So Very Dark

Our second concept development project was to make signs– 5″x5″, black and white, just graphics…something that could be easily understood by someone looking at it. The teacher wanted signs for non-ordinary things, however.

Some of the things other students in my class came up with:

Addict’s grocery store aisle signs

Menu graphics for a cannibal resteraunt

National park signs warning about Bigfoot, Nessie, Chupacabra, etc.

I thought that Biblical plagues as if they were weather warnings would be fun.

This is my in-class concept work, along with another of my ideas – an assassins’ catalog.

<–I couldn’t remember that many biblical plagues, so I had to guess on a few…turns out I was wrong about ‘dead rising from their graves’. What? That would be a great plague! Think of all the brains they’d eat!

I talked with my teacher and he suggested doing them sort of woodcut style, in keeping with the whole biblical theme-

<–woodcuts

-but most of the woodcuts I looked up were pretty ornate and complicated, not so easily decipherable at a smaller size. I kind of took a middle ground, making somewhat stylized signs, but simple, with certain recognizable features (restroom door style humans, etc.)

For the most part, they deviate very little from my original plans, except that I added two new ones, to replace ‘dead rising’ and ‘earthquakes’ (I don’t know why I ended up changing that one, maybe it seemed boring? I think I just forgot I had it, or something…)

<–I made the dead kid a little taller in the final version to make his place in the birth order clear

And my final product:

“Well, folks, looks like we’re in for some interesting weather across the country today! Areas of Southern California and Nevada can expect patchy darkness this afternoon, extending into late evening. Looks like there’s a low-pressure system moving in to the south-west, so that may escalate conditions well into the weekend–serious flashlight weather!

If you are living in North Dakota or Oklahoma, be sure to bring your heavy-duty umbrella, as there are likely to be frog showers throughout the day.

It looks like Oklahoma will be getting a double whammy, as there is also a 90% chance of locusts from mid-day on. Locusts will also be effecting North Carolina and parts of southern Florida, so if you are in the area, keep your windows closed and crops in–you know how tenacious those buggers can be!

Moving down across the southern portion of the nation, south-eastern Texas, as well as Alabama are expected to experience record highs in deaths of first-born sons, so start re-writing those wills, mom and dad! A large high-pressure system is going to be crossing both of those areas, which may cause some displacement of effects of this weather, so if you live in a neighboring state, it would be best to be on the lookout as well.

Finally, the north-east is expected to experience rivers turning to blood, centered largely in New Hampshire and Maine, so good news for residents living in the area surrounding Jerusalem’s Lot! Enjoy it while you can, folks, as conditions are expected to be canceled out before Friday by the low-pressure system coming down from Canada.

it snowed today.

Not a lot. I still haven’t gotten ‘real’ snow. Actually, apparently the weather map shows this area covered in white, so dad called to ask how I was enjoying my first real snowstorm, and I had to bitterly confess that I still haven’t had the pleasure.

But it DID snow this morning before I woke up (you know, during the MORNING) enough to put a little white on the ground, and is due to do so again later today. The temperature has also gone up a bit — it’s 31 right now, which sounds like heaven in the Bahamas after the past couple days.

I finished most of my homework since I had no school yesterday, and so, after I do a couple touch-ups to my Concept Development project I’ll have the rest of the day to work on my own projects. Like, maybe, some dude on a motorcycle with hot chicks (I haven’t FORGOTTEN…it’s just a hard project!) Oh, and the never-ending laundry project. And maybe I’ll like, make dinner…although I don’t think we have much to make…I mean, I have meat for meatloaf, but like…nothing to add to the meat. And I think part of the point of meatloaf is adding stuff TO the meat. Hmm….I have shake-n-bake….I wonder if that would work?

I was stressing a little last night because I only spent a few hours on my concept development project this time, as opposed to every second of spare waking time like my last project. But the thing is, it’s supposed to be a very simple thing — 5 signs, black and white only, clean, easy to read and understand, no words, graphics only. If I spent more time on it, the likely result would be that I would overwork the project and make my signs hard to read and busy.

Briggs laughed at me and suggested that maybe my that my homework wasn’t SUPPOSED to take 2 weeks, and the fact that this project only took a few hours might mean I spent a NORMAL length of time on it. Ridiculous.

I am taking a break from the cheeseyness of Sliders and currently re-watching Fruits Basket, which is really making me want to read the manga. I had forgotten how cute the show is, and how adorably sweet Tohru is:

<– every time I watch the show I want to be like her: so sweet and compassionate and helpful and hardworking no matter what the world throws at her!

<–But I’m much more lazy, cranky, catty and cynical. I just don’t have her wide-eyed innocence and ability to always see the best in everyone. Mostly, I think people are stupid.

Kind of like:

<–realizes that most people are dumb-a**es. (Briggs and I watched like, 6 episodes of The Boondocks in a row last night.)

Last night I watched the episode of Buffy with Xander and Harmony’s epic battle:

Later, Skaters.