Argh! (Wireless Woes)

Maybe I'm just thick, but I can't get the wireless router to work right. It was working just fine, but then our ISP changed the batch of IP addresses assigned to us, which is perfectly normal, but they were outside the (rather limited) range that the router recognized as ours. No biggie, I just went through the setup wizard again, and changed the IP address. All was well. I thought I'd look into how to make it so I didn't have to do that anymore, and in the meantime, I'd just update it whenever it stopped working.

Then it happened again. This time, for some reason the router wouldn't update. I got tired of trying and just hooked up the wired router again. We've been happily running off it for weeks now, but I really need to get the wireless one working for, you know, my job. The PSP can only access the internet wirelessly.

So, today I decide to take a stab at it. It took a few tries, and switching to Netscape from Firefox (I don't know why, but it worked). I successfully update the info in the router, and get it to work with my PC laptop (on which I have been doing the updates). So then I poke around in the settings to see if I can figure out how to make it work properly. I change "DHCP server" to "DHCP client" reasoning that I am, after all, a client and not a server. So far so good. Then I plug in the Mac to see if it's really working. Alas, it isn't. So I swing the chair around to change the settings back on the router, and suddenly the PC isn't talking to the router anymore, and refuses to do so. Over and over.

Result of today's attempt to fix technology: much frustration and still no wireless. At least the wired router works without me actually having to set up anything. Bleah.

It's Alive!

Or live, anyway: About PlayStation Portable / PSP.

Things Not Photographed

Here's something really cool: Unphotographable: a text account of pictures missed. (Via Neil Gaiman.)

Road Trip!

Yes, I finally got outside the city! This past Friday, Judy, Randy, Deva, Ryan and I all piled in Judy & Randy's car and off we went. Inlandish, though I'm not entirely sure where we went (I think I could find it on a map, if I could find a map). Anyway, it was lovely, even though the weather was damp, and there was a river and many trees, and birds (a pheasant, even). Of course I took lots of pictures, mostly with my digital camera, since I'd forgotten to buy colour film.

Everyone at the park entrance:


Pretty green lichen on a tree:


Tree and river:


Next time, Judy says we will head for a beach.

All Sorts of Things

Er, yeah. I haven't updated in a while. Sorry about that. I blame it on end-of-term insanity and the incoherence that follows. But I think I have recovered now. I have a few bits and pieces of news, mostly school or work related. Let's see . . .

I got a scholarship for the fall. $800, so it won't cover everything, but it means I will have to borrow slightly less from the government. In order to actually get the thing, though, I am required (yes, really, actually required) to go to an awards ceremony in September and meet the donors. I think I can manage that. They are giving me money, after all.

I'm going to be taking summer classes this year. I wasn't going to, but a few things are offered in summer that don't come up very often during the year, like Book Arts, and other things are just better to take in summer (fewer students, better weather, etc), like Intro Photo. So I've ended up with a full 15 credits. Intro Photo and Survey of 20th Century Art all summer, plus Book Arts in the first half and Computer Image Making in the second half. It should be fun. I have about 3 weeks now to work and have fun before classes start.

End-of-term went reasonably well. I'm not sure how I did in drawing, but probably okay. Survey of 19th C Art I think went well, despite having very little time to study for the final. My Design teacher said I'd be getting an A+. He might have meant just on the toy design project, but I'm pretty sure he meant the whole term. Yay! That was a really good class.

The prototype of my toy design, the Puzzle Ship (it has more pieces, and can be made into different ships -- shown is the Spanish Galleon version, my favourite):



My photography final evaluation went well, too. I don't know what grade I'm getting, but I got the highest mark in the class on the quiz (16/18 -- one question I counted stops wrong, even though I counted twice; and one question I knew the answer but explained it backwards -- duh). Also, my teacher said my depth of field assignment was excellent and that all the extra work I put into the presentation of my final project (it was photos of trees growing around fences and signs and things, which I dry mounted onto heavy paper and bound in a big tome) paid off. We had a really good conversation about the class and other things (turns out he has a degree in nuclear physics -- how cool is that?), and when I said I'd come to NSCAD to study design, he said "Well, maybe we can lure you away from design." I said it wouldn't be that hard. I have been trying to resist the temptation to change majors, though. At the moment, I'm just trying to fit in as much photo (and other interesting stuff) as I can. As my teacher said, though, design is the program with the least room for exploring interests in other areas (I mentioned at one point that I am interested in everything). Anyway, photo was my favourite class this past semester, as you may have guessed.

Now, some non-school things. Support at About.com is working on transferring my PSP site to the live servers, so I shall soon be the PSP Guide, and no longer the Creative Writing for Teens Guide. I've been having a blast with PSP, so I'm looking forward to being able to concentrate on that and not having to worry about teenwriting any more. That should happen this week.

I've been accepted onto the Gamer Advisory Panel on the Playstation site (yes, the official one). It's not a really big deal -- lots of people are on it, but it's kind of cool. I have to get a bit more active on the message boards and stuff or they'll kick me off, and I'd like to at least get the chance to beta test something first (grin). I'll need to get a network adaptor for my PS2 first, though, but I should be able to get one cheapish on eBay or at EB Games. I think I get a free tshirt, too. At least one of the questions on the admittance test was "What size tshirt do you wear?" I suspect I got on because there aren't a whole lot of female in-their-thirties gamers out there.

I have a few more things to write, but this is getting long, so I'll stop and put more in a separate entry.

Another 1.50 PSP

Here's another 1.5 firmware PSP available online. A 2.00 version would work, too, as there is software to "downgrade" from 2.00 to 1.50 (but not from 2.01 or anything higher). Yes, still PSP-obsessed, but it's my job now. Or will be very soon.

Due to a Lack of Pictures Here

Here's some nice fungus I found in the cemetery behind our house sometime last fall-ish.

No Time At All

Aah! The end of semester rush is in full swing -- I have two major projects, some minor ones, and an exam coming up next week. And I'm getting the new About PSP site ready to go live, AND I'm still maintaining the About Teenwriting site until PSP goes live. Talk about no time! I'm still managing to play games (I have to for work now), but I'm not getting much time to read or watch movies, or write to people who probably think I am dead.

So, I'm not dead. I feel like it some mornings, but I seem to still have a pulse. I am still ambulatory and consuming too many chips and too much chocolate. I got my hair cut (Deva's mom Judy cut it, as I am too cheap and have too little time to go to a salon). I seem to resemble my driver's license photo again. Other than that, there is not much happening. School. Work. Haircut. Oh, and it's decided to be spring. I saw crocuses nearly two weeks ago (I think; time does strange things at the end of semester).

Also, I am finding it difficult to not change my major to photography. I really like design, but it is photo class that infallibly puts me in a good mood and makes me happy that I am in art school. Must . . . be . . . practical. I got my summer course schedule (note to self: hurry up and apply for a student loan, you git). I'll have Intro Photo (in case you are confused, I am currently taking Foundation Photo, which is the first year course) and Survey of 20th Century Art (which I am mainly taking as it is a prerequisite for History of Photography which I have registered for in the fall) all summer long. In the first half of the summer, I'm taking Book Arts, and in the second half, I'm taking Computer Image Making. I've ended up with 8:30 classes at least one day a week all summer (yuck) and also one day a week that's really long, but I only have classes 3 days out of 7. So, I guess there was some news. Now I go back to work. Or maybe I'll play Daxter for a while first.

Anime night tonight. Yay!

PSP Updates

So, I am working madly away to get the new psp.about.com site ready to go live. It's a lot of fun, too. Anyway, I broke down and bought Daxter yesterday. I think it's the first time I've ever bought a new release game for any system. I did trade in a PS2 game, though, so it was slightly cheaper.

Also, I found a place that has PSPs with version 1.5 firmware, brand new in the box. Version 1.5 is the highest version that will run all homebrew programs, which is what I want a second PSP for (because homebrew is probably going to be a significant aspect of the new job, and I can't really report on it without a machine that runs it).

Birthday Ideas

Yes, I know my birthday isn't for well over two months . . .

Since I'm going to be the PSP Guide at About.com, I'm going to need a few things, and it would be cool to get some of them for my birthday (I thought to myself). The things I'll need include PlayStation magazines, PSP accessories, PSP movies and PSP games. And maybe another PSP.

Even though I get all the latest news online, magazines are still a good source of information, ideas for articles, and so on. The magazines I'd like subscriptions to for work are (roughly in order of importance):

• OPM (aka the Official PlayStation Magazine)
  
• PSM (aka PlayStation Monthly)
  
• Pocket Games
  
• Game Informer
  
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (aka EGM)
  
• GamePro

Yeah, there are quite a few. I probably missed some (I purposely left out a really cool, but very pricey, English game culture mag). The top three on the list are the most important -- the first two are PlayStation and PSP specific, and the third is handheld gaming specific. The other three are also useful but not as vital.

