alright, it's been a couple months since I promised to post again "soon" but I've been applying for jobs and tweaking old art for my portfolio... in some cases remaking pieces almost entirely. some of it is up over here, if you'd like to take a look. I had an interview at the Costco print shop on Saturday, which sounds like a pretty damn good place to work - great starting pay, full benefits after a few months, etc. It's in Lynnwood, which would be a painful commute, but I figure before too long we'd just move up there. It would be nice to be closer to our friends, and we're so tired of and frustrated with our neighbors right now that we just call the police at the first sign of trouble. Not a good situation to be in.

anyway, I'm not going to count on getting the job, so I'll keep applying at other places - something will come through eventually.

PS: RIP BSG

With this obligatory New Year's post, I have matched half of my total number of posts from 2008. Why the dry spell, you may ask? Well, nothing really interesting happened, I suppose. Unless you count...

*buying a new couch (with ottoman!)
*Beth going to New Orleans to build houses with Habitat for Humanity in April
*Beth falling down the stairs in NO, going to the hospital, and flying back the next day (her birthday) hopped up on painkillers
*I got a Facebook account
*I got my driver's licence in July
*the Geo went to car heaven, and we got a brand new car!
*we got married (in front of family and friends)
*we went to Canada for our honeymoon
*I got laid off from World Market
*Obama got elected
*we got a ton of snow
*we spent a Christmas at home
*we called the cops on our neighbors about a million times

Hopefully the last one won't matter for too long, because we'll be moving... but that requires me getting a good job first. oh! and...

*a pick-up truck hit the fire hydrant across the street, cracking it below the pressure valve, and flipped end-over-end onto the grass. there were six police cars, two fire engines, a K9 unit, and an ambulance on our street until about 3am. Exciting!

Obviously, Beth keeps better track of things than me, but my goal (like last year's) is to post more. More than twice, I think I can do... but I want to use the journal to document what I accomplish each week, both job- and art-related. maybe that will help keep me accountable for my time, and for posting?

Movies:
While we were in Virginia, Beth and I went to see National Treasure 2 with her parents. That's about all I have to say about it, really. If you enjoyed the first one and still want more, watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade instead. If you want to hear about good movies, though, we brought Pan's Labyrinth and watched it with her family as well. It is just as good as when I first watched it, though this time I was a bit impatient for the fantasy elements to get on screen. The trailers for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (also directed by Guillermo Del Toro) are up online and in theaters, and I can't wait for July to roll around.

TV:
It's been getting some mixed reviews, but Beth and I are enjoying the new Terminator TV series: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It takes place after the second movie, during John Connor's high school years, with he and his mother on the run from terminator machines. They have help from a robotic protector, played by Summer Glau. It's a sci-fi series on Fox, so it will most likely get cancelled during it's first season, but has great robotic effects and deals with some of the paradoxes of time travel in a light-hearted-yet-appropriate manner. Mondays at 9, but we've got it all TiVo'd if someone wants to come over and watch them.

Music:
I've found some bizarre and thoroughly interesting new bands: Abney Park, Vernian Process, Doctor Steel, and Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew. While the first two are varying degrees of steampunk, the third is something of a demented Willy Wonka and the fourth is exactly how it sounds. I'm not saying anyone will want to sell everything to follow any of their tours around the country in a VW microbus, but at least give them a shot.

Books:
Beth and I have gotten swept into another Orson Scott Card series. Since Wikipedia has more information (and better laid out better than I ever could), here's a bit of what it has to say:

"The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of novels by Orson Scott Card that revolve around the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who discovers he has incredible powers for creating and shaping things around him. It takes place in an alternate history of the American frontier in the early 19th century, to some extent based on early American folklore and superstition."

It's so interesting to see how things could have happened, if the founders of our country weren't such dicks. And there had been magic. Really, I just love everything I've read by OSC (except for Empire), and can't recommend him highly enough.

