7 posts tagged “school”
yesterday morning at 10:40 am I had my final critique with the art department. a solo, one vs. five affair that lasted a clean 20 minutes. they had no band things to say about my senior project (yes!) and were captivated by these tiny collages I made in addition to my cnn drawings (swell!). that is all taken care of. one paper and one final left until freedom (so close).
the rest of the day was spent waiting in a stand-still line for 3 hours to get tickets for the various events during senior week and catching up on lost sleep from the night before. There was a heady heat outside of AC territory, and at times it felt like northern new york had suddenly become kansas.
Our school has this tradition called 'Primal Scream' that happens at midnight the night before finals start. It happens both semesters; students collect around the central quad between all of the dorms, and when midnight strikes everyone explodes in a collective, cathartic scream. If you came upon the scene with no understanding of what was going on, it would probably appear to resemble a campus-wide sacrifice. Not to mention, following all the screaming a herd of naked seniors come running around the dorms. A good handful of my friends decided last minute to participate in the nekkid bits, but I decided to keep it on the down low and just watched them run around instead.
It was a surreal night, followed by a heavy, solid, duration of sleep. I'll be done in a week. Is that scary or what?
Things that were accomplished yesterday:
- Attended my very last class of college. It was a lecture on Vermeer. Not bad.
- Collected my final drawings and wrote a final script. Turned in my Media Studies thesis.
- Bought myself (and my house) a congratulatory gift.
- Took a nap.
- Celebrated with said gift in the company of good and great friends.
- Took a hardcore sleep.
- Finish my Studio Art thesis.
- Finish a 10-page paper on Tank Girl.
- Take a Dutch and Flemish painting final.
- Party hard.
- Graduate.
Last night we finally experienced our first legitimate snow.
In lueu of such an exciting event, my housemate Kevin and his friend frolicked in our snow covered backyard and designed a special (interesting?) treat that we called 'First Snow Sundae'
- Using a large metal kitchen bowl, scoop up a large amount of fresh snow immediately following snowfall
- Get really excited about the potential of mixing delicious things in snow to make it taste good
- Add the following ingredients (improvisation encouraged)
- melted chocolate
- cinnamon
- brown sugar
- vanilla extract
- popcorn
- carmelized sugar
- peanut butter
- maple syrup
5. Make a mess, but relish in eating fresh snow with a touch of sweet
6. Consume soggy popcorn, and realize half way through that maybe this didn't work out as well as planned
7. Leave half eaten First Snow Sundae outside of female housemate's room so she can encounter what looks like a bowl of soggy, brown colored soup first thing in the morning.
Fortunately I chose courses this semester that shyed away from any test finals. Unfortunately that means more papers and projects. Here's an inside on what I've manged to finish and what I have left to go before I go holiday crazy!
- 1 Painting II Final Painting (check)
- 1 Presentation on Media Technology: How the Facebook interface may impact social interactions (check)
- 1 Paper on my experience at MTV Games (pseudo check)
- 1 Paper on Body Modification Culture and Authorship of the Body
- 1 Annotated Bibliography in preparation for my thesis on Avatars and the Remediation of Identity
Meanwhile, I'm cozied up in Brooklyn, sipping hot chocolate and simultaneously prepping for what the winter holiday has to offer. Such. As:
- gift shopping for the sibbies and the folks
- seeing the boys and the girls of the yay area
- brushing up on my hyphy material
- starting my senior projects/senior thesis
- reading graphic novels for my graphic novel seminar
- going to the holiday foo bar (!!!)
- new years in San Francisco, having a riot of a time
!!! Back to work. Again! (oh vox, why are you such an adequate vehicle for procrastination!)
I attended my very first course of the semester this morning which has already launched my semester into an interesting twist. The course is 'Mass Media and Society', a cross-over class under both the Media Studies department (which is one of my majors) and the Sociology department. Our very first assigment (along with the reading of Mcluhan and Zengotita) is to have a week long 'Mass Media fast' in which we are encouraged to strictly avoid all forms of Mass Media for an entire week, recording our successes, faults, and responses in a week long journal. The only acceptable condition in which we can engage with 'mass mediated' vehicles is if we need them for academic or job-related purposes. If we are under the condition where we 'cheat', then we need to be honset about it and record it.
I could start this assignment by making a smart-ass argument that as a
Media Studies major I am under academic necessity to expose myself to
all aspects of Media on a daily basis and that the same effect of the
assignment could be achieved by recording every single mass mediated
action. Then again, I am in need to develop that argument further
before I decide to entirely blow off the assignment (which could come
off as unfavorable in the eyes of my professor). Regardless, this
post is my first cheat of the 'fast' so there may be a temporary lull
in my vox activity for the next week or so. My second cheat will
come later when I will play We Love Katamari and watch a documentary
with the boyfriend (who is only visiting for another few days) later on
this evening. Furthermore, tomorrow I am attending an orientation
for my internship this semester that, under the line of business it is
associated, woudl qualify my very standing in the building as exposing
myself to mass media. That action I can at least relate to job
and/or academic necessity.
I am, however, more interested in determining the limits and bounds of
what can be defined as 'mass media' for this assignmett at this point
as opposed to the actual fast of media. We will see what happens
later on in the week.
I have made it to the east and it is wet. It has been pouring all day long as the entire student body moves on to campus. Only after I have moved everything into the kitchen, picked up my keys, had an official 'back to campus' party evening, and recieved three backed up issues of Wired from my school mailbox do I have time to post. The desk is set, the speakers at moderate blast, my keychain is full but my room is empty, and this is only the beginning. There is much left to do.
Leaving home was a bit more difficult than I had
imagined. Everyone from work gave me a tremendously warm goodbye,
and I still wish that I didn't have to clear my desk and run so quickly
back home on the 5:30 train that evening. Immediatly after, I
drove to have my last family dinner at a favorite Chinese restaurant
Chef Chu's. Both of my siblings then left the house for the
evening before I left; my brother was in socal for his freshman year
orientation and my sister was at her first highschool's dance.
Packing to leave a vacant house is somewhat unsettling, so I took the
opportunity that evening to get a few snapshots of the dying hours of
sunlight that hung over my backyard all summer.
Its always hard to follow up an incredible summer with a window view
of soggy lawns and dripping street lamps. I'm not entirely in my
element yet, but I know I will have to get on the boat and start racing
before I can get my senses together. I've only been here
two days and I already have four meetings set up for thursday and
friday. It's going to be a long semester but its going to go quick.
