Man... don't you hate it when you have a web comic that updates only two times a week and SOMETIMES they give you three pages but MOST OF THE TIME they give you only too and you're like "please be a third page, please be a third page" and then... NOOO!!!! No third page. /sad/

I suggest you check out this webcomic. I am... infatuated with it. I think I might have to actually join the forums and comment with all the other people who love it:

Phoenix Requim = ROCK!

Till tommorow.

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So I looked up the Oscar nominees. As usual... I have barely seen any of them. I've seen Atonement, which is up for quite a bit, Juno, Ratatouille, Transformers (visual effects), Enchanted (music) and others. Movies that are taking a lot of nominations that I don't... actually want to see: Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Sweeny Todd and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, No Country For Old Men, etc.

I am... perplexed by the fact that all 'good art' has to be pretentious and painful to watch. I feel like fine art is, again, caught up in ignoring the finer elements of humanity, the grace of using less, etc and so forth. I think that is part of the reason why I love Beaugereau so much. Not many people have heard of him, but he was an amazing artist. Ironically, the Academy (this being the French art Academy this time) actually like him, thought he was a rising star, however, he actually spent the majority of his time drawing oridinary people and making them look extraordinary.

That motivation, too, can turn pretentious in time, but I think what people don't realize is that good actors, editing, screenplay, costumes does not make a good MOVIE. A good movie is a collaborative effort in which NO ONE is showing off. Rather, it is a slick amalgamation between all facets in order to communicate the story involved. A good director, I think, would not fight against the script that he is given, trying to make it into something grander than it actually was. He cannot control if the script is good or not. He should choose a script he already loves and then with his efforts in instructing the actors, he should make the characters come alive.

The actors should not buck against the authority of the director or to turn the director against the script, rather they should take direction and do their best to make that direction as effective as possible.

The art director should not look at a scene and think, "Oh how can I make this scene more artistic". Instead he should think, "How can I make this scene effective AND beautiful?" favoring, of course, the content over the flourish. He should realize that any flourish will take its direction from the content, which, since the content comes to him already created, does the dictating. While ideally, the content and the art should arise together, both complementing and cedes to the will of the other to create the most effective comprimise... it is not always the case.

However, that is just my own hack opinion. Art, fully realized, will probably always be a little bit pretentious strictly for the sake of its own survival. Blah.

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Have you ever been out at sea. You are in the boat and for miles and miles, isolated from the land. It is always a miracle to see land again. Though I always realize that the land is still there, it is stunning to return to it again.

I guess I sort of imagine, what if we lived in the ocean? What if we lived in the ocean and we never saw land. What would we think of the land? Would we perhaps think that the land did not exist, that there could be no place so ridgid and desolate? Maybe we would think that land was really where we were, that this thing that we stood on was land and it only existed as a metaphor for our own spirit.

Sometimes, I think that this is a good metaphor to explain the lives of born believers. Though, I should say that I have probably skirted the coasts of disbelief time and time again, could it be possible that I have stayed at sea this whole time? Is it possible, also, that the further I go out to sea, surrounded by believers as I am, the more that I lose sight of the land? Maybe the thoughts that haunt me are as if I thoughthe land stopped existing? Or rather that maybe the waters of grace were really land masquerading? I think that it could be. The truth remains, however, that the land is land and the waters are water, and I have not truly strayed.

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Okay, so I was rejected for the first time today ::waves little flag::. That's like what... 1 down and 99 to go? They actually got back to me really fast! It was an online submission sort of thing and they were just like, "I'm sorry, we're not interested" and I'm like "cool" . . . So yeah, I guess it's one of the best first rejections I could have. I mean, they didn't say that they didn't LIKE anything that I wrote and I did do it... which I pretty proud of myself for! So... *sob* *cheer*! Onward to novel acceptance GLLOOORRRRYYYY!!!!

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I am volunteering at the animal shelter now. I worked with two great dogs; they're so smart! Both of the dogs were a little bit of pullers at the beginning of their walks, but now they pull a whole lot less, I'm pretty much thrilled. I was amazed they let me handle the dogs on the first day, but it seems like I'm an official volunteer already! I pretty much know where everything is. I got almost everything right on my dog quiz. And now, I get to take care of the dogs! Next week they'll have a name tag for me and I'll be official. I can hardly wait.

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Lol, I ran into a strange situation the other day. It was the day after I had transferred into book arts. My graphics teacher was talking to me and suddenly she's all, "You're taking book arts, now? Right?" I said that I was, but it came as something of a surprise. After all, how did she know? Then I realized something. Before our class they had just had their faculty meeting. My book arts teacher was talking about how he was surprised to see so many graphics students in the class this time around. They were probably talking and saying something along the lines of, "Hey! I have a lot of your students in my class this semester" "Really? Who?" and throughout the process my name probably came up and thus... she knew. So obvious, but it didn't originally occur to me. Sort of like how it doesn't occur to you that your teachers go shopping at the grocery store or go to the movies and how you feel like somethings out of place, but of course, why wouldn't teachers talk to each other about their students in the same way we talk about our teachers?

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