Back to School

Yes, today it was back to school again. I had my first Letterpress Printing class, which is going to be very exciting. Real printing with real moveable type. The kind you can take out and move around in different configurations, without the use of a computer! Okay, I am being silly, but I think it will be a good class. The prof is not the mot dynamic speaker ever, but he knows an awful lot about the history of printing and book binding, and stuff, and seems to have a vast store of amusing stories that probably only book geeks actually find amusing. Luckily, I am a book geek.

Today we had a kind of show and tell with lots of samples (both real and reproduction) of manuscripts and early printing. Then we got a tour of the print shop (I think the third I've had this year, but I love it there, so that's fine with me), and we got to poke around in the basement, where all the type is kept and where we will be spending a lot of time in the next seven weeks. Yay!

I also spent a fair bit of time in the dark room, working on my prints for the portrait/self portrait project. My portrait negatives came out pretty thick; I'm not sure if it's a shooting problem or a developing problem. They're not beyond hope, though, and I got some decent prints from them. Quite a few were not in great focus though, which is a bit disappointing. Part of the problem is that my subject was moving quite a bit, but I very much didn't want her sitting still and posing, so the only solution would have been more light. I guess I should have used both of the lights I had, instead of just one, so I could have used a smaller aperture and therefore had greater depth of field. But anyway. She was a great subject, so I am happy about that.

Tomorrow I'm going to shoot some more self-portraits, even though I really already have enough for the project. I have some mad scientist ideas, which are just too much fun not to do. I do wish I had more props, though, so this is a project I may revisit in future. I also still need to make some prints for a sort of related project, which I may hand in as part of the portrait assignment -- a book of me playing on my PSP while also doing everyday things like doing the dishes and getting dressed. It'll be a day-in-the-life sort of thing, and each photo will have the time under it, but no other text (except possibly to say what I'm doing -- for example "9am, brushing teeth" or something).

And finally, I had Survey of 20th Century Art, where I handed in my take-home exam/essay (which is, I think, a decently written blather), and got back my slide test (only an A-, alas, but pretty good considering how little time I ended up having to study). So that was my day.

I Am A Moron

Someday, maybe I'll learn to take my own writing advice. You know, the really basic "never send out your only copy of a story" advice? Yeah, well.

As many of you know, I used to write the content (and do some other stuff) for About.com's Creative Writing for Teens website (now I do the PSP site). Well, a lot of the articles are tool-based, meaning you plug them into an online form, essentially, and it gets added to the database. Well, I developed a really bad habit of composing directly into the tool. And then I stopped doing the site. Leading up to my switch to PSP, I did start a word doc and cut and pasted the text from many of my articles into it. Except I don't know where I saved the doc. And now the CW for Teens site is no more (not just my version; About decided to remove it entirely). I have never been happier that Google caches pages--I found a lot of my old stuff that way. And the really old stuff I still have on the laptop harddrive. But there are a few bits and pieces that somehow never got saved anywhere but on the About servers, and which have disappeared from Google.

Yeah, so I feel a bit stupid. I didn't even think about it until someone emailed me looking for a manuscript format article I wrote. I did find that one, but now I have no energy left to email the guy back (even with a happy stomach full of sushi). Tomorrow, I guess.

It's not even that I'll ever need the stuff again. Unless I decide to pubish a how-to-write book, which I probably won't do. It's just mine. I made it. Geh. I will recover. At least it wasn't stuff I really cared about, like my fiction. Now that I have mostly saved in multiple places (some of it exists in various versions on floppy disk, laptop harddrive, cd-rom, Mac harddrive, and one or more hardcopies in a box somewhere in BC).

As soon as I'm done cat sitting, I'll be making sure updated copies of all my fiction is in multiple formats and possibly even different places (anyone want to volunteer to curate a hardcopy or cd of one or more stories? see, I'm paranoid now).

Nik Shoots People

I rescheduled the photo shoot with Deva's mom Judy to this afternoon. I'd hoped to photograph her in her sewing room, which has wall-to-wall shelves full of fabric and other crafting goodies, but it was so cramped I couldn't have got the tripods in. So instead we shot in the living room, with Judy on the couch, surrounded by fabric samples and all her many current projects. I hope the window behind her won't be a problem (the curtains were drawn, but they were pretty thin).

