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Monday, May 31, 2004
 
Today was spent mostly in my apartment, trying to get some work done. (I did, but not nearly enough.) I only briefly stepped outside to get some groceries to survive the week with, but I know I'm gonna have to make another trip soon. I did find myself regretting going home yesterday, as I so would have liked to be at home today, even if that meant doing chores for the most part. I just like my home. Oh well. One last thing before I go: I turned in my thirty day notice to the leasing office at Nobel Court. Even though I'll be moving to one of their rooms across the street, I still have to go through all the paperwork of a normal move-out.

Sunday, May 30, 2004
 
I went with my parents to Universal Studios yesterday (my first time since being bought out by NBC), and finally got around to renewing my annual pass, more than a month after it expired. We arrived kind of late, so we didn't get to see much before the place closed, but I did get to all the things I wanted to see anyway. We ate dinner at the CityWalk, but not before I bought some more X-Men trades and the new Astonishing X-Men #1, written by Joss Whedon. So far he seems to know what he's writing about so I guess I'll at least read a few more issues. I'm not too keen on the title of the book (they used it during the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, and I'll forever associate it with that), and I think the character costumes could be a bit better, but so far, the writing's good.

So now I'm back at the apartment trying to finish up all those pesky school assignments before the year ends. It's only Sunday on a three-day weekend, and I'm already back in San Diego. Ugh.

Thursday, May 27, 2004
 
Tomorrow morning I'll be transferring my film footage to video. I think my video capture set-up actually allows me to get video and audio from VCRs, stereos, or anything else with the audio or video cables. So while it may not be the best at exporting, at least I'm not limited on how I can digitize my footage.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004
 
Not having a film projector at home, I could only see the first few feet of footage exposed. The meant a great deal of nervousness as the reels were loaded in class today and shown for the very first time. The indoor scenes are a little dark (I forgot to account for the fact that we were using outdoor film inside), but hopefully that can be corrected. Oddly enough, the exterior shots were exposed just about perfectly. What makes it odd was the fact that it was too bright to adequately expose the film with the camera I was using. I actually took a for sale sign from within the Jetta and used that to shade my camera, but it was really a shot in the dark (no pun intended) if I got the lighting right. I guess I lucked out. Now I just need to make sure I have enough footage to make my film!

Tuesday, May 25, 2004
 
I had to drive back home tonight to pick up the 16mm film I shot last week. We're showing our raw footage in class tomorrow, and I need at least these reels to show. I was actually supposed to have these on Monday, but the film arrived a few hours after I had to leave for school. It's actually kinda annoying, but at least this way I won't have to worry about spending money for dinner. (And Ken, this is the footage we shot, which I'll be editing together later.)

Monday, May 24, 2004
 
Well now, it's time for those tensions and stresses to mount as we enter week nine in the Spring Quarter. School will be over before we know it, and hopefully, we'll stay alive long enough to tell the tell. Me, I've got a little more stress now that my apartment seeker (heretofore referred to as simply "Justin") and I decided to rent a new place in Nobel court. I'll be living across the street from where I am now, but that does entail the annoying necessity of moving all my stuff again. But hey, the apartment is bigger, and if we get a third roommate, I'll be paying about $200 less that what I was originally paying as my share.

Friday, May 21, 2004
 
Not much going on today, just passing the time until tomorrow's apartment searching. I did get to see Shrek 2, though. Very funny, I suggest you see it. Other than that, I have nothing else to say.

Thursday, May 20, 2004
 
My parents are in Philadelphia right now in order to attend my brother's Master's Degree graduation ceremony. They'll be there until Monday night, which means my aunt and I will split our time watching over the house and my grandmother until they come back. I won't take over until Sunday though, as I need to spend Friday and Saturday working on finals projects and searching for a new apartment. That also explains why I didn't go with my parents to Philly.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
 
Spent all the money in my wallet this morning doing various chores, mostly of the comic book and action figure variety. I picked up Excel Saga vol. 6, Battle Vixens vol. 2 (I'm a dirty, dirty boy and I like it so!), the "official adaptation" of the Radioactive Man movie, and was pleasantly surprised to discover vol. 5 of The Essential X-Men (they're still making these, hooray!). Right now I'm recovering from a headache induced by too much reading. I guess having classes cancelled can be a mixed blessing, huh?

Tuesday, May 18, 2004
 
I finished my project at around 2:30 in the morning, and got up for school about 6 hours later. Ironically, we ran out of itme in class before I could present my film, so it won't show until Thursday. Usually I'd feel annoyed by this, but for some reason this thought didn't even occur to me until about five minutes ago. Maybe it's because I have such a mellow teacher. (With a cool German accent!)

Monday, May 17, 2004
 
I'm finally getting around to editing together an assignment I shot last week. It would've been done on Thursday, but the teacher pushed back the due date, and we all know how I act when I get more free time. Essentially, I don't. So now I'm sitting at the computer getting annoyed at its lockups and discovering the joys of trying to salvage pictures from a badly-burned CD. ("Burned" as in its recording, not as in I stuck it in the fireplace for a few minutes....) This may or may not result in a long night of work, but I'll be sure to get it done by the time it's due.

