gogogogogo!

I've officially entered the homestretch.

Monday: I returned Food, Inc. to the VRC and spent much of the afternoon editing the contextualizing statement. I also read chapter six (which wasn't part of the readings for APC) from Of Cigarettes, High Heels and Other Interesting Things. And I finally got my contextualizing statement back down to seven hundred and fifty words (while I got it down to that number for the rough draft, I wrote about a hundred more than I needed when writing the final draft and had to whittle it down, just as I did for the rough draft. This time, though, I was able to do it on my own.).

Tuesday: I had another meeting with Joan.

While I finally had the time to make it to a Feminist Collective meeting, no one else except Kelly (the woman who runs the meetings--she's a fellow student) showed up and the meeting was cancelled. An hour later I went to what was billed as material-making for an event to welcome the new provincial government but that ended up being event planning for said welcome--at least while I was there: I eventually had to leave because I had to be up early the next day.

Wednesday: We met at the Port Loggia gallery this week instead of our usual classroom to discuss the show and what the students who are in charge of talking with the gallery people found out. Afterward, we wended our way back to Granville. I spent the rest of the day in the computer lab, where Adrian helped me fix the colour in some of my images--which took a while and I finally felt some of that old finals-induced stress as, for a while, I felt that the images would never be finished. We did a dress rehearsal of sorts and had a look at one of the corrected images on the classroom's G5 iMac(!) and projector. I had several moments throughout the day where the realization that my final photography course was almost over hit me. I felt very nostalgic for my time as a photography major and had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't over yet. Even when I'm done my photography courses, I'll probably still come to the photography dept. next semester, as I like the feel of the place, it's easy to get to (which is saying something, given the maze that is the Granville Campus) and it has a regular laser printer (which is important when you're writing essays). And I'll have access to the photo printers until mid-April. I then went over to the Academy Building to replace the old, yucky images with the newer ones.

That night there was a huge storm in Halifax, with high winds. The gusts hit 115 Km/h around 1:30 Thursday morning, and from when I got home that evening to when I went to bed around 2:00 AM, the gusts were powerful enough that they were causing the glass in my bedroom windows to bend in toward my room, which scared me. I could also hear the windows shifting around on their tracks (they're mostly glued shut--mostly) and could feel the building swaying slightly.

Thursday: Before I left my building that day, I paid a visit to the rental office and asked one of the landlords about what I'd experienced the night before. She reassured me that what I'd felt was completely normal. Wednesday night is officially my first time regretting my decision to live as high up as I do: I haven't been that scared of a storm since I conquered my fear of thunder and lightning when I was seven.

I didn't do a whole lot that day, though I did come a little closer to making my final decisions for the photos that I want to print and give as Christmas presents. I also noticed just how off my laptop's calibration is (factory--I've never calibrated it myself), as I had it open next to one of the Photo Dept. computers (which are properly calibrated). My computer has a very blue colour cast, whereas the school computers have a slight magenta colour cast. I asked Alex what the Photo Dept. has for calibration equipment. They have two options, one of which won't work with OS X Lion (what I have on my computer). The other does, and I made a note to calibrate my computer when I come back next semester. Because my computer's a laptop, the colours will never match those of a desktop, but once it's calibrated they will be closer to the colours on a calibrated desktop monitor.

I could tell that finals were in full swing, as the Photography Dept. was a hive of activity that day. I kind of liked it, though: plenty of people around, we were all doing our thing and flitting around...

That afternoon, a friend, Laura, posted on Facebook that she would be going to Elsipogtog (pronounced El-sip-pug-tug) on Sunday. I expressed interest, and that evening we messaged back and forth on FB, figuring things out.

Friday: I devoted the day to doing the final edits on my contextualizing statement. It isn't due until Wednesday (due with the project), but as I knew I would lose a whole workday by going to NB, I wanted to make sure it got done and that I didn't have to stress about it. I printed it off about half an hour before The Cage closed.

I also discussed show stuff with a classmate, also named Alex. He and another classmate, Caitlin, are in charge of talking with the gallery people. I will be showing my project at the Anna Leonowens Gallery instead of the Port Loggia Gallery, where everyone else will be. While it sucks to be separate from my classmates, it's better for my project, as the Anna has monitors and media players, is insured and I won't have to go and turn on said equipment every day, which would be a pain.

Saturday: Another day of hard work. This time I focused on doing the final version of the video, also due to the loss of a workday. My day started with going to the Academy building and doing some tweaks on the video (the original plan was to just export the most recent version as a QuickTime file--turns out, I had a few edits to make before that step) and then exporting the final version. I then went to the Photo Dept. where I had a look at the video on one of the computers (I'd made some edits to a photo and wanted to make sure everything looked okay on the computers that I'd used to do all the other edits, as I don't know what the calibration situation is at the Academy Building). I was bothered by some of the photos, as there was some really noticeable white in the upper-right-hand corner. No one had mentioned it in crits, but it was bugging me. Besides--when I did a Freeman Patterson/André Gallant workshop in '08, one of my photos had some white that was out of place and André and Freeman noticed. Getting rid of the light spots might translate into a better crit.

Sunday: Up bright and early on a Sunday (which is amazing for me) and off to NB. I waited at my favourite coffee shop for Laura to pick me up. After what felt like forever (because I was eager to get going), she arrived. We stopped at the Granville Campus and she picked up a six-pack of film (each roll has thirty-six exposures) and then we headed off to NB. Due to staying up too late the night before, I snoozed for over an hour on the way to Elsipogtog. Because a picture's worth a thousand words, I'll share some of the photos that I took at the encampment. Not seen in these photos is an SWN truck parked right next to said encampment.

Yes, that's Maude Barlow.

