| Tuesday, 5-31-05. Sunny and warm | |||
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In preparation for last night's all-nighter, I slept until nearly 2 pm yesterday afternoon. The trip was excellent, minus my perpetual state of drowsiness and cultural confusion from being so far out of my element. Rach and Jess are quite the cool folk, and I thank them immensely for their hospitality.
Last night Rach and I hung out at her place since Jess had to work the night shift. I attempted to offer support while she wrote a history paper, all the while inhaling copious amounts of neoprene fumes from my Prismacolor markers while making a drawing for Jess. Following ingestion of 2 Advil, I tried to nab some sleep before having to wake up at 4 am, but it was nearly impossible. In the end I think I captured maybe a half hour of sleep, tops. Rach was too out-of-it to drive safely, so I broke several laws and drove her car to the airport before giving her a big hug. At 5 am, there was absolutely no line for either the check-in or security checkpoints, so I breezed through and watched CNN coverage of the recent Deep-Throat controversy before flying to Chicago for my transfer to SF... and to think, I lived within a couple miles of the infamous Watergate informant for over four years... German word of the day: Shlaflosigkeit (f) - Insomnia |
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| Sunday, 5-29-05. Partly cloudy and warm | |||
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I've had to sacrifice a bit of sleep on this trip, but I'm surviving reasonably well. I went into Cincinnati with Jess and Rach today, and dispite a wrong turn that took us miles in the wrong direction, we eventually found the city art museum. Toward the end of our stroll around the galleries inside, we were practically taken hostage by a flaming art history professor who quizzed us on biblical storylines and had a strange obsession with Bruges. Quite the humorous character. We also discovered that the bench we'd sat on just before all this began was 500 years old and from Spain, but the museum still let people park on it without batting an eye.
Lunch was equally memorable, as we had some excellent Italian food across the river in Newport. Jerry Springer, a Cinci native, randomly came in with a group of people halfway through our meal, though thankfully he didn't sit near us. Rach would've keeeled him. Before returning to Oxford, we browsed books and battled sharks and clowns at the nearby mall, then cruised around Jess' childhood neighborhood and went to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor for sundaes. Back in Oxford, I took a nap and then joined everyone for drinks and VERY loud music at a local club. I spent most of the time making nerd talk with Dave, as I'm not a dancer or much of a drinker. German word of the day: Opfer (n) - Sacrifice |
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| Saturday, 5-28-05. -59 degrees Fahrenheit | |||
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Right now I'm sitting at gate B6 in Chicago's O'Hare Airport, waiting for my second flight to Cincinnati to arrive and whisk me away to see friends in Ohio. The flight over was memorable. I battled bad breath and elbow space from the guy next to me, a half-full cup of ice-water-laden pepsi that spilled in my lap, the fully-reclined seat from the short lady in front of me, the baby-size sink in the bathroom that I couldn't wash my face over, and extremely bad BO from some guy ahead of me on the speedy walkway over to this concourse. All the fun, character-building joy aside, it's nice here. The sun is shining in at a low angle through the tall glass windows, and the clouds are puffy like cotton balls, scattered widely enough to even out the subtle portions of clear blue gradient just right.
German word of the day: Erdnüsse (n) - Peanuts |
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| Thursday, 5-26-05. Muggy and overcast | |||
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Well folks, spring semester sucked... badly. Financial, scheduling, time management, and moving difficulties conspired to make it one of the least productive academic periods I've ever subjected myself to. I gained untold riches of knowledge, but in the end it couldn't save me. That is all.
Bringing with her a delightful spirit of adventure, my friend Alli came up to visit for the afternoon. We jetted around on Muni, did considerable amounts of walking, and then came back to the house to make a gigantic chocolate-vanilla marble cheesecake until 2 in the morning. It is gargantuan, and extremely rich. Even if I worked on it for a month, I doubt I'd be able to eat it all. Alli rocks the cheesecake. German word of the day: Kurve (f) - Curve |
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| Tuesday, 5-24-05. Sunny and hot | |||
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Lately, things seem to have crossed that universal threshold that motivates mothers, children, fathers, and just about everyone else in between to start sporting t-shirts and shorts as regular wear outdoors. I, myself, have also fallen victim to this recent change in temperature, and in doing so, discovered that my only decent pair of shorts seem to have some sort of odd stain on the right side...
