SwedishtheChef

Final Project!!!

2010-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

So this will be the last post of this series unless I decide to do this again next semester. I really don't know the format of next semesters studio though so I don't know if I will be able to post a blog.

Now that you've seen the SketchUp drawings, you'll recognize my final drawings. I traced over the SketchUp drawings I printed out and added color and whatnot. Here's my process with a variety of different drawings because for some reason I didn't do a complete process with one drawing:

Again, I traced over the entire picture using special types of ink pens. They come in a pack of six and vary in size so the thicker the line, the more important or prominent the building or whatnot. I again attempted to use a straight edge for the drawing but if you look really closely, only a few lines are actually parallel to the straight edge.

After I inked the entire image I added color. Here's the beginning of a perspective with the trees half way colored. I love coloring trees for some reason haha.

Here is the finished perspective. Unlike my previous project I did not completely color the sidewalk or road so it wouldn't be overpowering.

Just for comparison, this is a finished elevation above the printed sketchup drawing.

And here is my desk where all this work took place. I would ask someone to guess what movie I was watching but the box is right next to the computer =/

All of this lead to a 24x36 inch board. Instead of posting each individual drawing I'll just post the whole board. If you click on the picture it should get pretty large so you can see the individual drawings.

I'm pretty proud of this bad boy. I think when compared to my previous project I've really improved. Actually, this is the first final board I can look at and feel proud of my work. I think using SketchUp and understanding how to work the program really helped too. These drawings look so different than last years when we couldn't use computers at all (or we weren't suppose to).

Anyway, I want to thank you guys for reading this blogs, the feedback really helps. And it's nice for people outside of urban planning and architecture look at my work since in reality, I would show this to the community rather than fellow planners. If I can I'll continue this next semester-- I think it's more computer oriented than drawings though, I don't know.

And look for a post in the possible near-future. I'm thinking about posting my NaNoWriMo story online so I'll give you guys a link if you want to read it too.

Thanks again!

Road to the Final: Sketchup

2010-05-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, the final project is now officially finished. There's only going to be two more posts, this one and then the final design/drawing one.

Once I had my final idea on paper, I went to work on the computer. I used a program called Sketchup by Google. It's pretty good for a free program. I like to compare it to the MS Paint version of Photoshop. It does the job but it doesn't come close to AutoCad...actually that may be a little harsh comparison. Sketchup can actually do quite a lot for being a free program but AutoCad just takes it to the next level. Plus, AutoCad looks confusing (in the few cases I've watched my friend use it) and Sketchup is pretty user-friendly and does the job nicely :)

Basically, I can create models in sketchup. Houses, trees, sidewalks, buildings...basically anything. And another cool feature is the 3D Warehouse. I didn't create any of the trees, cars, people, basketball courts, etc because others already did. I simply downloaded the models onto my model. It's a huge time saver. I can also figure out the square footage of a building which was extremely helpful as well since we had a minimum requirement for the square footage of retail, office, etc.

So I created my final design in sketchup. First I just created boxes, but as I figured out what I was going to draw, I added details to those shots. Every picture I will show have added details. Trust me, the majority of the buildings are blank, simple boxes.

It took me about a week from the beginning to end of my 'sketchup phase.' Sketchup has this useful feature that allows a photo from Google Earth to be imported, so that's how I got the building and lot size. I didn't have to do any measuring :) Here is what my design looked like about halfway with the Google Earth background. I managed to delete the background somewhere along the way and didn't know how to get it back so there isn't a picture with the final design and Google Earth.

It took me a while to figure out a final design, mostly because of the parking. There was a minimum requirement of parking for x amount of retail and x amount of units. So, I had to balance between figuring out the number of parking with the amount of retail/office/residential. This took me about three days =p. Then I went to work with the details for my final drawings. These are the final pictures/screen shots from sketchup:

This is the site plan, sorry it's lopsided. One of the hard, or annoying, parts of this project was no two buildings were exactly parallel or perpendicular to each other because the buildings I kept from the current site weren't. Fun tidbit =P

This is my first elevation. It shows a pedestrian corridor with shops and restaurants between two buildings.

