Archives

Start of Week 3 – Winter Term Edition

Jan19

Spent this day of genuflection on the sacrifices of others to work on advancing my readings and making sure to have required assignments done sooner rather than later.  I am proud of the minor accomplishments I made this weekend but the task feels endless when I look at my list.  Though, with each check mark, there is one less thing to do.  Thankfully, I have booze in the freezer to take a Victory Shot with and then spend a few hours with friends eating chocolate and watching Season 4 of Downton Abbey.  (I just want Mary to be happy!)

The readings and assignments for Week 4 will be tackled before I know it and I am grateful for the opportunity to work for what I am worth.  I am worth a lot of time and energy and I want it to show in my writing and commitment to the AAD program.

Now to sleep as Tuesdays are the 8:30AM class (bleh) and I would like to get the proper English dialect out of my head!  It may only be the start of Week 3 but one must simply not have an emotional breakdown of character so early in the term!

Starting Week 2, Winter Term Edition

Jan13

Here I am!  Back at it and boy did I let my bi-weekly posts slip by around Week 8 last term.

Well a new term, new year, and a lot of new stuff happening in my schedule.  I realized today that  I am taking a total of 7 classes!  Eep!  Credits total to 16 and a of the are a Pass/No Pass class but I may have bitten off more than I can chew once I add in travel time, sleep, and 20hrs/wk of work.  The best thing I may have done for myself today was to draft a Master Timeline for all readings and assignments.  Not only did I write then on paper but I used a Google app called Keep.  What I love about this app is that I can create lists or add notes and it will give me reminders.  So I added about 8 different lists onto the Keep site via my Google account and I will get notifications to my phone!  Being on top of assignments and readings this term is really important to me as I did not get straight As last term and I want to earn every A I can get from here on out.

So on the roster this term is Performing Arts Management, Internship 1 (bleh 8:30am), Research Methodology, Grant Proposal Writing, Marketing|Media|Communications 2.0, Water Fitness 1, and Jazz 1!  Getting into shape both physcially and mentally!  I got to be ready to go for Color Me Rad in April and Grapes of Half (5K) in May.  No more slouchy Emily, new fit shiny Emily!!!

This is it for now!  Hopefully a well earned Victory Mimosa is on it’s way this week, otherwise it may have to wait until next payday.

Ciao!

Starting Week 7

Nov11

“No rest for the wicked,” as the saying goes.

I am beginning to see the outcomes of some choices I have made in the last week or two and I am not pleased with myself.  I have not been fair to others and most importantly, I have not been fair to myself and being diligent to schedule time for school work and personal time.

What I want to do now is get back on track and to not focus on the end being nigh as that is not my goal.  My goal is to complete my first term of graduate school feeling as though I am putting out good work and being acknowledged for it.  As of this morning, I have not put out my best work and I have seen its affect and will not allow for it to happen again.

I will make my time be like the full time job I had to ensure no more sliding back and making the best of my situations as conplaintency is not my friend and it must be unfriended!

Now for an early week Victory Mimosa to motivate me to conquer this week and be stronger for Week 8!

Starting Week 6

Nov2

Holy Forms of Participation Batman!

I am constantly stunned by how much stuff is just in my Facebook feed at any given time about art.  Either it is due to the fact that I have an artistic nature or that I have actively chosen to follow arts organizations and friends who share similar interests in the arts.

For example, a friend posted a link to another Facebook member for their photo album of sharks wearing hats, note the type of hat they are wearing?  Or another friend posted a link to classic console games.  My favorite find in my Facebook feed is the idea of Disney Princesses drawn with realistic waists.  There are artists (and I will consider computer programmers as artists for the sake of this conversation) putting out hard to find games, entertaining themselves and others with obscure references, or wanting to see a form of realism in popular media.  After completing my response to Module 3 questions for my Art in Society class, I just feel like I can back up my argument of fan art as art when these shared pages and links appear on a social media site, like Facebook.  (To see my Module 3 response, click here.)

With so many opportunities to interact and be entertained or provoked where does one slim down their choices?  Can anyone participate in all aspects of art?  While we have not found a way to clone humans, successfully, what about opportunities to see more than one type of art in a given day?  Is social media going to be the immersive experience we will have to rely on?  Or will theme parks be the other?  Live Tweeting with actors or following them on social sites like WhoSay and Instagram?  Just where to start, or rather, where to keep going!

