Sharayah's Livejournal

So I'm breaking my long silence with a question to put out to all who know me. For eight or more years, I've had a Geocities account where I stuffed all the random stuff I wanted to put online. It wasn't much, but I liked having the webspace. But Geocities is shutting down on Monday. So I need to move my random web-creating to another site. I've found a free hosting site that looks good (freehostia), and saved what I want to save. But now comes the big question.

What in the world do I call my new website?!?

I can't figure out a good domain name, and would really like suggestions. My initial thought was sharayah.com, or .net, or the like, but all the appealing suffixes are claimed. (*grumblegrumble* sharayah.com's claimed by a web squatter *grumblegrumble*) And I can't figure out another one that isn't too long or doesn't sound silly or the like.

So a bit of what I'm thinking of. I'm largely planning to make it into my portfolio site, something to shove at employers and say "look how pretty my art is! hire me!", but I also want some pages that are more for fun, so I want something that's a balance between professional and personal. Names like sharayahdesign.com or happyyurt.com wouldn't really work. Potential elements are stuff like art, beading, geographical terms, book terms, geeky/new-agey terms or the like. Oh, and I've been switching away from the Xelona pseudonym as well, and want to establish myself more as Sharayah. So while xelona.com's available, I'm not too fond of the idea of using it. Xelona's a bit too fangirly for me these days. Besides, Sharayah's weird enough to practically be an internet pseudonym. :3

So anyway, any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

My computer died.

I am sad.

Now I have to spend money to get a new one.

Maybe I'll build it myself this time.

That could be fun.

I am still sad, but hopeful.

And about to become poorer.

Back to sad.

Just to cheer me up from my last post, here are two literary memes.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

"Barney picked up Murp and asked Jamie, 'Do you think she was really our babysitter?'"

That's from Minerva Wakes, by Holly Lisle, probably my favorite book by that author. And closest is tough to judge when you've got five or ten books within arm's reach, all kinda equidistant. This was actually the third book I picked up, since the first was way too boring for that sentence on P.56 ("Please."), and the second was in a section where context really mattered... ("What do you tell your daughter?") :P

Next meme!


The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

( I think I'll put this under a cut for your friends page's sanity )

*Peeks head out of cave*
*Sees that there's people out there*
Eeeeek!
*Head shoots back into cave*

So I'm not very talkative at all... As in it's been months since I last posted, and it's not like things haven't happened, I just haven't wanted to write about them. Not that much has happened, really. I'm currently still living with my parents, very slowly looking for a job and playing lots of video games in the mean time... I did get one temporary job that was pretty cool, though. I was paid to learn Spanish. The Rosetta Stone company, which sells language learning software, needed people to test new software, and I got in on that. Shows that reading the newspaper can pay off, since I found that job as an ad in a local paper. It was fun. I got to commute on the train systems, too, since the best way to get there was by train. I love taking the train. It's quite enjoyable, sitting there and watching the scenery go by. Maybe I should try to find a job with Amtrak or the like...

Part of my problem is that I'm under-qualified for all of the jobs I really want... I probably need to go back to school, and get my Master's. But that needs money. So I'm going to work for a few years to earn enough to afford it (I don't want massive tons of debt), but between my seemingly deficient skills (I'm too generalized in my skills is the main problem. I've got lots of them...) and the current economy, it seems like no one's hiring artists these days. It doesn't help that there's the old catch-22 of needing work experience to get work experience. That one always frustrates me. I think it's probably time I go for retail jobs. Those, at least, will get me money... But applying for jobs is scary, given my social phobia (sending cold-call letters to people I never met in positions of authority asking for something from them, all those aspects trigger my phobia. Not fun.) so who knows when I'll be able to force myself to do it....

Can you tell I've been somewhat depressed lately?

Just to let people know, I bought a new phone and have a new phone number as a result. My old number will no longer reach me. Largely because my old phone died, and the old number was utterly unmemorable, while my new one is quite nice. Anyway, I've screened comments, so just leave a comment if you want my new phone number.

Also, I've stopped using my Valpo email, thanks to the slowness of it all. Comment if you want other email addresses to reach me by. I've got a gmail account in the same pattern as my Valpo email, if you know that and don't want to wait for the commentage to work. Also, I stopped using Facebook, what, a year ago? I'm just not social enough for a social networking site. Don't expect me to respond to anything you do there, especially since it routes to my Valpo email, and that's no longer in use...

