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tyramir · 5 years

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During the Easter weekend, I played what was probably the best D&D session of my life. I’ve been wanting to tell this story since it happened, but I’ve been kind of letting it process.

First, I need to give some context (because it’s one of those).

My character is named Hurlock. He’s a Dragonborn Warlock. Before he became a Warlock, he was a member of the city guard, and his partner’s name was Jory. For reasons unknown at the time, Jory stabbed Hurlock in the back, both figuratively and literally. Jory’s sword got stuck, lodged in Hurlock’s scales and flesh, and Jory fled, leaving the blade still stuck inside. Hurlock made a pact with a fiend to survive, and claimed the attempted murder weapon as his pact weapon. So Hurlock’s been running around for a good, long while with the sword that nearly killed him as his own personal weapon. He’s turned down better magical weapons to upgrade to for some time, preferring this one for character reasons.

I also later discovered that Jory is also a Warlock of the very same patron I had taken up.

So, recently, Hurlock finally tracked Jory down to a magical vault, formerly owned by a dragon. Jory was searching for a specific magical artifact, and wasn’t having much luck finding it. While exploring the vault, Hurlock and his party came across the dragon’s former hoard. Hurlock, prone to poor life decisions sometimes, decided to “Scrooge McDuck it”, and jump into the hoard. The gold coins moved out of his way as he descended, and he took some damage when he hit the floor. The coins then formed into a “treasure golem”, and Hurlock had to attempt to escape the pit while being attacked by a giant pile of gold, gems, and who knows what else.

This is when our party Wizard decided to “help.” See, he had two magical items: a Jug of Alchemy, which allows him to produce various alchemical substances every day out of thin air, and a Bag of Holding, which allows him magical storage space. He’d been filling that Bag of Holding with acid from the Jug of Alchemy for ages now, every night, until it was full. And his solution to “helping” Hurlock was to up-end the entire bag of acid onto the treasure golem. Which was in the same pit Hurlock was in.

Luckily, the dice were with me that night. I got out. The treasure golem did not. All told, we estimate about 50 K worth of gold was melted that night. (Yes, gold can dissolve, so long as the acid is aqua regia, which it apparently was) We were all understandably upset over the huge loss of potential income. So while the rest of the party was berating our Wizard, I came upon an idea.

I asked our Wizard to place an illusion of the magical artifact Jory was looking for directly above the pit of acid, and to hide the pit itself and make it look like a regular stone floor. Then, through various spells and manipulation, I lured Jory from his section of vault to the room in question. The rest of the party hid while I awaited him.

He had his own party, all Warlocks of the same patron. Jory wanted to attack Hurlock, thinking this was a trap, but through a ridiculously high Deception check, I managed to convince the other Warlocks I was on the level, and had been sent to assist their efforts in recovering this artifact.

“Besides,” Hurlock said, “we all know that we’re all going to betray one another once we get the artifact. We all know the power’s too tempting to let any of the others have it. I’m just moving up the time table for inevitable betrayal. I want to see the fireworks.”

The other Warlocks were already distrusting of Jory. There’d originally been five of them in total when they’d come into this vault. Now there were only three, and Jory didn’t seem to care.

I led them into the treasure room, and showed them where the artifact was. Because of my speech, they were distrustful of me, but also distrustful of each other, specifically Jory. They weren’t voicing ideas to one another, not whispering words of caution.

Jory made his play first. He cast illusions to make the room foggy, and made a break for the artifact. I laughed inwardly, and just cast invisibility on myself, as my party circled behind the Warlocks and got ready to set up a kill zone.

There was a splash, followed by some screaming. My DM looked at me in frustration, but I just kind of smiled helplessly and shrugged. The DM did some furious rolling, and decided while Jory took a lot of damage, he managed to climb out of the pit.

I was fine with that. See, Jory was a puny human. I was a Dragonborn, with a slightly higher Strength score, something I’d taken into account when I’d made this plan. So as Jory climbed out of the pit, I came out of invisibility and threw his ass back in. While the rest of the party subdued and captured the remaining Warlocks, I just calmly stood at the edge of that pit, and curtailed all of Jory’s efforts to climb back out.

There was no grand struggle. There was no epic battle. This wasn’t a dramatic showdown. It was an execution.

And Hurlock, normally jovial and witty, was cold and dispassionate the entire time.

When Jory finally died, Hurlock did not make the same mistake his former partner once had. He Eldritch Blasted the remains, confirming the kill, and then summoned of his pact weapon. He looked at the simple, plain steel longsword that he’d been using for so long, and tossed it into the pit of acid. And then he walked away.

He said nothing as he did. No witty remarks. No final lines. The normally talkative Hurlock, who always had a quip for everything, was silent. He was done.

My DM was understandably frustrated. He’d expected this encounter to go an entirely different route. He hadn’t expected our Wizard to destroy 50 K worth of gold, and he certainly hadn’t expected me to not even engage in battle against this perfectly planned encounter. I’d ruined months of planning for him, but in the end, I had fun, and that was what he’d been looking for. It was the perfect end to this particular character arc for Hurlock.

More stuff happened afterwards, some of it hilarious, and I might even tell those stories one day, but for now, this is the important one.

#dungeons and dragons #d&d

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam France 2.4 reaction

Double episode this week! Here is the French take on Ouija, psychics, and potatoes.

Clip 1 - Romain

This is an episode where I’m definitely missing a lot of Norwegian/French context so if I’m missing something, please feel free to elaborate or correct me.

So on the one hand I enjoy the cabin episode, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great to get a break from the main drama and just see the girls interacting and having fun together. But is it really necessary for a remake? From my non-Norwegian perspective, I thought the cabin episode/Easter special was a spooky mystery as a nod to Norway’s tradition of reading/watching crime stories around Easter, as well as structuring an episode with our main characters when they would have been off school. It seems like it was very culturally relevant to airing at that time, in that place? Of course non-Norwegian viewers also enjoy the cabin episode even without the context, but we were not the target audience for the show.

I mean, there’s not a lot in the cabin episode that’s vital to the main storyline of the season or that can’t be transported to other clips. Really only the potato conversation between Noora and Vilde seems like something that needs to stick. Everything else - Noora getting texts from William, Vilde talking and speculating about William, Eva talking about Jonas still being into her, talk of Isak’s sexuality - has already been covered or could easily be condensed or added to another scene. Like they could have fit this into Saturday clip where the girls are sleeping over at someone’s house and end up using a Ouija board, if they wanted to include that, and a Sunday clip where they’re hanging out and Manon and Daphne talk about potatoes.

IDK, I’m not saying this is bad - again I enjoy the concept of the episode - and I know the episodes have to be like <20 minutes so it might be easier to make a cabin episode than to cram the relevant parts into the rest of episode 5.

Anyway, at least this is scenic and the girls are cute. Hat game exceptionally strong.