Accessories. I'm coveting this case/stand, but essentially, anything other than Pelican's Face Armor and Disc Jackets, Intec's leather case, and the Sony items that came in the value pack woud be useful for reviewing. Things I actually need would include some kind of screen protector (those stick-on fim things) and Logitech's PlayGear Pocket. Oh, and a bigger Memory Stick (Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo) -- say 1 GB or larger.

As for games and movies, anything on UMD (that's the PSP format tiny discs that come in a case like a DVD case but narrower) would be great (except for Lumines and Death Junior for games, and Hellboy and Van Hellsing for movies). I will probably have to scrape together the cash to buy a few before my birthday, but I'll keep anyone interested up to date. I don't own any music videos on UMD -- those would be useful for reviews.

And I've been thinking a second PSP would be a good idea. I'm going to be doing extensive coverage of PSP Homebrews, and running homebrew requires some clever hacks. It would be nice to have a clean system for playing approved games and movies, and another for messing around with the frowned-upon-by-Sony stuff. Ideally, I'd either like a ceramic white Japanese system, which would let me review both a different colour and a different version, or an older system running firmware version 1.50 (but not 1.51 or 1.52), which would be much harder to find -- eBay, probably -- but which would let me run every homebrew ever made.

Of course, there are rumours of a slimmed-down version of the PSP coming out around Christmas, but so far they are only rumours, and Christmas is a long way off.

There are always non-PSP things, too, like photography books and anime DVDs, but until I establish good press/pr relationships with companies that make stuff for PSP, I'm going to have to buy things to review and write about, and I can't quite justify so many magazine subscriptions on a limited budget. Sigh.

Early birthday presents are always welcome, of course. (heh heh heh)

Painting

Quite some time ago I had an idea to do paintings on wood in such a way that the wood grain showed through and formed part of the composition. I actually painted one -- a selkie -- but my skills as a painter were not exactly astounding. I also had glued on a sheet of parchment with calligraphy on it, then sanded down the surface so most of the wood grain was visible again before painting on it. I liked the way it turned out, even if it was a bit shaky, and used to have it hanging on my wall. I keep meaning to try that again, but when do I have time to paint? Geh.

Anyway, I was browsing blogs this morning, and came across a link to this artist, who paints lovely people on wood with the wood grain showing through (or else it's very convincing faux grain, but I think it's real). I especially like the one with the coelacanth. And the bug one. Lovely stuff, anyway. (Link via Fabulist.)

Coolest Geek Ever!

I think I mentioned that I'd applied to do the PSP (that is, Playstation Portable) site for About (for whom I currently do the CW for Teens site). Well, I went through prep (that is training that also helps the staff evaluate your ability to do the job). I was almost two weeks long, but I had a blast! So, anyway, I found out Wednesday that I got the job! Yay! So I have another week or two to build up the site, and then it goes live and I am the About Guide to PSP. Of course, I also have to give up teenwriting, but that's okay. I haven't been so enthusiastic about it lately. It's hard to write about writing when the only writing you're doing is writing about writing. I think this will be a good change.

Quoth the . . . Cat?

I realized I hadn't posted any pics of the kittens. Sam (aka Captain Samuel Morgan), who has thumbs, now lives next door with Deva's mum, so I don't have any recent shots of him. Poe, on the other hand, has become a huge furry black beast (alas, his brain doesn't seem to have grown along with his body) who likes to occupy empty shelves.



And yes, he talks. A lot, and loudly. He doesn't say "Nevermore," though. Just variations of "Meeeeoowwww!" (usually sounding like he's been abandoned and will never know companionship again, even if he happens to be standing right next to you).

Fey! Update! (Sort Of!)

Actually, all I did is finally move the web pages I did as a project for Computer class last semester over to their proper place. I still need to work on the calligraphy. Possibly re-doing the letters in Illustrator would help, but I haven't got time right now, so they'll just have to stay as-is for now. Now I just need to actually update the comic . . .

Ego-Boost

Yeah, okay, so I googled myself again. This time I found my Computer Games as Storytelling article linked in a list of references for a course on Introduction to Narrative at the National University of Singapore. Kinda cool.

Which Sci-Fi Crew Would You Best Fit In?

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and donâ??t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 88% Moya (Farscape) 81% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 81% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 75% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 63% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 50% SG-1 (Stargate) 50% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 50% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 25% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

We Have Wireless! And Snow!

I'm on my "spring" break right now, which means there's nobody else home--a perfect time to set up that wireless router I blogged about not long ago. You know, in case I mess up and it takes me all day to fix it. Well . . . I did not mess up. Even with all the fiddling and testing and playing around I did, it only took a couple of hours. The actual plug-it-in-and-make-it-work time was about ten minutes. If I'd know it was going to be that easy, I'd have done it right away. Oh well.

So now we have two PCs (Deva and Ryan's Dell and my Crap Machine) and a Mac (my Siog) plugged in the old-fashioned wired way, and I can connect wirelessly with the PSP. All for $3.99. Now I have a wired broadband router I don't need anymore, but Deva's mom has been talking about getting internet service again, so maybe she'll need it. Anyway.

One of the reasons I wanted to get a wireless router was for the PSP. I've applied to do the brand-new, does-not-exist-yet, About.com PSP site. It would mean giving up Creative Writing for Teens, of course. Two reasons why that will probably be a good thing: 1. I find that all my creative-writing energy seems to be going into that site, with not much left over for my own work; and 2. I've been wanting to get back into game reviewing for quite a while now (does anyone even remember that I used to review for the Electric Playground website?). This way, I get to review PSP games, gadgets and peripherals of various sorts. I think it'll be cool. Plus, I'll have a perfectly valid reason for why playing games needs to get equal time with doing art school homework.

Anyway, I feel very high-tech. (Yeah, yeah, wireless is not exactly cutting-edge. I'll be cutting edge when I'm rich.)

And now I am babbling, so on the the second thing in the title: snow. At the moment, there are just a few tiny flakes drifting down, and the sun is actually glaring out from some gap in the clouds and lighting up my keyboard, but half an hour ago there was a flurry of big, fluffy flakes. I tried to get a good photo showing the flakes; here's what it looked like from our balcony:



Click the image for a bigger version where you might actually be able to see the snowflakes.

Pretty Things

For an assignment in Design class, I went to talk to Andrew Kirk, a violin maker here in Halifax. It was an interesting visit, and I learned all kinds of cool things about violins and working with wood (the object of the assignment is to familiarize us with wood and woodworking, as we are designing wooden toys). Also, I took this picture:



(Click the image for a larger version.) Pretty, no? I took it with my little HP digital camera, which is turning out to be a pretty useful little device. I admit, I did crop it down a bit; I was thinking more about snapping pics of everything in the workshop than I was about composition when I shot it. I didn't realize how striking the reddish colour of the maple wood would look against the bright blue walls. I think I might even change the ink cartridge in my inkjet printer and see if I can get a decent print to put on my wall.

Ah!

(That was a Homer Simpson-esque "ah!" in case you were wondering).

I sort of knew this was coming, but now I know for sure: there's going to be a sequel to The Dark Crystal! Scroll down for a lovely picture. (Link via PuppetVision Blog.)

Going Wireless . . . Sort Of

When we set up our internet connection here, I had originally thought of getting a wireless router. No cables snaking all over the place, etc. But wireless routers cost more than wired ones, and nobody here has wireless machines, so we'd have had to buy adapters as well as the router (even my Mac isn't wireless, because I was cheap).

Except I didn't know that most wireless routers also have ports for wired machines.

Anyway, I've been wanting to play with my PSP online (the updated firmware includes a little web browser--is that not cool?). And when I get a DS, I'll want to try it out online, too. Both PSPs and DSs are wireless, with no way to access a wired network (well, you can buy a USB device from Nintendo that turns your PC into a wireless access point, but since my primary machine is not an XP box, and since the adapter *only* works with DS, well . . .)

So, just out of curiousity, I went to the Futureshop website to look at wireless routers. And I found this one. As I write this (and until the 9th of this month) it's on sale for $63.99. With a $60 mail-in rebate. For those of you who can't quite compute this, it means the thing will cost $3.99 (not including the tax on the whole $63.99, of course). $3.99!!! That's less that five bucks (less than fifteen if you count the tax). They're out of stock online, but they have a nifty feature where you can order online and pick up in-store. They are in stock in Halifax (and Dartmouth). So, yeah, I ordered one online and will find out tomorrow (probably) if/when i can go pick it up. $3.99! I'm still amazed.

