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| STRESSSo this is the first entry submitted where I am a Graduate Student working at St. Cloud State University. After my first 2 weeks of training, I am being flung into the fray and am training our incoming Community Advisors on how to build community and make a safe and welcoming environment for the student body for 07-08. Talk about a rollercoaster! There have been so many different types of moments through training and now the highs and lows of training others. It has been very intense and I feel like the last 2 weeks were 2 months.
I also think that I've done more work in the last 2 weeks than I did within the last month of my Undergrad. I've created 2 presentations and am working on 2 more that are to be presented to the CAs before school starts. The first has already been presented, the next presentation is going to be in 2 days, the 3rd is going to be in 4 days, the final one is a back up plan if one of the other presenters cannot make it. The areas of presentation are: Creating a Multicultural welcome and Understanding Diversity, Community Development, Policy and Protocol, and finally GLBT (again if the presenter does not come). Also, there has been a wirlwind of paperwork that has flown through my office and to various other places on campus. I'll update this again soon (hopefully)
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| Starting to PackSo the time is coming short. I will soon be leaving for St. Cloud to start both my first "real" full-time job that will launch me into my potential life's career and also to go to Grad school. It's really crazy to think that this is all happening. I'm kinda nervous but ready to take it head on.
There are a few complications though. One of them is that I have been putting off my GRE for a long time and still need to take it. One of the reasons is financial as now that I am living off campus, managing my funds has become a tad more difficult due to rent, food, entertainment, and other misc. bills that add up. My current job as an intern doesn't pay very much either ($8.25/hrs) so I'm a touch strapped for cash and the test is $130. But I have to get it done before I leave. I spoke with the department in which I'll be studying with and they said that they had an all year acceptance since the program is so small. That put me at ease a bit but I wonder if I am taking advantage of that fact instead of getting things done. I will hopefully set my test date either today or tomorrow, as long as I can get off of work.
Other than that little blip, things are moving along really fast. It's scary to think that I'll be a real "grown-up" with a full-time job and everything. Also, moving to St. Cloud will be interesting in itself. I have a few really good friends from there and they all hate it. I'm trying to keep in perspective that they probably dislike it because they are from there, much like how I dislike Hutchinson when really Hutchinson isn't that bad of a town.
The biggest change will be the actual physical location. I've called Minneapolis home for the last 4 years living in the city for the last 2 years on my own. Moving to a new city will be nice, but there are some creature comforts I will miss here in Minneapolis. The biggest will be downtown. I love going to downtown and just walking around, taking in the sights. Also, I love doing social experiments. One day, I will go downtown wearing a suit and tie and see how I'm treated compared to when I go in a t-shirt and jeans or (heaven forbid) when I go downtown wearing my club clothes (if you don't know what this means, ask me and I'll tell.... maybe). At any rate, it's a fun time. And something that I won't be able to do anymore. St. Cloud, from my understanding, does not have any sort of active nightlife. Sure there are bars and such, but it's much more..... country? Not that there is anything at all wrong with that. I have just become accustom to a more metropolitan lifestyle. A lot of people will probably criticize me for it, but I enjoy how I live my life. I'm not an outdoors-y type of person and I really don't enjoy some of the "simpler" things in life, but I can appreciate them for what they are. Regardless, I think I will need a total attitude shift in order to survive and I am willing to take on that challenge.
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| There and Back Again: An Ely StorySo, it's been a good 2 weeks since I've updated my blog, but really there isn't a lot to report. The most exciting thing would be the trip that Paul Beck, Justin Anderson, and I took. We left last Friday at about 1 pm from the Cities and drove up to Ely, MN to visit out friend Andy Osthoff. It was a fairly uneventful drive. We stopped at Toby's for some pasteries and also stopped for gas. My iPod somehow spazzed out and was frozen for most of the trip :(
Anyway, we get to Ely at around 6 PM or so, but there was a problem. Andy and myself, in our eternal wisdom, did not have the correct directions. I'll start with myself first. I forgot to write down what Andy's address was. He lives outside of Ely about 15 miles away. So we got onto the correct highway that his house's random road is connected to, but we didn't know what road he lived on. Also, because we were in the boondocks, of course our cell phones didn't work (actually I ended up disconnected to the outside world the whole trip). We start driving slowly down the highway until finally Justin got signal. Paul and I both have T-Mobile and Justin had another carrier (Thank goodness).
