however that's going to be; whatever, we can put that out of mind for now
- Interaction Design I'm a couple of modules behind in, though the professor is very understanding and the important thing is that I get those in at all- and the deadline for this is the furthest away, it being an online class and thus extending all the way until the technical end of the semester- so, keep that on the backburner, important to catch up but not as much a priority to complete as:
- Monotype/Monoprint, I have a list of all the different print techniques that are supposed to be exhibited in my portfolio, and tbh I can't even remember what some of them mean; I'd been putting getting any solid work done in that class off until after the R&CW stuff was finished, but now that's over, and oops I've only got till Thursday to do all of those.
- Figure Drawing there's a portfolio we're supposed to have there as well, which is just of work we've already completed over the semester at least, so technically all that work's already done... but I'm not sure what the portfolio's even supposed to be comprised of (I think I wrote it down somewhere...?)
- New Testament class, I've got no idea if there is a final or anything; I haven't attended that class all week, between INDEPENDENCE DAY and hammering out the last of the R&CW designs. Is there a paper or something we need to write? Some final project we should be doing? Looking through upcoming assignments due, it just looks like a participation self-assessment, so, no...?
See? Having everything down in a list automatically suggests the best plan of attack and everything; instead of getting ATTACKED BY ANTS (though like I said this to-do list is basically the only thing I got done today) I can get in there and get things done. There are workarounds, but medication can also work in conjunction with lifestyle, so maybe it's still an option... an option I haven't had time to explore yet; it's finals week and I didn't even realize it till just a few minutes ago when I started this post...
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Maybe Soda and Popcorn Next Week?
Well I and everyone else in the audience loved it and thought it was hilarious- I mean, it's a way funny movie, which isn't really something you see that much of in the trailers now that I've seen them- but right now I'm at the kind of exact weird distance from it where the whole ordeal seems terribly trippy. Is it something about Marvel movies lately, that they're like that? Because Guardians vol 2 was wicked trippy. I'm not presently sure if Homecoming is like that, or if it's just my feelings about it right now.
I'm also not sure when the next time is that I want to catch it- maybe if tickets were free and I weren't swamped with the homework I couldn't do due to other homework being more important, I'd catch it tomorrow. Maybe I would have caught it again this evening if it had turned out I'd actually packed any payment methods on me. I don't know.
Yeah so my payment not being on me, speaking of that, I mean I'd already purchased my ticket so that was fine, but I wasn't able to buy concessions like I'd planned on doing- and so my sugar day, although it was fine and there were a lot of sugars I could eat today like seriously there were doughnuts brought in to monotype/monoprint, and I had cookies left over from the awards ceremony's refreshments last night, and man there's just a lot going on lately that I haven't been able to tell you, due to the Spider-Man buildup.
Like how much homework I've been having, which I mentioned. The final for Information Design is basically to have this project in the R&CW Conference, research and creative works... which was from 4:30-6:30 today, ending just in time for me to clean up my presentation afterwards and rush to the cinema. That's over, obviously, and I had time afterwards to watch a movie obviously and not have to worry about impending deadlines or homework for a while, but see, there was this whole thing and I'm only now telling you about it.
I'm also not sure when the next time is that I want to catch it- maybe if tickets were free and I weren't swamped with the homework I couldn't do due to other homework being more important, I'd catch it tomorrow. Maybe I would have caught it again this evening if it had turned out I'd actually packed any payment methods on me. I don't know.
Yeah so my payment not being on me, speaking of that, I mean I'd already purchased my ticket so that was fine, but I wasn't able to buy concessions like I'd planned on doing- and so my sugar day, although it was fine and there were a lot of sugars I could eat today like seriously there were doughnuts brought in to monotype/monoprint, and I had cookies left over from the awards ceremony's refreshments last night, and man there's just a lot going on lately that I haven't been able to tell you, due to the Spider-Man buildup.
