on break

I'm going to do this as if it were an epic tale...
starting with right NOW.
...I'm sitting alone (i looove solidarity now and then)
and doing some work
listening to the
"adult alternative" (of which I am neither of, really)
but its good, currently playing some Feist

and about three minutes ago
decided to look at ye ol'
alanis morissette website
*siiigh*
I found this


and its really exciting
not just another album in April...
but oh no...
a book!??!??!??!?
AND a movie of sorts?????
*goo*
someone fan me please.


At any rate
it is officially half way through "winter break"
and I feel like its FLOWN
so I'm enjoying these moments that draw themselves out
I'm enjoying that its 1:30pm and I feel like all I've done is relax
(and vacuumed and picked up from my camping, and done laundry
and dropped some work stuff off at work..hmmm)
At any rate, its another great opportunity for sharing
a bit about my break
I'll have to do it in parts or this will become terribly long...

SO
part winter break 1.1

I drove home on Friday after work
The Folds family happened to be heading eastward at about the same time. So along the foggy I-80 we went. We stopped for Custard at Culvers in Rock Falls and said our final goodbyes (for real this time…but still as if we weren’t going to see each other for 6 months. And sometimes, somehow…5 days can seem like 6 months…).

Home was home when I got there –

(please note that the bear on My stocking
a: has wings...the halo is hiding probably and
b: is sleeping.... ahhhh i Love sleep...)
and that’s not to say that home is “home”…just that it was same ‘ol same ‘ol.
About six times over, my padre told me the story of how he hit a deer with his car. He came back and got amie and my uncle joe to go back with him to track the deer down. She had broken one of her back legs, so didn’t get terribly far, a couple hundred yards. It wasn’t enough to kill her though…so with knife in had he sits on the deer, holding her front legs down, uses one hand to pull back her head and starts sawing away at her neck. Amie tells the story much better… but admits that the pleasure he got out of doing that…was a little nerve-wracking. Anywho… they field dressed the deer and drug it out…and I’m sure later this year that little doe will be served up right in some chili or…something.

I think its gross. But I suppose its better than leaving that poor little doe out in the cold with a broken leg…



Anyway
Sunday....
Sunday i baked almost all day with my mom!
well...by "all day" ...
it means after we did some shopping
last-minute present wrapping
and breakfast

On post number 101

sooo
this is my 101st post...
quite an accomplishment considering that...
well I generally give up/get bored with things
and move on from then within...
a few days
...And ESPECIALLY during busy school times...

which reminds me:



Grades were posted.
And for all of the.... "being 21" that I did this semester
guitar hero I played
20hours of work (ish) a week that I did
vacations I took (or was graciously taken on...)
Grey's that I watched
and relationships that were developed...
I'd say.... Not bad.
Not bad at All.

BUT!
What I was originally going to post about
was the concept of my boredom lately
The posts where I proclaim my distaste for my job
(which I freakin love...
i have NO room, none whatsoever to complain about it
there is a Wonderful staff here,
I have the biggest office,
i come and go when I please
and the more I mess up...really just
means more hours i get to work!!!)
were more about my boredom with Life in general.

Sometimes I really question if....drawing pictures all day...

is what I want to end up doing.
I mean, I can't say enough how much I really do enjoy it
but...part of me wonders....
Wow...I could be one hell of a salesperson
in fact...
Lisa F (if you look up on that grade report...
she's my advisor as well as ARTGR 470 instructor
told me I could sell ketchup on a stick to a lady in white...
And i have no doubt!

But I'm sure I'd get bored with that, too.
I suppose that there is a lot of 'selling' in graphic design, though...
selling the concept, selling... the color scheme...

Anyway...
I have a way in which this ties into unattainability
(of myself)
but it got lengthy and illogical
so I'll post it at a later date..





SPEAKING OF BORING...ish...
the annual report is in its final stages
we need copy from the director, floyd...
aaand...a few tiny nudges here and there
here's a sneak peek:

On a weekend of Holiday Adventure

as usual...
larger (and more) photos can be found here

Otherwise, enjoy the show!!!!!

Welp.
it all started with...
with getting groceries.

(that's Maria, my [real] roomate)

Then with the purchased ingrediants
we made our very own
SNOW ice cream!!!!
Josh collected [clean] snow during the day...


