25 ODD-FOOT OF GRUNT

WARNING: MAY BE PLOT SPOILERS BELOW, BUT NO MORE SO THAN THE TRAILER



I saw King Kong today. And frankly I was sort of disappointed. NOT because it was bad, but because it wasn't. I actually quite enjoyed it. Maybe I'm some sort of dumb-movie-goer, or maybe I'm not, but I'll explain myself further regardless.

I was swept up in the magic of the island, I was in love with the old-timey New York style, I felt for Kong, I was scared for Anne (Naomi Watts' character) I actually liked Jack Black. I thought Peter Jackson did a good job, despite being somewhat Peter Jackson-ish in his 'natives looking like orcs' approach. There were some good edtiting techniques, particularly the scene on the Empire State building, and recalling of earlier shots from the movie.

Yes yes, the movie was obviously done with CG and it was noticeable, but I could actually look past it, which is hard for me to do, and embrase the movie for what it was saying, and not how it was said. The person I saw the film with kept shaking his head as if to say "yeah right! that'd never happen!" but that's not the point. The film doesn't have to be realistic in its story telling, its unbelievable in nature, you have to suspend that part of your brain to enjoy it!

I did have some gripes though: The dinosaurs. Not enough of them. And they were pretty weird looking. The tyrannosaur was alright, a bit toothy but ok, but there were these other dinos that were sort of like Allosaurs & Raptors in one, which struck me as odd, as well as some serious scientific error with the long-necked dinos. Shall I go into it? No, well too bad: See, the bodies of the long-necked were that of an apatosaur, but the head was all wrong. It was thought up untill 10 years ago or so that they had short stuppy heads because the skulls were never found. Then 10 years ago they were found, and they were actually long slender heads. The ones in the movie had stumpy heads. Which is ok if they were a Camarasaurus or something, but that's rather obscure so I am not certain. Then again the did have a Torosaurus instead of a Triceratops, which is also obscure. Final criticism, a few too many mythical creatures. Sure, its the lost world, but not Middle Earth. The giant phallic worms and the Orc-bats were odd to see.

There were a lot of good things though, far out weighing the bad: The casting was good. Adrien Brody was good to see in a strong role despite his character being a writer and him looking like the worlds biggest wimp (watch Dummy to see what I mean). The old-timey New York was really cool, with the detail done pretty well (as far as I know), the skyline was cool, and Times Square was also cool. Old-timey ads are also always awesome! (A brand-new Chevy for $445). I enjoyed the pace, with the substories, and the fast pace in the second and third hours. I liked the set designs, the costume design and the sound was great too. The music was corny drama music which was good. A bit of a let-down with the titles, could've been a LOT cooler.

It was funny watching it though: There was some kids sitting behind us (which by the way: Not a movie for kids) and they kept talking the whole time. The funniest question they asked there dad, when the saw a giant skeleton of a gorilla "Is that a giant human?". Double-handed face slap!! Also we went for a drink afterwards and the bartender was talking about it too, in an extremely thick ocker Aussie accent she was complaining about the pace of the movie. It was kind of funny, and made me feel really elitist, but then again it was a Hollywood blockbuster I was defending, so yeah whatever.

Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10, good, not great, but certainly not bad at all.
A must for video, a maybe for the theatre.


IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN



I'm redoing my portfolio to take around with me when the job hunting begins in April. Here is my cover/contents page. I'm sticking with dinosaurs and color, but changing the font from Helevetica to something nicer and newer. Got any suggestions? Linus? Will? You guys know about that sort thing.. anyone else, because they're too lazy and I want your ideas too...

IESSO

88 MILES PER HOUR

Tanner, the champion got me this wicked Back to the Future toyset! It REALLY REALLY rules.. i mean REALLY! A lot has happened since Christmas, I slept a lot, got a new phone (Sony Ericsson K608i on the 3 Network) and booked a flight to Sydney. So maybe thats not a LOT! but it is still something... I've got to go to Sydney to get my passport so I can go to the states... and I needed a new phone becuase mine was BAD! This new one has got it all, 1.3MP camera, which is NEARLY good enough to take happy snaps, it's got BlueTooth so I can syncronise my contact and calendar info, helping to keep me more organised, and its got video talking becuase that is cool. Yeah, so whatever.. I dunno what to say. I'm pretty tired, I've been awake for 29 hours now, which is long enough to be tired, but not long enough to be giddy and delirous. Soon though... soon..