We spent a couple hours there, talking with the people at the camp, taking photos (Laura shot a couple rolls for a school assignment--she's also a NSCADian), listening to the singing and drumming, listening to Maude's speech... Laura was interviewed by APTN. People driving by honked their horns (the protest has a lot of support from people in the surrounding area, settler and aboriginal alike). We then drove back to Halifax, where Laura dropped me off at the school. On the way, she asked me what I thought. I'd come with an open mind, not knowing what to expect--and it turned out to be an amazing experience. When she dropped me off, we talked some more, discussing my desire to learn more about First Nations issues and history (which can be a challenge, as one sometimes has to dig through a bunch of racism in order to find the truth). We agreed to meet sometime next semester and she'll share what she knows (she's Dene, BTW). I also plan to speak with the woman who's teaching Contemporary Indigenous Arts next semester, Carla Taunton, and meet with her, as I've heard from at least one former classmate that she's a really good resource for that kind of thing (I'd want to discuss everything--not just art). I just want to learn as much as possible and be able to sort the truth from the racism and myths.

making connections

Just when I think the world of visual art is small, I take a good look at the classical music world: there are connections between composers all over the place. Also, the weeks are going by way too fast.

Monday: As it was Remembrance Day, NSCAD was closed (I didn't really celebrate--how could I when Harper pretends to support the troops while cutting services that vets need, especially mental health services?)--but I showed up, anyway. I spent probably several hours staring at my contextualizing statement, trying to come up with a better beginning and ending--and failing.

Tuesday: I met with Joan again and we talked some more.

I then headed over to the Academy Building to make a QuickTime version of my APC project. What I thought would take five minutes max ended up taking an hour or so because I found out that A. I'd done the video in 4:3 ratio (the ratio used by old CRT TVs) instead of 16:9 ratio (widescreen) and B. I'd done it in standard definition instead of HD. I knew something was up because the images looked low-resolution--but I knew that every single one was 300 DPI. I asked the technicians for help a couple of times. The first time I went back down to the basement and tried to solve the problem myself and when that didn't work I went back up and asked again. This time the technician came down with me and helped me sort out the issues. I then made the QuickTime file and headed back to Granville.

Wednesday: This week was the last week of doing readings. Several of us wanted to do work-in-progress crits, including me. Mine went extremely well. It was also the first time I saw my slideshow projected BIG and heard the music on good speakers (In the Hall of the Mountain King BOOMING above my head and a little to the right? Yes, please!). As a result, I could barely speak for a few seconds afterward.

Thursday: I spent most of the day glued to Twitter (though I don't have an account) following the hashtag "Elsipogtog", as there was another blockade/confrontation between the First Nation and SWP (which was protected by the RCMP--seriously! And police weren't wearing name tags, which also happened during the G20 protests and they got in trouble for doing that as wearing a name tag is a must.). Thankfully, there wasn't any violence this time around. Here's a really good article from the Toronto Star about the facts about First Nations peoples that are often completely ignored. These three paragraphs are especially important:

"In 1997, the landmark Supreme Court Decision in Delgamuukw finally clarified that even under Canadian law, Aboriginal title to most of the land within British Columbia’s provincial borders had never been extinguished. This ruling had immediate implications for other areas of the country where no treaties ceding land ownership were ever signed [Annapurna's note: this includes much of the Maritimes]. One day, Canadians woke up to a legal reality in which millions of acres of land were recognized as never having been acquired by the Crown, and that elephant has been occupying our national room ever since. 

"Unfortunately, this glaring issue did not seem to percolate into the wider Canadian consciousness, and many people remain unaware of it. In 1999, the Supreme Court passed down another judgement confirming that the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760-1761 did not cede land or resources. This cannot be emphasized strongly enough: the Mi'kmaq never gave up legal rights to their land or resources. Canada does not own the land that the people of Elsipogtog are defending. 

"This is not conspiracy theory, or indigenous interpretation. This is Canadian law, interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada, applying Canadian constitutional principles. Yet somehow, this most important fact is left out of most reports on Elsipogtog as though it is barely relevant."

I have come up against the sorts of myths that this article debunks being presented as fact, and even just thinking about it makes me a bit mad at those who believe those lies.

Friday: I worked on my project, making the changes that I'd written down during my crit. Afterward, on my way to the Photo Dept., I stopped in at the NSCAD Visual Resource Centre and checked out Helvetica for the weekend.

As I've mentioned before, we've been reading Of Cigarettes, High Heels and Other Interesting Things as part of APC. However, we skipped the preface and chapters six and seven. I loved the book so much that I didn't feel right skipping any part of it so right from the beginning I planned to read the parts that were skipped on my own time by the end of the Winter '14 semester. I read the preface that day and plan to read a chapter a week, meaning that the last week of term will be the only week that I don't have to read anything. It felt weird to not have to take notes while reading.

Saturday: On my way to school on Thursday, I'd stopped to have a look at the Remembrance Day wreathes at the cenotaph in the Grand Parade. One of them had been laid on behalf of Norway, which made me wonder about the connection between that country and Halifax. I spent part of the afternoon researching the ties between Halifax/Canada and Norway. Turns out, Canada and Norway have had some form of connection for about a thousand years, and Norwegian military trained in Lunenberg, NS during World War II (Norway being part of the Allies). One of the ships involved in the Halifax Explosion was a Norwegian ship (the other was French). The Norwegian embassy's Canadian site has a good section on the history of the partnership between the two countries--though some of it sounds like it was written in the pre-Harper days (Canada interested in sustainability and being good to the environment? Only if Harper gets kicked out.). This makes me even more excited and proud to count two of Norway's best composers as favourites--and the grandson of one of those composers as one of my favourite violinists. That, and the fact that all three have a habit of knocking my socks off (not surprising for Trond: the ability to knock the audiences' socks off seems to be a requirement for BSO violinists).

Sunday: I finally got back in the Academy computer lab. However, I arrived a full hour early: on weekends the lab doesn't open until 1:00 PM. I went over to Granville, where I wasted time on Facebook until just before 1:30, and then went back to Academy. I spent a couple hours there, tweaking my project, figuring things out and asking myself questions. Afterward, I went back to Granville again, where I spent the rest of the day.

When I met with Adrian a couple weeks ago to fix the white balance of one of the series for my project, we discussed what sorts of things I could include in the contextualizing statement. I told him about my discovery of Tchaikovsky writing to Rimsky-Korsakov and praising the Capriccio Espangnol and some other connections that I knew about and it got me to thinking: what other composer connections are there? I'm talking everything: composers writing to each other, being from the same city, rivalries--you name it. This week, I decided to see if I still had MindNode on my computer and, if so, map out the connections. Below is a screen shot of what I've got so far.

that's over with

Lynn was right when she wrote, "know that 'this too shall pass', and a solution will slowly come into view" in her reply when I told her about the hell that was my life at that point. That's right: it's over. And that solution is a good one.

