In our town of Halloween

I've been missing in action lately, or at least in terms of updating this. The bulk of my time has been wrapped up in preparing for songfest this Friday. For those who don't go to USC or who haven't heard of it, Songfest is the big all-greek philanthropy of the year. Each sorority pairs up with a fraternity and creates a 6-minute, song dance skit thing that goes along with the overall theme. We practice for a good two months or so and then perform at Bovard auditorium. The ticket money goes to Troy Camp, which is an organization that sets up a summer camp for people who wouldnt normally be able to afford to go to a camp. Our overall theme is "I don't Want to Grow Up" so our house is doing a Nightmare before Christmas idea. The people in Halloween town are scared to leave and go to college. It's extremely cheesy and absolutely no one can sing, but we're doing it with Kappa Alpha Psi and we got a really wonderful review from the daily trojan. Read it! It explains things much better than I can.

http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/2005/03/25/Lifestyle/Flawlessness.Is.Key.To.Success-902844.shtml

So to prepare for Friday we've been practicing 4 times a week and I volunteered to create backdrops on 4 x 8 planks of wood so I've been spending all my free time this week painting scenes from Nightmare before Christmas. I hope they look good up on stage. Anyway, I've got to run to class...then to donate blood at ADPi's blood drive, then to the photo darkroom. I'll be updating in much more depth over the weekend but for now...I've got to run.

In our town of Halloween

I've been missing in action lately, or at least in terms of updating this. The bulk of my time has been wrapped up in preparing for songfest this Friday. For those who don't go to USC or who haven't heard of it, Songfest is the big all-greek philanthropy of the year. Each sorority pairs up with a fraternity and creates a 6-minute, song dance skit thing that goes along with the overall theme. We practice for a good two months or so and then perform at Bovard auditorium. The ticket money goes to Troy Camp, which is an organization that sets up a summer camp for people who wouldnt normally be able to afford to go to a camp. Our overall theme is "I don't Want to Grow Up" so our house is doing a Nightmare before Christmas idea. The people in Halloween town are scared to leave and go to college. It's extremely cheesy and absolutely no one can sing, but we're doing it with Kappa Alpha Psi and we got a really wonderful review from the daily trojan. Read it! It explains things much better than I can.

http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/2005/03/25/Lifestyle/Flawlessness.Is.Key.To.Success-902844.shtml

So to prepare for Friday we've been practicing 4 times a week and I volunteered to create backdrops on 4 x 8 planks of wood so I've been spending all my free time this week painting scenes from Nightmare before Christmas. I hope they look good up on stage. Anyway, I've got to run to class...then to donate blood at ADPi's blood drive, then to the photo darkroom. I'll be updating in much more depth over the weekend but for now...I've got to run.

In our town of Halloween

I've been missing in action lately, or at least in terms of updating this. The bulk of my time has been wrapped up in preparing for songfest this Friday. For those who don't go to USC or who haven't heard of it, Songfest is the big all-greek philanthropy of the year. Each sorority pairs up with a fraternity and creates a 6-minute, song dance skit thing that goes along with the overall theme. We practice for a good two months or so and then perform at Bovard auditorium. The ticket money goes to Troy Camp, which is an organization that sets up a summer camp for people who wouldnt normally be able to afford to go to a camp. Our overall theme is "I don't Want to Grow Up" so our house is doing a Nightmare before Christmas idea. The people in Halloween town are scared to leave and go to college. It's extremely cheesy and absolutely no one can sing, but we're doing it with Kappa Alpha Psi and we got a really wonderful review from the daily trojan. Read it! It explains things much better than I can.

http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/2005/03/25/Lifestyle/Flawlessness.Is.Key.To.Success-902844.shtml

So to prepare for Friday we've been practicing 4 times a week and I volunteered to create backdrops on 4 x 8 planks of wood so I've been spending all my free time this week painting scenes from Nightmare before Christmas. I hope they look good up on stage. Anyway, I've got to run to class...then to donate blood at ADPi's blood drive, then to the photo darkroom. I'll be updating in much more depth over the weekend but for now...I've got to run.

To infinity and beyond!

