2003 Year-end review

Hooray for 2004! Time for the 2003 year-end review...

-2003 rolled in with winter term, rebuilding the furnace, and blissful blissful free time. Sitting quietly and watching D Flo, Brendan, Eric, and others play Gauntlet for 12-18 hours each day was like heaven. Heaven I tell you!

-Spring term was quiet front-loaded, and I remember most of the beginning was spent preparing for SETC, which was a great and fun experience. I'm really glad I went, and hope to go again this year.

-Getting the job at Berkshire was a great relief in the spring, because it meant I had no foreboding worries about the summer. It was also helpful that my scheduling for school worked out perfectly, and that I was able to get my first choice in campus housing for the next year. That spring term really was apologizing for all the hard stuff I'd had to do before, I think.

-The summer and The Berkshire Theatre Festival. I'm so glad i took that internship; I learned so much, had tons of fun, and that's where I met and developed my initial friendship with Carleton.

-Fall came around and school was tough, but I started dating Carleton, which was a big deal for me. Like, it goes down in the "Notable events of Lisa's Life" section.

-New Year's Eve. Hanging out with Brendan and Maria. Playing video games. I always have a rough time at New Year's parties, because I don't drink, and many of my friends who do would rather do that than sit and play video games. This year I decided to have fun, and I feel bad for not seeing Darren or Will, but I will see them again, and I actually had fun this year! Woohoo!

2004 is looking out to be scary and exciting, as graduation and for-really-real life is right on the horizon. I'm ready for it, though, i think. Hope everyone has a great year!

Must be Gremlins...

Today I went and used the art supply store gift certificate I got for Christmas. I picked up some colored pencils and some watercolors.

Now, I had purchased a set of watercolors a long time ago, and used them now and again, and then one day found they'd gone missing. Before buying a replacement set, I gave them a year to show up. I looked in every conceivable place, at home and at school, and gave it plenty of time to pull that "Oh, I'm going to show up now that you aren't actually looking for me" stunt. A year later and still no sign, so I figured it was safe to buy some more.

I'd be willing to bet money that now that I've bought a new set, the old one will magically appear in a place I've looked a thousand times before.

In other weird news, my parents' keyboard is acting very strange. Sometimes weird things type out on their own. You know how sometimes you type something and it doesn't show up right away, then later it all types out at once? Kinda like that. Maybe there's some ghost trapped in my parents' computer, trying to contact me with secret messages. Very odd.

Meeeemorieeeees

Even though I was a total slug yesterday, I've been getting some work accomplished today. I've been going through my piles of stored junk and sorting it...stuff to keep, stuff to find a new home for, stuff to throw away, stuff to store...that sort of thing

I'm particularly proud of myself for finally getting my large pile of photos dated and organized into an album and an "extra" box, it took up the bulk of the morning. Dating pictures is one of those things that I hate doing, but know I'll regret later if I don't do it. Nice to have that pile finished with.

After sorting together a bunch of random papers and bits of memories--programs, newspaper clippings, notes, etc.--I pondered, "What can I do with all these scraps of things?" Scrapbook, duh >_< So that's another project to contend with, though I think it will be a good one. I love keeping stuff for memories, but have no good way of storing it beyond throwing a bunch of papers in a box; a scrapbook would work nicely.

Another big project will be going through my piles of notebooks and school papers. I keep EVERYTHING, right down to high school, because I like to go through my papers and snip out the little doodles I've drawn. My papers have backed up considerably through college, so I'd like to get through them quickly so I can cut out the drawings and doom the piles of paper to recycling.

I've already cleared up several storage boxes--only to be refilled with different items, of course, but oh well. Well, back to cleaning, I suppose.

Loot

Another holiday completed. Christmas this year was very pleasant, in spite of my initial sadness due to lack of Carleton. Crazy family time kept me busy and my mind off it.

I got a few books I'd wanted, some other nice things, and my mom got me yarn (so I can knit her a scarf ¬_¬ ). I enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and spent the evening with some friends from high school I hadn't seen in awhile.

Now that the holiday is over I am overwhelmed by the fact that I still have a week of break left. I have a feeling I will get little accomplished, as I am very tired.

I am excited about winter term, it should be fun to design props and make puppets and such, and it will be nice to have no evening obligations. However, I feel I'll spend most of that time sleeping and resting. I suppose there is a possibility I will suddenly become motivated, perhaps work on figuring out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life, and all that. So much to think about, so exhausting.

I suppose I'll postpone thinking about all those big things a bit longer, and just work on thinking about what I should buy with my gift certificate to the art supply store.

Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Carleton's visit was awesome. Granted, most of it was spent playing Final Fantasy X, but all the better to have time to waste playing video games. We did manage to make it out to visit all my friends, and had very tasty meals thrust upon us. Granted, I was sad to see him off this morning, but the fact that it's Christmas helped to cheer me up.

