Meh. Do you know what the hardest part of college is? It's getting back home....

To get home, i'd first need to take the public transit to the GO station and buy tickets to get on a train heading for Toronto. From there, i'd have to walk from Union Station to the Greyhound bus terminal, buy tickets, and endure an eight-and-a-half hour drive just to reach the service station at the end of my home street. From there, it's about a ten minute walk. And that's not even mentioning wait times, and all of the transfers i'd have to take...plus, I get to do it all over again, in reverse, a few days later...

...it'd probably be much easier(and cheaper) to just invent a teleporter. Is anyone any good with quantum physics? ;p

~Blaine

I hit the mother lode today for information regarding colour psychology and other art voodoo techniques. It seems that i'll be getting into colour stuff next week, so no more absract line drawings(thank God). The bad news is that I have a ton of homework(apparently, the teacher's here feel that Thanksgiving gives us another day to do homework so, accordingly, more homework was assigned), so I might not be able to upload the info to my wiki for a while.

Well, i've got some drafting homework to complete for tomorrow(isometric, axonometric, and oblique parallel line drawings of a car), so i'll add more when I have time. By the way, have you ever tried drafting on a ping-pong table? 

~Blaine

I did something tonight that should go into the "Mankind's Greatest Achievements in History" tome of greatness...I actually left the house...and went--wait for it--DOWNTOWN! *gasp* Please, hold your applause! ;p

Now, it may not seem like much but, for a guy that's been a virtual recluse for the past 4-5 years, possesses a chronic anxiety disorder, and is slightly agoraphobic, it becomes "one giant step for mankind". =p

I went out for some sushi(not bad, but the gag reflex needs some discipline), and am now a Semi-Jedi Master of chopsticks! I vow that I will master the art of eating with sticks! Hell, even chimpanzees can do it! ;p

Anyway, I have homework to complete for tomorrow, so what am I doing here, writing in my man-journal?

~Blaine

I just wanted to mention that i've got some Art Voodoo notes on "Rhythm" that I should get around to adding to my wiki sometime. It's pretty interesting, and explains why stores are EVIL! *cough* Er, just in case you ever wondered.... ;p

I'll also expand some more on the other topics(lines, shapes, etc) by adding some stuff from my textbook.

And pictures...must remember pictures.... 

~Blaine

Well, I had a weird day at school today....

I'd been doing homework since 8:00 this morning, so my eyes were starting to cross. I mean, there comes a point when staring into a mirror and drawing yourself becomes plain vanity...self-portrait my ass. XP The bad thing is that I STILL don't have a very good idea of what I look like. I really should've taken some pictures of myself, or something. *shakes head*

Anyway, class started at three, so that's about seven hours of continuous homework.
During today's class(Drawing), I think I may have been elected student representative for my entire class...I'm not really sure, but my teacher(Trelawney) was saying something about her choosing me because I did a drawing that she liked and she thought(I guess judging by that one picture) that I was a "together" sort of guy and really "with it".
Meanwhile, I've been singing "I am evil. Oh, so evil. E-V-I-L!"(Lord Fear from Ace Lightning) under my breath for the past half-hour. XD I also have GAD, so I suffer from a chronic low-grade anxiety, which is pretty far from "with it". ;)

The irony is just too much.

Now, I just need to design four more rough sketches and four finals of "depicting emotions through line, shape, and texture" and paint them in gouache. But that's not all! I also have to create a 6-8 frame storyboard depicting my own scene based on the movie "Run Lola Run". And I have to have it all finished by 10:00AM tomorrow...it's gonna be a long night....

Ah, the life of a student, there's nothing quite like it. ;p

~Blaine

Heh, my man-journal is getting a work out tonight(which reminds me, oddly, of a great episode of Dave the Barbarian). =p

Anyway, I watched a show on the paranormal yesterday, that talked about how scientist were getting involved with studying mediums and psychics, etc. There was one study with a medium done, and the scientist came up with an interesting theory.

His theory is that mediums can't really "talk to the dead" but, instead, are able to tap into and read their subjects thoughts.
He went on to explain that it was possible that we humans may have used telepathy as a form of communication but, because it was so innaccurate, we came to rely more and more heavily on verbal communication(because it was much more accurate) and that our ability to use telepathy just sort of de-evolved because we no longer needed it...like many other human characteristics(teeth, nails, hair, etc).
So, his theory is that mediums and other psychics are people that still retain a slight form of telepthy.

Not really probable, but a cool idea nonetheless....