Ryan (Deva's son) had offered to be assistant, so I handed him my 35mm and he took pictures of me taking pictures, pictures of his grandmother, pictures of Sam-the-cat-who-has-thumbs, etc. His friend Mark was there, too, so after I took pictures of Judy and her crafts, I took some of Judy and Ryan, and then some of Ryan and Mark playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards. It was pretty fun. I've ended up with 4 12-exposure rolls of medium-format (120) fim, and most of a roll of 36-exposure 35mm film. And I just realized I didn't save any film for the Nik-as-mad-scientist shoot Ryan is going to help me with tomorrow. So I'll have to remember to stop at the NSCAD store and buy more film. 2 rolls should be plenty; I'm doing the mad scientist ones more just for fun (unless they turn out really well, in which case I may use some for the portrait project).

Anyway, that was my day. It's been really hard to get up in the morning. Possibly I am abusing caffeine too much and it's getting back at me, like it used to. Bleah. Oh well. Tomorrow is work, then mad scientist photos, then anime and hanging out with roomates, then more sleep. Oh, and I'll probably develop whatever film I have somewhere in there, too, and then print on the weekend. We'll see.

Blargh

It's hot. I know I shouldn't complain. After all, it was raining all weekend, and I wished it was nice. I don't mind, really, I just wish I only had to walk places in the evening, when it's cooler. The worst part is, I keep forgetting my sunglasses, so I have to squint a lot, or else walk with my eyes closed. Anyway, I'm not really complaining about the heat, I'm just tired and sweaty from hauling lots of camera equipment from school to home and then from home back here (where I am cat sitting) -- most of the way on the bus, I am glad to say. And I will have to haul it all back to school tomorrow (not on the bus), and then sign it out again on Thursday and repeat the whole process because my portrait subject was too worn out from company and sick people (S.O.'s dad in the hospital for a triple bypass) and wouldn't let me photograph her. I wanted to take the pics anyway, because, well, sometimes people are more interesting when they're tired than when they're all dolled up and ready for portraits. But she wouldn't let me. So Thursday it is. (Not, but the way, that I am complaining about that either -- there's no phone here, so she couldn't call and tell me not to come, and anyway we had a nice visit.)

Why, I wonder, is it so hard sometimes to write about things that happened without sounding like one is complaining? Oh well.

In other news, I raided my host's dvds the night before last, and watched Das Boot because I had always heard it was really good. And it was. Quite amazing, really, both visually and in the development of character. Very long, but well worth it. I'll watch something else tonight, but I haven't decided what yet. Last evening I went for a walk around Halifax's South End and decided this is the area I'd like to live in, should I decide to stay, and should I manage to find some kind of work that lets me pay the sort of rent normal people pay. I also went along the harbour front, where plenty of other people were also walking. It was nice in the fog, though, as all the usual busy sounds were muffled and things distant were obscured. Alas, because -- I presume -- I was dressed in the usual dark clothes and walking as quietly as I usually walk (which means people don't tend to notice me right away) some poor old guy in a hat thought I was stalking him. He made some humourous comment when he noticed me, but I think he really thought I was following him, waiting for the opportune moment to steal his wallet or something.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my hair is all green now. Well, actually it was all green. It's now brown with a faded green patina and some brighter green streaks, due to an uneven bleach and dye (very hard to do this to one's own hair, even with last minute emergency roommate assistance). It was all in the name of art, anyway. In my photo class there's a woman with bright red hair and one with blue hair, so with me having green hair we made up the primary colours of light: RGB. So our photo teacher thought it would be fun to photograph the three of us. Therefore I dyed my hair all green. With the heat, though, I'm seriously considering shaving off the back, skater-style, or at least cutting that part really, really short. (If you can't envision what I mean, look at Sorcha's hair in "Meddlesome Spirits" (middle panel), only my hair isn't that long anymore.)

Now I think I'll make a salad, because I'm still too warm for cooking. I have some feta cheese and lots of different veggies (in many different colours!). Hmm. Except I just remembered I haven't any salad dressing. Maybe a sandwich . . . I have some nice gluten-free cheese bread . . .

Where the Hell Have I Been?

I expect one or two of you may be wondering that. Well, I've pretty much been where I've been all along -- either at home working or at school attending classes. Or, occasionally, buying art supplies so that I can do projects for said classes.

Last week was end-of-term for half-summer classes and mid-term for all-summer classes, which meant I had a final project and an exam to study for, plus a non-final project to work on. The final project was to make an edition of 17 flag books for Book Arts class (I actually made an edition of 19, so I could have a couple extras). It took longer than I thought. The flag book is a fairly simple structure, but I didn't quite realize how much longer it would take to make 19 of them. And, of course, I knew what I wanted to do and am too stubborn to simplify in order to get things done faster. So I was up pretty much all night one night, but I got it done and I think it turned out pretty good. I'll post pictures soon.

