what's all the hullaballou about?

Witches of Willow Wood

2007-08-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

This week I finished the mock book cover for my friend's story called The Witches of Willow Wood. It's about 3 young girls who discover a magical land. It's just the cover though so now I have to go back and do the back cover which I'll post when it's complete.

I went to see the movie Becoming Jane at the Arclight yesterday which is the story of Jane Austen's life, but it made me kind of depressed. She never married but it's the story of her love affair and the reasons they couldn't be together. I prefer when romantic movies have happy endings. Also went to dinner at the Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Blvd which is a restaurant inside a train car. I liked it a lot there. It felt very cozy and had pretty good food.

Pride and Prejudice trailer

2007-08-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest copy of the trailer I made for my editing class. I cut about 12 seconds off it because it was feeling a little long. i might want to go back and play with the audio a bit and try to make it better, but for now I'm pretty happy with the way it's come out. I got to use some of the stuff I learned in my motion graphics class to make the title cards. The next trailer I'm going to start on is The Last King of Scotland so that I have a variety of genres.

my pride and prejudice trailer

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Because it's compressed to an mpeg-4 it looks like of pixelated. Oh well.

The end of summer

2007-08-08T00:41:00.001-07:00

School's gonna be starting again at USC soon and it's the weirdest feeling not to be going back there with everyone. It's going to be especially strange not to be doing sorority rush school, which was such a consuming process but ended up being pretty fun. Instead, I'll be finishing up this editing class next Thursday and then will have no excuse to not apply for jobs.

Also, i took the plunge and bought a Macbook Pro!! It looks a lot like my other powerbook, but my old computer's over 4 years old and is starting to have problems. The hinge broke off so I couldn't close the screen and it was kind of slow-moving. I tested out my new computer's speed by ripping the DVD for last kind of scotland. On my old computer, it took over 10 hours!! New computer only took a half hour. yaaaay!!! And they had a deal where we could get $200 off a video ipod so I bought one for only $50. It was my lucky day. My old ipod was the very first generation that came out so I'm looking forward to all the cool new video ipod features. I am officially a technology whore now.

Inconceivable

2007-07-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm very glad that I'm starting a new editing class on monday because I am going stir crazy! This weekend should be fun though since I've basically sat on my butt all week. I even got so bored that I got in my car, drove to Hollywood for no good reason and then drove back. I was originally planning to go see Harry Potter the night it opened but it snuck up on me and I missed it so instead I'm going to see it with my mom on Friday night. I don't know if this is gonna be one of the better Harry Potter movies because the 5th book is kind of a transitional book that sets up for Book 6. Then on Saturday I'm taking a one-day class called Photographing the Urban Landscape. We're going to take the metro from North Hollywood to photograph the LA Cathedral, the Disney concert hall, Olvera Street, Union Station and Chinatown. It's going to be all day in the sun so I'll probably get sunburnt, but will hopefully get some awesome pictures which I will post here later.

Sunday morning I'm going to brunch in Los Feliz. I really like the area and it's one of the places I'm seriously considering moving to when I'm ready to get my own apartment. The other day my parents and I took a drive down to Silverlake and Los Feliz to check out the neighborhood and to write down names of apartments that we thought looked nice. I researched online and it seems like the general price for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath is between $1700 and 2000 a month. So with a roommate splitting the cost that would be something like $900/1000 a month. Which sounded like a lot to me but I know people who are living around SC paying $850 a month and that area's not as nice. I guess it's just the price of living in Los Angeles but I think I'm going to try to find a place for even less expensive.

I'm in the 4th week of my motion graphics class and even though the class is 8 hours long and I usually feel like gouging my eyes out by the end of the day I'm actually enjoying the class and learning a lot. I don't think I would've learned it on my own, so it's nice to have something forcing me to do the work. This week we had to take a quote and animate it.

I was trying to figure out how to post the quicktime movies here, but apparently you can't unless it's already online. Oh well.

Next Friday the Harry Potter book comes out!!

The sun in retreat made the skyline look like crooked teeth

2007-06-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the last day of my 2-week adobe illustrator class. I'm really glad that I took the class because I was always afraid to open the program and use it before so I just avoided it and stuck to photoshop and indesign. But this class forced me to figure it out and I think I learned a lot. A frustrating part of this week was when I had to make my first assignment which was to create this landscape picture of suburban houses based off a picture he gave us. I spent forever working on it because I was working on the old PC in the other room. It took maybe 5 hours. I was happy with it and saved it to the desktop, but the next day it was nowhere to be found on the computer! Totally gone! So I had done all this work and I couldn't turn it in and I looked like a slacker.

Today's assignment was to take a family photograph and draw it in illustrator. The boundaries were pretty loose so instead of a family picture, I wanted to make the project applicable so I chose one of Ewan McGregor smoking a cigarette and drew that. I made it into a movie poster that I imagined would be called The Wanderer and would star Ewan and also Natalie Portman and Jason Isaacs. Hopefully this one will make up for the lack of first project.

Also, last night, matt and I went to see The Wind Fisherman at AFI. It was a year ago that we worked on it. I remember how hot it was during filming. People were running around in 100 degree heat all day but when you saw the film nobody looked sweaty or red which was surprising but good. It looked really great with the original score added and the CGI work. It was also nice to see all the people who had worked on it. I like to be on the AFI campus because it's up on a hill and has the most amazing views of the LA skyline.

If you want to be someone else, change your life

2007-06-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about what I would be doing as a career if I wasn't going to be a designer. Here's a list of what I came up with.

1) A wedding gown designer. When I was 13, becoming a dress designer was one of my dreams. I used to scribble pictures of dresses on napkins when my family went out to eat. Unfortunately, my insight into the gown industry was limited and all my drawing came out looking like the exact same piece o'crap gown: thin spagetti strap, umpire waist and then simple flowy bottom, which is probably the last thing I'd pick as my actual wedding dress. Alas, I didn't become Vera Wang, but I do enjoy flipping through the bridal magazines at the drugstore and checking out all the new designs.

2) A mythbuster. I am totally hooked on that show and I think it'd be really fun to figure out the different experiments and test them out. Of course, I am clueless when it comes to science so I would probably never make the cut.

3) A Greenpeace (or PETA) activist. Yep, that would be me cleaning oil off all the baby seals and ducks. I don't think it pays well and I'd probably be arrested for disorderly conduct, but it would be exceptionally cool.

4) A foodie. I'd work for a local paper in some very chic town that has wonderful restaurants and I would go to them all and sample the food for free. Then I'd write about it. I'd probably be really fat, but at least I'd be fat and happy. In this vein, I also dreamed about being a pastry chef (and open my own bakery in Hell's Kitchen like Kyotofu) or a wedding cake decorator. Everyone loves desserts so I think it'd be fun to create the desserts that people love. I would be a lot like Sookie from Gilmore Girls.

If you're looking for a good Los Angeles food blog, my favorite is http://www.potatomato.com/mt/index.html

Sookie

5) An adventurer/riverboat captain. I had a dream last night where I was riverboating in a creepy bayou but it was more like roaring rapids and the boat capsized and I had to save my family from almost certain death. But in real life, I don't think anyone judges riverboat captains. You're not held up to very high expectations, as long as you don't steer the boat into a sandbank or something like that.

Although I could still ditch my plan to be a designer and go to culinary school, I'm re-energized now that my summer classes have started and I feel like I'm actually being productive again. My motion graphics class starts on Friday, I can't wait! My dad got to fly out to Pittsburgh for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah, but we couldn't go so I felt really left out. It was apparently a big family reunion and we missed it! Extended family has started being more important to me than it was when I was younger. My dad filmed my grandpa and his brother talk about our family history and I learned a lot of things I didn't know. For instance, I am a little Romanian. It really throws off your sense of identity when you throw a new heritage into the mix.

I went to see Jon Brion last week at Largo on Fairfax, my most favorite singer/songwriter/composer. He shaved off his lumberjack/Gandolf beard which was unfortunate because I've grown fond of it. He was amazing as usual and there seemed to be lots of famous musicians in the crowd who got up to play with him. There were the Watkin siblings from the group Nickel Creek, the drummer from Rilo Kiley, and some others whose names I have forgotten. I've also been at the Hollywood Cemetary for screenings of old movies. I saw Gilda not long ago and tomorrow is Rebel Without a Cause. We bring a picnic and I really enjoy going there, despite being surrounded by graves. It's not as creepy as it sounds.

I love california

2007-05-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

I went on a drive on Sunday through the hills past Frazier Park, through the mountain, down through Ojai and ending up around Carpinteria. It was about a 6 hour drive and was really relaxing. It's nice to get out of town and see the different landscapes of california. I also got to visit this creek that runs through the hills and take a picture for a poster project I've been wanting to do for a long time but couldn't find any stock photo that was what I wanted. The creek was down from the road about 10 feet so I had to climb down a rocky hill to get to it. Luckily I didn't slip and roll down the hill and I was able to get the perfect shot!

Coming up this Thursday is the Student Key Art Reception for the movie poster/trailer contest that some friends and I entered. They're not going to announce the winners until the reception. I don't expect to win at all because I did a trailer and it was my first time making one so there was a lot of experimentation, but I'm excited about being at the reception and seeing everyone else's entries. I'll take lots of pictures and post them at the end of the week.

Here is the finished poster I made for "Summer of Fireflies" that I mentioned in my last post. It's a film that I made up so that I could make a poster for it. I've been trying to make a shift from using stock photos to taking my own photos. So I had this jar and I took the photo of it on the grass in the front yard and then made a poster with that. I figured this film would be a coming of age story kind of like Bridge to Terabithia or Charlotte's Web. When I was a little kid living in New Jersey I used to run around catching fireflies in a jar, so that's the memory I was trying to capture with the feel of this poster.

Graduation and swashbuckling

2007-05-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've been holding off on writing the post about graduation because I've been using the last week to relax and recharge. I got pretty stressed out the last few weeks of school with everything due. Graduation came quickly and slowly if that makes any sense. I wanted to be done with all the stress of finals but I wanted to hang on to the fun of college so time felt sped up in some regards and sluggish in others. The ceremony was pretty nice, except I wore new shoes that tore up my feet, my hair decided to rebel against me, and the padded shoulders of the graduation gown made me look like a linebacker. The main ceremony had Ted Kopple as a speaker, which was cool. At the end of the main ceremony they released doves (how fancy and slightly weird is that?) and made us sing the alma mater, which reminded me of high school graduation where we had to sing the alma mater and no one knew the words so everyone just hummed off key. Same thing this time. The smaller graduation was wonderful. We had a speaker who I thought was really inspiring and relevent to artists. Since there were about 100 people graduating, including MFA students, the dean talked about each of us and what we planned on doing, which I thought was nicely personal. After the ceremony, my family got to check out my photo exhibited in the undergraduate art show and then we went to dinner at Maggiano's. A very nice day. Packing up my apartment, however, was not as nice.

I've usurped the front room and it is still entirely filled with boxes of my stuff. I had to basically gut my room to be able to fit things back in, so I've got about 8 bags of clothes and other random things that have been hiding in my room since elementary school to donate to Goodwill. Now that I've made space, I need to paint my room. I decided to paint it a nice orange color and move all my furniture around to make space for the gigantic bookshelf I bought at IKEA (which is the best store in the world). Trying to make it as uncluttered as possible. Now that I'm home, I've found that living with my family is very nice and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet, but I wish it was somewhere other than Valencia. You have to drive at least 20 minutes to get out of the valley and I really don't like it here, but I think in the long run it'll help me get started saving up money. And I've lost 8 pounds since moving home, probably because I have time to make nice salads rather than buy whatever's in the vending machine outside the art building.

My goal in taking the summer off was to work on my portfolio, which I've started doing by making a list of projects for myself. Right now I'm working on a poster about fireflies; we'll have to wait and see how that one comes out. I'm starting classes in June, which include motion graphics at santa monica college, editing for film/tv at COC, and a photographing the downtown LA landscape which caught my eye. I guess all the planning helps me from going insane until august when I start applying for real jobs (eeek). I just don't want to feel like I wasted the last 4 years by being an unproductive bum, which is what I'm starting to feel like at the moment.

BEST GRADUATION PRESENT EVER: A 23" Mac Cinema Display screen!!! And also a USC alumni liscence plate holder from my brother that I've been holding out for.

And in a totally unrelated note I want to mention how much I enjoy the new Pirates of the Caribbean posters. At first I hated them because adding fog just seemed too easy, but the more I looked at them, the more I realized that, although they don't look like the first two, they're the perfect way to wrap up the trilogy in terms of the visual look.

And also notice how Kiera knightly is morphing from girly girl to grungy pirate.

to

Las Vegas/Helvetica

2007-05-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

As a last hoorah of college and to relieve some stress before finals, freshman suitemate buddies Angie, Hilary, Graham and I went to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Monte Carlo for a weekend of debauchery. It's already about a million degrees in Las Vegas. We sat by the pool during the day which isn't always my favorite activity because I don't like to feel too hot. I'd prefer to be cold and cozy up, but it was nice to get my mind away from graduation and life and sit around making sketches. I went to the M&M store and bought about 10 pounds of different colors. I have no clue what I'll use them for, but I couldn't resist all the different colors. We got to check out the clubs/bars Rum Jungle and Tabu. They were having rock night at Tabu but there was no dance floor so everyone was just dancing in the aisles. And some drunk guy had his shirt off and was harassing all the girls in the club by slapping them on the butts with his belt. He was eventually dragged from the club. Overall, good times and I think my liver needs a few weeks to recover.

Rum Jungle

An endless sea of colored candies

The Helvetica screening went really well! My job was to sell the buttons that we all made and they were very popular. A lot of people bought my "Helvetica girl" and "Helvetica boy" buttons so I was really happy. Yes, I know I'm a design nerd. I've embraced it. Anyway, the film was interesting. I can't believe nobody's made it before. And all the big designers in LA were there. We had giant cakes that we ordered from violets that spelled out Helvetica, but we overestimated how much people would actually eat so our teachers made us take the leftovers home, so I had about 20 pounds of cake sitting in my fridge. The following morning was the panel discussion with the filmmaker and Matthew Carter!! He's a famous type designer who made the fonts Georgia, Tahoma, and Verdana. He's super classy and British. I was so starstruck. What's nice about being starstruck as a designer is that they're not celebrities to anyone else, so they're actually accessable to talk to. I spoke with him about Yale, because he teaches there and now I'm kind of bouncing back to the idea of Yale for grad school. sigh.

Delicious cakes from Violet's bakery. Each one was a different flavor.

After your fifth slice of Helvetica cake, the sugar high makes you do crazy things. Thanks to Candice for giving me a crown in this picture.

Me and Matthew Carter and his classy british-ness

Look at all the pretty colors

2007-04-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Each year Pantone comes out with their guidebook, which includes their guesses about what the trendy colors for the upcoming year will be. I don't know why I find this interesting, but I've always been fascinated with colors and what aspects of a particular hue make it the most popular. Does it relate to something culturally in the world? Who starts the trends? What makes a color that's so popular one year be totally shunned the following? I'm also interested in how colors relate to interior design and also graphic design. I was hyped up to take this "color theory for interior decorating" course this summer and then I found out it was only offered during the year and since I have to start the job search by August I can't take it! Anyway, according to the folks at Pantone, the trends this year include:

Simply Elegant: Color treatments are equally unique in beautiful blends of mahogany and silvered mink, silvery blues, elegant purples and deep bronzed tones set off by the glint of pale gold, frosty almond and copper.

Classic Chic: Gray provides a real presence in both light and deeper tones, while the sister shade of silver and a lustrous champagne add a glamorous sparkle. A mineralized yellow and a sensuous red bring a ripple of excitement to cappuccino brown. A classic palette would not be complete without the ubiquitous yang and yen of black and white, often used with the cappuccino colors.

Melange: In addition to the warm fruit flavors, and feeding the need for fresh, vital combinations, there is a toasty tan, a vibrant poppy red, a vivacious yellow, a balancing blue –– all well–grounded by a rustic khaki.

Grass Roots: Grass Roots starts with the variations on a green theme, moves on to mineral blue and various wood tones that are enhanced by unexpected mixes including grape, rose and terra cotta.

Light Touch: Take the classic pastels of foamy aquas and greens, pinks and lavenders, powdery blues, sun–tinged yellows and angora whites to the next level by infusing them with a touch of champagne, or by introducing the sophistication of a silvery gray or rosy taupe.

With college graduation looming, I had to make a decision about where I was going to live after I move out from my apartment. My options were to find a cheap apartment somewhere in LA and pick up a few roommates or to move back home. After much back and forth, I decided to move home for several reasons. I want to take a little breather this summer and spend May-August perfecting my portfolio and creating new projects so I don't end up ruining my chances of being hired at a place I really want to work at. I'll also being taking classes in motion graphics and letterpress. Secondly, if I live at home, I'll save a huge amount on rent and food and utilities. It means having to put up with fucking republican yuppie Valencia when i'd be much happier in Silverlake or somewhere cooler and artsier, but I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'll have no life for a year because I'll be working so much. It'd be nice to commute for the first year and be able to make a dent in the student loans while saving up for furniture and my own apartment. I'm worried if I do it any other way, I won't be able to do it all and end up living in a box. This means I'll be spending the first few weeks majorly overhauling my bedroom so I can fit all my college stuff into the room without having to live on a pile of crap. Maybe I should use the pantone color trend guide to decide what color to paint.

Blog is back!

2007-04-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

After much consideration, I've decided to resurrect my blog. I think I had let it die because I found it difficult to post with all the craziness of school and the idea of an online diary started to seem weird to me. I mean, everyone can read your thoughts which a lot of times I didn't think about and started to seem creepy to me. But my New York Design Study Tour class has been keeping a blog for several weeks and it's peaked my interest in my own blog once again. Since its the class' blog, I can't post random thoughts...they've all got to be connected to new york and the class. So my blog is back! I think I'm going to open up the topics to more design and art subjects and post visual examples of things that I like.

Events coming up:

On April 27th, our campus will be hosting the Helvetica documentary for all of Los Angeles. For those who don't know, Helvetica is a very popular typeface that came about 50 years ago, which is why the event is in celebration of its anniversary/birthday. Helvetica is used everywhere basically. If you haven't noticed, designers are very nerdy people, but I've embraced that and acclimated to the design culture. As members of the AIGA student board, we've gotta go to the screening and work, but that's ok with me because afterwords they're having a cake that spells out Helvetica and a cool afterparty.

Due this tuesday is the Key Art Awards student submissions. The key art awards honor film designers and they offer a student competition where they send out images of 3 films from that year and you make either a trailer or poster. I decided to make a trailer because I'm crazy. But I'm interested in editing and really wanted to practice making trailers, so if mine sucks and I don't win then at least I can say I've had the practice. The 3 films are Walk the Line, Brokeback Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I chose pirates. I am putting the finishing touches on my trailer today and tomorrow, but I like the look of it so hopefully it'll do well. I'll try to post a version here if I can soon.

I also went to the senior seminar art show last thursday. It was cool to see everyone's work up in a real gallery space, but I did feel a little left out because I took senior seminar last semester and we didn't get to put our work in a show. Although we did do a lot of work on professional preparation which I found to be a pretty good tradeoff. I guess there's not time to do both.

Try to find me in this photo. It's in front of one of the gallery spaces.

Designers, hooray!

holiday greetings

2006-12-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

My mom writes an annual holiday letter to friends and family each year, and I always like to approve it beforehand in case she writes something horrible about me and I have to ask for a retraction. I like my section this year, but I feel bad for my dad because my mom ratted him out and now all our extended family will know he reads geeky computer magazines. and now you know too. Here it is.

"Someone actually had to tell me that this was the month of December the other day while I was writing a check out for October. When you live in an area where there are no visible season changes, you really can’t rely on the weather or the crispness in the air to remind you the holidays are quickly approaching. Come to think of it, the only way to confirm which holiday is approaching is to take a trip to the mall to see which decorations are hanging from the ceiling. Oh yeah, the other give away is the multitude of cheddar cheese popcorn tins that magically appear in the break room at work.

This year has been an interesting one for Matt because it was his “crunch” time when he had to decide what his career will be. After meeting with his guidance counselor and weighing all his strong points, he finally came to the decision to become a zoologist. In fact, he liked the idea so much that he decided to go into film instead. He’s not exactly sure what he wants to do in film, but you can bet it won’t have anything to do with math, even though he’s doing surprisingly well in the subject. So…maybe he’ll really become a math major? “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO!”

Sarah, on the other hand is having a huge “freak out.” She is now a senior at USC. I know…I know what you’re thinking. They sucked at the football game against UCLA. Hope you didn’t bet any money on that game! Enough said about that, back to Sarah. She’s, how shall I say, apprehensive about leaving her safe little “school cocoon” world and entering the real one instead. I say, “Pishaw!” What better place for a new graphic designer to get a job doing movie posters and trailers than in LA? Her plans are to work for a year or two, then go back to school for her masters degree. Then after she gets her masters, she could go to Emily Posts finishing school for girls and learn to whip out gourmet vegetarian meals and thread a needle. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

Rick is doing well, but sometimes I worry about him. You know those weird, never seen before magazines that come in the mail around the holidays? Well, one arrived the other day entitled, “The Almost Geek Magazine.” It had page after fun filled page of computer type gadgets. Sad to say, he grinned bigger than the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland and went away with it tucked under his arm. I saw it again in the bathroom reading rack where it still remains today. He’s still at JBL and this year, will be taking Matt to his annual company Christmas party. Last year Sarah went with him, so I guess next year will be my turn again. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

As for me, well I guess the most exciting thing that happened other than going back to Jersey after a thirteen year absence to see my nephew get married, was starting my own group of fearless writing warriors. What started out to be just three is now a whopping gang of seven. We meet once a week and push ourselves to finish our works of art. And who knows, maybe next year you’ll be getting a personally signed novel from me instead of a letter. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

It never hurts to dream or try something new. Focusing on a career, stepping out into the world, dreaming of geek gadgets or having a story become a novel could all become a reality.

“Happy holidays to all and the best of New Year’s.”

one flew east, one flew west

2006-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

As an art major, your finals are all usually a week before everyone else's. And they're not usually written exams, but large final projects. This is good and bad. You get done early and have a longer winter break, but then the week when everyone is relaxed before finals, you are freaking out because you have 50 projects due. This week was no exception. On Tuesday, my video project was due. I decided to do an interactive video website about poetry. I was really nervous about my critique because I wasn't sure the project had come out how I wanted it, but I ended up getting really great compliments from people in the class.

