the madness continues

so my physics class is gonna send me to the loony bin. i still have only four problems left of my first homework assignment, but i also started on the next homework assignment. force and friction are gonna be the death of me. you would think that those topics would be easy.... according to my lack of being able to answer the problems right.... NOPE! i have 99 tries for each problem, for two of them i'm at try 6. at least the lab part is going better. we have the proper programs and drivers on the computers, so now the computer can talk to the arduino (little robot). have i mentioned the my professor looks like jerry garcia.... i mentioned it once to a friend, and now i keep wanting to call him professor garcia instead of giovanetti.

oh photography... how do i love thee?! let me count the ways.... $23 here, $86 there, another $45 here... yes, this is one expensive class. it wouldn't be so bad if my tuition refund would come so i can buy in bulk at a cheaper discount site than from the 'cheap' store in the 'burg. but i am having fun. so much that i skipped my last class on monday to finish printing my pictures (we had a sub that day and i had turned my assignment in early). so monday we learned how to enlarge, print, our pictures. a lot of paper can be wasted if the light isn't right or if the print needs to be 'dodged or burned' (lighten or darken). my waste was in the test strips to get my prints right. the first batch of prints i didn't do anything to them. but when i was in the lab today, i burned my photo a little so the white area wasn't so white. i only printed one picture, i have to have my professor check my contact sheets to see what others would be worth printing.

my baby! this camera was my dad's. i remember it always around his neck when we were on a family outing. now it's mine, and i love it. i got the camera bag at walmart as an early birthday present to me... it is so much better than what my dad was using.

 turning the film into negatives is a short, but smelly, process. it takes me about half an hour, including going into a pitch black room to roll the film onto reels and then put in the development tanks. once in the negative sheets, i make a contact sheet (on the right), a nice way to "print" my pictures so i don't waste paper on a bad shot.

here are 5 of the six prints i made. i have one picture of each of my babies. i swear the class will be sick of seeing my kids in every assignment. the one of aidan (top right) was what i printed today. i had one of each of the girls, so i needed one of my boy.

now, this is a picture of the picture i printed.... i didn't really feel like turning the scanner on and waiting for it to warm up. this was taken tuesday of this week, the day of the massive rain, right before we went to the bus stop.








i did have a 'close up' of the picture of sofia.... but it wasn't working right. so if ya want to see it, you'll have to wait for another post.

my criticism class is the one i skipped on monday. like i siad, a sub and my assignment was turned in early. i just got my grade for it, only one point (out of two). ANY corrections the professor makes and it's an automatic 'no points' for that section. he changed one word (critic to artist) and took my point away. i don't think he realized that i meant to say critic. oh well, nothing to fuss over. my professor was out of town this week, so there was no class wednesday. i decided to take some pictures at my parents' house since i had to go there to pick up sofia.

so it was a good week. not too much stress, not too much work. next week looks to be about the same. though i do plan on taking advantage of the homework help my physics professor is offering on wednesday.

i learned...

a lot this past week. and i also got in a little trouble with the wally-world, but that story is actually a little funny. so, here we go with week three sum-up:

physics: I GOT IT! well, most of it. thank heavens, the only time the professor called on me for an answer, i knew it. turns out, the tutor site i went to on monday is exactly what we talked about on wednesday. i felt so smart, but then i leaned over to the guy sitting next to me and fessed up to my smartness. he got a good chuckle out of it. and he and i both laugh at our professor's attempts to draw. the lab would have been great, but the proper programs weren't loaded onto the computer, so our arduinos didn't work. my partner and i were the only ones that said anything, makes me wonder why. anyways, i ordered a book to help me out with the homework and any concepts that just blow right over my head. thank goodness i did. i used it to help with some of my homework a few nights ago, three more problems done and 4 more to go. i have until the end of the month to finish.

photography: monday was the day to learn how to take our film and turn them into negatives. i had no idea that the very first step (removal from case to the reels to the developer tank) had to be done in the pitch black! we practiced with dummy rolls and i felt that i could do it. so did a few others. the professor drew my name out of a tank to be the guinea pig (YES!). she was impressed with how fast i did the rolls and that i did a text-book job. yea me! she walked me through the development process and it seems pretty easy. i did it all by my lonesome this past saturday with my two new rolls. wednesday we learned how to turn our pages of negatives into a contact sheet. just about a 'no-brainer'. so my first two rolls of film were done by wednesday afternoon. i had to do everything for my next two rolls saturday to be ready for class today. let me tell you, creepy being in the lab by yourself. toooooo quiet! it's a very secure building, so i was safe... but still felt a bit creepy. i found a radio and blasted a rock station, that helped. in about an hour and a half, two more rolls of film turned into negatives and contact sheets.

