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Thursday, January 26, 2012
My God, He's Making me Draw!
My art appreciation professor assigned the class it's first hands on project for the semester. It's a 100 point project and it's due one month from today.
We have to take an advertisement, full face shot, and reproduce it in pencil in the naturalist style. Then we have to do a series of panels, where we take our reproduction and add abstract elements, then after completing 8 of these panels, we are to redo the original naturalism drawing in the abstract.
I draw stick people remarkably well. That is the extent of my talent.
Happily, Dave said that we can use a grid to do the work, as long as the grid lines don't appear on the finished product.
Today I hie to Hobby Lobby to buy artist pencils, since the work can only be in black and white. The skillful use of eraser and smudging can provide proper shading, etc. It looks to be an interesting project.
Yesterday, it rained cats and dogs. I, as a consequence to having to walk about campus, spent the day in wet shoes. I hate having my feet stuck in wet shoes. My feet were all pruney when I took them off at home. I digress, while I killed time in-between classes, I got to meet a few of my fellow students, all younger than me of course, and we spent a couple of hours just hanging out and talking about anything. Surprisingly, three of the young men were musicians, and even though they are about 19 to 20 years old, they all appreciate Rush! They are also surprisingly conservative in some areas, financial in particular.
The main reason they are doing their core work at the community college is because of the cost of higher education. Marcus, one of the guys I was talking with, made a good point when he said that it made no sense to pay triple or quadruple the tuition for math, when he could save the money. He will transfer his credits to the 4 year he wants to attend, once his core is done. He will still have to borrow, but this way he is borrowing less.
Very sensible of him.
I am really enjoying talking to the kids I meet on campus. Thus far, they have been polite and engaging. They all think it rocks that someone my age is starting a second career. Last semester, after I made friends of a sort with a few girls, I even got asked advise about boys. Yesterday I was asked about how to get ahead at the work place...then we talked about music, art and professors who suck.
The real treat is when one of the music students breaks out his instrument and plays. Last semester I got treated to many an impromptu guitar performance, yesterday was the violin. On Monday, for the Chinese New Year, there were dragons and drums.
I am really enjoying school and sometimes I regret not going when I was much younger. Sometimes. I don' t think that I really would have appreciated the experience back then.
I do now.
We have to take an advertisement, full face shot, and reproduce it in pencil in the naturalist style. Then we have to do a series of panels, where we take our reproduction and add abstract elements, then after completing 8 of these panels, we are to redo the original naturalism drawing in the abstract.
I draw stick people remarkably well. That is the extent of my talent.
Happily, Dave said that we can use a grid to do the work, as long as the grid lines don't appear on the finished product.
Today I hie to Hobby Lobby to buy artist pencils, since the work can only be in black and white. The skillful use of eraser and smudging can provide proper shading, etc. It looks to be an interesting project.
Yesterday, it rained cats and dogs. I, as a consequence to having to walk about campus, spent the day in wet shoes. I hate having my feet stuck in wet shoes. My feet were all pruney when I took them off at home. I digress, while I killed time in-between classes, I got to meet a few of my fellow students, all younger than me of course, and we spent a couple of hours just hanging out and talking about anything. Surprisingly, three of the young men were musicians, and even though they are about 19 to 20 years old, they all appreciate Rush! They are also surprisingly conservative in some areas, financial in particular.
The main reason they are doing their core work at the community college is because of the cost of higher education. Marcus, one of the guys I was talking with, made a good point when he said that it made no sense to pay triple or quadruple the tuition for math, when he could save the money. He will transfer his credits to the 4 year he wants to attend, once his core is done. He will still have to borrow, but this way he is borrowing less.
Very sensible of him.
I am really enjoying talking to the kids I meet on campus. Thus far, they have been polite and engaging. They all think it rocks that someone my age is starting a second career. Last semester, after I made friends of a sort with a few girls, I even got asked advise about boys. Yesterday I was asked about how to get ahead at the work place...then we talked about music, art and professors who suck.
The real treat is when one of the music students breaks out his instrument and plays. Last semester I got treated to many an impromptu guitar performance, yesterday was the violin. On Monday, for the Chinese New Year, there were dragons and drums.
I am really enjoying school and sometimes I regret not going when I was much younger. Sometimes. I don' t think that I really would have appreciated the experience back then.
I do now.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Second Semester, Day 2
As was the case last semester, I am the oldest student in my class. Thus far, however, my professors are older than me or my age.
