October is perhaps the most exciting month of the year for me. Last night, Greenwood experienced a low temperature of 37 degrees, and my car was frosty when I left for work this morning. I’ve been feeling pretty great lately anyway, but changes in weather just make me unprecedentedly happy. It always feels like a fresh start for something.
It’s nice not having homework — that’s one super-positive thing I can say about not being in school right now. I actually have time. My main concern when I graduated was that, without the academic pressure, I wouldn’t so much pursue the non-programming-related endeavors I branched out into while at Lander. It’s one good thing I can say about the American higher-education system — as much as people complain about being forced to take “general education” classes, there’s something to be said for variety, and in my case at least, it consistently drives an appreciation for the way things all tie together in the end. (For instance, I loved being able to relate examples from an economics class with something I was studying in an information systems class.) I miss that feeling of having my brain pulled in several directions at once, and jumping from logical thinking to creative thinking and back again in the same day. But in the same vein, I feel a peculiar freedom with art now. When I took art classes at Lander, the thought of creating art without any sort of guidance — where I was free to pick subject, mediums, size, process, absolutely everything — was both thrilling and daunting. While it seemed like something to aspire to, I had no idea where I would begin. I was never really driven to create art “projects” before going to Lander, but I think now I can see why a lot of Lander’s art students, accustomed to that sort of freedom before taking classes, get so frustrated with the subjective limits put on their work. I think it’s useful regardless — anything you decide to do professionally / for a living is most likely going to impose its limits in order to pay the bills. I’m just saying that in retrospect, I think I came out alright in the end, suddenly finding myself with a little extra time, a million possibilities, and no pressure to pay my rent with a paintbrush. Add that to the list of awesome things about my job.
I bought a spiffy new macbook, by the way. My laptop drank a bit too much water a few weeks ago — almost an entire glass in fact — and is as far as I can tell, dead forever. Tired of buying used laptops that last for a few months and don’t do everything I need them to, and enchanted by Apple’s new line of MacBooks, I took the plunge and bought a brand new 13″ MacBook (2.4Ghz; 4G Memory). Let me just say: It is so. pretty. I am going to try some tricks tonight to recover my files from my old laptop, and hopefully from my old Linux box which died some time last summer. And do you want to know the truth? 90% of the reason I decided to buy a new computer at all is because for years, I have had this dream of having all of my music in one place. Not having had a decent computer in a very long time, and having had my old computer (with the oh-so-important and forgotten music from my high school days) die on me, it feels like, technology-wise, I’ve always been up against a brick wall. My last laptop didn’t have USB, so putting files on it was next to impossible, and even if I got them on my computer, I couldn’t get them on my ipod. So. Finally, I can have all of my files on my computer and my ipod, and my obsessive-compulsive dream will come true! And in all honesty, if it weren’t for this idea, I could have gone another year, at least, without splurging on a computer. Sad? yes. But honest.
Other news? We have a house. Most of you probably already know this, but for archival consistency, there it is. We spent the summer looking for the perfect place, and finally found it, so now I have three spiffy new roommates: My best Mexican, my best barista, and my best Mexican barista! There’s nothing quite like being able to have huevos con chorizo and double tall lattes all day long. Now that’s what I call living. It’s a nice size and a nice location, in my opinion, and has old hardwood floors, which make me especially happy on days when the low autumn sun comes through the windows. I’m currently on a mission to cover the walls in art (they are currently ALL glossy off-white), so if any of you artists out there want to make donations, I’m accepting what I can get.
I have been baking muffins and cookies and watching The Office compulsively. I’ve been spending lots of time with my awesome grandmother, and she’s been teaching me tricks: how to make laundry super-soft, how to make a perfect bed, how to pick a loaf of bread (you squish it to see if it’s soft). I’ve started dabbling in printmaking classes, and I’ve recently been inspired to start taking more photos again (something I haven’t really done much of since Mexico).
So I’m hoping, perhaps, that this newfound burst of creativity, coupled with a fancy new computer and software package* might inspire a (much, much needed) superamy.com overhaul. It’s good for me to write, and I want to make a habit of it, so that I can write more than just “what’s-new-with-me” notes (which I would imagine aren’t so exciting to read). Design is something that can be fun for me if there isn’t any pressure in it, and I’m not ready to let that rust up just yet, so… we’ll see what happens.
* New Adobe CS4 — Acrobat 9 Pro; Contribute CS4; Dreamweaver CS4; Flash CS4 Professional; Fireworks CS4; Illustrator CS4; Photoshop CS4 Extended; Soundbooth CS4. It doesn’t ship until December, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be just as excited then, too.
listening to: Bon Iver – Skinny Love