Hey guys.
So, surprise surprise, I fell off the horse again. BUT, do you know what the best thing to do when you fall off is? Get straight back on. Before fear/shame/whatever is stopping you sets in.
K, I'm done preaching... On to the blog post!
If you read my lil ol' blog here on a regular basis (that is, whenever I post something) you will know that my studies recommenced last week. I started a diploma of Graphic Design :D So far I absolutely love it. For once, starting something new I don't feel like the most awkward person on the planet, and I actually got excited every time we got a new assignment. I know right? I have been tol so many times that this enthusiasm quickly fades, but I am going to make a conscious effort not to let it wane. I want to get the ball rolling, and quickly, and I want it to keep up that momentum, if you follow. I know I chuck a lot of random metaphors into my blog posts, but I can't help it, it's just how I write, so you'll just have to roll with me.
ANYway, you guys are all smart, so I think I can safely assume that you all catch my drift.
I'd discuss my assignments with you now but 1. that would make for a very boring blog post, 2. I will show and tell them as I finish them; that way, I can show you the good ones and leave out the shockers, and 3. I am already tired, and don't have the mental patience to type it out for your reading pleasure (well, not just now anyway) You'll just have to wait to hear about them :D
Ok.
The other thing I wanted to talk about is what is happening at my young adult group at the moment. We've started these things called Term Projects. The reason for this is, often these days, kids and young adults will come along on a sunday night, encounter the Lord, and have an awesome time hanging out with everyone, but then they go home, and fall back into the same old life patterns and not really bring much of the awesome home with them. The idea is that with each term, or section of the year, we will be focusing on something different. The first of these started on Sunday night, and the topic is Love. Not just any love though, at least not in the sense often meant in popular culture (eg. I love my family, I love music, I love ice cream, I love that movie, etc) but God's love for us. One of the biggest points I got out of it was that real love is not just (as Chrishan puts it) something that we associate with a positive feeling or emotion. It is not necessarily something we feel for other people or things. Love starts with God. It is because He loved us that we are able to love. (see 1 John 4:7-12 (i'd type it in here but it's pretty long. Find the Message version here - first 2 paragraphs))
The aim is to become more loving people through a daily revision (or something) of what Love is (see here) and to try to show love more through our day-to-day lives, not just to those we love, but to our enemies too.
I personally really love that we are doing this, mainly because I was one of those kids who didn't bring the awesome home with me, and I find I kick myself a lot for not doing devotionals or praying enough - or at all - so this is something simple to start with, and build on.
I know this preachy style isn't what you guys are used to reading on here, but I just had to say what was on my heart, and, more importantly, I want to be able to track my progress somewhere. So, I will probably be writing about this kind of thing more often.
I know some people aren't entirely comfortable with this topic. It's touchy, and often controversial. I don't write this kind of thing here with the intention of stirring up a massive debate on beliefs, or religion or whatever. I don't do it with the intention of shoving it under your nose, or bible-bashing you, or anything else. I write about this because this is part of who I am. If this blog is going to stand a chance of accurately reflecting or representing my life, then I need to write about this every now and again.
I love and respect you all.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! *jumps on Marlin*
Wow. I'm going to start by saying just how glad I am to be going back to school.
I am SO glad to be back. SO glad.
Get ready guys. I'm about to take you on a journey with me, through My First Day Back At School.
Ready? Good
After waking up much earlier than I am used to (what is the meaning of this, 7am?!) I gulped down a hairy lemon, sipped a cup of tea made by my sister :) and showered, dressed and, well, I didn't eat. I skipped that part because I was too damned excited to think about doing anything else but get to school! ...and, I was running a wee bit late. Not to worry, though. Caught the eight o'clock bus in to the bus station, and transfered to an inbound express route there, and hey presto, twenty minutes later, I was there. I was at TAFE.
