Life is Short in Retrospect...

It's been a while...

2005-12-25T09:43:06Z

I've been so incredibly busy these past few months, but now that I'm on break, I get to update this neglected journal of mine. I must be up this late because I'm used to it at this point. Digipen is hard on the body, and often the soul. I never get a chance to go out and do/see anything/one. I was just so busy with schoolwork all the time. But I made it! 3.3GPA so far, which is great for DigiPen standards. Made a lot of good friends there, we're like a family now. It's really been a lot of fun. Late nights at Denny's and Mike's getting sketchbooks done. So much fun, so time consuming. This next semester, I have less class time and more homwork. I think that if I'm really diligent in getting sketchbook and the such done, I may actually have some free time to get out into seattle and do stuff. That would be great to be able to do. I'm pissed because I've been there for 5 months, and haven't even gotten a chance to really go and explore seattle. I wish I had a car so much, or that I had like a week of my vacation time there in Washington so I could go do stuff. perhaps I'll convince them to give me some time in the summer to organize myself and give me a chance to see the sights. School went well for the first semester overall. I'm ready for some good rest, and we'll see how the next semester goes.

And so life goes on...

2005-10-09T08:45:40Z

Yes, it's been over a month and a half since I've updated my livejournal. Get ready. this could get REALLY long.

Well, we left El Paso. I don't even remember what day it was. 3 day car trip ensued. It was pretty nice, and I didn't feel like it was such a big deal to travel for that long. We saw some stuff on the way, and overall I had a pretty good time with my parents. Anyway, we got to Bellevue Washington. Much shopping and whatnot ensued. I met my room mates, and we got everything settled in. This altogether took almost 3 or 4 days. I can't remember now, but it was a lot of shopping. So anyway. Now all settled in, I went to DigiPen Orientation. It was great. So much fun. There were lots of games and activites, and everyone I met was very friendly, and we all were talkative. Anyway, my parents left, a semi-tearful goodbye, but I truly felt independant at that moment. I was now in charge of my own life, and it feels really good. My room mates are pretty cool. However, them putting that they were "clean" on the roommate database was total shit. They're pretty messy people, and they're not very proactive as far as cleaning things up after themselves, or turning off lights, etc. We get along pretty well otherwise though, we're all laid back, and no one really has any personality conflicts with the other. One of my roommates is in the same program as I am at Digipen. I don't know how well he's going to do or if he's going to make it. He seems to be trying hard sometimes, and not trying at all other times. He hadn't done any of his summer sketchbook before he got here, but he suddenly felt the heat when he got here and I'd done 85 and some pages in mine. He had a lot to do. We both spent the good part of our Labor Day weekend doing our sketchbooks. He still hasn't finished his summer sketchbook, and I don't know if it's going to be the reason he fails ART101 or not. But it's not really my concern. I'm not his guardian or anything, so he can pass or fail if he want's. Doesn't bother me any. Digipen is a tough school. A 'C' grade level here is above and beyond an 'A' at any other university, and especially highschool. You have to dedicate your life to digipen, and work your ass off to get a C on just about anything that involves drawing. The Gen Ed classes are a little easier to get stuff done without extreme effort. I have to do 50 pages of sketchbook every week for my ART101 class. I also have to study for tests in that class, which should be a class in itself there's so much information to memorize. Then I have a 15 page Biology sketchbook due every 2 weeks. I've also got Animation class. Animations so far have varied in length of time necessary to complete them. The first one was an inbetween test. We were to draw every other frame in a mickey mouse animation. The total thing was less than a second and a half of animation, and it took me over 20 hours of work to complete it. It was due in two weeks. All our animations are due every two weeks. Currently I'm working on a flour sack animation, and I've no idea how much time I've spent on it, but it's got to be more than 20 hours at this point. It's going to be due pretty soon. Then, I've got Art History, English and Film classes, all complete with copious notes, and reading. It literally absorves almost every waking hour for me to do my work at digipen on time. I have almost no time to do anything but study or draw. However, I've found some time every day to do a few things that aren't required of me. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE the work I'm doing at Digipen. It's amazing, it's awesome, and there's nothing else in the world I'd rather be doing. I love it so much. I"m very excited to see how my life is going to be working in the industry after school. I've met a lot of people here. We're all like a big happy family. It's so great to be among my "tribe" as my art 101 teacher put it. I'm surrounded by other artists, and I see so much potential in all of them. We're all constantly competing, critique-ing and overall helping eachother with all our projects. It's almost like "us versus them" when it comes to projects. We all trade tips and try to help eachother get good grades, while still trying to get the edge for our own work so it will stand out among all the others. The dedication necessary has been too much for some people though. Some kids have already dropped out in the first month. Sadly, they were girls. I see a few others who seem to be on the verge of cracking. One who I thought was, suddenly has swung back and he's really in the game now. I'm excited to see where we'll all go, and how much better we're all getting. What else is awesome? Well, many of these people share the same tastes as me and we all have SO much in common. It's just so much fun to be with a group of people who all understand eachother, and can get the same jokes, and have similar experiences. We can all assosciate and relate with eachother which makes for a great working environment. I wonder when the first big thing will happen as it's bound to some time or another. Someone's going to get mad, or start something and then there'll be a split into factions of some sort. "Who's on Who's side?" I always hate it when that happens, but it's great that we've all been around eachother long enough to have it not happen yet. It's been nearly a month and a half. I started riding my bike to ease some of the tension though. I was getting somewhat stressed out at first. I had no idea what kind of time commitment was necessary to finish projects on time, and to get things done to a good level of quality. It's just been an incredible amount of work. So anyway, to ease the tension I would ride my bike for an hour or so around town. It's such a beautiful place, and riding my bike or being outside at anytime is actually ENJOYABLE!! Wow, I never thought I'd say that going outside was actually enjoyable. The climate in el paso would not permit anything of that nature. But I had a lot of fun riding around, and I'm sad that I've not ventured out in a week or two to just ride around for the hell of it. 18 miles just passed by without too much consideration to even water. It was great. I've also gone to seattle a few times now. I went to a capture the flag game at the University of Washington in Seattle. That was a lot of fun. Probably a good 400 people running around the empty campus in the dark. It was a lot of fun. I also went to the seattle library, and the Frye Art museum which was fun. I've also been to the Pink Floyd laser light show. My art History class sorta forces us to go see things that are "cultural" in seattle, so that's the main reason I've been going there. It's been a lot of fun though, and it's given me a good opportunity to go hang out with my new friends there. I have been keeping in good contact with a lot of my friends from Las cruces, and also my family in El Paso. I get to talk to them several times a week, and I'm almost always IMing someone (when I can) from Las Cruces or El Paso. It's good to keep in contact with those people, even though we're all so goddamn busy all the time. I'm almost never home during waking hours of other people. It's often hard to get a hold of me on the phone. Anyway, I really need to start wrapping this up. I've gained a horrible sense of time thanks to all this work and wierd hours of sleeping when I can and working when I'm not asleep. I've found it very hard for me to keep track of time as well as days or dates. I wouldn't even know it was October or that it was the 9th was it not for the little date timer on the side of the computer screen. Also, life here is pretty damn expensive. I probably would have been starving had I found it necessary to stick to the budget I had from the money I'd saved from KFC. My parents have been incredibly gracious giving me the necessary fund to make it at Digipen without having to worry about money. I think that may be what's getting to one of the kids who's on the edge. Well, I bet this all hasn't been very exciting for anyone to read, but it's been a great time here at Digipen so far and I look forward to seeing what the next 10 weeks are going to bring before the end of the sememster. I REALLY need to update this thing a lot more because I've probably left out an incredible amount of information, but I always try to make up for it with mondo volumetric posts. :D

