Well I'm done.

I finished my last and final semester of college. I can't believe I'm saying that really.
I've been through so much to get to the point I am where I am, I'm surprised at how well things have turned out.

I'm tempted to wait on applying for jobs because this past semester was a hard one on many levels. I'm really ready to just kick back and enjoy the summer months on cape cod not having to worry about school at all and just let my mind relax for once.

I do have a few options though that I'd like to pursue:

- I've been eyeing the Program in Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) degree from the MIT Media Arts and Sciences lab.

- Heading off to Taos, New Mexico and get a degree in Earthship Biotecture and getting involved with that community. Completely building sustainable housing from recyclable materials.

- Or going into the blossoming field of semiotics: Semiotics is the general study of sign processes, or semiosis. Semiosis makes the world meaningful. The University of Tartu in Estonia is the one of the world's centers for Semiotics.

I've also been contemplating on how to continue my research. I'm a bit of at a stand-still with it. I guess I just need to plow forward and see where it will take me. Maybe see if there are universities out there that study the esoteric, or something. We'll see what happens yet... I'm kind stumbling in the dark with it though.. I know where I'm going but I don't know what I'm looking for... Truth, sure... but as the quote on my website says, truth is contextual and changeable and dependent on point of view.  It depends on everything, where the successes come from and how I will get there. Also the main goal... well, I'll will reveal that sometime down the line especially when I start working on it.

I suppose for now I'm going to focus on trying to get hired somewhere and start building my studio. Definitely need a place to call mine :-)

We'll see. but ... time to enjoy my last week here at Moravian and in Bethlehem, Pa and enjoy the festivities.

Daily Draw: 04

Today: Knight of Swords
Tomorrow: King of Swords

Today, as expected, was mostly about communicating. Whether it was through email, or via the communications presentation, it was a day definitely ruled by the Knight of Swords. Although, I see him more of a knight who thinks outside of the box, whereas the king might be a bit more conventional.

Tomorrow, is the King of Swords. I plan on finishing my photography project as the critique is tomorrow.

Kirlian Photography 2

Awhile ago I posted a photo made with electricity. I've been doing quite a lot of them and have scanned them.

Oh and here is 'design' I did in middle school/high school.

Daily Draw: 03

Today: Page of Pentacles.
Tomorrow: Knight of Swords.

Recap: Totally a Page of Pentacles day! Busy, busy. I think pages tend to be a busy be type personality. Which, is surprising as, pentacles are slowwww. But the pentacles manifested as completely physical things. I.e: I received two packages, a business proposal, studiosouth related messages, dropped off 3 posters and my senior show stuffers, etc. Yes! I may have a potential client, though we haven't exchanged a lot of emails yet. I'm still waiting to hear back about what they are interested in. Today was totally a page of pentacles day. I would say pages are about manifesting things of a physical nature that you may or may not be expecting.

Tomorrow? Knight of Swordssssss.
The knight of words. Fast communications. Only thing that it could be referring to is that we're having a speaker come in tomorrow in Interactive. He'll be talking about creativity, and thinking out-side the box (!).

Daily Draw: 02

See? I told you I wouldn't keep up. Anyway. I'll keep doing daily draws whenever I think of it I guess.
Two days already and I haven't done it since Saturday!

I've been busy putting together Senior Art show work, which is due tomorrow and thankfully it is all done! Just gotta figure out how to truck it all over to the art department without destroying it all. :-)

For tomorrow, I drew the Page of Coins. Perfect card for submitting work. Pages are all about messengers of a practical nature. Or givers of materialistic means. I'm supposed to be submitting my work for the senior art show as well as dropping off signs for my internship.

I didn't remember on Sunday cause well I was up way past my bed time getting senior show stuff together, had a drink and promptly fell asleep.

Tonight, I plan on working on those signs and shooting the second roll of my self-portrait project so I have something to work on in Photography.  Gah! Things are starting to overlap each other... not liking it one bit.

Daily Readings: 01

I've stopped doing daily readings since I was a sophomore. But I feel the urge to do them again. I seem to have forgotten some of the personal meanings I've attached to the cards.

