at last

Some time to relax. After endless amounts of schoolwork, I have finally finished. I will finally have a chance to have a good night's sleep. Not including today since I fell asleep while my friends were playing Rock Band at my house. I woke up to a cold, empty house some time later, only to find that they had already left. I'm a terrible host haha.

After my English teacher recommended me to join InnerSpark, the art summer school in Southern California, I've decided to start doing some serious portfolio work. You need a portfolio to apply for InnerSpark. It kind of shocked me at first, but then it does show how professional the school is. Only taking in the talented people. I really hope I get accepted because I think it'll look really really good on college applications.

But yes, I had lots of time today and I managed to do some doo-doodling. I ended up redrawing a photo of Alex Kapranos, the singer and guitarist of Franz Ferdinand, the uber awesome band from Glasgow. I had to give him a new eye since I had difficulty recreating the one in the photo. I must say, I'm pretty proud of the hair and lips. Best I've done in a while..

can it

Once again, I apologize for my lack of updates here. Internet's been bad for the past week and it's starting to get on my nerves.. very badly. I'm beginning to experience difficulties in keeping my anger in. I often find myself hitting my desk with my mouse, slamming the keyboard on the tray, and cussing at my computer out loud. The virus that's been screwing around with everything on my computer isn't helping much either. My firewall keeps turning off, google's still giving me shit, and my computer keeps freezing up spontaneously.

This is definitely not good because I have an essay due tomorrow and it requires me to do research and crap on the internet. But it's not really my fault I'm having difficulty, either. The essay outline was supposed to be reviewed by my teacher, but she didn't have time to check my side of the room. And on the day that she checked ours, I wasn't in class. I come back to school on Monday (yesterday) and I find that the essay's due on Wednesday. Which is ridiculous because she hasn't even checked my outline. She wasn't in class today either. So.. yes. I'm pretty much doomed.

And it seems that I've lost my sense of feeling on my big toes. I wore a pair of flats on Sunday that absolutely killed me. I got home and felt my toes were kinda numb and thought it'd wear off after a while. It's been a day and half already and it's still here. Hot water doesn't seem to help, either. I've noticed that whenever anything unfortunate happens in my life, it's always followed by a string of more unfortunate events. I just hope that these don't last too long.

I'm looking forward to Thursday, which is Not So Silent Night at the Oracle Arena. Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, and Jack's Mannequin will all be there so I'm pretty hyped about it. Hopefully that will mark the end of my unlucky days.

Oh, but I have a lab report due Friday.

Oh, gosh.

the world is coming to an end

Yes, another rant about our Ritz Cameras Center. I have about 6 rolls of medium format film lying on my table. Since both Walgreens and Walmart don't develop anything other than 35 mm film, I was forced to get it developed at the more expensive place, Ritz. You'd think that a store that sells those big hunkin' SLRs would have some kind of photo lab to develop film manually (or know of some location they can send it to). But no. They have all the film sent there developed by their weird machines and shit. I can still get my medium format film developed there, but lomography isn't complete without cross-processing (xpro). And of course, Ritz can't do xpro. I've been looking all over google to find some chem lab that could. No luck.

Ritz Cameras sucks.


I think Google has been taken over by some kind of cult. Every link I click leads to some kind of advertisement or scam that is 100% unrelated to what I clicked on. Not only does it not show the correct site, it also opens in a new tab.... since when did google open links in new tabs?
Something's up.. or my computer's just dying.

The show must go on!

My oh my. 2:30 AM and I'm not shopping at some insane Black Friday sale? I must be crazy. Thanksgiving was pretty fun this year despite the lack of people. I'm used to having at least 25+ people over for these holiday events but everyone seems to be in Taiwan now. Either way, I enjoyed the night.

