re dreams really a direct result of your environment? i was going to type more here yesterday, but i never got around to it. then i thought i would just leave it. but that was yesterday too. now i think i'll pick it up again. this clump of grey matter is sleepy. dreams are keeping it awake again.
I had a really intersting ping pong conversation about dreams with my dear watson in the car on the way to work last week. i wondered what came first. he is convinced that dreams are a direct result of your outside environment. what about the inside, is there a difference? what about prophecy and such. thats more like baseball than ping pong. are dream ideas original visions sent from distant points? does the brain take that information and use our own life experience to decipher these muddled messages? i wonder what the same message, same dream, would look like based on my life if i grew up in nigeria. probably just more goats. baaa...

Traditionalesque

HeY GUyS!!
super quick post, I'm at work, day 4 and going great.
I went on my first In Home Consultation today. What a great way to see the million dollar townhomes hidden in the city...holy..I sat in the back of a delivery van on a bunch of rolled up hand knotted wool area rugs in my nine west heels and saphire velvet jacket. nice. other than that i've been getting aquainted with silks, wools, chobby, traditional, transitional, contemporary, vegetable dyes, washed out, obussan and on and on.
each rug is tells a different story, its incredible art that reveals incredible history...its gets confusing when you see an Iranian tribal patterned rug made by people in egypt, now making it an authentic egyptian rug. wait a minute... anyway, so far so good!

...last day with the pornographies, the brick walls, the bars on the windows. I'm so ready for this.

9:00am
"It's your last day doll...ready?"
A somewhat supportive sui hon drops me off at the front door. Lakeshore no more, it will be a new route from now on. And I'll drive. When I met Ken here I thought for sure I had him pegged. I have never been so wrong. From thai fighting to ice shoes, disney songs to a love for baking, the surprises are still endless. He was my first Happy Birthday office song. I remember having to ask what his name was while i carried the cake to his desk, prepared to sing. (we used to do cake for our employees on their birthdays.) The first time I really talked to him I was doing some work in the graphics department at the computer beside him. Tasked to crop some pictures, I asked him an honest work related question. We won't go there.
Ha. Who knew?

10:00am
The vibe is calm, i'm excited about change, trying not to let nostalgia creep its way in. at least not yet. I cleared out my desk yesterday, all i have to do is pick up the plant on my desk and walk out of here at the end of the day. Good. Focus.

10:18am
Well, the end of the day is still hours away, and a woman I work with just brought me flowers. I talk to Reesa alot about 'growing up'. I kid you not, she's been a "motherly" influence since i started working here, always making sure I've eaten and asking me how I'm doing, how's ken, do i need to talk. Reesa's great. She gave me a big friendly hug and kissed me on the top of the head and wished me the best. Then said "that's all i'm gonna say, don't worry!"

The battle begins.
Nostalgia - 0
Me - 1

10:48am
A trip to the kitchen to find a vase for these massive happy sunflowers, and heat up my coffee. I trade space with someones pasta. It's Patricks. Patrick (graduated from the customer service realm) has a cool space age rocket science background, an interest in anime, and told me once about the chemical breakdown of the blue hair dye. It was blended so well into the conversation, I almost didn't notice. You just never know about people.
"Isn't it your last day?"

Nostalgia - zip
Me - 2

that went well, but the flowers are falling over.


11:45am
Liberty calling, Tricia and I go for a walk. She wants the "good" coffee. I don't blame her, if fact I encourage it. May the libery cafe and her legacy continue. While QATrish organizes her coffee, I absentmindedly colour co-ordinated the special tea packages in the basket on the counter. I didn't look around. I noted the hollow sound the wooden steps made on the way out. I didn't even say goodbye to the owner. How sad.

Nostalgia - 1
Me - 2

2:46pm
HAhAHA.
So, you're working with carpets. The jokes surrounding the Shag section are already getting tired. Better get'em in you got 2 hours left. I just had the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. After all, 'tis the season. the texture was perfect, the crust was rich and not too flaky, but no whipped stuff on the top...yeah i won't be saying that out loud around here. We just got back from lunch at the Academy of Spherical arts. A very nice send off from the QA department...and Rob. Thank you rob. :)
The buffet was great, but the desert was way better. They had caramel apple cheesecake too.
A card that went around the office was placed on the table for me. After seeing the all the script on the inside i decided to read it later. Perhaps i should stop keeping score and let nostalgia be. or maybe, i'm avoiding it until i have some time to enjoy it. OR maybe i should spoon feed myself some more psychological cheesecake and get back to work.

Right now Aaron is standing across from me. He stares alot, with a big smile. sorta creepy. He has wound up some chattering teeth and is pointing them at me, still smiling...and staring. He'd make a pretty decent mime if he liked people.
I am imagining what would happen if you put the set of chatter teeth in your mouth while they were chattering?
Lets see if he'll do it...


4:41pm
*SIGH*
Paper work? done. Exit interview? why sure i'll tell you how i really feel...

To everyone who signed the card, shook hands, hugged, emailed, blogged, instant messaged or spontaneously picked up their cell phone to wish me luck,

..THaNk YoU..

(For giving Nostalgia some serious bonus points.)
You guys are awesome. aaww crap...