There was also a segment on reincarnation(good stuff) and near-death experiences(there was talk of doing experiments to determine health benefits from them).
It also made mention of studies being done on conciousness because nobody really knows what it is/where it's located. Most people thought it was located in the brain, but an experiment was done that seems to have proved otherwise(a scientist tried to prick a guy's finger(who was hooked up to the monitoring equipment), and the finger had the impulse to move a half-second before it registered in his brain). 

There were also some experiments involving having your body put to sleep but having your mind/conciousness still active. So, basically, seperating your mind from your body...like astral projection, or what is said to occur during near-death experiences.

Everyone should take up an interest in the parnormal and parapsychology(actually, studies show that more and more people are).

~Blaine  

Wow I just now noticed the alternate journal entry 'modes'...can't believe i've missed that for so long....

I've been using "public" because the bathroom's are always clean. ;p Er, no, wait....

Anyway, I don't see the point of a "Friends only" entry--All your friends will be notified! OMG!--as all of my *coughnumerouscough* friends are probably watching my house--the stalkers!--anyway, and so, are already informed when my man-journal has been written in.

The "Personal Secret Diary" entry A) sounds rather redundant to me, and B) gives me the horrible mental image of a young teenage girl frantically scribbling in an excited scrawl such passages as: 
"Dear Diary, Today Mark made eye contact with/smiled at me for 0.32 seconds in the hallway at school!! OMG!!!1oneone!eleven1!! *spazzes and dies*..." while hiding under a sheet, with a flashlight, on her bed after lights out(of course, I doubt said young teenager would have such good grammar. ;p)....

*shudders* I think i'll be avoiding using that mode.... ;) 
 
~Blaine

Um, no Art Voodoo techniques to pass on this week(I may put pictures up this weekend). I just have another homework assignment involving more of the "depicting emotions through lines, shape, and texture(way harder than it sounds)", blah, blah, blah...my teacher is a sadist. XD He mentioned he was going to have some hand-outs on colour psychology soon though(my notes only scratch the surface), so look forward to that.

In my drawing class, i've got to create a LIFE-SIZE drawing of MY skeletal system. I actually have to measure where all of my bones are--and then draw it! *shakes head in despair* Wasn't the two hours I endured of drawing a nude man enough for you!?! *cough* Er, yeah, anyway....

For those movie buffs of you out there, I recommend "Run Lola Run"(i'm sure there should be some commas in there, but the title says not).
It's a German movie with English subtitles(not as bad as it sounds). The quality's not going to win any Best Picture awards, but it's got some great funny parts(it's kinda like one of those movies that are so bad they're good).
At first, it actually kind of reminded me of the movie "Kill Me Later" that I previously mentioned in an earlier entry.
Anyway, if you've got some time to kill, definitely check it out. I give it my personal seal of approval. ;) 

Meh, I heard on the news that there's a BIG hurricane heading for Texas now...Hurricane Rita or some such. For some reason, hearing the word/name "Rita" always reminds me of Rita MacNeil(coincidentally, also big). Now, let me have a brief moment to be an insensitive prick(It's a guy thing) by saying that if I saw this: http://www.canoe.ca/EncyclopediaImagesM/macneil_rita.jpg coming for me, i'd be evacuating my home and heading for the hills too. ;p

That's all for now.

~Blaine 

Well, I have another art voodoo class tomorrow, so I may have something to add to my wiki. Plus, I swear i'll get some darned pictures so you can all see what the hell i'm talking about. ;)

I'm just finishing up the homework I was assigned last week. 42 sketches using lines, shapes, and textures to convey emotions...oh God, my head and eyes hurt. Plus, I still have to paint them in gouache...

...remind me why i'd missed being a student again.... ;p 

~Blaine

For those of you interested, version 1.0 of Art Voodoo 101 is now up. *cue applause*

I'll be adding more information as I get(read: am taught) it and, hopefully, i'll have some time to create some designs to spruce the place up a bit.

I'll also try to get some visual examples of the different types of lines...i'm pretty sure everyone knows what a circle, square, and triangle look like...at least, I really hope they do. o_O Otherwise, no amount of teaching I could possibly give you would help at this point....

Next on the agenda is a wiki-page for the Dark Optimists. All hail the mystical rubber voodoo chicken of DOOM!(wow, I must have a thing for voodoo). ;p

~Blaine

Sometimes, you have to laugh at life's little ironies....

Tuesday was my 'day off', and Wednesday was my 'off day'. 