Monday: As usual, I spent the day at NSCAD, working on my project. I met Adrian in the computer lab that afternoon, as I was having problems getting the white balance right in some of my photos. I also got the lowdown on what should be covered in the contextualizing statement, as I wanted to start it on Tuesday.

I went to the MFA group show, Daily Jumble, and then got back to work.

Tuesday: I officially entered crunch-time mode, as I wanted to finish editing my photos and be ready to start working in Premiere by the end of that day. It was a long slog, and sometimes I thought that I wouldn't make my (self-imposed) deadline, but somehow I managed to do so. **whew**

I met with the counsellor from Dal, Joan, that afternoon (although my problem has been resolved, I still plan to keep my appointment for this coming Tuesday, as the skills that I needed to deal with my situation would be good skills to have), which was awesome.

That evening, there was a GA, which was mostly an update session: there were two meetings with the school's interim president and the students to discuss the closure of the Seeds Gallery (one of which was scheduled during afternoon classes, which is typical of NSCAD's prez, unfortunately). I wasn't surprised that very little was accomplished: what Dan asks and what the students need are sometimes complete opposite things.

Wednesday: After two and a half weeks, the perpetrator of the hell that I've been going through apologized. I was barely awake at the time and was running on less than eight hours of sleep, but I sleepily accepted said apology, using as few words as possible because I didn't have the energy to put together a full sentence.

I want to publicly thank everyone who has helped me through this difficult time. Extra-special thanks goes to Lynn, Helen (both of whom are readers of this blog--hi!), Becky, Ken, Adrian, Christina, Jake and Alex.

This week's lecture was all about graduating: life after NSCAD and MFA possibilities. Also, apparently you can now do a Ph.D. in fine art at a few schools. Whoa--that's a little too intense for me (I'm calling it quits--at least for a while--after I finish my BFA).

During the latter part of the afternoon, we had open studio time, so I went over to the Academy Building and started working on the video part of my project in Premiere (which I refer to in my head as "phase two"--phase one being the photographing and editing in Photoshop that I've done up to this point. Phase three will be when I export to Adobe Encore and start putting together the final product, which will be a DVD--that will start on November twentieth.).

Thursday: That day, I didn't show my face at NSCAD until around five. I spent the day making a double batch of soup (cream of tomato--yum!) instead. My time at NSCAD was more of a hangout than anything else, as I didn't get any schoolwork done that day. I did start reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, though, and I'm really liking it. Neil Gaiman is one of those people, like Itzhak Perlman, Scott Brubaker or Yo-Yo Ma: when I listen to (or, in Neil's case, read) their work, I can instantly tell that I'm listening to/reading something by someone who really knows what they're doing and has been at it for decades. As there's a School of Extended Studies class in the computer lab on Thursday evenings, I'm reserving Ocean for those times.

Friday: I spent the day doing homework, including starting the final(!) reading for class.

Saturday: Once again, I disappeared into the basement of the Academy Building (after making a not-so-brief stop in the Photo Dept. to add a vignette to some of my photos), where the computer lab is. By the time I emerged and headed back to the Photo Dept., I was glad to do so: the monitors at Academy are completely different: they're Samsung, and the screens have a blue tinge to them, meaning that the calibration is completely different than that of the Photo Dept. monitors (Dell), which have no detectable colour cast.

Sunday: Today, I finished the reading and the rough draft of the contextualizing statement (due Wednesday). The statement's supposed to be seven hundred and fifty words long--I wrote nine hundred and seventy-seven. I'm laughing as I write this. However, I'd rather be faced with the task of dumping two hundred and twenty-seven words than be scrambling to come up with more to say.

celebrating people I admire

I'm going to see one of my childhood icons perform next June!

Monday: I went to the SUNSCAD candidates' forum, which more or less didn't happen, as only one of two candidates showed up.

I then called Dal counselling services to see about setting up an appointment. Turns out, you have to set it up the day of if you want an appointment at the Dal campus.

I spent the rest of the day doing school work. That evening, one of Lynn's kids posted a photo on FB, with a caption talking about all that Lynn has been through in the last year (long story short, a lot) and wishing her a happy birthday. For most of the years that I've known Lynn I've looked up to her (those feelings gradually materialized over the first five or so years), and every so often something will come along that will remind me of said admiration (the best part is that she didn't do anything special to earn said admiration--just live her life and play the violin awesomely) and make me think about how lucky I am to know her. That caption was one such trigger, and I then went in search of awesome music to match my mood, which threatened to overwhelm me. Besides, I wanted to celebrate Lynn's birthday. Here are two of the pieces that I listened to:





These are not the recordings that I rocked out to that evening, though: my source was CBC Music, which is only available in Canada. This is the album that I listened to. If you're reading this in Canada, you can listen to it here on CBC Music. While the only-available-in-Canada factor sucks, it means that both Canucks and non-Canucks get to listen to Kristin Chenoweth's Glitter and be Gay, and who can argue with a voice like that--especially when its owner is so funny.

Tuesday: More schoolwork and prep for Wednesday.

In the evening, the Festival for Better Education arrived at its final stop, which was NSCAD, having marched to all the schools in Halifax and heard speakers at each one. Max Haiven and Sarah Trower (SUNSCAD president--this is her second year in that position) spoke at NSCAD, and I went to that part of the festival.

Wednesday: Once again, it was my group's turn to take the rest of the class through the week's chapter. Afterward, we each had an individual meeting with Adrian. I called Dal again and tried to set up an appointment for Thursday. No such luck. My meeting with Adrian went well--I had some questions, and I wanted to get a second opinion on the white balance of some of my photos (it's one of those things where one number can mean the difference between being too green or too magenta, and I can go back and forth and just about drive myself nuts trying to get the white balance just right). We ended up setting up an appointment for Monday to have a look at my images on the computers in the Photo Dept. computer lab.

