Jumper

"My hand is the only sane part of my body. Every other part wants to jump off a cliff."
—Adam Sandler as John Clasky in Spanglish



This chair is the only thing keeping me grounded. . .

Sated Boredom

All the results were pretty accurate accept for the second item on the "Keys to Your Heart" survey.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to obedience and warmth.

In love, you feel the most alive when everything is uncertain, one moment heaven... the next moment hell.

You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is traditional. Without saying anything, both of you communicate with your hearts.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Road Trip

Saturday my two younger sisters and I left with some friends from Pensacola/Gulf Breeze Florida, to attend a party in Jackson, Mississippi that night. The party was just a-ight. The trip was all about getting there, and we all had a blast. Once again, Jarad was the ring leader. After the party, we rode two hours through the pitch black Mississippi night on unpaved roads to Greenville, Jarad's hometown. We left the party a little after midnight, and after we got to Jarad's parent's house where we would spend the night, I didn't get to bed til around 3 am. We had to be up by about seven in the morning to get ready for the Kingdom Hall, which started at nine-thirty. By the end of the trip we were all a little cranky due to lack of sleep, but we all survived with friendships intact.

It turns out that Greenville is a pretty historic place, the home of a world-famous newpaper (the Delta Democrat Times), and a lot of writers, musicians and the like. Sunday afternoon Jarad took me on a mini-tour of the downtown area, and I got a lot of great shots of the old buildings. I've got some pictures from the party and the trip in general, so I'll be posting those soon as I can. I'll also include a more indepth description of the trip.

Demon Printer

That is the current bane of my existence.

Last Thursday was was the final day of class before finals in my Graphic Design I class. Our final project was to create a catalogue about a Post-Modern Graphic Designer. I chose Neville Brody. I had never heard of him before, but upon doing research, I saw how awesome his work is. He had actually done some graphics for the movie Hackers (one of my fave movies). So, I don't start on the project until after I turn in my tribrochure assignment, about three weeks ago. So Kyeong, our instructor, expresses his concern about how this is the most important assignment, worth, like, 70% of our final grade. He worried that we (the class) won't get our respective projects done on time.

It turns out his misgivings were well placed. Out of 9 people, one 2 had their catalogues complete. So, the rest of us were still able to give presentations and show our designs on our computer screens. The catalogue had to be six spreads, not including the cover, and I had five of mine done, plus the cover, I didn't know what to put on the last page. I probably could have gotten it done on time, but I had serious printing issues.

I can still turn my catalogue in for my portfolio review this Thursday, but I'm still having printing issues which as depleted my meager supply of expensive photo-quality matte Epson 11' x 17' paper. It sucks really, and it's quite frustrating. This is my third time this weekend trying to get this thing printed. Everytime I came back there was some sort of problem with the printer. I had to come up here three times today--correction, that makes four total. The last time before this, the lab assistant had left the printer running overnight, and it messed up halfway through, so I had to reprint. (I'm using the student computer lab, because it's free, not including the $100 lab fee.) I tried printing at Kinkos, but their exorbitant prices were ridiculous.

The one good thing I can say is that the lab assistants are really awesome people and very helpful, so I'm not mad at them. I'm at the lab right now, waiting for my catalogue to print.

le printemps

It means "springtime" in French. Yeah, I used to be pretty good at it about six years ago. I took the language for a total of for years from seventh through tenth grade. It was in ninth grade that my French teacher, Mrs. Flowers, recognized my intellectual talent. I guess she became took an interest because unlike many freshman, who took the first level of foreign language, even if they had taken it previously, I decided to gamble with French II. (Props goes to an awesome student teacher, Mr. Cooper, who actually taught us, back in eighth grade. He later won a teacher-of-the-year award.)

The same cannot be said for Algebra, which I passed in eighth grade, but my teacher eighth grade teacher suggested that I take it again in high school because I only had a B. She made it seem like I was dumb or something for making a B in a high school level course. Hello? I was still in middle school. (yeah, I know, right?) But I took algebra I again, and aced it the second time around. Later I was glad for repeating it, because that meant I didn't have to take Calculus, and only stopped at Pre. I'm not horrible at math, but I'm not a fan of it either. When I got to college I was relieved to find that only one math course was required for my major, but it's been heavily compensated with drawing, art history, and graphic design courses.

