Karly Snarly, this is for you.(:
That’s what I’ve been working on most of the period. Then Collin called me over to look at his work, and I’ve been staring at Nikki, watching her work for the past seven minutes. It’s fascinating to watch her work in Photoshop.
Also, Skocko took over my computer and typed some random…stuff. Cause he’s convinced I’m not working. SO HAHA ON YOU I WAS WORKING.
I’m done. Bye.(:
Skocko had us watch something today by this guy named Ken Robinson. I liked it a lot. His British accent was quite entertaining and he brought up a lot of good points about education and the world today. He mentioned this famous choreographer who did the musical Cats, and who probably has ADHD. He said that as a child, they’d probably had prescribed her some medication and sent her on her way. He implied that if that had happened, she wouldn’t have aspired to be such a successful choreographer. I don’t quite agree with that…many people need medication to keep from losing it and killing someone. There are many disorders out there that require medication nowadays. Back in the caveman days, being violent was a good thing; it asserted dominance and guaranteed you the best food. Today it’ll get you thrown in prison. Disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder make it so those people are dangerous to their neighbors and close family. It’s best not to advertise these things because people might become afraid of you. In this case, it’s best to medicate and subdue these behaviors.
He also talked about how the educational system was flawed in the way that it is “inflating”, and students are required to maintain higher grades and achieve higher degrees just to practice law or a certain brand of medicine. I like that because it is true. He provided some helpful insight and I liked the way he talked and his view of the world. I’d like to hear more from him in the future.(:
You should check him out. The first video I was introduced to of him can be found here.
**Self portrait 2010 uploaded here.
Ahh, the new beginnings of the school year are always good. However, the first couple weeks in the Mac Lab are always tedious because we have to go over all the procedures and watch videos we’ve seen a million times again because that’s protocol (which is probably what I should be doing, but I needed to update my blog since I was negligent over the summer).
I’m looking forward to taking a few new people under my wing because I enjoy teaching Illustrator. However, Nikki Goodrich needs to teach me Photoshop because my sister wants me to edit her pictures to make them look like they were taken – and edited – by a professional photographer. She doesn’t understand how confusing Photoshop is. My sister is a freshman this year at Valhalla. I tried to convince her to take this class but no can do. She’s more interested in becoming fluent in the Spanish language. I’m going to take ASL at the college instead and that’s going to count as my foreign language.(:
You know what’s always entertaining? The freshmen who think they can get away with not watching the videos. (:
BY THE WAY! I got my new iPhone 4, finally. And it is AMAZING <3
Three of which are finals! My mom has been on my back constantly about studying.
However, I am “finished” (I put that in quotations because you’re never finished in the Mac Lab) with my ePub file and my iBook chapter. There are nine days to go until the new iPhone comes out and I’ve already reserved mine at the Apple Store in Fashion Valley. However, Grad Night is also on June 24. So Christian Lim has been teasing me with “nine days till Grad Night!” and then I have to correct him and say, “no, nine days till the new iPhone comes out!” It gets pretty heated.(:
I am also very excited for when the Mac Lab iBook comes out. I will put it on my iPhone for sure so I can show people what I mean when I tell them about my “computer class.” Most people don’t know what Illustrator is and they don’t know how someone could pay over $1,500 for a computer program. They also don’t know how much work goes into the finished product; all they see is the aftermath. They don’t know what vectors are, or what the pen tool and blob brush are and what they can do. I can just say, “hey, let me show you,” and whip out my ever-trusty iPhone 4 and show them. With the iPhone OS 4 software, of course. But the iPhone 4 already comes updated with that.(: the iPhone 3G/3GS cannot support the iBook feature yet. When the developers release iPhone OS 4 on June 22 (two days earlier than the iPhone 4 release date), the iPhone 3G will be able to support iBooks, a background on the home screen (I’m so sick of the plain black), brand new mail features, and sooo much more.
Mmkay, I’m going to stop talking your ears off and get to work!
Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 4 yesterday. I almost died, I was so happy. I am going with my friend Taylor on June 24 (the day it comes out) to the Apple Store in Fashion Valley at 6am and we are going to wait in line until the store opens at 10am. And then I am going to buy my new iPhone with my own money that I have been saving up for about four months. I am so excited, I can’t even begin to tell you. I am no good at waiting so this will be very hard for me. But I will take it day by day and then before I know it, June 24 will be here and school will be out and I will have a new iPhone in my hands!! 
Okay, so…I have fulfilled all the requirements for the final: the personal blurb to go in the iBook and I have already chosen my image that will be above my text. But I have already told you this.
Currently, I am working on tweaking my African poster, and Skocko told me yesterday that the area that was having the most trouble was the Horn of Somalia and places like that. So I will try to…work that into the poster somehow. The heart fits in one place but that place is not the place that is having the most trouble (although, the whole of Africa is struggling with AIDS but most of the genocide, I think, is taking place in Somalia and Uganda, etc).
But I sure am getting there.
-Five for Fighting
I’ve updated my About Me page because I think it deserves more. I like to think I’m more than just a blog(: Also, I’m hunting for a new theme because I’m quite sick of this one. But WordPress has very limited themes. That does not equal a happy Kate.
Also, because I have a dentist appointment after school.
So currently, I just finished my chapter in the iBook we are writing. I am going to include my ‘Live Out Loud’ piece because I like it the best and plus, it’s on the wall! First, though, I must fix the kerning and whatnot. It’s a little off. Funny, I noticed that the second it was done printing. Whatever, the iBook is more permanent than the wall, so I shall make sure it’s perfect because people will be reading it for a long time. Oh, also, I’m REALLY excited about the iPhone OS 4 software update because then, the iPhone and iPod Touch can have iBooks too! But I’ll be getting the new iPhone 4G anyway so I’ll have that and SO much more <3 Oh my gosh, I’m getting so psyched just thinking about it. This stuff makes me sleep at night when I’ve had a bad day or whatever. It’s quite comforting, knowing something in this world will keep getting better and better and can always be fixed, no matter how screwed up it is.
Okay, I must go now, because there is a very annoying fly bent on annoying the bejesus out of me so I must kill it. Bye!
Or any kind of commotion. Which is why I like the Mac Lab so much. Because the clamor in here is mostly controlled and the conversations are educated… 
for the most part. In the other classrooms in public schools, there are kids lighting perfume on fire (you know who you are) and yelling various racist comments across the room. I know this because I am the person who sits there quietly observing. I like to people watch because the way people act gives me an insight about who they are as a person. I learn how to block out the noise and just listen to someone’s conversation and omit the various obscenities. I’m not lurking (or in layman’s terms, creeping) around the corner of a dark building trying to snatch little bits of conversation. I just sit there and I listen.
This might be why I get so involved in my work. I put in my earphones and I listen to controlled, organized music that was put together by producers and singers because it makes sense. Because it is pleasing to the ear. I can stare at a computer screen for hours if I love what I’m doing, be it on Facebook or in Illustrator (of which I have yet to get my own copy). My sisters don’t get how I can sit in one place and stare at a poster because they only see what is on the surface and they move on after a few seconds. I took after my father in the way that I dissect something and I take it apart until it is nothing but words and paper. I don’t spend much time around my father because he does this to people too.
I try not to dissect people as much, because then it gets too complicated and you really mess around with what was put there in the first place. Art is easier because it came from someone’s mind, their hand, their eyes. You gain an insight into what they were feeling and what they were thinking in the first place. Sometimes you can read their whole life in one single picture. But that’s very rare, because those things, like fingerprints, are only put here on this earth once and there’s nothing exactly the same after it’s gone.
So if you can, don’t take my art at face value. It may seem simple and ridiculous at first, but there’s something underneath the typography and vectors. Some things actually don’t seem to have anything underneath them because they are words on paper. But if you break down a word, you see that it came from Latin roots or Greek roots meaning something similar. And then in the same word, there’s another root meaning something different. So think of all the different parts of the art. The thought that comes first and the rough sketching that comes next. The execution and the fixing. And then, in between all of those, the mistakes – the mistakes that make it what it is in the end.
And not here in the mornings. Don’t worry, I’ll be back (:
So I’ve been working on a couple of posters for Senior Prom on June 5th. The first one is to the left of this post. The second one, if you’re interested, is here. That one didn’t take me too long to do, so it’s not as good as the floral one. I like the floral one best but the purple is more appropriate for the theme. I hope someone else joins in to work on it cause I need some competition!(:
Just kidding, it’s not like mine’s actually going to make it onto the walls of the school. Just something fun to do. It’s nice to pretend to work for a client! Good practice for when I’m older.
I really hope the GUHSD head honcho comes around and takes a look at the menus soon. I want to know who wins, because their current menu design is…(insert descriptive word here).
Skocko told me to tweak my prom poster some more, so that’s what I”m going to do. Bye!
And I am in a bad mood today. Just in general. Nothing is really wrong, persay, but it’s just…a bad mood day.
Probably because it’s Monday. Mondays are always…unpleasant.
So basically, for the past week, I’ve been tweaking my food service menu and Skocko trashed it several time because the centering wasn’t right. And yes, that added to my bad mood, but now I am feeling happy because I am “done” with it. It probably will not get chosen but I don’t take these things personally. However, the centering is a real pain to get right. If you’d like to see the very final work, click here.
The only problem with finishing something is that you have nothing to do afterward. For truly talented people like Christian and Johnny (there are others but I don’t feel like linking to them), being bored is not an option. And what I’ve found that is if you make something very quickly and effortlessly, it usually ends up somewhere nice. Both of the things I have on the wall were made in just two or three class periods and then one more to get it just right.
Okay, bell just rang. Bye(:
And I’m in the Mac Lab(: woo! Three hours of fun has just begun.
So I’m working on the food service menu alongside Fadi George, James Wirig, Philip Behnam, and Christian Lim (there may be more but I’m only aware of these four). I’m just happy that I’m considered a contestant because any other times that I’ve “competed” to “win”, my attempts didn’t even come close. This time, I spent a lot of time on it and incorporated more colors than I’m comfortable with. I normally just like a lot of white and a splash of color here and there but this time I think I nailed it. Click here to see my WIP. The first version was actually this but I accidentally clicked on a gradient and came out with the blue one. No one (except Skocko) really liked the green one.
Usually I don’t really like long periods of time in here (even though I love this class) because my butt goes numb and I don’t really have much to do, but now that I actually have something to do it’s entertaining. Oh, and I have music so that makes it 10x better(:
