edit: An addition!

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Look, one post right after another! Here are some things I've found online that strike my fancy (click the pictures for more info):

Buy something for me! :)

Posted by Joanna at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I dropped my VCD class. This sets me back yet another year in schooling (class of 2011?), yet I feel I have gained 5 years back to my life. Details to come soon.
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Alright, here goes. Basically, I lack time management skills, and I also do not prioritize my life well. I put work above school work (money clouds judgement very easily), and I started to put less and less energy into my school work until I just gave up and quit doing the assignments and going to class. I desperately wanted to prove to my teacher that I was capable of designing, but after going through days where I only had one or two hours to myself and barely any time to sleep, it just wasn't worth it for me anymore. I want to put all my effort into my graphic design, and there is no way I can do that with a full-time job. Why didn't I just cut back hours at work? Well, I thought about it, and right now it's the summer, and I kind of just want to work. I don't want to take an intensive summer course and break my back for 10 weeks straight, which I put up with for 6, yeesh. Plus it's really been aggravating my neck.

I don't know, maybe I'm just lazy. This class is certainly doable. If I was completely motivated, everything would have been fine. And I was motivated, 6 weeks ago. But more and more I find that doing life-related things are more rewarding. I found more pleasure doing laundry and washing dishes than even thinking about homework. And it's not that I don't like the projects, I came up with some really cool stuff for Intro to GD. But I think I would enjoy it more if I had, say, a few days to work on a project, rather than 24 hours. I think I just burned out really fast. I don't have the "everything's new" attitude of a freshman anymore.

So :sigh: I'm looking at five more years of college, rather than four. Maybe I should have just sucked it up for the next four weeks and saved myself a year of school. Yea... I regret this. I wish I had chosen to focus on schoolwork rather than my job, because when I graduate at 26, I'm going to wonder where my early- to mid-twenties went. But that's how life goes, I have to learn from my mistakes and try to make the best of it. Who knows, maybe things will work out great and I'll have a sweet internship or whatever while I am finishing my schooling. Who knows... but either way, I'm sad that this happened, but I am also very, very relieved.

When my teacher called to tell me that I should probably drop the class, I reacted pretty badly and ended up crying really hard. But I'm not sure it was entirely because of the news, I think I needed to let myself go after being on the edge for so long. What was really surprising was that when I told my mother, she dropped everything and drove 6 hours just to comfort me... I am so lucky to have a mother like that. I know that not many other parents would or could sacrifice so much time just to give their kids a hug. I wish there was some way I could repay her for everything that she's ever done for me. Yes, I went through the dumb teenage rebellious stage just like everyone else, but I still loved my mother even though I slammed the doors and gave her the cold shoulder. I hope that I'll be half the mother that she is for my children.

Aaaaanyway. So I am breathing more easily, and I am so happy that I have time to relax and hang out with people. Ashley comforted me by taking me to the Gap, and I have to say... their fall line is SO much more promising than spring. Their spring line was hideous!! But the fall line is vintage-inspired, and I don't think you can ever really go wrong with vintage. My mother, two of her friends (who came up as well) and I watched Hero, and we shopped around for some housewares that I needed. I bought these cool ice cube trays... hah it's really lame, but these ice cube trays have seriously been the highlight of my life recently. They have a silicone bottom, so all you have to do is press down on it and the ice cube pops out! I love it! =B Yea...

Tonight we all went downtown to watch Finding Neverland at a street theater type thing. Not a bad movie. Not great, it could have ended half an hour sooner than it did, but it wasn't bad. Anyway, what I want to say is that even though I'm not particularly in love with Kent, it's an interesting city to be in right now. I remember when Louisville finally got off its ass and started to renovate everything - the Waterfront, the Convention Center, the skate park, 4th Street Live - they did a pretty good job helping downtown become attractive again. I think Kent is starting that phase pretty soon; they are building a beautiful new library downtown, and are thinking of maybe bringing a skate park? Kent is definitely faaaar from where it could be, but it's fun to be in the middle of growth and transition.