On Thursday we had a scary portfolio review. I worked my ass off to put together and self-bind this portfolio book. I had to cut out like, 100 pages with an xacto knife and I cut my fingers at least 5 times, but it was worth to have a nice looking portfolio. The review part was frightening. We had to meet with 3 industry professionals who would basically tear apart the work we'd done. The first two people I met with were pretty cool. The first was Buff Monster, a street/grafitti artist in LA. I had known his work, but these underground artists generally tend to remain anonymous so you never really know what they look like, so to be able to meet him was pretty cool. The second guys were the art directors from EA Games. They gave me a lot of good advice and told me that it seems like I've found a good niche with the film print advertising and motion graphics. The 3rd guy however, formerly of Chiat/Day and now the art director at Tribal Advertising, was kinda mean to me. he told me that "I wouldn't get a job as a designer" and that he thought everyone else at the table was better than me. Which is ok to think or say off to the side, but he said it right in front of everyone so it was embarassing. but I think that design is so subjective that i'll still find a place where my work fits in and I'm going to try my best to improve.

One of Buff Monster's paintings

Friday morning we had our big Grammy presentation at CBS. From what I could tell, it went really well. I think we all presented different styles and they have a lot to choose from. I don't think they'll choose my design because there were so many really good ones, but it was still a good experience. They gave us tator tots and coffee again, which is always delicious. I think tator tots just taste better at CBS. Such an amazing feeling to have a whole semester-long project done!

Finally, last night I went to the senior photography exhibit. I had a lot of friends showing work and they had a few performances pieces throughout the night. I don't go to galleries very often so I didn't know that you were supposed to look nice. I was wearing grungy jeans and a tshirt and stuck out...in a bad way. The night ended with sushi and Fiori ice cream in Little Tokyo.

saving turkies and replacing them with cake

2006-11-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, happy thanksgiving to everyone! I'm kind of torn when it comes to thanksgiving. I like having a few days off school and sleeping 11 hours in one night (which was the case last night and let me just say, it was amazing). And I like eating my tofu turkey and gaining 5 pounds in one weekend. But on the other hand, my house is usually filled with football games all weekend ranging from college to pro (don't get me wrong, I love watching usc games, but as a girl I feel there's only so many back to back football games I can take before wanting to go screaming for the hills.) Right now, all the males in my family and my brother's friends are in the front room playing some new war video game with the surround sound on full blast, so the house is punctuated with sounds of explosions, war cries, and the boys yelling at the tv screen.

Tomorrow I get to escape and hang out with some friends I haven't seen in at least half a year, which will be wonderful. It's nice to have friends who you don't speak to for ages and then you hang out with them and it's as if you saw them yesterday. And just when I thought everyone alive had seen Borat already, I found someone who hasn't so I don't have to go alone now. hooray.

My mom found this cake at the grocery and felt compelled to buy it. Why? Who knows...but now we have a cake shaped and decorated like a turkey. So ridiculous.

Did anyone see that bush officially pardoned a turkey at the white house? I wonder if that turkey was later made into thanksgiving dinner anyway.

One fish, two fish...

2006-11-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

My household has recently purchased 2 beta fish. Their names reflect my family's love for the irish film Waking Ned Divine. One fish is named Ned Divine and the other is named Michael O'Sullivan. The tradition of our fish having both first and last names began with the fish Richard Parker, may he rest in peace. We put them in two separate bowls, but they're right next to each other so they have someone to stare at all day. I think they'd probably eat each other if they were in the same bowl. There've been a lot of animals around lately. My mom started putting food out for a stray neighborhood cat and now when I come home to visit, 5 or 6 cats congregate by our front door, begging for food.

My semester is winding down, thank god. I am so burned out at this point, winter break can't get here fast enough. I finished my grammy ad design, which is a huge load off. The presentation is coming up on December 1st, but before that is Thanksgiving break. I've never really enjoyed thanksgiving except for the time off of school. I don't eat turkey and I don't like how much weight I gain during the break. The break will be spent filming for my video project due the day we get back to school (why do teachers do that?) Jessica's coming to CA and a few other friends, so it'll be nice to get together with them. I just found out the other day that my video teacher literally lives in a cave. I guess it's for a performance art piece, but he's decided to live in a cave for like a year. He told us stories of the rats that he caught in the cave and the difficulties of regulating the temperature. And I'm not kidding. No wonder people think artists are weirdos. We are. I wonder if this is where my future will lead...if I ever mention to any of you that I'm planning on going to live and commune with bears in the forest or something, please snap me back into reality.

I sprained my thumb last night at the Penny Dreadful wrap party. Fingers are the worst things to sprain because you use them so much. I'm looking into getting a thumb splint. Oh yes, I worked on a film this week. My friend Dave was doing his thesis film and so matt and i helped out a bit by basically being PA set slaves, but it turned out to be really fun. I made a lot of new friends. My jobs included throwing dust around for special effect, guarding the front gate to make sure a peacock didn't escape and get hit by a car (b/c I'm assuming that peacocks are expensive to replace), and being a stand-in for the actors when the lighting people were setting up the shots. The still photos look amazing, I'll try to post some here next time. It all was very professional. Wrap parties are always fun, and last night was too, despite the sprained thumb and the drinking way too much alcohol.

Halloweens of yesteryear

2006-10-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

I promised pictures of Halloween, so here they are!

My dad, my brother, and I eating pumpkin flavored ice cream and getting balloon animals at the Halloween parade in Half Moon Bay

Matt apparently really liked clowns. And making weird faces.

I wasn't kidding when I said we had competitions for who grew the largest pumpkin. That year's winner was Tom Borchard and his pumpkin weighed 544 pounds.

These photos will remain forever as blackmail. Although I kind of look like a retard as well. My brother and I dressed up as very sexy hula dancers for the parade.

I love carving pumpkins! I think we had facepaint on to make us look like mice, but who can really tell?

One of my favorite years, we dressed up as bumble bees and my dad was a clown-fly swatter hybrid. Good times.

HALLOWEEN IS AMAZING!!

this is halloween

2006-10-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween time is here at last!! Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I also love Christmas because there are lights everywhere and presents, but the combination of the weather in LA being warm still (no snow) and the religious implications of the holiday make it only my second favorite to Halloween. The holiday began as a Celtic tradition called Samhain, signifying the end of summer and the beginning of cold, dark winter, often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Isnt that awesome!? I have the best memories of Halloween growing up. We lived in a small coastal town in Northern CA that was HUGE on pumpkins. Pumpkins everywhere. As far as the eye could see...pumpkins. We would always carve them, roast the seeds, and go to the annual pumpkin festival every year, where they would serve pumpkin flavored ice cream and dress up in costumes for the big parade. I'll post some pictures a little later from that.

This year hasn't felt a ton like halloween yet, but I did go to Universal Studio's Haunted Halloween last night with a bunch of ADPi girls. I had a great time, despite having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before and struggling through 2 midterms! We took public transportation, which is the best place for people-watching. I always want to take pictures of people I see, but I don't think a lot of them would like that. The park was pretty fun. It was a nice combination of scary and not scary. It's a comfort to know that the "ghouls" aren't allowed to touch people, although they did spray some mysterious liquid on me that I'm hoping was water. yikes.

The best part though was when we were waiting for the train home and a bum came up to talk to us. He targeted Erin and told her hoq pretty her hair was and then continued to stroke her hair. Super scary! He eventually went away but the expression on her face was priceless.

5 moods/5 songs

2006-10-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

I know this originated with Kris’ challenge to Adrianne and Connor, but it seemed so interesting to me that it triggered me to think about 5 songs that correspond to different moods for me. Oh, I just noticed that Connor challenged me so I have a valid reason for this list now. Hooray!

Contemplative/Solemn/Tranquil: “It’s Ok to Think About Ending” by Earlimart. Every time I need to de-stress from studying or whatever is worrying me at school, I’ll go buy a cup of coffee from Trojan Grounds, tune into my ipod, and listen to this song as I walk around campus and think things through. It’s especially representative if I’ve been recently disappointed for some reason. I could see myself crying into my pillow and listening to this song…not that I have ever cried into my pillow. Ask my roommate if you don’t believe me.
*A close second in this category is “The World Spins Madly On” by the Weepies. I love this song! It sounds somewhat folksy and is perfect for a quiet walk around campus. It has a very simple guitar and vocals but acts as a very good song for centering yourself and to remind you that time keeps going and things usually aren’t as bad as they seem. I highly recommend it.

Romantic: “Communication” by The Cardigans. I don’t mean that this song makes me feel romantic really, but I think it’s the most accurate portrayal of how I’ve been feeling about everything in that area lately. It’s technically not a mood. The song is about getting close to people but not really being able to connect in any meaningful way and not knowing what to do about it, so you just disconnect from the whole thing and it turns into nothing. I can relate to that idea a lot. Plus, I just really like the song overall. It could really fit under the contemplative mood section also.
*A close second in this category is “The Sound of Settling” by Death Cab for Cutie. I really didn’t want to like this band for a long time, but this song totally got to me. I love the lyrics “I’ll sit and wonder of every love that could have been, if only I had thought of something charming to say.” So true.

Energetic: “Fell in Love with a Girl” by the White Stripes. Ever since this song came out, its extremely fast paced tempo always increases my energy and makes me want to shout along. I love Jack White’s voice in this song. Plus, the music video was made entirely in animating legos. I’ll usually play this when I’m at the gym…which is practically never. Connor had the best one with “Mr. Blue Sky.” That’s the most frenetic song ever, but I guess Fell in Love with a Girl is my pick for this category.

Creative/Artistic: “After Hours” by Rilo Kiley. This song is so cute. Most Rilo Kiley songs are wonderful, but this one is just so bubbly. It’s all about sunshine and dancing. It’s actually about keeping the sunshine out and retreating from the world in your room, but it’s so damn upbeat. It is a perfect song to listen to when spending hours in the dreary printmaking lab or when I’ve reached my 5th hour of film editing and I really need a pick-me-up or inspiration. I generally relate best and take special notice to songs that are used in tv shows or movie trailers, and After Hours was just used in the trailer for Michel Gondry’s new film the Science of Sleep.

Confident: “Superhero” by Jane’s Addiction. This song is the theme song from the show Entourage, which probably accounts for why it’s a great accompaniment for confidence. The song is about wanting to be a superhero and its loud guitar solo and almost shouting lyrics throughout make me feel happy when I listen to it. Plus I love the “ Oh yeah…” section at the end. I can just see this song playing while riding with friends around Hollywood (prob because that’s what they were doing in the title sequence for Entourage. I’m such a copycat)

It’s really difficult to narrow down songs for each mood. There are so many that I think apply to each category, these are just the first ones that popped into my head. I also think that if I had my own personal theme song that would play when I walked around it would have to be “There She Goes” by The La’s.

Russian narrative

2006-09-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've been somewhat absorbed lately with this identity film project that I'm working on for class. It's all about my russian heritage and my connection/disconnect to it. I wrote a narrative from the perspective of my great-grandmother from what I've heard about her life that I'm going to have as a voiceover. I think it's a pretty cool story. What do you think?

I was only sixteen when I came to America. I can still remember standing in that long line on the dreariest day ever. It was only early morning, but the heavy rain made everything look gray and later than it really was. After a few hours of standing in that line, all the people began to look gray and expressionless as well. But we stood there just the same, waiting our turn and hoping that we wouldn't be the next person to be turned away. Away from our hopes and dreams. This was the day we were to leave Russia for good and start our new life in America.

Not all of us would be boarding the big ship. The Russian soldiers who strolled up and down the long line saw to that. Their job was to weed out the weak ones; the ones not fit to go.

I began to cry and started to miss my mother and father already. Would I ever see them and all my brothers and sisters again? But I was the oldest and so it was up to me to make a new start in a strange new land. I can remember crying more loudly and the woman standing behind me poking me.

"Stop that silly crying girl! Do you want them to draw a big white "X" on the back on your coat? Show them that you're strong!" She pulled a small white apron out of her over stuffed purse and gave it to me to wipe away my tears. The soldiers came and marked a big white "X" on the woman’s back, then promptly led her away. I never saw her again, but still had the white apron she so kindly gave me. I often thought of her and the kindness and advice she gave me.

The sight of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty was bigger than I could have imagined, and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I can still remember coming off the ship and the first moment I stepped on American soil. Oh, to be free at last! Who of us knew what would happen to us next?

After all the paperwork was finalized, I found myself being whisked off with a group of strangers. We were to share a very small apartment together. Those were the loneliest days of my life.

I soon found a job as a waitress in a busy restaurant on Hauser St. in N.Y.C. I wore that white apron given to me by the kind woman. Before long, I started to recognize some of the people. They had become like family to me. The usual supper crowd would filter in, most for a taste of old Russia. Some blini, kishka, or perhaps a bowl of borsch. There was one particular man who would come every day and order his usual bowl of borsch. He always had a twinkle in his eye; his large unkempt handle bar mustache covering the half hidden smile. There was mischief in this one. He wouldn't have anyone else take his order except for me. Maybe it was because I was the only one who could understand him? He only spoke in Russian. Oh sure, he knew how to speak English, and was fluent in several other languages as well. I later found out that he didn't want to let on that he could speak a variety of languages so that he could always sit at the tables I waited on.
I would take his order, and as I turned to place his request to the cook, he would reach over and pull my apron string, unraveling my white apron. I would watch it drop in slow motion gracefully to the floor. Then he would get up from his table, walk over to the apron, pick it up and hand it back to me. He never said very much, but repeated the same routine over and over every day.

One day, he pulled my apron string and it fell to the floor as usual. And as always, he got up from his table and walked over to the apron. But this time, it was different. He picked it up and walked over to me, but he knelt down on one knee and took my hand. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes. "Will you marry me Julie and be my wife?" There was total silence in the noisy, over crowded restaurant as the patrons waited for my answer. I said "yes." I figured he would bother me forever pulling at my apron strings until I said yes, and so I did.

Suddenly the whole place turned into a big party. Most of the patrons were Russian, one was even a famous ballet dancer. She danced in celebration for us. Accordions and balalaikas appeared from nowhere and we danced all night long.
We were married a few weeks later. He was a good man; a hardworking man and our love grew day by day. He built us a house with his own hands in N.J. and it still stands there today, with echoes of happiness. And so my Sarah, my great grand daughter, I pass my white apron on to you. May it always remind you of the kind spirit that it was given to me and may you wear it in good health. And who knows, perhaps one day they'll be a man with a twinkle in his eye and mischief in his blood for you.

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more you tell the less you know.

2006-09-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Now into the 5th week of school and this semester is flying. I started out wanting to get more involved because I was worried about being bored this year with a lot of my friends gone. But I think I may have overextended myself and gotten too involved. I joined a bunch of stuff at once. I recently joined Trojan Vision, the university news station. I write interview questions for The Cutting Edge, a show that screens student films and then interviews the filmmakers. Some of the films really suck, which makes it more fun because we get to screen them beforehand and mock them incessantly. The people seem to be pretty nice. They do a lot of group outings, like this past Friday we went to a Dodger game. Had to sit in the stratosphere section and spent 45 minutes walking around the parking lot looking for our car afterward, but once I got over my fear of sitting that high up, I had a nice time. 3 people got kicked out for throwing things over the railing. I'm trying to get more involved in AIGA, the graphic design club on campus. I toyed with the idea of having an officer position, but with everything being the way it is, I think it'd be a committment I couldn't take on. I don't want to be so busy that I can't do thing with friends or go out on a weekend if I want to. And I've still got all the sorority things going on and all my classes, so it's turned into a fairly busy semester...which is exactly what I wanted. I'm getting a better idea of how my classes are going to be this semester.

Senior Seminar-We spent the first 3 weeks doing presentations about our own work. I had technical difficulties and half my stuff didn't show up in the powerpoint, but it worked out ok. The class split into 2 classes, basically designers and fine artists, and we've begun to go over everything we need to know in order to graduate and get a job. Last week, the whole class was devoted to resume development, so I think I should be a little better prepared to graduate.

Special Projects for Design- We're working for CBS in this class. We're doing the ad campaign for the Monday Night comedy lineup and also for the Grammy Awards. i would greatly appreciate ANY insight into the grammies. Who's going to win? What's the general feel of it? I havent actually watched the awards for a few years so I'm kinda clueless. I'm mainly freaking out about the comedy stuff though. I have a hell of a time designing for comedy. Dramas are so much easier. With comedy, you have to be funny, but in a way that's very quickly understood and not stupid. I'm drawing a blank so far.

Advertising Media and Analysis- blandest subject matter ever. I have to pump myself full of caffeine before each class to avoid falling asleep and snoring.

Art Theory- generally fun. It's the advanced art theory class here and I'm with mainly all art majors. There's a fair share of dense reading and critiques, but our teacher is kind of eccentric and interesting to listen to.

Digital Video- I like this class a lot. The teacher does tend to show us too many hours of "art films" which I dislike a lot. You can only watch so much Matthew Barney so many times, and once we hit The Karen Carpenter Story acted out entirely with barbie dolls, I knew we'd gone too far. And the class meets in the basement computer lab where it's dark and cozy and I tend to get sleepy. But the assignments we have are really helpful. Right now, I'm working on an "identity video" project. We had to pick something about ourselves and create a 5-10 minute video project. I decided to do it about my Russian heritage and my disconnect to it. I'm thinking of having it in the style of a nostalgic, slow piece and I'd like to do it in the style of a film title sequence. Think "To Kill a Mockingbird" with its retrospect of childhood objects and humming or this http://www.d-kitchen.com/nw/nw_911.html except with more balalaika music.

Other than school, I went to the football game, which has basically turned into an angry mob of students pushing and trampling each other to get into the stadium. The school oversold student seats by 4,000 seats so everyone was panicking. After being squished up against people in line for 2 hours, my friend actually had a panic attack and we decided to leave the line. We waited til the crowd died down and went in, but I don't think I'll be going back to any games if it continues like that. I think i'd rather watch the game from the comfort of my living room than to risk being trambled and then get squished into the student seating area that didn't actually have seats so we all had to stand to watch the 4 hour game. Booo USC football and your money-making schemes.

And yay, this movie is finally coming out! Diane Arbus is one of my absolute favorite photographers, so I'll definintely be seeing this. The poster is really well designed too.

Learning from Los Angeles

2006-09-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

I always like hearing accounts of Los Angeles in ways I haven't thought about the city before. Here is a snippet from my latest art theory reading assignment by Dave Hickey:

"So, for the artist or the citizen living and working in it, Los Angeles becomes less a drama than a casting call, less a novel than a telephone book, less a text than a dictionary; it is less a place, in fact, than a network of intersecting mythological journeys, or less a deployment of communal plazzas than a confluence of intersecting "strips." It is a world in which space unfolds irrationally in a sequence of vistas, after the manner of the romantic garden, or Ed Rusha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip. By comparison, you can conceive Manhatten, hold it in your head, read it like a book-a paginated codex. Los Angeles is inconceivable in this manner. Further, there is so little real past here, and so much fraudulent "high" concept, that that characteristic, deep, tilting, shifting space becomes the emblem of what is "real."

10 things

2006-09-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning for a few days to update this thing with stories from my trip to New Jersey, but everytime I thought about sitting down and writing about it, the venture seemed too daunting. So instead, I'm going to post this thing I'm writing for my digital video assignment because it's already written and all I have to do is copy and paste. Our next film project for the upcoming weeks is a personal identity project. It's a 5-10 minute video about some element of our identity. So in preparation, our teacher wants us to write a list of 10 things about our identity that will help us define who we are to ourselves and pick a subject for our piece. It can be anything from personal (a coveted object, a phobia, dynamic with a parent) to broader social categories (gender, race, religion, etc.) Here's the list of 8 of the 10 I just typed up tonight. It will probably change before it's finished and I have no idea which of these things to base my project around...suggestions are welcome, but here it is:

1. Russian heritage: I want to feel connected to this culture and be able to relate to my relatives, but I’m a 3rd generation Russian who is completely American. How do you connect to a culture you haven’t experienced? My great grandmother came to America from Russia, where she lived as a gypsy. She inspired an appreciation for mysticism and fun in my family that I think is still there generations later.

2. Vegetarian: I’ve been one for 6 1/2 years. Treating creatures with respect and living in harmony with nature has been very important to me. I was brought up with a belief in the interconnectedness of all things, and to me this decision just felt right.

3. Phobias:

• Heights. I get really debilitating vertigo when climbing open staircases. My earliest memories of being afraid of heights was when my family visited a windmill and you could climb to the top. I didn’t want to and neither did my mom.

• Butterflies. I went to a butterfly atrium when I was 3 and there were all these super large butterflies and they landed and got tangled up in my hair. I got so freaked out that I ran out of the atrium as fast as I could.

• Animatronics/Puppets. I watched a kid’s video when I was little and it had a scene with a purple hippo puppet that got stuck in a tree and was going to fall and crush these little children. Every since I saw that, all animatronic or puppet animals that talk freak me out beyond believe.

4. Ballerina: I started dancing ballet when I was 3 years old. It wasn’t really dancing, it was mainly hopping ungracefully over alligator ponds that our teacher drew on the floor in chalk. I continued to do ballet up until I was 16 years old. It played a large role in my life and still plays a role in how I behave and try to carry myself.

5. Sorority: I joined a sorority my sophomore year of college. It was never in a million years something that I thought would fit my lifestyle as an art student, but I joined because my freshman year was uneventful and I knew people who had fun in sororities. I’ve made many friends and found just one more outlet in college where I can explore my identity.

6. Observer: I’ve always thought of myself within society as the quiet observer of people and situations around me. I’ve always been on the quieter side and I like to see the beauty in the world around me without really interacting or disturbing it. I got into photography as a way to channel what I saw around me into something artistic.

7. Daughter/Sister: I’m extremely close to all members of my immediate family. My mom is literally my best friend, and my brother and I are so close in age that we get along really well. I take after my dad because he’s very patient and rational. My older sister passed away when she was just a baby from SIDS, which affected my parents very strongly but I also think it brought the family closer together. It really says something about my parents that they could come through the loss of a child and still be the amazing parents that they are today.

8. Los Angeles: My relationship with the city has taken many forms. When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to move away from LA. Growing up in a desert suburb on the outskirts made me feel like there was nothing but fake people and hot weather. Moving away meant freedom, adulthood and independence. When I hit college and moved into the heart of the city, I discovered my love for all the quirky places in the city and proximity to my family. Now that I’m interested in entertainment graphic design, it looks like I’ll be with the city for a while longer.

