Could have fooled me.
So, normally I write in this thing throughout the summer even though my "contract" doesn't require me to do so. I do it because I like to blog. (read: because I'm a nerd.)
A bunch of things have happened since my last post. After my cousin's commencement ceremony over at SJU, we packed up and took off, leaving the city and suburbs behind for a more serene environment. Let me tell you... The folks in Maine are SO friendly. Actually, let's speak of this collectively: the people of NEW ENGLAND are so friendly, it's kind of confusing. Where my aunt lives, people in the neighborhood will just wave at you as you walk by, as if they know you. Here, if you wave at someone, they'll either 1. spit at you, 2. give you a dirty look, 3. hit on you, or in very rare cases, 4. wave back. I experienced #4 yesterday. But that's another story for another day.
During our trip we: 1. saw Iron Man 2 (good, love me some Robert Downey Jr. but only in that movie), 2. went shopping and scored a few nice things, 3. traveled to Waterbury, VT to tour the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, 4. met a family friend, got stuck in Manhattan traffic...both ways. UGH.
When we came home from the northern atmosphere of the US of A, we went to a party that Saturday. It was my cousin's grad party! I met her friend Rachel who is SUPER nice and has super things in common with me. We spent some time inside, then outside (to pretend we were mingling), then back inside in the den where we played games for hours. She taught my uncle Ut's children how to play card games. That was interesting. :)
On Sunday I went to ANOTHER party, this time for my friend Nikki. She's turning 22 soon, but wanted to celebrate her and our other friend's birthday. We went to Buca di Peppo on 15th St. and had some pretty awesome interactions with the waiter. Angela, another one of our friends, was trying to get our server to remember her since she's hung out with him a few times via her other friend Shannon and her boyfriend Jeff, but no go. After dinner we went to Nikki's place and had some cake that Kaitlin made (chocolate banana, from scratch) and played Apples to Apples. BEST EVER. :)
And then that brings us to Monday when I started my internship at the Gershman Y. Donna, my boss, introduced me to whomever was there, and got me started right away on my first assignment: an ad that would be going in the QFest program booklet. Unfortunately we found out today that my ad won't be printed in the program, but will still be a flyer that will be posted everywhere.
Tuesday was my first day back in Student Affairs since I took the week off last week. After work I helped my friend Kenya move a good lot of her things from Spruce to Pine. When we figured out which room she is living in and unlocked the door, we realized someone else was living in there... Oops. Guess they're roommates now!
Today Donna let me leave an hour early. That was nice of her. I need to tally my hours, though, especially if I keep getting let out early. I need a minimum of 96. I'm sure I'll meet that req, though.
As for grades... I normally do an end of the semester/end of the year review. I might as well keep up the tradition. :)
Communications Studio | B+ - Okay. So... I did better than last semester. I'm disappointed I didn't get the A- I was hoping for, but a B+ is still good, right? I respect everything Debra has said to me in that class, even though I didn't agree with how she said it some of the time. My review with her was very relaxed, even though my presentation wasn't as sharp as last time. Oh well, it's just something to work on. As for the class... it's a good class to have, though I would change the structure ever so slightly. Last semester we worked on two things: a word "flip-book" and a poster series. Both are interesting projects, but I honestly would NOT place them together in one semester. Both can really be worked on in one semester each with little exercises in between. This semester we spent the entire time working on our campaigns, throwing in a PSA exercise. That's how I like to see the semester run. The course gets an A- and the teacher gets a B+.
