nice little animation

I tried so hard to fail

I failed my independent study today, well I tried to fail in it. 4 studio arts classes are kind of overwhelming, so I wrote my professor a letter of accpetance of my grade so that he didn't have to feel so bad failing the student who he awarded the Craig Cutler award to last year (don't you love irony?). Here's a copy of the letter:

Dear Bill,

I have always thrived on positive reinforcement, gold stars, and those cute little check marks you receive on exams. I have worn them as badges of validation my entire life.

This semester I took on too much. I thought I could do everything. I had the best intentions of being awesome. My photos this semester have sucked because I didn’t take the time to make them good, and the contact sheets void of creativity were just too stifling. I gave up. I thought I could throw something together, but half assessed is not what we are taught to do here.

I have never failed a class before. Actually it used to terrify me. Through this independent study I have learned that failure is an opportunity to do something ballsy, and unexpected. Something like this. This grade reflects more things learned than most of the As I have received. It is hard to own failure, to accept that you did not even come close to doing good enough. Now I’ve never been more excited to earn a grade. I’ll probably hang it on the refridgerator once I get it.

Bill you love giving As and you love giving Fs. I proudly accept my failing grade for this semester.

Haley


To this he replied that he would not let me off that easily and that I must make up the class over wintersession. I have failed at failing.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
-The Great Gatsby

Venting

Some things that pretty much just suck
-being sick during finals week
-expensive parking tickets
-still not having an internship
-looking at your bank statement while getting money to pay the parking ticket
-when the alarm on your phone is set to vibrate and it doesn't wake you up
-when you miss half of a review session for a final you have because your alarm doesn't go off
-running out of printer ink when you really need it
-the way your back feels after screen printing until all hours of the morning

It's always darkest before the dawn? I'm expecting some daylight any day now.

In other Haley news I picked up the latest issue of Hobo. It is a beautiful magazine! Amazing photographs, poetic writing and published on 100% recycled paper.
Check it

SPANDEX

Donna and I were wondering what this whole spandex craze on campus is about. You've seen those sorority girls rocking it. We decided we'd give it a go, and it my friends is amazing.

Video Blogs

Check this sweet video pieced together from YouTube blogs.

just a thought

“Gross National Product measures neither the health of our children, the quality of their education, nor the joy of their play. It measures neither the beauty of our poetry, nor the strength of our marriages. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It measures neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our wit nor our courage, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything in short, except that which makes life worth living. It can tell us everything about our country, except those things that make us proud to be a part of it.”
-bobby kennedy

impatient

Sitting here wondering, waiting, and thinking that I overshot my internship. I applied to 2 amazing places that are Exactly spot on where I want to learn. One's in Toronto and one's in Italy. I'm kind of more afraid of what happens if I get the internship...about having to go somewhere way out of my comfort zone. Wondering if I should have played it safe and questioning why Ashley talked me out of the place in Philly where I wanted to go. I've been thinking a lot about the fear of success. I think way too much attention is given to failure. I'm freaked out about being important, and about really getting out of sussex county. I think I'm made for big stuff, but every now and then I need a pep talk. I pray that one of these places is where God wants me to be.

"knowing is better than wondering, waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying" thanks Meredith Grey

Keytars and Naan

Last night Joel convinced Claire and I to go and see the band mute math in Philly. They had the lost in the 80's instrument the keytar, which was awesome. It was a highly entertaining show. The drummer was a beast and I had never really seen a fretless electric bass. My favorite part of the evenening was heading to Old City to catch the beginning of the first friday art shows and getting Joel to speak about form and concepts with Claire and I the art majors. They're my new favorite adventure kids.

veggie spoons

I love the UK company Howies. They always have super interesting quips about things we can do differently to improve our world. Here's one of their new articles on biodegradable cutlery


forks made from potato starch

I'm also reading this Bruce Mau book on massive change through design and I love that he finds a way to embrace large corporations and the idea that, "One incremental change for them becomes massive change for the entire industry". Imagine if McDonald's used potato forks.

nyc weekend

Here are some photos from this weekend in NYC for the tokion creativity conference. Story to follow.

groundhog day

I was having a sad morning, and was overanalyzing life while walking to class when out of my peripheral vision I saw an ENORMOUS groundhog. Like the size of a small dog. It turned and looked at me and then scampered away. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of the situation ,and how rotund the creature was. Groundhogs sure do have a way of putting life into perspective.

