In Depeche Mode

Woooooah - summer's flying by! I cannot believe it's August already. My mom, brother, his girlfriend and her family just came to visit this past weekend. (That reads confusing now that I read it. Sorry) We hit up a Springfield Cards game and happened to be behind a woman who tried to get in with St. Louis Cards tickets. It was unfortunate for her. She had 2 little boys with her decked out in Cards gear from head to toe. Anyway, in other interesting news, we saw KC & The Sunshine Band at Houlihan's that night, and I also received free dessert for lack of receiving my fish tacos for dinner.

I have not blogged the entire summer, mainly because after getting used to the whole 9-5 work schedule, I usually just come home lethargic and either watch tv or attempt to run in the crazy hills of the Ozarks, which is not easy. I truly have been living the life, however, since my online contemporary art class ended in the beginning of July.

The only thing that's really been going on are my internships, and they're going grrrr-eat. The one I've been going into work for is at Wannenmacher Advertising Company, and the other is for Fair City News, a satire newspaper in Springfield, MO. I don't know what the rules are as far as talking about internships and work things therefore, I'll just leave it at that!

I've got a float trip coming up this weekend with girls from the volleyball team, then only one more weekend in Springfield before it's back to The Ville for my super senior victory lap! The goal this year is to find out what I want to do with my life. I have a feeling I'm still not going to have a clue, so I'll just stick to graduating and see where that takes me! Anywho, I'll get back into the blogging thing someday. As for now, real housewives is coming on. I know, I know, I got sucked into it...I swear I didn't enjoy it this much when it first came out. However, now, I just can't get enough. Cue: Depeche Mode...

SUMMER!!!

It's finally here! My senior year is over! Although I am making a victory lap by attending Truman a fifth year, I am excited for this summer. For one, I'll be moving in with a friend from high school in Springfield, MO, and also, I'll be doing a couple of internships. Get excited, real world, here I come! :)

I'd like to say that since it's summer I'll be blogging more, but I kind of doubt it. I'm going to try but it's never as easy to just sit down and do, as I once thought it was. Anyway, it's a little chilly at the moment, so hopefully it'll warm up soon! I'm ready for some sun and fun!

Papyrus...it's everywhere!

I'm in motion graphics researching logo designs and typefaces and came across this guy's blog where he changed a bunch of Helvetica fonts used in logos to Papyrus...quite an extreme difference! Made me laugh...

http://www.logodesign.com/?p=104#comments

Elating Easter

I just got back from a golf tournament in Iowa late last night, so I didn't go home for Easter. I made myself a delicious Easter brunch of coffee and a turkey & cheese sangwich. Yesterday(Saturday) was the first decent weather day we've had to golf in over the past 3 weeks. Friday we stopped for an hour after teeing off because of lightning, in which my team sat in our van and made music videos. Anyway, we got 2nd at the tournament, which was pretty baller considering it was really competitive. I believe my plan is to get some homework done today, along with write some cover letters for internships. Then, I'm off to Jason's for the night...

What an elating Easter! Oh yeah, I threw in a backwards photo of my favorite Easter candy for ya...

Golf Ball Logo Test

I'm in Motion Graphics, researching logo design for an upcoming project and ran across this article which had some great tips. I'm considering designing a logo for a golf learning center, sports equipment company or sports coverage network. Can't decide, but these are still great tips for any logo design.

http://graphicpush.com/the-golf-ball-test

Drawing Downer

I'm in my three hour drawing class and a little bored so I decided to blog a little. Haven't done that in a while. I've been a little slow to get going since coming back from spring break (Disneyworld, ahh, so magical).

I'm in the process of working on my independent project, which is a mix of one of my favorite things, argyle (shoutout to Jessica Endaya!), and one of my least favorite things, glitter (shoutout to the devil). I can't decide if I want to go classy (black, white, grey + glitter), or completely make it a hate project and go girly colors (purple, pink, yellow + glitter). As of now, I've been doodling in full out girly fashion (so unlike me), so it looks like I may have to just conquer my fears and go glitzy and girly.

I think I can have fun with the title of this...maybe something like "Facing My Fears", or "GLITTER IS THE DEVIL". :) *Can't wait to get that glitter out!

*sarcasm

Bye, Bye, February!

Out with the old (Feb) and in with the new(Mar)! I can't believe it's March 2010 already! Where have the years gone? Just yesterday some friends and I were recalling songs and movies from the year 2000...then we realized that was ten years ago. I was 11! WOW.

