Safety graphics blog...

Here's a cute pie chart from another blog I follow, Safety Graphic Fun which celebrates the creativity of safety warning signs and brave/moronic/danger-seeking stickmen everywhere.

Anyone got any wax?...

In case y'all haven't seen it, here's a cute news story of a horse with a mustache. A Tom Selleck wannabe of the equine world.

Still alive and kickin'...

Okay I'll admit I'm bad about not going to the doctor. But I sorta pushed it too far this time.

A medical problem started last Thursday, but of course I'm the "wait and see if it goes away" type. Well it didn't go away and Monday wound up in the ER at Presbyterian Hospital of Denton. I won't go into detail other than to say that for my height and weight I should have 15 pints of blood in my system but I was down to only 7. I scared Scott pretty bad, my blood pressure and heart rate were close to the coma stage. In the ER I was faint enough that it was scaring me too, I could feel I was about to pass out and knew it was bad news if I did. Anyway they put 5 units of blood in me and I had a quick D&C surgery Monday night and came home Tuesday night.

I'm still dizzy sitting up so I'm just taking it easy living on the sofa for now. The ob-gyn has me taking Premarin. It makes your body think it's pregnant so I've been feeling nauseous, and yet the med they gave me for nausea gives me horrendous headaches so I'm not taking that one and just putting up with the nausea. Blechh

In the meantime poor Hubby is having to do EVERYTHING around the house, taking care of me, taking care of his mother who's living with us, running to get prescriptions for all of us, doing the shopping, making meals, feeding the animals, and still trying to work on car transmissions etc in the heat. He makes a good mother.

But I guess I shouldn't wait so long next time, Hubby says he'll kill me if I die on him, lol.

Speaking of dying, can you believe it takes the death of Michael Jackson for MTV to actually play MUSIC VIDEOS again?

How did they KNOW?...

Wednesday is Hubby's birthday. I about fell out of my chair when I saw today's Dilbert cartoon strip... Hubby's name is Scott. And, yes he would do this, haha:



Actually, in lieu of gifts he's wanting everyone to pool money together so he can get a rolling tool box for the garage. Seriously. And trust me, he really does need one. For several years he's just had all of his mechanic tools thrown in a couple of big kitty litter containers, so every time he's looking for a tool he has to pour them all out to find the small stuff on the bottom.

So are small ducks okay or not?...

The emails exchanged in this link just go to show that apartment managers have no sense of humor, even in Australia. Read them down the right side of the webpage.

I always did think that apartment complexes were run by Nazis.

Figure drawing class...

So I took an Intermediate Figure Drawing class in the Spring term. It was an okay class. We had a variety of models of different shapes and sizes and ages, unlike at TCC where we only had ONE model for the entire term. I really got tired of drawing the same woman over and over. I don't know how Freida Kahlo could even bare to paint herself so many times. I get bored using the same repetitive subject, so at UNT the variety was nice. But I also heard through the grapevine that the pay at UNT was much better, starting at $17 an hour (again, that's what I heard). I mean, it's not enough money for ME to stand naked in front of folks measuring every inch of the body, but there was no shortage of others who didn't mind. In fact, some of the male models are guys who have been at UNT for years.

Most of our days in the classroom were filled with repetitive exercises. Quick "gesture" sketches of 10-seconds, 20-seconds, etc, over and over and over as a means to warm up. Then 5 minute exercises of differing types. For example, draw the figure in one pose, then the model would move slightly, and we would draw the new pose over the top of the old one. Then finally, towards the end of class we would draw a "long" pose of 30 minutes. To me, 30 minutes isn't long enough!

