life and such

so, well... i'm not sure if we're actually supposed to blog or not this week, but i'm gonna guess we are, and sometimes, rambling to a computer keyboard is kind of nice...

so, i'm kind of getting my ass kicked right now. school is a lot to handle. one of the reasons (but not really, but it's a good excuse) i'm a film major is so i DON'T have to use MLA format and do research papers. well... surprise! welcome to critical studies classes! i guess it's not that bad, but geez... i'd rather be in 8 production classes (and not have time to breathe) than two critical studies classes where i have to write 10 page research papers. or two pages for that matter. i hate that stuff. not my digs...

anyhow, beyond school, life has been crazy in general. my mom is currently in the process of moving (which is no small job, of course) so thats been a lot going on. i myself have moved as well, into a lil one bedroom (yay! finally!) which has been a long time coming. just last thursday was the actual move, and since then (amidst going home to raleigh to help) i'm still living out of boxes, and it feels like my life is in complete disarray. which it is. but hopefully, within the next week, it will all be put up (not magically, of course, with hours of work on my part) and i can feel some semblance of normalcy again. but of course, its cucalorus week, which will be taking up most of my time this weekend, plus, one of my close friends who recently moved in august from wilmington up to nyc has a film in it, and will be coming down, so again, distraction distraction distraction.... but luckily, i think the end of november will bring some peace, and hopefully december will bring the quiet, until january, when it kicks back into gear for my final semester here at uncw. (wa-hoo!)

this class is my favorite this semester, except for my acting class, although they rank together as i couldn't decide between the two. (they are very very different). this class is a lot lot more work, but i love it... the self-portrait was my favorite project i've ever done at uncw. i think mainly because it's pushed be a lot farther than anything else i've tried to do, and really become something much much bigger than just "a project for a class." it really made me think, deeply, about myself, my relation to my world around me (how do i portray the simultaneous craziness and calmness i feel, the rage and the peace, the confusion and the clarity...) so, it was really cool to see how it metamorphosed itself. like i said, without warning (or want, really) it became much more about my fathers death than i had imagined or intended it to be... but i think that was important, because to date, that is the only actually important thing thats ever happened to me.... anyhow, moving on.... the music video was totally fun to shoot. i was bummed that half of our footage came out virtually black (although not fully surprised) but we still have plenty of great material to work with. kind of going for the 'so cheesy it's smart' idea... i'm also super stoked about the installations. can't wait. really can't wait to dress up and babble like pope ondine with a head full of acid. should be a good time... haha. that night will be my 24th birthday. i'm guessing i probably can't bring a keg (or can i....?) but maybe a cake, or something. spend my birthday with a bunch of weird film kids? fantastic...

ok, thats it for now. something great just happened. i called into work and got my shift covered for the night (just like last night, and the night before that, and the night before that.... seriously.) so... the rest of my night will be devoted to organizing my apartment and getting modul8 and the midi keyboard ready for tomorrow. i can't freakin believe that i got so used to having this program and the midi keyboard around, and then friday night it's gonna be yanked back away from me. sad :(

anyhow, looking very forward to this VJ deal, interested to see how it's gonna go down...

see you all tomorrow.

-j