I know it's been 3 months since I updated. Would it help if one of my resolutions was to post more often?
eh.
I've been working tons at World Market, so the only interesting thing that's happened in Seattle has been Halloween. Beth and I had quite a bit of fun, decorating and getting dressed up, and even just seeing friends we hadn't talked to in months. I should post pictures... maybe I'll edit this with a few later.

Anyway, the point of the post: we've been in Virginia staying with Beth's family for the last week, and I've gotten more than enough experience with babies between Daniel and Conner. I've compiled a list of things I will be happy if I never have to hear again. Here, let me share it with you: "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," "Pattycake," and the ABC song; talk of poopy anythings, or the consistancy of baby snot; the words "uh-oh Spaghetti-Os" and the use of "pacy" instead of pacifier; Elmo; babies rattling things, mumbling, squealing, screaming, blubbering, crying, wailing, fussing, howling, wailing, screeching, or shrieking. Somehow all of this makes Beth want a baby of her own even more, which is something I will never understand. Yes, they can be cute - when they're not doing any of the above, or spitting up, or crapping all over the place. So, when they're sleeping, I guess. I do get the feeling that any child of mine will spend quite a bit of time sleeping, so I suppose I'm ahead of the game there.

Other than daily tiny-person-induced headaches, it's been a good week. I finally got to meet Beth's cousin Valerie, who has been stationed in S Korea for the last few years. I've geeked out with Beth's brother Chris and cousin Joe (another one, and nearly the same age as I) about computers and video games, played cards with her parents, and pet and played with their assortment of dogs and cats. It will be nice to get home next week, but this is the kind of holiday I never had with my own family. So, weird as it may be, I'm enjoying it.

yeah, I ran a red light on Saturday, but it was the first time I'd driven in the rain and I didn't think I could stop in time. At least it was just with Beth, not a DMV person - though I doubt anyone from the DMV would cover their eyes and scream... that night was great, though - friends, tortilla chips, alcohol, and movies. remind me never to watch Donnie Darko before bed, though. Cupcookcakies seemed to go over very well, for something I had totally made up; big thanks to Beth for making them for me! :D I haven't heard from my parents. though - do you think they forgot?

I had a job interview today, at Half-Price Books, which went pretty well. I didn't say anything totally stupid, or walk out and think "I should have said ____!" The lack of retail in my resume was a hindrance, especially having not worked a real cash register before, but I think I made a pretty good case for myself despite that. I'm waiting to hear back from a few other places, but this is the first interview I've gotten and I would be very happy to work there; employee discounts on already well-priced merch, library-style borrowing for employees, health benefits for full-time employees (which they are looking for), and I co-workers I have to assume should be fairly intelligent. The transportation-by-bus thing worries me, though, since one of the busses I was supposed to take never showed up; at least that was on the way home. Maybe I could carpool, or bike partway? Who knows, I just need to be able to pay some bills; I'll figure out the details later.

Can I just say I love China Mieville? His books are so good I think I may be in love (with the stories, not with him. I've never met him, he lives in England, and he's a dude. But he is a Communist, and has written a non-fiction book on the subject, which is cool). They inspire me to make art, which is always good, right?

Speaking of which, does anyone have old, spare electronics? I have a project in mind, but I don't want to go buy mp3 players just to take them apart. Let me know if you have something that isn't working, I may be interested.

random tidbits:
* 25 days to our Halloween party!
* my fish are dead. I will be restarting the tank from scratch, after buying infected fish from PetSmart.
* As JulianaWriMexico approaches, I feel I should ask: are people more interested in a Harrison Ford parody, or a murder-mystery gang-war comic-con adventure?

Many things have been making me think about the past recently:
*Over the weekend Beth and I went to Portland for my friend Carrie's wedding - you can read Beth's reactions at her journal - which was fairly surreal. Seeing a friend I've known since elementary school get married... just requires a change of thinking about her. I guess it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that people will always be like you remember them, even if you've changed. It was nice to see a few of my friends, but made me realize how little we had kept in contact, especially since we had been so close through school.

