Hey. . .

Long time no see. I've been really busy w/ school work and such, getting the oracle magazine ready and stuff. Sorry for the lack of updates. I'll try to put some new art up this weekend, things I've done in my design classes.

The day before yesterday it had been raining all day, and that night it finally hailed. We don't get much frozed precipitation 'round these here parts, so I took some pics. =)

Hey guys, I set up an artgyrl.com online store. So go check it out. I'll be putting up more merchandise in the coming days.

Noooo. . .

Dudes. . . I really need to get more organized with my schedule.

I say this because today I missed an Oracle meeting because I was hanging out with Jamaal, trying to make him feel better because he's sick. The kicker is that last night I stayed late at the computer lab at school trying to get stuff done to present at the meeting. . .Then when I finally remembered the meeting it was almost 9 pm (meeting was at 5:45).

::sigh::

I also had an art history test today that I barely studied for. And it wasn't like I didn't have time to. I just kept putting it off to do other things, like surfing the 'net, reading fanfiction and going to the library checking out a graphic novel to read instead of my text book. But I think I actually may have passed the test.

And then I still have to find a place to have my wedding. So I have to get stuff together soon.

time capsule

My parents were going throught boxes of old papers and things, and came across my notebook from my Art I class in high school. Seeing old drawing of mine dated '98 made me feel so old. Has it really been almost three years since I graduated from high school?

It's a cool coincidence, though, because I was just thinking about my old artwork not too long ago, and making a new gallery for it here. So now I have something to put in it. We did a lot of drawing exercises in that class. My teacher, Mrs. Holman, focused on teaching us how to draw accurately and training our perceptive powers to observe the details of the world around us. It's gonna take me a while to scan all the stuff, but I'll try to have it up in not too long.

Lates. =P

en retard

Today I woke up at 10:20 a.m.

My first class starts at 10:10.



So. . .yeah. I was late.

But I wasn't the latest person. Has it ever happened where you really late for something, but if someone else comes in after you, you still feel a little better about being late. Because then you know you weren't the the latest. And it seems that everytime I've come in late, the teacher is in the middle of lecturing, which makes it more obvious that I'm late. But two other people came arrived after I did. But they didn't come in while the instructor was talking, so my arrival still seems to have made more of an intrusion, because of the circumstances.

I think too much. . .definitely.

It never fails. . .

I forgot to mention that I was going to dye my hair dark amethyst. It didn't turn out like I thought it would, but it looks ok. It's something new. I used to dye my hair chocolate cherry.

I also noticed that my site has reached the 9000 hits mark. That's so cool.

milestones

::gaming::
So, some cool things have been going on that I haven't really mentioned. Last week I bought my first ever PS2 game: Beyond Good & Evil. I read about it in Jamaal's Playstation Magazine, and it got 4 stars. So when I saw it in the Game Stop for only twenty bucks, I decided to get it.

::entertainment::
The Osar nominations came out this week. I was glad to hear that Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for her performance in Whale Rider. If you haven't seen this movie yet and are up to feel all gushy and cry, then I suggest you go rent it.

Johnny Depp was also nominated for his performance in POTC, which is really cool. I'm not sure if he has a good chance of winning, but he's such a great and unconventional actor that I think he just deserves to have an Oscar even if his performance in POTC wasn't his best ever.

::music::
The Maroon5 album—Songs About Jane—has been on constant repeat on my computer for the past week. If like their single, "harder to breathe", then you'll like the rest of the album. I also liked the second single, but I didn't know if I'd end up getting the album only to hate the rest of the songs because it sounded nothing like the singles. But that's not the case, and I love it. Stevie Wonder is a big influence in their sound, but the lead singer's voice reminds me of Jamiroquai.

::school::
I'm way behind on my desktop publishing project. We've got to do this logo design for Vanity Day Spa. We were supposed to have out fonts picked out today, but I'm not even through going through all of them on the ATM (Adobe Type Manager), which means that I'll have to go up to the computer lab this weekend to work on it.