What happened to my life?

2006-08-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

I'm back at USC now for sorority recruitment school, the two week period that I go into a cave where everything else in my life is halted. So far, I've been here for 4 days, 13 hours a day. Last year, it was the most exhausting process and by the end of the 3 weeks, my voice had completely disappeared and I had come down with a horrible cold. What a great way to start the semester. This year, I am here the same amount of hours, if not more, but it's less physically exhausting because I'm on a purely organizational team so I don't learn any of the bouncing, singing stuff. I miss my life though. I was having such a wonderful summer hanging out with so many cool people, and it is like the rug has been pulled out from under me. It's like entering an alternate universe where I don't even recognize my life as my own, but as soon as recruitment stuff is over, life returns to normal and hopefully all the friendships I made during the summer will still be around.

So I'll be here at the house all day, every day from now until the 21st, but somehow I have to find time to move into my apartment, meet my new roommates, and go to first week's classes. Then on the 22nd, I'm taking the red eye flight to new jersey for my cousin's wedding. It's a crazy crazy time, but please do call my cell phone and remind me that there is a world outside this cave...because I'm starting to doubt it.

transition to fall

2006-08-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'll go through these manic periods where I'll write a blog entry every day for a week, and then I'll go for a month without one. Anyway, I knew that after last night, things would start settling down. It's time for me to switch into school mode. Last night, a bunch of people brig knew from usc, afi, and high school went to Saddle Ranch for her goodbye party. It turned out to be a really fun night. I decided that I love adios motherfuckers. They are delicious. They came in basically a pitcher-sized glass and were bright blue. They had vodka, white rum, gin, and some other blue liquor and were sooooo good! You don't taste a bit of the alcohol, which is good because more and more I realize that I don't enjoy the tonic drinks. Because you don't taste the alcohol, it knocks you on your ass. Brigitte and I split 2 big pitchers of it. It always makes me nervous to blend people from too many friend groups, but this time everyone seemed to get along really well. Probably thanks to the qualities of the adios motherfuckers. Do you ever have certain events that happen though, even little ones, that you wish you could reverse time and change the outcome so much that you just obsess over the event for days afterwards? I don't know if that makes any sense. Basically, I looked like a total idiot in front of someone I really wish I hadn't and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Maybe it's because everything is up in the air.

Perhaps taking my mind off it will help because now it's time to think about school. I always feel like I'm a different person from semester to semester. It probably has a lot to do with the people I surround myself with. This is my last week before I go back for fall semester and I have a huge list of things to get done. It's pretty daunting. The first week back, I've got to live on someone's floor because my apartment's move-in day isnt until the 16th. I'll be homeless. It's going to be strange being back in that environment because I've spent so much time this summer hanging out with Brigitte and older film people, it's going to be strange to not have them around. But hopefully organizing my life and doing rush stuff 12 hours a day will help me snap back into the mindframe that I have to be in. I hope that everyone has a wonderful end to summer and I've enjoyed spending time with you all.

But at midnight on August 18th, this is where I'll be!

If you're going to San Francisco...

2006-07-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

I had a very Rory Gilmore moment at my internship the other day. Most of you probably don't watch the Gilmore girls and now you think I'm lame, but let me explain. Rory took an internship at a really prestigious newspaper and the boss sits her down to tell her how she's doing and he completely rips her apart. And because she thinks shes been doing so well, it makes her question her pursuit of journalism as a profession. Mine wasn't nearly like that. But i did have a talk with one of my bosses last week. He talked about productivity and how it's important to be a strong asset to a company. I freaked out thinking that he meant that I was a slow worker and just a technician rather than an asset. I barely slept at all that night thinking about it. But then I went in this week and everyone was super nice and liked my work, so the way I figure it is that he just wanted to pass on his wisdom about the business and wasn't meaning I was doing things the wrong way. He wanted me to take something away from the internship and learn something about the graphic design community. I hope...

I went to USC for only the 3rd time this summer. I visited with Megan and Ashley and we watched episodes of House. We went to El Cholo for dinner. They have the most delicious green corn tamales ever! Unfortunately, they're only offered may-october. Cruel cruel world. The downside was that we got stuck in the corner booth in the back of the restaurant and our waiter completely forgot about us. Ashley had to flag down any bus boys who passed our table. I'm going to miss Megan a lot this year. It solidified the fact that I've got to live with 4 complete strangers very soon. I'm crossing my fingers that at least the girl in my room is nice and easy to live with. I hope to go back one more time before summer is over.

Last night, Brigitte and I went to a BBQ at one of her AFI friend's house in Echo Park. I really like that area because it doesn't seem to follow a grid as much. There aren't any disgusting tract homes that all look exactly the same. We actually passed this awesome bright teal apartment complex with purple trim and I thought about how cool it would be to live there. It felt very much like summer. We bbqed outside, had music, I took my shoes off and had a beer (which I think I might actually be starting to enjoy. gasp!). I think the best part was that it was 80% boys so I met some very cool people. And I ran into some people I already knew who I wanted to see again. Most everyone was a film student from either USC or AFI, or both, so I got lost in the film lingo most of the time and just kinda stared at whoever was talking like I understood what they meant when they were talking about budgets or the difference between a unit production manager and a production coordinator and their salaries. I like film people though. They're mostly outgoing and interesting people, as opposed to a lot of the fine arts people I've met who tend to be a little off their rockers. Who knows...maybe I am too.

Going to Northern California tomorrow...will post some pictures of that when I get back.

I had a funny dream and you were wearing funny shoes

2006-07-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I bought tickets way back in like March or April for the summer concert of Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl and I almost forgot about it until about a week ago. But it finally arrived and was as awesome as I expected. In fact, it exceeded my expectations because The Shins were the opening band. My love for the shins started when Brigitte introduced them to me a few years ago. I saw them in concert, but it was before I had really learned their songs, and it's never as fun seeing a band if you don't know their music by heart. Brigitte and I got there early because we were in the area already. We decided to park at the zoo, and shuttle there. We bought some delicious snacks and a $2 bottle of wine and had a picnic while waiting for Connor, Scott, and the gang to arrive. They got stuck in really bad traffic and made us miss half of the Shins set, but thanks to Connor running as fast as he could from their car parked miles away, we were able to get in and catch most of my favorite songs. Belle and Sebastian were so amazing. They were backed by the LA Philharmonic, which at times I felt overpowered Stuart's vocals but on the whole blended nicely with their music. I think my favorite part of the night was when a group of boisterous fans jumped up on stage and broke out into dance. The security guards were running around trying to catch them and push them off the stage, but Stuart shouted "No! Let them dance" in his cute Scottish accent. Yet more proof that Scottish boys are the best and I will one day, God willing, marry one. On the way back on the bus, we had to stand because there was no sitting room and I got really nauseous because I was facing backwards. But all was well in the end and I drove home listening to the Belle and Sebastian/Shins mix I burned earlier that morning.

*Picture cleverly stolen from Connor's blog because none of my pictures came out as good.

Good times, noodle salad

2006-07-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

4th of July turned out to be very relaxing, but nothing all that new. We've fallen into the tradition of going to Fillmore down the 126 on the way to Ventura (the one place where you can legally buy fireworks). The 4th of July is like my family's Thanksgiving. I gain so much weight from the cookies, noodle salad, sandwiches, fruit salad, and Pink Panther shaped ice cream bars that I ate. Brigitte came with us. We bummed around for a few hours, reading trashy celebrity gossip magazines and David Sedaris articles in the New Yorker. I always like to go to Fillmore because it's the nicest little community. Everyone has picnics out on the football field and waits for the fireworks. The fireworks show was nice, although I didn't take any pictures. The PA system there is horrible. They played the Star Spangled Banner, which was completely garbled so I just plugged in my Ipod and had my own little fireworks soundtrack, none of the songs being patriotic. I'm itching to go on a road trip. My favorite place to roadtrip is San Francisco or to Berkeley so if anyone feels like they'd be up for it, let me know.

Also, at my internship, I've been working on my very first movie teaser poster. It's for a horror movie called Midnight Hour about Bloody Mary. Yes, it will probably be a really weird movie, but who cares...because I get to design it and entirely from scratch! I hope it actually gets used somewhere. This is it in an unfinished state. I also have rediscovered my love for the Arrested Development title designs at the beginning of the show. They are amazing and fit with the show perfectly.

Both images below are Copyright Sarah kamlet 2006

We wish you a Merry Christmas

2006-07-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

I had the strangest and most disturbing dream last night. I dreamt that I woke up in an ICU in a hospital and I had suffered a massive injury that had put me into a coma. So I wake up out of this coma to learn that all the people around me are strangers, but they're actually my family. My family now (mom, dad, and matt) were just figments of the coma and everything in my life with them had been made up while I was in this coma. And then I had to start living with this new "real" family and I didn't like them at all and all I wanted to do was to go back into the coma world. Weird, huh?

Yesterday, Brigitte and I went to Buffalo Exchange, which is a used clothing store on La Brea. We parked out at a meter on the street and I got a fucking parking ticket! Came out of the store 20 minutes later to realize that I now owe $65 dollars to the police. Fuck Fuck Fuck. The sign was covered in stickers so we didn't realize we couldn't park there, so we took pictures of the sign. I'm considering contesting it but I'm not sure if it's worth spending my entire day at the courthouse or whether I should just forget about it and fork over the money. At least my car didn't get towed. To end the day though we went to Farmer's Market, which is by far one of my favorite places in LA. I can see myself living and working around there. The Ant Farm, my dream entertainment design firm, is right there and I love going to Farmer's Market to people watch. People watching is a great pastime, until they catch you looking at them from across the market and give you a dirty look. I'd bring my camera sometime if I didn't feel so awkward about taking random people's pictures.

Going to see Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday. I just discovered that The Shins are going to be playing also. Two of my favorite bands! I can't wait.

I'll post pics tomorrow after 4th of July celebrations. I will have probably gained 5 pounds. And as is tradition in my family, we always take a moment on the 4th of July to think about Christmas and vice versa. So here's to Christmas...it can't come fast enough

Hollywood Bowl

2006-07-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

One way I can tell that summer is here (and yes, I know it's already July) is that Hollywood Bowl season has begun. I can do every other summery activity (swimming, running through sprinklers, eating watermelon, bike riding, slip n'sliding) and still not feel like it's officially here. But today it is because I went to the Hollywood Bowl last night. My family and I went to see the pre-4th of July fireworks show. The first half of the concert was really enjoyable, with the LA Philharmonic playing songs that were patriotic but we didn't have to sit through any versions of Greatest American Hero. I'm still very bitter about not being able to be the symbols banger when we sang that for 6th grade graduation. I would've been so good too. They played things like the theme of Star Trek and Magnificent Seven and Fanfare for the Common Man. The second half was filled with Kenny Loggins, but I figured I had to sit through him to get to the fireworks. He sang Home for the Holidays and some other crooner songs before singing Footloose, whereupon some crazy man sitting next to me jumped up from his seat and proceeded to dance like one of those mechanical toy puppies you see outside toy stores that wind up and do backflips. Another man close by threw his 2 young children on his back and ran up and down the aisles in time with the beat and his poor kids were hanging on for dear life. I survived Kenny Loggins though and the fireworks portion was beautiful. I'm entranced by all things shiny or sparkly. The visiting conducter was hilarious, which was surprising because I always expect conducters to be very serious with absolutely no sense of humor.

My mom and brother got totally smashed off wine and my mom sang Footloose out the window at the top of her lungs the whole way home. A fitting end to a good night.

This is actually from the other night when Keara, Brigitte, and I went out for drinks. Some old guy came over to offer to buy Brigitte a drink, but Keara and I got no such offer. I guess we are chopped liver.

Wind Fisherman

2006-07-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Now that it's summer I update this thing less often than I do when I'm at school running around busy. This week has been pretty busy too. I've discovered the many states of tired. First, you're just kind of run down and dragging. Then you get this second wind of delirium and giddyness. Then, finally, you get so tired that you get physically nauseous and it doesn't go away until you pass out in your bed from exhaustion and sleep for the next 20 hours. My state of sleepiness was produced by helping out as the still photographer on the AFI film shoot of The Wind Fisherman. When Brigitte told me about it, I had no idea what it was or what to expect. Turns out we were filming at this remote desert location out past Saugus, way down a isolated dirt road and it was soooo hot! The temperature was over 100 degress everyday and the sun was scorching. Luckily I walked away without a sunburn because I kept slathering on pounds of SPF 45 sunblock. It was also supposed to take place in the windiest town ever, so they brought in these 10 foot fans to blow around and kick up the dust in our eyes so we all left with a coat of dust on us. Despite all the annoyances about the weather, I ended up having an amazing time. I met so many creative, talented people who worked their asses off to get the production to come together. I was happy that my only job was to go around snapping pictures, especially when I saw the art department carrying heavy sets around all day. I got to make a slideshow too which will show up on the Wind Fisherman myspace page.

Last night, we got to have a mini-wrap party at the Dave's house (the producer) which was really fun. It's so nice to hang out with film people. They're generally so passionate about what they do, which is something I can relate to. It made me realize even more that film design is where I want to be. I'm a little jealous actually because film people have such a community. I don't really get the sense of that with design. To a smaller extent, yes, but it's not like you go and hang out and have wrap parties with design people when you finish a project. Maybe that will change as I get more into the business. I was so exhausted after last night that I slept until 1pm today. Now that I'm rested, I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl tonight to see the fireworks. And unfortunately, to listen to Kenny Logins accompany the fireworks, which is going to suck because I don't like him at all, but I think just being in the ambience, having a few glasses of wine, and looking out at the fireworks over the hills will overrule any torture at having to hear The Danger Zone.

My favorite flavor, cherry red

2006-06-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

I love my internship. So after the trip to the liquor store, I was assigned the job of coming up with a "coat of arms" type thing for the label of this winery. The owner of the winery's history is very important to him, so I got to be a complete stalker and research him on the internet. Turns out he was in the military, was born in mexico, his father was heavily involved with satellite television, and he's invested in Catholicism because he helped found all these missionaries. For the coat of arms, I went with the catholicism thing but tried to downplay it so it wouldnt offend any potential buyers of the wine. I added in lilies because they are the Christian symbol for the virgin mary but are also just pretty decorative accents. I'm happy with the way it came out.

Blue variation

Red variation

Other than internship things, I came down with a miserable cold that I caught from my mom. So now I have a sore throat that I'm sure is not strep throat because I got checked at the doctor's today. A lot of friends are in town this week. Tomorrow, Lexi, Matt and I are going to a concert..but I'm not sure who is playing or where it is. I think it's more fun sometimes to not know what's going on and just hope for the best. Then near the end of the week, Tasha's sister, Shilpa's, graduating from high school and is having a margarita evening and also a celebration dinner. The bonus is that we get to dress up in the traditional Indian outfit. I got to pick mine out (actually one of the only ones that fit because tasha and I are nowhere near the same size) and I'm so excited to wear it. Crossing my fingers that I'm not sick throughout all of it.

Topanga Days

2006-05-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

My long awaited internship began this past Tuesday so I've been there twice. I was very nervous because I had never done an internship before, especially in a small firm where I would be the only intern and if I screw up, it would be more noticeable. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there. The first thing I realized was that I was overdressed. They all go in jeans and sweats and pretty much anything I'd wear to class. I'm relieved because I hate dressing up and if I'm going to be there all day, it's nice to be comfortable. There are actually only 4 people working there and all of them are very nice. My first day, they started me out creating title treatments for some movie posters they're working on. I don't think any of them will be used, but it was pretty cool to do. They're working on the Stargate dvd packaging so I got to cut out a picture that'll go on the cover. I also answer phones and mail packages...woohoo. We're also doing a label for a new winery, so we took a field trip on Thursday to a liquor store to check out the labels. I'm starting to relax a little bit although I am still nervous that I'm going to screw up. The two owners, Daryll and Tami, are married. I wonder if they worked together first before getting married or if they got married and then started the company. Maybe I'll ask when I get more comfortable. I'll write more about the internship a little later. I think it's a good start in the business though and working here will hopefully although me to get an internship at somewhere like The Cimarron Group, Digital Kitchen, or Yu + Co.

Yesterday, as is tradition, my family and I went to Topanga Days, the most awesome hippie country fair you could imagine. It's up in the hills of Topanga Canyon and you have to make a huge trek up this giant hill, but once you get there it's like the 1960s never left. They have lots of booths full of homemade crafts, all these local venders selling food, various bands, and lots and lots of weed. You see the oddest people too. This visit included a guy wearing jeans and a white sparkly cape, another woman was dressed in a fairy outfit, and tons of tie-dye everywhere. I bought a really pretty necklace and also a giant smoothie. They served it in a football cup and I thought it would be smaller than it was, but they poured the entire contents of the blender into the cup and I knew I was in trouble. It was delicious though. It turned out to be a very relaxing, fun day to just be outside and enjoy the California scenery.

An aerial view of the festivities

Me with my way-too-large smoothie

My brother, me, and my mom

Summer afternoon...the two most beautiful words in the English language

2006-05-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

Being home for the summer is a strange mix of things. It took me a good 3 days to pack up my overwhelming amount of stuff in the apartment and bring it home. The last days of school left me with hardly any food because I wanted it to dwindle away. I lived on thai food take out and my always delicious fall-back dinner of frozen tator tots and lumpy chocolate pudding. I now have the unpleasant task of going through all the bins dumped in the living room, figuring what I'll need for the summer, consolidating everything, and sending the rest of it to storage. I was sad to leave school, but I'm generally happy where I am so when I leave school Im sad but then I'm immediately happy to be home. Usually I'm just here overnight once every few weeks, but now I'm here for the whole summer stretch which is sort of nice. My family has been great. I'll start my internship on the 23rd, so since coming home I've had ultimate freedom and laziness. Generally I hate to just sit around daily with no purpose. It makes me feel ineffectual and a waste of air.

When I came home, my brother was working on a movie for his mythology class so I offered to help out with that. It gave me a chance to actually sit down and hammer out all the frustrations I've been having with Final Cut Pro, but I think I've come out of it knowing a lot. I learned how to add titles, cut down audio tracks, and all the basics of editing. I just started working on the beginnings of my long talked about, but not yet realized 'tv show credits' which will feature a made-up tv show and all my friends as the actors. I want to do one for my portfolio because I would give my right leg to eventually create real tv show credits. How cool would that be? To create an intro that would run before a tv show every week and thousands of people would see. For my mother's day, since I am totally broke, I'm designing a book cover for my mom based on a story she wrote called "Gypsy Blood." It's a pretty cheap gift, but I think it'll be something that she likes and it saves me from going into debt.

I'm trying to finish this book I'm reading called "The Historian." It's about a historian who gets sucked into a mystery surrounding the legend of Dracula and it takes him all over Eastern Europe. They throw in a lot of historical facts about Dracula. It's pretty interesting as far as fun reads go. I didn't want anything too heavy for the beginning of summer time, but next up on my list is Lolita, then Capote's In Cold Blood, and hopefully David Sedaris' Naked after that.

I've also just started up on what will hopefully be a regular gym routine. I want to be completely in shape by the end of summer because the stress of finals and being a lazy blob at home this week have turned me into something resembling this guy.

Baby, you can drive my car

2006-05-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

So the most incredible and unbelievable thing happened to me and I was in a state of shock so I couldn't even write about it for a few days. I got a car!! Now I knew this day was coming, but I didn't foresee it to be any time in the near future when I landed the internship in North Hollywood. I had the option of taking the bus 2 hours each way the days of my internship OR get a car. I decided on looking around for a really cheap used car. Something that could just get me back and forth and that I could replace in a few years when I start making money. I foolishly (or luckily, depending on how you look at it) sent my parents out to test the waters of used cars because I was at school. And they call me up to report that...wait for it...they got me a car and were driving it off the lot that very minute!! I thought my parents had gone insane. Not only was it a car, but it was a brand new 2006 Hyundai Elantra. I told them that they were insane and that I didn't deserve a new car. I've done nothing to deserve it and since I'm making $0 right now just interning, I have no way of paying for it until I graduate. I would be quite content with making a car out of a cardboard box and running it around town like the Flinestones, I told them. But the more they talked the more they convinced me that it made a lot of sense. For one, this car is super reliable and safe. It's got front and side air bags and has received 5 stars on crash test ratings. Also, its about the same price that a used Toyota or Honda would be because we got a really good deal. So if I got a used toyota, it would have a lot more miles on it than this new car. Because it's new, it's less likely to break down as much within the first few years and I should be able to keep it for the next decade rather than trading it in, allowing me to save money in the longrun. It gets something like 28 or 30 miles to the gallon too which is important. I got to pick the color, so I chose a nice cherry red color. It's not so bright red that I'll get stopped by every cop, but it's bright enough to be visible on the road. So I'm in a state of shock that I own a car. But as long as my parents agree to let me help pay for it once I graduate and start making money on my own and budgeting, I think I can accept it. Here are some pictures of my baby. All cars need a name, so I need to come up with one for my car. so if anyone has any suggestions, post a comment.

This is one showing the actual color. I could only chose between this, teal, and beige. The teal was gross and the beige reminds of an old person car. I wanted mine to have some personality.

Art Final Exam: Given one box of crayons and 3 pieces of paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

2006-05-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

I'm approaching what will probably be my easiest finals week yet. I only have one written test, in The World of Visual Effects, and she already sent us all the possible questions so all I have to do is memorize what I want to write and I've got it made. Although she is a nazi with her grading so we'll see.

Though things are winding down now, the last few weeks have been fairly packed with end of the year activities. We had our Senior Sendoff invite, fountain run, and all my art projects were due. I was covered in ink for a good 2 weeks from printmaking and seriously considered turning the corner of the printmaking studio into my makeshift bedroom so that I could just hop out of bed and start rolling ink. The idea sounded feasible until I realized I would probably die from the mineral spirits fumes. For our final project, I did three drypoint etchings of scenes from the fairy tales Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Rapunzel based off the illustrations of Arthur Rackham. It kinda sucked and I had to come up with some BS artsy reason for doing it. I wish I was talented in more areas of art. They make you take all these fundamental out of your emphasis courses which I inevitably fail to excel in. One girl did this really interesting piece on destiny and how the small decisions we make everyday drastically change our lives. She was saying how she moved to the US from Japan and had to choose where to move and what to major in. I think if I had chosen to go to Carnegie Mellon my life would be pretty different and I would have never met any of the people I've met in college.

