This is it: my last essay of my college career. That’s it. I’m done. It took a bit longer to write partly because I didn’t want the classes to end, and partly because I kept forgetting that I was watching a movie for the purposes of writing a paper instead of pure entertainment.
So without further ado, I present my essay on the music of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Putting the finishing touches on my portfolio, I only just realized that I’m missing an essay from a year ago that I never published online. It is an ethical look at the illegal downloading of ebooks and how to help the industry change. Let me know if you have any comments!
It has been a while since I’ve written anything on this blog, and for good reason. Instead of writing here, I’ve been writing my senior thesis —and it’s finally done. If you don’t want to read a 22 page paper, feel free to view my more concise Prezi presentation.
While at school & cooking for myself, sometimes I’ve gotten inventive. Today was one of those days, equipped with turkey burgers and the ever-popular pop & bake biscuits. What did I make? Well, I’m not sure what to call it other than Turkey, Spinach, and Cheese-filled Biscuits. (I suppose descriptive titles are satisfactory.)
To accomplish this, I cooked the turkey burger with some spices (I use Morton’s Nature Seasons a lot, so I used this today) until it was almost done and chopped it up. While that was cooking I preheated the oven to 350° F (like the biscuit tin says) and opened a tube of Pillsbury biscuits (this time they were the flakey kind) and split them each in half so they were essentially shorter (the flakey kind makes this easier to do). I greased my muffin tins and put one half of a biscuit in each place, and subsequently divided the meat into each. (I found one turkey burger is enough for 6 “muffins.”) I then added a few leaves of spinach and some grated mozzarella, careful not to go over the edge of each piece of dough. Once everything was in, I put another half-biscuit on top, doing my best to push the edges of the top and bottom biscuits together. After 14 minutes (the biscuit tin said 14–17 minutes so I went by that) the stuffed biscuits were ready. After a minute or so they were cool enough to pick up and eat—which, of course, I did.
This recipe is pretty limitless, as there are so many different ingredients that can go with these biscuits. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment below—I’d be interested in discovering new possibilities.
Today was a snow day here, even though I wouldn’t have had classes anyway. On my way to work I decided to take some photos of the wintery campus. I didn’t realize until afterwards that the entire right side of my phone lens was smudged, but I think the photos look pretty great all the same.
I enjoyed walking in the snow, so much so that I didn’t like walking on the already-shoveled walkways. This was mostly because the plowed surfaces felt slipperier than the soft snow itself. I wouldn’t want to drive in this weather, especially with plenty of people without four wheel drive all around me, but walking was pretty calming and—let’s face it—beautiful.
As I have said before, I was in a music history course last semester. As I am also in an honors program here at college, I was required to create an honors-worthy project that had to do with the course. As I am also a graphic design major, I was interested in studying how bands were marketed with their album covers. I am also interested in gender differences and therefore looked at how female bands were marketed. The timeframe I chose—the 1960s—is due to the class’ studied timeframe. I do not claim to be an expert in gender studies, as I’ve only taken one course in the matter, so please don’t take my essay as proof of anything.
So far I have posted two other essays, “Country Music’s Northern Redemption” and “Technology and Music in the Early Twentieth Century.” If you liked this essay, you may like those as well.
Due to the nature of my majors in college—Graphic Design and Music Studies—I tend to not write many papers. However, if I am to write any papers it is most likely for them to be about music. My last paper I added to this blog, “Country Music’s Northern Redemption,” was written as a midterm paper for my music of pop & rock class. The following paper, “Technology and Music in the Early Twentieth Century,” was the final paper for the same class. In the paper I discuss how music and the technology behind its recording changed in relation to one another, sort of like “form follows function.” In some cases, function follows the form when it comes to music technology.
Soon I will be uploading another essay relating to popular music history, so check back soon!
Last semester one of my classes was a 3D animation class. While it was very interesting, I found that I should probably stick to two-dimensional and static art. Despite my inadequacies, I still managed to create a 51 second video for my final project.
This may seem like an odd video, but it’s loosely based on my friend, as we joke that she is a robot. She also has a recurring dream that she is on fire—however this fire is not harmful, just an annoyance. Therefore, robot on fire.
At some point I plan to fix certain things in this animation, but for now I think it’s fine as it is.
Instead of studying for my only—yet easy—final, I have finally gotten around to putting more of my designs out for people to see and buy. Some I’ve had for a while and just hadn’t done anything except let it sit on my computer, and one was a class project from this past semester.
Today I even took the time to make another design which I’ve been meaning to for a while. This quote is from Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and it’s been sitting in my “projects to do” folder for ages.
But I joined Society6 last night after discovering how many great products there are besides prints and shirts. There are pillows, bags, and mugs along with the usual device cases. I uploaded my Type & Stripes design set that is also on Spoonflower for wrapping paper, mainly so that it could be turned into a mug.
I still have the Hectic Glow poster on there, of course, and I think it looks great as a pillow. I just hope one day I have the expendable money to buy some of these things myself. I mean, how great would it be to drink tea out of my own typography mug every day? Buying and using my own wrapping paper was great, and I can’t wait to do more of that as a graphic designer in the future.
If you’re interested in any of these designs, please check out my Society6 and Redbubble page. Both accounts have different products, even if some designs are the same, so pick whichever is best for you! And if you’re interested in my Type & Stripes wrapping paper, have a look at Spoonflower.
Though today is Tuesday, it isn’t a busy Tuesday where I have work for hours and also have to go to class. This is only for one reason: it’s the beginning of Thanksgiving break. Unfortunately, today was a rainy day which made everything feel that much colder, but at least I was shielded by my clear umbrella.
I still had my classes today, but at least I didn’t have to worry about work while I was also working on packing. Tomorrow morning I will drive back home, most likely in more rain, and then I will finally be home and be able to have a break longer than just the weekend to see some friends and family before the end of the semester kicks in.
mezzotessitura 