Oh, yet another thing to comment on. I'd stored all my phone numbers in my old phone, and the phone died in such a way that I can't access them. I'm not likely to actually CALL anyone, but I'd still like to rebuild my address book. So if you want your number to actually appear as you if you call, comment with that as well. As I said, I'm screening comments, so it won't show public.

Just for the "fun" of it, I'm going to list all the things that are or were recently broken in this house of ours... It's getting to be a bit ridiculous...
( Cut for length. Read at your own amusement. )

I declare that The World Ends With You is the best game I have played in quite a while. It's also one of the best stories I've seen in any game and even most other media. And it has great music and art too. *Goes back to playing*

Ok, this month has been packed and too hot to write, so I'll just mention things in bullets. Comment for more info.

-I graduated from college, though I skipped the ceremony.

-Balticon was quite fun, especially the masquerade (Video here, Fiona's and Megan's is the last one in it, starting around 5:55 minutes). I also attended a panel on making Manx Dragons, and spent a lot of the con drawing one of my own (Posted here).

-I got my computer back, and started to reinstall the games and the like that had been uninstalled to to my OS upgrade (I'm now using XP). Only to have my video card die a few days later, so I couldn't PLAY said games. I've only just got a new one in, and am delighting in gaming once more.

-Mom, Dad, and I spent last weekend up in upstate NY, visiting Cync, John, and Megan for John's 50th birthday party. The party was good, though the irish singer was a tad loud for my taste, and it was at a pub (Sharayahs and alchohol do not mix), so Mom, Megan, and I all left early. I also got to try out a WiiFit, which was really fun and, I think, the first time I've actually ENJOYED exercising. (Even DDR is barely on the other edge of fun vs. pain). My practical and gamer sides are trying to convince my miser side that I should get a Wii and WiiFit. The miser side is winning, for now...

-Mom, Fiona, and Ben went on a multi-day hike along the Potomac River starting on Tuesday, camping along the trail. It was supposed to be a 5-day hike ending in Harper's Ferry, one which I knew I couldn't handle with the way my knees react these days. Two nights ago I recieved a call from a hysterical Fiona, telling me to pick them up in the morning. They'd hit the swampy section, where the mosquitos were as thick as honey, and were holed up in the tent hiding from the bugs. So I picked them up early.

-Starting next Monday, Mom, Fiona, and I are flying out to Seattle to visit grad schools for Fiona, visit the cool stuff in the area, and see people in the region (mainly friends made via this lj roleplaying game). Our plans are still quite vague, so if anyone has any suggestions, please tell me!

Ok, I think that's it. I go back to the lengthy process of reinstalling The Sims 2 and all 7 of it's expansions...

Megan and Fiona's (and other's) entry into the Balticon masquerade contest won Best in Show AND Best Workmanship in Show! And it was one of the best masquerades I've seen, even! SQUEEEEEEEE!

I'm about ready to quit this bloody program. I'm practically failing anyway, what with this backlog of projects and my complete lack of motivation to DO any of them. Even the few projects I warped and twisted into forms I'm still actually interested in doing, I just don't want to do. I sit down to do them, and then, five hours later, have added maybe one sentence to them. This program is draining the life and creativity right out of me. I'm on the verge of just packing up my stuff and leaving. I don't care that there's just a few weeks left. I don't care that failing this means my GPA goes way down. I don't even bloody care that leaving means I won't graduate this spring. I just want to get the bloody hell out of here.

Thanks to this program, I'm coming to HATE Chicago. It's too noisy, it's too bright, there's way too many people, and the culture SUCKS. I don't ever want to live in a city again. Sure, there's some cool things, like the train system and the museums, but the rest could just fall into the earth for all I care. And I am also coming to HATE social justice. I hadn't caught the social justice angle to this program before I came here. It's really downplayed in the presentations and information and all the stuff I heard and researched about this program before I applied. Sure, I expected some social justice work, it is a valuable part of city life, but NOT EVERY BLOODY CLASS! There's a whole lot else that could be covered in an Urban Studies class; history, culture, geography, even just why people choose to live in a city. This program seems like "Let's study these poor oppressed people. Here's some people helping these poor oppressed people. You should really help these poor opressed people." We seem to be looking at only the BAD side of Chicago, all the segregation and class disputes and the like. Why not look at the rest of it for a change? Why not even just look at some NON-OPPRESSED people, just for the comparison?!

