Eyeballs.

Our final project in my drawing class is this:
Choose 5 drawings we have done in class and finish them.
Make 5 entirely new drawings of whatever we choose.

For the 5 new drawings I decided to draw some of my photographs. In theory this seemed like a most excellent idea considering I lack any ability to pull stuff right out of my head. (Also, that would hurt.) In practice this is making my eyeballs explode. Actually choosing 5 photos out of my 7,000?

Here is the one I have picked so far:

I started this drawing in class today and proceeded to smudge charcoal all over my shiny white macbook. Awesome.


Here is another I'm 90% sure I'm going to pick:


I'm trying to choose photos that have a lot of clear detail and are not lame.

Eeeeevil.

Okay, so picture Mr. Boots here with goggles and a lab coat. Halloween next year, buddy! Evil Scientist!

Cherish is doing some sort of experiment and has called upon Mr. Boots to bring her her test tubes and lab coat. I'm pretty sure her experiment involves embroidery thread, though. So, whatever experiment involves embroidery thread AND test tubes makes me a little nervous. I want no apart in this!

So, about that stick...

In art class today we had to attach a sturdy drawing utensil to the end of our stick then pair up with someone and draw their portrait holding the opposite end of the stick.

This task was unreasonably upsetting.

I am aware that I have control issues, my teacher even pointed it out today, so that's part of why I freaked out today but it's obviously more than that. I've been sincerely starting to burn out lately, especially in my drawing class. My teacher is seriously excellent and partially to blame. I mean, he teaches as though we are all artists, and he brings up excellent topics relating to our artistic growth which has made me get a little emotional lately.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want with my art and where I want to go with it, as in how I want to develop my personal style. I don't really know how I draw. I've been trying to figure it out but I've just been having a fucking hard time dealing with it.

At one point in class today I was getting so frustrated trying to figure out where to go with my drawing that when my piece of charcoal broke in half at the end of my stick I threw my stick on the ground and walked away.
This is me seriously overreacting and having a mini-breakdown.


Oof. This emotional crap is boring me. I'm hungry.

Fort Polio and other things.

1. Here's my sort of kind of portfolio:













2. I'm a little embarrassed by how much I enjoy doing inventory at the shoe shop.
3. So, I haven't uploaded too much recently because I haven't taken too many photographs lately but any feedback over here on my flickr would be truly appreciated! I actually mean this!
4. I need to make a stencil of something, ANYTHING, for my drawing class tomorrow. For class last Thursday we were supposed to bring in:
-A stick the length of our right leg
-A few sheets of different colored paper
-A stencil of something
Most of the people in my class brought none of these things so we did another stick related activity but now tomorrow is our actual stick, etc drawing day. And I did in fact make a stencil for class last week but my teacher told me to make a new one that wasn't so half-assed and actually had something to do with my drawing aesthetic. So here I am, trying to think of how the fuck to do this. Last week the dude that sits next to me in class busted out his fucking nuts stencil and I'm supposed to compete with that? No, actually, it's drawing class so I'm not supposed to compete with that but I can't help but want to. Then his drawing was also fucking nuts. Ugh.
5. We're watching kare11 right now and they're doing this story about a guy who drives trucks to construction sites and has a duck as his friendly copilot. This is really bothering me. I'm sick of this fucking duck. WHY IS THIS STORY REAL AND ON THE NEWS?

Stupid ducks and stupid stencils.

HOLY FUCK.

Blizzard Warning for Pennington Co Plains, SD

until 11 pm MST, Thu., Nov. 6, 2008

Rapid City, SD
8:08 pm MST, Thu., Nov. 6, 2008

... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MST THIS EVENING... ... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM MST FRIDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RAPID CITY HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR BLOWING SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM MST FRIDAY. A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MST THIS EVENING.

NORTHWEST WINDS AVERAGING 25 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH WILL SLOWLY SUBSIDE TONIGHT. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS THIS EVENING WILL GIVE WAY TO AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW... REDUCING VISIBILITIES. LITTLE TO NO NEW SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED.

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS AN EXTREME WINTER STORM WITH SNOW... BLOWING SNOW... STRONG WINDS... AND DANGEROUS WHITEOUT CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING.