Wednesday was pretty horrible. I woke up feeling like crap, got some major cramps and sore ankles(yes, I have weak ankles, damn it!) walked to school, went to class, went into my "sarcastic little bastard"(as my sister calls it) mode(I do this when i'm in a bad mood), got out of class late, it was raining like mad outside(it's a good thing I had left one of my coats in my locker) and, on the walk back to my place, I had to stand in the rain for what seemed like twenty minutes before the light changed for me to walk and, just a few feet away from the place i'm staying, a poodle(a poodle!?!) tried to take a bite out of my leg!
Not even drawing nude ladies managed to improve my mood...which is when you know it's a REALLY bad day. ;P

Heh, there's actually a movie(no, i'm not going to quote it =p) that my day reminded me of. It's a 2001 movie called "Kill Me Later". It involves a chick that works at a bank, and her day just goes right to hell from the moment she wakes up. The movie, itself, I don't think was all that great, but the script was. There's a lot of twisted ironies wound into it that you might not notice at first. And twisted ironies are always good. ;)

So...are you laughing?(at life's little ironies, not me). ;)

Yeah, um, also, I had another "art voodoo" class today, so look forward to my notes on the subject, someday soon....

~Blaine  

Meh.

I'm trying to do some homework. I have to create a one-hour blind(read: can't look at the page) contour(read: outline) drawing using line sensitivty(read: varying line thickness).

The thing is, i'd realized that i'd left my necessary drawing materials in my locker at school, and it'd take me almost an hour just to go to the school to get it and bring it back to my place. Now, i'm a pretty lazy guy(when it comes to some things), so that option wasn't very appealing.

Then I remembered that i'd brought some newsprint from home(yeah, i'm weird like that) and I was proud of myself for having the foresight to have brought it.

Then I remembered that my conte was still at school, and my pride turned into a semi-resignment.

Then I remebered that I recieved a conte pencil with my art kit, and I was proud for having to have avoided an unnecesary trip to the school on my 'day off'.

Now, as I said before, it was a 1-hour drawing but I hadn't realized how long one hour becomes when all you're doing is sketching a simple outline....

Since around November, i've been watching, pausing, and sketching poses from movies/TV. See, the thing is, the show/whatever can only be paused for a few minutes at a time, so i've become quite proficient at sketching basic outlines/pertinent details in a very short amount of time.

Can we say "conflict of interest"?

The longest i've managed to sketch, so far, is about twenty minutes...the fact that the mirror i'm using is miniscule, and my light source(desk/reading lamp) keeps flickering doesn't seem to help matters any.... 

Meh.

~Blaine

I now have two more teachers to add to the "clones" list.

My first teacher of the day looked like an older version of Christian Slater, with a lot less hair. The guy could be dubbed "the eternal student" because he just keeps going back to school because he claims he likes it.
He's actually going to be teaching my class line, shape, and colour psychology(which i've already studied on my own). Interesting stuff really. Actually, I suppose you could say he's teaching us the subtle art of 'visual manipulation', where the artist can visually make the viewer do/look at want you want without them noticing they're doing it. Artists are very tricky people....

My second teacher looked like The Daily Bugle newspaper editor, J. Jonah Jameson, from Spiderman--with the personality to match. Picture the actor, J.K. Simmons, with rapidly thinning, white hair, and you have my teacher.

I have no idea why all of my teachers remind me of actors....

In other news, after class tomorrow, i'm going to buy the biggest damned cup of French Vanilla cappuchino I can possibly find, from Tim Hortons, because I always come close to drooling whenever I pass by that section of the cafteria.
Meh, take my advice and never develop an anxiety disorder(or 'condition', as they call it now)...the non-anxiety-invoking diet totally sucks. =p 

~Blaine 

So, I had my first day of school today. Things went pretty good. I pretty much know where everything is located now, so no more wandering around aimlessly with a half-blank/half-deperate look in my eyes, for me. ;p

Heh, I almost drooled when I stepped into the school's bookstore. Art books, and such, galore...if I had had money on me, it would be gone. ;)

The first teacher I had was for painting and, oh my God, if you've ever read Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, my teacher is the duplicate of Querada. He even swears/curses fluently, tells amusing anecdotes from his past, and tosses chairs out of the window, XD.

My second teacher for the day was a duplicate of Professor Trelawny, the Divination teacher from Harry Potter. She even has the glasses(though slightly smaller), the hairstyle, the clothes, and the excessive "eccentricity factor". She calls it "being creative/artsy". She even colour codes her classes...my class is now known as "the orange folder", lol.

Also, on the topic of look-alikes, i've got a duplicate of Micheal Kelso from That 70's Show. Not just in looks--he has the personality as well. Much fun.

For homework, I get to incorporate a self-portrait onto a playing card. I've got the King of Spades...as Fisher Price would say, "oh, the possibilities"(great, i'm even quoting slogans now).

