I’m In the Desert…

So, when I say that I’m taking a small hiatus? Don’t believe me, friends – just don’t. Life has been a whirlwind this past year! Remember all that talk about moving to Colorado? Well, we did it! I’m near my friends and we are now surrounded by beautiful, mountainy goodness – well at least for Michael and Kahlynne. Phoebs is back in PA with her dad and I am in Phoenix for school. I’m kind of sad to be so far from my friends (especially my bff) – again… but it’s for a good cause, I keep telling myself. Crazy changes, huh? The desert is being pretty good to me so far, though I have found that I have an interesting fear of scorpions. It seems that I suddenly realized that scorpions live in the desert and, OMG, I am now in the desert – so, I’m afraid they are going to attack my feet. ALL OF THEM!

How creepy - with babies even!

Okay, so really I need to thank Apple. Apple, I read your blog today and began to think to myself, “Self? Where the hell are you and why did you stop blogging?” I couldn’t find a good and reasonable answer to my question, so I decided to immediately jump back in. Now that all three of you are excited to see that I plan to continue writing, let me tell you a little bit about what I’m doing in school. I’m really excited.

Firstly, I’m in school for something I LOVE. Graphics. Manipulating them, taking many of them and making new designs, altering them etc. All to convey a message. Okay, so that’s the deep down, raw part of what I love to do. My major is Digital Media and I am looking so forward to stretching the boundaries of what I know into the possibilities of what could be with just a touch of creativity.

This semester my classes are dealing with Photoshop, Math (appreciation), a bit of history, web design, and art. I’m excited about all of them – especially my art class. You all may be thinking, oh yes, art… drawing, painting and the like. No. This is bio art. huh?! Yes, that was my reaction also when I heard of the class. Pulling away from traditional art, bio art is at the intersection of biology, art and technology. I’ve only been to one class, but I am looking forward to learning more of this interesting, obscure emerging field.

Not that this ‘defines’ bio art, but Jon McCormack is an artist I was researching a bit about in preparation for a project. He designed this cool program. I don’t know much about it as I’ve only just begun to read about it, but I think it was designed to evolve dna and he creates art pieces around the results. It’s pretty neat and I encourage you to check him out.

I’m really liking my school also. It’s a fairly tiny school and it’s dedicated to technology. It’s fantastic – I’m surrounded by like minded people who love computers, games or at the very least, appreciate those who do. It seems that two of the most popular majors at the school are Game Art & Animation and Game Design but there are lots of other technology based majors available. The first acronym that I encountered (and on my first day of orientation even) was Net Sec… say that fast without it coming out as nutsack… riiiight.

Have I mentioned I’m in the desert? Here’s my apartment:

Evie's Apartment in the Desert

Cute, right? Just kidding. Phoenix is actually a really nice place. There are lots of palm trees – it kind of reminds me of when I was in California with Michael several years ago. Really, who can beat 65-75 degrees in January? I feel kind of guilty… almost like I’m on a really long vacation where I learn stuff. Just watch out for those scorpions.

Well friends, coffee is done brewing and its time for me to be off to school soon. There will be more as it happens. Thanks for coming by today – I know it’s been a really long loooonnnnggg time… like a year! So, thank you for coming back to visit and I look forward to telling many stories about school and more as they happen  🙂

~ECO~

Inspiration and Evolution: my blogging journey

Recently I’ve been inspired.

It’s a funny thing – inspiration – it comes about at the strangest of times and sometimes by the oddest of things. Some people think of this as a muse even. Sandy Ackers has a great blog and brings her muse into a lot of the posts I’ve read recently. MY muse has come to me in the form of fellow bloggers (Sandy being one), or perhaps more appropriately, their blogs.

My bff, Teresa was my first inspiration – back before she was my bff and before we were Altaholics-Anonymous even. Her writing NEVER fails to bring a smile to my face, or even a ‘LoL IRL’. Also, Apple – ever the word of encouragement, she’s always happy to offer up feedback or even play along when I’m writing improv. So a GREAT.BIG.THANKYOU and many more hugs to these two lovely ladies for their inspiration, great reads and continued support in my endeavor to become a better writer.

I love you guys!

 (Note: I do NOT think of you guys as elephants, or heffalumps even… I just could NOT resist the cuteness that IS this picture)

Debra is the better half of my friend Jim and I love her blog. One of her more recent posts has inspired me to be a more social blogger. Reading that post made me realize that other bloggers like to know that they are being read too. Also, who DOESN’T love some comments?! What a great, innovative way to meet new ‘pen pals’ of sorts. Thank you, Debra. (Also, I’m seriously delinquent on making some layouts for you… have you seen the new, highly customizable layout now offered right here in WP? – It’s the one I’m currently using though I’m still working on a custom background).

Touching back on Sandy’s blog for a moment… the passages I’ve read from Strangling My Muse have inspired me to write – not perfect. (Which is something I found to be a huge hinderance to me – even in constructing THIS post). I love the challenges she presents and have tried them out on more than one occasion – sometimes even more than once just to observe the different results. What a great resource for writers in general. Thank you, Sandy!

Another recent, interesting inspiration came from sssourabh. I found him on Freshly Pressed one day when he posted an interesting spin on a ‘Top 10’ list… yeah, you know the kind! Having recently read Debra’s post related to commenting, I felt particularly inclined to leave my mark. A wonderful thing happened – sssourabh, in return, not only responded to my comment but visited MY blog and made comments of his own. Wow, I thought, THIS must be what Debra was talking about! One of sssourabh’s comments was an encouragement to include more photos within my blogs. That comment had me grabbing up my somewhat dusty Nikon case and toting that thing with me EVERYWHERE. (Also, my phone camera has been getting a huge workout) If I was going to include photos in my blog, I wanted them to be my own. (note: I genuinely WANT to learn more about photography, but for some reason have been resistant to reading many books on the subject – I think I’d rather learn by doing with a mentor).

Incidentally, I’ve had an odd inspiration this week for a weirdly interesting photo study (if that’s what they are called)… I’m just not certain how to go about it as it would require a number of volunteers  – with facial hair… Any suggestions are very, very welcome.

While reading his recent post about chocolate, sssourabh encouraged me (likely without knowing) to put more thought into what I write. I read and re-read and re-read again his delicious descriptions – I love (and live very near) Philadelphia and had to applaud him for making me think of ‘my’ city in a whole new light… and the chocolate… his words had me tasting the chocolate and feeling it’s textures without taking one bite! Thank you, sssourabh, for some fantastically descriptive words and for inspiring me to pick up my camera again and shoot the world.

Thank you ALL for helping me to evolve as a writer and artist… your contributions, comments, feedback and just coming to read – whether you know it or not – have been very important and meaningful to me.

Thanks for visiting my kitchen today – and to think this post was supposed to be about the potatoes I made for dinner last night…

All photos are © of their creators. Links to the source are included.