Drew out!

Leavin...

2005-08-27T01:09:39Z

Well, I leave for Washington tomorrow morning.
It's gonna be awesome! It's a long trip and such.
It may be a few weeks before I have internet again
and I hope I can survive. :D
Until then!

Leaving soon...

2005-08-23T04:26:50Z

Wrapping up my life here in El Paso. I leave this saturday for my new life in Bellevue Washington.

One of my room mates has already moved into the apartment.

I'm very much anticipating the trip, and being there, and finally getting to start classes. It's going to be so wierd different and wonderful. I already know it. :D

But one thing will never change, I OWN when it comes to the english language! :D

English Genius
You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 100% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 38% on Beginner

You scored higher than 61% on Intermediate

You scored higher than 57% on Advanced

You scored higher than 97% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

That is all... For now

Wierd....

2005-08-15T18:04:10Z

Today was really wierd. Absolutely NO ONE on my buddylist was online... now that's just strange for me. But I guess that's what you get when everyone else is either working or in school. But still. It's just wierd...

I found this interesting... it's so true... I need to get out more...

More Scientific

You have:
70% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
55% EMOTIONAL INTUITION</b>

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored about average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition.Keep in mind that very few people score high on both! In effect, you can compare your two intuition scores with each other to learn what kind of intuition you're best at. Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.

Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Scientific

You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

A Huge update as to the goings on of my daily life for the last 2 months...

2005-08-14T06:08:23Z

Ah well, it's been an incredibly long time since I've updated this thing. I needed to go back and read my last entry to see where I was at. This is gonna be incredibly long since I'm just gonna keep typing until I'm done. I don't know when that'll be...

Okay. College starts September 2nd. I'm going to be leaving there sometime around the 25th. I've been keeping in touch with my roommates, and they both seem pretty cool. I've had more of an opportunity to speak with Wesley, since he's online a lot more than Alex. Alex seems ok, but I don't think I'm really gonna know him well for a while. He seems a little less social. I'm glad that at this point we're not having any disputes, so that's a good sign at this point. I'm really excited for college to start. I'm so incredibly glad that I won't have to but up with all the beurocratical (is that a word?) bullshit of highschool. Policys started by government agencys are completely TeH SuxXorZ. I've been looking at pictures of the campus, and reading livejournals, participating in the message boards, and overall trying to get a feel for the place and the people. My impression so far is that everyone there seems really cool. Everyone shares a lot of the same interests (my interests as well), so I'm going to be among my bretheren. However, there's a severe lackage of females at this school, so I'm going to have to get outside of class every once in a while to meet girls. :D I'll just use artist pickup lines. "Oh wow, you're so pretty, do you think I could draw you really quick?" oh yeah! score!... :p The whole area there is really beautiful, and my apartment is absolutely beautiful. (from what I've seen online) There's waterways and lakes (OMFG WATER!!!) and bushes and trees and grass everywhere. It's just green. Huge contrast to this fucking desert I live in right now. The weather there is also really nice. Not really above 80 degrees on average. But not too cold either since it's near the ocean. I think I may actually become an outdoors person. Just would love to go jogging and walking, hiking, snowboarding, surfing. Going to the lake. It's gonna be awesome. The only problem is that I'll be pretty busy with school all the time. My parents are paying for a lot of stuff though. I'm really grateful to them. I saved all my money (mostly) from working at KFC so I'll have almost $2k to use for the next 8 months. I figured it would be around $70 a week to spend on groceries and soap and whatnot. Not too bad since I won't have to pay for my lunches. My parents got me School lunches. I'll definately be piggin' out there. I'm really ready to get started with school. There's so many techniques and so much practice that I have and want to do. I want to take a HUGE leap in my art this year. Just so that I look back and go "Damn I sucked back then!" I know right now that I suck. I'm always looking up at other people's art. I fell like it's important at this stage to sorta ignore all the people around me going "oh wow that's really good." I think I'll have less ego boosting around me when I'm surrounded by my peers. I'm looking forward to the competition. Competition breeds improvement whenever you're trying to out-do everyone around you and out-do yourself. So I really want to improve a lot. I've been drawing all summer and I've already seen a lot of improvement in my ability to draw things from direct observation. It's really encouraging to see the progression even though it's not a huge amount. I can notice the differences.

