And then a whole bunch of ill shit happened...

So I realized that about 4 people actually want to continue reading about my life here in Dallas. That's great! For them, I will now continue to blog.

I know I didn't write anything about school this whole last semester, so I have arranged the topics by subject so you can scroll down and just pick what you want to read about....Mmmm-Kay? Here we go:



Classmates and other friends:
With the guidance of my friend, Tori, I discovered Bitstrips and made myself into a cartoon character. I've since been Bitstriping everyone! Tori says, "I gave you too much power."

I went to a 3 year-olds birthday party. I gave her a box of M&M's. I thought, "well, I know she likes them, and she's 3, so it should be okay." Then I saw all the cool stuff she was getting from people with money like a cool jacket, a bad-ass tea set and funky boots. I felt sad that I couldn't get her anything cool, but then later that night when her mommy put her down for bed I was told this in a text: "So I put Zara down for bed and she said, 'Mommy can I sleep with one of my presents?' Of course Mommy said 'Sure baby, which one do you want?' and Zara said 'My M's.'" The text ended with "Damn you Aunt Vicki!"

Halloween was just okay. I dressed up and drove to school in my costume:

I thought it was a good idea, but nobody got it:
devil horns and a tail, a wig and disguise glasses....
I'm the devil in disguise!

That night I was gonna go and pass out candy, but I ended up laying on my couch and just passing out instead.

I discovered S'mores dip and made some. Invited people over and we all ate it. Here's a video:

I went to a Halloween scary movie party at my friends house of Tony and Sergio. I drank some wine, everyone else drank lots of wine but we all watched a few movies: Nightmare Before Christmas and something else that wasn't really scary.

I ate at Applebees for free on Veterans Day with my friend Jerrad, who was totally unaware of things like this. I always feel bad and out of place for taking discounts or free stuff because I'm a veteran. I feel like I'm taking advantage because I never went over seas, I was stationed in Florida and had it pretty easy. Still, everyone tells me thanks for my service even though I tell them this, so OK then, thanks for the free stuff.

My friend Bernardo stopped by, unexpectedly, as usual, with someone else in tow. He called me from the train station: "Willis! hey is it ok to crash at your place tonight? I got so-and-so with me. oh and can you make me some food?" I don't mind this, I actually like it, and it's not like he does it every week. He's funny and I learn a lot of YouTube stuff from him. I know if I'm ever in the "ghetto" area of Dallas, known as Oakcliff, then I have someone to call on!

I discovered that crayons fit in a glue gun! So I invited a couple friends to try this with me and this is what happened:

We are taking turns sharing the finished piece. Right now I have the said canvas we named "Captain Bebop".

Work: Nothing of consequence happened there. I pretty much just carried on with my life.

Classes: 

Print Production: I made a travel booklet about the Shenandoah Valley. I think it turned out pretty cool. I'll try to post a picture of it one day in the section "Stuff I made (check me out!)" I learned more about using InDesign and further discovered I can not math because the measurements for my die-cut brochure never did come out right.  My final grade in that class is an A-, so I'll take it!

Conceptual Imagery: This class was taught by a teacher I've had twice before, the one I like to have a beer or three before class. I finally convinced a classmate of mine about that idea and he finally did go out and have a few rum and cokes with some people one day before this class and he said it made all the difference in the world! So, see there people! I DO know what I'm talking about! 

Anyway, I ended up making a cool infograph for extreme couponing using squirrels as my main image, which I made in Illustrator from actual photos of squirrels.  The teacher loved the squirrels and I named the piece "Squirreling it away: is couponing worth the trouble?" He loved that, too! My final grade in that class: just an A. I'll take it!

Design Marketing: I had no idea what this class was about, but it's on my curriculum for Graphic Design Advertising so I had to take it. The teacher was ok, even though in the syllabus it stated we must dress appropriately: office casual. Not a problem for me since I still had clothes from when I worked at the court. I wondered what would happen to those who didn't. Turns out, he gave us grades for attendance, which also included the dress code. I heard one girl had taken that class three times and I was thinking, "Shit, how difficult is this?" Turns out, all you have to do is just attempt the assignments, turn it in on time, show up to class and dress semi-appropriately. That's not difficult! So how can she not pass -- three times?!? She doesn't care because Mommy and Daddy must be paying for her. Big thumbs down and middle finger up for that! 

