3D Design Part 1: A skull, a pear, and a thing

Here are my first 3 assignments, The wire sculpture, the matte board fruit and the non-representational rock. Enjoy.


I don't love any one of these, besides the rock I thought them a colossal waste of time but it was a required course and I got to visit with friends and learn from a true artist, the teacher and the amazing Derek Hegsted was in my class. Check his site out, he's incredible.

Hey, Remember me?

It's seems most of my posts over the last few months have been "I haven't blogged in forever, I need to catch up!" Not that I haven't wanted to, it's just hard to get started and there's always something else I should be doing. Since this is the first time this summer block I have homework due the next day and I'm procrastinating, why not blog? Also, having the excuse of not blogging for over a month is a good way to begin I guess, cuz that's what I've been doing. I haven't blogged in over a month. What shall I talk about?

My summer semester is over tomorrow. I've taken some pictures of the assignments I did, will try to post them tomorrow. To let you know what you're looking forward to, the class is 3D Design and no, it's not design with computers, that would be useful, and we can't have that. Our first assignment was wire sculpture, meaning make like a skeleton or contour out of... wire. To say it was more fun that it sounds would be an overstatement, but it wasn't my least favorite assignment, probably second least. I did a skull and at the urging of one of my friends in class used 1 continuous wire for the whole thing. My second assignment was my least favorite, we were supposed to take an organic object like a piece of fruit or vegetable and make an abstraction of it using matte board, basically a geometric fruit. I did a pear and hated every second of it. Ok, not every second of it, I was quite glad when it was done. My second to last project and second favorite was carving a non-representational (looks like nothing) shape out of Alabaster. It was fun to actually use rock carving tools and see it take shape. Mine ended looking like a cross between the lock ness monster, a shiny piece of poop and a twisted part of the male anatomy that isn't always polite to mention in polite circles. (the penis) The final project and the one I have been looking forward to all semester was a found object assignment. Unlike the original found objects like Duchamp's fountain, (which were more 'readymade' but whatever) we had to make something with our found objects. Originally I had planned to make a large hand made out of toys coming out of a toy chest. Since I couldn't find a toy chest, I decided to use an old TV. I've spent more hours on this one than probably the rest combined, and although it's not quite what I had hoped for, it still looks pretty cool. I'll show pictures soon.

Morgan's still behind in his speech but he's always improving, so it could be worse. I couldn't love him any more and he couldn't be cuter, but I'm often sad I can't give him the attention he needs or deserves, as some days I am so exhausted I literally can't move. Hopefully he'll understand that one day and forgive me for at least some things in the way I raised him. He can now say his name "Mowgaine!" but it often sounds like "My name!" and he still speaks about 60% in sign, but as I said, he's always improving and even though he doesn't talk a ton, he gets his point across most of the time and already has quite a developed sense of humor. *tear* I'm so proud.

I'm still listening to books on CD, currently listening to Outliers. The first half was extremely interesting and informative even if I didn't buy everything; so far the second half has been boring to the point of making me afraid of crashing the car, (either because he's boring me to sleep or to break the monotony) and doesn't seem to have any useful information other than Korean people don't make good airline pilots. I'm up for any suggestions on what to read/listen to next if you wanna make some recommendations.

Work is good, we're in our new building and apart from the air conditioning treating us like we're polar bears, it's a good change. I've made peace with the fact that I won't get promoted because of my ever changing school schedule and am trying to teach myself Javascript, which is already much more successful than trying to learn Python.

I'm excited for next week, we'll be spending it in Lake Arrowhead, CA (namesake of the second worst bottled water I've tasted, looking at you, Sparkletts.) with my grandparents and some extended family. It will be our first vacation with Morgan, and other than the 10 hour drive there, it should be awesome. If anyone wants to water our dead plants or feed our invisible dog let us know. We're debating buying a portable DVD player for Morgan to watch while we're in the car for 5+ hours at a time. (By debating, I mean I'm somewhat against it and Tracie's buying it.) My gripe is one of my favorite parts of going on road trips growing up was time with family, singing silly songs, playing road games, etc. While it's hard to do with a delayed speaking 2 year old, I'm afraid it will get us in the habit of watching movies in the car rather than interacting. Thoughts, anyone? Bueller?

We've bought Biggest Loser Challenge for the Wii and in my opinion it's the best workout program we've bought. (We've bought a lot.) We started 2 weeks ago and I've lost 4 pounds so far. It's a cool game, it measures how good you're doing in the exercises and tailors the next day to improve what you were not excelling in the day before. It has hundreds of different exercises and is always different, all good things. The only downside I can think of is the computer generated avatars of the people from the show are creepy/nightmare fuel at best. But hey, you can just tell yourself that devil-faced-Jillian or Bob the Blob will skulk into your room late at night and eat your spleen if you have that piece of chocolate cheesecake.

