Que ridiculoso

I had a pretty good week, I guess. I saw both Ponyo and District 9 in quick succession; hard to imagine two more different films, but I really liked them both (and hardly had any nightmares about D9 at all!) Ponyo was especially fun because my sister and her boyfriend met me there fresh from the Ikea, bearing weird candy from Sweden for all (toffee flavored whips, elderflower juice boxes, and no jelly rats because my sister scarfed them all before I got there.) Foreign candy and snack food is one of my many unhealthy avocations. My discovery of yesterday is Rollos Con Cajeta from Mexico - a rolled snack cake sheet filled with Coronado brand goat's milk caramel. What is it with Mexico and caramel? Or South and Central America in general and caramel? Whatever the explanation, they do it right.

But District 9 was really creepy! I successfully failed to spoil the main plot point for myself through prior knowledge, so when the bomb dropped, so to speak, I was pretty surprised - and horrified, because (uh, spoiler alert) I love/hate the genre of "body horror" (especially physical transformation beyond the affected person's control.) If I'd known it was going to figure prominently in the film, I would still have gone, but I would at least have been prepared for creepy grossness.

This week my homework for Color Theory includes tracing an 8 1/2 x 11" magazine illustration and transferring it to a board. I'm sort of nervous but I also can't wait; the trick is going to be finding an acceptable work surface in the unholy mess that is my living space. I don't even have a desk, dude.

Other current projects include my new obsession with embroidering my own line drawings. If I can figure out how, I plan to immortalize my "edgy" rendition of an ugly mermaid smoking a cigarette by uploading it here. I used peach, teal, mint, lavender, and yellow thread from the Needlepoint at Rittenhouse shop on 18th and Chestnut, but I didn't have any cinder grey for the curl of smoke, so I need to get back there today (although it's kind of a haul for me.) Embroidery is so cute and fun, and I can't wait for my glow in the dark thread and Jim Woodring iron-on patterns to show up in the mail! Fun, fun, fun. Anyway.

Who, what, where, why.

Hi. My name is Hannah, and I'm slightly obsessed with Star Trek. When I say slightly, I do mean slightly. That is, it's not as though I like or watch the bad versions. Juuust the first two series and the new movie; and only because of the new movie, really, so only since the new movie came out.

That said, this blog (officially undertaken in the name of Computer Science Summer 09, at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, for the record) is not intended to be exclusively about Star Trek, if only because I am notorious for being pretty much unable to stick to a theme. It was just the first cute name which came to me. "Spock's Brain", fyi, is an episode of the original series of Star Trek (I think I will actually use the acronym TOS from now on, cringe) from, I believe, season two, in which Spock's actual brain is actually stolen! By aliens! Who look exactly human! Man I love Star Trek.

Good lord! Okay, that is probably enough about freakin' Star Trek for one entry. Allow me to talk about me, which will at least be less boring for myself. I am a second-time undergraduate student; in addition to the associate's degree in web design I am currently attempting, I hold a BA in neuroscience from Oberlin College, which was a weird mixed bag of experiences. I never considered majoring in neuroscience until I decided to do it, sophomore year. It was very cool and very difficult, and I knew before I finished that I would probably never be a scientist; I have strange ideas about learning, I guess, or some bizarre Ayn Rand type idea that I can do anything I set my mind to, which I can partially attribute to growing up in the can-do, empowered 1990s. I thought I might use neuroscience knowledge to inspire art projects, or maybe become a medical illustrator. Upon re-examining the job market, however, I came to web design as a strategy to connect my graphic sensibilities to everyday life in these, our interesting times.

I know I don't get extra credit for prattling on, but one more thing: if Prof. Irwin hasn't figured this out, I'm the girl with the crutch. That happened almost four years ago, and the story is a little personal for me to go into. I'm not saying don't ask me anything if you're curious; I love describing my various cyborg surgeries and etc. (no sarcasm!) But, yeah; there's that, too.

More later, surely.