Herald Square, Sarasota

So I'm going to really try and get back into the swing of things, LJ style. I have so much stuff to post from this past semester that I think I'm going to make a separate entry for each class so as not to kill any poor unsuspecting computers. I was looking back on some of it, and I honestly can't believe half the stuff I did. I can't remember ever having time for that kind of stuff, you know? How mysterious.

This past Friday was Midsummer's Eve; for those of you unacquainted with the subject, it's a holiday which celebrates the summer solstice, aka the longest day of the year. And, as bizarre as it is, Sweden makes the Saturday closest to the solstice Midsummer's Day, and has everyone celebrate it the night before. Everyone wears pretty dresses (if you're a girl — generally) and flowers in their hair, drinking wine or cider or beer and dancing around the maypole. (It looks like this, though typically it is also decorated with flowers too). When I was little, my mom used to take my sister and I to meadows around Sweden to collect flowers, having us pick seven different flowers and put them under our pillows, so we could dream about who we were going to marry. I miss it a lot. Hopefully I'll be there next summer though, so I can visit my sister (she is currently living in Norway). Anyway, me and mom always make a sort of Midsummer's feast with: Swedish meatballs, potatoes, herring (but we substituted it with sushi this year — I don't like herring), lingonberry sauce, salad, french bread, sour cream and chives, wine, apple cider, and frozen vodka. Not to mention dessert, which this year was vanilla ice cream with strawberries and blueberries, topped with havregryn (warm dry oatmeal that's been mixed with brown sugar and butter).

I took a few photos as we were setting up, so: mini Midsummer picspam!
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I'm reaaaaally hideous at updating. I realize this, I really do. But I do rather erratically get on here and check everyone's entries and think about long comments I want to leave you, and then get distracted by this thing called "school". What nonsense! I want to be part of your guys' lives (is that weird and creepy or what), and I want to think this series of tubes known as the internet has transported lovely people from all over the world right into my computer screen and life.

As promised (a very, very long time ago), these are two designs for the dust covers of my Typographic Compendium from the end of last semester:



Click to make bigger.

Also, a look inside the actual Compendium, taken with Photobooth a very long time ago (Winter break!). It's only a few pages out of the total (22), but hopefully you get the gist of what's in there. ( +++++ )

Two polaroids from this week:
( +++++ )

Aaaaand my finished flash piece for New Media is here! The music is from Coraline. The assignment itself was to find a current news article and using a quote (or more), to summarize the article and then create a flash piece which gets the message of it across while relating visually to it. The article I chose was about nightmares and other bad dreams and the fact that they are actually good for you -- what your brain does is work the "nightmares" out while you are dreaming (nightmares being fears and problems which you can't understand while conscious) and solves them. When you wake up from a nightmare, it's a failed healing session -- you're meant to sleep through them! Anyway, solving these fears makes way for the future and new things which you might face. It's an evolutionary adaptive. Pretty cool, in my opinion.

And now I'm off to do more work for Typography, Digital Video, and New Media. The fun, it just never stops.

I have been Wii-ing so intensely lately that I am actually sore. It is fabulous. I'm also doing Pilates every day so far and feeling generally good about myself. And much more flexible.

I am also currently doing this Merlin and Arthur vector which is very bright and has some bizarre gradient action going on. So if that's ever finished I'll definitely post it. And speaking of Merlin, I had a conversation with my love boymeetinglife about a fic idea dealing with the whole "the Doctor being Merlin" deal, and it gets progressively less intelligent. Yeah.
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I'm going back up to Ringling on Saturday, since classes start Monday. I'm nervous about overloading and how it will affect the getting-a-job thing because I will be dirt poor after buying all the books and supplies for classes. And Amanda B, Sydney (shadowsdepth), and I are driving 20 hours up to Auburn Hills, Michigan, so we can see 100monkeys play at some Irish pub in February. Anyone else from MI who wants to go as well? We will totally meet you and have a grand ol' time of it.

And now I have to listen to Alex's reactions about the second series of Lost (me: is it not the most fucked show you have ever seen // A: uh, is that even a real question) and do lots of laundry.

The list of new things I read and watch and etc for this stunning new year.

