Sweet Relief

+ listening to: "Three Flights Down" by Yellowcard

I'm finally getting my hair done tomorrow, and I can hardly wait. My hair roots are so bad. . .I can't wash my hair because I won't be able to comb through it. This is where the macro feature comes in handy:


These are my roots. You can see all the kinks.

Those of you unfamiliar with African-Americn hair care probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Basically, my hair is naturally nappy. I get what's called a "relaxer" which is a permanent chemical straightener. It's the opposite of a "permanent", which makes the hair curly. So, about every six weeks I have to get a reapplication of the relaxer to the roots of my hair. People with a looser curl pattern to their hair (less nappy) can go for as long as three months between relaxers. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.

--+ + +--

This is Cici:



She's a really sweet girl that works at a Chinese restaurant near my house. I'm helping her with her English. She doesn't have anyone else to practice with, because everyone else she's around speaks Mandarin, and her conversations with the customers are limited.

This photo is blurry because, as I found out, she hates taking picture of herself, so I cropped this shot out of an image of some art on the wall. Cici deleted the other pics of her from the camera on the sly. >(

Shutterclick, Lights and Sounds

+ listening to: "Martin Sheen or JFK" by Yellowcard
+ drinking: sweet tea
+ watching: Roll Bounce

I got a new digital camera today. I got tired of waiting for my order to be shipped from Amazon, so I just canceled the order and went and bought the camera from Wal-Mart instead. I was trying to be patient and save money, but the screen on my old camera died out, and the images won't show up without the display screen working. . . and there are things that need to be photographed by me, so I had to get a replacement camera.

So, I've had fun today testing it out. It's a Canon Powershot SD400 Digital Elph (5MP). I had lots of fun with the Macro mode.

<
One of the first images I took with the camera.


You can see my freckles and blemishes. . .


. . .and the texture of my corduroy jacket.


Macro shot of my sister's wrap scarf


My lovely little sister, Laura


macro shot of Laura's hair


C'est moi, encore. I look so petite here.


I edited this image in Photoshop a bit.

I never realized how inadequate my other camera was. Well, I did have somewhat of an idea, because 2.8 megapixels really wasn't giving me the level of detail I desired in my photographs. I like to find beauty in relatively mundane objects, and hopefully, this new camera will help me realize some ideas. I know it's just a camera, but I'm so excited with something new, and it's actually mine. I bought it with my own funds, unlike my former camera. And hopefully, I can take better care of this oneÂ?I already almost dropped it twice. I'm a bit of a techno-clutz.

In other news
I just downloaded Yellowcard's new album, Lights and Sounds, from iTunes. It's awesome. There's definitely been a musical development, this album being a bit more orchestral than their last effort. I could be more articulate about how the band has progressed and such, but it's late/early, and I'm lazy. It's just good, is all I can manage to say about it right now. It's one of those albums you can listen to all the way through and groove to it because all the songs have a decent melody, yet some songs stand out more than others. Oh look. . .I am being a bit more descriptive, let me stop rambling.

I've a morning of more internship goodnesss to which to look forward.

^_^

Sitting, Wishing, Waiting

I really should be in bed right now.

I've got a project due tomorrow that's totally not done.

I've got to go to my internship at 9 a.m. again. I started a blog about it, since I'm required to keep a written journal about my experiences as part of the curriculum.

It's interesting the way I relate to people. I see so many qualities about myself in someone. We're so much alike. . . too much alike, it feels like, at times. . .I'm glad of it though—the awareness, I mean. I helps me keep the proper perspective on things.

I'm behind on the aformentioned journal already. It doesn't help that my digital camera is fading on me. I've had it about 2 years, I guess, and the display screen keeps going out. I guess it didn't help that it's been dropped a bunch of times. I have a new one on order from amazon.com, but I ordered it a week ago, and they have yet to ship it. Still, it's like, $40 cheaper than buying it from Wal-Mart, so I must be patient.

Ho hum. . . I guess I'll update my other blog now.

