Erm . . . Yeah

I suspect there may be a few people out there wondering why I haven't been blogging. There is a good reason. Sort of.

Last semester was the proverbial semester from hell, except that most of my courses were actually really good. What was hellish was constantly having way too many things to do and not enough time to get them done, let alone get them done to the standards I wanted them to reach. The reason for this hellish semester? I had the usual course load of 15 credits plus my job. The problem was that one course (typography) was a 3-credit course that should have been worth 6 credits, and another (intro printmaking) was a 6-credit course that should have been worth 9. This was only partly alleviated by also having an art history (craft and design history) -- art history courses usually only involve reading things and showing up for class (this one did have a short paper, too, though). My other class was basic colour photo, which I really would have like to have more time for, as it kind of became a refuge from my other classes.

Anyway, I got my grades in the mail yesterday. Not as good as I hoped for one class, better than I feared for another, so I suppose it balances out. My GPA has now dropped below 4, though. Sigh. Here's what I ended up with:

• AHIS2120 Craft and Design History 1750-1850 -- A+


• CMDS2500 Typography -- B+


• PHOT2600 Basic Colour Photography -- A


• PRTM2000 Introduction to Printmaking -- A-

For comparison's sake, the lowest mark I've had since starting at NSCAD is B+, which is what I ended up with in both of my Foundation drawing classes. And now typography. Sigh.

Anyway. My reasons for not blogging since the semester ended . . . about a month ago are not so good. Mostly I had simply got out of the habit. And also bringing everything up to date just seemed too monumental a task.

My summer will be a little more relaxed. I got a very part time job at the Visual Resources Collection (the facility formerly known as the slide library) at school, where I spend my time filing slides, remounting slides, checking in and out slides and videos, and other library-ish tasks. My boss and the other assistants are great people, so it should not be an unpleasant employment experience. I'll keep the job into the fall, as well, unless my course load becomes as crazy as last semester. This does not seem likely, as due to an error in the online timetable, I apparently signed up for a course that doesn't exist, and may have to drop another due to not being able to take the prerequisite in the summer (cancellations of summer courses mean not being able to get student loan, which means not being able to take summer courses, except for one that I am paying for by getting a job at the VRC, which requires me to be taking a summer class to qualify). Anyway. Summer will consist of 10-15 hours a week of work at the VRC, something like that many hours or more working for About PSP, plus three weeks of 4-days-a-week, 4-hours a day class from the end of May to late June. Also lots of bookmaking. I've already been to Joe's studio a couple of times to ask advice and use tools and generally hang around being bookish.

Also, Sue and Selena are coming to town in just over a week, so I'll be hanging out with them as much as I can.

And, it'll be my birthday soon. Aaah! 35. Yep. Older than I look. Heh.