So if you're thinking of picking up a wireless router, this might be a good time.

Now That's Halifax Winter

Here's what's on the NSCAD homepage this morning:

All daytime and evening classes are cancelled and the university is closed today, due to the snowstorm.

SNOW DAY! I haven't had a snow day since I was in elementary school.

Very Cool Art

Check this out. I'd love to have some of these lurking in my house. I'd love to make something like these. I tried once, with some fish bones, but it didn't work very well. Maybe it's time to try again. (Link via Neil Gaiman.)

You Know You're a Geek When

. . . your design class is looking at monograms and your teacher asks "What do the initials D.M. remind you of?" and you say "Dungeon Master."

Forget Heaven, I'm Going to Valhalla!

Do you deserve a seat in Valhalla? (15 Questions)
brought to you by Quizilla

Why I Love Value Village

(There's also a "Why I Hate Value Village" category that begins with insane pricing, but that's irrelevant for the moment.)

I love Value Village because you can still find very cool stuff there for relatively cheap (possibly that is especially so for the Atlantic provinces). Today, I found a Rolleiflex SL26 camera there. It's a "classic" camera from the late 60s/early 70s, made in Germany and sporting a Zeiss lens (Zeiss makes really good lenses for large format cameras). Anyway, they're not hugely expensive cameras these days, but they do cost more than the $25 I paid for mine. Now I just have to find some 126 film cartridges (I could swear I saw them at a Lawton's drug store a few months ago, but it might have been 110).

And I also found an old Nintendo NES game system. It's a bit cheesy, but how could I resist? It desperately needs cleaning, so I'll be off to WalMart for cleaning items (and junkfood for anime night). Woo hoo!

Bestsellers

According to the Lulu Titlescorer,

• The Coming of the Fairies has a 63.7% chance of becoming a bestseller
  
• The Secret Common-Wealth has a 69% chance
  
• The Madness of Kentaurs has a 35.9% chance
  
• The Stolen Child has a 41.4% chance
  
• Three Sisters has a 14.6% chance
  
• and Bunk has a 31.7% chance.

Of course, only the first three have actually been written (and only the first one revised). Scientific bestseller projection for books not even written yet! Amazing!

(Link via Neil Gaiman.)

Airship Teapots!

Yes, you read that right: airship teapots! Want one . . . drool . . . (Link via Kaja Foglio.) (For more airships and Foglios, read Girl Genius. 'Cause I said so.)

New Things

I wonder how long it will take me to remember to put "2006" on things?

Anyway, I had a quiet New Year's Eve. Watched some tv, read a book, stayed up late enough to say "Happy New Year" and went to bed. Then we had a turkey dinner on New Year's Day.

I spent most of the holiday recovering from the hectic end of semester. I tried to get in a little extra work, but mostly I did a lot of reading (mostly YA novels, a few magazines, a bit of non-fiction, and a handful of graphic novels from the library), a lot of gaming (on PS2 started Devil May Cry, played most of Jak and Daxter (since finished), and got all the way through Samurai jack: The Shadow of Aku, and on PC started Syberia 2 which I didn't think would work on the elderly laptop but did), and some watching of movies (a few rented things like The Brothers Grimm, and the latest Harry Potter and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at the theatre).

And now the new semester has begun. The first day of class was Tuesday, and I had an 8:30 am class (this means getting up at 6:30--bleah). The class was Studio: Design, basically an introduction to the various categories of design (product design, communication design, etc). The teacher was, alas, still in Switzerland, so another prof gave us the course outline and our first assignment. I've since had the second class (Thursday morning), but I'm still not sure if the class will be really good, or a chore. It will definitely be a lot of work, and I should learn a lot, so I'm hoping it will be good. More on that as things develop.

Wednesday I had a much more reasonable start time: 10:30 am. This was for a lecture course in 19th century art. So far it's lecture-course-tedious, but the only homework will be reading and studying for the two exams. Then in the afternoon (1-5) I had photography. It started off really fun, with some optics demonstrations, so I think it's going to be good. There will be a fair bit of work--after next week, we'll have to shoot a roll of film (36 exp) a week, plus technical exercises and textbook reading. The text is really interesting, though; I'm finding myself really intrigued by the technical aspects. So now I'm trying to figure out how to fit more photography into my schedule next year. I'm thinking of paring down the art history classes to only the required courses (I have enough transfer credit to cover electives). I really wanted to take the one on the Arts and Crafts movement, but I can learn about that from books on my own if need be. Better to spend my class time learning practical things. I only wish I'd thought of that before I signed up for Survey of 19th Century Art; I could have possibly fit in one of the required ones instead and freed up more time next year. Oh well.

Thursday was Design again. On Monday I'll have 19th c, and then my first Foundation Drawing 2 class. I expect it'll be similar to part 1, with 5-hour homework drawings each week.

And so life goes.

• Currently reading: The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events book 12) by Lemony Snicket (fiction)
  
• Currently reading: Winter World by Bernd Heinrich (non-fiction)
  
• Currenly playing: Devil May Cry (PS2)
  
• Currenly playing: Kya: Dark Lineage (PS2)
  
• Currenly playing: Syberia 2 (PC)

And a Merry Xmas it Was!

Or still is, really.

And boy, did I get some great prezzies this year! Let's see . . .

• some really gorgeous Asian plates and sauce dishes from Mum--perfect for a sushi feast
  
• a nice, fat Futureshop gift card from Dad and Cat
  
• fancy chopsticks and chopstick rests from Santa
  
• a book on the languages of Middle Earth from Sue
  
• a big stuffed Vitalstatistix (from Asterix) from Sue
  
• Star Wars Episode 3 on dvd from Ryan and Selena (now I just need eps 1 & 2)
  
• money from Gramma Staniforth
  
• a whole bunch of candles, candle holders, soap, fragrance sachets, choclolate and other stockingish goodies
  
• a book on pirates from Deva
  
• a Tanith Lee novel (also with pirates) from Deva
  
• Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku PS2 game from Ryan
  
• a box of sewing and crafty treasure (like silk thread, bits of antique fabric, glass beads and other beautiful things) from Judy
  
• scratch and win tickets from Randy
  
• lots of chocolate, girly bath things, a piratey treasure chest, and other cool stockingy goodies
  

I might have missed some, but I think that's most of it. Now I am full of yummy turkey dinner and ready to settle down and read for a while. Aaaah.

Tomorrow there may be boxing day shopping. There may also be The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie (finally saw the latest Harry Potter last weekend). Yup. It's a good holiday, even if I am away from home.

Tis the Night Before Christmas

Or the day, anyway.

And if you haven't seen the Lord of the Rings MTV Acceptance Speech yet, go watch it right now. (You'll need Quicktime, which you should have if you're using a Mac; if not, you can download it here for Windows.)

Happy Solstice!

Yep, it's that time of year again. The winter solstice. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

(I will be blogging more, once the holiday rush is over.)

Happy Birthday Dad!

You know the song . . .

Have a great day!

Looking Ahead

So, if anyone wants to start birthday shopping early (really early), I'd rather like this book (purty please).

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy birthday to you . . .

I can't do the rest because it would be copyright infrigement, but you get the idea. Have a great day!

What Naruto Guy is For You?

What Naruto Guy is For You?


Hosted by theOtaku.com: Anime. Done right.

What I Really Want for Christmas Is . . .

. . . this camera. (Hey, Sue, can you pass this idea on to Mum? She was asking what I'd most like.)

All I Want for Christmas . . .

... is The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne on dvd. Alas, it does not exist on dvd. But if somebody were to say, dub the copies they'd taped off tv onto a fresh vhs tape and send it to me, I would be ever so happy. Hint, hint.

Body Parts

I just started reading From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, and it's already made me laugh several times. Here's a funny quote from page 4:

Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection; and it was calculated by the great statistician Pitcairn that througout the Gun Club there was not quite one arm between four persons, and exactly two legs between six.

. Heh.

Not Dead

Just very busy with end-of-term projects.

Drawring

Things I learned in drawing class:

• I like figure drawing better than still lifes
  
• naked women are easier to draw than naked men
  
• nipple piercing on a man = very sexy
  
• genital piercing on a man = kind of creepy
  

That's not all I learned, of course, just what comes to mind after today's class.

Carrying Weight

Warning: Before reading the following quote, ensure that you have swallowed whatever might be in your mouth, and put down anything you are holding (especially if you happen to be a woman).

A pair of D-cup breasts weighs between 15 and 23 pounds--the equivalent of carrying around two small turkeys.