With the coming of school, the next step is to say goodbye to my old life. Living with and under my parents. I've been so incredibly blessed. They've just given me so much and are still giving me a LOT. I'm so incredibly grateful to my parents and everything that they've done for me. I think they did a pretty damn good job of raising me, and I feel like I'm ready for life. Ready to leave the nest. Ready to start living for me, my own life. It doesn't feel too different right now, but I'm sure with time I'll look back and see the actuality of how HUGE the difference is. All in all I'm ready. I'm ready to go and press on, but this means saying good bye to a lot of good people in my life. My parents. I won't be seeing them for over 4 months. It's going to be really wierd to be on my own and having to decide for myself what I need to do. I've had some practice, which has helped me mature a lot, but it's still gonna be a change when I have it ALL to myself. My time will literally be MY time. Heheh, it's just so wierd I have to keep saying it to myself. My life is going to be owned by school now. Then my job will be owned by work, then it will be owned by my wife and kids, and finally when I'm retired, I'll have all the damn time I want. I kinda like being busy all the time. There have been some days where I didn't have to work and I was just kinda.. meh *plays videogames* I felt kinda like I should be doing something but there was really nothing that i had to be doing. I fell like it's going to be a while before I have any time to feel like that agian. I think that my parents are starting to see me as an adult now though. I'm starting to see them as more important than I've ever seen them before. I can go to them and talk about stuff I never would have dared to say to them before, and I'll be damned, they actually have some good advice. I guess they have less good advice for little kids with nothing they need advice for. Now that I'm going through what they've been going through for 20+ years, they've got some good advice for me. It makes me feel so much older. I always thought that college would take me farther from my parents, but I feel closer to them now than I think I ever have. I'm still ready to go. I'm glad, I'm ready, and I feel like I know where I am and my roots. I'm grounded and I'm not going to let anyone but ME change me. Fuck everyone else. It's my fucking life. MINE!! It's just so awesome to say that. As weird as it may sound.

MAN this CD is bringing back a LOT of memories. I got it Freshman year of highschool. When I met my best friends in the whole world. I have found no one else who will replace my friend Greg. Me and him went through a lot together. Through our first steps of growing up. It's incredible how attached we've still been even though I moved away right in the middle of high school. We still see eachother 2 times a month, and that's really great for me and I think for him too. We both have a hand in forming eachother's personality. :p But he's just been an awesome friend, and someone I can just talk to and have fun with. Him and Daniel have been great friends, and I hope SO much that we'll be able to keep in touch and not lose such a great thing. I would be so torn if I lost them. Greg was talking about moving up to Washington. I really hope he finds what it is he truly wants to do with his life. He bounces around so much, but I think eventually he'll find his true passion and will be able to apply it to his life and career and not have it as just a hobby. Him and Dan are both talking about joining the Airforce. I'm really glad for them. I think it will do them a lot of good to be in the airforce for a while. As greg but it "I'm just too damn rebellious and I need some Discipline." Good for you man. That just shows me how much we've grown up and how we're ready to take responsibility for ourselves and our lives. Man, I love you guys. Keep in touch. I'm also going to really miss my sister. We've been through absolutely EVERYTHING together. We're closer than any siblings I've ever seen anywhere else. I hope she too finds what it is that she truly wants in life. At least she's got a direction right now. I just want to reflect and thank all the teachers who really made a difference in my life. Mr. Hadden. He was my favorite teacher from Onate. He taught me that it was ok to be a Republican in a liberal world. :p I learned so much about life and how everything is bullshit hidden behind a silk curtain. Though I've come away more cynical, I'd like to think that I've become more observant and careful. I'm not going to let anyone screw me. Mr. Keen. A lot of the things about Mr. hadden were rehashed in my experience with Mr. Keen. He's not afraid to be himself and I really appreciated that in him. He is a great guy and I hope he gets out of the hell hole he's in. It's just going to tear him up in the long run. Stay young and don't run out of Juice man! Mrs. Lyons-Cohen. I learned a great deal about art and about doing what I love from her. She just continued to inspire my ever growing love for art and fueled my ambition to go into the field. We can do what we love for a living, and she's a living example of it. You've inspired me so much! A lot of non-teachers that have also inspired my development. My parents have been my greatest teachers. I've learned a lot from them. Also John. He doesn't give a SHIT about what ANYONE thinks of him. That in itself has just inspired me so much. I really want to apply that to my life. The only one who I should care what they think of me is my wife. I learned a LOT from the synagogue and many of the people there. I learned a LOT of things that I don't want to do in my life too. Just see other's experiences and mistakes. There's so much that I can apply to my life as well. I feel like I'm ready to tackle my life now. I've got a damn good backing in my opinion, and I just hope to keep building on it. I know that all these people are here for me, and I really appreciate everything they've done for me. There are so many others too. Just so many people. Thank you All!

About the Synagogue. I've had to go back through my experience with that. There are alot of things that I was told to apply to my life that I've gone back and seen that they were total BS. I'm very glad that the Rabbi has been kicked out. He is no longer our Rabbi, and that's a huge relief. There's a lot that I learned from him. I've applied a LOT of things to my life that have made me a WAY better person. But there's some hard lessons that I and my family has learned through the experience of the last 4 years. When I look back 4 years ago and see where I am now I'm SO glad that we've experienced everything that we have. Now I'm just slowly letting the anger subside from all the Bullshit that came along with it. I'm very glad for EVERYONE involved that he's gone. I was already starting to get pretty detached from it, because I was getting ready to leave. Anyway, I'm not mad at anything except him. I'm still going to persue God via Messianic Judaism. Gonna try and find a synagogue when I move.

