Alive and Well in Sunny Stevens Point

Surprise! A spontaneous blog post coming to you all after nearly six years. A whole lot has happened the last time this sisters blog saw any action. I'm writing this now from my bed in Stevens Point, where I will soon graduate from the university! I have a lot of conflicting feelings about finally being done with a decade and a half's worth of school. I went from Rossman Elementary School to Central Middle School to Hartford Union High School to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to pursue something I have always enjoyed--art! Of course, with the added bonus of a philosophy degree. School is all I know. My summers have always ended with an impatience to get back in the classroom for something more to do. I worry a lot that when I graduate I'll be extremely bored and lose contact with everyone. I panic about that. A lot. But! I am hopeful, since I currently do quite a few things separate from school. Two jobs--a teller at UWCU and a caretaker for a disabled man--and odd-end tasks, mostly art related. 

My goals after graduation are as follows: make a website to display my portfolio and contact information for commission inquiry, along with prices; create alluring business cards advertising my art services; pay off one of my loans before interest develops; move into my new apartment with my boyfriend of five years; work on living a more sustainable lifestyle that includes producing little waste and eating well (local, organic, fair trade--the good shit!); lastly, finish this dang comic that's been sitting on my desk for a while that I'm working on with a writer from Kentucky (funnily enough, a good friend of my current philosophy professor and advisor). I went to a panel recently at C2E2 (Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo) and the speaker said two things that really stood out to me: "Money makes people funny" and "What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it?"

It's weird to think now that I have my whole life ahead of me when I graduate. I mean, I've always had my whole life ahead of me, I've tried not to think of school not falling into the category of "the real world," but it just feels different. School changes a lot of things in a person's life; I'm not just talking about ideologies and goals, but when you're taking classes you work less, do fewer hobbies, do more homework. Without having to dread getting up early for classes and having to complete what I've always seen as "busy work," I have more time for things I enjoy! ...Right? Or am I just lying to myself? Worst case scenario, and what I think is actually the scarily common scenario, is that I'm working constantly and outside work I'm too brain-dead to care about doing anything else. My fear is that nothing really changes, because I've always had enough time to engage in my hobbies--I just wasn't making the time.

"What do you want...

and what are you willing to do

to get it?"

I'm worried that besides changing dramatically over the years in a lot of ways, a lot of my bad habits have consistently stuck with me. Mostly that includes procrastinating and not following through on the "harder" goals. I find myself saying frequently, "When the weather gets warmer I'll do ____," "When I graduate I'll do ____," "When I move into my new place I'll do ____," "When it's summer I'll do ____." It's infuriating! Why am I constantly putting off what I see as "the good life"? Excuses, excuses, excuses. (Heidi emailed me a wonderful reading on developing good habits...I just have yet to read it.)

Some wonderful things that have happened to me though, let's talk about that. I made a Postcrossing account, where for every postcard you send, you receive one in return. I have about thirty now, from countries like Poland, Germany, Russia, India, and China! This is a hobby I started in winter, to keep my spirits high while I was stuck inside all day and it got dark at 4pm. I also signed up for a membership with the Letter Writers Alliance. I sent all the letters I could to immediate friends and family, with few replies, so I decided it would be cool to have a penpal. I have four currently; Gi from the UK, Prya from Singapore, Claire from Boston, and Eathon from Arkansas. Sometimes it takes a while to get a reply and maybe even longer to send a reply out, but I've felt few feelings better than looking in my mailbox and receiving a letter or postcard. I love getting creative with my postcards and putting a lot of effort into them so the receiver really feels like they've gotten something special:

Art has never been more important to me in my life than right now. I'm more excited about discovering different illustrators and comics than ever before. My book shelf is rapidly filling up with comics of all varieties. My most recent purchases have been: Low Vol. 3, Smut Peddler, Chester Vol. 2, Saga Vol. 7, The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal, and The Sleep of Reason. I've also been drawing constantly, which is some bizarre phenomena. Honestly, I have no idea what has come over me! I felt very conflicted for a while calling myself an artist because I was never doing any art, and even the projects for my classes were half-assed, thrown together with little thought right before the deadline to get the grade. I started doodling constantly in class though to help focus my mind while busying my hands. I started to improve too, and get more ideas for illustrations.

It feels great to be passionate about something, be it drawing, reading comics, writing and sending letters, or eating good food, it feels good to have drive again. There's a gigantic pile of dirty laundry on my bed next to me currently and I have tons of things to complete in between two jobs before the semester ends, but I am doing just fine. Alive and well! And it is a beautiful, sunny day in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

-K

Speaking Chinese Made Easy

P.S. Look at my new post over at my new blog: Why I Write/NaNoWriMo and for Lilly, who is doing NaNo with me, it might be a good idea to visit Inspiration Buddy throughout the month. :)

This is for all us coffee-drinking Krills.

This one goes out to my new little nephew!

