looking ahead

We're officially in Finals Mode.

Monday: Elections for the '13 - '14 SUNSCAD executive were that day, Tuesday and Wednesday. I voted on Monday.

We talked about our final projects for Reconfigured and Bob made some suggestions as to how we can take them even further.

Tuesday: My registration period opened at noon and I registered for my first course (Survey of Twentieth-Century Art, a mandatory 2000-level course) half an hour later. I also started the process of registering for Advanced Photo Critique (a.k.a. APC), which is a 4000-level course and, like Twentieth-Century Art, is mandatory. APC is an independent-study thesis course. I've been talking with a couple of friends who are taking it this semester, and I think I've finally wrapped my head around what's involved. Said independent project is a semester long, which is more time than I've ever had to work on a project (projects for Peter's courses were seven weeks long). I'm still so used to just having seven weeks to do a project that an entire semester almost feels like too much. But having an entire semester means that I have the time to do my very best.

I spent the day studying at NSCAD and doing prep for APC registration, which started with a stop at OSAS, then being directed to the administrative assistant, Joann. That's when I started to get a bit stressed: because I'm one history course (three credits) short of the nine required for that course, she doubted that I would be able to get permission and would have to do APC in a fourth semester. I'm hell-bent on finishing my degree in three semesters, so that was a bit scary. I also want to finish with as little debt as possible.

That evening, SUNSCAD held a meeting with the students, FUNSCAD and Friends of NSCAD in the student lounge to talk about what's next now that we don't have to worry about FUNSCAD going on strike (woot!).

Wednesday: I got an email late that morning telling me that the division chair, David Clark, would be in his office that day as well as Thursday. I immediately emailed back and called a cab. Once I got to the university I headed for Joann's office. She told me that David was in his, which was next door. After going over my audit sheet, chatting about New Brunswick (seriously, the world keeps getting smaller), discussing my history situation and what I covered at NBCCD, I filled out the APC form. David added a note saying that I'd be doing my last history credit concurrently and signed it. I took the form back to OSAS, filled out a course add/drop form, and then both were taken to the registrar's office. Done. One of the things I love about NSCAD is that as long as administration knows that you're going to take any missing prerequisites, you're good to go.

After all that excitement, I spent the rest of the day studying.

We presented our logos. I'm to redo mine for this week. Jeff introduced the final project, which is a portfolio of our work.

Thursday: We discussed two readings that were handed out a couple weeks ago.

Friday: More presentations--and this time the walk to school was uneventful. I presented this week. I'd spent the last few weeks doing a ton of research. Bob's suggestion: keep it personal. In other words, screw the research. We'll see what happens--I have two thousand words to play with, making this essay (which will be on humanity's relationship with technology, both the good and the bad) the longest one that I've ever written for school. I may or may not use some of the research.

I checked Facebook when I got to the Port Campus and found out that one of my friends got into NSCAD (although she's graduating from NBCCD with a diploma in photography this year, she's decided be an Interdisciplinary major at NSCAD). I was--and still am--ridiculously excited for her. It'll be wonderful to have another NBCCDer flitting around NSCAD, spreading her own brand of awesome. I love both schools, and I love having my alma mater represented at my second school.

That afternoon was the final presentation (on graffiti) for Writing for the Arts. Throughout the semester, each presentation group has had to come up with a post-presentation activity or writing topic. This time, newsprint had been wrapped between two posts, and we were allowed to draw or write anything we wanted on it. I wrote "NSCAD ROCKS!" As I said to a classmate, this is why I love art school.

I spent part of the evening working on my project for the show.

Saturday: I got an unbelievable amount of work done.

That evening my floor's RA and some friends observed Earth Hour. We played Pictionary in near-dark, using an (unplugged!) iPhone flashlight.

Sunday: I spent the afternoon at the Port Campus doing Graphics homework, and I'm just about finished.

Next weekend is Easter weekend, which means that I'll be staring six unstructured days in the face. I'll get to sleep in on Friday (wonderful!), and then, because Canada likes to squeeze an extra day out of that weekend in the form of Easter Monday (which I just found out is a religious holiday in Orthodox Christianity), I'll have yet another free day. I don't have class until Graphics on Wednesday evening. I plan to spend those days getting work done and relaxing--maybe even exploring Halifax some more, which I've missed doing and won't have time to do next semester (two words: eighteen credits). Sometimes I'm tempted to move here for a year or so to work and experience Halifax with only my latest photo project for homework.