The Last Tycoon

Spring Break went a little too fast, for my taste. HOWEVER, coming back to school was not as bad as it could have been. Even though I had to finish my 3D Project, I haven't had too many stressors. My Wellness class is over, so now my Mondays and Wednesdays don't start until 2:30, which is really nice. And as always, I don't have class on fridays. But this week is particularly nice, as Mid Program review for art students is on thursday, so all art classes are cancelled. I'm so glad it's on a day that I have 3 art classes. And on TOP of that, my Digital Imaging class was cancelled today. So basically I come back, and I'm already done by 11 on thursday morning, and then get to go home. Also, I don't have classes next monday. So this is a really huge joke week, but I'm going to appreciate it, because I have a feeling things will pick up a little bit more. I would do as much homework this week as I can, but I literally have very few assignments right now, and I can't go much further with my 2D project without discussing with my teacher. So...I'm just going to take it easy, so there.

On another note, I'm just so excited for summer, and most especially the cabin. I have a feeling it's going to be really awesome this year. But when is it not, really?

(Although, I think we can all agree, Summer '04 was nothing to write home about)

Fortune found me, fate just crowned me, I'm the King of New York!

I believe I am getting sick. Which I would say makes no sense, because I've been eating super healthy, and you'd think that I would be anything BUT unhealthy, but I probably haven't been sleeping quite like I should be. Late nights, or all-nights, it's bad news bears. It probably also doesn't help that it is 3 in the morning as I write this, but in my defense, it's daylight savings. I'm not sure really why I'm writing about this specifically, because everybody gets sick, bfd, but if you haven't noticed, I'm into posting lately. I believe it keeps me healthy. Mentally, clearly not physically.

It's all over Danny Bailey

I couldn't find any rubber bands, so I tied my carrots with a red ribbon. Which will make my next snack feel like Christmas!!

On my way out, I was even going to shake his hand, but just in time, I remembered that I had killed a man

I just wanted to give a shout-out to my novelty items today. I got back from class early, and I noticed, (as I was in a rush this morning) that my breakfast dishes happened to be comprised my favorite novelty dishes.

A little grody, I know, but I was seriously in a rush, and I can guarantee that they are rinsed now.

Obvs, just the ones in the foreground, the James LEGO mug which held coffee (which, as I mentioned on facebook, I'm getting addicted to for the caffeine, as I gave up pop for lent) and my clone wars bowl, and lightsaber spoon. Who knew breakfast could be so awesome?!

Mario and the Magician

Corey Haim died! No ways man. World, don't you know that when you kill Corey Haim you kill "the Corey's"?!? If I had to choose, he would be the one I'd save. I have a soft spot for him because of Lucas. Which, crazy enough, I was thinking about yesterday. And then he dies today. This seems to always happen with celebrity deaths.

Speeeeaking of the 80's I will treat you all with Kenny Loggins' "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" music video. It is excellently bad (I looked it up: "Excellently" IS a word) in it's quality, and just straight up excellent in it's jammin' out potential. And cameo by Virginia Madsen! Enjoy.

On another note, it looks like I will most likely be rooming with my friend from first semester drawing, Maddi, next year. I believe I have mentioned her before on here, when I wrote about the day trip to Minneapolis last semester. I'm excited about it, although it's only 99.9% happening (.1% is still a percent), to have a roommate most likely nailed down for next semester. It might be nice to have a roommate who is also an art major, as current roommate doesn't seem to understand what it's like to be in said major. Speaking of whom, she seems to be antagonizing me lately. Like, just being pick-y towards me. I can tell that she's just trying to joke around, but c'mon, there's a limit. If anyone has ever observed my relationship with Lizzie, I can only take so much of one person pushing my buttons, my greatest pet peeve ever. Getting back to roommate, I can only be expected to watch so much TV with her and get all of my homework done, and I'd like her to understand that without having a pissy attitude about it. She did tell me I have nice legs, but that won't excuse her from all the sass. Just saying y'allz, it's getting on my nerves.

