Letter of Intent.

I don't want to write it. I don't know how to write it. I wish I had known about this earlier. I guess it is my fault, but they also conveniently and completely failed to mention it when they went over the requirements for the BFA Application. They mentioned basically everything except the letter of intent, I think.

So thats why I'm writing it now, when it is due tomorrow. Or rather not writing it now, because I don't know what to say. Or, most specifically, how to start.

I'm missing dance for this?

I have to get into the Illustration BFA program. That is what will make it all worth it. I need to keep telling myself this.

Besides, there is still August.

*headache*

Thumb drive Nightmare

I haven't really put up any entries lately, but thats because so much has been going on. And I haven't had a whole lot to say. But I guess I could tell you all about my thumb drive nightmare, because it was pretty exciting.

Our most recent project in my Intermediate Computer Applications (for Artists) class was to illustrate a fairy tale together--my teacher found a fairy tale and divided it into 20 sections and each of us chose/was assigned a section to illustrate. We needed to do a good job on these, because the whole story with our illustrations would be put up in the Juvelile section of the library.

I worked very hard on my illustration. My normal tendency would have been to procrastinate a bit more (though not until the last minute! I'm not that bad!) but since I'd never really used photoshop (the program we were required to do it in) and the picture would be on display I wanted it to be my best work. So from the day I knew which part of the fairy tale I would be working on I started work on my picture.

The day before the picture was due I had some problems saving it onto my thumbdrive, which had never really given me any significant problems before. I kept getting an error message telling me that there was not enough space on the drive. I ended up deleting all old/obsolete files, e-mailing the important ones to myself, and deleting an uneeded layer of my picture before it would finally save. Doing all this took time that I would have been in my D&C class.

Fortunately, mom was visiting that day. After hearing a long tearful account of my thumbdrive woes, she took me to the computer section of the bookstore and got me a new, bigger thumb drive. Halelujah, I thought.

So the next day I moved all my files from my old thumb drive to my new one. Most of them I still had in the form of e-mail attachments, except, of course, my fairy tale illustration file, which is like ten times to big to be attached to any normal e-mail.

The next day I planned to watch the George Pratt demonstration. I went to the HFAC early and worked in the computer lab to put the finishing touches on my illustration before printing it to be hung that night. When the demonstration was going to start, I saved the file and went up to watch the demonstration, but it turned out not to be in the place I thought it was going to be. Rather than wander around, I went back to the computer lab to finish my illustration.

It wouldn't open.

It kept giving me an error message:"This file was created in a different version of photoshop and cannot be opened on this computer." A different version of photoshop? No way! I was sitting at the exact same computer I had just saved it from less than twenty minutes before!

Well, long story short, the file had become corrupted. And I had backups of all of my other, less important files, but not that one, not the one that was due in a few hours. I tried whatever I could think of to recover the file--opening it on a differend computer, in a different program, anything... nothing.

So I started over.

But I only had a couple hours, and the illustration didn't look presentable in the least. Since I had done the whole picture before and figured out the program in the process I got much further than I would have done, but even so, the illustration looked... bad.

So in class that night I told my teacher what had happened and, fortunately she was very understanding about the whole situation. She told me that I had until the next Friday to have something up.

A week. I could finish again in a week.

I won't go into all the details of how it happened, but in trying to recover my original illustration file, the one that I had started new with ended up getting ruined. So I had to start over again over again.

And I swear the new thumb drive mom got me hates Mac programs, because it ruined my Indesign File, as well as both Photoshop ones. So I have another thumbdrive, and I'm saving all my files on BOTH, as well as e-mailing them when possible, to prevent another nightmare like this from happening.

So yesterday I finally got the illustration up with the others. And it looks.... not very good. Especially when I compare it to the piece that I was actually able to put the time into. But I did learn my lesson with this.... NEVER TRUST YOUR THUMB DRIVE.

Wanna play?

I've seen this meme passed around different places, so now I'm actually going to participate! But you gotta follow the rules...

Here are the rules...
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! This offer does have some limitations:

1. You will not know what it's going to be, and there are no guarantees that you will like what I make! It may be something simple and small or I may go crazy and do something amazing.

2. It’ll be done this year. Translation: you may be waiting a little while. (And you may have to keep remindming me. You know how organized I am...)

3. Most importantly, you must offer the same deal on your blog - the first 5 people to comment on your blog (or Facebook or whatever, if you don't have a blog) get something made by YOU!