So, my Whitman clan is celebrating christmas this weekend in SoDak. Mom, Chuck and I were supposed to leave at 8 am tomorrow morning. A slight wrench has been thrown into the works in the form of a FUCKING BLIZZARD that has closed I-90 from Mitchell into Wyoming.

My grandpa is an expert at weather and roads. His credentials: truck driver, avid weather channel watcher. My grandpa's theory is that given the direction the storm is heading in and the way the winds are blowing it should be clear enough for us to head out around 10 am tomorrow.

As Melanie said, my family will be having a white christmas this year.

SERIOUSLY,

VOTE A BUNCH.

Actually, vote just the once.

I guess we should stick to the rules.

I will probably bloggitybloggityblog this evening when I get home from class around 8:30 and can finally devote myself to ravenously watching and reading everything about any results. Hopefully it will be joyous blogging. FINGERS CROSSED.

ZOMBIE

I'm back and not necessarily better than ever but certainly not worse.

YO!!! I finally uploaded the several bajillion photos sitting patiently in my camera waiting for the arrival of my new macbook. So, here goes:

Something exciting: Tomorrow is Halloweeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend I will post photos of Melanie & Cherish's pumpkins as well as mine if I get around to carving it. I'm going to be a bloody mess of a zombie tomorrow and I'm baking cookies. I will post photos of both my undead self and my undead baking as well.

DRESS UP tomorrow! It's super fun and you totally want to even if you won't admit it.

WARNING: This might be lame.

Right now I am blogging about a dream I had last night. This is probably going to bore you but I have been thinking about this dream all day long and I must blog it before I forget it! There is no other choice!

Let me set the stage:

A commune on an island a ferry ride away from the mainland of a coastal state (I am skeptical that this island is actually in existance).

A large tract of land housing vegetable gardens, chicken coops, wildflower fields, wheat fields, fruit trees, berry bushes, and a small brewery.

Built into a large hillside is a three story home. Inside this home are lots of fantastic mid century modern pieces of furniture, heavy oak kitchen tables and counters, lots of vintage stylings and approximately 12 bedrooms decorated to the taste of the inhabitant.

To be sure, there are additional buildings however the only one my brain can seem to

remember is the stylish but cozy home where we drank our tasty smoothies and housed our library.

For breakfast there are delicious smoothies and scrambled eggs.

For lunch there are sandwiches with freshly baked bread surrounding just-out-of-the-garden vegetables.

For dinner there are courses of fresh salads, home-made pastas, vegetable stir-fries, and rustic fruit desserts.

There are windmills and solar panels providing all the energy needed to commune.

In this commune are several dozen people all living together, drinking smoothies together, reading classics together, growing shit together and generally being all cooperative. Not only are they being all cooperative they are also having lively and enjoyable conversations. These

people who are having interesting conversations while hanging out by the chicken coop drinking home-brewed beer are, for the most part, people I know in my real non-dream life.

SERIOUSLY.

We are all hanging out in a commune, picking wildflowers and drinking tasty beer. We are having exciting conversations, reading books, making fucking tasty smoothies, and sitting in attractive furnishings.

WHAT THE FUCK.

When I explained this dream to Melanie and Cherish Melanie reminded me of a previous commune dream I had with people I know in my non-dream realm. However, there are a couple of key differences between these commune dreams:

1. In my most recent commune dream there was no spaghetti throwing by catty bitches.

2. In my most recent commune dream we were all way more stylish.

3. In my most recent commune dream we lived in nice bedrooms with decent furniture and cool lamps, not dorm-ish style rooms with institutional cinder block walls and ugly composite board desks.

4. In my most recent commune dream we had a fucking brewery!!!

I'll be honest, this commune was actually pretty sweet. We were all friends who did nice things for one another and said nice things to each other. Everything ran as smoothly as you could hope, we all shared the responsibility as well as the spoils. We had a motherfucking brewery, yo!

I have no problem with fresh fruits and vegetables, tasty beer and attractive furnishings. I don't have any plans in the works filed under 'Communes I'm thinking about joining" but something could have been misfiled, I guess.

Oh man, I bet the skies are always blue in our beer filled commune world.