Lol, I have no problem with bringing Kasper (Romain) into the show but if they hook up him and Alex, I’ll be kinda bummed. Of course bi girls can be with boys, but I’ve not liked how they’ve ignored her bisexuality at times when it would be relevant to the story. Plus we already have multiple on-screen het relationships and hookups and no f/f ones through any of the Skam remakes other than Alex’s one line about Clara; if they have a female character who’s into girls, I want them to finally deliver on that, you know?

At least they found a guy to play Romain who looks like he could be a spirit. I buy it.

Clip 2 - Everyone is tired of hearing about Charles

Alex giving us the guitar playing that we lacked last episode! ❤️ I love her big sparkly sweater.

Uh, that’s a straight-up Michael Myers mask. Alex, why does your grandmother have that?

Alex being 200% done with talk of Charles … relatable.

Imane and the girls teasing Daphne about hooking up with Romain was a good bit.

“We can’t talk about feminism without talking about men’s role in it” - Mmmm … I disagree … but that’s just my opinion lmao.

Oh Daphne,making it awkward between her and Imane when their dynamic was so cute just now.

Poor Alex, going from excited to exasperated in an instant when Daphne immediately decides she can use the Ouija board to ask about Charles. She thought she would be free for five minutes...

I love that she made the board herself though!

Lol, you can’t tell me that all of the other girls wouldn’t immediately get up with Imane and go to bed as well to avoid more Charles discussion.

Clip 3 - Ouija

This is a fun scene but kinda random. For instance, Alex had flirted with Lucas before but I’m not sure why it would be on her mind now… in the other scene Vilde and Eva led up to it by asking about guys, so Chris did the same. … and kinda not sure why she doesn’t think he could be gay considering she (unlike Chris) knows about the porn on his phone. Hoping she still has a chance, I guess? (Or well, I guess her thing about it being nonsense could be her thinking he must be bi rather than gay since he’s with Sarah, but that’s not really implied.)

But I do like Manon asking about Romain and Daphne, that whole bit of teasing is fun (and you could interpret it as her wanting Daphne to move on. Though who doesn’t at this point, really.)

Emma feels less put out about the Yann situation in general than Eva was even though less time has passed between the Emma/Yann breakup. I’m not sure what to think of that. I mean, good for her, I guess?

I do really like the staging/setup of this scene, with the girls sitting around the table with the lights. That set a spooky spiritual atmosphere.

Clip 4 - Breakfast

God DAMN I would be so sick of hearing about Charles by this point. I feel Emma’s intense boredom.

I love Daphne’s fantasy about Charles coming to her in a dream like he’s in a ‘90s music video, though.

It’s pretty interesting to see how little changes in terms of what the director chooses to show can have an effect on the messages we register from a TV show. One thing Skam France needs to improve is being very, very hyper aware of those little things.

For instance, in the original we get a shot of Vilde’s sparse plate and we get a shot of Noora noticing how little Vilde is eating. Without spelling it out for us (such as Noora saying, “Vilde, there’s not much on your plate, why don’t you take some more food?”) we can connect the dots as to why Noora offers her the bun. That’s just basic cinematic language, we almost take it for granted. Here we don’t see Daphne’s plate or how much is on it, we don’t see Manon looking at Daphne’s plate with any kind of concerned expression. So when she offers Daphne the bread, there’s no clear connection within this scene for us to think Manon is worried about Daphne not eating. And because of that, when Daphne goes off on her gluten allergy, it comes across less as an excuse for her not eating, and could be just her rambling and making huge leaps much like she is about Charles, whereas with Vilde we can definitely pick it out as her trying to deflect questions about her not eating.

Clip 5 - Potatoes

The taxidermied animals are a nice touch for a spooky cabin, I must say.

I love that Alex decided Daphne will be the one to attack Romain, Alex will hide behind her, and Emma will hide behind Alex. Solid plan.

The potato scene is one where I don’t know how I would feel about it if I had not seen the original version.

The way it was acted and paced was not nearly as effective, in my opinion. What I adore about that scene is that how subtly the situation is handled. Noora doesn’t confront Vilde directly about her eating disorder; does it in a gentle way, one that will get through to Vilde (I love that the mention of antioxidants helping fight cancer is OK, but antioxidants helping against old skin is what really gets Vilde’s attention, and was a smart move on Noora’s part). Part of it is the pacing. I know we sometimes knock Noora’s slow delivery, but in this scene the unhurried pace absolutely works. Because Noora’s words are so slowly and calmly delivered, you can see them getting through to Vilde. You can see her turning over all these details about nutrition. All of the pauses between dialogue contain the information sinking into Vilde’s mind. And the pacing also emphasizes the extreme vulnerability of this conversation, how very careful Noora’s approach is, how Vilde maybe (possibly) (probably) realizes what’s going on and isn’t arguing or putting up resistance like she did when Noora was more direct about it at the end of S1, how despite Noora doing most of the talking, this still feels like a conversation between them.

This version of the scene … it’s not bad and I can imagine it working, but it’s so hurriedly paced that it feels like Manon is talking at Daphne, it’s not a two-way conversation, and I don’t feel that what Manon’s saying is getting through to Daphne at the same level.

That Romain reveal, though? Excellent.

Clip 6 - “Romain” revealed

The girls are very cute huddled together and I’m liking their dialogue. It does feel more rushed though, like it’s very enjoyable but they’re flying through it just because it was in the original. Like the line about “my hijab will protect us” is very random when Imane doesn’t tie in the hijab to her psychic powers during her explanation.

Alex and Imane hugging and kissing after the reveal! ❤️

Lol they cut out Emma talking about how some of the Ouija must have been real because of Yann having feelings for her, and the irony of her saying that when Manon is getting a text from Charles about Yann hooking up with someone else. They’re downplaying that arc a lot, tbh.

I see Manon’s little smile at that text. Whatever I feel about Charles, that’s a smooth as hell text.

General Comments:

Aside from my nitpicks and wondering if this episode is at all necessary in the French version, I did have a lot of fun with this episode. The girl squad dynamic continues to be a strength of Skam France, and there was lots of cute banter and friendship. Alex in particular got many moments to shine.

As much as I love lesbian Daphne, if they’re not going that route, I would kinda be down for her hooking up with Romain in the finale, in place of Alex. You know. As a fun fling. Get her mind off Charles. Alex can find a nice girl to smooch.

Here are some English-language articles about Norwegian Easter traditions, especially the crime stories, that gave me some context on the original episode.

http://relocation.no/expat-communities/expat-resource-articles/easter-in-norway/

https://www.thelocal.no/20180329/bloody-easter-the-origins-of-norwegian-holiday-crime-fiction

https://www.visitnorway.com/media/news-from-norway/norways-mysterious-easter-tradition/

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions

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jasonfry · 7 years

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Author’s Notes: The Secret Academy, Pt. 1

WARNING: These notes will completely spoil Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy. Haven’t read it? Stop and go here.

