Sign of the Times

I called Apple with a question about my computer, and the automated support system "guy" understood me when I spoke to him in complete sentences.

Unexpected Birthday Surprise

My love extends on from Jon Stewart to the mailman today. Whom I've never met. But he brings me presents all the time, so how can I not like him? Especially after a day like today, which brought some extra awesome goodies, since my birthday is only two days away.

TWO DAYS!

I'm turning the big double-two, which, by the way, has to be the most anticlimactic birthday in the average human's lifetime.

Think about it. Most of the good birthdays are gone -- one, ten, Sixteen, eighteen, twenty-one -- and the next cool birthday doesn't come until I'm 40, and that's arguable because I don't know how many people are excited about being designated "over the hill."

And after the massive celebration/libations of my twenty-first, my twenty-second doesn't hold much anticipation. In fact, I've been hunkering down all week with papers, prep for South by Southwest with Crowdstory, and getting ready to take the PRAXIS (Saturday!!!), and I almost completely forgot that my birthday was coming.

Until this morning. I got a cute card from my Grandpa...

... a touching card from my Grandmama and Granddad...

... and...

BAHAHAAAAA!!!

I'm sorry. I know I should be weirded out by the fact that the Gecko knows my birthday, but I just can't be. Not when he sends me a card like that.

And it rhymes inside. It's some silly, poorly metered poem about saving money now that I'm a year older (at least it doesn't know my exact age -- then I might be worried), but it's still pretty awesome.

Thanks, Gecko, for caring.

Snarky Perfection

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I'm in love with Jon Stewart. In. Love. I'd seriously consider a marriage proposal out of the blue from this man, peppered hair and all. Homeboy is funny, witty, and tends to have a good point.

And his sarcasm is the best.

Of course, my roommates will attest to the fact that I have minor difficulties detecting sarcasm in regular conversations. But that's something for another day. I always understand when Stewey is being sarcastic -- because that's practically all the time. So naturally we're still highly compatible, regardless of my ability to detect snarkiness in real life.

Anywho, watch this and tell me you don't find this incredibly awesome. So snarky. So perfect.

Thoughts?

Adventurous?

Today I bought lunch at the Chinese restaurant in the Union. Which is significant, because no one ever eats there. Not sure why though. I guess it looks kinda sketch.

But because of the above, it also always has the shortest line. And seeing as the Quiznos line wrapped around the corner, and I'd forgotten to eat breakfast that morning, a short food line looked preeeetty appealing.

I decided to be adventurous and try it out.

Verdict: Not bad. Probably wont eat there again, but the chow mein was delish. It's hard to mess up chow mein.

Sorry for the blurriness. Photo was taken on the sly.

Also, I like how my definition of adventurous now includes ordering Chinese take-out.

What is my life coming to?

Learning Photoshop in Art Class

I absolutely love my art class this semester. And what's not to love?

I get to paint for six hours a week on my own projects, and I have a really nice, helpful (kinda cute in a tormented hipster artist kind of way) T.A. around to answer my questions and give good suggestions about things to work on.

It's like heaven, only a bit too early in the morning.

Last week the class trekked down to the computer lab in the basement to learn how to use Photoshop. The assignment was to bring pictures to class and then use Photoshop to collage them together.

I loooooved this assignment. Not only did it force me to get out and take pictures with my camera (will post those pictures soon), but it helped me relearn Photoshop, which I was obsessed with in high school. Also strangely reminds me a lot of my nerdy gamer first boyfriend. I credit him for my Photoshop interest and the fact that I took up snowboarding. If I remember correctly, he was also my first kiss and the kid who dumped me because I wouldn't put out (though I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what that meant at the time). I had to work really hard to eek out a couple tears on the drive home.

Anyway, back to that Photoshop collage. It's below.

Can you tell what I added?

I tried to make it look as realistic as possible (instead of an obvious collage like most of the others). I'm not sure what this says about my imagination, but whatevs.

I started with this as the base...

And then added the below items.

Getting the perspective correct on that tire rack took so long. It wasn't until my (cute hipster) T.A. mentioned the words "vanishing point" that I understood what I needed to change. My mother would be proud.

The sky took for-freakin-ever to put in. Mostly because I got all OCD on the thing and had to erase ever single pixel of the old gray sky before adding in the clouds -- and I insisted on keeping the electrical wires in tact.

Let me just tell you how relaxing methodical labor like that is. You don't have to think, you just work. 

It's the best.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my brief dip into the world of photo editing. 

I need to buy me some Photoshop for my computer. Preferably before I lose my student discount. 

I'll have to add that to my list, along with Final Cut Express. So much to buy, so little time!

Sharing My Work

Yesterday I was useless. Completely useless. I slept in, made pancakes, drank four cups of coffee, took a nap for another couple hours, and then sat on the computer for the entire day.

