Etc.

For a nice view of all photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atankgirl/sets/72157600101684962/

A step back

Ok, so I managed to get my (crappy) photos off my phone. Phew. Luckily, at this small size they look decent, but make them any larger and you'll see that they are pretty poor. Anyway, keeping with my theme that I do the journals as "quickly" as possible (although not without thought, mind you), I needed to think on my toes for these last two journals. With everything else that was on my mind last week, I didn't remember to bring any supplies, and to be honest, I'm sort of happy that i didn't. This way, I was forced to be creative, using the resources I had on hand. Had I planned ahead, I would have let my competitive streak get a hold of me, and this project would have stopped being fun.
For Jim's transportation-themed journal, I found a Google Map I had of Julie's house (aka, my favorite journal drop-off spot!) and pasted it onto my page, adding a few annotations. Julie's "Spring" journal was a little harder. I'll attest to whoever said that the later you get a journal, the harder it is to do an entry. As soon as you see the other entries, you can't help but judge yourself against them or make a comparison of their ideas verses yours. I think the main reason I had a problem with this page was because it was a very saturated, vivid RED -- a color which I didn't associate with spring, especially compared to the grassy, natural images previously entered. But, I embraced it, and enjoyed it.

Wrap up BBQ

So, time's up. Of course, I haven't been good about my last round of photos, mainly because I had to take them on my camera phone and now I can't for the life of me figure out how to get them onto my computer. You'd think with things like a memory card and a USB cable and the internet -- all available with my phone -- I'd be able to do this easily. But apparently not. Man, I can't wait for the iPhone. seriously.

Time's up

Well, so I haven't posted pics from last night's book-a-thon, but I finally got my book back, after 2 weeks apart :) and I love it! It almost brought a tear to my eye (wow this semester has gotten way too emotional!) to see the amazing work that everyone put into a tiny 3x3" square (well, 6x3" rectangle when you count them as a spread).

Great job everyone, I'll get pictures up as soon as I have them. I hope the camera phone pictures from last night turned out -- we shall see . . .

Ghosts be gone. Ghosts be us.

Let's just say that last night I got really deep. Or really crazy, depending on how you look at it. I sort of let my thoughts meander (pardon the pun . . . ;)) and came up with the following:

can i be complex and say that nothing is a ghost, yet EVERYTHING is a ghost?

a physical manifestation of my past is myself. i embody all that i have been and experienced. when i die, my spirit will live on in all who i have encountered during my time here.

and the cycle continues -- the ebb and flow of life keeps us all LIVING.

I AM A LIVING GHOST.

I AM HERE.

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Check out more pictures of Laura's meandering Ghost book.

Let's get those books movin!

Where be the books, people!? Let's comment and see where they are . . . :) I have the Laura's "Ghosts" and will be giving it to Julie tomorrow afternoon. Anyone else . . . ?

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin . . .

(Little shout out there to Steve Miller and his Band, in light of the quickly passing end of the semester. Where has the time gone? :) )

Today has been a busy journal day. First, I got Laura's "Ghost" journal from Amanda at our usual drop off spot (Outside/In Cafe in Moos Tower) and then I was able to finish up the ones I had on hand and drop them off at Julie's. We lost track of time (Julie, I totally forgot that you were supposed to be cleaning for your brother's arrival, sorry!!) and got to talking about design, jobs, summer, etc. It was nice to take a break and just chat for a while, outside of class.

I can't stress enough how much this project is teaching me about the design process. I just think it's amazing to see all the sorts of things that people are producing and so quickly; it's almost as though each page in every journal is the first draft of a project all its own. I'm glad that I'm documenting my own entries, because I think they will serve as 'creative food for thought' when I am brain-blocked -- and even better than looking at some commerical design journal, the work I will be looking at will be my own (copyright free, yeah!). I know that none of my pages are gallery worthy (yet), but I think they show how much creative energy is bottled up inside of me (and the rest of us).

We need to lessen the pressure on ourselves to only produce things when we're sure they will be "perfect". The truth is, even when we think something's "perfect", there will be a dozen people ready to critique it and tell us how it could be better. So why not get used to producing drafts? It takes the edge off and produces some incredible work. And the less time you spend perfecting an idea in your head, the more time you have to make it better in reality.