Hand-Lettering Like a Boss...ish

I have recently been working on my hand lettering skillz - and by recently, I mean the last three days. :) Anyways, I'm just exercising my current hand lettering skill set and hopefully expound them. Basically, I'm hopin' to become a professional, ya know? ;)

Here's the first one an "L".

You can most definitely see the imprint of an 'e' from the page before. :) There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the letters chosen for these, I pretty much just chose ones that I thought would look cool with the style. And because I'm super lazy and never happen to have a ruler handy, these were all done freehand.

Which is only impressive with this "H", really.

And it's not as spectacular as it could be, but it's very 3D, yeah? It reminds me of the digital Tremont T's I worked on for the football team when I was in high school. :) Oh how technology has advanced! And oh how much easier it is now! I look back and can't believe how much time I spent doing things from scratch without using any Adobe products. Craziness.

This one is an "A" I worked on. Not my favorite by any stretch, but its still part of the collection.

It's also more sloppy than the others, probably because I lost interest and so it got significantly harder to focus on being neat. :P

This "B" is probably my favorite, or at least tied with the last one I have. It's soooo....futuristic Gothic, I think. Our family has an old school German Bible that's been handed down for generations and this letter is part that lettering mixed with swirls and decals. Loves. :))

It was originally supposed to just be white on the inside with some simple shading, but it would have looked better in color that way. Since I was only using a graphite pencil and the paper, I decided to give it a 3D-ish vibe.

This last one is a "K" inspired by a Polish (I think...it could be Hungarian) artist that writes poetry out in the most beautiful calligraphy. I'm completely fascinated and want to attempt colored versions with ink!

Got some lovely little smudges, too. Gives it character! ;) I absolutely adore this style concept.

Welp, I'm off for some snooze time. Probably...hopefully. :) Nighty night!

Aby

I'm basically the next Bill Gates...

I'm feeling pretty smug right now. Wanna know why? I'll share, it's no problem. I'm smug because I am so technologically advanced that this post is coming to you directly from my iPad. That's right, people, I can post without using a computer. BOOM.

Now, I realize that many people have probably accomplished this feat already, but I don't really care. I applaud them and their technological savvy, but what reaaaally tickles me is that I have figured this out by myself!

Mwahahahahaaaa!

I would like to apologize at this time to Mr. Gates. Sir, I'm sorry I used you as my smart computery person when talking about using an Apple product, that's my bad, but I think you epitomize successful computer geek and I'm not cool enough yet with technology to basically be Steve Jobs...

Lots of linguini! Or love, whatevs!

Aby

Life After College

So, I have officially been out of college fore about six months now. It's still a surreal experience; like an extended Summer vacation that never ends with permanent "real world" responsibilities. I'm not sure I like it. I'm in this weird sort of limbo. I don't know where I belong, where I fit in. My whole life has been about school. First grade school, then middle school, then high school, and finally college. I'm good at school - excellent at school.

But this new area of not school...I'm not so good at. I don't know what to do with myself. My best friend moved to another state for her career. Even though we haven't been together every second for the four years we spent in college, that was still a hit. And it hurt. Still hurts, really. I can't call her and plan to do a movie this week. The best we can to is Skype and try to pretend that it's as good as really being in the same room, while in the back of our minds we know it's not good enough.

While in school, I had a lot of classmates that I was close to that I got to see everyday and I got my people fix. We would hang out, do activities, have fun. Now that I'm home, I find that all of my close friends from high school that I literally grew up with have all kind of gone on different paths, like I have. Some are married and live in another town, some are still in school and are busy with school things, some have moved and had babies, others have moved out of state - out of the country - for their careers.

I've spent the past few months wondering exactly how it is that I can feel so overwhelmingly lonely being surrounded by my family and people I grew up with. I see my siblings and their children everyday and I still feel like I'm adrift and alone. I hate it. Before, I never realized how much I thrived from the people I interacted with on campus. Now, I know what I had, but didn't appreciate.

I keep thinking that I need to go out and join some sort of clubs to get myself hanging out with people with like interests, or find myself a boyfriend. I've never before felt the need for so much human contact. At least, I don't think I did. Who can say? I was always surrounded by new and exciting people in a learning environment before this.

Though joining some sort of group or finding new friends is a great idea, I find myself hesitating. First, because I want to start on my career before I start putting my roots down here. It would really suck to get myself more friends only to lose them because I have to move for a job. Secondly, there is a part of me that thinks if I get new friends somehow I'll lose my old friends. I know I have the capacity to have more than one set of close friends, but a small piece of me is frightened that somehow they'll slip away.

But they're doing that anyway, aren't they? It's a natural progression. I know this. It's a reality that I completely understand on a logical level, but that teeny bit of me refuses to be rational about it. I love my friends and I care deeply about each and every one of them. It hurts me to think about how far I've let them drift, even if it is natural.

The only comfort I have from this crazy emotional roller-coaster I'm on, is that I'm not the only person going through it. I'm no crazy! Woohooo! I was talking with several of my classmates that have also graduated and  they feel the same sense of sadness.

We shut the door on an era of our lives that will never happen again. Even if we continue with our schooling, be it in a master's program or medical school or law school, it won't be the same. We're older, hopefully wiser, and we've grown up, even if only just slightly. We are no longer wide-eyed little eighteen year olds just hoping that we can fit in. We are officially adults, whether or not we choose to act like we are.

There are probably some of us still trying to hold onto the glory days of college, but seriously, it's time to man up. We can do this. Becoming an adult doesn't mean we can't still be cool and awesome. It just means we have to accept our responsibilities. Quite frankly, I plan on staying ridiculously cool and awesome until I'm super disgustingly old. :} I also plan on manning up. My life is mine to make, yeah? No one else can do it for me. Hopefully I can do my family proud and still have a rockin' time.