Goodnight for now. See ya soon. IESSO

WELL WISHES

Happy Holiday's everyone! Happy Hanukah/ Hannuka/ Hanukka/ Hanukkah/ Chanukah/ Chanukkah/ Khanike/ חנכה, etc, as well as a Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanza! I wish you all my heartfelt blessings. And in case I dont post before new years, Happy New Years as well!

I hope this is what Santa and/or Hanukah Harry brought me. This is real too! I am not making this up! Greatest. Toy. Ever.

SO, UH, YOU COME HERE OFTEN?

WHAT WE WERE DOING IN A SEX SHOP IS IMMATERIAL, but is important is this monster! If I'm not mistaken it is 18inches long, and dammit it was HEAVY! The American Challenge, what an understatement! I just thought it was funny. Tee hee. Rude things! Yes, I am a 14 year old boy. If you don't beleive me on how long it was, just look at it compared to the length of my torso! It's friggin huge! I can't imagine people actually use it. Seriously, it's massive! You would have to be very, um... experienced, and still the sheer mass of the thing, how deep are you?! I am perplexed. And if it's a novelty joke gift, it's pretty expensive at $69.00 ... heh heh heh... what a funny price. Tee hee.

Another point of note: This was taken on Tanner's phone camera! So much better than mine!
IESSO

HATE TO STATE THE OBVIOUS

BUT... I was reading a website dedicated to iPods and the producers of the site wishes everyone a happy holidays. Which lead to some people getting annoyed and posting comments wishing everyone a Merry Christmas instead. Then other people got annoyed at those people saying that a generic season greetings is better than a specific holiday. It spiralled completely out of control. But both sides make such a good argument that I just had to blog it up.

SIDE 1: MERRY CHRISTMAS
It is Christmas time now, so why can't people have the right to say Merry Christmas instead of the generic Happy Holidays? People should not be offended if someone wishes you a MC even if it is not your religion, the intention is good, so accept it gracefully. By censoring all specific religious holiday celebration out of the holiday season we end up with a bland, souless holiday run by corporate America or something crazy like that.

SIDE 2: HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Yes, it is Christmas time, but it is also other holidays around now too! Chanukah is on the same day in the western calendar as Christmas, so by wishing a generic HH we can cover ALL holidays with one phrase. There is no censorship involved with a HH wish, rather a greeting that encompasses other holidays besides the predominant Chrsistian holiday.


Personally I have no problem with people wishing me a MC, but I do prefer the HH greeting because as part of a minority group in Australia where the Jewish community is far and few between, wishing people a MC would be the ultimate sellout. Or something like that. I personally don't understand why people get so bent out of shape when people wish you a HH. It's not like we're not wishing you a MC, we are, because that is your holiday. Duh. So what is the problem. By wishing HH is does not assume you are Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim or anything else.

So chillax people on iPod site. Chillax.
And have a HAPPY holidays!

And to everyone reading this site, I will wish people well in a less rant-style post later in the week. On Christnukah day.

IESSO

FEAR NOT GOOD CITIZENS!

THE MASTHEAD SHALL BE REDONE. I'm much to tired and lazy to draw a cool swirl, but don't worry; I'll do it tomorrow.

IESSOOOoooooohhhhh yeeaaahhhhh
(said like Isaac Hayes)

UPDATES

SORRY about the infrequent posts this week. I've either been busy or lazy or both...
HERE IS THE LAST WEEKS EVENTS IN NOTE FORM:


- Got my new laptop. It is good. The screen is big and it runs fast. I am very pleased with it.

- Gone XMas shopping every day. It is boring. And expensive.