All I've been doing this summer seems to be Drawing, playing videogames, and hanging out with my friends. The whole working at KFC was overall a good experience. I made a lot of friends, and working for the general public really gives you a lot of respect for people who do it as a career. It also shows you that the general public is a bunch of impatient, self centered, whiny Assholes! But aren't we all? :p I'd like to work there again next summer, but I don't know if the money is going to cut it. I'll try to find another job next summer, then see if I wan to go back to KFC or not. It can get pretty tedious when you work long hours there. I've also put on a few pounds thanks the the Colonel's Secret Recipe. ;D Speaking of me, my acne is finally starting to go away. It's really not too bad anymore, and I'm really happy about that. I'm also going to start trying to grow a bit of a goatee. We'll see how that goes. Speaking of work, I dropped the project that I had gotten. It was just too much work to be doing my sketchbook for Digipen, and Working at KFC 25+ hours a week, and my weekends always being shot. It was just too much for me to handle, so I just dropped off. I got about 65 bucks out of it (I put in about 10 hours of work for him). I thought that the project was going to be much less than it actually was, and I wasn't as commited to something as huge as what he had wanted me to undertake. Also in my opinion the money didn't make it worth it. I shoulda been getting like 10 dollars an hour to do that crap. It was so tedious. It just physically drained me. So with all the free time I'd gotten, I got a chance to play some videogames. Battlefield 2 is AWESOME! The best FPS I've ever played. The teamwork (when you can in fact get people to co operate) is so much fun, and adds a whole new level of experience to the gameplay. If only everyone had headsets and actually used them. The other game I've been wasting time on is Ragnarok Online. I really never liked MMOs but this game isn't half bad, it's definately more fun when you're playing with people you actually know. Plus I'm playing on a free server, so I don't have the nagging feeling of wasting money. :D

Well, that's basically all that's been going on in my life for now. Just have two more weeks of getting ready and saying goodbye to everyone. I need to finish my sketchbook, but that shouldn't be too bad since I'll be out of work and just about every other obligation that I'll have to spend time on. This post took nearly two hours to write, but it's long overdue. The next one may be from washington or not. I donno yet. :D I'm going to try to update more often so that I don't have to vent on such an epic scale. :D

Until next time!
Finished at 12:08AM

Stuff Continues...

2005-06-15T00:58:06Z

I really like playing the piano. It's so relaxing. I just keep improving too. It's very encouraging. I've been playing at least an hour a day every day. I burned myself again working. I'm going to have all these burn marks on my arms by the time I'm done working this summer. :p Still, as I will be for the rest of the summer, only increasingly excited about getting to go to DigiPen this fall. I'm starting to make friends with some DP peeps, and also other Freshman BFAs like myself. I've been working on the sketchbook, and have been having lots of fun with the exercises. I just need to get myself a little less distracted, and I know I'll be able to finish by the end of summer. I've also been working a lot on a freelance project my art teacher got for me. I need to work on that more though... I think the guy might be getting kind of impatient.
I've been wanting to start a webcomic, but I just need the inspiration to really go for it. I'm going to enlist my friend as a co-writer/webmaster. Maybe it will be famous one day, but more than likely not. :p I have trouble with continuity in any of my art projects. Something I'm definitely going to have to work on in the future.
Well, I've been listening to the chrono trigger sound track and I'm having like, major flash backs to my childhood. I was also reading about calvin and hobbes on wikipedia. Another huge childhood nostalgia-fest for me. Calvin and Hobbes is what inspired me to make comics back when I was in 6th grade, and became the eventual spiral that brings me to where I am today as an artist. Bah, so many memories. *sniff*.
Back to drawing!

Life goes on...

2005-06-09T22:34:30Z

Yes, though I haven't updated in a long time, my life still continues. I graduated High school!! There are not words to express the joy that was present during my graduation. It's FINALLY OVER!! woot! Anyway, they had this party afterwards called Project Graduation. That was absolutely awesome. Free food, drinks, bowling, gambling, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff to do. My favorite being the Velcro wall. I also really enjoyed the Blackjack. I "bought" a set of luggage from the prize store since I had greatly increased my play money at the blackjack table. Anyway, had a good time with some of my friends there. So! Highschool is over! yay! onward to College! I'm all set up to go to college. I've got room mates, I've got an apartment, I've got the funding at least for the first year so far. I just need to try and get some scholarships if I can. I've been working around 12-15 hours a week. It seems like they give me a busy week and then a less busy week alternating eachother. But, work is going pretty good, and I've actually accumulated a good bit of fundage from both the work and the generosity of the people who recieved my graduation announcements.
I'm getting geared up for college. I have a summer assignment. A 100 page (front and back, so it's really 200) sketchbook due at the beginning of school. Each page must have a minimum of four sketches on it. So it comes out to like 800 sketches at least. I'm going to count them and make sure that's how many I have at the end of the summer. Anyway, I've been improving quite a bit. The book that we're working with is really cool, and it helps to verbalize and explain many of the nuances that I was sorta subconsciously doing or trying to do with my drawing as an artist. So now I know exactly what I was trying to do before, and can pinpoint and make sure that I do it completely. So I've finished about 6 pages (48 sketches). And I've read nearly half the book that we're using. (138/252). However, My parents as well as work and sketchbook and freelance project, have kept me busy too. I've been running errands all over the damn city.
Speaking of which, work is in 15 minutes... I need to get ready and stuff.
So that's basically all I've been doing. Drawing and running errands/working. Oh, and not to forget playing the hell out of the piano for at least an hour a day. :D

This was way too much fun!

2005-05-12T04:38:53Z

The Chronicles of the Ninja:

The Keys to My Heart.

2005-05-11T04:19:49Z

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to obedience and warmth.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it.

In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Wow, wierd. this thing is pretty damn accurate.

Take two...

2005-05-02T21:01:50Z

Alright I've returned. Let's try this again then shall we?