( Books )

( Films )

( Television )

First of all my lovely, beautiful darlings:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I have been very, very MIA for a few reasons. One of which being that one of our Christmas presents was a trip to Vermont, so my brother Sven and I could see snow for the first time in our lives.

( Photos! )

Also under the Christmas tree this year? A WII AND WII FIT. Guys, the Wii is quite possibly one of the greatest inventions on Earth. My brother and I are constantly like, boxing and snowboarding and stuff. I also got a fucking amazing pair of black Steve Madden boots and a robe made out of clouds. True story.

+ I have a Twitter now, so add me! I'll probably use it to post current projects or gallery openings and the like.

On the fandom side of things:
+ MERLIN. I watched the entire season in one day while suffering from a weird 48-hour flu, and I am so in love.
+ Revelation of the Eleventh Doctor. Still not sure how I'm feeling about it, to be honest. I'm reserving judgment until I see him in action as the Doctor. Moffat, who was the one that wanted to cast an older actor in the first place, had this to say:

“The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe,” Moffat stated. “As soon as Matt walked through the door, and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man.”

So we'll see how it goes, I guess.

The holidays this year were just amazing, and I hope everyone feels the same way. Hopefully all of you got your cards! But, just so you know, there were a few that, instead of getting holiday cards, will be receiving a sort of happy letter instead, because I am awesome at procrastinating. So if you haven't found a holiday card in the mailbox, then rest assured that a weird letter with drawings is on it's way to you. Exciting, I know.

At the moment I have to drive over to Amanda B's house to marathon Supernatural and watch Jackson Rathbone walk around in the cancelled (thank god) show Beautiful People. Shall update again soon! ♥

the other side of paradise
Because sometimes you wish people spoke more like Fitzgerald. You can't help that you're as romantically listless and infinite as the expatriots; you just are. For boleyn and goodtoast. ♥

o1. Ghost Track - Yann Tiersen
o2. Where We Started - David Torn
o3. Echo's Answer - Broadcast
o4. Come and Play in the Milky Night - Stereolab
o5. All the Bones - Electric President
o6. Lusty - Lamb
o7. Song for Lovers - The Dø
08. Lua - Bright Eyes
o9. A Lesson I've Learned From Sneaking Through Pinholes - Eleanor L. Vault
1o. Dagger - Emily Jane White
11. Abalin - Rose Polenzani
12. Climbing Up the Walls - The String Quartet

+ Zip.

I've finally been able to rest, and I really appreciate your comments about my well-being. ♥ There was a 120+ hour stretch where I got about 10 hours of sleep and could hardly function, but now college is over with until January and I am so content to just hibernate through the break.

I'm so excited about your guys' Christmas cards -- half of them are drawn and the other half are painted and stamped and ready to go. If you still want one, leave your address here.

And colorbox! I received yours in the mail yesterday! I was so many kinds of pleased. Thank you. ♥

You guys. It has been 47 hours and 56 minutes since I last slept. I am literally dead on my feet but I'm past the point of exhaustion and am heading, with great velocity, into the delirious stage of tired where if you open your mouth to speak, others will wonder how long you've had a head injury. It is delightful. I just finished with my last class of Advanced Web, to be discussed with actual coherency much later. I now have 3 hours of Typography before I get to stay awake another night to do shit for my liberal arts classes. I am almost becoming used to having time feel like syrup; strange lurches forward before the minutes move like molasses.

Anyways, HELLO. HOW IS EVERYONE. Once this week is over and done with, I will be free from the restraints of design and college and will probably post something every five minutes just to prove the fact that I have the time to. Honestly I don't know how I'm even writing this; I should be printing the second copy of my Typographic Compendium and folding my dust covers with something close to perfection.

Does anyone have some song/mix requests? Or recs? Leave me a poetic phrase or a sentence that caught your attention and I'll set up a playlist for you. And if you'd like a Christmas card, just leave me your address here! :)

Click for bigger!

We had to do isotype sequences in Graphic Design which explain a concept or action to an audience. Obviously I went for How to Survive a Nuclear Attack à la 1951. The conclusion: you don't survive. Ducking under a desk does not save you from radiation.