We watched Moulin Rouge before dinner and gosh, I am ashamed that I didn't watch it earlier. I am absolutely in love with it. It's gotten me in a very artsy mood with its Bohemians and such. Too bad there's nothing artistic I can really do at this hour. I want to run out to Michael's and buy art supplies so bad. Still, I am a bit obsessed with that whole Moulin Rouge style, even though a lot of it seems a bit... "skanky."

So yes... if you haven't see in yet, go watch it!

And I seem to have spent a lot of money on clothing over the last few days (just one, actually). It just seems like a stupid move because I could've saved a lot if I had gone to the Black Friday sales. But then, I'm too lazy to wait in line for 2 hours just to pay for my shit. Again.

Oh my god, shoes

While passing the time before the Alice in Wonderland play at our school (which was really awesome, by the way), a friend's dad drove us to Pacific Commons. I randomly bought a pair of loafers for about $60 and gosh, I'm in love with them! Am I the only one that finds loafers extremely sexy (on guys and girls)? Unfortunately, I couldn't find any tasseled ones for girls. So sad.

But I went online to Urban Outfitters and they have a really nice pair on sale for $70 (eek). I would get black, but I already have black ones. Too bad shoes are incredibly difficult to find at the actual stores. So I was wondering if it would be safe to purchase them online. One reviewer did mention that they're a size too big. But I don't know my exact size with Urban shoes either! Such a disappointment...

Perhaps, I'll make a trip to the UO at San Francisco, which has a whole section dedicated to shoes; much more organized than the one in Santana Row.

But enough about shoes; let me take some time to talk about our school productions. Our spring musical is going to be Grease! I think I might audition for a small role since I love singing. It also seemed like all the actors in Alice in Wonderland had lots of fun (and had some really cool costumes). I'm just not sure about whether I would be willing to be at school all the time for rehearsals and stuff. I heard that it takes a lot of commitment. And I'm terrified by any sort of auditioning. I guess we'll just have to wait until the time comes.

come my sunshine

Coolest song in the world. And barely anyone knows it! One of my favorite bands, The Comas. I have their first album but their new one (Spells, which was on my birthday wishlist) is impossible to find. I think I'm going to stop by Rasputin to see if they have. That store is the only place I've ever seen with an actual section for Indie music.

The video's a bit whack; kind of scary/horror movie yet absolutely ridiculous with the weird werewolf mask. I can't tell whether it's supposed to be super cheesy or not. And the guitarist chick has the coolest voice in the world. It's not unique, just sounds cool. And they're playing in black robes.

face of bones

Boneface.

nice piece of bass... kind of

Okay, so I've learned to play a few songs on my bass guitar, but there's something that's really bugging me about it. So whenever I hold a fret and play the E string (and sometimes the A string), it makes this obnoxious buzzing sound and it is driving me crazy. I can still play songs and stuff, but that buzzing is so.. UGH. It kind of sounds like the string is vibrating against the frets. And I'm not sure if it's something wrong with the guitar, the guitar is shitty in general, or all bass guitars are like that. Oh, and it could be that I'm playing it wrong, haha. But I doubt it.

The drummer guy at guitar center said that if you buy a bad drum set/guitar/etc. and it sounds bad, you won't want to play it. Therefore, you should start playing with a good one, you know? Man, if only I thought more about quality than price. We recently had an identity theft problem (still not solved, actually) so I didn't want to spend as much.

But my main goal is to get good enough to be able to buy a better bass guitar.

time to rock out

Yesterday, I ran out and bought a bass guitar! So far, it's alright; nothing special. But my gosh, the thing is heavy as hell. But the awesomeness of it makes up for it, I guess. Oh, how I love the sound of very, very low and deep sounds. Hopefully I'll learn how to play at a decent level. And if I get good enough, maybe some awesome funk bass slapping. It's a Fender P-Bass (Squier Affinity series -wanted to keep it cheap) . I really want to play those heavily distorted bass solos like in Muse or some Silversun Pickups. That would be awesome. And then I will ROCK OUT.

