Midterms are over

And life can start again, it is the fall rebirth.

And what is happening? I'm too close to the center of Occupy Wall Street, most of the kids from my friends support it. I don't know what I support. I'm not in the 1%. But the 99% is not my life. The more I want to feel this coming together of our generation, I can't. It is the same as school. The kids around me stay up all night working. I can barely keep my eyes open past 2am.

What works best for me? How can I get the most out of what I do? I can start by waking up early everyday and getting even 2 hours of work in before class, because I can do that. I can go beyond assignments while still fulfilling them.

How can I make MY life worth living to the fullest? How can I learn the most in such a short period of time? How can I stay with a project for weeks without boredom, and how can I learn the patience to overcome that?

my midterm is due on thursday

I won't freak out, I'll just sleep less.
It's a profile self-portrait map, with the top lip, nostril, and eye indented as lakes/inlets. I still need to finish the coastline and mountains and make a wall for the hairline, and I need to find a place for the castle.

it's been a while

I've been working and working and working and I've learned so much.
I've also not learned- last weekend I read 50 pages of world history, just for my teacher to spend all the time on the shorter reading. "I should have known" doesn't qualify, I don't have much foresight, but at the very least, I should have spent more time on the other homeworks. As soon as I find out how to screen capture on macs I'll try to get my scifi lab up here.

I've continued with the self-portraits, some are definitely better than others.

At this moment, I'm in a dark computer lab, on a mac, pretending to do my modeling homework. We use Maya 2012 and I must complete a science fiction lab by tuesday. I also have 2 small stopmotion projects, and at least 40 pages of reading.

I also stayed up till 4am last night. 4am is the morning. I don't like it. When I stay up at night, I feel like the sun won't come up in the morning.

It's not that much work. Or, I feel like it should be more. Or, I can sequence time and plan more effectively. I don't know. Next semester will be more, I hope. The best days are when I don't have 5 minutes to breathe, I have everything done and I get things done, and I come back to my room still energized after 9 hours of classes.

Luck, The Importance of Planning,

I say that I'm lucky, I wish people luck. And I don't really believe in a 'luck', but coincidence, circumstance. And I believe that I know myself well.

To know thyself is to know how far you can go. I'd forgotten to hole-punch my animation paper (we use the  -        .        -  punch), so I planned out as much as I could. I have two hours of lunch before Animation 1, so I punched my papers and did it. 7 seconds on 2's, 100+ drawings, put into iStopmotion, exported for Quicktime. I felt like such a superhero. And I didn't gloat. I just smiled like and idiot in class, filled with personal satisfaction in my own abilities. When a mistake was made, I formed a new plan of action and did not succumb to stress.

But how far can I go? My classmates stay up almost all night, my own roommate gets sleep whenever she can. I don't feel the stress. I see time in blocks of hours, and I usually don't need to stay up later than 2 or I can wake up a few hours early if I need to. And in some ways I find this distancing. Saying 'oh, I am able to structure my time in such a way that I usually don't need to stay up too late' is elitist, arrogant.

I wasn't expecting my dashboard to fill with new stac blog posts. Good job, little artists!

I have been relaxed with my work, but I have time to get on it A busy semester awaits. A busy, paper-eating semester (between animation and screenwriting).

I have, however, found a new love in friendship bracelets. I brought some cotton thread with me to school and weaving has just been an amazing stress relief. Plus I've been using manual dexterity in almost every class this year, so it's good practice. Plus it's great procrastination. And a calm-down from the focusing energy of my work.

folding box

I've completed my first animation!!
and class isn't for over 12 hours. Success.
hopefully it won't be harshly received.

thus, school starts again

First day of classes, 3rd semester.

Some teaches faster than others. They teach fast, I mean. My classes are falling into two categories:
1. It's what you make of it.
2. Work hard, follow assignments, do well.

So out of this year, I need to make sure I get the most out of everything. And a sketchbook. I need to draw more.