- My space themed QCA book was rejected. I liked it. But the powers that be don't. Sigh.

- I emailed Cutts Creative about talking to them about the folio, but they will be closed till late January.

- I got in a lot of trouble from Sebastian for being late too many times. It was a disaster but worked out ok in the end I guess.

- I screwed up with UNG typing in the wrong thing in a MSN conversation relating to my ex. Disaster. But I think things are patched up. They're still a bit shaky though...

- I went bowling with Tanner the other night. Damn its actually really really hard. The ball is too heavy. My arm hurts.

MORE O' THE SAME

BEEN WORKING on the 'Copper Book' for a little while now, tweaking ideas, struggling with text. And because I've got nothing else to show, I thought I'd show you the progress of this then. Yawn. Boring. Feel free to leave whenver you want...

IEZZzzzzzzz.....

PS. If you wanna give me some feedback on what you like/dislike that'd be muchly appreciated. I never know whether my work is ... um... working or not...

BLAST FROM THE PAST

I bumped into my my school art teacher working at a shop over the summer while shopping for UNG. I've seen her a few times since high-school and the fateful night at the year 12 formal*. It's funny; even though it was 5 years ago since high-school I can't help but call her Ms. Turner, even though we are both adults now.

It was nice to see her again, she's a nice lady. I told her what I had been up to; finished uni, with the top folio mark, shopping for my girlfriend... etc etc. She asked if it was my ex.... and hit a sore spot. I don't like talking about her anymore, but lately she's come up in coversation a few more times than I would have liked. I've had some dreams about her too recently (in the last few weeks) always the same: I'm back at my old place in Spring Hill and things are how they used to be. But I'm aware of all the things wrong with our relationship that I couldn't see at the time. I guess love blinds me from the things that aren't working, and everyone else around me can see it.

Why would these thoughts come up NOW? I guess the series of coincidences reminding me about then; like finding her address on an eBay page I registered years ago could be one, or Tanner finding her phone number in his old phone, or things like bumping into Ms. Turner who knew us back then... but also my concerns about the future.

I'm planning on moving to New York next year as we all know. But I don't really want to go alone. I'd like to take UNG with me too. And then fear of becoming involved with someone like last time hits me. Of course they're completely different people and our relationships are totally different, but the situations are somewhat similar. 5 years ago I finished high-school with A and we moved in together up in Brisbane, and started university. Now I've finished uni and am hoping to move with UNG to a new city to start a new phase in my life, and I'm worried that history might repeat itself.

I know that this is a somewhat public arena for my concerns, but this blog is my place to voice my thoughts, good, bad or otherwise. This is something I need to work out, and hopefully not worry about. But the concerns are still there nonetheless. History would never repeat itself again, but I am terrified that I am once again being blinded by my love. Of course I can't see anything wrong with UNG, everything is great! She's a wonderful person! I think she's fantastic. We get along wonderfully, we have similar interests in most things, we have different strengths and weakness's but use what we have to help each other out. There is no reason for my fears other than my history.

What do I do? I don't know. What can I do? Do my concerns have any merit? Probably not, but then again it certainly is possible. I suppose I should talk about this with her. I have in a way. She knows I have a bit of a weakness when it comes to my ex. She knows about New York and my hopes for her to come with me. She's mostly eager to come with me, provided she is able to work in the US... I think...

Any input from anyone would be muchly appreciated, although no input is fine too. I'm not actually asking for advice at this stage, just voicing my thoughts, but if you want to comment, please do. If you're a long-time reader or a personal friend you should know that when it comes to life, love and the big things I don't always think entirely rationally or objectively, but I do take it very seriously. Often much too seriously.

Thank you. I'm Elliott Scott, being somewhat of a downer tonight with this post and the previous one, signing off.

