the nerd awakens

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.

Maybe.  I dunno.  Not really spoilers, but I still wouldn't risk it.  JUST GO SEE THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE OKAY.

Yesterday I had the immense privilege of going to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a group of friends.  I also had the immense privilege of being with Samuel, who graciously elected to sit next to me, despite the risk of being involuntarily slapped in the arm throughout the entire movie.

I will say, as far as theatrical landmarks go, this is the first movie I've ever eaten a salad whilst watching.  We had picked up lunch before the show and smuggled the food into the theater.  The lettuce was particularly crunchy and I just hoped the rest of the theater thought I was eating very crispy popcorn.

I LIKE VEGGIES OKAY.

Moving on.  I'd apologize for my lack of ability to draw theater seating but let's face it, it's just about as bad as everything else so let's just deal with it, shall we?

Observe the lettuce incident:

(That's supposed to be Samuel next to me by the way)

The rest of the movie basically just went as follows:

And by the end...

Guys, what can I say about this film.  It was just so so so good.  Probably the best movie I've seen this year, and I was pretty into Jurassic World when it came out in the summer.  My inner and outer nerd is very satisfied.  Job well done, and you really need to see it.  And if you already have, just go see it again.

Additionally, as I am typing this I noticed that my darling sister has pounced upon my bedroom once again with one of her picture-hiding schemes.  She has delicately taped a photo to the bottom of my bookshelf so that I can only see it when I sit down at my desk.  I have acquired said photo for your personal enjoyment:

My sister is a very beautiful individual.  

Happy nerding everyone!  

oh, hey break

I have been released.  Fall finals for my junior year of college are now in the books (jk... I don't get grades back until next week probably) and I have a few weeks just to take a breather between semesters.  Yesterday was basically a whirlwind of me trying to do multiple things with multiple mindsets, floating between maintaining focus as a designer during my final critique while also coming to the realization that OH MY GOSH CHRISTMAS IS NEXT WEEK.  It was an interesting day.

As soon as I finished my last final I had to go back to my dorm to pack and check out my suite.  Per tradition of semesters past, of course I ended up listening to Les Miserables.

Side note... it's very difficult to be productive when listening to Do You Hear The People Sing.

Once I finally made it home I began to tackle Mt. Laundry.  I found my knee socks (courtesy of the lovely Caitlin Cash) and decided to put them on my arms whilst putting away laundry.  I quickly became aware of the evolutionary advantage of thumbs because not having them while folding clothes is very difficult.  And frustrating.

To cap off my first half-day of Christmas freedom, Mama allowed me to open up the one-pound box of chocolates that she got as a gift from one of her students.  It was about as big and wonderful as you would imagine a one-pound box of chocolates to be.

To conclude, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts recently.  You know the drill.  I've been busy.  Plus all of the creative work required by school sometimes leaves me a little dry in the idea department.  Or, let's just be honest here, I just got lazy about my favorite little side project.  I promise to do more than one entry this month though.  Heck, I might even do a weekly post.  We'll see.  For now, Merry Christmas and happy break!

behind the all-nighter

I want to start this off with a vote: do you like the body copy on my blog at this size?  I received some complaints recently on how small it is and how difficult it is to read (*cough* MOM *cough*), so I decided to bump up the point size to the next available setting in blogger (which is a bit huge to my eye, but maybe it works).  I also changed the typeface to something that hopefully reads a little bolder to the eye.  Anyways, when you're done reading this, please kindly comment below which you prefer (either in-post or on facebook/instagram is fine).  If you need a comparison, all of my other posts should still be at the original point size (though type will all be changed).  Much appreciated.

Moving on.  So, unfortunately, this post shall contain no doodles.  Heartbreaking, I know.  However, I wanted to share my latest project with you.  Most of you know that I've been working on a group project to make a magazine for my History of Graphic Design class.  My group was assigned the topic of Mid-Century Modern (MCM).  We could write our magazine on anything related to MCM, and we were given the option to make our publication look era-appropriate or not, as long as it works with our concept.  We published our work to Issuu.com, so the work is free to view for anybody.  It's a long magazine (108 pages!), but hey, we're designers, so if all you have time to do is flip through it, I can promise you it will still be enjoyable to look at.  I would, however, encourage you to please take the time to read the first 2 or 3 pages, as they introduce the magazine and explain the idea behind the whole project.  

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it!  Follow this link to take you to our publication on Issuu.com.  Thanks, and enjoy!