This is a section cut (section cuts go through buildings, elevations don't. Sadly, I forgot that fact on my final board and named them all section cuts =p). It shows a theater with seating and some of the store fronts in the background.

This is an elevation of townhouses, next to a retail building (right). Yep, that's about it.

This is a perspective that shows my streetscape. As I said before, the people, trees, and cars were not created by me. Everything else was though.

This is another perspective that I actually didn't use in my final board because there wasn't a need for it. It shows a plaza and fountain in a retail, mixed-use, shopping area.

This is technically another perspective. Usually when showing an entire site, you use an axonometric or isometric to show elevation. On sketchup, it's slightly difficult to get the view you want and still have it be an axon or iso so I kind of just picked a view and went with it. It gives the same idea as an axon or iso.

And that is it. Those are the images and views I made with sketchup. I then printed these out and used them as a template for my drawings. The next post will show this and my final board :)

Thanks for reading!

Site Pictures

2010-04-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures that I took of the site. I took over 200 photos but I decided to condense it down for you guys haha

This is what is facing the freeway and is the symbol of Mass Ave.

A small row of shops along Mass Ave. This is the type of shops that I want to put into my design.

Part of the Coca-Cola Plant. Again, this is on Mass Ave.

This is the area in between the buildings looking north.

The whole site has a design like this. Yeah, I can see why we can't/shouldn't mess with the facade.

This is what it looks like in the interior (the corridor). We went down half way before we got kicked out haha.

The 6-way intersection.

Picture of the industrial part. It basically all looks like this: cars, random buildings.

And that's it. Most of the pictures I took is of the surrounding area (neighborhoods) that are located off-site. I felt these are the most important ones for you guys.

And in case you haven't noticed, there's another new post under this one (I think under...) Check it out!

Thanks for reading :)

Beginning of the End

2010-04-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hey I actually fulfilled my promise!

Okay, here's my three alternatives for the design of the site. Just like my first post with pictures, this is the process to reach the final drawing.

First, here's the site:

This is what is currently there. The white rectangles to the north west are buses. The northern portion of the site is currently used to house businesses and the transportation offices and such for the Indianapolis Public Schools. We're pretending they're not there. The southern half is a mix of industry and businesses.

First, I already had a ton of different rough alternatives (maybe around 6, 7?) but we only needed three to tada! These were meant to show to my professors for feedback, hence the reason why there's scribble on them.

Just for reference for all of my drawings:
Yellow: Residential
Red: Retail
Pinkish: Business
Green: Grass/Open Space
Grey: Parking
Blue: Special Use (For this purpose a recreational center and outdoor theater)

If you see a building or area with two different colors, it's mixed use, containing both uses usually divided by floors.

Now for my final, clean version of those:

First, I made an underlay for the alternatives on top of the Google Earth image. Without a light table (a glass/see through plastic table with a light underneath that lets you see through paper better), it is hard to see where the buildings and roads were. So, I had to take some time and outline the roads and buildings I knew were there and was considering keeping on my final.

As you can see, I didn't keep a lot of buildings haha. But, there's a good reason for that. The industrial buildings to the south weren't made for public use and I couldn't see an obvious way to incorporate the buildings into a functional design (at least with the time given to me). They're currently large warehouses and huge parking lots. The buildings I did keep have been highly recommended to keep by my professors. They were the site of an old Coca-Cola Bottling Plant so the facade is really cool (I'll post pictures of it in the next post) and the owner of the building can get tax deductions and whatnot. It's not the law to keep the building and the facade but is "highly recommended."

On with the design....

I'm only going to show the process of one of the alternatives since they are basically all the same, just drawn differently. I placed another trace paper on top of the drawing shown previously and outlined the buildings and roads that I absolutely knew the size of. The spaces I was unsure or still deciding I first drew in pencil.