I'm getting really excited about going to Digipen. It just seems so kewl. Been searching online for lots of pictures and stuff, since the DP website is severely lacking content other than text and info. The site is really serious, to discourage people who just want to go there for the hell of it from applying. I've been filling out lots of scholarship forms and other junk. We've gotten the financial aid and govt. loans and whatnot. I just need to sign up for my classes, and find some roomies. It's gonna be so friggin expensive, but I think it will be worth it. I would have even taken all of the loans upon myself, but my parents are helping, that's so wonderful of them. :D I've been working really hard, and I'm hoping that once school's out I can get some more hours at KFC. The job is actually starting to get somewhat hard now, because I'm no longer "the new trainee" and I don't have everyone showing me how to do everything. I'm starting to do it myself. I went in on sunday, man it was non stop work from the time I got in to the time I left. I made at least 150 large mashed potatoes, and like 10 gallons of gravy. I also made like 12 racks of biscuits and 6 pans of macaroni. It was lots. I burned one of the trays of biscuits, so I felt kinda stupid about that. I'm learning though, and the taskis are starting to become easier, and I'm able to work faster now. I just need to work on working cleaner. I always make a huge mess when I make any of the side dishes, so I'm constantly having to wipe up my workstation. I also burned myself a few times on the racks in the oven. :D I've got some battle scars now. It's still lots of fun though. My feet just hurt after standing for 5 hours at a time and running around. But if I ever get hot I can hang out in the walk in freezer for like 15 seconds. ;p
Well, Highschool is the same ol' same ol' so there's nothing new there. Can't wait to get it over with and be on summer vacation. It's going to be awesome. All this graduation stuff seems kind of meaningless to me. Highschool's not that hard to finish. But I guess it means a lot more to the parents and those people than it does to the kids. College Graduation will be the true accomlishment. I'll have a degree! woot! And that's about it for now

Conclusion: Work is getting progressively harder, but it's still fun, and I'm making some friends with the people there. Excited about DP and can't wait to get up there to WA. Highschool is almost over, and then I'm done with it forever!! >:D And that's about it! Till next time.

FUCK YOU APPLE!!

2005-04-29T19:51:09Z

GOD DAMMIT!
I had another one of my mondo-massive posts and I was almost done. and then I acidentally tapped the keyboard with the back of my hand, and I hit escape. And this fucking mac went and erased the entire post. God damn out dated shit. anyway I'm thoroughly pissed, so I'm going to try and type the whole thing up again when I feel better.

Ahhh Yeahhh....

2005-04-13T20:16:19Z

Well, this update is somewhat late in coming. I have been accepted to the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redomond Washington. It's about 15 -20 miles east of Seattle. I'm really excited to be going there! :D It's going to be so awesome. Lots of work, but really awesome. I'm going to miss El Paso though, well... not really el paso; just the people that I know here. But I'm very excited to be going to art school. So now I must suffer through 5 and 1/2 more weeks of highschool. I'm definately ready for it to be over. There is no doubt that I'm going to graduate, and if I keep my current averages I'll be exempt from all my finals except Calculus (I'm glad to be passing that damn class...). The job situation is great. I'm all set up and ready to go. I'm just waiting for my uniform to come in. I'm also feverishly searching for scholarship money. we need to drop $2.5k on Digipen by April 20th. >,< So, it's a lot of monnay. I'm really excited to be going though. August 29th is the first day for incoming freshman.

Things lookin' up....

2005-04-05T03:50:26Z

Indeed they are!

I went to school and it was pretty good, pretty lax, overall a good day.
I came home and took my portfolio for Digipen to the post office and shipped that mutha off. They should get it by thursday or friday at the latest. I hope to hear from them either at the end of this week or early next week. So I came back from the post office. (Barely made it there before 4pm too. That's when they close apparently) [rant mode:] Why the hell does the post office close so damn early. Anyone with a job can't even GO there and get ANYTHING done!! and they're closed on sundays. It's like a single person who works only has one shot at getting to the post office. Either ducking from work early, or trying to squeeze it in right before work (they open at 8 I think) or coming on saturday. (they're open from like 10 to 12) it's so crappy. I hate government agencies! ( you too DMV!! damn 5 minute wait my ass!! I was there for an hour!) anyway, it's all lies and inconvenience![end rant mode:]

So I come home, and I play the piano for an hour or so. I'm getting good enough to play the Final Fantasy 7 Prelude. I can play the first page, but it takes me a long ass time. Anyway, I cut the time significantly, so that was cool. Anyway, I make dinner (pizza, my fav!) and then I settle in for a well deserved night of gaming (no homework) I'm playing Katamari damacy and having the time of my life. It's an awesome level where you have to roll a ball 300m in diameter. I get it up to 750m and I'm rolling up clouds and Japanese gods, and airplanes and islands. It rocked so hard. Then at like 8pm I get a call from KFC. Well, those interviews have paid off, because now I've got the job!! *does a dance* so now I have orientation tomorrow, and then I can start the job! It rocks so much. I just realized that it could be like the rest of my life... (wierd, working at KFC all day everyday. that would be my life... how tedious) anyway, I have bigger goals. So now I'm a proud employee of KFC. So that was also awesome! and then to top off the whole day, they play a Dream Theater (my favorite band if you haven't guessed by now...) song on the radio! they NEVER play them on the radio, they're not famous enough, and don't have any singles except for one song (which is what they played). So I jammed out to that. It was sweet.

All in all, I've been blessed lately. So many good things happening at once. My future is starting to fall into place. It's a good feeling. Now I just have to draw something. I want to start a public sketchbook to encourage me to draw as often as I can so that I can be in top condition by the time I get to art school.

zee update (thanks to spring break!)...