*My grandfather died in May, and my dad and I have been talking more often since then (neither of us are good about communication), and discussing parts of family history that I never knew.

*Stephen Colbert had a Lego artist on his show last night, who presented him with a life-sized Lego Stephen. Beth and I talked for about half an hour afterwards about all the Lego stuff we used to have (or want) when we were little, and how many hours we would each spend laboriously following the instructions, then tearing it all apart and building something else entirely when we had finished.

*This morning I found another dead fish in my tank. I miss when I had a bunch of healthy fish :(

*Movies made from cartoons. I've refrained from posting a review of Transformers until I could see it again, which I did last week. Since they came out, I also saw the Simpsons Movie, and TMNT, but haven't gotten around to saying anything about them. I'll fix that now: ( Read more... )

Anyway, after a good dinner and conversation with friends, it's time to start thinking more about the future, and making it be what I want. The first thing I want? Bed.

somehow I survived, and without making a tent in front of the fridge. it's been almost a week since we got back, so I figured I should say something about it - for a quick rundown on how it went, go ahead and click the cut. I promise it will be short and (hopefully) entertaining.

( Read more... )

since we got back, I've been trying to drive a little bit every day, so I can get my license (finally). I'm getting the hang of it, but the multi-tasking (i.e., doing anything while watching for crazy people) is still tough.

Krystal's birthday party was on Saturday, where Beth and I got to see both Dan Nutt and Sam McSam; I don't think we'd even talked to either in over a year. After a (much delayed, due to lack of planning on Krystal's part) BBQ on the beach, we went to the only respectable place to drink in Federal Way - a sports bar. Mojitos are gross, and nothing ruins a nice get-together like dozens of middle-aged people screaming at a TV.

I need to get a job so Beth can stop stressing about bills, but I have a lot of school/personal stuff to take care of first. Maybe instead of updating LJ I should be taking care of that; but if I didn't update, I couldn't complain that nobody reads the entries I actually post, now could I?

until we're seeing Transformers! more on that subject will be posted, I assure you.

How has it been two months since my last post? Let's see... I worked my ass off on art, finals, my grandpa died, graduation, Kristi moved in with Beth & I, we finally had a housewarming party (though we just called it a 'graduation' party), Beth's car broke down again, she finished her school year, my dad and I fixed her car, she died her hair purple, and now we're dread locking it... it's taken about 14 hours so far, and we're maybe half done? The title of this post could apply to her hair, as well. Big thanks to Kristi, Molly, Trevor, and Anna for the help - otherwise I would have been doing it all by myself, and failing as badly as Eric did.

We leave for DC to see Beth's new nephew in just a couple of weeks - while I'm sure it will be great, I'm also apprehensive; I'm a low-temperature kind of guy, and I may actually melt into a puddle while we're over there. She shouldn't be surprised to find me camped out in front of the open refrigerator in my underwear, but I'm sure she'll act shocked when she does. I doubt her parents will be expecting it, though.

Anyway, I need to sleep. Smell you later!

must I tell you that Spoilers Abound? If you've already seen it, or don't care about surprises... ( Read more... )

I guess the worst part was how little story there was compared to the action - now who wants to hear my idea for the next movies?

bonus corporate branding time!

Because I hid it behind a link, some people may have missed the fact that we are ENGAGED. Head on over to her account to help us decide on what we should change our names to. We've only had our rings for a couple of weeks, and I've managed to squish mine - I was helping to move a heavy table, and it suddenly slid against another heavy table. The ring kept my fingers from being crushed, but instead of being round like an O it's kind of flat, like a sad face D:

I got a haircut today. What I really need is a new computer. I've decided mine is old and sucky, but I'm not sure remedy that with an upgrade or replacement. Either way, the money will be coming out of my Transformers budget.

Saturday was busy - I got up hecka early to go to an art event with some other PLU kids. It was a design-oriented portfolio review, hosted by SPU. There were a few dozen design professionals there to go over your stuff, and give you straightforward advice about what you need to work on. Tanya described it as being like speed dating, except instead of flirting with the people you meet they break you down and tell you why your art sucks. It was actually a really valuable experience, and I got some good pointers for my work in general, and some finishing touches to improve my portfolio pieces. You know, when I have the time.