But I digress. It's funny how one memory begins a change reaction to other memories.

So anyway, last week was Spring break. I had assignments that I could of and very well should have completed. Sadly, I spent most of the time lounging around, and playing The Sims 2 University Expansion Pack (a really awesome game), which I bought the Thursday before Spring Break started. I don't get the hold decadent spin that the world places on this time of year. Companies advertise to the most financially vulnerable group—college students—to save up and go on an expensive vacation to blow off the steam of university life. "What happens there stays there" is the motto, hardly ever the case though, because the main point of doing exciting, adventurous, regrettable things is that you have a story to tell your friends when you get back. You surely won't be telling your grandchildren of your exploits at Cancun.

. . .

So, I'm currently taking this class called Writing for Mass Media, where we learn how to write for, you guessed it, the mass media, i.e. newspapers, radio, TV. And what I just wrote sounds like the beginning of a pretty good article. My instructor Mrs. Dardeau has been trying to encourage me to submit my work to the newspaper, but I'm not a communication major, I'm just taking the class to fill my "writing across the curriculum" class requirement. Plus, I couldn't really think of anything to write about that people would be interested in. But we've learned that anything can be news if it interesting to you; that means it can be interesting to others, because people are by nature nosy.

Sounds like a plan to me. :)

Soccer Photos

My entire body aches from yesterday's game. But at least we won. ^_^



I'm behind the camera. =)

More photos -->>

Football

Sunday evening I played soccer at the park with a bunch of friends. I haven't physically exerted myself that much in a very long time. After running half way down the field, I was gasping for breath and my chest was burning something quite painful. I imagine it's what a heavy smoker feels like. Honestly, I though I was going to pass out. After a while, though, the drama passed and I was able to focus on the game. My team won, 4-0.

Actually, they started out playing ultimate frisbee, but I just sat on the bench and watched. I didn't play because I have a maimed finger from a scissor accident I had in the darkroom of the photo lab yesterday (You should always remember to cut away from yourself, preferably not in the dark). But after they switched to soccer, I decided to play because it doesn't require the use of your hands. I'll post pics later today.

Not by Chance

With so many things that can go wrong during a pregnancy, I can really appreciate how precarious it is to bring life into the world.

Baby Improving After Extra Head Removed.

Brief Relief

Well, I got my assignment done for Digital Graphic Design. I hated it though, and really didn't feel like finishing it. But then I realized that as a Graphic Designer, I'm going to do projects and have to complete them whether I like it or not, because it's my job. As long as it doesn't violate my principals I just have to suck it up. My classmates liked it a lot though, and so did the instructor. The main reason I was so adverse to doing the assignment was I didn't do the idea that I had initially, which seemed much cooler than the one I ended up producing. Looking at it now, I guess it doesn't look so bad; I just had a few typography issues mainly.

I purchased the new Keane CD on a whim today. It's pretty good. If you like mellow, sappy love songs with a catchy beat, somewhat a cross between Coldplay and Jimmy Eat World (the lead singer's voice reminds me of them), you might want to have a listen.

. . .

Ok, so maybe that wasn't the best description. . .but Keane rocks, nonetheless. ^_^

-edit-
You can leave a comment on my blog now. Just click on the date at the end of this entry and then click on the "Post Comment" link, when the page comes up.

Awesomeness

Last Thursday I had my first critique in Graphic design one, and it went much better than I hoped. The Tuesday before class was due, Kyeong, my instructor, told me to bring along my concept sketches and everything to show during my project presentation. So I did. He loved my final design a lot, which made me very proud because he's such an awesome artist and designer. He attended Temple University, which I've learned is one of the top art schools in the country, so having his approval means a lot. Everyone (save for one) else in the class had pretty nice designs as well, so it was nice seeing what everyone came up with.

I have another project due in my Digital Graphic Design class tomorrow that isn't nearly finished, though. I've procrastinated famously on this assignment, and I really don't feel like doing it, but I must. I already bombed my pinhole camera assignment in Photo, so I need to get back on the ball with keeping a calendar and such. I've also got to finish writing my feature article for my Writing for Mass Media Course. That's not so much work though, since I've got it written; it just needs a lot of editing.