Sunday, May 16, 2004
 
I'm back in San Diego after a busy, busy weekend. The fishing trip took a lot out of me, but it was still pretty awesome. Dad and I got on the boat around 8 or 9 on Friday, and started fishing at about 4 in the morning (not my idea, I would've preferred a bit more sleep knowing how hard it was to sleep on the boat, and how long I was likely to stay up that day; I caught a few more winks during slow periods later in the day, though). Not counting throwbacks, I caught ten fish on Saturday, but as impressive as that sounds, dad caught 21. (Twenty-freakin'-one, how the hell can he do that?!?) Today Ken and I shot my film for Vis 176, with only a minor hiccup, so hopefully I'm on track with that assignment. Now I just have to get up at around 7 so I can give the camera back to school.

Thursday, May 13, 2004
 
I have a pretty busy weekend ahead of me. Aside from the aforementioned fishing trip, I also have to use up my Sunday making a movie for my film class. And that fact that it's going to be on film means I have to stay in San Diego until Friday afternoon before I can take the camera out for the weekend. Additionally, I'll have to drive back down to San Diego Sunday night so I can drop the camera back off at school early in the morning like I'm supposed to. It seems a little hectic at first glance, but I've no doubt I can get this done. It is, after all, a pretty short and straightforward film.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004
 
Having finally put in the paperwork for a minor that I've already half-completed, I'm once again facing the scheduling annoyances that come from dealing with departmental approvals, class pre-requisites, and general scheduling conflicts. Oh, and the most annoying problem doesn't have to do with my minor, but rather my major. It seems that an advanced level course (the highest tier in my major hierarchy, necessary for graduation and a pre-req for another necessary class) has a pre-req in the beginning level classes that totally negates the point of even taking a similar class I had two years ago. It's enough to make me wanna repeatedly pound my head into the desk, until the surface is adequately crimsoned with my own blood. How cruel this school can be sometimes.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004
 
My dad's taking me deep sea fishing this weekend with some of his colleagues from work. I've never really been out to the "deep sea" (unless you count a ferry ride from Florida to the Bahamas), so I don't really know if I'll get seasick or not. Usually travel sickness comes to me in the form of a killer headache. No one notices but me, and I can be pretty useless if the headache is bad enough.

In other news, Blogger finally created their own commenting code, so I've closed up my YACCS account. Luckily, no one's posted a comment since March, so I won't be losing anything. Or is that technically a bad thing?

Monday, May 10, 2004
 
They Live!



I know I forgot to update the page for Friday, but school's gotten me a little anxious right now. (I almost forgot that I register for classes today!) Anyways, soon I should have some major projects done and a little more time to consider what to write in my updates. In the meantime, enjoy this pic of my 12" Gen 13 figures, which I finished up a few weeks ago but could only put a pic online today.

Thursday, May 06, 2004
 
I finally got my replacement digital camera today. Hopefully this time I won't break it five minutes after removing it from its packaging. Yeesh, I knew there was a problem with the Compact Flash card and I kept forcing the issue. I probably screwed up the software doing that. But what really puzzled me was the fact that batteries left in the camera started to overheat it, even in the off position. I have a sneaking suspicion that something broke inside the old camera that caused it to cease functioning. But I guess I'll never know. And thankfully, I don't have to.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004
 
Mother's Day is this Sunday, in case any of you forgot and need to run out to buy a present. Me, I'm making mine. It won't be quite the macaroni-adorned construction paper card of kindergarten, but it will be something that cost me relatively little to make. See, when my family and I were cleaning out my grandmother's home lo those many months ago (I guess it would be 7...come to think of it, we're still cleaning out her house!) we came across some 8mm films my grandfather had taken about 35 years ago. We found the cameras used to take the film but never could find a projector to screen them. Luckily the visual arts department on campus can transfer 8mm film to miniDV cassettes. I, in turn, can then burn them onto a nice DVD to give my mom this Sunday. Ingenious, no? Well, I'm having a little timecode and recording problems to deal with, but I hope she'll be forgiving, knowing the time I put into this.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004
 
Son of Random Thoughts for the Day:

- Are we done with this frikkin' hot weather yet? I'm tired of feeling sweaty from just sitting in my apartment.

- My worst class this quarter is only worst because it's a little boring. It's not hard, it has a point, and we get cool PDAs. For being my worst class, I'd say my quarter is workin' out pretty nicely.

- We have too many printers at my house in Orange County. There's the printer we had to begin with, the printer my dad's work loaned to him, the one we bought from our neighbors when they moved, another dad one in a raffle, and finally the printer that came with my digital camera. Factor in the printers my brother and I have at our respective apartments and we suddenly become printer hoarders. At least we won't have to spend money on printer ink for a while.

- I can't find my tripod for my camera and it's bugging the hell out of me. I need this tripod if I want any kind of steadiness in my class video projects.

Monday, May 03, 2004
 
A little good news to come of my stupidity. The website I bought the new digital camera from was willing to replace the one I broke. They sent it on Friday so I should be able to get it by the weekend. Speaking of weekends, I came back from Vegas last night. I lost more than I won, but I did manage to recoup some lost money at a casino Sunday morning. Dad was the big winner, though, having gotten lucky at a slot machine and winning 1000 quarters ($250 for those of you too lazy to do the math).

 


The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of Phillip Donnelly. Unless explicitly stated, all statements are those of Phillip Donnelly. So there!

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