Other than that life is fairly good, no complaints other than the normal ones, can't believe I'm still in college, can't believe my leg still hurts, blah blah blah. Overall I'm happy and healthy and losing weight! How's your summer going?

Checking up on my Goals

2011 is more than halfway over, a good a time as any to reevaluate and realign my goals, don't you think? You don't? Oh well.

Goal 1.) Exercise three times a week, only treat myself to fast food one day a week.
How I'm doing) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HA. Not off to a good start, though I dance to Just Dance 1 and 2 at least once a week, but that's about it, and fast food, I don't want to say. I'm thinking of doing the HGC diet, I'll let you know if I go through with it. You'll likely be able to tell if I'm suddenly typing thinner, or hypothesize about how many of you I would murder for a Klondike bar.

Goal 2.) Finish a second draft of "Prince Pert's Perilous Quest for the Perfect Princess." And write a new story for NaNoWriMo. Also participate in Script Frenzy.
How I'm doing) Nada on Prince Pert, I think I'll switch that goal and just transcribe it to computer first, it's still in handwritten form only. I chose to write my novella "The Friends of Henry Paris" instead of Script Frenzy. Since Henry Paris I haven't written any fiction except for the more believable stories on this blog, I'm getting the itch to write again, it's just a matter of time management now.

Goal 3.) Read a bedtime story to Morgan most nights.
How I'm doing) Reading the bedtime story? Not very well. However, when I put him to sleep lately I've been telling him stories, his favorites seem to be Moby and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the three bears (mamma bear, papa bear and moby bear). I embellish and change some facts in the stories to keep myself interested and he doesn't seem to mind. I may not be instilling him with a love of reading yet, but I hopefully am instilling him with a love of storytelling as well as knowing his father loves him.

Goal 4.) Get A's in all my classes, buy Adobe CS5 and don't skip class.
How I'm doing) Despite some teacher giving me a C+ even though I turned in the best assignments in the class (not just according to me, but most of my classmates) I've done fairly well, even getting 100 in my photography final assignment (that few of you have commented on...) I also bought Adobe CS5 and love it.

Goal 5.) Read a book a month.
How I'm doing) It was somewhat wavy at first, but since I rediscovered books on CD and Provo library has improved their selection, it's getting easier and easier. I'm on my seventh book now, the fourth book on CD and on a bit of a marathon of books read by the author.

Those are my goals, so far so decent, about 2.5 out of 5 but the year ain't over yet, nor is my use of impropper grammar and speling!

Book 6 of 12: On Writing

I've wanted to read On Writing for several years now, at least since right before I bought it. Being easily distracted and what's that! I haven't made time to read it. No more. While looking for books on CD at the Provo library with the stipulation that the book must look both short and interesting, I saw On Writing and snatched it up. Then I listened to it. It was read by the author which I'm quickly deciding is the best way to listen to a book. I've read two books by Stephen King thus far and this was by far my favorite. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a fan, not because he's not a gifted writer but just because I've only read a couple Stephen King books and I don't think it right to group myself with those who have read Carrie and Misery when I've only read the Eyes of the Dragon and The Gunslinger. I'd say I'm an admirer.

Enough about the man, onto the book. While it's true a large percentage, at least 50% of the book is more memoir on how he became a writer and perhaps more interestingly, how he became Stephen King. That portion was interesting, listening to the man read his work was a delight, but the book truly shown when he finally started giving advice and tips on writing and on writing well.

So many reviewers say the same thing about so many writing books it's almost cliche, but this book I would really say is one of the only ones of its kind you need on your shelf. I've read more books on writing than I care to say (10-15 probably) and this by far was the most helpful and most enjoyable one I've read by far. It's a treat to read and filled with useful insightful information.

If only reading books on writing actually made you better. Guess I have to get back in the habit and start writing again for real!

5 for 5 stars.

Digital Imaging II - Final Project

So originally I just found 4 pictures I liked and decided to copy them or be "inspired" by them. Then I learned we had to make it some kind of narrative or concept. So, I decided the first 2 pictures represent Tracie and I alone, chaotic, in pain and frankly, dead. The third picture represents union or creation, and the final picture is the product of 2 coming together, our son, made up of pictures of us. See below for the original pictures I was inspired by. Do you like?

I Better Post something

...Because the month is almost over and I've only got 2 entries.

I haven't blogged of late mostly because I've been busy or lazy or haven't found much of what I've been doing to be very blogworthy. But I need to write, and one of the best ways to find something to write about is to start writing, as they say.

In case you're concerned about me reaching my reading goal, I have read several books since my last review, I just haven't written new reviews about them, but I'll try to get them written either today or tomorrow so I'll be at book 6 of 12. Phew. Concern over.

