Thursday, May 26, 2005

95

I got a 95 on the paper I handed in on Monday!!! I took my mid-term exam yesterday (man that seems like so long ago), and haven't got my grade back yet. I hope I did well, and I'll let you all know what I got when I hear back from him. I have another paper due a week from Monday. We have to go to LACMA and find two pieces of art and do a 5 page comparrison essay. Oh boy.

I spent just about all day at school today. I had three techincal assignments due and my re-submit of my first assignment that I got a F on. I had until 4:00 to get them turned in, got to the school around 11:00 and was out of there by 3:00. Went home and studied my shutter speeds, ISO, and apertures for a quiz tonight in class. Left for class around 5:30 and just got home around 9:40. I studied so stink hard and did fine at home, but man once I got that in front of me I froze. I did ok, just got two things wrong, which is much better than what I have been doing.

Wooohooo a long weekend. I was all set to sleep in tomorrow and just kick back, and eventually this weekend shoot my assignment that is due on Thursday, but Daryl suggested going to LACMA tomorrow instead of next week so that way we have more time to write the paper...good thinking, but there goes my sleeping in idea. Guess I'll just have to go to bed a bit earlier tonight, I'm shooting for before midnight. We are leaving here at 9:00 again to miss some of the traffic in LA. I'll take some pictures and hopefully get them up along with the ones from the Getty soon.

Ok going to read and then crash for the night.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Studying

Sorry its been a while, I've been really busy with school.

On Friday Daryl, Tim, Adoni and I went to the Getty for our field trip...that place is amazing (I'll post some pictures eventually). Our assignment was to find a piece of art that we "participated" with and write a four page descriptive and interpretive essay. I picked Monet's Sunrise (Marine), not the easiest piece to find information on but I did it (thanks to Sue and Mandy for help and encouragement. Friday night Mandy and I had dinner with her mom and then went to the college group, which was awesome this week. We hung out with Ben for a little bit and watched Sweet Home Alabama, as I attempted my paper (didn't get very far).

Saturday I worked on my paper a little more (still didn't get very far), and tried to figure out what shutter speeds, ISO and aperture I needed to use for my next three assignments. Mandy and I went to the beach...I got a tan!!! I finally made it to the beach when it was actually day time. There were these guys kind of near us who were attempting to surf but didn't do very well, so they just decided to kick back on the beach and have a few...then attempted to walk in flippers and kept falling flat on their faces in the sand. It was pretty entertaining. Saturday night we just hung out and made dinner, it felt so good to cook a real meal again.

Sunday was church, which was really good, and then we went to Beyond Sunday, a concert that had Tree 63, Beside the tree and Tait. All of which were pretty good and we got some more sun. Finally Sunday night I got back to my paper. I was up til about 3:00 in the morning with Mandy trying to get it done, and well at that point nothing was working, so I went to bed and woke up at 7:30 to finish it. Have I mentioned how much I dislike papers? But its done, I turned it in last night.

Yesterday I had class and was exhausted from the night before. Came home had something to eat and said I was going to get some rest but never did. I have to study for my mid-term that is on Wednesday (which I should go and do that again soon). Its for my cultural studies class, nine chapters and lectures...it's 70 questions and two short essays. Went to home group last night and was up until about 1:00 this morning trying to study, and that's just about all I've been doing today, studying ~ Guess I should get back to that now.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

I got an F

Yup you read the title of this one right, but I'm fine with it actually. My first photo assignment that I did wrong the first time, well guess what...I did it wrong the second time around. Hahaha. I knew after I handed it in and we got to class that it was wrong but had no way to change it. But thankfully we get to re-shoot any assignment we didn't get an A on, sooo this weekend I will be working on that along with my four page paper and also I have three more photo assignments that are due by next Thursday, and mid-term in my cultural studies class. But some good new, we had to hand in our second photo assignment today and this one got critiqued in front of the class on a nice large screen, and mine went very well. She only said one thing about one of my twelve pictures, I had a little bit of flare in one of the corners! So hopefully I'll get a better grade on this one, if not I can always re-shoot it.