So I could sit here and pretend that I'm way too cool for Martha Stewart, but it'd be a lie. I love her new magazine Blueprint, it has some super sweet ideas and recipes for sweet potatos. And plus now:

Bluegrass

I'm doing an independent photo study with my favorite professor Bill, and I'm working on doing photo essays all semester. One of my classmates, Austin, had read about this bluegrass group who meets on Thursday nights to play, so Kendra and I decided to check it out. We didn't really know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't 15 people ages 60+ to be sitting in a circle playing mandolin, bass, banjo, and lots of guitars...which is what we walked into. We sat down and listened, and were congenial when I asked to bust out my camera, and even made us play a little bit. Good thing we know all of 3 chords. It was one of the most pleasant random experiences ever. I love getting out of my box.

Aviator hats

I went for my weekly bowling excusion with all the cool kids, and I was bowling alright when from across the room I spot the coolest canvas aviator hat in the whole world. It was kind of like this leather one I wore all the time when I was little and wanted to be a jet pilot, or shirley temple.


I decided that wearing the hat would most definitely improve my game, so I went and tapped the guy on the shoulder who was wearing the hat (and a sweet Harry Potter shirt) and politely explained my situation. He was wierded out at first, but soon allowed me to rock the sweet hat if I promised to be careful and return it safely. I went and bowled and got a strike on the next frame. The hat worked the crowd cheered and I brought the hat back to it's owner thinking I would never see this guy ever again. Then today while walking back from the studio I hear this guy yelling "HEEEEEYYY you wore my hat!" and he was sporting the same stellar hat I was like "bowling boy!" and now I have a new friend named Rodney who is a painting grad student and shares my love of sweet headwear.

The Simple Way

I got a letter today from one of my favorite new authors Shane Claiborne.

I want to design stuff for his organization, and he's interested. I just want an opportunity to use these gifts and education to serve and educate people. I think this is the perfect opportunity.

Here's a little on Shane:

Many of us find ourselves caught somewhere between unbelieving activists and inactive believers. We can write a check to feed starving children or hold signs in the streets and feel like we’ve made a difference without ever encountering the faces of the suffering masses. In this book, Shane Claiborne describes an authentic faith rooted in belief, action, and love, inviting us into a movement of the Spirit that begins inside each of us and extends into a broken world. Shane’s faith led him to dress the wounds of lepers with Mother Teresa, visit families in Iraq amidst bombings, and dump $10,000 in coins and bills on Wall Street to redistribute wealth. Shane lives out this revolution each day in his local neighborhood, an impoverished community in North Philadelphia, by living among the homeless, helping local kids with homework, and “practicing resurrection” in the forgotten places of our world.

Free Derek Webb

Derek Webb formerly of Caedmon's call has been giving away his album online. It's pretty great, very political and honest.
Get the album

A bunch of kids walked out of his concert when he sang this line:

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican

Apparently the truth is polarizing

My favorite is the rich young ruler song:

poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me

frank gehry

I have never ever wanted a piece of tiffany's jewelry until today. My favorite architect Frank Gehry just designed a line for them.
check it out

Anyone want to buy me these?

Drop Dead Fred

"I am a loner, a crazy wide eyed loner on a doomed mission to Venus to battle with the 3 headed mega beast but on the way I caught cornflakes disease. "
-Drop Dead Fred

I watched this with Kenj and Ben tonight and was the highlight of my day. Followed closely by Mr. Geshay's Bible study.

I think I'm in desperate need of some alone time even just 2 weeks into the semester. Sometimes I feel like my life is one of those VW commercials where everythings going great and then you get into a head on collision. Confronting things is hard, and a skill I'm lacking. I think an imaginary friend like Drop Dead Fred would be the coolest though...to keep things interesting and in perspective, and help you face your fears.

Psycho

Here are some psycho christian fundementalists if you feel like being ridiculously creeped out.
Check out Jesus Camp