Microbiology looks to be interesting. My professor is actually an M.D. who worked in trauma and E.R. medicine before deciding to teach. My math professor is from India and he seems to be pretty cool. I ca also understand him, as he doesn't have a thick accent.
Thus far, today, I have taken my first Art Appreciation lesson...well it was a review of the syllabus...the professor for this class did his undergrad work at LSU and wants us to call him Dave. It was no surprise to me that he is a flaming liberal, but I am not in school to try to fire up my professors with anything but stellar grades. This is one of those required core curriculum classes that I have to suffer through, although I'd much prefer to have a heavier science load.
This young grasshopper must be patient.
Day one in each class and I have already sussed out the classmates who will be disruptions or have an attitude problem. I suppose that as I progress into higher levels of classes, these students will become fewer and far between. At least I hope so. It seems to me, that as classes get more and more specialized, then the students in them will be there because they are committed to their major. Right now, all of my classes are core for the spectrum of an Associate of Science degree, as opposed to something more specialized like nursing. I am also hoping that I am wrong about my fellow classmates in Micro...most of them are declared nursing or lab tech majors. I'm hoping that this will also be the case in my A&P I class, which begins in 2 hours.
Two of my 4 classes this semester are at a different, and bigger campus than my usual one. I like this new campus, it's far bigger and has everything within walking distance. It also has a separate science center, which is where I am composing this post. The set up looks nice..as do the labs.
All in all, not a bad beginning to my second semester in college. Here's to making Deans List again!
Microbiology looks to be interesting. My professor is actually an M.D. who worked in trauma and E.R. medicine before deciding to teach. My math professor is from India and he seems to be pretty cool. I ca also understand him, as he doesn't have a thick accent.
Thus far, today, I have taken my first Art Appreciation lesson...well it was a review of the syllabus...the professor for this class did his undergrad work at LSU and wants us to call him Dave. It was no surprise to me that he is a flaming liberal, but I am not in school to try to fire up my professors with anything but stellar grades. This is one of those required core curriculum classes that I have to suffer through, although I'd much prefer to have a heavier science load.
This young grasshopper must be patient.
Day one in each class and I have already sussed out the classmates who will be disruptions or have an attitude problem. I suppose that as I progress into higher levels of classes, these students will become fewer and far between. At least I hope so. It seems to me, that as classes get more and more specialized, then the students in them will be there because they are committed to their major. Right now, all of my classes are core for the spectrum of an Associate of Science degree, as opposed to something more specialized like nursing. I am also hoping that I am wrong about my fellow classmates in Micro...most of them are declared nursing or lab tech majors. I'm hoping that this will also be the case in my A&P I class, which begins in 2 hours.
Two of my 4 classes this semester are at a different, and bigger campus than my usual one. I like this new campus, it's far bigger and has everything within walking distance. It also has a separate science center, which is where I am composing this post. The set up looks nice..as do the labs.
All in all, not a bad beginning to my second semester in college. Here's to making Deans List again!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wedding Planning in a Recession...
So, Mike gave me my engagement ring for Christmas. A little earlier, actually. I am delighted with the ring, it's so beautiful and it fits perfectly. It should, seeing as I have spent the last year occasionally dropping hints...
"White gold, size 7, round cut."
He out did himself....
So, now I am planning away! I have my wedding gown (a picture of which I won't post here, because Mike reads my blog) and my colors picked out.
The colors were harder than I thought. I knew that I wanted black and ivory, but I had no clue about accent colors. Since we are trying to save money where we can, I 'm doing the invitations myself, along with the favors.
The colors I finally picked are shown above: I just love the blue!
I ordered the invitations, which come with reply cards, from Hobby Lobby. What a bargain, too. 25 invites, reply cards and envelopes for each for $19.50!
I am going to replace the black ribbon with black and ivory damask!
I am looking at flower ideas. I'm also trying to decide whether or not I want to do the myself. I'm fairly crafty, and Hobby Lobby has real looking and feeling stems in a ton of colors and varieties!
I'm leaning toward this, but with maybe a few rose buds. Or, just as it is, but I can tie the bouquet in the tiffany blue ribbon...
The thing that is killing me, and Mike for that matter, are the prices of venues and catering!!! HOLY COW!!! Country clubs are expensive and I'm afraid the food will be ordinary, run of the mill hotel type food. Not to mention the fact that the all charge a cake cutting fee because we are providing our own cake. SERIOUSLY??? The bar packages are high too! Dittos on hotels. Everything is so cookie cutter, too.
So that leaves other venues.
Like museums.