Validation

I am once again, seriously behind in my photography class. I haven't turned anything in late yet, but I haven't finished shooting for my photo montage that's due and Tuesday. I have no idea what the lab hours are, but I need to go there today and see. I should have gotten a lot of it done on Friday, but I got a late start to the day. I'm trying to gradually get my sleeping schedule back on track by going to bed a bit earlier each night. I used to stay up til around 3-4 a.m. and now I've gotten it to around 2 a.m. Not ideal, I know, but it's progress.

I had been really nervous about my initial portfolio critique in my Senior Portfolio Presentation class. It went much better than I expected, however. My professor, who has many years of illustration and graphic design experience under his belt, along with teaching for many years, was really impressed with my illustration ability. He told me that it would be a waste of my talent to get stuck in some dead-end Graphic Design job, and suggested that I could move to New York or some other big city to work.

Well. . .It's good to be getting some serious validation as far as my work is concerned. It's not that I didn't realized I was talented, it's just that I wasn't sure what I could do with it. So now that I have a little more direction, I can think of what I want to do when I get out of school. My portfolio still need a lot of work, and I have about 4 more logos to design, plus I have to do some more illustrations to showcase my talent. It should be fun and interesting developing those things.

Also, I've started an intership blog. You can read it here.

-----

I found a link to think on Angel's blog. This is just too cute.

little indonesian girl singing

Grunt work

I got the internship! Yay me. The interview went pretty well. The interviewer was Paula, an art director at the company. She was a very friendly lady. We chatted a bit, and then she looked at my work that I had prepared on a CD. Then she took me around the office, showing giving me a tour of the building and introducing me to the people I'd be working with. A few of the people were like, "Oh, another intern. . ." as they rubbed their hands together and laughed maniacally. I was like they were saying, "Ooh, less grunt work that I have to do. . . Muahahahaha!"

I must say that I loved the office. The building was an old house, not quite old enough to be a historic home though. It was brick on the outside, with a fountain in front. I just really liked the layout of the place. I'm so excited. I don't know if I'll be able to get many pictures or what, but I'll try. I'm really excited to finally be getting some experience in the Graphic Design field.

I don't want to gush to much. I'm just really happy. I'm not even getting paid for this, but I so do not care. I'm getting school credit, so that's fine with me. I definitely have stars in my eyes at the moment, I must admit.

Also, I had my sister take some photos of me before I left for the interview.





See those big dangly things hanging from my ears? My I went shopping for something to wear to the interview, and my little sister made me get them. The did look nice, but I never got used to the jingling sound they made every time I turned my head.

Rest less

I have an interview for an intership position at a local design company at ten thirty in the morning, and I can't get to sleep.

I bought some new clothes to wear, and my little sister made me buy these earrings that do happen to look very nice. I'll try to remember to take a pic of myself before I leave for the interview.

I've been tweaking my resume, and I've still got to prepare some samples of my work to show. . .

I'm too wired to sleep. Maybe I'll read some fanfiction to calm my nerves. . .

Hopes and Fears

For the first few sessions of my Senior Portfolio class, the instructor will go through our work and tell us what we should keep, change, and do new. Looking through all my work last night, I was greatly discouraged by what I perceive to be the substandard quality of my work. I mean, while I was doing it, I thought it was really good. However, there were a lot of things about the work that I knew then I should probably fix, but I told myself I'd just redo it at a later date.

Now it seems I have all this work that needs fixing. I'm sure it's not as bad as I think, because I made A's and B's on most of my projects, but looking at it now it seems so sophomoric and unrealized. I'm almost embarrassed to show it. The one thing I am proud of though, are the illustrations that I did for projects.

I guess I'm just really afraid of what the professor will say. He's been doing graphic design and illustration for a very long time, so he really knows a lot about the subject. I've always felt that though I have great rendering abilities as far as drawing, that I didn't really measure up as a graphic designer. I just don't feel like I'm that creative. I'm probably being too hard on myself. It's getting to be crunch time as far as school is concerned, and soon I'll be out in the job market. The whole purpose of the class is too improve one's portfolio, so I guess I don't really have that much to worry about.

