pixeltastic
Hey! Pixel art is fun! Meet Synthbunny!
I found this program called Pixen for the mac which is like awesome for pixel art stuff.. Yay!
corner brownie has a posse
So on new years eve last year I was eating some tasty brownies at the Mountaineers lodge at Steven’s pass, telling Zach that I should invent a pan that made only edge pieces, because those are my favorite. We tossed around a few ideas about the possible construction, but couldn’t come up with a really good one.
But today I found THE PAN I’ve been looking for my whole life. (really, my love for corner brownies has been life long):
It’s The Baker’s Edge. So simple yet perfect. I want one really bad. (I find it kinda amusing this post about brownie pans comes after the past few about overspending)
Even if I can’t reap the financial benifits of inventing the greatest brownie pan ever, I should make a t-shirt “corner brownie has a posse.” I like how it sounds.
spending etc
More misc thoughts on the whole spending thing. (Sorry I just finished reading that book so I’ve been thinking about this stuff lately)
My parents are pretty un-materialistic, despite being pretty well off, and I admire them for that. They really don’t care about getting the latest and greatest things, they aren’t that attached to their stuff, and they don’t collect tons of crap. I suppose it helps that they got rid of a lot of it before moving to Seattle. When I was younger I think I saw their mindset as being more “behind the times” or something, when compared to my friends’ parents. But now I think I like them better this way.
There’s a lot about the work-spend-work-spend cycle, which I understand. I mean I know when I was working full 20 hour weeks I wasted more money on useless crap I didn’t need. But I don’t think retail therapy is just triggered by being over worked. At the begining of the quarter I was filling my spare time with shopping, and I definately wasn’t over worked or anything.I wonder if school is considered a catalyst for spending. Supposedly the biggest shopaholics and impulse buyers are also some of the most educated. Although, those people are also probably making more money.
But surely school can be just as stressful, if not moreso. At least for me right now it is, work is sort of brainless compared to the energy I put into stuff for class. I guess I feel weird comparing myself to kids in other majors since each quarter I have the opportunity physically produce something extremely helpful in getting myself a job in 6 months. I guess I understand how other people might not feel as attached to their classes if there’s less of a direct payoff.
Anyways, back to the spending thing. I have this sort of weird love/hate relationship with it. One one hand, I am relatively comfortable financially (esp. for a typical college student), so I don’t really have the strong need to be that frugal, but I have managed to condition myself to almost always feel really guilty about buying things. Not that I don’t like shopping, I’d say I use “retail therapy” a lot too. But it seems that the good feelings are quickly replaced by those of guilt. It’s kinda weird. I’m sort of the same way with watching tv. I usually enjoy it (or at least get hooked on it) while it’s there and I’m watching it…but once I pull myself away I feel really guilty for wasting so much time…
I think the only thing I really don’t care so much about is spending on food. It makes sense to work for food, so I’ll spend the extra money to eat well, because it’s easy to let eating cheaply turn into eating poorly. Not that I have the best diet ever. But I suppose I should be better about it, even if it’s just in terms of not being so wasteful.
As I get closer to getting out of my school phase of life I’m wondering where I want to end up. Or more specificly, what kind of lifestyle do I want? and how much money will it take to get me there? As of now I’m thinking, it actually won’t take that much, I mean I’m already pretty happy as is (but I know that could change as my priorities change) and it’s kinda reassuring to know I don’t really need to be wishing for the big bucks. I’m sure whatever my first job is I’ll be making more than I do now, and enough to keep up my current lifestyle, which is enough for me.
Ok… enough random ranting for me. Time to spread some diabetes. (via information design)
Happy Post T-day/BND
Ah, a mellow T-day this year. Just my parents and me and a moderately sized t-day meal, consisting of mostly normal t-day foods. Nothing too extravagant, and my mom cooked everything in about an hour, which is amazing. She made little fruit tart things too, although they were more like mini cheesecake with some fruit on top. I really miss the La Bonne Bouche in St. Louis. Those fruit tarts were so fantastic. I’ve also realized I don’t have much of an attachment to traditions. I was a little sad my bro didn’t want to join us (went to his friends house instead) this year, but oh well.
Also, Happy Buy Nothing Day. I’m glad I wasn’t fighting any crowds today.
What if for the holidays everyone just traded good stuff they just don’t use anymore, and think other people would enjoy? I don’t mean crappy broken shit. I know I have plenty of perfectly good stuff that for whatever reason, just doesn’t get a whole lot of use. It would still be “new to you.” Clothes, books, cds, whatever. Of course I realize most people are fairly posessive of their collections of stuff. So maybe it would be hard. I don’t know, seems like a good idea in my head. Is anyone interested?
I think reading the Overspent American is good for me. I’m amazed at how some people can make so much money and still be constantly in debt. I’m glad my dad was smart about investing and planned for my education fund. I’m glad I’ll be off to a good clean start getting out of school.
I also realized that when my desire to go shopping for new clothes gets really really strong, it means I should just do my laundry. Man, I love having a washing machine in our house.
