Room to Think

I'm at home with my family this Spring Break.  At this moment, I'm trying to decide if I'd rather be at home in Bellingham or not.  I've been going back and forth on the answer since yesterday.  On the plus side, though: my sister and I went on a 2hr excursion to JoAnne's and bought supplies for some DIY projects I've had on my list for half a year.  If I'm looking forward to anything this week, it's how many crafts I get to do with her.  I don't do them on my own.  >.< The craft list: a jewelry board  to hang, organize and display my wonderful feather earrings, rather than stuffing them in boxes. a handmade book to serve as my "Dream journal" in class next quarter, and use up remaining supplies from my final project, and improve the design. another handmade book to give to my roommate as a belated birthday present, because, despite all my complaining, she's not so bad.  =) Hunger Games nails  to celebrate the fact th...

All right everyone.  Finals are over, and despite my new effort to get to bed at a decent hour (as my new schedule doesn't enable me to sleep in until noon anymore), I suppose I can pull out a Florence Friday that's more of an update.  It's about time.  =) In my last Florence Friday, I told you all that 2 of 2 emails that I sent out after Mr. Franco's response to me have been answered. Since my letter to Mr. Franco was so carelessly responded to, I decided not to put too much effort into the email to his superior in Washington D.C. Mind you, I just copied and pasted his name from somewhere else. I didn't even make the effort to insert that special symbol over the "a" in his name. I actually don't know if Mr. Carlo here is Mr. Franco's superior--in fact, I'm almost sure he isn't.  But just because I emailed someone in D.C. sure made me feel like I was contacting Mr. Franco's superior.  =P I did, however, give Mr. Carlo the...

So...I'm not done with my finals yet.  As a result, I'll let you all know my thoughts on this TEDtalk on Thursday--when I'm done with finals.  =) Until then, aren't you curious about what Susan Cain has in her suitcase? Susan Cain on "The Power of Introverts"

This Sunday, I have learned three things: the scanners on campus are infinitely superior to the one I have at home.   I was very distracted in class on Friday I don't know where half of the inspirations for my drawings come from. I also don't know why I chose to draw these specific things together on the same page. Also.  I can't count. It's finals week.  Dead week killed me.  I've risen from the dead to continue working. You'll forgive me. ALSO!  If you'd like to see the project that stole my sleep, my soul, and gradually my health and sanity this quarter, I created a new "professional" blog on which to display the results of all my madness.  Follow the link. You know you want to. Happy Sunday before finals, everyone!  =)

Happy Florence Friday Everyone! This is my last post as part of the class--I'll continue posting on a regular schedule (fingers crossed)--and in it I'll detail what my final project for this blogging class is going to be. In essence, I intend to make my very own travel guide to Florence, and ultimately, Italy.  In fact, the book will be in two parts: I'm currently working on the first half: The travel guide.   I'm compiling a list of important dates  (like festivals , religious holidays, and special days that Museums aren't in operation) I have a map of the current locations of my favorite Italian car manufacturers. (based on my last Florence Friday post ) I have a basic map of Florence and Tuscany   It will most likely be folded-in, accordion style. (preferably with a star for my home, and a star for my school.) (More stars will pop up over the time I'm there too, I expect.) A map of transportation locations  busses, trains, bicycl...

Not an actual video.  They haven't posted it on youtube yet. Click  here  to watch it on TED.com This guy. His name is Andrew Stanton, and even though sometimes he sounds like he's reading off of a script, he's a storyteller from Pixar, and he uses this TEDtalk to share what the essential parts of a good story are. Since most of you in the class are creative writers, I feel like this is a good one for all of you.  Mr. Stanton here outlined some of the techniques we've learned in the last couple years and condensed them into a way that's easy to remember.  I'm not saying that I learned much more from him than I have from 4 years of learning to write, but I am saying that he connected some dots that gave me a nice "aha!" moment this morning as I watched this over my breakfast. I don't have much time to go into detail, but the title of the TEDtalk is "The Clues to a Great Story", and he uses a swear word in the first 3 minut...

Today I'm finally back in class again. (We had a week-long sabbatical from actually coming-in to class as Brenda was out of town.) And today, we're voting on Bloggies.   Bloggies are awards for the best blogs in specific areas--but we're choosing blogs from the Living Writer's Blogroll . Here's my ballot: (HEY! I THOUGHT BALLOTS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE ANONYMOUS!) Best Personal Blog : Chelsea Best Design/Visual Blog : Charity Best Hobby/Specific Interest Blog : Will Most Improved Blog : Tommy Most Interactive Blog : Natalie Most Likely to Succeed : Kacie And...now that I've turned in my paper ballot, these votes are final. Here's a secret: I wanted no more than to vote for multiple people under certain categories.  It really just wasn't fair. Best Personal Blog: Chelsea I thought Chelsea and Natalie and Charity were really tied for best personal blog.  In the end, I ultimately chose Chelsea's "When I grow up" because hers is...