1.31.2005

simple joys

Nothing makes a mediocre day fabulous like unexpected mail. Especially mail from people I don't really know. It's such a nice little surge of happy through my chest that I can't really explain. I miss getting cool shit in the mail. Time to trade out zines just to get cool stuff from strangers.

I'm suppose to go play at open mic with peter tonight... I'm really not ready for it. I haven't practiced nearly enough and I really think I'm going to explode from the pressure. I think the last time I performed in front of a group of people on my own was at a recital when I was like 7. And recitals are why I quit piano. ok. gotta go practice... for real. At least my song is like super short.

currently listening to: Jack's mixtape

1.30.2005

model-icious


open rings
Originally uploaded by zephyrbunny.
New model. Bit different. The first model looked like shit after I painted it and kinda broke over the weekend. Plus I had a few new ideas for it the past few days, so i re-did it. Much smaller this time though. about 1/4 scale. I actually messed up the pieces and made them to big, but I think I like it better this way. It's also alot more stable.

They each have parts of letters/characters on them. Mosly English and Thai since those are the ones I know the best and all, but with the help of internet, it's also got some Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian. I know there's tons of other types of writen languages, but I couldn't think of any other ones.

1.28.2005

Oh sweet Friday

Oh.. how I love you dearest Friday. Your welcoming arms. Your sexy gentle sloping curves leading to pleasant sluggishness. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I'd really just like to go to sleep. It's been a really draining sort of week.

Meeting with the book store lady to show her my model went pretty well today. She's so super friendly, open and enthusiastic about the banner project. She even offered us the event space for a little pre-instilation reception type thing. And she offered to print up flyers about the project and stuff in case people came into the store asking about them. I'm glad I don't have one of the other, more difficult clients. I've also decided to be done with the logo for design. They're not due till tuesday, but I think I'm just tired of looking at it. So looks like this weekend is making a nice final model (cause I've made yet another set of changes) of the banner and programming. whee!

I'm supposedly going to be playing at Trabant's open mic on Monday... but I don't think I really want to. I don't have any particular desire to sing my dumb little song in front of a room full of strangers. And yet I say I'd like to be in a band? I think if I ever got around to really making music I'd be much happier with a laptop and a synth or something. I'm just afraid I'll have a sort of panic attack and explode or something. I don't do perfomances. It will probably go fine, but the anxiety kills me. I suppose I should also practice this weekend. I haven't played my guitar in like a month.

There's a guy in my CSE class that looks like the lovechild of Chip and Jeremy. It always weirds me out cause from the corner of my eye I keep thinking I see either Chip or Jeremy.

currently listening to: Blur

1.26.2005

yay for audioscrobbler!

I know it's stupid and doesn't really make much of a difference in the whole scheme of things, but I'm so happy my audioscrobbler thing finally got updated! I'm really just sitting here with a big dumb grin I'm so happy. It's kinda funny actually seeing the charts and how much I've played 22-pistepirkko lately. But it's also almost embarassing that apparently O-zone (the guys that do the really cheezy Dragostea din tei song) is currently #3 on my top artist chart because I know they're really not like musical geniuses or anything. But I have such a weak spot for cheezy dance music. I wish I could get my iPod playcounts on there too cause that's a lot more. I know there's a way to do it, but I haven't really gotten it to work yet. But maybe thats just cause last time I tried is when it was still broken. aight. back to being productive.

half scale


half scale
Originally uploaded by zephyrbunny.
I've been working on my scupture stuff a lot lately and realizing I work in 2-D much better than I do in 3-D. My sketches (I've got some of those one of the other ideas on flickr too)for this look so much better than the model. I'm more of a print & paper kinda person I guess, but I'm still relatively happy with it. Although, I still have to paint it before I show the bookstore lady.

Looks like I'm gonna have to learn to weld aluminum to put this thing together. But I think I can handle it alright. Especially because I don't have to be particularly anal about the hanging shapes since they're more abstract than representational. and the hoops will probably just be bent aluminum tubing or rods or whatever.

We're not suppose to use words and stuff but I think it would be neat to incorporate typography somehow. Maybe on the hanging shapes, but not so they spelled out words, just so that you could tell they were letter forms. Like really simple at the bottom, and like an explosion of letter forms on the top. Gotta run it by the prof but it'd be a nice little bridge to my VCD class. We finally got the next assignment (I'm tired of drawing logos). We're making posters and dealing only with type. I'm pretty excited for it. aight. time to start painting the model...

