Pre-SB Review

This past Wednesday, I had a studio review. Ended up pulling an all-nighter for it on Tuesday, but it paid off and went well. There were some gaps on my boards, but that was to be expected (as in, I knew they were there) and when it comes down to the wire you really need to just sort of decide what you really want to spend time on and what you can push back for later. I've always been pretty decent at explaining what my project is about and how everything comes together, and that ability has truly benefitted me to the absolute maximum when it comes to grading. For those up and coming architecture students out there, take heed: explanation goes a long way.

However, my teacher did tell me that despite the gaps, that I was "on fire conceptually" and that had really thought everything out really well and explained every little bit of why it was laid out the way it was. That's really good to hear, and compliments like those are the kind of thing that drive you to do better, and fuel your aspirations and goals. And so at the end, I was finally able to focus my attention to the upcoming (much-needed) break. Just wanted you all to know that your well-wishes helped!

Crunch Time .

On Wednesday, I have a relatively large progressional review for the museum I'm designing for the city of Greenville (a studio project, not a paid professional one). I've been drawing my floor plans and have a good bit to do before Wednesday -- let's hope tomorrow yields a very productive day that enables me to sleep!

On Focus and Study .

One of the hardest things for many college students to accomplish is to be able to focus and study without distraction. In an age that includes cell phones, ipods, internet and phone games, laptops, twitter, facebook, instagram, foursquare and more (you get my gist) it is increasingly difficult to sit down and unplug yourself from all the outlets of media. Even email could be considered a huge distraction. In fact, I always have my email up and will stop whatever I'm doing to check a new email. My average response time to emails is probably about four seconds... well, maybe not that fast, but it's not unusual at all to get replies from me within a few minutes of your message being sent.

Today, though, I was able to work on things relatively diligently, and I still had time to eat lunch with some friends, and veg out and play a little video games. It certainly helped that I put on Family Guy on Netflix while I was working and doing my drawings. I got, more or less, what I wanted to get done today, at least enough to the point where I can clear my designs with my studio professor tomorrow, and that was the goal. That way I would still have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning for models; if need be. In fact I worked so much, that I probably went through a season and a half or even two seasons of Family Guy while I worked. It's something that's fun to listen to and entertains me when I get stuck with whatever I'm working on. We are, after all, a generation of multi-tasking. I'm just glad that I pretty much kept my focus today. That bodes well for the rest of the semester, and hell, for life too!

several updates .

So, there are a good number of things I'm going to briefly mention in here before I doze off for the night. Let's see if I can remember them all, shall we?

Music Monday #57

Well, if all is working right now, you should already be listening to this week's song! It's a remix of Coldplay's Paradise.

so sick .

So this morning when I woke up I was not feeling well. For no reason at all, I felt really nauseous. I had a test today and really wanted to at least get that out of the way... but didn't make it anywhere near. The test was at 330 this afternoon, and I had to go to Redfern (the medical center on campus) around 1030. Turns out there's a stomach bug going around that's not quite the flu, but has similar symptoms. Now I had only felt nauseous a few times this morning, but decided to go in anyways. Good thing I did, because I ended up throwing up while I was there... I can't even the last time I've thrown up, it's been so long. Luckily, it was actually not as bad as I remember it... I'd imagine every time is different though. So at this point, I haven't eaten anything in a little over 24 hours, and I have a headache (I'd imagine from the not eating) but I've been sipping on some water and gatorade at the doc's suggestion.

catching up .

The past few days, including the weekend, have really zoomed by in a flash. Our first architecture project is due today (Wednesday, even though this post is technically for Saturday) and it's been a true wake-up call to how easy we really had it in Spain. It's not easy to come back from a foreign country where the work load is peanuts and then slip right back into a work-intensive environment.