(thank you josh)

It was actually very tasty!!!
Tasted Just like ice cream!!!

Next, we
covered the table with aluminum foil
(it is an all purpose material in our house)
and began creating





The next evening
Jessica arrived in town
we had a gathering of wonderful folks that night
and a few people made a few more creations
davy made a snake...
eventually a baby wound up on it...riding it

davy looks scary there - sorry davy...

We had a Wonderful dinner

that consisted of...
i don't remember...OH! spaghetti and and...uuum
salad and
josh brought pie!!

and bread...I see bread here:


Then Maria tried picking up davy

it didn't work out so well...

AND JOSH MADE THE ANGEL FOR OUR TREE!!!




she's SUCH a beautiful angel!
:)



Then after making MORE ornaments
(for our 2 foot tree......)
we started the REAL decorating!!




....*shrugs*

then we took a picture with our angel!!!

what a WONDERFUL group of folks.
:)

And this is our tree allll done


and another family photo
(yes, we're full of ourselves)


Then i left to the Folds' residence
where they, too were having a holiday gathering....
...............it was....
............it was much more.....'grown up'????
but still nice.

Anywho, this is plenty long!!!
take care everyone!!!
I'll update you even more soon
since this was from the weekend, and its wednesday
sooo clearly even More has happened between now and then!!!

On vacation

three weeks, guys...
three weeks.

if I lose my fingers to frostbite...I wonder if i will still be graphic design capable....
probably.


I went to work today
and was supposed to take some pictures for out at BECON
(biomass energy conversion facility)
uuuuh but the group I was to photograph never showed...
which is fine
I got paid ...to sit and wait.
And take some pictures




in the words of alanis morissette...errr actually...Seal...
"but we're never gonna survive...unless we get a little....crazy."

On Ears

my ear hurts.
making my head hurt.
making my attitude hurt.
which means that i'm hungry.
which makes me thirsty
and the more i drink, the more i drink.

ergo.

sad ear = happy drinks?



in other news
for the first time in
8 months
i had the thought of
...i don't love my job.

its just all of a sudden gotten really
really...
more stressful than I've been used to
on top of being finals week...
oops.

I need some golden arches in my life

On a 'dead' week

well well
what a crazy time of the semester
I suppose that is why they call it "dead" week.





In my digital photography class,
I haven't gotten below a 95% on a project.
I suppose part of that is...welllll its a 200level class
aaand open to all Art and Design majors....
Being a senior graphic designer gives me a smidge of an advantage.
Safe to say that...my latest project was...another hit.
The prints were Amazing.
at 36" wide a piece and some really vibrant colors
that...turned out much better than I had actually expected...
I think i ...guarenteed myself an A for that class.



Another project that I need to present on
(on this coming Thursday night...
to the actual client)
is for a general studio class.


*shrugs*
what can I say?
Sometimes the inability to sleep is a blessing...especially
when it comes to...needing to add just a bit more
to show that you didn't allow yourself to just get "bored"
once you finished the project.
We had mandatory individual meetings with our instructor (Lisa F.)
aaand after 5 minutes, it was concluded that...mmm
I am done.
OH and that...she's waiting on final approval of
an environmental design grad program
the first of its kind in the country...
And since I've taken wayfinding, exhibit design, And 470...
it would only be a +1 year program for me.
.......hmmmm. something to think about.

what else what else...


i don't have pictures of anything else...
The end is near,
the end is near!!!

On a song

On work

I was researching a bit for...information design
for the Annual Report I'm designing at work.
I cam eacross this:
aaaand....felt that ....it just Needed to be posted.

On dead week

almost done, y'all

two art works due tomorrow
meeting about video tomorrow
meeting with Lisa fontaine tomorrw for final reviews of Bay City Cycles proposal
aaand
work ...8-1. gross. ...even though I love my job...i could Really use that morning off... hmmm

yes ma'am, I can.

On Perfect Matches

this cracked me up.
i was...distracted at work while waiting for pictures to fix themselves...
so i did the perfect match thing.

i think its amusing.
but more importantly
i think that its a straaange ...
expression of our society.