Anyway, just one week of classes before SB2010! Off to Cape Canaveral for a week of warm(er) weather. At least there won't be snow there! It might not be swimsuit weather, but darnit, we're going to be wearing them! Just three days to study hard for my first marketing test...and that's pretty much it. OH, and pack! Maybe I'll put up a post from Florida...we shall see....

Hi, President's Day!

Alright, so I'm not really excited about President's Day. I should be, but I tried to mail a package (which is over a week late getting sent anyway), and couldn't because, oh, it's President's Day. I guess Scott's g/f will get her Truman shirt 3 weeks after her birthday and 2 after Valentine's Day. It no longer serves as a gift for any certain holiday - just a package in the middle of the week now.

Anyway, I just (somewhat) finished my first Flash movie ever (just a few things to change). It's choppy and took forever to make, but I think it's pretty cool either way! I think I just like the idea of it finally being finished and the fact that I had to do everything in it, and it actually moves somewhat like I intended. Maybe tomorrow I'll learn how to upload it to Flickr and I can come back and post the link for you to watch and make fun of. :)

In other recent news, Jason was here for Valentine's Day, which was fun. He arrived in Kirksville on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. We saw that Valentine's Day movie. It wasn't horrible - but not amazing either. Some 'cute' parts, some serious parts. We also played a solid game of basketball with my roommates and their "significant others", haha. A "couples game", if you will. It was interesting. I made three 3-pointers, and still bought dinner, which was not the agreement in the first place. Lame. However, the new sweet chili sauce at Mickey D's is A-mazing. I definitely recommend it.

Soon I'll post some stuff I've been doing for my high school - a few t-shirts for different things. For now, off to bed before Motion Graphics in the morning!

AIGA Does Minneapolis

AIGA has done it again! We headed to Minneapolis this time to visit design firms for the spring semester's design trip. We visited the following companies and events (I stole the list from Truman's VisCom blog):

• Larsen Design -- Large design firm. One of the region's oldest and most well-respected firms.
• Baker -- Very large firm, almost exclusively focused on designing CPG (consumer packaged goods), mostly for big-brand supermarket labels like Nabisco, Dole, General Mills, etc.
• Duffy & Partners -- Small/medium design firm. They're the gold standard.
• Cocktails with Creatives -- An opportunity to network with professional designers and view the design exhibit "17 Designers" at the American Swedish Institute.
• Target -- Large retail chain. Meet with in-house design team to learn about what goes on behind the scenes at the national headquarters.
• Little & Company -- Large design firm. Been around Minneapolis for 25 years; one of our town's most reputable and well-known design agencies.
• Clockwork -- Large interactive firm, bedrock of the Minneapolis interactive community.
• Periscope -- Large design firm. Largest independently-owned design/ad firm in the midwest. Unique in that they do nearly all of their production in-house (photography, printing, etc.)
• Walker Art Center -- Arts center which features contemporary visual and performing art exhibits and programs.
• Mall of America -- alright, I added that one to the list. It's not exactly a design firm or an attended event, but we did go for about 2.5 hours and visited maybe, oh, 5 stores. A lot going on there!

All of the places were very helpful in forcing me to get my butt in gear for finding an internship. I'm still looking, so if anyone has ideas, send them my way! I started tweeting again; I can't promise it will last long, but I realized that most companies are tweeting about blogs and inspirational things they find for their design needs, so I might be able to find something helpful there. Why not, right?

Oh yeah! And I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time! It was AMAZING, although I am sorer (word?) than I think I've ever been in my life. I will definitely go back sometime!

Currently I'm in the process of making a website to hold, hopefully, my future online portfolio. I'm thinking that shortly I'm going to have to buy some of my own online space so I can maintain my own website. For now, I'm just going to attempt to understand Flash and Dreamweaver...gotta have that web to get an internship it seems like! Back to work...

4-Day Weekend

Well, it's Monday and there's no class thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It was a wonderful 4-day weekend. I think I totaled close to 36 hours in the past 3 days for sleep, which might be a record. Jason came Friday afternoon and just left this afternoon. We+Kels went to Pagliai's for some ronzas on Friday. I got the Hawaiian Ronza, which is equal to "deliciousness".

On Saturday we saw Avatar in 3D. That movie is so crazily cool, I can't even describe it in words. James Cameron directed it. I had to google him and watch clips on how he directed and created the movie Avatar because we were in such awe of it. A lot of the stuff they were showing in the clips of how the movie was created were things that are very closely related to what I'm doing in school at the moment (e.g. motion graphics), just at a very, very different level, so that was really intriguing to watch. If only I had the mind of James Cameron...

Anyway, check Avatar out here!

