How do I feel about reading Hale and M&M again???

They say third time is the charm. You got that right... I've been trying to read Hale for the third time, and I still feel like I don't get most of it. English is just not my forte'. But I am trying. I really am. If Stephanie still learns new things every time she rereads Hale, than I know that it is ok that I don't get it on the third try LOL. Or at least this is what I am going to tell myself is ok.

Hierarchy - Anarchy!!!

It is amazing to learn about Hierarchy over and over again in most of our classes, and we sit there saying "Didn't I learn this already?"... The answer is YES. But take a minute and reflect on how you take what you learned about hierarchy all those times.

WE learn it, and then we forget it.

I know I do it from time to time. Sometimes we forget about it, and projects suffer as a result. They reteach it to us so we can learn to follow it automatically.

Everyone hates reading something or looking as something and feeling completely lost. I don't like feeling stupid while reading something that seems so easy. Not knowing how to follow an article is the worst feeling, and makes me not want to read it.

To love or hate the GRID! That is the question....

How do I feel about grids? To be honest there is always a place for structured design. I have learned to appreciate the purpose and design appearance grids have to offer the publication world. I enjoy clean design, and a grid is always the perfect choice to keep things organized.

But you can not deny how great it feels to break the grid. Breaking the grid keeps things interesting. It is like getting the little toy out of the cereal box in the morning! There is a line to be drawn, some people get a little out of control when they decide to break the grid. Even when you break the grid you should always have some sort of structure or reason for breaking the grid. Slapping objects and text anywhere on the page is NOT ALLOWED. You need to have a reason for placing things. "Everything should be doing a job, having a purpose."

Mounting is a Skill...only Art Majors dread.

Mounting

Honestly I enjoy mounting. But when I don’t have to enjoy the entire process of mounting your own project, it becomes a problem. Cutting my matte board to size, and measuring the position of the piece is fun when I have even numbers to work with. But when I have to use fractions and all of that kind of stuff, it makes mounting a pain in my tail. Another thing that irks me is mounting multiple projects at one time. The repetition of it all just gets old after awhile.

Those who have been art majors know how I feel. We've been mounting forever. It gets easier. Patience helps a lot.

I HATE THIS... CAN I GET A KINKOS PLEASE.

That's is correct, I have officially said that I miss Kinkos. Of all place to meet my printing needs, now I have OFFICE DEPOT.... Calvert County is so limited compared to Owings Mills/Baltimore County/City... I am used to having my 24 hour Kinkos right up the street; it actually did a good job printing all of my projects last semester. This semester is just Horrible. Printing isn't easy and convenient anymore. Adding more issues to my life. WHY ME... WHY MUST I LIVE IN CC? WHERE ALL WE HAVE ARE TREES AND NO KINKOS UP THE STREET?

Update from last semester - WHERE IS CALVERT COUNTY???

So now you know the story... here is the updated version...

I have moved back home, home being good ol' CALVERT COUNTY. It is approximately 1 hour away from Baltimore, but that is only the county line. I don't live anywhere near the county line. My parents live 15 minutes from the line, and I live with my brother which is 30 minutes from the line. So my total commute time is 1 hour and approximately 30 minutes. This is without any accidents shutting down Route 4. If that happens, believe me when I say, there is gonna be a problem. It is a two lane highway (the only main highway we have), and bad accidents happen often because PEOPLE CAN'T DRIVE. REALLY. We have 4 ways in and out of our county. North, South, East and West... 2/4 of those options are useless to me on my commute to school. The second choice adds an additional 20 minutes to my commute. Not cool and is even more problematic than Rt. 4. Route 2 is a one lane highway that takes forever to get off of.

So when people say, where is Calvert County... I'll tell them this:
1. Below Prince Georges and Anne Arundel counties
2. Southern Maryland
3. 40 minutes from D.C.
4. The woods
5. You don't want to know.

Second Round - Won't get knocked out!

As we all know.. this is round 2 of Words and Images. For those who don't know here is my story from last semester, I'll quote myself....

