d-tale

i am a master

After two years, I am finally done. I have my Masters Degree. I completed my thesis presentation last night so i am done. I still have to finish my thesis book and go through our thesis exhibit, but the presentation last night was the big hurdle in getting my degree. And now it is finished. I thought i would be more excited at this time, but I am just indifferent. I think it will hit me later. I still can't believe that i am done. This past two years flew by super fast and part of me is sad to be done with this experience, but, I am happy too. I am looking forward to getting back to having a life, a job and money. But i will miss these late nights and the intense addreline rush that comes from working in such a fast paced environment.

past two months

It has been a while since i've been able to sit down and catch up on what is going with school, my thesis and my life. In the past couple of months, I've found it more interesting and fun to just post things that catch my eye or cool things that i stumble across in life. But I am also sad that i am no longer collecting a detailed day-by-day summary of my graduate school experience. Honestly, this year doesn't need to be faithfully recorded everyday. Working on a large project for one year, things happen with small stops and starts and measuring them day-by-day would get tedious. Also since my thesis is still in the inception phase, I don't want to reveal too much of it. Not that I don't trust all five of you out there that read my blog, but I want to be selfish and keep it to myself a little longer while struggling to put it together and give it life.

Breakdown of the past couple of month. After sifting through my memory, only the flickers and nuggets that deserve discussion remain. Or at least, that is what I like to believe.

Christmas Break: Went back to Chicago for one week. was delayed in NYC for two extra days because of the snow storms in Indiana. Finally got home to my overjoyed parents on Christmas Day. Spent two days in Elgin and then headed into Chicago for my usual tour of visitations with friends during my days and couch sleeping in the evenings. Activities encluded: girls night out with val and robyn; meeting up with the 141 girls (amanda is getting married!!); dinner with joe and a great discussion on my thesis; going to a ska fest show at the metro with chuck and korean dinner (just like old times); helping out at the bird machine and getting interviewed for a documentary about silkscreening; seeing jay, mat and nina; seeing chris and running in to nettie at a bar; josh turning me on to some new designers and artists (sample 1, 2, 3) and taking me to a great mexican restaurant; NYE in milwaukee with josh and val pogoing to 80s music like the dorks we are. I also met two new wonderful women who are inspiring and talented and make me want to move back to chicago so i can collaborate and hang with them. The first is artist christa donner, whose work is impressive and smart, and her best friend anne elizabeth-moore, who is the publisher of punk planet. It is hard to meet women that I gel with and like so meeting two in one trip was refreshing.

Thesis: all the text for the website is almost done. I will start to work on the design for the next two weeks starting feb. 22 and then after that I just need to build it all out. Also need to design recipe cards and what some of the spreads of the cookbook will look like. Been getting helpful insight and great feedback from John Carlin of Funny Garbage (my thesis advisor) and Gail Anderson of SpotCo. (my thesis consultant). Gail totally rocks and is great about keeping me on task and gettings stuff done. Plus, she is just so laid back and cool it is fun to work with her. Went back to visit funny garbage and they all were happy to see me and everyone offered to help me with my thesis in anyway that they can. Will take in my designs to them to have them look it over and help me with anything that needs tweaking. My mom asked all her friends to give her or me recipes so I've been getting great info from sweet school teachers from the midwest. Also Brian Collins of Ogilvy's Brand Intergration Group came in last night to go over our brand stories and offer feedback. Amazing guy, amazing feedback and amazing session. Got much out of it. I am feeling more confident that my product has a life and is viable.