* PS. for those of you who aren't aware of what actually happened at the formal, it's kind of a funny story, and kind of crazy, but mostly just plain ol' creepy. See Ms Turner and I got along well, as I usually do with teachers that I respect... And at the formal she got very drunk and came up to me. I was sad to say goodbye and all that usual teacher-student stuff. But strangely she was sad too. She told me what an inspiration I had been, and how she was really going to miss me and stuff, and we hugged. And then SHE KISSED ME! And it wasn't any sort of normal kiss that maybe a grandmother gives to a grandson. NOPE! It was a kiss on the lips, with a slight tongular action. Only slightly. But still. CREEPY! By the way she's not too old or unattractive or anything in case you're picturing some niaive kid and a geriatric, but saying that IN NO WAY was I attracted to her! And to make matters worse, but funnier now, my girlfriend was standing right behind her. LAUGHING at my misfortune. No, she wasn't angry, or jealous, she laughed. A few weeks later we were kissing and stuff (my girlfriend, not Ms Turner) and she started doing the Ms Turner voice and it FREAKED ME OUT! Anyway everytime I bumped into Ms Turner after that night she always had this look of utter embarrassement. It's funny now. But only after 5 years of telling the story. HA HA! Nightmares!

PPS. I was talking to Ms Turner today about UNG. She was happy for me. I'd bumped into her last year (well when I say bumped into her I really mean I went to the high-school to see her and get her to let me mooch off the schools darkroom facilities!) and we went to lunch. She said I looked really sad, but I didn't tell her why. I was actually nearly crying being back at the high-school. Everything was the same, but different.

PPPS. One more Ms Turner annecdote and I'll wrap this up: She quit teaching and went back to school to study psychology. Which isn't very interesting really, except that my brother was also taking psych and was in her class! He was a student of hers too, so they knew each other. He was telling me that she was one of the bad kids, sitting at the back of the room talking and giggling and being distruptive. I thought that was hilarious! He was one of those kids in her class, and now she's sort of doing the same thing back at him. Um.. ha! Funny! I was a goody-goody though.. as if you didn't guess that already!

DEEPTHROAT

POSTED AS A COMMENT FROM AN ANONYMOUS SOURCE.

Anonymous said...

"hey everyone,
this is not elliott-related, but needed to get off my chest, and i guess this is teh best forum to do it. From a very reliable source, some gossip about someone who thought he could teach us some design... let's call him colin. apparently colin never even worked as a designer, he was only finished artists at an ad agency.!!! i'll let you make of it what you will, but i'm kind of really annoyed that he always talks of his industry experience, but he never worked as a concept person, only finished art.
>:| "

My comments are:

1. Wow. I'm shocked if this is true. Although it doesn't really change a whole lot. We have learnt whatever we learnt, what's done is done. If you didn't learn as much as you wanted to sure blame the teachers, but also take a little responsibility. I agree that posing as an expert when it's not the case isn't the best thing to do, but it doesn't make our learning that much less valid. I hope not anyway. Our college career is not the end of learning... we have plenty of time to learn what we need to know.
2. Why post anonymously? Who are you afraid of? Please, be honest on my website. Your comment is not malicious or nasty in any way, don't be ashamed of speaking the truth (although at the time of print the claim has not been validated. I will ask Colin myself)
3. In the future I'd urge you to not use my blog to comment on trivial matters. NOT that this is trivial, but you might think if one person commented on something unrelated, why cant I? and soon we'll be discussing which brand of cereal we like. What I'm trying to say is this: It's MY blog. I want to have some control over what goes up or not. So if you have anything you find interesting and want to share, like this, EMAIL me and I'll probably put it up. Just like I've done on this post.

Thanks for the understanding.

As I mentioned I will email Colin this comment. I want his feedback on this matter. If he can give me a valid reason why his opinion should be valid that would be good. If not... well... I dunno. But we should at least hear his side before judging him.

IESSO

A LONG AND PAINFUL PROCESS

THIS POST HAS UPDATES! SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE CRAP! I MEAN, GOOD....