Later, Kristi and Tyler came over for a Pretentious Indie Rock & Cards night, where we listened to Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse, drank, and played Back Alley and King's Corner. She'll be moving in with us for a couple of weeks this summer, which should be nice - though I'll have to give up the playroom I like to call an office. Beth will still be teaching, but I doubt wither of us will really have anywhere to be... maybe we can help each other with art, but maybe we'll just watch a lot of TV.

Because it seems like all the cool kids are doing it, Beth and I started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy - though why it isn't just the 'Dark Materials' series isn't clear yet. Hopefully we can get the first book done in time for the book club review, at the end of May - shouldn't be too hard, since it seems to be going pretty quickly so far. You can help me determine which animal best represents me by taking a very short quiz...


Beth has advised me to make more entries to the ol' El-Jay, but to keep them much shorter, so that people actually read it. I've succeeded on one point, but I think I failed on the other. Can you guess which is which?

It's April already, somehow... it's gone quickly, too, full of exciting events: the Emerald City Comic Convention (which Beth was good enough to go to with me), a trip to Cananada, a large class project culminating in a video shown at a PLU student film festival, Stargate premiers, Beth's birthday, getting engaged, calling the cops on our neighbors a couple more times... no wonder I'm so tired all the time.

I've got this sinus thing going on, which keeps giving me headaches keeps me really sleepy, making it really hard to focus on anything. Consequently I find myself staring at the TV, computer, books, clock, window, whatever, and just... spacing out. It took me like an hour just to write this much. Not good in general, especially since I have a ton of work to do.

Anyone have a Shaun of the Dead DVD I could borrow? I want to emulate the look of the menus for a project, but I can't find any screencaps online. Really, if someone could take the caps themself and email them to me, that would be faster and easier.

it's really not as exciting as it sounds. I went back to Tacoma on Wednesday to work on this big, secret project we've got going for design 492... I will post more on that next week, when details are available. I've been doing some homework, some art I want to do, and more reading than I should. Beth got another book in the Ender series and I've been absorbed by that recently.

Why didn't I post in February? Nothing exciting happened, at least, nothing that I can recall offhand; I'm sure Beth will see this and be all like "what about [this or that]?" and I'll edit this post to include it. You didn't notice I haven't posted in over two months? Well, that shows you how attentive you are. You never even sent an email to see if I was ok!

What is coming up soon... Beth and I are going to Cananada in April, I'll be walking in May, in July we'll be going to Virginia and DC for a couple weeks (and hopefully a few other states to visit friends), August... something's gotta be happening in August, right? I get a real job? Hopefully?

Entertainment-wise, uh... I got (and beat) System Shock 2, by the makers of the Thief series - if you know me, you know my addiction to such things. Hugo Weaving has been confirmed as the voice of Megatron in the upcoming Transformers movie (now I can add him to my "people say I look like Hugo Weaving as ____" jokes); I saw 300, which was awesome; I want to see Ninja Turtles, but haven't gotten a chance yet. BSG's finale was a huge cliffhanger, of course, and we'll have to wait until January 2008 for more; the final episodes of SG-1 start in a couple of weeks, but 2 DVD movies and another spin off series have been confirmed; since we've gotten a cable box, I've started watching a lot of G4, specifically Attack of the Show; Beth's godmother sent us a TiVo, which is both awesome and terrible at the same time - see if you can guess why that might be... Everett is making me a NIN compilation, which I've taken to calling "Beside Everett for 15 Years in Time" in my own head (since the mix is based off of singles and the Beside You in Time tour play list); turns out Beth really likes Rise Against; I've been listening to a lot of Taking Back Sunday, and, on Joe's recommendation, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible.

That reminds me - Joe: ECCC this Saturday, after Greek? Check the website, looks like a pretty good place to be for a day. Let me know, ASAP.