Anyway I should get to bed, have to go to the Getty tomorrow! Then off to Mandy's tomorrow night, we are going for Chinese Food!!!!!! And then the beach on Saturday (yes I will be writing my paper too) and a home cooked meal on Saturday night, I'm so excited.

Brian came by tonight and brought me leftover pizza, jalapeno and pineapple, sooo good. Thanks Brian!

Oh Dad, my camera is fine, and I didn't drop it again! I should probably get insurance for it soon huh?

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Not Good

Talk about a bad day! It all started when I set my alarm wrong last night so instead of waking up at 8:30 I woke up at 6:30. So figured I'm up, guess I should shower and get some reading done before I headed to campus to work on my photo assignment that is due by 4:00 today. Oh and my roommate moved out this morning, so I talked with her for a little bit and now who knows who is going to be living next to me, could be another chick could be some random guy...we'll see. So anyway, got to the lab around 11:30 to start my work and was a bit confused at first but a lady in my class came and ummmm "helped" me out, but really just confused me so much more. She was asking me tons of questions while I'm trying to figure this stuff out and I was nice and really patient, which most of you know isn't really me! I had to change some things a couple of times and had to type up my assessment of what I thought was the best picture, which one's RGB's were closest to 128, yadda yadda yadda. So I go to send it to my professor through Fetch, and well the server went down! Oh yes its now 2:00 and I have an hour and a half to get this to her and they don't know when it will be up and running. Can we say stressed out? Finally comes back up around 3:15 and I get it done (thank God it actually worked). So I figured, I could either hang out at campus until class at 6:15 or get out of this place and try and relax...I went for the relax part. So I went and waited for the bus, and oh my goodness I thought my day couldn't get any worse, but it did. I was waiting for about 10 minutes or so and then I see the bus coming so I get my back and go to pick up my camera bag and I'm not kidding, slow motion, out falls my wonderful, brand spankin new Nikon D70 to the ground! My eyes are filling with tears, and the bus driver is waiting for me, all I wanted to do was break down and cry and wish this day to be over.

So I get off the bus and call my dad, and thoughts are running through my head like, what if this doesn't work? What the heck am I going to do? How can I afford to buy a camera, I can barely afford food?! It took just about everything inside of me not to cry when talking to my dad. All I wanted to do was cry, scream, and go to bed, but couldn't because I had class in a couple of hours. So I went home, checked my camera out, only the filter is dented! Thank God for filters. I got some more reading and studying done and headed back out to class. Oh have you noticed the lack of eating in today's schedule? I had a half of a bagel with peanut butter this morning and a granola bar for lunch and that is it so far...it is now 9:27 at night here, I should probably eat something soon.

Class was good, she got my files just fine and actually let us out early tonight. We have another assignment due on Thursday. Its 12 head shots and another assessment. So it shouldn't be to bad. Then I have cultural studies tomorrow, I have some more reading to do for that class. Then on Friday a group of us are going to the Getty Museum for our class assignment which is a four page paper on a piece of art that is due on Monday. I got a 95 on my first paper for that class, thanks Sue for all your help!

Guess I should get going and start reading and hopefully eat something. I'm craving Chinese food, and haven't found a good place yet, only thing I can really find it mall type Chinese food! =0(

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Needed a break

I needed a break from studying/reading. Well I wrote my paper and turned it in, I read two out of the three chapters for my photo class, and one and a half out of the two for my cultural studies class.

