Adventure time.

I went on a lovely adventure with Emilia today. She had received a Pentax DSLR camera for Christmas and she turned to me for tips because apparently I'm the best photographer she knows. I'm also super duper sweetawesome*.

Thus my first, quote unquote, photography lesson to her was incorporated into this first proper hangout of ours since one day during the summer. We practiced by taking photos of the surroundings and portraits of each other. Here are some of my results.
The only downfall, if you want to call it that, was the fact the park was right near a village. That meant while standing and snapping photos on one of the docks, several characters came by. And when I say characters, I mean various homeless people. I noted they are often hard to talk to because of their eccentric-ness** though they're human, too and therefore aren't any less deserving of being talked to. One homeless man we encountered yelled "WHY YOU IN THE CORNER OVER HERE? YOU SMOKING POT?" to these two teenage guys, which made Emilia and I strain to contain our laughter. Next thing we knew, he was walking towards us, quoting Shakespeare. He then proceeded to take a swig of some unidentified alcoholic beverage whilst standing atop a bench. Emilia was quick to inform me friends had seen this fellow before and said his usual get-up is a cowboy hat complete with a cape. Like I said, eccentric***.
Emilia had us trekking back across this riverfront park in search for her lens cap she sworn she'd put in her bag, but ultimately was in her pocket. I did then -- and will continue to for the foreseeable future -- give her a hard time for it. We headed into the village to grab a bite to eat and continued chatting about our lives. We discussed her perceived persona as too-deep-for-you and mulled over the notion that you can't force friendships and one shouldn't be obligated to get to know someone better if one's not interested in doing so. We also reminisced about our respective childhoods as the kids of today swarmed the nearby playground. It's hard to believe that we're old enough to drive**** and how much more complicated our lives can become.

*I'm ego trippin'.
**Well, more so their drunkenness. And lack of proper hygiene.
***And drunk.
****Fun fact: despite being a grade younger than yours truly, Emilia will be licensed to drive before I am. I should probably get my learner's permit soon.

Lying in your attic, I can feel the static.

I feel like Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked me in the head and felt no remorse for doing so. The jerk. Basically, headaches, 101.4 fevers, sore throats and runny noses are not the best way to begin your winter vacation.

I must've slept approximately 18 hours on Saturday. That was exactly what I needed after a week of exams. Tuesday I had my art exam, which was literally just working on our latest project, a surrealistic watercolor painting based off a collage we composed. I've since taken it home to work on this break, but it remains untouched. I hate working on anything with tissues stuffed up my nostrils. I guess that's true for anyone.

Wednesday was interesting. I managed to miss setting my alarm and thus slept in until 9:30 a.m. At this time, I was supposed to be at school, already halfway through my physics exam. I woke up in a sheer panic and shouted expletives I need not repeat. I've had dreams of being tardy, but never, ever, in my life, have I actually overslept. My mom called the school and I got dressed quickly. Luckily, my physics teacher let me make up the exam after school, no hassle. Apparently all my classmates were freaking out that I wasn't there to originally take it, though. I also had my English exam that day, and since I put in a good effort, I should have an A. (There's no way our teacher was reading all our critical commentaries and our creative writing portion.)

Thursday was AICE Biology and AICE Math. AICE Bio was not nearly as difficult as I had thought it would be. Regardless, I'm pretty sure my semester grade is a B. B is for bummer. Math went alright and I learned I got an 85, which if I did my calculations right, means I was just three points short from earning an A for the semester. I can't seem to figure out if my teacher added in any extra credit or what.

Friday I had my Spanish 3 exam. That was fairly easy except that conjugations were muddled in my mind. I also had my AICE European History exam in the afternoon. I aced that bamf. Pfft, I didn't even need a word bank for those fill in the blank questions.

I am incredibly glad it's all over with and now I have the next two weeks or so to relax. It's hard to beat.

I've recently fallen in love with this song.


Good luck to everyone still toughing exams and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Oh, and another one comes down.

I was only a measly two days into the art-a-day challenge when I gave up, which is exactly what I did with NaNoWriMo. I'm disappointed in myself.

I'm also a mixture of disappointed and frustrated with myself because I waited so long to complete my glossary for history, which may sound easy, but is actually very time consuming. We must the select the 50 terms to define and state their significance. I think I just need to suck it up.

Anyway, here are some photos from the outfit I wore on Friday; I wanted to document it.

(jeans - j.c. penney's, jacket - kohl's, blouse - forever 21, belt - forever 21, boots - woman within)

Have a good Sunday.

Colorful leaves.

Untitled

Leaves collected from my backyard during Thanskgiving break on paper.

Fall usually starts in November in Florida,
and then there really is no winter because it never snows.
(Obviously.)
I guess it's a curse and a blessing.

Say hello to my furry friend.

I want to challenge myself this December.
I want to post a new piece of art everyday.
I'm hoping this will encourage me to continue creating art.
They'll more likely be entries from my visual journal and not always a major project like the drawing featured below, but you never know what I may be inspired to do, especially come December 18th when I start winter break.

Furry Friend

#2 HB pencil on paper
completed November 28th, 2010
*note: I have since darkened the values on the bunny.