Other class: been working on a typeface for the past six weeks for an undergraduate typography class that i am taking. i've learned much and i found out that i enjoy making typefaces. now, i just need to make a book of the type for class and i am done.

misc: working a freelance for one of my professors. great to work with him and i am learning lots. been seeing more and going out more. Went to a great underground rock club called mighty robot under the williamsburg bridge on it's closing night. totally run down and dirty. it made me happy. reminded me of the fireside bowl not in terms of physical qualities, but in terms of personality. sad to know that it is now gone. watched a great tawianese film called That Day on the Beach with greg (my film buff friend that gets me to see films i've never heard of, but love). my friend Chris Mills had a show which was lovely. His new album should be out soon and it is brillant. caught the aztec show at the guggenheim with peter before he moved to boston. also saw Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Gates here in NYC. hanging out more with people and have established a group of friends. nice to slowly create a life here NYC. makes me miss chicago less. Many, many other things have happened, but they have slipped through the cracks and can't be dredged up for this entry today.

Do know that the last two weeks has been stressful and busy. All my text for the site, my thesis book, my font magazine and a freelance project are all due on feb. 22. i still have lots to do, but i am getting a handle on it.

one semester to go

the last month as usual has gone by in a blur. I can't believe that thanksgiving was just a month ago and i am packing my bags to head back to chicago again. amazing how the time slips and slithers away from you when you are working and doing something that you love. summary of the graduate school experience below.

thesis: worked on finishing up my thesis proposal book which i turned in this past wednesday. My book looked pretty decent, but was heavy on the copy. I guess since it is a thesis it should be heavy on the copy though. funny that after all this time away from writting that my copy/word side kicks in. guess it was always there.

The thesis (suppa club) got a new name and is now called E-licious. it suprises me, but everyone seems pleasantly happy with the name. thank god. it took two weeks and sheets and sheets of papers to come up with it. josh was the final key in getting it together. I just need to sit around and goof off with him and we come up with the best shit.

Also on the thesis front, i met with Scott Heiferman who runs Meetup to just discuss his take on online communites and how Meetup started. He was extremely nice and helpful. His ideas and philosophy are similar to mine and it just reconfirmed that i have a clue about what i am doing. he made me realized that i need to follow what my head and my heart tells me and i will be fine. nice to have that confirmed after all the criticism, confrontations and doubtful moments i've had over the past couple of months.

I also chose my thesis advisor. I will be working with John Carlin, head of funny garbage. he loves my thesis and just gets it. after just one conversation he has opened my eyes to other directions to move it. He will be a great and invaluable advisor.

funny garbage: finishing up my internship there on wednesday before i head back to the midwest. I've loved the last four months i've spent there. everyone there is super sweet to me and it is the first time in years that i've felt happy to go to work. I've learned web design and bunches of flash animation skills. I've also learned that i love doing flash animation. will miss everyone there. I am sad that i won't be able to go in every week next semester. hope freelance pans out with them.

life: hung out more over the past couple of weeks with various friends. slowly meeting people and reconnecting with old friends. building a life out here. it won't be chicago, but nothing ever could.

printing out a turkey

just hanging in the studio late tonight not really doing much of anything. surfing the net and answering emails. Talked to josh in chicago. making plans for this weekend. Going back to attends val's thanksgiving dinner. Ah, that really why i am here late. i am printing out a huge poster of the invite that i did for her party. The plan is to have everyone who comes to sign it as a memento of the evening and as a thank you to val for the last 10 years of the crazy, drunken, turkey mayheim that has become the Dysfunctional Family Thanksgiving.

okay, now on to the meat of my exhistance. graduate school for the last week or so.

saturday, november 6: worked the open house at the design studio. worked the last couple because i attended one a couple of years ago before getting into the program and just remember how much it helped me to talk to the people in the program. plus, i love this program. there are people who might not be super happy with it, but it fits me. i made the right decision in giving up my life in chicago and coming here. at night, araba and I headed over to Daniel's house. Met his boyfriend john and a couple of their friends. Had korean BBQ and a wonderful time. Daniel and John are great hosts. Lovely to be adopted by a wonderful gay couple.

sunday, november 7: came in and worked a bit. can't remember much else. what else is new.

