Happy Thursday! I know it is. Happy the week's over! And it wasn't that bad.
Been working on some ceramics pieces, moving them along the process. There's a process! Here, I'll tell you: first you take the clay, and you wedge it, which is like kneading, then you shape it (by hand or "throwing" it on a wheel) and it takes a while to get a good piece throwing if you don't know what you're doing. And then you let it dry. A little. And then you "trim" it, which is taking clay off the sides and bottom to uniform-ize its shape and give it a foot or something on the bottom. And then you can decorate it with stamps or with slips or engobes, which is also clay, but liquid-like, and the engobes are colored. And then you let it dry even more. And then you bisque fire it, and it comes out more like ceramics, and now it's not really clay anymore, but now you glaze it, which is clay and water and silica. And then you let that dry, and then you fire it for real. And THEN you have a piece of ceramics.
So my mug I made on the first day is waiting to be fired. It has star stamps along the side, and a cloud-like line underneath. I painted a glaze that should come out purple-blue into the stars, and put a "wax resist" layer of wax over that. Then I glazed the inside and the outside down to the line with white. The wax will burn off before the glaze ...glazes, so the blue parts won't be white. You can't glaze all the way down to the bottom 'cause it'll melt and run down and permanently attach the piece to the kiln shelf. I'm curious to see how it'll come out. I also have a little bowl type guy waiting for firing, too, but he's mostly a test to see how the "black" glaze comes out. And then my two cylindars, both are trimmed now, and one is stamped and has engobe, and the other is just stamped. I also have a hand-made, "pinched" bowl that's going to wait around until the end of the semester when we're gonna have a "raku" firing, but I'm not sure what that is. That one has a Planism logo stamped in the bottom.
Uuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, in media class this week, I wrote a paper on video projectors. How video projectors enhance our ability to see, how they obsolesce overhead projectors, how they retrieve communal meetings, and how they reverse the ability to communicate. Or something. It's a silly theory by a silly McLuhan guy that all media (basically any technology) enhances, obsolesces, retrieves, and reverses stuff. I think the paper ended up pretty well, considering I wrote it in the hour and a half before clay class yesterday (because I go straight from there to media class). And then in that class, we went to a seminar type thing by another professor on Superman and Neo as "pop culture Messiahs." It was pretty darn interesting. This guy, he edited a book of essays about different superheroes, titled "The Gospel According to Superheroes," or something like that, and I personally borrowed it from him last year to use as a sourse for my Batman speech in Public Comm. It was really interesting, a lot more interesting than media class normally is. Now I want to see the Matrix again.
Also yesterday, for chapel we had a married couple come and tell us about marriage myths that are particularly believed by Christian college students. They were hilarious!!! In a good way. It's really common at our school for kids to get engaged, if not married, before they graduate, so it was something we all could relate to. The lady's challenge to us at the end was to think about the myths and also to graduate before getting married. XD If you want to see it, you can download it here. Because it's Valentine's Day next week, and we all need to hear important stuff like this. XD
Speaking of linking you to things, let me plug some more. Since I'm whistling this song because I changed the window to the apu site and can't hear it at youtube anymore....this. Guy playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the ukulele. It's amazing.
And a Kingdom Hearts fan video, 'cause I really like the song and I think they did a decent job of fitting clips to it.
And finally the Red Stripe commercial that got me hooked in the first place.
AND LOST IS BACK ON. Not currently, just, generally. Did you catch the "review" ep? That was a weird sort of documentary. But neat nonetheless. A little overbearing for me, knowing most/all that stuff, but necessary for those new converts that decided it was time to jump onto the bandwagon. Yay, Lost!
And Office again tonight! Thursdays are great. I heard that Thursday is traditionally the most revered night of television? Like if your show gets slotted on Thursday, you know you've made it? I remember Friends was on Thursday, and I heard that Cheers was, too? I dunno. Maybe hopefully finally Jim and Karen will finally break up. <3 Hopefully. Nyar. Karen. *quietly covers Karen with a pile of dirt*
Hm. I feel like I rambled a lot today. I hope you like your links. Hooray for youtube. OH I thought of another one...
The new Mac ad. Absolutely priceless. Harhar!
See you all next time!
-Steph
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