Fall quarter grades!

Got a B in the class that the prof said nobody gets more than a C ...

pretty proud but still want that 4.0 .. this time I got a 3.75 .. so damn close!

Happy Holidays .. hilarious!

Happy Holidays - video powered by Metacafe

Whoo to the Hoo.

Grades will not *technically* be released until 11/29 .. but some professors enter them early so I always get a sneak peek.

Check out two very important features of this grade report ... I'm now a junior! and for one bright, shining moment, I have a 4.0 GPA. That means in 3 of my classes I got A's. I have no idea which 3 this is .. since I was only expecting A's in 2 classes.

Depending on what I get in the 4th class that hasn't been reported yet ... I could still have a 4.0 for the first time ever! But unfortunately, one of my professors said nobody ever gets above a C in his class. I'm guessing he is the one who hasn't reported yet. In that case I'll be very sad. But we'll see .. 3 A's so far & new junior status .. whoo hoo!

After this quarter I'll have 103 credits, just need 200 to graduate! Gettin' there!

But .. why?

And now introducing a new wave of stupidity, the upside down Christmas tree!

According to Kmart:

"Kids will love this tree as it leaves even more room for presents! The tree is one half of a tree that is in a stand provided and sits up against a wall. It is a not only a great conversation piece, but very practical as well, taking up much less floor space. Much easier to get to packages under the tree or for use in small area. This specialty foliage tree has 450 Clear bulbs and 2137 tips."

I don't know about you, but I'm hatin' it.

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

This is Harvey Pekar. Author of American Splendor comics and graphic novels which focus on Harvey's life as a file clerk living in Cleveland.

I didn't know who he was until this past summer when I read the graphic novel, American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar, and watched the adaptation in my film history class this month.

I enjoyed the novel and I loved the movie so much I'd even go as far to say it's one of my favorites now. The reason being, not only was Harvey acted out (by Paul Giamatti), the real Harvey Pekar also appears throughout the movie in bits and pieces.

Harvey isn't what you'd call a happy guy. He once lost his voice for a long time for yelling too much. He stresses out, he worries, he complains, he makes almost no money in his job as a file clerk. He lives in squalor.

However, even though he is a pessimist at heart, you can't help but like the guy.

I probably would never have noticed that until I watched the movie though. I mean, I liked him in the book, but that is just artwork and print ... and while fun to read, hard to get to feel like you know the character.

It's amusing that he calls the comic American Splendor when his life has been anything but splendid. If you get the chance, rent the movie or check out his comics. He tells it like it is, and what he tells is worth hearing.

I ordered The New American Splendor Anthology and it just arrived today =D I look forward to reading it.

LOL .. my bad!

I heart funny .gifs that repeat over and over.

Winter Quarter schedule, version 3.0

Like, I said .. visions and revisions ..

Mondays & Wednesdays:

Visualist Studio 1
Art History Survey 2

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Basic Illustration
Math 110

Hopefully this is actually what I'll be taking. Instead of focusing on interactive media I'll be focusing more on design, which I've learned over the two quarters that I enjoy making things for print: ads, logos, page designs, typography, etc. I still need to try to find an internship somehow though .. which is going to be the difficult part. Maybe I can do it during the summer if I don't take any other classes.

One internship would save me 2 semesters worth of visualist studio 2. It would be worth it.

One of the oldest chestnut trees in Amsterdam =(

This is sad ..

Amsterdam - A giant chestnut tree which Anne Frank gazed upon from her attic hideaway is so diseased it must be felled, Amsterdam council said on Tuesday.

The chestnut stands in a garden backing on to the secret annex where the Jewish teenager and her family hid from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944.

Almost half of the 150- to 170-year-old tree, frequently mentioned in Anne Frank's diary, has rotted, the council said.

Anne Frank began the diary before going into hiding in German-occupied Netherlands and it was published in 1947 by her father Otto Frank.

It has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 60 languages.

Anne and her family were discovered in August 1944 in the annex of a canal-side warehouse and sent to concentration camps.

Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945, just weeks before it was liberated.

* * *

I never got to visit the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam except for just walking past it a few times. I would like to make that a point to visit next time I'm there.

Watch this!

Man, I wish I could draw that way .. on a computer, no less!