::movies::
My little sister wants me to take her and her best friend to see You You Got Served tonight. This is one of those movies that I kinda wanna see, but don't want to pay for it or admit that I actually kinda liked it in the end. I do want to see the dancing sequencing, cuz I like that kind of stuff, but the plot is probably gonna be pretty sophmoric, and really appeal to my sister, cuz she's 15. But then there's the slim chance that it'll be like Drumline and actually have a decent plot.

I think I pretty much covered everything. But, undoubtedly, once I post this I think of something else I wanted to mention.

updates

In case you haven't noticed, I've got some new artwork up. Lately I've been posting most of my new stuff at DA, because it's easier. But I finally got around to updating this site, which is in need of a redesign sometime soon.

I'm going to be starting a new blog dealing w/ my wedding plans. It's sad that Jamaal and I had been engaged for almost a year and I'm just started to really plan the wedding. Saturday I went and bought the fabric to make my bridesmaids' dresses. I'll scan the swatches and post them in the new blog when I get it set up.

Jamaal is also going to have a blog and I'm going to design his site for him. It's going to be focusing mainly on anime.

I've also got a lot of stuff to do graphic design wise. People are starting to spread my name around school, suggesting me to draw various things for different organizations. It's weird but cool at the same time. Even if I don't get paid, at least I get the experience and exposure, so it's all good. :P

virtual fix

Ever had one of those days when you feel like taking up smoking?

You look at the smokers, standing outside, hanging out. They take deep drags on their cancer sticks, inhaling death and exhaling poison to those around them. But they seem so relaxed—the non-feenin' ones at least. But the rhythm of smokers resembles to me the breathing exercises that are supposed to relax oneself. . .to relieve all the stress of the day.

Today was one of those days for me.

Spring Semester '04 gripes

Sorry I haven't been updating lately. I started working on a piece using my new Wacom tablet, and I had planned to finish this weekend, but Jamaal came to visit and I didn't get any drawing done. We spent most of our time riding around and hanging out.

School started last week and I guess it's back to normal. I'm taking four classes, which is the lightest course load I've had since I started college, but I couldn't get into the other classes I wanted, like Photography. Hopefully I'll be able to get in over the summer. I did, however, manage to get into the much-in-demand Graphic Design Production class this semester, but the situation is rather dire. There are fifteen working computers and eighteen people in the class. . .So, somebody's got to get together and complain the the right people cuz that just isn't right. And you can't make people drop the class because a lot of people have waited a long time to get into the class. It's really frustrating. The entire art department is lacking financially, and it's really not fair because there are a lot of excellent professors, but they can't do their jobs fully because they don't have the money to get the supplies that we need. Makes you wonder where your tuition money is actually going. . .But I hope everything will work out.

It's only the second week and I'm already behind on work. I've got to get some thumbnails sketches done for my production class. We're supposed to be creating a logo for a company letterhead, business card, and envelope. I'm going to use my friends indy record company and make just redesign their logo. Hopefully it'll turn out well.

My new wacom tablet

Graphire3 4x5

I got it through ebay from onlinsales.com.

ATL

January 7, 2003:

6:45 a.m. sunrise


the Atlanta cityscape


7:30 a.m.: my dad and sister waiting for the visa dept. to open at 8:45.

another year

Today I went to Atlanta with my dad and older sister so she could get her student visa to go to Paris as an intern. Atlanta has the most serious traffic I have ever seen, but the good thing is that the people there actually know how to drive, so things moved along pretty quickly. We left my my uncle's house at 6:30 a.m. to get the the French consulate, and traffic was shocking. But we got there and back in one piece, so I'm thankful for that.

School starts back for me this coming Monday and I'm a little less that psyched. I'm looking forward to having money again, though. I haven't gotten as much done in the art dept. as I'd hoped. Hopefully I can squeeze out some pages before classes start back up.