Gosh. . .School is so much work, it's really tiring just thinking about it. Even so, I always seem to find time to waste surfing dA and reading CSI fan fiction. I'm such a nerd.

I've been so stressed lately that I've had to resort to impulsive consumption to keep me grounded. While at movie gallery returning a tardy rental, I came upon a great deal: buy 2 get 2 free on select DVDs. So I got some pretty good titles (pictured above).

My current DVD collection:
Barbershop 2
Bend it Like Beckham
Big Fish
From Justin to Kelly
Girl with a Pearl Earring
In America
LadyHawke
Legend of Johnny Lingo, The
Pieces of April
School of Rock
Swiss Family Robinson
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Whale Rider

I had my first project for my Digital Graphic Design class due this past Wednesday. I hadn't had to time to go to the computer lab, so I had to finish it at the last minute. I had to design two postage stamps that would be part of a series, so they had to be similar in imagery, style, color, or whatever. You just had to be able to tell the two went together. I had an idea to do one on purple triangles, the symbol that Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to wear in concentration camps during the Holocaust (like the Jews had to wear the yellow Star-of-David). The other stamp was Jewish themed. The JW one didn't turn out as well as I'd like, because I ran out of time. I'll post the designs soon, though.

In photography class, I made two pinhole cameras—I'm quite proud of them—so I'll be shooting with those this weekend.

So. . .because, it's a scientific fact that stress does in fact kill, I must remember to "never be anxious about the next day, for the next day will have its own anxieties. Sufficient for each day is its own badness." (Matthew 6:34)

It's all about retention

Your Intellectual Type is Word Warrior. This means you have exceptional verbal skills. You can easily make sense of complex issues and take an unusually creative approach to solving problems. Your strengths also make you a visionary. Even without trying you're able to come up with lots of new and creative ideas. And that's just a small part of what we know about you from your test results.

I guess reading all those books when I was younger really paid off, because I have hardly any time to read as much now. I'd really like to start reading novels again. There are many that I started but never finished, like The Chosen and My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok; or Bandits By Elmore Leonard. (He also wrote Get Shorty, which was made into a movie starring John Travolta and René Russo.) The last novels that I read were the Pendragon series. It's geared towards pre-teens and young adults, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

My point is, reading is fundamental. ;)

Slide

I just got this new shirt, with lyrics from a song by Rachael Yamamgata, called "Would You Please", from her EP. The full lyrics are, "Would you please let me slide a few words under your door / The first three say I love you / The last five / but I can't no more."

Yeah.

School is back in for the Spring. I have to make a serious effort to be organized, because I have a lot of work to do in all of my classes—Writing for Mass Media, Digital Graphic Design, Intermediate Photography I, and Graphic Design I. So, that will mean that I'll have even less time to draw recreationally, but I'll be posting more stuff related to photography and graphic design.

When I got my fin-aid funds, I took the opportunity to buy a few new CDs. Actually, they were free, I just paid shipping and handling (BMG Music is great for that).

What I got:
—Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin ****
—Three Days Grace - self titled ***
—Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue ***
—Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys ****
—JoJo - self-titled **

And while I'm rating entertainment I'll go ahead and give some movie recommedations. I just saw Coach Carter twice this weekend. It was that good. The story was engaging, even though I don't know how much it was actually factual. It had nice character development, and it wasn't all about the basketball, which I really appreciated. What I appreciated more what that Ashanti could actually act. My only crit would be that Ashanti has a distinctive Philly accent, and the character she was playing was from Cali. Other than that, she was great. Rob Brown has grown up nicely since Finding Forrester. He's so natural. But one performance that stood out to me in particular was that of Rick Gonzalez, as the conflicted character of Timo Cruz. I've had my eye on him ever since I first saw him in The Rookie, but that was just because I thought he was cute (He's got a purty mouth). But now it's refreshing to see that he's actually a pretty good actor. Even so, the other supporting actors were good in their respctive roles as well. I'm not gonna go spoiling the movie plot, so I don't want to say anthing else about the movie other than it was really good, and I went away quite entertained and satisfied both times I left the theatre.

I'll conclude with a photo I neglected to post on my last entry. I found this bottle of lotion on my dresser in my room. I don't know who it belongs to, but I found the packaging and product name amusing enough to share.