I barely even feel like I've learned anything this semester, and what little I've learned certainly hasn't been in my classes. Sure, there's been a few, a VERY few, class sessions I enjoyed and learned from, namely the initial "scavenger lunch", the trip to the Chicago History Museum, the Toxic Tour day, and maybe one or two others. Precept was usually pretty fun, even if I don't feel like I really learned anything in it. And my internship is about the only really good thing about this program, and the only thing keeping me sane and keeping a nervous breakdown away. And it's ending in a week. EVERY OTHER BLOODY CLASS I could have just skipped and not noticed the difference in the LEAST! I am REALLY disappointed in this program. I knew it wasn't a perfect match from the get-go, but I had a minor interest in social systems, a major interest in geography, and a strong curiousity about city life. Now that minor interest is gone, my major interest is bleeding, and my curiousity has been rewarded with pain and stress. This program is ONLY good at preaching to the choir, teaching social justice to those who ALREADY REALLY CARE ABOUT IT! People like me, who are somewhat interested, but don't know enough to go either way, are just burned by it. I've gone from entering with academic burnout to full-out academic blowout. I'm not sure if I'll ever get my academic writing skills back, and I'm not sure if I even care.

It doesn't help that this program is WAY too extroverted for me. Admittedly, I'm one of the most introverted people out there. But with this program, EVERY SINGLE BLOODY PROJECT has a mandatory interview or presentation or discussion or some other bloody social requirement that just makes me want to curl up in a corner and never come out. This nervous breakdown I'm on the verge of (I'm crying from stress as I write) is halfway due to all these extroverted activities I've been trying to force my poor social phobic self into doing. The only way I've kept said breakdown away is ignoring all the other sources of stress (largely, all these projects I've been assigned) and just focus on attending classes. I'm so bloody TIRED now, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I just bloody want to be out of here. I'll stick through to the end of my internship, but after that, there's nothing left to keep me here. I don't care that there's only a few weeks left. Just give me a reason to bloody care about finishing, because otherwise, I quit.

I've got a headache, so I'm not going to write much, but I'd thought I'd talk about the Field Museum of Natural History.

Why? Because I'm now interning there. ^_^

I'm helping out at the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (the modern anthropology research group), and I'll both be helping with general administrative and misc tasks (like I was today) and I'll be making maps! Mapyay! I had the interview on Monday, and started today. I really like the people I'm working with (part of why I chose to start so quickly), and it's REALLY nice to be able to wander through the museum after I'm done for the day. Heck, I HAVE to wander through the museum to get out of the building, and I walk right next to their exhibit on rocks. ^_^ Mmmmm rocks... I really like the Evolving Planet exhibit, which goes through all the staged of the development of the earth, in a really nifty way. There's even a series of animations along the way to explain things that I find to be quite amusing. Also, the Plants of the World exhibit is surprisingly good and interesting, and the decision to make the section with the totom poles dimly lit was a really good one, since it really makes them interesting. I've only skimmed less than half of the museum, too. I'm glad I'm going to be in there a lot, so I'll have the chance to get to see everything. It's a really nice museum, and it's free for everyone in February, so if you want to visit, now would be the time. Though it has been mighty cold lately, and there's been a lot of snow. The 20-30 minute walk between the train stop and the Field Museum is mightly long when it's 15 degrees out and a strong wind is coming off the lake. It's a gorgeous walk, though, going right at the bottom of the park complex by downtown, in full view of the Chicago Skyline. There's a building going up right by the Field Museum that is my favorite skyscraper in the skyline, 61 stories of pretty curves and glass reflecting the sky. If I had a spare million or two, I'd get an apartment in it, but alas, I don't. It's really pretty to look at, though.

And my head is still hurting, so I'll stop writing now.

There's nothing like being sick for a week to deter you from posting... Especially if you're also trying to keep up with schoolwork, which requires physical activity, and if you're on your period at the same time. Needless to say, this past week hasn't been fun.

( Cut for your friendlist's pleasure. )

Well, my computer is currently out of order. I'm using my roommate's to post. When I got up and turned on my computer, let's just say it had issues. My OS is corrupt, and the video card is AWOL, or something like that. So I'm not going to be online much. Now I just have to figure out how to mail my computer to the person who will fix it. The post office is merely a half mile away, and I don't have a car...

I've found one interesting aspect of me living in the city: I explore. I've known I have a bit of wanderlust from how I act in video games, but before now, it hasn't come out in my everyday life. But now I'm in a place where a lot can be easily accessed on foot, and I keep heading out to see what I can see. It's a lot of fun, too, and I find cool and useful stuff. Like the local video game store, and a cheap and tasty pho place (probably out of many, though I have yet to verify the cheap and tasty part for the other 9 or so in the area). I also seem to be posting more often. Partly out of a desire to share what I have seen, partly because it keeps a record of my thoughts and ideas at this time, and now, partly because I don't have my primary source of communication available (AIM, how I miss thee...).

Other than that, I was supposed to go to a meeting/interview today with the person who organizes the internships, so she can get a better idea as to what I want out of the internship, but I got a phone call saying she was sick and canceled the meeting, so I'll have a busier friday instead. Ah well, such is life.

My precept went to what we were told was supposed to be an improv show at a local bar/theater, but the communication lines had gotten messed up and it was a short movie night instead. I didn't like most of them, largely because I don't care for humor dependent on inappropriate topics or making fun of people, and that is a large part of American comedy. I did really like the last one I saw, though. It started with a german mathematician musing at an empty blackboard, trying to figure out something new. Then his wife brings in dinner, and the mathematician looks at the arraingement of sausages and peas (which look somewhat similar to a graph with a sin curve) and starts writing furiously. Then the scene switches to the mathematician presenting his formulas to a group of academics, and they are delighted in it, except that they point out that it doesn't work in such and such case. It's back to the blackboard, and the wife brings another dinner, this time more obviously giving the solution to the problem. There's another repeat presentation, but what about such and such case? This time, though, right before the mathematician comes home, we see the wife "dusting" in the study, looking over the notes he has written. Again, dinner gives the answer, even more bluntly. Another stunning presentation, but it doesn't work for some extremely complicated case. This time, though, the mathematician has clued in on what his wife is doing, and says he doesn't want dinner. Cut to an empty blackboard at the presentation site, and the mathematician standing depressed outside, with one of the academics saying "all good things come to an end." Then the scene switches to the mathematician sitting at his desk by the blackboard, and his wife bringing in a perfectly ordinary dinner, both of them looking thoroughly depressed. He thinks a little, then apologizes and gestures towards the blackboard. She lights up, and the start talking math, and the short movie ends. I found it rather touching, and it reminded me of all the stories my dad told me of how many early female scientists were mathematicians, just because mathematicians are desperate enough to find anyone who loves math as they do that they are willing to even teach women, in the days when women were not to be educated. It was a good note to end the movie night on.

Though I must say, I do not like bars. They're crowded and noisy and I always feel awkward around people who are drinking, even if it's mild social drinking. I'll have to put up with it, though, since a lot of the small social organizations and theaters work out of bars, and we'll go to a lot of such things this semester. Bleh.

Well, I've only one more thing to say: Please Comment! I'm going to get soooo lonely without aim, even with my being social with my fellow students. CommentCommentComment! (End Begging)

For those who don't know, I'm currently living in Chicago, in the Uptown neighborhood, as part of the Urban Studies program I'm in.

The city living is... different. I'm not sure if I like it or not, yet, but I'm having fun adjusting. It's crowded, and a lot of places look kinda... grungy... but there's a lot of cool places to shop and explore. I just found a really good and cheap asian bakery a couple blocks from where I'm living that I'll have to visit some more, for instance. I like taking the train, even when it's packed full of people. It makes me feel a little seasick at times, and there are times I have to stand the whole trip, but there's something about riding the train that's just fun. I've got a great view out my window (I'm on the 17th floor of my building), and I keep taking pictures out it. There's tons of places around here that I just want to photograph and explore...