Yesterday, I was in Valencia for the night so my family decided to go on a super long 6 hour drive through the Los Angeles national forest. We got up at 7am, drove to this mountain lodge/restaurant my parents like to go to because it reminds them of Colorado, and then drove all the way through the mountains which spit us out in Santa Paula. There's so much open space back there that I didn't even realize was there. I took many pictures. And I think my brother is morphing into a cowboy.

My mom and I after about 6 hours in the car. If you're wondering what we're doing, we're making noise with our soda bottles to accompany the music we were listening to.

The view right around Ojai. It was a little foggy but the scenary is incredible.

Could be a poster for Brokeback Mountain 2. I tease.

And as soon I get home for summer I'll be dyeing my hair this color! The girl, not McDreamy.

Who loves the sun?

2006-04-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

It's been rainy all day, but the one reason I don't mind rainy days is that you are expected to look like crap. On sunny, warm days everybody's out riding bikes or lounging on campus and the girls all look like they've put in the time to throw on a skirt and do their hair, so when I go waddling through campus in my sweats, it's pretty apparent that I just don't care. On rainy days, it's totally normal for someone to throw their hair up in a bun, not do makeup, and wear big clunky boots. I relish rainy days.

I'm about ready for this year to end, but I know I'm going to miss it when it's gone. About half my friends are seniors and they'll be gone next year. I'm trying not to think about having to live with random roommates next year, seeing as my college existence could take a horrible turn if I get stuck with a mean roommate. I think Megan has pretty much decided on University of Michigan for law school...it's going to be so weird not having her around since we've lived together for 2 years. But junior year is done in about 3 weeks and I couldn't be in more need of a brain time-out.

I had an interview yesterday for a summer internship and it went really well! I'm pretty sure I got it, they said they want me to come work there this summer, I just have to call for details next week, but I'm always a little hesitant to say it's a sure thing after the fiasco that happened with Sony last year. This place is a small design firm specializing in entertainment design and they said that as an intern, I'd pretty much be a junior designer. I wouldn't be stuck filing and getting coffee as much as other internships, instead I'd actually get to be involved with the creative process and have imput with my own ideas. Basically, it's the perfect situation. The place is in North Hollywood on the top floor of an old theater building. Since I dont want to move around like 20 times and I want to save money, I'll be living at home for the summer and commuting there, which will probably be a pain, but I think it'll be totally worth it. AND I think I'm getting a used car, so I won't have to be that pathetic girl who always needs a ride somewhere or she can't go. Yay for mobility! It's nice to see things coming together the way I wanted them to.

It's nice to see the directions all my friends are going in also. Everyone is doing completely different things, but they're all wonderful. A special congrats to Brigitte who got into Columbia University and to Kris (though I don't think he reads this) who got into Teach for America. Those are both amazing achievements and I'm so happy for both of you.

Troy

2006-04-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'll write about my New York trip when I have a little more time and am fully caught up with all my homework, but in the mean time I thought I'd post this poem that my brother wrote for his mythology class. I think it is amazing and he is super talented. I can barely rhyme two sentences let alone a whole poem that keeps to the story of Troy. Good job little brother.

Poem of Troy
By
Matt Kamlet

Listen to a story, centuries old,
Of Hector, Achilles, and the city of Gold.
It began when young Paris took Helen with lust,
And Helen had left Menelaus in the dust.
Together the lovers departed for Troy,
With Sparta behind them, long lives they’d enjoy.
Menelaus came home and said, “Where’s my Wife?!”
“With the young Prince of Troy? Then I shall take his life!”
So he went to his brother, the wide-ruling king,
Agamemnon the selfish, who began recruiting.
Then he gathered the lords of the kingdoms of Greece,
Said to leave home behind and to take to the seas.
The warriors landed, and based on the beach,
And the outer defenses of Troy had been breached.
But soon after this, Greece committed a sin,
Against Apollo, and his priest, by stealing his kin.
For nine days Apollo cast plague on the Greeks,
Making them angry and making them weak.
Agamemnon was then forced to give up his prize,
But then he did something unjust and unwise.
He insulted Achilles, with muscles of steel,
With immortality, except for the heel.
He did so by taking Achilles’ prize,
Condemning the Greeks to a certain demise.
Achilles decided to retire from war,
Until Agamemnon would beg for his sword.
It soon seemed as though he had made a mistake,
For the city of Troy was not easy to take.
For Zeus had deceived the wide-ruling king,
By igniting an offense through an unholy dream.
On the fields of Troy, the two armies would meet,
The horse-taming Trojans, and the bronze-wielding Greeks.
Over Helen, Menelaus and Paris would fight,
But when Paris was down, his body took flight.
Aphrodite had saved him, from the violence below,
To repay him the choice he had made long ago.

The Trojans and Greeks looked up in the air,
Then they looked at each other, and charged, then and there!
Hector went back to tell Paris to fight,
With his warrior brothers, because it was right.
Then Hector saw his wife start to cry,
Kissing her and his baby, he told them goodbye.
Meanwhile, the wide-ruling king felt defeat,
And he proceeded to kiss Achilles’ feet.
“We are heading home!” bared Achilles’ lips,
“Unless the defender of Troy brings fire to my ships.”
The fire ignited on Achilles’ friend,
The defender of Troy had just sealed his end.
Around the city, the two soldiers ran,
Until Hector decided to fight, man to man.
Hector asked for an honorable end,
And Achilles said, “There are no pacts between lions and men.”
Achilles killed Hector, but unsatisfied yet,
He dragged the slain Trojan by his Chariot.
Then the old king of Troy went to beg for his son,
To recover his body from the deed that was done.
Then, reflecting the late Hector’s death,
Achilles had soon drawn his own last breath.
Sad, how a man of such strength and appeal,
Could be sent down to Hades by an arrow to the heel.
Then death came to Troy from an unusual force,
From the tricks of Odysseus, in the form of a Horse.
The once golden city met its eternal home,
But would later return, in the form of Rome.

Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

2006-03-27T23:39:00.000-08:00

The thing that I never thought could happen on a mac happened. My hard drive crashed and burned! Basically, it started making this very scary whirring noise so I shut the computer down and then it didn't want to restart. After calling my dad and begging him to come pick me up and drive me to the apple store, I talked the apple "genius bar" guy who actually knew exactly what was wrong before I even finished telling him the symptoms but he was super nice and talked me through everything. He ran some tests and then broke the bad news that my hard drive was completely dead. He recommended not sending it to apple because he said that would cost me about $900. He told us how to get a new hard drive and install it ourselves. Apparently, the harddrives of laptops are all the same, you can get a generic "laptop" hard drive and use it in any computer you have. I also learned this is all my fault because I dropped my computer about a year ago and the damage I guess has been affecting the computer all this time. LUCKILY i backed up my entire hard drive at the end of February, so all my design work, documents, pictures, songs up to that point are saved, but I did lose everything that I have done in the last 4 weeks. It's not a whole lot of work, but it is some that I now get to recreate from scratch. My visual effects paper that was supposed to be due today was lost and I have to rewrite 8 pages...but it definitely could be worse. Sooo, long story short I bought a larger hard drive and now my computer is up and running but I still have to find the time to go back and install ALL my programs and move over my files. The lesson of this story is: back up your computer every day or you'll regret it.

I'm rushing to get all my homework out of the way before Wednesday because I'm going to New York to visit Jess and New Haven to visit Lexi this week!! Ahh! It's my first time taking a big trip by myself so I'm a little nervous and also very excited. Here are some things I hope to do there, but I'll update with pictures when I get back to see if I actually squeezed all these things in:

1) go see Avenue Q on Broadway
2) go to MOMA, museum of modern art
3) check out Central Park...I know it's super huge, so I'd probably only see a corner of it
4) have real New York pizza and go to a cafe that the beat writers hung out at in Greenwich Village
5) maybe check out one of those beautiful cathedrals in the city
6) see all the places Jess has been talking about forever: China Beer, Josies, etc. and meet all the NYU friends
7) go to Rice to Riches...a rice pudding place. I dont know why but I really want to go here
8) drive or walk through Times Square
9) buy a tshirt at Yale
10) make an appointment with the art department at Yale and tour (i've always been interested in it for grad school)

Let me know before Thursday if you know of any other places I must see that I'm forgetting

back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool

2006-03-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

Being back at school sucks! Spring break was like being suspended in a nice bubble, where all I had to think about was what kind of cream cheese I wanted to put on my bagel in the morning. But that bubble has definitely been popped. I came back to a monday full of classes and then on my way back from printmaking it started pouring rain and I got completely soaked. I had 2 design critiques since yesterday and I have a large research paper on the ethical issues surrounding pop art, kitsch, and artistic appropriation due tomorrow so I've been researching in the library for the past 3 hours. Oh, and to make it worse, the art library is in a basement and some junior high kids decided it would be hilarious to stand at the glass sunroof, bang on it with their shoe to get my attention (and some other students), and moon all of us!

The good news is that I heard back from one of the places I applied for an internship and the guy wants me to call him to discuss so I am going to call him tomorrow afternoon. I'm very nervous because I hate interviews and I especially hate talking on the phone. The company is called Greenlight Designs, a smaller entertainment design company located in North Hollywood. Hopefully all will go well.

The other good news I discovered as I was preparing for my advisement this week is that I actually will have enough credits to graduate in the spring like everyone else! For the past year I thought I would have to graduate in fall 2007, but I accidentally screwed up and added an extra class I don't need to take, so now I get to graduate on time! It's both great and scary. I was counting on having that extra summer to get things together and maybe travel a little bit, but I guess since a few of my friends are graduating in a matter of months from now, I should just shut up. It's still somewhat scary though.

i have an sorority invite on april 21st. boo for finding a date...again.

Ya'll can't walk no line

2006-03-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

Spring is coming to a close, sadly. This week has been a mix of total relaxation and fun day trips. I spent a big chunk of the time sitting around in my pajamas like I wanted to, watching hours upon hours of tv shows like "What Not to Wear." I really want to be on that show. If I got chosen, I would just hid all my nice clothes, let them trash my bad clothes, and then get $5,000 to buy new clothes in new york. People have probably tried that before, they can probably see right through it. Other than watching tv and movies and sleeping a lot, I met up with some friends who were in town. Tasha, Jessica and I met up at Starbucks to "study" and work on homework, but I only got a paragraph written on my paper. I hate how we got assigned homework due right after the break. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal because I wasn't going on any big road trips and I didn't have much planned for the week so I thought it would be no problem to crank out 2 papers and graphic design homework, but I was wrong. Once you slip into the laziness of Spring Break, you really don't want to work...even if you have the time to do it. So now I'll be stuck scrambling to finish everything. I applied to about a billion internships for summer, mainly at entertainment design firms in Hollywood, so I'm just crossing my fingers hoping to hear from at least one of them. I think I could be perfectly happy to just have a fun summer off without working, interning, or studying, but I think at this age I have to get an internship or else fall behind the competitive market. Sigh, growing up sucks.

I went to Carpinteria one afternoon and had pizza at my favorite pizza place and got to hang out at the beach. My favorite time to go to the beach is in the evening around sunset, sometime other than summer when there aren't a lot of people there. I've never actually had a bonfire, but that's something I'd like to do at some point with friends. I'd also like to plan a camping trip at the beach, but I'm not sure who'd be interested in that. I also went to California Adventure and met up with Ashley and Sola and we froze to death because it was so windy, but we did eat caramel apples...my favorite food. I drank the largest margarita I've ever seen at Red Lobster and made lots of espresso drinks with the espresso machine I got for my birthday. I didn't go to a single movie the entire week. I also didn't work on any motion graphics projects that I wanted to start...I suck. I head back to school tomorrow morning, but hopefully I've gotten enough of my sanity back to finish off this semester.

They're calling me 007, aren't they?

2006-03-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

I'm back after a pretty lengthy absence from updating this thing. This week is the last week before spring break, but I think the fates are against me. This week is crawling by. I came down with a pretty nasty case of the flu. I really should have gotten a flu shot earlier in the year...it's come back to bite me in the ass. So I couldn't sleep the night before my Visual Effects midterm because I had chills/fever. That went away after a day or so but because I had no appetite yesterday I didn't eat as much as I should have. This morning I actually passed out! And hit my head and megan had to run and get me stuff with sugar in it. So...overall, not so good of a week. On the plus side, I think I aced my midterm and found out that I'm getting an A- in my printmaking class when I thought I was getting a C. And in two days I will be watching movies at home.

I caved in and bought the Grey's Anatomy season 1 dvd and have been watching it non-stop. I actually finished the season in about 3 days. I probably have more productive things I could be doing, but the show is so entertaining. It makes me wish I had gone to med school instead of art school. But I don't like blood and guts and would probably pass out if I had to do surgery.

In a few weeks I'll be in New York and New Haven and seeing Avenue Q on Broadway. I can't wait! I'll be spending spring break planning the other things I want to do there, so if you know of any cool places to check out, let me know.

Home Before Midnight

2006-02-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

I'm procrastinating big time. I worked most of the day on homework and I have to go work on my printmaking project that's due this Wednesday. One thing I've been working on today was the homework for my advertising design class. I think this has been my favorite advertising class because it actually deals with design rather than stupid statistics and analyzing target audiences. Our teacher gave us all different movie titles from B movies like "Die Screaming Marianne" and "Women of the Saloon Brothel" and who could forget "God's little acre." I lucked out though and got assigned the title "Home Before Midnight." From there, we were told to go home and come up with what genre our movie would be and then come up with a short story about what happens in the movie. For mine, I decided it would be a seduction thriller and that it would be about a young man who has a really nice life. He's got a really great, sweet girlfriend, a good job and a nice apartment. Then one day he meets this other woman and he's drawn into having an affair with her. She gets a little crazy and starts poisoning his mind and persuades him to murder his wife. Something happens where he comes to his senses and reconciles with the girlfriend and in the end the other woman attacks them in their home and somehow ends up getting killed. Think a mix of "Match Point" and "Fatal Attraction."

Next we had to come up with a few logo designs in black and white to go along with our movie and eventually we're going to do a few versions of a movie poster. It's a cool process. This is what I came up with for a few of the 10 logos I did.

Rocking the futura font. I pretty much ripped this one straight from "Million Dollar Baby" but I don't care.

I used a simple serif font because if you look at the Match Point and What Lies Beneath posters, they are really simple like this.

I wanted to test out a calm logo with the "i" at the end turning into a candle with the flame having just been blown out. I hope it looks like that.

This is a typical horror movie typeface with a gradiant and edgy dropshadow.

I was going for a creepy effect to resemble something like rust or hanging moss. I don't know...it's hard to pull off in black and white.

i wish i knew how to quit you

2006-02-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, someone comes a long who is so good at art and computer graphics that it makes me feel like the work I've been doing the last 2 years resembles kindergarten fingerpaintings. I attended this photoshop workshop yesterday put on by this usc student, Marie Lu, who does amazingly detailed digital paintings. She showed us step by step how to do hair and eyes, but I think I would never be able to come up with the things she does. But in a way it's kind of inspired me to start working a little harder on a few of my outside projects. Here are a few of the pieces she did.

Anyway, I went to BJs last night with a bunch of people for a late birthday celebration, and despite the rain, it was a lot of fun. I always get nervous when I'm the person planning something like that because I'm worried that since people don't know each other at all, they might not get along or you'll get the horrible awkwardness. But everyone seemed to get along really well and it was nice to see. We had a little bit of trouble with the waiter but it worked out in the end and we got 2 free pizookies out of it. Even though I did spaz out, turn around at the wrong moment, and got smacked in the head by the pizookie tray that the guy was bringing over. My hand eye coordination has been miserable lately. I smacked my head on the plate, spilled a drink all over myself when I was trying to take a sip, and then was trying to pay the guy at a drive through window and instead of giving him the money I hit my arm on the doorframe and dropped the money all over the ground. I'm getting sloppy in my old age.

Oh I also stabbed myself in the finger while working on printmaking. I hate that class. It seems like such a dead art to me. I could be off learning how to edit video or working on some graphic design thing that will actually apply to my major, and instead I'm stuck here carving out patterns in linoleum blocks. Tonight I'm going to see Brokeback Mountain with my dad and brother which I've already seen but am excited to see again. Especially after seeing all the mock trailers made for it like "Brokeback to the Future."

And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet

2006-02-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

I had my formal invite last night. I HATE finding dates to invites though. I always wait until the last second to ask people and then no one can come. This year was no exception because I ended up asking 6 people to go before finding someone and by the end I was so frustrated that I almost didnt go. My dad offered to take me out to dinner that night if I decided I didn't want to go, but at that point I was ready to just curl up under my covers and eat an entire bag of chocolate. But these things usually have a way of working themselves out and I found a date to come with me. Dinner was at this beautiful restaurant called Cafe Pinot, which was right next to the Los Angeles Public Library. We ate out on the patio which thankfully had heaters because I didn't have a jacket and would've frozen to death in the chilly 65 degree calfornia weather.

I met up with my date at the house and we ended up waiting for the bus for like 20 minutes, which was alright because we were entertained by this extremely drunk guy standing behind us in line. He was wearing a blue tux jacket, white girls pants that were about 3 inches too short, and these rubbery pale blue shoes. He was loud and coined such lines as "no I swear, I'm as sober as a sparrow." And then he said he was gonna make out with my date. In this picture, he's the insane looking guy in the back.

My mom came and did my hair and two other girls, but it was funny because she only knew how to do the one hairstyle that we had practiced the weekend before so she did it for all of us. It worked out well though because we all got compliments all night long.

The dance was at the Omni hotel in downtown LA which was such a nice change because our last invite was held at Fu's Palace, some chinese restaurant where not even half the people could fit on the dancefloor at one time. So, for not knowing my date and not even planning on going 24 hours before, everything came together and I ended up having a really nice time.

Rise and shine, campers, and don't forget your booties cause it's coooold out there!

2006-02-02T23:26:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Brazilian BBQ with Leona, Jason, Graham, Hilary, Rebecca, and Angie...the "Parkside group". It's comprised of the suitemates from Freshman year that I still talk to and some guys who we were friends with on our floor. We try to get together at least once or twice a semester and go to dinner. I feel like my relationship with them is like the show Felicity (sorry for the reference, Hilary lent me the dvds so that's what I've been watching most recently). It started out with not everyone getting along and we didn't think we'd end up friends and by the end of the year everyone was moving to different apartments, but two years later we're all still getting together and enjoying each other's company. I ended up getting the completely non-Brazilian meal of Gniocci pasta. I'm tragically boring, but also vegetarian so I was lucky that there was any food for me at all. Leona is going to study abroad in Japan in a week so we all wanted to get together as a send off of sorts. Come to think of it, a lot of my friends are away this semester.

Today is groundhog day and I always think about the movie with Bill Murray and how he had to keep repeating the day over and over again. I think I wouldn't mind repeating today, went to design class, took a long nap, cooked some good food that actually was edible unlike the crap I usually cook, and then had dinner with friends. Overall, not a bad day.

I think when I graudate and get a real job, I'm going to miss afternoon naps. Although I never sleep during the naps, I usually just close my eyes and rest. I don't know what it is. I think it's because I set my alarm and I'm anxious that it's going to go off and so I just don't fall asleep to begin with. It doesn't make much sense.

Tomorrow I have the whole day off because my writing class was canceled so I'm trying to decide what to do with my new found freedom. I'm thinking for part of the day I'm going to venture out with my camera around campus and surrounding areas to take pictures. I've been meaning to plot a bus route to a few locations in LA and just go and shoot pictures. Maybe get a cup of chai tea latter (the best drink in the world!) and catch up on some reading on campus. It doesn't take a lot to make me happy.

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest

2006-01-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

My posts have become rather infrequent over the past few weeks because I've just been pounded with work. It seems like that's all I've been doing since coming back from break. It makes the time go by pretty quickly though, and I'm really enjoying working like a real designer finally. I can't believe it's already February. Well, today's actually the last day of January and it's kind of bittersweet for me each year. I had an ok day. Tons of running around, spraymounting pictures onto boards for a presentation, working on an essay about Frankenstein and watching the Tuesday night lineup, but no matter how busy I was today, the main thought in my mind was that it was January 31st and today my sister would've been 22. It's so strange to think about. I look at my friends with sisters and how they're like best friends that can't be taken away by moving or going to different schools or silly fights. They are there for life. I think that may be the most cruel thing in my life, I was robbed of that person who I'm sure would've been there for me through everything. And that she was robbed of a full life. It's so totally random and unfair. I talked to my mom today on the phone and like every year, she bought a bouquet of colorful flowers and put them by Andrea's picture. She sounded kind of depressed today and I didn't know what to say to her that would be at all helpful. What extraordinary people my parents are to have gone through losing a child and come out of it ok and have been there for matt and me with the same love and support just as if nothing had happened. But you can't live in the past, especially after 22 years, and I'm really grateful for the way my life has turned out.

The rest of the week is going to be spent in the printmaking studio because I have a big presentation coming up and am not at all prepared. I also have a sorority dance coming up on the 10th that i really need to find a date for. I went with some adpi girls to the Norton Simon Museum this weekend and spent the day looking at Degas and then went to get 21 choices. I've always really liked old town pasadena. I'm finally starting to get over that cold that I've had for a week and a half. Anyway, I'll update more friday because I have too much work to do tonight. It has the makings of an all-nighter.

don't talk to me about couture vintage, I've had enough

2006-01-19T00:44:00.000-08:00

Most times I love being a design student. And then there are other times when I stay up til 2 am online researching cultural aesthetic, old vintage signage, packaging designs, and store window displays trying to come up with some kind of branding identity for American Rag and failing miserably. Endless hours. I'm doing the interactive side of things as well so I spent a good two hours tonight researching every clothing brand's website to see how they set it up.

I think this project will be the end to me...

Some people say the industrial revolution was as good as sliced bread

2006-01-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

I went to the USC basketball game last night against Washington, but we lost. I didn't really mind though, I was just so happy to be actually going to a game. They play at the Sports Arena a few blocks from here, so a bunch of people from my apartment complex met in the lobby and we all walked over together. I got to meet some nice people who live near me. I'm kind of amazed that I can have lived here in this building for two years and I've never gotten to know any of my neighbors. It's different than the freshman dorms though, you don't do anything with people in apartments. Everyone just goes about their lives. I think that's true to a certain extent about the USC population in general. It was nice to see a sport other than football and there weren't nearly as many people at the game. Maybe I'll make this a regular habit and catch more games this season.

