Insomnia Is My Inspiration

This week was another pretty relaxed one. I made the mistake of watching Orange is the New Black on Sunday to try and fall asleep so uh... that pretty much took up my life. Thank god there's only one season. My roommate has been having random people show up to our room at four in the morning, so between that and my temporary life-consuming addiction, there wasn't a whole lot of sleep to be had.

Strep has been going around, so I ended up calling in sick to work on Wednesday and worked Friday instead. My boss, Nina, is overseas covering the Mobile World Congress. She was in Barcelona for most of the week, further cementing my new goal to become her mind, body, soul. In the least creepiest way possible, of course. Everyone overcompensated for her absence, so there wasn't a whole lot for me to do this week. I did, however, manage to finish the Sci-Fi Tech Timeline - and it got approved by Samsung, with absolutely no changes needed! Which felt amazing, until it got posted and the uber fans came charging with their complaints in picture choices for the Star Trek film tribute. Life is hard, man. So changes are getting made Monday. I'm slowly accepting that perfection is unreachable... slowly.

Classes have been interesting. In Information Design, we're mapping the experience we had in the library a few weeks ago. The professor didn't give us a whole lot of guidelines with the project, so I researched digital publishing via InDesign and created an interactive e-book with the data. The user flipped the pages by grabbing any edge of the book, and it was really cool. However, despite the lack of instruction, my professor didn't like it so it was back to the drawing board. Now it's more of a photo collage feel, and thanks to Bob from Mashable who let me in on his secret of the interactive asteroid map from about a month ago, I figured out how to make that an interactive experience, too. So basically I self-taught myself two new features for my design work, and I'll gladly take that. In Digital Media II, we handed in our first completed animation and we're gearing up for the professor to teach us the basic walk cycle and lip-syncing. I'm so excited! Then in Art Therapy, we've been working on our Midterm puppet project. Here's a sneak peek at mine! It's like looking in a clay mirror everyday...


Then came the weekend. Sometimes it feels so natural on the train, it's almost like I know where I'm going. By that I mean, I'm in no way awesome at navigating the city, but I'm definitely worlds beyond where I was. Which isn't saying a whole lot. But progress is progress, my people. I was TERRIFIED of what the weather was supposed to be like this weekend, but it actually turned out to be okay. Saturday I putted around Journal Square (Jersey City) and got some shopping and errands done, and built up my confidence to venture into the city Sunday morning. Originally I had planned finally busting out of Manhattan and taking Brooklyn by storm, but most of my friends were either busy prepping for Spring Break and Midterms or weren't having it in what was supposed to be a blizzard. So I decided to fly solo like the fierce falcon I am. As you may have noticed, I have a running bucket list on the right panel of this blog, so I decided to try and knock out a few things. After debating between a few things, and trying to keep things cheap since I'll be heading back to Iowa for Spring Break (poof! goes the paycheck) I decided to make another photo study of my new surroundings. I booked it to Chinatown and managed to stumble across the Manhattan Bridge. If anyone asks, I totally knew that was there and found it on purpose. But thus is the magic of traveling without maps.

Not all those who wander are in fact lost. Which also happened to be my motto at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I find in museums its much more meaningful to kind of find your way into exhibits and be caught off guard by how extensive the collection is - which by the way is the very definition of the Met. Seriously, it could be its own separate country with as much space it contains. I came there way back when I was just a little guy in high school, but my appreciation of art has expanded just a bit since my freshman year. I guess six years has that effect on people. It was incredible. I'd almost say it topped the MoMA, but I'm not sure what could compare with seeing Starry Night (trick question: absolutely nothing).

So that my was my week! Stay tuned, I have to manage to make it to the airport in one piece in my next blog. Fingers crossed this next week brings more sleep my way. After all, there's nothing a little NyQuil can't fix :)