My cousin also went and checked out some drum sets today, too. He plans on buying a $500 set next week. Then we'll almost have a full band; I mean, how hard is it to find a guitarist and a singer?

I went online to look at some drum sets for reviews and such. Aaaaand I came across a Tama Stewart Copeland Signature Drum Set. Now, as you can see in the picture below, it is (obviously) very bad ass. I mean, look at the damn thing. Do you see how many legs it has?! The best thing is that it could be yours for the low price of $9,999! Kick ass...

Oh dear.

I apologize for my lack of activity other the past few days... not that anyone really cares, anyway. I've been a bit lazy to write and post.

A lot has happened. Barack Obama is our new president; I'm pretty happy about that. But but but but.... Proposition 8 passed too. It's such a shame that it happened. It really shows how jacked up Americans are. One of the reasons I would still rather be in Taiwan. Everything's so laid back and no one has a tight ass. I really hope that they do something about it. But you know how stubborn people can be....
--

The Future?
Well, besides the whole election day thing, I could say that the last few days have been a bit eventful. We had a counselor come to my English class to talk about graduation and college credits and such. Makes me wonder what I'm going to do for college.

My goal? It's not UCLA, UC Davis, or any of those schools that all my friends are aiming for. Kind of makes me feel left out- and sometimes inexperienced- if you know what I mean. I'm actually hoping to go to Art Center in Pasadena, CA, or School of Visual Arts in New York. I constantly feel that I'm not prepared enough though. I've only taken Art 1 last year, I'm not taking art now, and I'm unsure of what I'm going to be taking next year. I kind of have that problem where there are so many electives I want, but can't take them all.

Oh, but that's not the problem. My biggest fear, I think, has got to be any sort of "trying out." Whether it's an audition for a play, or a soccer team try-out, I am absolutely terrified by those things. I'm pretty sure art schools will ask for a portofolio of some of my works. I guess it's just like a part of being insecure. I hope I'll build some confidence throughout the rest of my high school years.

Eye of the Fish

Bench and Hammock

On the Sidewalk

Empty Seats on the Bus
--

These are, indeed, the fisheye photos I got developed at WalMart (well, at least a few of them). I absolutely hate the fact that I have all this dust on my scanner and I have to remove the annoying and extremely visible dust particles on photoshop. It's unbearable. And I know that I'm very creative with titles. I have a whole bunch of other photos, but I just think they're not good enough to post. I don't understand why the lomography fisheye camera doesn't take in enough light when indoors. I have to use the flash on all of my indoor shots even if it's super duper bright in the room. The photo I took in my advisory class (which is illuminated with those blinding flourescent lights) was very dark and you can't make anything out; except for the lights themselves. So the flash ruined a few of my shots and made it look like it was nighttime.

Regardless of some of the weird flaws of my camera, I still love my fisheye camera. It was my first lomography camera and I'm still using it. Only because it's the only camera that I can get the processed film faster since it uses 35mm.

And good news; I can breathe normally again. Going to bed early helped, I guess. I think it's crazy how I can get eight hours of sleep and still be tired at school. I need to pull another all-nighter and have a thirteen hour nap. That was so refreshing.

I thought it was just the room.

While taking my geometry test today, I found the room a bit stuffy and uncomfortable. I figured that it was just because the heater was on, the door was closed, and well, I was nervous? I didn't notice it for the rest of the school day... but it's back again.

A difficulty with breathing?

I'm struggling right now. Takes a lot of focus to inhale and exhale. I don't have a cold, either. I wonder what it could be.


Inhale the recycled air.

My Thoughts on Prop 8

I picked up my 35 mm film from Walmart (Yes, I shop there once in a while. Kill me.) yesterday. Now, each roll supposedly has about 24 exposures. But, I received to sets of photos for two rolls. One of them had about 34 or so photos while the other had 19. Strange? Indeed. Don't know what happened, but it's quite interesting.