Part of the afternoon was devoted to open studio, the other part being taken up by a guest speaker, Alan Griffiths, founder of Luminous Lint.

There was a GA that evening, but it was one of those times where a GA morphed into an info session--I don't even think quorum (four per cent of the student body--in NSCAD's case, that means forty students) was reached. They talked about the violence in Elsipogtog First Nation and what has happened since (neither the aboriginals nor SWN has budged) and about the bus trip some NSCADians took to that First Nation. Since hearing about the violence, I'd been trying to find out how it started, though I stayed away from news sources like CBC and CTV (some sources can be more than a little racist toward First Nations peoples). No such luck, so I asked at the GA. As I'd suspected, the violence was started by SWN trying to force out the protesters (typical, sadly). The closing of the Seeds Gallery was also discussed (SUNSCAD exec has had a really difficult time getting info as have the students in general--ahem--and SUNSCAD's phone calls haven't been returned). The drawing studio and woodshop on the first floor of the Granville Campus have been rented out, which means that classes were moved half-way through the semester, which is a big no-no. Some students have lost access to lockers and student work has been damaged. In other words, one major mistake after another. The higher-ups and those doing construction in NSCAD should know better. This is an art school, which means that there's artwork that students have laboured over for hours. Stuff that was done for school assignments, and I don't know how much of it had yet to be marked. Have any of the people who've done these things stopped to think about how much that would suck?? Okay, I'm done.

Thursday: I called Dal counselling once again, this time looking at setting up an appointment at NSCAD (one of the Dal counsellors comes to NSCAD every Tuesday). I got an email later that day with a time that was available, which I confirmed.

I spent the rest of the day doing work on my project.

Friday: More homework, including fiddling around with the white balance of another set of photos for my project and starting this week's reading. I also bought my first Neil Gaiman book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. However, I had yet to find out just how poor I am right now. It was worth it, though, as I've heard nothing but good things about Neil's work and I'm a huge fan of his wife, Amanda Palmer, to whom Ocean is dedicated (insert fangirl squeal here): "to Amanda, who wanted to know." In fact, it's thanks to her that I wanted to read the book and have been waiting since said book came out for the waiting list to get down to a manageable size in the NB and Halifax library systems. I checked this evening, and said waiting list is finally down to the single digits in NB (eight holds, twenty copies), though as of today all twenty are checked out/in transit/on hold.

That day I discovered that the CBC Music holiday streams, Seasonal Favourites and Classical Holidays (my favourite), are now available, and I've been listening to the latter stream almost nonstop ever since.

Saturday: I continued the reading (though not without having to do battle with the NSCAD proxy server, which was cantankerous even at school--there may have been more than the allotted twelve people on the server), and Mom ordered tickets for both of us to see Raffi in June. When I was a kid, he was one of the musicians whose tapes I played endlessly, and I still have many of his songs memorized, which will come in handy when I see him live (OH, MY GOD!!!!!!!).

When I was little, I didn't think about what he was doing for the world (not surprising--I was a kid). Once I became a big kid, though, he kind of got shoved to the back of my mind, and I didn't listen to his music quite so much. But a year or two ago, I rediscovered him and learned about what he's been doing through his organization, Child Honouring, and my respect for him is now so high it's probably sitting on Mt. Everest. I'm a fan once again, but my appreciation for him has matured: I love his music, yes, but I also admire what he's doing to make the world a better one for kids. If you happen to stumble across this, Raffi (as this is a public blog, you never know who's going to read it), thank you for the music and for everything else you've done. Can't wait to see you in June! As the concert's in between the date when I finish at NSCAD (the last teaching day is April seventeenth) and my birthday (July eighteenth), I'm treating it as a graduation and early birthday present. Thanks, Mom!



If you listen to only one of his songs, make it this one (referenced in the above interview). Fans like me--those who grew up with his music, are now in their twenties and thirties and who've perhaps passed their love for his music on to their kids--are known as Belugagrads, which is a reference to this song. And yes, I still know many of the lyrics.





This is the title track from an album that I used to play a lot (I probably still have the tape somewhere):



When I listened to this song Saturday night, I recognized the melody from somewhere else, but couldn't place it. I went over the melody in my head on the way home and turns out, it's the tune from Arkansas Traveler.





I admit that as I was choosing videos for this post, I was singing along. Yes, I do still have many of the words memorized--which will come in handy when I go to the concert.

Sunday: I finished the reading and edited photos for my APC project. At this point, I'm simply tweaking the colour and contrast--starting on Wednesday I'll be working with the images in Adobe Premiere.

surrounded by support

Two things that I forgot to mention: 1. If you haven't already done so, please listen to the Grieg track that I linked to last week with good speakers or headphones. Computer speakers (which lack true bass and treble) don't do Trond justice. 2. Bob Bean has a show up at the Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, and the opening was last Friday. I was one of several NSCAD photo students who showed up.

Monday: I've wanted to learn how to use the Imacon scanner since I heard how good it is last year. That afternoon, I met Adrian in the printing lab to finally cross that item off my NSCAD bucket list (it's one of those bits of equipment that you have to be taught how to use before you can use it on your own). Because Adrian's awesome and one of the teachers that I truly trust, I wanted to tell him about the stuff that's making my life hell right now. So I did--in a flood of tears--before he taught me how to use the scanner (which is fairly straightforward, but as it costs about $25,000--six and a quarter times more than the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 printer--it's the kind of thing you don't want to mess up).

That evening, I updated Jake on the situation with said hell--in another flood of tears. I'd updated Alex earlier, and though I choked up a bit that time, it wasn't as bad. Jake suggested some things that I could do in this situation, and both guys hugged me.

Tuesday: I met a friend for coffee at my favourite coffee shop and then spent the day working on my project.

That evening, I met one of my former classmates, Ken, in the printing lab. He was doing a sculpture project for school and needed to print a huge photo for it. By "huge" I mean 36" x 72". As he'd never printed that big before, Jake had suggested that he have someone who had experience printing big help him. I printed two big photos last year, so Ken asked me to help him. Ken had seen some references to my current situation on Facebook, and wanted to talk with me about it, which we did after printing the photo. Like Jake, he made suggestions as to what I could do in my situation. And yes, that meant yet another flood of tears from me (one of the worst since this whole thing began). I didn't get home until just after 11:00 that night.

