Sunday, May 31, 2009

Congealed into the Same Shape

So, I haven't posted in forever, and I guess that is partly because I've been burned out on writing and couldn't find the energy to even make an attempt to post, and partly because I have no clue about what to write about. Life has been so unalterably boring in its routines for me that most of my thoughts for the past couple of months have focused on my life's seeming lack of direction. When I am not worried about the future and my potential to get a nice job and be self-subsistent, I am thinking about how much debt I have built up over this past decade and the apparently futility of getting it paid off, or I am thinking about how many of my previous goals have evaporated into the steams of utter failure. These aren't happy thoughts, and like most non-happy thoughts, they congeal into the same shape to become essentially the same thought. An, of course, that monotony doesn't make for good reading.

In the face of these thoughts and worries, I try to distract myself as much as possible with video games, television cartoons, the internet, and my college classes. I recently heard that the MLA and the APA are now recommending only one space after a period instead of two. After working with Indesign, the professional layout software, and considering the ubiquity of computers in academia, it's easy to see why this change is being made, but I am finding the habit hard to break.

On the school front, I managed to finish my packaging design project a few hours early. It's only a macaroni box, and my design isn't terribly exciting, but even if I do say so myself, I think it's remarkably competent. It is something my instructor would say is "a solid design that can't miss," but "doesn't take any chances." This is his way of saying it's worth about B. I will be surprised if I get something else. Most of his class sessions are fairly boring.

The only mildly interesting thing I learned during the last class was that before Adobe's Software came to dominate everything in the graphic design field most designers were constantly using their exacto knives--according to my instructor--"cutting ruby lith," something I have never even seen. All that constant use gave them surgical like precision when came to wielding said knife. As for my own recent project and exacto knife skills, it looks as if I had been caught in the middle of a particular violent earthquake while I was cutting out a little cellophane window on my product box. My folding skills were not much better.

The term is coming to an end, and the summer break fast approaches. It's odd to note how I won't be seeing some of my fellow students (nice people) ever again after these next two weeks. Most of them that I have asked haven't really indicated that they were getting a design job anytime soon. Their plans were on the more immediate problem of earning money to survive through the summer which could mean staying at their menial unskilled jobs for the time being. Thankfully, I officially have another year to go before I earnestly start thinking about such problems.

That's it for now. I will try to post something else in the next couple weeks. My lackluster blog goal is to try and post at least once a month, but don't count on that. There are so many things on my list of personal goals that aren't getting done, and writing blog posts aren't even on the top of that list.