monday, november 8: went over my thesis presentation comment with lita. everyone loved the concept, but now i need to work on the brand and personality of what i am doing. also need to find a thesis advisor. I have less then two weeks to talk to people and decide who that will be. scary.

tuesday, november 9 – november 11: worked at funny garbage and went to class. went to sagmeister's show opening on thursday. beautiful, smart stuff. he is totally amazing.

friday, november 12: had law class. then Heath came and saw my studio. he really dug the library and all the old graphis magazines we have. nice to geek out with someone over books and comix. it makes me happy. We grabbed dinner at a diner called Pete's and I showed him my work from last year. I redesigned a Weakerthans cd (one of my favorite bands and heath's too.). He loved what I did and it was great to show someone that I've know for so long, but haven't been connected to for a while what I am doing now. The last work of mine Heath encountered was the zine we worked on in college. The biggest complement of the evening turned out to be when Heath told me he wanted to collaborate on a project with me. cool. Heath always makes/does kick ass shit and now we can make something together. Araba, Celia and others called to have me come out in the pouring cold rain. I just stayed home and watched Frasier re-runs.

saturday, november 13: got up and went to the studio and worked for a bit. researched webhosting for my thesis and tried to figure out a new name. grrrrrr! names are hard. damn it. araba called and discribed the night before. too many drinks and lots of sickness the next day. Glad I missed that. Finished up at 6pm and headed over the the PATH train to meet up with Araba and Sierra. We were going to Hoboken to have dinner and hang out with Sierra in her hood. Both Araba and I had never been there and we where shocked when we got off the train. Hoboken is beautiful, clean and nice. Damn, who knew that NJ could be so nice. Had dinner at this great steak house and then saw Sierra's apartment and met her dogs. Next, we headed to Sierra's favorite bar and hung out there until last call. Super fun time. Ended up making the DJ play 80s Hair Metal and old school hip-hop. (araba knew more of the hair metal lyrics then me. scary.) Ended the night by getting hit on by a cute 25 year old punkster guy with a mohawk. I abused him for an hour and he took it.

sunday, november 14: more thesis work. Headed out of the studio at 7pm to go up to Lauren's. We hadn't hung out in forever and needed to catch up with one another outside of school. Lauren cooked up a lovely roasted herb chicken, creamed spinage and wild rice. Everything was wonderful. Lauren and Davidson entertained me with stories. Man, i've missed them. Left around 9:45pm to meet up with Jake so we could catch the 10:25pm show of the Incrediables. Worked out well with our schedule to meet up that late. Jake is working on a new Eminem video and I got to hang with Lauren and Davidson. The movie was terrific. I love pixar's work. Good visuals, lovable characters and most importantly a great story. can't beat what they do. Great to see jake again. us just being friends seems to be working.

monday, november 15: no freelance start at Funny Garbage. the client has pushed back the start date so I will just go in my on my usual intern schedule. worked in the studio on thesis and getting things ready for the 5 year anniversary party. (yes. my program is 5 years old. the faculty, friends of the program and old alums are getting together tonight to celebrate.) Got the the anniversary party at 6:30pm. Walked around and talked to people from my year and other years. took lots of pictures. After the event, ended up a bar called open. Bonded with Carrie from the first year. Then we all took off for another bar and met up with the rest of the people from the opening. talked with a bunch of the older alums. It was cool to meet and talk to so many people that understand what i am going through now and have gone on to do great things. Nice to have this community to belong to.

tuesday, november 16: sick. all day. stupid stomach. tarek atrissi came and spoke to us about his experience in our program and what he had done afterwards. (arabic typography, branding of Qatar and other stuff. great and inspiring.) http://www.atrissi.com

wednesday, november 17: worked on flash stuff at funny garbage. it's weird, but flash isn't as hard as i thought it was. guess i know more then i thought or i learned something somewhere. had first class with Louise Fili. Talked about logos and how to approach ours.