(From "The Physics of . . . Bras," Discover 26.11 (November 2005): 18-19)

There was also something about the momentum generated by running and the possibility of generating enough force to break a clavicle. So next time some guy says how wonderful boobs are, strap a couple of turkeys to his chest and make him run on a treadmill (or just do the turkeys and see how long he lasts).

Crushing

It's been a long time since I've been on this side of a crush with no idea of how the other person feels. It's strange, and alternately wonderful and very, very horrible.

Well . . .

I have absoutely no enthusiasm for my NaNoWriMo novel. Bleah. I haven't entirely given up--I'm one-fifth of the way through, after all. But I'm not going to kill myself. I have to do my homework first after all (and maybe play the odd video game and read--gotta de-stress, you know).

Now, back to my regularly scheduled homework.

Words, Words, Words

Saturday, for no particular reason other than that I was having fun and forgot and then when I remembered I was too tired, no words got written on the new NaNovel. Alas. I'm not too worried about catching up, except that I'm starting to wonder if this novel is a steaming pile of . . .. Anyway, I like bits of it so far, but other bits are not very good (and those, mostly, are the ones re-creating bits I'd already written long, long ago). I very nearly said "Sod it" and gave up yesterday, thinking I could more productively spend my time revising already-written stories and sending them off to pubishers. But, I decided to give it another go. I am, as you may know, stubborn as all get-out. (Must remember to look that up and see where it came from--"x as all get-out"; is it even hyphenated?)

Yesterday, despite a very fun trip to a craft/antiques fair with my surrogate family, I managed to write. I didn't make the 2000-word goal, but I did exceed the 1,667-word minimum, so that's okay. I wrote 1,834 words, mostly in one big rush of frantic typing right before bed, and have now cracked the 10,000-word mark by a whopping 84 words. Yeah. Now I just have to catch up for Saturday.

More NaNo

So I managed 2013 words today (well, yesterday technically), and now have 8250 words of crap. Yee haw!

I'm an Allosaurus

See here.

Find out what dinosaur you are here.

(Links to the Natural History Museum (London) website.)

NaNoWriMo: So Far, So Good

Well, day 3 and I'm still in the game. I wrote 2,104 words today, for a total of 6,237. I don't anticipate too much trouble keeping up with it until Monday. Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be the hardest.

Victory is Mine!

(And also the name of the main character in my NaNoWriMo story.) (And also my name, if you translate Nicole somewhat loosely.)

But victory is truly mine, despite only getting 94.5 percent on my Visual Culture midterm and merely 98.5 percent on my Computer quiz (one reason for this abysmally low score can be found here; another reason, I discovered, is that I completely missed one blank even though I went over my test before handing it in--and it was the crop tool, too!! I know the *&^%$ crop tool; I use it all the time!) . . .

Where was I? Oh, yes. Victory is mine for I have attained a goal I thought unreachable! I got 10 out of 10 on my Illustrator assignment! Yes, I have achieved a perfect mark. Yay!



Click for big, as usual. It is, in case you are wondering, an Illustrator re-creation of "Orpheus and Eurydice" by Edmund Dulac--you can see the original here (you have to scroll waaay down, and it's a graphics intensive site, but a cool one).

NaNo Update

So far I'm hanging in there. Only 28 days to go . . .

I did 2015 words today (the last 750 of them in approximately the last half hour) for a total so far of 4133 words. Yay, me!

Woo Hoo!

Okay, I'm doing NaNoWriMo. For now, at least. I wrote the first 2118 words of The Stolen Child (that's including the title and chapter headings). And I discovered that the latest version of Word now has a running word count right at the bottom of the page (you used to have to go to Tools --> Word Count). So. That's all I was going to say. 2118 words. Not a bad start (in case you have forgotten from last year, to write 50,000 words in 30 days, one needs to write at least 1667 words every day).

Not Sure About NaNo

For the last two years, I've successfully participated in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). I'm not sure I'll make it this year. I'm not even sure I'll try. With part-time work and full-time school, I've done almost no writing. It would be good to get back into it, but I'm not sure I should. Anyway, I'm really sleepy right now, which may be affecting my decision-making brain functions. I'll see how I feel a little later. Maybe I'll try to have a nap, though I also need to get some essay research done, and get ready for Wednesday's classes.

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

Looking Your Age

I knew I don't really look my age, but I didn't know I looked quite as young as I do (it could be the green hair and nose ring). I was talking to one of the young women in my Intro Studio class, and somehow we got talking about age. She thought I was 25 at the most, and maybe younger. Yes, I am 25. Plus 8. Heh. Then when I told her I'm 33, and she said, "Wow, I hope I look that good when I'm in my 30s."

Most of the time I don't really care how young or old people think I am, but there are times when it's nice to look one's age (such as when one has a crush on someone, and doesn't want them to think one is as young as most of one's classmates). Maybe I've just stopped aging and will live indefinately and will thus have time to read everything.

On Grades and Registration

I should perhaps mention that I'm not actually stressing or worried about grades. Those of you who know me well know I rarely stress or worry about anything. I just really want to do the best I'm capable of (maybe I need to prove to myself that I can do well). Anyway.

I stood in line to get registered today. I think both UVic and U of C had telephone registration by the early 90s. NSCAD has pieces of paper you fill out and stand in line with. At the end of the line, they look over your courses in case any sections have been cancelled (my Studio: Design section may not be offered, so I had to take my alternate choice, which is an 8:30 class twice a week--yuck; they did say that if there are too many people wanting that course, they may re-open the section, and I can switch into it in December, so I'll keep my fingers crossed). Then they make sure you've paid your registration deposit (mine came out of my student loan when I paid the first semester's tuition), then they take your sheet of paper, put it in a pile with all the other sheets of paper and send you on your way. So I don't actually know if I got into any of the sections of the courses I want.

But, if all goes well, I'll be taking Foundation Photography, Foundation Drawing 2, Studio: Design, and Survey of 19th Century Art (I get a head start on my next year's courses because I have transfer credit for writing).

Then on the way home I traded in a couple of PS2 games that I'd finished and got a new one (Devil May Cry). With the trade-in and the Hallowe'en discount on supernatural-themed games, it cost me a whole $2.50 or so. I was only a little bummed because they didn't have Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, which I wanted to get to after The Sands of Time. Oh well. And that's what I did today.

Argh!

I am so annoyed with myself. I just had a computer quiz, on which I shall not be getting 100%, partly on account of not being able to remember what the burn tool in Photoshop is called or what it does. There I was, staring at the little icon, thinking, "I should know this. I was just looking at this last night." Then I wrote something stupid that I knew was wrong as soon as I wrote it, but I couldn't think of anything else to write. Luckily, it wasn't worth many points on its own. Unluckily, I also forgot a few other things, like what resolution to scan at for printing in a magazine (I guessed, but I really don't feel like checking to see if my guess was correct).

On the other hand, I got my last Photoshop assignment back (the dragon one I posted about below), and I got 9.5/10. While I'm a little annoyed at myself about that--I just can't seem to push myself far enough to get that extra half point--9.5 is really not a bad grade, especially considering how much other homework I've had.

This weekend, though, will be a rare weekend of relatively little stress. I have no drawing homework (she gave us the week off because we just had midterm evaluations--I'm at a B right now, but she said she expects I'll end up with a higher grade by the end of the course) (yay!). I have no computer homework because we just finished Macs and Illustrator and began Windows and will soon begin web design. There is my essay still to do, of course, but that isn't new homework (I'l be getting at it in earnest this week, though). So that just leaves some reading for Visual Culture, and finishing one project and starting a new one for Studio. The new projet will involve some kind of evolutionary sequence (I'm leaning towards theropod dinosaur --> bird), and pages from Genesis (anyone got a Bible I can cut up?).

Anyway, that means I will be going to a movie this weekend for sure. Probably Serenity, if it's still playing. There may also be a visit to Chapters involved, seeing as it's across the parking lot from the movie theatre. And maybe Futureshop, too, depending on how much time I have. And not only that, I will be going to the art gallery to see the Asian ceramics exhibit (before it goes away) and the Mediterranean art exhibit. Yup. So it'll be a busy weekend, even with much, much less homework. And I'm going to try to squeeze in a bit of Clocktower 3 on the PS2 (good game for Hallowe'en).

And that is exactly how exciting my life is. Yup.

10 Years!

I just realized the other day that this year is my ten-year anniversary of being on the web. I had an email address the year before, I think, but didn't know how to use it (and, for whatever reason, wasn't that interested in figuring out how). But in 1995 a friend introduced me to the web (we used Lynx back then, though Netscape followed not too long after). It wasn't long before I was spending way too much time surfing and reading newsgroups (and using web documents as references for homework). By the next year, I had my own website (The Swordsmithy--it had a bibliography, a glossary, and links, and it was the first place besides the APALA conference proceedings that "From Rapier to Langsax" appeared; that article is the one that seems to be all over the place on the web now, though only one site ever asked permission to use it).

