Wow. I seriously fail at the world.
The day reading week ended, I pulled an all-nighter to try and finish everything I should have been working on the week before. As in an ALL-nighter. As in no sleep. After 7 days of going to bed at 11 and sleeping till noon. So I started off my post-reading week schooling worn out, exhausted, sick, and depressed because even working 11 hours straight on my design project wasn't enough time to get it done. And it sucked because I had to do an in-class painting project that involved slathering house paint onto two huge pieces of paper masking-taped to the wall. House paint comes in huge cans. I have no locker. So I had to figure out a way of getting 8 cans of house paint to school, and, being so tired I couldn't speak in complete sentences, that seemed like the hardest thing in the world. I ended up finding an Ikea bag that I could live in and my god 8 cans of paint are heavy when you carry them all at the same time. It was a crappy day my friends. I soon proved my hypothesis that house paint DOES NOT WORK on paper and discovered that my skin has a sensitivity to latex acrylic. And I couldn't go home until 9:30 at night.
During reading week, all I wanted to do was get back to school. Now that I'm back, I just want it to stop. There's no easing back into the rhythm of schoolwork. It hits you like a freight train, you get a break, and then it hits you like a freight train again. I don't know why I expected any different. I guess I just figured that studio classes were a lot more slack than Liberal Studies classes. But if anything, they're harder. So much creativity is demanded of you every day. I can't force myself to be creative, and you can't fake original ideas. I see assignments as ways to show yourself off; put yourself on the paper and display it for others. There's not much room for learning there. I'm still kept down by the masterpiece complex. I'm afraid of creating anything bad, so I never step outside my comfort zone.
I want to go someplace warm and exciting.
emoemoemo
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Other things
So I've given into peer pressure. I'm glad people are using these blogs again. They offer me a wide variety of distractions when I'm supposed to be doing homework. And they let me maintain the illusion of connectedness with my friends. Double fine.
Since my second term at ACAD has started, I have realised a few things. 1. Design class is friggin' impossible and may kill me. Every week we are assigned new projects that everyone looks at and goes "there's no WAY I'm going to be able to pull that off". And every week people come slumping into class, exhausted and a little giddy from working so close to heavy-duty glues and permanent markers, and produce something amazing. I don't understand it. I wish there was some way to describe just how insane these projects are. One required us to do 240 drawings--40 describing each of 6 words, 20 using only dots, 20 using only lines. And these 240 drawings were supposed to be done in 2 days. TWO. DAYS. And 240 was the minimum required for this project. Every one of our assignments is at least that intense. It just doesn't let up! Plus, I found out the hard way that if you hand in an assignment late, there is no leeway. You get an automatic F.
Awesome.
2. My painting prof is, as dad so aptly put it, a fixture with tenure. He's been there since the world began, he's on the hiring committee, he's earned the respect of the other faculty, and because of all this, it seems like he's stopped caring about his classes. He'll just come and go as he pleases. On the coldest day of the year thus far, painting class was unofficially cancelled because he never showed up. Which would have been fine with me if he didn't live 5 blocks away from the school. I wish I didn't harbour grudges for stuff like this, but that morning I took a taxi that dropped me off at the wrong building, so I had to walk outside in minus Hell Freezes Over degrees, carrying a briefcase, a portfolio, a toolbox, and my bag. That was a sucky morning, and because my brain still operates on the reward system, I thought it might pay off. It didn't. I said a few things I probably shouldn't have.
Oh, and I have heard that this particular professor doles out marks based on gender. I'll just leave it at that.
3. I have met the centre of the ACAD community. Her name is Crystal-Lee and she is everybody's best friend. Seriously. She knows all the first years, half the second years, and a few of the fourth years. It's intense. For the first little while, I was being introduced to people left right and centre. It felt like I had sneaked into some kind of exclusive club, and everyone was secretly wondering what I was doing there. But the paranoia leveled off, and now I just smile and nod at a lot of people.
4. Apparently, the freshman 15 works in reverse sometimes.
Also, if you are in Calgary, I think you should take some time to check out the Woodrow exhibit at the Illingworth-Kerr gallery at ACAD. It's got little models of places in Woodrow, Saskatchewan, and each one has something exciting inside. There are stop-motion movies and animatronics! It made me smile for days.
Since my second term at ACAD has started, I have realised a few things. 1. Design class is friggin' impossible and may kill me. Every week we are assigned new projects that everyone looks at and goes "there's no WAY I'm going to be able to pull that off". And every week people come slumping into class, exhausted and a little giddy from working so close to heavy-duty glues and permanent markers, and produce something amazing. I don't understand it. I wish there was some way to describe just how insane these projects are. One required us to do 240 drawings--40 describing each of 6 words, 20 using only dots, 20 using only lines. And these 240 drawings were supposed to be done in 2 days. TWO. DAYS. And 240 was the minimum required for this project. Every one of our assignments is at least that intense. It just doesn't let up! Plus, I found out the hard way that if you hand in an assignment late, there is no leeway. You get an automatic F.
Awesome.
2. My painting prof is, as dad so aptly put it, a fixture with tenure. He's been there since the world began, he's on the hiring committee, he's earned the respect of the other faculty, and because of all this, it seems like he's stopped caring about his classes. He'll just come and go as he pleases. On the coldest day of the year thus far, painting class was unofficially cancelled because he never showed up. Which would have been fine with me if he didn't live 5 blocks away from the school. I wish I didn't harbour grudges for stuff like this, but that morning I took a taxi that dropped me off at the wrong building, so I had to walk outside in minus Hell Freezes Over degrees, carrying a briefcase, a portfolio, a toolbox, and my bag. That was a sucky morning, and because my brain still operates on the reward system, I thought it might pay off. It didn't. I said a few things I probably shouldn't have.
Oh, and I have heard that this particular professor doles out marks based on gender. I'll just leave it at that.
3. I have met the centre of the ACAD community. Her name is Crystal-Lee and she is everybody's best friend. Seriously. She knows all the first years, half the second years, and a few of the fourth years. It's intense. For the first little while, I was being introduced to people left right and centre. It felt like I had sneaked into some kind of exclusive club, and everyone was secretly wondering what I was doing there. But the paranoia leveled off, and now I just smile and nod at a lot of people.
4. Apparently, the freshman 15 works in reverse sometimes.
Also, if you are in Calgary, I think you should take some time to check out the Woodrow exhibit at the Illingworth-Kerr gallery at ACAD. It's got little models of places in Woodrow, Saskatchewan, and each one has something exciting inside. There are stop-motion movies and animatronics! It made me smile for days.
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