When I reached my building, I took about two minutes to see where each of my classes would be. Easy enough, they're mostly on the same level, right next to each other. Only one class (History of Design) is in the auditorium on the opposite side of the campus. Easy enough. Then I proceeded to spend the next ten minutes or so checking and replying to people on twitter, so as to avoid the awkward sitting-and-not-talking-to-classmates-I-have-yet-to-meet thing. My teacher/lecturer/tutor (not sure what to call him...) was there early, so I went in. There were already a handful of students seated at one of the tables, so I did what made the most sense; I joined them. Being the introverted creative types we were, no one was talking. I pretended to check my phone again, but the instructor started early. He turned out to be a pretty funny chap. Swiss born, still pronounces his rather colourful language in his lingering accent. He really likes to talk and retell war stories from back when he was a young GD. It's good though, because every story he tells is relevant.
Anyway, the class I had was Typography. Now, before you groan to yourself and think "Oh GAWD. How positively mind-numbing. Could there be a more boring topic to study on the face of the planet?" (to which I would answer: Yes. It's called Maths. Also Science, which, so the nerds INFORM me, is just applied Maths) it was actually really interesting. I'd go as far as saying it was fascinating. Now, for the sake of not stretching this post out too far (it's late already) I'll go into a more in-depth explanation of exactly WHAT typography is at a later date. Perhaps when my brain is a bit less fried.
We had a fairly long introductory discussion about Typography. I also took notes not only on the subject matter, but also some of the funny things that came out of my professors mouth (that's what I'll call him - Professor). Not necessarily the funniest things to read, but they were interesting/entertaining coming out of his mouth. Things like "Political correctness gives me the $%^!#". Describing one of the example typefaces (and keep in mind: it's JUST a font) (he'd probably deck me for saying that) he came out with "It's like getting your teeth pulled". I'll save up some more gems for later and distribute them evenly throughout this here blog at a later date. Maybe I'll add it as a treat at the bottom of my Monday posts (and possibly Tuesday as well... I have him then too). I got a real corker for the end of this one.
...Ok, maybe it's not THAT great... Could be more of a be-there kind of thing...
Anyway, then we took a break, I got a delicious-but-too-expensive-to-get-everyday, white-chocolate-and-raspberry muffin. I'm probably going to have to learn to make them. So gooood.
After break, we were shown a PowerPoint Presentation on the general awesomeness of Typography. Really. It was awesome. Then when the Slide Show of Awesome was complete, we were given our first assignment. A Self Portrait, using only typefaces. I'll definitely have to show you guys when it's done. I'm really looking forward to doing it.
I stayed behind after class to ask the Professor about possible pathways to the College of Art across the road (the very same institute I quit from at the end of 2008.) It seems if I manage to snag an offer (only 5 DipGD students will be made an offer), I will only need to take on one uni subject in second semester next year along with my Diploma studies. If I manage to do this, I can complete both a Diploma and a Degree in the same amount of time it usually takes to complete one degree (three years) So I'll be saving myself 2 years :). If I don't get it, I'm still considering study overseas, although there is still finances to take into account... We'll see, I suppose.
I have more stories of today to tell you all about, but they will have to wait.
ANYway, it's nearly 12, and I have class at nine. Time for sleeps.
Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.
Nail colour: Still the ever-sexy Oscar Eveing.
Professorism: (in regards to McDonalds' brainwashing of innocent children's minds) "Those bastards are Perverts". Again, be-there thing. It was funny though, I promise.
T-Shirt Caption: [Picture: Loading bar at about 70% complete] THINKING... Please be patient
Did I ever mention how much I like T-shirt captions? I feel like I have brought this up before...
Submit your own, if you like.
I am SO glad to be back. SO glad.
Get ready guys. I'm about to take you on a journey with me, through My First Day Back At School.