Anyway. Ten years. Now I can't imagine trying to do research or collect things or keep up to date on all the various things I'm interested in without the web. Which isn't to say I couldn't live without it (I can, after all, make an arrowhead out of a beer bottle bottom), it would just be a very different world.

More Google Vanity

Yeah, yeah. So apparently I have big feet:

There's a woman called Niko Silvester who seems to have left articles in absolutely every website I've visited. Eclectic ain't the word. She also wrote an extremely useful article on sword development that I drew upon for my BSc Archaeology lecture last summer. It would be nice to have that kind of an online footprint, and be active in some many e-locations (and yes, she has a blog)...

(Quote from here.) I knew I had crap all over the web--most of which is copies of my sword article . . . And, even better, said article was "extremely useful." Hee hee. Okay, back to work before my head gets so big it explodes. I need my brain for thinking with, and it's so hard to pick grey matter out from between the keys.

(And OMG, someone referenced me in a research paper!! Here. Watch out for skull shrapnel and flying brains!)

(Okay, only one more thing, if you google "Nico Silvester" nothing relevant comes up, but it asks you, "did you mean Niko Silvester? Heh. So anyone who knows me as Nico and decides to google me--not that anyone would, but you never know--might get very confused. Must remember to add alternate spellings of my name (ones I actually use, I mean) to the meta tags of all my various pages . . .)

Erm . . . Who Submitted My Article?

Okay, I have to confess, sometimes I google myself. Today, while taking a break from my latest computer assignment, I did just that, and I found this page: BC Rockhounder magazine (scroll down to about halfway through Spring 2005). Now, as cool as it is to see an old article of mine (I wrote it way back when I was in grad school in St John's, and Tim was setting up Knappers Anonymous) in a rockhounding magazine, I did not submit it. As far as I can tell from the website, they don't go around taking articles, but they do take electronic subs. This means someone else submitted my article (but kept my name on). I'm not mad, really, but I am really curious about who sent it in (yes, yes, I will email the editor, as soon as I figure out how such an email should be worded).

So, any one of you Vancouver Island folks want to stop by the Rockhound Shop and see if you can get me a copy?

Looking for References

Have any of you, my educated and intelligent friends, family and others, come across any comments (preferably thoughtful and insightful) on Umberto Eco's IBM vs. Mac blurby? I'm going to be writing an essay on it and, while the excerpt itself is all over the web, there aren't too many useful comments (at least, I coudn't find many, but then I only spent an hour or so looking). Obviously, most of the essay will be my own thoughts about what he meant, etc, but it woud be nice to have a few outside sources. Print sources are good, too (Niko like library).

Address Oops

So, apparently my postal code is B3L 3Z7, not whatever it is I told everyone it was. All my mail has been getting here just fine, though.

I Still Rule the World (sort of)

I just got back from computer class and am soon to eat and have a very long nap on account of being up till all hours finishing my homework (don't ask). Anyway, I was right about not getting 10/10 on my last assignment (about which you can read here). I got 9.5/10.

I also handed in an assignment--the one I mentioned before where we had to choose an artist, and I was going to do Botticelli, but then decided to do Hokusai. Here's the sketch I started with (it's my own drawing, but based on Hokusai's prints and paintings--click for bigger version):



I really didn't like what I had managed to get done on Tuesday, but by then it was too late to start again, so I kept at it last night (hence the need for nap). I ended up changing almost everything I had already done. Except the sketch, of course. I'm actually pretty happy with how things turned out. There are a few things I could still fix--and I might do some more work on it later, when I actually have free time--and a few things don't look quite the same on the printed version (specifically, the blue on the foam is brighter --which I don't like--and the blues on the waves are more similar and darker--which looks better).



I had originally thought to just use the sketch as a reference layer, and then delete it, but I liked how it looked layered over top of everything else. Also, the graphite smudges and noise actually made it look more like a print than a printout on the hardcopy (if that makes any sense).

Changes, Movies, and Weather

Hey, look, my fourth post in only three days! No, I'm not less busy, I'm just sqeezing in some blogging by wasting less time. Or something.

Changes: Well, only one change, really. I've decided not to do Botticelli for my next Photoshop assignment, but to do Katsushika Hokusai instead. Yeah, the guy who did the print of the big wave. He did lots of other scenes of the Japanese countryside and Japanese daily life.

Movies: Yet again, I did not make it to the movies this weekend. I so want to see Serenity. Anyway, we had tacos and rented movies last night instead. We watched Shaun of the Dead, which is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. If you haven't seen it, and aren't too squeamish about zombies, go rent it immediately. I mean it. You will laugh. Then we watched Bubba Ho-tep, which I was dubious about, but which actually turned out to be pretty good. Not as hilarious as Shaun of the Dead, but worth seeing nonetheless.

Weather: It got really rainy and windy last night--a brief power outage of a few seconds interrupted a rather climactic part of Shaun of the Dead. It's less rainy now, but still windy. Deva's work (NS Power) has called several times for her. We can feel the building move. It's kind of cool, but I'm very glad I don't have to carry my portfolio in to school tomorrow. It makes a dandy sail, but steering is awkward.

Other things: I'm quite sure it took me more than the recommended five hours to do my drawing homework. I worked on it all yesterday afternoon and part of the evening, and still had to take a couple of hours to finish it today. Bleah. Consequently, I am way behind where I wanted to be. I wanted to be done my Studio homework yesterday, too, so I could devote today to figuring out next semester's cources and starting on my computer homework.

Oh well.

Not More Books!

So yesterday I went out to the mall to pick up a book I'd seen on sale (not at the bookstore, though--it was one of those things where someone sets up tables selling remaindered books). My plan was to go to the sale, buy the book, and then swing by EB Games to trade in Ico and buy (probably) Devil May Cry. Then, on the way home, I would stop at Sobey's for instant rice noodle soup, a case of pop (for the making of wings--more on that later), and a few other odds and ends. I shoud have known better than to plan. Things never come out right when I plan.

Here is what happened: I went to the book sale and couldn't find the book I went there for on the table I thought I'd seen it on (it was the Adobe InDesign CS2 Bible). However, I found instead a book called Pixel Perfect, which was all about digital art. Very cool. Around then I heard one of the people working at the sale tell someone that all the books were 25% off the marked prices (which were aready remaindered-book low). So Pixel Perfect stayed in my hands, quickly joined by The Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. Many of you probably know that pseudoscience and crackpot stuff is one of my fascinations. How could I pass that up--in hardcover and everything?

So then I moved on to another table, where I found the book I'd gone there for (pubished this year, about the latest version of the software, and not damaged in any way I coud see, so I don't even know why it was remaindered in the first place, but I'm not going to complain about getting a $58 book for less than $10). I also found The History of Graphic Design, a big heavy hardcover on very nice paper with gorgeous pictures starting from cave art and going on into the late 90s. Into the pile it went. And then I found a copy of Abhorsen, the third book in Garth Nix's Sabriel trilogy, and it matched the copy of Sabriel that Sue got me for Christmas (so now I only need book 2, Lirael). I must have looked overburdened by then, as the lady working the checkout came over and asked if I'd like her to put my pile of books on the checkout table while I finished browsing. I let her carry them off.

By then I was about done, and wondering if I'd be able to carry this bounty home along with a case of pop, but there wasn't one book I was willing to leave behind. Books! Cheap! And they all had something to do with school (well, except Abhorsen) (and the pseudoscience one) (okay, most of them had to do with school). So I finished looking quickly, and managed to come away with ony two more, both novels and both under $3.

So, hauling two double-bagged parcels of books, I made my way to EB Games. They didn't have Devil May Cry, and I still have a couple of games to work on at home, so I decided not to get anything.

On to Sobey's. Got the noodles, some GF bread, and Honey Bars (yummy snacks for late classes). I didn't like their selection of pop (what kind of store has Diet Dr Pepper but no regular?). I decided to see what WalMart had, since I have to walk right past there to get home.

I decided on root beer (am I boring you yet?) and then decided to buy the winter warm things I've been meaning to get. I ended up with a new pair of flannel jammies (in a muted blue and green plaid), some fat winter socks, and nice underwear (with red and black piratey stripes--arr!). Okay, now I'm boring myself with the too-much-detail.