I then inked and showed a rough size of my proposed buildings and spaces. The dotted lines are areas that would be nodes, or hot spots for pedestrians to meet or gather.

I then colored the spaces based on their uses and outlined the buildings and areas (the double line). I still think it's really weird how different it looks by just added a double line...

I then shaded the areas with colored pencil. And voila! the final product.

Here are the final products of all three. Compare it to the previous picture that showed the concept of these.
Oh, and there's my trashcan too.

Just for a fun side-note, here is what my middle finger looked like after I was done. I have no clue how I got so much ink on my hand...and it took multiple washings and about a day for it to go away =P And there's my workspace in my room. I felt like shit earlier that day and didn't want to work in studio so I had to bring everything to my room. I should have a picture of my studio and my desk later in the blog....

And just FYI, my next drawings will be from a computer program, rather than by hand. I make model on the computer of my design, print it, then trace and add color. So, the next posts will not be the same as what I have been posting....you'll see what I mean when I post it haha.

WHO CAN SPOT THE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR IN THE LAST PICTURE!?!

Quick Update

2010-04-15T21:02:00.001-07:00

Okay guys, I know I haven't updated in over two weeks but there are pretty good reasons

1. Easter weekend, seeing the family and such

2. Our group had another analysis board thing based on the neighborhoods. The group member who put together the board lost her flash drive which contained the only copy of the jpg of the final board so I cannot show it to you guys. Plus, I did demographic stuff on it so there would be no graphics to show from me anyway.

3. I've been working on other homework. I'm trying to finish everything but studio so I can have my full concentration on that. At the moment, I have 2 tests, 1 quiz, and one article to finish. On top of that, I'm in the mid-process of writing 4 papers, all of which I've started writing within the past 10 days or so. I'm getting burnt out with the massive amount of work and it's frustrating when I work on something for hours and have nothing to show for it (no final, finished product).

Blah

But I'm close enough to be able to finish all four papers this weekend, hopefully Saturday. I've just been lazy to actually edit them. Then I just have the quiz and tests which will only consume my life for a day or two.

We're starting our final board and drawings for the studio assignment. I have pictures for my three alternatives (different options for the layout of my final) so I should hopefully be posting those this weekend.

I don't know if I'll be able to update every week until the project is finished. I mean, there's only 2 weeks left on the project...oh God...

If all else fails, I'll post after I turn it in and school is out.

I can't believe I'm done in less than a month =D

Studio Blog Update

2010-03-28T14:50:00.001-07:00

Hey!

So, there really hasn't been anything to post in this past week. We had another group project but drawings weren't really involved. It was more of an analysis and the pictures are there for a guide and there wasn't any process in making them. Here's the final version (I took out of our last names):

It analyzed the various circulation routes around our site and in Indy and we showed ways that we could improve them (IE continuing the sidewalk). I worked on the bottom 2 and another person in the group and I worked on the board layout.

I think our next board is a group project as well so there probably won't be another process update. Once I actually look through my pictures, I'll post some photos from the site (it is a real place after all).

:D

Week 1

2010-03-20T12:52:00.001-07:00

Okay, here's the first post in this series. I kept on forgetting my camera so some of the pictures are small and not that great of quality.

The first part of the project is the site analysis. We were separated into groups of four so I don't have the full board or all of the diagrams, but here are the ones I did.

Once I start the final portion of the project I should have more pictures since they take longer and there are more details.

Enjoy!

My first diagram is a land use map. It's pretty self explanatory, each color represents a land use (for example, blue is special use (schools, libraries, etc), red is mixed use, yellow is residential). First, I traced all of the streets from the site map.

Using the streets as a guide, I started coloring.

This is what the final product looks like. I then scanned the two images (roads and color) onto my computer. It's messy, I know--that's where Photoshop comes into play.

This is the real final after Photoshop editing. I inverted the roads and cleaned up the color.