Wednesday: Midterm crit day. As a result of having trouble getting to sleep Monday night and staying at school late Tuesday night, I was exhausted all day Wednesday, which sucked because I love APC and like to be reasonably awake for my one and only class. As usual, we discussed the week's reading, which was followed by the crits. The ones that were projected were the worst for me as I could feel my eyes drooping. My own crit went well, with lots of suggestions as to what I could do next.

Ken had suggested making another appointment with Christina, which I did during one of the breaks.

Thursday: I spent the day editing photos for my project.

Every year the NSCAD Queer Collective puts out a zine, and this year's zine was one of the things we discussed at that night's meeting. I'm seriously considering submitting a piece that I wrote for my Writing for the Arts journal.

Friday: I met with Christina and told her what was going on (I've been emailing her periodically). She suggested making an appointment with a counsellor at Dal (NSCAD students have access to Dalhousie's counselling services), which I'll do on Monday.

I spent the rest of the day working on stuff for my project.

Saturday: I finally felt rested again (didn't sleep well Monday night plus a late night on Tuesday meant that I was running on less than fumes by Wednesday and it took longer than the usual two nights to recover). I spent the day at school and finally started the reading for this week.

Sunday: I edited the photos I'd scanned with the Imacon and finished the reading. I also did some stuff related to solving my current problem which ended up overwhelming me to the point that I felt hopeless--though getting a very late supper helped to make the bad mood go away.

with a little help from my friends

The hell continues--but there is some hope in the form of encouragement and comfort from a few friends.

Monday: That day was extremely quiet: I surprised myself by not saying one word to anyone--only whispered mutters to myself. I plugged away at schoolwork while curled up in bed.

Tuesday: I did some grocery shopping and went to my first Feminist Collective meeting, which was fairly uneventful and only lasted for half an hour.

Wednesday: As usual, the morning was devoted to discussing the week's reading. The afternoon was a working class, and I spent it editing photos and finalizing my schedule for the next half of the semester, as it was that day that I realized just how much stuff needs to get done between now and the end of the semester.

Thursday: Once again, I planned to do homework, but nothing got done. I paid the internet/phone bill and went to the Queer Collective meeting. Said meeting was extremely uneventful, as only three people, including me, showed up.

Friday: Yet another resurfacing of the problems I'm dealing with. Once again, it was incredibly painful. I spent the day at school. Partway through the afternoon I shared what I'm currently going through with a former classmate, Becky, and for the first time I had someone who not only listened but who held me when I cried, which I desperately needed.

Saturday: I spent that day at school, too, working on stuff for APC. I also emailed Lynn, telling her about everything that's going on and making my life a living hell. On my way home, I checked out a few Nocturne events.

Sunday: I usually check my email and Facebook first thing, and this time there was a reply from Lynn. I skimmed a bit of it before doing chores, getting dressed and once again going to school, where I actually read the email, which was about as wonderful as my talk with Becky (no surprise--Lynn's seen me hit bottom a couple times before, and talking or emailing with her always makes me feel at least a tiny bit better). She not only comforted and encouraged me, but offered some tips (I know what I need to do in this situation, but it's something that I've never had to do before).

I spent the rest of the day editing photos, finishing the reading for this week and writing a reply to Lynn.

A week or so ago, I discovered a new piece on Trond's website: the third movement from Grieg's third violin sonata, which is pretty awesome and I think everyone should check it out. Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the audio tracks. The one that I'm currently obsessed with is the second from the bottom of that list. Enjoy and you're welcome. Also, as a result of this, Trond's CD Hika (which that track is from) is now on my Christmas wish list. It'd be nice to have a studio recording of his, anyway.

I think my thesis project is starting to take over my life

This week was much better than the last couple.

Monday: I'd had enough of the situation that has been bothering me for the last two weeks, so I decided to take action and wrote a letter to the other person over the weekend. That day I printed it off with the intent of giving it to her on Wednesday. The printer that handles regular (non-photo) paper in the Photo Dept. is one of three in said department that are inaccessible to students, so you have to go to where the printer is housed (what is known as The Cage, where the studio techs are based, and where you can sign out or borrow some equipment). When I went to pick up and pay for the page that I printed (regular paper is 25¢ per sheet), the studio tech who retrieved it, Jake, asked about it, and I told him what was going on. He sympathized, as did Alex, who was about to start his shift in The Cage. They both encouraged me, which I appreciated as I needed all the support I could get my hands on.

The final product for my project for APC is going to be a video (a slideshow, to be exact). Because it's my thesis project and will be going in a gallery, I want to stay as far away as possible from programs that are geared toward the average consumer, e.g., iPhoto. Yes, they do the trick (and as far as photo organizers that are geared toward the average consumer go, iPhoto's pretty awesome), but when you consider the two things that I just mentioned (thesis project and gallery show), as well as where I am in terms of my skills and what I ask of a computer program, I need something a bit more powerful. I knew that the computers in the Photo Dept. computer lab don't have video editing software, so I decided to ask at OSAS to see if they knew who I could ask about which programs are on which computers at which campuses. I was directed to Multimedia in North Block, which is one of the more interesting places to try to get to, as you have to make sure to take the right set of stairs once you're on the second floor of said block. I took the wrong set, backtracked, took the correct set and found Multimedia's equivalent of The Cage. After pausing to catch my breath, I asked about the software that I needed. NSCAD has Final Cut Express (which is geared toward the passionate amateur) and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 (a professional-grade program) at the Academy Building, and Premiere CC at Port. Creative Cloud (CC) isn't backward-compatible with CS6, so if I started working on the video component of my project there, I'd be limited to working only at Port.

Since I was in the area, I stopped in at the Dawson Print Shop, said "hi" to the studio tech, told him about my project and had a look around (nothing much has changed since I was in there last).

Tuesday: I ended up not needing the letter that I'd printed off the day before, as the other person decided to take matters into their own hands and talk.

That day was election day, and because I'd never been in an election office on election day before, I decided to pay another visit to Labi Kousoulis' election office. I asked about what was going on that day (mostly making sure people got to the right polls and answering questions), and was told that there would be an end-of-election party that evening and that I was welcome to come.