I just hope I don't get too harsh of a critique.

the road ahead

Today was my first day of classes for the Spring semester. I still had classes yet to register for, and I'm in the process of finally acquiring an intership so I can get some much-needed experience in the graphic design field. It won't be paid, but I'll get credit. . .and the aforementioned experience. There's also a possibility of getting hooked up with another design-related job either at the campus newspaper of this sign shop that my friend used work at.

I'm taking Senior Portfolio this semester, which means that I'm going to almost definitely have to redo all of my design projects that are worth anything. It's going to be a lot of hard work. I've never had the instructor before either, but he's very wisened and has lots of experience—

Ooh, this song called "Tear You Apart" by She Wants Revenge just came on. I got it as a free download from iTunes, and I love this song. They sound like a cross between Cake and The Killers, except a bit darker.

Anway, as I was saying. . . I have a lot of work to do this semester. Actually, I have a lot of work to do every semester, and then I end up slacking off at the end and struggling to get my final projects done on time.

. . .Yeah. But it was good to see all my classmates again. Everyone looks totally refreshed in contrast to how they looked at the end of last semester: all strung out and caffeined up with lots of sleep deprevation thrown in. Good times I tell ya. Good times.

interesting places, new faces

Pictures taken a the Jehovah's Witness Hurricane Relief Center, Mobile, AL


I like tea.


My younger sister, Nicole, working in the Rooming Department.


Natasha from Philadelphia teaches signs to Linsey. That particular gesture is "name" in saying "My name is. . ."


I like the movement in her hand.


Sister Smith looking her cheerful self. I believe Nicole took this photo.


Brother Smith (Sr. Smith's husband) looking stressed. He's not really. He and his wife came down from northern California to help out.


And last, the wonderful David. He's the IT guy. He's from New York.


All in all, a spiritually fulfilling experience.

Sleep to dream

I tend to have really vivid dreams when I sleep. Sometimes I remember them, sometimes I don't. When I can't remember all the details, it's because I was in a very deep sleep when I was awakened. All I remember is that I had a dream that I wished I could remember. I'm left with this feeling. Then, when I eventually remember something from the previously unmemorable dream, it usually comes in the form of a very unsettling feeling of deja-vu.

So, I took a long nap today, and when I woke up I immediately remembered the dream. It was quite disturbing to me. It involved some romance, some death, and then some resurrection. I guess the resurrection was the disturbing part, because the person was brought back by kid who used a video game to do it (It's a dream remember). I vividly remember the feeling of my heart dropping when I found out that the person what dead, and the shock of finding out they had been brought back to life. I knew they weren't supposed to be alive that way. It had been too long (like 30 minutes), and something in me told me that they should have just been left dead. But I didn't want them to be dead, because we had just shared a momentously special moments only minutes before.

It was weird. I was totally going with the irrational events of the dream because the emotions I was feeling were the only thing happening that were appropriate. So, I felt I should try to articulate all this in an entry.

It is a comfort to know that my dreams do not foreshadow anything bad that's going to happen. I know that it's just my brain reorganizing information from that day, so I have a pretty good idea of where the general plot of the dream came from. It had to do with my present concerns, which involve someone leaving, and I guess I' worried about the possibility that I may never see them again, or at least for a very long time.

I don't know if I'm happy or not that I did remember this particular dream. I'm going to be thinking about it for a while; I know that.

Ah well. C'est la vie.

To Bend

I just got home from the movie night.

Only one person we invited came, who happened to be Kevin. He's awesome. He's going on a road trip in two days, so hopefully we can hang out more before then.

I'm so tired. I've been up since 6 AM, with no rest in between.

Serenity was awesome for the fourth time. Kevin liked it too, which was cool. And he wore the shirt I made him. That was nice, too.

