Such a long span of time, so little to really say...

So I guess I haven't written in here since September. I've been busy and braindead, but working all the same. Blogging didn't seem like it mattered too much, since there aren't a lot of people who even look at this. I post links sometimes, on Facebook and whatnot, and no one seems to acknowledge. I don't know if they don't want to read stuff, they forget to comment or they just genuinely do not care... I'm not sure I'm really offended either. I'm just ambivalent. Sometimes it's nice not to share your life and everything you do with people. I think after a while the world at large will remember this. Sometimes privacy is a wonderful thing, especially when you're creating and trying to build a life for yourself. That's another blog though, some other time when I'm feeling ardently wistful.

It's kind of weird, perhaps I'm just becoming really 'busy' and involved, for the first time in a long time. It's a good thing I think, in some ways. In others, it's kind of sad. I forget a lot about documenting the daily routines or my ideas or thoughts, but at the same time my energy level has been either very high or very low, or some weird combination. It's kind of like sleepwalking and still getting a normal day's worth of work done.



I took some pics back at the Valient Thorr show at the beginning of October (I think). It went pretty well and they did a fun show. I hadn't listened to them much before, but I have some friends who are ginormous fans, and I'm really glad I got to be a part of it :)
The pictures are here: Valient Thorr - Kansas City, MO

I also have been working on grant writing, and it's pretty involved. Now we'll see if my labors paid off. Of course, I will work hard to make them pay off. If not, my graduate work will have to make big adjustments and that would really suck.


I did get my wish finally and they announced GR dates. I'm going to the February 3 show in Chicago, and will be taking pics there. I don't know if I'll get a 'photo pass', but I've heard the venue is nice about letting people take them anyway. Hopefully that will all work out all right. I just hope I can grab some posters for friends who collect them.

I'm looking forward to winter break. Hopefully I will get my website up (yeah it's still not up, but I made some url and other suchness changes), volunteer at a local animal shelter and help them to get some babies new homes, and possibly get another of my teeth pulled. I'm not looking forward to that last one, but I don't think the majority of human beings really enjoy that sort of stuff.

I guess the only thing to leave with is this, just because... yeah, ahahaha.

Muh Flickr account

I had to make a Flickr account for class, so here's the linkleberry:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saraerobbins/

There's not much on yet since I started it just last night, but I hope to add a decent amount of work that is representative of what I've been doing lately. :)

Updates and whatnot

So I was sitting here, writing an email to someone, then I looked and realized I wrote the same email back on the 2nd. I suppose when I have something to say, it sticks with me, even if I have already taken care of it. Maybe my brain is full.
Of course I'd write an email to someone, who else would I write to? A plant? A vegetable? Marek? Well, he does have an email account (yes, I know) and I haven't checked it since 2007... so yeah, not even going there.

I also wondered why I was so freaking tired, then it occurred to me, I just finished up 8 hours of classes in about a month and a half. That is a lot, almost, in fact, full time for summer, which is 9 hours. I'm finishing my last 3 hours this month, which will make it a grand total of 11 hours in about 2 and a half months. So yeah, I'm a bit braindead, just a smidge.

I'm glad I didn't hit send, I've gotten really good at not doing that, it saves me feeling like an idiot, and there's no real need to repeat myself if I've said things once. Plus yeah, it's the department of redundancy departmental department of departments. Need I say moar?

Marek is currently roosting on the scene of his last barf. Not pleasant yeah, but at least I was up way too late/early piddling around listening to Deep Purple stuff on Youtube because I'm lazy and didn't want to plug in my external hard drive... blerh.

Oh well. I think I've bantered on enough, yerrrf. Here are some of the montages I worked on for my summer digital imaging class. Basically I used a lot of layer masks, extended exposures within the camera and other stuff like that. During the process I also had a handy dandy staph infection in my ear, my computer got a major virus, and all I wanted to do was sit in front of the TV and watch Doctor Who or World Cup stuff. Luckily for me, I still prevailed and was able to pull off some pretty awesome work :D





The Pictorial Evidence:

































































I think they're pretty self-explanatory. I hit some creative roadblocks in the middle bit, where I basically doubted my entire idea and couldn't see the whole 'metal documentary' stuff as a collage. I looked at tarot cards and got some ideas there that really helped me out, and I'm very happy I took that detour. Talk about strange, it ended up being exactly what I wanted. Life definitely is a wheel... but not with chains made of steel.

