merry christmas!

Every year my family watches "Scrooge" on Christmas Eve. It's our favorite movie version of A Christmas Carol. We've been watching it since I was 4 years old. My mother had recorded it off the tv onto a vhs tape, which may still be hanging out in a closet somewhere in my parents' house (we've finally upgraded to a dvd version). If you haven't seen it you're missing out. Seriously. Albert Finney is so great as Ebenezer Scrooge, and this version may have my favorite interpretation of Bob Cratchit ever. Here's a little taste for you. 

Also, someone has uploaded the entire thing onto youtube, if you feel so inclined to watch it from beginning to end.

what the &@#!

Things I expect to happen while at the beach:

-get a tan

-maybe go in the water

-catch up on my magazine reading

-listen to some music

Things I don't expect to happen while at the beach:

-have my half-eaten lunch taken suddenly from my hand by a seagull and two if his wing-men. (No pun intended)

Merry Christmas to me. Thanks Seagulls.

it was fantastic

I couldn’t stop smiling. From the second it started to the time I got home I was simply delighted. Really it started a few months ago when I first heard it was happening. Had it really been so long? And why was I so excited? Oh wait, I know why. 

And so it happened last night. I went to see the new Muppet movie, and it was everything I could have hoped for. Music, dancing, parody, celebrity cameos, Piggy’s fantastic wigs, and even a few moments where I got a little teary-eyed. But not teary-eyed for some sad or tender plot point. No. Teary over how happy I was that almost fifty years ago a man and his friend began creating the creatures we now know and love as the Muppets. And happy that this new movie is essentially an hour and half tribute to his work and memory. And it’s fantastic. 

So thanks Jim. You would be proud.

nice surprise

I saw a lovely rainbow on the way home from school today. I feel like it's been a while since I've seen one. Since I'm usually pretty frustrated with the traffic when I drive home from school at certain times of day it was nice to have something pretty to look at for at least part of the drive.

Things I think about when I see a rainbow:

1. Noah's ark

2. Leprechauns

3. Prisms

4. That double rainbow video that was popular on youtube a while back

i'm out of juice

. . . writing juice that is. Between a big research paper, a long essay, and weekly discussion posts online (all for the same class) my brain can't handle words at the moment.

So you get to look at pictures.

These are some of my favorites.

childhood fantasies

 Last night I got caught up watching the "Greatest Hard Rock Songs Ever" or something like that countdown on VH1 Classic. I blame it on being on vacation and sometimes feeling like I'm 13 again and just wanting to sit by the pool and then come inside and waste my afternoon away watching music videos ( If only it were 1994 again and MTV and VH1 still played music videos. But that's a discussion for some other time.)

In reality it's because of my not-so-secret dream of becoming a rock star. This is being partially fulfilled by the pseudo band practices I have with two friends. It's super fun, and we've even played for an audience on one occasion. (Not a paying audience, don't be ridiculous) We're planning for a second performance at some point. So free up your calendars people, it's going to be epic. And when I say epic I mean probably in someone's basement again.

In case you were wondering, the #1 greatest hard rock song according to the countdown: "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses.  Though it does rock I prefer the #2 choice: "Back in Black" by AC/DC, which I sometimes (I mean always) play air guitar to when I hear it. Which is usually in the car.

I really should get tinted windows. 

things accomplished while on vacation

1. Got a tan. 

This was much needed given how many hours I've spent indoors 

in front of a computer screen for the past two and a half months. Vitamin D anyone?

 

2. Caught up on my reading.

2 1/2 books, 3 issues of Rolling Stone.

 

3. Saw some tigers.

There's nothing like some cute animals to put me in a good mood. Really, ask my roommate. She was witness to my giddiness over the creatures. I don't know what else to say. There's just something about zoo animals.

 

4. Purchased a white blazer. 

 

And on sale! I've been looking for a white blazer/jacket that I liked and wasn't crazy expensive for quite a few years now. So thank you New York & Co. It will be put to good use. Maybe some day I'll look as cool as Albert Hammond Jr.

 

5. Watched some tutorials.

So apparently I can't go on vacation and stop thinking about school.  Maybe it's cause I sill feel like I have so much to learn. Luckily I have a free subscription to Lynda.com through my school and can watch tutorials to continue learning After Effects even when I'm not in class.  I now know how to animate a rather convincing fireball. Be impressed, people.

why I went to art school

I'm not the best at admitting my weaknesses. Blame it on my Argentinean pride. But there is one thing I know I do terribly, and that's writing. I know what you're thinking "But Jackie, your blog is so awesome, the words flow like (insert appropriate simile here), you must have years and years of blogging/writing/wooing others with your words experience." Not so my friends.


So I find myself back in school and having to write not only an essay (which I'm supposed to be working on right now but felt the urge to vent to cyberspace for a moment instead) but also two, count them, TWO research papers.  I thought attending art school was going to stay in line with my goal of never having to write for school ever again.


Apparently not.


Kill me now.

back in the saddle

In about a week from now I start graduate school . . . again . . . sort of.  So, if you're my friend and you thought I was still in school it means we haven't talked in a really long time. If you didn't even know I was in school for part of last year it means we haven't talked in a really, really long time. My apologies. Seriously. When things in my life aren't going the way I think they should I tend to shut people out and hide in my jackie cave until I can get things figured out. I have some issues. We can discuss those at some later date if you're actually interested.

