That thing that people do, when they talk about the other things they're doing while their movie 'renders'?

I'm doing that.

Which is kinda cool, actually - I'm at a point in my education where I'm capable of doing what I want to be doing for the rest of my working life. Well - capable being a relative term; what I'm actually doing is opening Final Cut Pro, importing 1,500 pictures and completely winging it in order to make a stop-action movie.  So this'll work ok or I'll have spent four hours of my life learning what NOT to do in Final Cut. I'm ok with the later but obviously I'm rooting for the former. GO FLEDGLING SKILLZ GO! *cheerlead*

I've been in the computer lab for HOURS. I've got a didn't-have-enough-coffee headache, I'm hungry, I need to use the restroom, and I've been listening to the same songs on repeat and I still can't decide which is better for this movie. And in spite of the fact that the restroom's right down the hall and Jme sent me to school today with a lunch and $5 for coffee I just can't seem to tear myself away from this for a second! I keep saying "Just after this sequence" or "Just 'till the end of this scene" but one leads into the next and I can't break away. I need an assistant. Preferably one that's proficient in Final Cut Pro and AfterEffects.

I'm beginning to sense that the "i gotta pee" thing is gonna be the dealbreaker, mark my words.

*bing!* That's my render: nose to the grindstone, Skye!



EDITED TO ADD:   EEEEEE I'VE DONE IT!!! Pictures AND sound! W00t go me!! *jump jump jump!*  Look for it at a youtube account near you...  :D

EDITED TO ADD #2: Poo. I've uploaded the video twice and it'll play the audio but not the video. Don't know why: it's an .MOV file and it shows up perfect on my harddrive and plays excellent on the Quicktime player on my computer. Shoot - I don't even know enough about all this to even google a problem in order to fix this! Saddy face. 

I'm utterly captured by this song:  Fireflies, by Owl City (click to go to YouTube video).

There's about five reasons I can identify, foremost among them the fact that I can clearly picture the motion-graphic-heavy video I need to do to this song (fireflies and sparkles everywhere!) But mostly I think it's that thing that happens when a sound and voice and mood come together in such a way as to circumvent my brain and go directly to my nervous system. I don't know why this happens but I really love it when it does, you know? And it's not a certain type of music, either - the last group that crawled inside and took me over was Evanescence. (...lol!)

Oh, what a perfect song for today!

Court: "That's very Halloween-y."
Me: "Did you say.. 'weenie'?" *snicker*
Paris: "What are we, in 3rd grade?!"
Cai: *slowly dawns* "HEEEEY!!"

Padawans have no school but I do. Courtney sleeps till 2 - no muffins, no forts, no warm fresh bread for them on snowdays anymore. I feel sad for them

Me: "They turned the cat's eye red with CG."
Paris: "I was hoping it was with, like, unicorn blood."
Cai (earnestly): "No, no: Unicorn blood is more like silver glitter paint."
Paris and I: *boggle*

I thought this was wonderful. My friend Sam just turned 30 the other day and wrote this. Nice apperception* there, Sam.

Not doing homework oh no- playing wii DDR with Paris. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WACKINESS?!? OMG and Paris stepped up LIKE HE NEVER LEFT. Unbe-fracking-lievable!

Good Morning! It is cool this morning but it's supposed to get up to a perfect 87 degrees! I stayed up cleaning 'till 2 last night! We are not talking about if I finished getting my room cleaned!

So tonight is date night and as usual we'll be at The Museum of Contemporary Art's Mixed Taste lecture series. But after that, oh yes AFTER that, at around 8pm, who KNOWS what will happen! You know what kind of things happen with The McLandsborough and I on Friday nights? Things like inflatable deer heads.



Seasiren and boyfriend were rather surprised that we showed up at a rather small bar (The Cruise Room) carrying inflatable deer heads, but they're such great sports that they immediately turned our double date into a triple date! Bill and Susan Deer had an AMAZING night. [For notes on each picture, click on the picture to go to my Flickr page]

I got tons of pictures - everyone who commented to us or looked interested, I took a photo with the Deers. Here are some of them: ( Say hello to my leeeettle friend... )

Ch4rm, Bud, the kids & I are sleeping in a tent in the backyard tonight. They may be a liiittle excited.

Ch4rm: "There are, like, 9 conversations going on... but there are only 7 people in this tent."