After we find out where Andy lives, we got to his house and unloaded our stuff. Andy was at work at the time so we were greeted by Andy's little brother, Alec. Being the extremely cool and hunky guys that we were, we all brought our computers and basically played video games all weekend. Then again, it's Ely. We were all of age, but we decided not to go to the bars. It was advised by Andy and his parents that I shouldn't go to the bars alone. At first I thought he was just being a prick, but after hearing Andy's parents echo the warning, I decided not to push the idea and agreed that it would be better if we skipped the experience.
Anyway, we continued to stay up at Andy's place for most of the trip. We went into Ely to check out where Andy worked, grab a bite to eat (which was pretty bad), and also get groceries for dinner. We were supposed to pick up a parcel for one of the guys who is from Ely who lives in the Cities, but apparently his mom never brought over the stuff she was supposed to and unfortunately nothing was delivered.
Really, that's about it. It was fun. Oh, and apparently I attract bugs. Lots of bugs. I swear, it looks like my arm has herpies or something. and the bug bites itch like crazy! I'm definitely not cut out to be in the woods. I'm very much a city person. I like going out on occasion, but I'm not too fond of the reprocussions. It was worth it though to see a good friend and also to have a fun time off.
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| Deviating work with Deviantart.comSo when I'm at work, there are times I am just unmotivated to keep on task. I usually surf the web at this time. Until recently.
Lately, I've become wrapped up in a site I forgot about for a while called Deviant Art. It's an online community where artists from all over the globe share their art. It's really rather interesting and nice to see all of the creativity that emerges. I've picked up on an artist that really REALLY matches my aesthetic pallet by the name of "Endling". His art is really cute, but usually dark and somewhat violent. It's really an extrodinary mix that I've tried dabbling into, but usually my creations just turn out super creepy (I haven't uploaded anything on the site yet, but I am thinking about doing so). His latest and greatest creation (in my mind) is an online comic strip called "Ever After". The concept is rather unique. It's the tale of children from nursery rhymes after the story ends. Most of the children (Little Red Ridinghood, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks, Little Miss Muffet, and others) have been severely traumatized by their experiences and are held in an insane asylum. Each have their own dillusions and capabilities (Little Red Ridinghood, or "Red", is extremely violent and lashes out having dillusions of the Big Bad Wolf while Little Miss Muffet is in a coma like state with a large spider on her bonnet that is probably controlling her actions.)
Here is a link to Endlings work on Deviantart.com : http://endling.deviantart.com/
Look at his gallery. "Ree" really epitomizes my understanding of Endling's work.
Anyway, Endling is having a contest at the moment that I am thinking about entering. The details for the contest are on the link above. In going with the "Ever After" theme, I think I'm going to make Jack and Jill. I have a few ideas, but not sure how I'm going to portray it. The ideas I have are basically making Jack a very large, ogre like man who has a broken crown on top of his head and is basically a huge brute. He will probably look more like an ogre or giant rather than a man. Jill will be a dominatrix-esk type character with a girl's dress on that is torn up and mildly stained with blood. She will ride on Jack's left shoulder and will carry a barbed whip with her.
The reason I'm going this route is basically because of the 4th verse of the nursery rhyme.
- When Jill came in how she did grin
- To see Jack's paper plaster;
- Mother vexed, did whip her next,
- For causing Jack's disaster.
The background I'm creating is that Jack and Jill's mother was abusive. After this whipping, Jack went crazy. He protects his sister at all costs and abides by her will. She is loving to her brother too, but they also share a younger brother/ older sister relationship meaning that she bosses him around. Hopefully I can have a few sketches in sometime soon and then I'll just clean it up a bit on Photoshop or some program.
I'm really excited for this for a number of reasons. It's an ongoing project and also this is something I haven't been interested in for a while. I am really getting pumped and am ready to start sketching!
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| So I'm sitting at work trying to design some bulliten boards. I have the concepts and ideas, but it's the actual eye catching designing that I'm having a problem with. I'm surfing Deviantart.com right now for inspiration. Problem is, I keep side-tracking and finding little things I find interesting.
One of the things I'm kind of half heartedly looking at is cosplay. As an FYI, cosplay stands for costume play where people dress up as characters (generally from animeor manga, but also many different popular TV shows. I saw one photo of a House M.D. cosplay). It's actually kinda interesting. It's a lot like theater. The exception is that most characters have very specific things they must wear in difference to a lot of theater where it can be left up to interpretation. Also, because the characters also already exist, cosplay necessitates mimicry more than interpretation in general and that's one of the biggest deviations from theater. Anyway, it's interesting to look at all the different people. It's essential to really go as someone you want to, but keep in mind the people you could actually pull off. There are some really good ones that very well portray the person they are cosplaying, but then there are others that aren't even close. I think it would be fun to do it once.
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