I realized I don't have a process of my circulation diagrams =p It's not as noticeable as the land use anyway. I basically outlined the roads--the thicker the line, the busier the road.

This is a circulation diagram too--but shows the sidewalks (red) and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail (green).

Here's the final Photoshop products.

This is my final diagram and I actually did a pretty good job showing the process :D
This one combines adjacent influences, landmarks, and nodes. Adjacent influences are things that would directly impact the site. Some things I pointed out was downtown, Mass Ave, the highway, and the surrounding residental. Landmarks are self explanatory. I included the Murat, the Monet Trail, and a few others. Nodes are points of interest, or where a lot of activity takes place...it's hard to explain. The ones I showed was the I-70 and I-65 exchange and the 6-way intersection close to the site.

Here's the diagram with color. Every color represents something, similar to the land use map.

Now to add some architect/planner flair to it. Basically, I outlined the outline. I have no clue how it works, but it always seems to look a hundred times better...

Then I added some shading with color pencil. Truthfully, this isn't my favorite diagram, I've drawn better ones =p

Here's the final Photoshop version.

And that was week 1. I think in total that took me around 15 hours....and that was a small project. Jeez, it seems like a long time if I put it that way...but really that was throughout the week so it wasn't that bad.

Any comments on how I presented it? That's what I had in mind, but I don't know what you guys thought. And feel free to ask any questions about the project--what I wrote here and the last post only skims the surface. I'm not sure what the next part of the project is...I haven't really studied the schedule yet...

Thanks for reading!

Urban Planning Studio

2010-03-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Studio takes up a lot of my time. Class meets for 12 hours a week--I'm working the full 12 hours. Add on however much extra time outside of class to finish the project (25, 50 hours a week?) I'm so caught up trying to reach the final project that I rarely look back and see what I've accomplished. My process of reaching the goal is obsolete in my grade. As long as it's on my final board and looks good, it's fine. I could have drawn it all the night before and the professors wouldn't care. But I think it's important. The journey is the reason for the end result--I can't ignore it.

So, I'm going to keep a 'diary' of sorts of the process of this (my last) studio project. You guys are invited to watch :)

I guess some background is in order. In my urban planning studio we are given 'sites' in downtown Indianapolis that we have to improve. There's usually a noticeable problem or opportunity (ie large, unused, open space in prime location).

Our site sizes have grown progressively larger. From approximately 500 x 100 square feet to (now) 1 million square feet. This main portion has an empty Coca Cola Bottling Center and is headquarters for the Indianapolis Public School bus parking lot. We're to pretend the IPS have relocated their buses elsewhere, having full control of the site (it would be 1,000% harder to work around them, fyi).

My professor has given us a set of guidelines and buildings to place in the final plan. Here is the list: live/work loft units, mix of market rate and affordable housing, ground floor retail, public open space, parking solution, public and support services of your choice (ie community center, health center, senior center...a draw to the space). More details on the requirements in another blog (if I remember).

We have now until the end of the school year to finish the project. We're in the first phase of the project. In team of four, we have to have an analysis of the site (about a 2-3 block radius from our site). This includes demographics, circulation diagrams, neighborhood analysis...basically a bunch of diagrams.

Our professor makes us do everything by hand (for the final) so I'll take pictures of my drawings in process and the final drawing. I just started these today but didn't have my camera. I'll work in studio all day tomorrow so hopefully I can post pictures soon.

Because of the schedule and unknown amount of time for me to upload and type a entry, these will probably be delayed. For example, what I do this week might be posted next week, then a new post 3 days later. They won't be regular intervals.

Here's the site satellite map of the site:

Closer, the 'main' site:

And, just as a reference, here is how my last project turned out:

My goals are to improve, not freak out, finish everything, and not fail this blog

Any thoughts, ideas?

Thanks!

I Think my Head Imploded

2009-08-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

I was surfing Yahoo Answers mere minutes ago when I stumbled upon a question:

Phantom of the Opera - Sequel?