The only semi-productive things I did were watch a TED.com video on spreading art and help Brittany spray a pantry shelf with bug repellent stuff.

Not much to write home about.

But then five-thirty or so rolled around, and I assessed my situation. Not pretty. Spurred by shame, I decided to do something useful for a bit.

So I took pictures of all the artwork I've created over the last two semesters. I've posted one below, and I'll add a few a week until you've seen 'em all.

I like to call this my inner angst picture. It's deep and troubled and mysterious. 

Or something like that. 

It was hard to get the lighting correct in this photo, so the painting actually looks a lot lighter than it really is. In real life, the blue and black are almost indistinguishable except under bright light (because I painted it outside in the bright sun).  

But it's kinda fun that way. Makes it more dark and brooding and stuff.

Crowdstory App Submitted!

I stayed up way too late last night (think 3 hours of sleep), but it was all well worth it.

The developers on my business internship team have been working hard all week (all semester really) to complete the programming on our iPhone App– Crowdstory– by last night, so I decided that I wanted to show them my support and gratitude for all their hard work.

So I made them cheese quesadillas.

And I brought apple slices and Ritz crackers with cream cheese (that I spread on while there).

I’m getting this Soccer Mom business out of my system early.

After feeding the guys at about 1:00 a.m., I decided to stick around for a while to keep them company. This mostly involved stealing my team leader’s iPhone and recording a bunch of audio “snippets” (recorded stories) on the Beta version of Crowdstory, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I barricaded myself into a room adjoining the developers, and whenever I recorded a particularly entertaining snippet (if I do say so myself), I’d run into the other room and triumphantly share it with the developers before disappearing into my soundproof cubicle again.

I told myself I was recording in a soundproof room solely for audio quality assurance purposes. In actuality, it was so they wouldn’t see how many tries it took me to get a good snippet recorded (Average = 4 restarts). I’d prefer them to think I’m normally that funny.

But seriously, y’all — the Crowdstory App is SO. MUCH. FUN.

And I’m not just saying that because I’m a part of the team (though I guess I maybe look at it in slightly rosey hues).

It’s really that great.

I mean, until last night, the Crowdstory App been just some nebulous idea to me. It was merely a concept, some abstract thing that we’d been talking about, brainstorming for, and stressing over for the last semester and a half.

But last night, holding that iPhone in my hand and recording snippets, Crowdstory became real to me. Real, tangible and sooooooo awesome.

I was beside myself. Delirious with joy, really.

In fact, I was so ecstatic about the App that I probably annoyed the bajeezees out of those poor, stressed-out, exhausted developers. Well, you know what they say… Hind-sight is 20/20.

But anyway, three hours and 21 snippets later, I was privileged to be a part of a colossal moment in Crowdstory history. To the tune of nervous looks and (probably annoying) commentary from me (recorded on a snippet!), Frank clicked the Submit button.

The Mac’s thinking rainbow wheel spun.

Tense faces all around.

No one breathed.

Except me, who couldn’t keep my mouth shut and kept spouting random things onto the snippet I was recording (titled “App Submission — Final Installment”).

Me: “This is an epic moment for Crowdstory…”

Everyone Else: “………”

And then, all the sudden, there popped up a box. It read, “The Crowdstory App has been submitted to the App store.”

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

The moment we’d been anticipating since September!

Hugs, cheers, and congratulations ensued. Epic celebrations.

And now all we have to do is wait for Apple to check out our App, see how awesome it is, and approve it for the App Store. And we’re in business.

I can’t wait to share the App with all you who own iPhones — you’re going to love it!

P.S. To give credit where credit is due, our awesome Crowdstory developers are Greg Gustafson, Frank Lezu, Zach Whaley, and Daniel Bailey. Some of the nicest, smartest guys you'll ever meet. Amen.

Today's Forecast

Cool.

Awesome.

I love me a day with plentiful sunshine.

To Help You Love Life...

... and renew your faith in the awesomeness of humanity, I send you this.



P.S. There is a particularly wonderful laugh at about 00:22.

What A Weekend

It's been a busy one. Supa supa busy.

I ...

...

...

Hold on. I definitely did something.

...


Oh yeah.

I took lotsa pictures (240-ish), finished a couple drawings, went on a date, played Scene It with the Student Film Production Club, got a gazillion picture texts from my mom of my niece's first birthday party, and watched the Oscars.

And my little bro turned twenty yesterday. Seriously?! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!

I remember playing Barbies Legos with him when we were little ones. We were inseparable as children, frenemies when I was in middle school, and great friends in high school. Now that I live far away, I don't really get to talk to him (or see him) as much as I want, but I'd like to think we get closer with every phone conversation. Someday, maybe, we'll again live closer than two states apart. Till then, Happy Birthday dude.