I found that I was feeling well enough to go to Berkeley on Wednesday and it turned out to be a fun trip. I always like going there to visit friends and to go into San Francisco. Berkeley has such a cool atmosphere that is very different from the area surrounding USC. It's kinda got that small town feel to it without really being small. They even had those twinkle lights around the trees. Everything was incredibly green and leafy and the ground was constantly wet. I could see myself living somewhere like that after college...if i wasn't so tied down to LA design. We went to see Spike Jonze the first night there. He was speaking as part of the school's director series and I was lucky enough to go. The entire thing was set up like a Q&A and he just answered questions for two hours. He was somewhat dumbstruck and inarticulate during parts, but I thought he was a little adorable as well. People were asking some dumbass questions like "What if you woke up one day and were married to a cat?" I don't know how he kept a straight face. Matt was nice enough to let Tasha and I crash at his gigantic apartment. Thanks a lot!

The next day I went into the city for some sightseeing, which actually turned into shopping for clothes. Met some students at art academy who had an amazing studio apartment right in the heart of the city. Made me yet again rethink why I didn't choose art school up in San Francisco, but I'm pretty happy where I am, especially after scoring a kickass internship. They also paid something like $2000 a month for it...a price I am not envious of. The rest of the trip was spent socializing and not sleeping much so I was pretty wiped out when I got home. My family and I went to Disneyland yesterday. I rode the new Buzz Lightyear Lazor Tag ride, which was actually quite fun because my mom refused to pick up the gun and shoot the targets. She just spun our car around and around. My final score was 64,000 and hers was 0. They take a picture of you in the ride, which I didn’t know about til afterwards. I’m going to post a picture from it soon.

I bought one of those giant caramel apples drizzled in chocolate and nuts, one of my favorite things. But sadly, all good things come to an end. I ate my apple and am now back at school facing a late night writing an essay on Matthew Brady, the civil war photographer. I have to do a slide presentation in front of the whole class tomorrow about his photos. I'm shy and nervous, but after tomorrow’s class it is smooth sailing. When I was in Disneyland I wanted to stop in to see that Lincoln show where they have the electronic Lincoln reading the Gettysberg Address because it revolves around Matthew Brady, but it was closed. Normally animatronics scare the crap out of me, but Lincoln's not so bad. He's friendly-like. Only 5 more weeks left of school…what happened to this year?

Quick recap of spring break so far. I got home on Thursday night. My brother was nice enough to come pick me up from school and then we went to dinner at BJs when I got home. The break got a good start and I got to relax by watching a movie with matt and his friends. I woke up Friday morning though with a full on flu. I had starting feeling kinda icky on Tuesday or Wednesday with my chest feeling really tight and I knew that it would soon turn into a cold. My temperature went up to 102 degrees before going away and I spent all that day and Saturday + Sunday sitting on the couch drinking as much liquid as I could cram down my throat. I think one of the days I spent a total of 11 hours in front of the television or something. But luckily, it doesn't seem like it's going to stick around all week which means that I can still go to berkeley tomorrow.

Tasha, Brigitte, Jeff and I are going up to spend 2 days in Berkeley visiting friends. I wasn't sure it would be good to go with the flu, but I feel like I'm well enough that it's fine and I won't get everyone else sick. I'll be coming back on Friday afternoon, just enough time to spend Saturday and Sunday with the family and then jet back to school. Boooo school.

The best news of all, however, came today when i had my interview at Sony Pictures for an internship. I got to the studios and felt extremely intimidated. Not only was this my first internship interview, it was at this mega studio with dozens of sound stages and important looking people walking around. I felt about 2 feet tall. But I went to my meeting and the guy was really young and nice. He only asked me one question about where I saw myself in 5 years, and then he went off on a tangent for a good 10 minutes about the internship, what it included, how great it was, and how interns were expected to be very devoted. Basically what I would be doing is working in the creative adversting department promoting their upcoming movies. How perfect is that!? I was stunned. So after all that and having asked me only one question, he said that he usually told people to go home and think it over for a night and call him the next day to give a yes or no answer. And if I choose to accept the position, then i would get it. Of course I'm going to call him back tomorrow with a yes answer. I'll write more after I've definitely confirmed it...I'm kinda nervous I'll call and they'll be like "oh, we changed our minds." Anyway, for now I am jumping with joy and for now Im gonna go to bed and think about working at a movie studio.

Me and Bobby McGee

Two days could never have moved so slow. It's as if the cosmic force of the universe knows that I have spring break starting on Thursday and it has purposefully slowed down time to mock me. But Thursday will be here soon and I will be heading home! My family has been inticing me with trips to Santa Barbara and Disneyland and to the movies. I'm one of those weird people who would rather spend the day with my family than with anyone in the world (for lack of a boyfriend. Maybe it'll be different when I have a boyfriend, but who knows), so the prospect of being home for an entire week is nice. I am going to sleep in late, watch dvds, and catch up on all my homework. I'm going to eat actual food, wear my pajamas all day, and watch the entire lineup of shows on TLC and the travel channel. All I have to get through is a photography class, an art theory class, and two french class and I will be free!

This week I was told that I have the go ahead to create a website for ADPi. Im super excited because our chapter doesn't have a website and Ive been playing with the idea all semester but didnt want to set one up because I didn't have it approved by exec board. So now I also get to spend my spring break working on a website. Hopefully I wont get too stressed out over the little things that won't work and everyone will like the layout I come up with. I guess anything is better than nothing though.

I am in a funky mood tonight because I got my advertising midterm results back and let's just say I'm less than pleased. He said that if you do well on the giant group project at the end of the year, then you'll pretty much get an A anyway, but the grade just threw off my entire mood tonight. I dont want to go into advertising. I don't like it. I don't want to be a corporate monkey.

On Saturday night I went to a fun party to celebrate Julie and Eddie's 21st birthday. It was at the Bungalow Club on Melrose. I had a wonderful time dancing with my sorority sisters, hanging out with the delt boys, and going to Mel's Diner at 3 am for fries and a cherry coke. Thanks to everyone! I hope there can be a repeat soon. Here are a few pictures from the night...now that I know how to post pictures.



LaToya, Erika, me, Eddie, Josie, and some girl taking a break from the dancing



Congo Line? I don't know why this started or what song people were dancing to, but I guess they felt the need to congo.



Me + ADPi girls + delts


3 am trip to Mel's Diner on Sunset. It is open 24 hours and was actually totally full when we got there. The french fries and cherry coke tasted better in the wee hours.

Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't

They had the coolest installation in the student gallery room today! Usually the room is given to seniors who do a big show presenting their work, photos, drawings, etc, but the person who is putting on a show now has the room filled with grass! He's brought in huge mounds of dirt and made the dirt into sloping mini hills and then covered them with sod. The sign said that people were welcome to take off their shoes and walk around in there. They had a tree planted and a picnic table set up with a bag of chips and a bag of tortillas out for anyone to take. It felt cool to walk around on this totally transformed space. I don't think I'm really doing it justice. I might have to go by and take a picture of it so everyone can see what I'm talking about. I think the main part of the show goes on this Friday night where people were asked to bring blankets and there would be "fireworks" which I can only assume will be fake fireworks explosions projected on the white wall. I think I might just be crazy enough show up for that.

I scanned in some of my photographs from the sequencing assignment. I have to scan the other 5 or 6 of them later tonight because my roommate is sleeping and the scanner is too loud. But here are the lower end of the "consumer excess" theme. The rest will hopefully be posted later tonight and added to this section so that they can be seen in the proper sequence, but for now just keep in mind that this is only half the project.

J'aime boire trop de caffeine

Sorry for the hiatus. I'm coming out of midterm week barely coherent. Earlier today I spelled "you're" when it should have been spelled "your". Capital offense. In fact, this isn't even the end of midterm week, it's only Tuesday, but now that two of my midterms are over and done with I can rest a little easier. I spent a good portion of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the photography darkroom. It's full of scary chemicals with names like developer, stop bath, hydroclear, and fixer. I rubbed some accidentally in my eye and it turned bright red for two straight days. Don't mess with the chemicals! I also spent about 50 hours inhaling it into my lungs. I don't know what the effects are, but if it's anything like black lung that the coal miners face, I don't want any part of it. I suppose everything was worth it though because I had a wonderful critique yesterday. Everyone seemed to catch on to my meaning right away and I didn't get a single negative comment, even though a lot of other people did. I was a little nervous cuz I was called on to go first, but I actually kind of like critiques because as my photo teacher put it, how often do you get to have 19 people in a room stare at and analyze your work? It's apparently really tough in the professional world. So I was very happy with the outcome and am looking forward to my next project which is "documentary." I decided I am doing mine on religious practices and the people involved in them, so I'm probably going to be hitting up the local catholic and jewish centers, along with my brother's evangelical church and those crazy unitarians. Hopefully the leaders will be accomodating and will let me shoot at their services. I haven't blatantly taken pictures of people before, mainly just environments and structures, so this will be interesting for me.

I'm always amazed seeing people in a context that I don't expect them to be in. The other night I was at a party and saw this kid from one of my classes. He seems really quiet and shy normally, but here he was at this party talking to people and kinda bopping along to the music. Guess it goes to show there are a bunch of facets to people. Here's to two completed midterms, a finished art project, a progressively relaxing weekend, and to a spring break that is just around the corner (spent at home relaxing, not in Mexico. You crazy crazy kids.)