It was recently confirmed by Andrew Lloyd Weber that a sequel to Phantom of the Opera (stage) will be opening at the end of 2009. It's called "Phantom: Love Never Dies". What do you think ?

Oh God...........I think my brain stopped working for a second.

Andrew Lloyd Weber, are you out of your freaking mind?!?! You want to make a sequel to the most successful Broadway musical in a world where statistics clearly show sequels are always epic failures (excluding series that were intended to have sequels, like Lord of the Rings). But now ALW wants to make a sequel to a musical...what? It's a musical, haven't you learned from High School Musical 2?!

And to make it worse, ALW is basing this musical on yet another novel. Now, thanks to my Phantom of the Opera obsessed days about five years ago, I know there are numerous novels based on ALW and Gaston's (original author) Phantom of the Opera. But ALW just had to choose the worst one of them all, "The Phantom of Manhattan." With a boring storyline, unrecognizable characters, and epic fail ending it is the worst book I have ever read. It takes place in New York on Coney Island which immediately makes me think of hot dogs.

Phantom and hot dogs don't mix.

Yeah, I know Coney Island was actually the rich part of NYC, but that's besides the point.

How can you make a hit musical based on a novel whose only connections to the original novel are the names and occupations of the characters?! And on YouTube, there's a video of those cast as Christine and Phantom singing; I've heard better but I think there are more problems than the cast:

"The principal characters of The Phantom of the Opera continue their stories in a breathtaking new musical... Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES.

It is 1907. Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daae accepts an offer to come to America and perform at the fabulous new playground for the rich - Coney Island.

Arriving in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave, Christine soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing.

Graced with stunning designs, passionate lyrics and a magnificent score, this brand-new musical is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue...in which music and memory can play cruel tricks... and The Phantom sets out to prove that, indeed, LOVE NEVER DIES."

Yes, the Phantom will stalk Christine to prove that, indeed, LOVE NEVER DIES DAMNIT!!! Because hey, that plot worked out for ALW in the original Phantom, maybe it will work for his sequel as well. I give a 15% success rate, 85% of leaving ALW in ruin. And feel free to taunt me if this turns out to be another hit, I shall be taunting myself as well.

Embracing my Inner Geek

2009-08-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't updated for awhile and I really don't know what to post so here's something entirely random.

This summer I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube

Told you it was random.

Basically, everyone in my architecture section at BSU learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube this year thanks to one guy who was obsessed with them (he got a tattoo of a Rubik's Cube on his butt--no joke). Sadly, the school year came to an end and I only learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube halfway :( So, I made a small project of finishing what I started.

It was kind of sad after I memorized how to solve it. I mean, at first I was proud but this great unknown of how to solve a Rubik's Cube was not there anymore. It's actually really simple if you know how to do it so all the hype of how difficult solving it is not true.

I actually learned it within the first week of summer so this is way overdue, but yeah. It passes the time while my computer is acting crappy and I'm waiting for it to act normal.

Here is proof (in double time):

Thanks to Nate for telling me to blog about how I solved a Rubik's Cube haha

My Current Obsession

2009-03-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

So, I've noticed this past semester that I have been having these weird obsessions and I've decided to blog every now and then about them, or whatnot. We'll see how long this will last...

Currently, it is Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. and Wieniawksi's Violin Concerto No. 2. Weird, I know, but yeah. Here are the best 2 movements:

1st Movement, 1st concerto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFaq9kTlcaY
Don't judge by the first minute or so, I don't really like the beginning. I actually don't really start enjoying the movement until about 2 minutes into it. If anything, just listen to the end of it, maybe last 3 minutes.

3rd Movement, 2nd concerto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6HVWRXI3X0
Not my favorite recording, I like the one with Joshua Bell better, but I couldn't find him on youtube.

