Edible Typography

Since I've stayed up until 3:19 on this assignment, I might as well post about it.

The assignment was to freehand the word "hamburger" in a famous typeface such as Times New Roman. (hamburger in honor of all the barbecues this labor day weekend.) Then we were supposed to write something that goes with a hamburger that looks like that object, and finally actually make something that goes with hamburgers. My results are below, (onions and fries) but I must ask: what would you have done if it was your assignment?

First Week of Penultimate Fall Semester- Done

I had my last class of the week, and for my sake, for posterity's sake, the sake of anyone caring or bored enough to know, here's my feelings about it.

Art History has always been one of my favorite subjects, and I can tell I am going to like this teacher a lot. She really knows her stuff and though I disagree with at least one thing with her so far, she's fun and smart and I am really enjoying the class while doing my best not to usurp all the class comments for myself.

Color Theory is not what I had expected, so far we've painted a color wheel like we're in Elementary school and what's worse, the teacher I thought would be teaching it won't be for a few more weeks. The later assignments look like they may be fun, but right now they're teaching us about mixing paints, something I learned about 12 years ago.

Interactive Design 2 is not more web programming, it's an After Effects class. So far we've animated a circle and square. The teacher is a lot of fun, possibly my favorite so far, and it may be a pretty fun class. Plus I have the most friends in it from previous classes, so that helps too.

Typography 2 has been good, I really do like Typography even though I'm no typographer, the teacher seems good and our first assignment is to create a type style with an object, I'm going to use an onion, pictures forthcoming once I do it. I'm also brainstorming for the next assignment: a book cover.

Finally Art Lectures, the one hour class of either excitement or boredom, it's never anywhere in between. The bad news is I'm watching it with about 100 other students off campus on a projector, the good news is we don't have to write any response papers, attendance is 100% of the grade. I've never heard of any of the speakers this semester except one, Jessica Hische. Whether you're into typography or not, she's awesome.

On non-school related news but just news of this week, I interviewed for a job in the Operations/IT Department at my company and did not get it, they cited my school schedule as a chief reason why I didn't get it, I just think they couldn't handle the unbridled awesomeness of Austin, and they said yes, that was also a factor. Apparently some of them didn't like my resume either.
It was good to interview for it though it will be a long time before I choose to be interviewed again unless of course I get fired. But as my manager has said more than once, if I haven't been fired yet, I'll probably never get fired here. That's comforting.

Tracie and Morgan have been sick for the past several days, I've been borderline sick but never quite crossed it, now it looks like it's going away.

I've redecorated my desk at work, it's been completely bare since we've moved to the new building.

It's Friday, what more need be said? Hope your week went well as well and your weekend is safe and three-days like mine.

Lake Arrowhead 2011

Since it's been nearly two weeks since we've been back, I wanted to post on our trip to Lake Arrowhead with a percentage of the Valantine clan. All my mother's family were represented, her parents, her two brothers, her sisters children, her eldest brothers children and spouse, and us. A total of 12 people stayed in 2 cabins at the beautiful Lake Arrowhead Chalets. It was a wonderful trip, despite the few bumps and bruises we learned that Morgan does not like sleeping not at home.

We decided to take our trip there over 2 days as it's about an 11 hour drive and the longest car ride Morgan has gone on before that was about 2 hours. We drove to Mesquite our first day and made excellent time. We had packed plenty of road snacks and energy drinks and of course music. I think every road trip Tracie and I have gone one we've listened to the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack and Phantom of the Opera. Making excellent time to Mesquite, we had time to go to dinner and unpack our overnight things in our room before the sun set. It was a relaxing evening, we had calzones the size of footballs and watched some tv in our hotel bed.

Unfortunately, that's when things took a turn for the worse. We had bought a cot for Morgan to sleep on, and were skeptical he'd like this. Our skepticism proved wise. He and Tracie were up all night, I didn't sleep well but I did sleep since I was the designated driver (you know my family and their drinking).

Our next day started all right until I realized we were 20 miles out of Mesquite and nearly out of gas, so I turned back and got gas, which probably affected the rest of our trip. Once we got in Vegas it was stop and go traffic nearly all the way to the state line, and then we were stuck in fruit inspection hell. It ended up making our drive nearly 3 hours longer and all three of us significantly grouchier. One of the pros was we had excellent air conditioning to combat the 120° + temperatures outside.We finally arrived in Arrowhead to loving family members lovingly telling us how foolish we were to drive to California through Las Vegas on a Sunday Afternoon, not realizing perhaps I have NEVER driven to California through Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon, but then, never would again either.