Like how much homework I've been having, which I mentioned. The final for Information Design is basically to have this project in the R&CW Conference, research and creative works... which was from 4:30-6:30 today, ending just in time for me to clean up my presentation afterwards and rush to the cinema. That's over, obviously, and I had time afterwards to watch a movie obviously and not have to worry about impending deadlines or homework for a while, but see, there was this whole thing and I'm only now telling you about it.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
I Spin My Wheels Wildly Speculating About Spider-Man, and Have a Blast Doing So
Deadpool's Daily keeps me coming back every morning to play Marvel Puzzle Quest. I completed the gauntlet this morning, but double-checking today it turns out there's an update available, the unskippable kind (sometimes it allows you to put off updating your MPQ version until your next login, but not this time.) Doubtless it's Spider-Man: Homecoming related, so I didn't tap the link to the app store- but come (26 hours as I write this, 19 hours from the time this post goes up) it won't matter anymore. I'll be able to get my Deadpool's Daily in tomorrow, just before going to sleep instead of after waking up.
By next post, I'll have seen Spider-Man! Exciting!
People have probably speculated on plot details and stuff, before the trailers and everything started coming out, but then the trailers came out and probably a lot of the questions went away. Me, I've never seen a trailer (for this movie,) so I've still got lots of questions. And a lot of speculation.
It's in New York. What else is in New York? Squirrel Girl. Iron Man's in this movie; Squirrel Girl was introduced in an Iron Man comic. Fighting Doctor Doom. Could Doom be the bad guy here? Or is Fox actually holding onto the possibility that they'll be able to do anything interesting with the FF and related properties? Why haven't any of them fought any Skrulls yet? IDK.
(The movie rights to Skrulls are owned by both Fox and Marvel Studios. In the MCU, Skrulls go by their Ultimates name, the Chitauri. In the Fantastic Four films... I don't know, there may have been a vague allusion to them at one point? Come on, guys, just go with that!)
Probably not, anyway.
What else else is in New York? The Defenders. The actors' contracts specify that they're required to appear in any films if called on. Expecting at least a cameo/allusion to them, if nothing else. It's high time that the TV shows get mentioned in the films more. At least a little bit. Please?
What else else else is in New York? Last time Hulk was in New York, he broke Harlem. We saw the Leader's origin as a potential sequel hook, but nothing came of it... so far. Spider-Man facing down a Hulk villain? Probably not, either.
I maintain how awesome it would be if it were Kraven.
Um what else what else what else.
There was a Spider-Man reference in Ant-Man. In Civil War, Spider-Man's origin was IIRC stated to be "a few months ago," whatever that means. When does Homecoming take place? During the school year, presumably, so it's not going to be a 1:1 "present day" scenario, it being a summer release. Maybe it takes place later on this year, but I think most likely it's going to begin sometime not long after Civil War. Guardians vol 2 takes place just a few months after the first film after all. (Although it would be cool to begin in medias res with Spider-Man and Iron Man as a team, and having been that way for a while.)
I said I think it's going to begin right after Civil War... not take place right after Civil War. Because how gnarly would it be for this movie to take place over the entire school year? Way gnarly.
Whatever, I'm fatigued. It's Christmas been coming for 13 months now, and I'm pooping out 19 hours before it finally arrives. Figures.
By next post, I'll have seen Spider-Man! Exciting!
People have probably speculated on plot details and stuff, before the trailers and everything started coming out, but then the trailers came out and probably a lot of the questions went away. Me, I've never seen a trailer (for this movie,) so I've still got lots of questions. And a lot of speculation.
It's in New York. What else is in New York? Squirrel Girl. Iron Man's in this movie; Squirrel Girl was introduced in an Iron Man comic. Fighting Doctor Doom. Could Doom be the bad guy here? Or is Fox actually holding onto the possibility that they'll be able to do anything interesting with the FF and related properties? Why haven't any of them fought any Skrulls yet? IDK.
(The movie rights to Skrulls are owned by both Fox and Marvel Studios. In the MCU, Skrulls go by their Ultimates name, the Chitauri. In the Fantastic Four films... I don't know, there may have been a vague allusion to them at one point? Come on, guys, just go with that!)
Probably not, anyway.
What else else is in New York? The Defenders. The actors' contracts specify that they're required to appear in any films if called on. Expecting at least a cameo/allusion to them, if nothing else. It's high time that the TV shows get mentioned in the films more. At least a little bit. Please?
What else else else is in New York? Last time Hulk was in New York, he broke Harlem. We saw the Leader's origin as a potential sequel hook, but nothing came of it... so far. Spider-Man facing down a Hulk villain? Probably not, either.