Wieniawksi's concerto is what one of the concerto winners at Interlochen played so it's pretty important to me. See what I had to compete with at Interlochen? I was happy with anything but the last chair haha.

And, by the way, this is what I am working on now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QlyMNMLlfI

I'm pretty good with the first half and it slowly starts declining from there haha. I haven't even touched the candeza yet, which starts at 6:15. The candeza is basically the violinst doing improv and showing off his/her skills. Some of them have written down their candeza's, so that is what students learn off of and if they are famous enough, they make their own candeza (aka, Joshua Bell). So that's why it's all flashy without the orchestra playing in the background. The candeza she is playing is the one I will be learning.

Back to homework, I've been putting off drawing my "journey" for about 2 hours now, should start working on that =P

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2009-03-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

Probably since the first book I've read, there has been a theme or moral to the story that I could somehow incorporate into my everyday life. Naturally, as I read more books, aged, became more intelligent, the message in these novels increased in complexity. Now, this was all nice and I understood some of it and am still confused by others, but I never felt a strong urge to change my life or look at life a different way.

My Honors 199 class kind of did that. It was basically a class on existentialism and my professor had a very open teaching style where it was based on student discussion or whatnot. Kind of life Mr. Jankowski's American Lit II class if you had him. Most existentialism philosophers that we read believed life to be devoid of meaning with no God, purpose, or a reason to live. As you may guess, this was slightly depressing--your life is a lie, it's all for nothing. In the end that could be all true if the whole afterlife/heaven turns out to be false, but wouldn't our impact on other human beings impact others, creating a never-ending line where we all influence each other by our actions, no matter how small? I'm still not sure about this, and am just rambling really, but that isn't why I brought that class up. My point is, it made me think more on a religious, belief, basis but I have never been truly interesting in that anyway so it did not greatly impact my life.

And then I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I have no clue why this novel, out of the other influential, meaningful ones I have read, impacted me so much. Fuck, Catcher in the Rye, the novel for young adults read to "come of age" did nothing for me. Nothing. And then here comes Wallflower (I'll just say that from now on instead of the whole name). It wasn't even written very well, just a simple diary-entry form by a "freshman" in high school. Grammar mistakes, run-ons, random tangents; compared to Catcher in the Rye, it's not written well at all. But for some reason it impacted me more. I had tears in my eyes during the last ten pages, what the fuck?!?

So I bet you are wondering what is so fucking amazing about this book and I don't even fully know the answer. For some reason, this made me really see life and allow me to see flaws in myself and fix the flaws that is preventing me to become who I really am. Honesty is a huge 'theme' towards in the end. In order to be honest with yourself, you have to be honest with others. You can't be afraid to tell someone your feelings because that person may not like you- you should want people to like you based on who you really are and not what you want others to think you are. And I'm not sure I have been fully myself around others...hopefully nothing major, but little things like opinions or whatnot.

And then Wallflower discusses how our personalities are developed--are they given to us through God or our genetics, never to be altered? Or, can we take control of who we truly are? There's arguments for both sides, an answer was never given. But it did talk about how we cannot blame others for what we truly are. A whole massive blaming-line will form with each person's fault in their personality by another and so on and so forth.

Basically, a light bulb turned on. I finished the novel last night and I have already analyzed novels, movies, musicals. I listen to the musical Jekyll and Hyde today and thought about our personal good and evils and mine and societies and if evil is really bad and if good is the right way to go. I have listen to that music since the summer of 2006 and for some reason, despite listening to the soundtrack numerous times, it just clicked in my head after I read the book. And it wasn't even some great discovery. Here's some of the lyrics:

How do you tell evil from good?

Evil does well - good not so good!

Evil's the one that is free everywhere -Good is the one that they sell!

You must decide which is heaven -Which is hell!

It is right there in the lyrics and I only really understand what it is saying now. Daammmnn. And I'm pretty sure this isn't a one time deal. Earlier tonight, I saw the movie Clockwork Orange which questions ethics and what is ethic to society and whatnot and I started to think about it more than usual. The movie ended at 8:30 and if The Office didn't start at 9:00, I would still be thinking about it haha.

