Glass III

Glass II

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Here are some pics of me in Redwing at the Anderson Center working on my lenses. The Anderson center is an amazing place, sort of an art fort. Compleate with brick walls around the complex and a tower! Huge sculptures lurk around the campus and the glass studio at least was well lit, well ventilated, colorful and open. For artists looking for good studio space for ceramics or glass, this place would be heaven.

My lenses should be ready now. I didn't blow them, but rather made huge flat and ugly paperweights that I will then cut the lens out of. I will just use the top inch or so and toss the rest.

Glass is an amazing process, but I defiantly did not fall in love with it the way I fell in love with bronze or iron. It is much more akin to ceramics in the process. Blob of goo --> a vessel where castings is all about the mold making. For some reason I find that more appealing to work on. But I certainly appreciate hand blown glass more now! I go back next sunday for another afternoon where I will grind down and polish my lenses, and hopefully get to play a little too!

Gävle Goat!

Megan found this funny story on line about a giant straw goat in Stockholm that gets destroyed almost every year. So this year they put on flame retardent from the airline industry to keep people from torching it. But will it last?

The wikipedia page tells the whole story. Its called the Gäavle goat and its the same design that we have on our Christmas tree but huge. It was started in 1966 and sice then over 1/2 of all the goats were distroyed.

From wikipedia, here are the best distructions:

1966 Stig Gavlén comes up with the idea of a giant goat made out of straw. The goat stood until 12.00 PM that New Year's Eve, when it went up in flames. The perpetrator, who was from Hofors, Gästrikland, was found and convicted of vandalism.

1972 The goat collapsed because of sabotage.

1976 Local hillbillies ran the goat over with a car.

1978 Again, the goat was kicked to pieces.

1979 The goat was burnt even before it was erected. A new one was built and fireproofed. It was destroyed and broken into pieces.

1983 The legs were destroyed.

1985 Even though the goat was enclosed by a 2 meters (6,5 ft) high metalfence, guarded by Securitas and even soldiers from the Gävle I 14 Infantry Regiment, it was burned down in January.

1987 A heavily fireproofed goat was built. It got burned down a week before Christmas.

1998 Burned down on December 11th, even though there was a major blizzard. Was rebuilt.

2000 Burned down a couple of days before New Year's Eve. The Natural Science Club's goat got tossed in the Gävle river.

2001 Goat set on fire on December 23 by Lawrence Jones, a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, Ohio... Jones stated in court that he is no "goat burner", and believed that he was taking part in a completely legal goat-burning tradition.

2005 Burned by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and a gingerbread man reportedly by shooting a flaming arrow or molotov cocktail towards the goat at 21:00 on December 3.

Tossed into the river?! That poor Goat! Anyway the image that you see above is a live web cam of the goat and nothing has happend yet. Part of me is rooting for the goat and part of me wants the list to keep going and not be defeated by some little thing like fire retardent. It didn't work in 1987 or 1979 so why should it now?

Test morning haiku

My head is empty
You want me to learn what now?
Okay, fill 'er up...

Notice I am blogging instead of listening to the lecture...

Anatomy test

Rawr! Ileal papilla! Ileal papilla!!

And prepubic TENDON, not ligament!

Rawr!

And my time stamp....

... only it's the start of my day...

*yawn* The artist vs. the student... no rest for either!

Aprenti Lock in

So check the time stamp, I dare you. Go on, check! Yes that does say 5:15 am. Yes that does mean I just stayed up ALL NIGHT in dittmann working obsessively on stuff. But now I am dead tired after a day that has just kept on going and going....
Bed now! Night all!

Apartment II

So I am a huge nerd and enjoy playing with 3D programs. So I re-did the apartment videos with better lighting, better color, better source data, better perspective, and better camera work! Yeah, so better. Did you know that the human eye has about a 22mm focal length? These are shot as "macro" 25mm videos, so they match your eye better but give it a fish-eye effect.
The result are the three videos that follow:

#1 View from entrance way.
#2 View from living room
#3 Bedroom:

Christmas Wish List

... because I know everyone is dying to know... ;-)

• A WalkyDog bike attachment, so Win and I can bike more safely.

• Radiology of Rodents, Rabbits, and Ferrets, Textbook of Rabbit Medicine, and Four Paws, Five Directions: A Guide to Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs. Mmm, non-required textbooks..... I love used books!

• Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, because I think I'm the only person in vet school who hasn't read it yet.

• Anything soft, shiny, or made of chocolate (or all of the above!)

• A nice Daiwa closed-face reel, because my attempts to save money and buy cheap reels have all backfired on me. My current reel likes to randomly tangle, or let the line loose, or not reel the line in at all. :-/ I'm sure that's why I've been having bad fishing luck, right? Right?

• Non-latex gloves (smalls please!), and new 10- or 20-size scalpel blades

• Anything that claims to reduce stress

Okay, okay, my list is too long. I will be happy with no gifts, as long as Christmas involves no homework and lots of time in warm places, with lots of good food, and a corgi!

Northfield is in full Christmas Fest mode. I am taking a break from the 'Fest this year for fear it will make me a little sad to go. I need a little more distance from graduation and the whole Olaf experience to enjoy being wrapped up in the warm snugglies of Christmas Fest again. I'm not ready to be an alum!!

Yesterday was December 1st, which marked the 5-month mark until we move into our apartment... I think this calls for a ticker! (the white bunny is Pipkin, of course, hopping down University Ave...)