No name

Today I went to Beggars & Choosers in Pittsboro with my mom, which was really great. Anyone who lives in the triangle area should go there ASAP. B&C is in downtown Pittsboro, which is like a smaller version of Hillsborough or a larger version of Stars Hollow. I bought this book "In The City and On the Farm." It's full of Stories To Read like "A Good Grocery Boy" and "Fun on the Farm." It's like DickandJane level, but with BillyandMary instead. It's superb. The illustrations are amazingly 50s, and I can't wait to trace/xerox them for some project. They use some kind of TimesNewRoman-y font that they also used in my kindergarten letterbooks -- seriously, they haven't changed fonts since 1954?

I also bought several neckerchiefs (sp?) and some Christmas presents for my bro. It was nice to be in a different place (ie, not Durham or Rals) for an afternoon, even though we ran into all my bro's Durhamite pals there, which was awkward and funny. In the Bargain Basement I found a beautiful quilted shiny yellow couch that was long and plush and comfy. I thought about buying it for a (maybe) apartment for (maybe) next year. Then I saw that it was $475. Bye bye, dream couch.

The Good and the Bad

In life there are Good Things and Bad Things, right? Right. So, here's a list of some Good and some Bad things that have happened to me recently (since you know I love lists so much).

GOOD:
1. I passed Art History!!! Most of you have heard me whine about the potentiality of failing it multiple times, so I'm really proud that I passed with a 79.5 on the final exam. I want to tell my mom, but she still thinks I'm high-school-straightA-Helen, so she probably wouldn't be as ecstatic as I am.
2. I ate bison for the first time at Alison's last night. And it was delicious.
3. I got boots! Beautiful, suede, brown, scrunchy boots. I'm a little concerned because I have a lot of black/gray pants -- if I wear them with brown boots, that's a fashion faux-pas, right? Whatever.

BAD:
1. Upcoming Wisdom Teeth removal. Tonight T$$$ told me about how he got sick from Percoset, had his "nasal cavity pierced," and had the taste of blood in his mouth for a while. Ew. Ew.
2. I'm spending too much money. And I still don't know what to get for my brother for Christmas. Aaaah.
3. Leia has another Gross Open Wound. Leia is my little cat that had this Open Wound that would NOT GO AWAY, so we had to put a sad huge cone collar on her. It healed, but now she has another Gross Open Wound. Poor baby! I hope she doesn't have to have another huge collar over Christmas....because she knows what Christmas is, of course...

I forgot about My Mathematical Mind

And about Spoon in general, for some reason. But now I'm obsessed again. Break has been great so far -- Since I have my laptop and Big Huge MacPro at home, I'm transferring my laptop music to my naked MacPro itunes. So I did 50 Cent through Elliot Smith, then got bored and decided to go backwards from YeahYeahYeahs through Ratatat. So I guess I have E-R still to go? Or something.

Okay this has been officially the most boring and pointless blog post ever. However, everyone needs to listen to Spoon. Yes, you. Go. Right now. Do it.

Xmas spiwit****

****This little girl we used to know had a pony called "Spirit," but had some kind of lazy "r" so she called him "Spiwit." Now, every time someone in my family says the word "spirit" they pronounce it as "spiwit." I'm so glad we do.

The power just came back on, so I felt the need to blog. Even though we were decorating the tree/house with Christmas decorations, and I had no need for electronics at that particular time, I admit I panicked a little. Plus the whole we-need-heat-and-just-bought-a-crapload-of-groceries thing was running through my mind. I kept having flashbacks to 6th grade when we had that big ice storm and our power went out for a WEEK AND A HALF, even though most of our neighbors had power (wtf). We boiled potatoes and soup in water over our fire, and all bunked down in our living room. Yeah. That was fun for about 26 hours.

ANYWAY it's back on now, so HEY INTERNETZ. I love you. I missed you. I felt so lost without you. Oh, and at the top of the page look at a really great photo of our cement snail, aptly named Snaily, with some antlers to get you all in the Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa spiwit.

Embarrassing Moment #475858

Oh God, oh God. I just had a really awkward moment in Francesca's, a coffee shop in Durham. So here I am trying to write on the Typography blog (okay, fine, Facebook), and get some Neko Case going, but I didn't quite have my headphones plugged in all the way, so Neko Case comes blasting out of my tiny laptop, and ALL THESE GROWNUPS STARE AND FROWN. The worst part was that I had Neko up on both YouTube AND Myspace (thinking only one would work), but BOTH came blasting out, obviously not in sync. So. Embarrassing. I'm sorry, everyone. Sorry that I disturbed your artsy Durham peace. I guess that's what Raleigh Bitches do. So here I am, shamefully blogging and trying not to make eye contact with anyone here. Sigh. At least it's Winter Break!

Why can't I write in anything but lists?

This has got to be a helenfear record -- another blog within twenty minutes of the first one. WAAAOW.
TOP FIVES OF 2007, in no particular order:

TOP FIVE SONGS
1. Bucky Done Gun - M.I.A.
2. Seventeen Years - Ratatat
3. My doorbell - White Stripes
4. Satellite (remix courtesy Rob) - Guster
5. Stronger - Kanye West

Also, my favorite person this year: Saja Hindi, no doubt.

TOP FIVE WINTER GARMENTS
1. brown boots
2. turtlenecks
3. scarves, lightweight or fuzzy
4. pins from Vaguely Reminiscent in d-town
5. Alison's yellow jacket

TOP FIVE MISC DISCOVERIES OF 2007
1. a "segway" (ie, segwaying into one discussion topic from another) is actually spelled S-E-G-U-E
2. it is always N.C. State. Not NC State.
3. Art history is The Worst Class Ever
4. That hill in front of Tompkins/Winston/Caldwell is killer.
5. Saying "yes" to "delete all color information" is ALWAYS a bad idea.

TOP FIVE COLORS
1. C, M, Y together
2. Light green
3. Black. Or is that not technically a color? I don't know. Good job Fundamentals.
4. Ice blue and sea green
5. 5-5-15-0

TOP FIVE PLACES TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME
1. Lily's pizza
2. Laura and Steph's apartment
3. 323 Witherspoon
4. Third Place
5. STUDIO!

TOP FIVE BEVERAGES
1. Peppermint Mocha - Starbuck's
2. Raspberry Mocah (iced) - Global Village
3. Michelob Ultra - from my favorite coworkers and friends
4. 79 cent coffee/hot choc mix - Bragaw c-store
5. Orange Fanta - Witherspoon vending machine

TOP FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT SEMESTER
1. Not focusing (HA!) solely on the camera in studio
2. Designing and working with Laura P.
3. Taking Intro to Equine Mngmt!
4. Wearing Christmas boots
5. THE OLYMPICS. I love the Olympics! The world is so united for a short time. I just love it.

What I've learned

Dear darling blog,

Sorry I've neglected you for a while. I've been busy not sleeping and printing everything I have ever designed. So since the semester's almost over, and I can't sleep, I thought I'd document what I've learned these past few months:

1. How to plot something. The plotter is a long, thin, shiny black machine that is sometimes a friend and mostly a foe. Printing on it requires the changing of many settings so that the plotter understands what it has to do. Sometimes it will get confused and will print your concept map and chop it HORIZONTALLY instead of VERTICALLY and will spit out TEN FEET of paper behind it. Not that that happened to me two nights ago or anything.

2. How to bandage effectively. I was pretty confident in my equine bandaging abilities, but until Alison sliced her finger open with an exacto knife the other day, I didn't know about my human medical care. I think I'm a little bit sick for enjoying it, but Alison would have passed out in the architecture bathroom if I hadn't been there with my purple bag of first aid stuff.

3. The difference between registration black and flat black. Yes, I learned this with an alt-box drama in Technician this summer, but the bs-color-1 printing some of my book's spreads in flat black and some in registration black was a nice reminder.

4. Everything about a camera (except how to actually take photos). After focusing on this object in all three design courses, I can safely tell you everything you want to know about parts of the camera, social rules for posing, developing vs. uploading, and camera accessories. However, we learned NOTHING about photography in Imaging, which I find slightly ironic (insert Alanis lyrics here).

5. How amazing M.I.A. is. I think I played "Jimmy" for three hours straight one day. I think everyone at my table made fun of me. I think Maggie made up sick hand moves for "Paper Planes." I think putting bonus M.I.A. tracks on Transfer is the best. I think I love M.I.A.

6. That a baby turkey is actually a "poult." And that making an infographic about turkeys is surprisingly fun.

7. There's another solar system out there. And the sun is called Cancri 55. Or something.

8. How to barbecue a pig in time for kickoff. And that "geocaching" is a really neat treasure hunt for grown-ups.
And that Science & Tech has made me a more interesting and knowledgeable human being.

9. How amazing YouTube is. After your second all-nighter, you tend to run out of music to listen to. Solution? YouTube everything you want to hear but don't own. Suggestions? Faded (SoulDecision), Larger than life (BSB), Check up on it (Beyonce), Gangster Paradise (Coolio).

10. How much I love everyone in my studio. I'm really glad I got to know more people in studio...I made some new friends that I didn't think I would ever care to talk to. I'm glad that I made an effort, especially in these last few weeks.