To the classes of 2011 and 2012, I salute you Sirs and Madames!

Good luck!

Aby

The New Plan

It's 2012! And technically it's been less than a year since I wrote last time, soooo...I'm feelin' pretty smug right now. :) Now, onto the big news:

I GRADUATED FROM ILLINOIS STATE!!!!!!!

Finally! 

.....

Alright, well, that's all I gots right now, sooo....yeah...

I'ma go.

Peace and Love, homies!

Aby

Schedules?!

The theme for today's post is my incredible inability to get my schedule finalized this semester. I don't understand why my schedule is being so difficult, but it is, and it's really starting to annoy me. :| I've had my schedule 'set' at least four times now, and everything keeps changing so then I have to try and set it all over AGAIN!

It's slightly frustrating.

...And by slightly, I mean were my schedule a person, I would probably kick it in the shin. Fo' realz.

Aaannyway, so this week has been a mix speeding by and crawling past. On some days, I suddenly realized that it's 10 o'clock and time for bed. On others, the day never seems to end! So...I suppose that makes the week a bit neutral, in terms of speed.

Well...I'm not getting much accomplished in this post because I keep getting distracted by "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"....

Story of life. :}

Right, well, Aby out! PEACE!

It's an annual thing...

Why heelllllllooooooo!

 I do realize that it has been over a year since I've posted, but that's pretty typical as far as I'm concerned. For some reason I can never remember that I have blogs. (Yes, plural.) I don't know why, and I honestly probably never will.  I have learned to live with that and move on with my live.

So! Brief overview of my past year...

• Was a Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for Sociology 310 for a semester (was briefly mentioned in last post; and also, HARD)
• Had an internship at the David Davis Mansion (Awesomest old house EVER!)
• Got another year older (sad, but true...)
• Made the Dean's List for the spring semester (and I have no idea how, really....)
• Started working at Morton Industries (Leaktest '11, yeah boyeee)
• Started my Last Semester of College (very scary!)
• Got hired by WZND Fuzed Radio Multimedia Department (huzzah artsy things!!)

Umm...I think that's it....

Oh! Another little nephew was added to the family, Elijah William. He's pretty dang cute and I loves him. :) So now it's Isaiah (2) and Elijah (>1) for Michael and Elisabeth. (Shout out to the other nieces and nephews: PicNic, Whit, Jord, Deek, Rye, Ike, and Ems!)

Let's see...I think that's it...oooh, I got a Kindle for Christmas.  It is the love of my life because I can have thousands of books on one thing that doesn't take up much space! :D! Now the territory battle between my books and my room will come to an end! Or, at least slow down...

I'm really stoked about this Multimedia gig. :) The PR major tends to focus mostly on the writing side of public relations, rather than the creating side--which, in reality is probably for the best. You can create awesomeness all day long, but if you can't write correctly and effectively about said creation, then you are not suited for PR.

However, I've got the writing thing down and I want to create! (Hehehe...I have a mini-movie flashing in my head with Dr. Frankenstein saying in his uber creepy voice, "Rise, my creation!") I love making things! I especially want to test my skillz at creating things on the computer.  Thus far, I've only made stuff for classes, which doesn't reaally count.

Well. I think that's about it.  My plan is to try and keep this blogging thing up. The odds that will actually be accomplished aren't very high...but I am forever the optimist. :) Maybe if I try every day, it will eventually even out to once a month.  Instead of once every year...

And now, I shall hopefully start a traditional ending to each post:

Aby out, PEACE!

I have a blog

So, basically the only reason I started this was to prove to Bek that I could.  And I did it!  I spent more time carefully choosing a template (a very important decision, I assure you) than I will actually writing anything...but appearance is clearly more appreciated than actual substance...I mean, seriously.  :)

Perhaps I will use this like a diary...

...That everyone can see...

Alright, perhaps not an terribly personal or incriminating diary.  That's probably a decision in my best interest.

But I do think that this may be fun.  I could post short stories that I think of...'cause that's how I roll! What?!!

I just opened another gmail account (hence the new blog....).  Upon doing such a radical thing, I realized somethings about The Goog (google) that I didn't completely realize before.  Firstly, The Goog is freaking amazingly AWESOME! 

Also, when you get a gmail account, many super sweet things come with it.  Like a calender that I spent updating with my fall schedule.  Or most of it, as it were.  I didn't feel like looking for all of the syllabi for my classes. (Don't judge!)

Okay, so I may have already known about the calender, however, they've got a program called Documents, which is essentially Microsoft Office (nicely done on getting around copyright infringement, Google boss-people!), not to mention a Books section, which has books that you can read online for FREE!!!!  So, it's like BookBot, but I don't have to remember what the URL is.  (Bonus, let me tell you.)

Then there's the Reader.  You can enter websites into it and it will bring the articles over into the reader where you can look at everything from one site rather than flipping back and forth.  Unbelievably, The Goog has succeeded in making people even more lazy...............aaaand I heartily approve...:D

There's also a website maker, which I want to try, but I can't think of a good website to create. I'm pretty sure the last time I collaborated on a sort-of-legit (not really) website that wasn't for school there were definitely llamas involved.  And llamas are shady.  So before I take on the responsibility of a website, I need something awesome and slightly more legit than llamas.

...Cause they're shady...

Not kidding.

 Basically, The Goog has just made my day.  For reals.

Well, I've got UTA tomorrow, so I be going a'seeeeeep. :) Nighty night!