Our assignment for tomorrow was to prepare to draw an abstract self-portrait based on something that impacted our life. I chose my experience working with Apple so here is the background for my self-portrait.
Thoughts?
I’d apologize again for not posting in a week- but that’s getting kind of old, is it not?
Whilst sitting in Starbucks this morning I noticed something that I’ve probably seen frequently but never taken the time to actually think about. A couple was in line to order their drinks and the girl, about my age, stepped forward to pay for both. What I noticed was that the guy backed up and looked very awkward. I think it’s important that girls do their part in a relationship and don’t always let the guy do everything, or in some cases make the guy do everything. Does that make a guy feel weird? I hope not.
That’s all I had to say about relationships.
The class I’m taking right now is a drawing class for art majors. I was really excited about it because it’s my first studio art class ever but my excitement was only out of naivete. The first day of class we were given a list as long as my arm of supplies we needed to buy and the next day we were shown a still life and told to draw it.
Naturally, my pea-sized, left-dominant brain was like “I can draw a stick figure but if you want a still life you’re gonna have to come over here and move her hand because I sure as hell can’t.” That went over like a lead balloon and my drawing of what was supposed to be a plastic cup and a vase of flowers ended up being a blob and a circle with a flower on top. It was really lovely. So after class that day I called my dad and said “I’m going to fail!” and he said “go to law school” and I said “okay I’ll do better tomorrow.”
My first major was law and I had thought going to law school was my dream and that I’d be a prosecutor and everyone would do what I say. Not so much. I sat through a couple government classes and that pea-sized brain once again spoke and said “girl, please.” and that was the end of that. So I sat down and I said, what is the exact opposite and infinitely more exciting than law? ART. (More specifically graphic design, or in my case industrial and product design. You know like cars and computers.) Well that wasn’t exactly how it happened but I ended up enrolling in the Arts and Technology program at UTD with my pea-sized brain thinking “that sounds exciting” and then being slapped in the face by programming classes. I hate Java and UTD so that wasn’t really a good fit for me so I looked at a couple other programs. There was Communications Design at UNT, but that was a pretty hard core program that I would have a hard time getting into this late in the game. There was also a run of the mill design degree from UTA. And then, there was a studio art-based graphic design degree at Harding University.
For those of you who are like I have no idea what that is, and that’s probably most of you- Harding University is a small Christian college somewhere in Arkansas. I say somewhere because I am a Texas girl so if you can’t relate it to ” west of DFW airport” or “just along 35″ I can’t really describe it to you. I found out about it through some friends and research. The paperwork is done but I’m going out to visit in a few weeks so that’s probably where I’ll end up.
ANYWAY- back to my drawing class.
So I went back to class the next day (because my skipping days are LONG GONE) and I drew a pretty good flower and vase- I’ll try to post pictures to my Flickr account later. I’ve had a couple of rough days since then- when the oil paint or the charcoal or the conte crayons just WOULD NOT COOPERATE or my pea-sized brain was saying, “seriously, Caitlin- go to law school.” I have been getting better, though, and tomorrow I get my second assignment back so that will be the moment of truth because my first assignment grade was an 80 which was most disappointing since I have been on an all A streak since returning to school.
It’s a pretty fun class and the people in it are pretty interesting but I will save my comments on them for a later date so I can have a post dedicated entirely to pissing people off which in turn gets me comments from “anonymous” people who think I’m bitter. In case you’ve never used WordPress, all IP addresses of commenters are made available to me, so next time you want to leave snarky comments either use your name, or don’t do it at UTD.
Alright, time to make another attempt at paying my cell phone bill, though if AT&T can’t get their servers back up, I’m going to pretend like my bill is paid.
Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.
So, I got this book yesterday…
It’s really cool and I’m learning all kinds of neat stuff so I’m gonna post a couple things I learned from it in my posts from now on.
Here are the first five (from the facts about the human body section):
1. A body releases four pints of gas per day as burps or farts.
2. You spend a half an hour every day blinking.
3. Everyone has a unique tongue print.
4. Babies don’t have bony kneecaps, which appear between the ages of two and six.
5. Common colds can be caused by one of more than 250 types of virus.
It seems like the latest trend is not to call Bush a myriad of names, but rather to say that he should be impeached and tried for war crimes along with various others in his administration.
Before I go into a tirade about why we shouldn’t be making claims like this, I’d just like to say that my political views are irrelevant to this discussion. I do not believe that Bush will be hailed as one of our greatest presidents in history, nor do I believe we will want our future leaders to follow in his footsteps.
However.
And if you disagree with what I’m about to say, I would love to hear that because that helps me widen my perspective and understand the scope of the situation more accurately.
If I understand correctly, the basis of impeaching Bush regards “war crimes” he committed when it comes to the Iraq war.
I would like to find the person that was a fly on the wall for every meeting, conversation, piece of intelligence, discussion with foreign officials, etc., that went into the ultimate choice to invade Iraq.
I don’t believe we should be making assumptions that the President of the United States of American invaded another country because a. he felt like it, b. he wanted more power, c. he wanted to kill some Americans, or d. he thought it would make people like him.