I did manage to carry it all home. Five bags of stuff when I only meant to buy a couple of things. But it's all useful and/or necessary (well, most of it). Getting great books for cheap always makes me happy. The good mood will last for days. And now I have to go draw some things. (And I keep forgetting that I attached a mouse so roomie-Ryan can use Paint, and I keep trying to use the touchpad and wondering why nothing happens. I really need a router so I can do everything but work on the Mac without haing to unplug the cable and plug it into the other machine.)

Foundation Computer

I expect some of you reading this are eager to know what school is like this time around, especially since I haven't been blogging much lately. I thought I'd go through and describe my classes one at a time, and since the class I had most recently (yesterday morning) was Foundation Computer, I'll start there.

The official description for the class (from the Guide to Undergraduate Programs; read it online here if you really want to--it's in .pdf format) is this:

This course is a hands-on introduction to computer graphics using several standard operating systems. Stuents taking this course are expected to have prior experience with the use of computers, including desktop and directory navigation, file management, basic word processing, e-mailing, and internet browsing.

Doesn't really say much, does it? Essentially, we're learning the basics of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign (a bitmap graphics editor, a vector graphics editor, and a page layout editor, respectively) on Macintosh and Windows. Our class started in the Mac lab, which mostly has eMacs running OSX, and we started with Photoshop. Most of the class had already used Photoshop at least a little bit, so we went through it pretty fast--we just started on Illustrator yesterday.

Although I have used Photoshop quite a lot, and it's one of those programs you can pick up quite a lot of just by playing around with it, I did learn lots of little things I hadn't figured out yet, and learned how to do some things I did know properly (and usually in a much simpler way). I managed to get 100% on the first quiz (yay!) which was on Mac basics, and 9/10 on the first big(ish) assignment. Deva and Ryan laughed when I pouted that I really wanted 10/10. "What, 90% isn't good enough for you?" Hell, no, I should have done better (meaning I should have done a better job, not that I should have got a better mark for the job I did do). (Yeah, I'm sure you're all rolling your eyes.)

I'm pretty sure I won't be getting 100% on the assignment I handed in yesterday, either, as much as I'd like to. I do have the excuses that I was sick and that I had a lot of other homework and ran out of time, but really, those are just excuses. The image I had in my head was of a cool Dave McKean-esque piece of art (see his website for many cool examples). What I ended up with was this (click image for bigger version):



The title is "Wrong Answer" (think Oedipus and the Sphinx), and yes, that is parts of me and parts of Bast (I think I ought to get extra credit for getting the Goddess and Supreme Ruler of Everything to sit still long enough to get a good picture of her--and the blurriness is her *fur* not bad focus, in case you were wondering). I *really* wanted to get the joins between the cat parts and the human parts looking right, but I got to the point where everything I did just seemed to make it worse, so I stopped. Technically, I still had a day to work on it since I finished on Tuesday and class wasn't until Thursday morning, but I had to print it and there isn't time to print at the lab before class, which meant I had to take the finished file with me on Wednesday (yeah, another meaningless excuse).

Anyway. The next assignment is to choose an artist born before 1800 and create a Photoshop image in their style. This is when I discovered that most--no, all--of my favourite non-contemporary artists were born around the mid-1800s. Sigh. So I've chosen Botticelli. We (flatmates and I) were joking around last evening and came up with the ideas "Kangaroo in the Style of Botticelli" and "The Birth of Venus as a Monkey." The kangaroo came from Ryan's (that's Deva's sone Ryan, not my nephew Ryan) joke theory that el Niño is caused by a fanatical cult of flatulent kangaroos (you probably don't want to know the details). The other one is because monkeys make anything better (or at least more amusing--you try looking at a happy monkey and not laughing).

So that's Foundation Computer. It's actually turned out to be my favourite class, I think, though the homework for Introduction to Studio Practice is often more fun. I guess I just like fiddling with computer graphics and learning cool new things. Now I'm going to run out and buy a computer book and probably a Playstation game (I'm trading in Ico, which was really good, and will probably get Devil May Cry because the brand-new games I want are still too expensive and DMC is supposed to be excellent. We shall see.) Then I must begin my homework, starting, I think, with building some wings for Intro Studio, about which I will write more later. Also, I need to look at some more Botticelli paintings, read some Umberto Eco for an essay, and figure out what classes to take next semester (actually, I just have to figure out what to take instead of Writing, since I have transfer credit, and whether to take photography or video for my other Foundation course; I already know I need to take Design for my second semester Studio course). Then there's my drawing homework . . .

Scopophilia

[Edit: I managed to post this in my NaNo Blog by accident. Now here it is in the proper place.]

Apparently, thin and waifish is the in look for young men these days (or at least young men in art school). Can't say I'm especially draw to thin and waifish men (especially since most of the ones I see every day are so very much younger than I am), but it does make for a nice visual atmosphere.

I'd Blog But . . .

Nasty cold + much homework = very tired non-blogger. (nasty cold also = no movie this weekend. Grrr!)

More soon, I promise. At least the homework was (mostly) fun. Also good turkey dinners.

A Week in the Life

Monday 7:00 am: Alarm clock goes off. I crawl groggily out of bed, get dressed, eat, and get ready to go.

8:00 am: I leave the house and walk across the train tracks and the WalMart parking lot to the bus exchange. Bus comes a few minutes later and I arrive downtown sometime between 20 and 40 minutes after that, depending on which bus I get.

9:00 am: Introduction to Visual Culture begins. Lots of stuff I learned in assorted popular culture classes, with an art history slant. Is it me or is art history still rather enamoured of Postmodernism? Not that there's anything wrong with postmodernism, just that's it not the only way to look at things. Also, the archaeologist part of me is annoyed with all the ancient art shown pretty much devoid of context and always with it's similarities to other art pointed out, and never its differences. Still, a fairly interesting class, if only it weren't so early in the day.

10:30 am: Class ends. Now is the time for running errands downtown, if I have any (things like bank, library, art supplies, used books). If there are no errands, I catch the bus and make my way home.

12 pm or somewhere thereabouts: Once lunch is consumed, I do some work (the kind I get paid for). If there's any time left, I might start on homework or read for a while, then eat again.

4:30 or 5:00 pm: time to catch the bus downtown again.

6:00 pm: Introduction to Studio Practice begins. This is a class that introduces all sorts of different ways of making art and gets us to try them out. So far we've done drawing and painting (pics to follow, whenever I get some time). I think collage might be next.

10:00 pm: Class ends. I usually manage to catch the bus a few minutes later. (And, in case anyone worries, there are quite a few people from my class who catch the bus at the same stop, and at least one who catches the same bus).

10:30 pm: I arrive home, have the fastest shower humanly possible, and crawl into bed.

Tuesday 6:30 am: Alarm goes off. Getting ready follows.

7:30 am: Leave the house.

8:30 am: Foundation Drawing 1 begins. So far we've done gestural drawing, line drawing, and "mark making."

12:30 pm: Class ends. I head home, unless there are errands. When I get home, I do some work (again, the paid kind), then start on any homework I might still have for Wednesday. Whatever time is left is for reading and playing games (currently, I'm working on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for PS2). Or, I might do some of my own writing or drawing.

10 pm or thereabouts: Bed.

Wednesday: Basically, a repeat of Monday.

Thursday 7:00 am: Alarm, getting ready.

8:00 am: Leave.

9:00 am: Foundation Computer begins. We're beginning with Mac and Photoshop. The second half of the semester will be Windows and Illustrator. And guess who got 100% on her first computer quiz? Go on, guess.

12 pm: Class ends, and so does my school week. Sort of. Once home, I do work, and then get started on the next week's homework. I like to at least get my reading done. The rest of the day goes pretty much like any other day.

Friday some time after 9:00 am: I get up. The day is mostly spent on homework--usually whatever I need to get done for Intro Studio. I also like to play video games, read, and maybe get some work done on Fey.

10:00 pm: TV night begins, starting with InuYasha.

2:00 am: TV night ends. I crawl into bed.

Saturday sometime around 10:00 am: I crawl out of bed. This is another homework (usually I have a 5-hour drawing to do) and general stuff day.

Sometime after 10:00 pm: Bed.

Sunday 9ish: Get up. This day tends to be a mix of work, housework, and finishing up homework. Plus a bit of fun stuff. If there's time, we might go see a movie (this has so far only happened once).

Repeat. Over and over.

At the orientation, the president of the school (or some other important functionary) said it was difficult to get into NSCAD (pronounced as if there were an "a" between the "n" and the "s"), and even harder to stay in. I'm beginning to see why. Lotsa homework. There was also a joke involving taxis and a taxi driver saying about NSCAD students. but I can't remember what it was. Sigh.

Heh

I won a contest! I won a MirrorMask contest! See. Here's the post I commented on in order to win (btw, The Mumpsimus is a good pace to go for commentary, reviews and other good things about SF).