And lastly, project is going well. I made the seahorse (if I haven't mentioned, that is the project- making a cardboard animal, and I am doing a seahorse) smaller (which also means it's cuter), and I have a great idea for the environment, which will hopefully work out. I'm really going to pay attention to detail this time, and now that I have done it once, I kind of know what not to do. I don't want to give myself false hope. I hope I'm not.

There's a Starman Waiting in the Sky

I was in a magnificent mood today, probably because of the delightfully gloomy weather. But I have a full week ahead of me, and I've started work on Cardboard animal 2.0.

I just wanted to share one of my purchases from the co-op this evening:

Only a few people will appreciate why this is awesome. And obvs. it's flipped around, but I'm sure everyone is more than capable of reading backwards.

The Judgement of Midas

I had a bad week, as you all know if you read my last post, and I just felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I'm still not used to having 3 studio classes at the same time, as well as keeping up in my seminar class which I feel terrified to fall behind in. Unfortunately so many things ended up being due last week, which resulted in my sanity being tested, and my emotions being pushed to the edge. I still felt horrible on thursday, but decided that instead of sitting in my room moping I thought I should go and have fun with my friends (who all sympathized with me and made me feel a lot better, and are willing to help me with my project to get it done and make it look good on time) and take a break from the non-stop schoolwork I'd been doing all week that was causing me to go insane and causing me to be so emotional. We went to Sketch-Off which is a fundraiser where some of the Art Department faculty have a large scale game of pictionary, meanwhile Lars (my 3D design professor...) makes merciless fun of all of the drawings and insults them, because if you haven't been able to tell by now, that's what he does best. Even though he's hilarious and I respect his opinion, he is mean without warrant sometimes. It was fun, and we had a good laugh, and it took my mind off of things. And on Friday, Krista, Beth and I hung out and watched the Office because we missed it the night before, and we decided to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone, because Krista has NEVER SEEN ANY OF THE MOVIES OR READ THE BOOKS, and I've been wanting to expose her to Harry Potter for some time. It was weird watching with someone who had such little basis for the story. Then Beth and Krista slept over in my room and we went to brunch the next day, I did homework ALL day, we went to dinner, made brownies, watched SNL, I worked more on homework while watching the Godfather (which makes ANYTHING more enjoyable) and then this morning we made brunch down in the basement, and I've just been doing homework all day.

I know this post seems very play-by-play, but I just want to let people to know that I'm feeling much better after wednesday, and my friends are helping me through it, and it really helps that everyone is being very supportive of me getting this project done and shoving it in my professor's face. I have a plan to try to get it done and awesome-looking in just one week, which will involve me pulling an all nighter on tuesday night, and then again on thursday night (especially since I don't have class on friday, so I can just keep going if I need to, or take a nap if necessary) and then have a couple of late nights next weekend, maybe pull an all nighter on saturday, but we'll see. I know that plan won't make a lot of people happy, but I feel good about from where I'm standing, and I know I can handle it if I sleep on the days in between, and get some good naps in. I feel it's going to be the only way, and I'll watch movies and tv shows so I will feel better about it (the prospects of watching something while I stay up late make me almost look forward to staying up all night. Watching Back to the Future two times really helped on tuesday night) and it won't be so bad pulling an all nighter if it's not the night before a project is due. Plus, I will probably enlist help from my friends, as I said to do all the work they can without it being considered cheating. (They're allowed to cut cardboard, but not apply anything to the actual project.) I'm going to try to have a really positive attitude about this week, and what I have ahead of me, because after next monday when the project is due, I will only have one week until spring break.

Go Speedracer go.

Your life depends on it

I've never cried because I've felt so embarrassed and disappointing; and maybe it's the fact that I haven't slept since Monday night, and I know I won't be able to sleep again until Thursday night, and won't get the break I thought I would for weeks now. I am so embarrassed by my cockiness, and my feeling invincible; and when I was brought back down to earth, even though I agree with the criticism of myself, I privately couldn't handle it.

My first 3d project was an utter failure. An utter and complete failure. This doesn't mean that I got a failing grade, I'm literally doing the entire thing over because what I've just "finished" is probably the worst thing I've ever made, and I can't believe I made it in college, and not, say, 4th grade. The worst part is, my professor publicly agreed, and was the first one to bring it up. He said that he was proud that I could handle that kind of criticism, and I was surprised myself, but then I felt like crying. Partly because he embarrassed me (he had every right) but because I embarrassed myself, and we all know that's totally worse, because that's all on you.