Anyway, here's a few drawings:

Just a little 20-minute study


The next drawing was an exercise in which we drew the model from life on the right side of the paper, and then the model left the room and we had to invent a pose to draw from memory of the model's body on the left side. I must have had trucker mud flaps in my subconscience when I drew that left side:


I kinda liked the "compartmentalized" value effect that I tried on the next one to create my shadows. I'd never tried the effect before. I usually blend, blend, blend a fine smooth range of values from light to dark, without any obvious lines or borders of value variation, so this was a good exercise for me to break the values up more distinctly:


All shapes and sizes and ages, like this elderly (and very friendly might I add) gentleman. He always brought a book to read while modeling. And yet he still fell asleep sometimes, haha. The cloaked figure is a cement statue in the room used as a prop.


I think students modeled just so they could get some sleep between exams.

One more, a better close-up view of the elderly man's face:

Still here...

Ah HA! You didn't think I'd come back did you?

Yes, school's out. Okay, so it's been out for a couple of weeks now and I still hadn't blogged. So sue me. But I told y'all I'd come back to it.

The Spring term ended better than I thought it would, with A's in all 5 classes. I'm suspicious of the curve that gave me an A in algebra, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I'll take pics of some of my Figure Drawing class projects to post, so take this as a forewarning of more nude drawings in the immediate future. I wasn't satisfied with my painting projects so I'll just keep those to myself. Not that they are that bad, but I just wasn't proud enough of them to want to show them. Vain modesty I guess, if that's a term?

Both Hubby and I are taking classes for the summer term. Many of them are internet courses such as Anthropology and Culture in Film (for my Archaeology minor degree) but in the second half of the summer I'll be back in the classrooms with Intermediate Painting and Art History Survey II.

Anyway, I should have more time to post now.

Beyond school other things are going on too:

• Our A/C compressor bit the dust but we're toughing it out until we can buy a new one in a few weeks. There's a nice breeze coming through the windows. Most of the time.
• I have an abcessed molar which swelled one cheek, making me look like a half chipmunk for a few days.
  
• Hubby's mother is in the hospital with some sort of back problem. We called an ambulance at midnight last night to transport her as we were afraid of trying to move her ourselves. Hubby and I were at the hospital until 4am, and after catching some sleep he went back and spent the day there. Docs are still doing tests to find the cause of her pain.

I'm sure I'm leaving something else out. When it rains it pours, but things will get better. Good things are happening too, I think, but they're little things. You know how yin-yang is. I guess we're yinning waiting for the yang to engage again. Yeah, that's it. Waiting for the yang.

And counting... slowly...

It's a few minutes past midnight on April 13, and in twelve hours I will turn 36. At 12:10pm today I will officially be OLD. I'm too young to be old!!

And I guess it's time to change the quote at the top of my blog, although it still rings true.

I know I haven't been writing much on this blog, but I promise when this school term is over in mid-May I'll spend more time here. I have photos of home reconstruction, pet pics, and other mind-numbing ramblings to catch up on. Just gotta wait for it.

LOLcats...

I love LOLcats. It should go without saying, me being the "cat person" that I am. I have the blog feed listed on my reader for ICanHasCheezburger.com, and it's updated daily so that I don't miss a single one.

Like this one that I saved to show Hubby, to which even he LOL'd at almost to the point of deeming it a ROTFLMAOcat:


and more...

Making a break for it...

Today begins the coveted week of Spring Break.

It is 3pm, and I'm still sitting here in my robe. I've decided I'm not doing shit today. My brain is totally fried and I need a rest. If I feel up to it I might make a frozen waffle in the toaster, but that may be my limits of my energy expenditure today.

I'm not sure why this school term is wearing me out but it is.

I'm still standing, yeah yeah yeah...

Hi, my name is RiderAng and it's been 21 days since I've last blogged.