1.22.2005

angry haiku

ARG! FUCKING PROGRAM!
SO VERY FRUSTRATED NOW!
WHY WON'T YOU WORK RIGHT?!?



snob.

I think it's kinda interesting how my two art classes are kind of helping me with each other. Like, using a design process for public art and using my public art b.s. skills in design. And in both I'm kinda learning to basicly...be more stubborn..i guess. At our last design crit when Annabelle (the old design prof) asked people why they did certain things the majority of them basicly just said "because John (our current prof) said so" But I mean, if you JUST do things for your teacher/client it's not really yours any more, which is something my public art teacher is constantly telling us.* And many of them had no meaning behind anything, which was really werid to me. Maybe just cause I always expect people to up with at least some b.s. explination for their work in art classes, cause that's just what usually happens. I dunno. So basicly I think what I've learned lately is how to simplify and be more anal and stubborn.

I'm also realizing how anti-math I really am. I spent forever stuck on my programming hw because of my issues with simple algebra. It's frustrating cause I feel dumb. I've gone through geometry, trig, and calc but for some reason simple algebra fucks with me.

wishing I had more to a rant about other than school.. but nope, that's pretty much it.

I'm also starting to think I'm turning into a bit of a culture snob. I don't really want to be, but I mean "It's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party."** Really.

also, I probably mentioned this already but 22-Pistepirkko is a fabulous band.

*Like on Project:Runway (which I've only seen this one time) one of the fashion designers was just doing what the model told her and wasn't stubborn enough about her own ideas. And in the end she made a pretty but boring dress and got cut.
** High Fidelity, Nick Hornby.

1.18.2005

eventually

I'm too tired to color. So as I put that off, I'll make a list of things I should work on getting to sooner than later:

-replying to emails. I don't know it takes me days to get back to people.
-sending emails/writing letters/keeping in touch etc.
-reading books. I like em. I just have no idea what to read. My favorite books are the ones with pictures in them... but if you know of any non-illustrated books I should read, let me know. Or even if you know any good comics. I'm making a list of books/comics to read this year.
-mastering the latte song I wrote last year. cause apparently i've got 2 weeks till my perfomance of doom at Trabant... stupid Peter.
-write new songs. record songs.
-write a ficional story to illustrate. I wanna try doing a graphic novel. Nothing as colossal as the 300+ page "Blankets" (by Craig Thompson). But something little. And since I don't know anyone who will write a story for me, I suppose I shall have to do it myself.

I don't believe chai has caffine. It's not making me un-tired at all.

1.14.2005

thrill me, chill me, fulfill me.

We went to see the Rocky Horror Show tonight, which is being put on by the Undergrad Theatre Society, and it was really cool. It was so full we were on the floor. I loved the fact that Brad was played one of my co-workers. I had no idea he was in it. It was especially interesting at the end when he was dancing around in his tighty-whiteies (how do you spell that?) right in front of me. And Rocky was played by this guy from my philosophy class last year, which was also quite a shock. And of course there were lots and lots of scantily clad boys and girls. Makes me want to get sexy lingere. and someone to prance around in sexy lingere with. Mmm.

And Rin's not going to be here next week after all. *sad face* Not that I'm actually surprised. But I'm still kinda sad.

I kinda feel like everything before college didn't really happen. Like it was one long dream. Cause I don't really feel connected to any of that any more. Of course I never really feel connected no matter where I am.

I could use some chai. Time to hit up Trabant.

20% complete

Only bout 8 more weeks of the quarter. Sad that I'm already counting down. I just want it to be over with so I can stop worrying. I wish I had my old design teacher from last quarter. My new one is a little intimidating for some reason. Don't really know why. He's a nice guy and occasionally funny and everything. But there's just something about certain teachers that make me nervous and feel really dumb asking anything. Maybe it's cause it's still early in the quarter. But I'm glad my old prof will be subbing our crit next week.

Arlene may be coming to visit next week! I still have to make sure. but she'll be the only old friend I've seen in over a year.

..too sleepy to type.


1.12.2005

too busy to blog?