I finished my first block of this summer's classes, also known as Digital Imaging II also known as Photoshop Advanced. The final project was to have 4 images on a theme, my last blog post of the MC Escher copy was one of those 4, and the one my teacher said was "graduate quality" and one of the best in the class he had seen. Not bad for one of the only two graphic design students in a class of photographers/photo majors. In fact, not enough of you have commented on it, I've decided. Tell me you love it. TELL ME!

For the second block I'm taking 3D Design again (hopefully for the last time). I really like this teacher, he actually substitute taught the sculpting class I took 6 years ago, I only remember this because he brought the casting of Bug's Life characters he had made for Pixar then and now. He's also from Katy Texas and knows a few people I do. Go figure. (His name's Leland Prince for those of you curious. Since I'm only saying good things about him I assume it's acceptable to mention him by name. Leland.) Our first assignment is to make a sculpture out of wire, I'm doing a skull because I'm not creative and because skulls are cool.

I'm more looking forward to the final project which is supposed to be a combination of found objects, I'm planning on making a monster out of toys that's coming out of a toy chest and attacking a doll, or possibly small child. I told the teacher the idea and he suggested a smaller box like a shoebox or something, I might go cardboard depending on what if any type of toy chests are at D.I. He also told me not to worry about being too creepy or offending anyone, I told him that's what I'm aiming for, so thanks. ;)

I'll post my other 3 pics from the photoshop class, though to be honest the one I'm most proud of is the M.C. Escher homage or copy I did that you've seen already.

Many people have been asking and thought I've told them already it gives me something to write about, no, I'm not pregnant I'm just fat, and also, December of 2012 is when I'm scheduled to graduate. Only 12 years after I first started college, I'll finally have a bachelor's degree, even though I'll be married over 6 years by that time. (And yes, I'm the first person in history to make a joke about getting a bachelor's degree while married, so laugh, dang it.) Growing up I dreamed I would have a master's degree and a PhD even, but I've just been in school that long instead. But, getting a Bachelor's at 30 is better than 40 I guess, and if they're right that 30 is the new 20, I'm doing pretty well for myself, (as well as a pedophile, but still).

Speaking of pedophiles (no, I wasn't, you were) I'm finally ready to start writing again after my writing assignment/project from Hell. My next story will either be about a Mormon serial killer who targets kids under age 8 so they'll go to heaven, or about a medieval squire who has to do the knight's job after the knight dies, a fantasy comedy, what I hope to be my niche. The serial killer story sounds like it could be fascinating, but it's not my style and the last time I wrote something that wasn't my style I ended up with an old west ghost story so dull and poorly written it's used in writing classes as an example of what not to do and in birdcages as lining paper. What does this have to do with pedophiles, you ask? Why are you asking about pedophiles, I ask? How dare you.

Now I want to talk about Moby, but it seems wrong somehow after mentioning pedophiles in the last paragraph. Fluffy bunnies, Summer rain, the Princess Bride, innocent lambs and freshly popped popcorn. All better.

Morgan is growing like crazy. He still doesn't talk much but he's fairly good at telling us what he wants, and not just with whining either. He's learned a good number of signs to tell us if he's hungry or wants more or thirsty or wants to go outside, for example. His second birthday was 11 days ago, we had a Tracie's-side-of-the-family family birthday party, but haven't gotten around to a friend and more family party yet, but we'll have it sometime before he's 3. One thing I was impressed with that someone who's not his parent may just find gross, but Morgan has the habit of taking off his diaper during nap time if it's dirty. The other day I came into his room after nap time to find the diaper on the floor, but unlike usual it was surrounded by 'used' wipes. My two year old wiped his own bum. And he did pretty good too. I was impressed and wanted to post it on Facebook but thought it was TMI even for me. My blog I have no qualms, however.

For TV we're still watching Netflix with no end in sight, thanks to recommendations from both friends and Netflix we finally watched Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show. Not the movie) and loved it. It's now one of my favorite shows. Ever. I recommend it, is what I'm saying. Even if you've seen it already. Watch it again. I've also watched the 3 episodes of Sherlock, I liked it quite a bit, the writing and producing is tight and excellent, but what makes the show great are the dual performances of Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. (Or should I say Bilbo and Smaug? nah.) I'm no Sherlock Holmes scholar or even fan, but they both are mesmerizing to watch. Other than that I'm rewatching old favorites like Psych until the next season is finally on Netflix, Better Off Ted, IT Crowd, etc. What have you been watching?

In final note since I'll probably forget (to post it) tomorrow, June 30th 2011 is our fifth wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Tracie. Thank you for making the last five years the best of my life, I look forward to the rest together.

M.C. Escher is my favorite Emcee

Copying MC Escher's famous hand drawing for my Photoshop class.

Thank you to Carrisa for letting me borrow your Wacom Tablet: