This is Halloween

Halloween costume 09 pics!

I went as a mafia member. :]

~Lenny

R-Day, my week, and kittens

My media arts remembrance day poster work in progress. 

There hasn't been much art posting from me lately mostly because I find it remarkably hard to find time to do things that I'd like to do instead of need to do. 

This entire week was horribly tiring, I don't know how I'm still alive, seriously. 

Monday was alright, first real day back to TKD with no injuries, so I enjoyed that greatly. Private lesson! That was unexpected but kind of nice. If not quiet. Really quiet. 

Tuesday was HELL. I have no other words to describe it. Swim practice first thing in the morning, followed by school, a fire drill, then guitar and TKD. Only 3 people showed up to TKD. What is this, early hibernation?

Wednesday I headed off to Value Village with a few friends to look for remaining Halloween costume pieces. Didn't actually end up finding anything, instead we went out to eat and then I went to TKD. Deserted as this entire week has been. 

Yesterday was pretty hectic too. Swim practice after school, and then I dashed off to the TKD Halloween party since I promised to come help out. I didn't actually manage to get there on time but hey, I tried. Then took the class and went home to collapse in front of my computer and read Bridget Jones' Diary.

I'm looking around the internet for anyone giving away free kittens, since I'm looking for one now. Preferably male, but it doesn't need to be. Kittens please, no cats. If you have any info that could be of use to me please comment :]

~Lenny

R.I.P. Murka

R.I.P.

Murka.

2003-2009.

My cat Murka died on Wednesday, October 21, found in my neighbour's yard by my parents. Nobody bothered to tell me, and I didn't notice until yesterday.

She was an outdoor cat, and we're pretty sure it was poison that killed her. There was no blood, so pesticides or eating some contaminated mouse is the generally accepted idea.

2009 has been about loss for me.

Loss. Adjustment. Moving on but never wanting to.

And now, as the cherry on the cake, the world took my baby away from me.

My best friend.

Who's going to take up meow at ungodly hours in the morning until I let her in to sleep on the bottom half of my bed?

Who's going to take up 3/4s of my bed and leave me trying to sleep in an uncomfortable curled-up position?

Who's going to leave grey cat hair over all my black sweaters, usually right before I need to wear them?

Who's going to sleep beside me and purr when I'm sick or feeling horrible?

Who's going to be irritated at me when I forget to feed her or refill her water dish?

Who's going to bring back headless bunnies and leave them in the backyard so I trip over them and shriek like a banshee?

Who's going to meow and nudge me every time I start yelling to quiet down?

Who's going to run out of my room every time I play Rammstein or my guitar too loud?

Who's going to give me the most innocent look after she's done something wrong so I can never really be mad at her?

Who's going to put up with my baby talk and the hundreds of names I've called her over the years, ranging from Fuzzy, Fuzzface, Murkie, Kittycat, and cutie pie?

Who's ever going to have the 'O' pattern in her stripes and the 'M' on her forehead?

I didn't take any pictures of you and I together because I never thought I'd need to. And now I miss you more than anything I ever missed before.
Now all I have left is photographs and memories.

Memories that I'm so scared I'll lose, because you meant everything to me.

It didn't matter to you how tired I was, or how irritable, or how horrible I looked that day, you loved me regardless.

I didn't even notice you were gone for good until 4 days after. I'm a horrible human being and you loved me anyways.
What I hate the most is that I didn't get to say goodbye.

I never get to say goodbye.

I hope that your 6 years on earth with us were happy and good, regardless of how many squirrels and neighbourhood miniature poodles you terrorized.

I can cry for the next months straight and give myself a huge headache and it will never bring you back.

I promise I'll never try to put a harness and leash on you again.

I'd give anything to have you back.

You'll be in my heart.

Always.

Post-Secondary Panic

I figured I'd get an early start on this so I can get it out of the way.

Is it just me or are school websites designed to be as impossible to navigate as humanly possible? They do not allow for BROWSING. AT ALL. You need to know exactly what you want and then google it. Ugh. Anyways.

So, the priorities for me in a college/university are as follows:
- MUST be in Canada I don't have the money, and I refuse to take American History. I don't care.
- Close to home. I want to live at home. I don't want to live in a dorm, or by myself anywhere in the near future. Maybe after I learn how to cook so I don't have to survive on scrambled eggs and cereal.
- Close enough so I can go to TKD OR has a good TKD club close by Because I have my priorities :3
- Good program DUH.

I've finally figured what I might apply for LOL. I guess I kind of knew all along but hey.
Illustration or Graphic Design. I realized that this is what I want to do with my life. I think.

Major major flaw to this? Canada doesn't have many schools that offer Illustration. They are ALL in the U.S. of A.
Which makes me really really sad since that cuts off a lot of schools from my potential list.

But here we go, the schools I decided on and their pros and cons.

Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.
Program: Bachelor of Applied Arts (Illustration)

Requirements:
- Grade 12 English credit
- 1 senior level Visual Arts credit at M or O level
- 4 Grade 12 credits at U or M level
- Minimum 65% average
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home!
- I've always wanted at least a Bachelors degree, and all the schools I've looked at for the programs I want only offer (at most) an Advanced Diploma. Just a weird thing of mine.
- I've heard great things about this program from a few people that I've asked, they all love it.

Cons:
- Uhm. Other than the fact that my parents would like me to go to a University, there are none that I have found.

Program: Bachelor of Design (Honours)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- 6 Grade 12 credits at U or M level including one Grade 12 (U or M) course from one of the following disciplines: Canadian and World Studies; Classical Languages and International Languages; French: Mathematics; Social Science and Humanities or Native Studies.
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Also close to home!
- Also a Bachelors degree!
- It's offered in conjunction with York University which is cool :]

Cons:
- 6 GRADE 12 CREDITS AT U or M LEVEL? WHAT. THAT'S CRAZY TALK. no seriously, I was planning on taking mostly art courses with are OPEN courses. Thank GOD RAP courses are M courses.

Ryerson University
Program: Graphic Design

Requirements:
- I'm assuming something like grade 12 English and a portfolio.

Pros:
- Close to home

Cons:
- NO INFORMATION ON THE PROGRAM AT ALL. WTF.

George Brown College
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home
- Advanced Diploma
- Looking through the compulsory courses, I see I am given a LOT of electives. 4 for semester4 and 5, and then 2 in semester 6

Cons:
- Honestly the curriculum sounds remarkably dull. Things like "Design" "Drawing" "College English" "Design Culture" "Typography" and a lot of electives apparently.

Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English Credit
- 3 Grade 12 credits at U or M level
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home
- If Amy decides to take her Bachelors of Industrial Design there, I'll have Amy there :]
- Advanced Diploma

Cons:
- Looking at the compulsory courses, they seem really....business oriented. And dull. As well as advertisement oriented.

St. Lawrence College
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- MAJORITY of Grade 11 and 12 courses must be of C, M or U level. (god knows what majority means. Hopefully 5)

Pros:
- Looking through the compulsory courses, I'm in love. This sounds amazing. "Digital photography" "Design Illustration" "Life Drawing" "Colour Theory and Perception" "Design Typography" "Advanced Layout"

Cons:
- It's too far. 3 hours too far actually. I won't be able to live at home. I need to look into TKD clubs.

PHEW.

That's all for now. And that's plenty.
Advice, comments, insights are all welcome and appreciated. Oh and help. Help would be nice.

~Lenny

New art

Inspired by the song "Heavyweight" by Infected Mushroom. Cause obviously high music is the best kind. I'm sorry I only draw weird shit D:

Bill Kaulitz in all his fauxhawk I-still-can't-make-him-look-girly-enough glory. :]

And my art assignment. Bookmark for the book "Notre Dame de Paris"

~Lenny

Swimming, school, food, TKD

I am so remarkably tired that it's kind of ridiculous. It's only a month and a half into school and I can't keep my eyes open. I am ready for second semester to start already so I don't have to calculate anything. 

That and I'm really REALLY hungry.

4th lunch is not cool >_>;

TKD has been so lonely lately, it really makes me sad. We're in much the same situation we were this time last year. Basically one teacher, everyone either not going at all or going irregularly. *sigh*

Yeah I'm just annoyed that I get paired up with whoever's left over.

So yeah, I went the the Explore Design fair type thing yesterday on a school field trip. Which was informative if slightly dull. 

