My life update pt. 2

I changed schools. I left Portfolio Center and now I attend The Creative Circus. It was a really hard decision. It was one I wish I didn't have to make. But I just felt like I would get more for my money over at the Circus so I left. Some students and faculty back at PC were cool about it, some were not. I wish it didn't have to be that way. I wish people didn't take it however they took it that resulted in a change in their attitude. But oh well, crap happens.

I like Creative Circus but I'm new. That's the part I don't like. Yeah, I was new at PC once, but I came in with a bunch of new people. So we had each other. Now, at Circus, I'm a transfer, which is extra awkward (in my opinion). People are nice but I feel as though everything I do is being judged, by the students. I think people are looking at my stuff, like - is this how they're doing stuff over at PC? And I feel stressed about giving PC a bad name. I don't know why, I just feel that way. It could be all made up in my mind, but I doubt it.

Hopefully, next quarter I won't be so new and so out of my mind with life worries that I can push forward with building the best book I can build. In the end, I'm not so worried about making friends, I just want a damn good job. And I have no problem saying that I got my education from both PC and Creative Circus. It is what it is.

But just when I thought I was getting used to Circus life, my mom called and gave me something new to worry about...

4th Quarter...

Yesterday was my first day of 4th quarter. It was cool, I had a night class but it rocked! It was Motion (After Effects), and we're learning how to make animated videos for broadcast. The first thing we did was to make this little square move around; I clapped when I saw my square turning all kinds of flips! It was so exciting. Oh, and I got my critique scores back and I finally received my first 10! I was happy about that.

*My first day of school shirt*

In other news, the night before school started I had this wonderful dream that a new guy (a sexy, funny, handsome, perfect-for-Tracie guy) named Deon had started at PC. In the dream I went to school to register and instantly noticed him through all of the people packed into Los Angeles (our classrooms are named after cities). He was talking to another new guy, but never let his eyes leave me. As I was standing in line, he approached me, introduced himself, and we talked. He was a writer, so we had a lot to talk about. He asked me out for lunch and I agreed, but I told him we probably wouldn't be able to go out much more after his first class with Miss Sylvia.
Somehow the dream fast-forwards (you know how dreams do that - or maybe I've forgotten some parts) to me helping him cut paper for Miss Sylvia's class at his place, which looked a whole lot like my place.

My dream was cut short when I received a text message from Karelia saying that her new roommate, Tim, whom I've already met and beaten at Scrabble (teehee) was the only new black guy this quarter. Damn. Where was Deon? My friend Tyrese says he probably changed his mind and went to Circus (Creative Circus). Meredith said maybe he's not a student, but like a new janitor or something, thanks Mer.

I always say I'm a little psychic, but it's probably more wishful thinking than psychic ability. Sometimes I can predict something and it happens, but sometimes I guess it's just a dream. I was once so convinced that I was about to win the lottery (Mega Millions) that when I didn't win and realized that I had to go back to work, I was hella sad, damn near depressed. My MooMoo sent me flowers the next day at work saying "It's okay you didn't win the lottery, maybe next time." She's the only person who gets me.

OH NOOOO!!!

School starts back on Monday! What the eff?
Where did the time go? I guess I slept it all away.

I was supposed to have done a mini-book of my work for this scholarship opportunity that's coming up in October. I've never done a mini-book, so I don't know what I'm doing. All I've done is made a list of what I want to include in my book, but the actual book-forming, I don't have a clue.

I think I know in my head what I want; making it a reality, however, is a different thing.
We'll see how this goes.

Oh my damn! I'm about to be 4th Quarter! AAAAAAaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

3rd Quarter Rap UP!

3rd quarter is OVERRRR!!!!

Oh my damn! This one was a toughie y'all. When I counted up everything, I had 39 deliverables! GEEZ! My critique went great. I was kind of nervous because I thought I would go over the 20 minutes we are given to deliver our projects to the panel. I did go over, but not by much, so it was okay.

Overall, the panel loved my Darfur poster! If you can recall, this was the poster that got torn apart during the second week of classes when our teacher called in upper quarter students, teachers, and a regular guy (non-designer) to judge our work. I wrote about it. After going through so many concepts for that poster, it feels good to know that something I thought up turned out so well.

My Darfur Poster:

The panel also loved my blog. For those of you who don't know, I only started this blog for my blogging class. We were supposed to try to talk about something interesting (I picked me), have a couple of features (Friday Rap Up and the occasional Thursday 13), and generate traffic (hey y'all!). I've had so much fun writing this blog (I was not looking forward to it initially) and I'm glad that other people enjoy it as well. Now I have a great blog that I look forward to taking as far as it can go.

This was the hardest quarter I've had to date, but in the end it feels wonderful to know that I did it, and did it well. YAY!

This rap up is a little different. I showed this in my critique; it summed up my 3rd quarter for the panel. It might not be that entertaining for those of you who have never attended PC, but hey, you win some and you lose some. At least my hair is semi-cute. Here it is, enjoy.

I'll be back.

Hey everybody,

I've been working my butt off trying to get everything done for my critique which is TOMORROW!!! I had 2 group critiques tonight, but my groups were on point all quarter (I got lucky). It went well; I got a little tongue-tied in the middle of saying some stuff and had to take that awkward start over breath, but it was fine. You're always your worst critic right?

I know you guys are probably mad at me because I haven't been blogging very often. I can only ask for your patience while I finish off the hardest quarter I've had to date. I promise there'll be oodles of fun stuff when my break begins. I can't wait! I know, neither can you.

traciemae

OH! I got my hair done and quite a bit has been CUT OFF! YAY (no more naps) and YIKES (hair is short) at the same time!

Friday Rap Up - Rock Yo Thumb Drive

Hey everyone!
As you can see it's 5 am and I'm still up. Studio week so far has been crazy! Today (well really yesterday) my classmates saw me running around like a wild woman trying to print out 4 posters and tile them together before my individual meeting with Kuperminc (my design teacher). They were all like, "We've never seen you run like that before!" Exercise isn't my thing, but I can still get a little pep in my step every now and then.

Also, this week I've been noticing more people around school wearing their thumb drives (or flash drives) around their necks. I always wear mine (if I bring it at all), so I thought it'd be cool if everybody just started wearing thumb drives as the new "hot" accessory.

"Eff platinum chains! I'm rocking 8 gigs," the people will shout.
Rappers will start rhyming about how many gigs their drives can hold. Me? I have a one gig. I think I erase something from it on a daily basis in order to save something new. Maybe I'll get another one and rock TWO - beat that!

So if this catches on, you saw it here first! Score!

Studio Week!!!!!!!

It is now officially studio week at my school. Studio week is that crazy week of non-stop work we get in order to prepare for our critiques the following week. I've made a list and I have approximately 25 projects (everything from writing radio scripts to designing posters) due by my critique next Wednesday.

I've never had this much to present at critique and I'm hella nervous about pretty much everything. I can only try to do my absolute best and try to have everything look, and sound, as professional as possible.

PC ain't playin y'all. They got a sista running around crazy!

It's crunch time.

People that don't go to PC don't seem to understand how heavy a workload I have. They get mad when I won't stop what I'm doing to go see them, offended when I refuse to talk to them on the phone for hours and hours, and highly upset when I won't let them come over to "chill" when I gots work to do. Frankly my people, I don't give a damn. I wrote a myspace blog almost a year ago telling folks that I'm on a journey and it's up to them to be there when I get back (or not).

Yeah, it all may sound like arts and crafts to you, non PC-goer. But to me, it's so much more than that, and much more difficult than you could ever imagine. So don't take my work ethic as avoidance or selfishness (Isn't it more selfish for you to want me to stop working to be with you?), take it for what it is: hardwork.

If you can't stand the heat, please get out of my kitchen (with the quickness).

I told the truth.

In my email to Kuperminc I told her why I missed class. I always try to be upfront. There's no reason to make up wild stories about death and diseases, so I emailed her and told her I didn't come to class because I hadn't completed all of the work.

Here's her reply:

Hi Tracie:
Thanks for your message. I understand how you feel, but in the future, please do NOT miss class, even if you feel like you have not gotten enough done. Part of the purpose of class is to get you UNSTUCK, so you are doing yourself a disservice when you skip. I look forward to seeing you this week.
take care,
Melissa

I feel what she's saying, the class could've helped me get more ideas so that I could've gone further with the poster for next time even though I didn't do anything with it. I think we've all been in a place where you just feel so unprepared that you'd just rather fake sick or have somebody "die" to save face. It's a sad truth and maybe something I need to work on. Fellow PC students, let's all try to work on this for the remainder of our PC careers. If nothing else, we'll all develop a really thick skin (for those of us who haven't already).

I won't miss anymore classes Melissa!!!! I promise!

My data blitz

At Portfolio Center (my school), certain kids get selected to do what's called a data blitz. It's supposed to help the other students get to know you a little bit better; maybe it gives insight to your personal world, or it could just talk about your experiences at school. It could be whatever you want it to be. I think almost every student prays that their name will not be called as it means extra work thinking of something to do, and actually getting it done on top of every other assignment you have at PC. THEN, as if that weren't enough, you have to present your data blitz to the entire school before seminar. Well, last quarter my name got called but I didn't get to present my data blitz until this quarter, today.

It went over way better than I expected. See, I'd watched it so much myself that I thought it wasn't funny anymore. But PC enjoyed it, even Hank (my school President) laughed a couple of times!

Anyway, here it is for all to enjoy again, and again.