Anyway, the reason I'm up and posting this is that I called the cops on our neighbors. I felt really uncomfortable doing it, but we could hear them shouting through the floor, at nearly midnight. Beth has to get up super-early tomorrow to take the bus to work (her car is broken again - check her post from earlier today for info), so not only was it really annoying and a crappy end to a crappy day, but also kind of frightening. Come to think of it, though, I've had the cops some to bust a neighbor every place I've lived recently - in Hinderlie, they arrested Laurent for drugs; at Byrn Mar, they took the guy away for the night on domestic abuse charges... they didn't find the people who were fighting tonight, but I'm afraid they may be called back in the future for similar reasons.

Enough typing, though; I'm tired, and the battery is telling me to post this and head to bed. Goodnight, friends list. Goodnight, Moon. Goodnight, kitties, in the room. Goodnight, table; goodnight, chairs. Goodnight, clean laundry, your socks in pairs.

EDIT: OK, so something cool did happen in February- I submitted a poster for a contest, and ended up winning 1st place & $100. woo!
We also got a new coffee table, which took Anna & Molly a while to realize when they came over.

Well, we've moved. we had some great help doing it, and still have some clean-up to do at the old place, but we're now in Tukwila. Of course, packing/moving/unpacking had to happen right after an already crazy week filled with terrible weather and hazardous conditions, but that just makes driving a U-Haul truck more fun, right? Ice makes everything better...

Of course, I haven't really gotten any of the work I was hoping to get done over break accomplished, which means I will have to get my butt into gear on overdrive to get it all finished before spring semester starts - but I just got my new Wacom tablet and it calls to me, "play with me, use the wireless pen on my pressure-sensitive surface, doodle in photoshop for hours and hours..." How shall I resist it's siren song?

Speaking of songs, another Joe has a band that's playing soon, and he put up their demo mp3s on his LJ. Seems like every Joe but me is doing something musical, and guitar/bass-related... whats up with that? Do I need to go get Guitar Hero just to fit in again? Anyway, more entertainment news: Dresden Files is good, so go ahead and watch the first episode on the site; Battlestar Galatica did not end tonight; Heroes returned; LOST continues in February and the Stargates return in April (then one ends :( ); Pan's Labyrinth is a stunning, incredibly rich fairy tale with some incredibly dark edges - it is both beautiful, and incredibly violent. If you like Neil Gaiman, check it out. It is subtitled, though, so be prepared for a lot of Spanish. About all I got was "zapatos."

On the subject of consumer goods (I need to fire my transition writer), please go read this blog entry about a scented cell phone... it's just so ridiculous I had to share! The only real reason I can think of for this is to attract the opposite sex - research has proven that women are drawn to certain scents (pumpkin pie, cookies, various fruit mixtures) and men are attracted to certain others (ribs, bacon, steak, french fries)... and according to certain sources, scent is closely tied with memory; you may forget that person on the phone every day on the bus, but you would certainly remember them when you smelled the scent of their phone again - maybe enough to talk to them next time?

I wonder what scents people associate with me? Do I want to know? If you've made it this far, comment with something that reminds you of me - a scent, a song, a movie, a TV show, a book, a place, cars that turn into robots, a certain group of misfits with special powers dedicated to protecting those who fear and/or hate them...

and therefore a new month, allowing me to post once again within a week and yet technically have it still "once a month or so." There's a Futurama quote about technicalities that I will spare you.

Last night at this time I was in Seattle with Beth and a ton of other people, most of whom I had not seen for months. We were also all fairly drunk, which made a good party fairly awesome. Too bad the host was in the hospital :( Feel better, Girl-Joe! Well, much fun was had in her absence, and many well wishes were aimed at her to make us feel better about drinking her booze, eating her food, and playing with her Wii. Yes, you read that correctly. You know, I'm not sure there are that many people who regularly read my flist that weren't at the party... but if you weren't there, you missed Beth & I, Everrett, Joe-Dude, Molly&Trevor, Anna&Lucas, KJ, Marion, and a bunch of people Girl-Joe knew from high school. I was very glad to see everyone, even the people I didn't think I would enjoy talking to that much - it was just that kind of a night. So, Girl-Joe, you missed one heck of a party, which I'm sure you knew already.

