Hipster Colleges

Blair pointed me towards this pretty interesting article listing the 10 Most Hipster Colleges. Of course both her school, UC Santa Cruz, and mine, Portland State, make the cut.

Hipster culture is a definite guilty pleasure for most. It is completely ridiculous and yet you can't help but be completely fascinated. Fanny packs, grandma couture, chain smoking, indie rock, boys who look kind of like girls—I'll never understand my fascination, but I admit it exists.

More Hipster-Themed Sites
Hipster Runoff
The Cobra Snake
Look At This Fucking Hipster
Fuck Yeah Indie Boys
Fuck Yeah Indie Girls
Pitchfork

Classy

After a few long weeks, a lot of tedious typesetting, some major printing issues, and a few cuts from the exacto knife, I am FINALLY finished with my invitation project for my Typography 1 Class!



The invitation is a 5x7 card with a 4x6 RSVP postcard, 4x4 map, and 4x4 Fancy Mustache Making Kit. The envelope, invite, map, and kit envelope are lined with a gold and black ornamental cloth paper. The Fancy Mustache Making Kit includes a square of felt, popsicle stick, instructions, adhesive, and list of recommendations/inspiration mustaches. If only I had the facilities to REALLy host this shindig!

Music: Beard Lust - Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

Academically Speaking

WEEK ONE, DONE! And a long week it has been. I'm taking 4 classes this term (Typography 1, Digital Illustration 1, Communication Design Studio 1 and American Studies), and believe me, it is a good load. So far my classes are all pretty interesting and seem promising. My teachers all seem nice, intelligent for the most part, and entertaining, which is always great. Although I haven't had TOO much work just yet, school feels like a drag already. Waking up to be in class by 9am four days a week is harder than you think, especially when you are used to getting up for noon classes or no classes. But despite my busy school days I've been managing to work the few, short shifts they give me at work and also make it to the gym just about everyday. Being able to do all of these "grown up" things successfully makes me happy.
I also manage to mix in a little fun. Lenae brought back the first season of Vampire Diaries, and I'll admit I'm pretty hooked. Can anyone say "guilty pleasure"? Yea.
Although I'm once again becoming acclimated here in the freezing Pacific Northwest, I realize I miss California and all the people and wonderful things there. In N Out burger, we shall see each other soon enough!

Music: My Body Is A Cage - The Arcade Fire

I FINISH!

I'm finally all done with my first term at PSU. I turned in all my final projects on Friday and have just been relaxing, shopping, and working since. I don't get to go home until the 19th because I'm staying for work :(

This is the final version of my Best Coast gig poster. Check out my flickr for other things that I've been doing all term.

Music: Runaway - Kanye West

Baby, Baby, Baby

I'm officially done with classes! Yay! Now it is final season and I'm locked up in my room (minus going to work) finishing my projects. In a couple days I will be off to the printshop and then ACTUALLY free from school!

This is what I do for homework. What do you do?

Music: One Less Lonely Girl - Justin Bieber

Draft of my Gig Poster project for Art 118. Band: Best Coast.

Little Monsters

I know Halloween is actually today but because I am a dedicated and responsible college student, I had my crazy fun yesterday because Sunday nights are not for crazy-ness. In honor of my 2nd favorite holiday (my first being Hanukkah) I dressed as Karen O (the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Sam helped me with the really cool face paint and I wore bright magenta tights, a short black dress, black jacket, cut off gloves, and short boots. Not gonna lie, it was pretty bad ass. For festivities we chose to go to a party at this church that some people live in. It was great fun. There was a band from San Francisco there. We all passed around the tambourine and danced. A great time was had by all. Tonight I'm going with Erika and Sereane to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show live!

Music: Gold Lion - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The New School

Saturday I moved into my new dorm room at PSU. The move went surprisingly well considering there are 15 floors of frenzied students trying to cram all their junk into tiny, shared rooms. To my relief, all of my stuff (even my clothes) fit and I am pretty satisfied with my set up so far. The people here are really friendly, for the most part, and my roommate is really nice. Everyone on my floor seems to be eager to hangout and I'm feeling pretty comfortable even though it has only been 2 days. I've even found friends with a TV who share my guilty pleasure television choices. All quite a relief after my CCA experience. I look forward to starting classes and meeting even more people and exploring more of Portland!

I ran into a small problem while decorating my room. For some reason no types of tape would stick to my walls....but I tried again today and it stuck so we'll see. I cannot live in a colorless world! I need to look at beautiful things.

Today began what they call "Viking Days". Its a bunch of planned activities and information sessions which go on the first week. Unfortunately I missed a few this morning because I was too lazy to get up but I'm looking forward to doing some more stuff the rest of the week.

Music: Ashley - The Dodos

Ring Ring!

I realize that almost literally no one reads this blog, and it is afterall MY blog, so I can legitimately write whatever I wants. So that's what I'm about to do. I'm warning you now that this is a post that you probably won't want to read or give a fuck about. That's ok. I give a fuck, and it's my blog.

Yesterday I had one of the most excruciating headaches of my life. Overreaction. That's what that sounds like. But it was actually really, really, really painful (three really's, yea). Massaging my face/temples, being quiet, closing my eyes, etc.; nothing worked. I felt bad because I was actually out at a movie and then dinner with my friend Mike, all of which got cut short because I needed to get home in order to consume massive ammounts of Advil and pass out. So that's what I did. I went home, struggled to unlock the door, in some sort of dizzy, feverish, nauseous fit at this point, took three Advil Liquid Gels (an average dose for me as I get frequent migraines), went upstairs and rolled around in my bed until I passed out. I woke up in a daze, about an hour or so later, to a duller throbbing in my face all around my left eye, crusted drool on my pillow, and hairs clinging to the back of my sweaty neck. My thoughts: WTF that/this sucks.
Why does this event have any relevance to my life? It doesn't really, but I'm about to use it as a shitty segue into something I discovered this morning when I woke up. I actually woke up twice, the first because it was blazing hot in my bed (one of the great perks of a loft bed in the summer) so I moved to my parents room to sleep a few more hours. The second time I woke up was actually less than an hour ago. I, for God only knows what reason, decided I should go online and look at the PSU Graphic Design blog because that is what our advisor told us. This first part wasn't such a bad idea. Some of the projects looked pretty neat. I can see that the school does sort of manufacture a style, which sort of makes me mad when schools do that, but it was a style I mostly liked and wouldn't mind taking on. But anyway, the second thing I decided to do is more connected to my headache anecdote. I decided to click on the Sophomore Review link and see exactly what I have to be prepared for, as I will be up for the Sophomore Review at the end of this academic year. I click. I read. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This Sophomore Review is what I'd like to call a metaphorical headache. My stomach hurts just thinking about this review. I'm seriously scared. I did my first semester at CCA and had one , my first, Graphic Design class. I won't lie. I did pretty well. I got an A and was one of the better students in the class. Not the best in my opinion, but the teacher felt I had a lot of skill and promise as a future designer. This all sounds good. This all sounds fine. But then I left CCA and I went to Sac City where I did one design related class and produced pure shit. This was embarrassing because my teacher at City actually went to grad school at CCA with my CCA teacher who had (unknowing to me) emailed her and said I had been one of his best students! Basically, I don't know if I have it in me. If I don't, and I shouldn't be pursuing Graphic Design...well then what should I be doing? Not to mention that is something I've got to figure out ASAP. I suppose after this first quarter I could change my mind and switch to Media Studies or Marketing, something that requires less natural talent that I may or may not actually have. O god. Why do I do this to myself?

Music: CBC Radio 3 (Canadian Radio Channel I decided to listen to because Graham Wright of Tokyo Police Club was hosting some other guy's hour)

home is where the ___ is

i have a question. when do college students stop wanting to/getting excited about coming home? when do they begin to refer to their college town as their home? now, i know i have a bias because i don't particularly like my college situation and will be returning to sacramento for a semi-permanent time in five days, but i still see on all of my friends' twitters and facebook statuses that say they can't wait to go home as well. all of them are having a great time in college and yet they still want to return. i remember before we all left everyone said they couldn't wait to leave and to be on their own. now we find ourselves counting down the days until we return. i for one enjoy being at home with my parents. it is one of those "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" situations, and i found out that i'm not quite ready to be without them. i'm not sure why others are so eager to come home. we've all been at college for about 4 months, and in the span of our short lives that is a long time. don't get me wrong, i enjoy the enthusiasm from my friends when we are home and know that we only have short time together but i have to wonder when it will end. how long will it be until we stop returning home for holidays, going elsewhere with new friends? i don't know and i'm not really sure i want to.

Music: Kissing the Lipless - The Shins

Lady Gaga Dickface

as you can see, this is Lady Gaga made out of dicks. ironic and hilarious? yea. (displayed on the SF campus of CCA among other renditions of people's faces with realted objects.)