2005-03-24T05:33:16Z

Well, I seem to have been putting off updating this thing for some time. (read: a long ass time) So I finally have a spare half hour (it takes that long) to actually write another bigass update! yay!
School: Yes, well I've been going to it every day like I should, so um... that's a plus? I'm doing fine in all my classes (exceptional in chemsitry! A! woo!!) except GOD....DAMN....CALCULUS!! *kills self* So, I will spare you the bitching and just say... It sucks. Otherwise, school is school. Tech is as awesome as usual, and other classes are just there.
College: Yeah, REALLY excited about Digipen too! If I don't get in I'll be crushed. It just has an awesome class lineup like ringling, and I've seen some good stuff from people's personal portfolios. Can't say the same for the site. It's all old, and they REALLY need to update it. I've been applying for more scholarships, and I got into "Who's Who among American High School Students" so that's more scholarship opportunities. I've been drawing for the portfolio. All I need to hand in is that, and a letter of Recommendation from the Rabbi (he's an accomplished artist too! awesome!). So I've just been putting it all together. I want to mail it all off by the end of spring break. Good GAWD I want to get in so bad! ennyway...
Music(ness[age]): I've been listening a lot to the "Blindfolded Pianist" now "The Videogame Pianist" and it inspired me to suddenly learn to play the piano (again). I hadn't played since like I was 10. I didn't remember ANYTHING except where middle C was and the Acronyms for finding which notes correspond to which keys. Anyway, I've been practicing a lot, and have actually surprised myself with the results. I'm almost as good as I was at 10 (after like 5 years of practice!!). Compare that to a week! Anyway, my goal is to be able to play the FF7 theme. It's really hard because of all the chords and such. I haven't dropped my guitar completely, but I haven't played it much lately. I've memorized all of Mood for a Day, but I can't play it as good as the CD. It's kind of a pitiful version. ;] So, anyway, lots of pianism.
Spring Break: Been doing the job hunt thing with renewed fervor! Went all up and down Mesa street and got apps from all over the place. Then I filled 'em all out and turned them all in today. There were several that seemed quite promising. Anyway, I've also been drawing for the portfolio. I need to do a few more pieces, but I can have it all done by the end of this week. Been really busy hanging out with friends too. I went to Las Cruces on monday night, and Stayed there till tues. afternoon. Had an absolute blast with the peeples there, and hung out with some people I hadn't seen in a while. We played this game called Kuon (I think...) really kewl. Another survival horror. Very Fatal Frame-esque. Read Bash.org to everyone. (such hilarious quotes!) and bought Katamari Damacy! (I was looking for SH1 and 3 but didn't find anything.) I'm also waiting for Fatal Frame2 and Front Mission4 to hit the bargain bin. Anyway, Katamari Damacy is friggin awesome! definately a party game. Sort-of. Kind of a "here you play this level" thing. Really unique game. Tuesday did the whole job thing, and then today did it again. I also did a lot of reading (still have some to do yet) for my English Class. I have to write essays, and actually start on my Chem Project (not sure when that's due). Damn marco. I have to get a hold of him. Or we're gonna fail or something. I may have to do most of the project myself. Anyway, going to go see a movie tomorrow wif some friends. And this weekend is gonna be some uber-movie watching with my parents. Been practicing much piano too this week. And finally, I'm ALMOST done with Silent Hill4. :D It took me long enough, but I got back into it and put in another 3 hours or so last week. I have about an hour left till I finish it. Then I will have beaten all the SH series. (I'm so desensitized to the "scary" factor by now, kinda depressing). None of the Survival Horror games have been scaring me much. I was watching everyone else jump while playing kuon(or whatever the hell it's called) and It really just wasn't that frightening to me. I got some jumps, but that's about it. It seems like the same goes with movies lately too. Haven't seen something truly scary. I guess that means I'm mature or something. I remember seeing the ring and being scared the whole time. (saw it in the theater) and I also remember playing Silent Hill (1) in middle school, and being scared shitless. Meh, it's no good anymore. Well, I guess I'll have to rely on driving fast or rollercoasters to get my thrills. :D
Drawing: I've been doing a lot of sketching in my sketchbook, which has decided to completely fall apart. I haven't busted out the wacom lately, but I think I'm going to after this, because I'm going to put some color on one of the portfolio pieces I did for digipen. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting better. I can draw some decent profiles now, but my 3/4ths is weak now. Portrait is great now though. I'm going to do another SP in the mirror tomorrow prolly. I just need to keep drawing. (I haven't hit a slump now in more than a year!) I guess that whole slump "thing" was just like a lame excuse for churning out crap. :p I still need to make a website for myself. (how self indulgant!) so I can post some of my crap on it. Or I need to start a sketchbook on CA.org so I can have some drawing consistancy. I'd also like some feedback from people, so I can see where I should go next.

Vell, this has turned out to be insanely long! That's what happens when I do so much and don't write it down. In summary, I'm not depressed (untill I go through first and second period at school) and I'm very frickin' busy!

So until next time and such... (who knows when the hell that'll be?!)

Blah, more school complainage...

2005-03-09T01:01:17Z

Well, not much new lately. I'm going through the process of applying to Digipen. Just 9 and a half more weeks of highschool. Then summer, and then off to college!
I'm currently trying to get some scholarships.
Went to Las Cruces this weekend, and had a blast cleaning my friend dan's room. It was a crazy mess, and it took us about 4 hours. It looks absolutely 1000x better!
I haven't played any videogames in a long time, and I'm starting to get that twitch in my eye. It's usually from stress, and last time it was happening for almost a month. I then got unreal Tournament 2004 and played it for a few days. Bam, the twitch was gone. I think I may need a videogame fix soon. It hasn't gotten too bad yet. :D

Long lost update...

2005-03-04T04:23:59Z

Man I've been busy and have been severly neglecting livejournal, so I finally decided to post a huge update and hopefully return to regular updates.