Later days(i've been watching cartoons),

~Blaine

Well, i've commandeered my landlady's computer...er, well, actually, the correct term is "borrowed without permission"(Pirates of the Caribbean), but who's really that anal? ;p

Meh, the monitor is fuzzier than my gorilla slippers so, if some of my spelling is off, it's because i'm unable to tell an "i" from an "l" without seriously straining my eyes.

Hmmm...I left for Oakville sunday morning and, about an extremely uncomfortable seven-hour drive later, I was officially moving in to my 'home away from home'. After the extremely awkward tour from my landlady's son(although, he did pretty good for inviting a complete stranger into his home), I proceeded to phone home to let my family know i'd arrived.

The call home was not exactly helpful, as I was informed that I was now seven hours away from home, in a strange city(huge, compared to the town i'm originally from), surrounded by strangers, for the next 8 months, and that i'd feel completely wretched for the next two weeks due to homesickness...I love family pep-talks. ;p

It's now the next morning...i've visited the campus, after getting lost, due to false information, only once. XD Everything is closed today(holiday), so it'll just have to be tomorrow that I can get everything in order....

The house i'm staying in is nice, despite the fact that my landlady tried to impress/overwhelm me by informing me that Oakville is a very rich place(per capita) and a lot of famous people live here, within a measly ten minutes of meeting her. I chose to be amused. ;)

Well, I think that's everything for now...I guess i'll go answer my fan mail.... ;)

P.S. Oh, and Aidita, I still haven't had a chance to work on your t-shirt. My bad.

~Blaine

I'm such a freak, XD. That's pretty self-explanatory, but humour me by allowing me to elaborate....

I've been transferring files from my old computer, Eleanor(named with the car from Gone In 60 Seconds in mind), to my shiny new laptop, Rasputin, and I had to put all of my picture files in one folder.
I collect .jpg's for reference. Well, I found out that, all together, i've got around 1000 megabytes worth of pictures. When you add the fact that most of the .jpg's are around 25-50 kilobytes on average...well, let's just say it's a lot of pictures. ;)

Also, I have the strange quirk of watching movies frame-by-frame(insomnia leaves you a lot of time on your hands), pausing, and quickly sketching the poses that interest me.
One of my sisters actually rents movies now based on their potential for "cool poses", as she calls them.

I've recently discovered that I can now play DVDs on my computer and make screen caps(once the dreaded spectre of 'blank/black screens' is vanquished). Let's just say, if you need some reference pics of dragons, vampires, or werewolves, i'm your man.

In other news, i'm now picking out towels for my move to college...I feel so domesticated. ;p

~Blaine, who's staged a temporary retreat from the hunt for the memory key driver. "Gone, but not forgotten."

Greetings, invader of my privacy. ;p

Well, I finally got my latop yesterday. A Dell Inpiron 9300 that, after taxes, put me back around three grand. o_O

I've finally finished installing everything onto it, after deleting the huge amount of bloatware(about 6GB) that came pre-installed from Dell.

Some of you may know that i'm, um, odd--in the sense that I name some of my electronics/appliances. In keeping with tradition, i've decided to call my laptop Rasputin. I was thinking of Anastasia for a while(the whole "she will rise again" thing), but decided that Rasputin was more fitting and less, er, girly-sounding(I mean, honestly, what self-respecting guy would walk around with a girly laptop?). =p

I usually name my electronics after something that reflects their personality(yes, gadgets have personalities). This time was no different. Within a few hours of setting up my computer I was faced with a computer user's worst nightmare--the dreaded BSoD(Blue Screen of Death)--and my computer became absolutely useless as it couldn't fully boot up.

After much cursing(strictly all on my part), I finally had to reformat to the time before I installed everything and, saints be praised, the darn thing actually worked(I then imitated Sid the Sloth from Ice Age and exclaimed: "I'm a genius!"...yeah, I imitate movie/tv characters a lot). =p

Hence the name Rasputin, because it takes a lot to kill it. ;p And also because Rasputin was reported to have near-hypnotic eyes and, God knows, I could stare at a computer screen for hours(although I need to calibrate this one. The contrast is blinding). Elftown is a funky blue-mint colour right now, XD.

Now, to solve the problem of the Memory Key driver....

~Blaine

Hmmm, I think it's time for an update. It seems, i'll be heading down to Oakville on the 4th. My oldest brother is driving down for my oldest sister's wedding on the 3rd, and he'll be making the return trip with an extra passenger(me).