Ready? Good
After waking up much earlier than I am used to (what is the meaning of this, 7am?!) I gulped down a hairy lemon, sipped a cup of tea made by my sister :) and showered, dressed and, well, I didn't eat. I skipped that part because I was too damned excited to think about doing anything else but get to school! ...and, I was running a wee bit late. Not to worry, though. Caught the eight o'clock bus in to the bus station, and transfered to an inbound express route there, and hey presto, twenty minutes later, I was there. I was at TAFE.
When I reached my building, I took about two minutes to see where each of my classes would be. Easy enough, they're mostly on the same level, right next to each other. Only one class (History of Design) is in the auditorium on the opposite side of the campus. Easy enough. Then I proceeded to spend the next ten minutes or so checking and replying to people on twitter, so as to avoid the awkward sitting-and-not-talking-to-classmates-I-have-yet-to-meet thing. My teacher/lecturer/tutor (not sure what to call him...) was there early, so I went in. There were already a handful of students seated at one of the tables, so I did what made the most sense; I joined them. Being the introverted creative types we were, no one was talking. I pretended to check my phone again, but the instructor started early. He turned out to be a pretty funny chap. Swiss born, still pronounces his rather colourful language in his lingering accent. He really likes to talk and retell war stories from back when he was a young GD. It's good though, because every story he tells is relevant.
Anyway, the class I had was Typography. Now, before you groan to yourself and think "Oh GAWD. How positively mind-numbing. Could there be a more boring topic to study on the face of the planet?" (to which I would answer: Yes. It's called Maths. Also Science, which, so the nerds INFORM me, is just applied Maths) it was actually really interesting. I'd go as far as saying it was fascinating. Now, for the sake of not stretching this post out too far (it's late already) I'll go into a more in-depth explanation of exactly WHAT typography is at a later date. Perhaps when my brain is a bit less fried.
We had a fairly long introductory discussion about Typography. I also took notes not only on the subject matter, but also some of the funny things that came out of my professors mouth (that's what I'll call him - Professor). Not necessarily the funniest things to read, but they were interesting/entertaining coming out of his mouth. Things like "Political correctness gives me the $%^!#". Describing one of the example typefaces (and keep in mind: it's JUST a font) (he'd probably deck me for saying that) he came out with "It's like getting your teeth pulled". I'll save up some more gems for later and distribute them evenly throughout this here blog at a later date. Maybe I'll add it as a treat at the bottom of my Monday posts (and possibly Tuesday as well... I have him then too). I got a real corker for the end of this one.
...Ok, maybe it's not THAT great... Could be more of a be-there kind of thing...
Anyway, then we took a break, I got a delicious-but-too-expensive-to-get-everyday, white-chocolate-and-raspberry muffin. I'm probably going to have to learn to make them. So gooood.
After break, we were shown a PowerPoint Presentation on the general awesomeness of Typography. Really. It was awesome. Then when the Slide Show of Awesome was complete, we were given our first assignment. A Self Portrait, using only typefaces. I'll definitely have to show you guys when it's done. I'm really looking forward to doing it.
I stayed behind after class to ask the Professor about possible pathways to the College of Art across the road (the very same institute I quit from at the end of 2008.) It seems if I manage to snag an offer (only 5 DipGD students will be made an offer), I will only need to take on one uni subject in second semester next year along with my Diploma studies. If I manage to do this, I can complete both a Diploma and a Degree in the same amount of time it usually takes to complete one degree (three years) So I'll be saving myself 2 years :). If I don't get it, I'm still considering study overseas, although there is still finances to take into account... We'll see, I suppose.
I have more stories of today to tell you all about, but they will have to wait.
ANYway, it's nearly 12, and I have class at nine. Time for sleeps.
Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.
Nail colour: Still the ever-sexy Oscar Eveing.
Professorism: (in regards to McDonalds' brainwashing of innocent children's minds) "Those bastards are Perverts". Again, be-there thing. It was funny though, I promise.
T-Shirt Caption: [Picture: Loading bar at about 70% complete] THINKING... Please be patient
Did I ever mention how much I like T-shirt captions? I feel like I have brought this up before...
Submit your own, if you like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)