I’ve been in this blogging mood lately. I want to write a new blog all the time, even when I have absolutely nothing of value to share or talk about. Hah. Anyone else get like that? Maybe? Sort of?…. Ah, never mind.

Well, today I drove up to Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with my friend, Chris. They were throwing a party for his little sister, Carly, in this awesome beach house. I didn’t go into the water or the pool, since I didn’t bring a bathing suit. I don’t feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit anyway. I want to lose weight first. =P I took a few pictures of the beach, and of Carly blowing out the candles.

Audi and I are making plans to move in together, and hopefully it will be within the next few months. In the meantime, I’m looking for sources of income while he looks at apartments around his area. I’m actually really excited about finally living with Audi. I didn’t think I would be, but the prospect of waking up next to him every morning makes me feel really happy. Let’s hope it stays that way after we get married. LOL.

I just found out through Facebook that one of my classmates from NWSA just got her diploma in the mail. That means very soon, I may be receiving mine, too! I became worried, thinking that maybe I wasn’t going to receive mine. So,  I went online to my school’s site, and it said that I had met all my requirements. *shrug* I suppose I just need to wait until next week.

And a quick update on the books I’m reading: I am close to finishing TheGothic: Documents in Contemporary Art, and I’ve finished reading the first book from the Den of Shadows Quartet. I actually REALLY enjoyed it! I thought the writing was great, the plot was original, and the language used was impressive. Good job, Amelia!

Anyway, enough of that. Ciao!

Audi, Life, Love, School Audi, carly, diploma, Party, School

Man, the BFA show is almost here. And there’s still things to do. CHRIST, why do we have to have other classes? Why can’t we just prepare for the show and that’s it? :rofl: UGH. I need to get the three frames, and the plywood to make the false wall. Once I have that, I’m set. Hopefully, the exhibitions manager at CIFO will contact me today so that I can pass by the gallery and take the necessary measurements.

Thankfully, the installation can be done before March 14th, but I’m aiming on having everything done by the 6th, and then any necessary adjustments can be done by the 14th. My biggest concern is making the false wall, but hopefully my wood shop skills will kick in for that.  heh.

Oh man, it’s exciting, but it’s also nerve-wracking. I’ve been so mentally busy, I haven’t had time to cry about my situation with Audi. Oh, and speaking of that… I finally told my mother that we’d broken up in October 2008. I figured, if Audi has already started moving on and begun dating someone else, there’s no point in pretending that we haven’t REALLY broken up. My mom had no reaction either way, and told me that if it’s meant to be, yadda yadda. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders, that’s for sure.

As for Audi, I’ve cut all communication with him, but not by choice. If it were up to me, he’d be right back in my arms again. But I don’t want to tie him down. He’s a grown man, and he can make his own decisions about what or who he wants. As much as I love him, I need to let him go and pray he comes back to me someday. :shrug:

Anyway, here’s my much needed update on my life. Back to work! Ciao.

Art, Audi, BFA, School Art, Audi, BFA, cifo, School

I’ve been non-stop this past week. Thank goodness that three of my classes start at 2:00pm, because if not, I wouldn’t be getting ANY sleep. I’ve been going to bed early, and getting up early, trying to take advantage of each day. I can’t wait for Friday when I can finally sleep in. :rofl:

I’ve also been pretty down in the dumps… a.k.a. depressed. A lot of shit has been weighing on my mind, and it’s been affecting me badly. Yet another reason why I haven’t blogged in a few days.

My Senior Review went great on Friday. I got some really good feedback, and it seemed like they enjoyed my idea. Hooray for me! Now, I just need to kick it into high gear and finish everything.