Oh I've thought of all kinds of things to write about, but then either I haven't had the time, or when I sit down at the computer I just don't want to wrap my head around trying to write. But here's a few things to mention:

On December 31, 2008 at 11:59pm my Hubby quit smoking cigarettes.
After 40 years of smoking he finally had it in his mind that enough was enough. He had tried to quit several times over the years, but I could tell from the start that this time was different, he was really WANTING to quit unlike times before. He's been using the cinnamon nicotine gum and is now weening himself off of that by alternating with Stride cinnamon gum which tastes similar. I think he is surprised at how FAST the effects of quitting have changed him- since he quit he hasn't been hacking and coughing in the morning, and has definitely gotten a lot of his sense of smell back. I'm thrilled too that he quit, since I am allergic to smoke. So I can't tell you how happy I am that he's really beat the habit this time. He's "done good." And he hasn't even killed anything or anybody in the process. Yet.

I got an A on my first Algebra exam, a total shock. That grade includes a lot of extra credit points too but hey, whatever, I have an A in the class so far! Woohoo!

I also got an A on my Archaeology exam which was a difficult test, out of 200 students in the class there were only 9 A's total. I studied my ass off for that one.

I have to tell this story, although some of you may have differing opinions on this controversy- I was telling my mother, sister, and bro-in-law that I was considering Archaeology as a Minor in my degree plan. I was then mentioning the early pre-human skeletons we were studying, dating from millions of years ago (such as "Lucy" etc)

My mother said, "Oh, so we really DID come from apes?"
I replied, "Well yes, we did have a common ancestor."
So Mom said, "Angela I'm just kidding!"
I again said, "Yes, we did."
So then Mom said very loudly and sternly, "ADAM AND EVE WERE NOT APES!!!"

Ouch. I must have struck a nerve. At least now I know a conversation not to bring up at the dinner table. I guess it bothers me a little to know that she takes the Bible that literally. I mean, does she really think Noah gathered up pairs of almost 60,000 species, including polar bears, penguins, and giraffes which aren't exactly in the vicinity of the Middle East? Yes science shows there was a flood in that area but it wasn't worldwide. Oh well, Mom can believe what she wants if it makes her happy.

And don't conclude from that that I don't believe in God or the Bible, because I do, but I don't take the Bible literally word-for-word.

Anyway, moving right along...

Well I guess I'll end on that note of pissing people off. Hey man, just my humble opinion.

Hello out there...

Happy Valentine's Day! And happy birthday to Mom too.

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since I've posted here. Time flies. Yes, we're busy.

School's going okay. I'm still trying to get settled into a daily/weekly routine. I just seem to be more relaxed after things become a regular routine, but so far each day of this term has found me running in different directions. Running to the library, running to the math lab, driving to the engineering campus to pick up Hubby, so I just haven't been able to relax mentally. I feel like I'm always on the go and therefore feel a bit frazzled. Maybe in a few more weeks things will quiet down.

My painting classes at UNT are probably going to prove beneficial for my "artistic growth." At TCC the instructors pretty much had a focus on painting still-lifes that look realistic, something that I never had a problem with. But I had heard that UNT is more contemporary, and that worries me somewhat that I'll be a fish out of water there. My artwork has always been centered on representationalism (painting things that portray real life objects), not on the contemporary. But after our first project I had a sit-down meeting with my instructor and he's already opened my eyes to some things-

• I've only been concerned with HOW I'm painting something, not WHY I'm painting it. In other words, the concept behind what I'm painting and why I want to paint it. What do I want the viewer to think or feel? I've honestly never considered that, I've just painted objects for people to recognize those objects. Hmmmm.
  
• I tend to tell the "whole story" in my artwork. My paintings are like a narrative in which the viewer is able to read the whole storyline in one glance, so then they move on to the next painting. It doesn't make people stop and wonder about anything, there's nothing to make them curious and think for themselves. I've already completed the thought for them, so there's nothing for them to do but go to the next artwork.
  

So, I have food for thought now. And I know I'll never go over the cliff totally into contemporary work, but I also know that learning some of the philosophies behind contemporary will hopefully make my representationalism more interesting. I knew my artwork was missing something, and so maybe this will help fill some gaps.