(postscript: if you're viewing Issuu.com on a mobile device, flip to view horizontally.  Otherwise you won't be able to view in spreads.)

Cover art

basically shark week

Gosh guys.  It's been a stressful two weeks.  Projects, papers, sickness, daddy's surgery, mishaps, isolation, an all nighter... I've seen better days.  There's been nothing yet in my college experience that I couldn't handle, but this week absolutely wore me out.  I felt okay for the most part of the week, but it wasn't until Thursday night/Friday morning that I truly felt how stressed out I've been.  Symptoms included, but were not limited to:

1. Stress blemishes.  They never fail to spangle my countenance in times when I really could benefit from the confidence of a clear complexion.  My solution?  A merciless declaration of war upon my own face.  It never ends well.

2. Poor attempts to contain one's emotional state.

3. Neglect of one's appearance and inevitable decline of self esteem.

4. Mandatory consumption of inordinate amounts of Moose Tracks ice cream.  It's that blasted fudge ripple, it gets me every time.

5. My first all nighter ever of all time.  Working on a group project with two awesome people on an awesome project.  It was kinda fun, in retrospect, though I'm pretty sure I had crazy eyes by the end of it.

6.  Acceptance of my own insignificance and lack of worth.

Basically, the last two weeks have been like Shark Week on the Discovery channel.  Lots of build up, very tense moments, and the jaws of life tearing into your sense of security.  

Ok so maybe it wasn't that bad, especially in retrospect.  It's that point in the semester when things are heating up a bit, and inevitably everything else comes crashing down at the same time.  Not being able to see friends, worrying about family, missing sleep, forgetting meals, and neglecting meaningful prayer takes a toll on the body as well as the mind.  

I'm happy to report, however, that after plenteous cuddles, hot beverages, and a bubble bath, I am largely recovered from my stressful week and am ready to kick some academic butt.  I just have to keep reminding myself that it's only a week and a half until Thanksgiving break.

Also, guys, thanks so much for 1,100+ page views!  I appreciate you reading my ugly blog :)

fallnomenon

It happens.  Every year it happens.  As soon as October rolls around, girls everywhere begin to succumb to it.  

Fall fever.

I'm as much as an autumnal nut as the next person, but sometimes you just have to draw the line.  Allow me to argue the case of the infamous scarf anomaly.  

Normally around this lovely time of year I begin to sport a light scarf to keep me cozy on those chilly morning walks to my early classes.

This is nice.  This is comfortable.  And I'd like to think that this is cute and acceptable.  What I don't get is when it's mid-afternoon and I see girls with an entire afghan smothering their torso.

You know what I'm talking about, right?  Those fashionable blanket scarves.  And look, I get it.  They're cozy.  They're cute.  But when the leaves are still green outside and it's 65 degrees in the shade and you look like this:

 ... I begin to wonder if you're wearing the scarf for fashion reasons for if it's purely functional.

And in case you were wondering: yes, blanket scarves really are made out of blankets.  Observe.

Pinterest, as usual, didn't fail me in my quest to expose this particular brand of scarf enthusiast.  It really is a blanket people.  And it really is in fashion right now.

All in all, I'm really not the scarf police.  I like flannel, I like scarves, I like fall, so go ahead and flaunt those oversized neck-warmers.  I'm just warning us all to keep an eye on this trend before we all turn into this guy:

I don't care where you live or how cold it gets... ain't nobody need a scarf that big.

how much wood can a woodchuck chuck

Project story time.

So our most recent project in History of Graphic Design was a woodcut project.  We've been studying the use of traditional Japanese woodblock printing methods in French Nouveau artwork, and our assignment was basically to design and carve our own woodblock.  Essentially, you buy a block of wood and slowly carve out a design of your choice until you've created a raised impression.  Once carved, you ink it and print on whatever you want.

It's relatively simple to do.  However, it takes a lot of patience, precision, and bloody knuckles to hand-carve a design out of wood.  Over the past week, much frustration and doubt has ensued, both during hours of carving...

Or after hours of carving...

Eventually though, you kinda get the hang of it, and then it becomes mildly addicting.  The craftsman within slowly emerges and rears his head at odd hours.

(this is Samuel by the way)

However, after about a week of chipping away at my board, I finally finished my project and printed some t-shirts.  It's not perfect, but neither is the process.