But it's just so weird. Everything makes more sense now and I can actually relate to it thanks to that one novel.

Anyway, I just needed to write this all out, put it down with words or whatnot. I finally started on the whole 'finding yourself' journey people take through college and it's pretty cool, and confusing. Sorry about the language, if been reading a ton of J.D. Salinger for a class and if you know anything about his writing, he swears a lot. I leave with a few (but not all) the quotes that brought on this whole process, all said by the wonderful Sam:

"Charlie, don't you get it? I can't feel that. It's sweet and everything, but it's like you're not even there sometimes. It's great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn't need a shoulder. What if they need the arms or something like that? You can't just sit there and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things."

“Like take their hands when the slow song comes up for a change. Or be the one who asks someone for a date. Or tell people what you need. Or what you want."

"If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me.”

2009- Whoa

2008-12-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

Reading other posts and blogs about 2008/2009 has inspired me to write one. Looking back, a lot of things have happened that were life changing.

Lets start way back when. The first most important thing that happened had to be my appointment with the career counselor waay back in January (ironic because it's January now). I basically had no clue what to major in (I still kind of don't) and he at least gave me choices. Because it would be impossible to begin architecture second semester, I went and applied to the college and was accepted for some unknown reason (more on this).

High school was a blur. Orchestra, Study Hall, American Lit II, Webpage, Honors Discrete, Econ, Novels. Good classes, bad classes. I really miss American Lit II. That class made my day and never failed to disappoint. I was really sad to leave orchestra despite some..things. Almost all of my really good friends were in orchestra and most, if not all, of my underclassmen buddies were in there. I really miss playing in an orchestra- I have no time to do it now.

I really miss writers club. It was one, nice big sigh of relief at the end of the week. I made a ton of friends, learned things- it was pretty amazing.

Graduation came and went. I still remember feeling how bored I was having to hear close to 500 student names before moving from my seat.

Then summer came...what did I do all summer? I think for the most part I just relaxed, subconsciously knowing architecture will soon kick my ass. I hung out with friends, wrote a lot more than I thought I was and got ready for college.

BSU is nothing like I thought it was going to be. What shocked me the most was the people. Not the classes, profs, or atmosphere, but the people. Looking back, I can't believe how stupid people were in high school- there's really no other way to put it. It's like when we all looked back at middle school and cringed, now it's for high school. High school just wasn't real life and no one really took their heads out of the fog and realized this. Now, I know college isn't real life either but I think we see more of what life really is.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about this.

Aside from the social realization for life, my first semester was devoted to sleep, figuring out where we were going to eat, and architecture. In order of importance, reverse that. Very bluntly, architecture beat up every single farchie (fall architecture student). I doubt anyone would have predicted the amount of work we would do. However, I think we had to be worked like that, given a project on Monday and have it due on Wednesday as well as having a bigger project due on Friday. Oh, and don't forget your other classes.

Wooow.

Still, if I saw what I would be doing on my final project at the beginning of the semester, I wouldn't believe it. I can actually draw without it looking like a blob- now it's a nicely formed unknown shape. I liked all the projects we did- seeing the final work in your hands, on your desk gives you a pretty big swell of pride.

Then you see the star artist student sitting next to you have this amazing, textbook worthy drawing. Ugh x.x

I got a B and a B+ in my main 2 architecture classes which I was extremely happy with seeing as how everything was hand drawn and I haven't taken an art class since the 6th grade. However, I'm still not sure if I want to do this for my career. At the moment, I am leaning towards being an urban planner which is still in the college. It's actually the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP). But I just don't know.

Yay for indecisiveness.

So that's basically my whole year. Lots of things happened in such a long, yet short, length of time. It's truly amazing. 2009 should be good as I am more settled into college. This will be the last year as a teenager. I will be alive for 2 decades in a little over half a year. Ugh, ugh ugh ugh. decadeS. Now it's plural. Yuck.