thursday, november 18: more flash stuff at funny garbage. talked to john carlin, one of the founders, about my thesis and he liked it and had good feedback for me. class was good too. learned more about criticing things and how to present.

now you know why i am here. why are you?

slacker. me. yep

haven't updated this for my school in a month. scary. bad. whatever.

i could go through this day by day, but i really can't remember that far back. i believe graduate school has an alztimers type of effect on you. you remember your life before it, but can't remember you life while you are in school.

let's break things down into classes, thesis and life in general.

classes:

movie class: finished it up and did an awesome 6 second animation. i decided to draw out all the frames on fifty index cards and then shoot each of them to animate them. now, i don't draw, but this time i decided to bury my embarassment over my child-like scribbles and just embrace them. everything turne out super! i loved the result. just did a flowing from my concousness and got a rabbit that turned into a rat that turned into a car that had hearts as exhaust, etc. there were also sperms and more bunnies. everything good. the biggest thing that i learned from this is that i enjoy drawing. i used to love to do it when i was five and then forgot that somewhere along the line. i need to do more of these.

trollback: jacob trollback came in to teach us. great designer and motion graphics guy. fun to listen to and good at giving feedback. i didn't get the assignment done for the four week class. just was too tired from thesisland.

law class: still learning much. we did copywrites, trademark law, etc. good stuff.

thesis: all the classes are fine. still working out all the kinks. did much more research and found figures to back up what i am doing. also put up a survey online. learned good stuff out of that too. did my thesis proposal presentation. went well and got the go ahead on the thesis. they now understand what i am doing, but i need to build a personality for the project. basically, i need to create a brand. this i feel good about. i can do this. isn't this part of what designers do?

newspaper: headed up a political newspaper that we put out. 23 people from my MFA design program and the MFA illustration program contributed to it. each person got a page to express whatever they wanted on it as long as it dealt with the upcoming election. each person gave a small amount of money and we were able to publish 2000 copies of the paper. got a lot of good responses and feedback from it. found out that i love to edit and put together things.

life

smathering of random moments from over the last month.

rented a car over the weekend of oct. 9th and went up to ross's to get my type. halled it all back and loaded it into my room. see an earlier entry on the site for pictures of the type. chris ritchie went up with me and he printed his save the dates for his wedding. i hung out with lucy and the kids part of the day. once again, it was lovely and relaxing up there.

still interning at funny garbage. over this month i've shot many, many photos for them. loved it. love being there. it doesn't seem like i am at a job. learning flash stuff and internet stuff. they liked me so much that i am starting to do freelance for them next week. yeehaw!! i get money and i get to hang out in a cool place. it will be hard to balance this with classes, but i think i can do it. it will entail balancing, gumption and maybe a little loss of sleep. nothing that i haven't done before.

went to a show at the NY time for the OpEd page. hung out with various illustrators from MFA illustration. also met peters good friend nina. she was great. we are going to try and hang out over thanksgiving in chicago.

jake and i broke up. turns out that we were feeling the same way about each other and the relationship. we both think each person is super and wonderful, etc. and we both were kicking ourselves that we didn't have stronger feelings for the other person. we talked about all of this and decided that maybe we should try being friends. hung out the next weekend and saw I heart Huckabees. it went well. so i lost a boyfriend and gained a friend. pretty good deal.

that is about it for now. i'll write the last week in a review tomorrow or over the weekend.

wanna help me out?

you can take an online survey that will help me with research for my thesis. it will only take a couple of minutes and it will help me out so much.

thank you!

http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB223VVVRAM3W

one month done

Can't believe that I've been back in school for one month. Unbelievable. This year is going to hustle by super fast. Like a cat with it's tail on fire. mmmm…burning cat.

I am going to try and remember what happened three weeks ago. Please bare with me.

Monday, September 13 – ran around during the day. Having an internship during the day on tuesday, wednesday and thursday is making me manage my time and get all my errands and other things done on mondays and over the weekend. We had our first movie class with Jeff Scher. We watched a bunch of movies from the silent period and talked about the idea of film. The biggest idea I walked out with is that film lies. It is only still images switching out making the illusion of motion.

