Exhale Creativity Through Boredom

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2008-11-20T17:49:30Z

15:58 I'm alive, awake, semi-alert but lacking the enthusiastic part. Egh, sickness is not fun. #
22:31 I'm at that point where you think "am I really sick? I don't feel that sick" then you try to do something..."never mind, I'm sick..." #

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2008-11-19T17:54:32Z

19:14 I chose today to get a bad fever and then the School Health Center closes at 5PM? WTF mate?! I should have skipped class so I could go. :( #

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Just here to post a pointless list: Manga that Pwnz

2008-11-17T06:09:47Z

Manga that I'm reading and where I'm up to:

Nabari no Ou ~ ch.20 (Look at the cuuuute little boy!)
Kuroshitsuji ~ ch.16 (Look at the cuuuuute little boy!...again!)
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! ~ ch.219 (Look at the cuuuute litte....hey wait a minute....)
Mushishi ~ ch.5
Darker than Black ~ ch. 9
Code: Breaker ~ ch. 22

They are all awesome. Srsly awesome.
This is sort of a reference for me, so if I get on another computer, I can see where I left off in the manga. XD

Ehhh~ sorry for the lack of posts? I use Twitter, 'cause it's FASTER. And yeah, LJ is soooo last year (or something?).

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2008-11-16T17:33:34Z

16:22 Did you know they engraved a bench for my late-grandmother? Something about it warms my heart... #
01:06 I last updated my comic in June...why do I have 6 new fans?! Idiots!!! #

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2008-11-14T17:38:34Z

12:54 Soup! Soup, soup, soup it's like the ONLY thing in the apartment. And I really want my Dr. Pepper. When are we going to the store again? #
17:55 I learned to sing Jingle Bells in Chinese today: "Ding ding dong Ding Ding dong ling'er xiang ding dang" ~ #

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2008-11-12T17:34:56Z

21:29 Watching people play Gears of War 2, then falling asleep...is not the best combination of activities. XD #

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2008-11-10T17:51:30Z

03:09 When the heater turns on, the room fills with the smell of burning dust. Housing and Residence Life says this is "normal". O__o; #

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2008-11-08T17:42:19Z

15:39 I have a little cactus pup and he's so cute! Look, look! Bottom center: tinyurl.com/253xzj ! #
17:16 It just dropped from 69 to 57 degrees in an hour and a half! Today's the last warm day of the year ~ Goodbye warmth! #

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2008-11-07T17:53:25Z

15:37 I found my keys! I was right, they were in the IT building. :D #

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2008-11-06T17:47:20Z

12:17 Even if I didn't use punctuation or spaces the Tweet box could not fit all the things that went wrong yesterday in it. Better today. #

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2008-10-31T17:15:48Z

14:10 I left my phone in the apartment along with my JagTag(?) which I still can't find. Do I have a Logic Quiz today? I don't have my book... #

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2008-10-28T20:56:16Z

11:44 Feels like crap and doesn't want to go to Chinese!...Or Logic! D: #

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Is this just because I like aqua? :o

2008-10-28T16:50:37Z

What Your Cute Monster Says About You

You are both a realist and an idealist. You're able to see the world as it is - and how it could be.

You dream big, and you never give up on your beliefs. You have big plans.

Your inner demon is depression. Sometimes you build things up in your head.

People think you're cute because you're determined. You're a fighter, and that's charming.

The Cute Monster Test

Ahhhh...

2008-10-21T22:25:32Z

I'm so tired. Just like, "BLAH" tired, not sleepy tired. BLAH.

I passed my Logic Midterm; got a B on it. I was really shocked actually. Of course, my teacher is about the most lenient grader ever to walk on the face of the planet. I'm not complaining, just saying that I probably would have done worse if he had graded more severely. Ha-ha. Yeah, so thanks Mr. Arndt for being a lenient grader! I'm sure your fourth grade students love you for it too.

Uh, on the not-so-fun side of school is yet another Art Appreciation paper I need to write tonight. I would have written it ages ago (truly) but I didn't get the chance to actually make it to the IMA to look for the artwork I was supposed to be writing about until Sunday. The IMA is only 3.8 miles from my apartment, but it's not a journey you want to take on foot. There's a really terrible part of the neighborhood right between us and them. I didn't want to walk it and I was warned against it, so I waited until Billie was free so we could go.