I don't think anyone could be more disappointed in me more than I am in myself right now. I came back to my dorm room and cried, and as I said, maybe it's because I haven't had any sleep since monday night (and now my most previous all-nighter was in vain), but I couldn't handle the thought that I'd failed for the first time in college. As I said, this has nothing to do with grades, as I get to re-do the entire project, but I failed my abilities, and I know I could do so much better.

Lay the real thing on me

I forgot to set my alarm for this morning? Get your head in the game, Royce.

More on that later.

Utah 1912

It's a new record, people: 3:30 p.m. I slept until 3:30 p.m. Although, I must admit, this was no un-interrupted sleep. Roommate called me at about 11:30 and told me that her parents were coming by to drop off food for her, so I needed to get up and un-lock the door. So I did, but then went back into my bed, and eventually fell back asleep after awhile. Then I woke up, looked across the room at roommate's clock thought it said 1:30, and I was like "oh well, I could have done worse" then looked at my phone which said 3:30, and realized I had indeed done worse. Granted, I went to bed around 3 a.m., I've never even slept this late when I go to bed at 5 a.m.

I digress. I just wanted to post mostly to take about my deep love for like 90% of my subject lines. If you haven't noticed, with the exception of once or twice, they have no relevance whatsoever to the posts themselves. I consider myself a collector of phrases-- whenever I hear or read something that I think has a certain interest to it, I like to save it for a later date when I post a blog. Or I take the opportunity to make an obscure pop culture reference. Or song titles, but those are less imaginative. The ones I don't like are ones where I just looked around and used whatever word or phrase I saw. I prefer reading my old subject lines more than my old entries. I am always surprised by how stupid I sound when I look back on myself just a year previous. Which through the powers of Livejournal, I have been able to do for some years now.

Anyways. I apologize, if like my father, you consider this all "self-obsessed commentary", but I will point out that this is a blog...that I write...so...

Also, I've managed to almost kill my plant again. Too much water. Yet still MORE proof I am not a care-giver.

Kick off your sunday shoes!

Holler, everybody, it's Wednesday. Which means for me it's Thursday, and tomorrow is Friday, and Friday is Saturday, pt. 1. I wish I could say I was going to be going home again and have an awesome time there, but I'll be at school this weekend, which is okay I guess because I haven't stayed for a weekend since I've been back, and I looove my weekend routine when roommate goes home.

As I said in my last post, I've been in an extreeemely good mood lately, and I'm scared I'll jinx it by talking about it so much, but I just want to point it out. I mean, sure, people have been getting on my nerves, and classes aren't the best thing to wake up to in the morning, but generally, my optimism is through the roof. I think it may be because ever since getting back to school, even though it's still really cold and snowy, and still is completely dark out by 6, it's like, Hey man, this is spring semester. Spring! I've never been one of those "longing for spring people", in fact I dread it if it means my precious winter must be over, but I always love it when it's here. I always forget how great it can be. Also as I said in my last post, I've been eating healthier, so maybe that's helping my mood, too. I really don't know. Whatevs, we'll see.

Anyways, I have a hidden agenda in posting, I just wanted to post all my drawings from this semester so far, just because...I feel like it I guess. Feel free to give an opinion, but don't feel like you have to.

This is my spoon drawing, which turned out decent. I don't think I'm a great reflective drawer, as the assignment was to draw 5 similar objects that are reflective in nature. Prof said I could have used more contrast, which I agree with.

The Black and White drawing on gray paper. We weren't supposed to blend the black and white, and I think I may have in some areas, but other than that I just used a lot of erasers and the gray of the paper. I'm also not really finished.

This assignment was "35 square inches" although, that could be represented however we wanted, definitely didn't have to be literal. I felt weird because I was the only one in class who didn't actually draw anything, and I took it quite literally, but my teacher said he liked the abstractness of it, and the pattern the squares makes leaves it open to interpretation as to what is really going on in the drawing.

