It came from KS...

Actually as hard as the wind was blowing yesterday this specimen could have come from anywhere. I was out shooting the baseball game, and this scary spiney bush blew in and got stuck on the bleachers. I hope to never visit where something like this grows, and if I do I hope I have some good boots on. The wind was terrible, it kept blowing off the pitchers hats when they threw the ball, but it was at least blowing the proper direction to assure over the wall home runs...just not for our team. I dug dirt out of my ears on the drive back home and even after I scrubbed with the wash rag I could still get some out; there is probably some floating around my brain it was so windy.
On a more normal note I'm happy to get to go home again this coming weekend, and I hope the weather holds out so I can go play kickball with some friends. Two weeks of Sterling College left to go.

Mm Mm Free!

Yesterday was the Grand Opening for the new student run Quiznos in Sterling. All of the students and faculty were invited for a free meal throughout the day. The line was out in the parking lot everytime I went by but a group of people in the art dept decided to go about 2:30 so I tagged along. I indulged in a free Classic Italian sub, which strangely, was not prepared by any of the students.
I spent the rest of the day, 7 hours or so, tackling my latest graphic design project. It is really weird to have to design something with only 3 colors: black/white/gold, and have it not turn out looking like it came out of a Dick Tracy cartoon.
Oh, gosh the ugly thing to the right is one my still lifes from Painting class. I figured, I should put one up since everyone wants to see them so much. Yes, it really was an ugly pink bowl.

Resume Nowhere

I think it is funny how they tend to shovel snow here in Lyons particularly around the main square. There was definitely a larger amount of snowfall here than what we got back in KC. There is probably a good 3.5 ft drift in the back yard, and a foot on the roof of the neighbors side of the duplex. I downloaded a cheapo panorama maker and threw this photo together of East Ave & Main. This pile is actually smaller than some of the others.

It is that time

For Spring Break!
It began for me yesterday really since all of my Professors kindly canceled their classes for Friday. Godfrey was not so fortunate; he has an exam to take today. We will be heading back to KC Saturday morning. No real significant plans so far. I will get a guided tour of Park University on Tuesday and hopefully meet some of the Prof's from their Art/GD departments. I might try to go see a High school soccer match, but it looks like it is supposed to rain the entire week. Will probably do a little summer break job hunting while I'm home too; can't start too early with this blah economy. There is a softball tournament here this weekend but I'm not sure I want to go out there, it is not exactly warm out, and it looks like it could rain any time now.

At Last

I'd like to say it has been a slow week but it has not really been. Probably because Spring Break begins this Friday is why time is "slowing".

In Painting we are doing a full blown abstract piece; you could not have found a happier class of people when they were told they could throw paint randomly on a board. Our teacher encouraged students to use a giant brush and their palette knives or other objects to create their paintings. It is certainly a nice break from the continuous still life works.
We have also started a new project in Graphic Design class: the Matchbox holder. It is one thing to have to create a design for a flat purpose, another for the menu.. but this, is a Challenge! We have to design something that actually folds up into a display box to hold objects. We each selected our package designs out of a monster book of cut-outs the Professor has. I think I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to put mine together to determine what folds which way and where and which sections will the graphics appear on. It is by far the most difficult thing I have had to do.
(The photo is from a softball double header yesterday, they beat the other team so bad they ended up mercy ruling both games!)

Well then..

This was one of those strange busy unexciting weeks. I spent most of the week working on a group presentation for my Sociology class. We had to present on the topic of Families; specifically within the Sterling community. We surveyed and video'd a wide variety of people: students, single moms, adopting families, old folks, young families etc. Of course I turned all of our information and images into a Magnificent Powerpoint - yes, I might be bragging.The Professor really enjoyed it but it took too much of his class time away from him.

I felt it was time for another strange photo so, this is an edit of Dario playing tennis at school.

about that storm..

So, we spent all day Saturday at the ball fields watching a double header which ended around 5 PM. There were some clouds rolling in, but they were not the normal ominous storm clouds you usually see in KS when you are about to encounter a substantial thunderstorm. Apparently not many others thought they were menacing either. As we were leaving it started to sprinkle, and then all of a sudden it switched to straight torrents of hail. I had to pull off the road because the road was completely covered in ice. You would think these were winter photos, but it was still over 50 degrees when this stuff started coming down. We saw 3 motorcycles, and we stopped to ask this guy if he wanted to sit in the car until it stopped. I think he was actually enjoying himself though out there in the chaos. Our friend Jordan had also taken his motorcycle to the theater in Hutch to see The Watchmen, when the tornado sirens went off he said they stopped the movie, and he went and got his bike and pushed it into the lobby of the theater before heading to the storm shelter. It was a strange storm, it never got very dark, and there was very little thunder or lighting where we were at when it hit.