UPDATE! Here are some internal spreads now to look at. The insides are also duotoned! Pantone 875C and Black! WOOT! Metallics! Anyway, back to the images: They're pretty small sizes I guess, but thats for copyright reasons and because I'm much too lazy to include hi-res ones. So shut yer _traps! Anyway theres some nifty gimmicks built into the design like the SpaceFactsTM and the GridsTM and the Voyager FlipBookTM ALSO and much more cool!TM is the use of ACTUAL NASA PHOTOGRAPHS! That's right peoples NASA! They're letting me use the images, royalty free. Which is cool. But I've got to include a little footnote of where the photo was from, and if there are people used I have to ask for their permission. YEAH RIGHT! "Dear Mr Armstrong..."

Anyway, IESSO AGAIN!

(OLD STUFF NO-ONES GONNA READ:
Here is the cover concept for the new QCA Promo book, commonly called "The Silver Book". The theme revolves around discovery and 'discovering your new dimension' **cough cough LAME cough** And its space themed. The internals look cool too. Don't worry folks the brown/tan isn't that color, it's actually a metallic copper color with distressed elements. It's meant to resemble the plaque found on the Voyager space probe.

I'm Elliott Scott, boldly going where many have gone before, signing off.)

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

HERE is the Flickr stream of polaroids I took at the grad exhibition that Linus has so graciously and painstakingly and lovenly nagged me for, restored, and posted up on the interweb for all to see. Thanks dude. Without your hard work we would never be able to enough these photos at the moderately higher res that they are here. You are the best person in the whole world.

Sarcasm? Why would you even suggest such a thing. Of course not!

IESSO

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT PANDA!

AT WORK TODAY the UNG was cold. My boss says: "Stay close to Elliott, he's hot".

This comment wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that everyone thinks HE likes me. I just turned and looked at him in horror/shock while he giggled like an idiot. I'm not sure if he meant it that way or not, but it was weird.

IESSO

NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!

I ADMIT comparing screen sizes is only a step away from comparing penis length, but still, I'm getting excited about the 17in PB. It is THIS ^ much bigger than my current 12in PB. I can work so much easier! WOOT.

That's all. I promise no more screen size comparisions, no more mentioning of Powerbooks, and probably no more penis length comparisions.

IESSO

I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE

MAYBE I'M OLD or something, but 'What is with these kids these days and their tight black jeans?' I mean seriously? It is not a good look. And here is why: Tight pants only look good on REALLY skinny people. I'm talking really-skinny-no-ass people. Otherwise because they're tight down to your ankles they make your butt look big. Seriously. Your butt DOES look fat in those jeans. Even if you are a tight-bodied young hipster.

Ok. So maybe I'm an old man who is out of touch with the world and am just realising it now. BUT seriously they make your butt look big. I think they're cool though and I wish I could wear them, but no, big-buttedness stops me!

On the other hand we're presented with another 2 problems.

Problem 1. Guys wear them too. And that's fine I guess. I'm all for androgenous fashion! All for it! But the problem of MALE CAMEL-TOE is not something that should be ignored! Or can be ignored for that matter. Ok fine, they may be cylists but the effect is much the same.



Problem 2. A quote from Tanner: "Chicks look great in those tight pants. Guys however, also look great." Hmm. Repressed sexuality issues aside the fact that guys have thinner hips and are more suited to tighter pants is somewhat disturbing. Showing off your body is fine, but I don't want to walk to Hungry Jacks in the Mayer Centre and be bombarded by denim covered asses. Guy or girls!

The rant makes no sense, and is entirely invalid. But yeah. It's been bugging me.

WHERE'S MY ELEPHANT!?

I WAS SUPPOSED to get my laptop last week. Nope. I was supposed to get it today. Yep. Sort of. It arrived, I looked at it. It was broken. I get a new one, but the screen is screwed up. So I have to wait a week or more for it to be replaced. My other laptop is also taking ages! No idea when that'll be ready.

Sigh.

IESSO

"WORSE THAN DISGUSTING"

WORSE THAN DISGUSTING was the phrase used by the UNG describing this calendar I'm doing for QCA. The lady who is supervising the job likes PINK and RED. COMBINED! I mean seriously, COMBINED! I can't stand it. I can't stand it one bit!

JUST OBSERVATIONING...