In other news, I officially beat Jason at something. We all went bowling yesterday at the classy Leisure World, and I bowled a 162 our first game. I won't mention the second game because I used all of my good bowls the first game, but along with some nachos&cheese I managed to kick some butt in the bowling department and it was a good time. *Note: I also used the same ball as Jason.

Well, it's on to school work for the week. I've got to get in the drawing mood and also learn some html coding. I'm going in to motion graphics like James Cameron tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that goes soon!

*minor detail

Back to the Blog!

Finally! I get to blog in my own free time, whatever I want, and whenever I want. Last semester I was required to suffer through continuous projects all while blogging it publicly for the world to see. :\ However, the days of blogging for class have come and gone, for now at least, and I am starting a new semester.

This spring I am taking VisComm III: Web Design, Drawing III, Advanced Motion Graphics, and Principles of Marketing. 12 hours seems like such a small class load (ew, I don't like that word...load) but I've totaled up the number of hours I will actually spend in class per week and that number is very close to 21. Something's not right there. ANYway...

I've been working out and volleyball has started, so I'm feeling pretty good about being "up in the gym just a workin' on my fitness". The roomies and I started doing P90X, which is just a hardcore workout program that lets you choose from a bunch of different workouts. We've done kenpo cardio and the ab workout so far, and I know I'm definitely feeling it.

Gotta head out - I've got a marketing quiz to sign up online for...and then take. Eek.

This Old Blog

I feel bad for neglecting this blog, however my studies force me to abandon this one and pay attention to the other two. If you haven't been directed to my other blogs they are as follows! Here's what I've been doing while ignoring this old blog...

Illustration Blog

http://illustrationelation.blogspot.com/

Viscom II Blog

http://viscomdos.blogspot.com/

Very Long Hiatus

Alright, so this blog hiatus has lasted long enough. We just started classes yesterday, and I've been getting my room put together and making Walmart runs like a mad woman, trying to get supplies and food for the semester. Not to mention, the two weeks before I came back to school, our internet was out due to lightning.

Today I had my first 7:30 class of the semester and we are required to start a blog (Oh, Rusty), so this blog in return will probably suffer, and be abandoned more often. I believe you'll be able to see the new blog...it will be titled something along the lines of Viscom II, and basically will just document my suffering as a design major. :) Alright, it won't be that bad, but Rusty said he fully intends for this class to be the most frustrating one we have in our 4 (or in most cases 5) years at Truman. For now, I've got a break until 1:30, when I go back for Illustration with Rusty. Some golf might happen between now and then, and then it's the freakin' weekend, baby, I'm 'bout to have me some fun!

OH! I almost forgot, the first night I was here, I dropped my phone in some dewey grass, and of course it stopped working! So, I'm hopefully getting my replacement phone today in the mail. If not, I'll be receiving no calls until Monday sadly. Boo.

Torrential Tuesday

Man, it is raining! I woke up to lots of thunder, lightning, and rain, thinking it was about 5 in the morning because it was so dark out. It ended up being 8:30! What a crappy day so far. 

Yesterday was good, though. Jeris, Hofie, and I grabbed some lunch at Rusty's and then hit up the Lincoln Elks for some golf. Hofie just watched but Jeris and I got through the front 9 in about an hour and a half. Then Kendall, Kristen, and Charlotte met us for the back 9. (Charlotte and Kristen (from NY) had never heard of horseshoes, so that's what they had for lunch. Apparently it's a midwest thing.) I think we ended up playing 7 holes in a matter of 6 hours! It took foooorrreevvveer; but it was fun, nonetheless! I'm sure I'll have a picture shortly from that adventure.

After golfing we went down to my grandpa's pond, which is about a mile from my house, with my cousin, Bret, his girlfriend, Sami, and a couple of his friends. I drove my cousin Dusty's 4-wheeler down there, which was wonderful. I wish I had a real excuse to own my own 4-wheeler. Anyway, we took a couple canoes down there and Sami and I paddled in one and Kendall and the New Yorkers were in the other. We paddled around for a couple hours, drinking and eating Cheetos. I left to hang out with Jason when he got done playing basketball. It was a good Monday.

Now, I still have not packed anything for my trip, which I leave for in exactly 5 hours! I'm hoping for some good food tonight in Chicago. Maybe some Pequod's Pizza! Scott's friend, Jen, works there and the pizza is deeeelicious. Their "mascot", I guess you would call it, is a whale with a thong on it's head. I've got it on a t-shirt. I should probably ask the story behind that. Anyway, next stop Chicago, then Austin! 

July? Check!

