SPRING BREAK IS HERE; finals surprises; Sarah's passing; computer trouble.

[arkratirma]

SPRING BREAK IS HERE!


FINALS ARE OVER!


*bliss*

Sweet JESUS I am so relieved.

YESTERDAY: The first DVD I used for my Maya final (a DVD-R I'd brought from home) did not render properly through Premiere; the title card with my name and class information disappeared completely in the finished .avi file. I learned this after testing the DVD on Grace's laptop. (Grace brought cookies to share: I snagged the final M&M's cookie before Jacob or Devin could. They were bummed.) Grace followed me to the student store, where I purchased a second DVD-R and headed down to an open lab to re-render everything I'd already tried rendering. This DVD turned out exactly as I'd wanted.

My Maya project was crap, but I felt a huge burden lift off my shoulders after I was finished presenting it. I figure my final grade should still average out to around a C; I'd maintained a 75-77% with my homework assignments and midterm exam.

3D Modeling & Animation II has been owned.

I had wanted to create a better project, one I could be more proud of - but my primary goal was simply to PASS THE CLASS. I feel I have succeeded. The mere fact that I'd kept up with my assignments this past term is in and of itself a huge accomplishment as far as 3D work goes. I don't have the patience or desire to become fantastic with 3D work. I prefer traditional. But hey, I'm learning lots of new skills through these classes, and it's good to be well-rounded, eh?

After class, I finished the snacks I'd picked up while hanging out with Grace. She and Aurora met me in the Commons after I'd returned from Utrecht to purchase more paper for my Printmaking graphic novel (turns out I didn't need that extra paper, heh). Spent a few hours with them eating lunch and discussing all the usual geeky stuff we love discussing. Great times!

I gotta check my e-mail for some lulz....

At home, I was excited to see Jessi's car in the driveway again. It's so bizarre to think that I'm going to be a second cousin twice around. Jessi's baby is due May 1st. Getting out of the Buick, I was greeted by Bobbi; she hopped onto the back seat as I was removing my backpack and roll of paper, the little nut. Inside, I briefly greeted my family, explained how I felt about my 3D class, then settled down for a timed nap of a half hour. Felt quite a bit better afterward.

Began the process of getting my prints into a book. Tore paper using my big cork-backed ruler and folded them into signatures. Sewed the signatures together using waxed thread. I was blanking out on the exact process for sewing, so I turned on my desktop to search for bookbinding tutorials on YouTube mentioned in Amy's class.

I discovered that I couldn't connect. The only network my computer recognized was Jessi's network on her laptop, which Maddie was using in the living room. I gave up on connecting after a couple restarts and resolved to improvise some of my sewing. My improvised sewing wasn't terribly shabby, either.

In the course of gluing my prints into their signatures - and gluing cover paper to my front and back covers and spine - I emptied three entire bottles of rubber cement. (My front and back covers were salvaged from old, unfinished 2003 artworks. I love recycling. And thankfully, I'd had all of that rubber cement on hand.) The paper had been Aunt Pam's from some past project, and it worked beautifully for the cover. Aunt Pam came into the kitchen (I was working at the dining table for space) and helped me glue the signatures to the front and back covers with Tacky Glue, which is fantastic.

I completed my book around 1:00 this morning. I thanked Aunt Pam for her help and gave her a big hug, then gave Uncle Larry a big hug as well (I always try to make my hugs even). I'd brewed a large cup of green tea (with three tea bags!) to drink in the morning to make sure I wasn't completely loopy while driving.

TODAY: Got up at 5:00. I reheated my tea and made a bowl of oatmeal. Brought my tea with me to drink on the way to Gateway.

After I'd completed my book, I realized I'd forgotten about my artist's statement. I wrote it today in class before class began. Amy bought donuts for everyone from Voodoo Donuts. PURE DECADENCE. <3 I picked out a chocolate donut with strawberry frosting and marshmallows.