I spent the afternoon prepping for the next day's work-in-progress critique and then went to the party.

They had CBC on on a big-screen TV and a lot of the party-goers watched the results come in. By 10:00 PM it was all over (which amazed me, as I'm used to having to call it a night before the election has been called) and Darrell Dexter had lost spectacularly: Stephen McNeil (Liberal) is NS' next premier. Also, Labi won. I'll admit that when Labi showed up, I got a bit starstruck: although I met Greg Thompson when I was a kid, I'd never met anyone I'd voted for (although Greg was a good MP, I have never voted Conservative in a federal election). After we chanted his name, he spoke, thanking those who volunteered. I congratulated him on my way out.

Wednesday: We usually start the day by discussing the week's reading, but that didn't get done this week and we more or less went straight to the critiques after going over the plan for the afternoon (a field trip to the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery). Mine wasn't until 11:15, so I spent some time in the Photo Dept. computer lab and, when I couldn't stand the chill anymore, visited the SUNSCAD office to ask whether Crit would be available at NSCAD (while the newspaper started out as a NSCAD student publication, due to various mistakes by the people running it, the paper is now published by the Khyber).

I then headed over to Adrian's office. My meeting with him went very well, and I was really glad that I'd copied the tracks that go with the photos that I've shot so far to my external hard drive.

After lunch, we took the bus to MSVU. Currently, the MSVU gallery is showing work by August Sander on the upper level of the gallery (work from the Canada Council Art Bank is being shown on the ground floor). A woman from the gallery spoke about Sander's work, and we were done a couple hours before class was officially over. I talked with Adrian about some course-related stuff, and he helped me get the right bus to go back downtown (I'll never forget the time I took the bus to get to the Halifax Shopping Centre--although I took the right bus, without realizing it I got the one going in the wrong direction). I had to wait awhile, but I didn't mind as it was a nice day. Once I finally got back downtown, I wended my way over to the Academy building, asked where the computer lab was and spent almost an hour playing around with Premiere.

Thursday: As mentioned last week, I've given up on getting homework done on Thursdays this semester. Instead, I visited Java Blend Coffee Roasters, which was a bit of a walk from my place (about an hour) and had an amazing decaf cappuccino. Java Blend supplies the coffee for my favourite café in St. Andrews, Honeybeans, and I found out that the coffee is also available at the Seaport Farmers' Market. Afterward, I headed to NSCAD and attended this week's Queer Collective meeting. One of the things they're going to be working on is posters raising awareness of bathroom accessibility for trans* people, and I volunteered to design the posters, as I have experience working with InDesign. This is an issue that I've never thought about, and although I'll admit that I know nothing about it, I want to learn.

Friday: I started the reading for APC and came up with a plan of action for this year's Nocturne.

Saturday: That day was so slow that I'm amazed I got any work done. I finished the reading for APC.

Sunday: I reshot a photo for my project, went through the resulting images at school and chatted with a fellow photo major.

when I said I wanted my last year of university to be one for the books, I didn't mean this!

Another interesting week, for better and for worse.

Monday: I shot stuff for my APC project and voted at the advance poll at NSCAD. I'm now registered to vote in two provinces as well as federally. I was concerned that I might not be able to vote at school, as my apartment is outside Halifax - Needham, the riding where the Granville Campus is, but they had a second ballot box for people voting outside said riding. I panicked momentarily when I blanked on how to spell the candidate's last name, but was told that I could just write the name of the party. The ballot was put in an envelope, which was put in another envelope, which was put in yet another envelope before finally being dropped in the out-of-riding box.

Tuesday: Once I finally got going, I did some grocery shopping and printed off my notes for Wednesday's presentation on my previous work.

Wednesday: This week was my group's turn to walk the class through the week's chapter of Of Cigarettes, High Heels and Other Interesting Things (we still went around and everyone discussed said chapter). We then did presentations and mine went very well.

That evening was the opening of #Keji at the Port Loggia Gallery, which I went to. The work was from a summer course in which students spent four days camping at the Kejimkujik National Park and then created art in response to the experience.

I also put together a schedule for my APC project. After five independent projects for Peter's classes, I'm used to having to come up with a schedule as part of the project proposal.

Thursday: Once again, I planned to get lots of homework done, but virtually nothing got accomplished.

Instead, I went to my first pro-choice counter-rally. Even though we were mic-less (unlike the pro-lifers across the street--they had a full-on sound system), I think we drowned them out. I shouted slogans until my jaw ached, took a break and then got right back at it.

Friday: I finally got this week's reading done.

Saturday: After planning to shoot for my project since Thursday, I finally got it done and did some editing.

Sunday: The issues of two weeks ago resurfaced spectacularly and painfully today. I spent much of the afternoon and into the evening at NSCAD, editing photos and writing this post.

computers: awesome when they work, frustrating when they don't

This week was one of those where I blinked and it was over.

Monday: I've been having problems accessing the school proxy server from my apartment (one of the books we're reading in APC is Of Cigarettes, High Heels and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics, which is available through the NSCAD server), so I took my computer to the Port Campus to try to get the issue fixed. Unfortunately the server was down that day, so the IT guy, Tim, had his hands full and told me to come back the next day.

I then headed to the Granville Campus and to OSAS on the second floor: I desperately needed to talk with someone about the stuff that happened last Sunday. And this was one of those times when talking with Mom just wouldn't do (she's awesome, but there are times when I need to go to someone else). I met with Christina Warren, who replaced Bernadette Kehoe when Bernadette accepted a job at NSCC in Dartmouth this past summer. I started whimpering immediately as I told Christina what was going on. That turned into full-on sobbing which came and went throughout much of my time in her office. By the time our conversation turned to other things, I was feeling much better. I also told her a bit about myself--turns out she's an amateur violinist, too, so she completely understood me when I made a music analogy (I do that: because I've studied so many different performing and visual art disciplines, I see connections between them and will sometimes point out said connections)--and signed my page of the 2012 edition of Free Coffee. Christina wants to meet all the students who contributed to the publication last year, and I was the first. As someone who's never been asked for her autograph before, it made me feel like a star.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the student lounge and the SUNSCAD office.