(Go here for notes for Edge of the Galaxy, here for Rebel in the Ranks and here for Imperial Justice. )

Part 1: Zare

Imperial Justice was torture to write, but The Secret Academy was actually fun! Final chapters are like that ... if you’ve put in the work. I’d spent three books establishing the characters and their motivations, laid the groundwork for the themes I wanted to explore, and then layered in complications and reversals. The fourth book was the chance to make all that pay off, and I enjoyed doing it.

Rather than alternate chapters as I had in Imperial Justice, I split Zare Leonis’s and Merei Spanjaf’s stories and followed them one at a time, without intercuts. I’d considered doing that in Imperial Justice, rejected the idea, but now thought it made sense.

I had a dopey reason for doing that, and a smart one.

The dopey reason: I was still annoyed at not being able to end Imperial Justice with Zare running into Beck Ollet inside the tower – a cliffhanger that had made me cackle happily. Splitting Zare and Merei’s stories would give me a second chance at that moment.

The smart reason: Imperial Justice had separated Zare and Merei and concluded with Merei’s discovery that Zare’s transfer to Arkanis wasn’t a reward but part of the Inquisitor’s plan. Taking away the intercuts was a way for the reader to feel a little bit of that separation and anxiety.

One challenge in The Secret Academy was unexpected. Story Group sent back my outline for Books 3 and 4 with a note that by the time Zare got to Arkanis, the Inquisitor would be dead, killed off in Rebels’ Season 1 finale. That would certainly change my story! I scrunched the books’ timeline a bit and was able to get the Inquisitor and Zare to briefly overlap on Arkanis, but that was the most I could compress things.

So I leaned into it. I reasoned that the Inquisitor’s offstage demise fit with an idea I’d been playing with – that Zare, for all his bravery and determination, also gets a bit lucky. In Imperial Justice, Zare decides he won’t follow another immoral order even it means he’ll never find Dhara, and is saved from dismissal when Oleg’s warehouse raid goes awry. The Inquisitor’s death would be another bit of luck, as his plan is to return to Arkanis and break Zare. I don��t think that undercuts Zare or his quest – one thing I like about Zare is he isn’t a Jedi, a veteran commando or some kind of superhero. He needs a little luck; most heroes do.

One idea I continued from Imperial Justice was Zare’s “shadow story” – a not too different tale in which Dhara was never kidnapped and Zare remained the loyal young Imperial officer he’d assumed he’d become. Arkanis essentially resets Zare’s cadet career and the shadow story culminates with the training exercise on Sirpar. Those scenes are some of my favorite in the book – they show Zare as a young officer who improvises intelligently, drives himself and his troops to accomplish unlikely goals, and earns those troops’ loyalty and affection. He’s come a long way from the kid impatiently killing time at AppSci.

But as in Imperial Justice, Zare eventually has to ask himself what he isn’t willing to do to find Dhara. In the previous book, being ordered to take children into protective custody is his breaking point; in this one it’s being ordered to murder a fellow cadet.

No aspect of The Secret Academy attracted more interest than the revelation that Brendol Hux’s Commandant’s Cadets are forerunners of the First Order stormtroopers overseen by Brendol’s son Armitage. The funny thing, to me, was that the connection with The Force Awakens came late and was a lucky break.

I’d known since Edge of the Galaxy that Dhara was being held in a mysterious tower on Arkanis, that Zare would try to get inside, and that Beck’s unexpected reappearance would ruin everything. From a storytelling point of view, the Commandant’s Cadets were merely the mechanism that would get Zare into that tower at the right time for the hammer to come down.

But why did they exist? I was up against a problem that’s common in richly detailed fictional universes. I wanted the Cadets to have a purpose and be more than a generic bunch of Imperial “mean kids,” but if that purpose never affected any other Star Wars story, readers would know from the beginning that the Cadets had failed to achieve their goals.

In November 2014 I visited Lucasfilm for meetings about DK’s The Force Awakens – Incredible Cross-Sections and got a synopsis of the upcoming movie, accompanied by on-set photos. Finn’s origins reminded me of both clone troopers and the Jedi; a few minutes later, it struck me that General Hux was awfully young.

Somewhere between those two thoughts I saw an opportunity: what if the plan to raise children as stormtroopers dated back to the Rebels era, and came from Hux’s father?

Story Group’s Pablo Hidalgo liked the idea and ran it up the chain. I braced myself for a reason the answer had to be “no.” When I got a “yes” instead, I wrote as fast as I could and then crossed my fingers.

The connection made sense within the Star Wars galaxy: the elder Hux had served alongside clones and Jedi during the Clone Wars, seen the deficiencies of the stormtroopers, and imagined a better way that drew on his wartime experience. That program began in secret and was taken up by his son to create the First Order’s soldiers.

It also solved my plot problem admirably and turned a weakness in The Secret Academy into a strength. Before the release of The Force Awakens the Hux connection would spur interest in the book; afterwards, new readers would see the Commandant’s Cadets as a real threat, because they’d know that Hux’s program had succeeded beyond his fondest dreams.

Notes on Part 1:

The first scene was the original ending of Imperial Justice, but I decided I didn’t want to introduce a new planet that late, and preferred ending with Merei and Tepha wondering if they’d ever see Zare again. Moving it was an easy change, at least.

I wanted Arkanis to be something new for Star Wars – a waterlogged world that I likened to what you’d find if you turned over a log. I also wanted the Academy and its surroundings to feel plucked out of a gloomy Gothic tale. A lot of things in The Secret Academy are pretty shameless goofs on a well-known Gothic novel and movie, in fact.

it was a pain ensuring Zare’s cadet service fit the chronology of the first two Rebels seasons. The initial idea was that Rebel in the Ranks and Imperial Justice would cover a full academic year, with the top cadet earning a transfer to Arkanis for the next year. Chiron would back Zare, while Roddance supported Oleg. But I couldn’t figure out what to do with Zare and Merei over that second summer, and feared readers would get impatient that Zare wasn’t trying harder to rescue Dhara. Fortunately, Rebel in the Ranks had introduced the possibility of a midyear transfer – an offhand line that became critical once the Inquisitor’s death forced me to speed things up. But how to get Zare to Arkanis? The obvious answer was for Merei to slice a transfer into the system, but that struck me as a lazy, unconvincing solution. I got so lost in blind alleys that I missed the solution Story Group found: the transfer wasn’t a reward but an unexpected order from some Imperial. I realized that Imperial should be the Inquisitor: it was plausible, solved my chronology problem, let me have a confrontation with Zare on Arkanis and added to the story’s tension. Whew!

Contrary to what’s stated here, the journey between Lothal and Arkanis isn’t a short one. That was my fault: I was working off the idea that Lothal was near Kessel, a bit of head-canon I’d gotten used to and so failed to vet. There was no reason to define that here; doing so led to an unforced error.

