Photoshop, Destroyer of Visions

So based on the title you can probably guess that Photoshop crashed on me today why I was trying to do the most rudimentary exercise: drawing with the pencil cursor (gasp!). So today's image is a bastardization of the original, a small snippet saved with the 'print screen' button. Anyway, it's better than nothing.

I've reached the point in my Physics class where I've gone from the meadow of unsteady, yet capable, understanding into the forest of confusion and despair. I concede that my prior success was in part due to people close to me pointing out aspects of the content that were visible to all but myself. Suffice it to say, I'm not a physics person.

Caffeine as a motivational shock prod has failed me this week (see prior posting), and I'm unable to focus on my assignments. I write to you now from a flaming aircraft in free-fall, with a constant acceleration in the y-axis of -9.8 meters a second. There is no velocity in the x-axis. Impending doom has a displacement of -86,000 meters. How long does the pilot have to eject before his plane experiences some of Newton's Neatest Laws of Physics?

U&eye R Solemates

Apparently word has gotten out that I like coffee. My mom and step-dad got me a Starbucks gift card for my birthday. The bad news is that I have the willpower of an infant and found myself buying coffee from the barista twice yesterday with my fancy pancy card.

Looks like I'm cramped for time so the rest of this entry will be less flowery prose than that which you have grown accustomed.

Ode to the Caffeine Titan:

He stirs in the depths, blind and massive
Mausoleum-backed and marble-skinned
He grabs hold of the paper cup
And pulls himself upright
No more time for deathlike slumber
On to bigger and brighter things
He builds vast works with one hand
And topples empires with the other

He fills his head with raw ideas
And jumps river banks in spectacular fashion
Alone and worthless, or surrounded, or dubious,
He makes his friends and enemies as they come

Drinker of All Things

Important note: coffee does not create motivation.

I think it's taken me a decade to learn this, and only then just because someone told me so.

In related news, I seem to be weaving a small quilt of mild addictions and things that I cannot do without. Each is a precious little square that represents a small investment of my time and soul.

Among those are two web-comics, two online forums, web-game sites, and a site that plays music. Funny how much I sink into this internet thing. I used to strut around patting myself on the back for avoiding it so well.

Here's to you, blog reader. Cheers.

Jacket

Had a good, long weekend. My family came up to celebrate my birthday. There was plenty of food and conversation to go around. Good times.

I took my dad to the Franklin Park Conservatory on Saturday. He had a good look around and decided that his dream-house would have its own tropical grotto resplendent with waterfalls and songbirds.

I also took him to my secret park: the acres-upon-acres of endless mowed grass that would make any land developer salivate. And all empty, save for the microscopic blob in the distance that may or may not be someone walking a dog.

Before he left, Dad vowed that he would finish walking the mountain trail that so thoroughly beat us to a pulp almost two months ago. We walked six grueling miles that day and ended up turning back before reaching the end. I hope he goes for it; Our family honor is at stake.

Behavioral Modifier

Probably the most-spoken thing I've uttered to my teachers and classmates this week has been that I'm putting in a lot of hours, but seeing no returns. As I harvest the new crop of grades that define how I'm doing, it's not looking as good as I would have hoped. As it stands, I'm sub-par in some areas.

But I'm still putting in the time, doing the assignments, ect. It's reaching the point where I'm seeing the applications of mathematic and physics equations surfacing in all aspects of life. I walk to class on a series of interconnected hypotenuses, and find that no matter what sum I pour into the functions of relationships, schoolwork, art, the result is consistently zero.

Wind and Leaves

Our garage-turned-living-space creaks alarmingly in this wind. Every time there's a strong gust, I half-expect the walls to come down on my head. But there are worse things than this and our new home continues to provide us with all the little comforts we need. I daydream about it growing new rooms though, not the sort that you'd find in a real home, but things like a workroom with vast empty tables, an art gallery, a coffee shop, and a room containing a comfy chair and giant window.

Who knows, maybe this pseudo-house will start growing someday soon.

Waiting in Line for Coffee

I find myself ever aware when I am lured into the Starbucks drive-through that I'm setting myself up to wait 10 minutes for coffee. Good coffee, albeit pricey in both time to acquire and actual greenbacks. Today though, I scope out my real favorite coffee-shop haven: the one in Hagerty Hall. I love their flavored coffee, and a token in my wallet is redeemable for a free one today. Any size I want. Yeah.

Diversions into caffeine addiction aside, I took my first Spanish 104 exam a few minutes ago and need to debrief at someone before the synapses die down.

I had a hunch to avoid studying for this test over the weekend, and it turns out I was justified in goofing off. The material was pretty easy... possibly the easiest Spanish exam I've ever taken. Though there seems to be some dark shadow permeating this class-- possibly residual nightmares from the Summer of Diez Credito Hueres del Classes Espanol-- a dark time that will haunt this blog for decades. But this time is different. No more marathon weeks of four cram days followed by a exam on the 5th. This was Spanish in digestible morsels. I might actually learn to like speaking Spanish again.

And the bad: we ran out of time. All of us. I don't think there was a single person who actually finished the entire exam. It was page after page of essay-reading, where we had to fill-in-the-blanks in a popular test-taking strategy the military refers to as Seek & Destroy. Unfortunately, this is a slow-going process whenever translation is concerned. Our instructor actually apologized to us and said he's going over to his supervisor to address the issue. Hopefully they'll see mercy on us and toss some extra points back this way.

Have a good Monday.

Follow All Arrows

I've made some really cool artiststic breakthroughs in the past four weeks. Okay, so maybe just one, but last night found me pretty excited. I think I already mentioned it last week, but I've figured out how to mass-produce the things I sculpt via rubber molds. Actually, the two techniques had been laying in my inventory for the better part of a year, I just hadn't gotten around to uniting the concepts until now.

I'm confident that I can finally fill the little diorama worlds I've been building for the past 8 years. People are an integral part of the scenes I make. Whenever I build something 3-dimensional, it's always with the idea that something could inhabit that space, walk around in it.

I've tried being literal in the past, sticking models in these dioramas, but their presence was always a singularity; something that detracted from the environment. It didn't work. I don't think it ever has with my stuff. It makes the work pensive, and lonely. Which sucks-- art tends to skew human qualities, even as it attempts to capture what's going on.

I want to present humanity to you in the way I see it. And finally there is a solution. This ability to easily produce a crowd of little model people inhabiting a space-- that is something completely different for me. I'll see what I can come up with.

Thanks for reading.