Oh-oh, and the exhibits and museum were SO DULL AND DEPRESSING that we felt like cutting loose a little and acting like kids, so right afterwards we went to BK. I wasn't really that hungry, so I decided to be cheap and got a Kids' meal. In it, I got an "iTurtle". I didn't even know they had iTurtles. Billie wanted something too, so she went up to the front and bought an i-Cy (the penguin).

The turtle's name is Aihachu. I forgot what Li named hers.

I'm hungry and really pissed off that the bread I bought a week ago, which remains unopened, went bad 5 days ago. Yeah, it went bad about 3 days after it was purchased. For the record, I didn't pick out the bread, so I didn't notice the expiration date until today when I was looking in the fridge. I also have to get maintainance in here to fix the oven before I scream from lack of real food. Bah!

akuwa_neko @ 2008-10-13T20:09:00

2008-10-14T03:14:52Z

我有中文 addon for Mozilla Firefox. I can barely use it though. HAH. 不好!

Monday, monday...

2008-10-13T16:01:14Z

more animals

This bed is too hard... (and there's this guy that eats fire...)

2008-10-06T00:59:04Z

...or, actually, TOO SOFT. Not my bed at home, but my bed at my parent's house. It's an awesome mattress- so amazingly soft- but my normal mattress is so amazingly hard and uncomfortable that, in getting used to it, I can no longer lay comfortably on a soft bed. I didn't sleep that great last night.

The same goes for my parent's awesome couches.

That's what I get for living in an apartment where literally everything is made of wrought iron with pads on top. Ow.

Oh by the by, I went with mom and Kevin to the Renaissance Faire at Conner Prairie today. It was fun-ish. It would have been more fun if I had been better rested AND if the weather had been correct and been 50F instead of 78F and F'ING SUNNY. SUNNY IN MY FACE. Boo. BUT, other than that it was fun. There was a guy called Molotov the Gypsy who did bad jokes and fantastic magic tricks. Oh yeah, and fire eating. That pwned. Check him out because he's awesome.

What else? Nothing else. Bye.

The temperature is dropping like...like...

2008-10-02T13:58:41Z

like LEAVES.

Ha-! Just a little Autumn joke. *brick'd*

Anyway, the temperature really does seem to be taking a bit of a nosedive. All last week and the week before it the days were pretty much settled between really high 70's and mid to high 80's. This week's forecast says that the high shouldn't go over 72 and today's low is 45! Forty-five, my god! That's a really big drop! Luckily I wasn't a total weather n00b and I do have jackets and layerable clothing to wear to stay warm. All the same, when I go home this weekend for that Ren Faire we're going to for mom's birthday (last time I checked), I'm picking up my winter clothes bucket (and my hairdryer). It would be kind of nice to have plenty of sweaters and scarves to wear over the next few months before it gets really cold.

By the way, I woke up at 8:15 because I forgot to reset my alarm for my Thursday schedule, which doesn't start until 1:30 while the Wednesday one starts at 10am. So, I reset the alarm to go off at 10:30 instead, got back in bed and about 10 minutes later got up and decided that there was just too much I wanted to do this morning. I guess 6.5 hours is enough for my body today? It's weird though, sometimes I get over 10 hours of sleep and still feel sleepy and sometimes I get exactly the 7.5 hours that the average college student is supposed to get and I'm still sleepy. I guess I'll just have to figure out what exactly affects my sleeping habits. Normally I would say that I get better sleep after a good meal, but last night we had pizza and breadsticks (as a proper college student should!) and I don't really count that as "good" food!

Tonight though, I'm baking chicken! I am bound and determined to start making good meals to go along with all the crap we eat in the apartment, in the hopes that it will improve my roomate's and my energy levels. I've noticed that, of course, the more fast food we eat the less energy we have. And I sort of spilt food types into three groups: "pure" fast food (pizza, burgers, Chik~fil~A, etc.), "fast/frozen food" like the chicken tenders we keep in the freezer, and good meals that are made with fresh or home-cooked food. The correlation I've found is that the more I have to do to cook it, the healthier it tends to be! What a discovery, right? XD

I don't know if I can create some sort of cooking regiment that everyone has to stick to, but I do know that I am at least determined to start eating, if not "healthier" specifically, then at least cooking for myself more. I do have a cookbook, so it's not like I don't know what to do! Plus, Shake-n-Bake, rice and vegetables (assuming a pot gets washed for them) is what I'm making for dinner tonight; that's not that hard to do.

Now, I'm going to figure out exactly how to efficiently make my own Iced-Chai Latte, because I'm tired of spending $3.50 at Starbucks for what is literally Chai tea (which we now have), milk (have it), sugar (totally have it) and ice (the fridge even makes it for me)! Yummy Iced-chai. :9

Guess what I'm gonna' be for Halloween?