Music: Paparazzi - Lady Gaga

Love and Haight

i am currently quite exhausted from this weekend's jam packed activities. i suppose i shall go day by day.
Friday: went to haight st to thrift with Joel. we discovered that because vintage (esp on haight) is so trendy they can charge you 20$ for some old guy's previously favorite garment. we didn't buy too many things. i did manage to escape with a cheaper priced American Apparel cardigan thing from Crossroads and i did buy a gold headband directly from AA. i think Joel got a tshirt. Jack met up with us and i ended up spending some time at USF with Jack and his friends that night. USF is a beautiful school...yea.

Saturday: the day of the infamous Lovefest (now officially called LovEvolution for some reason or another). the basic breakdown of Lovefest is thousands upon thousands of fun loving hippies, dressed crazily, totally inebriated, dancing in the city hall square of San Francisco. i brought the big guns to take advantage of this great photo opportunity.


photo #1: some random guy in front of BK lounge who asked me if i could take his photo. but one was not enough. after i snapped one shot he wanted to do another pose. editor's choice, i chose this one.
photo #2: i asked these lovely folks if i could take their picture and the girl in the front, getting her ass smacked, asked me "where will this be? my parent's won't see it right?".
photo#3: me and Nicky, duh!
photo#4: one example of many interesting characters i encountered. the man (yea, it is a man) in the middle is sporting furry leg warmers, one of the most popular items seen at this lovefest. other very popular items included angel/butterfly wings, anything neon, AA tube tops, body suits, leggings, headbands, etc., and tutus. of course there were always those select people who chose to wear nothing. (i did not photograph any of them.)
Saturday night i headed down to berkeley to spend the night with joel, greg, and spencer. unfortunately USC did major damage on the Cal football game that evening so everyone was kind of down. we still had fun. watched Animal House with Spencer's roommate Abe and their friend Allen. lesson learned: twin bed does not refer to two people sharing said bed. hahaha.

now i face all the work i've been putting off...most of it is due tuesday so i'm probably going to continue to put it off.

Music: Dont Steal Our Sun - The Thrills

when pigs fly

timmy has swine flu.
note:i did not come into any close proximity with the contaminated subject. my father took this. that is why i also have to stay away from him.

Music: Little Maggots - The Matches

technologic

i just got out of my Art History class and i i noticed something very interesting: a guy taking his notes on his laptop. now, in college this isn't such a strange citing but what i noticed was that because he was doing his note-taking on his computer he was able to supplement them with the exact pictures that the teacher was showing us by looking them up on the internet and copy and pasting them into his note document. this amazing feat made me think of two things: first, i should ask this kid to email me a copy of his notes and second, that technology has really taken over the educational system.
i've found personally that this can sometimes cause issues. sometimes there really is the need for good ole', organic, printed out paper. the first battle i faced in the technological advancement of the my educational system was in high school. my high school used something called Powerschool which was a website where your parents (or in my case, me, because my parents didn't keep track of my academics) could see the exact breakdown of your grades and an up to minute update on your attendance record. this little beauty was the cause of many of my friends' groundings and cell phone confiscations. i didn't mind so much that they allowed parents to be informed about how their children were doing, probably because my parents didn't use it and so it didn't affect me. what really bothered me was when i wanted to know what my grades were in a class and i asked the teacher. their response was always "check it online". how annoying! i just wanted to know right this minute what my freakin' grade was! is that such a hassle for you to pull it up on your computer? ok, so maybe it isn't that big of a deal, but i didn't like it.
my second major battle with the new, technological education system was college application season (something i am more likely than not going to be facing again quite soon). nearly all college applications are done online and the worst college website i've ever been on is CSUmentor. CSUmentor is the site used to apply to all 23 campuses of the CSU system, something commonly done in California. to give you a brief idea of how complicated the site is to navigate my school's college counselor held 4 CSUmento Tutorial Sessions after school because that many kids just could not figure it out. i was applying to only 2 of them and i even was tempted to give up.
i now attend California College of the Arts which has officially "gone paperless". this means that any and all paperwork is emailed to you or presented in PDF form. there are no printed notifications in your mail. the course catalog is even on PDF form. now, i'm all for not wasting out precious resources but paper can and is easily recycled and made from recycled fibers, most of which are not trees and trees are also a renewable source. what does it take for a kid to get a physical copy of the course catalog for crying out loud? a lot more than you'd think.
i'm sure there are a large number of you kids out there who appreciate online AP Art submissions, blogging HW assignments, and strictly email submissions of papers, but i on the other hand miss the classic methods of educational systems where i printed out my paper and handed it to the teacher. i suppose i like knowing that i physically handed that assignment to the teacher so there is zero chance that it can get lost in cyber space and my teacher can try to twist it into some story that will earn me an incomplete.

