My weekend was fun... I had a kidney biopsy on Thursday and spent the day in the hospital recovering. I came back on campus on Friday so I could take a math test, then went back home to house sit. My parents left for vacation on Friday morning and I was to watch the farm animals and the cat. At 8:30pm I got a call from one of my doctor's partners telling me to go to the hospital immediately. So I freaked out and went with my fiancee to the downtown Columbus hospital where a bed was waiting for me. I knew that I had kidney damage, but it was hard to understand why I had to go right away. Well, it turns out that it was good that I had to go right away, because the damage doesn't seem to be completely permanent. If scar tissue builds up in your kidneys, then that damage is irreversible. Luckily I have very like scar tissue, so the doctors wanted to start treatment as soon as possible, so that I don't build up scar tissue. So, I spent Friday night through late Monday afternoon in the hospital. I was put on super steroids through IV and got poked with a needle every hour. So, that was my weekend... Now I will wait for some more test results to continue treatment. I will be on steroids for awhile, so watch out, because I'll be beefing up. Hopefully by spring break I'll be on some other drugs and I'll be good to go on vacation.

Well, anyway, I might add some mixed media stuff this semester. Last year I did some printing in Drawing II. I'd like to make some photos on the computer and then print over them. I know this is a long process, so I don't think I'll do very many, but I feel like I need to do something different.

So my semester hasn't been going well. Since winter break I have been in pain and no one could tell me why. This week I finally saw a specialist and was told that my kidneys are shutting down. Currently I have 34% function of my kidneys. Both the doctor and I believe that my childhood kidney disease has returned. When I was 5 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune form of kidney disease. After a year of drugs the disease went into remission. Well, I guess now it's back, and I think I caught it too late. At this point I can just extend the life of my kidneys. If I respond well to the drugs, then I could last 5 years before I need a transplant. There is a chance that this all could be caused by something curable, but it's not very likely. On Thursday I will have a kidney biopsy to confirm that my disease is back. I'm sorry if I've seemed tired or distant.... There are a lot of things that I'm feeling now. I want to blame the doctors who ignored my blood tests that showed a year ago that something was wrong. I also want to blame myself for pumping drugs into my body and hurting my kidneys. Then I feel like I'm letting my family down, because my mom is still sick, and I shouldn't be also. I don't want to be a burden on my family. How can I ever ask my brother to give me a kidney if he's still in college? What happens if I can't finish college?

Well, on a lighter note I'm super itchy. It's a symptom of my dying kidneys... But it makes me crazy! It's like having mosquito bites all over. Ahhhh!!!

I'm the first to post on the "new media/craft" topic, so I'm sorry if I get some things wrong. I really think that there has to be a middle ground between doing as little work as possible and spending years on one piece. Now, there has to be some consideration for the media that an artist is working in also. One painting could take as long as 10 digital pieces. But, I don't think that just because you can, that you should spend 5 minutes on a piece, or five years. An artist should have a goal and should work towards that goal. I also think that every art piece should take into consideration the audience that will see it. There is always an audience, whether or not one is wanted. So a piece should take so medium amount of time, achieve some goal of the artist, and have some intended (or unintended) audience. Another personal thought of mine is that no art piece should deprive an artist from the necessities. This means that if an artist has to work so hard on a piece that they loss sleep for days (we've all lost sleep working on a piece, but this is not the same) or if they can't afford to eat or have a home, then it is too much. If an artist spends so much time on an artwork that they can't eat or sleep or live under a roof, then it is too much. This also takes into account if an artist is not working for the audience that will be seeing the piece. An artist can make hundreds of pieces, but if they are not intended for the audience that sees them, and the artist suffers for it, then it's not worth it. Don't take me wrong, I know that it can be hard to sell work or get a paying art job, this is not what I'm talking about. If an artist can't sell their work, but their shows do well then that's okay, but if they can't sell their work, because it's not for an audience or the audience that sees it, then maybe they're getting something wrong.