I hated this still life, because there was a bunch of paper everywhere, and that stupid weird cylinder thing wasn't actually a cylinder so it looks like I drew it wrong, but that's what it looked like. Proportions are off, and it feels too light. But whatevs. Plus, that's a mirror in the background. Who would want to draw a mirror??

April, come she will

Remember how I said that I was going to try eating healthier when I got back to school? Well, I have been, and it hasn't really made much of a difference, except that I feel less guilty about what I eat. And when I said "healthier", I don't mean that I've done a 180; it technically means that I've just not filled my entire day with crap. On the other hand, this means that for lunches I have been going to the Pawn a lot (the convenience-type store) and getting wrap and pita type things and apples, but, you see it costs a lot more money than going and getting an actual lunch. So I've tried to cut back on that a little bit as well. I still have a lot of unhealthy food stowed away in my room. I've been scared to eat it, but I figure, I want to eat it up as soon as possible, right? So I can be more committed to this healthy eating regimen 100%? It's mostly Ramen. Actually, it's pretty much all Ramen. Because other than that I just have soup, fiber one bars, and my off-brand wheaties from the co-op. (A place that I am thoroughly obsessed with right now, even though it is a little high buck. It's not like the grocery store, though- I make sure I only buy a few items, so it usually ends up being less expensive that I assume it will be because of that.) Anyways....I've also been eating breakfast lately. Which, I don't know if I've mentioned before, I never ever did last semester. I literally still have a box of cereal that I bought before school started. But this is also due to the fact that I've been getting up at 6:30 for my 8 a.m. class on tuesdays and thursdays. As I have no break on those days, I don't get to go back to my room and shower or anything like I could last semester after drawing, so I have to be ready for the entire day. Which has acted as kind of an incentive. Case in point, I sleep in late before my wellness class on mondays and wednesdays, because I know that I can just come back an hour later, shower, eat, and still have about 2 hours before my next class. So I'm trying to retrain myself mentally to want to get up and get ready and give myself enough time, and eat breakfast and all that jazz, because It's just going to be healthier for me in the long run. As I keep saying to roommate, this entire country could stand to be healthier (to which she replies that I need to stop being so granola. More on that later)

So I'll be updating again later, but I felt like I just wanted to post my small accomplishments somewhere so maybe I'll stick to them. We'll see. Also, I've been in a generally good mood lately, like really good mood, and I think that usually correlates with me blogging regularly, so I'll try to keep going for that reason as well.

The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

I didn't forget about my blog, but I also don't feel like updating for realsies right this very minute. So, just sayin..Happy February errbody.

Also, what's the point of ravioli if more than half of the container is just sauce? At this rate, I may end up eating two lunches, because somehow I don't think half a thing of sauce is going to keep me going until 6:30.

I sing the body electric

I'm posting because I'm bored. Do not mistake me, I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL, but I can still be bored at home, right? And not have it be some subconscious wish to back at school? I hope so. The day I prefer Stout to home will be a sad day/will never happen.

I have nothing much to say, but that I wish I were at a dessert buffet right now. I don't know what it is, I've just been craving dessert so much lately. Unfortunately, we have no dessert in this house.

I've been having trouble feeling tired for sleep at night lately. I can fall asleep eventually, and sleep well (and rather late, I think it goes without saying) but I just sit in bed, and I'm really tired, but not sleepy. Maybe it has something to do with my horrible diet. It's not a stretch to say that I am probably one of the least healthy people I know. If I was bored enough I would actually exercise or something, but then I would still be eating all the worst (yet, best) foods. Don't take this for me putting off becoming healthier, but maybe I'll really work on it once I get back to school. I swear! I will...

I'm lonely and I'm too tired to talk

You know, I never pretended to be this great blogger, y'allz.

BUT, that being said, even I am surprised that I only updated once in December.

I usually update when I have something specific to say, but that urge hasn't really come over me this past month. And as this is the second day this winter break that I've woken up before 11, I'll give it a chance.