To start, my daily reading for tomorrow is the Ten of Swords.

In numerology numbers end at 9. And the new number cycle begins again at 10. Kabblistically, Number 10 deals with the inTENsity of some event or moment. 


All I plan on doing tomorrow is getting my work ready for the show. Ten of Swords is Tarot's way of saying that you've hit rock bottom. It is the Lord of Ruin; an unexpected, shocking and traumatic upheaval. Not the best card when I'm supposed to be getting work together for a deadline. However, perhaps that the Ten of Swords indicates the end of a cycle; as mentioned before. In the present position, this card is a confirmation that you are turning a corner and leaving behind one of the worst chapters in your life. Keep a mental image of that golden sky rising … your world is about to get brighter, as it hardly could ever be any darker than some recent dramas you have encountered. Perhaps putting together my work for the senior show is a sign that after tomorrow things will get brighter than they have been.

I sure hope so.

Sigils and the Shining Ones

Lately I've been inspired by sigils and I think I was inspired by them once upon at time because in some of them my logo can really blend in. I like the idea of creating a glyph with intent and to be applied practically.

I also came up with my photography final. I was searching for inspiration for my final and decided that I wanna try light painting. You basically let the shutter stay open 5-10 minutes while the other person draws with a laser. My inspiration for this is the Shining Ones;

"Shining Ones" is the Imperial term for the ancient, psionically powerful race which preceded most of Imperial civilization. We know about them solely through the artifacts and structures which they have left behind, most of which have been buried or destroyed by natural ecological processes in the five hundred thousand years estimated to have passed since the time of their civilization's fall.

As there have been no living or dead Shining Ones – even skeletal remains – yet discovered, our understanding of the appearance of these beings is based purely on speculation gleaned from their architecture. It appears that the Shining Ones were bilaterally symmetrical bipedal beings, ranging from four to seven feet in height. They wore clothing of many kinds, suited to fit a being with two manipulatory appendages and two legs. It is likely they had a head perched on their torso above their manipulatory appendages, as well; research indicates that this was the place where their visual sensory organs were located judging from the height of visually interesting items in their remaining buildings.
Oddly, no depictions of the Shining Ones themselves remain amongst their artifacts and structures, although many visual representations of technology, architecture, animals, and other things have been found amongst the ruins of their civilization.

http://www.skotos.net/games/succession/encyclopedia/shiningones.shtml

Amnesty International

 

This past Wednesday night I met Folabi Olabaju, the Mid Atlantic regional director of Amnesty International. I believe I blogged about the poster I did for the individuals at risk campaign and apparently everyone in that class did a poster and Folabi wanted to meet everyone. Mine was displayed along with six or so others at this event. 

Kirlian Photography

For my Alternative Photography class I am doing Kirlian Photography which is essentially photograms made with electricity instead of the nuclear energy of the sun. The above is my absolutely favorite photo of the bunch that I did recently. The effect really should be done in color on a Polaroid but those are expensive and hard to find, so I used what I had which was traditional black and white. While at my station one day I realized that photograms are really no different than arranging text and images in a photoshop document. Instead of using text and images I am using life and light to design an image.

Honors Posters

As part of project manager for studio south I had to make sure 20 something posters were printed and designed within a month. Last year we got about 27 posters in a span of five days and was so disorganized I didn't know anyone's skills so I had to do most of them to make sure the students' got them. This year we got a bit more organized and was a lot less stressful. It was rough at the end as one of the designers claimed they didn't get the schedule of dates for the project... and threw the poster together last minute. Above is the poster I did, sorry it the picture is a bit blurry I took it with my ipod. :-)

Phew!

Well I might be able to get some kind of a break soon. But considering I'm taking 2 photography classes, my available time is very limited these days. The epic honors poster project is over and completed with very little hassle this year. There was some drama but it has been put to rest. Phew!

In my historic photo processes 2 class (or as the department says, Alternative Photography 1) I am doing two processes. The kirlian process that uses high voltage to photograph the energetic pattern of an object and anthotypes that use the chlorophyll in plants to make an image. The anthotypes I might end up doing towards the end of the semester just because it needs live material to make it work and its winter right now.

My other photography class is just an intro to traditional black and white photography. Its been going well so far just been a bit frustrating getting the focus right.

I haven't really had all too much time to do a whole lot of new research but I have been conceptualizing about a huge project I've been dreaming about for months. This project I am serious about doing and hope to work on once I graduate in my free time. One of the things I loved about learning in college was learning the processes and thinking behind projects we do here. As a kid my projects never turned out the way I imagined because I never had a good process for them. I also love that I see Design principles in every day life. It makes it easy for me to connect what I am learning in college to things in every day life.

Last evening I was in the graphics lab finishing up honors and I was looking on my external hard drive for photos for my historic processes class and I found an old document on the Sumerian language stored on there. Don't ask me where I found this. Probably in on of my research expeditions. But, boy, is the Sumerian language complex. Every letter and vowel is an actual word or phrase in the language, differentiated by an accent to mean something else entirely! Yikes. But I learned how to say, "Hello my name is Kristi" in Sumerian. Silim, mu šè Kristi. Which really means, "Hello, Call me Kristi."

John Legend is coming to school and I was asked to do a poster for the event. Kelsey King drew the illustration I colored and put the typography.

Sad Week

For some reason the events of last weekend have struck me differently than I think I expected. They have reactivated some of the days during high school when whenever the vice principle announced the death of a fellow student due to suicide. One day, once a year in high school we learned about a death of a fellow student. Those memories came back and hit me like a brick when I heard about Kirsli's tragedy. The feelings of being shocked and the sadness; feelings of confusion and feeling a bit lost.

Its the same kind of emotions I think. While a fatal accident is not the same as a suicide, the emotions created from such an sudden event are the same I think. While I never was friends with any of the people who committed suicide, it affected the people around me.

One kind of lives in a bubble and they go through life thinking that how can anything puncture that perfect bubble that they have built around themselves. And then something so sudden such as a suicide or fatal accident pops that bubble and shakes and shatters the very foundation of your life. I know, I've seen it; several times before. Its not pretty and its very difficult.
 

Student Union Internship

So because the academic administration messed up my senior year, I was forced to do an on campus internship. I live six hours away from school and I don't have a car on campus cause it costs like $230 a year for a parking pass. I wasn't planning on coming back senior spring semester so I didn't buy a parking pass. Now I'm back, and really don't mind being back, but at the same time I could be doing an off campus internship somewhere.

Anyway, I decided to do an on campus internship because A) I needed courses to be considered a full time student and since I basically took everything I'm doing this internship and 2 photo classes. B) To brush up my skills even more...

So one of the things I'm working on is doing graphics for an event that the Student Union here is putting on. This year is its' 50th anniversary. They are celebrating by having a 60's themed event since it was built in the 60's. I was like, "Oh great. 60's so over done..." so since its in March I decided to go with the flower power kind of theme.

I'm hoping to do a more fulfilling internship during the summer somewhere if I don't get a job right away.

Yay new semester!

So, its a new semester and lots has happened since jan 10!

I took my French CLEP exam and missed it by 4 points so I have ended up signing up for French III which I haven't been too happy about as I've got my senior art stuff to focus on. 

I'm still fighting to get the credit transferred and there's a big possibility that my Umass professor may just up the grade so it will get transferred over.

And so now I am having my hypothyroid medication adjusted and they doubled it. So I'm like wired without having caffeine. Its a weird feeling. Anyway, also been experiencing a bit of a second spiritual awakening (lol) as everything I thought was normal with me has been a slow on coming symptom of low hypothyroidism and who knows how long this has been going on for. As long as I've been alive possibly.

Stupid low hypothyroid messing up my childhood ... heh...

Anyway, perhaps I'll lead a relatively normal adult life now that I've got energy and my brain back. It causes mental dullness/confusion so it may or may not have caused my supposed mental disability (!) I don't know.... I don't know anything anymore about myself...

I'm excited to switch my focus a bit more to my photography classes though it seems that I have a nice balance of photography and graphic design stuff to do this semester. I'm excited especially with this new found energy...