So, if you haven't seen the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, you probably won't understand the reference on the t-shirt.  However, I'm so happy to have been a part of this process, and I hope to create more in the future.  I'm also so proud of all the hard work put in by my fellow classmates; y'all constantly put out AMAZING stuff, and are such and inspiration to me every day, both in the classroom and out in the real world.  

If anybody is interested in one of these t-shirts, feel free to message me!  I'll be selling them for $10, or $5 if you provide the shirt.  Thanks again for all the support and encouragement!  Cheers!

hangry

When I'm at school, I have two basic mindsets when it comes to my fellow university students.  These mindsets are formed regardless of gender, year, major, or even if we're friends or not.  In fact, it really has nothing to do with you.  These mindsets depend entirely on my current mood and whether or not I've eaten within a 2-hour period.  Because for me, my blood sugar determines how friendly I'm going to be in any given situation.

It's not that I have any kind of medical need to eat that often.  I'm not diabetic.  I'm not hypoglycemic.  I know people who are, and they are always pleasant and wonderful.  I don't know how they do it, because when I miss snack time, I get a severe case of the hangries. 

For those of you who don't know, hangry is a term combining the words "hungry" and "angry", and it's a very real emotion.  

Observe.  

Me, when I am well-fed and encounter my fellow students:

 Vs. me when I've forgotten my snack and encounter my fellow students:

All this goes to say that if I pass you at school and don't immediately compare you to a favored dumpling, it's just because I'm a horrible and selfish person who doesn't take the extra effort to be nice when I'm hungry and a little out-of-it.  Basically I'm just calling myself out on this behavior of mine, in the hopes that making its origins public will motivate me into a frenzy of self-improvement. We'll see how that turns out.

On a different note, school is finally picking up a little bit, which is partly why I didn't do a post last week.  My apologies.  I have a handful of (hopefully) amusing stories to share with you people, especially after I get this first project behind me, but they are a bit lengthy and need some time to work on.

Plus I'm a lazy snoodlebumbus and I may or may not just be writing this post to sedate myself into thinking I've fulfilled my blogger's duty for the week.  

Now I must go and bloody my knuckles as I work to finish carving Ferris Bueller out of a piece of plywood.  More on that later.

Cheers!

snogging & other nonsense

snog*ging

–verb (used without object), snogged, snogging.

  British informal.

• To kiss and/or hold somebody in a sexual way.

That, friends, is the Cambridge online dictionary definition of the term "snogging".  Perhaps now you are a bit more intrigued as to the nature of this post... Perhaps not.  Either way, I have a story to share with you.

Most nights of the week, I get a call from Samuel on his way home from school.  We generally rehash our day, have some solid nerd discussions, and swap prayer requests.  It's a nice way to wrap up the day.

However, yesterday was different.

Due to the total lack of cell reception in my dorm, I always take my calls outside, on the side-entrance stairs.  Yesterday was no exception.  I happened to come across a couple on my way out to the door, and naturally I assumed they were entering the building.  I opened the door for them.  But they didn't go in.

In short, the girl went inside for a bit while I sat awkwardly on the stairs while the guy just paced in front of me.  I had already began the call with Samuel, but I wasn't about to hash out my day in front of this dude.  So I just stared at my feet and talked as little as possible.

And then it happened.  The girl returned.

I wrongly assumed (again) that they would be moving indoors and at last leave me and my phone call at peace, but oh how wrong I was.

Alternatively, they elected to make out.  Loudly.  Right behind me.

I still attempted to continue my phone conversation, but the symphony of snogging behind me inhibited most of my lingual skills.

At this point in the call Samuel began to express some genuine concern for me, not yet knowing that my distracted "yeah"s and "mhmmm"s were about the only diction I could produce under the circumstance.  To make matters worse, the sconce by the door was casting a shadow of the couple on the pavement before me, fully illustrating the situation playing out behind my back.  I attempted to collapse myself and dissolve into the stair rail, clutching my mug of tea in one hand and trying to maintain the phone call with my mildly befuddled boyfriend in the other.

Eventually the couple released suction on each other's face, mumbled sugary farewells, and parted ways.  Once out of earshot, I immediately explained the situation to Samuel before breaking out into nervous giggles and melodramatic wailing.

Moral of the story: if you're gonna snog on a side porch, please choose one that is UNOCCUPIED. 

Also special thanks to Samuel for being super patient, especially when I am stuck in awkward phone call conditions.

IMPORTANT

*steps down from soap box*