Well, end of the semester went well, I suppose. That last week was insanity in the form of two big final art projects due on the same day. Which, no surprise, resulted in an all nighter. Finished the drawing around midnight, then spent about 15 hours on the painting. And it does not show. But whatevs, I passed the class. And I watched 30 Rock on my laptop the entire night while painting, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time.

Christmas was delightful. I think I'm literally in love with christmas. If I could marry it, I would. Got good presents, hung with the fam, did all the christmas stuff.

New Years Resolutions:

-To stop buying concessions at the movie theater

-To not spend so much money

-Quit eating at roughly 11:30/Midnight. Roommate and I have somewhat of a ritual of doing this.

-Don't watch any Real Housewives (unless it's New York)

-Get more sleep during the week (!!)

-No more school related all-nighters.

-Become a better recycler.

-Get a job p'haps?

I'll think of more, I'm sure/ not do the ones listed above. But we'll see.

Probably the biggest accomplishment of this break: Watching three seasons of CSI in roughly a week. That's the kind of show that I like to watch when I'm on a break from something i.e., school. It's a great show to watch marathon-style. And the original version, not stupid Miami. David Caruso's popularity is literally a crime.

knowledge comes with death's release

Well, sorry my friends, for being so absent these past couple of weeks. I wish I could say it was just because I was being so busy and popular, but my instant queue history will tell you otherwise.

I didn't update the monday after thanksgiving because I was busy working on my 2D design project, which, by the way, I did NOT stay up all night to finish. It was as done as it was going to get. (By the way, Thanksgiving was awesome. Too awesome, I think, I was depressed and had terrible anxiety my first night back. Ugh, coming back from Winter break is going to be murder.)

I didn't get the greatest critique on my painting (my 2D project), which I guess I was okay with. I wasn't completely satisfied with it. I think what we all agreed on was the craftsmanship wasn't the problem, the composition was wrong. Which I didn't feel good about in the first place, because I felt like my teacher made me do something I didn't really like that much, but she didn't really like the final project anyway. So I've reworked it for the final, because it's the sameexact project, we just have to do it using color harmonies.

It's supposed to be an abstract of a fruit or vegetable form, and mine was a squash. Which you can't really tell. It looks more like Watermelon, or like a Pepper or something. The composition for this project is better, at least I hope so.

Other than all that stuffs, not much else is new. I had a good weekend last weekend; I baked cookies with my floor (a.k.a., the, like, 7 people who showed up. But that just meant I got more for myself.) And then we went to Applebee's because it was my RA's birthday, and my neighbor Beth's as well. After that, Beth, Krista, Tegan, and I went to the Econo Lodge and paid them 4 dollars to let us use their pool and hot tub. Then we came back and watched Up, and I finished off the night with some Mighty Boosh.

This weekend I mostly stayed up late, and slept a bunch, and ate a lot of food, and watched the entire first season of 30 Rock on instant stream on saturday. That was productive. But I did get some good work on my drawing project done while watching Goblet of Fire. That is what we call multi-tasking.

I'm really only posting because I'm procrastinating writing my persuasive speech right now. My speech on the Office went pretty well. I don't know if I mentioned that at all. I didn't get to make my character map like I wanted to. But the topic I chose for my persuasive was recycling. I've been itching to give this speech for a while....I just haven't gotten around to writing it yet. And I have to give it tomorrow. But I have good ideas, and I already have info that I used for my design book. I'm thinking of doing some demonstrations, as well. I can't tell you how many people I've seen throw away plastic bottles in that room. I'd better not see anyone do it after my speech tomorrow.

And BY THE WAY, just incase people aren't aware, I got a snow day last wednesday. Holla! The last time I had a snow day was in elementary school. Although, I think that was considered a "cold day".

Have they been in love before?

New Poll!

Rhythm Mastrs

I'll keep this brief, because believe it or not, folks, I'm going to bed at 9:30!! It's only because I fell asleep at my desk watching Office UK on my laptop. Roommate and I decided it would be best if I called it a day.

