Pre-flight speedpaint

I've been really uncomfortably busy these past weeks and it'll only get busier as we sink deeper into May. I've got three large papers due in less than two weeks, for which I've written absolutely zero at this point. I don't understand how writing has become such a difficult feat with every additional year in college. I recall being (or at least feeling) much more eloquent in middle/high school. 

Anyway, I drew this as a destresser last night. I've been really absorbed with the Space Race lately, and I recently watched several episodes of NASA's When We Left Earth documentary series on the progressive projects to send man out of earth's orbit and on to the moon. The whole space-age decade is fascinating to me, with the almost arrogant confidence that pervaded the politics of astrophysical engineering triggered by the omnipresent competition of the Soviets. 

So instead of drawing the stuff that I should be drawing for The Pearl and commissions and my now completely abandoned independent study (again), I drew an astronaut in one of the original Mercury 7 space suits. I was debating whether to draw Alan Shepard or Ed White (from Gemini 4 and perhaps the most charming, after Neil Armstrong) and ended up drawing nobody. lol This took approximately 2 hours.

Architecture Exam & What I Wore

Well, yesterday was spent studying studying studying for the architecture exam! It's been a while since I've worked this hard to memorize dates and theory and concrete information. But by the end of the day I was actually really pleased because I felt like I learned something that I personally felt was valuable. At least by the end of this spring break I've come to understand that I'm a big fan of the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and that I need to pay a visit to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California and check out Louis Kahn's architecture with my real eyes before I graduate from Soka.

Anyway, I really needed exercise yesterday but since I didn't have the leisure to put down my notes, I decided my notes could stay as I worked my muscles. Hence, the intense exam-study-yoga action below.

Lacking in the spiritual aspect but hey wachugonnado

 TODAY! EXAM! I got up early and had a chanting toso with my friend Maiko from 7:30 am. Felt great after chanting and a delicious bowl of granola-honey-cinnamon-yogurt and tackled my notes some more until the exam at 1:00pm. I was a little mortified tho because the exam itself was quite different from the study guide we had been given. But I think I got through it somehow all right. I'm nervous about the results but at least I know that I did my best. Yeah, that I did.

DONE.

Thank you! Thank you!

One to go

Finished my AmEx paper on World's Fairs that I talked about earlier, and I'm proud to say I'm highly satisfied. Now just one more Early Modern European Lit paper to do for Marie-Rose. This one will be an analysis of the function and value of travel from the medieval period all the way to the 18th century looking at chivalric quests, pilgrimages and world expeditions. I'm already 7 pages in on this one so I'm not too concerned but I want a fine product to submit in the end. I think I'll go for Founders Snacks, too, tonight. c:

In other news, I'm in love with a song right now--it's Regina Spektor's "Someday". This girl always speaks my heart in the most creative melody and verse.

In class essay

Just finished my in-class exam for Sociology of Education. Gail's tests are always daunting... not so much the material but the quantity of writing. Nonetheless, I think I was able to plow through it... and the first to finish (yeah!) and 30 minutes early (double yeah!) and first dibs on doughnuts that she brought as a reward (triple yeah! +1 up!). So I'm satisfied that I was able to write six pages in 2 1/2 hours--but my hand is dead tired...

Anyway, just two more papers left and I'll be free! I'm really chanting to be able to enjoy my finals. Recently it's been so hard to focus and the rate of my writing has been so infuriatingly slow! Like one word per minute! D8 So I'm just chanting for my passion to kick in and to really have a brilliant finish to this semester. I've come this far!

Finals and commissions

Finals are going all right. The rough portion (Monday) has passed. Now all I've got left are two papers by the 20th and an in-class paper (this one's gonna be tedious I'm sure) on Friday. I wished I could've written up more today but I felt so exhausted from yesterday and it didn't help that my menstrual cycle decided that this week would be the opportune occasion to drop by. She even brought along her irritating friend, Ultra Crampage. Ass.

I gave myself a break after 10pm to go stock up on some Spamusubi and Yakitori at the Grad Department Final Exams snack stand in Ruby's apartment. I only got there five past and already there was a ridiculously long 30 minute line. My hair now stinks of BBQ smoke.

But afterward I didn't feel like writing anymore so I decided to catch up on some commissions (I've got sooooo much to do this winter break). Here's one that I'm currently working on which is due before Christmas. Better hop to it.

All right, sleep time. Tomorrow's another long (and hopefully highly constructive) day of writing. With luck, I will be able to suppress my annoying guests with my good pal, Ibuprofen.

Tadaima!

Oh my god it was a long week!!! It still is a long week!!!

Finals are impending. I just had a presentation this morning for Sociology which I believe went pretty well. I was pretty eccentric to say the least--even without the additional mug of caffeine I was passionate about my topic as it was (the replacement of traditional grading systems with alternative assessment).

I spent the rest of the day preparing for the next American Experience presentation I have tomorrow. I'm having fun with this one, too. I'm looking at a couple of World Fairs that were held in the US and how through the process of exhibiting "American culture" they were in fact shaping a distinct American identity. It's interesting because for instance in the 1964/65 World's Fair in Queens, New York, a whole bunch of prominent industries such as General Electric, IBM, General Motors, Coca Cola, constructed pavilions displaying their visions of a "space age" in America's near future. There was a strong emphasis on the development of science and technology that promised for the raised standard of living. General Motors constructed a "Progressland" in which visitors could actually ride an attraction that cruised them through future sub-Oceanic resorts, remote-controlled massive desert reforestation machines and models of the future city landscape. There was even an interactive section on nuclear fusion and sub-atomic power for kids. Exposing citizens to these glamorous visions harvested in them a newfound perspective on their nation and the potential of their lives.

Anyway, so that's what I've been working on today. But I needed a break desperately, so I doodled some Harry Potter characters for relaxation:

A young, seasonal Lily Evans

In loving memory of Fred Weasley.

*BAWL*

Young Sevvy Snape, a self-proclaimed prince.

Aaaanyway das enouf. I need to sleeeeeep!!!

morose

Feeling bleagh... I've kinda given in to the fact that I am just not academically charged this semester. I justify it by telling myself that it wasn't intended to be rigorous to begin with since I had to focus on my rehabilitation.

But with two weeks of classes left and a number of impending finals, projects and papers... my lack of drive, focus and discipline is really gonna slap my face in the end, I know it.

Still... I choose to draw HTTYD doodles instead of taking on the mountain of other things I probably could be doing.