Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

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Back to WordPress

After about a month, I’ve decided to point my domain back to my own server instead of using Tumblr. I’ve been dabbling more with WordPress on my other project websites, and I missed being able to work with it on something completely personal like this domain. It’s also a little weird to get personal on Tumblr when the community mostly seems to be about reblogging interesting or funny things. Which is awesome and fun and I love it! But I missed having a more personal outlet.

Designer at heart.

I also missed customizing my design. I’ve been on a weird bender lately with designing and building projects (overhaul of silencia.net and creating bitchin.me), and felt “inspired”, so to speak, to redesign ohsoang.com. So here it is. Still needs some work. There are a couple minor glitches in Firefox and IE (bleh!). I’m still not sure what to do with the footer, so it’s a bit random and messy.

I’d also like to figure out how to get 2 widgetized sidebars. Right now, only the right column is the widgetized sidebar, and I’d like to have the left also work like that. Twitter’s default widget is hideous! Widgetized footer too, for that matter. ;) I’ve been spoiled with themes on my other websites using WordPress. That’s the best way to learn though, right? Tearing apart existing things and seeing how they work.

Thanks to those themes, I’ve gotten into dabbling with Google Web Fonts. On this page now, you see Droid (general text) and Waiting for the Sunrise (headings). Fun! And my favorite price: free.

New*bee!

After years and years, I finally joined the Quilting Bee. I think I was only an approved member for a day before I was digging full-hog into the Present Hunt activity and creating free*bee patches and even a Pixel Train car (mine is the rollerskate). I’m a newb to the “pixeling” world. I also designed and built my own Quilt page. I’m not kidding: I’m on some weird web project bender! I can’t explain it, but I’m running with it. Maybe it’s due to my holiday break from uni?

School’s out!

Speaking of, I got a “B” in European Impressionism & Post-Impressionism (art history) and Photography Alternative Processes, and an “A” in Design Technology and Typography. Huzzah for me. The photo class was all about creating cyanotype prints, which royally kicked my ass for the past couple of months. I never want to do that again! I’m all-digital now, damnit. I do not have the patience for cyanotypes.

So here I am.

Back at my old WordPress stomping grounds. More things to come? I’ll be working on my other pages, as well as doing some more tweaks to the design. Be a peach and subscribe?

Saturday, December 31st, 2011
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Education, Internet, Tech | 8 Comments »

Who are the 99 percent?

“I did everything I was supposed to and I have nothing to show for it.”

It’s not the arrests that convinced me that “Occupy Wall Street” was worth covering seriously. Nor was it their press strategy, which largely consisted of tweeting journalists to cover a small protest that couldn’t say what, exactly, it hoped to achieve. It was a Tumblr called, “We Are The 99 Percent,” and all it’s doing is posting grainy pictures of people holding handwritten signs telling their stories, one after the other.

More at the source.

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Posted in Education, Health, Justice, Money, Politics, Quotes | 1 Comment »

Back to school.

The exciting world of a new semester at university. Thus begins my second year at the U. My classes:

  • Design Technology I. The syllabus tells me this class is wayyyy below my skill level. At the end of the semester, we’ll be using Dreamweaver to code a webpage! :-O Gasp! The scariest part of that will be fighting every urge I have to re-code it by hand and blowing everyone away with my mad CSS skills. Gotta love spending many thousands of dollars on learning… nothing.
  • Typography I. This class will be interesting and fun. I’ve been excited to take this class since the beginning of last year, but they force you to take classes in a certain order instead of letting you actually learn something useful when you’re already way ahead of everyone.
  • Photography II: Alternative Processes. Another class I’m not too excited about, but if I want a Photography minor, I have to take it. It sounds like it’ll be an entire semester of printing photos in “cyanotype”. I’m not sure why they have alternative processes as plural since it’s just the one process. A whole semester of blue pictures. Excitement abounds. The teacher is a total crunchy-granola artsy type, which is extra annoying.
  • European Art History: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. It feels a little weird to be excited for this class, but I love the teacher. In fact, the only reason I took this particular class (besides for my Art History minor) is because she was teaching it. She’s just so passionate about everything she teaches and makes it interesting. No drab history here. It sounds like I’ll be writing several papers, but I think I’ll survive.

Among beginning all these classes, I’m trying to plan another trip to Italy in October to visit my sailor while he’s on leave. Hopefully it can come together. I’ve emailed all my teachers about wanting to get anything due while I’m gone done ahead of time so I don’t have anything late or missing. Maybe I won’t get straight A’s this semester, but I think that’d be a small price to pay. As long as I pass everything. Two of my four teachers have responded positively. So, fingers crossed that it’ll happen! I’m missing him somethin’ fierce. And the pizza. But mostly the sailor.

Friday, September 16th, 2011
Posted in Education, Travel | 3 Comments »

Another semester: aced.

Looks like I aced all four of my classes this spring semester. Huzzah! I finally declared a couple of minors: photography and art history. Photography would be useful for taking my own decent pictures to use on websites. Art history not so much useful, I just find it fascinating as hell. More the history you can glean from the art than the art itself. I’d be glad never to see another Mary and Jesus painting or sculpture. Sheesh. Overkill.

Still on the hunt for web projects and/or clients. If you know anyone who needs a website, or some work on a website, or a sweet Flash animation… You know where to find me. ;)

Lately I’ve been trying to hash out an idea for a web project that I can make money with, and less on hunting up clients for whom to make websites. Nothing big in the works, but ideas churning. I’m also working on studying up my HTML/CSS coding skillz, as I’m a bit rusty. It’s all coming back easily, so I’m getting back up on shaky legs. Slow and steady.

I will hopefully be taking a trip to Italy in July. Fingers crossed! I haven’t been making much money for awhile, so it will be tricky to figure it all out. I’m studying up on everything I’ll need to have in place to go. And studying freakin’ Italian. Mi dispiace, non parlo l’italiano! If only I was going somewhere they speak Spanish. I’d probably still sound retarded, but I know more words than Italian.

I feel like a bit of an asshole. I was checking out the list of domains that link to my website through my analytics and webmaster tools stuff. Turns out there are a bunch of cool people linking to me, and I had no idea. So you cats are all linked up from my side now!

Fun video:

Friday, June 10th, 2011
Posted in Business, Education, Travel, Videos | 1 Comment »

Uni is my bitch.

Oh, hello there, faithful reader. So, fall semester I scored 2 As and 3 B+s. Not too shabby! My spring semester started on Tuesday. I’ve got Photography, Theater Arts, Digital Mixed Media Studio, and Art History (Renaissance to now-ish). I wanted a screen-printing class, but it apparently is full and the wait-list I was on is a no-hope. I inquired about another class that I may take, if I can take it at my level of schooling. Twelve credits is still full time, but it feels like a waste to not get 15 this semester. I want to graduate ASAP! And I don’t want to take painting or ceramics because I hate doing that stuff. It’s just not for me!

Last month, I had an interview with a potential client. A design company who might take me on a project-by-project basis. Fingers crossed they hire me for something! Tomorrow I have an interview with an organization within my uni, looking for a graphic designer. Fingers crossed I can blow them away with my real-world experience and design prowess!

Not much going on other than that. My winter break I spent sleeping, sleeping, playing LOTRO, sleeping, and… playing LOTRO. Best break ever! :-D

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Posted in Education, Work | 1 Comment »

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