Well, there went July. I cannot believe it's August. I haven't been blogging, and I'm not sure why. The float trip was awesome! We were on the Meramec River for 9 miles, and it took about that many hours, too! It was a gloomy day out, but we still got a little sun, so that was good! Here's me and Megan, my old roommate on our 6-(wo)man raft. 

It's just starting to rain, so it doesn't look like I'll be golfing anytime this morning. My cousin, Kendall, has a friend, Charlotte, in town from school and we were going to have an afternoon of golf and beverages with Jeris, who's in town from Kentucky . I think we might be grabbing lunch somewhere instead.

Otherwise, my plan for the day is to pack for Texas! I'm going to be in Austin with Shocko for a week. She's already called with the plans! We're seeing two concerts, Roger Creager and the Spazmatics (Click on them, they do 80s covers!),  boating, floating, maybe some shopping, and definitely some good eats! I'm going to my brother's in Chicago for tomorrow night since my flight leaves early Wednesday morning. Anyway, better get to packing... 

Meet the Nephews

Kara just emailed some pictures of the boys. 

Little Cale was sick...he's still cute! He'll be 1 in November.

I won't crack any "cute, fat baby" jokes. Kara hears those enough. :)

Look at this little man, Connor. He'll be 4 in January. :) 

This is definitely my favorite! Hahaha :D

REAL summer!

I am DONE-zo with my online class. Now it's time for some REAL summer! :)

I just turned in a bonus assignment (which I reeeeeeally needed), and I am DONE studying for the summer! Now, all I've got to worry about is what I'm going to take to eat/drink on this weekend's float trip. I'm leaving in about 5 hours, so I'm going to pack my bag, go to the golf course, hit up walmart for food and beverages, and head to J-Ville to pick up my home-fry, Kels! 

Look for pictures soon! and hope for no storms! I should probably add a water-resistant camera to my list for Wally World...

Mamma Mia! It's almost Friday.

I'm watching Mamma Mia! right now. They're singing "Take A Chance On Me". I've seen it a bunch of times, but I still enjoy it. Oh, the sidewalk just broke and now they're playing in the water. How fun. ANYway,...

I went to the dentist yesterday. No cavities, yay. The lady that cleaned my teeth said the last time she did so, I was 4-years-old, and I gagged when she sprayed the water in my mouth. I found that funny, because from what I can remember, I've never truly had a problem at the dentist, except for maybe when I had my first cavities filled or something. I had about 20 when I was younger; I hated brushing my teeth. Gross, I know, but I hated the taste of toothpaste, and loved eating spoonfuls of sugar...literally. 

I golfed before and after my dentist appointment. It was nice out yesterday, not really sunny but still warm. I also enjoyed a fish filet sandwich from Mickey D's, which I hadn't had in probably 5 years.

As for future plans, I work today at 2, and hopefully will have someone to work for me at 6 because Dirt Divas have a softball game at 6:30. I have to take my 2nd test for my online class tonight at 8, and turn in a paper tomorrow for a bonus assignment, then this class is OVER! This weekend I'm heading to STL for a float trip, which will be glorious. I'm picking up my roommate, Kels, and then we're meeting a bunch of our club volleyball girls and heading to a cabin, then floating all day tomorrow. I guess it's a 9-mile float, so we'll be there all day! And it better not storm, like it's calling for! Anyway, I should work on this paper before I even think about the weekend...

Spry July

Why does it seem like July has come and gone already? I swear, last weekend was the 4th of July and all of a sudden I've got August booked with trips, weddings, work, and back to school planning. Where has summer gone!?

Anyway, I've been slacking (once again). My hiatus from blogging lasted a bit longer than I planned due to my busy-beeness (word? Now it is.). This past weekend was the long-awaited and dreaded State Elks tournament. It ended up not being so bad, apart from a few long-hour days and COLD weather. What's with Christmas in July? I showed up to drive the beer cart Friday morning at 8 in shorts and a t-shirt. My lips were literally blue by noon. I ended up changing into jeans and a fleece sweatshirt and still was freezing! As for the hours, I racked up 29 hours on the beer cart all weekend. The seniors and super-seniors played on Friday, so the beer drinking was kept to a minimum, hence, tips were lower, but Saturday...*long, plummeting whistle*, no complaints on tips! The younger crowd was definitely generous.

A few highlights from the weekend tournament:

1. Offered numerous drinks, took a few, including a SoCo Hurricane, which is heavenly. If you have not tried one, it is like drinking SweetTarts. The "Man In Black" that bought it for me also gave me a SoCo & Lime t-shirt, which I gave to Jason.