I discovered from the material in the class that I have no head for business and couldn't care less what happens to what I design after it leaves my desk. I do understand that what does go on afterward is important in making a design that will catch the attention of the target audience though. One of the assignments was to write about building a better (proverbial) mousetrap. The comments from the teacher were, "Missed the point, but very creative." I'll take that because I value my creativity! My final grade in that class: An A and I'll take that, too!

Digital Photography: My teacher was the best part of this class. He's an older Chinese man and still has a very thick Chinese accent, so at times he was a bit difficult to understand and it made me laugh. One of his favorite things to say after explaining or pointing out something was "Am I right?" to which we all usually said "I guess, you're the teacher." 

We learned how to use a Cannon Rebel Digital Camera. He's lecture on the subject and give us a formula to follow on the settings then we had a week to photograph and turn in 10 shots. I asked my friend, Sergio, a photographer, to accompany me on my first assignment. He was a great help in showing me the settings on the camera and a few ideas. I soon learned I hate fiddling with the controls; I just want my point and shoot camera!

In class, we would show our pictures and get critiqued. Alphabetical order, so of course, I was last. One day in class, we went through two peoples sets of photos and the teacher kept clicking through going, "No. No...what the hell are we looking at?" Then, exasperated, he said, "Let just go to Victoria picture, she usually get it right." That made me feel so good! I told Sergio about that and he said he was proud of me! 

My final grade in that class: a B, but I'll take it! Everyone else got less than that and my friend Nick said when he took the class he got a D. Here are a few of my faves I took:

for Stop-Action assignment

another for the Stop-Action assignment

for the Blurred-Action assignment

fun with my toys: Short Depth of Field assignment

Selective Focus:  Miss Scarlet in the Library (?) with the revolver

Long Depth of Field: Pioneer Plaza downtown.

I forget what this was for, but I still like the picture

Short Depth of Field at the Dallas Arboretum

for the assignment Exaggerated Focus

Love Life:
I got closer to a guy in one of my classes, we got intimate, but now we are just friends again. *sad face* Next?

And now: I'm gonna be in Virginia for Christmas! So excited to be able to see my parents and sister again. My friend Marci will be watching my apartment and getting my mail so don't think you can cruise over and party at my place with out me!

Til next year: Peace out Girl Scout!

A tale of elephants who wrestle at night

As many of you know, I am severely annoyed with my upstairs neighbors at all times. Not only do the  floors squeak so loudly that I can be awaken from a sound sleep by them, but the people that live up there are the most inconsiderate asses I've ever had the displeasure of living under - ever.

The week I moved in, I heard the floors and a bunch of ruckus, so I went up to introduce myself. "Maybe they don't know someone moved in," I thought. So I let them know that I was living down there now. I guess, me being silly, assumed that they would use some sort of consideration and think "Oh, ok, maybe we shouldn't turn up our surround sound here in the 600 square foot apartment so loud, now that someone lives down there. Or, maybe we could hold our elephant wrestling tournaments until later in the morning and not at 6:30 a.m. like we have been. Or maybe we should not have our computer monitors or tv plastered to the windows we leave open ALL the time so the crap we have up at unbelievable volumes won't travel out and bother everyone outside our apartment at odd hours of the night and day."

None of that happened and that is why I call them inconsiderate asses. Because any time I went up to say "Hey, I'm trying to sleep (or read or study) can you turn down your drive-in movie theater quality sound system while you play Call of Duty or whatever you're doing?"- they kept doing it, as if another day meant I couldn't hear them. They would say "It's normal apartment living noise."

Really? Because any time I've ever lived in an apartment (or dorms), sure I hear some stuff, but it's not enough to complain about. So if I'm complaining (religiously), that means you are exceeding the allowable noise limit for close quarter living and that makes you an inconsiderate ass. The videos I made and put on YouTube do not even come close to doing justice in showing what I deal with.
I posted on Facebook about it a lot and at one time I had a whole committee of comments and suggestions on what to do. It's nice to know my peeps got my back.

