In no particular order:

1. Write & direct a short film.
2. Publish an iPhone app.
3. Complete an essay on the topic of Los Angeles architecture.
4. Find a meaningful way to help someone who needs it.

Still at school, gonna be here late again BUT I’m loving it. I won’t be having a party tonight and I don’t mind. 

I turned in a really good project today and my professor said “You are on fire today, you must feel fantastic.” I do.

Thanks to everyone for all the great birthday greetings.

The Kobayashi Maru is a test in the fictional Star Trek universe.  It is a Starfleet training exercise designed to test the character of cadets that deals with the possibility of unwinnable situations.

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When I went to sleep yesterday, I had been awake - completely awake - for 36 continuous hours. I had another one of those tedious drafting projects due Friday at 2pm and arrived at school Thursday at 8am.

I hate drafting because I’m not very good at it. I’m terrible at it. I have been a photographer since 7th grade, I’m used to the kind of artistic expression where you push a button and you’re done (sort of). Before digital SLRs, I would get so frustrated at the chemical developing process. I learned to do it well but it was tedious. Most of the time I would take my negatives to a one hour lab and have them just develop the film without making prints. I enjoyed making the prints myself. Which now correlates with how much I enjoy iPhoto.

I have never been a by-hand artist. I didn’t paint or sculpt or draw or carve. I’m a pokemon artist, I see something beautiful or interesting and capture it.

Most of the class was here overnight. 40+ people were at school working feverishly on a drafting project that only 5 or so people completed. And, without disrespect, the 5 or so people who did finish didn’t do an outstanding job. You couldn’t even say they did a good job.

If you didn’t complete the assignment you failed because you didn’t complete the assignment. But if you did complete the assignment you failed because there is no way to have produced quality work in the allowed time.

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For the third time this week, Nathan (my studio professor) told me that my issue with my work wasn’t in with quality but interpretation.

I realized that the issue with my work so far is that I have been attacking the problem like a Mac Genius. I have been looking to the take apart manuals and removing the screws looking to replace the defective piece. I’ve been breaking down the exercises into procedures and steps instead of expressing the art.

So I didn’t complete the task. I failed at the mission. But I learned something about myself and that’s what the Kobeyashi Maru is about.