school = love; school politics = ugh

Yay, Trudy's back!

Monday: We spent most of the morning class getting caught up, and sorting out what had and hadn't been done, and where everyone was in the course.

Output was the shortest it's ever been: "here's your next assignment, please hand in almost everything that's due today (minus the draft website because Drew forgot that it was due this week. I told him, and he decided to let it go for now.)--now go do whatever you have to do for this, or any other class." I spent it doing and handing in the workflow assignment that was due that day, but that I'd forgotten about, and writing my critique of a classmate's business plan.

I got my marks back for my first two drawing assignments, and they are the best marks I've ever had in NBCCD drawing courses. We're talking at least an 82%. Nice--especially when you consider the fact that in FVA drawing, I finished with a C+ in the first semester, and a B- in the second semester.

Tuesday: That evening, I did the first shoot for my independent study project, which went well. I also handed out model releases for the girls to take home (they're all minors).

Wednesday: That morning, the server decided to give the school hell. No one could log on. However, Drew and the rest of the Photoshop class persevered, working on so-called 'local' (admin) accounts (if we hadn't brought our own laptops to class), and saving everything to external hard drives or jump drives.

Our assignment that day was to do photo essay montages: putting together multiple images on one "canvas" to tell a story. And because of Drew's battles with the server that morning, the in-class ones were about him 1. coming into the computer lab, finding out that he couldn't log on, taking a look at the server box in said computer lab; 2. taking the elevator down to the basement with the store manager; 3. walking down the hall to do some more work with the server in the basement; and finally, 4. doing that work. Homework was to shoot and put together one of our own.

Thursday: One of the nice things about having class with Peter is that because he's the studio head, and our academic adviser, our classes usually double as a group meeting with him. We not only discuss what we're working on, but also general school stuff, which is what we did this week: about a third of the morning session was taken up with discussing the fact that the administration was considering compensating the studios for the expenses of the haunted studio. And then in the next sentence, admin back-tracked, saying that that wasn't a good idea (this was all in an email sent out to the teachers). Ah, school politics...

That afternoon, I did my Photoshop homework, and submitted it, along with my lighting homework, which I'd shot the day before (congratulate me, guys--I'm no longer intimidated by the Speedatron power-pack). FYI, the image isn't of the same model that the school has--but it's no less intimidating.

And then who should show up, but Mom. I was originally supposed to go home this weekend, but because I'd made plans to go to the Occupy F'ton rally against Bill C-10, I wanted to stay in F'ton. Due to the fact that this is the last time that Mom will be in F'ton until she comes to get me for Christmas break, that means that I'll be here until December fifteenth.

Friday: That day, the realization of what my decision to stay in the city meant hit me full in the face, and I spent much of the afternoon crying, and feeling incredibly homesick. Eventually, I calmed down enough to go to school and do homework.

Saturday: RALLY DAY! However, due to a lack of interest, said rally didn't go. Which sucks, because I despise Bill C-10 about as much as I love my studio. I don't want my country to start giving people long prison sentences for minor offences. Canada is known for it's openness and kindness--or at least it was. Oh, and we don't need supersized prisons--even the US has started to abandon that tactic, and is now warning Canada that, hey, those things don't work. Bonus: the crime rate in Canada is at it's lowest since '73. It's lowest. Since 1973. Do I need to repeat that, Harper?

I did some homework: picking out photos for a portfolio book assignment, finishing off the drawing that's due tomorrow, and editing and fine-tuning the business plan critique.

This afternoon/evening, I'm going to start work on my next drawing assignment. The theme for this one is the future, and I'm going to do a city street, with skyscrapers going off into the distance and no trees whatsoever. I'll also have made-up news headlines about things like major population growth, the US defaulting, oil being insanely expensive, etc. As I wrote when I described my concept in an email to Mom, "although I'm reasonably confident about the future, there's also a part of me that's really scared."