Pictorial Foundation | B - I am highly disappointed in my grade for this class. I hate that my teacher told me that he thinks I did *really* well in the class, yet he graded me quite low. (In studio classes, anything below a C is considered failing, so you can see how I feel about the B in comparison.) I understand that my work weren't masterpieces, but I feel like he was being a little too biased about some of them. I would have been okay with a B+. And quite frankly, I think my stamp piece is cool with the texture. For the record, I was told to put those green dotted borders on my stamps BY MY TEACHER, but at my review he said he would have preferred a white border. I don't know if he meant border from the stock it was on or white border instead of the green dots. Anyway, enough of my rambling. The course is really fun and really challenging and it makes me realize that to be a truly well-rounded artist, I need to take things seriously while enjoying what I'm doing. Unfortunately I don't enjoy painting as much as I want to, but meh. The course definitely gets an A. The instructor, however, gets a C+. Not because of how he graded me. I'm somewhat over that. Mike is a great person, a great artist. He knows his way around a watercolor palette, but he is too lenient. When there's a deadline, get it or forget it. I don't like any of this extension nonsense. It throws everything off and then unnecessary sacrifices have to be made. Put your foot down and make it official. The more you push things back, the worse it's going to get. Granted, the class needs to meet the teacher half way and be more responsible, but if they don't tough luck. Do trains wait for passengers before the conductor departs? Does night time wait for you to get home before it makes the sky dark? I didn't think so.
Typographic Systems | A - I'm shocked. I got an A. I'm trying not to question why. My friend Julie says it's because my work was good this semester. I can buy that. I like the outcomes of my work, but is it really that good? I love the class, though I wasn't thrilled about the projects we had to do. I was very lucky in being able to have Rachele Riley as my prof. She's so knowledgeable about...well...everything! She taught us more in all of the few crash courses she gave than what our EM teacher taught us all semester. She is a sweetheart to boot and I feel like I could easily be friends with her. The class gets an A- and the teacher gets an A.
Digital Interactive Techniques | A - Um so. All right, let's be real. I'm all for electronic media classes. I think they're fundamental for what we need to know in order to be an effective designer. What client, in their right mind, will hire a designer who doesn't know the programs he or she will need to get the job done? I've had great experiences with Matt and Joe, but with Dan... Not so much. He knows his history, that much we've found out. However, I, during my review with Debra, told her that I can honestly sit here and say that I don't know what I've learned in class. When we ask questions, he answers them, but with no justification. He answers them to answer them. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, however, when I say we have easy access to him. He answers emails very quickly. However, I felt like the class was a big waste of three hours and the instruction was barely there. The work sessions were non existent and when they were existent, they were either too short or too long due to inattentiveness. I feel like our teacher needs to be more organized and better equipped to teach the course. Too many tangents take over his lectures and the demos are less than par. The course gets a C and the teacher a D. He's not so terrible that I'd fail him, and it's not entirely his fault I want to say, but whomever is putting the curriculum for electronic media together needs to get things straight. I have this teacher again next semester. Hopefully I'll learn something.
Observing Humans | A - I heard this class was really good so I took it and convinced Meghan Deluca to convert the credits for me from SIFT credits to liberal arts elective credits. I figured, what the hey. I like to watch people and writing isn't a hard thing for me. The truth is, by the end I realized that I didn't really like the class and the teacher, despite her accomplishments, is just all right. I can totally dig the way the class is structured as I feel like field work is vital to the class. But the reading load is ridiculous. She does forewarn that the "bulk" of the reading comes at the beginning, but even towards the end the reading amount is a lot. I feel like that I was expected to put more time into that class than my studio classes. I felt like we got more work in that class than our studio classes. Sad. So the class gets a B+ and the teacher a B-.
Game Play | A - Same teacher as the one above, and the way I saw it, it was the same exact class. Lots of reading, lots of field work, lots of notes, two papers that "should write themselves." I don't like the idea of field work, but at the same time I do. The reading, although some of it was enjoyable, was too much. I'm not saying that in conjunction with OH, either, I'm just saying that for an LA class, there is a LOT of work involved. I wasn't thrilled that she self-recruited us to help her with this project she's working on. I feel like that should have been a volunteer thing. I spent one Sunday to roam West Philadelphia looking for schools to see how dilapidated their play areas were. Dave and I didn't even finish our list and I wasn't willing to go back out to finish it. I did, however, like that she exposed us to different games and let us use our creativity in every class. The discussions were fruitful, but overall I wasn't happy. Class gets a B- and the teacher, too.
And now I leave you with photos so I can go read a book.