I'm not sure if i'm going to attend my sister's wedding or not. She's been with her 'fiance' for about ten years now, and i've yet to find anything to like about him, despite the fact that I see him, at least once, almost every week. *le sigh* The fact that I describe him as "dimmature"(i'm sure your clever minds can figure out the two words I blended to come up with it ;p) should tell you something.
 
Also, i've come to the conclusion that both he and my sister are delusional, as they are getting married ONLY because of the erroneous belief that there's a potential for real profit. *shakes head*

As you can imagine, i'd feel like a hypocrite attending the wedding, as their reasons for getting married go against my own personal code of ethics and beliefs.

My indecision mainly stems from my over-developed sense of family loyalty, and the fact that i'm too soft-hearted for my own damn good. I have a strong feeling that both of the aforementioned qualities will, for lack of a better expression, bite me in the ass as I go through life.
 
Then again, I did design, pretty much, everything for the wedding, so I guess you could say i've done my part. 
It'll be interesting to see(if nothing else) which side of me will win over in the end.



In other news, i'm getting a laptop. After researching the topic for a few weeks, I finally found one that appears to be what I want/need.

Dell, the weirdos, despite me having ordered everything at the same time, see it fit to ship me the parts of the computer in seperate packages. *shakes head at things he'll never understand*

Anyway, a few of the parts have arrived already, and i'm kind of "geeking out" putting it all together, XD. To quote Atlantis, i'm "like a kid at Christmas-time".



The prospect of my looming college student status fills me with equal parts of gut-churning anxiety and excitement(is there a feeling that isn't gut-churning?).

The change of scenery/lifestyle/et cetera will be more than welcome, as my current stagnating-hermit status has grown more than tiring over it's near five-year accumulation.

My brother will only be living around a 1/2 hour drive away from me, and he tells me he plans on coming to visit me from time-to-time. He's a big fan of sports, so i'll probably have to suffer through a few innings of a baseball game or whatnot. It's a small price to pay.

Thankfully, sports events usually have alternate entertainment in the form of those sitting in the seats around you. I can still remember the time, in 8th grade, when a gay couple sitting in the row in front of my class threw a three-inning hissy fit...it more than made up for the two-hour pre-game wait outside the Skydome. Also, giant foam fingers and hats are an integral part of any sportsfan's gaming experience. 



That is all. Or is it? *cues dramatic music and maniacal laughter*

~Blaine

I think i've finally found a place. It's about a 15-20 minute walk from the campus, has a meal plan, and I pretty much get the run of the house for about $550(CDN)/month, which is pretty much the average for the area. So, that's something out of the way. 

OSAP is being irritating, claiming it now needs me to write a letter to inform them how I meet my fiscal needs, since I claimed my income as a big fat $0. I've been asked to write a letter that, in essence, simply states "I live with my dad". *shakes head*

I'm thinking of buying a laptop computer now(for listening to music, surfing the net, photoshop-ing, some word processing, etc). Reasearching a decent one is now taking up a good bit of my time....

In other random news, I can now sleep for more than two hours at a time. I feel like a new man. ;p 

Oh, and it's Bionix on YTV tonight! A whole night of cartoon and anime goodness.... *drool* =p

I just thought i'd inform you oddities that take an interest in me, for whatever unknown reasons that i've yet to fathom(don't tell me, I like a good mystery), of what i've been doing lately. Aren't I the thoughtful one? 

Hmmm...there's not a whole lot that's happened to me lately. I think the only thing that I can attest to is the fact that i'm, relatively, still alive. *shrug* It may not seem like much but, in this day and age of warmongering, illegal arms and drug sales, drivers that have played one too many games of Grand Theft Auto and Carmaggeddon, and various forms of national and international terrorism, I consider it to be a laudable achievement.

Oh, I also applied for OSAP(Ontario Student Assistance Program. Basically, they loan you money for post-secondary education)which was a headache(too much legal jargon and numbers for my tastes). Oh well, it's yet another necessary evil that I have slain in my quest for collegial knowledge. It'd all better be worth it....

The high point of my week seems to be the increased addition of a few more anime shows to the YTV station...I'm not quite sure what that says about me....  

*sigh* Well, the ass-clowns at Bell have screwed up once again.
It seems that they heard my mother has died(the account was in her name) so they cut off our satellite with no warning. Apparently, the curtesy of informing us of their actions was beyond their realm of experience. No one was willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.[/sarcasm]*shakes head*
Luckily, I was able to, single-handedly, prevent an outbreak of mass hysteria, caused by the loss of our TV(read: I was able to get my panic under control). Crisis averted...for now. ;p