I'm less sad about winter quarter now. It's gonna be hard no matter which way I do it I guess .. better just take it as it comes. 20 weeks of intense study compared to a whole lifetime .. better just to suck it up. Nobody said it was gonna be easy.

My life just became way more bleak in the last 24 hours.

I went to see my *other* adviser today, because I received an email from him saying, "Come see me, I have some forms for you to sign and stuff."

Ok.

I show up, and he proceeds to turn my entire world upside down by telling me I've signed up for the wrong courses, that I HAVE to do a 200 hour internship (usually unpaid!) this summer (13.5 hours a week!), unless I want to be in school for an additional year.

We're talkin' until 2009 here, folks. I nearly bawled right there in his office.

We finally figured out that if I take an extremely mentally exhausting load during winter & spring quarters, it'll save me from this "extra year" that I so SO badly do not want. It could also help me bypass the internship. It's not that I don't *want* to do an internship .. it would actually probably be really great and I would learn a lot .. but how can I possibly work an internship unpaid and my paying job too and take classes at the same time? There aren't even enough hours in the week or enough bottles of headache medicine in the fucking WORLD.

So, without further adieu, my new (horrid) winter quarter schedule:

Monday & Wednesdays:

Visualist Studio I (creating hand-drawn + software generated art)
Art History Survey 2

Tuesdays & Thursdays:

Math 110
Digital Imaging (learning Photoshop w/ my other evil, evil adviser)

He said the drawing class was absolutely unnecessary and I can pick up an art elective at any other time or wait and take one during a semester to get this other stuff out of the way.

So ..

=(

I am so sad. It's gonna be a long, cold winter.

I've seen Madonna's armpits more than I've seen my own.

Anybody noticed that before?

Anybody else sick of seeing her pits?

Sure, they're smooth and muscular and all ..

but jeez. I've seen them constantly since I was like 10.

20 years worth of Madonna's armpits is a little much.

I gave the issue some thought and went googling for Madonna armpit photos and sure enough, I found like 3 on just the first page alone!

I also found something more than I bargained for .. a picture of Madonna in the nudie with what appeared to be a black cat sitting on her lap.

Then I looked closer and realized .. oh .. that's not a black cat.

Then I threw up a little.

Awwww.

It is absolutely imperative to look at cute pictures like this, in order to make myself feel a little better after reading insane shit like THIS.

* * *

In other news .. 12,000 fighters to destroy the dirty black house known as the White House huh?

Them Al-Qaeda bitches are some delusional bitches, are they not?

It's that time of year again!

.. to register for Winter Quarter classes.

So .. here's what I've got so far, which is probably subject to change 5 million times before I finally get it right.

Mon & Wed:

Drawing 1
Art History Survey 2 (my next-to-last art history, YAY!)

Tues & Thurs:

Digital Publishing & Layout
Math 110 (my last math, YAY!)

Before the semester conversion hits this summer I'll be done with my GEP courses .. y'know, the maths, sciences, english-es, philosophies, and all that other random time-and-money wasting bullshit that has absolutely nothing to do with my major.

That's the best thing I've heard all day! In no way do I want to be stuck in a math or science for 16 weeks. I would die.

It will also be my 2nd time taking Digital Publishing & Layout. I enjoyed it the first time around and got a good grade so hopefully this will be good too. I'm not really excited about the math or drawing, but my adviser told me something valuable today, "You only think you are bad at it because you *allow* yourself to be bad at it."

Hmm. Ok, I'll buy that.

My adviser is a pompous jackass and rarely says anything valuable so I'm hoping he's right.

Amendment 2 in Ohio!

I'm stupid for not posting this earlier .. but there is still time!

If you are reading this and live in Ohio and have not yet voted ... please, go vote and don't forget to vote YES for Amendment 2 which would raise Ohio's minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.85 an hour starting Jan 1, 2007!

If every person of legal voting age in Ohio who is stuck making a measly $5.15 an hour for their hard work would vote in favor of this amendment, it would surely pass!

GO VOTE!

The polls are open til 7:30pm!

Money in your Pocket.

I usually don't post stuff like this .. but this place actually does pay when you reach $30, which doesn't take all that long if you read their emails they send (which takes like, 2 seconds) or complete their surveys, play games, etc.

Not bad. Not bad at all.