Tuesday, September 14 – More internship. Shooting a lot of photographs for them. Makes me happy. First thesis class with Martin Kace. Some of us went over our thesis idea. got good feedback. Worked on my form design for Steven Doyle. In this class, we have six weeks to work our way through three different projects that have various levels of expressing ourselves with in the project. The first level is to redesign something like a bill or a train schedule. The next level is something like a book cover or a music poster and the final level is some type of a monument. I am redesigning a camera repair form from ten years ago.

Wednesday, September 15 – Showed camera repair form. got good feedback on it. learned much in the class. After class, I found examples of various types of word and image relationships for my thursday class. Was at the studio until 2am and was the last one to leave. how strange not to have any first years here.

Thursday, September 16 – more internship. Presented word image presentation. Everyone did cool things.

Friday, September 17 – Worked in the library filing books and moving sections around so we have more room in there. Had my law class and found out that recipes (the ingredience, etc.) isn't really copywrited because it is the formula. good to know. Met up with Becky and Peter in Park Slope at Bonnie's Grill. Had a wonderful hamburger and a salad. Headed over to the Gate with both of them and got a beer or two. Peter and Becky had a heated discussion on politics. It was fascinating, but I had nothing really to contribute. Fell in love with the music the bartender was playing. It was the Drive By Truckers. Have to get that album. Didn't go see Jake because he is working on three music videos. (one for the cure, one for the hives and another for a band called the sugarcult.) Haven't seen him in a month. Sort of annoying.

Saturday, September 18 – Worked in the studio a bit. Bridgette called and she is having people over to her loft in DUMBO. Went over and met a couple of her friends and her boyfriend. Had good food and great conversations. I forgot how awesome it is to be around Brigette. Lots of good questions and disagreements. Went and got beer with her friend Rob and called Jake at work (his office was around the block from the store) and finally got to see him. He looked super tired and stressed. sucky. Went back to Brigette's and hung out until 2am. She drove us all home. How nice to be in a car again.

Sunday, September 19 – Called Val. It is her birthday. Worked on my first thesis paper.

Monday, September 20 – Ran around during the day and had lunch at the Visual Arts Press. Good to see everyone again. I miss them. They gave me this wonderful design book called Iconography 2: Life. Good stuff in there. Had film class. Watch lots of good stuff. My favorite was a film by Leo Leonni called Little Blue and Little Yellow. Just animated scraps of paper, but they had so much expression. Worked on poster for Steven Doyle's class. Trying to do a poster for the band Low.

Tuesday, September 21 – More discussion about thesis. Worked on poster for Doyle's class. I am not done with the poster. I am not happy with it. I haven't solved it yet, but I think i'll show it in class. Doyle's class is about throwing something out there no matter how close it is to being done and getting feedback. I need to stop protecting myself so much from critism and let whatever happen happen.

Wednesday, September 22 – Internship. Much running around in Chinatown shooting stuff. Think I ate an ice cream bar and sushi. Doyle's class was great. Once again learned much by what he said about others work. He just cuts through everything and gives such smart clear answers and questions. He sees stuff that we don't catch. He was super helpful on my poster. totally kicked me in the ass and is making me think in a new direction/approach to my design solutions. just what i needed.

Thursday, September 23 – More Veronique today. We brought in collages that we had worked on that represent the feeling/mood of our thesis. mine was super retro and kinda feminine. didn't know i had this side. do you turn thirty and become a girl?

Friday, September 24 – Met up with Steven Heller this morning. Talked about this year and the classes. Quick and good conversation. He also told me that my poster book had been done. Need to do more research into that. Went to school and did more library work. it is looking way better in there. More law class. I love this class. Learn so much from Frank. He is great. (and not just because he brings us treats.) Left a little early to go to a Mets game. I am meeting up with Becky, Jeff and Kate to see the Cubs play the Mets. All of us, but Kate are Cubs fans.