Note that Colonel Julyan challenges Zare with a question about grav-ball and leadership, as Sergeant Currahee did in Rebel in the Ranks. In the earlier book Zare ducked the question; now he gives Julyan a thoughtful answer that reflects his experiences.

Julyan’s lessons reference Legends material: Admiral Screed, General Romodi (before his appearance in Rogue One), the Order of the Terrible Glare and the Empire’s campaigns in the Western Reaches. Much of this was taken from The Essential Guide to Warfare and additional material written for it. It seemed ready-made for Julyan’s teaching and unlikely to confine future storytelling, so why not use it?

I invented the diplopod as a mount for Sarco Plank in The Weapon of a Jedi, only to see my beastie get subbed out in favor of the happabore, appearing as an Easter egg for The Force Awakens. I liked the critters, so I put them aside for some future project. The Secret Academy gave me an opportunity not just to use the diplopod but also to kill one in a gross way.

I liked the bit where the Inquisitor invites Zare to come out of the weather and into the shelter of a stasis projector. In that context politeness seems decidedly menacing.

Scaparus Port was fun to write – equal parts Treasure Island and some gloomy town out of Cthulhu, what with its salt-encrusted gloom and fisherfolk missing limbs and scarred by sucker marks. Arkanis is just a nasty place.

Scaparus was the right place to bring back the jogan fruit, or more specifically its scent, which makes Zare remember Beck Ollet’s orchards on Lothal. Scent unlocking memory is a theme throughout Servants of the Empire, working up to its critical role in the climax. Here, it’s a heartening renewal of the connection between Zare and Merei that suggests their break might not be final after all.

I never explicitly stated it, so I’ll leave it to Wookieepedia to work out the canonicity, but Gesaral Beta is supposed to be the planet where it rains razors of glass on Ania Solo in Dark Horse’s Legacy series.

I enjoyed writing the demented beach scene with Hux and the cadets debating how to raise nerfs. The sea monster is an homage to the great Jack Vance, who imagined a similar predator in Ports of Call. (If you’ve never read Vance, fix that posthaste!) Note that Zare’s reaction to the nerf’s death is quite different than the casual cruelty shown by the other cadets.

Sirpar was another attempt at a new setting. Its heavier-than-standard gravity is noted in Legends depictions of the planet; I added making the light so intense that the cadets had to take precautions against it. Light would vary dramatically from planet to planet, another Jack Vance idea I didn’t recall seeing in Star Wars. I decided to try it and liked the results.

Note that the accident set to befall Penn Zarang will be dismissed as a “slight weapons malfunction.” I’m all for little nods like that as long as they don’t interrupt the story or distract a casual reader.

Perhaps emboldened by my success tying the Commandant’s Cadets to The Force Awakens, I looked for an even stronger connection. Might Anya Razar and Captain Phasma be one and the same? I decided that was a dumb idea and never proposed it, but did suggest a scene with DDM-38 pushing a red-haired baby in some kind of space pram. Lucasfilm shot that down, and rightly so – less was more. There’s awesome fan art out there of a baby Hux in the arms of his creepy nanny droid, though.

My original treatment had Zare, Chiron and Roddance all transferred to Arkanis as part of the “valedictorian” storyline. When that idea got abandoned I decided we’d explored that triangle sufficiently on Lothal, but did need to bring Chiron back for the finale. I liked dropping him into the middle of Zare’s dilemma about the Commandant’s Cadets as a tempting but dangerous lifeline. That was also a bit of misdirection: since Chiron can get into Area Null, he’s a potential route to Dhara that would let Zare escape having to kill Penn.

We’ll see Cass again in A New Hope, as an aide aboard the Death Star.

Next time: Speaking Bocce and the Case of the Missing Bounty Hunter. Right here!

#author's notes #star wars #servants of the empire #writing #storytelling

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sleepy-ki-blog · 6 years

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Evaluation

My focus in animation 102 was always going to be stop motion. Animation 101 helped me realise that Maya and I just don’t click or get along and I’ve still being trying to get a grips on Toon Boom, having left it alone for a period of time meant I’d essentially forgotten how to use it; Intro to the Making Of helped me reintroduce myself though. Kick-starting the module off with looking at posture and body language was definitely interesting – it’s something I enjoy – so it was nice to have a lesson on internal and external displays of emotion depending on if they’re more introverted or extroverted. The drawing exercise was fun too; I want to work more on dynamic poses and silhouettes as a 2D artist so body language is important in that. Because it was for the purpose of an armature exercise the drawings didn’t need to be too anatomically correct as they’d be translated into that and Buckid on Maya.

Using Buckid was a test and a half. As I’m not great at Maya as is, learning rigging was tricky and took explanations from James until I understood how it worked. And it was still a bit of a nightmare even just making still poses of him. Because he has a cartoony and simple silhouette (big head, small body, hands are like mittens so no fingers, big feet) translating the posture drawings I did onto him took a bit of interpretation (especially because his legs were quite limited due to the small length). But it was actually a fun experience and I ended up with some good photos of him and honestly, I was quite proud of them? Animating in Maya may be difficult and if I were to do stills again I’d probably need a reintroduction to how the rigging works but the end results this time around didn’t turn out too horrible. I even managed to slide in a little fun pose before the lesson ended once I’d gotten the hang of it. Classmates helped me out with the rigging and using the programme too which was super helpful, it made the lesson fun and we made Buckid dab and all those good memes which really helped me feel more comfortable in class too?

Regarding the armatures. Using them for the first time was difficult as I wasn’t used to moving something so stiff around. Also the anatomy is very lanky – long legs and arms – so the arms never seemed to sit right on screen. I also couldn’t put it in some of the poses I’d done (like the ‘hopeful’ pose) because it wouldn’t balance on its heels with just the use of the magnets. If I wanted to replicate it properly I’d probably need to use a rig. Armatures seems easy enough to use at this point though, if not a tad fiddly if the joints were too loose or stiff; the ankle joints and wrists were usually floppy and limp so posing them was a bit of a pain. Also I still think they look super weird with just the neck and no head representation so I ended up using the neck stick as a way of improvising where the head would be so they’re not very anatomically correct in the pictures.

This semester was super bumpy in work motivation. My depression acted up right before strikes (which sucked super bad because unless I have to be in I have no motivation to come into university and since lecturers weren’t in for like three weeks I just had no energy to do any work) and then Easter break followed right after. So for around 8 weeks I just did absolutely nothing which knocked me way back on the module schedule and because Script to Screen was so big and I had to prioritise it over my other modules which meant animation 102 and animation context had to be done very last minute.