An exciting development in my work for a field guide came in today’s Register Guard.  I can now find specific information for my guide and potentially expand upon what they reported on the tea shops here in Eugene.  I loved how my mom texted me with the news and suggested I “think along the line of the IAAF trying to get the track trials here in 2016.”  I love my mom so much!  Such brilliance!  Now I am 2 for 2 with my goals in the AAD program; first my main masters work to be able to see what the performing arts does for our Veterans (see Eugene Weekly’s Volume XXXIII, Number 41) and now tea shops in Eugene!  Just honestly blown away by how the Universe works.

Now to start this week off with approving my official UO business cards (eeeee!), contacting my Alum for a different assignment in Cultural Administration, and starting my new job on campus as the University Theatre’s House Manager/Marketing Assistant!  I set a deadline of November 1 to have a job and I met it on October 31.  Life is super weird/crazy/awesome right now and it could not be more perfect!

Starting Week 5

Oct26

It’s a Sunday, but if I am to treat my graduate studies like a full-time job, then I better start putting in those hours.

Today has been productive but I am still feeling really stumped with using Adobe Illustrator.  I have a handle on the copy and paste attribute of it as I discovered while making my Personal Learning Environment (PLE), but where I am struggling is utilizing the other functions of Adobe Illustrator to create a new brand image for a performing arts company.  I do not have access to Adobe Illustrator at home and bouncing from computer lab to computer lab on campus is becoming a hassle as each lab may have a different version of the software than the one I initially started with to develop the brand.

I will tackle the logo a little bit more tomorrow and allow for some more inspiration to sweep over me.  Utilizing Pinterest was great for finding some branding collateral ideas and some fonts, downside was the fact that the really awesome fonts I liked were not free, nor cheap.  And free is a requirement right now as funds are leaning towards zilch.

Onwards and upwards they say.  Let’s see how this week ends.

 

Starting Week 4

Oct19

The first three weeks of school have flown by and I am now starting to feel more like myself and finding my way around campus and school work.  I had a really great workshop on Friday with the Graduate School on Speed Reading and I hope to take their next workshop on Time Management, downside is I have group work meetings at the same day and time as the workshop!  Oops!  Plus, trying to get ready for a dance performance with school work and finding part time work has had some serious side effects.  Dishes not getting down, scrambling to fit in hundreds of pages of reading (I will catch up though thanks to the speed reading workshop), and not feeling like I am taking care of myself.  Late nights sewing were not what I had in mind for doing a 3 and half minute dance, but there is an upside to all of this.

My performance yesterday at the Middle Eastern Dance Guild of Eugene’s Fall Festival resulted in the audience clapping along to our music and then individuals from the audience would stop and say how much they enjoyed it.  Results of this performance were really pretty dance outfit, not messing up on the foot work (ok, maybe a little), performing with little food on my stomach and too much caffeine, and doing all of this in a two-piece costume!!  (Super body confidence powers activate!)

I hope to have photos or videos to post soon since I want to share my performance with my cohort, because the Universe decided that all the really cool things I want to do with my cohort have to happen the same weekend I have committed myself to another event.  While the Classes of 2015 and 2016 were having their talent showcase, I was dancing and stage managing, easiest stage managing gig to date, but having to chose between building new relationships with people I am spending a lot of time with or doing something I have been desperately wanting to do since 2005/2006, well….I stuck with the latter rather than the former.  Opportunities to perform the routine in the future may happen, but no more last minute sewing!  Too much stress, not always feeling rested, and not doing myself any justice by not doing my readings and school work.

A year ago I started the AAD application process and fretted if I would get in, now being in this program is so monumental to me as I never thought of myself as smart enough to earn a Masters degree.  In hindsight, it’s not about smarts, but about drive and finding that goal in life and doing whatever it takes to achieve it.  I may have cheated myself on expanding my network with AAD Alums this weekend, as I was unable to participate in a number of events, but being able to do something which I never thought possible because of how I look is really empowering.  I danced in front of people I do not know in a skirt and bra!!!  What?!?!  I know, right!  I did it and did the dance with lots of happiness in my soul because it is a great song and that no one was there to hate on dancers’ bodies, they were there to celebrate it!  This feeling of empowerment is what is driving me to pursue a Masters in Arts & Administration, or possibly use my degree as a vehicle for working with organizations that have mission to empower girls and women to appreciate and respect their bodies or being able to assist our veterans who struggle with PTSD.

So now that I have the dance performance behind me, I can start focusing on my school work and getting a part-time job because I am getting nervous that I will not be able to pull my weight on bills.  An opportunity to work at Oregon Contemporary Theatre has presented itself and I will be doing that for the next two weekends and I am excited to be around theatre people, they are my kind of crazy.  :-)

Ciao until we meet again!  Keep following my course work postings to see what I am learning and I will see you at Week 5 (Victory Mimosa is coming).