2008-09-28T20:16:14Z

Go on guess! :D

~~Now I just need to find a purple lightsaber...Hm.~~
Thanks to the internets, I will have my purple lightsabre in 5-7 business days.

Now I just need to put together my costume.

Is LiveJournal dead...?

2008-09-25T15:08:20Z

Or is it just me? O___o;

akuwa_neko @ 2008-09-15T08:54:00

2008-09-15T13:13:16Z

I went out for a lovely walk yesterday during a Thunderstorm warning. I didn't get rained on, but it was really windy. Windy enough that the metal frame of my umbrella was twisted out of shape several times and I had to twist it back, which took no small amount of effort. I also got sort of lost, but not really. I knew where I was, I just wasn't sure how to get back to where I wanted to be without turning around. In the end, I just turned around and went back the way I came.

I walked down the Canal Walk and would have taken photos if it hadn't been so dark and overcast that my digital camera would have failed at portraying the atmosphere- ha. There were ducks and ducklings and the water was rippling like crazy with the wind. Like I said, it didn't rain, but it was very, very humid (I'd guess...90% humidity?) and the wind was blowing around 30mph at some points (I checked the weather report, lol) . I only took shelter once, in the IT building, because I was afraid that since the much darker clouds were moving away from the Canal, that it might be much worse over by the apartments, so I called my roommate who said everything was fine; so I just walked back.

And had Cream of Chicken Soup for dinner. Mmmm.

Now, I'm awake (on time?!) and I have a slight sore throat. I took Tylenol Cold Daytime, but I think the sore throat is from sleeping with my mouth open so much last night. At least, I hope so. I'm not taking any chances with missing any more class time. I've already missed one Lab in Design Issues in New Media (which, as far as class goes, wasn't a loss at all, but attendance is really strict in that course) because I had a terrible headache and had to call someone to pick me up and take me back to the apartment, and one Lecture in Art Appreciation, which due to a terrible night's sleep, I missed due to exhaustion the next morning.

Actually, I missed the last Art Appreciation Lecture, so I hope we didn't go over anything crucial. I did finally get the damn book in ($96 used!) so hopefully that will cover everything her little Powerpoint presentations covered. I was going to get on OnCourse and e-mail her as to what we went over, but she obviously is quite computer-challenged when it comes to OnCourse (not that I blame her too much, it could be vastly improved) and she hasn't posted anything and doesn't have an e-mail. When I checked the actual phyisical syllabus, she didn't have any contact information there either, so I said 'screw it' and decided to wait for today to come around and see what the damage is (or isn't, as the case probably will be).

Now, I'm hungry, and I really want to drink something hot and eat something equally hot, if not more so...

Firewall

2008-09-14T19:11:58Z

It's kind of a creepy movie.

I feel like it could be better...

Just in case you weren't aware...

2008-09-13T06:58:49Z

I now have a phone. Let the calling and soon thereafter ignoring of the ringing phone commence. :)

Appreciating Art

2008-09-08T17:04:51Z

Let me start by saying that, to me, the very thought of teaching a course in appreciating something is ridiculous. You cannot teach someone to appreciate something. You can expose them to it, immerse them in it and then, if they so choose, they may appreciate it. But, in my own opinion art is something you have to appreciate on your own and not for any particular reason that can be taught. You cannot just say, "HERE, APPRECIATE THIS NOW", it doesn't work like that.

I didn't "learn" to appreciate art through classes when I was younger. I saw what I wanted to see in art and whether I appreciated it or not wasn't exactly the point; the only thing that mattered is that it pleased me, for whatever reason. This course teaches that there are not only reasons to appreciate art, but specific reasons. And if those reasons do not apply to a piece in any way, it's not artwork. It's also a bit of an Art History course, but just barely. I'm just sick of my teacher. It's as if she's trying to say, "This is art; this is not art, and here's why".

But maybe it's more personal than that. I really dislike the way my teacher views "non-fine art".
This is her "diagram" :

Top) Art

Mid) Illustration

Bottom) Graphic Design

Like there's some sort of Aesthetic hierarchy! And who draws the line between Illustration and Design? For that matter, don't the two bottom ones technically- by technical definition -fit into the top category? If art has so many requirements to make it "art", and Design and Illustration meet said requirements, why is it so looked down upon?