Niceville, Chris portrait

Wednesday I went with Jamaal to Niceville, FL. He had to go to Eglin AFB to check in to prove that he didn't go more than half way across the country for his leave. While there, our friend Chris chauffered us around. He wanted to stop at this store that we passed by called the Philippine Market, he being filipino and all. So we went there and picked up various forms of Asian food, mostly snacks. Chris rented a couple of filipino movies. The people there were so nice that when we were about to leave, the offered to let us sit down and have a share in their shrimp dinner. We declined the offer, but Jamaal got some shrimp for the road.

Friday, Jamaal and I went to a store called the Asian Market here in Mobile. We wanted to get some more Pocky, which is this japanese snack consisting of this thin pretzel like stick dipped in chocolate. The didn't have the Pocky, but they did have this stuff called Yan Yan which is pretty similar, but the sticks and the dip are separated, and were in strawberry and vanilla flavor. I also bought an Asian pear. When I was in high school, my 11th grade PACE teacher brought some for the class one day. They're really juicy and to me are like what would happend if a pear and an apple had a baby. I also got these little cake things that tasted like funnel cakes without the powdered sugar, but with sesame seeds on top. I didn't find out what they were called, but I'm definitely going back to get more of those.

Oh, and I also drew a portrait of Chris, but I don't have it w/ me now. So I'll scan it and post it probably before the day is over.

JV love

Almost a week ago I told Jamaal that I had this interesting pic that I took that I wanted to post. He came to town because he got leave for the holidays, and I had still not gotten around to posting the thing. And he's all anxious wondering what could this pic possibly be. When he sees it he's gonna be so through with me it's hilarious.

So anyway, here it is:


I was at the high school where my mom works, waiting for her to get off. My sister and I had gone to the gym to watch the JV basketball team practice. After the practice was over, they all gathered around in this huddle. I was really taken by how everyone had their arms around each other, cuz you often don't see guys showing that type of affection, even if it's not seriously heartfelt. Anyway, I thought it was cute. ^_^

My confession

My name is Sharon. . .



. . .and I'm addicted to Radio Free Roscoe.



Darn those clever Canadians. . .

I OWN!!!

::final grades:

History of Graphic Design.....B
Figure Drawing I..................A
Intro to Graphic Design........A
Typography..........................A
Introdcutory Spanish I.........A

Too bad I'm not taking Spanish next semester. I want to, but I don't have to take a foreign language at all for my major. I just took it this semester to learn the basics. I was going to take it again, but I needed other classes more. Oh well. At least it helped to boost my GPA.

So that's like 70 credit hours down and 58 more to go.

Sleeping in=good

Yay! It's the first Monday in a very long time that I haven't had to get up early and go to class. Last week even though classes were technically over, I still had to get up to go to my Spanish final. So I'm glad all that's over.

If the site looks weird it's because I'm doing stuff to it, so it should be fixed in a little bit. : )

new banners, winter break '03

Well, I'm pretty much better now but the rest of my family has gotten sick in the meantime—and they're all blaming me.

I did a little fixing up of the site. I added a new gallery for my design stuff. I think I may need to reorganize my categories because some things don't really fit. If you browse the galleries you may see a few new thumbnails around, and a lit bit more organization.

I made two new banners:



I think that's all the site stuff. . .

School is finally over and doesn't start back til January 12th. I'm so glad. While I'm not going to get all A's like I could have. I do believe I'll have mostly A's. I know I have an A's in Figure Drawing and Intro to Graphic Gesign. I'm pretty sure I have an A in Typography. . . I might have an A in Spanish, but I kinda slacked off during the end so I'm probably down to a B. I'll probably—hopefully—make a low B in Art History. So, If I make what I think my GPA will finally be above 3.5, which is cool.

Whoohooh! I'm gonna be a junior next semester!

Ugh. . .

Well, I didn't go see Honey because I've gotten sick again all of a sudden. This time I've got a cough and fever and my body aches. Sounds pleasant, right? I took some aspirin to bring my fever down, as a result I was practically freezing. So now I'm sitting in front of my lovely space heater. . .::mmm. . .warm::.

Hopefully I'll get over this soon. : /