Welcome to my life, Ch4rm.

Bud is trying to convince Paris to play Lacrosse.
B:"You'll get into MIT faster if you've played..."
P:"I am not going to pick up balls & beat people up."
B:"But...that's the BEST PART!"

Uh... know your audience, Bud. Motivational Fail

The McLandsborough called me after his early morning dentist appointment today. I was still in bed attempting to stay asleep in order to avoid The Great 2009 Before-School Purge and Cleaning of the Rooms. My very shameful secret is that the padawans' rooms aren't half as bad as mine is because sometime last semester I decided that "piling on the floor" was an appropriate solution to "where to store all this art school stuff". Anyway, I wasn't going to get up: if you're not awake, you can't be expected to clean your room, can you?*

Unfortunately when I heard Jme's ringtone (shut up, you all have your own ringtones I do this for everyone) I reached out from under the covers and answered it in spite of my intention to sleep forever.

"Hello?"
"Hi, baby - just got out of the dentists'."
"And what did the dentist say?"
"More kisses."
"He... what?"
"He says I need more kisses. Yep: more kissing for me."
"Oooooh rly."
"Yes. Kissing. Look: I don't know, honey - I'm just telling you what the dentist said. He said he'd write up a prescription if I needed one but baby he's a doctor so we'd better just obey."

Once you laugh as hard as I did it's impossible to even pretend you can go back to sleep.

Awwww crap. Guess I'm getting up and cleaning my room, dang it.


*There are some drawbacks to this plan. YMMV.

Today I have to clean my room.

I've been putting it off for, oh, at least TWO SEMESTERS now. Which to those of you who've forgotten is over a year. That's a year of school supplies + art supplies + art projects done + assignments done + unsorted stuff + useless clothes in piles all over my room.

The problem is that, by definition, the things in piles have no place. 'Cause if they DID have a place that would be easy and they'd BE in their place. So today I have to make a place for all this almost useless/unsorted stuff and throw out all the trash/really useless stuff.

I may need a reality TV show to get this job done.

Hello there, friends! Jme and I just got back from our first road trip, a couple days to Fairplay and Buena Vista and the hot springs there. We did not, obviously, go by car. In fact it would have been silly to go by car when we both had supercool helmets and jackets on. We rode his Triumph Thruxton 900 and it was very Jack Kerouac and late 50s and pared-down adventure. It was amazing!

( Adventure ho! (with more pictures) )

I have stories, ohyesIdo. Let's get together soon around a table and I'll tell you the story of When Jme Got Cranky... and he'll likely follow with the story of When Skye Got Really Cranky. Both stories end in a pool at the hot springs, though - so let that be a lesson to you, I say.

More road trips, motorcycles, beautiful vistas, cowboy cooking, livin' simply, and hot springs for us all!

So The McLandsborough and I had some bonding time the other weekend with his dad and dad's girlfriend.

( I may be that girl. )

Two invites for you:

One, last minute informal invite to



No RSVP necessary, just come find me when you get there; I'll be slam-dancing in the Industrial room in the White Piano corner with the big boys. Oh, and txt me if you want me to come outside and walk you in; I carry my cell in my boot because there is nowhere else with enough material.

Second,



I want to get a big group to go to this, so will you txt/reply if you'd like to go? The caveat to this last event is, of course, I want to bring at least the older padawans with me. What this means, for you who've not done this in a while, is that if you're the strongest in our group it is very possible that you may end up carrying a sleepy child. Which is heavy but, trust me, very satisfying and sweet.

Last class of the semester today: Final Projects all completed!

Interdisciplinary Foundations: LEVEL UP!

I learned to fuss around in Photoshop, iWeb, Illustrator, iDVD, Garageband (wtf random), Power Point, iMovie and Fetch without crying too much.

I can make digital posters, paper mache sculptures (yeeah...), movies for the web, shadowboxes, light projection instillations, DVD movies (for the DVD player), and a website. I can also design product packaging and graffiti with light (!!).

Wanna see? CLICK HERE

You know what's very cathartic and calming? 

( Dishes. Washing dishes. )

I don't feel ready: fine. I'm ignorant and scared: ok. I'll just do my best, as I always do: leap from the lion's mouth and trust that I'll make it across the current chasm to whatever Chalice is waiting for me in my summer.