I wish I was more articulate right now, but my thoughts are pretty random and basic. Yeah. I just wanted to say that I had a good day. Lots of bonding and meeting nice new people. I even have pictures. I guess I'll post them later today.

Done

+ listening to: an instrumental from some Dave Matthews Band song

For now, anyway.

Yesterday was my last day going to school for the semester. I had lab clean up in photography, and I also picked up my portfolio. I passed by the skin of my teeth with a C. I have never been more relieved to get a C in my life. I really need to get on it with my grades. In the end I know that I stressed way too much over that class, worrying about my concepts and what I was going to shoot, in the end turning my assignments in late. Hopefully I've learned my lesson.

But all is not lost. I made a B in my web design class. I'm not gonna begrudge that grade, because I know I could have put a lot more work into my site. However, I really was struggling with the programs in the beginning, so I'd only work on my site when I was in class. Then, at the end, all the information I had learned came together, and I finally knew what I was doing with the flash animations and how to make them work, but time was short. I do want to use my new skills to redesign my website over the break though. I'll be shocked if it actually happens.

I'm hungry. . .and a bit sleepy. I stayed up til around 3 a.m. last night, then my dad wakes me up at 6 a.m., saying that I spend too much time in bed. Maybe I do, but I stayed up late last night because I wanted to wash my hair before I went to bed, because I wouldn't have time to do it in the morning. Whatever. I'll sleep in the car I guess.

Serenity is out today and DVD. We're having a movie night with some friends to celebrate the end of the semester and just chill. I'm looking forward to it being lots of fun. I haven't hung out with a big group of people in a while.

T-shirts!

So last night I was in a crafty mood and decided to make t-shirts.

Recently I've become a really big fan of the TV series "Firefly." I'm a bit of a sci-fi geek already, and that show is awesome, so it was a natural progression. I had seen advertisements for the movie Serenity, but I thought it would be really cheesy. Then I happened to see a rerun of the show Firefly, on which Serenity is based, and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually good. So I went with my parents to see the movie, and the rest is history. I eventually bought the entire series on DVD. There were only 14 episodes, 11 of which were aired, before the show was canceled by FOX. It's an awesome show, and the cast is amazing.

So, I got the idea to make a shirt for my sister that featured her favourite character, Jayne (Adam Baldwin). I had some t-shirt transfers that I bought a while ago. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 4 t-shirts for $3.99 a piece. I had also gotten the idea to make a shirt for Kevin to thank him for modeling for me.





I like buying colorful shirts with novelty sayings on them. However, since I am a graphic design major, I figured it would be much more practical for me to create my own shirts, since I have all the tool I need.

There are some design flaws to the shirt that I feel I should mention. One thing is that I used a highly overused font called papyrus. The only reason I used it was because it was the same typeface used for the Serenity movie title. When I saw they had used this typeface, I was somewhat confused, because the movie wasn't low budget at all, and yet they had this really generic, unoriginal typeface for the title. So when Kevin saw my shirt (I was wearing it when I took him his), he pointed this out. He's also a graphic design student. The problem is, that the quote I used for the shirt ("Time for some thrilling heroics") was actually from the television series, and not the movie. So I probably should have chosen a different typeface. I was just being lazy I guess.

Ah well. My shirt still rawks. ^_^





Serenity comes out on DVD this Tuesday, December 20th. Rent it or Buy it!

Late Night at the Lab

Photos as promised. I've had classes with these people for a good while now, and I thought it was about time I took pictures of them, me being a photographer and all.*


Our humble photo lab. That's my stuff on the desk in the foreground. That passageway in the back leads to the darkroom. Someone left the light table on. . .


Hannan photographs Mary, who is looking at Hannan's contact sheet.


Jason, meticulously matting his prints.


Travis, doing something with his phone. Maybe he's texting his girlfriend. She's in the class, too.


These bottles are from Travis' edition from last semester. People have yet to take theirs home with them. I got mine. They were Polaroid transfers of his hand with some song lyrics. Very cool.