We checked one out today. It's kind of pricy, but it's unique and we can taylor the package to our needs. I don't want a champagne toast. Mike hates the stuff and I can do without it. We can toast with wine. The linen package, which a balked at initially, turns out to be what other venues would consider to be premium! I'm talking pin tucked table cloths (in Ivory), satin chair covers (in black stripes) and napkins in Tiffany blue. If I want runners, they are fine with me supplying my own, since theirs are $10 a table to rent...I can whip up damask runners in no time! (I love Hobby Lobby!) Those are considered BASIC linens in this place! There are a few more areas we can cut, which will bring the rental to about $3500.
This seems like a lot, but this is a museum! The ballroom is HUGE, they supply the tables, chairs, catering kitchen, the bar package is $16.00 per person for a 4 hour bar that includes sodas (the other places we checked out charge EXTRA for sodas, even with a bar package!) This also includes a bartender, set up, take down, valet parking, dance floor (usually a separate rental)...and the event coordinator will run the show for me! There is so much more involved with the package.
Best of all I can HIRE MY OWN CATERER!!!!!! Tatiana, the events gal, has a list of recommended vendors, but we don't have to stick with them!
Here's a link to the museum:Czech Museum
So. That's that so far. We are going to look at a couple of other places, one of them is an Art Nouveau Bar: Art Bar which is kind of cool. I love Art Nouveau and we both like bars...plus the place is already decorated...Tiffany everywhere! That's going to be an evening appointment, because of their hours. I also need to make sure that we can have under 21's in of we rent the place out for the reception. That might be a deal breaker. We shall see.
March 2013 isn't that far off! It's already almost mid-January!
School kicks back in next week...14 credit hours! WooHoo!
"White gold, size 7, round cut."
So, now I am planning away! I have my wedding gown (a picture of which I won't post here, because Mike reads my blog) and my colors picked out.
The colors were harder than I thought. I knew that I wanted black and ivory, but I had no clue about accent colors. Since we are trying to save money where we can, I 'm doing the invitations myself, along with the favors.
I ordered the invitations, which come with reply cards, from Hobby Lobby. What a bargain, too. 25 invites, reply cards and envelopes for each for $19.50!
I am looking at flower ideas. I'm also trying to decide whether or not I want to do the myself. I'm fairly crafty, and Hobby Lobby has real looking and feeling stems in a ton of colors and varieties!
The thing that is killing me, and Mike for that matter, are the prices of venues and catering!!! HOLY COW!!! Country clubs are expensive and I'm afraid the food will be ordinary, run of the mill hotel type food. Not to mention the fact that the all charge a cake cutting fee because we are providing our own cake. SERIOUSLY??? The bar packages are high too! Dittos on hotels. Everything is so cookie cutter, too.
So that leaves other venues.
Like museums.
We checked one out today. It's kind of pricy, but it's unique and we can taylor the package to our needs. I don't want a champagne toast. Mike hates the stuff and I can do without it. We can toast with wine. The linen package, which a balked at initially, turns out to be what other venues would consider to be premium! I'm talking pin tucked table cloths (in Ivory), satin chair covers (in black stripes) and napkins in Tiffany blue. If I want runners, they are fine with me supplying my own, since theirs are $10 a table to rent...I can whip up damask runners in no time! (I love Hobby Lobby!) Those are considered BASIC linens in this place! There are a few more areas we can cut, which will bring the rental to about $3500.
This seems like a lot, but this is a museum! The ballroom is HUGE, they supply the tables, chairs, catering kitchen, the bar package is $16.00 per person for a 4 hour bar that includes sodas (the other places we checked out charge EXTRA for sodas, even with a bar package!) This also includes a bartender, set up, take down, valet parking, dance floor (usually a separate rental)...and the event coordinator will run the show for me! There is so much more involved with the package.
Best of all I can HIRE MY OWN CATERER!!!!!! Tatiana, the events gal, has a list of recommended vendors, but we don't have to stick with them!
Here's a link to the museum:Czech Museum
So. That's that so far. We are going to look at a couple of other places, one of them is an Art Nouveau Bar: Art Bar which is kind of cool. I love Art Nouveau and we both like bars...plus the place is already decorated...Tiffany everywhere! That's going to be an evening appointment, because of their hours. I also need to make sure that we can have under 21's in of we rent the place out for the reception. That might be a deal breaker. We shall see.
March 2013 isn't that far off! It's already almost mid-January!
School kicks back in next week...14 credit hours! WooHoo!
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