Weekend was good, Friday night was the Gay 90's. Mia, Marty and I drove down at around 9, had a lot of fun, saw the drag show, I met up with Krista and met her gays, and we all danced till about 1:30, and we got back here to Stout at around 3:00. Marty and I both got McDonald's and we parked and ate it. Then, as I was sleeping over in Mia's room, we went back there, and we had had plans to make brownies, so we did that, but since they were the Ghirardelli, they took an hour to make. So I sat by the TV in the basement, and I kept falling asleep. But then they were done, and we both had literally one bite, and we went to sleep at 5:00.

That made my sleep schedule all wonkish for the next night. I stayed up until 5:00 then too. I was all disoriented. I also took a nap that evening at around 6- on and off until-8, so I ate at 10, and missed SNL, because midnight was feeling like 8 at night for me.

So then I couldn't get to sleep last night, so I stayed up until 3 doing homework, and finally went to bed, woke up at seven, and THAT is probably why I fell asleep at my desk watching UK Office at 8:30 on a monday evening.

Are you afraid of the dark?????? episode of the WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

I loved this one, but I think we can all agree that Johnny needs a haircut.

Good Day, Sunshine.

This is a long entry with little pay-off. Make use of that precursor as you will.

My hectic week got a little less hectic. My 2D design project that was supposed to be due tomorrow, is now not due until december 1st. She had been talking about maybe making it due this tuesday, the 24th, which I would have been fine with, but let's be honest, hearing that yesterday, and knowing that I had a full two weeks to work on it, and not just two days, made me considerably less stressed out. And as soon as I knew it wasn't due thursday, I wondered how I would have ever gotten it done. Before that I was confident that I could make it work, but in all honesty, I would have had so much work to do still. I guess I instill a certain confidence in myself when I know that I have to get it done within such a short period of time. I guess this means I get a lot more time to work on my speech, which is good because for informative you have to have sources and visual aids. If my speech ends up going anywhere near as good as I imagine it will in my head, I'll do great. My speech is on The Office, so let's hope.

I stayed up until a little after 2:30 last night working on my Drawing project that was due today. And then I took a shower. It was a very wise choice, I felt so much better afterwards. (And I tried out the No More Tangles- still can't say whether the scent is the same) But then I got up into bed, and I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time, for some reason. So I'm running on little sleep right now, but at least I don't have to pull and all-nighter again tonight, so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. The project turned out okay. If I had been willing to stay up all night for it, I would have, and it probably would have been quite satisfactory. I don't know what it is, but I'm not willing to stay up all night for that class. I was just so sick of working on it. I had to do two 20x22 drawings, and two 10x9 drawings, and the two bigger ones had to be identical to the smaller ones, so there were two sets. My first set I had to draw a painted striped flag of sorts, and a box in the background, and a cylinder in the foreground. Then for the second one we just had to do 4-6 objects. I (stupidly) chose to use the inclass still-life of the large cardboard animals. So I was doing the large cardboard horse, the snail and the cats legs. Even though I've done the horse a million times, I still had trouble with it, and I think it ended up looking really bad. We had to use our Sumi brush, Reed pens, and ink washes to do it, so a lot of it all bled together, and got really water-logged. Again, if I would have stayed up all night, I could have made it look a lot better.

Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene.

I'm so so so so so excited for Thanksgiving. Like for the break, and the day. I can't wait to just be able to be home for more than a weekend, and if I think about it this way, I only have like 2 weeks of classes after that, and then finals week (for which I have to stay the whole week. ugh.) Then I get to come home for a month! It will literally be the worlds greatest.

Much like a couple of weeks ago, I have a lot of things going on this week. Pretty much the exact same. Drawing project due wednesday, 2D Design project due thursday, Speech thursday. I am really determined not to pull an all-nighter. Krista predicts that she won't have to, so it would be a lonely all-nighter if I did end up doing that again, too. Let's just hope that I can budget my time wisely.

I found No More Tangles at the store today!! I was so excited. I was talking about it, and how I loved using it as a child, and how I've been looking for it for a long time, and I literally turnedaround and there it was. Cosmic, and stellar, yes.

It doesn't look like this anymore. They literally just changed their packaging, apparently. I can't tell you guys how excited I am to shower tomorrow morning.

Are you afraid of the dark?????? episode of the week!!!!!!!!:

I LOVE this episode. Such a classic.