house bunny

last night my roommate (andrea, if i haven't previously mentioned her) ventured to Cal. we met up with Spencer Tierney and went to a frat party with him and his roommates. this is the first frat party i have been to and i observed a few interesting things about both Cal and frat parties.
1) i like frat parties in a general sense. there are a lot of people having fun, drinking, playing beer pong, and they are usually themed. i like things with themes, beer pong, and fun of course.
2) the whole idea that they can be extremely exclusive is a little messed i will admit. when we arrived there were 3 guys from the frat standing outside screening people. if they didn't know you, good luck. if they did know you, you better either be a girl, have lots of girls with you, or be one of their really good friends. luckily spencer's roommate was invited by some guys at the frat and we had a 1:1 boy:girl ratio.
3) jungle juice is not the best drink in my opinion but it is very popular at college parties. to me it just tasted like beer, banana juice, and vodka. keystone and natural light are also the shittiest beers. there is no debating this.
4) there are SO MANY smart people at Cal. when i would tell people about how i'm not happy at art school they would ask me if i was going to try to transfer to Cal and i was like "yea right. i am NOT smart enough to be here." and that is the truth. i'm not smart enough or hard working enough to be at Cal. that place has a rep for a reason.
5)i really enjoyed the classic university vibe of Cal. walking from residential hall to residential hall, eating in the dining hall, frat parties, frats in general, talking about football, everything. i suppose it has a certain air of tradition and classic structure that i am into. we just don't have that at art school.
6) having coed, communal restrooms (including showers) is very weird. i suppose you get used to it but it was odd to be washing my hands and be greeted by a group of boys coming in the bathroom to also use it. i definitely like how we have jack and jill, suite style bathrooms. it feels a more like home and less like a dirty school bathroom. and if you think school bathrooms are dirty then you have never been in a frat house bathroom. i do not recommend it at all.

all in all i had a very fun time and good experience. it was nice to get out of oakland and partake in some visceral college experiences. i hope to go back. it was very nice to see spencer and meet some interesting characters at Cal.

Music: Forever Young - Jay Z (ft Mr. Hudson)

bebe buell

i planned on blogging with photos, but facebook is currently not allowing me to upload any. joyful. nontheless, this weekend was good. i went back to sacramento again because of my lack of wanting to stay in oakland. i suppose i shouldn't do that so much but elsie and stephanie were home and i really wanted to see them.
friday i went to CB in the morning to see the yearbook class. i also visited with Bogart, Mcgov, and Karen. i saw Eden!! we cleared everything up and met at starbucks after she got out of school. some much needed catching up was done until it was time for dinner. Elsie, Mike, Christy and i went to El Nov because i had a very rare craving for mexican food. Albert was there which made it 10 times better than it already was.
Saturday i was unable to go to Blink 182/Weezer that night but luckily Chester French decided to play a free little acoustic set at Dimple Records in Arden. it was cute and fun. i saw Laura Mandler and Melanie Chu there. DA was cute and Max was completely inebriated as is tradition. that night we had a target adventure.
today i watched football and installed my Adobe Creative Suite software with my dad. i'm excited to learn how to use it all.
now i'm back in oak painting my nails. i think this coming weekend Andrea and i are planning to go to Berkeley and hit up the Row. i want to have fun!!

Musc: Jimmy Choos - Chester French, Empire State of Mind - Jay Z

p.s. i downloaded the entirety of the Blueprint 3 and it is sooo ridiculous. i highly recommend it. further proof that Jay is a complete genius and boss.