Friday Holly and I were supposed to go and shoot our assignment but it was a bit cloudy, so we did it on Saturday which gave me all day on Friday to do other things for school, like read and write my paper. So Saturday afternoon we went out and before I could shoot I had to get my tri-pod, which I'm now on first name basis with the guy from the camera shop. So after that we went to the park and did out assignment and after we went to the labs at school to check them out and mine were so dark. I was venting out loud "What the heck is wrong?", "Why are mine so dark?", "What's up with my camera?". Anyways the student worker came over and checked it out and well, ya I shot it on the wrong shutter speeds! It was a rough day let me tell you. Good thing I can laugh at myself, because if not I would be going crazy and cussing up a storm. So we left the labs and went out and I re-shot my assignment. Now on Tuesday morning I have to go back and do all the other things for the assignment like, copyright it, put captions, and write my assessment. I would of gone back to do it on Saturday but I knew Sara and Jay were coming that night so I wanted to get some studying done. They were supposed to come around 8:00, but ended up coming early like around 6:30, so we went out for dinner and then went to play mini-golf at a place called, Golf and Stuff. We had so much fun. I stink at it, but it was a good time, Jay one. I'll post pictures for all of you to check out. And I'll update the other album with pictures that were taken when I moved in but Sara took my camera instead of hers.

Today we went to church and then had lunch and they headed home early, its about a 4 1/2 hour ride!

I guess I should get back to studying because this week is going to be busy especially tomorrow!

Thursday, May 12, 2005

In-N-Out!!!

Well I just got home from class and chowing down an In-N-Out burger! Oh my they are sooo good. This is one of the best things about living in Cali, that and Henry Weinhard's Rootbeer! Probably shouldn't eat this so late but I am starving, we got out of class late again tonight.

Ok enough food talk, lets talk school. Well my first week of classes are officially over!!! Yay, I made it so far. I have Cultural Studies and Basic Photojournalism this session, and so far so good, lots and lots of reading and writing and just plain out lots of work. They weren't kidding when they said this was an intense program, and it only gets harder as the weeks go on and you have your final portfolio due, or a seven page paper and art project all at the same time.

Here's how my schedule works: Monday/Wednesday 11:45-2:30 Cultural Studies (kind of a crappy time because its right in the middle of they day, but what can I do right?), then Tuesday/Thursday 6:15-9:00 (or 9:30 for the past two classes!) Basic Photojournalism. I have a two page paper due on Monday for my Cultural Studies class. I have 10 photos and assessment paper due on Tuesday for my Photo Journalism class, and also I have another project due on Thursday, not sure how many photos but I know its of head shots. Then I have a lecture on Wednesday night for my photo journalism class, which happens ever other Wednesday night for the next three years of my life! But in a way its cool because you get to hear and meet professional photographers, and last year Steve McCurry was here, so maybe he'll come back. They are always having photographers from National Geographic come and speak, so to me that's pretty exciting.

I started to learn Photoshop tonight, pretty cool program, but lots to learn. Although we can't really use many of the features for this class because we don't want to manipulate our photos. Think I might need to invest in it at some point (probably soon), so that way I can do most of my work from here instead of having to go to the campus and use the computers in the labs.

Went out today and bought some more supplies for class, still have to get a tripod and another lens, but I think I have just about everything else on the list, that is until next session comes and I need a light meter and all this other stuff. At some point I'm really going to need to get a job, just need to figure out how to work that in my schedule of school, assignments, reading, writing and oh ya eating and sleeping! During orientation they told us that on our "breaks" is when we will sleep and do laundry. I am starting to see what they are saying.

Sara and Jay are coming down this weekend! So excited to see them, feels like forever but really its only been about three weeks. Wow, I've been a Californian for a whole month now!!! But no tan to show it, I'll get there eventually.

Ohhh I had two quizzes in my photojournalism class (and yes we have only had class twice!), and got an A- on one and a 100 on the other! Oh I feel so smart. We'll see how I do on the next assignment. What's cool is if you don't do all that great, you have a week to re-shoot the assignment and hopefully you'll do better and get that grade and if not you'll keep the same grade you got the first time. I think the class that I am most nervous about is my Cultural Studies class, where I have to write tons of papers, and I just make myself sick about them.