College: I was not accepted to Ringling School of Art and Design. I was sad about this, but I just wasn't able to compete. So many awesome applicants, and I didn't make the cut. It was nearly 300 applicants and only 90 spots for the Computer Animation program. I talked to Eric the Admissions counselor. He was really nice, and said that I would have gotten in if I wasn't competing against other portfolios. I met all the requirements and whatnot. However, there were so many better portfolios that were well above and beyond the requirments, so they get in. He said that I may get on the waiting list, but I think if I'm not in the top 10 people on the waiting list, I have absolutely no chance of getting into RSAD for Computer Animation. I was sad about this, and angry at first, but then I realized, I didn't deserve to go there, it would have been an honour, and there were other people who worked harder and were better than me and they deserved to get in. It's just not what God has for me. There is something else for me. Anyway, we'll see how it goes with the waiting list, but it is no longer my priority to harass RSAD and try to get in :p . Now I have shifted my focus to another awesome college called DigiPen. It's in Redmond Washington, which is 15 miles east of Seattle. Huge difference from Florida! Anyway, I applied there, and I have to get all my schtuff sent in ASAP. They are a rolling admissions so there is no deadline, but I have to get in before it fills up. Anyway, I'm getting excited about going to Digipen now. It seems so awesome, and the projects are actually MAKING Videogames! Some artists and programmers get together and make a game. That to me is awesome. Such great experience for the industry. Anyway, now I'm hoping that I get accepted there. A big thanks for my Rabbi, my friends, my parents, and my teacher Mrs. Lyons-Cohen for comforting me, and pointing me in the right direction emotionally over the whole college thing. I now know that I will get what God has for me and it will be the best thing for me.

School: School has been nothing short of painful, except for Tech (obviously). I have been doing the bare minimum in classes, and doing homwork at the last minute. It's not really effecting my grade any, I'm just keeping it at a B. I hate all this stuff and I'm just done with it (as I said in a previous post). So I'm just floating along and counting the days till gradutation. I should probably be a little more energetic with my homework so that my grades don't suddenly start dropping. *sigh*

Job: Well, my Counselor has gotten me a new contact for the job industry. She and her husband own the Applebee's and Village Inn here in town, and she got me an interview with the manager at applebee's. Anyway, she wasn't there when I went for the interview today, fucker forgot most likely. New hires are never important. :p getting a job in this town sucks. Anyway, so I need to fill out an application and go interview tomorrow. The lady who owns the two restaurants is really nice, and she seems really intent on helping me find a job because my counselor gave me a great reccomendation. This is the way to do it people! You gotta know someone. filling out random applications and corssing your fingers is hopeless! Anyway, she said that if she can't get me in at Applebee's she's going to find me a job at Village Inn. This just boosts my confidence so much. I'm so grateful for her helping me find a job. I'm really gonna need it for this summer, and for school next year. It'll be really nice to have job experience so that I could maybe get a part time job during college if I have time. (Art school is insanely time consuming!) Plus I want to get the most out of my education possible, and I don't want a job in the way of that. Anyway, I may be employed in the near future! yay!

Art: I have been trying to draw a lot more often lately. I've been going to Conceptart.org and getting inspiration. In a nutshell I've been drawing lots lately, and It's starting to show some results. I need to draw even more than I do, but I've been doing a lot of research on schools and lots of other stuff that takes priority for the time being. I just wish I could lock myself up in a room and draw for a month or so.... :p Tech is awesome. We're doing t-shirt designs, and I made one that makes you go WTF?! I love it. We're going to burn and print next week. It's gonna be schweet.

Life: Been doing LOTS of work on the new Synagogue. It's all built, but there's lots of little stuff that we're doing on it. It has to pass inpsection before we can have services, and we're out of the old building. Anyway, we did a whole lot of moving and other fun stuff this past weekend. Friday through Sunday afternoon. Anyway, probably gonna do that again this weekend, but I'm gonna try to go to las cruces and hang with my peeps this sunday. Haven't been up there in a month. Been so busy.

Well, this is getting REALLY long winded so I'm gonna cut it off here since I said most of the main stuff...

Schoolage and whatnot...

2005-02-16T15:00:49Z

Well, not much has been going on lately. I've been working on an awesome ink project for Ad. Design, and I think it is the first drawing that I've spent more than like 7 hours on. I'm almost done dammit! :D It takes longer than shading, since I'm using ink and all the ink shading techniques (stipple, hatching, crosshatching, etc..) and it's like a huge piece. And still not wide enough for my taste. The design I came up with would have looked better horizontally, but it was getting towards the deadline, and I didn't have any idea on how to fix it so that it could work vertically. So in the end, I end up with characters that are somewhat elongated-looking because they're the right height, just not the right width. It doesn't look too bad though, and the inking looks pretty schweet. It's challenging to do art that meets criteria. It's something I think I'm going to have to get used to in college.

Summer is coming... It's been warm here with highs in the mid 70's and the average in the high 60's. As a result, today I go to school sans jacket. It's nice and warm and I'm getting flashbacks of summer. Gyah... school... why won't you end?! Just 12 more weeks... it seems so long, but everyone is telling me it's going to go by "so fast....*tear*..." and I'm like... bring it!

I need to get a job. I think I'm going to stop wasting my time filling out random apps and actually go to one of those job-placement thingies. I think my Highschool has one, but I have no idea where it is. I need to start getting into a groove that will last untill the end of summer. A jorb! Sadly, the job will probably cut into all the awesome fun I could have this summer, but I think it's important that I get one. Instead of wading through some 60 hour RPG, I will have to do some work. I need to pay for gas/insurance/other expenses on my car. I need to start saving money for all the shiz I'm going the need for next year. (like my computer)

Well It's time for school. I best be off...

school and stuff...

2005-02-10T23:32:25Z

Grr... LJ screwed my last entry. I'm just going to summarize

Doing much better in school except for calculus. Barely passing that, but acing all the other classes (including chem. yay!)

For some reason I'm constantly hungry, and I donno why.

It was beautiful and cloudy today! *rejoice*

That's about it in a nutshell. Actual entry pending me actually having something to spout about.

Post Competition...