Anyway, I'm sure that Prop 8 has been an important topic lately, especially with the election coming up soon. It really baffles me how people can consider the Bible a valid reason as to why gay marriage should be banned. It's a book full of stories, there's no proof that any of its events actually happened; not to mention they're extremely unrealistic. So why is gay marriage bad? Because the Bible says so. Yes, that's very convincing. If you Jesus freaks want to argue about why gay marriage is so bad, give me some facts. And it's fucked up because now they're tying religion in with the government. Seriously, America should be worrying about more important stuff than allowing homosexuals to wed. We're going through another great depression; we definitely have time to worry about them. And unfortunately for the gays, a lot of the Californian population is made up of either Christians, lesbian-loving homophobes (if that makes any sense), and/or people who don't look into the situation thoroughly before voting.

America is corrupt for allowing homosexuals to marry? Wrong. America is corrupt for even thinking about limiting these rights. So much for the "Land of the Free."

A Preview

I've been practicing with realism lately by recreating photos; just to get a sense of how a face is shaped and where it should be shaded, etc. It really is quite helpful. I always seem to improve after I finish one of my realistic portraits. Anyway, I've been absolutely obsessed with Muse lately. They're just so artistic, you know? I mean, if you've seen any of their music videos, you'd know. Especially Supermassive Black Hole.

But why am I bringing that up? Because I drew Dominic Howard, Muse's Drummer! It's a work in progress, but I'm about half done and I really wanted to post something here because I feel like I'm neglecting my blog.

It's kind of half-half referenced.. if that makes any sense. Some parts of it I didn't bother looking at the original so they're pretty off. And the photo was half the size of this so the ref was kinda blurred and crappy looking. But I think it's coming along. I also have a few Tegaki E doodles that I want to post here, but I need to go to IHOP now.

'Til next time!

Speed Paint Numero Uno

Hoorah! I speedpainted Hayley Williams from Paramore a few weeks ago. I just pulled out the picture and fixed it a bit and adjusted the colors. Yes yes, it was referenced. I'm not that pro. Really.

I think I'll probably start posting sketches and random art stuff that I don't want to post on my deviantART or something. That is, if I produce enough of them...

Go America!

Turns out I won't be moving to Taiwan for school anymore. Although I really, really, really want to go, it wasn't enough to convince my mom and dad to let me go back. Six months isn't enough for a good experience in another school. My feelings are somewhat mixed though. I have grown attached to my new classes and I was crushed when I found out I'd be missing the choir Seattle trip. But that won't trouble me anymore.

One of the main things that really made me feel down was the fact that I wouldn't have anywhere to develop my photos. My cousin's house in Dazhi was a few minute's walking distance to a very nice family-run art store, which was plentiful with copics, pens, etc. The store ALSO..... developed photos! Very nice service; drop it off, pick it up the next day. And it's super cheap!

But that won't be available to me anymore. INSTEAD, I'll have GOOD 'OL RITZ CAMERAS. Here, at this professional camera store, they don't develop medium format film! Hooray. They have to ship it out to another lab to get it developed. And I'm guessing the whole process would take about 2 weeks for one roll of film.

It just baffles me that a small art shop opened by a family in their own house can process my medium format film while this "professional" shop can't.

AMERICA RULES!

She burns like the sun;

I can't look away.

I'm in love. I've got to say, Muse (the band) is truly talented. There hasn't been a single song of theirs that I didn't like. I'm just going to take a few seconds to promote one of their music videos; one of their lease popular songs, but still well-known. I've never seen such an amazing video. I've watched it over and over and I don't think I'll ever grow tired of it.

My short story assignment in my English class is heavily influenced by this music video. The story does revolve around a girl who encounters certain people or a certain person in the mirror. I'd think that a story like that would be rather... chilling.

Be sure to look up some of their other songs if you like this one.

Sunburn by Muse; Might want to turn your speakers up a little.

RE:start

Starting over this blog since the last one was a failure.