The label reads:
Enriched with Natural Canabis
Sativa hemp seed extract
THC Drug Free

Overrun

I've got some photos from the last two months that I've been wanting to post. We have way too many dogs at my house right now, the current count being six, not including the puppies.


Ana is my sister Nicole's puppy. I think they look alike.

Ana sleeping in the car.

Jaime, with his intense ice-blue eyes, is the mastermind of the litter. Every time the puppies escaped from the backyard, he was the ringleader. The day this pic was taken, he had gotten out of the fence yet again, and my sis decided to bring him with her to pick me up from school.

One day, for whatever reason, Max decided to break a board out of the fence, and hop through the resulting hole. He chain wasn't long enough and he couldn't get back through. My dad found him like this the next morning. He was lucky that he didn't hang himself. The pups we have right now are Max's grandchildren. They get their blue eyes from him.

This one has ice blue eyes as well. He was the quiet loner. We gave him to a friend of my little sister.

The puppies play around Nicole's legs.

A Personal Problem

Ok, here’s a hypothetical (possibly could have happened to me) situation.

Let’s say, for example, that I’ve been occasionally talking to a certain male on the phone. The last time I talk to them, they end the conversation prematurely and say that they’ll call me back. So, the next day, I call him back to see how he’s doing, but he doesn’t answer his phone. Then less than a minute later, I get a call back, and there’s a young lady on the phone who asked me if I dialed the number I just dialed. So I say yes. Then the young lady asks me who I’m calling for. Duh! I’m calling the person who the cell phone belongs to, I say to myself. But I tell her the guy’s name. And she’s like, “He’s busy. Can I take a message?” So I say just to tell him that I called.

Say, I don’t really trust the sound of the young lady’s voice, or that she’ll give the guy my message, so I call back a couple of hours later and he answers the phone. I ask him if he got my message and if he’s busy. He says yeah. I ask him what he’s doing, and he says he’s “visiting with some friends.” Hmm. Okay. So I ask him if he’ll call me back later, and he’s all vague. Whatever.

Let’s say, just for kicks, that a young lady calls back a few minutes later—the same one who answered the phone before—and tells me her name, and then asks me if the guy told me that he had a girlfriend. I say no. (I’d actually met her a few days before and he introduced her to me as his “friend.” And she didn’t seem to have a problem with it then. But she doesn’t know that I am same person that had called.) Then she says that she doesn’t like other girls/women calling her man. So what? I’m thinking, Sounds like a personal problem to me, I think. But I say, “Ok, thanks. Bye.”

That was me being nice. Hypothetically, I could have told the young lady that all out of all the conversations that the gentleman and I had, he never once mentioned his girlfriend, and actually gave the impression that he was single. And when a friend of mine asked him about his girlfriend, he got all indignant and didn’t want to talk about it. That should have let me know right there, but I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, because I hadn’t known him long enough and didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I wasn’t even trying to go with the guy. But seriously, he's trying to hide the girl to the end. I ask him what he's doing and he says, "I'm visiting with some friends," rather than, "I'm visiting my girlfriend in another state, and I'm with her right now, so please stop calling me because she suspects my fidelity and is jealous, so stop calling me."

So, the point of this possible situation is just to say that if your significant other is ashamed to mention you for whatever reason—and you conveniently happen to live in another state—don’t get mad at the person who has been calling them. That person needs to ask why their boyfriend/girlfriend has been trying to hide their existence, and probably going around flirting with other people. That’s just really immature and crazy.

I am too old to have to be dealing with this kind of mess.

But I am reminded:

"Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another.Even as Jehovah freely forgave you, so do you also." —Colossians 10:13

Spoiled

I just got back from taking my little sister and her friend to a high school basketball tournament that was 30 miles away in the middle of nowhere. What fun. Alabama is great for that. Not to mention the horribly inaccurate directions my mom gave me from yahoo!. Driving down and dark, sinuous highway when you don't know where you're going isn't the best way to spend a Saturday night. It's a good thing her school won, otherwise. . .

The team is rather good, though. They're currently undefeated I actually enjoy watching basketball very much. I guess I like the physicality of the game the most, how the players are aggressive, yet graceful, all at the same time. My dad always says, "Basketball is a contact sport." And I believe that's true in a sense. (I'm in no way referring to the brawl that broke out between those players and fans that has created so much controversy recently.)