The program is going to tax my limited social skills, and likely boost them as well. We did a Myers-Briggs personality test (look it up online) and I came out an I(S/N)TP, while the rest of the group was majority ESFJ, aka practically the opposite of me. At least I'll give a unique perspective on things. ^_^; There's a lot of interesting people here, and I'm getting along with the group rather well. There's a lot of work ahead, and a lot of social events (my precept (the people who live in the same neighborhood) is going to an improv show and meeting with one of the actors tomorrow, for instance). It's going to be fun and a stressful at once. It'll be good for me, though. ^_^

Other things... hmmm... Can't think of anything right now. Back to eating this delicious rice cake ball filled with red bean paste. Definitely need to visit that bakery some more...

Today's my 22nd birthday. I feel older.

( Insert long random babbling here. )

This has been an intense week. Not too surprising, given that it's the first week of school.

Fiona and I moved in Saturday afternoon, after a long car ride. We're actually rooming together this semester, and it's actually working out pretty well. I have had some trouble sleeping, as I am exceedingly light sensitive when I'm trying to sleep, and the glow of our computers (both have blue LEDs inside them) is enough to keep me up. Mine's now oriented so I don't see the lights from that, and we've taken to putting a thick book in between Fiona's computer and me so that it blocks the light from her evil blue glowy things. Other than that, we get along quite well. I just bought a mini-fridge, so that I can cook a whole lot more this semester. I only signed up for half the amount of money in my meal plan as I used last year, so I need to cook.

There's a preying mantis on the window...
EDIT: Twenty-four hours later, and it's still there. It's just having fun hanging out on our window screen three stories up.


I got a job as a stocker at Lank cafeteria this semester. I'm in charge of keeping the drink coolers stocked during the lunch rush on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I've already worked twice, as I got the job right off. It's pretty fun, oddly enough, except when no one wants to drink any of the bottled drinks and I have nothing to do...

I do seem to have a vendetta against myself or something right now... I'm currently wearing three bandaids, from three different injuries, and both of my knees are scraped up and aching from the four times I've tripped in the last three days... I managed to injure my right index finger enough that it might scar, even. I managed to get it caught in one of the handles/latches for the door of one of the large walk-in freezers I'm constantly in and out of during work... I think I'm just going to stop leaving the building for the rest of the weekend or something, lest I injure myself worse.

Classes are actually pretty fun this year. I actually want to read my textbooks! Especially the one titled "How to lie with maps". Funfun. As for what classes I'm taking, in order of interest:

-Cartography- Definitely going to be my favorite class. I get to make maps! I get to play with Illustrator! Weeeeee!!! I've got fun classmates and teacher, too, which is nice. I keep seeing maps EVERYWHERE. Admittedly, I go searching for them, but still... We're even going to do an animated/3D map, and going to visit the virtual reality lab on campus!

-Native American Anthropology- This one only meets once a week, so I'm not going to have too many sessions of this class, but still... We're studying many native cultures in depth, and it's going to be VERY interesting. We watched a video last class giving a general overview of Native contributions. I was very happy with how much of it I already knew. Mom taught us a lot of Native American history (both good and bad) when she home schooled us in elementary school. It's still really cool stuff. Next week, we're going to watch Nanook of the North (1920's silent movie about Eskimos) then watch an Imax film about Nanook's grandson and how the tribe's changed, which is really nifty.

-National Parks- Also going to be really cool, as we study the parks in depth. We've got two term papers in the class, one on the Indiana Dunes and one on Mammoth Caves, which the entire class will be visiting over fall break. It's going to be really fun! I need to get up to hike three trails in the dunes, if anyone's interested in joining me for the company. There's even some through bog regions, with boardwalks and everything! (Yes, I like swamps).

-Urban Geography- The class may or may not be interesting, as it's more to the social side of Geography than I usually like going, but I definitely want to learn this subject. I keep running into roadblocks when designing worlds in my head whenever I hit the cities and the spread of people. The textbook is dense, but the classmates and teacher are nifty. We're going to be visiting and exploring Chicago mid-October, which will be interesting.