MirrorMask

From Neil Gaiman:

. . . I got a note from the publicists at Sony asking me to stress that the first weekend's attendance will seriously affect what happens next. So if you are in a town that isn't showing it, and you want to see it, getting your friends who are in a town where it's showing to go and see it as soon as it's come out will increase the chances of it getting to you.

Therefore, I hereby command (or else very humbly beg) everyone I know who lives somewhere MirrorMask is playing to go see it as soon as possible. Even if you have no idea what MirrorMask is. You won't regret it.

Edit to add: The annoying thing is, even though the movie opens tomorrow, I don't actually know where it'll be playing because Cinema Clock only lists movies through today. Perhaps this is a good time to look for a new movie listings site . . .

They Got Architeuthis!

This is really cool: Japanese scientists have captured the first-ever photographs of a live giant squid! There have been a bunch of dead ones, but this one's swimming around in it's natural habitat. Sea monsters are cool! (Link via Gadgetopia.)

I Am . . . Captain Jack Sparrow!

Which Pirates of the Caribbean character are you?

Busy

Yeah, so I've been here three weeks and hardly blogged at all. I've had homework and work and er . . . the playing of video games, and . . .

Well, I've been busy. I will write a proper blog entry soon. There are lots of wonderful things to say about the city and the school.

Oh, yes, and Tropical Storm Ophelia made her way through these parts yesterday. We had a lot of rain and a bit of windyness. They had predicted a lot more wind and many, many blackouts. Alas, not a blackout in sight. Or out of sight. Or . . . you know what I mean. It was actually kind of disappointing.

Fathead and Smelly (and the Colour of Apples)

I went to the "New Student Orientation" at NSCAD today. What a very long, very dull day it was. Normally, I avoid orientation-type things, but NSCAD is such a small school, in such a strange building (well, buildings) that I thought it might be a good idea to attend the presentation and go on the tour. I won't go into all the boring details, but, though I did actually collect quite a bit of vital info, I feel like I was flattened by a steam locomotive. Or maybe several of them in a row. The AC wasn't working in the (very small) auditorium, and with all those people in there it was soon very hot and stuffy. And there was a large-headed man sitting in front of me, so I couldn't see any of the speakers unless I tilted my head at an awkward angle. And then a guy sat next to me who had a very strong . . . er . . . odour. I tried not to lean too far over towards the woman on my other side.

And then there was much standing in line, which I had to abandon in order to go on my tour (I actually considered blowing off the tour so I could get my student i.d. quicker). I think I would have enjoyed the tour a lot more if I hadn't already been worn out by boring speakers, stuffyness and heat. And standing in line. NSCAD is a truly bizarre and wonderful place, as a physical place. I won't try to describe it now, 'cause I'm actually really wiped (see locomotive note, above). And, as luck would have it, My Smelly ended up in the same tour group as me. And he kept standing next to me. Not being able to breathe made everything that much worse.

And after that, there was more standing in line, but not for as long and at the end of it, I had a shiny new i.d. (in the photo of which I look somewhat less dead than I felt). There was a small mixup when they thought I was Justin Sylvestre--um . . . I may have appeared to be something that recently crawled out of a shallow grave, but I'm fairly certain I didn't look like a boy. My t-shirt was on the snug side, and while I may not have huge boobs, they're kind of hard to miss. Not to mention I'm rather hippy (that is, I have sizable hips). Even baggy combat pants could not hide that.

But I wasn't going to go into all the boring details, was I? Oh well, too late. I survived, and I love the school's physical incarnation; now I just have to see how I fare in classes. We were told that NSCAD is very hard to get into, and very hard to stay in. And yet, they let me in. I'm still scratching my head over that, but not complaining.

So. Apples. Jerome Russell "apple green" hair dye is a colour I have never seen on any apple, but I rather like it. It's darker and quite a bit bluer that my old "spring green," and I think it's actually more striking. In a good way. And, incidentally, I am only the basest of amateur freaks compared to many of the people in my new school. There were a lot of very ordinary-looking people there, but then there were all sorts of interesting colours of hair, styles of dress and intensities of body adorment and modification. I think I shall like this place very much indeed.

Of Hair and Noses

But not hairy noses.

I went downtown on Friday, only to discover that the piercer had called in sick (they apparenty tried to call me to cancel), so I still have no extra nose holes. I have a new appointment for Thursday afternoon. I also stopped in at another tattoo place, one which I had seen highly reccommended online by quite a few people, and they gave me an estimate that was $150 dollars less than the first place. So I'll probably go back when I have things sorted out and am sure I'll have enough money for everything, and make an appointment to get that done. And maybe I'll see if they can touch up my celtic knot and my raven, too, sometime.

And as for hair, I asked a purple-haired girl in the comic shop where a good place to buy hair dye was, and she told me about a hairdresser's supply place (also open to the public). My green bits are looking pretty pale--like grass that's been under a board too long. I picked up some bleach (though I don't need more bleaching yet) and a jar of "apple green," which is a little less electric than the "spring green" I had before. Yes, I am metamorphosing into a freak. But I'm going to art school, and I'm a writer, so that's okay.

Connections

So yesterday I sent out emails with my new address to four people I hadn't connected with in ages (forgetting, of course, to send it to people I have seen recently--don't worry, I'll remember eventually . . . or you can get it from Sue). I was curious to see if any of these people would respond, but it's been so long I didn't want to assume I could just pick up the conversation as if no time had passed (this seems to happen to me a fair bit; this is why I am World's Worst Correspondent). Anyway, to my delight, there was a new email waiting for me this morning, from Heinz Insu Fenkl, who was the prof of the writing workshop/seminar I did in New Paltz, NY a few years ago, and a very fine writer (also a very good teacher). He said he keeps looking for my name on books on the YA racks. Erk. Now I feel vaguely guilty for not making a greater effort to send out those mss. Anyway, now I am happy. Well, happier, as I've been pretty happy in general since I got here, despite the airline and aiport crises, student loan hassle and all that.

Which Witch Hunter Robin Character Are You?

You are Amon! Prone to silence and not one to
smile easily, you never the less get the job
done.


Which Witch Hunter Robin Character Are You?
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What Inuyasha Character are you?

Your Kagome! you like to hang out with your friends
and are always the first person to volunteer to
show a new student around, you are kind and
giving and enjoy having a occasional sleep-over
with the girls!


What Inuyasha Character are you?
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More Email and Stuff

So, I got my work email working, and I'm now using webmail for shaw, so I should be able to get anything anyone sends me. We have a cable connection here now (for a couple of days now), though I'm not checking my mail as often as I used to. I'm getting caught up on work, but my stats pretty much sucked this past week.

What else? I'm wokring on Fey again, and might even have something to post by the time my computer arrives.

I've made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon to get my nostril pierced, and the tattoo I want will cost more than I was expecting, so I'll wait on that a while (it's gonna be cool though--a slightly modified version of the fairy on this page of Fey on my upper back.

I encountered a sale at an art supply store yesterday, when I was downtown doing bank stuff. How could I not go in? I managed to escape with only a handful of Letraset markers and a Moleskine notebook--this one with storyboards printed on the pages, for roughing out my comic. I'd seen a sample of this notebook in Paper-Ya in Vancouver and was going to buy one there, but they were sold out. So I was pleased.

I also found one of the local comic shops--Strange Adventures Comic Bookshop--where I picked up a few books, including an on-sale copy of the first volume of the 2001 Nights manga. They have a "free with purchase box" too, from which I snagged a hardcover copy of the last 2001 Nights. So now I need only the middle volume. I'd read the second and third books from the library a while ago and really liked them.

I had to break down and buy my next pair of Doc Martens new, since I've had no luck at Value Village. They look so pristine! I grabbed a few more bits and pieces at WalMart (which is between home and the bus stop), and have most of my for-school shopping done. Just need a little tv to play PS2 games on (very essential for de-stressing; nothing smooths away the cares of the day like fragging monsters), and a monitor for my Mac when it gets here. And maybe some sort of thing for holding toiletries. But anyway. I am settling in. Earplugs, I discovered, make even better snore-filters than pillows, so I slept more soundly last night (though I hadn't been seeping too badly, considering the upheaval).

Anyway. Once the Mac gets here, I'll put up some pics. I'm especially anxious to share photos of the boykittens, Poe-the-aptly-named and Sam-who-has-thumbs. And Queen-of-the-Universe Bast is actually getting along with them. More or less.

Email

I seem to be having some problems receiving my shawmail (and sending my work mail). So for now, please email me at nikosilvester at hotmail dot com (if you aren't already).