I maintain how awesome it would be if it were Kraven.
Um what else what else what else.
There was a Spider-Man reference in Ant-Man. In Civil War, Spider-Man's origin was IIRC stated to be "a few months ago," whatever that means. When does Homecoming take place? During the school year, presumably, so it's not going to be a 1:1 "present day" scenario, it being a summer release. Maybe it takes place later on this year, but I think most likely it's going to begin sometime not long after Civil War. Guardians vol 2 takes place just a few months after the first film after all. (Although it would be cool to begin in medias res with Spider-Man and Iron Man as a team, and having been that way for a while.)
I said I think it's going to begin right after Civil War... not take place right after Civil War. Because how gnarly would it be for this movie to take place over the entire school year? Way gnarly.
Whatever, I'm fatigued. It's Christmas been coming for 13 months now, and I'm pooping out 19 hours before it finally arrives. Figures.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Obligatory, and Not Much Else
We've gotten to the point where I can count down the hours instead of days. And I am. Fewer than 48, now, at least. Originally I was going to do this post on something not-Spider-Man, but I've been doing this school project too much to write up something as big as what I had in mind. So...
(really the reason I want to do this post on Spider-Man is because I'm going back currently and crunching my hype buildup for this movie before it comes out versus the same for Zootopia, and I feel that Spider-Man could use another heavy hitter in the corner. but nothing comes to mind that's more appropriate here than it is for tomorrow's post, so I don't know I'm kind of at a loss.)
Monday, July 3, 2017
Homecoming: Tickets and Showtimes
Finally got my paws on a Spider-Man: Homecoming ticket! Usually Thursday previews there's only one showing, 7:30, but for this one I was offered three showtimes! Which means that there's a lot of interest in the film already; I'm glad I got my ticket ASAP, because even with the expanded view offerings the precious seat space is being gobbled up quick. Looking at the seat selection, the screen of seats that had been taken or were still available, so that I could select my own seat, like it was nuts it's just Monday and the tickets have only been available for a handful of hours but like a third to a full half of the seats were already reserved.
!, right?
I said there were three showtimes, and I of course went for the earliest possible one, but maybe the showtimes themselves are a spoiler, because they were 7:00, something like 8:30, and 9:00- two screens, at least, for sure; but if the third screen is indeed the same as the first screen, that means that the movie's 2 hours long or less. It doesn't tell you anything about the plot, of course, but it would give you an idea about how long would be left in the movie, at any given part...
It's so tempting to just give in right now and look stuff up, but I've made it this far...
!, right?
I said there were three showtimes, and I of course went for the earliest possible one, but maybe the showtimes themselves are a spoiler, because they were 7:00, something like 8:30, and 9:00- two screens, at least, for sure; but if the third screen is indeed the same as the first screen, that means that the movie's 2 hours long or less. It doesn't tell you anything about the plot, of course, but it would give you an idea about how long would be left in the movie, at any given part...
It's so tempting to just give in right now and look stuff up, but I've made it this far...
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Med???
People procrastinate all the time. Especially art students. But for me, I guess I've been feeling lately that it goes beyond that. Even when I want to start, and have no reason not to, with all my materials assembled and in a conductive environment with minimal distractions, I just can't. Because, thinking about the task ahead of me, I freeze up.
I get anxiety even thinking about projects, so I procrastinate (which makes it worse for me when it comes time to do them because the time's just that much further along and there's still the exact same amount of work left to do.) I say I "get anxiety," but let me try to make it clearer for you: even just thinking of what needs to be done, rather than figuring out a way to get on it in a conducive manner, my brain instead goes into fight/flight mode so hardcore that I can't function. Years of conditioning myself have made it so there's no exterior sign of my inward panic, but it's a cussin' party goin' on in there (though very seldom, a party of cussing.)
So I think I may need drugs.
It was tough to admit that, which I did, to myself and others, last night in the computer lab trying to do homework but panicking instead; calmly explaining my issues out loud and hoping someone would be listening, which nobody did of course, because no one ever listens.