Tuesday: I went back to Tim's office. Turns out, the port number in the URL was wrong.

My student loan had finally come in that morning. However, it was only the federal portion, which is way smaller than the provincial part. I didn't notice the memo saying "320 CANADA" in my online account info, so I thought that that was all I was getting for this semester--and that I needed to redo my budget, which I did.

Wednesday: The week I've been waiting for: after going through the week's reading we presented our ideas for our independent study projects. Mine will be about the importance of dance in my life. I'd originally planned to print the photos out, but because music is such a big component of the project, Adrian suggested showing the photos on a screen or with a projector and include the music with each photo. So a photo inspired by The Ballad of Revolt would be accompanied by that work. As someone who doesn't have anything to show photos on besides her computer, I was concerned about the logistics of displaying the project that way until Adrian said that NSCAD has projectors and monitors that I can use. He also talked about the cantankerousness of the NSCAD proxy server. Apparently it only lets up to twelve people log in at one time and it's less cantankerous on-campus.

That night the internet suddenly disappeared and there was nothing I could do to get it back.

Thursday: That morning I still wasn't able to access the internet, so after calling the NB student loan office and finding out that yes, I would be receiving more money in a couple days, I called EastLink (my service provider). They had me try a few things and then suggested that it might be the router, which I then replaced (free). I went back to my apartment, got the router activated and... still nothing. They then got a guy to come over to my apartment that evening. There went my plans to attend the Queer Collective meeting at NSCAD... He tried just about everything possible, and couldn't get the internet to work.

That afternoon, I visited the campaign office of Labi Kousoulis, who's the Liberal candidate for Halifax Citadel - Sable Island. I'd recently found out that yes, even though I'm a New Brunswicker and all my government ID has my NB address, I can vote in the NS provincial election. I just need to provide two pieces of NS ID, and my apartment lease, EastLink bill and student ID card count. I told one of the women there about the things that I'm concerned about, mainly education, NSCAD and the NDP's treatment of both. I also told her how impressed I am by the Liberals' education platform: this is the kind of stuff the NDP should be doing. I left with a magnet, brochure and an election sign--my first (it's totally fine to put them in apartment windows, though because my apartment's so high up it's more for my own enjoyment than anything else: soon after I taped it to my window, I looked up at said window from outside the building. All I could see was a white shape. However, when my building is casting a shadow on the side that I live, I can make out the red on the sign.).

Friday: I called Apple Support to sort out my internet problems. Because the AppleCare expired on my Mac earlier this month, I had to fork over some cash (less than a hundred, thankfully) and because I don't have a credit card, they made an exception and accepted my debit card. The issue was remedied by deleting a folder and then restarting the computer, and I wrote down the procedure just in case this happens again--and because I hate having to ask other people to solve simple tech problems for me.

I spent the afternoon at my favourite coffee shop, reading the chapter for APC, which at times was well beyond awesome.

Saturday: Another afternoon spent at my favourite coffee shop. This time I started putting together the playlist for my APC project. Whittling a playlist down is not easy when it contains so many awesome tracks.

Sunday: I finally started photographing for my project, having set a deadline of tomorrow. I also edited the photos, which presented the usual challenge of how to translate what I see in my head onto the computer screen.

Today was the BSO's first concert of the season--their one hundred and eighteenth, which at times is hard to believe--until I remind myself that they're the oldest community orchestra in the US. Congratulations, guys--and go violins! The first piece on the program was Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, which is one of my favourites.



This video, Maestro Richman's breakdown of what's going on this season, makes me ridiculously proud to be a fan of the Bangor Symphony. By the way, next May marks ten years since I became a fan.

never a dull moment during the first week of class

First week of my fourth year of college or university--done. And already I'm thankful that I didn't do the full eighteen credits. It would've been too much, and even now I'd probably be stressed out and unable to do a blog post (which I look forward to every week).

Monday: I putzed around the apartment and did some cooking.

Tuesday: More putzing, grocery shopping and prepping for the next day.

Wednesday: My last first day of school--for a while, anyway. And it was an intense one, as the course is all day (9:00 - 5:00), which allows us to cover the content in depth. The majority of the class was devoted to reading a chapter from Man's Search for Meaning and then discussing it. First days are always interesting, so I spent an hour or two reading the wrong thing without realizing it (the first chapter from Of Cigarettes and High Heels, which is also on the syllabus). I finally clued into that fact, and started reading what I was supposed to be reading all along--which was a hundred pages long (we were all suffering--why must the first day of class always be so brutal?). I didn't finish the reading by the time we discussed it. I wonder how many of us managed to do that.

I read some more from the chapter that evening.

Thursday: I spent way more time downtown that day than I'd planned to.

I also had a question for Adrian, so I stopped by his office.

I mailed the Confirmation of Earnings form for my student loan, which took a while to do: the first time I tried, the power went off as soon as I entered the drug store where the Canada Post branch nearest to the school is, so I had to go back out again. I waited outside NSCAD for the power to come back on (all of Halifax was out, including all the traffic lights). When it did, I went back to Adrian's office (he'd been meeting with a student at the time I first showed up, and asked me to come back in about fifteen minutes). I got my question answered and then went back to the post office and mailed my COE.

The FireWire 800 port on my laptop has never worked properly, and I'd wanted to take it to the Mac repair place downtown since discovering the problem, but due to my fifteen-credit workload last year I didn't have the time to do so. The guy I talked to asked me to bring my computer, external hard drive and FireWire cable in the next day. So much for staying put for the next few days...

Friday: I went back to the Mac place, this time with my computer. I found out that it was still under warranty (I'd been concerned about that, as Tom and I had cracked open the bottom in order to put in more RAM). I also found out that taking the bottom off the computer doesn't void the warranty--it's an old wives' tale, though I think the guy said that it used to be true. Some info refuses to die... As of that day, the computer was under warranty for another week. He had a look, tried a few things, and determined that it could be the logic board, which he would order (and which would be insanely expensive if the computer was no longer under warranty).