I was at the train station today waiting for the train. There was an older couple (probably about 50-ish) sitting next to me. The wife was looking at a magpie talking gibberish as one would do to a baby. The husband looked at me and sighed.

THE THANKSGIVING DAY HUNT

Yesterday/today is Thanksgiving depending on which timezone you're in. Normally my family has a big feast planned, but this year the oven wasn't working so the dinner was postponed. I still wanted my turkey dinner though, so the hunt was on to find it! We went to all the American steak-houses in the Brisbane CBD, as well as the carvery places, hotels and just about anywhere that had a promising lead. In the end we gave up. No turkey. Plenty of steak though (as people kept insisting) We bit the bullet and ended up under the Myer Centre at Sizzler.



Although not ideal we could at least stuff ourselves full of foods, recreating the great feast. So over dinner I had time to think, between fulling my ob with food that is, of what I am thankful for:

I am happy with the way my life is working out. Ok sure, I have my problems, internal and external but the world doesn't seem so dark, meaningless and empty anymore. Partly because I have found someone whom I can love, but also because I may actually be able to pull off the impossible task and become an adult. I have a chance of getting a job, I have plans to travel, and I have hopes for the future.

IESSO

THE SIMPLEST IDEAS ARE OFTEN THE ________ IDEAS?

Fill in the blank:
"THE SIMPLEST IDEAS ARE OFTEN THE ________ IDEAS?"

1. Best
2. Worst
3. Easiest
4. Laziest
5. All of the above, except #1

And thus concludes the great simplicity experiment of 2005.

IESSO

WHAT THE SH*T?

This was taken at Target advertising the 'sale' of Dunlop shoes. I'm not sure how this saves money, but hey, it's on sale!
IESSO

PS. The photo was taken on my phone, so excuse the poor quality.

IT'S SENSE-SATIONAL!

HA HA HA! Puns!
Anyway here is a random vector graphic I did. I might use it for the QCA promo book, I might not. Its random and jazzy at any rate. Or at least I like it, even if no-one else does...

IESSO

BUT CAPTAIN, THAT IS ILLOGICAL

I WROTE an essay for Professional Studies four weeks late and on the train in half an hour the day it was due, and got 6's & 7's out of 10! What? And to make matters more bizarre I wrote in the first paragraph that I did no research! And I never proof read it or did a spell check. And for the research criteria i got a 6/10?! NO RESEARCH!

Huzzah!

IESSO

PS. I am without any computer at the moment so my posts with be infrequent and imageless for a while. My 12in laptop is being repaired and then sold for scraps and I've ordered a 17in laptop but it wont arrive for another week or two. Please don't feel neglected or unloved, we both know you only read this because you're bored, and not because you actually care. ###sigh###

Ha ha! Kidding! Not upset! Don't care! Woot.

OH THE PAIN, THE PAIN OF IT ALL!

THE photo look a hell of a lot worse than it really was. I had a sore arm from the tetnus shot i got for my finger and the UNG bumped me and was ultra-apologetic. But its funny, I look like a battered wife. Which is not something to laugh at. So knock it off! The photo was taken on friday night at a Japanese resturant we went to to avoid going to the exhibition. Linus and Nazlyn were there too although weren't funny so I won't write anything about them. HA!

ALSO: I've registered www.MONDAYNE.com

Expect some drastic changes in the next few months including a total redesign of the blog and the transition into less of a blog and more of a website. I plan on having a professional side and personal side in a single site. Don't worry; the blog will definitely continue, but it will be found at www.mondayne.com. Simple, just drop the .blogspot part and everything is the same.

At the moment though things will be continuing as per usual. I'll let you know when the changes are coming when the time comes. I've got to make the damn site now. But you can check it out if you want, it's only 1 page, made in WORD! Ha ha! amatuerish? You betcha.

IESSO

PS. Aren't we like the worlds most attractive couple or something? Move over... um ... Brad & Jen / Posh & Becks / ... ?? We're the new sexy people in town. Just look at that photo. We look HOT!