____________________________/EDIT/_______________________________________
i've really noticed the true need for my college experience to get better. why? a few reasons. one would be because i'm living a low quality of life. unhappy people statistically die sooner. although i usually go with the "well i'm going to die someday" i'd like it not to be any day soon. another would be that because i am unhappy with my present life i am constantly trying to hold on to people and things of the past and i'm holding on too tight. everyone else is also in a new place and they are busy discovering new things and doing new things. they don't have time to be constantly holding my hand. i need to at least find some people to hold my hand here. i'm not sure the solution to any of this. it was just a thought that was bothering me. i'm not happy with my current life situation.

boo, you whore

so what can i say about school...i'm out of the awkward "i don't know what i'm doing" phase but i have yet to have a lot of fun. most of the time i sit in my dorm room and do my hw, chat with my roommate (who is great btw), look through magazines, go on the internet, or go in the lounge and watch tv with people. none of these are really the idea of fun i had in mind for college. my favorite parts of my life right now are probably when i watch freaks and geeks, obsess over Seth Rogen, ichat, or get to go home (like i did for less than a 24 hour period this past sunday). this weekend i'm going home again but next weekend i am going to venture down to berkeley. spencer tiereny, look out for my text message!

Music: Run This Town - Jay-Z Ft Rihanna and Kanye West

helvetica

i've finished my official first week of classes (i don't have any on fridays). what can i say?....i'm not sure. college is definitely not what i had in mind. when i pictured myself going to college i pictured me having a dorm room where i left the door open, like everyone else, and we socialized. we went to class and talked to each other between them. i know we don't have dining halls but i figured we'd get together to cook and eat. on the weekends we'd venture to the city or berkeley and hit up the occasional party or at least hang out. other than the social aspect, i pictured myself doing art and really getting creative. so far college really isn't all of that.
art school is very different from traditional school. reasons why:
1. the teachers all want to be addressed by their first name
2. you have a shit load of expensive supplies, and minimal textbooks
3. syllabuses are unorganized and informal
4. when they grade your art, it has to actually be good
5. assignments are very vague, leaving much room for interpretation and much room for mistakes.

i'm sure i will discover many more reasons later. i'm just hoping things will get better. i want to enjoy college and so far i'm not really enjoying it that much. i want to be home, but no one else is home so it doesn't really matter. i just try to remember that i'm doing this to have the career i want.

Music: Arctic Monkeys, the Beatles

as i em

so i have officially been at college for a week. we haven't started classes yet but i've been living here for a week. luckily the whole thing went with a pretty steady incline. it started off slow. i stayed in my room for two whole days, spoke to basically no one other than my roommate, and did next to nothing. once orientation began on wednesday afternoon things started to look up. i met a few new people and actually spent some time outside of my room. thursday was our first full day of orientation and we were hit with an early wake up, tons of new information, and merciless sessions of the name game (which really only helps you learn weird things about people and not their name). i ended up taking the BART home that evening with some other girls who wanted to leave a little early which was good because i met some more people. today was also better, starting a little later, moving a little later, and allowing me to see which people i'd actually have more lasting friendships with. i don't want to speak too soon, but i think i've found a few good ones.

Things I'm Going to Have to Get Used To:
1. eating lame food a majority of the time. it is kind of a hassle to go in the kitchen all the time so i have pretty much been living off of pasta and rice. i had meat for the first time in a very long time last night and if i didn't already like chicken enough i possibly might even appreciate it more.
2. keeping in touch with people via the internet. it is times like these where i am so glad i live in the 21st century. if i lived in the 60's i probably would've died because they didn't have computers or the internet. extreme, but sadly it is probably true.

3. making my bed on the top bunk. at home i had a loft bed but it was kind of different because the ladder was on the side so i just pulled the blankets over and back from there but here the ladder is at the foot of the bed. it makes it difficult. but my bed is finally fixed after waiting and calling for four fucking days. i can't believe my parents are paying this kind of money for shitty conditions. i will not be participating in dorm life after this year.

say 18

sunday i moved to college. i loaded all my shit into my dad's excursion and then we unloaded it all into a teeny, tiny room for two. but i didn't stay. i'll never know what i missed on that first night in the dorms. but what i didn't miss was the last matches concert EVER. as i begin the new era of my life the Matches end their legacy of being a local phenomena with a sold out show at the Fillmore. i'm sad because the matches have been my favorite band since middle school. them ending on the very same day my college career is beginning seems kind of symbolic. maybe it is fate. all i know is the show was amazing. there is no other band i will endure the bashing of the pit for and i loved every sweaty, bruising second of it. i sang my heart out to every song. they played most of my favorites. even Justin Sansoucci, the original bassist was there to send them off on their last hurrah.


and i am definitely glad i opted to go to the concert instead of going to the mandatory residents meeting.

Music: The Morning Tilts - The Matches