2. Saw a man with a hangover. And by hangover, I mean his stomach was hanging over his belt. He was wearing what I've been told to call a "fat boy shirt", one that buttons up all the way, and his stomach was clearly visible below the shirt. Probably the grossest thing I've ever seen.

3. OK, it wasn't at the tournament, but Sunday when I left the tournament, I saw a man pulling out of a gas station with his windows open and a chihuahua standing on his shoulders. When telling my dad this, he said the chihuahua would probably get sucked out once the guy started driving fast. I thought that was funny, haha. Funny padre.

The infamous Emden Homecoming was also this past weekend. I went Friday around 8:30 when I got out of work and met Jason at the Bulldog (bar, if you recall earlier post). We grabbed a corndog and fries and played a couple games of Bingo before resorting back to the beer tent at the Bulldog. It's always interesting to see who shows up; it's usually a lot of people I haven't seen since last year's Homecoming. Nevertheless, a good time. Saturday was more fun, though. Karaoke was a hit. I realize now that I never really did my own song. I just hung around whoever had the mic and rocked out if they handed it my way. Around 2AM everyone thought an MJ tribute would be a great idea. It was quite fun. Blaine, a kid from my high school class, and I did a glorious version of Billy Jean. Ask anyone there, it was terrible. It's hard to sing "hee hoo na na hee ha ow" off the teleprompter when tipsy and moon walking. Sounded easy at the time. 

All in all, a great weekend, but I'm glad to be into this next week. I had the day off Monday, so I golfed with my friend, Marilyn Wheat, who is about 60 years old but looks 45. Yesterday (Tuesday) I worked 7-2 and it was slower than molasses. Brent and I played 15 holes after I got done working and it went decently. Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment, in which they'll ask me how often I floss, and when I tell them truthfully "maybe once a week" they'll punish me by making my gums bleed. I'll let you know how that goes.

Oh, Head Coach Nick had a softball party/cookout for our little Legal Eagles team, and we got our team pictures back, so here's that. Turned out alright! The girls look cute and well-behaved but don't let them fool you. They're crazy, wild animals that should be kept on leashes. OK, not really, but they are crazy.

For fun, I pulled out a picture of me when I played little league. Look at this little slugger! 

I think I was a little young to play actually. I might've just been trying on my brother's hat and wanted to be official, "taking a knee" and all. 

You Got Me, Twitter

I was doing well. I had avoided checking out Twitter all summer. I wasn't even interested in it. And then, I just happened to go to the website 10 minutes ago, and now I'm "tweeting". I don't know how long it will last, and I'm not sure if anyone I know is on Twitter, but I'm there! 

I didn't do much all day. Woke up around 10:15 and had some quiche. Laid out in my hammock for about an hour, got too hot, and came inside to watch TV. I was watching Wall-E when a wasp scared me out of the living room, although he was flying about 15 feet above me and was no real threat. I don't like to associate myself with large, stinging insects. 

I drove my cousin to her friends house and decided to get some golfing in since it was on the way. I practiced some chipping and putting and hit some range balls. There were a bunch of people playing a practice round because of the State Elks tournament that's going on this weekend. It starts tomorrow and I'm not exactly psyched for it. I am, however, psyched to make some dollars. I'm really hoping the day flies by; I'm on the beer cart, and it's like watching paint dry when no one wants to buy anything. I'm guaranteed to be there from 8AM until 5PM, so there better be some nice bills in my pocket before I leave! 

I have a Dirt Diva game tonight. The season is probably coming to a close. We've had quite a few games. I'm pretty confident we'll pull out a win; the team is really meshing lately. I mean, the most meshing a slowpitch league can do! Anyway, that's at 6:30, so I've got an hour to find something to do. I should be researching the current U.S. economy for my bonus assignment in Intro. to Financial Management. I'm not exactly looking forward to writing an essay over the current economic situation. I'm not into analyzing politics and financial things; or anything that deals with government for that matter. It's not my cup of tea. Maybe I'll just write on the topic of "how this course will affect my future". I feel like I'm taking the easy way out, but maybe I'll find some cool stats on how the economy and financial management affect the visual communications field. I'm sure there's stuff out there. 

Speaking of research, I've been going to www.ted.com a lot lately. You can listen to cool talks over all kinds of topics from all different kinds of people. Some of the talks are really boring and lame, but you can find some good ones! I watched an interesting one about a woman illustrator. Her name was Maira Kalman. She was very "whimsy" and off-the-wall, but she had some interesting comments to make about her lifestyle. She doesn't seem to mind that she's not the most intelligent person; she likes who she is and is happy going with the flow of her lifestyle. Anyway, to watch the crazy woman, click here! I'm sure you could find something you like there, too.