Anyways. It's 6am here in old Sarasota, Florida and I have yet to sleep. I am seriously doubting I will actually get any rest until at least Thursday. Since we've only got two weeks left its some serious crunch time around here. Just today I've finished a 24x36 poster for Typography which I must hang somewhere on campus to take photos of. These photos will go into the Typographic Compendium which is due Wednesday, and I am nowhere near complete. Not a lot of people are. (A Typographic Compendium is basically where we design an actual book to showcase our work from the entire semester. We're doing french-fold pages and then hand-binding it. It will be a high quality paperback with a dust cover when we're done!)

Those four posters for Graphic Design which I mentioned in my last post I actually finished a while ago, but my professor is having half the class redo them completely, me included. So I have to finish those up before 12.30 this afternoon. All Tuesday night (err-- all tonight) I'll be finishing all my Typography and actually scripting a flash site (on Doctor Who) for my Advanced Web class. All Wednesday night I'll be redrafting a story and working on more Graphic Design. Woohoo!

But anyway! Thanksgiving break was good in the way that I ate turkey, baked a pumpkin pie, and slept. It was fantastic. But now Ringling is filling up all my spare time. I'll try to post my completed projects as I go along. :)

I know I haven't been commenting, but I have been reading all your posts! I'll try to get better at the whole responding thing.

I am never posting in this! It feels like I am always doing something, with no time for LiveJournal or all the wonderful people who are here. I've been horrible at this keeping-up-to-date thing, so hello! What's going on in your life? Is school doing well? Is work getting you down? Link me to things you'd like me to read. Please.

This what I do when not in the computer labs or in classes: ( photos )

At the moment I'm a little run down, catching some sort of cold which may or may not be going around. It's one of those congested-hard-to-breathe things which is bound to be a lot of fun, I'm sure. I'm doing four posters for Graphic Design which tie in to the accordion book I made last week, so I'll post those when I'm done.

Until then! ♥

BARACK OBAMA.


YES WE CAN.

I will never forget this day. I am so proud to be a part of this country.

I have been so far away from this poor site, I can't even fathom how I've managed. It's been weeks already, and Halloween is almost here. I'm going to be Sarah Palin -- I've pretty much got her accent down. But instead of a lengthy word entry, here's what I've been doing in photos.

( + forty-seven snapshots )

And now I must finish this story for Creative Writing, which is over 5000 words and nowhere near the middle. Woohoo.

Andrea and Gwen, late Friday night.

Tuesday already! And I haven't even replied to your comments. I'm a horrible, terrible person. Friday night was amazing; Octavius, Andrea, Gwen, Brett, and I gathered and were entirely ridiculous -- Chinese food and walks around campus and Fight Club drinking games. Saturday was full of hours in the computer labs doing Web and Type, a lemonade journey with boymeetinglife, and then watching things on a projector at Jibran's place for five hours. Sunday was Igor with Edward and Andrea, then labs, labs, labs doing work, work, work with Alex (boymeetinglife) and Melike from 7pm - 2am. Until we journeyed to Starbucks and found ourselves at Melike's dorm doing some work, but mostly procrastinating, until 7am.

Monday was.. yesterday, apparently. Woke up, did homework, went to Typography for three hours, had a portrait session with Alex and then was in the labs until 2am. Again. Another Starbucks run, this time with Edward, Andrea, and Alex.

And today, yes today I shall not be sleeping due to Advanced Web and Typography taking up nine hours of classtime tomorrow and each professor assuming we have enough time to do their work. Which is so very, very untrue.

Feel free to e-mail/message/IM me anytime tonight. It'd be a great break, and I'd get to know all of you a little better! My AIM is vintagedanger, my email is silent.hysteria@gmail.com, and my facebook is here.

Rose Tyler on Ringling campus. For lieutenants. ♥

The days have flown by, and this weekend is already full of friends, films, and hearty laughs. Last night all sorts of antics took place, to be elaborated upon later, I'm sure. But for now, on this beautiful Saturday afternoon with its perfect temperature and limited humidity, sun hanging warm and bright in the sky, I will continue doing my Typography and Web work in the cold, white-walled and dreary computer labs.