I don't really remember where the past few nights have gone. I guess I wasted a good deal of it waiting in line at Chipotle for free burrito & a drink day, a few nights ago. But I don't really know about the rest. For some reason between 5:30 and midnight always seems to speed by while I'm still sloshing around the apartment or eating dinner. Being productive in the 6 hourish time frame just doesn't seem to work... it's hard to concentrate on anything at home. I don't know how I ever got anything done when I was doing the 5pm-9pm thing. Oh I know. I spent most of last night dancing around like an idiot to that really really cheezy dancey Romanian O-zone song, Dragonestea Din Tei.

I also oogled the new mac stuff. the mac mini is cute and stuff, but doesn't really seem like it'd be worth it for me. If I'm gonna shell out the cash for a new computer, I want a pretty powerful one. And the iPod Shuffle seems a little odd. Not being able to see what your playing seems like it'd be annoying, but I guess most people I know listend to their iPods on shuffle anyways. I do like the song in the commercial though. and I guess 512 mb for $100 isn't too bad. my 256 usb drive was like $50 so that's about right. but then again, my 20 gig iPod was $200 (after rebate).

I've been semi-keeping up with my daily (kochalka-esqe) comic thing. I'm a few behind in drawing them out fully, but I've got rough ideas for all of them. I'm not really sure what I wanna do with them once I'm done (if I actually keep at it for a significant amount of time.) Maybe print up a little book or something. I think I'm just doing the comics to keep me sane. Cause trying to think of good ideas and stuff for VCD and sculpture hurt my head. Being abstract and subjective is hard. (I sort of like the fact that with my programming class I can do an assignment, run it to make sure it works, and then I'm pretty much done with it.) Drawing comics is nice and easy, pretty much brainless, and makes myself giggle even though they're not really very funny. But they're amusing to me. I think one of the main reasons I do "sketchbook diary" stuff is I don't have to think up stories or anything cause it's all based on stuff that's happened. But I wish I could find a writer (that I liked). I wanna do comics that aren't about me, but I suck at fiction.

1.09.2005

alpha beta gaga

I've been listening to Air's "Talkie Walkie" album so much this week. So fabulous that it makes me almost sad that I didn't get around to checking it out earlier. It's nice and soothing music for a stressed out jayne... I don't know what's up. It's sort of a sinking feeling. like I've been kicked in the chest or something. But the song Alpha Beta Gaga makes me feel fuzzy inside, so it's okay.

I don't have any idea what to do for the public art thing. I'm starting to be like "oh right, I don't know how to do any of this large scale sculpture stuff. at all." Of course, that shouldn't really be a problem cause the people I admmire the most are those who dive into things not having any idea what they're doing. And damn it, I too can be one of those foolish people.


1.08.2005

lagom

is one of my new favorite Swedish words. It's right up there with slut ("the end"). Lagom means something like the middle path or like just the right amount or something along those lines. I learned it from Utne, which has just made it on my top 5* fav mags. Magazines are just so educational.

Durring our vcd "work session" it occurred to us that we were basicly spending the class time doodling (or "sketching ideas"). We also decided the EPA is like the Gap of the government agencies.

It's also occurred to me that I'm not really interested in fine arts. I mean, it's fun to play with, but I was looking at the other available BFA programs here today (for like, The Plan B) and I really don't think I'd actually be able to do any of them. I was thinking about the painting/drawing program but the adviser said she thinks I already have too many credits. I also don't think I even LIKE painting all that much anyways. I also started thinking about how useless art was starting to seem to me, which is kinda depressing and like total art cult blasphemy. I mean, I know it's not REALLY useless cause it makes for a more interesting life and all that stuff...

But sometimes it just feels really pointless and wasteful. Just thinking about going to an art school**, after whatever happens here, makes me feel so like privledged or elitist or somthing. Part of me doesn't like being well off. Probably because I don't feel like I've really done anything to earn it, and will probably never be able to. Sometimes I really feel like I should have to work hard for something, because surely it can't be this easy. (It makes me wonder if that's actually the appeal of VCD, the fact that I have to actually work at it. Cause even though design is more "useful" than fine art, in the over all scheme of things, it's really not that vital.)

I know having it too easy is a strange thing to be worried about. But it just always bothers me, especially when art stuff comes into the picture cause it seems like such a selfish and self-indulgent...thing. I want to do more than draw pretty pictures and make things look dynamic. I'd like to be more useful. Like, or first project is to re-design the EPA logo. But if I really had the choice I'd much rather be one of the people in the EPA (if i was actually any good with that sort of stuff). Dunno. Man. It's only the first week and I've already got doubts.