I’m COMPLETELY dreading the fact that Valentine’s Day is coming. I’ve only had ONE decent Valentine’s Day, and it was with someone I don’t even speak to anymore. So miserably fucking sad. My dream is to spend it with Audi, even if we aren’t dating again by then. But I don’t think I’ll be that lucky. :shrug:

I’ve been working on a new art piece, but I’m stuck. I made a stock request with a fellow DA member, and she said she’d take the pics two days ago. Now, I’m getting anxious because the piece is almost done, and I NEED those images. =/ I’m sure you’re wondering why I don’t just find a similar stock image, but this is a very specific item so I can’t really do that.

I’ve been listening to InnerPartySystem’s self-titled album non-stop, from beginning to end for the past four days. Every song on it relates to the current circumstances of my life, especially regarding my love life (or lack of one, really). Thank you IPS for making an album to make memories to.

I have nothing else to share, so… bye.

Art, Audi, BFA, Love, School Audi, BFA, innerpartysystem, School, senior, sleep, stock

Yes, folks, I have found the silver lining of the dark cloud hovering above me.

I started playing around in Adobe After Effects, thinking that there had to be SOME way that I could edit the video I’d shot with my digital camera and make it work. And I figured out how… I’m not sure how savvy my readers are with this program, so I’ll explain the best I can.

After Effects is just like Photoshop in many ways; one of them is that it uses layers. Whatever is on a higher layer will show up over a lower layer. The program has a feature that allows you to divide a layer into two separate layers, called “Split Layer”. This ingenious and oh-so-simple trick is what saved my ass. I figured that the problem was in the green screen itself. Every time I would edit the green screen to have more of it disappear, it would affect the beginning of the video, too. Buuuutttt, if I divided the video into different sections (i.e. layers), I wouldn’t have that problem! And it worked.

It will be time-consuming to go frame-by-frame and split the layer each time the green screen shows up more. But, until I’m rich enough to use a professional studio with a perfect green screen and lighting system… this will have to do. :rofl:

One thing I noticed is that the green screen became white in the video when I walked too far in. That means I’ll have to try to stay close to one side so the color doesn’t change too dramatically. I’ll have to do a couple of trial and errors before I get a GOOD video, but hell… at least I’ve jumped one major hurdle!

So… I’m off to relax a bit and de-stress. I think I deserve some down time. LOL.

Art, School green screen, School, video

OK… I figured things wouldn’t go smoothly for so long. Yes, I have a problem, Houston. It seems that when I record video with my Sony digital camera, the color keying doesn’t work very well. Why? Since I don’t have a controlled lighting situation in my backyard (where the green screen is), the camera automatically adjusts the lighting whenever I walk in front of it. Therefore, it looks green when I’m not in front of the camera… and bright white when I am. Fail. So, I tried my mother’s JVC digital video camera. Now, with this, the footage comes out perfect. However, I do not have the appropriate cable or software to transfer the video to my computer! Brilliant, eh?

I talked to Audi on the phone, and he helped calm me down a bit. After telling him everything that’s happened to me, he helped rationalize everything I need to do and show me that I could easily do everything I need to do if I just pace myself.

So… that’s what I’m doing. Right now, I’m working on an assignment that’s due Monday, and I’ll be working on the footage for the video tomorrow. I also realized that I don’t need to make the video huge. I can make the video 720×480, and I’d be set. So, I’m going to try again with the footage I currently have and see what I can do. ROFL. Craziness, eh?

Anyway, back to work. Ciao.

Art, Audi, Life, School Art, BFA, School, video

Yes. There is a potential nervous breakdown in the works. I told myself I would just be calm and do what I need to do, but there is only a week left until the Senior Review. If all goes as it should this upcoming weekend, then I’ll be perfectly on track. If not, then I’ll be thoroughly fucked. I got some good news this afternoon, though. There are plenty of options available for my green screen fabric at Jo-Ann Fabrics, and it seems I already had After Effects installed in my computer. Oops. :rofl: It’s ok, though, since the disc my friend Sam gave me has the entire Adobe suite. Hence, if there’s ever a program I need, I have it readily available. Woot. I sent the work I already have to the head of my department, and she gave me the A-OK. She’s curious to see more. Hopefully, by next Monday, I’ll have the first video ready to show her. If I can get the green screen, I’ll be set….

