life : toys : art : junk

Long awaited spring break!

This is such a long and wordy entry I decided I’ll separate this from my photo blog update… will get those up soon.

Second term is over and it's finally time to blog again! Simply put, this term was a bit of a nightmare. The last week of finals equates to a week of no sleep and constant paranoia. Every minute I had this little voice running in the back of my head, hurrying me to move on to another project.

Now I gotta rant and give my ‘review’ of each course.

3d modeling- I believe I might have aged ten years and grew several strands of white hair thanks to this course. First, I must rant about my instructor. For one thing, nothing annoys me more than being called "honey" like I'm still a kid in diapers. On the other hand, I have been accused by her THREE times. First time, she yelled at me for doing my homework in class when I wasn't. Second time, she accused me of wasting her time by turning in an old assignment and trying to pass it off as an upgraded one. I might’ve mistakenly given her the old file, but that's unlikely because I have overwritten the old one (I didn’t get the chance to clear this up with her). Third time, she made it seem like I was lying about getting the wrong final schedule when it was our schools crappy website’s fault. She allowed me to do my final early with her other class which is kind of nice... but anyway, Maya is the most annoying program I've ever used. I'm going to quote somebody from last term when I asked him about Maya," it's not difficult to use, it's just a major pain in the ass"...yup, took the words out of my mouth.

Figure construction- The homework in this class was the most time-consuming. We did the same thing almost every week; drawing figures of live nude models. I thought it would be a bit awkward to draw nude figures in the beginning, but when we actually started, it wasn't strange at all. I actually learned and gained a lot in this course. Before, I had a lot of difficulties with drawing human figures from imagination, but now I definitely have a much better understanding of the human figure.

Design, media, and communication- A course I dreaded going to every week. I almost had a panic attack when I heard it was a speech class. Yes, I have this MAJOR fear of public speaking that I probably shouldn’t have at my age. Thankfully, we didn't have to present a lot. The course was actually quite interesting and had topics that got me thinking (not to mention, super easy hw)... but if I had I to retake this course, I might go crazy.

Color theory- This class was full of awesome people and it's probably the only class I felt comfortable in. I gotta admit it's kind of a tough course even though the workload was not that much. I over estimated myself and thought I was pro with colors, but apparently I'm not even close. I kept getting B's on almost every assignment (even though I spent hours on them). I think I did terrible in my finals exam too. For one of the questions it asked me to design a product for baby boomers and the product was pastures (??). This is stupid, but I assumed that baby boomers meant toddlers, and pastures (or however it was spelled, I have no idea what it is) was some odd term for diapers. Then I reread the question after I finished answering in paragraphs + color diagram, and realized baby boomers meant elderly people between the age of 55-66. Wow epic fail much?

Internet concept (web designing course)- Listening to webpage and HTML talk for hours was like listening to a year-long lecture in a foreign language. I actually used to be pretty good at html, but I've forgotten everything (unfortunately). Web designing is pretty fun + satisfying stuff (although extremely frustrating at times). Despite in how the lectures made me doze off like crazy, this course actually made me want to switch my major to web designing for a minute. But I totally bombed my final exam cause I thought I would pass it with flying colors. I seriously need to stop overestimating myself…

Its only my second term and im already complaining. I didn't struggle with the workload until finals week, but I went through a lot of mental stress this term. I felt extremely intimidated and insecure in my classes, I seriously doubted my major for the first time, and I constantly felt frustrated by the things around me. Mainly, I was angry because I didn’t know why I had to go through so many things I didn’t ask for. I only want to do art… why do I have to deal with all this presentation crap, why do I have to take courses im not interested in when im the one paying loads of money, why do I have to deal with people, why do I have to stand in the freezing cold and wait for the bus that never arrives on time…all these little things I pretty much know the answer to.



On the bright side, I finally bought a new piano after wanting one for six years. It cost more than I had expected (I felt guilty), but it was the last of the made in Japan YAMAHA pianos. All of Yamaha’s new pianos are made in their China factory and they are no longer selling the ones made in their Japan factory to the U.S. There is no way I am buying a piano that’s made in China, no matter how strict their quality control is. It was now or never, so I ended up buying the Yamaha T121. No regrets!