Random Experimental Artwork which may or may not look presentable is what you're likely to get from me--just sayin'.


And just because I just posted something five minutes ago doesn't mean you shouldn't scroll down and look at that post too.

BRAIN IS EXPLODING WITH AWESOME.

Just got back from listening to a lecture by George Pratt. Well, lecture isn't really the word for it... something like "overload of visual awesomeness" would be a more fitting term.

Behold: http://www.georgepratt.com/


He's doing a demo tomorrow morning. I have class... who cares? Now-or-never demo or twice a week class?

Do you really need me to tell you the answer to that question?

Green at the White House

You know, holiday celebrations are fun and all that, but I think this is just a little excessive. Whos gonna clean it? What is the die gonna do to the little critters when it goes down the drain?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5007158/White-House-fountains-run-green-for-St-Patricks-Day.html

Life is good.

Insanely busy, yes. Often stressful, definitely. But good... undoubtably.

Had another very good week. And, if I stay on task this weekend and don't play around TOO much, next week should be pretty good as well.

Part of this good mood is probably due to the fact that its Friday. My schedule Monday-Thursday is INSANE (less than 3 hours of in-between time through the day) and Fridays is a sudden, blissful emptiness of no classes.

TGIF :-)

Why are Cornelia Funke's books so long? I feel like I'm not getting any reading done because it takes forever to get through all those pages...

What will I read next? I have a hugely long list of books to read, and there are at least five that are fighting for the top position...

In my Illustration 1 class our second still life will be due next monday. This one is in color (Halelujah!)

I found my phone!

Last week was less happy than it would have been because of missing-phone frustration. But it has been found! Hoorah!

On a Star Lit Night

On a star lit night
Was a girl in white
Sitting right in the middle of the moon

And that girl in white
From that splendid height
Took flight down the path between the stars

Over cobweb cloud
Over forest proud
She bowed, looking ‘neath the star-strewn sky

For a flower white
Blooming in the night
She had dropped from her perch up on the moon

Over barn and spring
Over folded wing
Searched the girl, for her flower made of stars

Toward its shim’ring light
Gladdened by the sight
Did she soar, dropping down from purple sky

Taking up the bloom
Rising through the gloom
Of the dawn, toward the slowly sinking moon

From her lofty perch
Tired from her search
Watched the girl as the fading of the stars

Took away the night
And the dawns first light
Sang its song of brightness in the sky
And the girl laid down to wait for night.





Most of this poem was written in the last hour and fifteen minutes or so. Beacause the rhythm planted itself in my head out of nowhere while I was work. (Nowhere! I was shelving books and dusting and helping customers like a good little bookstore personage! I wasn't reading poetry or anything!)

Edits entirely possible, I'm not entirely happy with it... suggestions?

Complimentary, my dear.

Today was a day full of wonder and excellence.

Until I look back on it and realize that, while it was somewhat above average, the only real difference was feeling so happy. Maybe it was getting so many worries off my chest this weekend (Symposium speech, job interview, first swing team performance--all of which went quite well, yes, thanks for asking).

I slept in over an our later than I usually do this morning. This has a very simple explanation. I use my phone for an alarm clock--on vibrate under my pillow, so hopefully Caitlin isn't any more disturbed by my waking up than she needs to be. Well, I lost my phone yesterday. And Inkheart is a more gripping book than I was planning on, which I read before bed last night.

So I was about 40 minutes late to Intermediate Life Drawing this morning.

How is this good? My teacher lectures the first 30-40 minutes of class. It is all valuable information, etc., but he could really work on the animation in his voice, so I usually end up zoning out anyway. I arrived just as they were breaking up after the lecture and were starting the actual drawing... awesome.

My figure drawing looked decent, I thought. This is a good thing.

It was a beatuiful, blue-sky fluffy-cloud smile-at-the-sun day.

I had two hours before work. I had the leftover half of my ceasar wrap from the day before (delicious), checked e-mail and such, and did a couple quick run-throughs of the speech I'd be giving in my 4:00 class, public speaking. Today was the informative speech, so I would just be delivering a very summarized version of my Friday morning speech.

Work was good. I didn't have that many books to shelve, so I started dusting. I got a good excuse to stop dusting because there were alot of pulls from the shelf I had done and would be more in the next. (Yes, I know alot is supposed to be two words. This is me, not caring :-p so there.) I didn't want Janice to hate me for burying her desk in pulls she hadn't actually asked for, so I just wandered around asking customers if they needed help finding anything (they didn't, usually) and checking to see if the books were out of order (they weren't, usually).