Ahhhh no classes tomorrow but Holly and I are going to get together and do our project/assignment that is due on Tuesday. We have to use another student as a model. That way on Friday night I can write my paper for Monday, and finish that up or rework it on Saturday morning and read for both classes before Sara and Jay come. Then on Tuesday I can go to the labs at school and use the Photoshop to work on my pictures and submit them before 4:00, because Monday is just crazy, I have class and then right after that I have a financial aid meeting that I need to attend in order to receive my money. And then Monday night is home group. Sunday, Sara, Jay and I are going to go to church and then possibly the Strawberry Festival! Yummmm

Ok well I guess I am going to read some more, maybe start my paper, and eventually tonight go to sleep. Sorry for all the spelling errors, the spell check isn't working.

Monday, May 09, 2005

First Day of Class

Well I finally started school!!! Friday during the last day of orientation we got to register for our classes and you have one GenEd and one Core course every eight weeks, so I registered for Cultural Studies 1 and Basic Photojournalism. Lucky me, seven of my classes transferred in so I only have 10 GenEd's left! So when we registered they gave us the syllabus for the courses, and I immediately got nervous, I have to write papers...and lots of them. So over the weekend I'm all stressed out on having to write papers and I haven't even sat in the first class yet. So I went this morning and I'm not as stressed out or nervous, I have five papers to write for my Cultural Studies class...so I'm just going to take them one at a time. The class was pretty good, the professor, Ron is a cool guy. We have three "field trips" for the class, The Getty Museum and LACMA and we have to go to a live performance, which could be anything we would like, hmmmm. I have my first photo class tomorrow night, I can't wait.

Recap of the weekend: Friday night I went to the College group with Mandy and met a ton more people. Then we talked for a while and met up with some more friends of hers at In-N-Out Burger, but by the time we got there it was about midnight and everyone was leaving, so her friend Ben, her and I went to the beach to swing on the swings and then ended up back at her place and just stayed up and talked til 5 in the morning! Then my phone rang really early (7:30) on Saturday morning but seeing as it was only two hours after I went to bed, I didn't pick up, and ended up getting out of bed around 9:00 to do laundry and just hung out and did nothing for the rest of the day. Went to church on Sunday and came home and watched a DVD and read, seeing as everyone else was with their moms. I got the chance to talk to my mom, step mom, my grandmother and Mrs. Sparks, and it was so nice to talk to all of them.

Guess that's it for now, gotta go and get ready for the home group tonight. I'll let you know how tomorrow nights class goes...

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Orientation Week

Orientation started yesterday and ends tomorrow afternoon. This is three days of information overload. It's a bit overwhelming so I'm still trying to process everything, so sorry if this is kind of short and vague.

Yesterday I had orientation from 2:00-4:00. We had a big information session with the provost, academic offices, financial aid, and student management, some of the admission reps were there, but mine wasn't. Basically its a tough program and its going to be really hard for the next three years, but it will be worth it!

After orientation I went to the Wednesday night service at church with Brian and Rumundo (sp?) and met a ton of other people so that was pretty cool. Can't really remember everyone's names but that's ok.

Today we had orientation today from 9:00-4:00, talk about a long day of more information that hasn't completely soaked in. We had an over view of our individual programs, mine being visual journalism and what the next three years will be like. So far so good with that, but we'll see how everything looks after classes actually start next week. The VJ program is a good size (well compared to the others starting this term) and there are some pretty cool people in my class.

Well I guess that's it for now.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

One last day of rest

Ok, so today was my last day of rest and doing nothing because after tomorrow its full speed ahead with school. I'm so excited and have to say, not really nervous about it at all. I think my excitement has over powered any bit of nervousness or fear. We'll see how it goes after tomorrow. I can't believe its finally here...I finally get to start doing what I love to do, wow. I get to live and fulfill my dream.