Met up with Becky at 42nd street F station and head out to the game together. Jeff and Kate are riding their bikes. Hang outside and call my mom. She is jealous about where I am. (i am cubs fan because of her. she LOVES the cubbies.) It is amazing how many people are dressed in cubs gear and rooting for them. Makes me smile. The game moves by fast. The cubs fans are loud and most of the time give the Mets fans a pretty good challenge. The game moved into extra innings and finally the cubs win. I call mom and she is happy. Yea!

Strange. I liked this game. Usually, baseball is super boring for me. Maybe I am growing into the sport.

Saturday, September 25 – Do some work at the studio until 7pm or so. I am making cursive words out of thin metal wire for my Low poster. It looks great, but it takes a bit of time to get it right. Also sewing words into a photograph for another version of the poster. Meet up with Jake at 7pm. It's his 31st birthday. We go to this great toppas place down the street from my residence. Order lots of food and drinks and have a great time. It is nice to see him again after a long absence. After dinner, we go see Hero at the movie theater. I wasn't that impressed. Looks great, but the story is a bit lacking. never really grabbed me.

Sunday, September 26 – Head back into the studio and do more work until later at night.

Monday, September 27 – Errands during the day. Had thesis class tonight. Martin switched with Jeff. I talked to Martin briefly about my project and he gives me some good ideas. It's funny, but right now everything is super hazy in my mind about the thesis. It is like a jello salad before it sets. Everything is floating around in this crazy liquid and hasn't taken form yet. I know with time a shape with emerge and take form, but right now, it's hard to be in this state.

Tuesday, September 28 – Movie class was once again awesome. Nice stream of conciousness stuff. He showed some Walter Sonnbert and I totally loved it. I want to make movies like that. Nice litte slices of life. Like my lomos come to life. Did freelance work at night.

Wednesday, September 29 – Didn't present in Doyle's class. still working on my posters. still sewing and making metal letters. Worked on another mood board for Veronique's class. This time though the board was paired down and more to the point.

Thursday, September 30 – Jimmy-rigged a macro lens today at funny garbage. Collin, the main programer guy there, brought in this tiny macro lens for another type of camera and figured out a way to attach it to his cannon. He had me find an aresol can that fit his lens and then I cut out a hole for the smaller lens and put it in the end of the cap. I didn't think it would work, but it did!! totally crazy and amazing. Collin is wicked smart. Class was good. Looked at mood boards and talked about branding. Spent the evening researching digital camera. narrowed the interest list down to a nikon coolpicts 5400 and a cannon s60. about $100 different between the two. need to go and hold them in my hands to see how they work and feel.

Friday, October 1 – Got up early and went to Crate and Barrel to get David's wedding gift from our class. (gave it to him later and he was super happy about it.) Worked on the library again. As usual, law class was great. we learned about work for hire laws. worked and fucked around the the studio until late. Drew out 1/2 of my card for my flipbook movie for Jeff's class.

Saturday, October 2 – Went up to a cookbook store on the Upper East Side. Talked to the manager there about my thesis. He was totally critical, but helpful. I learned that i need to do more reasearch and be able to explain and talk about my thesis better. Bought some cookbooks and spent way too much money. Came back and went over to a tattoo place on 23rd to see if they could draw out this logo for Val's thanksgiving invite. They agreed they could. Awesome. Came back and did work in the studio. Went with Araba to get sushi. Eat deep-fried ice cream. (slobber and drool.) came back and help araba think of new thesis ideas. did more research online.

Sunday, October 3 – It was a beautiful day here. Totally fall, but still sort of warm and sunny. Shot a bunch of photos outside of my metal type. got some stuff that I think i can use. Did more research online for the thesis. finding out good things. Walked all over Chelsea looking for a camera store that had close up lens kit for a 58mm lens. Found nothing. argggg!! need it by tuesday for funny garbage. Went to the tattoo parlor and had the guy draw out my logo. It looks so good. I am happy with it. Had sushi again with araba at the same restaurant. Once again much drooling and slobbering. it was great. worked more on the flipbook movie. and did more research.

now it is time for me to go home and read and then sleep.

the beginning of the end

graduate school started last week. This year marks the final year of my degree. Went by quickly, but what do you expect from a two year program?

Here is the breakdown of the beginning:

Tuesday, Sept. 7 – Classes start and so does my new internship. This fall I am doing three days a week at Funny Garbage. I need to round out my print-heavy design experience and figured that Funny Garbage and web design would be a good way to do that. The day at FG goes well. Vintage and kitchy toys peak out of every corner of the offices and everyone who works there turns out to be super friendly and cool. A workplace right up my alley.

After the internship, I head up to school where we are interduced to some of our professors and find out what this year has in store for us. Then we head out to the studio where we mix and mingle with the first years and reconnect with our classmates from last year. Finish off the evening by moving over to Grand Saloon with Araba, Chris, Ceccila and others to have a couple more drinks before heading home.

Wednesday, Sept. 8 – It poured and poured and poured, totally messing up all the train and subway lines. I was luckly and got to FG just fine, but others weren't so lucky. So many commuters were stranded by subways and trains that never came. Big mess. It still is hard for me to graps that weather (ie-lots of rain or snow) can shut this place down so quickly.

Tonight, Steve Doyle taught our first offical class of this school season. He showed us tons of his work which is just simply beautiful and smart. Lots of great experiments with type and getting the "type off the page and out in the world" as Steven puts it so elliquently. Through his six week seminar we will learn, find and define our voice as a design.

During class, I suddenly realized that I no longer felt the teacher/student diadactic that I felt last year. This year I feel grown up and on the same level as my peers and my teacher. Classes are now an exchange of information where we all learn from one another. Strange/good realization.

Thursday, Sept. 9 – More FG. Learning much and feeling a bit more comfortable there. Class tonight was with Veronique Vienne. We talk about the word vs. image and why they are at war. I have thought and struggled with this idea for year. I love both things and hate them both at the same time. Though I think of myself as a visual person, I am still proud and grateful that my undergrad was in journalism. I will always be able to write because of the strong educational foundation that Northwestern provided me with. Good class. I think this will be the theory class of this year.

Friday, Sept. 10 – Law class with Frank Martinez. Super, super, super, great! I loved this class. Frank broke down law into digestable nuggets that I could digest. But don't get the impression that he didn't make us think. He did. I can't wait to have more of these.

Saturday, Sept. 11 – Came into the studio. Worked on the library. Did some work. Felt blah all day. I've been feeling a bit lonely the past couple of months. Last year, I thought by this time I would be settled and happy here, but I am realizing that moving and establishing a new life with friends and aquaintances like you had back home takes longer then a year. I don't think I willl be settled here until two or three years from now. Who knows, maybe I'll never be settled. Valeri is going through the same thing in Milwaukee even though she has friends there and is only an 1.5 hours from Chicago. It's nice to have some one to talk to about this who is going through the same thing.

Araba came into the studio and we hung out and did work. Then we went to this great german restaurant that natalie took me to. It is called the silver swan. I had amazing wiernerschnitzel. yummy!

Sunday, Sept. 12 – Came into the studio and did more work. My friend Greg called about movie tickets to the NY film fest and invited me to a mantee that him and Becky were going to see. I agreed to meet them. Hurried down to the Film Forum in the West Village to see Murnau's Sunrise.

The film was awesome!! I wish films today could be as engaging. Funny how much crap comes out today and this black and white silent film from 1927 could kick their ass. Here is a quick snippet from a review by David Denby, The New Yorker, "Watching masterpiece like “Sunrise,” the first movie Murnau made in Hollywood, in 1927, you seem to have entered not only a different era but a different ar form—one in which psychology and symbolism and the most wrenching emotions all play a much larger role than they do in the often jaunty movie of the early sound period." If you ever have the chance, watch it.