Then there's school. Sigh. I'm so ready for it to be over. I'm on break right now, so I've been taking it easy. I still have a lot of art work from Figure Drawing that I need to upload. I'm finally done with that class (I had to have three), but Claire (my instructor), said that I could come back anytime to the class and draw, so hopefully I'll have time between my two intensive graphic design classes and photography to do it. I shudder just thinking of all the lab hours I'm going to spend on campus next semester.

We'll see how often I get to update then.

Something Old, Something New

The photos are up>> Club Underpants

Today is the last day of classes for the semester and I'm currently skipping two of them. Such a great idea right before the final, right? I still have so much reading to catch up on in World Lit, it's quite sad.

On a personal note, my fiancé and I are no longer together, so Sharon (me) has been sad panda recently. But, I believe that it's for the best, for both of us. It seems we're doing more growth apart than we were doing together, so that's positive. Still, being with someone for so long (two years) you get used to certain things, like them always being there, or always being able to call them. However, this caused me to have a lack of friends outside of that relationship, so now I'm able to branch out and meet more people, i.e, the attendance of Club Underpants.

Now my sister Nicole is talking about wanting to go to Italy next summer. I'm supposed to be going with her, so we'll see how it goes.

checking in

I went to an awesome party Saturday night in Pensacola, FL (about 45 minutes from Mobile). It was hosted by a very cool guy we met last weekend named Jarad. I've got lots of pics that I'll be posting soon, so stay tuned.

Last weekend my sister Nicole and I went to Pensacola to volunteer with the Jehovah's Witness Relief effort that was going on there, to help repair the damage done to people's homes by Hurricane Ivan. We had an awesome time, we stayed for two days and didn't have to spend any money hardly, because we were fed breakfast, lunch (which as brought to us on the work site), and dinner. Now I can put roof-stripping (there's a whole inside joke around that phrase) experience on my resumé. It was a very worthwhile and spiritually-upbuilding experience.

braids & n ails

I've got cornrows and my nails painted—two things I haven't done in a very long time. Laura did them and they look really cute, but they're itching like crazy. . .the braids I mean. I'll take them down tomorrow so my hair will be crinkley.

Things haven't changed much. I still need to be more studious in school. I made an 76 on my last English test. I'm pretty sure I can pull out with a B, but an A could still be possible if I make good on my final paper. I really dislike essay tests, but I seem to be pretty good at them, so I guess it's good that I don't hate them because I'm always failing them. It turns out that my English professor knows my granddfather. In fact, the interviewed him as part of his doctorate dissertation. Pretty interesting. Too bad that didn't help me out on the test. . .

j/k. ;)

Slacking

Lately I've been slacking so much at everything it's really pathetic. Apparently I'm not doing that bad in school, though, because I got invited to join a national honour society. Still, I think I totally bombed my World Lit test that I took on Tuesday. I'm so behind on the reading in that class, and I still have to memorize some poem for recitation today.

I have been somewhat productive though. I'd been working on a logo design for a local pediatrician who is about to open up her own practice. She loved what I came up with and now I've been tapped to design her opening announcement post cards. It's good to actually be putting my design skills to work after two semesters off from it.

This past weekend I went to the Mobile Arts & Crafts Fair. There were significantly fewer artists in attendance, I wonder if it has anything to do with the aftermath of hurricane Ivan, or what. We tend to forget that people are still recovering from the damage. But while I was there, I took pictures of the Azalea Trail Maids. It's a local thing, where high school girls dress up in brighly colored ante bellum type dresses and attend local events acting as ambassadors for the city of Mobile. They each get their dress custom made, and it's not cheap either. But I guess it's a cool thing to do if you have a lot of free time and a couple of thousand dollars just lying around.





Monday, I was sitting in the car, parked behind a florist shop, waiting for my sister to pick up her sewing maching that she was having fixed, and this man who workd at the florist brought us out two vases with two roses each for both of us. How randomly cool is that. My roses have since bloomed, and they look so beautiful. ^_^





I saw Ray this weekend. Jaime Fox's performance was definitely Oscar-buzz worthy. The supporting cast was really great as well.