Finally, we have Sohil, the lab monitor. He's an awesome photographer. He also likes to take pictures of himself. A lot. Now I have a photo of him. ^_^

*All images shot with a Canon Powershot A60 (digital), except for the last image, which is a negative scan. That image was shot with my Olympus OM-1 (35 mm).

There and Back Again

I just got back from the photo lab. I guess i got there around 10:30. I got all my mattes cut. It was quite tedious. I haven't had to use fractions in a long time. I felt pretty good afterwards that I was able to figure out the measurements without the use of a calculator. I wrote them all down on the back of the receipt for my matte board.

Geez, the last matte gave me heck. I ended up having to recut it twice because I measured wrong. Now all that's left is spot-toning the prints and then mounting them in their mattes. I'll probably put it off til tomorrow morning.

I also have some photos that I took at the lab last night while I was killing time. I'll post those soon.

Light at the End

+ listening to: "happy ending" by Avril Lavigne

Yesterday, I was at the photo lab from around 3:30 in the afternoon til midnight. I wasn't the last person to leave. It was cool though. I got my prints done. I took some photos of my classmates. I'm about to head out right now to get some matte board and then cut my mattes and mount my prints. That is not going to be fun.

But semester is almost done, and then I'll get a much needed break. I even have idea for a photo series. I've been inspired by my photo shoot with Kevin. He's such a great model. I'll admit he's been my artistic muse as of late. Such a great guy.

Anyway, I really need to go. But I'll leave a treat. . .

+ listening to: "Lover I Don't Have To Love" by Bright Eyes

I'm going to be at the photo lab all night working on my project. I just know it. I have to remember to buy matte board as well.

My only consolation is that I'm getting my hair done today. ^_^

Photo Shoot

+ listening to: "life of a salesman" by Yellowcard
+ reading: On Photography by Susan Santog

This morning I had a photo shoot for my final project in photography class. After that, I went to the lab and developed the film and made contact sheets. I'm so happy with how the shots came out; I'm actually starting to feel like a decent photographer. I can't take all the credit, though. My friend is an awesome model. When, I tell him, he just thinks it's flattery, but whatever. . .^_^

At first, I was going to shoot using a light meter. But I couldn't figure out how to work the thing, so I just had to wing it. However, I did overdevelop two of the rolls, but the detail is still pretty good. I like using Ilford film because it's very forgiving. Delta 400 is the best.

Well, enough gushing for now. I have to go scan the images in.

Clarity

Walking from class today, I wondered why there was an ache in my calf muscles. Then I remembered how Monday I had walked all the way across campus in the freezing cold and humidity to my friend's dorm. It felt good at the time, now I'm feeling the consequences. It still feels good now, knowing I did that, the reason for my discomfort.

We had critique in class today, and I didn't have my children's book done. About half the class didn't have their stuff done, though, so I don't feel so bad. I have to get it done by Friday though.

And then there's photography. I still haven't shot anything for my final project, and I'm supposed to have two finished prints to show tomorrow. I have a feeling that's not going to happen. I've been having technical issues, though, with my model, and the concept, so I'll have to change it from what I originally planned.

And there's the fact that I'm so friggin' lazy. This really needs to stop. There's no reason for school to be going as badly as it has. My grades have definitely suffered from my constant complacency. I'm pulling it together though. Being honest with yourself is quite therapeutic.

+ listening to: "away from the sun" by 3 doors down
+ writing: a four-page letter

Well, now that that's settled (see previous entry), for the most part, I can move on. I've wasted so much time it's really sad. Now I've got to throw myself into school so I can pull off some decent grades. It's the last week of class, so I don't know how successful I'll be.

I have to remember to study for my photography final. I bombed it last semester, and I can't do that again. I actually have to study again. How novel is that?


It's good to have good friends who will be there for you no matter what.

Goodness, I've only got a day left to finish my children's book. Looks like it's not going to have color after all. . .