Using the poses we originally drew up and translated onto armatures and Buckid, we had to pick opposing emotions (like happy, sad or angry, shy) to do a pose to pose animation. Because Maya is my mortal enemy, I decided to do it in stop motion (I’m still stupid slow in Toon Boom and was running out of time so stop motion was kind of my only option). I picked confident and timid to do. Had my friend Slime be my reference for it (they didn’t know what to do too well so when I animated it was more like taking snippets from the original video). One thing I discovered a lot with this particular animation is that armatures look very different in person compared to on camera. Particularly the breastplates. If the armatures torso is leaning forwards or backwards then the breastplate looks very odd, almost squashed rather than at an angle which means that it can be hard to interpret the angle that it’s actually positioned in. But in person it looks perfectly fine. I’m not sure if it’s the angle it’s positioned at on screen, or the lighting shining off the metal or something else. It would probably look better with a skin or model around it to give it more dimension and shape.

In sit to stand I encountered the same issue of the armature looking different on camera than in person. It was probably the angle I was working at when moving it – since I worked on it from the side rather than in front to avoid knocking the camera. The animation (well all of them) is very clunky and when it sits back down, because it leans forward and is also facing the camera, the armature ends up looking like a complicated clump of metal before it gets to the ground rather than actual limbs and parts. The spine is lost behind the breastplate and you can’t see the neck, the arms aren’t really identifiable nor are the hips. And the breastplate (again) looks very flat when it’s angled. Also, I tried following the reference video as much as possible but soon came to realise that it would be impossible to get the armature to cross its legs due to how they’re shaped and how the joints work. They’re also too short compared to the arms which means that any animating with the arms looks rather strange in comparison to the rest of the body, like when the hands are on the hips they look ridiculously long and stick out too far.

So, walk cycles are more difficult than I anticipated. Again, I tried following the reference video but apparently I don’t have a knack for timing. I was thinking of working it like a 2D animation (my first mistake) so that was more what each frame would look like rather than trying to make it fluid at a 25fps rate. The armature ended up slouching by the end due to me over doing it on the spine movement (you lower your head at certain points when walking) and I forgot to bring the head back up to its original position each time (instead it just ended up getting lower and lower). The animation is clunky and I’d have liked to redo it or maybe try it in Toon Boom but as previously mentioned I was on a rather tight schedule and did all of these animations overnight and the stop motion room is really effective in bringing out my stress what with the hot lights and confined space.

The sneak is possibly the animation I’m most proud of. Just because it fits to the original reference video the best and is actually fairly smooth. I didn’t have to move the arms at all, and only had to make the torso bob down slightly. I did encounter and issue with the legs again (it wasn’t as prominent during the walk cycle) as they aren’t very flexible and don’t allow for any movement above the pelvic plate. So moving a crouched character was a challenge as the legs could only go so high which resulted in shorter steps because the foot couldn’t really get off the ground and move forward very far before it was down again. I tried adding comedy of being caught in at the end to cut it off quicker because it would take very long to finish such a slow moving character all the way across the screen with the restriction posed. I personally think it worked quite well. A rig would have most likely been the best choice for this animation because it would allow me to put the armature on its toes and allow for more leg movement directly below the pelvis.

To conclude, my time management definitely needs to improve and putting in a reasonable adjustment plan in place would be wise to counteract my depressive episodes and deadline issues. Script to Screen was far too big of a module to just be one semester long (in my opinion) and having all the modules on the same day meant my prioritising was based more on workload and motivation than anything else. I would also like to improve on my stop motion skills and become more acquainted with Toon Boom.

#animation 102

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lb-art-and-photo · 6 years

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Spring Break 2018: Restarting the Insane Abandoned Place Checklist.

When you can't go to the beach, you go to Savanna, IL. It is on the banks of the Mississippi River. Or you go to Harvey. There was standing water in a basement of an old power plant. Or is that just me?

I'm pretty sure it isn't just me. I might just be the only person you know who does it though.

After a great week with the kids, I had a little bit of time to go exploring. A long time ago, I wrote about eventually making my way to Thrillist's Most 28 Insane Abandoned Places in the Midwest. Here's the link if you need a refresher.

https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/chicago/the-28-most-insane-abandoned-places-in-the-midwest

I've been slowly checking these puppies off of my list. I have more to visit, but I am happy with my recent efforts. Ha.

These places can be checked off: 1. City Methodist Church in Gary, IN; 2. Damen Silos in Chicago, IL; 7. Joliet Correctional Center in Joliet, IL; 17. Searsboro Consolidated School in Searsboro, IA; 27. Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, WI; and 28. Solvay Coke & Gas Company in Milwaukee, WI (now demolished).

And after this last week, you can also add two other great spots: 5. Wyman-Gordon Power Plant in Dixmoor, IL and 13. Savanna Army Depot outside of Savanna, IL.

Exciting, I KNOW!

Both spots were definitely worth the research, planning, and in the Depot's case, a somewhat extreme effort, but both also came with a little risk-taking, so I guess what I am saying is that if you decide to go to either of these locations, make sure you research and think ahead.

So actually, I want to show a little of what I found at the Savanna Army Depot location, which I found to be surreal. Let me say that I have actually been a little … scared … to go to this site, mostly because of what it was used for and because of what I read about it from beginning my research of it over two years ago. I decided to go actually go for it and to try to experience it for a couple of reasons.

First:

It was Easter. I don't have the kids every year. I hate sitting around all day, so instead moping, I have decided these are perfect days to go to places I usually don't have time to hit up. I go early and take a long-ish trip to a place where I hope (and was correct this time) that I will be the only person around. This method of operation has it's advantages and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is that on holidays, most people are eating big meals with their families and friends, so it's a good time to explore a place that might usually be monitored carefully. The overriding negative is that if anything goes wrong and you're alone, you could be toast, especially without wireless service, WHICH I DID NOT HAVE FOR HOURS, and I have had service just about everywhere the last year or so. My provider is AT&T. Maybe it's different for other carriers. But this is doubtful. I was literally in the middle of nowhere. The good news is that I lived. So count that as a win for me.

Second:

I have a reason to go to some of these places now. I recently signed with a publishing company known for its photograph/history heavy titles. They are publishing a new series of books, "Abandoned America." I picked up Illinois and one other state. So, I have to get my a$$ going. The first draft is due July 31st for Illinois, and I know nobody thinks I have enough to do, so I added this little project onto my "to do" list. It's actually been a goal of mine to write a book - like my entire life - so this unsolicited opportunity came out of nowhere and actually fits with my love for exploring, history, writing, and photography. It also motivates me to get out and do something I love, and it's something I haven't made enough time for recently. It's also a valid reason to be exploring when explaining WHY I am at a location if questioned. It's exciting for me. And I want to thank my friends Dave, Chehalis, and Michael for helping me make some decisions regarding it. I'm so grateful. No idea how it will turn out, but I knew I needed to get to at least four more significant sites in Illinois in order for me to feel good about content, and this is one of them.