This has been one of the most productive days in recent memory. I spent most of it catching up on badly-needed cleaning, as my bedroom floor has been coated with the flotsam and scrappy bits accumulated from my assorted design studio projects that have come and gone over the last couple of months. The kitchen area was also made subject to my cleaning whims, as the recent party my sister decided to throw left it splashed with spilled wine and funky bits that stick to one's shoes. This evening I dismantled my shaver and soldered in a new battery pack, as the old one died about 3 or 4 years ago. I was glad to give my facial hair-chopping machine a new lease on life, as I've had it since I was in high school. I washed my bedding, then finally finished the photo album for my design studio gesture models. Check 'em out. German word of the day: Kartoffel (f) - Potato |
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| Sunday, 5-22-05. Hot and sunny | |||
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Santa Rosa was outstanding. After narrowly arriving on time to meet everyone for a viewing of the new Star Wars movie, I spent most of the rest of my first evening depressurizing in the comparatively open, lush environment of Sonoma county. Sleeping in until noon, I nabbed a barbecue breakfast and met the mayor of Santa Rosa at a park-opening ceremony. My hosts were great, the food was excellent as always, and the weather was pristine... if not a slight bit too warm for pants. I caught up on much-needed sleep, hung out with good friends, crossed a few errands off my list (including buying a new battery for my shaver, after being unable to recharge it for the last 4 years), stopped by Oliver's for my usual bag-o-goodies, and went for 3 nice bike rides. The sun left a trace of its mark, but I luckily applied some SPF 30 that first day at the park dedication. It had to be one of the nicest trips to SR I've ever had, easily.
With the completion of my much-loved Rapid Visualization course this past week, I now have a photo album showcasing the conceptual drawings and renderings I made as a part of my final project and presentation. Do check it out. I'll have an album for the gesture models I made for my design studio soon, so check back if you're interested. German word of the day: Überschwang (m) - Exuberance |
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| Tuesday, 5-17-05. Cool and overcast | |||
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Today marks a rather unsettling and oddly numb one-year anniversary. On this day last year I was driving home happily from another day working at the high school when I received a rather shocking phone call from my father, informing me that Meenee, our dog and fellow family member of almost 15 years, had been put down. If that news wasn't bad enough, I was also informed that she'd been put down because she'd reached a critical stage in a disease that we weren't even sure she had only a day prior. Suffice to say, a lot of time has passed between now and then. I don't live in the same city anymore, my life has been consumed by academia, and feel like I've aged about ten years. All the same, the day came and went without much fanfare, and that makes me feel some regret. I miss my dog.
This is the week of final projects. I have until Friday to complete an absurd amount of work, then I will unleash all the built-up stress that has accumulated in my life and head up to Santa Rosa for a quick vacation. I truly cannot wait. German word of the day: Jahrestag (m) - Anniversary |
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| Saturday, 5-14-05. Warm and sunny | |||
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Despite the threat of rain, it's been rather warm and muggy lately. Being that I'm on the top floor in this house, from the hours of roughly 10 am to 5 pm my bedroom has felt analogous to a toaster oven.
Yesterday evening I found myself in yet another situation where I was forced to sacrifice another night to a project. This time, however, it was my final model and set of drawings for design studio. I had to have it all ready to turn in at 10 am sharp, and (dispite still having many things I'd loved to have added) I ended up making it with 30 seconds to spare. On the drive home I breathed a sigh of relief, but there will be far greater battles to be fought over the next few days. Following a 3-hour nap this afternoon, I was pleased to finally finish the cleaning in my old studio. Now hopefully my old landlord will see fit to rent it to someone soon so I can get my deposit back. Send good karma my way, folks... I can use every ounce. On a more positive note, after weeks of searching and realizing on several occasions that it's too late to go to the hardware store to buy new ones, today I remembered where I left my work gloves. It appears karma is finally working in my favor, perhaps? German word of the day: Woge (f) - Surge |
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| Tuesday, 5-10-05. Warm and sunny | |||
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I'm not precisely sure how many nights of sleep I've had to forfeit to working on projects this semester, but it's getting up there. This last span of caffiene-laden nocturnal activity was dedicated to my product rendering drawings and presentation. My happiness level with the end result runs around 80%, which isn't great. I was particularly dissatisfied with the rushed rendering of the exploded view, but in the end I think everything turned out moderately well.
German word of the day: Gefahr (f) - Hazard |
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| Saturday, 5-7-05. Cool and overcast | |||
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It's nice when you can sum up a day in things that you have learned. Today, I learned:
German word of the day: Zusammenfassung (f) - Summary |
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| Monday, 5-2-05. Sunny and warm | |||
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What do a night of no sleep, 2 thermos' worth of green tea, Massive Attacke's Mezzanine on repeat, and ten dollars of basswood strips equate to?
One gigantic gesture model for my design studio. Here's some pictures: One, two, three, four, five, and six. German word of the day: Pavian (m) - Baboon |
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