Most of the trip can be summed up as sleeping in, playing games with family like Michigan Rummy, Shanghai, Shoot the Moon, Pinochle, Super Mario Brothers Wii, Rainbow Six, Age of Empires, Acquire, that's all I can think of, and going to Lake Arrowhead village to shop and browse. Though every night was a struggle to get Morgan to sleep, it was possible and one of the best vacations ever. This was the first family vacation we've gone on with Morgan, and probably the last one at least until he gets a little older. It was such a treat to visit and just be with family, not to rub it in to those that didn't go, but a treat nonetheless. (Maybe rub it in a little.)

Thank you thank you to my dear grandparents for making this possible and basically paying for everything for us, we love you. It was such a treat to be with loving family in the distant mountains and not have to worry about a thing. Good times.

And now back to work.

Book 7, 8, 9, and 9 1/2

How do I let time from blogging slip away like this? Is it because the blog craze is dwindling in favor of tweeting, google+, facebook statusing, mass emails, life in general? I digress. I've read/listened to 3 books and one play and wanted to review them all in one post, as I have little to say about each and thought if I combine the reviews it should add up to once decent sized post, and become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Book 7- Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell

Several individuals have been getting after me to read the Pop-Economics instant classing Tipping Point. (At least that's what I thought. Turns out they were recommending Outliers. Oh well. **spoiler alert** I read that too.) It was read by the author and fairly interesting for a boring subject. Basically he just gave examples of how little things can make a big difference, from medical epidemics to social epidemics. I wasn't too sold on Gladwell's point of view, it didn't change my mind on anything but it was still interesting and I wasn't worse off for reading it. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Book 8- Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim
by David Sedaris

I loved When you Are Engulfed in Flames so much I wanted to read something else by David Sedaris, and by read I of course mean listen to. For those of you unfamiliar with Sedaris, he writes mostly autobiographical/memoir-ish writing, with a nearly unhealthy dose of hilarity. Unfortunately, apart from 2 or 3 stories (the standout being "6 to 8 Black Men" about other culture's holidays, and specifically the Dutch Santa Claus and his 'helpers') I was not impressed. It was crasser than the first but more unforgivably, it was less funny. I should probably listen to it again, as I realize I may have given it more to live up to as I loved the first book of his I read, this one was good, but comparatively not as good. Still, 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Book 9- Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell

Sure it makes sense to group the books by the same author together, but this is the order I read them. Outliers is about 2-3 times longer than Tipping Point, and about 2-3 times better. Well, no, not exactly, but I can't resist a comparison like that. The first half or so of the book was enjoyable, riveting and interesting. The second half got boring, tedious and made me regret enjoying the first half as much. If you're interested in Malcolm Gladwell's opinions on what makes people succeed, read this book. To me his opinion's boiled down to talent, practice and luck/timing. 5 stars for the first half, 2 stars for the second, averaging out to 3.5 stars total. If you're interested in learning more about less recognized things that make people succeed, read this book.