So starting March 28th I'll be a student in the Motion Media Design program at SCAD. (here's where I hope no one who is reading this is stalking me, since I've just told you where I'm going to be spending the majority of my time for the next year. If you are stalking me . . . thanks . . . I'm a little flattered.)

And this is what I will be studying:
Motion graphics are graphics that use video and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or a transforming appearance

That's the short version of what I'll be doing, which really I should memorize, because people keep asking me what I'm going into and I've realized I'm fairly inept at explaining it to them. Darn my inability to communicate in a way that others besides me can understand! So, If you feel like reading more about it you may go here or here.

So I'm excited, and nervous, and also slightly in denial of the fact that I'm going to be back in school. Also, if again you don't hear from me for a long time it hopefully won't be because I'm having some sort of existential crisis but merely stuck in front of a computer screen creating something awesome.

in case you were wondering

The Mars bar was discontinued in the United States in 2002 but was relaunched last year. 

(am I the only one who notices when candy bars disappear? Peanut-Butter-Twix anyone?)

The American version of the Mars bar is not the same as the one sold in the UK. 

So if you're looking for that signature black wrapper and red lettering you're going to be searching for a long time (unless you're in the imported/ethnic foods section of certain stores. If that's where you are then you shouldn't be having this problem, and can stop reading this blog post, and go ahead and eat your candy bar).

Though the American version is pretty different, I found the white nougat quite enjoyable.

This may be due to the fact that I consumed it at that around 3pm, which is when I almost regularly crave a chocolate fix.

Also, thanks Amanda for providing said candy bar.

Also, also, the Mars bar is being sold exclusively through Walmart stores. 

directions please

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said "The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

So I'm getting a GPS. 

 

This will hopefully solve some of my directional problems. At least the figure-out-how-to-not-get-lost-through-the-non-grid-atlanta-metro-area kind of problems.

As for the rest of my life, I'm still working on it.

 

 

also, Garmin or TomTom?

so sometimes . . .

. . . I'm a little clumsy. For example, I regularly bump into door knobs, coffee tables, bed posts, drawers that are slightly open (probably because I didn't close them all the way), etc. This I've gotten used to since it happens so often I usually don't even notice until I find a mysterious bruise somewhere on my person. A depth perception problem perhaps? I don't really know.

Here's what I do know. There may or may not be a small welt on my face resulting from my hitting myself in the face with the car door today. I also may have had to put some ice on my face at work. It may turn into a bruise (though porbably not, it doesn't really hurt).

The really sad thing about this? This is not the first time I've hit myself in the face with a car door.

The mocking may now commence.

I deserve it.

of course it did

Do you ever have one of those days when things just don't go as planned? I sure do. More often than I think I should. Like yesterday.

It all started out fine. I went to work as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. But somehow, once it hit 5:00 pm it was all downhill from there.

So I'm moving into a new apartment this week, and yesterday I needed to stop by the leasing office to take care of some paper work.  I also wanted to drop some stuff off at the new place. Totally normal plans. Until I got stopped in traffic for an hour, literally a few feet away from my destination. There was some sort of power outage throughout the blocks in which the apartments are situated. All of the cars were being rerouted by a police officer.

Well, I eventually make it (though the leasing office was closed by this point). My new roommate could at least let me in to drop off my stuff. So, ok, crisis averted.

Next on my list was to get home with enough time to eat dinner and clean up a little before my home teachers came over. So I'm driving on the freeway (all of this so far has happened in the rain, by the way) and screetch! my windshield wipers decide this would be the best time to stop working. Like, completely stop working. No movement, at all. I had to stop somewhere to move them down so they wouldn't be just sitting mid-wipe on my windshield.

Luckily I was almost home, and got there safely. That had to be the end, right? Oh no.

I had to deal with the killing of a rather large cockroach in my apartment minutes after I got home. It didn't seem alarmed at all as I approched it with my can of bug spray. It kind of acted like it was not a big deal that it was there.

Of course it did.

hit the ground running

Today was Day 1 in my walk/jog interval training.  How did I feel when I was done? a little bit like I wanted to puke. But that's pretty standard for me after I jog. You see, I have the worst endurance for running. But I wish I was good at it. However, in order to get good at it you have to do it regularly. It's lose lose. 

So a few weeks ago I stumbled upon an article about a 10 week program you can do to build up your running endurance. Every day you do 30 minutes of alternating walking/jogging. Every week you increase the amount of minutes you spend jogging. By the end of the ten weeks you should be able to jog (at a good pace) for 30 minutes without stopping.

Now, for those of you who are mocking at the simplicity of this task, you can just go read someone else's blog. For me being able to jog for 30 minutes without stopping is close to a miracle. In my younger years when I was in better shape I could come close to it. But I always had to take breaks to walk. Even in my best shape I've not been able to do it. I think it's psychological, actually. I can exercise for 30 minutes, even longer than that. But I can't do it just straight running.  

So we'll see how this goes. 

Wish me luck.

I need it.