Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Getting Older

So yesterday was my boyfriend's 22nd birthday. It's funny that i'm actually older than him by six months to the exact day. My birthday is Sept. 24th and his is March 24th. We've been together for almost 5 years, it will be in July. I moved up to NY to live with him and to find better work and school situations than what I had in NC. Yesterday was hell because I had class from 10 am to 6 pm, then went to dinner from there and to the movies after that for his birthday. From 10 pm to 6 am I was doing homework. At least he enjoyed his birthday.
On a side-note, don't go and watch "Knowing", the new Nicholas Cage movie. It starts off with a good premise and is pretty suspenseful but the ending was downright laughable!

Longing

I would love to know more about what my grandfather did in his lifetime, maybe one day with enough persistence I can get my dad to break down those barriers. There's just something about Italians, or even cops for that matter, and their value of secrecy and privacy. Their background makes it very hard to trust anyone with any sort of information, and this makes me sort of sad because myself and my brother lose out in the process.

My Family

My immediate family consists of my mom & dad, who split when i was twelve (rather abruptly). I have two brothers currently, a 34 year-old half-brother from my father and a 17 year-old brother from my parents. I also have a soon-to-be half sister from my mom who just recently remarried. The black dog is my childhood lab/chow mix who's about 11 now and feeling her age. The brown dog is my puppy with my boyfriend who is about twoish, adorable but afraid of EVERYTHING!

Hm?

I don't understand why Facebook keeps changing their format. Twitter's purpose is basically a status update feed for you to see what your friends are up to. Facebook has taken this concept over and is making it one huge feed now. Every time they change it I see lots of people posting protesting the changes, but they use it anyway. Its just a tool for everyone to be nosy and see what people are doing. Now if someone has a crush on a person, they just obsessively read their facebook instead of actually talking to them and finding out what is inside their heads. I too can be guilty of this, but at least i'm aware of this issue.

Agony

So I think i need to sue my orthopedist. I have tendonitis in my left wrist, which makes it very painful to write (since i am left handed) as well as open bottles and lift heavy things. Being a theater major and having to work in the shop is very difficult to do with this, especially since i hate saying "hey, i can't do that because of blah blah..". So in order to expedite my recovery I was given a cortisol shot two months ago. In the last two weeks the area where i got the shot has turned red and purple, the skin is very dry and sensitive. I go back to the doctor and he tells me that I had a rare reaction to the cortisol which de-pigmentates the skin on my wrist and also dissolved the fat in that area. I cannot expose this spot to the sun now at all because there is no pigment in my wrist to protect me from it, also it is very thin and delicate, making it very easy to scratch or cut open. So not only do i have these side effects to deal with but the shot was rendered ineffective, making it impossible to get one again. I did physical therapy once before and it help with the pain but only slightly. If the anti-inflamitory he gave me does not help it looks like my only option left is to get surgery, most likely this summer. Luckily the injury was declared work-related so i don't have to pay for any of the medical bills and i can go on disability, but i shouldn't have to! FML

Video Project Pt. 3

Here's the latest one; i've taken the old song off and put up some garage band music in the background. It's not quite finished, I still need to either do a voiceover, but i'd rather do a little video narrative in the beginning, explaining what I'm trying to get across with this video.





This is the second video i've made so far. Due to copyrighting garbage i have to take the song off of the background, as much as I love having it on there. Also I need to add more video to make it more historically personal to me.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Video #1

So currently the project I have been developing is a video/slide show using my comics to narrarate my family history in a more visual form. Heres the first rough version I created.


Family History Progression

So I tried to find out from my dad about my Italian grandfather, but anytime I ask about his past, all I get is "I don't remember". It is very frustrating, not knowing an entire half of your history while you're actually willing to find it out. All I do know is that he is from Bari, Italy and he died when my dad was around 15/17 years old. I don't think he learned very much English, and he lived in Brooklyn, where my dad was born. Since my dad was born in 1945 I can make an educated assumption that he came "off the boat" around 5 years prior to that, maybe longer. I also know from my mom that my grandfather was much older than my dad, and my dad is the youngest of 4 siblings, two of which i did not even know existed until recently. My dad is a very secluded man and can be sort of spiteful, so these family members are pretty much on a "do not mention" understanding. I would love to know more about what my grandfather did in his lifetime, maybe one day with enough persistence I can get my dad to break down those barriers. There's just something about Italians, or even cops for that matter, and their value of secrecy and privacy. Their background makes it very hard to trust anyone with any sort of information, and this makes me sort of sad because myself and my brother lose out in the process.

More comic slides

I didn't have enough slides to make a visual story, so i made a few more, now that i know how to use comic life properly. Only problem is that i can't make anymore because the trial version expired! There are so many open source programs out there, it'd be nice if there were a comic life-ish one.












Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Orpheus & Eurydice

so here is the latest project for THR 216, a comic book using family photos with the theme of the underworld and the story of Orpheus.  I ran sorta dry on parallels to my own life but this is what i came up with.














Italia




























So i am 50% Italian from my father's side, so i've always felt some sort of connection to the ancient architecture.  Besides the photos of my grandfather & step-grandmother, most of the pictures are recent and of my immediate family.  We're a pretty independent family so we're not as close as most families, but regardless they're mine and i wouldn't trade them for the world.


My family consists of my mom & dad, who split when i was twelve (rather abruptly).  I have two brothers currently, a 34 year-old half-brother from my father and a 17 year-old brother from my parents.  I also have a soon-to-be half sister from my mom who just recently remarried.  The black dog is my childhood lab/chow mix who's about 11 now and feeling her age.  The brown dog is my puppy with my boyfriend who is about twoish, adorable but afraid of EVERYTHING!


catching up to do


sooo i'm really really far behind on this, so i'm just going to put together a series of events and projects that i've been working on....  

since the beginning of the semester i have been sick with some ridiculous plague of a sinus infection.  It went away and came back three times, but finally after getting a doctor that gave a crap and some steroids to amp up the antibiotics, i'm feeling better than i have all month.  Being sick made me very tired, and as a result, very lazy.  It amazes me that in 2009 i could have some sort of mutant and yet simple sinus infection that knocks me on my ass so hard it's still hard for me to breathe when i lay down.

Professor Baldwin's class moves at such a pace that it makes my head spin.  We go through so many intense concepts of society along with the newest artistic & creative softwares that the hardest part of the class is keeping everything straight.  So this post is the first in this series of me busting my ass trying to catch up and get a real grasp on in what way i am supposed to be thinking/working.