A Tiny Bit of History and Context:

This place is so interesting to me. I often don't understand how there are some places out there that still exist, especially massive places with hundreds of buildings that are left to disintegrate. This is one of them. I guess I do understand that cleaning this site up isn't necessarily a priority for the DNR, seeing as I read there is currently ONE full time employee overseeing the entire area. It makes sense because it is obvious that this is a place where not much money is flowing in effortlessly, and The Savanna Business Park is a little different than any other business park I have ever seen - no offense to anyone there. It's just the way it is. That's kind of unfortunate because the actual land sits overlooking the Mississippi River, and the land contains the largest natural dune system in the state of Illinois. It is 7.5 miles long and sits 70 feet above the river. The land is also known as the Lost Mound Unit of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. So far only around 3000 acres has been transferred, as the remaining acreage needs to be freed from environmental contamination and will be turned over when deemed safe. This could take forever though, because it is a long-term clean up plan, and the plan will supposedly be updated every 5-10 years through information gained by monitoring habitat, wildlife, and recreational use (www.fws.gov).

The Lost Mound is pretty intriguing too. It is this geographic oddity and is part of local folklore concerning a post-glacial hill set as the backdrop for the sand prairie found around it. Funny enough, "the mound did not appear on early maps of the region, however the lost 'mound' has since been found as is {now} featured on recent topographical maps" (www.fws.gov). This mound is super easy to find. It sticks up high above the rest of the land, although the area in general is hilly, and it is kind of oddly shaped and placed, but the land is aptly named, for sure.

Really quickly, the Savanna Army Depot had about 3 different titles from the time it opened in 1918 until the time it completely closed in 2000. It also had many different uses. This depot is often called the "Area 51" of the Army because of it's secret operations and missions, and because of it not being well known. It was also easy to confuse with other bases having "Savanna" or "Savannah" in their names. Savanna, OK; Savannah, SC; Savannah, GA … Savanna, IL? You get the picture. In basic terms, this place was used mainly as an ordnance, or a branch of the Armed Forces that deals with the supply and storage of weapons, ammunition, and other items related to that. This specific place was used to test and store different types of highly explosive and powerful ammunition such as 75 and 155mm howitzers, or short cannons that shoot on high trajectories in order to reach targets behind cover or within trenches. It was also used to produce, test, and ship out explosives during and after WWII. Later, it was also used as a U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center and School that provided technical, logistical, consulting, engineering, training, and other types of specialized services to the U.S. Department of Defense. HAD NO IDEA, right? There are lots of interesting little facts about this little known of place, but one that sticks out to me is that this Depot contained a plant that loaded bombs and explosives during WWII, including the that were used in General James Doolittle's raid on Tokyo in 1942. Also, this area contains over 400 steel-enforced, earth-covered igloos with up to 2000 square feet of storage underneath that were used to store such things as highly explosive ammunition, "mustard" gas, Ammonium Nitrate (actually over 260,000 tons of it for war reserves), and actually later and still today, data and computers. Crazy right? These are highly visible, all over the place, and are covered in grass so that they were undetectable by air.

Needless to say, this land is highly contaminated. Scary too, is that there are said to be unexploded devices in some areas. That's what scared me most. I wore a respirator because I knew of the contamination, yes. I have heard many of the unexploded devices are taken care of, but you know, after being there, I'm not so sure. There are still signs explaining what to do when you happen to come upon one. Backwater areas are also still closed to the public due to "unexploded ordnance" being present, so I stayed far away from that space. I know 1948 was a long time ago, but there was actually and explosion that left a 150 foot wide by 50 foot deep hole you can still find. The 4 ton door from that steel-enforced igloo was never found. That says a lot.

It really is a beautiful location on the edge of the River, and it only took me 2 hours and 10 minutes to get there. Easy drive.

I've seen many shots of this Depot from the outside, and maybe a few shots from the inside of a barrack or a mess hall, but I have never seen what I got into Sunday. I'm not saying to do it yourself. I was actually relieved to get home, as I felt like I was constantly pumping adrenaline. It started as a pretty boring expedition actually, since I couldn't figure out where to go to find what I was looking for, and then it got frustrating because I wasn't seeing what I wanted to photograph. But, after I kept searching just "one more time" or for "one more thing," I finally figured some things out, and without getting into the details of how I accessed these things, I can only say wow. I am glad I went, but I am just as happy to have finished exploring it. I wanted to do more, and I could have done more because I basically had access to all that I wanted in the end, but I felt like I needed to get out of there. One thing I have learned through all of this abandoned hunting is to not push my luck. A lot of it is based on instinct, and my instincts were telling me to get out and to go home. So although there is a lot more to see, and I have a feeling it is a lot more of the same of what I will show, there is still a little curiosity there. It is such a huge area; it's hard not to be curious about what else there is out there. But I am done. I saw enough, and it was worth it.

If you look at the link to this map below, I was all over the place, but many of the most interesting shots came from within the CL and CF Loop Roads. The entire area is over 14 miles long and over 2.5 miles wide, so I'm sure you can imagine how overwhelming the size is. The question for me was where to start.

https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=da2d1d2d-8124-46c5-9155-351f6031ba0c&cp=42.19038~-90.280748&lvl=16&style=h&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027

There is so much more history I have learned about this place, and it is really fascinating, but I'll save that for another time.

Here's the easier-to-get-to stuff:

A little more challenging and interesting ...

So far, it was ok. Interesting, but if I didn't know why it was interesting, a pretty far drive for some crumbling buildings. Until I searched the grounds for about an hour.

And then it got much better - on the outside and inside of the buildings.

This was an amazing place, but like I said, everything in me was telling me to leave. So I left the way I came. It was enough for me. I actually hope that someday this place is cleaned up properly. It is a beautiful area of Illinois, largely undisturbed, full of wildlife, and on a gorgeous riverbank. Maybe in the not-so-far future clean up will become more of a priority for the remaining 5000+ acres of land that can be transferred over once safe for public use.

#exploration #illinois #Art #history #abandoned #photoblog #abandoned photography

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magdalenatarot · 6 years

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Here’s a Magdalena Tarot Special treat for all you readers out there! If you’re a Magdalena Tarot regular, you’ve become familiar with the art of the Fall 2017 Magdalena Tarot Partner, Tony DiMauro, the creator the Darkness of Light Tarot. Tony took some time to answer some questions for me about the deck and also give us a little information about where he’s been and where he’s going both magically and artistically! And if you love fine art like I do, you’re in for a double treat because Tony also talks a little about the creative process of painting.

Magdalena Tarot: Everyone has a unique story about how they discovered Tarot. What’s yours?

Tony DiMauro: I first discovered the tarot when I noticed the illustrations in a store when I was young. They were haunting and exciting and mysterious all at the same time. I didn’t really have an opportunity to learn then, but those images always stuck with me. Years later, when I was searching for a project to paint, those images kind of came rushing back. I decided to explore the tarot for real and I’m glad I did!

MT: Creating a Tarot deck is a time-consuming endeavor. How long did it take you to complete the project from start to finish?