How are you, dear flist? Tell me everything.

don't listen to the radio.
Music for the days when you need to kick over a stereo and feel empowered. Why do rockstars get to have all the fun?
o1. Cannonball - The Breeders
o2. The Hardest Button to Button - The White Stripes
o3. Reptilia - The Strokes
o4. Much Too Long Now - The Sounds
o5. Their Party Days - Magenta Lane
o6. Down Boy - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
o7. Slow Hands (Britt Daniel Remix) - Interpol
o8. Music is My Hot Hot Sex - CSS
o9. The Dope (Wonderful You) - The Dandy Warhols
1o. Black Lead - Death in Vegas
11. Let the Poison Spill From Your Throat (Tommie Sunshine Remix) - The Faint
12. Black Door - The Black Keys
13. The Beginning is the End is the Beginning - The Smashing Pumpkins

Zip. Best experienced at full volume.

The move went okay, and the only downfalls with the new place is that the washer/dryer is coin-operated and there's no dishwasher. But my roommate and I have a closet the size of decent bathroom, so that's a plus.

Going to see Choke tonight with a few kids and I'm thrilled. I'll be in the labs for hours afterward but I can't even care about it. Palahniuk is a demi-god.

Serenity, Ringling campus sculpture. 3.22 pm.

Apparently the unit that I share a wall with at my apartment complex had a huge leak from their upstairs bathroom. How this is relevant to my apartment is this: the leak soaked into the wall that we share and down into their kitchen -- they moved out, obviously, but now there's gross black fungus growing on the other side of our kitchen wall? And there's water coming out from some of our cabinets, so yesterday we got an e-mail that my roommates and I have to move out ASAP for our own safety.

I'd really rather die of mold than have to go through moving all my stuff to a new place this weekend, but alas. The school doesn't believe that dying is the best course of action.

Today for my Environmental Science class we took a field trip to Lake Myakka, about 40 minutes away. I put a mix of "music that must be played loud at all times" into my friend Jibran's VW and we blasted it down the Interstate. I enjoyed that more than the actual "tour" given to us by the park rangers.

At the moment I'm doing visual translations of a vector guitar for Graphic Design class tomorrow. I'll post some of the results tomorrow with the kick-over-a-stereo-and-feel-great-about-it playlist.

How's everyone's week going so far?

let'sbehonest:mythread

Procrastinating in Advanced Web; three hours left.
Go wild, guys.

My current outfit, and my Bad Wolf pajamas (made by the lovely boymeetinglife), by popular demand.

This weekend got off to great start; Friday my roommate and I went to a shindig in Melike's dorm, where a bunch of us watched movies on a projector and Jibran made pancakes. Saturday a friend of mine from Eckerd College came down to visit, and at the moment I'm avoiding homework by putting up posters and things in my room. I have a lot of Typography and Advanced Web to do, but the labs are open late tonight and I'm not feeling very productive. I love lazy Sundays.

I'm making a playlist full of music for the days when you just want to kick over a stereo and feel empowered. I'll most likely end up posting it here for you guys.

+ website rec: Pandora. I'm sure a lot of you already know about it, but I honestly have it open 24/7. It's a great way to discover new music and have a soundtrack for anything you might need one for.

* Take a picture of yourself right now.
* Don’t change your clothes.
* Don’t fix your hair
* Just take a picture.
* Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.)
* Include these instructions.

So this is basically what I look like at 3.30 AM, listening to the Strokes and wearing a huge Bad Wolf t-shirt.

Downtown Sarasota alley

Currently in Typography, starting a new project and mapping it out in Illustrator. So I figured it would be a neat time to get to know one another -- reading about my projects can't be the most exciting thing in the world, so ask me a few questions or tell me about yourself. :)

The back aisle at Parker's Books

Amazing, amazing weekend. Spent Friday getting lost in Punta Gorda with boymeetinglife, trying to find shadowsdepth because her car overheated. Saturday was a late brunch followed by a slow meandering downtown, taking photos and feeling the sun. In the evening we saw Iron Man at the Parkway Cinema for $2.

Today we ate leftover Pad Thai and assorted pastries and watched Doctor Who.

Typography tomorrow, so I'll be working on that in the labs until they close (2 am!), and trying to get some work done for Adv. Web for Wednesday.

How was everyone's weekend?