After my last class in printmaking I felt like I should be living in the 1800s. The entire technique of printmaking is very old and mechanical, although I think it'll be fun to get into it. The process involves carving your image onto a linoleum block and then rubbing a thick layer of ink on to table with what looks like a roller pin for baking, then rolling the ink onto the block, sticking it in this big press with paper over it, cranking this big wheel to press it, and voila, your printed image. I think I prefer ink jet printers. And at the end of the class you end up covered with ink and smelling of laquer or "strong mineral spirits" as my teacher calls them, looking something like this, minus the sparks:

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education

2006-01-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's kind of amazing how winter break can feel like such a divider between the semesters. This semester already feels like a completely different year and the only change is that I went home for 3 weeks and came back.

My classes, though, are amazing and seem like they're going to make for a good semester. I already love my advanced design class. My teacher is this fairly old guy who was taught by some teachers who were around for the Bauhaus movement so he should be pretty impressive. The first day was yesterday and we talked about our projects that we'll be working for the whole of the semester. The one I'm excited about is working on the new American Rag store that will be opening next fall in Fashion Island. I've always liked American Rag and to be able to actually work with a real life client is such a great opportunity. The CEO came in to talk to us yesterday and he was so nice! He's giving us a lot of creative freedom and is looking forward to seeing what we come up with as long as it keeps in line with the original look of the store. It makes me a little nervous too, but with the whole class working on it, I think it'll turn out alright. We can choose to work on the facade of the store, dressing rooms, clothing racks, bathroom, floor, lighting, interactive website, tshirt design, graphics on the delivery truck, or the denim sales area.

My advertsing design class is going to be fun too because the teacher works in entertainment design which is exactly what I want to go into. She's slanting the class toward that and I talked to her after class and she's going to bring me a list of companies and people to call for an internship this summer. We also might get the change to work on the redesign campaign for CSI Miami. I've never watched the show, but who'll turn up the chance to work for CBS? I'm so excited.

The World of Visual Effects should be great. We already took a tour of the Zemeckis digital arts center and will be taking field trips to Disney animation studios at some point soon. Too bad it's only once a week.

Writing is going to be pretty boring I think and I'm going to have to drag myself there 3 times a week, and printmaking has all the makings of a boring class but it may get better when we get time to work on projects. It's at night and in this room that is all white with florescent lights, and the teacher has this really slow Italian drawl that put everyone to sleep in the class on Monday. Unfortunately I have to go there tonight so I'm going to guzzle a pint of coffee to stay awake through his lecture on relief printing.

The only thing that's really worrying me is that sorority dues are due this weekend and I don't really know what to do. I don't want to quit, but I don't think I thought through how much I would have to pay continually each semester. I don't know where I'm going to find the money this time and it's pretty unfair to let my parents pay for it. I've really enjoyed it and would love to stay, but it's definitely looming over my head this semester. Maybe something will come to mind or I'll find a job

Really late New Year's posting

2006-01-08T18:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write a New Year's post closer to the actual day, but got extremely lazy at home and a little reclusive. Now, I'm back at USC and after spending the entire morning packing up everything to bring to school, I spent the afternoon unpacking it all in my apartment, so I'm pretty beat. I've still got a few more hours of winter break to enjoying before starting my classes tomorrow so I'll spread out on the bed that I need a step ladder to get up to, read, and watch Law and Order SVU tonight. Anyway, I read Connor's post on New Year's and saw that he broke his assessment of his year into life categories so that it wouldn't turn into a rambling mess, so I think I'll take this opportunity to blatantly copy him.

Work/School: I thought that 2005 in this area was overall very good. It was a lot like 2004, but I felt even more comfortable here at this school and being a year older, I better fit in and knew more people. I wasn't as scared of everything or the future and I feel like I came into my own with classwork. This year, I was able to get into upper level design classes and actually focus on what I want to do and I started building a portfolio. I studied with some great design and art teachers and narrowed my focus as far as careers go. I didn't have a job which I had told myself I would get and start earning some money, but without a job I had even more time for other areas of my life. This year, the full realization of tuition debts sunk in, but I think it'll work out alright. I started considering grad school as an option. As the year went along, I became confident that I choose something that both had good job opportunities and also something I loved doing. I have a feeling this upcoming year will be comfortable and exciting in terms of school because by the end of this year I'll be close to graduation and will hopefully have an internship under my belt.

Friends: I can't complain in this area of life either. I've met a lot of people at USC this year and although all my high school friends are going different ways, I still feel like we all get along when we get together at home and I don't see myself not being friends with the same people years down the line. I'm looking forward to going to New York to visit Jess in april. The sorority is still a lot of fun, although I have a lot less responsibility this upcoming year because I'm not doing the website anymore.

Family: I think this has been a year of realizations in terms of family. I think in 2004 I had a lot of reservations about college and how I was supposed to grow up and thought growing up meant seeing less of my family. In 2005 though, I think I've decided that my family is still really important to me and I want to be around them. I guess I'm lucky in that respect, but I don't think that growing up has to mean moving across the country and never coming home again. I've spent some good times with my family this year. We've added a dog to the family and had fun going to pick him up in Sacremento and have enjoyed lots of trips to disneyland over the year. This upcoming year should be fun because we're going to my cousin's wedding in New Jersey in auguest and I haven't seen any relatives in 11 years so it should be awesome.

Love: eh, I debated not putting this one on here but I'm ok with things. I didn't get into a serious relationship with anyone this year which was I was hoping I would, especially when a lot of my friends have boyfriends, but I didn't mind all that much being the type who likes some space. I hope that 2006 will be better though.

Hobbies: I don't think I have any new hobbies. Design is my hobby. Oh, and I learned to knit a little although my projects need a little bit of work.

Appearance: I've been growing my hair out for the entire year, only cutting it to get necessary trims and it's definitely been a long process. It's finally getting longer which I'm liking and I think I'll continue to grow it in 2006 too. I think this year has been one of comfort and consistency in terms of appearance, but i wouldn't mind losing 10 pounds this year. That's my goal.

Overall, my life in 2005 wasn't blotted by any losses in family or friends or health so I can only be happy about the things that happened this year and look forward to this new one.

Only 363 days until next Christmas

2005-12-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas ended too quickly, but I had such a nice day and I got a whole bunch of wonderful presents. My mom woke me up way too early so for the first half of the morning I was pretty much sleeping anyway. My family gathered around the light up palm trees and had a champagne breakfast, which made me even sleepier. As a family gift, the first present we opened was annual passes to Disneyland, which is a tradition for the last few years, but ours expired 7 months ago and my mom has been saving up ever since. They're incredibly expensive but my family doesn't really go on big vacations ever so it's kind of our treat to ourselves and we usually make good use of them by going a lot throughout the year. We actually decided to go yesterday for a few hours which was fun but it turned out to be one of the busiest days of the year and the park was actually closed to any more people except we already had passes so we got in. We were eating lunch in the tomorrowland cafe when we had to be evacuated because of a fire in the kitchen.

As for my other presents, I got the thing I had been wanting since I took photography last year and now I have! The Canon Rebel digital camera! It's incredible, really. It has all the features of a manual camera without having to go and develop the film, but you can set aperature and shutter speed and apply colored filters and toners to your shot and can play with the contrast, all in camera and then see the result in a matter of seconds on the screen. I also got some filters like UV protection and to cut out the fogginess in landscape shots.

It's not in yet, but as part of my gifts we ordered a large scale printer that can print 13 x 19 inch paper. Ok, I'm sure it sounds lame to most people, but for the last few years, if I've wanted to print any project that's larger than 8x10 I've had to run to kinkos and deal with hours of frustration at the hands of the incompetent and overcharging employees there. It's not fun. So now I can just do it in my room! It's really going to help with design this year.

My brother got me the 1st season Friends dvd and my parents got me a chia pet. I have no idea what was going through their mind with that one, but I suppose everyone has to get a chia at some point or other. I think everyone liked the gifts I got them and, all in all, it was another wonderful Christmas.

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport

2005-12-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas is right around the corner and, as is tradition, my mom puts together Christmas at our house in a nonconventional way. Instead of a Christmas tree, we opted for this.

I was taking a peek at all the gifts under the tree and instead of having all the presents say "from Mom and Dad" or something, my mom creatively thinks of random people who give us gifts. For instance, I spotted this gift.

If you can't read that it says "To Sarah, from Peter Jensen...he's dead but not forgotten"

And even though everyone in our family are democratics and probably on the white house's shit list, all partisan debates were put aside for the holidays because Dick Cheney gave my dad a present.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

2005-12-22T00:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in a few days because when I'm at home I feel like I'm in a different world. I hardly have my cell phone with me and I'm never around the computer to check email or update things. My first week of break was delightful. My parents both took a few days off of work and since we didn't want to leave our dog in a shitty kennel,we decided not to do a big trip anywhere and instead opt for little day trips. So over the course of the last 5 days I've been running all over southern california. The first day we went to Universal City walk, ate at hardrock cafe and saw Chronicles of Narnia. I liked the set design very much in the movie, but having not read the books I had nothing to compare it to. The next day my dad and I went to LACMA and I got to see the exhibit comparing Pisarro and Cezanne, but I don't really care for impressionism all that much. Then we all drove for an overnight trip to the mountains and went to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. The lake was such a wonderful break because we spend a few hours sitting in the cafe and reading and drinking tea. It was my perfect afternoon. The coffee shop has gigantic glass windows so you can look out at the lake and we were there right at sunset. Before coming back to valencia, we got to hike around the woods up there and feed the ducks in the lake. Our dog, Mushka, was left in his cage and had peed and pooped all over that area while we were gone. He's getting pretty unmanagable and unannoying with all the knawing on fingers and toes, and whining for hours in the middle of the night. We're hoping that he calms down soon.

Yesterday we got up really early in the morning to help set up the Santa Clarita Homeless shelter which is opening tomorrow and wasn't even put together yet. It was very disorganized with the lady in charge having no idea how to deligate and then my brother and Dan Howell having to unscrew the door to get a fridge through it and then screwing the door back on upside down. In the end when we left, it seemed like things were starting to come together. We'll be cooking some dinners this winter for the shelter which I'm looking forward to.

Tonight I got to see my girls! In celebration of Brigitte's birthday, Tasha, Cait, Brigitte and I went to a tapas bar in hollywood. It was a nice reunion seeing as Tasha just came back from being in England since September and Caitlyn I hardly get to see even though she's just in Berkeley. I can't even remember the last time we were all together. Of course, all of them have boyfriends so I felt a little out of place in the conversation half the time, but it's great to catch up and have things be exactly as they were before everyone went away. The tapas bar had surprisingly good food and it was a byob place and they didn't card when we brought a bottle of wine. I can't wait for the next 2 months to go by so I can be 21 already. It's felt like an eternity.

The Christmas palm trees went up in our living room today and all the presents are underneath it. It's really starting to feel like the holidays.

Three Things

2005-12-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Finals are over. I survived. Out of all my semesters though, this finals period wasn't all that bad. The only real challenge was french, but i was so happy to be done with it forever that whatever grade I got on the final won't be bad because I'll know I won't have to take French next semester. Yesterday was my last typography class and we went to this huge printing factory and had a tour. Everything's so technical and they had a bunch of machines that could chop your hand off or your hair could get stuck in so I didn't want to touch anything. We went also to get the book we've been working on designing for the last few weeks cut. They stuck in this machine with a massive knife and it chopped through the book in less than a second. My book looks so cool and professional! I won't have it back for a few weeks, but I'll post a picture on here when I do. I think when I get it back I'm going to take it to Barnes and Noble, stick it on the shelf with all the other books and take a picture.

I'm heading home today and I'm so in need of this break! I'm going to sit around for the first few days and watch lots of Law and Orde SVU, dozens of movies, knit scarves and work on design. Oh and catch up on reading. Right now I'm reading Notes from A Small Island by Bill Bryson, which I'm sure I've talked about before, but it's about this guy who travels around England and writes about his adventures. The whole book is funny, but there's an exerpt from a part I just read the other day that I especially like.

"The way I see it, there are three reasons never to be unhappy. First, you were born. This in itself is a remarkable achievement. Did you know that each time your father ejaculated (and frankly he did it quite a lot) he produced roughly 25 million spermatozoa--enough to repopulate Britain every two days or so? For you to have been born, not only did you have to be among the few batches of sperm that had even a theoretical chance of prsperomg--in itself quite a long shot--but you then had to win a race against 24,999,999 or so other wriggling contenders. Being born was easily the most remarkable achievement of your whole life. And think: You could have just as easily been a flatworm.

Second, you are alive. For the tiniest moment in the span of eternity you have the miraculous privilege to exist. For endless aeons you did not. Soon you will cease to be once more. That you are able to sit here right now in this one never-to-be-repeated moment, reading this book, eating bonbons, dreaming about hot sex with that scrumptious person from accounts, speculatively sniffing your armpits, doing whatever you are doing--just existing--is really wondrous beyound belief.

Thirst, you have plenty to eat, you live in a time of peace, and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" will never be number one again. If you bear these things in mind, you will never be truly unhappy--though in fairness I must point out that if you find yourself alone in West-super-Mare on a rainy Tuesday evening, you may come close"

good luck to everyone who isn't done with finals yet. I feel your pain

80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn't read.

2005-12-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

I've been having an eventful week here at school. In fact, since it's the last week of classes and finals coming up next week, I think I've had ever second scheduled since getting back from Thanksgiving. I've mainly just been running around trying to finish up projects. The nice thing about being an art major is that you're usually done before everyone else, but your final projects are always due earlier too. In my Tuesday design class, the creative director for the Gap came in to talk. It was a really good experience. He's pretty young, 32, and was talking all about how he got started and gave tons of suggestions. He oversees all the creative design of the stores, how they'll look inside, all the window graphics, the branding, and packaging design. It's nice to see the transition from underclassman having to take all these random drawing and sculpture classes to upperclassman and being more focused and exposed to professionals in the design industry. It gets me really excited about starting. I'm learning about more and more outlets for designers. I could go into entertainment design and do movie posters, websites, motion graphics, packaging, magazine design, advertising art direction, or publishing and design for book covers. Here's a shot of our collaborative self promotion project we just completed. I was working with a group of 4 and our goal was to creat an effective way to promote and market each individual's design style in a functional way. We chose to do this set of 4 coasters with a vellum package. Sorry for the shitty quality of the picture, I was sloppy, it looks much better in person.

It's also interesting, 3 years into college, to see the different paths all my friends are taking. It's weird, everyone in high school was relatively the same and studied the same things, but now everyone is getting into their majors and going in totally different directions, but each person's specialty is really interesting.

Tonight I went to the bonfire for the upcoming game against UCLA. I always like going to the bonfire each year, but this year was by far the best. My brother came out and I had a late class but rushed over after we got out and caught most everything b/c it was running late. They had fireworks that they shot off from the parking garage and then after the rally, Jimmy Eat World performed. I was pretty far back from the stage, but it was fun to see a live concert for free. I'm exhausted though after running around all day and all I want to do is curl up under the covers.

I also just found out tonight when I talked to my dad that a family friend died this week. His name was Doug and it was the least expected death I could imagine. He went to my church and was somewhere visiting family with his wife when he had a sudden heart attack and died. He seemed pretty healthy too. It really freaked me out to think about it. He was always really nice to me and it makes me really nervous about my parent's health and stuff. I guess it reminds you to appreciate and love your family because something like this could happen any time. I don't know how I'll deal with that.

You're a wizard Harry

2005-11-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

It always seems that when there’s a vacation or a break from school coming up, the days in between you and that break seem to stretch on forever. I’m going home tomorrow afternoon, but I’m guessing today will be the longest day ever.

The other night I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with a bunch of girls from the house. It's lucky that our college colors are the same colors as Gryffindor so we all wore our USC scarves that can easily double as Harry Potter scarves. The crowd was so tame for a midnight opening show. We got there around 10:15 thinking we'd be beat out and there'd already be a huge line formed, but there wasn't a line. People were already in the theater but it was only half full so we got pretty good seats. We spent the time playing trivia games and hanging out. I know that all the people who are devout harry potter fans are going to knock the movie for all the things that it left out, but overall I enjoyed the movie a lot. It didn’t bother me as much as the 3rd one. I thought the special effects and animation were well done and they fit in most of the important stuff. My favorite scenes are when they have something going on in the great hall. In this movie, they were having the Yule Ball and all these ice sculptures were everywhere and snow was falling. Let’s face it, I just want to become a wizard and go to Hogwarts myself.

I had a rather unsuccessful invite last Friday. I ended up going with a few girls in the house because all the sororities were having invites that night, which made finding a date even harder and we were too burned out to bother. I wish I had tried though because going with a group of girls…not so fun. Also, I was getting sick so I spent most of the night sitting outside at one of the tables on the patio sneezing.

I downloaded a trial version of Adobe After Effects, which is one of the professional software programs used to create lettering animation so probably most movie intros you see where it has cool effects with the cast names is created with After Effects. I am seriously considering buying it before I graduate and Final Cut Pro, which is $299 at the bookstore at the student rate. That’s really good considering it usually about $1200 for Final Cut Pro Studio. If I practice at that, I might be able to eventually get a job at The Cimarron Group or somewhere like it, which does almost all the movie trailers created.
I registered for classes a while back, but yesterday decided to take advantage of the fact that you can take 18 units for the same cost as 16, so I added a 2 unit class just for fun that I’ll probably take for pass/fail. I'll be doing a lot of studio type classes so I feel like I'll have a really productive semester. So here’s my finalized list of what I am taking in the spring and I couldn’t be more excited:

*Advanced Design Projects (4 units) Advanced information design within a flexible curriculum. Emphasis on team-oriented projects.

* The World of Visual Effects (2 units)- Introduction to the expanding field of visual effects; topics include magic lanterns shows, stop-motion fantasies and animation combination films employing the latest digital technologies

*Printmaking (4) Introductory course in various printmaking techniques; necessary skills and inherent expressive qualities of different printmaking methods are explored.

*Advertising Design and Production (4, Sp) Production of advertising materials; emphasis on the creation and design of advertising elements.

* Writing 340 (4 units)- topics involved with arts and humanities

Harry Potter tonight

2005-11-17T19:14:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to admit that I have an obsession with the fictional characters of Harry Potter. This being the case, I'm going to see the opening of the Goblet of Fire tonight at midnight with other equally obsessed girls in my sorority. I'm so excited! I'll write more tomorrow about what I thought.

A bunch of design babble

2005-11-15T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ok so I updated my design that I posted yesterday because I slept on the idea and I didn't like it as much as I did yesterday. So I changed it to this new design. I think that it's more sophisticated and more reflective of my work over the course of the semester. It's still really simplistic, but I think it would be inviting for someone to open up the book and look closer. I'll probably bind the book with thick twine material. I'll post the final outcome soon.

In the meantime I finished tweaking my coaster design. The assignment is to design a collaborative self promotion with a group of 4 classmates and represent the different people in the group as individual designers but also as a cohesive group. My group decided to make a set of coasters with an intro coaster with contact info and then 4 coasters designed by each individual. We wanted to do it with a quirky edge to show that we are a fun group. Each coaster has a picture of the person and a saying. We're going to try to seal them and glue them to corkscrew on the back so that they function as real coasters but who knows how that'll turn out. Mine is kinda goofy because I'm smiling like an idiot, I have totally the wrong boxing form and as my roommate says "It doesn't look like I could beat up anyone." I tried to make it so that one could hold it from any orientation and it would still function and make sense. This may go through more changes too so I'll post the whole project when it's done with the other coasters too.

2005-11-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

So one of my projects before the end of the semester is to create a process book, which is a book that has all of our designs from this semester along with our notes and how we went about creating the designs. I've been thinking about making something like this the cover with my name in the middle and a snipet of each design from the semester in the flower petal and printing it on a thick paper bag material. It's really simplistic and almost childlike, but I think I like it like that. What do you think?

This city is a point upon a map of fog

2005-11-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

As the semester winds to a close, I couldn't be happier for winter break. I don't know how people in the working world manage to work every week year round and not get burned out. I guess I should savor these breaks now because I'm going to be one of those working people soon enough.

So I skipped the weekender trip that I usually have such a wonderful time on each year. This year, the school decided to ration tickets and I didn't win the lottery, so I wouldn't have gotten to go to the game anyway. I was thinking I might drive up anyway and bum around San Francisco and Berkeley, but I realized typography class doesn't end until 5 on Fridays so it would've been pointless to leave that late. I think my typography teacher would have personally shown up at my apartment and handed me a big red F if I skipped another class. Instead I decided to take the much needed mental break and go home. On Friday evening on a whim, I stopped by the grove and decided to have dinner at the Farmer's Market. What an interesting place it is. I decided to have dinner at a crepe stand which turned out to be delicious and I sat next to an old women who had a shopping cart filled with hundreds of plastic bags. I wondered what they were for. I think it may be the perfect spot for people watching. All in all, I'm not that sad I missed the weekender. A separate weekend trip somewhere may be in the works though. I kind of want to take a trip by myself somewhere. Just hop on a train or something. I will be heading to New York in April though which I'm super excited about. I'm going to New York City to visit Jess and see the city, and then probably up to New Haven to check out Yale and visit Lexi.

I had a very spinster-like weekend, but it's just what I needed to relax and clear my head. I saw the new Pride and Prejudice which I didn't have very high expectations for because it's my favorite book and I thought it would be hard to squeeze into 2 hours. I liked the movie overall, but I was right. It felt like everything was being really rushed and they brushed over some really big parts in the story like Mr. Wickham and Elizabeth's relationship and Mr. Collins, but it's as good as it could've been to fit in that timeframe. The 1996 miniseries with Colin Firth is at least 5 hours. They did a great job in this version creating the image of the Bennets as a really poor family with pigs and geese walking through their house. Some of the scenes were done much more romantically than the original which was appealing but really unbelievable. At one point, Kiera Knightly is taking a walk at like 5 AM and Mr. Darcy just happens to be taking a walk in the same place at that time. Kiera Knightly was ok, but not as good as the previous Pride and Prejudice, but Matthew Macfayden was a great Mr. Darcy. So good looking! I read one article that liked the movie but referred to Kiera Knightly as "a long necked Winona Ryder" and later "elongated Winona." To complete the spinster image I got the urge to take up knitting. Megan knits so she said she'll show me how. I'll probably get fed up with it within an hour and give it up.

I think I'm just at a weird age. I'll be 21 in 3 months and so I really want to go out to nice clubs, bars and restaurants for a more relaxed time with friends and having a drink or two but I cant quite go yet. Right now, I find myself over going out to any kind of frat party or under 21 party because most of the guys there are 18 and it's a lot crazier feel. Much more drinking and people passing out in the street. It's a craziness I think I could do without.