criticism: already i turned in an assignment late. we have to do abstracts of our reading assignments, have them ready by the next class, then turn them in before midnight the day it's due. well, we didn't talk about the last one and i forgot. i was up early wednesday morning, doing my morning ritual.... DAH!! i turned in my assignment with a note of apology and stated that i was prepared to take my 'no points', but please tell me what i would have gotten. turns out, i wasn't the only one who forgot. he wound up giving my my points (all two of them) and said "never again" to doing that. i'll take it. wednesday we went to a fellow classmates art show. beautiful work!!! i was happy to find out that she had prints of her work and said "i want you to have them, take as many as you want." i did! we are actually using this show for our first review write up. i'm a bit nervous, but i have always done pretty well with my writings. i can't just write my opinion of the show, i actually have to include some research.... suck! oh well, gotta learn it, so i'm gonna do it.

now on to my next photography assignment, edges, and work on that review.... maybe some physics homework too.

my day... in pictures

are you shocked!? two posts in one day... and one with pictures too. i decided to give you an idea of where i go and what i see while i'm at school. i didn't take too many pictures, i didn't want to look too dorky. so, here we go:

 this is that commuter lot that my friend said fills up fast. so far i have been able to get a space every time. if not, then i would have to park across the busy street at walmart and hike over. NOT an option. i'm usually about the 8th row back.

 the building the the foreground is the actual physics building, which is where i have my lab. the building furthest away is the isat building, which is where my actual class is. the three buildings are actually connected, so no walking outside if i don't have too. and yes, there really are few students walking around at this hour of the morning.

that's the set of steps i hike up three days a week. doesn't seem so bad, but that first week i was wheezing by the time i got to the top. third week, not so much wheezing, but really needing water once i get in the building.

ok, this isn't normally part of my school day. but today i didn't realize how empty my gas tank was until i was half way to class. no problems, i'll just get gas in between classes and be done with it. can't do that unless you have money! which i didn't because i left my wallet at home!!!! i called my dad and asked if he could bring me some gas so i wouldn't get stranded on my way home. this is the note i left him. my daddy loves me!! and yes, i will make those cookies for him, double batch.

this is one view of the new baseball/softball fields. pretty huh? i get to gaze on this on the walk from my car to my photography class. maybe one day i'll get to actually see a game here.

 THIS is where my photography class is held. i promise we have a window, but only one, and the blinds are usually closed. kind of sad huh? at least the professor lets us play music to make the environment not so stiff. and we probably won't be in the classroom too much since we will need to take pictures.

 the studio, or just 'studio'. this is where i go for my criticism class. i think the window on the far left is my classroom... don't hold me to that though. it's very industrial inside and has old creaky floors, i like it!

this is the busy street i get to cross twice. i park by the photo building and just walk over for the criticism class, literally across the street from each other. because of a few fatalities of people crossing when they weren't supposed to, i cross when the little man tells me too.






so there ya have it. a better idea of what my day looks like. should have done this last year, the buildings on the main campus are just beautiful. and there are lots of old trees to give lots of shade and nice places to sit while you wait for your next class.

it's a new week

so last week was kind of awesome.... i got a lot of work done and was able to have a stress free weekend.

physics: the class itself is hard. keep in mind that the last time i was in physics was 15 years ago. so far, nothing has 'come back' to me. but i decided to look at the homework (online) and see if i could do any. i was able to do three problems, only took one attempt to get the first two right. the third was a four-part problem. the first two i took two attempts, the rest... ONE! i am awesome!!!

lab: lab this week was really great. my partner and i are both lacking in the confidence department, but were all for the trying anyways. come on people, we do need that passing grade. this time we were supposed to get our 'protoboards' and set up a simple circuit to get an LED light to light up. we followed the diagram/directions... and low and behold.... our light was shining. we kind of made a commotion about it, turns out we were the first to get ours working. we heard a lot of "how did you do that?".... umm, did what the professor said and followed the diagram. we decided to be ambitious and to a parallel circuit to add more lights. no work! when we asked the professor why things didn't work, in a nutshell he said we were making it more complicated than it needed to be. of course! that actually is my biggest problem.... making things too complicated. oh well, we got ours working right the first time and were satisfied.

photography: this week was just working on our first assignment. we had to take pictures with varying depths-of-filed, light meter readings, and such. we were to have two rolls done by monday (today). well, i took sofia around town with my tuesday to take some pictures. on the way home.... SNAKE! a smallish black/yellow snake crossed our path home. i saw it in time to grab sofia and let the snake continue on his course. freaky. wednesday, the professor said that since the lab wasn't ready, that we could go out and take our pictures. i went around with a partner and found a nice water area to photograph. right by the edge of the grass was a small gravel area that had that black burlap-type stuff sticking through. i took a step by it and saw that some of the burlap stuff moved. you got it... SNAKE! same smallish black/yellow type snake. this time i got a picture of it. but really!!! two days in a row!!! needless to say, i got all my pictures done and headed into town to buy the last of my photo supplies. such an expensive class.

criticism: we talked about a new (to me) program that JMU offers called MDID, Madison Digital Image Database. basically, a lot of pictures of art pieces and information in one place. very handy-dandy for the art history people and those going into art education. one day was spent learning about it and the other day was spent using it. i didn't have any issues with it, but i do need to go back and pick new items.... the professor wants artist from 2007 to 2012, oops. at least i know what i'm doing now.

now on to doing homework and readings.... intense week ahead of me.

jmu, i've missed you!

my first week of school is over! and what a week it was. i was mildly panicked at the thought of having to be super early to east campus (the newer section) in order to get a parking space. a friend of mine said that the commuter lots fill up by 8:15, which would be the time i would leave my house. ACK! and UGH! terrified i was! well my mom helped out by being early to pick up sofia, so i took off about 8:05 and used my lead foot to help. turns out i didn't need it. i got to the commuter lot and saw LOTS of parking spaces left. my friend was wrong! but i was sure to keep in mind that the first day, even week, could be a fluke.

my first class is GSCI 101... general science, but the theme is robotics. not sure how this will turn out, but i'm willing to try. found my class with enough time left to read a little. the class is kind of big, but i take that as a good sign that i wouldn't be called on to answer anything. please remember, my last science class that was remotely close to this one was back in '96. well, the first class went well and i actually understood some of what was talked about. the second class (on wednesday) was good too..... once i got to the right room. YES! i did it AGAIN! went to the wrong class. to be fair, it was the right classroom, i just missed the email that stated that my class was to meet somewhere new. i caught on when a different professor showed up. after a minute or two i looked to the person behind me and asked "is this g-sci 101?" NOPE! i grabbed my bag, gave the class and professor a good chuckle and found out where my class was meeting. don't get me wrong, i was embarrassed and i know my face was red.... but really, i'm too old to let that bother me too much. i wound up only missing the first five minutes of my class. friday's class was a shock to me, i actually understood it. we talked about velocity and position and magnitude... but i understood! well, after someone else gave and answer and then the professor explained what the answer was right or wrong. still, though... a break through for me to understand when i'm not that science minded.

friday was the day for my science lab. that was more scarey to me than anything else because we are going to be building robots! i don't know if i can do that. well, i made a friend in the lecture class and we both decided to brave the lab together, we are lab partners. our first task was just to test the voltage of our power supply (that's all we had time for after the explanations of things). we got our supplies, hooked everything up, and tested. we needed 5 volts and we got 5 volts. success! now, if the rest of the labs will be this easy i'll be good.

i'm taking photography this semester, which is my next class. it's a 2.5 hour class and i'm intimidated. i took a photography class before, but it was independent study.... not a way to learn how to use a camera. the professor assures us that by midterm everything will be second nature and we won't have to think about anything. i sure hope so. we haven't gotten our first assignment, but when we do it will be at least two rolls worth of pictures. did i mention it's a traditional film photography class? yeah, film! and expensive... i spent $23 on four rolls of film yesterday. yikes! and i know it will only get more expensive. i have the 'materials needed' list and saw that i will be easily spending a few hundred dollars. oh well, i have a refund due to me (gotta love grants).

my fourth class is an art criticism class. it's more of learning how to critique the art and how to do that in a classroom setting (most of the students are getting their teaching license in art). i chose this class because i did a paper on art critics last semester and i was intrigued. well, so far the class has not disappointed. it's a fun class and my professor is big on class discussions. i will have readings and have to write responses to them as well as to gallery viewings that we will be going to. here's the kicker: the abstract has to be 50 words exactly, the response has to be 50 words exactly, and the other section can be as long as i want. it's harder than i thought... but it's a challenge i will embrace.

one week down and 14 to go

back to school!!!

so my kids first day of school was wednesday of last week (a lot of parents are scratching their heads on that). i was very excited to get them out of the house, get back to a routine, have a lot of quiet time, and be able to get things done without playing referee every 10 minutes. i did my traditional 'prior to pounce' pictures, erica woke up as i was taking it so i wasn't able to scare her awake. this year i decided to take one of sofia too. she can't start school until next year, but she was so picturable.

the kids woke up fairly easy, i had been getting them in bed earlier for two weeks so we wouldn't have any issues this day. erica was her usual lack of breakfast self while her siblings wanted their cereal. since we took all their supplies to the school a few days before their backpacks were light. i asked the kids if they remembered where to go and what their teacher's name was. memory was in tact! i was really hoping for erica to get the hottie-tot teacher, not just because he's a bit of eye candy, but because he teaches in a way that would benefit erica. well, she didn't, but i was really impressed with who she got. aidan has a new teacher to the school this year.

soooooooo, with getting up on time and getting ready right away, we had some time to kill before walking up to the bus stop. so i took more pictures.

this year is a special year.... my brother and his family moved in to the neighborhood, 11 houses up to be exact. and this year their kids are in school, one in kindergarten and the other in pre-k. so we walked up to aunt katy's house to let them know it was time to go catch the bus. my nephew came bounding out of the house, super excited.

all set and ready to go! and there are a lot of kids this year. i prided myself on knowing each kid at the stop and could call them by name. not this year, though i just might not try. i'll be spending my time talking with the other adults at the stop this year.

this past week was their first full week, and it was fantastic. of course there hasn't been any homework, that does help a lot. but this was also my first week of school (another post), so anything to make it easier for everyone was nice. here's to hoping that the next week will go just as smooth.... and the rest of the year!

We're really here!

holy cow! did a whole summer go by with no posts? considering that i wasn't that great with the posts during my spring semester, why am i surprised?! so, i can give a rundown of the summer activities... and the next post just might have some pictures (but, please don't hold me to that)

school let out, pool opened up: jeff decided that it would be nice to have a pool pass this year instead of forkin over money every visit. $100 for a family of 4 (sofi being only three is still free) yes! thank you! we have taken full advantage. we started the summer with aidan being terrified to him saying "i don't need my floaties if i'm in the short part mom". he got over his fear and taugh himself how to swim. not perfect, but enough of a start. we did want to start the tow older kids on swim lessons, just never happened. sofi loved the pool, took to it like a duck to water. erica loved it too. at just about every visit included me going off the diving board at the kids request. i can only do one dive, but they loved it.

uncle scott and aunt katy!: my brother and his family moved back from utah (hooraaaaay!) and moved just 11 houses up from me. LOVE IT! what i love most is having my nephew, aylor, randomly opening my front door and saying 'surprise, your aylor is here!' he makes me smile. katy and i are constantly texting back and forth asking if our kids are at the other's house. katy and her kids have been our pool buddies too, makes the time go by so much faster.

erica in missouri: mom went to visit her sister in missouri and asked if she could take erica. ummmm, YES! i love my child, but i was really looking forward to her being gone and having less fights among the children. she was gone two whole weeks! by the second week i was actually missing her. and because i knew she would behave for mom and aunt janet, i put her room back together as a surprise. (remember, she lost EVERYTHING in her room for being snotty and disrespectful to me, had to earn it all back, hadn't yet). she came home the second week in august and still has everything in her room.... progress!

my first car accident: i had been driving for 16 years by now... first accident was just last month. by now i can say (without bitterness) that me and the other driver were equal in the blame. i had a stop sign at an intersection, was in the middle of it when other driver came through. love my insurance, took care of everything really quick. lola's (my car) only damage was some paint scratches on the front passenger side of the bumper. takes a lickin and keeps on tickin.

spring summer cleaning: my family knows that my grandma hasn't been the best with keeping up with expiration dates on her pantry items. since i've been the 'house keeper' for a while now, i have mentioned a few times her need to clean them out. one day, after removing green hamburger buns from the counter, grandpa gave me the authority to 'clean house'. the job was too big for just myself. so i enlisted the help of my SIL katy and my mother. we must be nuts for all the fun we were having. we laughed, dry heaved, gaged, laughed some more.... way too much fun for what we were doing. not completely done, but so much better.

a new school year: and now it's time for another school year to start. the kids go back on wednesday, i don't go back until monday. i'm very excited, the kids.... not as much. but we have two birthdays this week, so that will help cheer things up.

here's to another year and to better blog updates! (did i mention that my son taught himself how to ride a bike)