-If something is Art* based off of Skill, then Design** is art as designers must be skilled in order to portray their subject matter in the best and most understandable way possible.
-If something is Art based off of the Principles of Art, then Design is art as it needs to meet all the same principles as 'fine art' does.
-If something is Art based off of Aesthetics or Beauty, then Design is art as it's purpose is to draw attention and please the viewer.

*Here, I'm taking a very simple definition of art: "The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty"; (Wiktionary)
**Here again, I'm taking a very simplified definition of design: "Design implies a conscious effort to create something that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing"; (Wikipedia).

I'm no Philosopher and I will certainly not boast any great knowledge of art. To me, art is what you make it, whether you can readily categorize it or not is beside the point. I dislike it when people over-categorize things. I know that we as human beings need to categorize things. "This is blue and this is not." But when it comes to something so vast and ambiguous as art, I think that categorization is unnecessary.

This course is one of the "choose-your-own-prerequisite" type courses. It's an "Arts & Humanities" course, to be specific. Every non-Art major is require to take at least 3 credit hours worth of A&H to meet prerequisite requirements. Every non-Art major. Hmm. It seems even the school system doesn't consider Design as art. True, my major is not art, it's Informatics a major which- depending on which track of interest you choose to pursue -may not even touch upon design! But my track (whether it turns out to be Integrated Design or Digital Storytelling) is most definitely art-related at the least! I'm taking a course titled "Design Issues in Digital Media" for chrissakes! It's got DESIGN in the title!

Do you know what we're covering in the DIDM Lecture? Principles of Design: Color, Space, Form, Pattern, Texture, Contrast, Light, etc etc etc.

Do you know what we're covering in Art Appreciation? What makes art: Color, Space, Form, Pattern, Texture, Contrast, Light, etc etc etc.

I think that when it comes to my instructor's categorization, she puts "fine art" at the top because they don't fall into the category of "Commercial Art" and everyone looks down on commercial art because How Dare You make money from Art. I don't like to think of my art as "Commerical Art" because I don't create it to sell, I create it for me because I want to and because it makes me happy (most of the time)! Just because my work isn't bubbling with emotion doesn't mean it doesn't have any. Just because I draw people or static images or cartoons or whatever, doesn't mean that I don't put thought into my work! It doesn't mean I just created it for no reason. I don't need to give you a reason; I did it for me and that's all that matters! And even if I didn't do it for me, even if I created it for someone else, does it have any less thought put into it?

And if that attitude means that the work I love to do will never sell or be popular, then by god I'll become a commerical artist, even just to call myself that, and prove to people (who are obviously not listening because this rant is as old as the sun by now...) that what I do is Art.

In retrospect, I should have taken Theater Appreciation.

Cell Phone Questions: FOR YOU.

2008-09-07T02:19:27Z

OK, so it's official- my phone will never, ever work again! So I need to buy a new one, preferably one that isn't as crappy and accident-prone as the one I have now. The accident-prone part is important since I'm not allowed anymore insurance on my plan. Boo. That being said, I don't want to simply replace the phone with the same one I had before. I want a new phone. One that will last me through college at least! I'm willing to spend up to, but no more than, $250 on a new phone. This is the price that I was going to pay to buy myself Photoshop this year, but that will have to wait until next Summer (no biggie).

SO- NOW YOU:

1) What kind of phone do you have and why?

2) Do you have a Smartphone and what do you think about them?
a-If it has a full-qwerty, how easy is it to use?
b-What OS does it run and how does that work for you?

3) I primarily call, text, IM and check e-mail/Google things
~What phone would you personally suggest?

Keep in mind, I have At&T and it's always best for me to stick with what my carrier carries (lol). Also, it's going to be a replacement phone on an existing plan, so I don't get any rebates (except mail-in and instant).

So? Gimme some answers people! I've only got about another 4 hours total on my battery and once that's gone the phone is gone for good. Yes, the battery is damaged, however the motherboard is damaged as well. The On/Off and the connect functions are all messed up, so it's basically useless. That being said: New phone!!!

Exhale Creativity Through Boredom

*Tweets*

*Tweets*

Just here to post a pointless list: Manga that Pwnz

*Tweets*

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Is this just because I like aqua? :o

Ahhhh...

akuwa_neko @ 2008-10-13T20:09:00

Monday, monday...

This bed is too hard... (and there's this guy that eats fire...)

The temperature is dropping like...like...

Guess what I'm gonna' be for Halloween?

Is LiveJournal dead...?

akuwa_neko @ 2008-09-15T08:54:00

Firewall

Just in case you weren't aware...

Appreciating Art

Cell Phone Questions: FOR YOU.

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