The mid-term was a slide test for Survey of 20th Century Art. I hardly studied. I always feel guilty about not studying, yet I almost never worry about not studying. I just don't stress about tests, for some reason. Anyway, I managed to cram titles and dates and artists into my brain in what little time I had, and remember enough of the lectures and discussions and readings that I think I did okay. Now I have a take-home to do for the same class, but it shouldn't take too long.

The other project was a work-in-progress for a self-portrait/portrait project for photo (that is, the project consists of both self-portraits and portraits of someone else). I wasn't as prepared as I'd wanted to be, but luckily the thing isn't actually due for another two weeks. I've since shot another roll of self-potrait stuff, which may or may not be what I was aiming for, but even if it's not, I think I can use it for a book project that popped into my head while I was out for a walk (walks and showers seem to be when I get all the best ideas, or occasionally in the middle of the night when I'm not really awake enough to manipulate a pen). I have a subject lined up for Tuesday for the portrait part, which I think should be fun to shoot. I may or may not post some of the results of this project later on, but I probably will add a few things from previous projects, as I know a few of you friends-and-family types are curious to see what I've been doing.

Right now I am cat-sitting, so I have lots of peace and quiet. Also I have a week and a half off school. I am trying to do lots of work, since my three-month review is coming up soon and I really need to get more content up. Other than that, I am reading and eating yummy, healthy food (I have been getting into some very bad junk food habits lately, which explains why the extra weight just won't go away). Today I went for a walk (I was originally going to hop on the bus to Value Village but it was raining very, very hard this morning; when the rain let up, I decided to just ramble around a bit). I ended up at Pete's Frootique, a fancy sort of grocery store with lots of organic things and local things and gourmet things and generally delicious-looking things to eat. I picked up a few ordinary things of the vegetable variety (I did splurge on a yellow zucchini instead of a green one -- they looked so lovely), and found some things I've been looking for since I moved here (like rice paper). And tea! I finally found Lapsang Souchong. And loose, too. They have many loose teas and so I shall be going back. Why I hadn't gone there before now, I do not know.

On the way back, I stopped in at a newsstand that had the best selection of magazines I've seen since Yates Street News in Victoria closed, and spent a pleasant half-hour browsing. I bought a couple things to read, and now I am back and blogging and there is some sushi in the fridge waiting for me to eat it.

Umm . . . I'm Not Really Dead

Just really, really busy. But after Thursday I should have more time and will actually write something about what I've been doing, and even post pictures of art. Art by me! Right now I have to go spend the rest of the day making books for my final Book Arts project, which is due tomorrow morning. Then I have to find a few minutes to study for my 20th c Art mid-term slide test. But first, more tea.

What country should you live in?

Which country should you REALLY be living in? The United Kingdom You have pride in yourself and pride in your country. You believe that history and culture is an important factor to the future of your country, and that traditions and values should be upheld. You love your scones and tea, and reading soppy romance novels. The UK is where you should be...

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

More Star Wars Geekery

Star Wars Death Star Explosion Aftermath: the usual warning about food and beverages apply. Especially right at the end.

Which Star Wars Character Are You?

Your results:
You are Qui-Gon Jinn

Qui-Gon Jinn 76% Chewbacca 72% R2-D2 70% Padme 68% Obi-Wan Kenobi 67% Lando Calrissian 65% Princess Leia 62% Boba Fett 60% Yoda 59% Han Solo 58%

Overall, you're a pretty well balanced person. But maybe you focus a little too much on the here and now. Think about the future before its too late.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz

Best Semester Ever

I am currently very, very glad that I decided to take classes this summer. It's all because Alvin, my last semester's photo teacher, kept saying how great it is to take Intro Photo in the summer. And it is.

So, right now I'm taking Survey of 20th Century Art, which is a twice-a-week, hour-and-an-half lecture course (all summer). It's not especially exciting, but certainly not the worst lecture course I've done. I'd like more background on the social and political conditions, but I guess there's just so much to cover that there isn't time. Oh well. I like the teacher, though; she's nice. Actually, I like all my teachers this semester.