Cheers for 2009!

The Awkward Year

2008-07-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

So, it was my birthday last Friday and while counting down the days I noticed something.

The age 19 is a really awkward year. It's the first year where nothing exciting really happens. Up until your 10, every birthday counts. 7 is a lot more mature than 6, a 6 month old baby is different than an 11 month. Then, you start to really go to school..or at least not elementary anymore (middle school was still baaad). You hit 12, the final year before a teenager and them BAM you're 13 and on top of the world (or at least you think so).

Then you go through the teenage years. 14, you're really a teenager now. 15, you have one more year until 16, which is when you can drive. 17 is a stepping stone into adulthood, or something like that, and you can legally see rated-R movies!!! And then 18, where the USA government sees that you are an adult. You can do everything now, vote, join military, get a tattoo, go to adult jail. It's great!

Behold age 19. What is new to us? The last year of being a teenager? I was ready for that about 3 years ago... The year before being 20? But being 20 is one of the last exciting birthdays. And there seems to be this huge gap between 19 and 20.

19. It's just another year...nothing really happens. Makes me feel old...

Boooo

2008-06-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ack, it has happened to me again.

So this probably occurs 9 months out of the year. The time where my motivation/creativity for writing goes down the drain. I was doing so well too. I started a novel (again) but this time I actually knew the plot and ending. I was even writing it by hand when I couldn't go on the computer, now that is dedication. And then I found/remembered how cool my NaNoWriMo story was from 2007 and started reading that and was amazed by the fact that while writing as much as I could, not looking at grammar/quality, it wasn't half bad.

And then BAM! I think everything sucks. Why does it happen? It's not even writers block, I know what I would write, but I just don't feel like writing. And I can't force myself because nothing goes into the novel, it's just blah.

Maybe it's because of summer. But this is the time to write before school starts, when I'm not busy. Stupid brain. Maybe blogging about it will want to make me write more...hopefully. But still, I would like to know how to happens so I can avoid it? Grrrr

On a completely different note, I found out that the spell checker thing on here just tells you if something is spelled incorrectly. It doesn't show how it should be spelled...yuck.

Fraggle Rock

2008-05-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

So, I just came across the fact that the old popular television show Fraggle Rock will be made into a movie. Apparently it's been proposed ever since 2006 so I wonder why I haven't found this out yet. Muppet Wiki has all of the information, or at least most of what is out there. Sounds pretty spiffy.

I think it's great that it's going to be a "live-action musical feature." Do I hear another Avenue Q? But then I'm sure the content will be a lot different, or at least I hope so. The themes of Fraggle Rock and Avenue Q don't really fit together.

I vaguely remember the show but it's still part of my childhood. It ended in '87 so I probably saw old reruns. I totally remember the dog in the beginning!

Here's a link to the intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSDeoO-j3G0

Also, while going down memory lane check out the Muppet Show openning as well. Thanks to the Muppet Show, the name of the blog was possible. Thank you Jim Henson.

Entry number 1

2008-05-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

So this is my first post. I've actually been wanting to get a blog for the past month or so, I even had some ideas on what to write about. I forget all of them now though. They were good ideas too.

So I'll be posting my thoughts on various issues in the news, what happened to me that day, videos, etc. Anything really. I'll probably only update once a week at the most, that is what usually happens.

So right now I'm writing the story I'm working on. It's going pretty well and I want to write it, I just don't have any motivation. I wonder why that is. Maybe if I got paid to write it or got graded on it, I would try harder. Any takers?

The story is kind of complicated so I won't post what it's about at the moment. That and I'm lazy. And I usually don't like my story about a month or two after I started it. The story I did for last year's NaNoWriMo, I hate it now and I thought it was a really good idea at the time. But who knows. I actually have an ending to this one so maybe it won't be so bad.