That, and the fact that I still have the rest of Christmas break left! Woowoo! Maybe I will get that site redesign underway...or at least get some cleaning done.

Stay safe and warm on the holidays, everyone!

Cake!

One final down, two to go. The OS exam was ultimately cake, and I'm glad I studied the Dining Philosophers problem, it made a would-be tricky problem very easy.

Carleton will be here in 7ish hours. So close, yet so far, ack! I want to finish my art history paper in the meantime, and finish cleaning, and study a bit for Compilers...but I'm so antsy and excited!

The term is certainly winding down nicely.

Politics?

For people like me, who often have no idea where to even start thinking about politics, this was a nice little quiz. Nice, at least, to give me an idea of where to start researching (and they have helpful informative links! Woo!). Unfortunately, it says that even if your highest scoring candidate is in the 80's or below, their actions in office will likely disappoint more often than not. Doh!! >_<


Your Results:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%) Click here for info
2. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (71%) Click here for info
3. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (69%) Click here for info
4. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (65%) Click here for info
5. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (61%) Click here for info
6. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (57%) Click here for info
7. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (51%) Click here for info
8. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (44%) Click here for info
9. Libertarian Candidate (39%) Click here for info
10. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (35%) Click here for info
11. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (28%) Click here for info
12. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (27%) Click here for info
13. Bush, President George W. - Republican (18%) Click here for info
14. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (5%) Click here for info

Art Rant

I am taking an art history class. The course is entitled "Northern Mannerist and Baroque Art." Now, the casual observer might make the mistake of assuming that in this class one would learn about Northern Mannerist and Baroque art. Perhaps you would talk about Mannerism until the middle of the term, then talk about the Baroque the second half of the term. That seems like a logical assumption, right? Ha! Fools!

We started off the class talking about the Northern Renaissance in the lowlands, because, of course, it is important to know about the Renaissance before talking about Mannerism, so you know where it came from. A few weeks worth of classes, actually, just to be sure. Around midterms, we were finally getting into Mannerism in the lowlands, and as we neared its end, with the Baroque and Peter Paul Rubens right on the horizon, what do we do? We go back to Germany. We go back to *before* the Renaissance in Germany.

Then we get into the Renaissance in Germany, and talk about Albrecht Durer. Now, I'm as big a Durer fan as the next girl, and I know it's important to talk about him to see where later German mannerism comes from, but we spend class after class after class on Durer. Then we touch on German mannerism. Then student presentations.

Now, in the last week of class, we FINALLY get to Peter Paul Rubens. We have two days to talk about the Baroque. TWO FRICKIN DAYS!!!!!!! AGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Be aware this is no new phenomenon. When I took the second art history survey class, which was to cover Medieval to Modern art, we got stuck in the Renaissance again, and barely scraped Baroque at the end. Look, I like the Renaissance and all, I know it's important, and I know it's Dr. Levin's "thing," but as a senior art major, I feel *severely* under-educated in the realm of art history. Ask me anything about the Renaissance, Italian or Northern, and I can probably answer, but Romanticism? Impressionism? Modernism? I am utterly clueless.

And it pisses me off.

But, alas, such is one of the disadvantages to going to a teeny tiny liberal arts college. I wish Sheldon could have taught an art history class. Art history with Sheldon would have been an awesome adventure, if museum trips with him is any indication of his presentation of the material.

Bleh

*end rant*

Hooray for Fire!

Last night I worked a shift out at the Anagama Kiln. It was very fun!


Every year, the ceramics department and local potters build this giant, one-chamber wood-firing kiln and fill it with lots of pieces. The ash from the burning wood forms a natural glaze on the pieces, and the kiln is fired for 4 days. To keep the fire stoked, students and local potters volunteer to work shifts around the clock. I'd never done this before, but thought I'd give it a shot (I even made a little dragon sculpture to sneak into the kiln amidst all the large pots and vessels).

The kiln is very large, and kind of resembles the head of a dragon (appropriately shooting fire out of its mouth), which I thought was really neat. It's hard to tell because my shift was from 6 to midnight, so it's quite dark.




I thought it was going to be a lot of work, because we had to stoke the fire every few minutes. However, each stoke we alternated between feeding the front of the kiln and feeding the sides, so there was plenty of downtime (enough to sneak in a few roasted marshmallows ^_^)



My shift was still pretty early in the process, though, and by Sunday they will be stoking continuously. It's really neat then, because the whole structure is nearly aflame. Maybe I can get some pictures of it from years past, because it looks really neat.

Ultimately, it was like sitting around a giant campfire for 6 hours, keeping it aflame I got a ton of knitting done, and it was great to have a huge block of time to just sit and do nothing. The company was good too; Carissa was there on my shift, as were 3 potters from Lexington, Louisville, and Indiana. I didn't know any of them, but they were all friendly and good company.