I Am Here

I'm writing this on a public access terminal at the Halifax Library, where I have just been trying to log onto the student loans site to re-print the form I need to send (because the other times I sent it, my printer apparently cut off the bottom of the form--if they'd told me that when they sent the letter saying I needed to send it, this would have been sorted out ages ago, but what the letter actually said was that they hadn't received it. Now, of course, I can't remember my username or password (and none of usual usernames seem to be the right one). And I can't recover that info, because I don't have my student loan number. Argh. If only I could just plug in my laptop, where password manager has all that for me (I tried to get it offline last night, but it won't even load the page). Anyway. I will ask Deva later how soon she can re-connect internet access at her (or rather, our) place. Then I can just plug in my laptop and do it from there (assuming she has a printer--if not, I guess I'll be going out Monday to buy a laser printer, which I wanted anyway).

So basically, it's one thing after another on this trip. Maybe it's some kind of test, to see how badly I really want this graphic design school thing. First one of my flights was an hour and a half late (this I discovered before I ever left Victoria, fortunately), and everything had to be rescheduled. I ended up flying Victoria-Calgary-Ottawa-Halifax instead of Victoria-Vancouver-Toronto-Halifax. I had to spend the night in the Ottawa airport which is, I must say, the least welcoming airport I've ever been in. And it was cold. And then I almost missed my flight to Halifax, because I had to check Bast in at the last minute (that's what they tell you to do) and the agent who had her tag was really busy trying to reschedule some family's flights and didn't get to me until it was nearly time for my plane to leave. I got to security as they were calling general boarding, but then they had to test my laptop. I zoomed off to my gate, only to discover that it was no longer my gate. There was no plane there. For a long, horrible moment, I thought that it left without me. Then I finally thought to check the monitor, and found out where my plane really was. I got there just as the agent was about to page me for final boarding. Phew! And now this student loan thing.

Oh well. I'll get through it. I've seen the NSCAD building (from the outside) and it's gorgeous. It's a pretty quick bus ride from home (no transfers). And speaking of home, Deva's place should have enough room for me--for now, anyway. Once I start getting more of my stuff, it could become very cramped very quickly. I'll just have to only get the essentials sent out. Really only two problems with the place and they are both things I can deal with. One is that Deva smokes (which I already knew) and the other is that Deva snores (and I discovered that a pillow over my head muffles the sound enough that it becomes almost like white noise, which then drowns out any other sounds that might wake me up). Anyway, I should be off. So far Halifax is lovely, despite all the annoying things. And despite the fact that I am still more than half asleep.

Also, I have located the piercing studio that I researched before I left, and if they are not busy, I'll probably get my nose pierced before heading home today. Then I must shop for assorted toiletries, extra litter box (so far Bast is dealing with the new place, and is even tolerating Deva's boy kittens as long as they keep their distance), and other necessities. There is a WalMart right close to the apartment--we walked across its parking lot to get to the bus stop (which is actually, conveniently, a bus terminal/exchange, so lots of buses go there). Right. I was going to log off.

I'm Off!

Or I will be in an hour and a half, heading downisland for the airport and a long, long day of flying (made longer by the fact that I had to stay up all night to finish everything that needed finishing). Ah, well. This time tomorrow I'll be in Halifax. Probably asleep.

Technophilia

I have to admit, I love technology. I don't know as much about how it all works as I'd like, but I adore cool stuff. In between packing boxes and organizing yesterday, I suddenly decided to import all my cds into iTunes on my Mac. I'll be playing them off the computer anyway, since I won't be taking my stereo when I move, so why not just store them on the harddrive? The actual cds will go in a box to be sent out much, much later. That means, then, that I won't need my discman (unless I decide to burn cds from iTunes). So then I started to think I should buy an MP3 player or iPod. An iPod makes most sense, in a way, since I have a Mac, and it uses the same audio format. On the other hand, a PSP can play music, games, movies, and display pictures and all kinds of stuff. But the music has to be in MP3 format (I think). I checked, though, and iTunes can import into MP3 format, too, or convert exisiting files. And there's a nifty bit of software from PocketMac that makes sync between Mac and PSP easy (and it's cheap). So this is all a very long way of saying that I spent most of the money I made on eBay selling my precious, precious toys to buy an even more precious, and very, very cool PSP. And a bigger memory card to put songs on. Yep. I love cool stuff. (Like I really needed another game system. I am a geek. Truly.)

ps I managed to close the Netscape window by accident, and said "argh, there goes my post!" (or something like that). But then I remembered something about Blogger I'd never tried--I calmly opened a new window, logged back in to Blogger, clicked on "create post" and then clicked an intriguing little link right above the text window that says "recover post." Lo and behold! it filled the box with the post I'd just typed but not saved. Only the title was missing. Did I mention that I like technology? (When it works, anyway.)

Makin' Stuff

So I spent the entire day yesterday, working on my piece for the new student Postcard Exhibition as NSCAD. Fortunately, I knew what I wanted to do, and aready had some sketches to use. I made a . . . i never did figure out what the proper term for it is . You know those pictures in pop-up books that you pull the tab and the overlapping bits slide and a new picture slides into pace over the old one? Anyway, I made one of those. The top picture is a more-or-less realistic white raven holding a fountain pen surrounded by the text (in a sort of messy, hand-drawn old-stye serifed font--I don't know the name of the actual font I copied, I'll have to look it up someday) "Quoth the Raven." Then you pull the tab (which instead of saying "pull" has a raven footprint on it), and the second picture has a very stylized, Celtic-y black raven holding a quill pen (and it has its beak open), and has the text "Nevermore!" around it in a warped sort of Celtic calligraphy hand. The border of the whole thing is a grey background with what look like abstract red shapes, but which are bits of the word "tap" (as in "tap tap tapping at my chamber door") zoomed in close (in something resembling a Celtic half-uncial script).

I think the NSCAD student union keeps all the pieces after, but I scanned it at pretty much every step (except the finished piece, alas). My intent is to make a few of them to send out to people, since I never got around to a holiday chapbook this year. But I need to work on the engineering a bit more, because the original tends to stick a little bit. Anyway.

If, by some chance, you happen to be in Halifax on the 9th of September (it's a Friday), you can go see the show in the evening. The info I have doesn't specify a time (it just says "evening"), or even a place (presumably somewhere on the NSCAD campus, maybe even the Anna Leonowens gallery).

Probably no one I know will get to see it (except Deva and Ryan, of course, who live in Halifax), but it'd be cool.

Friday Things

Er, yeah, haven't been posting much. Very busy getting ready to move and all.

1. Got my hair cut. It's now quite short. About jaw length. It's been shorter, but I keep startling myself when I walk by the mirror. I don't look quite the same, but I like it.

2. Today's Fey might be the last for a little while. It's the last I have done, and I don't know how long it'll be before I have time to do more and get my computer delivered and set up and all that. I'll try to get a few sketches and filler bits up before I go, but don't be alarmed if there's a hiatus.

3. And speaking of Fey, the latest page is here. And I'm going to try the Blogger photo thing and put it up right here (but don't click on the image if you want to go to the actual Fey page; use the link above for that).



Oh, yeah, and I did notice that I forgot to put the page number on. I'll fix it later.

Birds!

I've been meaning to post these for a while . . .

Here's the arctic tern photo I was going to enter in the Animal Planet contest, but it was too blurry. Imagine what a cool photo this would be if it had turned out.



And here's one that came out better. Except I forgot to enter the contest. Sigh.



Both of those were from when I went to do archaeology in the arctic, in the summer of 1995. Wow, that was a long time ago. Here's something more recent:



I took that when I went out for an afternoon walk the day after my birthday, using my brand-new digital camera. Much as I love my manual-everything SLR, it's big and heavy and I'd never even have thought to take it along. The digital is teeny, and I happened to have stuck it in my pocket.

Here's another owl from earlier this month:



We often hear owls around here, but we rarely see them.

Friday Again!

These weeks are going by waaay too fast!

And here is page 48 of Fey. (Yes, sorry, more gargoyles. We're almost done with gargoyles for now.)

Now, I have to walk down to get the mail, and get back to packing. It looks like a war zone in here (without the dead bodies, I'm happy to say), but things are getting done.

I Dislike . . .

. . . seeing my own books on the shelves of used bookstores (well, books that used to be mine). It makes me unhappy, like I've betrayed them somehow, by casting them aside, unwanted. Silly, yes. I tried not to look at the shelves and the stacks of unprocessed books when I went into Ulla's Bookshop today to pick up a cheque for the books I traded in. I especially hate seeing my old books there when I'm taking money for them. It's not so bad when I get credit and take home new books to replace them.