Now, after months of this going on, I told management that I can no longer live under these beings for fear of me going to prison for stabbing them in the face.
I don't know if that was the comment that pushed me to the head of the line or not, but they eschewed my lease penalties and I will be moving into a new, squeak-free apartment November 22nd. I know I will be dealing with a new barrage of noise, like cars passing by, but that is noise I can handle.

If anyone would like to help me piecemeal my move, let me know. I'll make a casserole.

Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes

Ok, it's been more than one week since you looked at me. 
I been busy, ok?
oh, and lazy.
I am lazy, I know this.

We'll I'll get to my school stuff later, for now, let me tell you about this Midtown ART walk .
I did pick up a few inspirations and a couple conversations. One of the first galleries I went into was Samuel Fine Art. The amazing oil portraits drew me in.
As I stood admiring the beautiful portraits, the artist stood next to me and said,
"oh! you are an artist!" 
                I asked, "How can you tell?" 
He had an African accent and said, "Artists always look at the painting differently. You stand in admiration, wonder -- not just a pleasing glance."
So, how cool is that? Even without tools in my hand and a crazy outfit, I have that artist look about me.

Next, at Misspent Muses, I found a bunch of fun, very interesting collage art - one piece in particular was arranged in the shape of a daisy using metal objects and I wondered, "Where does one get metal anteaters?" Margo, the artist, told me
"The Rock Barrel."
So, I may need to find out where that is and see what they got. Maybe I can make some weird collage art thing.

 Over at Cleos-Creations, Cleo Boone is fun to talk to. He said to one guy walking through the studio, "You have an interesting face. I paint faces from memory so don't be surprised if you come back and see your face in one of my paintings."
He's got a gruff yet pleasant carnival-like voice. In looking at his paintings, you first think you see a bunch of rocks or falling water, or in my case, an orange uterus - but look longer, further and you see human figures. Beautiful figures that slowly reveal themselves.

Husband and wife team, Doug and Kiki at Sky Pony Studio has put out some interesting pieces to look at while you stroll around the shop in search of cards, magnets or necklaces. He specializes in trees and she in horses. Sounds boring and cliche, but they have a style that is so each their own that you could put Kiki's painting in a store in Oklahoma and I would recognize it as one of hers.

Kiki Winters talking to a customer

the entrance to the studio

Kul âme Studio  almost seems out of place here. It is very sleek and white and seems pretentious with it's large Jackson Pollack-esque pieces in front and elegant yet funky photography studio in back. A sign posted out front read that there would be a live sculpture performance at 8:30, but all I saw milling about was important looking men with arm candy that wore six inch platform heels and too much make-up. Then there was me. I began to think "Maybe we are the sculpture. I wonder what my section of this would be called? She's the Picasso of the Monet setting, they might say."

As I stood among the "Monets", a few performers dressed in Dia de los Muertos costumes fluttered in and buzzed around everyone creating a stir among the soused. Then a pretty lady in green pants started to announce things like, "Thanks for coming to our gallery" and "welcome our soft sculpture performers." 

A lady named Shannon, who is one of three artists at this studio, was once an actress in theater around Dallas. The fabric hanging in the picture was sewn from several costumes she wore. The dancers entered the space and creatively disassembled the hanging dress-like sculpture. The way the performers worked their way through the garment reminded me of the beginning of a CSI episode. I kept waiting for something to go wrong and thought about how we'd all be held for questioning once the police showed up. 

But, they found their way to the end of the performance. 

Another interesting gallery I visited was The Art of Leroy. 

Leroy looks like Samuel L. Jackson, especially with the hat he was wearing. I didn't get a pic of him, but I did snap a shot of his assistants. Apparently, Leroy does body painting and photographs you in the studio. I saw some of the works and it reminded me of the Midnight Summers Dream party at the Playboy Mansion, only classier. 

I found a few pieces at different studios I'd like to go back to and buy...but one at a time. I, myself, am a poor art student.