TD: It took about 2 years from start to finish on the paintings. At first, the goal was to simply create the Major Arcana to use for an art exhibition in New York City. Once I had about 8-9 cards created, I decided to just go for it and make the entire thing. It was the longest piece of artwork I’ve ever undertaken, and was a test of creative endurance. I’m glad I did it though, and would like to do it again someday.

MT: What was the biggest challenge you faced creating this deck?

TD: The biggest challenge was probably keeping everything consistent. As an artist, I generally try to make artwork that I feel is unique, or at least influenced, by my feelings at the time as I grow as a person. Creating 78 consistent paintings that all look and feel like they belong together was a big task. In order to do it, I had to stick to a very structured process that didn’t deviate much creatively. Instead, I tried to put the creativity into the content and symbolism rather than the technique used to create each card.

Of course, I’d also say it was pretty stressful getting everything printed and ready to ship, etc. I’m primarily an artist, and I had to learn the business side of things as I went. And I’m Still learning!

MT: You said that this deck is supposed to explore the light in the darkness and the darkness in the light. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

TD: I like to think of it as part of the balance found in nature: there is nothing purely positive or negative, only relative views which depends on the context. If there is something universally agreed to be purely positive or negative, nature brings symmetry to the equation by balancing it out on the other side.

I find that many decks sometimes ignore the harsh realities of nature, and instead focus on one side, or the opposite. I tried my best to create a deck that was honest and un-apologetic, but at the same time, represented both sides.

MT: Your art is amazing. I love the movement in the lines and the fine art feel to the cards. Tell me a little bit about your art training and background.

Thanks! I went to a university and studied Fine Art Painting and graphic design. When I graduated, I went to New York City where I worked in a design agency. Having this experience helped me come to terms with the commercial art world, and imbued my work with design sensibilities not common with many painters.

After spending some years at the design agency, I moved on to graduate school, where I studied illustration at the esteemed School of Visual Arts. Illustration was a perfect blend of the Fine Arts and graphic design, and where I found myself really excelling.

It wasn’t long after that I began teaching and creating my own work. The Darkness of Light Tarot was one of my self-initiated projects after teaching.

MT: In my experience using the deck, the deepest hidden symbols of the Tarot are expressed through the use of lines and brush strokes, not with concrete illustration. What inspired this approach, if anything, to illustrating the cards?

TD: For me, the painting style was less a matter of tarot and more a matter of style, technique, and self-expression. What I mean by this is that I didn’t choose the style or use certain brush strokes because of their meanings, I chose them because of the expressive aesthetic qualities they contained. That said, one of the fantastic side effects to this approach is that many symbols were created that really helped give the deck much deeper and richer meaning. I believe that was a result of me unconsciously “connecting the dots” while I painted.

MT: You said that the cards are designed with “historical significance”. What historical elements did you use when capturing the meaning of the cards?

TD: I tried to include aspects of art history (particular cards were based off of famous paintings), the history of the tarot itself (hence the Italian majors), and as many archetypal symbols I could find throughout various time and cultures.

MT: Story telling is an integral part of tarot reading. Which Tarot card do you think has the richest story contained within it?

TD: Oh wow, tough question since I’m partial to the artwork. I think cards containing action always have a greater sense of narrative: the Six of Wands, Five of Coins, Six of Coins, or Five of Blades, for example.

6 of Wands

5 of Coins

6 of Swords

5 of Swords

That said, I tend to prefer artwork with a greater sense of mood and ambiance that hints at narrative. For those reasons, I personally really like the Two of Coins. It gives the sense that the girl exists in her environment and is connected to all of the elements in the picture: maybe she lives in the lighthouse? Maybe she is leaving the lighthouse to meet a ship? While there are a number of stories and outcomes, a strong sense of time and space is created.

2 of Coins

MT: Which card or cards meant the most to you when creating them and why?

Well, the cards with the dog are important to me, as I know and love the dog in the deck. He is one of the sweetest and nicest dogs I’ve ever met, the kind who won’t break the rules even when you ask him to.

Otherwise, Death was the first card I created, and looms large as an omen for the rest of my career so far: it brought about a massive change in the way I work and think about art.

On a personal level, I like the Four of Wands due to its outcome and the feeling associated with it, as well as the time period it was created within (Ostara to Easter).

I like the look and feel of power associated with the Queen of Blades, who looks like she doesn’t fool around or take any BS from anyone, and I like the Two of Coins as well for is narrative qualities and sense of mood. The Five of Wands is up there for that reason as well, as is the Five of Cups.

The Sun

Death

4 of Wands

Queen of Swords

MT: Do you have any more projects coming soon that we should be on the lookout for?

TD: Definitely! I’m in the early stages of planning/working on an art book that will contain a story of sigil and sex magic, recounted through a series of dream sequences and then painted. It’ll be different than the tarot in that the symbolism won’t be as heavy or as “traditional,” but it’ll be similar in that it will appeal to much of the same audience and draw on many of the same themes of the unconscious mind and nature. If I do my job right, hopefully it’ll also feel a bit more modern as well… but we’ll see, I’ve still got a long way to go.

MT: Anybody you’d like to thank who was involved in the creation of the deck? TD: Of course! There were many folks who helped me along the way, from planning to photography to reference to inspiration. Everyone’s name and website is listed on my website, so I won’t bore you by going through them again here, but I can say that my girlfriend has been extremely helpful in helping me pack and ship orders, and my dog has been a wonderful creature that has helped keep me sane throughout the entire process. And finally, special thanks to everyone who believed in me and supported me!

Here's a Magdalena Tarot Special treat for all you readers out there! If you're a Magdalena Tarot regular, you've become familiar with the art of the Fall 2017…

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chandlermovestomichigan · 7 years

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Spring 2017- The Semester So Far

I started writing this post back in February. And then I lost it because I couldn't remember what app I wrote it in. So yea, this is a pretty late time in the semester for a "mid-semester review," and may end up being more of a final overview. I'm okay with that.

In some ways, it feels like I'm still getting into the swing of things, so it can be hard to believe that I've been here for a month already (at least, I had in February). In other ways, it's like I never left.

Classes Overview: Renaissance - Dr. Gaetano It's a good thing that Dr. Gaetano warned us about all the reading we would have for this class, because yea, it's a lot of reading. But it's all good stuff. We started the course talking mostly about understandings of the Middle Ages, and now we've been focusing on writings on education. I guess the question of what makes up a good education has been on my mind a lot lately, so it's good for me to think about it in the scholastic/humanistic contexts. And, of course, I love history, and I like studying how people thought.

Intro to Journalism II - Mrs. Servold This is just like Intro to Journalism I but better. The focus is on feature and opinion writing. I like both of these better than news reporting, because even though interviews and research can be fun, I'm getting tired of the strict formulaic writing that comes with it. Features and op-eds are much more fun, and we've read some pretty great examples so far. This was the only midterm I've ever gotten higher than 100% on, which is just another reason I like this class.

Intro to Psychology - Dr. McArthur I signed up for this class last semester and dropped it after about a week because it was so much reading. Which it is. Most of it is pretty easy to understand, though. We recently (in February) finished the Biology section, which I'm glad about because I have a really hard time remembering that stuff. Much of my time on this class has been dedicated to a group project. We were supposed to present last week, but hadn't actually done our experiment yet. That's mostly due to my professor's inability to respond to emails in a timely manner, so luckily she doesn't mind us presenting late. The plan now is to do the experiments this week and present on Thursday, so I'll have to let you know how that goes. It's frustrating that it's taking so long, so it will be good to have it over. UPDATE: we finally did the experiment and it was super fun. We went to the preschool to test children's understanding of conservation. So for instance, I had two identical glasses with equal amounts of water, but once I poured one into a beaker, the kids thought the beaker suddenly had more water. Silly children. They don't understand that just because something changes shape doesn't mean it changes mass. Adorable.

US & the World Since WWII - Dr. Moreno It's hard to say exactly what I think of this class. We're covering a lot of material without going very in-depth, which you pretty much have to do to cover so many events in one semester. So I think I'm learning, but I feel like I could be learning better. Part of that is from putting off reading in order to focus on an upcoming paper (and other homework), so I'll be able to get on that next week. UPDATE: I've now had two papers in this class and I felt good about both of them. The first was on Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, and the second was LBJ's Howard Commencement Address. We don't choose our own topics, which is unusual, but it's worked out.

January highlights:

My dorm, Mauck, was redecorated over the summer/fall! And it's lovely. My room is big and blue and adorable. It's nice to have such a fancy dorm with air conditioning and all kinds of important things.

The improv group "Broadway's Next Hit Musical" came to Hillsdale and performed songs based on audience suggestions, one of which turned into a full musical. It was hilarious. They really did their research, too, and made some very Hillsdale-specific jokes (i.e. "Hillsdating), which added to the charm.

I started taking voice lessons (in addition to guitar still) for the first time since second semester freshman year. I'm really enjoying it! I have the same teacher, Kristi Matson, who I had before, and I like her a lot. I had this "irrational" fear beforehand that she'd try to convince me I'm actually a soprano instead of an alto like I've always sung, which turned out to be a perfectly rational fear. But I'm liking those high notes much more than I thought I would.

A friend approached me over Christmas break about helping him edit/upload online-only pieces for the Collegian website, so I started doing that. The section is called Study Break, and we cover a range of topics, from op-eds to fun listicles or other features. I really like editing! And it's good to know the ropes of the website.

February highlights:

I started a radio show! Well, my friend Sarah Schutte asked me if I was interested in co-hosting a show with her about the history of Hillsdale College, and obviously heck yes I was. Now, we record two three-and-a-half minute clips a week with fun facts and anecdotes. You can hear episodes of "Wait, What Happened?" on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM (also SoundCloud).

I met a Hillsdale alumna named Joy Pullmann, who is both an editor at The Federalist and a homeschool mom, so basically who I plan to grow up to be. Which I told her, and then she asked if I wanted to write for her. Which obviously heck yes I did. Here is a piece I sent her!

Somehow, I wrote in my planner that I had a midterm on February 9. Felt very unprepared. Realized 30 min before that it was on March 9. Relief.

Every year, the ladies of SAI call people and perform "Singing Valentines" around Feb. 14. It's always a good time. Sometimes people request really weird songs, which adds to the bizarreness of the whole situation. I called my mom and we sang "My Heart Will Go On," which apparently my dad wasn't thrilled with because she kept singing it all day.

I got an email from George Angell of the theatre department asking if I was planning to audition for the upcoming play he was directing. I wasn't, but he said he had me in mind for the female lead. All year, I’ve had this idea that if someone specifically asked me to audition for a play, and wanted me for a challenging role, then I'd do it. So that's what happened! Now I'm playing Doctor Mathilde von Zahnd in Durrenmatt's The Physicists. It's quite a show. I'll have to write a whole post about it later, for fear of spoilers. We open on Wednesday!

I went to Jilly Beans- this cute little coffee shop in town- with friends to celebrate my 22nd birthday! It was a lovely time.

My friend Sarah and I decided to pick up a little (as in, little sister) together in SAI. Unfortunately, the girl we chose ended up deciding not to join after all, which was a bummer. But, there's still next semester.

March highlights:

Mom and dad came for Parent's Weekend! Normally, they come in the fall, but my mom wasn't able to take work off. They got to see the new Mauck, meet our professors, and hang out with us. Mom ended up sticking around a few extra days and visiting classical schools, then she and I flew home together for spring break.

We all saw the musical "Kiss Me, Kate" that the theatre department performed. It was very cute and super well done.

We also saw paintings by Winston Churchill on display in Sage.

Hillsdale went on lockdown after a former student called in a threat. It was a little scary, but no one ended up being in danger. The student was caught that same afternoon. Certainly a strange experience.

We had SAI formal in the Mauck Solarium. I took my friend Noah. It was really fun! We mostly played card games and Bananagrams. And experienced a modern day photobooth- a selfie stick and props.

April highlights:

I attended Opera Workshop. The show consisted of different songs from various operas all centering around madness and death. It was really good, though pretty long.

I wrote an op-ed on why Hillsdale students should read up on the history of the college.

The SAI concert! It was fantastic! At least, I think so. Here’s a full video. and here is where I am: Blue Skies Fairest Lord Jesus Depreston (solo) thank you Dani and Giannina! Touch the Sky Another day of Sun (solo)

I went to Chicago with some students and professors from the History department. I'd never been before, and it was really cool! I mostly stayed with my friends Mary and Patience from SAI, and we wandered the Field Museum, the Navy Pier, and other cool historic spots.

The theatre honorary (APO) had an initiation, which was theatrical as always. I now have an APO little- my friend Jonathan Henreckson. His girlfriend is my APO big, Elena Creed, and together they consider themselves Regan's parents. So we have a bizarre little family situation going on.

I stayed on campus this Easter, which I somehow didn't realize was an option until this year. It ended up being a great call. I got some work done, got to relax, and went to my home church here (Countryside) with Regan and Matthew.

I'm sitting in a brand-new coffee shop called Rough Draft. It's charming and the coffee is very good. I plan to spend lots more time here.

Looking forward:

It's hard to believe the semester is almost over. Finals week will be here before I know it.

Right in the middle of finals week is the performance of Shakespeare in the Arb's Taming of the Shrew. I joined the crew last semester as the graphic designer, and somehow found myself with two small roles as well. I think it will be a good show. We've certainly put a lot of work into it.

In my penultimate semester, I will be taking:

Constitutional Convention – Rahe

Ancient Rome – Calvert

Biology (Human) – Johnson

Philosophy of Education – Beier

Voice – Matson

And of course, more writing for the Collegian.

I don't actually believe that I only have two more semesters. Maybe it will hit me soon.

#year three #spring #hillsdale #hillsdale college #blog #photo #photos #photography

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