If before I had one or two options for my post-secondary education, now I have more like 15 O_O;

Which is kind of not helping me in any way at all. 

I want to do art for a living, I think I've decided on either illustration or graphic design. 

I also would like to live at home, for various reasons such as the fact that if I live alone I'll die of starvation. That and I am NOT ready to leave home yet. I don't understand people who can't wait till they do. Its' pretty much an impossible concept for me to grasp. 

My 3 so far are Sheridan, Ryerson, and St. Lawrence.

The first two are close to home, the last not so much. But it's closer than something like Ohio or New York. 

I still have time to think, so maybe that'll change. 

Oh, and next summer I am most likely going to Ukraine, which is awesome on one hand, and not so awesome on the other. 

Awesome because I love my family and I want to get out of Canada for a bit because all I do here is be bored out of my mind. Unless my parents drag me camping in which case I'm also irritable. I think it'd be good for me to get away from it all and just chill. Concentrate on having fun and nothing else. 

Not so awesome because I'm already thinking about how horribly out of shape I'm going to be when i get back and how badly I'm going to die at TKD. I'll also miss all my friends, since I will be internet-less for the most part when I'm there. So, basically a month and a half of no communication with the world over here in Canada land. I am NOT looking forward to answering my emails when I get back. 

But I'm worrying ahead of time, as per usual. 

In other news, first swim practice of the the year is today! The practices have been moved to twice a week instead of 3 times, and they are now Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons.

Which means we don't have the luxury of ever missing a practice. 

Time to get my butt in gear and cut some seconds off my times, and seeing as I haven't been swimming for real since February, this shall be interesting if nothing else. 

Peace,

~Lenny

Music & Surrealism

Hello all,

New Media arts surrealism photo manipulation.

But that's not really my topic of choice today. I was on Facebook a few minutes ago and I came across this:

"I don't want to give away too much about what it will sound like, because so much will change before the end, but its...not what you would expect. Its definitely not happy married music, but its not like I'm dying the whole time either. Its dark, sarcastic, fun, strange, familiar, and very different at the same time. It makes me feel alive and I wish I could show you right now. If you were here, at my house, I would pour you a drink and we would turn it up really loud and rock out to it, and I know you would love it"

- Amy Lee on the new Evanescence CD

I think Evanescence was a major part of my depressed 13-year old-dom, but it was what it needed to be for me at the time, and I do still like them :]

SPEAKING OF MUSIC I LIKE.

TOKIO HOTEL CD ANYONE? :D

I bought myself the German copy the day that it came out and OMGGGG I'm freaking out a little every single time I listen to it. SO. AMAZING. I didn't know how they were going to add the techno deal into their music and not turn it into something weird, but GODDAMN they succeeded and I could not be happier.

I'll shut up now,

~Lenny

Nuit Blanche 2009

Because you couldn't have possibly expected an art geek like me to miss out on something like this, could you?

I didn't get too many pictures, but here's what I did get.

A puddle of vodka. My Eastern European ancestry enjoyed this immensely, though I probably will never understand contemporary art.

THREE WORDS. FREE. COTTON. CANDY. word.

The description said that when you moved in the marked off squares in certain ways, it set off different sounds. I think it was a social experiment to see how long you can make random people flail and jump around while you have a CD blaring or random dings! :D

Hanging walkie talkies I think they were. Please excuse my photos of epic fail. Between the dark and my temperamental camera, I'm surprised you can make out any of this.

THIS WAS SO AWESOME. 10 port-a-potties lined up, each one had a different smell inside. I particularly enjoyed the Vanilla and the one that smelled like wet grass.

Not a piece of art was still awesome. Some guy painted himself like a statue and freaked the hell out of people when he moved.

Giant metallic bunny balloon.

I didn't get close enough since the line was huge, but there was some kind of blindfolded cage match going on.

Yuliya with one of the hockey statues.

LOL. Just LOL.

What I learned about nuit blanche was that my fingers almost froze off, it smelled like a mixture of weed, cigarette smoke and alcohol, and was one of the funnest nights of this year. My feet were killing me, but it was amazing.

Can't wait to go again next year.

Peace,

~Lenny