Then I got to leave work early to go to public speaking. I ran down to the Lost and Found on my way (ish) to check if they had my phone... which they didn't. I'll keep checking, though.

Public speaking went very well. I definitely had much more preparation and practice than the others giving their informative speeches that day because I'd written a hugely long paper on the topic and given a presentation four times longer a few days before. I'd forgotten the visual aids I had wanted, which turned out to be a good thing because I probably would have gone overtime if I'd had them. As I went to sit down after the speech, a girl leaned over and whispered, "Wow, that was really good!" and the boy next to her nodded. During the break a couple people talked to me about my speech and complimented me on my choice of topic.

What can I say? Hero's Journey=awesomeness.

XD. (<= :D with squinty eyes.)


After public speaking I went to the Wilk Ballroom for Swing Club lessons. I had half an hour before they started to actually sit and read... oh joy! I wish I could have relaxed more during this time, but I didn't have my phone to check the time so I was wondering whether it was cancelled this week or....? But then people showed up.

Inkheart is exceeding my expectations, random side note. I am sometimes distracted from the story by reconstructing the prose (why didn't she just take that simile all the way to a metaphor? That sentence would flow better if she reversed those elements.... that is such a cliche.) but overall, very good. Mind you, I'm not even halfway though and my opinion could change.

Anyway, swing lessons. Before lessons actually started we were all standing around and the girl next to me said out of the blue, "I love your nose. Its, like, perfectly shaped and proportioned. And, just, yeah." An odd compliment, but I'll totally take it :-)

Today the intermediate group lesson was on girls working within the lead/letting the girls work within the lead. Like, not highjacking exactly, but just the girl taking control for just a couple counts and then letting the guy take up the lead again. All I've really learned to do with dancing is FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW DON'T ANTICIPATE TONE TONE TONE FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW so this was a great lesson. The lesson ended early ish so we had more time for social dancing afterward than we usually do. This was one of those good times where I was asked to dance alot and only sat out a couple songs. One time the swing coach (of the team I'm not on) asked me to dance and commented, "Wow, you're getting so good! You're really improving!" I, uh, did mess up a few times after this, but there is a no-reurns policy on compliments ;-).

Later another swing regular, Ben (there are like at least three swing regulars named Ben, which is fine because it makes the name thing that much easier, except for confusing them with the Dans...) asked me to dance and it was alot of fun. We didn't do any fancy moves or anything, but it was a really interactive eye-contact dance, with lots of silly grins and O RLY? faces and just playing around with simple steps.

Then we headed up for swing team practice. Before practice started a bunch of swing people were standing around in the hall talking and I joined them. Again out of the blue, Ben told me that I had really pretty rosy cheeks. "Whenever I see you, they're so round and pink and rosy, like that picture in the MOA." I knew what picture he was talking about, a very pretty one. The conversation turned to why my cheeks are rosy ("well, you always see me after I've been dancing,") complimenting my beautiful pronounced cheekbones and the classical beauty of my face. We went to team practice before I could start feeling really awkward.

At swing team practice we took a break from doing our routine. We learned that we're going to start learning another routine for an informal competition in a few weeks. We worked on doing a couple moves to use in later routines--one jump-and-spin one that I need to work on my landing for, and one jive one that I caught onto pretty quickly--and left early.

I had leftover Thai Ruby for dinner, thanks to the beautiful Caitlin. I love my roommates, especially the ones that feed me. :-)

Now I will do my reading for D&C, read Inkheart, and sleep.

GUESS WHO WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER TODAY.

(And guess who isn't doing homework right now in order to tell you about it.)


I actually completely forgot that I was going to be in the paper until this evening. There was just so much going on these last few days that it slipped my mind.

Monday nights I have my Beginning Social Dance class. My teacher usually asks us to tell stories about our weekends, which I didn't do because I didn't have much of a story. We all separated out and were about to start class when the teacher said, "Oh yeah! One of your classmates was in the paper today. Sarah, why don't you tell them about why you were in the paper."

So I did.

The article is here: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/71483

I don't particularly like the way the part about me is worded, but there isn't really anything I can do for it. I just wish they would have let me write the paragraph summarizing the topic of my paper myself. Then it wouldn't use the words "technique" or "create", which aren't really correct.

< / nit picky >

Yes mom, I picked up five actual copies of the paper, in case you would want them for some strange reason.