Time Management Rant

I used to be great at managing my time because I had a lot of time to go around. I had no job, so the 9 to 5 was clear, the travel time was out the door, and I don’t have a significant other or children. Since March I got my first job and time management has gone out of the window. I used to be able to stay up late all of the time, and run off of minimal 2-3 hours of sleep for the past 22 years of my life. It is May 2008 and I can’t function properly on anything less than 5-6 hours of sleep. This is a dramatic change in my life and I can’t get it under control because I don’t have time to. I have a 58-mile drive to work, twice a day. 116-miles a day means that I spend no less than 2.5 hours traveling and that is on a good day of traffic. When people want to have accidents all damn day or drive in a drizzle of rain at 40 mph, it becomes a 3-hour day. I wake up at 5:15 every morning and leave at 5:45 to 6:00. Work begins at 7a.m. and ends at 4:30. I drive home and it is usually 6 or 6:30 when I get home. I take 20 minutes to get myself changed and to catch my breath. After that it is all down hill from there. I never have time to cook a real dinner, so what ever I have to cook is really basic or we end up ordering out. I haven’t cooked a real meal since I started this job. I have this class, which is a handful, and my typography class as well. So I have to work on everything. I can’t work on schoolwork at work, because the computers are cheap… and I am always doing actual work… So I take a hour to get ready for bed and work in the morning… pick my clothes, pack my bag, shower, pack my lunch… and then my few hours to do school work before bed. I try to get to bed by 11 if I can, and that is a struggle. So after Saturday class is over, my body crashes from the lack of sleep. It crashed too soon May 2^nd, and I couldn’t wake myself up for class that morning. I was so BLOWN, I had packed up everything for class that day, and was looking forward to show and tell… and I laid down for a quick nap before class… and it was all over from there. I didn’t wake up until like 5 something that Saturday evening. This is ridiculous. My room stays junky too… I hate that. I don’t have time to do shit. Next semester will be one class. If even that.

The only reason I have lost weight is because of stress and schedule change. Do you remember how I used to watch tv and movies all the time? Those days are done; my DVR box is on 92% last time I checked. My television is dusty, lol, and I only cut it on to make sure my box isn’t erasing the good stuff. So it isn’t like I spend my time fooling around. I don’t get to see the small amount of friends that I do have… so it’s not like im out having a good time either. I don’t get to go home to Calvert County and spend time with my family, so strike that from the list too. I went home for mother’s day and that was the first time they have all seen me in two months aside from Nana’s funeral on April 24^th. You know what else, that week was the worse that I have had in a long time. My friend of five years from Towson U, Sheena Day, was murdered by her son’s father and I had to drag myself to her funeral in Temple Hills, MD on Tuesday, April 22. And my grandmother’s funeral was that Thursday in Calvert County. I was upset when Nana had that stroke a few weeks prior, but I lost is it that week of the funeral. I have one grandparent left, and he and I aren’t close. I don’t handle death very well on a regular basis, but losing two people that I care in such a close period of time hasn’t happened to me since my senior year in high school. I lost a classmate, Amy, to a hit and run in waldorf, md in January 2003, and then friend/neighbor/classmate in a car accident in our intersection on March 15, and my great uncle passed two weeks later.

I had to miss my typography class that Thursday, because there was no way I was going to show up after that funeral at 8pm looking like a train wreck. I wouldn’t have paid attention and too many people would try to talk to me about it. So I got behind in that class as well.

So Stephanie wanted to know what was going on with me, why I was so far behind… these are the reasons why. I am not one to put all of my business out there all of the time because I wasn’t raised that way. I don’t know need a “pity party” from anyone either, and if I told her while at class, I would have broken down. Point blank. I don’t need to go through a 6-hour class period deprived of sleep and crying. That is a bad combination, deprived of sleep is enough, if I broke down in class, I would have kept doing it throughout the day, and that is a distraction to everyone else. I don’t expect a free pass either because that isn’t my style. If I am going to fail, than I am going to fail, the excuses are irrelevant. I caught myself up in typography last week, and it was hard to do it. But after Allison said some kind encouraging words, I buckled down, and brought my typography grade up to an A-. We have one more project due on May 15 at 8pm, that may bring it up to an A… Now I am just trying to catch myself up in this Words & Images class. If I fail, than I just fail, but if I at least pass it barely, than that works to. At least I will know that I tried my best to get back on track after falling so far. I should have dropped this class, or just quit, but I wasn’t raised to do that either. So I got myself into this situation, and I will see if I can’t get myself out of it, no matter what the outcome may be.

Well as we can see, I didn't quit... I just failed LOL sort of...

Grad School - Who's Idea was this?

Who had the bright idea to go to graduate school?

I raise my hand. Great job Genius! Full time work + full time school is a DUMB COMBINATION. Full time work + part time school is a GREAT COMBINATION. Maybe I will try this way next semester. Save my sanity.

Hey Everybody!!!!!

My Name is Renee' Myers and you didn't get to see my smiling face last Saturday...
It's time for the semester to begin and for me to stay focused! Words and Images plus a weekly blog is about to become my new favorite hobby... if can you feel the sarcasm in my typing? :-/
Unfortunately I had to miss our first class, so I didn't get to meet everyone. But I am looking forward to it this Saturday!