Okay, I am out of things to talk about; I think when I start talking about the growth of cities, I should stop. I will be in Louisville from Aug 13-26, or sometime around there, and I think I'll be hitting up Chicago the week of the 21st. Hopefully now that I have more time, I can also get my video game website started before the end of the summer! Yay personal projects! But yea, don't mark your calendars yet.

Listening: Mark Ronson - Here Comes the Fuzz
Playing: Final Fantasy VII
Watching: South Park Season 4-6

Posted by Joanna at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As promised, just a week and a half late... all my projects from Basic Studio Skills:

click for a larger image

You've seen the donut project in the upper left hand corner. The squares in the middle were project two, basically trying to make nice compositions with various size squares, and then enlarge them using black paper on bristol. The dots on the left were project three, where we were limited to 5 dots of certain sizes, and then drew the two best compositions. The last project included the letterform, the star and a dot, and we had to combine the three in a composition, and also handdraw the letter and star.

Man, I'm glad that class is over. Unfortunately, Intro to Graphic Design is way... more.... time consuming...... Hopefully I'll be able to update soon!

Listening: BT - Emotional Technology
Playing: Final Fantasy VII
Watching: Hero

Posted by Joanna at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My first summer class is over! I'm sorry I neglected this website, but with project deadlines and work, I could barely squeeze in even decent sleep. (Which I will happily catch up on today!) I'll post my projects up here in a little bit - I have to find a way to lay it all out - so I'll just make a quick post right now.

Well, I am employed! But it's not at Kent Banquet Sales anymore, I quit after the first day. Actually funny thing, after we set up the reception and people started coming in, the first thing I did was offer a lady coffee... and then spilled it all over her. Yea, my future as a banquet server wasn't looking too hot. They only scheduled me to work one day a week for four hours, that definitely doesn't pay the rent. So :dundundun: I now work at Chipotle! (I linked that because I was curious what their website looked like. It really sucks.) Anyway, it's not the most impressive job, Chipotle is actually a division of the company that owns McDonald's (and Boston Market, hm.), so it's like I'm working at the Mexican McDonald's. But they give me a lot of hours and good pay with tips, so I'll take it! Plus, I haven't spent any money on food in about two weeks. Also... I meant to make a post about this a long time ago, but I've come to the realization that I like Chipotle just a little bit better than Qdoba. (Shocker!) I know I know, I was basically a Qdoba fanatic, but after having a ton of burritoes from both places, I've found a lot of things about Chipotle that kiiiiinda beats out Qdoba. Except for the queso. Because Chipotle has no queso, and good thing too because I would be eating queso every day. Maybe one day I will elaborate and create a chart comparing the two... when I'm extremely bored to death.

Well that's the main thing that's going on in my life right now, just class in the morning and work in the evenings. I'm happy I have a steady job now, but our teacher gave us a rundown of Intro to Graphic Design, which starts Monday, and I essentially have to get my act together and figure out what the hell "time management" means. So far I've spent all my downtime playing some Katamari, and that's barely for an hour or so. But I guess now I just have to work fast and make myself stay awake during the day instead of taking my usual after-class nap. Another problem with my job - I have battle scars out the wazoo. I already have four burns on my arms! My neck and back also feel like a 90 year old woman. Oh yea, I am also doing physical therapy now for my neck. My tick or whatever it is reappeared, and hopefully the therapy will relax my muscles or fix my spine or we don't know what the problem is, but I hope it goes away. Because when I envision my future, I don't see myself with a permanent neck spasm.

Hm, one more thing - Ashley and I signed up for Netflix, which I wish I signed up for sooner. I have about 100 movies in queue, half of which are foreign and anime, half of those which are old Jet Li films, I am so happy! If you have any movie recommendations, let me know :) Okay, I will post my projects soon, time for a nap sleep!

Listening: Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
Playing: We Love Katamari
Watching: Once Upon a Time in China

Posted by Joanna at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)