I know that these little applications
are created for the sake of fun and enjoyment...
to get a laugh out of.
But what is it that makes us do them.
Why are we So interested in what it has to say?
Not that we allow it to have any value...
we know who our best matches (and best friends) are
......(the ones who have seen your best
your worst
and everything in between...and they're still there)....
Really ...I have to wonder if it isn't
our general need to know that...we're compatible
with other people
even further - that we somehow fit in.
That our quirks and imperfections are...normal
As awful it is as your number 1 person...
who might be 98% ...is someone you dated 7 years ago
and who destroyed your life at the time......
wouldn't it feel worse to find that there's not a soul
out there on the wide-ass world of facebook
who you are more than...50% compatable with?
You're THAT much of a screw-ball weirdofreak that...that...

ah...maybe you're just not in any facebook groups.
Mostly i think its just for fun....
but it did make me think.
ooooh normalcy.


i'm hungry.

On Stolen hearts

whoah.
hello.jack

On a plane and back again

as a precurser
for larger pictures, checkout the facebook album
riiight here
aaand if you'd like Original sized pics...
e-mail me.

Well well
Friday afternoon
Kris and I headed up to MN...
we grabbed the Mickey from a coffee shop
(thankyou Garmin GPS thinger)
And on a plane we were...
off to Arizona!!!


We went to Sedona!!!


and climbed around on the rocks!!!

We spent some quality time with
Rob and Kyle...super great guys...
real great.

The weather was FANTASTIC

and is fantastic just about Every day out there...
hmph.




While there Mickey and myself
learned a few important lessons
the first being that...

cacti BITE!
well they don't bite, but the thingers
the little yellow tiny thingers
stick into your skin. Its weird.



while doing some hiking
We saw some neat looking walls
that were begging us to climb them..
so I tied up my shoes a bit better
and up we tried to go...

to no avail.
oh well.

Later on we played us some cribbage
such a quality time.
I finally figured out how to count cards
in a sensical manner...hmmm
just takes a while to readjust, y'know!

And we went to the ZOO!!!
where I stopped often to take pictures of
their wonderful wayfinding signage...
as well as some of the Awful exhibit designs...

job security...
job security.

BUT one of the cooler things
was that their information/talking things
were solar powered...

which makes sense, since its...
almost always sunny there.

And we saw giraffes!


and elephants
and tons of other animals whose names I cannot spell.

It did get up to 89 degrees that day...
so we had a few water breaks.....

the neat part was that the water
from those fountains were ICE cold...
unbelievable.
It was very nice.


the signs were...pretty magnificent

we all

really liked the zoo, safe to say.

I even saw what my future home will hopefully be like..

a shanty, a bike, and a hydrant for my dog to pee on...
as if the woods all around won't be enough...
I think if it is THAT small though,
I may have to sleep standing up. That would be...
unfortunate.


some pictures I took just...
for pretty-sake.

I like to think of this one as
mickey trying to play leap-frog and missing...

it happens.

Then we went shopping the rest of that day
and buzzing around...relaxing mostly.
Performance Bicycles had a store there
and major deals. We got jerseys for $15!!!

We relaxed, watch football, enjoyed fantastic meals...
I changed the flat tires on the boys' mt bikes
....It really was ....just great company and a lot of fun.

Thanks Kyle and Rob for all of your hospitality. :)


Then we flew back to MN on Tuesday (yeah, its only Tuesday!)
...I don't remember what we did.
Kris made an apt. for her tattoo
and we doodled around.
We had been at the airport since 6:30am...and the
flight got in at about 2pm...so loong day of traveling.

Wednesday, almost all day, I worked on
my digital photography project.
I really don't have anymore work for that
class the rest of the semester. That's neat.
Kris got her tattoo, which looks AMAZING.
aaand we went to the mall of America's
Underground Aquarium thing. It was Wonderful!

We visited some friends of Kris'
Amy and Nick...
and their AMAZING little guy, Jack.
oh geez.
oh geez.
call the police...
this kid freakin'
stole
my
heart.


Amy and Nick were wonderful as well
very entertaining and welcoming folks.

Then Wednesday night
we went to a Tina concert!!!!!!

that's not video from This concert
but in case you don't know who Tina is...
its a pretty good idea?

it was a lot of fun and the whole crowd knew
most all of the words!

K. I need to get back to work...
maybe more later.