I’m Hearing: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Don’t Forget Me

Hmmmmmm. Well, I’m in luck, as the computers in the lab actually have Dreamweaver 4 installed, so I can do something productive other than sit here and shoot the shit with other people who should also be doing something more important.

Yeah, the second I say that, Jeff turns around and asks me a question and suddenly I’m sucked into another conversation. Ah well, I guess it’s unavoidable when I’m in here. We need some outlet for complaint I suppose, and we’re all in this together so it makes sense.

I spent all of yesterday in my bedroom working on a possible poster design for my group’s senior exhibition. As I worked, listening to my own music without distractions, I started to remember that I do indeed actually like design. At that point I wasn’t just doing something to fulfill an assignment requirement. I mean, yes, the poster was an assignment in that everyone who is graduating had to come up with a poster concept to present, but it wasn’t a matter of pleasing the professor to get a good grade…it was something that represented us as a group, our feelings about the work we’d done in school, and everything else we went through to get where we are now. And that’s a LOT of stuff, both emotionally and physically. So I actually had a lot of fun with my idea, even though I ended up going with a slightly more straight-laced concept than I had originally intended (a bit more serious than most of the designs I’ve become known for, at least among people familiar with my work.)

I used the fact that I’ve been awfully sick lately as an excuse to stay in and rest up as much as possible…which I knew was the smartest idea…but I did have to make some sacrifices in order to do that. I was upset that I wasn’t able to go along with Brian and Jonathan to visit Will, but the fact that I got as much accomplished as I did during that time more than made up for it. Plus, the guys came over and visited me for awhile after they got home, so that made me happy. :-D My preliminary poster idea turned out rather well, so I felt reassured that I’d spent my time wisely. I’m sure I would have had a lot of fun hanging out with the guys all afternoon, but I would have fallen way behind on my projects so…yeah. I know I made the right decision.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t written in here since I got sick…I’m not seriously ill or anything, I’ve just had a horrible head cold. Very stuffed up sinuses and lots of coughing. Meh. Been resting and taking Vitamin C, and things are getting a bit better now, even though my voice still sounds all stuffy. Did voice chat with Peet and Tig last night so they got to hear my lovely stuffed up voice and a bunch of coughing. Ah well.

So things are already starting to really get going now…the deadlines for Senior Exhibition projects are coming up faster than I expected so I think I may be pulling a lot of what I did this weekend in the coming days. Which, in the end, won’t be all that bad, considering I’ve rediscovered why I enjoy design, so I’m finally having legitimate fun with my projects instead of having fun in spite of them (ie, all the stuff we did last semester during that annual report project.) I set up a second monitor for my PC at home so I can throw all my chat windows and various palettes and whatnot on that and work with my canvases maximized…which makes working on that computer a lot nicer than working in the lab where I only have a single 17" monitor and a slow-as-molasses Mac G4 to work on (with only 128mb of ram in it!) In adddition to that, just having my own music to listen to makes it all worthwhile…the whole 70-some-gig that’s on my computer at the moment. And a comfortable chair. And being able to eat, drink, and wear whatever the hell I want to. Not that I’d want to always work out of my home…it’s really the deadlines and my own drive to want to make my show the best it can be that are keeping me motivated…but it’s so easy to get distracted by other things while I’m at home (even though the distractions are different there than they are in the lab.)

So I have no idea if I’m making sense anymore…since I’m only half-paying attention to what I’m typing. The other people in here are talking about things that both interest and directly involve me so it’s hard to focus on things other than the conversation. Nurgh. I know the second I put my headphones back on, someone is going to try to get my attention and I’ll have to take them off again. Oh well…in the end, I’m being paid to be in here, so I guess any work that I get done is just a bonus. The problem is, right now there is nothing I can do in here…everything else I have to do either at home, or down in the Intaglio studio.

I’m not exactly tired right now considering I was able to get a decent amount of sleep the last few nights…but I do feel a bit wiped. Fortunately, most of that can be directly attributed to my cold so it’s not something I’m particularly worried about. I can see that this semester is going to be another tough one in that I have a lot of work to do…but at least this time the majority of the work will be me trying to present my previous work in the best possible light. And like I mentioned earlier, I’m very excited about my work so it won’t be painful in the way it was last semester. I do still feel burnt out, but there has been something of a resurgance of interest in design at the very least.

Hmm, I’m rather hungry at the moment but I don’t have any food of reasonable substance with me. I think I have some choco pudding though…maybe I’ll dip into that.