So school and research as usual have been time blackholes.  Also, Red Cross has been making me pretty busy also…the girl who shared my position with me resigned because she had way too much on her plate (car accident lead to her need to take on a second job to pay things off ((…fortunately she is physically fine though).

So one of the things that has been exciting me and consuming my time is my thesis project!  My project is a group effort to basically create art based off of our inspirations of certain words.  The first project I created was inspired off of epiphany (imagine how I felt when I came up with the idea…(!)).  Here’s an overall look:

The colors here don’t show up as vibrantly because of the glare.  But basically I had a subject that I tried to evoke three expressions from: thinking, surprise/confusion that comes with the process, and finally epiphany.  These faces were used as the lights and color adjusted using Photoshop.  I also wanted the background to be filled with light bulbs because they practically symbolize epiphany.  Below, I have a picture of part of my supplies/work station (on the floor!)

Here’s a close up of the linocut print:

For the light bulb image, I used a technique called Linocut.  My friend was obsessed with printmaking and her excitement kind of inspired me to try it out myself.  So I carved a light bulb onto linoleum and applied ink with a brayer to smooth out and thin out the ink, and stamped it.

I didn’t take pictures of the process of making the light bulb cut, but I have one for hearts.  I was going to make Valentine’s cards again this year, but turns out school (etc.) absorbed all my time, and no cards were completed or sent out …but here’s an idea of what I was going to make:

Step 1: cut a heart

Step 2 : Ink it!

Step 3: Apply it to material

Step 4: Remove cut

Step 5: Cut larger heart

Step 6: Ink with different colors — produces layers!

Result:

=) It’s nice because it is cute, hand done, but also mass-producible.  But the time consuming part (besides cutting and waiting for paint to dry) is trying to think of how to make them all different despite a common stamp.  But I didn’t have time unfortunately.  Maybe for next year, or to be sent at random.  ^^

Veteran’s Day is coming up…we centered our Red Cross Mtg on that this past Wednesday.
I have a friend who was in the military; he said he served in Afghanistan more than once.  I was surprised he was around 5 years older than me!  I asked him a little about his time serving there.  It surprised me about how unfazed he seemed to be about it…he said a lot of the other soldiers cracked because they joined the military not thinking they would actually be needed.  Some how I can’t imagine how much mental preparation would be enough to get me to fight for any of my ideas, or to fight in general, in the sense of war…

Here’s me with a few of my ARC USF chums:

…everyone there is so nice!  They’ve been pretty encouraging and said
they could see differences in me since I joined (less shy/more
outgoing).  I wonder what percent of that is me actually changing
(could just be me being more comfortable?), as far as disposition is
concerned.  I know that it has helped me work on my friendly/small-talk skills, since as an officer if I ever see any club member sitting alone at meetings it is my duty to go sit and talk with them.  It hasn’t been easy, but it has been becoming easier. (:  Maybe I’ll learn to crawl out of the shell that I have built around myself.  On Xanga, I’m the same person inside, but I’m much more communicative, because I can!  (It is also sort of like a diary, so I’m trying to be open/reflective anyways).

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(: I’ve had a marvelous weekend thus far, though I suppose I’ll have to switch gears tomorrow, to study study study!

Yesterday I went out for (belated-birthday) dinner with my friends to the Italian Kitchen Cafe in Brandon/Riverview. The decorations there were quite lovely.  I sort of wish we sat in a circular configuration instead of in a rectangular configuration since it is more conducive to conversation.  But nonetheless it was really fun. 

Then we went over to Cecelia’s (getting lost/bypassing roads a few times…fail!) where we played games like Catch-Phrase and pretty much had fun.   I have such awesome friends.  I remember this time last year I was sort of in a slightly anti-social slump so I was actually really unhappy here.  I also spent all my time studying.  This year, I spend time studying, I spend time with my friends, and I spend time being involved in activities.  My life is a lot more enriched, and I am a lot happier now at USF.  I’ve found some really good friends…sometimes I’m surprised about how close I feel to them despite the short amount of time I’ve known them. 

(: !

My family also stopped by today!  (: It is always nice seeing family, and mom brought me more delicious food!  I hope she wasn’t offended though that I hadn’t eaten a lot of what she made me before.  It’s just I have to switch up what I eat everyday, so that equates to a slow consumption rate when she gives me large portions…She’s leaving for Taiwan Wednesday.  She’s going to go visit her mom, who isn’t faring all that well right now. =  Sometimes I feel bad that we never really visit my mom-side grandma and yet we frequently visit my dad-side grandparents.  I feel like that way I didn’t get much of a chance to take care of her as a good grandchild should, the way I can from time to time with my dad-side ones (i.e. supporting them when they walk, talking or hearing about their stories from more youthful days, or just offering my presence/showing I care).  But at the same time my father’s parents took good care of him when he was growing up, while my mom’s didn’t really.  When thinking of it that way I feel of an urge to be as kind to them because it has caused her a lot of anguish…in some ways blame can’t entirely be put on them either, because that is just how society was back then (in Asian culture male heirs were more desirable).  It’s all a bunch of mixed feelings.  Another excuse would be the distance (LA versus Taiwan..; LA is significantly closer).  Hmm.

My profile picture is a spoof[?] off of The Pleasure Principle:

Sometimes I look up words that I’m confused about the exact meaning, but I’m not in the mood right now, but I think I might be using it right…maybe, so I attached a question mark to that.