I also figured out a way to make that visual language I had in mind. Just gotta figure out how to do it.

Finally!!

So I have finally time to sit down and write a decent post. Been awhile.
What's happened this month? A LOT.

The week after thanksgiving I began to feel sick. Loss of appetite, extreme weakness and fatigue. I had it for the entire week and went to the health center by Friday. They tell me that I have Viral syndrome basically a virus that hasn't manifested yet and told me to sleep and rest over the weekend. Well I did that, and kind of got better, but it didn't really go away. While I was at the health center I made an appointment with the doctor for Monday. Monday I go see him and he tells me its anxiety and then tells me I should go to the hospital Tuesday morning to get an AKG, heart monitor and bloodwork done. I flipped out since this was now during the final week of classes and for me, all of my art finals happened in about a span of a week.

I broke down at the health center cause I could not deal with something like that. I don't know the area of Bethlehem all too well, since I don't have a car, my travel distance is kind of limited to the campus distance. I had a whole bunch of projects to do in a span of five days since that monday and it wasn't that I didn't feel like I could not do them, it was my sickness stressing me out even more because I had no strength to work on them. Bad day that monday? Yes.

My portfolio seminar class was supposed to go and have a book making workshop that afternoon but thankfully it got moved. But I couldn't make any decisions myself since I had pretty much lost my mind. I went to my prof for that class and got a bit of an extension and found out that our final critique time wasn't until Tuesday of finals week. Phew, I've got the weekend to work on the book.

I decided not to go to most of my classes that week, since I had no strength whatsoever. I ended up not going to the hospital since I couldn't think straight and really didn't have the time during an already crunched schedule, so I waited until I got home.

I finished my art finals and studied for my sociology final which I got a B- on. But then I was handed back a book review and was accused of plagiarizing that paper!! FOR REAL. As a hobby researcher I should know better than NOT to plagiarize! I got an F for the assignment but not a Zero, but anyway, I didn't get another F because it was combined with a presentation that my group got an A on. I SWEAR my professor had something against me. He was one of the most arrogant professors I have EVER had. UGH. But thankfully I passed sociology. After the final, I broke down again in my room about the accusation and I couldn't do anything about it. I had spoken to my prof right after the final since he was going on Sabbatical and he said to me, "There's nothing you can do about it now". I emailed the deans and they couldn't do anything about it either since my prof didn't file charges for it. So he won either way. FUCK HIM.


And no, I didn't plagiarize. I wrote those 5 fucking pages myself, granted there were a few things that were incorrect fact and grammar wise, but it probably felt disjointed because I wrote it while under severe anxiety.... sigh.

So. I finish the semester with a straight B+ average except for sociology which I got C-.
I go home and do the bloodwork and they tell me that I have an inactive hypothyroid, so now I am being medicated for it for the rest of my life. Yay for getting my energy and life back??

Class Schedule

Schedule for this fall

Monday:

Morning:N/A
Afternoon: 1:10 PM - 2:20 - His Modern & Design
Evening: N/A

Tuesday:

Morning: 8:30 - 11:30 AM - Artists' as activits
Afternoon: 2:35 PM - 3:45 - Intro to Sociology
Evening N/A (TR 4:00 PM-4:45 PM; PHED 124 B)

Wednesday:

Morning: 9:00 - 12:00 - Portfolio Seminar
Afternoon: N/A
Evening: N/A (W 7:00 PM-8:15 PM; PHED 142 B)

Thursday:

Morning: N/A
Afternoon: 2:35 PM - 3:45 - Intro to Sociology
Evening: N/A (TR 4:00 PM-4:45 PM; PHED 124 B)

So early this summer I learned that my adviser is going abroad to be researching, fine, but now i also learned the other professors that I had who I also thought would be teaching my classes have changed. I will have hardly any professors I have had before. This makes things a bit of a challenge. I do not know them at all, and it will be very hard to predict how difficult they'll be or easy and a waste of time they'll be. What a semester I thought I'd enjoy, has turned into a semester that I may actually be dreading. I am SO unhappy about this.