I've been told that I need to find a tread that links all of my work together. In my mind I've always done whatever I've felt like at the moment. I don't really link my artwork together because I feel like that will make it bland. I guess I could link my work by the style that I use. I like to work in the cartoon-look, like it was made in paint. Eventhough it may look like a cartoon, I still want it to be an accurate representation. It took me three hours to make my squid and have him swim across the page. I studied pictures of squids and their movements. I guess I'm a little nuts.. I like to be exact. I don't know how this links my work.. I am a computer science person at heart and I want my art to be like my programs - simple, yet solving the problem (on in art telling the story). Well, I'm getting close, but I think it will take me awhile to really figure out what the professor want to hear from me...

And, to cheer me up, a picture of the farting cat:

So here's some Flash that I've been playing with..... but Blogger won't let me post my video. Instead, I give you a sceen shot:

I thought I should let you all know how my mom is, well since that was my whole focus last semester. As of today, she has three chemo treatments to go. She seems to be in good spirits and is happy that she's so close to the end. Last week, when it was really icy, she slipped and fell on the steps outside work. She dislocated her shoulder falling and she had to be in a sling all week. This weekend she said it still hurt, but at least the sling was gone. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so I went to the shelter and bought him a cat. In the fall our last cat died in the living room right in front of my mom and dad from a heart attack. After that my dad threw away all of are cat stuff. He got rid of the litter box, the left over food, and even the bowls that we put food and water in. What I really wanted to do was get him a dog, because he's always wanted one, but my mom hasn't ever allowed us to have one. I tried my best to convince my parents that they would really like a dog, but in the end my dad said that with no one home during the day, he didn't want to leave a dog at home. So, we compromised, he said he would think about a dog when he retired (which may be soon - within months - because he works in the failing banking industry), and everyone agreed that a cat now would be okay. So, I went to the shelter looking for an adult male cat that was friendly, silent, and would sit in my lap (a male because females are bitches, no kitten because it would be too much work for my dad, silent because my parents cannot handle loud animals, and obvious everyone wants a cat who will sit in their lap). I found a pretty white and cream colored cat that rubbed against my legs. When I put him in my lap he curled up and put his head on my hand. I was sold. So I spent an hour filling out the paperwork and getting him into a box and in to the car. Once I got him home he jump out of the box and preceded to run around the house exploring every room. As he was doing this, he was meowing the whole time. My dad and brother (who was also home for the weekend) came into the kitchen, where the cat had stopped and was meowing none stop. Soon the cat had befriended my brother and followed him around the house all night. I went back to school that night. Tonight my dad called me to tell me about all the happenings of his new cat. First, all night it farted on whoever's lap it sat on. Then it meowed all night and tried to sleep in the bed with my dad. In the morning my dad went to church and when he came back he discovered that that cat had crawled under the blanket on my parents bed and peed in the sheets. A side note, since my mom's arm has been hurting she's been sleeping in a chair instead of in the bed. So, since the cat peed in the bed, and knew where the litter box was (he had even already used it) my dad put him outside. I was told not to let the cat outside until the snow melted, because it would not be able to sniff its way back home. But my dad maybe wanted the cat to go away, so he put it outside. After an hour and a half, my dad had hoped that the cat wandered off, but he returned triumphantly. Now my dad says that if the cat acts up again, he'll put it in the barn to be a barn cat. But I know that if the cat really does like my mom as much as he says it does, no matter how many times my dad puts the cat in the barn, my mom will just let it back inside when she's home sick, so that she'll have a friend to sit with her.
So, there you go on my update... I am working on a flash video for my project... I guess you can see it in class, or at our critique.

So, my first blog post comes a little late, but it's taken me awhile to decide on my proposal. This semester I would like to create some kind of interactive environment. I think that this will be made in HTML and Flash. I don't know if I want it to be a web site, or just a program that plays on a computer. I really like the idea of making an under water environment. I would like to have interactive Flash pages and HTML pages. I think I will also have small Flash videos, but I'm not sure if I want them to just play, or if they should be part of the interaction (i.e. when you click on a fish or something, then a short video will play). During break I got some stationary and scrap booking paper that I would like to use as textures. I really like the way South Park and other animations look where everything looks cut out of paper and has texture.

Anyway, my final goal is to incorporate this environment into 3D. This semester I am studying 3D graphics in one of my CS classes. I would like to eventually make a 3D environment that you could interact in as well as the 2D Flash videos and interactions.