Only, there was someone listening this time after all. She, in response to my having no idea where to even begin in finding the proper medication or even the proper psychiatrist to find me the proper medication, directed me to the counseling center which this school apparently has, and yeah I knew that that exists I guess. But she said that the counseling center has a website that I can access?, and I can't find that from the university main page navigation.
I suppose I could just use the search bar...
Alright, found it. I really make things a lot harder for myself sometimes... more pride than laziness...
Our family doing the no-sugar challenge, with a grace period of 24 hours once a week, last week there was some frozen cookie dough in the freezer which I swept upon at the stroke of midnight Sunday. This week I'm having pop and popcorn with my Spider-Man on Thursday, and though the pop shall be diet I still consider it to be in the spirit of sweets; I refrain from eating sugar elsewhere in the week during weeks where I order popcorn and soda to go with my cinema ticket.
It's the start of this new week, and boy were there a lot of temptations last week; like the BFA showcase had its open house and verily the only thing they were serving besides water was cookies... I was the only one who showed up to Art Night on Wednesday, and there were these wafery cookies there; I've still got them in the fridge because I had to take some, even if I can't eat any...
I get anxiety even thinking about projects, so I procrastinate (which makes it worse for me when it comes time to do them because the time's just that much further along and there's still the exact same amount of work left to do.) I say I "get anxiety," but let me try to make it clearer for you: even just thinking of what needs to be done, rather than figuring out a way to get on it in a conducive manner, my brain instead goes into fight/flight mode so hardcore that I can't function. Years of conditioning myself have made it so there's no exterior sign of my inward panic, but it's a cussin' party goin' on in there (though very seldom, a party of cussing.)
So I think I may need drugs.
It was tough to admit that, which I did, to myself and others, last night in the computer lab trying to do homework but panicking instead; calmly explaining my issues out loud and hoping someone would be listening, which nobody did of course, because no one ever listens.
Only, there was someone listening this time after all. She, in response to my having no idea where to even begin in finding the proper medication or even the proper psychiatrist to find me the proper medication, directed me to the counseling center which this school apparently has, and yeah I knew that that exists I guess. But she said that the counseling center has a website that I can access?, and I can't find that from the university main page navigation.
I suppose I could just use the search bar...
Alright, found it. I really make things a lot harder for myself sometimes... more pride than laziness...
Our family doing the no-sugar challenge, with a grace period of 24 hours once a week, last week there was some frozen cookie dough in the freezer which I swept upon at the stroke of midnight Sunday. This week I'm having pop and popcorn with my Spider-Man on Thursday, and though the pop shall be diet I still consider it to be in the spirit of sweets; I refrain from eating sugar elsewhere in the week during weeks where I order popcorn and soda to go with my cinema ticket.
It's the start of this new week, and boy were there a lot of temptations last week; like the BFA showcase had its open house and verily the only thing they were serving besides water was cookies... I was the only one who showed up to Art Night on Wednesday, and there were these wafery cookies there; I've still got them in the fridge because I had to take some, even if I can't eat any...
Saturday, July 1, 2017
White Blazer Mystery
Shopping today, finally got those groceries. I managed to successfully avoid all Spider-Man: Homecoming tie-ins. The cereal aisle has some Despicable Me 3 cereal or whatever, and that's really the only tie-in stuff I can remember.
Marvel Puzzle Quest updated to a new version like a week ago, the way it does periodically. I made sure to run the app store by Ryan, who knows my plight, and he responded that it was the Guardians of the Galaxy on the app icon- so it was cool to update; there was no aesthetic switch from the previous theme (I mean, if there were that, and it were Spider-Man themed now, there might have been spoilers!, so I made sure to have Ryan be the one to look at the app store screen.) It doesn't look like they're switching to a Spider-Man theme just yet, which is good, but there is a new event coming up in 5 days- the event logo appears to be Homecoming themed, it's Spider-Man's eyes, a line drawing thereof in the style of the Spider-Signal in the Spider-Man: Homecoming logo, possibly taken from the logo itself. Reflected in the drawing's eyes are... figures; I didn't look closely because potential spoilers, so I don't know WHOSE figures.
It's July finally! Not long now, not long at all... especially now that I no longer have to go shopping and expose myself to any more Product, between now and Thursday evening.