Seeing everyone's finished finals was phenomenal. This class produced some fantastic work. When time for individual critiques came to me, I was absolutely thrilled to hear my classmates' comments and praises. They were all stunned at how solid my blacks turned out. I felt so accomplished, even though I'd grossly underestimated the time it would take to produce an eight-page graphic novel of 9" x 12" relief prints (my estimate is around 25+ hours). I also felt really good because I gave my classmates good feedback and brought smiles to their faces.

This was my artist's statement:

My aunt has told me that it is difficult to know how to pace yourself on new projects, and nowhere was this more evident than with my Printmaking Theory & Practice final. I chose to create an eight-page graphic novel with 9" x 12" linoleum sheets; when my classmates glimpsed my prints in progress - particularly the cut linoleum - their eyes widened in disbelief. I knew going into the project that I wanted to break away from my comfort zone--and I soon learned that "breaking away from my comfort zone" would entail an overall cost of around $90 for materials; an eight-hour work day on the Sunday prior to week eleven; recycling older artworks in order to create the covers for my graphic novel; and emptying three entire bottles of rubber cement to secure my prints into their respective signatures.

This is a project I will hold onto for the rest of my natural life, but that goes without saying.

My inspirations were few, but dear. I have always had a fascination for and love of birds, and in this project I included two of my favorites: the raven and the barn owl. The story I created is a simple representation of how these two birds could meet in the wild, but they are also characters of mine from a much larger and darker work-in-progress. Graphic novels struck me as the perfect combination of my strengths: art and writing. Although this final does not incorporate writing, its story is easy to follow.

Yay!

This is the lovely thing about having your most enjoyable final last.

After we'd exchanged our prints, Amy passed out our final grades. I was stoked to see I'd received an A- for the class, but for the final...?

I received an A+ for my graphic novel.

Amy wrote Superb effort and professional results.

At that point, I was FLOORED.

I hate that I procrastinate, but when I get into the mindset of NEEDING to finish a project, especially at the last minute, I can produce good work. This was my first A+ final.

Euphoria, elation, and ecstasy ensued.

Headed home after I'd collected prints from everyone (I honestly felt I should have paid for them, because they're all fucking gorgeous). Out of Gateway, on Glisan, there was a bad accident: police cars and a fire truck, and what looked like a fender-bender. What got me was hearing a man's voice, hysterical and anguished, crying, basically saying "How could this happen?" I thought about it for the rest of the drive between tangents of "Shut yo' fuckin' face, uncle fucker!" (happy post-finals endorphins! - I do tend to swear a lot when I'm tired and overjoyed simultaneously) and "I REALLY want to take a nap."

At home, I greeted Uncle Larry, sitting on one of the benches. He informed me that Sarah died last night. Poor girl! I felt terrible because I hadn't had the chance to tell her goodbye.... She'd grown incredibly thin despite all the food that she and Honey got (Honey's quite the porker, by contrast), and she wasn't moving around much at all. She's buried with Tilly and Davidson out in the woods now. Rest in peace, Sarah. <3 I'll post photos here in the next few days... if we can get this computer situation handled.

Long story short, both my laptop and my desktop are still only recognizing Jessi's wireless network from her laptop. It's completely screwed my PCs over in terms of using the Internet. The same thing happened during my 19th birthday party when Keith tried to connect to our password-protected connection with his laptop: it took Dad hours to fix it. The laptop Maddie was using did the same thing to our connection, but Aunt Pam and Uncle Larry's computer can still connect without trouble. I'm using their computer right now.

I called Dad and told him the good news about my finals, then explained my bizarre computer woes. He had me try everything he knew about, including typing 'command prompt' into Run and then typing 'ipconfig' in the command prompt execution box. It's supposed to bring up your IP address, but it didn't work on my desktop, my laptop, OR Aunt Pam and Uncle Larry's desktop. It means something pretty damn bad is going on.

WHEW, but enough of that. Just wanted to update. Get my Internet idling out of me!





SPRIIIIIIIIIIIING BREEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!

Going to bring my laptop to the school tomorrow before I meet up with Aurora, Aurora's mom, Grace, Robin, and Whitney for lunch and a trip to the Portland Art Museum to see if it has the same problem only recognizing Jessi's network.

Looking forward to fun with friends!