K, back to info design.
the great delema etc
I am so torn about my schedule next quarter. I want to do so many things but I know I don’t have that kind of energy. On top of the 18 credits I’m currently signed up for next quarter, I recently decided to take on a fairly major redesign project with Zach for the Honors program, which I think will end up being more challenging and time consuming than it seems. Looking at my schedule for next quarter now I think “ooooh! that looks like fun!” But having been through a few quarters I know that those “fun” things will convert into a lot of stressful late nights working and a reduced amount of time spent on extra fun things. I don’t really know what those extra fun things are though. Its hard when I consider most of the things I want to do pretty fun in themselves, and less like work. I guess the main candidate for dropping is the Drama class…but I want it.
In other news, Kevin was in town on Friday night so I got to hang out with him for a bit, which was cool. I haven’t seen Kevin since like Summer of 03. I feel like most people have seen people from highschool a lot more often than I have so it’s a little weird.
I also went to the bodies exhibit earlier in the day, which was interesting and a little weird, but not bad. The circulatory stuff and fetuses in jars were pretty crazy.
I have concluded that the tight throat thing I get occassionally is directly caused by anxiety and stress.
I’m not sure what to do about Thanksgiving. Maybe I will go home afterall.
reading questions
So I was looking at the BFA show website from last year and seeing all the projects from the publication design class where they redesigned a book called “The Overspent American.” Apparently looking at it visualized like 10 different ways was enough to pique my interest in it, so I picked it up from the library. Seems interesting so far.
The past few years I’ve realized I have a pretty strong interest in non-fiction topics about how and why people behave certain ways, which is a pretty broad topic I suppose. But it also sort of eliminates fiction and history, although I suppose those two sometimes overlap. I think if I wasn’t into the art&design side of things I’d probably be in the sociology side of things. I’m interested in learning a lot more about it though, I’m just not sure where to start. Recomended reading lists would be appreciated.
Other things I’ve been wondering about:
What makes a printed book seem so much more valid than reading things online? I mean, there’s obviously the whole credibility issue with the internet, but it’s still reading. I guess I mean as a freetime hobby, why is online-based reading so much less respected? I suppose it’s really more similar to reading a magazine. The chunks are smaller and usually contain more pictures. But is reading a romance novel better than reading about design online? What about newspapers vs. feeds? I guess I feel like there’s still sort of a stigma on things that come from The Internet.
Why is there such a big gap between knowing things and doing things? And how can I make that gap smaller? I feel like I “know” a lot of things, but I feel like “knowing” is never enough. For instance, I know that if I eat right and exercise I’d feel better and be healthier. I know those things are both good, and should try to participate in both those activities. But the half of my brain that knows these things just doesn’t seem to do a very good job of convincing the “lets do it” half of my brain to get involved. Or another example, I know I should be less wasteful in my spending, but I do it anyways. Why is there this lazy half that constantly trumps the other? Maybe it’s more of a physics thing where it’s just hard to start things up that aren’t going, and hard to stop things that already are… So I just need some sort of starter or break pads.
Would I really want to design for a medium I’m not that interested in? This one is sort of silly cause I mean, as a designer, I know I will have to work with a variety of areas and be versitile. But I was thinking, does it really make any sense to want to do motion design stuff if it meant I’d be working in broadcast tv or film, when I rarely care to actually watch tv or movies? I guess I’m drawn to the sexiness of things moving around on the screen, but I wonder how well I would fit in that area, being so not that obsessed with the medium.
My animation seminar, while really interesting, has made me re-realize that its probably not what I ultimately want to do, despite my frequent “aw, I wish I was doing that.” I am still drawn to the whole things moving around on the screen, but I think I am slightly turned off by the intensely technical and tedious pipeline oriented process of animation.
What should I do? I guess my doubting is stemming from the fact that I will actually be graduating relatively soon and feel like I should have a better idea of what to do after that. I thought I sort of had a direction… but not so much any more. Wow. That was long and rambly.
(also note to self: the line lengths of these entries are too long… I should fix that.)
cars and classes
I feel like I haven’t written anything in a while.. so here are some random updates.
I applied for Flexcar because it seems like a good idea. I don’t know how it’ll all work out, but I think it should be cool. I’ve been sort of looking at them since I first got here but you have to be 21 to sign up. I’m thinking I actually should have signed up earlier this year. Would have saved myself some trouble getting around and stuff. I’ve been carless for 3 years and it hasn’t really been a problem, but for some reason this year I’m increasingly interested in being able to drive myself places again. I have been looking at buying a new car but I don’t think that will happen until I graduate. Maybe this will be a good inbetween.
I’m currently signed up for 18 credits next quarter, in classes that all end in the word “design.” Environmental Design, Interface Design, Interaction Design, and Performance Art Design. The last two would be just for fun electives and I’m really excited for both, but the idea of doing 18 credits next quarter is sort of intimidating, at least with work on top of everything. I’ve done it before, but that was pre-VCD. I have been mulling over whether it would be enough to just work considerably less hours or if I want to be working at all. I could drop the Drama class, but I think it’d be really fun. Plus I only have 2 more quarters at the UW so I feel like I should take advantage of it….
I think I’ll make pizza for dinner.
Sorry, this was a pretty lame post, I’m just bored and felt like typing.
sinking feeling
Gah. I have a terrible headache and I feel really unsure of a lot of things right now. Sometimes I feel like the more people I know the harder it is for me to really talk to any of them at any level other than trivial surface things. Or maybe that’s always been a constant thing. I don’t know…
It’ll be all smiles
And we’ll rise and we’ll sail
On the waves
Of a sinking feeling
-Roisin Murphy