So this is the same song by Elton John (also from Moulin Rouge). I've been listening to a bit of this artist's work and I've got to say, she's pretty good. That and once in a while it's nice to hear someone you've never heard before.

Painting with the Computer

A Harry Potter Summer

No one's going to see this for a few days, at least, and that will probably be only Heidi. Oh well. I just thought I'd tell ya about what I'm currently doing this summer.

I'm preparing for the awesomeness that is the FINAL HARRY POTTER MOVIE.

Yeah, so I'm going to reread the series, rewatch the movies, rewatch the musical, and replay the games. I am currently beginning the fourth book right now, so that's fun. Once all this madness is over with, I'll be able to get back to reading books non-Potter related. So August is definitely going to be a fun time.

So Heidi, whachya doin'? Or Katie, for that matter?

'My Soul' by Jacob Wylde

Jacob Wylde from Sound Safari on Vimeo.

Do you guys remember that remix of mary poppins? No, not the scary mary one. The one that takes bits of speech throughout the movie and makes it into techno music. Pretty cool. Well, it was made by a guy called Pogo. And I found the above video (along with more of his cool techno mixes) on his website: www.pogomix.net
You likey?

Writing Prompt: Show us what you're doing this summer!

I WANT YOU TO POST

Hey guys! It's been a while, huh? Well, I have good news: I found my camera! This means I will be able to post pictures of my summer adventures for you guys to see! :D Since I have scads of free time now, I'll be posting more here, and I'd appreciate it if you'd check back bi-weekly and maybe even post about your own summer adventures?

Suggestions: Lilly, I'd love to hear about the books you've been reading and how summer school goes;
Katie, you should tell us about taking care of Lola and Farley;
Kelly, you are great at finding cool new music and funny/lovely internet stuffs. Please share!

SECOND NOTE: If you go on Amy's facebook page, there is no link to the study abroad blog she is writing for, so I went through the business of finding it: http://blog.studyabroad.wisc.edu/summer-2011 Check it out!

So as I was looking through the documents on my computer...

Kelly Krill
4th hour
Analysis Paper
Rough Draft

It’s by nature that humans are people pleasers; even if they say they aren’t, he or she may secretly go out of their way to put on a front accepted by society. In other cases we go out of our way to be different and stand out. It’s built into humans from small infancy need to please, be accepted, and become noticed. The things we do may seem wild or out of the ordinary. This being said, while both characters had their own struggling identity issues, Rowdy his urge to fight the world and Jordan her recklessness, the two share the common habit of hiding behind another face.
Meet Rowdy, the problematic, struggling teenager who has a knack for getting easily frustrated. Said frustration immediately leads to violence whether it be vocal and/or physical. [“‘What’s wrong with you?’ he yelled. ‘Everything!’ Rowdy yelled back. Rowdy fought everybody. He fought boys and girls. Men and women. He fought stray dogs. Hell, he fought the weather. He’d throw wild punches at the rain.” (pg. 18, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)] It’s a common thing for someone who deals with a lot of emotional pain to try to hide it with a mask of malice. He or she refuses to show weakness, for fear it may destroy them. Rowdy’s mental mind set is to not show any sign of a soft spot inside. His friend Junior succumbs to his emotions and hormones and is constantly being beat up because of it. Rowdy knows that to stay in one piece on the reservation, he needs to be has hard as rock. Sometimes he finds himself slipping up, letting his true self peek through, before impulsively slamming shut and spitting out some profane action or retort. [“‘I ain’t crying,’ he said. ‘You’re crying.’ I touched my face. It was dry. No tears yet. ‘I can’t remember how to cry,’ I said. That made Rowdy sort of choke. He gasped a little. And more tears rolled down his face. ‘You’re crying,’ I said. ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘It’s okay; I miss my sister, too. I love her.’ … I reached out and touched Rowdy’s shoulder. Big mistake. He punched me. Well, he almost punched me. He threw a punch but he missed.” (pg. 210, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)]
Jordan Baker, champion golf player and old money, finds herself a reckless driver. She plays a game of pretend during her time, stringing lies and cheating. [“Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.” (pg. 58, The Great Gatsby)] On the outside she is beautifully arrogant, in the way she holds herself, to the way to treats the others around her. Her chin is tilted up with superiority in m cost cases. [“At any rate, Miss Baker’s lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly, and then quickly tipped her head back again-the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright. Again a sort of apology arose to my lips. Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.” (pg. 9, The Great Gatsby)] It comes from the old money. What people expect her to be, and what she shows them.
Both Jordan and Rowdy refuse to let people in and show them what they’re really like. She hides herself behind a veil of arrogance while he has built himself a wall constructed out of unyielding bricks.

***

So Kelly... um, what?

OMG TUMBLR

It's basically a website where you post, view, and reblog photos. LOOK AT MY PROFILE!

Soo....how you guys doin'?