back home

I got back from my trip yesterday afternoon. It was a really awesome experience. If I hadn't taken so many pictures I wouldn't be able to remember everything that happened. I meant to keep a journal from everyday, but I was so tired by the end of the day that I couldn't possibly right everything. We'd wake up early and be gone all day and then get back at night. Even then, I never got to sleep earlier than midnight. I was either editing the photos I took or chatting with my roommates.

Someone suggested I get a Flicker account to post my pictures, but I like the old fashioned way of making the page myself and creating thumbnails.

After being in the big city, it's surreal being back home. Things are so different here. I don't have a job to go back to, and I'm not in school for the summer, so it's like I'm in limbo til graduation. The trip depleted all my funds though, so I do need to find a source of income, preferrable art commissions. I have a few lined up now that I need to get crackin' on.

I met so many amazing people on this trip, I could make an entry about them alone. Next entry I'll start posting pictures from the trip, but I feel that I should leave some type of image here. While in NY, I stumbled upon the set of Spiderman 3, and took a few pictures as I was appproching it.

Chinatown

I was here yesterday. It was an awesome experience. There were lots of little shops. We went to this store called Pearl River, and I bought a purse shapped like a take-out box, but made out of brocade fabric. I saw one in Mobile, but wasn't able to get it then, and it's been over a year, and I finally found one in this store.

We ate dinner at a place called Buffe´Xpress. You could get five items for $4. I had some fried rice, green beans, sesame chicken, a pork meatball, and fried tofu (didn't like it). All the rest of the food was pretty good.

See more progress on: Chinatown

a night in ATL

Today my family drove up to Atlanta. For those of you that don't know, my younger sister Nicole and I are flying out to New York City for a week vacation. I've neve flown before, so I'm a bit apprehensive about that, but I'm confident It'll be fine.

We were going to stay with relatives we got to Atlanta, but we got a late start leaving, so we ended up driving around for an hour trying to find a hotel. At last, we found one that was near the airport and reasonably priced. I was on my laptop when we pulled up, and my computer detected their WiFi service. I tried to log on, but then found that the service was not free. So I'm here blogging from my dad's laptop.Yay.

The hostel at which we're staying in NY is supposed to have free WiFi. So. . . I may be able to upload pics of my exploits while in the city. That would be awesome.

Okgo inspires. . .

I just had to share this. Please watch it to the end. ^_^




Here's another one. A guy his brother, brother-in-law, and dad dance for his sister's wedding. I think it's awesome that the 50-year-old dad got in on it.

Touch

+ listening to: "Finally Woken" by Jem
+ watching: Girl With a Pearl Earring

I was at the gas station buying a drink for my sister to take to her on her at the Kingdom Hall, where she was having a lunch break. I'm about to get my change from the cashier, and suddenly, someone tickles both my sides from behind.

Shocked, I turn around quickly. As I'm turning, out of the corner of my eye, I see that it's not someone I know (it looks like an Asian guy), and fear and indignation wash over me.

As I complete my one-eighty, I confronted with a tall, dark young man, stubble covering his handsome face. Sohil.

Dude will never know how close he came to being decked.

Sohil has never touched me before. At all. I mean, we've had classes together over the years, and he's a photography student as well, so I've seen him a lot. We're cool, one could say. He's Indian (he moved to the U.S. when he was about 16), and he has very strong beliefs against the mistreatment of women in his culture, as he's expressed in at least photography projects. One being his Senior Thesis. He is also very sweet and playful.

However, Sohil and I aren't friends. More like associates by way of similar interests (graphic design and photography). Our acquaintance is purely incidental, and we've never had any in depth conversations, save for when I asked him about how long he'd been here, in America, which was when I found out about how old he was when he came over. So, for our first physical contact to be something as intimate as tickling.

It's weird, but now I realize why in some cultures, it's forbidden for men and women who aren't related to each other to touch. It definitely breaks a barrier, and opens the door for the relationship to go from formality to familiarity. Interesting, I thought, as I drove to to take Nicole her drink.

coming to you live from the student center

Yeah. I'm at the university right now, blogging from the Student Center. The PTB (powers that be) were gracious enough to leave the place open, offering free coffee to students until 2AM. I'm happy to be done with my finals, so I've just been surfing the net.

I'm actually here to keep my younger sis company while she studies for her exam in Financial Accounting II. (I just asked her what class it was, and she replied, "It's the hardest accounting class in the school.") She's seriously been stressing all this week that she's gonna fail the test, but now everything is falling into place, and she's more confident, which is great, because I was getting tired of her whining. ;).

There are quite a few Japanses students here.

I'm just really tired. I finally got some sleep yesterday, 12 hours actually. When I woke up my body ached, but my legs no longer hurt from all the standing I had been doing. It was replaced by a crook in my neck, however, from sleeping in a weird position. It's all good though.

I do actually have a point to this entry. My Senior Portfolio review went really well. I was so out of it from lack of sleep that it didn't really sink in until later. My instructors only had positive things about my work, with a few critiques on technical aspects of my work. My Senior Portfolio instuctor told me, and I quote, "You're a good designer, but you're a great illustrator." Can you say, "squeee"?. That's friggin' awesome. Especially since it was coming from a veteran designer/illustrator. So, I have something to be happy about. It's not that I didn't know that I was a decent artist before, but it feels good to have validation from someone with experience.

I'll try to get the work from my portfolio posted on my site finally. It's seriously lacking. I also have many pictures to post, but I'm tired right now.

::Sharon paused to take a few shots in the Student Center::

I'll try to have pics up in the next post.

::update::




Two views outside of the library.


Nicole works on a problem.


Motivation.


some japanese students


Laura sleeping.

finis.

. . . miles to go before I sleep.

I've had a total of three and a half hours of sleep from Sunday morning until now. I can feel that I'm not myself, and slightly bonkers. It's a very good thing that I don't have to drive much today. However, I just came from a trip to the photo lab to retrieve my purse and laptop that I accidently locked in side while making a trip to my car after finishing up there at 5 AM this morning.

After all that I'm still not done with my project. I have to cut my mattes, which isn't looking too promising, considering my deteriorating mental state. I'm surprised I've managed to type this much so far. But I have a tendency to ramble, hence the title of this blog.

Ok. I'm off to cry in a corner.