I think I found out what my parents got me for Christmas. I feel really guilty now. My dad let it slip when I was talking about this design software I wanted that they may have already gotten me a present and so I started in with my annoying habit of naming everything they possible could've gotten and looking for a reaction. I mentioned this one and he flinched. If I do get this though I'll be sooo happy. I have a digital camera now, but I can't get the kind of pictures I want with just the one setting. The fine arts club is going on a "Sketch Crawl" which means taking a bus around LA this weekend to draw or photograph anything we see.

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

2005-10-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

I think I'm getting old. This is Halloween weekend and homecoming and there were about 1,000 possibly fun places to be each night, and I got completely worn out before I hit saturday evening. I ended up staying in my room last night watching episodes of Arrested Development with my roommate and drinking tea. Friday night we had a Halloween/Homecoming party with Kappa Sigma, who we were paired with for homecoming. Each year I end up thinking about a costume I want to wear for the following Halloween and the whole year I was thinking I might be a harlequin. It's a ballerina type thing with black and white costume and i was thinking how cool it would be to get really into it and whip out the ol' pointe shoes and dye one white and one black. Of course, I wake up two days before the halloween party realizing that I haven't put together a costume and I ended up being a plain old fairy and joined the ranks of the billion other girls who were also fairies.

This is what a harlequin looks like minus the weird goth fairy thing going on:

This is what I ended up as:

The halloween party was fun and then Saturday I went to the Wash. St vs. USC game. My brother and 3 of his friends came along which was nice, but way too early in the morning. I always enjoy when my family comes down for the games. In fact, next weekend my entire family is coming to Stanford. My dad has never been to a game and he really liked going at the University of Colorado so I think he'll have fun. I discovered that Mamosas may just be the perfect morning game drink if you're wanting to drink before the game but don't like beer or want to get trashed by drinking jack and coke. eww. Even though I drenched myself in SPF 45 before the game, I still came home with a bad sunburn. How does that happen? After the game there was an 80s party to go to but I was too tired and decided to be a hermit for the evening instead.

I missed out on a lot of things that I like to do for Halloween though. Being my favorite holiday, I love to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins and carve them and bake the seeds. Skipped it this year. I also like to watch at least two halloween movies...haven't done that yet, but I might pop in Nightmare Before Christmas later. I had plans to go to Knotts Scary Farms but I got really busy this year, which probably wasn't the worst thing since I'm terrified of haunted houses and I don't know why I subject myself to them every year. I usually help out at the Halloween carnival for kids on the adpi lawn, but i had class so i couldn't do that. I think we're at the middle age where you can't really do the halloween stuff you enjoyed as a kid until you have kids, so for now it's all about parties and wearing the most scandalous costumes possible. So all in all, Halloween passes without much ado and I guess I'll be looking forward to Christmas.

I found I could say things with color I couldn't say any other way...things I had no words for

2005-10-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the thing I love most about being a design major is that when midterm time roles around, it's never a chore in that class. There aren't hours of cramming and studying in the library. Sure, I've got french and bio and other academic classes I've got to cram for so it's not all fun and games, but design midterms, even if we have to write an essay, always make me happy. For my design class this semester, I have to write an essay about some articles we were supposed to read. The first was about creativity and what methods we employ to inspire creativity. We also have to talk about the state of today's design awareness and how that hinders the ability of today's designers to create effective work. Isn't that quite possibly the easiest midterm you've heard of? I think that's how you know you've chosen the right major...when even something that's supposed to be tedious and overwhelming makes you excited. As I was reading this article about the process of design and creativity, I saw a paragraph that made me so excited that i get to be a designer. It said:

"It begins with deep digging. You're the excavator. Archaeologist. Explorer. You peek under the mundane to find the magical. Others can sit at desks and study demographics. You sit at Starbucks and study people. Others search archives. You search antique shops. You haul up buckets of data and information, but you're mining for insights. You don't just want ages, genders and zip codes. You want to know about their theme songs, water-fountain gossip and favorite hangouts. You don't just want to hear about personality sets. You want to know what makes them laugh, cry and scream. You stop, look and listen. You explore."

I have an academic advisement this thursday with my very scary and intimidating advisor. I like to go in with the classes I want to take already picked out so that I can get in and out of her office quickly without her biting my head off. Here's what I think I'm going to take in the spring.
*Writing 340
*Printmaking 1
*Advertising Design and Production
*Advanced Design Topics
*Digital Tools for Design

From fun to midterms

2005-10-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm avoiding studying for my french midterm with anything and everything that will distract me for a few minutes. I don't know how my week has come to this. Last week was so amazing. On Wednesday I went to see the Kirov ballet perform Sleeping Beauty at the Dorothy Chandler and it was incredible. The costumes and scenery were phenomenal and all the dancers looked really really Russian. A lot of the crowd was Russian too. Almost everyone I walked by during the intermission had a thick Russian accent. I felt displaced. The whole night was wonderful, the only down side was that our seats were in the highest balcony and I'm terrified of heights. The walk up to our seats was miserable because the walls in the lobby are covered with mirror from top to floor which gave me an even worse sense of vertigo and I ended up having to take the elevator when the rest of my house walked up the stairs without a problem. Having our seats that far above the stage freaked me out and once again images of me falling over the railing and plummeting to my death kept racing through my mind, but once I was seated for a few minutes things got better and I was able to enjoy the ballet. What a beautiful show.

This Saturday night after we kicked some Arizona ass in football, I headed to the Franz Ferdinand concert with Brigitte, Connor and Scott. We were late, but I don't think we missed anything with the opening bands. One guy in the opening band had an amazing Gandalf beard. It was out of control. I dont even know what band it was, all I could think about was his excessive amount of facial hair. I ordered a coffee at the food stand, but found a piece of onion in my drink...too gross. The theater wasn't even full because they had roped off the entire back two sections so it felt like a small concert even with a band as big as Franz Ferdinand. I had a great time. They played a lot of songs from their first album which I was glad about and their scottish accents and floppy hair were too adorable. Here are some pictures.

The view from our seats

Our attempts to concoct a new facebook picture for me by using Connor's recently purchased Franz Ferdinand poster as a background failed miserably, but at least we had a good laugh.

I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily, than as a flawless clown

2005-10-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've updated, but my life has mainly consisted of running to class and working on projects so you didn't miss anything. I had my sorority semiformal invite on Friday night and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Especially when I think about how bad it could have been. This time, I had a hard time finding anyone who was free that night, so after asking like 5 people, I gave in and asked one of the girls in my house, Lauren, to set me up. I hate blind dates more than anything. Not only do I clam up with people I don't know well, but what if they aren't nice or don't like to dance? Lots of things could have gone wrong. But luckily, everything worked out for the best. I went with the roommate of Lauren's boyfriend who was very nice and we had a good time. The venue was this club on Melrose, but it reminded me kind of a warehouse. It was next to a furniture store that specialized in rugs and a psychic with one of those neon signs outside that you always see at psychics. I ended up taking off my shoes right when we got there, which I do at every invite. It was pretty hot inside, so we both agreed not to dance all that much. Overall, it was a pretty laid back invite and I'm just happy that it worked out as well as it did. I would post pictures from the night, but I didn't like the way any of them came out, so use your imagination.

This week is going to be so much fun. Tonight I'm going to the ballet! I'm going to see the Kirov Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty and I couldn't be more excited. Last December, I bought tickets for my family to go up to San Francisco to see The Nutcracker so when my sorority mentioned that we were going to Sleeping Beauty, I was over the moon. Ballet used to be such a huge part of my life when I was younger, it's weird to think about it now. And I get to dress up. Whenever I go somewhere like a ballet or a nice concert, I always think about that scene from Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts goes to the opera. I'll talk more about how it was in my next post. This Saturday, my brother and one of his friends are coming out here to USC for the football game against Arizona. The game starts at 12:30 so I'm guessing it will be pretty hot in the stadium and I'll probably get sunburned. After the game, I'm going straight to a Franz Ferdinand concert at the Greek Theater. Connor got tickets presale or something and it's going to be amazing. I haven't been to a concert in a while and the Greek is really pretty. So my week is definitely looking up.

Other than that, I just finished my latest design project that's due tomorrow. We had to create an editorial layout that might appear in a magazine about a product or a person, so i decided to do mine on the band, The Shins. College is such a great time because generally I get to pick the subjects of my projects, but I know that when I get out of school, I'll probably be stuck doing advertisements for soap or something ridiculous like that. So here's what I came up with. You probably cant see the text, or the details, but you get the general idea.

Sometimes the zodiac freaks me out

2005-09-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

I don't even buy into the whole astrology thing, but I'm always amazed at how similar I am to the description of an Aquarius. A lot of times with horoscopes and fortunes, they use general statements so that they seem to apply to everyone, but I dunno, this is pretty in depth and right on the money for most things.

AQUARIUS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Your Aquarius lover will be a wonderful and engaging friend. Aquarius can be (when he or she decides to kick up their heels) a wildly exciting, fun, and exhilarating partner when it comes to a special "wild night out on the town" or when doing something of an original, bizarre, and/or unexpected nature. But taking long romantic walks under the moonlight, quietly sipping wine, and holding hands while engrossed in intimate conversation during candlelit dinners? No, I don't think so.

It's best that Aquarius' lover understands upfront that Aquarius, barring other factors in the chart, tends not to be comfortable in close, intimate, and personal one to one settings and/or - for that matter - "relationships." Personal relationships and "intimacy" have a tendency to get "emotionally messy," and Aquarius is extremely awkward when it comes to experiencing anything that even vaguely smells of "emotionally messy." Aquarius enjoys keeping things light and easy. Aquarius may likely view any displays of emotion as being weakness in character. In particular, Aquarius is normally aghast at any public displays of sentimental emotion and/or feeling. Therefore, Aquarius is not generally recommended as someone who you will want to seek out for emotional support and/or to have a good cry on the their shoulder.

Your Aquarius lover is normally not going to be a "touchie," "feelie," "snugglely" partner. Aquarius is associated with the element of air - and, as such, Aquarius may not be completely in touch and comfortable with his or her body. Aquarius may even turn on and turn off his or her sexuality like a light switch.

It's fascinating to me, that each year, we celebrate love and lovers on February the 14th while the Sun is traveling through the Zodiacal Sign of Aquarius. Down through the centuries, Valentine's Day has progressively grown more and more associated with the friendship qualities of Aquarian love. Your Aquarius lover is, in fact, the most comfortable with friendship love. Aquarius tends to generate a friendly, people-oriented mental energy. Unconventional, friendly, unpredictable and innovative are all characteristics of your Aquarius lover. Aquarius thrives on being unique, original, may even be considered a wee bit eccentric.

Aquarius values humanity as a whole and enjoys living in a world of detached intellect and ideals. Aquarius values life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Aquarian energy (at its best) is channeled through creative theoretical constructs which can be used for the purpose of bringing about the greater social good. In plain simple language that means Aquarius shines best when reaching out for their high and lofty ideals. Your Aquarius approaches the world with a sense of cold hard logic and reason - and everything (everyone, including you) is open to his or her analysis.

Shadow: Aquarius can become the prototype of the "mad scientist" who becomes so consumed with and bent on creating something new and original, that he or she refuses to look at the consequences involved. In the pursuit of his/her ideals, Aquarius may remain blind to the Pandora box of deadly plagues that's about to be opened. The further temptation of Aquarius is the tendency to become the archetypal "Iceman" of the Zodiac. Aquarian love can then become icy, cold detachment and total isolation... with the "Iceman" forever escaping into the safety of his/her own high ivory tower of intellect and lofty ideals. The detachment of your Aquarius lover then becomes a safe tower where no one can ever again touch (and hurt) the "Iceman"...

Lions and tigers and flesh eating zombies

2005-09-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I am procrastinating in every way possible to avoid doing homework today, updating the blog seems like a good idea. I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning (around 7am) because Brigitte was filming a zombie horror movie and half her crew didn't show up and she needed help. So I met up with my roommate from last year, Nana, and this year's roommate, Michelle, and drove to some undisclosed location in North Hollywood. It was the strangest place! It was basically an abandoned warehouse. A total eyesore. When I went inside, it reminded me of the type of place that would be haunted and the ghost would lure you away from your group and you'd get lost in one of the many rooms full of junk and slowly go insane. Then the house would eat you. I'm sorry to say my major contribution for the morning was a coffee run for the group because everyone was sitting around waiting for people to finish makeup, but luckily I brought my camera and was able to get over my fear of the ghosts long enough to wander around taking pictures. There was a cat that lived there that only had one eye! The other eye was missing and fur had grown over it. I'm an animal lover, but I think it added to the spookiness of the place.

Here are some of my favorite from today:

The outside of the warehouse...we should've run away at the site of it

A smokestack outside the building

A courtyard area outside. I wonder how sturdy those beams are.

There could've been serial killers hiding behind those bins.

I didn't check where this staircase led

golden slumbers

2005-09-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

I think I've made my bed too comfortable. Over the summer, I was having a hard time sleeping because, as all college students know, the beds they give you in campus owned apartments aren't the best quality. My back was hurting and the mattress was really stiff and would creak whenever I'd move around and my apartment registered about 105 degrees so sleeping comfortably was pretty much impossible. This year in Troy East, however, I got a little smarter. I just bought this extra fluffy mattress pad to go over the mattress that is about 2 inches thick and filled with feathers. It's the best purchase I've made in college besides that cart that lets me carry groceries and other things. But I was still boiling because the fall weather hasn't kicked in and I'm on the side of the apartment that gets the most sun. I went and got new sheets that are made of that jersey material and are extremely soft. Now I can sleep with a sheet instead of a heavy blanket. My bed is amazing now! I never want to get out of it. I've actually slept through one of my morning classes which I never do because it was just too comfy to get up and go to class. I think it might have magic powers that convince me that I can sleep that extra 1/2 hour because, who needs to shower or do homework? I just took a 2 hour nap. So either my bed is just too good now or I have mono because i want to sleep constantly. I think this is just a precursor though to when i graduate and get an apartment and get a queen or full size. I can live with a cardboard box as my dining room table as long as I have a really nice bed.

graphic design is all i think about

2005-09-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is semester is going to be one of graphic design 24-7. I can tell after my first week of classes. For Design III, we had to come up with a local site to redesign or remarket. I choose the philosophy courtyard on campus because I've always enjoyed it. The architecture is beautiful with tons of archways, a central fountain, and is one of the spots on campus that resembles a traditional east coast school. So for this project i decided to turn it into a classy, romantic lounge/dining area/club. Think: Blue Bayou, but not in a theme park. I think that the fountain should be either a chocolate fountain or should have champagne or something crazy. This weekend alone I have to come up with 3 comprehensive computer sketches for the look of the brochure that I have to make for it and I havent started any of it. I'm excited about it though. I'm using the idea of hanging lanterns of different colors as a focal point against the night sky. I'll post some pictures here after I finish designing it. Here's what I'm working with.

Typography is going to kill me this semester. On friday, I spent 2 hours looking at letterforms and talking about serifs vs. sans serif and what they are typically used for. The class is filled with fellow type dorks like me so I think I've found my element.

I found out that our semi-formal dance at ADPi is coming up on September 30th. I'm glad I found it out now because it takes me so long to find someone to bring. And even after I know who I want to ask, it'll take me two weeks to actually get around to asking them. I get shy about it. The girls in the house always have a lot of friends and will set me up if I can't find anyone to go, but I don't want to do that. I don't really have anyone in mind so if youre a guy and would like to go, let me know and save me the trouble of finding someone.

My voice is gone now...i sound like a mouse

2005-08-31T17:59:00.000-07:00

If you've been wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth this week, I pretty much did. I had to be back at school two weeks early for sorority rush school, which has been pretty much running my entire life the last few weeks. The first week of school is sorority recruitment time so I got super busy. It’s kind of a strange thing to explain. This year, we had 750 girls rushing…the biggest year ever. So for two weeks before school, I spent 12 hours everyday at the house working on getting everything together. Lots of it was fun though. I wasn’t allowed to move into my apartment until the 17th so for 5 days I ended up sleeping on my friend’s floor who was in RA training. All the football players were staying on our floor and some of those guys are so big. This one football play, who looked like a linebacker, picked up my bike for me and put it in the elevator with one hand. I can’t even convey what a strange thing this whole week is, but through this process it somehow magically works out that girls end up in the houses best suited for them. Unfortunately, I was working on it for so many hours a day that I got a really bad cold and ended up being sick throughout the actual rush week. I also completely lost my voice from all the screaming. We ended up with about 60 new girls who joined....we have an insanely big house now.I was assigned a little sis, one of the girls I had during the preference ceremony (you’re paired one on one with girls). Big sisters in the house are assigned to kinda make the new girl feel comfortable and let her know how things go in the house so it’s less overwhelming. Unfortunately, she didn’t show up to Bid Night. so now I don’t have one so I was kinda depressed all throughout bid night. But the party was still fun. We had a pirate theme! And we had casino games set up with dealers, music blaring from big speakers, a place where we could actually make hologram keychains from pictures we could take, and food and sodas.The new girls seem really cool and nice and it’s a great feeling to know that all the screaming you did during rush school paid off with an awesome new pledge class. But yeah, that definitely took over my life this month. Now that it’s all over, it’s kind of nice to have my life back.

I got very little sleep during the process, so I have been spending the past two days trying to catch up on all my schoolwork and sleep. I’m taking 18 units, which is 5 classes. My classes seem pretty interesting this semester. My favorites so far are my design class and typography class because they are for my major. I’m taking my science class, Humans and their Environment, for pass/fail credit because we are allowed to do that for one class, so I think that’ll make it pretty easy. French class is hard this semester. I have an Irish teacher and I’m having a hard time understanding what he’s saying with his accent, but it’s getting better now that I have more time to focus on it. I’m also taking Advertising Copy write, but as long as I don’t have to spend the entire semester redesigning the Snapple campaign like I had to do in my last advertising class, then I’m happy. Junior year, I can already tell, is going to be very hectic.

I'm looking forward to being home this weekend and relaxing.

Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love

2005-08-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

Real quick update since it's after midnight on a rush school night and I'm falling asleep as I type. I'm back at school for recruitment things, so if i missed seeing you in Valencia, I'm sorry and I hope that we can visit soon. Come and visit me after the 27th if you are around. Rush school is a strange time. I feel like I'm living in a vortex where I don't really keep track of days or times. Like today, I had no idea that it was saturday until I talked to my dad on the phone tonight. I don't really talk to anyone either, not because I don't want to. I just don't have any free time. Brigitte called to ask if I wanted to go clubbing and images of me falling asleep on the dancefloor came to mind. I'm having fun being back and seeing everyone, though I wish I could live in my apartment. We're allowed to move in on the 17th so until then I'm homeless. Luckily, my suitemate from freshman year, Angie, is in RA training in one of the dorms and she's nice enough to let me crash in her room until I can go to my apartment. I can't believe she's an RA already, it feels like we were just moving into Parkside as freshmen. I hate this feeling of being unsettled and living out of a suitcase. I've pretty much taken over her room. Rush things usually run from 9am to 9pm each day and there's a lot involved. I'm not going to go into detail right now, but I'm very busy during the day and come home exhausted. I miss my multiple cups of really delicious coffee a day and caffeine in general because I could definitely use some. Today, I resorted to drinking the instant coffee at the house that had some coffee grinds floating in it and then i poured a shitload of that dry creamer on top. I've hit a new low which is probably a sign that I should never try any form of drugs because I'd be addicted in a heartbeat. I think my voice will be gone before the time actual rush starts in a week.

I'm looking forward to the time a few weeks into the semester when you get into the swing of your classes but you're not so burned out as you are at the end of the semester. I just noticed that I have to buy about $200 worth of books which is depressing. I know some people get charged in the $400 range, but $200 is still a lot to swallow for books that I probably will realize later that I never needed to purchase.

Our sorority president just announced that she got engaged last night! She had been with her boyfriend for a long time, but I can't imagine being a senior in college and being engaged. By the same time frame, that would be next year for me. But that's probably because I don't date very much. Personally I probably will get married on the older side, but I was so happy for her that I almost started crying and I think she'll be really happy.

I think there was something else I was going to say, but my blowup mattress bed is about a foot away and I'm going to roll off my chair and onto it now, so goodnight.

Which Ivy League are you?

2005-08-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

HarvardYou're the best -- you know it, as does everyone
else (except for US News and World Report every
few years). You might not be hip, you might not
be pretty, but you're smart as a whip and you
never need to do another impressive thing in
your life.

Which'>http://quizilla.com/users/coolhound/quizzes/Which%20Ivy%20League%20University%20is%20right%20for%20YOU%3F/">Which Ivy League University is right for YOU?
brought to you by

What the fuck?

2005-08-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

I just had the strangest dream and I know I'll forget it if I don't write it down. The first part of the dream was where my mom, brother, Dad (who was Dennis Quaid. Why werent any other family members turned into random celebrities?) and I were walking through the park near my house. We stopped at the public restroom and my mom got the sense that something was hidden in the grate in the ceiling so she climbs up there to look and found a set of keys. We leave the bathroom kind of puzzled, but a few seconds later, an enraged gorilla burst from the bushes, barreled across the lawn towards us, and told us that they were his keys and demanded them back. He had committed a bank robbery and the keys were to a locker at the airport where the gorilla had stashed the money. Suddenly, a whole fleet of cops burst from the bushes as well with their riot shields and guns and surrounded us and the gorilla. We all started to fight. We wanted to cops to get the gorilla before he could hurt us. The gorilla got out a box cutting knife and attacked my dad/Dennis Quaid. The cops ended up winning in the end though and we were all pretty much unhurt.

Then I went off to college, which was not at USC but was set in the backwoods of what looked like Oregon or Washington. I met up with some people I actually knew from USC including this attractive guy in my advertising class, the Rock, Jack White from the White Stripes. We are on a quest to go and chop down a large tree. We waded through a river and my oceanography professor shows up just standing in the middle of the river with those large boots you wear when youre fishing. He was waving at us all friendly-like. Then a giant wave comes out of nowhere and washes everyone away except me, my oceanography professor, Jack White and the gorilla from the beginning of the dream. We had all been smart enough to grab onto rocks. In the end, Jack White and I get married in the woods and my professor resides over the ceremony as priest. The gorilla has disappeared again and this is when I wake up.

Go analyze that one...