Let’s just stop giving a character to the title here and just think about the figurehead that is the President. Don’t you think, that in order to be the President of the world’s only remaining superpower, that you’d have to be at least, just a tiny bit educated? Sure, he makes the same grammatical errors you and I do, but that’s just being the leader for the common man. If he was this eloquent speaker, everyone would call him elite and out of touch.
I can’t for a second, think that anyone that is making these hyperbolic claims about impeachment really has all the information. Instead, we rely on the media (which is historically known for stretching truths and creating lies) to tell us what we should believe.
Yeah, I know you don’t like Bush, I’m not a big fan either, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Someone who has every spotlight in the world cast on him and his administration would never dare make a decision based upon anything but fact. I know we didn’t find WMDs in Iraq, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there now, or weren’t there before.
Try to give the man a break- his term is almost over, focus on the leadership you want to see in the future.
Why I started this blog
In April, I deleted my Facebook account, and with that went the hundreds of notes I’d written that had become my inadvertant blog. I mostly complained about Microsoft and people in my classes at school but it was still a good outlet and then a bunch of my friends could look at it easily. I kind of missed being able to do that so I started this up and so far it’s been fun. I won’t write anymore when I run out of things to say.
Why I deleted my Facebook account
Not that I feel like I have to justify my actions to anyone, but I do get asked frequently so here’s the reason. I never had a MySpace because I thought it was trashy but I always like the conservative look and feel Facebook had. My interest waned after applications became all the rage and I couldn’t log in and look at anything without seeing a bunch of invitations to everything. I hear they’ve changed it now. Also, Facebook seemed to be cyberstalking me. I would get messages regarding my “recent purchases at bn.com” which is just a little bit creepy.
Where the name Slice of Red came from
Sometime last year, I approached my friend Sedgewick for advice on what to name myself and after hours of deliberation and hundreds if “nope, that’s taken,” we finally settled on Slice of Red, and so far- so good. I have yet to actually finish my own website, but I guess it’s good that I simply haven’t had the time.
The status of academia
Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of my programming class, but it turns out I had enrolled in the wrong course and have to take another that is conveniently not offered when I need it to be. That was the second of two signs regarding my current major yesterday, the first being my complete inability to draw in my “Drawing for Art Majors” course. I’m going to keep at it and look to improve but I’m seriously considering changing my major back to what it was originally- political science. My initial plan in college had been the law school one, but law classes are just as boring as they come. However, I really enjoyed all of my government courses, and that seems to be where my best ability lies. Feel free to serenade me with your thoughts on the matter.
I love technology. I think it’s great and I try to keep up with it as much as possible. Unfortunately, there’s always an abundance of bad technology and in this post I am going to complain about why I hate my printer. Let’s just be frank about it- it’s complaining and nothing more, no reason to sugar coat it and say I am making an “emphatic statement” or some such nonsense.
I have the printer that came with my computer- it’s an HP Photosmart and until now it has done a great job. It dawned on me this morning why the printer is such a rip off. Every time the ink levels in the cartridges dip below half, the printer tells me it can’t print until I install a new cartridge. So, not only am I paying $16 a piece for a tiny little cartridge, I only get to use half of it! On top of that, the printer finds needless ways to waste paper. The paper I use isn’t cheap and I never know when it’s going to decide to print a test page, and so most of the time it’s on heavy duty photo paper that costs $.50 a page.
Kind of ridiculous.
So this problem poses two solutions:
1. Rely on retailers like Office Max and Kinkos who make a 93% profit on their prints
OR
2. Buy a great printer and hope it doesn’t end up costing more.
I’ll get back to you when I make up my mind.
In the meantime, visit www.flickr.com/photos/sliceofred
I am almost embarrassed that I am even wasting my time blogging about this but I do have some thoughts on the matter.
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz?!
Okay so I guess they’ve been dating for awhile, I don’t really keep up with them because I think celebrity gossip is a waste of time, Simpson has no taste and Wentz is an egomaniac whose band isn’t even that great anymore.
ANYWAY. Nothing says “I’m pregnant like we’re engaged this week and married the next.” Really, best of luck to them. I’d hate to be married to Ashlee Simpson AND her father. Bet that’s one awkward honeymoon, especially since she’s already knocked up. Ross and Rachel getting married in Vegas while drunk is more classy. I give them 2 years (for the kid’s sake) before they move on to other people. Even Tony Romo couldn’t deal with Joe Simpson. What a tool.
On to other things…
Photography
I bought this camera back in April.
It’s a pretty sweet piece of technology, and when I bought it, my intention was to make the money I spent on it back by using it in my work. That didn’t happen. I don’t really do that kind of thing for my clients anyway, but it was a great excuse to buy one. So since I’ve gotten it, it’s been to Minnesota and to downtown Dallas several times and I still don’t know how to use it. I can take some pretty fabulous pictures during the day (and they’re fabulous because of the camera not because of my terrible photography skills) but at night I’m lost. So I’m going to add a photography class to my fall schedule and learn how to use this thing. I am also looking for a macro lens for it because I do know how to shoot up close so if anyone has any ideas on where to get one for a good price, I’d love to hear about it.
Also, I just created a Flickr account with the username “sliceofred” so watch out for a link to some pictures later today.
And, just for the record. I do love blogging, and I have written many unpublished posts but sometimes I like to let things sit for awhile before I post something new (and sometimes I forget).
