I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, really. I've just been really busy. To tide you over, I offer some scans of my notebook this quarter, where I put all the assigned drawings and my notes or ideas from class discussions.
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My boat made it across the pool and back just fine, actually. It was the only boat that suffered absolutely no damage from the trip. It was one of six that were still usable after the race. Yay, me. Of course, I totally lost, but I didn't come in dead last in my heat. Photos of me to come when my classmate who took them e-mails them to me. I look cute. Seriously.
Crappy cameraphone photos of the race below.
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This is probably my last entry ever, as I prepare to meet my watery end tomorrow afternoon. So I figured it was a good time to show some boat pictures from our boat show this afternoon, and talk about matters of boat design.
(edited to add some more comments on boat design knowledge.)
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Last week was a frenzy of cardboard boat construction, which mostly involved tedious measuring of regular triangles and folding. Lots of wetting of paper tape, too. As a preview of the race on Saturday, I offer you this photo essay on boatmaking.
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So the cardboard boat building continues, with minor interruptions for purchase of items like twine and a very long ruler (I can use just about any size of metal ruler, if you're casting about for somebody to take some of them off your hands, by the way, not that anybody ever is). Actually, the ruler has not yet been purchased because the fricking-fracking hardware store closed at 6pm which indicates that nobody who shops there has a regular job.
Anyway. I figured to show some more photos. Just to keep you all coming back for more excitement.
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As it turns out, I can take my writing test before I go to a watery grave in a cardboard boat (in an outdoor pool, rain or shine), so I was reading over some of the information on the test. It's a 500-word essay on some topic, for which you have two and a half hours.
Nothing makes you feel smarter than having the California State University system tell you that in order to graduate (or, in my case, in order to change status to graduate student), you must pass a (two and a half hour) (500 word) writing test where the following might be helpful:
The Writing Lab also offers a selection of helpful handouts on essay writing in general, on organizing paragraphs, on making paragraphs specific, on how to develop ideas rather than repeat them, on writing summaries, and a handout particularly designed to help students write under pressure.
Except possibly this passage:
If you want to brush up on grammar, punctuation, usage, or essay organization, the University Writing Lab Website has links to several helpful online resources. Some of these sites offer interactive tutorials and powerpoint presentations to help you review the basics of essay writing.
OK, I'll give you that for whatever reason, California taxpayers decided it was a bad idea to actually educate our children unless their parents are rich enough to send them to private school. But there's something wrong with needing to teach punctuation to college juniors, ya know?
(Before the e-mail starts, note that this test is used to get around taking a composition class (because you want to take other classes for most students, or because you would die of boredom in my case); foreign students don't have a choice about taking English composition, so it's not as if the people taking this test are not, in theory, fluent speakers of English.)
As I was writing this, it occurred to me to be grateful for one thing more in my life: I don't have to grade those tests.
This quarter is unlike last quarter in that we have huge amounts of work to do in studio. This is good and it is super busy-making. I do feel like I'm getting more real portfolio work in this quarter, but also I feel a little overwhelmed and rushed. Between long hours in studio and trying to get the dog enough exercise, I always seem to be running late for something.
Anyway, projects.
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I got e-mail from a friend today that started out, "So, how's school going?"
I just finished my second day of classes. I'm not entirely sure how school is going, to be honest, but I can give you my impressions of my classes so far.
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