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

2005-08-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

I've been really attracted to these all-black webpages lately which for a graphic designer is probably not a good thing. They look very sleek and elegant though, dont they? I suppose I should be more creative. I still don't know html as well as I'd like, but once I do, I'll change the header colors and maybe the font color. Does anybody know how to do that? Kris? Dreamweaver has spoiled me and saved me the effort of learning html for myself.

Tomorrow is my last day of oceanography and amidst studying for my final, I'm in the process of packing everything back up into bins to move to Valencia for about a week. Maybe it's because of this physical upheaval and maybe not, but the last few days I've had a growing feeling of anxiety. I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin. I have a to-do list about a mile long and it seems like nothing is being crossed off and time is going too fast and not fast enough at the same time. I feel like I've been frittering. I forgot to wish 3 friends happy birthday this month until a few days after the fact. There are about a million changes I'd like to make to the ADPi website before rush, but it's only two weeks away so I can't possibly get it all done and I'm feeling kind of guilty about that. Lots of people look at it and they get a judgement of it and if it's not good then it's my fault but I don't have time to fix it. I'm letting down everyone in the house if it's not perfect. I can't compete with the other houses who hired professional designers and it's putting extra pressure on me. And in the meantime, I'm focusing so much of my efforts on this project that any other projects have pretty much been put on hold which makes me feel worse. My week in Valencia will be spent seeing friends who are there, working on graphic design for adpi and for my own art webpage, and sorting through the 20 or so boxes that are piled high in our family's living room trying to consolidate the things I'm bringing for fall term into about 5 boxes. Simplicity seems like the way to go. I think this week off will be good for me.

I think my family senses that I'm about to lose it and have a mental breakdown because on Monday my dad came out to USC and took me to dinner in Santa Monica because he thought I was having a "bad day" and today my mom came out and we went to lunch at this little cafe I never knew existed on 29th street. As much as I'd like to crawl under my covers and not come out until Spring, fall semester is inevitably approaching. But with it comes friends, football games, dinners, cooler weather, and new experiences. I think the skin crawling thing will stop soon.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England

2005-07-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

I went today to visit my exroommate Nana who now lives in an apartment in North Hollywood. I hadn't seen her since she graduated because she was gallivanting around the world (England, Scotland, Thailand, and Australia) on her post-graduation trip. We went to get pizza and she showed me all her pictures from her trip. I told her how jealous I was that she got to travel all those places AND study abroad for a whole semester. The fine arts major at USC is huge and I can't spare the time to study abroad and I cant study abroad during the summer b/c I need to intern to stay competitive with the job market. She said to me "Well, why don't you intern abroad?" At the time this sounded a little far fetched but when I got home I went online and actually found that there are places that are like the office of overseas study, only instead of studying abroad they help hook you up with places to intern. You have to find housing, food, and flights on your own, but they get you in touch with businesses there where you could intern. So not only could I graduate on time, but I could get the experience of interning in a foreign city. They even offered graphic and web design internships. After this year's Sony internship fiasco, there's no way I'm going for an internship at a big company. The program usually lasts 8 weeks so that would be the perfect amount of time to be away. European design is done pretty differently depending on what countries you go to, so to be able to intern somewhere out there would be amazing. I would probably choose to do it here in Edinburgh or in London, although living in Edinburgh is sure to be cheaper.

Anyways, it's just a thought now, but besides the extra money to live abroad rather than at home for 2 months, it seems to allow me everything I could want for next summer. I'll look into it more and see if it would be a good idea.

Anyone want to come with?

Down here all the fish is happy

2005-07-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last week studying these guys in my oceanography class.

I really hate fish. I used to keep an aquarium with small tropical fish when I was in grade school. I started hating the sight of fish when I looked into the tank unexpectedly and saw a dead fish floating in front of my eyes. Since then, I dont even really like looking at the live ones. I'll admit, the ones that glow neon yellow and blue and that you see in the large fish tank in Caesar's Palace are cool, but I hate staring at fish eyes looking back at me...gives me the creeps. But thanks to this class, I've learned a lot more about fish than I could ever want to know and more about the types or organisms and pollutants in shoreline water so that I'll probably not look at the beach with the same mystery anymore...or readiness to jump right in. Our class took our field trip (i havent had a field trip since I was little) on Thursday and we went to the Cabrillo Aquarium. My favorite part was poking the sea creatures in the tide pool, and watching the jelly fish float around under a black light. All in all, the class turned out to be pretty interesting, but I'm still glad that it's almost over.

Our new puppy is home! It's the cutest tiniest thing. The drive up to Sacremento was the longest I couldve imagined and we arrived there at 2 am, but it was all worth it to pick up the dog and save him the trauma of being shipped to us in a crate. He's a very smart, well behaved dog and already seems to be getting the hang of potty training. His bark sounds like a squeek toy, but he doesn't bark much. He's friendly and if anyone is in the area and would like to visit, you're more than welcome.

As a last fling before my season pass ran out, I went to Disneyland with Jessica and Amy. We had a great time running around taking ridiculous pictures. I also got to ride Space Mountain for the first time since it reopened, and I was really happy with it. I actually can't remember very well what it was like before so I can't really compare, but I think the improvements were good and they didn't completely change the concept which I was worried about.

Invention is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple

2005-07-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

I used to update much more frequently, but with the bulk of oceanography trivia that is swirling in my brain, there's not much room for any other activity. My class only has 2 1/2 weeks left. It's amazing how quickly it went. What is even more amazing is that I have been calling housing office to get my internet fixed for the entire time I've been here, and realizing I only have a matter of a few weeks left, I've given up and have resorted to sharing Megan's the entire time. I got my grades back on my first midterm. I got a B. He asked a lot questions about specific currents and percentages. I'm not happy considering this is the only class I have to study for so I shouldve done better, but hopefully I'll do better on the next one.

The last few weeks have been marked by finishing the ADPi website I have been working on for a long while. It's nothing amazing, but through all the frustrations of html and things that shouldve worked but didnt, I've learned a lot about creating web pages. So now I'm starting to work on my own personal site to use as a digital portfolio of any graphic design work I might want to show. I'm kind of excited about it because you aren't tied down to a group image or what you think the most people will like or respond to. My personal site can be designed however I want. You can check out the ADPi site at www-scf.usc.edu/~adpi

I'm going all the way up to Sacramento this Thursday and Friday to pick up the new puppy. We're finally getting one! We were originally going for a beige colored one, but they had a picture up of a scruffy little black one with a white patch on its chest and I fell in love. I figured the color doesn't really matter, he'll still be lovable and cuddly. So he'll be around this weekend if anyone wants to visit him.

Right now, I'm looking at some postcards I have from various places: the victorian houses in San Francisco, a pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay, Redwood trees, a light house and the fog. I'm thinking about how much I want to be in San Francisco. I really think that after college it'll be time for a move. Maybe I'll apply for jobs in san francisco area. It's close enough so that I can still see my family too. Won't be for a while, guess I'll have to be content with the sound of police sirens in LA for now.

Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city

2005-06-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

I moved into my new summer apartment on Monday. The apartment itself is noticeably more crappy compared to my normal campus apartment, but there are only 4 of us there so it seems spacious enough. There is this horrific tiles from the 1970's in a mustard yellow and dingy orange decorative pattern and dark green couches. Whoever designed the apartment had no sense of color theory. But there is amazing shower pressure so I'm going to take as many showers as I can. Megan is in the other room and there are two roommates who I just met. They seem nice enough, but everyone tends to be around the apartment at different times. In fact, two of the three nights I was there, my roommate Amanda didn't even sleep in the room which will be nice if it continues because then it's practically a single. The elevator is one of the slowest known to man, but I'm not in a hurry. Summer session is actually quite pleasant. I'm enjoying being back in a city atmosphere.

I started class this Wednesday and was surprised at how it sucked less than I had expected. The classroom is in the geology building which is, in my opinion, one of the prettier buildings on campus. It is made of large stones, old wood floors, and detailed carved archways. I even found a secret courtyard. Well, it's probably not a secret, I just hadn't seen it before. The class only has about 20-25 students, and the teacher is this really friendly older man. I'm not much of a science person, but I think I made the right choice by taking oceanography and not something like physics or chemistry. The class has only been 2 hours a day so far but will get longer next week because we start a lab.

The rest of my free time I spent wandering campus. I just started "A Confederacy of Dunces," hearing it was a good book from some friends, so I get coffee and sit on campus and read. And since campus is practically devoid of students, it's really nice. Although they have orientation every week for the new students coming in. You can tell they are new because they have to walk around with big yellow nametags and sit in circles doing ice breaker games with an orientation advisor. It really was an annoying time...orientation. I discovered that a bunch of ADPi girls are living here this summer so I stopped by to say hi to them and they told me about how they found a lost dog and named it "Grandpa". We took it for a walk but halfway there Grandpa started hyperventilating and deciding it had overexerted itself one of the girls had to pick it up and carry it home.

I went to Sonia's, my ex-roommate, wedding the other night. It was just the reception and was at this Chinese restaurant in Monterey Park, but it was such a strange feeling to see someone I had lived with all year in a different setting and all decked out in her bride gear. I'll miss having her around the apartment this year.

I'm back spending the 4th of July weekend with my family and anticipating our usual traditions on Monday. I'll talk about that next time.

Poodle puppies and magic spells

2005-06-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

I was sitting with my mom drinking coffee this morning and we were exchanging the weird dreams we had last night. She was telling my about her dream where we had a litter of baby poodles. My mom, being a nurse, doesn't have a problem sharing the gross details and functions of the body, so in her dream the poodle puppies got constipated and were going to die. Skip all the following gross details she included, she was able to help the puppies and her dream ended with many happy poodles jumping up and down with joy.

My dream was more boring, but was still pretty strange. In my dream, I went to the movies with my friends. Which I actually did last night to see Batman so that's probably where it came from. In the dream, my friends introduced me to this guy who they thought I'd hit it off with. I did and we went on a date and everything was good. Then I find out that the guy is actually an 80 year old man who had taken a magic potion to become 20 years old. I was mad because he deceived me and I had just been on a date with an 80 year old disguised as a 20 year old and that was the end. Maybe I should see a shrink. Or my mom should.

2005-06-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

I feel like a bat in a cave lately. One of the lightbulbs in my room burned out and I've been too lazy to go to the hardware store and pick up a new one, so it's especially dark in here. Plus, with summer school starting in less than two weeks, I'm starting to feel the pressure to get all my shit together before fall. I have to get the ADPi website up and running, but it's not as easy as it seems. I made picture slideshows with music, but the music was copyrighted so I've been emailing back and forth with ASCAP about internet licensing and it's been a pain in the ass. After finally figuring all that out, I now need to finish up and polish the look of the website and go through all the things involved with getting a USC based server. I have to track down our sorority advisor's signature and then drive down to USC to turn it in personally to ISD computer services. As if all that's not bad enough, once I post it, I'll actually have to show people in my house the final product. I'm worried some people aren't going to like the look of it, think it's unprofessional, or something.

Also, I'm running the unitarian group on campus next fall so I created a website which only seems to run on MACs. But if you have a mac, the site is www.angelfire.com/un/uscunitarians.

I'm going to a wedding next week! I'm so excited, it's only my second wedding ever. This time, my roommate Sonia is getting married. She's actually 25 so it's not like she's my age, but it's a strange feeling to see friends of mine getting married. Her fiancee is in his 30's. It's freaky enough to think I'm a junior in college now, let alone soon going to more friends' weddings. What is a good wedding gift? I have no idea. Maybe a clock? A blender? Leave me a comment if you have a good idea for a wedding present that isn't too expensive. I think my roommates Megan and Brigitte and I are all getting together to get a gift for her.

Pirate houses

2005-06-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

Time seems to be in a standstill right now. I love that feeling when you lose track of the date or what day of the week it is because you aren't run by a class schedule. This week is a lot different from last week though. Last week, everyone was home and I was having a great time visiting. This week, however, almost everyone left...including my family. My brother's girlfriend and her family took him on an all expenses paid vacation to Florida where they will be for 2 weeks. Man, what a deal. He's been calling us from Florida and telling us about all the things he's doing there. Wild Animal Park, Disneyworld, MGM, Epcot. Plus, for half the trip they are staying in this old house that used to be a hideout for pirates back when there used to be pirates. Matt says there are a bunch of willows and bayou type landscaping and looks like a scene straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Last summer, one of Matt's friends invited him to 2 weeks in Hawaii. He really lucks out with that stuff. To top things off, my dad is in Las Vegas for the week for a trade show.

So it's just me and my mom here. We decided instead of just sitting around the house like 2 bumps on a log and waiting for my time to go back to USC, we are going to plan out the week with a fun activity each day. On Tuesday, we went to the gym in the morning and then saw the movie Crash in the afternoon. We both decided that we wanted to be healthier and so we've been heading to the YMCA almost every day to use the bikes, weights, and ellipticals. My mom lost 4 pounds, I lost nothing...but so it goes. I dont really have to lose weight anyway. We follow the gym with a big salad for lunch. This has been going on for a few weeks and I am already starting to feel really good. I'm so happy my mom is doing it too. Then yesterday, we drove to Carpinteria in the evening. I'd much rather go in the evening to eat dinner and then catch the sun going down on the beach. This way, there aren't as many people out which is always nice.

Today we are going to the Natural History Museum with Amy which is right across from USC and then tomorrow we are working out and then going to Disneyland. I like going there because they have the rose garden outside and an exhibit on light and motion. I want to head to MOCA sometime soon. This way, I'm not getting bored at all, and summer school will start before I know it.

carnival of desserts...I'm gonna get real fat

2005-05-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is starting to pick up a bit. This is the week that many of my friends are home so I've been having a good time visiting with them. Unfortunately, by monday most people will have gone to summer school or are out of town. The other day Lexi and I went on a grand adventure to Mel's Diner. For some reason we couldn't find the Sunset strip and ended up on an hour long detour towards Malibu. Yesterday I went down to UCLA to visit connor, scott and stephen who are still at school. They were having a Carnival of Desserts where they had all these booths set up and were giving away all sorts of desserts. We waited in line for a caramel apple, but they ran out before we could get to the front of the line. I think I'm a little too obsessed with caramel apples for me own good, but it is definitely my favorite dessert. So instead I got a cotton candy with its sugary goodness. After the carnival thing, we all decided to go see Star Wars. This was my first time going to the movies since early March. It's amazing. It's gotten so expensive that I only go when there's something I really want to see and there just hasn't been anything to peak my interest lately. I'm glad I went to see Star Wars though. I liked it better than the other two prequels and I still believe that Hayden Christensen is very cute, even if his acting is pretty flat. My only regret is that I decided to break in my new shoes the day I was going to ucla. Their campus is so huge and spread out and we walked a bunch. My feet hurt, but they feel fine today and I think the shoes are sufficiently broken in now.

In the meantime I've been reading a lot and have wanted to bolster my portfolio seeing as I have this month off. I'm really in need of a slide projector to do this cool art project, so if anyone has one I can borrow, please let me know!! I guess I've been rejuvinated by the idea that I may need to put together a portfolio if I continue on with school, or even if not then I'll need one for interviews. I think I've figured out my grad school dilemma. What I am going to do is apply to all the grad schools I'd want to attend, then I'll hear back in March, then if I get a scholarship or if it's somewhere I can't pass up I might go, and if not then I still have plenty of time to find a good job. The only thing lost if the application fee, and that's worth spending I think.

This is one of the graphic design pieces I've been working on this week. It's a 360 panorama of my freshman dormroom which I am painstakingly illustrating in photoshop. It's driving me crazy now, but I think it'll be worth it and look nice when it's done. It's not complete yet, obviously. I'm not sure what size it'll appear as here.

I'm going to quit and join the circus

2005-05-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Now that it's summer time and I've settled into the routine of doing nothing, inevitably all I can think about is school. Well not school exactly, but what I'd like to do as far as school in the future. So when I entered into undergrad I had decided that the job I want to get doesn't require a graduate degree and is based mainly on what kind of design you can do and the portfolio you have. In the back of my head I know that. Going to grad school would be adding on two extra year's tuition for a job that I probably could get with a bachelor's. I kind of want to go though. It dawned on me that I only have two years of undergrad left until graduation and going into the real world and it scares the crap out of me. All of my friends will be going to grad school so I would be the first one out working. Places like this and this keep going through my head. It doesn't help that the other day I mentioned to my mom that it would be really cool to go on to grad school and she said easily "Sure, go for it." I don't think she realized what kind of financial committment that is though. The tuition money, however, is a really big consideration that I dont think I could handle, especially for a degree which might not even be important. I can't put myself into a $40,000 debt just on the whim that I want to continue school. I think this will take more research than just a pro and con list so here's the plan. I want to be able to teach graphic design in a good university one day (not high school!) so I'll have a chat with my design teachers next fall and see what they did and if they went on to get a master's or if they just established themselves in the field. I'm also going to check with my graphic design friends and see what they're planning to do. I also have contact info for some students who just went through the Yale MFA program so I may email them and get their thoughts. Can there really be an academic side to graphic design that merits going on to school or is it something you just pick up along the way? I guess this will take a lot more time to figure out, and I know no one really cares because everyone else has their own schooling crisis but it helps for me to get it all out.

I was so confident about what I wanted. What happened? I read an article in Time magazine a few weeks ago called "Meet the Twixters" which I think contributed to my grad school freak out. It was about this new generation between youth and adulthood where people are not growing up as fast as they did 30 years ago. The article posed the question "What are they waiting for? Who are these permanent adolescents, these twentysomething Peter Pans? And why can't they grow up?" Maybe unnecessarily, but it sent me into a bit of a quarter life crisis. I come home a lot. I'm close with my family. I don't date all that much and am nowhere near having a serious boyfriend. Very soon I'll be graduating and entering into a mundane world of cubicles and scenes from Office Space. Deadlines! The article went on to talk about how "In the past, people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there is a new, intermediate phase along the way. The years from 18 until 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange, transitional never-never land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the iron cage of adult responsibility that constantly threatens to crash down on them. They're betwixt and between. You could call them twixters." They were mentioning that this one guy went to school for 6 years and came out with a degree in cognitive science and couldn't find a job so he had to become a waiter. Is that going to be me?

I guess the meltdown is a little dramatic and not warranted because things seem to have a way of working out, but it's something to be thinking about over the next year and something probably a lot of people have to think about.

Dream of silver screen quotations

2005-05-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

I was driving around the other night with no destination in mind when I got a call from my mom at work saying that it was a really slow night at the hospital and if I wanted to come in for a few hours to visit it would be a good night for that. So I headed to the hospital and went to the nursery. I spent a few hours feeding newborns and hanging out with my mom. Then around 2 am the lady who was in labor gave birth and I got to be in the room and observe it! Sure, we told the patient I was a nursing student, but she didn't mind that I was there. Plus, I think when it's your 3rd kid you could care less who is there. So i was standing quietly in the corner trying to stay out of the way and be invisible when one of the nurses asked me to come over and help her. I did and she said "Here, hold the patient's other leg back because we don't have enough people to do it." So I did! I was freaking out because I didnt want to screw up. The doctor had just come in from home and the labor had progressed so fast that he didn't even had time to change so he was wearing a polo shirt and a floppy hat and had barely gotten his scrub boots on. He was a little intimidating. So i got to see the birth right up close. The chord was wrapped around the kid's neck too so the doctor had to cut it and the kid had to be put on the bag that they do to babies who have trouble breathing. It was scary, but kind of what I expected a birth to look like. Painful! I'm not looking forward to going through labor and having babies in the future, but I don't think seeing what it looks like with stop me. Anyway, it was very interesting.

Yesterday, my family and I met my roommate Nana in Chinatown to celebrate her graduation. She's going on a month long trip to England, around europe, thailand, and to australia. Lucky girl. I think that would be a really fun thing to do after graduation. Except I would probably go to England, Ireland, Scotland and then around Europe rather than Thailand or australia. I guess I better start saving now. haha.

I've been home for a while now and have soaked up about as much relaxation as I can handle. I'm usually a busy person and I like it. But I'm in the mood for a drive down the coast to Santa Barbara. Maybe when more people come home and it warms up, it'll be time for a beach trip.

I'm a charlotte now

2005-05-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! You are Charlotte.

Which Sex and the City Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

So I've transitioned from being Miranda to being Charlotte. It's fitting seeing as my attitudes about things have changed over the year.

Oh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRIS! You can officially say that you're in your 20's...scary thought. I hope you had a fun birthday.

In other news, I went on a bike ride this morning with my dad. I am so out of shape! We rode down the bike path by the wash. After getting a mouth full of bugs, it got really hot outside and on the way back I started to get really dizzy. This continued and then I started to feel a little sick so we headed home. I fainted a few times in high school due to either being too hot, dehydrated, or not eating well so I know the signs so I sat down for a few minutes and all was well. I'm feeling much better now, but I think I'm gonna start hitting the gym (with air conditioning) more often this summer to get into shape. Especially when summer school starts and I have the frustration of sitting through 6 hours of oceanography a day to work out.

There's a boy i think is interesting...I haven't liked anyone since february or so, but I'm tired of pursuing things with people so if this happens then I'll be happy, but if not I'm fine as well and I won't have to be embarassed because I acted retarded pursuing a relationship that was one-sided. No big thing. In the meantime, lots of swing dancing.

2005-05-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

I think I've got my hands full with leading this unitarian group at usc next year. Each new student gets mailed a brochure about the various groups on campus and then they can go online and check which ones theyre interested in learning about. I got an email from the reverend at the office of religious life saying that they'll start receiving web based inquiries about various groups starting in June. They'll forward me the contact info of people who checked my section or anything having to do with unitarianism and then I'll have to respond to them with information about meetings, information, etc. Scary! My fall schedule is going to be so hectic, especially at the beginning of the year with sorority stuff, so looks like I should start pretty soon putting together meeting times, places, and programming so I don't have to do it later. I have a lot of good ideas though about different meetings. Eeeek, I really want the group to do well, i guess I'll just see how it goes.

In other things, I finally finished moving out yesterday. Yep, it only took me 3 days. It wasn't a smart idea to go there yesterday either since it was the official move out day and apparently nobody started doing anything until yesterday so students were running around crazy trying to get everything done. We squeezed about 20 people into the elevator too. And then I had a hard time getting everything to fit into what we lovingly call "Big Red", my mom's tiny little red Ford Fiesta and I smacked my head really hard on the door trying to cram my bike in. But i made it! Congrats to Nana who is graduating and boldly going out into the real world. I can't believe I'm already a junior.

Absolutely nothing else going on. I think I'll go back to sleep. Dang, I'm boring.