Came back and did work. Araba and I went out to find her dinner. Did more work and then got drinks at PUSH. Went home and slept.

First week is done. I am mentally trying to prepare myself to work again. Little hard to get in this mindset after a long summer of rest.

pushcart project

the pushcart project is finally up on the MFA design website. Please go check it out if you wish. everyone's cart is up there, plus, some fun photos of opening night reception. Nice picture of me (in disguise) and jake.
http://design.schoolofvisualarts.edu/pushcart/

end of the semester or what i can remember

actually, it is way, way past the end of semester. i finished up school almost two months ago. i am going to try and remember what the last month of school was like. I remember it was stressful, but not as stressful when i had the cart. here is the clift note version of the last month of school.

worked on all the other classes that had been pushed aside during the cart project.

web class: started to get my template together for my website. got helpful hints from my professor and it looked really good at the end. i built a tiny flash intro for the site and set it to a detroit cobras song. i felt really proud of what i did. i definately want to blow out the rest of the site and make it real. some of my classmates really dug it too. david asked me why our magazine couldn't have looked like my site. did pretty good for the design of my second site.

book class: luckly, i had worked on a lot of the products earlier in the semester. had a lot of time to work in class on the products so i finished up everything that i need to do with enough time. unfortantly, i didn't have the weekend in the studio to work on stuff since the electric company shut down our building to improve the electrical flow the weekend before all of our finals were due. printed out my entire book and products to take to jake's house for the weekend to mock up. nice to have an entire weekend with no school. it was lovely hanging out with jake for that weekend. did good on the products and book.

tv class: tweaked the final spot per comments from class. people seemed to have liked my last spot the best. julia said that she felt that my personality finally came out in the last spot. good to get better with each spot. had a critic in class that consisited of steven heller, emily oberman and scott stowell. they were super critical, but extremely fair and truthful. i agreed with everything that they said about my spots. didn't rock them with what i did, but i got three awesome!! on the logo. i was proud that i nailed the logo. i might not be the best motion graphics person, but my design is pretty good to get high praise on my logo. i have to say that this class was a challenge for me. i thought with my drumming background and my past photography experience that motion graphics might come easier to me (plus, i want to do motion graphics soooooo bad.) but it turns out, that motion graphics is going to be something that i am going to have to struggle with and work with to get better at. it is not something that comes naturally to me.

magazine class: got everything together on the magazine. finished some of the articles and laying out the spread. it really came together in the end and looked great. i was lucky to have the group that i did. (jong woo, ana and david.) everyone worked together well and gave so much to the magazine. i loved working with all of them and being the editor wasn't as tramatising as i thought it would be. in fact, i wouldn't mind being an editor in real life. presented the magazine to steve and lita. they loved it.

maira's class: finished the class a week after school ended. we met at the nursing home to have a party and present what we did. gita didn't come downstairs so i went up and hung out with her. she loved the book. guess, i should tell you what i did. i made a small book for her. i went around NYC and took photos in places she had lived and we had talked about. the copy to the book talked about her life mixed with my thoughts about her life. gita was flattered by what i had done and told me she didn't deserve this. i know she does though. she is a wonderfully, sweet woman who i enjoy spending time with. simply, she rocks.

cart class: the show happened. it was fun. we took down the show the next week. i stayed until 7am in the morning helping shoot pictures of the carts and then tearing them apart. i was so tired that night that i forgot my pin number to my cash card and had to call to get a new one. ended up keeping my neon pink naked lady. she now resides at jake's because the salvation army women's residence doesn't seem like a good home for her.

i know that this doesn't do the last month of school justice. there was so much that went on that i wish i could remember. i am sad that i didn't do this sooner.