When Sara and Jay helped me move down here we went to Calvary Chapel of Oxnard, and I really liked it but well with out having a car its hard to get to. So Sara, the good sister that she is, found an info card about a home group here in Ventura that meets on Monday nights and she said I should give them a call. So last week I did and I didn't hear back from them for a couple of days but everything worked out and I went last night. It was awesome, the people were so great and welcoming. I met tons of people (ok about 16 or so, but for me that's a ton seeing as for the past week I don't know anyone!). And some of them live closer to me so they said I can ride with them to church and stuff...I'm just so excited. I'm start to feel like I actually belong here, and I know its just going to get better. They were all pretty amazed that I just moved out here on my own with out knowing anyone and not really having any family around. They were all like, you are so brave for doing something like that. And all last week, I didn't feel brave at all, I felt like a scared little child just dying to get back on a plane and go home. What was I thinking coming all the way out here and knowing nothing of the area, the people, etc. All I wanted was to go home, where life was comfortable, not great or amazing but it was what I knew, it was home. But I know that if I did get on that plane and headed back east, I would regret that for the rest of my life. That I didn't have enough faith in myself or God to get me through this. I mean come on now, I went to China for three months not knowing anyone, not knowing the language or really what to expect once I was there, but the point is I did it,I survived, I was stretched outside of my normal everyday comfort zone and became stronger. So now here I am in California, living a dream that I didn't think was possible a few years ago, and this all started with a graduation present, faith in me from family and friends and the constant support and encouragement. All I can think is..."Wow, this is going to be hard but so amazing. I am going to grow even more out here than I ever thought possible." I get the chance to see amazing things and meet amazing people, what more could I be asking for?

So now here I go, living the life a poor college student, as someone last night pointed out to me "Wow, you're going to Brooks. It's expensive there, you'll be on the Brooks Diet soon." She was telling me her ex-husband went to brooks and well seeing as you are paying so much for the school you can't afford food! I already agree with her.

Well tomorrow is the start of this new journey...I'll be sure to update this tomorrow night when I get home.

(Orientation Schedule: Wednesday: 2:00-6:00. Thursday: 9:00-4:00. Friday: 10:00-3:00)

Sunday, May 01, 2005

A Good Day

Well yesterday, nothing really happened, just another tough day. But seeing as its the weekend I was able to talk to people because it didn't use up my minutes. So I talked to Meighan, my parents and grand parents, so that was really good!

Today was pretty good. I figured I would go to the mall and return a pair of pants I got from Old Navy that had a rip in them. So I wondered around the mall for a while, just window-shopping and people watching. I grab something cheap in the food court and this guy with two girls was in front of me checking out just about every female that walked by, and just kind of made me laugh a little. So I sat down and they ended up sitting near me and he still continued to check people out and finally one of the little girls said "Daddy...why do you keep staring at all these people like that?" He had no response. Just funny how it was so obvious what he was doing that his little daughter that couldn't of been more than 8 or 9 picked up on it!

So as I was on my way to the mall, the lady I live with, Debbie drove by and told me about a Reggae band that was playing at this cafe/club called The Underground, which is across from the mall. She gave me a ride to show me where it was exactly so after the mall, I went over to check it out. They were pretty good, not your typical "Reggae" type of guys, no dreads or anything like that, but it wasn't bad. I guess this weekend in Ventura there was a big Art Walk on main street (had no clue, guess thats what I get for hanging around the house), so they had some artist work on display at this place to. Some paintings and a photographer was there, so I talked with him for a bit and ends up, he went to Brooks! He had all good things to say about it, so that made me feel a bit better.

Yesterday I was checking out the Brooks website and came across this link: http://www.elsol.brooks.edu/. It really encouraged me to see work of students at Brooks, and eventually in my program I will have to do at least one, if not two of these trips/documentaries, I'm so excited.

My little sister called me today in tears because she misses me and I quote "I miss having a big sissy to come home to". I knew a call like this would be coming soon. She is so cute, and when shes really sleepy she starts to miss things even more and comes up with some really funny things some times, but for me it was China and white rice. My dad's birthday was on Tuesday and she has soccer practice that night so after that they went to eat at The Happy Garden, and she broke down in tears because she missed me and there was white rice and a Chinese resturant. You gotta love eight year olds. So I got to talk to her for about a half hour tonight, I felt so bad I couldn't be there to actually hug her, but I do what I can.

So finally only a couple more days until I can actualy start at Brooks.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt