Expect very little blogging until:

A. We get internet at the house
B. I get a redesign going

I love how they all form the crest!

Contrast that with the US' most recent monetary face lift:

Ugh.

From the Bellis Copy Center's color printer being broken the one day out of the semester I actually need them to Creative Services misprinting a vinyl label to finishing my last included piece the night before the show, it's been great to see how everything came together so well. All the credit of which I give to God, because by our planning it should have been a mess. Half of us didn't know what was going on most of the time! Yet everyone got their part done, and the Art Building was packed with people today, all of whom spouted off more compliments then we deserved.

If you weren't able to make it to the show opening it'll be up until April 7th, so you have three weeks to get over there and no excuses! Unless of course you're my parents ;)

I meant to take a nap once I got back, but I ended up reading up on design news that I've been unable to get to due to show preparations. Paul Rand's web site has a new design up and I ran across this quote of his on homepage:

"Simplicity is not the goal, it is a byproduct of a good idea and modest expectations."

I'm a firm believer in simplistic, minimalistic, white space heavy, clean design, so I always thought of simplicity as my goal. However, after reading the quote, I realized that's not actually my intention every time I start a project. Inevitably though, it seems to come from the concept most of the time, which I guess is just my design tendency. I don't really call it my "style," but it definitely permeates a lot of my work.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Speaking of summer, boy can I not wait 75 days. Apartment and car hunting are in the semi-serious mode now, so if you know of any 2008 Jetta's for ~$2000 just let me know. I'd appreciate it. It's actually been kind of hard to balance affordability and quality when searching for a vehicle. Throw a little personal preference in there and it makes deciding pretty rough.

The graphic design show is in four weeks and much is to be done. I really need to buckle down and get at least two projects done before then (and hopefully before my portfolio check in a week and a half), one for class, and one personal. The show is shaping up to be pretty sweet, so mark your calendar for March 16th. If you wish you might also want to observe Jerry Lewis' birthday on that date.

This past week was definitely the roughest academically. El Stats is kicking my tail, Printmaking seems to hate my guts (dropping your etching plate in the acid usually doesn't produce very good results), and I totally forgot about part of a research assignment in Prophets. Thankfully I did the reading part though and the text (Isaiah 40: 28-31) ended up pulling me through the week. I suggest giving it a read!

And Duke just lost. . . my day was going so well too.

May lead to procrastination and lack of productivity. . .

Two design classes that are completely project based = awesome. I have some sweet ideas in the "pipeline" that I'll hopefully be able to churn out this semester.

After being scared to death about my Prophets class it's looking like it's going to be very profitable. Jaeggli keeps things interesting (opposed to the teacher I thought I was going to have).

State and Local Government came at a great time. Being an election year, class is rarely free of opinions and debates.

History of Graphic Design: So glad I was able to take this. This is the first time I've actually looked forward to a paper.

Printmaking is really going to grow me artistically. I already enjoyed doing my test print and getting my hands dirty. Though I would have preferred first semester's class, Intaglio and Relief looks to be just as fun.

El Stats: No comment.

Work:

I guess I'm a barista now. My caffeine consumption is definitely increasing with a free cup every shift.

It looks like I'll be able to put in a few more hours a week with Worthwhile as well so it'll be nice to have some extra income to stow away. Or spend.

Vintage is going at a much better pace this semester. No all-nighters as of yet. This is going to be one sweet book folks.

Misc.:

Went on a photo shoot yesterday for the Review. Definitely an interesting experience. Hal Cook was on his game (beard and all). Look for me sporting a brown track jacket in the next issue. . .

Someone needs to inform the Dining Common of the disastrous effects on your system after serving Burritos for lunch and then Chili for dinner.

Heard Ron Paul speak at school two nights ago. Still not completely sure of my opinion on him but he does have some great ideas and seems more impressive than the other candidates at the moment. Sadly, I'm unable to vote in the state primaries today.

Played a solid game of football today in the rain. One rushing TD, one passing TD, and a fumble recovery to seal the game.

Yet for some reason I seem to have a cycling pattern of what I like to call "sporganization." That is, sporadic organization. Let's take a look at a few examples to see what I mean:

Here be my Inbox. You may say, "Wow, that's nothing compared to mine!" I can barely stand that "nothing" as it seems tremendously over-cluttered to these eyes! Look at all those emails! I long for the empty Inbox (hence the folders on the left which have subfolders nested inside of them). Sure some of those emails could be tucked into the folders I conveniently created for my electronic mail, but t seems I have the mindset of "I'll wait until the problem is big enough to fix it." One or two more emails and I'll quickly empty out that mess. Do not worry!

Here's my desktop (which also is probably spotless when rested side-by-side with yours). I can't stand having more than the two icons in the upper right, yet I've let these other files clutter it all day. No idea why. It's like I'm fighting against the messy half of myself. All of the sudden I'll feel the incredible urge to clean it off by trashing the files I don't need and putting the rest where they really belong. Off of my desktop.

My final example is my bedroom (sorry, no pictures). While at home or at school I'll walk in and unload papers onto my desk, clothes onto my bed/floor/ceiling, and miscellaneous food wrappings somewhere near (not necessarily in) the trash can. That's how it stays until the morning before class when I quickly clean everything up and magically transform my part of the room into a set for a Mr. Clean commercial.

So in some ways, I'm very organized, but only in spurts or at certain times it seems. Is it my resolution to become un-sporganized? Definitely not, but hopefully I can make some progress. . . sooner or later.