Finally in Boston!

On Friday, Dad and I drove from Cincy to Springfield, MA...and on the way, we passed....


Scranton! It was....anticlimactic. Oh well, at least I can say I passed it.

After moving into my place in Stoughton, Dad and I spent the day and night in Boston. It was a beautiful day, and Dad and I had a good time walking around and seeing the sites. We walked around Quincy Market, Newbury Street, Chinatown, Boston Common...etc.

Yay Boston!

Faneiul Hall

Chinatown

An olive oil "chandelier" at a shop on Newbury Street



Yay for Alessi!

Some cute older gentlemen tinkering with a player piano


An interesting ad campaign...I thought that "Rendering Meet Reality" was especially funny.

Beetles at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

I will update with more photos and fun anecdotes as my adventure continues!

Ps: The first day of work was good!

Computer Studio Crit Photos

Sylvia Spencer-India 2
Originally uploaded by emohobbit11

I just uploaded some photos to flickr of the crit....I didn't get many shots of the computers close up, but it is fun to see yourself presenting! Sorry if I didn't get a picture of you!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7328747@N05/sets/72157615850059025/

Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel
Originally uploaded by acanofspam78

My brother is quite a talented photographer. If you would like to look at some of his photos, visit his flickr page!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26661824@N08/

Bolt!

Bolt came out today! I highly recommend you go out and rent it! Here's my favorite part! Sung by Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley).

Documentaries

I really enjoy documentaries. Actually, I really like a specific type of documentaries....documentaries about people and their unique interests and hobbies.

One of the first documentaries I ever saw in this genre was Spellbound. Spellbound chronicles the journey of students from their regional spelling bees to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. It is quite interesting, and I highly recommend it.



Hulu recently put up a bunch of new documentaries, one of which is about Harry Potter fans. Called We are Wizards, it tells about the different ways that Harry Potter fans expand on the Harry Potter universe, from rock bands to parodies.



I think what I really like about these documentaries is the way your attitude changes while you watch it. At the beginning of the film, you might be thinking, "These people are crazy! Why do they waste their time with this?" But by the end of the films, you really find yourself engrossed in the journeys of these individuals, and you almost find yourself understanding why they do these things.

Some other good documentaries I have seen are Confessions of a Superhero (also on hulu.com) and Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence. Did you know that the largest Ferret Breeders convention happens every year at OSU in Columbus?



Have you seen any interesting documentaries?

Final Computer project!!

Here's my computer!

Everyone did a great job, and I am proud of our class!!

Neko Case has a cool voice

Neat song, neat video.

Evaluations

I think I did a good job in DesComm this quarter. I enjoyed the projects we had, and I tried really hard to make my projects reflect my personal style, which I think I achieved. I would have to say that my favorite project was the tea kettle project.

My goals for next quarter are to focus a little more on my sketching, because I think I have let it go by the wayside as of late. I also want to keep getting better at "mixed media," AKA using illustrator/photoshop/alias/hypershot together to create a cool rendering.

I thought that DesComm was extremely successful this quarter. The projects were relevant and effective in teaching us skills that we would really need in the professional world. Mike had distinct reasons for teaching us everything he did, which was very beneficial. I think it was good to have an instructor that is working in the design field right now...it helps him know what to teach us to make us valuable professionals. Cheers, Mike!

I am going to try to keep up with my blog even after this class, probably posting about things other than design as well (like adventures in Boston!)

Graphic Novel project

Tracy and I are taking an Honors Special Topics class about graphic novels, and our final assignment was to create an 8 panel comic strip. Here is mine! We are turning it in in the form of a little book...otherwise I might have done something different with the paneling.

technology: friend or foe?

I have been struggling a lot with my computer lately. Granted, it probably isn't very happy that I spilled Diet Pepsi on it, but all of that aside, it has been running the speed of a turtle walking through molasses with 1000 pounds on its back. I first really noticed this when trying to use Hypershot for the tea kettle project. After my computer spent 2 hours on a render and just got 30% finished, I gave up and rendered it on Tracy's computer (which I might add completed the render in less than an hour). Today I tried to export my computer model as an iges and alias kept crashing.

How the heck am I supposed to create a 40" by 60" board full of renderings with a computer that runs at this pace?! I am currently running a disk defrag (don't worry, I am typing this on Tracy's old computer) and hoping that that speeds it up again. If not, I guess its off to the CGC for me....

Don't you just love the end of the quarter?

Lotus Tea Kettle

My final tea kettle board!
Lotus is a tea kettle designed to provide a relaxing tea experience. Inspired by Zen and nature, it is made of ceramic and stone.

communicating about design through blogs and such

Everyone has an opinion....that's pretty much supported by all of the popular social networking sites, whether it be facebook, twitter, digg, blogger, etc. People love to share things that they enjoy with each other. How else do viral videos become so popular? I don't know how many people I have asked, "Have you seen "Kittens Inspired by Kittens?" I think that we do this to gain some sort of acceptance or approval from our peers...if they like what we think is cool, won't they think we are cool?

When it comes to using these tools to communicate about desingn, I think in most ways it is very effective. It is a great way to get your stuff out there, and also get your design opinions heard. The only thing I don't like about design communication through the net is the distortion that can occur as things get passed along....its like a wolrdwide game of telephone. Also, comments and opinions tend to be harsher and more vicious online than in a face to face environment. I guess sometimes this can be good, but sometimes its just mean.

Bottom line is, design blogs pretty much rock because they provide a lot of good inspiration in one place!!

liquids police

On Sunday I had a near tragic accident involving some diet pepsi and my computer...I was a dummy and had some next to my computer, which as I am sure you have figured out, was spilled. After some freaking out and frantic calls to Dad, I took out the keyboard and cleaned up what I could see, and let it air dry for a few hours. When I tested it later, it worked! Glory Hallelujah! Of course some of the keys are dead now (if I was typing this on my computer, there would be no spaces and no h's in this post and it would be quite difficult to read).

Moral of the story: KEEP ALL LIQUIDS AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER.

Don't be surprised if I remind you of this in class....