*Giant Robot, Jane, ReadyMade, Utne, and.. I swore i had another one. I guess i don't read magazines very often anymore.
**Maybe for animation? I dont know. Looking at Vancouver Film School, California Institute of Art, California College of Art... I obviously I don't want to leave the west coast yet.

1.05.2005

public static void

I think "public static void" and/or "static void" would be fun names for a band.

Apparently my sponsor for the public art project is The University Bookstore. So whatever I end up doing is going to be out in front of the bookstore (off the ground like 8-10 feet) , which is gets like super heavy foot traffic cause everyone goes to the bookstore. So that's like super heavy duty exposure. I'm so excited for this project but also kinda feeling a bit pressured, cause these are suppose to be permanant. It'll be here longer than I will. And I mean, if I'm leaving my legacy infront of THE bookstore, it damn well better not suck.

ok. less blogging. more sketching.

1.04.2005

and it starts. again. part 2.

It was cool seeing who made the cut from my last class, though I pretty much guessed them anyways. Its weird how few guys are in there though. in a class of like 25 there are like 5 guys. Though I guess there are never really a whole lot of them in the art department to start. (where as the CSE class is like 70% guys). Our first project is redesigning an ugly logo, and I got the EPA. I have no idea to do with it yet. Its kind of weird though cause I feel almost out of place there. Almost everyone is so.. artfully clean cut? I dunno how to describe it. But I'm not "it" and feel like the oddball. But I guess that's pretty much how it always is. It seems like it'll be interesting though, cause instead of doing theory stuff like interval and shape studies, we get to do like "applied" design projects.

I nodded off a few times in Dinosaurs and there were tons of other people trying to add the class. So it's officially dropped now. I can take it later. And now ive got 2 blocks* of time after class where i can just stay and work on stuff...

and now to brainstorm/sketch stuff out. geez. what a dull entry...

*1 block=2 units=1 hour.

1.03.2005

and it starts. again.

deep breath... back in school again.

so, it's just the first day but I'm already getting nervous. not like terribly panicky nervous. more like an "omg, this quarter is going to kill me" kind of nervous. I'm not sure if I'll have enough units* of time to get everything done.. with 16 class hours (14 credit hours. not including dinosaurs**) and about 17 work hours. (per week) and all that time needed to get assignments done (im guessing around 15-20hrs for each. Luckily homework time and paid work time often overlap) there's not much time left over for anything. I mean, 14 credits doesn't really seem like very much. I did 18 my first quarter. But those were pretty much all super easy blow off type classes.

CSE seems like it should be interesting. the prof kept reassuring us that they understand like 60% of us haven't done any programing before. but also warned us of the work load. but the prof. seems nice enough.

The public art class should be super awesome, if I can pull it off. I think I'm like THE least experienced in the class. and probably the youngest. I think everyone else is a junior or senior. mostly seniors, majoring in sculpture. This is also kind of different than the other public art stuff they've done cause it's more individual. each of us are going to get to do at least one banner/sculpture and there's not really a whole lot of collaboration between the students. I'm super stoked, but it's gonna be a crazy fast paced quarter.

I was going to make new years resolutions. But I can't think of any good ones. Right now, thee only things I really care about:

1. Getting into VCD.
2. Making an interesting and creative piece of public art***
3. Not failing CSE.

So i suppose those are like my winter quarter resolutions or something. Simple enough.

*1 unit of time = half an hour. because any piece of time less than that is pretty much useless for any real activity.
**I'm going to at least go to the first dinosaurs class, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop it, mainly cause it would free up 2 more blocks in my schedule.
*** Or at least one that doesn't suck, because it will be permanant and I don't want to be embarassed by it every time I walk by it for the next how many ever years I'm walking round the Ave.

1.02.2005

new years nerd


headless blogger
Pretty good start to the new year. Spent most of Friday and Saturday across the water in Bremerton with Enzo and his friends. Halo 2. Burnout 3. Mario Party 5. Boggle. Texas Hold Em. Japanese Chess. I sucked at all of them, especially Halo. really really bad. It needs way too much coordination for me. I'm much better at Mario Party. I also went all in for poker at the end, and won like 5 times in a row, which doubled chips every time. I eventally lost it all. But it was still cool. And then when I got home, I had my fabulous fabulous package waiting for me. Oh blogger, how I love you and your logo. There are very very few logo/brand shirts that I'll wear cause I've been trying to de-brand myself and stuff. But i do just love this one. also, new flickr pickrs.

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