Afterward, I checked out a local record store--and bought a couple CDs for a really good price (one by the Bergen Philharmonic and one by the Berlin Philharmonic that Amazon reviewers seem to either like or dislike, with very little grey area. It's not the best CD that I've ever bought, but it's decent. The Bergen Philharmonic CD, on the other hand, is spectacular.). I then went to my favourite café and spent the rest of the day doing the reading for APC and working on the first presentation, which is about my influences.

Saturday: More putzing around the apartment, plus competing with others on my floor for the washer and dryer (while every floor has its own laundry room, there's only one washer/dryer set per floor). I spent the afternoon doing homework with my roommate.

Sunday: I finally finished the readings for APC and have mostly finished the presentation.

prepping for next year

My university plans have changed again. And finals are just as brutal as ever.

Monday: Due to it being Easter Monday, there were no classes. I spent the day doing homework.

Tuesday: I returned the DVDs to the VRC and ended up discussing them with the woman in charge of the Collection (Rebecca, who's a NSCAD grad--Photography, Class of '99). I think Anna Leonowens and I would've gotten along quite nicely, and I love that she was a suffragette. Once again, I spent the day doing homework, including prepping for the next day's printing.

I'm determined to get an apartment next year: I've lived in a university residence for the last four years, and at twenty-four (twenty-five in July), I'm ready to truly start living on my own and be responsible for paying rent. So I visited a couple of apartment buildings on my way home. I didn't get to see any rooms, but I like the feel of both places, and they're close to pretty much everything.

Later that evening, I started to feel the telltale signs of a cold.

Wednesday: I woke up feeling like I could've slept another hour or two. By the end of the day, however, I was feeling much better.

That day was Printing Day. I spent a chunk of the afternoon doing final adjustments and then printed the photos.

Class was another group critique. I had some tweaks to make, but overall it went well.

Thursday: Here's where things get interesting. I went to school early to meet with Adrian Fish, who'll be my teacher next semester for APC, to talk about the course. I've been discussing it a lot with a student who's currently taking it, Mary Ellen, and I wanted to see what Adrian had to say. We went over the course outline, which he emailed to me. I also mentioned that I'd be doing all nine of my history credits (three courses) that semester. With APC that's a whopping eighteen credits, i.e., overload. Whenever I've mentioned this to my friends at school they've all said something along the lines of "that's a lot." And it is. But I'd gotten it into my head that I'll finish my degree in three semesters, and all my plans and decisions have been based around that schedule, so adding another semester was more than a bit stressful. Adrian said the same--in fact, he said that that was the most difficult way to go about finishing said degree. That did it for me. Because Adrian's awesome and I trust him, I figured he had to be right about this. I've been kind of worried, anyway, about doing it that way. Yes, it's cheaper, but while I'd save money, I'd probably end up racking up a lot of sleep debt (and this gal needs eight to nine hours of sleep a night. I can get by on seven for a night or two, but any less, or several nights in a row of seven hours or less, and you don't want to be me. Though I somehow manage to happily go through Christmas Day on about six and a half hours of sleep.). I'd also be stressed out of my mind, especially during finals, which are stressful enough at fifteen credits. And I'd run the risk of doing a crappy job on my APC project, and my expectations for that course are higher than they are for most other courses because it's the thesis course for the Photography BFA (and as I've gotten older and learned more, my standards for my own work and that of others have skyrocketed--and not just for photography, either: this also applies to other forms of visual art, dance and music). I won't accept anything less than the best. But because money is a big concern for me (I have a student loan for the first time, having gone through NBCCD with a university fund that no longer exists), I was concerned about the financial side of adding another semester. However, I'd rather go a little deeper into debt than sacrifice the quality of my work, my GPA--and my sanity.

After all that, I went to the SUNSCAD AGM--which didn't get underway until about 12:30. I unfortunately had to leave just after the new SUNSCAD exec was ratified due to class at 1:00.

The latter part of class was a working class, and I spent it tidying up the pieces that I'd done. During break, I went to OSAS to talk with them about the change in plan because I'd already applied to graduate and listed my graduation date as Winter '14. I have a couple of appointments to talk things over on Tuesday, which is going to be a ridiculously busy day.

Friday: The last set of presentations for Obsolescence. We also made plans for next week: because it's the last day for that course, we're meeting at ten instead of 8:30. Hello, sleeping in until 8:30!

Anna spent the class going over the structure and format of our final essays.

Saturday: Up and at 'em. That morning we installed the show on the second floor of the Port Campus, and my print is looking gorgeous. This is my first time mounting a photo using earth magnets, and I love the look. It cuts down on cost, yes (and I don't know if NSCAD has frames that I can borrow nor do I know who cuts mats well and charges an amount that's easy for a student to cough up), but some images are best when presented "naked". It forces the viewer to be confronted by the work and whatever idea the artist is trying to get across whether the viewer likes it or not. This is my first show outside New Brunswick.

Once the show was up, I went back to my place and spent the rest of the day studying, and I'm amazed at how much I got done--which is good news for Tuesday. I also dropped two courses from my Fall '13 schedule and registered for courses for Winter '14. I'll be taking APC and Survey of 20th Century Art in the Fall (twelve credits), and Contemporary Indigenous Arts and Topics in Canadian Art in the Winter (six credits, meaning that I'll be a part-time student--full-time status kicks in at nine credits). Since Friday, I've felt lighter when I think about the remaining courses: I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get all my projects done. Plus, if Contemporary Indigenous Arts is as awesome as I think it's going to be, I could treat it as an extension of my summer project on First Nations peoples, culture, history, treaties and treatment by white people (that's probably going to be the most painful part of the project).

Due to all the excitement, I didn't listen to the opera. This week the Met performed Das Rheingold, which is home to one of the most beautiful preludes ever. I don't care what you think of Wagner or opera--that thing's awesome. I'm not the biggest Wagner fan--I'm definitely not a Ring-head--but the Das Rheingold prelude is one of my favourite pieces. I love how it starts out simply and then grows and builds and swells, evoking the Rhine river. Here it is, as performed by the Met in the new Robert Lepage production. That's all eight MOO hornists you're hearing.



Sunday: Once again, I spent the day doing homework down at the Port Campus. Despite my rather late start to the day, I managed to finish much of the rest of my to-do list.

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.