I also have Book Arts, twice a week for four hours (for the first half of the summer). It's such fun! We make a book every class, and we've been working our way gradually from really simple pamphlet form to more complex sewn forms. We haven't done any multi-section books yet, but we have done one with an accordion spine, and part of the homework this weekend is to make a flag book, which is a variation of the accordion. Also, we have to make an "altered book." While I don't much like the idea of cutting/gluing/writing on an existing book, I do have a good idea, and a Value Village archaeology book that makes frequent reference to pre-flood things. Heh. Pre-flood. Here's a bit about my teacher.

And there's Intro Photo, twice a week for four and a half hours (all summer). It's a really good class, too, and everyone seems to actually want to be there (as opposed to just taking it for credit or because they need one more elective). I just spent my entire Friday afternoon in the darkroom, making prints for Monday's assignment. I might even go in Monday morning, if I decide later that my prints aren't quite "sparkly." I actually re-did some prints that I got a B+ on, because I wanted to get them right (I think Deva thought I was a bit mad, because a B+ is a very respectable grade). Anyway, thanks to my teacher (hi Adrian *), I think I may actually have figured out how to make good prints (or at least better prints). So, yes, still really liking photo, and still thinking about changing my major (about which more later).

*Not that I think he'll actually be reading my blog, but one never knows, and it seemed rude not to say hi.

Happy Birthday Deva!

Yep, it's my roommate Deva's birthday today. She's still one year short of being the answer to life, the universe, and everything, so I can't tease her about that yet. We don't really have anything planned (except a trip to Value Village when she gets back from renewing her driver's license). When it gets a bit closer to my b-day we'll probably have some sort of feast. Or cake. Or a feast and cake.

(Ah! I just realized it's now only 2 weeks until my birthday, until the day my age will no longer be the western world's magic number twice. Although the digits will add up to the western world's other magic number. Not that I find any particular sigificance in numbers, they're just fun to play with. Like words.)

PS3!!!

Okay, I knew this a few days ago, but thought I should wait to post it, on account if being too excited. The PS3 comes out in November, and won't be as expensive as many people feared! Here's the press release.

So now the question is this: Preorder from EB Games and try to scrounge up an extra 600 bucks by mid-November, or hope that someone gets me one for Christmas?

I'm anticipating that there will be interactivity with the PSP, at least on some games, so I'm going to need one for work (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

So yeah. I got some thinkin' to do. Preorder, or hope for xmas? Preorder, or . . .

T Minus One Month . . .

So, the date is May 2, meaning it is one month until my very own birthday. And speaking of birthdays, could everyone I know who wants me to remember their birthday please post a comment with the date of their birth in it. The reason I'm asking is not because I have forgotten when everyone I know is born, but because the big birthday summer season is fast approaching, and their are a couple of birthdays that I'm always convinced are a few days before or after their actual date. Now previously I have lived close to people and there were enough reminders that by the time the date arrived, i had it straight. But now, living far away from the bulk of my friends and relatives, and having packed the little book I started keeping with all the days noted somewhere in a box . . . Well, I think you can see where this is headed.

No, I'm not going to list the ones I always get right, because that would just make the owners of the ones I always get wrong feel bad. So there you go. Please comment with your birthday (and, you know, your name) and also the birthdays of anyone you can think of who isn't likely to read and/or comment on this blog.

Right.

So I spent much of this morning trying to get a decent picture of me to submit for my Guide photo at work. I finally got one I'm happy with and sent it off. My favorite, though, wasn't quite suitable (having part of my hand over my face), so I decided to make it my new profile photo. Here it is, bigger (yes, I did just re-green my hair):

More PSP Stuff

For anyone keeping track, I recently picked up Medievil Resurrection and PQ PSP games.

Also, here's a PSP on eBay with version 1.5 firmware (and a 2GB memory stick). You know, in case anyone wanted to get me a second PSP for my birthday. Because it would be very useful for work. And I'm going to have to buy one myself soon (and this is exactly what I need). Anyway. Birthday in a month plus a few days. Hint. Etc.

Edit: Ack! Someone used "buy it now" already and the auction's ended. But here's a firmware 1.5 machine in the UK (the Japanese version), and another. Plus, here's another in the US, and one and two in Canada. But best yet, here's a ceramic white Japanese machine from the UK. Any of these would work, but I like the white one best (probably because my current one is black . . .)

Flash for SW Geeks

Okay, all my Star Wars geek friends (and also the ones who aren't really Star Wars geeks but have seen the movies and will understand the references), go watch this: the sith rejects. Oh, it's a flash animation, so don't do it on a machine that chokes on flash, if any of you still have computers that old . . .

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.