My sleep schedule is totally messed up now, having been out until about 4am (and I'm sure most people's are too) but it was totally worth it. I don't know how long we slept, but I wasn't able to do a whole lot but read, help Beth with a puzzle, and turn a fuzzy poster into an ad for Captain Morgan. Not what anyone would call productive, but a good goof-off day.

As for resolutions, I haven't really come up with anything monumental... so I guess for know I'll go with "be more bat-tastic." Since I can't think much past the bright colors and jingly-key hypnotism of my own icon. oooh, icon...

Joe-Dude, the story I was going to ask you about in Fragile Things was "How Do You Think It Feels?" Go read it, and the rest of the book.

I really should update more than once a month... but I just get so busy! Break has been great; Beth has actually been home for more than a few hours a day, we've had time to relax and do some puzzles and I've read a couple of books already - Michael Crichton's "neXt," Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and "Fragile Things" and we just picked up "Speaker for the Dead," part of Orson Scott Card's Ender Series. neXt and both the Gaiman books were all excellent - Crichton is back in top form, and Gaiman is, as always, Gaiman. All are recommended. I convinced Beth to watch the Gargoyles DVDs I got last Spring - to my surprise she has actually really enjoyed them, and insisted we watch the next one (and the next, and the next) each time one ends.

Speaking of Beth, she got me a bunch of clothes - several sweaters, and some dressy shirts - verifying my fear that I cannot properly dress myself... We went to the mall and I got some pants, as well, that fit me better and hopefully make me look a bit more adult. Christmas went well - we made gingerbread cookies (including hippopotamus-shaped ones, thanks to Anna - and hence the subject line) and fudge, and had way too many sweets. We didn't put up lights, but Beth let me get a Nightmare Before Christmas advent calendar that we put up but the tree... although we had to take it back. There was a little fake tree we had bought and decorated, the cats kept tearing it down to chew on the fake (FAKE!) pine needles. We got a nice (real) wreath, and decorated that, though. It was kind of weird, though, decorating for Christmas and packing the apartment at the same time. What? I haven't mentioned...? Oh right, it's been a month. We applied at an apartment in Tukwila (!), hoping to move in mid-January. It's only about 20 minutes away from Beth's school, and it's on a bus line, so... I should be able to get to PLU fairly easily? I will only be commuting 3 days each week, though, so that's not too bad.

Before I get too off-track, though, the rest of the month: my parents came up for Thanksgiving, which went alright; Beth and I made game hens, and they brought the side dishes. It was a bit awkward; they aren't a big fan of us living together (they're old-fashioned that way), but kept nice about it. My grandfather had been in the hospital for a while then (and still is), so my dad was a bit distracted... which is understandable. Beth's dad came out from Virginia for her graduation, and stayed with us for a couple of days. He's a lot of fun, and Beth's gradimication went pretty well. I got tendonitis during dead week from spending so much time clicking around in Illustrator for my design projects - someone remind me to post those, BTW. Anyway, I couldn't do a whole lot with my right hand there for a while, and had to wear a wrist brace; it still hurts if I use it wrong, too. Like typing too much... I had to take a couple of incompletes, so I really should work on those instead of LJ, but since I don't keep in contact with people as much as I would like, I feel I need to do this. And so I have...

Hopefully my ruminous, rambling recap wasn't too hard to follow, or have too many mistakes - I'm not going to spell-check it, since that would take away from the gritty realism I was going for. Or something. So, for anyone to whom I did not say it, "have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, a Krazy Kwanzaa, a Tip-Top Tet, and a solemn, eventful Ramadan. Now, over to my god, our sponsors."