-Photographing the American Road Trip- It's a photo class, so it's a bit more expensive than I like (I have to buy supplies for printing, which cost a bit, and I have to order them over the phone or internet, which is annoying. I need to use the credit card for that, parents...) However, I can take photos on all those field trips I mentioned above, and they'll work QUITE well. I'm also going to be earning money with this class, as the Law School commissioned the class to provide artwork for them at $100 per piece, real money! There are five in the class, so I'll hopefully be making $200 from that, minus the costs of framing it. There's also going to be a small show exclusively for this class in the gallery on the second floor of the VUCA, so I'll have art on the walls yet again. ^_^

-Individual Exercise- It's PE. I'm not physical. At least it's only meeting seven times total throughout the semester, and some of those times will be baseline testing, which I've always found interesting. And at least I'm getting exercise now, between walking to class and working four hours a week (and coming out tired every time).

Ah well, run out of things to say. Time to go back to reading webcomics and resting my knees...

It be my sibling's day of birth!

Happy 20th Birthday, Fiona!

Now, to bed... Been up all night helping Megan prepare things for Otakon, which starts today...

Why does it have to be so bloody hot? Oh right... I live in Maryland...

It's been in the high 90's for the past few days, so I've been especially dead. I've had a backlog of interesting things I've been up to that I've wanted to mention that I think I'll just summerize, since I'm actually kinda writing now...

-Went to Ohio (Cincinatti area) for two weeks, visiting a friend of Mom's. I don't care for Fringe Festivals (plays, music, etc. that's too baudy/avant garde for the general public). Went to a cool museum that had cute turtles, but was way too child-oriented. Played "Where in the World is Carman Sandiego?" there.

-Visited Long Island/New York City for a weekend. Saw Ben's new house. Went to a waterpark (Splish Splash!). Went to the American Natural History Museum. I love Natural History Museums. They had really cool rocks there. Would have loved to spend days there. Later, read much manga.

-Applied for a passport, due to Ben mysteriously mentioning to mom that it'd be a "good idea" if we all had passports, preferably before the end of the year. How mysterious...

-Undergoing allergen testing while still under my parent's insurance. So far, I'm alergic to: (well, likely allergic to. the test's not perfect) Tobacco, Dust, Dust Mites, Caffine, Swiss Cheese, Crab, Lobster, and Chocolate.

-Currently it's just Dad and I, as Mom's visiting the grandparents in Michigan, and Fiona's working children's theater in Valparaiso. I'm just lazing around and also working for Megan making cat ears and tails to sell at anime conventions. I need to buy more pierogies...

( 50 questions for older people meme. Despite my not really being 'older' by most people's definition.. )

Life has been busy lately, in a fun way. Fiona and I have been helping our friend/near-sister Megan with her costumes for the Balticon Masquerade. A full set of Sleeping Beauty, the Prince, and the Three Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather), all well crafted. Megan is a skilled seamstress and designer, so they turned out beautiful, at least the three that got finished... They had the normal amount of setbacks, but with Megan's finals and everything else people were doing, Sleeping Beauty and Fauna's dresses didn't get finished... So they just had a lovely Not-In-Competition presentation of the three that were done, and we get to finish the last two and heavily embelish all of them for next Balticon... Megan promised to make Fiona and I corsets in return for our hard work (as well as teach us how to make them so we can help her make the other three that have been comissioned...)

Balticon itself was fun, though the first two days of the con were largely spent trying to get as much done on the costumes as possible. I managed to succeed in my goal of being more social there, though. Normally, I spend much of the con in panels, learning about nifty stuff, but there weren't that many panels that interested me this time (I went to none of them), so I just hung out with Fiona, Megan, and a lot of other cool and weird people. Twas quite fun. Now, I'm still spending a lot of time over at Megan's, helping her make the high-quality cat ears and tails she sells at several anime conventions (they sell quite well, which is nice).

( And now, more geekery! )

Ok, so it's been over three months since I last updated this. I blame my 8 am classes for draining my energy out of me. Eight am is just too early for me. I just can't adjust to it. I've been trying for months now. But it's now finals season, so I'm getting better rest and can think well enough to update. Even if my final today and the one tomorrow are both at 8 am...

You know, I haven't done much beyond classes for the last three months... There's reasons I haven't updated... I do have some nice stuff in my DeviantArt account, all the art I've done both in and out of class.

I'm mostly updating because I've found two interesting online articles that really make you think about the world:

Did You Know?, a video about the exponential nature of the world.
Pearls Before Breakfast, an essay about a world-class musician playing anonymously to a crowd of commuters in a Metro station, and what their reaction was.