Book 9 1/2

The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde

I call it 9 1/2 because one, it is a play, not a book and 2, it is less than 2 hours long. Still, if you haven't read, seen or listened to this play, you owe it to yourself, your teachers and the English language to do so. Most people, myself included, call it the wittiest play ever written. It is Wilde's masterpiece, and being one of the few authors I have read everything he's ever written, I agree. In the words of Algernon, it is perfectly phrased and quite as true as any observation in civilized life should be." For those of you unfamiliar with it, I will provide a brief synopsis and then comment on the presentation I listened to, not the play itself. It involves Jack who lives in the country but goes by the name of Ernest in the city so he can live a life of pleasure but still maintain respectability to those who know him as Jack, and his friend Algernon (I didn't name him) who pretends to have a sick friend named Bunbury to visit in the country for a similar reason. Jack proposed to Gwendolyn, who accepts him largely because she thinks his name is Ernest. When discussing the engagement with Gwendolyn's mother Lady Bracknell, Jack is found out to have questionable parentage and so is forbidden to marry her. Algernon learns both of Jack's double life and his 'excessively pretty ward' Cecily, and goes to Jack's home in the country masquerading as Jack's wicked brother Ernest. Algernon instantly falls in love with Cecily who is already in love with him, again because she's always wanted to marry someone named Ernest. There is confusion and comedy aplenty in this "Trivial play for Serious people." It is my favorite play of all time, and I can't say enough good things about it, so I won't try. This version had a full cast and I would rate it a B. I enjoyed most of the actors with the exception of Algernon who has the best lines in the play after Lady Bracknell and must have thought "breathy" was an emotion, and the only emotion Algernon could express. A minor quibble was everyone calling Cecily "Sicily" which grew annoying quickly, but Jack and Gwendolyn were satisfactory if not enjoyable and Lady Bracknell was superb (doing her best to channel Edith Evans who played Lady Bracknell in the 1952 film).
One other note, though I am an admirer of Rupert Everett and have a 'man-crush' on Colin Firth, I would recommend refraining from seeing the 2002 film of the play and rent the 1952 version as it is better in every respect. Particularly Lady Bracknell. Apparently no one told poor Dame Judi Dench it was a comedy, as she performed Lady Bracknell the same way she portrays 'M' in the James Bond movies. Now that I think about it, that's the only way I've ever seen her portray anyone...
Here I go, get Austin to talk about Oscar Wilde and you can't shut him up! Ok, the play gets of course 6 out of 5 stars and the performance listened to gets 4 out of 5 because I really only had 2 problems with it, bad Algernon brings it down a star, the pronunciation of Cecily, while annoying doesn't affect the grade.

For the remainder of the year I am endeavoring to read the Lord of the Rings in its entirety which I have not done in over a decade. Thanks as always for reading.

Fall Semester-2011 Edition

So I will be starting fall semester today, my second to last fall semester if everything goes according to plan...

I figured now would be a good a time as any to write about what classes I'm taking. Mondays and Wednesdays I'll be taking:
20th Century Art History (my last Art History class ever),
Color Theory (I'm excited even though the subject sounds boring, it's taught by one of my favorite teachers), and
Interactive Design II (Not sure what we'll be learning here, Javascript, Ruby, or just more HTML & CSS. Either way, probably class I'm looking most forward to.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I just have one class, Typography & Layout II, taught by neither of the teachers I took Typography & Layout I from, so we'll see. Other than that, I have Art Lectures on Thursday nights again, it's only an hour a week and the less said about that the better.

For those of you curious or in case you forgot, I'm expecting/praying to graduate at the end of next fall semester, or December 2012. Since I've been in and out of college since the end of 2000 (with a mission and taking time off and part time for several years) It will be a blessed time indeed when I am finally a college graduate. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's just a dim pinprick at this point in time, it's there. Hallelujah, it's there.

Now I've got about 5 more posts I want to do, a job interview (within the company) to prepare for, my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. (wait, scratch the second to last one.)

3D Design Part 3: Thinking Outside the Box

My final project was to use found objects and make something out of them. About 90% of the class made robots out of VCRs, old cassette players, wooden bowls, aluminum cans, etc. I had the idea of having a large hand made entirely of toys coming out of a toy chest. Either because it's 2011 or everyone already bought them, I couldn't find any toy chests even though I shopped at 3 DIs and 1 Savers. What I did find however were toys and lots of them. However, even at $25 a piece they can add up, so I recruited my dear uncle Jim and cousins Andre and Ivan to loan me some of their toys. By some, I mean about 2-300. The finished product wasn't quite what I had envisioned, apparently a little bit of wire has a hard time holding up so many toys, but it turned out pretty cool, several other students actually took pictures of it and the teacher told me if I did a series of these I would be able to get into Grad school. Not what I want, but it was very flattering and warmed my little black heart. Made it fun to dream for a minute. Now I'm going to have to dismantle the thing, I'm going to take it over to my uncle's and see if they'll help me take it apart, as they wanted to see it completed.

looking up at the hand.

yes, that's Appa at the top.

3D Design Part 2: Before and After

Since I took a picture of this rock before I carved it I wanted to show it both before and after. Besides the fact that it broke several times, I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out, the rock underneath turned out to be a beautiful color.





The teacher said the finished work looked like Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. I think it looks like a polished piece of pink poo. In a good way. What do you think?