Nostalgia - 3
Me - 2

5:02pm
Email deleted. I've been weeding through it all week.
Any extra files. bi-bi. sticky notes - garbage.
I have two folders of pictures and no blank cd.
WOOPS. everyone is gone too. oh well. let it go. let it go...

Nostalgia -3
Me- 3

well, its balanced...I'm ok with that.
Ok kids, this is it!
Thanks for being part of this, stay tuned.


May all your rasperries swirl!

~I'M OUT!!!

choose life, choose a job, choose homework

Are you afraid of rain?
No.
Okay, lets go.

Our way home from the mall involved revolving out of the Eaton Center, into a cold blowy mist of rain. Wind whining, heads down, a bell tower strikes 9 as we hurry towards Yonge. Laughing at the 'dark and stormy night', we whirl towards the starbucks on King for chai lattes before we catch the street car home. We pass halloween window displays lit up with loud tim burton music filling the street...in the dark, in the rain, hair blowing, bell tower still gonging...I'm glad we walked.

The Project
Welcome to the all singing, all dancing advertising mind of an artist.

Purpose:
1) To complete the assignment.
2) To capture who you are as a collage of "selves", characterizing personal aspects.
3) To drench said "selves" in this life experience like a cold shower.

Hypothesis:
Your guess is as good as mine. The poster tells us so.

Apparatus:
camara, digital, one of.
clothing, various-with accessories.
subject- five aspects of.
photographers-two of.
light source.
itunes.
chinese take out.

Procedure:
First layer on eccentric clothing for character.
Then capture a jasmin-esque interpretation of each of the following characters:

DIANNE
since this was the most difficult and "glamourous" we got this shot out of the way first.jasmine in her flowy 70s print top, hair down and curled in, doe eyes wide with liner, lip gloss popped. gorgeous dahling. now stop flopping forward and what is THAT face...you're supposed to play sexy, not undead. I guess Lou Reed just wasn't doing if for us. in modeling you learn alot about yourself and your posture, especially when you can't see what you're doing. The first shots, by far the most difficult (and funny) , but a little bit of letting go and some I Love Rock and Roll later, min-o had it. Put another dime in the juke box, baby- we ain't done yet.


SICKBOY
Who wants a girl in a short skirt and a loooOOong jacket? na na na na we do.
a white shirt and a striped tie later we were aiming gunshot hands and broody eyes at the camera, working on a bazarre perspective that we actually did ok with...nice work, we're getting the hang of this...


BEGBIE
These shots were my favourite. this is confidence, this is attitude. this is jasmine with a strung out - half clipped - up-do, a sexy zip down fitted knit hoodie in a vintage fall leafy brown to match the smoking spliff resting on soft lips. glared eyes give you the finger as her toussled hair falls across her shoulders. fuckin great. portishead was all over these ones.

SPUD
okay, after that we needed to regroup. BREAK! ryan ordered some food and we let the smoke clear the room. Approaching our two hour time limit, we lay out the leather jacket and tie the hair back. This one was meant to illustrate humour. In a red White Stripes baby tee and goofy red lensed sunglasses, we try to get a natural shot. It takes deleting pictures, and Tom Petty to bring out what naturally makes min-o laugh, not to mention the rest of us. after trying to flail around and release the stiffness of what she refers to as a poser outfit, she just starts busting out these arm swinging torso bending break dancing moves. i almost fell off my photographer platform shoes laughing. i'm surprised the jacket didn't bust at the seams with her "uber" cool moves. needless to say, humour was captured. Four down, one to go.

RENTON
Last one. the hardest shot to psychologically prep for, easiest one to take. a soaking wet jasmine is supposed to pose for the camera. a white tank top and cropped cargos inhale into a self inflicted COLD shower to get the full effect. so, of course, while she's being rained on for the second time this evening, the camera is full. fuck. now she's cold, wet AND pissed. perfect! we get the camera set, background set. drag her into the other room for four final shots...and that's a wrap! we're done. its not so hard to give off cold wet and bitter when you're bleedin' cold, wet and bitter, mate.


Conclusion:
I completely admire our sweet min-o for splitting herself into selves and finding her own version of those characters. although it was hilarious, it was humbling, challenging and she still has to present it to her peers. This will be a portfolio piece, once she's done with it and I can't wait to see it!

with perfect timing, ryan returned with chinese food and we sat down to watch a pre recorded sit com about karma, starring jason lee. interesting. also interesting?
we watched a short episode of a series called Rabbits. a david lynch production. maybe min-o will fill you in, if you haven't already heard.

Flipher Overture

A big cute fat cricket just walked across the folders i have on my desk!
these folders aren't lying flat, they're propped up in a vertical file folder organizer type thing. it looks like my friend is walking a tight rope across the top!
this place really is a circus. now its gone.

hahah! there it is again!
robert is gonna get it!!
don't kill it!
wow, dig this action.

i wonder what crickets mean in the world of animal totems? insect totems. maybe i'm just not freaking out because i'm used to feedinig them to the lizards... actually, now that i think of that, this bug doesn't really resemble a cricket at all. more of a very small plump grasshopper. its meaty. i'm afraid it will jump in my hair. its little buggy feelers are going crazy...i imagine, if it was drumming with those things it would sound pretty good.

meaty little bug
how you've brightened up my day
skies are full of rain.

i win this reign game
sorry but you have to go
have some fun outside!