I want to go back to making my own art again! Even though this BFA project is my own idea and my own work, it just feels like a school assignment. It doesn’t feel like something that I would do on my own for fun. If it was up to me, I would just have some kick ass photomanips and be done with it. But I know that in order for it to look like I actually DID something, I know they’re going to want videos. Ugh. This is so frustrating that it’s actually starting to make me feel sick… I’m rambling, aren’t I? >_<

MOVING ON! It’s really friggin’ cold right now. And I don’t want to hear anything from you people up north. For me, a Miami born-and-bred girl, THIS IS REALLY COLD. It doesn’t help that the computer room is the coldest room in the whole house. My room is always nice and toasty, though, since it faces the sun for most of the morning and the heat is retained within. Mwahaha.

On a final note, I updated my site yesterday. I put up my latest work, and added the recent article in Advanced Photoshop magazine.

Ciao.

Life, School Art, BFA, freezing, School, show

I miss Audi! I wish he was here to hold me and keep me warm. =( It may be a long while before I can see him again. I’m going to be really busy with school, and he’s going to be stuck in Tequesta for some time. Hopefully, though, next month I’ll be able to

I was running out of space on my computer’s main drive,  so I decided to move all my important documents (artwork, music, photos, etc…) to my 500gb external drive. That way, should anything happen to my computer, my most important stuff is safely locked away. The best thing about the case I bought for the external drive is that it has a built-in fan. I can leave it on for hours (within reason) and it won’t overheat.

My friend Sam from school is hopefully going to hook me up tomorrow with a copy of Adobe After Effects for the PC, so that I can work on my BFA videos at home. I’m also planning on buying some green sheet tomorrow to make my own green screen at home. If I manage to accomplish these two things tomorrow, I’ll be totally on track for the review on the 30th. I had spoken to my Senior Project professor, and he said that if I had one video and stills of the other two, I’d be set.

I’ve been thinking of doing a new website design, one that doesn’t incorporate an iframe. Not that I care either way, but the more I think about it, the less professional an iframe seems. We’ll see. It will likely have to wait until February, since making a new layout will be rather time-consuming.

American Idol recently started their new season. I absolutely LOVE this show, especially the auditions. It’s one of the most entertaining series of train wrecks ever. The amount of people who come to audition and obviously can’t sing to save their lives boggles me. The only possible reasons I can imagine: 1) they just want their 15 minutes of fame, or 2) they ACTUALLY think they can sing. :rofl: The best ones are the talentless hacks who get mad after they get four NO’s.

I can’t think of anything else to talk about so… later.

Audi, Life, School after effects, american idol, Art, Audi, BFA, computer, Music, School

I’ve decided the title of the first panel I’ll be making for my BFA show will be called Paradise. Why? Because it’s my interpretation of what paradise would look like: Ancient-looking trees, beautiful open fields of grass, amazing clouds, unicorns, castles, and so on. This morning I went out and took a BUNCH of photos at two locations. I had to stop around 11 am, though, since I had to get back home to get ready for class @ 2pm.

One thing I really hate? I hate going to school to do something that I could have easily done at home. I get to my Sketchbook class today and the substitute teacher said that we weren’t going to have any tutorials today; that it was just a work day. WTF. I could have worked on this sketchbook AT HOME, with my music blaring, in my underwear, and my air conditioner blasting. :wtf: Ridiculous.

I ended up leaving early. When I got home, there was still a fair amount of daylight left. So I changed into more comfortable clothes and headed back out to take more pictures. I figured I should take advantage of all the daylight I can.

I’m listening to some George Carlin right now to help release some stress. Heh.

Ooh, dinner’s ready. Gotta go!

Art, School BFA, paradise, pictures, School, sketchbook