I know being sick is inconvenient no matter when it happens, but come on. School starts in 2 days (8 am on Monday ) and I’d really like that to happen without feeling like crap. I took off work yesterday and I think I’m feeling better (my sore throat is gone), but I can tell it’s gonna be replaced with a cough. I also have a stuffy nose and the occassional head/muscle aches. I’m taking lots of vitamin C and cough drops and water and cranberry juice (OTC cold medicine doesn’t really work for me), but sleeping is hard ’cause I’ll wake up every 2 hours having to either blow my nose or pee or ’cause it’s too hot. WTF, you’re not supposed to get colds in the summer.

At least I have lots of time to play The Sims 2!

If you search for “Claire” on Google, I’m #3! I’ll probably never surpass Claire’s Accessories, but that’s okay. I didn’t even know I was on the first page ’til reading someone else’s post about it and then deciding to see where I stood. Yay.

And not to completely change the subject, but the temperature outside hasn’t been this low in a long time. It’s only 70-something, but still … I walked out of my house this morning and wasn’t engulfed in sun and heat like I usually am. I wish it could be like this year-round.

So that post I wrote awhile ago about being part-time for the rest of my college years and knowing exactly what I had to take? Scratch that out.

Upon closer inspection of my course book and a couple emails to my advisor, I realized that I needed 5 more classes than I thought: 3 art electives and 2 art history electives. So this semester (which starts in 8 days ) will not only turn into full time, but I’ll be taking 15 credits (my past few semesters have totaled 12) plus portfolio review (again). Combine that with work and I’ll be amazed if I don’t keel over and die a few weeks in. Here’s my new schedule:

ART 389: Book Design (MW 8 - 10:30 am)
ART 430: Far Eastern Art (MW 11:15 am - 12:30 pm)
ART 380: Seminar in Aesthetics (TTh 9:30 - 10:45 am)
ART 360: Figure Drawing (TTh 1:30 - 5 pm)
ART 303: History of Design (TTh 5 - 6:30 pm)
GRPH 250: Portfolio Review (?)

I just hope I can make it from Figure Drawing to History of Design in time. The buildings are about a 5-minute walk apart, and studio classes usually end early to give time to clean up. Szmagaj (the figure drawing professor … pronounced Sma-gee) is pretty cool, so I should be good to go after talking to him the first day of class. Besides, after sitting there staring at a naked model for 3 1/2 hours (the longest studio class at JMU), leaving early will definitely be on my to-do list

I have a bone to pick with Hanson fans. I don’t know if this will make any sense to non-fans, but I’ll try …

For any non-fan visitors, Hanson made an album in 1992 (5 years before Middle of Nowhere) called The Beginning. When Hanson gained popularity in 1997+, fans started to learn of and somehow acquire songs from this album.

Today I was looking at pictures of the actual cassette (front and back), and realized that 50% of the song titles I’ve known for the past 9 years are wrong This means my bootleg cassette of the album is wrong, all the internet lyric sites are wrong, and every time I see one of the “right” titles in my iTunes Hanson playlist, I think what the hell song is that?

A person (or people) with the actual album had to have released its presence into the world at some point, right? If this is true, what’s with all the incorrect information? In my many years of fandom I’ve seen the same information over and over with very little deviation — how can such a big difference can go undetected by fans/album owners (especially the stalker-ish ones) for so long? Even I sometimes wondered about the lyrics, but since bootleg cassettes are notoriously crappy in quality and Hanson has quite a few impossible-to-understand songs, I never thought to question it. A few examples of my newly discovered changes:

Album name: Beginnings ‘92 The Beginning
Song title: “I Need You Lord” “Wake Up In the Night”
Song title: “Rock Her Heart Away” “Rap Your Heart Away”

Obviously, subtlety is not the word of the day, especially when the title differences above can be clearly heard in the songs. If any knowledgeable Hanson fans are reading this, what do you think?

The eBay of handmade items (minus the bidding), Etsy.com, is freakin’ awesome. I don’t know why I’ve never heard of this site before. I was looking for messenger bags online to replace my tiny Fossil purse that’s continuously overflowing with stuff, and after searching on Google for a dragon purse, stumbled upon it. I didn’t find anything I liked on Google or any of the Gap/Urban Outfitters/JCPenney/etc. sites, so I decided to give Etsy a try.

I found the bag I wanted on the first page of the “Bags & Purses” category. I checked all the pages to make sure something else awesome wasn’t hiding, and then thought about it for a couple days since this would be my first non-corporate accessory purchase. The bag (and free t-shirt!) were $45 and twice the size of my current bag (which cost about $30), unique, vegan, and not girly in any way — what more could I want? My bag arrived yesterday and is even more awesome in person:

I have to get used to the slippery nature of vinyl vs. “rougher” fabric, but all in all I’m happy, and will definitely go back to Etsy (and Antimatter, the creator of my bag) in the future

I really like this one simply because there are things I haven’t tried before: thanks to CSS Library for the tabbed menu above and kalsey.com for rounded corners in general. I’ve customized them, of course, but they provided the basics On the other hand, it’s a little plain … gotta figure out a way to add spice without overcrowding.

I just made a RateMyProfessors.com account, and there was a box to select my major — with nothing whatsoever about art. LOL are they trying to tell me something?