2005-02-03T04:57:18Z

Well, went to the SkillsUSA Advertising Design competition. It was good fun, and I didn't feel rushed like I was afraid I was going to. I had enough time left over to tweak my entry for like 20 minutes. I really liked mine too! Basically we had to make a Magazine ad. for Yahoo! The catch was that all the art we were given was really fuggin small. It sucked, and I had to use a whole bunch of photoshop tricks to try and make things not looks so pixellated and grainy at 700x1000. It turned out good though. I didn't really get to see anyone elses except two of the people in my class. Their stuff looked really good too! I just hope our class kicks some A' no matter who gets top prize out of our class. Well, there's an awards ceremony on saturday, but from what I hear it's pretty freakin' boring. My teacher knows the results now, but she's not supposed to tell us. :D We'll find a way to squeeze it out of her. All in all, it was pretty fun, and I got to miss school to draw stuff for 4 hours, and for that; it was all worth it!

Speaking of school I've been typing this report for like 5 hours. I keep typing "Attitued" instead of "Attitude" which is annoying when the entire essay is about the attitude (dammit did it again) of Hamlet's soliloquy in Act3:sc.1. It's taken my so long to type becase I've been multitasking to " +3h 3><+R33m " :D Basically I've been slackin' it, but it's been fun and not too painful to accomplish, and I'm practically done with it anyway. One of my distractions was my friend talking about Minesweeper. I never knew how to play it but damn, once you know the rules it's pretty awesome Anyway after about an hour I actually beat it on beginner. This launced into a feverish attempt to beat my friend's time of 35 seconds. 3 hours, dinner, chatting, and jammin' out, as well as writing the bulk of my paper later... I have done it!

Afterwards, I played it a little longer and actually beat it in 29 seconds, but I forgot to take a screencap of it. Soon I shall move on to the intermediate difficulty.

Finally, I'm nervous about art school. Gwah I wish I knew whether I should be crying or leaping for joy. I posted my portfolio in the ringling LJcommunity, and I'm itching to see what they think of it. Gwah I hope I get in so much! It will be a miracle from God if I get in, c'mon God! Anyway, I need to go to bed. My report is finished!

PS I hate calculus! Fuck you, Implicit Differentiation! Passing this class will also be a miracle.

Mountain Dew Code Red...mmm

2005-02-01T23:26:41Z

I've been drawing on the computer a lot lately. Been putting that really expensive wacom to good use I should say. I'm going to do so again tomorrow, since we're going to the SkillsUSA Advertising Design Contest. I was picked! yay! I think I might have already said that but oh well. I hope that I do well. First place for the district gets to go to the state competition, although I think it'll be between my other two friends to see who gets in instead of muah. I'm just not as good at design as I am at drawing. It's not a big strength of mine. But, I think it'll be tons of fun anyway.

Aww, the clouds are melting! It was all overcast and stuff today, the high was like 40 degrees. It actually feels like frikkin' January instead of like April or something. It's been like in the low 70's all last week. I love it when it's cloudy. Today was a nice day.

I got a credit card application today. Now I just need to get a job to justify having one. My parents want me to start building some credit with them as collateral, so that getting loans and stuff won't be so painful after I leave the house. I need to keep on keeping on with the whole job search bit, but it's depressing to fill out so many applications, and never get accepted anywhere. I think that it's because I have no experience, but eh.

Because of contest tomorrow, I have no school tomorrow! yay! that means no homework! *does a dance*

Well, off to draw some more, or even *gasp* actually have time to play videogames! ooh!

More to it than I think...

2005-01-27T00:40:17Z

I'm not as depressed by school as I was last week. I'm starting to get into a routine and it's keeping me on the brink of sanity. My grades were kinda gettting bad for a little bit. The first week I was paying more attention to my portfolio than I was to getting all my homework in on time. Well I've gotten all meh schtuff handed in. My Chemistry grade is good, and my English grade WILL be good as soon as she finishes grading stuff. However my Calculus grade is suffering... Differential Calculus is crappy. I'm not worried about it though, I think that I can get it up to a passing by the end of this six weeks. I just always make stupid mistakes, and I can't connect all the fuggin dots that each problem requires. You have to remember like 10 different things and have to analyze the problem and see which of those parts and formulas to use to solve it. That means memorizing all the formulas and procedures. In a nutshell it sucks. I'm just like... not good at it.

I've been really excited about going to RSAD. I'm just having to wait so long.... arg... the pain! It's made me want to draw more, so I'm going to start participating in the DSG over at http://www.conceptart.org again. I did a few in the summer when I had nothing else to do, but it's a pretty good exercise. It also gives me a good excuse to listen to music for long periods of time. :D Speaking of which, my friend Greg led me on to this band called Mr. Bungle. Pretty crazy shit. It's kinda like Primus, but they started like way before primus. They never became really famous outside their local venue, and they're broken up now. They only released 3 CDs even though they've been around since '85. Like Primus, they're all VERY talented musicians, but the lyrics are quite offbeat. I dig the music though. It's like 8 genres mixed together. I've also been listening to a lot of Dream Theater again. They just will always rock my socks. :p

I feel like making some music too. I might fire up Fruity Loops tonight and see what happens. Gah, I'm getting a wrist cramp from the typing. Grr... well. that's all for now.

I'm going off to be creative!

School is Depressing...

2005-01-24T03:38:25Z

Highschool is now depressing for me. I realized it this week while at school. I'm done with high school. I'm just fucking DONE. I don't want to do it anymore and I still have a few months to go. Eh... I don't want to do it. Going to school is just DEPRESSING for me now. I want my future to be now. I've got Senioritis hardcore. Meh. I'm just done. Anyway... I'm done... so yeah.

Animation

2005-01-20T05:10:40Z

I made an animation today. It took about 2 hours and it's like 15 frames. Some of them are re-used.
Anyway... here it is.

mmm... bagels...

2005-01-19T02:25:21Z

::Hallelujah Chorus::
We didn't have to write an essay today!! Yay! plus I have no homework. So I'm going to play Silent Hill4.

I decided that I might play Yes - mood for a day for the talent show. I just printed out the music and ran through it about 4 times (it's 7 pages) and it's not too bad if I practice it for 2 or 3 weeks I should have it down pat. It's a cool song and I like to listen to it as well as play it.

Anyway that's all for now!