Oh, and anyone know what's up for New Year's with Seattle? Molly? Joes? Anyone?

today I spent 5 hours in ceramics, and saw a therapist about some drugs. Adult Swim put the new shows on the Fix a few days early, and my neighbor may have just been arrested by the police, hopefully never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.

Many rescued as flooding overwhelms rivers
blah blah "Officials at Mount Rainier National Park, which had more than 10 inches of rain in the 24 hours ending Monday afternoon"... "expect worse conditions than in 2003, when flooding caused $17 million in property damage in Concrete and 3,400 households were evacuated" blah blah... "As of early Monday afternoon, Stampede Pass on the Cascade crest east of Seattle had more than 8 inches of rain in the previous 24 hours,while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport recorded nearly 4 inches.Most rivers were expected to crest Tuesday."

I left the house yesterday morning and was soaked by the time I got to school... my pants never dried out, and I went through a couple pairs of shoes. The puddles that always form around campus were back in force, though not as bad as they were a few years ago - people were able to swim in the lake in front of the UC, which reached to the front doors and covered the bench of the clock tower. Maybe we'll get there yet. Beth has to drive up to Seattle in this crap, so while walking in the rain sucks, I'm really more concerned for her and her little car. But how am I going to transport large art projects now?

Is anyone else exhausted all the time? Especially since the time change, I've just been out of energy... maybe it's cuz I'm busy? Between a full load of classes (including many ceramics projects, lots of design homework, tons of reading for CORE2 and an essay due this Thursday, and an art history class that goes through two dozen works each day that I have to be able to identify on sight which is why I was up most of the night CRAMMING for the exam), plus two jobs (mostly Impact, though I thought it would be much easier - some clients are just too damn picky, while not really knowing what they want; anyway, Events hasn't been much of a problem besides staying awake with nothing to do early in the morning), having some kind of life outside of school (even if it's just hanging out with Beth, we still need to take care of food, clean laundry, clean home, and two cats [one of which INSISTS ON BEING IN MY LAP WHILE I WORK - you're not helping, Rosie!] who won't stop fighting), having some time to myself guilt-free seems to be too much to ask right now. I'm sure many people have it much worse, but I'm on a roll with the complaining, so shut up.

I haven't heard back as to whether I can actually graduate in December or not... I found out Beth's dad is coming over from Virginia to see her walk in December with cap, gown, hood, sleeves, shoes, pants, and whatever the hell else they're gonna give her. Since my damn adviser, with whom I had made special arrangements regarding my major, is on sabbatical, we'll see if he's willing to help me, or if I have to go through it all again with someone else... I have capstone stuff from last year, and some other stuff from before (London, etc; hence "special arrangements"), that I need to finish if I'm actually going to be graduating, but with all the above stuff I'm barely finding time to keep up, let alone catch up on old work (and don't lecture me about how I'm updating my LJ instead of studying, I need to get this out [and take a nap] before I get back into work).

I'm thinking I might just let it slide until spring, and be able to deal with the old stuff at once without having new things piling up on me as well. I also want to take Design 396, which would get me the art minor for sure, and if I only have that to get done, I can actually devote the time needed to both the art projects and to the catch-up. Plus, I could probably keep working at Impact and building my portfolio and whatnot... although I wouldn't qualify for any financial aid, because I would only be taking 4 credits... and as good as that all sounds to me, I haven't discussed any of this with Beth (hi, hon!), who is going nuts stuck here in Parkland... As I said earlier, she drives all the way up to Seattle so I can be close to school - keeping her here another semester is not at all fair to her, but will I be able to commute all the way from West Seattle thrice weekly on the bus? Eeg. But at this point, it's all I can think of... besides, if I graduate in May it will be A) sunny, B) for me (as selfish as it sounds, Beth has already had a graduation to herself), and C) I'm pretty sure Kristi and I could walk together! We're both School of the Arts students, and our names are alphabetically close, so we can at least be near each other if we can't choose our own spots. That would be nice, since she's one of the few people I know well (let alone am good friends with) at PLU anymore :/ ... BAAH! Life, why must you suck so much?!