Anyway, beyond that, on a low note my algebra class has become aggrevating. The university is trying out a new classroom learning structure but they didn't warn students about it when we registered. I signed up for a class that was supposed to meet 2 days a week in a classroom environment. I chose this arrangement instead of an internet course because I wanted to have an instructor standing in front of me at a blackboard explaining how to work problems and why. BUT, it turns out we are only to meet on ONE day a week and spend 3 hours in the campus computer math lab. So we basically have to teach ourselves algebra on the computer, exactly the reason that I didn't sign up for the internet course! Then on the one day that we do meet, we are put into small study groups where we work out one or two problems, and then the instructor chooses one of us from our group to stand at the board and work out our problem and explain it. Excuse me, we are not the instructors!!! I considered dropping this course and trying again next term to arrange a classroom setting, but I just hate to drop classes so I'm sticking it out. Ugh. And I have a scholarship riding on my grades, which is why I'm concerned with doing well.

The funny thing is, Hubby is taking an algebra course that's one step back, and yet they're studying the exact same material. Since his class actually meets in a classroom and this stuff is explained, he then is able to explain it all to me at home when I'm doing my homework.

So that's what's going on. Art classes- good, math class-bad. I'm looking forward to summer.

Blast from the Past...

I know, I haven't been writing much lately. I'm just too bogged down with everything going on, and truth be told I just don't have the desire to write right now. But I'll get over it.

In the meantime, here's some comic relief- a friend sent me a photo of my friend Erika and I in our senior year of high school, circa 1991. It might even be the LAST day of school from the looks of the black & gold gifts. The pic stirs up two questions in my mind: 1. what the hell provoked me to wear those silly spandex tights, and 2. what in the world is on Erika's head???

Oh, and this is further proof that I am, indeed, NOT BLONDE. lol


And yes, we were dorks. But now in my "aged" opinion all teenagers are dorks, it's just that some are dorks with more money. Somehow wealth lessens the appearance of dorkdom in teen social circles. Erika and I were just middle-class dorks.

Hell, I'm not even sure at what age a person crosses out of dorkiness, or if I've even surpassed it yet!

Hope y'all had a good laugh at the photo.

Sunday Night Lights...

Our buddy Justin joined a flag football league and assembled a team, and tonight was their first game. Hubby and I braved the cold to watch. Actually Hubby was planning on doing some coaching for the team, but since it was a newly amassed team of guys who barely had one practice together I think the idea of coaching plays was a little premature. Tonight was more a matter of them being on the field the first time and just learning the rules.



Which by the way they have some really funky rules in flag football. Defenders must "block" with their arms at their sides, and don't even get me started on the foul for "runner out of control." Apparently the person with the ball must be careful not to accidentally bump into defensive players as they run by, or as explained to us by one of the refs "even as doing a spin move in mid-air" there's no bumping allowed by the ball carrier. So if three defensive guys are standing in your way you, um, just have to run around them. Yeah.

Plus it turns out the refs are strict on "no cursing" even on the sidelines, as Hubby quickly found out, haha. And yet for all their staunch rules the refs obviously are immune to what is considered unacceptable behaviors- the main referee lit up a cigarette while standing midfield between second and third down plays.

Still it was amusing to watch, and by the end of the game the guys were getting better. They still got creamed though by the more experienced opposing team. But it was a learning experience.

Other than that Hubby and I have been busy renovating our living room (pics of that to come at a later date) and we're getting ready for school to start Tuesday. That's the short list of things going on around here, but I won't take the time right now to explain the long list which includes fighting a broken furnace and multiple non-working coffeemakers.

Pfft You Were Gone...

Okay I admit it. I watched Hee Haw as a kid. And now with the glory of YouTube I can pester younger friends with songs they've never heard. And by "younger" I mean crossing the threshhold of 30. How dare they not embrace the classic songs of the upper echelon of hillbilly society!

Hubby and I still sing this on occasion...