Summer is officially here

2005-05-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

I'm at home for "summer" which is about a month and will be heading back to school on June 27th to start summer school. Everything worked out. I was able to rearrange my summer housing contract to start later, registered to take Oceanography this summer which i needed to get done at some point, and am pretty happy to have this month off to relax. I'm not the happiest at the way things worked out, but I suppose things could've been worse and I'm still going to be getting a lot done. Bring on the 105 degree temperatures, ugh.

Home is nice. I guess I got out earlier than most people. I had my last final, Record Production Management, on Friday and kicked ass on it. It was only a 2 unit class, but with all the copyright jargon and laws I had to memorize, I was worried I wouldn't do well on it. I spent yesterday packing up all my apartment stuff and taking half of it to the storage unit. The storage place had this horrifying rickety freight elevator you had to take to get to the 8th floor. It was the kind that you manually operate and have to stop at exactly the level of your floor. I was worried I was gonna fall out and plummet to my death.

All my finals went pretty well I think. I got an A- on my French oral exam which is nice seeing as I bumbled my way through conjugating and it took me about 5 minutes to spit out a sentence. I guess they are pretty leniant with us. I think I'd get some strange looks if I went to France and actually tried to speak. I had to write 3 essays about postmodernism in art and various things for my Visual Culture Final. Even though I brought most of my stuff to storage, I have filled my living room with even more bins full of clothes and apartment objects. I don't know how I accumulated so much junk. I need to economize.

Not much is going on. I know it sounds boring, but this inbetween week when people are still finishing finals is such a nice rest. I will probably spend the next week or so laying around like a braindead blob, then when I snap out of it I'll work on seriously getting this sorority website done and online, organize some UU programming b/c apparently I'm leading this group at SC next year, and go out with friends (swing dancing anyone?).

Oh oh! I almost forgot. My family is getting a puppy. We found this breeder up near sacremento and we placed an order for either a creme or an apricot colored toy poodle. The litters are being born probably this week and then they stay with their moms for a few weeks, then we get to drive up and pick him up. He'll probably pee on me on the drive back. We're all really excited because since Taz died, we've really missed having a dog around. I think we might name him a strange russian name because I'm really tired of seeing dogs named "Fluffy" or "Butch". We're leaning towards Mouska (not sure on the spelling) which means something like "Little dear one". I always hate when people do the traditional poodle haircut with the puffs around the legs, we prefer to let the dog get as fluffy and unrecognizable as possible.

Who wants to go egg Sony Pictures with me?

2005-04-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start to express how much I've been screwed over this week. I'm rarely an extremely angry person, but this event has warranted it. I'm very career oriented and there's a certain path I had hoped to follow throughout college so that I'd be really prepared when I graduated to get a job. Part of this plan was doing an internship my sophomore and junior summers. As I've written about and probably gushed to just about everyone, I was thrilled when I had an interview at Sony Pictures and was offered an internship for the summer. Subsequently, I made plans for summer housing, schooling, and various things so that I could work around an internship schedule. A call to Sony on Thursday pretty much screwed all that up. It's kind of a long story, so I guess I'll just start with the very beginning back in march.

FEB & MARCH

I submitted an application on line for an internship with Sony (as well as with some other companies).   I got a call a couple of weeks later from Mr. Jonathan Baker who asked me to come in for an interview, which I did.   During the interview, he said that I had an impressive resume and that I should "think it over" whether I wanted the internship and call him back the next day.   I called back the next day and was told that Mr. Baker was in a meeting. I left the message that I had thought it over and would like to accept the internship.

Being nervous about whether Mr. Baker got the message, I called back twice the next week, each time being told Mr. Baker was in a meeting and would call me right back. He did not call back.   The third time, the person had me hold, checked with Mr. Baker, and reported that he had indeed gotten my message and remembered me. I asked if the lady could tell me how many days the intership involved, that I had to make plans for the summer. I was told to call back another time.

During the rest of March, I called a few times. Each time I was told that Mr. Baker was "in a meeting" and would call me right back. Each time I left a message that I had a question about the specifics of the internship I had been awarded. He never called me back, ever.   This made me a little anxious about things.

EARLY APRIL

I called yet again. I was told, again, that Mr. Baker was "in a meeting". Knowing from experience that he would not call me back, I explained to the lady that this week was my deadline for committing to summer housing and that I needed to get confirmation for sure whether I was hired. The lady this time had me on hold for a long time and then came back on the line, said she had spoken to Mr. Baker and that he confirmed that, yes, Mr. Baker remembered me.

I then asked how I would find out what days of the week I would need to be there. Now that I would be living at school, if the internship were only 2 or 3 days a week, then I could sign up for a summer class.   The lady told me that there is a big project everyone is working on and to call back in 2 or 3 weeks.

During this week, I went ahead and committed to summer housing, found a roommate, jointly submitted roommate paperwork and put down a deposit. The next week I got confirmation of the housing unit, and did all sorts of tasks associated with the situation such as renting a storage unit for items that wouldn't fit in my smaller summer unit. That next week I also re-arranged my fall class schedule to leave open two days in which I could continue my internship through the fall, because Mr. Baker had said that was desirable.

Week of April 25th:

Apr 28th -- Per the directions I was told previously, I called "2 to 3 weeks later" to follow up on finding out which days I will be working. I spoke with a secretary who said Mr. Baker was "in a meeting". When I asked the question, the secretary said I didn't appear on her list of Interns, that I'm is not an intern for the summer. She expressed no regret and simply said that if I wanted to apply again I should send her resume and the secretary would forward it on (not sure to whom). I was devastated and crying like...all day.   I explained the history, that I had gotten confirmation and seemed to be confronted with an "I don't care" attitude.

My dad was certain that there had simply been a misunderstanding and even though I didn't want him to call and make a fuss, he wanted to call.   He called in the afternoon, was told Mr. Baker was "in a meeting".   He told her he was sure there was some kind of miscommunication and the secretary told him that there was no miscommunication, that there is no internship for me and that I had never been told there was.   He said he wasn't sure whether I had explained that I had been led to beleive from Mr. Baker that I had the internship and had already arranged for housing as well as arranging her fall class schedule to leave open two days for interning there through the fall, which Mr. Baker had said was desired.   The secretary told him that I had indeed explained it, but that I shouldn't have arranged these things without getting a confirmation from HER, that she is the only one who can give confirmation. She said that I should have known that the internship offers are made on a space-available basis (I have no idea how she would have known that) and that perhaps it was because not as many interns had left as they had expected.   But that she would have Mr. Baker call my dad "when he is out of his meeting".

After not hearing back for 2 hours, he called back to see if Mr. Baker was out of his "meeting". The secretary said he was still in his meeting.   He said that he should probably start documenting some of these phone calls and politely asked her for her last name. She refused to give him her last name!   He asked for Mr. Baker's title and she refused to give him his title.   Then she said Mr. Baker will call him back some time. He reminded her that she told him Mr. Baker would call him back today, after his meeting, and she said that he will call him when he wants to. She then said she was very busy and had to go now.

so my dad called the main desk again and asked for the person in charge of student internships. He explained the situation to her and she was very nice about it. he told her it didn't seem like he was going to get a call back. She said she would call Mr. Baker. He told her that it seemed like the secretary was already touchy about it, but she said Mr. Baker would speak with her.

Apr 29th, YESTERDAY -- Mr. Baker left a message with me for me to call him.   When I called him back he started yelling at me. He said that unless someone from Human Resources called me, that I was not being offered an internship. Again, I would have no way of knowing this, and this is contrary to the first message she got which was that I was being offered the internship. It's also contrary to the secretary's position that SHE was the only one who could give confimation.    He also said that unless I heard it from him directly that there was no offer, yet another story.   He then said he had to go but would "call me back". I doubt he will, but it seems like at this point there is no reason to do so.

I got a call from Walt Disney Studios to interview for a summer internship. Even though Disney has always been my dream company, I talked it over with my parents and we jointly decided that I had committed to Sony and it would be good for me.   I called them and thanked them, but said I had already accepted an internship with Sony.

Mr. Baker and the staff there had plenty of opportunity to tell me if there was perhaps a misunderstanding on my part.

At this point, I think that even if the internship were offered today, that working there for Mr. Baker would not a possibility. It would not be a good work environment being surround by, and working for, people who did this shit.

This is not the way a reputable business is supposed to treat people.    Reputable people are supposed to return phone calls. Reputable people don't leave someone until it's too late to take any other internship. Reputable people don't refuse to give people their names or positions. Reputable people don't come up with the excuse that the internship candidate "should have known" that "only Jennifer" could confirm, or that "only Mr. Baker" could confirm, or that "only Human Resources" could confirm (each of these stories were told at various times during Apr 28th & 29th). Reputable people, when faced with phone calls from someone who obviously thinks she had an intership, if she didn't have it, would let her know so that she doesn't fuck up her entire year.  Reputable people don't call and yell at the internship candidate for trying to contact Human Resources when they couldn't get through to Mr. Baker after hearing an assistant blow her off with apparent lack of concern.

Sorry that was so long, but that's my story. I managed to switch my schedule so I can still take a summer school class and not everything is completely fucked, but the fact that it's too late to find another good internship and the waste of the amound of work I put into job hunting since January really sucks. Sony, eat shit and die.

Hop in the flip-top baby

2005-04-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

My dad used to tell me that I'd enjoy the luxury of a nap when I got older. I thought he was crazy. I wanted to run around, play, watch cartoons. You didn't know what you were missing when you slept and so I'd wake up at 6 am on weekends and bounce around with manic energy when my parents told me to take a nap. Nowadays, I don't know if it's because I've got more of a handle on the world and I know that I'm not missing anything when I sleep, but all I've wanted to do lately is take naps. I've been a little sleep deprived lately because it's pre-finals week, which is even worse than the real week for art majors. I dont have as many final tests, but I sure have a lot of final critiques and projects due.

My photography critique is tomorrow and with only 4 out of the 10 large scale prints I need to present, I'm running extremely behind. I had a fiasco with the evil USC bookstore. Normally, I never have any problems with them. Yes, they are grossly overpriced, but I get what I need and it works for me. I bought a pack of photo paper from them the other day and when I printed on it, everything came out foggy. I figured I had accidentally exposed the paper and went to buy another pack from the bookstore. The same thing happened! I told my teacher and the department chair and they pointed out that the paper I bought was a over a year passed its prosessing date. My photo teacher ended up going to the bookstore and making a fuss, and they are giving me my money back...but I lost 2 full lab days of work I couldve been doing, so now I'm screwed. The student art show date for submissions was last thursday and I had been wanting to submit this graphic design thing I'd been working on all year, but with all the crazy final projects, i didnt have time to finish it. i guess there's always next year.

Not all the craziness has been school stuff. I had my sorority invite on Friday night. I'm usually lucky enough to find a date at the last minute. This time I brought my brother's friend John who is this super nice French Canadian guy. The theme was Vintage Hollywood, which was free for people to interpret. I decided to do a 1950's housewife look and John dressed up as a greaser. I looked like a little girl in my ensemble (for cait). But some people ranged from formal dresses to togas to pirates. I went with a big group to dinner at Bistangos which is this cheap hole in the wall place on Figueroa. Some people went to pre-party after dinner, but I'm happy to say that John and I didn't drink. He was uncomfortable with the drinking, and I've been trying not to drink much at all recently. I don't know why, I've just been very nervous about doing it and now I've got summer coming up where i won't drink at all.

The invite was at this bar/restaurant called Pinot, on sunset blvd. It was cute. It had an outside dance floor with white twinkle lights everywhere. They also had couches for people to lounge on and tables for groups to take dance breaks at. It was a very small environment, but fun. Usually, I'm on the dancefloor most of the night, but this time I got to hang out with my sorority sisters and their dates more, which was a nice change. After the dance, 6 of us went to Mel's diner which is quickly becoming my favorite post-invite spots b/c it's open 24 hours and has delicious milkshakes. Also, the craziest people show up there. I saw a woman wearing a giant mad hatter type hat with a stuffed animal white tiger on it and LCD lights blinking all over it. And later on, this girl in her 20s was so wasted that she fell right out of her booth seat and landed sprawled out on the floor. Good times. Got back to the apartment at 4 am.

Here are a few pictures:

Dinner at Bistangos. Everyone looks so cute.

My big sis Sara, her date, me and John taking a break from the dancing

John, me, Kristen and her date doing the diamond. I look like a Stepford wife.

Girl Pirates! Arg.

Mel's Diner and the delicious milkshakes

Summertime and the livin is easy

2005-04-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

School's over. So that's weird. I'm faced with summer in three weeks or so, but not any kind of summer that I've known before. This is the "grown up" summer. I'll be living in an apartment at USC for the summertime, working 4 days a week or so at my internship, driving all over the place. It's going to feel very foreign to me. And so now, as I'm faced with a new experience this summer, I find myself being more nostalgic than ever. Everything seems like an old summer memory. Early summers spent playing in the sprinklers in the hot summer and smelling the fresh cut grass and selling lemonade for 10 cents a cup with my brother in the park. Later teenage summers spent going to the movies, eating lunches at Fatburger, and going to AMPM with jessica.

Most of my news tends to be sorority news lately, because that's what my schedule has been jam packed with. On Friday, we had Row Cup which was our house's big philanthropy event. I was a captain for the delts. We went over to wake them up and slowly they trickled over to our lawn where we were having the event. It was human foosball which was pretty funny because the guys had to get strapped in to play like real foosball characters and a lot of them got so into it that they were kicking the soccer ball at people's faces and crotches. Ouch. A few times throughout the day, the big bouncy castle that they played in deflated and collapsed on the players. There were slip and slides set up on the lawn too which made me even more nostalgic for a time when playing outside all day was the only thing on my mind. I think they even fixed the dangerous metal spikes we used to use to stick the slip and slide into the ground. Many injuries from this contraption.

The bouncy castle collapsing around my team

my row cup team

Slip and Slide!

I have my "Vintage Hollywood" theme dance coming up this friday. I'm looking forward to it because I have a dress all ready. I've got a whole Donna Reed 1950s look going on. I think I'm going to watch Grease to prepare. The guy I'm bringing has never been to an event like this because he doesn't go to a big school, so it could either be really fun or not so fun if it turns out he doesn't like it and then I'd feel bad. More update on that after Friday.

The gorgeous australian boys who were staying in my apartment have left. It was nice to have them around because of the accents, the politeness, and the rugged good looks...and the fact that they slept in boxers on the couches. But it's also nice to have my apartment back to wander around in a groggy daze in my pajamas and not worry about looking hideous in front of anyone.

Oh, and to Monica if you're reading, i just wanted to let you know that I've been swamped with school stuff, but I'll be sending something really soon.

well that's a shame

2005-04-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I recently took the Jung personality test wondering how random questions could fit together to categorize your personality and character, but I was surprised with what it said about mine. My mom and brother also took it and it seemed right on for them. It said my mom was charismatic and always open to help people without asking for many things in return which she does cuz she's a nurse, and then it said my brother was a performer type who wasn't as interested in academics but always had a good joke or story to tell. Mine, I'm not as happy with. haha

INTROVERTED INTUITIVE THINKING JUDGING

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

2005-04-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

"Why is it that we get stuck with 'old maid' and 'spinster' and men get to be 'bachelors' and 'playboys'?" -Miranda, Sex and the City

I was discussing this concept with my mom the other day and my fear that I'd graduate college, only work with 40 year old men and never meet an interesting guy my own age. It started out normal enough and then our conversation turned ridiculous, as it usually tends to do when you put the two of us in a room together.

jumpingzebra13 (11:53:01 PM): spinster miser...miser spinster...
PrityLittlePixie (11:53:18 PM): me living in an apartment with 20 cats
jumpingzebra13 (11:53:33 PM): 20 fucking cats!
jumpingzebra13 (11:54:12 PM): just think though...if they all curl up around you when you go to sleep, you'll never need to buy a comforter.
jumpingzebra13 (11:54:43 PM): does it matter that the cat dander gets wadded up in your nose and you can't breathe?
jumpingzebra13 (11:55:10 PM): does it matter that the litter box needs to be cleaned every half hour or so?
jumpingzebra13 (11:55:45 PM): nah....better to get 20 teacup poodles instead
PrityLittlePixie (11:56:06 PM): me, sitting in my apartment in my bathrobe doing graphic design on my computer in the dark, 20 cats around me, my eyes watering because im freaking allergic, and the only male contact i get will be the pizza delivery guy coming to the door and eying me strangely as i pay him for my 5 pizzas...which i will then eat
jumpingzebra13 (11:56:50 PM): you ain't gonna eat 5 pizzas....cats will get to them first
PrityLittlePixie (11:58:09 PM): and ill drink curdled milk
jumpingzebra13 (11:59:53 PM): you know what they say bout rotten milk? it turns into acid rain
PrityLittlePixie (12:00:09 AM): who says that?
jumpingzebra13 (12:00:16 AM): "they"
jumpingzebra13 (12:00:31 AM): the bush advisors silly

somehow, this is what came of that train of thought:

jumpingzebra13 (12:03:48 AM): nah...the pandas are communists
jumpingzebra13 (12:04:58 AM): shit girl....everyone knows the pandas work as cheap labor
jumpingzebra13 (12:05:12 AM): in the sweat shops no less
jumpingzebra13 (12:06:43 AM): come on now...they don't sew the buttons on....they glue them on with bubblegum
PrityLittlePixie (12:07:25 AM): do they chew the bubblegum themselves?
jumpingzebra13 (12:08:30 AM): you see....that's where the polar bears come in. they're really "bi-polar" and their other self chews the gum and then ships it to communist china where the pandas are.

I've got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor

2005-04-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

I've been obsessed with photography lately. I'm getting wrapped up in my final project which I've created so that I don't have to travel off campus and drive all over LA this time to get the prints I want. I decided to do an examination of my sorority and a reflection on my self in visual diary format. I want to do a myth versus reality thing and also a study on identity. What identity is needed? In this day and age, do you really need to fit a mold to be accepted? These are all things I hope to explore and in the end I hope to tie it into a good final project. I'm struggling a bit with connecting my ideas with actual visual markers, but I figure I'm just going to go to the house every night this week for activities and shoot as many rolls as I can and I'll probably find some prints I like. In the process, I'm becoming a lot like that guy from American Beauty with his video camera...not exactly a role I want to take on. People are always wondering why I'm taking their picture. It's a fine line between staged and real emotion and it's interesting to see what people will do when they know they're in front of the camera even when they are trying to be laid back and unposed (straighten up, put on a nervous smile, keep glancing at the camera). People are more than happy to pose usually, but keep asking me for direction and I don't know what to tell them. If you have any good input or ideas, let me know cuz I'm fumbling a bit with this one.

Being in photography has introduced me to a lot of new artists from the past few decades that are really interesting. I was looking through a book of Robert Frank pictures in his "America" series which are so amazing and fundamental, but he had gotten Jack Kerouac to write some quotes I think are interesting.

"A picture that should have been blown up and hung in the street of Little Rock showing love under the sky and in the womb of our universe the mother--and the loveliest picture ever made, the urinals that women never see, the shoeshine going on in sad eternity." --Kerouac

As far as inspiration for my upcoming project, I found an artist named Nikki Lee. I actually knew about her last year but I just bought her book this week. It's called "Projects" where she spent months studying and preparing a certain social group and then infiltrated it to see if she could be accepted or find common empathy. There was the Punk project, the Ohio Project, the tourist project, the Stripper project, the schoolgirl project, the senior citizen project, the yuppie project etc. Very cool stuff. Obviously I don't have the capacity to dress up and seek out social groups and I'm not going to become a stripper for this project, but hopefully will keep in mind that idea of identity. She says:

"People call me a chameleon--it's a cliche and people are too lazy to invent new words, but I forgive them. Changing myself is part of my identity. That's never changed. I'm just playing with forms of changing. My work is really simple, actually. I wanted to make evidence. I always feel like I have a lot of different characters inside and I was curious to understand these things. I wanted to see some sort of evidence that I could be all those different things." -nikki lee, projects

Songfest

2005-04-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Now that Songfest is over, I'm back to the realm of the living. I think I literally spent a week only going from class to the house for songfest stuff until the wee hours of the morning and I was only at my apartment to sleep for a few hours at night. It was all worth it though because the preparation that went into it really helped us put together a good show. A bunch of the kids from Troy Camp were there and we raised a total of $14,000 for the camp so I was very thrilled. On Friday afternoon my mom, brother, and my brother's friend John came to USC and we went to lunch at El Cholo. My mom was worried about being late so she wanted me to wear my costume to lunch so that she could just drop me off, but seeing as my costume included a pair of purple striped pants, pigtails, and a bunch of drawn on stitches, I declined. The actual show went really well. I had a lot of friends in the audience and the other girls from our house came out and cheered really loud. Although I have to admit, the Kappa Alpha Psi guys were the show stoppers. They did an incredible step dance to "Candy Shop" and threw candy out into the crowd. Before the show when we were walking to the auditorium, the guys serenaded us!! It was excellent. I haven't met a better bunch of guys here at USC and they're one of my favorite fraternities now. In the end, our group didn't win first place, but we did win "Best Singing"...something that surprised me because we focused a lot more on choreography and dancing than singing. In fact, our motto was to basically sacrifice any kind of notes to shout the words at the audience because the auditorium had horrible acoustics. But for a group that hasn't done Songfest in many years, I'm so pleased with winning anything at all and we got some wonderful publicity from the Daily Trojan and people around campus. I can't wait for next year's Songfest. The Kappas are already talking about new step moves. Here are some pictures from Friday.

It's getting to be that time again. Time to start thinking about finding a date for my last invite of the year. Senior sendoff's on April 22nd and the theme is "Vintage Hollywood." Finding an outfit was the easy part. I'm doing a kind of early 50's donna reed look with a puffy crenaline dress, bulky cosmetic jewelry, teased hair and everything. So if you're a boy, like to dance, and would like to save me the hassle of finding a date please tell me.

In other news, I had my photography critique on the project I did juxtaposing the Catholic and unitarian services I attended and I got a fairly good response, but not as good as the one I did on consumerism/excess. I'll have to step it up for our final project due at the end of april.

I want a puppy.

In our town of Halloween

2005-03-29T10:36:00.000-08:00

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

2005-03-29T10:16:00.001-08:00

In our town of Halloween

2005-03-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

To infinity and beyond!

2005-03-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

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?

2005-03-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

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

2005-03-09T00:08:00.000-08:00

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

2005-03-02T17:28:00.001-08:00

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.