Anyway, on with the sweet, sweet escapism:
TV: still Heroes, Dr Who, Battlestar Galactica, and Venture Bros (though it is now on hiatus until spring), and I've added Metalocalypse! Dan Nutt should be all about this show, if he isn't already

Movies I've seen recently: uh, I guess just The Prestige, in the theater... a few more on TV and on video/DVD. Prestige was good, though haunting, and with a fairly twisted end. But hey: Wizard Batman vs Magical Wolverine

Comics: Y the Last Man, Invincible, Exiles, Nextwave, the new X-Factor series, and the whole Ultimate Universe (though I haven't read any of them in about a year)

Recent music: Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, My Chemical Romance, David Bowie, 311, New Found Glory, more stuff from Mashuptown.com... which reminds me I still have a lot to do on my informational design project...

...and what did I do to celebrate? Not a whole lot, unfortunately. Well, Beth and I made and decorated spooky cookies, but we didn't get dressed up or go anywhere cool. Next year? Or perhaps a random day of my own choosing...

What we did do was a whole lot of cleaning. The apartment (especially the office) looks much better now, and we've gone through most of the mail that had been lost under the couches and such. I got us a new router (with wireless!) and got that setup for Beth to use the internets. Contrary to popular belief, there isn't just one - there's a whole series of tubes. I used them to download a bunch of music, mostly Hallowee-related stuff; check out Ghost Town, Essential Ghoul, and Senses Working Overtime for some great music (no matter what time of year it is) especially relevant around this time. ALSO: the yearly mashup collaboration returns with Bride of the Monster Mashup, and its bonus set, the Evil Twin of Monster Mashup. Tracks can be obtained for free, legally, either individually, or as megamix sets (~1 hour of stuff, party-ready). Maybe I should have posted those links before the weekend?

Anyway, I've had to keep close track of every song I've heard (CD, MP3, radio, TV, over the PA at the store) all weekend for an art project; not only is is difficult to keep track of al the information, but it is super distractiong! Every few minutes, having to stop readin/working/goofing off to write down whatever song I just heard. At least if I'm listening to my own playlists I can go back and get the info. Stupid TV. I still have a bunch of work to do - a design project due today, reading notes for tomorrow, work for Impact on Wednesday, ceramics at the end of the week, an essay next week... that's all in addition to taking care of apartment stuff/cats/Beth.

Several of the ceramics pieces I did have been fired, as well as some of Kristi's - they look OK, though not how I expected them too. Hopefully the others will come out better, and I can be more careful with things in the future. Speaking of Kristi, she should be getting back from Hawaii today - the cldest day yet! Hoo! How about that frost? Good times walking to school, uphill both ways today! trackchk02 and shadow_frost probably already have several feet of snow, but they can SHUT UP! If it means we get snow down here this winter, I can put up with it.

This has been the most I've posted in quite a while, so I should quit before expectatins are raised any further. Let me just end by saying Venture Brothers has become one of my favorite shows now, and I am hooked on Heroes, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica as well. TV is good to me. I'm sorry, TV, I didn't mean what I said earlier!

I only skimmed this piece about the death of cursive handwriting (I was totally ahead of the curve on this front--I haven't written anything in cursive in about five years, except my signature) ANYWAY, the scariest thing about this was the woman who teaches gifted-and-talented third-graders saying (emphasis mine), "Cursive -- that is so low on the priority list, we really could care less." It's COULDN'T. COULDN'T CARE LESS. ARRRRRRRRRGH! Not just a teacher, but a gifted and talented teacher, saying this. I... ugh *holds head in hands*
~stolen from devildoll edited by me

So apparently Bush's Preemption Doctrine now includes space.... Is it ironic that the president signed this order stating that "the United States would oppose the development of treaties or otherrestrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space," or just sad that he thinks this country is so much better than any others that space is inherantly ours? Although, with our track record/popularity with the other countries on this planet, maybe we had better be prepared for stopping attacks from those pesky Martians before they happen, too.
~stolen from trackchk02 edited by me