"Be there or be a square. Think about how hard it would be to do things if you were a square. Don't be a square."

Ahh Tuesday. I woke up thinking it was already Thursday and I got really excited knowing all I had left until break was two more classes and two more soccer practices. But no. I was falsely excited and came to the bleak observation about 10 minutes into my day that is was in fact, only Tuesday, and even now I still have four classes, three soccer practices, one track practice, one project due and I have to pack. So there.

And one more thing before I start- I'd like to give a shout out to my dad who is a loyal reader of this blog. So naturally, he is my biggest critic (he's only trying to help, I'm sure) and I wake up this morning to a great little collection of texts from him:

"You had a misspelled word in your title, unless you meant to say ginat. And I don't know if that's how you would spell lougie either..."

"You have  dentist appointment at noon on Monday."

What a great day to start my Thursday Tuesday!

I turned in my video this morning (I actually woke up extra early to finish it and get it handed in). I don't really know how I feel about it. I guess I was really overwhelmed by the whole thing so I was pretty relieved when I finished and it was a comprehensible piece. But after seeing some other peoples' videos, I was a little disappointed in the way mine turned out. Now of course, lots of the people in my class have movie-making experience already (editing experience would have made this so much easier) so maybe I shouldn't feel bad. But anyway, I'm attempting to upload it to YouTube and currently, there are 127 minutes remaining. So it probably won't make it up tonight. But I promise, eventually.

I finished the drawing sketchbook today and they're pretty awesome. I mean, as awesome as oil pastels can be, I guess. I wish I was better at them because I thought I thought of some pretty cool concepts that deserved a lot more credit than I gave them with oil pastels. Maybe I'll revisit them later. But here they are, in all their imperfections:

Easily my weakest piece. It's called manipulation where you manipulate something. I chose a fence. I guess the fence itself isn't too bad but I should've done a watercolor wash for the sky in the background instead of trying to go in when I was finished and do it with pastels. But I learned from my mistake and will do better next time. Promise.

The funnest of my pieces. This is metamorphosis. I metamorphosized a tongue into a road. It's pretty awesome, it kind of reminds me of one of those old school golf courses where you have to putt the ball into the clown mouth, except now you're driving your car into a real mouth.

This one was also kind of bad. I think it just comes down to being a weak idea. It's supposed to be scale, so I drew a bunch of office supplies in different sizes but it's not as obvious as I feel like it should be. But I like my table and the shadowing so I guess it's not all bad!

And this was my cutest idea and my most experimental method. It's location, so I drew a hot air balloon in space. Totally impossible but it's supposed to be. I did most of this using water and oil pastel, almost like water color painting except with oil pastel. I went over some of it with normal pastel then to give pieces texture and shape.

Glee today was probably the most awkward episode, ever. I don't think I have to say anything else about it! Raising Hope was hilarious (as always) and it reaffirmed my friend's faith in "BOOYAH" as well.

And the other highlight of my day was listening to Lupe Fiasco's new album "Lasers" for about two hours straight while finishing my sketchbooks. All I can really say about it is WOW. So much packed into one album it's hard to believe. Now, I wasn't giving the lyrics my full attention, but I'm pretty sure I heard him make a Maya Angelou reference, sing a love song (Lupe? I didn't expect this from you!), and sing about a deceased loved one. All in one album.

And I'm pretty sure about half the songs are actually about how much he hates Atlantic Records and how they're restricting his creative freedom, etc. Which doesn't make sense to me. How many of us, when we listen to a song, automatically judge the record company it comes from? How many of us even know what record companies our favorite artists come from? Can anyone name more than three or four record companies? What's the big deal with censoring artists if no one is going to relate it back to you, anyway? And you're making yourself more unpopular by setting restrictions because then your famous clients (aka, the artists) go to the public complaining about you and how you're not giving them enough freedom and that makes you look bad and pisses the fanbase off. THINK ABOUT THAT.

So anyway, I'll end with a Lupe quote because I did hear a whole bunch of good ones while listening. I'm picking a few lines from his song "State Run Radio" which I think touches on what I was mentioning above, so it's only fitting.

"You're now tuned into the weakest/ Frequency of fear, keep you locked right here/ And hope you never leave this, never be a leader/ Think inside the box, and follow all procedures..."

(And PS I've been writing this for probably 20 minutes and there are still 120 minutes remaining on my YouTube upload so... Maybe tomorrow...)