I know what happened to my cell phone, which I had apparently misplaced again- but not like that, see I knew exactly where it was the whole time. It was in the pocket of my white blazer! And it was my blazer I'd misplaced. And, it's a funny thing, because, it never look misplaced? It'll make sense once I explain what happened:
With the cell phone in the blazer's pocket, I could easily look up the location, and find both the phone and the blazer, (including everything else in the blazer's pockets, like my keys and thumb drive and the piece of paper that has the info about the awards ceremony for the art competition I've entered into and everything.) Pinging the phone, I find it to be somewhere in the apartment. Ringing the phone... no sound. And it's not on silent, and it's still on, and it's got plenty of battery life.
There is a radius of error margin, on the approximate GPS location of the phone, so I check all three neighboring apartments just to be sure. It's not there. And pinging the phone again, there's a tight enough margin of error this time to be pretty sure, it's at the approximate location of, not just the apartment complex or the apartment, but specifically in my bedroom there. I check the closets and the pile of clean clothes and underneath the stack of printing papers. Nothing.
We live above the laundry room, which I've previously checked. Though it's hard to hear a ringing phone in there, when the machines are going at least, it's not impossible. Searching my room in vain, praying for guidance, it clicks.
Behind the laundry room is a storage room- a room directly underneath the bedroom. Ringing the phone, with the machines all paused and my ear pressed against the storage room door, I hear the ring. The door's locked, but I know where my stuff is, and I know what happened:
The lounge has tightened its rules on leaving things lying about, and now takes things away after they've been there a period of 24 hours. I'm the one probably most affected by this move; in fact I'm pretty sure it's aimed at me. I tend to leave my stuff in the lounge. I believe I've mentioned this before, but I'm looking back through everywhere I've mentioned using the lounge, and I don't explicitly state it from what I can see, but yes: I tend to leave my stuff in the lounge.
Coming home late Thursday night, after leaving late from the Spori basement after compiling the latest vlog, I went into the lounge to watch a Bollywood movie, checked out from the library, due that day (or the day before, of course, since it was past midnight by the time the film started.) I figured I could watch the whole thing and check it back into the library before it opened in the morning, and thus avoid late fees. It... it didn't work, of course. This particular film, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (starring Aamir Khan, my absolute favorite!), is 3 hours 45 minutes, super long even for a Bollywood film. After nodding off for the third or fourth time, I just stopped the film and trod over to the library barefoot and jacketless, at 2:45ish in the morning. (I was offered a ride once, even, which I declined.) I turned in the DVD, and after that went to bed.
When I woke up, around 10:00 in the morning after the long night before, and looked around for my blazer, I couldn't find it. And it wasn't in either of the lounges, of our apartment or the neighboring one, which were the two locations I'd been in it the night before (which I'd checked at first to see if I could watch the DVD in their player, since the Indian DVD says PAL 1 which means all areas, but it doesn't seem to want to work in the Blu-Ray player our lounge has, and so I'd have to use an X Box which I didn't want to do, and it's all very technical but long story short I did wind up having to use the X Box because the neighbor's DVD player didn't have any cords for some reason.) I even checked the basement lab where I'd been, even though I very distinctly was wearing my blazer as I left there.
What must have happened is, they found the blazer in the morning, from where I'd left it in watching Lagaan; found it before I made it down to the lounge to check, and for some reason assumed it had been there 24 hours already since it was there in the morning just lying there, instead of having been there just a few hours like what actually happened?
And now my blazer, and my phone and all that, is behind a door in the laundry room. A locked door, in case you hadn't figured it out yourself.
So. It'd be best not to disturb the managers outside of office hours, and the office won't open again till Monday. At least I'd been planning on hitting them Monday anyway, with the contracts for the next two semesters' stay...
Marvel Puzzle Quest updated to a new version like a week ago, the way it does periodically. I made sure to run the app store by Ryan, who knows my plight, and he responded that it was the Guardians of the Galaxy on the app icon- so it was cool to update; there was no aesthetic switch from the previous theme (I mean, if there were that, and it were Spider-Man themed now, there might have been spoilers!, so I made sure to have Ryan be the one to look at the app store screen.) It doesn't look like they're switching to a Spider-Man theme just yet, which is good, but there is a new event coming up in 5 days- the event logo appears to be Homecoming themed, it's Spider-Man's eyes, a line drawing thereof in the style of the Spider-Signal in the Spider-Man: Homecoming logo, possibly taken from the logo itself. Reflected in the drawing's eyes are... figures; I didn't look closely because potential spoilers, so I don't know WHOSE figures.