I'm Back! (And Better Than EVER)

What you see here are words that have been typed on my brand spanking new macbook. I am pretty sure the words are shinier, right?

Anways, after being the lamest blogger in history for the last several months I will now be turning it all around! So, be prepared for really, really, ridiculously fucking huge and massive awesomeness to come, okay?

Here is a taste:

(Taken with photo booth, a brand new to me feature!)

The cover of my graphic novel:

The best part is that I am totally looking at the title. It's not really there, because this graphic novel doesn't exist, but if it did? Oh man. Totally the cover.

And what every other person ever who has photo booth probably did immediately:

I know, I know, I'm sorry but how could I not?!

Anyways, these are boring because they are just me in front of an institutional wall. There will be way more exciting photos to come as soon as I upload the bajillion photos I have on my camera right now. That will be better.

Peace out dudes!

Broke Down Computer.

My laptop has cracked up. So, for the time being, I am using Melanie's and/or library computers at school. What this means is that I won't be uploading pictures for the time being making it much harder to be a wicked awesome blogger.

Dark days are ahead.

Prez.

So, who else is watching the debate right now?
(Probably, hopefully, a lot of you.)

1. John McCain is older than dust.
2. His smugness is driving me crazy.
3. Obama's voice is very soothing, making me a little less angry about Raisin McCain's bitch face. Thank goodness.
4. I should start keeping a Reagan Reference tally. Geez.
5. McCain isn't flexible, he can't even lift his arms! Cherish refuses to vote for someone who can't raise their arms. I think this is fair.

Living in a collage.

My first order of business is a matter of clarification: Cookie Tuesday is dead and buried but this blog is not! I like to listen to myself talk (read myself write?) way too much to let that happen. My ego needs the sweet caress a blog brings.

My second order of business is a matter of excitement!: I finally started hanging things up in my room and it is awesome! I feel like I live inside of my collage. I also have cleared out nearly all of the bins and boxes taking up 1/3 of my bedroom space. This too is exciting but not nearly as exciting as finally having my little Clint Eastwood photo that I rescued from Goodwill for 99 cents up on the wall along with my Night of the Living Dead poster and the old records my brother and I painted. Now prepare yourself for way too many pictures of my room:

Ugh. These photos are fucking grainy. It was at night, right around 9:15 according to the eight million clocks featured in a number of these photos, and my overhead light is obviously sub-par. My camera really isn't this shitty, honest! But my walls really are green, honest!

It should be known that I like clocks far too much. A result of that love is the accumulation of at least 8 clocks. It's not so bad spread out in this new place but in my last little studio? My apartment ticked. Oh! This is also the only photo I have of my new curtains, and it is only sort of a photo of my curtains. But they are awesome. My moms sewed them for me. The top of this one looks weird because I have it folded up above my AC unit, normally it looks even more awesome than this. And, obviously, my room would include a little Johnny Cash. OBVIOUSLY.

Did I mention that I have slopey walls on two sides of my room? This proved to be a bit of a decorating challenge but I feel like I triumphed. On this side at least. The other side is above my bed so my plan is to hang up a nice fabric panel. (P.S. Check the X Files poster! I am proud of that cheap ebay find for sure.)

This is one of my favorite clocks! Oh, I do love clocks. Also, my first license plate. That fish hanging on the hook will probably not stay there, that would be too ridiculous, but for now he has a home there.

A little dresser view. Another one of my favorite clocks, a mini tray from a certain Cape Cod road trip and in the cubby below the mirror you can see my most ridiculous necklace featuring a cow behind a half-door. This half-door actually flips open to reveal a farmer milking said cow. It was my grandpa's.A small sub-section of my hat collection, these are some of the more practical hats. Also some of Melanie's artwork!!!! (Upper right).


My third order of business is a matter of excitement as well, although a little bit lamer than the last: I got a job!!! This is indeed a good thing. I was nearly to the point of putting on that red light. It's 3 blocks away which is also a good thing. And I will have a source of income which is sincerely a GOOD THING. I have very few skills so I lucked out pretty seriously.

My fourth order of business is, naturally, a matter of excitement!: I am making a few cookies today for some very special people at my former place of employment. Prepare accordingly.

My fifth and final order of business is simply this: