Second semester swoops in

Ack, we weren't even done with the work from Winterim, and second semester already started yesterday!

Well, today we finally finished our idea books, which was an enormous relief. So tonight I'm going to get a full night's rest to recover, yet again.

This semester is more focused on learning about actual toy production. I have seven toy design classes and one liberal arts class:

• Soft Toy & Doll Design
• Model Making I (aka Hard Toy production)
• Motor Learning
• History of Industrial Design
• Marketing for the Toy Industry
• Computer-aided Drafting (Cobalt)
• Computer Graphics in Toy Design
• Ancient to Medieval Art History

Plus we have required lab hours for the soft & hard toy classes... which include Saturdays.

The senior class has told us this semester will be easier than the last, and the classes sound like lots of fun. But, I'm still wary, because it's looking like it'll still be a ton of work! I was looking forward to having a social life again, but I think maybe now this just means I'll actually get some sleep.

Every year, the hard toy teacher chooses a toy design that the whole class has to build in the model shop. Last year, the seniors learned to build a simple preschool-level toy bus, with Fisher-Price-like people inside. We were eager to find out what our class would get to make.

So on our first day of hard toy class, the teacher showed us ten or so drawings of similarly simple toys. One was a simple horse, pulling a wagon. One was a turtle with wheels, and another was a cartoony, clear teapot with popper balls inside.

Then he showed us this old, literally tattered drawing, of a really fun-looking boating dock. It had a little house-like shop, surrounded by 3 docking sides, with a lighthouse, a pelican, a diving board, a person riding in a boat, a person swimming in an innertube... a fire-hose, a shower room, and lots of cute details that we "ooh-ed" over.

Then he said, "Sooo, I was thinking you guys could make this one!" At which, I think most of us gasped inside. This one looked 10x as complicated as the other designs!! The teacher had mentioned that the Dean had said nice things about our class. She must have told him we were some hyper-ambitious freaks! I mean, I guess it will be really cool to have made such a neat bath toy... when we're done...

Meanwhile, the majority of my classmates were half-conscious, fighting to keep our eyes open, because we were still running on just a few hours of sleep to finish our portfolios.

After that class ended, the Dean stopped by and made us all go home to sleep, so we'd be alert for our first day of Soft Toy class.

Unfortunately that didn't work so well, because four students were incredibly late to class the next morning. That was upsetting to the Dean, who had even provided us with boxes of Dunkin' Donuts as a treat.

(BTW I had my first French cruller donut, and it was SO delightful!!! I am totally getting that one next time I go to Dunkin Donuts. It's like a cream puff, with glaze and no cream.)

Tomorrow we start Motor-Learning class. I'm not sure what that's about. Also, I already missed my first Art History class, but I heard that the prof talks like Dora the Explorer– with that overly enthusiastic and vaguely condescending affectation. She says things like, "Do you know what 'PRE- HISTORIC' means? 'PRE' means beFORE!!!" and such and such. It could be incredibly amusing... orrrr really annoying. I'm fine as long as the class is easy, cuz I gots too much to worry about with the Toy Design coursework!!

Ok off to bed! Nighty night.

30-something going on 13

I hate to say this, but I think I kinda like Avril Lavigne, after seeing her remix of "Girlfriend" with Lil Mama. It's the super-girly answer to the old Run DMC/Aerosmith video. Avril's much more fun now that she's shed her teenage angst and embraced her poppy-glam (and sexy!) side.

Hmm, should I quit Toy Design before I fully convert into a tween?

I just browsed my Facebook wall, and the topics include: ice cream, puppies, bulldogs, rainbow poop, paper craft, and Super Mario. Next week, my class bff turns 23, and I told her we'd be reverse number ages! Woot!

In the meantime, I have to quickly figure out who I'm taking to see Spice Girls on Feb. 6 or sell the tickets. I might just take my class bff, but that means we'd both have to skip class to go. Of course it is my computer graphics class, and I already know how to do all that anyway.

I've also realized that despite being the eldest in class, I am probably a "bad influence" on my classmates, meaning:

• I slept between 2-6 hours a night from last monday-thursday, as opposed to 0-2 hours a night, like my classmates


• I am fairly militant about eating 3 meals a day, as opposed to my classmates, who forget to eat breakfast and lunch. Sometimes I get pissy when my classmates dilly-dally and then I just storm off by myself to get food. Then they get all pouty that I ate without them. (Oh wait, this is how I was at my old job.) But lately I've also been in charge of ordering delivery food, for 5-7 classmates at a time.


• My party/dance playlists that I play to keep my energy up --apparently have a lot of curse words, which I didn't realize, until we played our iPods on speakers in class, and surprised my classmates. But they liked it, cuz it's really cheeky cursing, as in the uncensored "London Bridge" and Fatboy Slim's "F***ing in Heaven".


• I plant ideas like going to pick up some wine or beer to bring to class, when we're up late in class doing work, to counter our stress level. And then some of my classmates forget they have Asian flush until it's a little too late. Luckily they have me to finish off their glasses--er, plastic cups for them.


• I went out dancing last weekend (during crazy Winterim) and invited my classmates by text, who all ignored me cuz they thought it sounded like a joke. I subsequently got the worst hangover of my life the next day, complete with a splitting morning headache that I couldn't sleep through... and vomiting. I hadn't done that in years, and I don't really ever want to do it again. Oh yes, I am a college student.
  
  I was all shaky from recovering on Sunday, that I couldn't draw steadily, so I called in sick for Monday class. I ended up drawing all day at home anyway, to catch up. I also didn't want to go to school when it was like ZERO degrees outside. But I would like to point out that ALL of FIT got MLK off except the Toy Design program! WTF!!


• I take the time to blog, Facebook, websurf (for inspiration!) and email/IM my friends from time to time.

I think my classmates are puzzled at how calm I am about the ridiculous workload we have to keep up with. I am naturally not a stressful person anyway, but it probably helps that I already had a career for awhile that I could go back to, and that I am paying for my own education with my own savings, AND I know the workload the department is placing on us is just unreasonable.

Yesterday, we were supposed to have our ten "idea books" completed by 2:30pm. (Idea books include 4-6 pages of idea sketches--on jumbo 14" x17" paper, a graphically designed title page, a mood board, a competitive product comparison board, and any color studies. Then we were to hand-mount them paper and bind them into books by hand.)

My classmates were freaking out. The Dean/teacher kept insisting that was when everything had to be finished, but I knew it was humanly impossible! So what is the point of stressing, except to just keep working as hard and fast as you can? On Friday, I told the Dean's assistant that even if we had all our work ready to print and bind by the next day, there were only Two photo printers to use, so how were we all supposed to even finish printing our work? He said we'd just have to be wise about alternating computer time.

So basically I've realized that they are all in denial about what is reasonable for completing work, and I don't really take any of the deadlines seriously. So I just work as hard as I can and maintain some level of rest so i don't burn out.

Of course, on Friday night, I only slept for 20 minutes. And then I stayed up all night drawing and laying out title pages. I showed up to class, and all the printers were being used. So I tried to sit and design my mood boards on my laptop as I waited, but I finally got so exhausted, I had to put my head down and nap on my desk. Another classmate brought a blanket (because half of them basically live in that classroom now) to put on me. (Earlier, I brought them extra clean towels and a sleeping bag to get through the week.)

I was impressed, though, that the Dean was there all day (she was also sick and this was SATURDAY), and taking the time to help two of the students bind and mount their books. These two students have interviews on Monday already, so it was especially important for them to finish on time. Also the Dean recruited two of our alumni to come in and help some of the less-computer savvy students complete their title page layouts mood boards, and whatnot.

So last night I got a huge night's rest to recover, and today I am going to finally finish the damned idea books... well at least making all the pages I hope? The Dean said she'd come into class today too (Sunday!), to help out if needed. And tomorrow morning I hope I'll finally bind them, which also takes time. I think the mounting/binding part is the worst. I hate glue and cutting things straight!! That'll be especially challenging when I'm tired. Also, btw, our second semester starts tomorrow. That's right, we have absolutely no break between Winterim and 2nd semester!!!

This whole internship interview process is such a mystery. She doesn't tell you who you're interviewing with until the night before! And during week of Feb 18, we have to be on campus all day all week, with our cell phones, dressed to impress, in case an interview comes up. Like we're on call. You'd think we'd be saving lives, but no, we're waiting to chat with people about toys. They also want to know if you have a car, incase the internship is in a town without good transportation options. I told them my car is in Texas, but that I could take a road trip again maybe? I hope they don't place me in Texas just because my car is there.

On the upside, we start a class w/ one of the cute alumni guys on Tuesdays. And Toy Fair is around the corner! Yay!

Toiling away

I was sitting at my classroom seat, working with 7 other classmates after midnight. And I realized that I had a bottle of Formula 50 Vitamin Water (for hydration and energy), a doubleshot soy latte from Starbucks (to keep me awake), AND a plastic glass of cheap plum wine (snuck into school by my classmates, to ease our stress level) at my desk, all partially consumed.

...all as I was trying to figure out how many more kinds of crazed, silly monster faces I could draw.

The rest of them are staying the night at school, but I decided I needed to get some sleep, cuz old folks like me need to reboot. And my hand was already cramping from all the drawing.

But just before I left the rest, we played our new favorite song, which by the way, I highly recommend at karaoke.

So Yummy! So Yummy!

Wow. I just found the awesomest new kids' show, on Nick Jr., called "Yo Gabba Gabba."

Just watch this "yummy in my tummy" video clip, the ska animation, and yes, Elijah Wood in his most impressive role, ever.

Also Mark Mothersbaugh, the Aquabats, Biz Markie, and the Cornelius drummer have been on the show!

There's also a wacky DJ character that looks like the spawn of Pizzicato 5 and Dee-Lite.

How have I not known about this show before??? Thanks, boing boing!

Some brief notes

Happy belated birthday to my super awesome bro, and to the ever-talented karaoke singer and funny guy, Dubbledubs.

Congrats and good luck to my cousin for taking a fabulous year off and traipsing around in Switzerland.

Congrats and good luck to my other cousin, who is going to be a keynote speaker at a conference in Korea!

In other news:

Holy crap it is cold. Thank goodness for delivery food.



My Canon Elph is broken. For some reason it doesn't show images anymore. Time for a new one! Should I get this cute little Leica? What do you think?



I'll be stopping by in California this September (if not earlier too), to be a bridesmaid for Tatertot! I feel so honored. This is the first time I've been a bridesmaid for a non-relative. (Kinda funny, considering that I'm over 30... but I'm not complaining) And I bet it will be loads of fun, knowing the wedding couple, in addition to being a wonderful excuse to see my Cali friends again.

FYI, drinking lots of champagne, sangria, and vodka during Winterim is a BAD idea. Even if it was on a Saturday night.

For those of you who are my privileged friends and relatives, you can see a sneak peek of my new Toy Design portfolio on my Flickr feed. Would love to hear your feedback, especially if you have kids!

Back to the sweatshop

It's 6am and I overslept!

I meant to take a nap for 3 hours and then finish more homework... but my body protested. 'Doh!

I might finally post photos of my toy design portfolio later... As a teaser, here's what it includes:

• a bunny-shaped car
• a spinning rocketship
• robot animals
• a time machine
• a housecleaning jellyfish
• a monster croquet set
• space girls who shoot aliens
• disco earmuffs
• Mexican wrestlers
• gorillas in dresses

I'm finishing the croquet set and time machine today, and then I will pass out.

Two of my classmates have been really sick but still have been working almost all night for the last week! I don't know how they do it. I only had one hour of sleep the night before, and I'm already hating life right now.

But our Dean seems pretty pleased with how we're doing, even though we're all freaking out a bit lately. At the same time, I keep meaning to blog about more funny stuff that happens in class, but that will have to happen later. Gotta run to class!

Dammit!

There's so much FUN to be had in this world! Why can't I have it all!?

Guess I'll just have to nap about it for now, before I head into another all-nighter of toy-drawing.

I'm praying to the Marker gods to help me crank out 4 completed drawings in less than two days. Hah. They's crazy at FIT. CRAZY!

Weather Watch

I've decided to leave all my supplies at school and work from there, because the last thing I need to worry about is dropping my hand-drawn portfolio in a puddle.

Generally I try to be good about checking the weather before leaving the house nowadays, because it sucks when you're caught in snow or rain unexpectedly.

I've also realized that I've been looking at the wrong number on my Yahoo! Weather bookmark for New York, because they display the actual temperature in big numbers, and then in tiny numbers, "what it feels like."

But who cares about the actual temperature if it's different from what it feels like? For example, today the actual temperature is 43°F, but it feels like 37°F.

I think what I really need, instead of icons of clouds vs. sun, are icons for what you need to bring with you when you leave the house, such as bermuda shorts, vs. a big-ol puffy-coat, gloves, scarf, hat and umbrella.

Okay, school is pretty fun.

For some reason, I've decided that the FIT alumni are not as cute as I had previously thought. Maybe it's because I finally have been getting some normal nights of sleep. That will probably make things less awkward for me, when one of them becomes my teacher next year.

So today we took a break after lunch, and watched the film, Miss Potter. It was so delightful! It might be a little sappy for some, but it was of particular interest to my class, as it was about a woman who makes a great life for herself by designing some great characters that also end up making lots of money not just from the classic storybooks, but also from merchandising. Yay, toys!

But it's also fascinating true story of a very independent woman (especially for 18th century England), who defies her parents' stuffy social-climbing expectations and follows what she loves to do. And she ends up creating the best-selling children's books in her 30s... plus, she makes so much money that she uses it later to become a land conservationist! Who knew? There are also very charming animation effects, and hello, Ewan McGregor is in it! Go rent it now.

But also there's a really sad part in the middle of the story, at a point in her life that seemed a little too relate-able for me, and I couldn't help crying. And other classmates cried too, including this one guy you would never expect: he's got long black hair and always wears black. Yes, the same one who used to be a gravedigger and loves Gilmore Girls. Luckily I had extra tissues to hand out.

Well, back to work for me!

We keep our moods up during late nights of work, by playing lots of Disney songs, Queen, Cindy Lauper, Mika, Top 40, Mariah Carey, and Neil Diamond for sing-along. We probably scare the straight guys away when that starts up, since they seem to mostly head back to the dorms around dinnertime. One of them requested we play Led Zeppelin, but we vetoed that. I said that was only acceptable on Guitar Hero. I think I need to request some Blondie and Amy Winehouse to mellow out the hyper-gay mix for me.

And then there were 14.

So I've started on our mini-intensive semester, called "Winterim," which the Senior class has warned us so much about. They made us think it would be the most grueling three weeks of work.

But it's not quite as grueling as they made it out to be. I mean, we are basically working all day, everyday, but it's not like we have daily deadlines that are driving us mad.

Then again, a lot of us are a bit behind, because we're supposed to complete our portfolio drawings in two weeks. For most of us, this means we have to finish 8-9 drawings. I only have barely 2 out of 8 done, and I should be further along.

I suspect that this is taking longer than usual to complete, because:

1. We are trying to be extra careful about our final drawings
   (and there is no "undo" in non-computerized drawings)


2. We are adjusting, adding more detail, and refining our layouts to make it perfect


3. We are just tired from drawing everyday, all-day!

Luckily it's actually been fun, spending time with my classmates. We joke around and help each other out. And it's fun to see the improvement in our classmates. I'm trying to actually get my sleep and not stay up too late, because I need to maintain my energy for this daily schedule of work. But some of the classmates are still being nutso and staying up until 3 or 4am every night!

On the downside, we lost two of our classmates! I heard that one of them failed the last semester (--yes, the crazy lady), and that the other ended up quitting the program! It's a bit of a mixed bag; we feel pretty bad for them, but we are also relieved to no longer have to put up with the crazy one. And I'm glad the faculty realized that they couldn't let her design toys. Her work really never made sense. So we are down from 16 (including me) to 14.

On the upside, today there will be two alumni boys that will come in as T.A.'s, to assist with any rendering or layout issues.

Last week, when they stopped by to help, I think all the ladies and gay men got a little giddy, because the alumni are pretty cute. And we've all been boy-deprived a little too long. Then it occured to me that they are probably just about my age!

And it turns out that the one we like better will also be our teacher next year! But one of my classmates also found out (from chitchatting w/ the Dean), that he has a girlfriend. Of course. But will that last until next year? Hmm...

Also, yesterday we were speculating about where we might get internships, because apparently the Dean decides where we get to interview. The classmates are worried about favoritism and getting dropped at a company in the boonies or some where in the South. (We have a very multi-ethnic class, with 3 gay men, so they're worried about dealing with bigotry.) I'm guessing she's going to try to place us where there's a good fit, hopefully! I'm hoping for one in New York or California, of course.

We were figuring out how to drop hints to the Dean that we would prefer to be with certain companies. She knows I'm from California, and that I'd like to try IDEO, but I'm not sure she has a connection with IDEO. I might have more connections with IDEO than she has, come to think of it! And we heard that we basically start interviewing when the companies come to New York for the annual Toy Fair at Javitz Center (right down from my apartment!) I'm already pulling out feelers among my Cali friends to trade apartments for the summer, just in case.

And, tomorrow our Dean says she'll let us have a break, and she'll bring in popcorn and a rental movie. She hinted at what the movie was, and I think it's the one about Beatrix Potter! She said it would be good inspiration for our storybook class. I think any movie with Ewan McGregor is good inspiration in general. :D

Aaaaaaa. Pt. 2.

And I'm still single and dateless and will be stuck that way, at least through February.

Where's that whisky????

Aaaaaaa.

SEVENTEEN degrees! It is 17 degrees outside and I had no sleep last night. And I have more homework to do tonight. I have the heat on and I still think I need to get some long underwear on.

And I don't think I'll have time to fix my cracked tooth until maybe February.

And we STILL have cockroaches, that were here before we got here.

I'm going to bed, goddammit. Somebody send me a beer. Or maybe whisky. That's the stuff St. Bernards carry to warm people up, right?

I guess I'll just settle for a Pepperidge farm cookie since that's all I have to snack on in my house. Pffft.

Happy New Year?

After midnight of New Year's Eve, I went to karaoke with some friends in K-town, where a guy directed a mic at me with a little too much enthusiasm.

In other words, I now I have a chipped tooth.
WHO else would get a fucking chipped tooth at karaoke but ME?

And so, continues my horrible luck with New Year's events.

Yay 2008! It can only get better from here, right?

Happy New Year, guys!