It's July finally! Not long now, not long at all... especially now that I no longer have to go shopping and expose myself to any more Product, between now and Thursday evening.
I know what happened to my cell phone, which I had apparently misplaced again- but not like that, see I knew exactly where it was the whole time. It was in the pocket of my white blazer! And it was my blazer I'd misplaced. And, it's a funny thing, because, it never look misplaced? It'll make sense once I explain what happened:
With the cell phone in the blazer's pocket, I could easily look up the location, and find both the phone and the blazer, (including everything else in the blazer's pockets, like my keys and thumb drive and the piece of paper that has the info about the awards ceremony for the art competition I've entered into and everything.) Pinging the phone, I find it to be somewhere in the apartment. Ringing the phone... no sound. And it's not on silent, and it's still on, and it's got plenty of battery life.
There is a radius of error margin, on the approximate GPS location of the phone, so I check all three neighboring apartments just to be sure. It's not there. And pinging the phone again, there's a tight enough margin of error this time to be pretty sure, it's at the approximate location of, not just the apartment complex or the apartment, but specifically in my bedroom there. I check the closets and the pile of clean clothes and underneath the stack of printing papers. Nothing.
We live above the laundry room, which I've previously checked. Though it's hard to hear a ringing phone in there, when the machines are going at least, it's not impossible. Searching my room in vain, praying for guidance, it clicks.
Behind the laundry room is a storage room- a room directly underneath the bedroom. Ringing the phone, with the machines all paused and my ear pressed against the storage room door, I hear the ring. The door's locked, but I know where my stuff is, and I know what happened:
The lounge has tightened its rules on leaving things lying about, and now takes things away after they've been there a period of 24 hours. I'm the one probably most affected by this move; in fact I'm pretty sure it's aimed at me. I tend to leave my stuff in the lounge. I believe I've mentioned this before, but I'm looking back through everywhere I've mentioned using the lounge, and I don't explicitly state it from what I can see, but yes: I tend to leave my stuff in the lounge.
Coming home late Thursday night, after leaving late from the Spori basement after compiling the latest vlog, I went into the lounge to watch a Bollywood movie, checked out from the library, due that day (or the day before, of course, since it was past midnight by the time the film started.) I figured I could watch the whole thing and check it back into the library before it opened in the morning, and thus avoid late fees. It... it didn't work, of course. This particular film, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (starring Aamir Khan, my absolute favorite!), is 3 hours 45 minutes, super long even for a Bollywood film. After nodding off for the third or fourth time, I just stopped the film and trod over to the library barefoot and jacketless, at 2:45ish in the morning. (I was offered a ride once, even, which I declined.) I turned in the DVD, and after that went to bed.
When I woke up, around 10:00 in the morning after the long night before, and looked around for my blazer, I couldn't find it. And it wasn't in either of the lounges, of our apartment or the neighboring one, which were the two locations I'd been in it the night before (which I'd checked at first to see if I could watch the DVD in their player, since the Indian DVD says PAL 1 which means all areas, but it doesn't seem to want to work in the Blu-Ray player our lounge has, and so I'd have to use an X Box which I didn't want to do, and it's all very technical but long story short I did wind up having to use the X Box because the neighbor's DVD player didn't have any cords for some reason.) I even checked the basement lab where I'd been, even though I very distinctly was wearing my blazer as I left there.
What must have happened is, they found the blazer in the morning, from where I'd left it in watching Lagaan; found it before I made it down to the lounge to check, and for some reason assumed it had been there 24 hours already since it was there in the morning just lying there, instead of having been there just a few hours like what actually happened?
And now my blazer, and my phone and all that, is behind a door in the laundry room. A locked door, in case you hadn't figured it out yourself.
So. It'd be best not to disturb the managers outside of office hours, and the office won't open again till Monday. At least I'd been planning on hitting them Monday anyway, with the contracts for the next two semesters' stay...
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