XD

A couple things

Well, classes are over for this semester and things went pretty well.

My gpa is a lot higher than it has ever been, and I'm pretty happy with that.

Jodi got her interview with Daniel published, here's a link:

Jodi's interview with Daniel from Gamma Ray

I guess other than that life is life. I have a photoshoot with Vanlade today, and then I'll have some editing time and noodling.

We had a huge storm last night, Marek wasn't too happy about all of that... now I just sit and stare, until I decide either to go to Taco Bell or go back to bed...

Well, today has been a slight bust. I didn't go to my German conversation quiz, but I'm going to just reschedule it. Hopefully my teacher won't mind... My head feels like death and I'm doing my best to be active but it's not working.

I've narrowed my idea for my final photo project down. I think it'll be interesting, now I just have to go through the photos that I took this last week, not nearly enough probably, and get to work on them. If it works, I will either call it 'Story of a House' or 'We Will All Be Ghosts'... I kind of like the second title more, I think it's kind of... well, morbid, but it's me, of course it's morbid. Not in a sad way though, more meditative and reflective I suppose.

The photos I took that stood out the most were some photos of beds at the house... I thought about trying to do a series of those, just beds, in natural light, with lots of shadow, but I'm not sure if I have access to enough places to warrant 20 of those... buh. No biggie though, there are lots of different shots to work with, so I'll keep plugging away and do some editing tonight during class where I can have some distance from home and the internet and things that pull my focus away.

Buh... I'm tired... before long I suppose I should actually get out of bed, but I have potted some plants today and spent time with Mr. Bear, and also transcribed an interview my friend Holger did with Jon Oliva. It was a really nice interview. I feel kind of bad skipping out on his band at Progpower, but eh, it happens. I don't regret leaving though, for so many reasons...

It's going to rain, my bones are letting me know in advance... PEH.

*sigh*

We were supposed to start cyanotype/van dyke brown process stuff tonight in alt process, but yeah... it didn't end up happening... I got one piece of hot press watercolor paper coated for each process, then said screw it and went home. The only drawback to our lab is that we have 3 computers and 4 printers. One doesn't work, and the other three were occupied all night... I should have thought ahead and edited my photos at home, but what can you do? Sometimes other stuff happens during the day and it gets a little bungled in the end.

I think I'm going to go in on Friday afternoon and work, since the time Cathleen and Johnny are coming was Thursday and not Friday... fine with me. If I work on Friday, I don't have to worry about being anywhere at night for a class.

Marek has been mopey today, but he seems a little more chipper now... of course... before bed. Yay. He's been chasing a toy around and sliced my ankle when he got too excited... it's time for a pedicure I think. He's doing his routine where he tears all over my apartment at warp speed (I'm not kidding, lol) and plays with every toy he can find. It's super cute and I wish I could get it on video because it would probably win some award, or at least be a hit on youtube for five minutes. Heheh.


I feel bad that I haven't been updating this much in the past couple weeks, but I've been either busy or in dark places, trying to work things out for myself. There has been a lot of stress from several different sources, and when things like that are going on, blogging is really the last thing on my mind, and sometimes I might think oh, I should write a blog, but that rarely ends up happening.

I should go to bed soon, I have a lot to do this weekend, and even more to do next week... and tomorrow I should probably do some stuff too... doing stuff is good...

St. Patrick's Day night is the Hatchet/Witchaven/Vanlade/The Tards show, so I have that to look forward to after my art history class.

I really think it should be St. Patrick Stewart day, and everyone should wear Star Trek uniforms... it's only fair. I mean really. Screw green.

Ok, I'm going, I'm going :P

The 1700s Project, Part One...

Ok, here are a couple of my new images from the Marie Antoinette digital project, just to show some ideas. I'm utilizing a lot of Photoshop filter tools, which if done right, aren't stupid looking. Hopefully that's coming across. I'm probably going to work on getting some more photos today, either from my scanner or just my regular camera... I might even see about shooting a roll of film and dropping it off at Walgreens to be processed. I'd rather not though, I'm a bit low on funds right now, as always. Peh.

Clicking on this bottom one will help, the blog frames sort of cut it off.

Also, a huge thanks to Jodi, who took photos of me Saturday night, that was a HUGE help!!! :D