DON'T LOOK! WE'RE EXPOSED!

LAST NIGHT was the end of year exhibition 'Friends and Family' night. I thought it was WAY better than the previous night for several reasons:

1. I got nicely drunkened.
2. I saw more folios than last time
3. I had more fun
4. I GOT THE TOP MARK!

That's right peoples who aren't in the know, young Elliott here got the award for Best Graphic Design Folio. What does that entail? Not much I guess, but I now have bragging rights over my friends, a fancy paper certificate and a $1000 prize! I also apparently will be the talk of the town for a few weeks amoungst the graphic design industry of Brisbane and will allegedly be much sought after. Which is kind of unbelievable, but that's what the head of design and the head of QCA South Bank told me... I'm not sure it's true, but hey, it might be.

Overall the night was pretty good. A few minor disasters, but overall a success. FOR ME anyway.
Just to do what you expect and dwell on the bad, here it is:

1. My parents got in a huge fight and didn't want to go, so they weren't there. It wasn't so bad, except people kept asking where my parents and were and I just kept sighing saying they weren't coming...
2. UNG and another girl had been clashing for a few weeks and I sort of got in the middle of it, trying to help out, but probably making it worse...
3. I was kind of crazy and eratic in my behaviour being very breif with my interactions between people. Sorry if I seemed rude, it was all a kind of a blur.

So basically it was good. I got a prize, some money, drunk, had fun and took photos.

This morning I was woken at 7.00 by someone installing a new doorknob on our house so I wasn't feeling to crash hot. Not much sleep and a nice hangover. Fun times.

Then when I told my mom the good news she got really mad at me about my father being nice to me but not her and started crying. So that wasn't fun. Nice and awkward. I felt guilty but also angry at my mom for being so unsupportive. I think she would've been happier if I didn't get the award. Which isn't that cool. Not cool at all actually.

Anyway I bought some new toys like a Powerbook and iPod and some other bits and peices and went to town spending loads of money! I spent $6000 in less than 2 hours! HUZZAH! But yeah the PB should be good and the iPod is crazy cool. Its funny, the screen is tiny but the movies look AWESOME! The quality is freakishly exceptional. I was expecting mobile phone quality but no! It's really nice. I watched the King Kong trailer and you can tell the gorilla is CG. That's pretty good. Not a pixel in sight. And it runs at 30fps.... But the funny thing is because the screen is so small it seems natural that the sound is small, or tinny or something but it's perfect. Ha ha! Mis-matching senses!


Anyway I'm gonna go now. Sorry to be such a bummer with the good news, but that's the Elliott way!
IESSO

LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY COLORS!

Movie posters are generally pretty mediocre, at least we're past the awesome* posters from the late 80's but still, they're usually pretty lame. Recently they've become a lot less lame, or at least SOME of them have. Here's a few from new-ish and upcoming movies that I like.

Damn UNG and her getting me hooked on color! I particularly like the Everything is Illuminated poster with it's Magrite-like imagery and general quirky sophistications.

IESSO

PS. I admit this post is kind of void of merit but I was getting sick of looking at the Cooper family! What was I thinking?! A post about fonts?! Am I some kind of nerd? .... and if so, what so kind of powers do I have? HA HA. Inside jokes rule.

PPS. I just realised that movie TransAmerica isn't about crossing America as much as it is cross DRESSING in America. HA HA. Hmmm.......

PPPS. Possibly the worst advertisement promoting a new technology. Be warned, this is a real ad for Bluetooth usage. It scares me too. CLICK HERE. It's good cheesy music, weird Flash animations and best of all: Comic Sans with horrible kerning! HA HA! Dangly-bits.

* I mean awful. Truly, truly awful. Words cannot express how awful they were. Except perhaps the word awful. That expresses my sentiment nicely. ... a little... too nicely .... ???

ALL IN THE FAMILY

I'm just gonna start off with a little speil about Cooper. It's totally my favourite typeface, but the weights other than black are so cool, yet so underused. What is up with that? And if anyone knows where I can get the roman versions of the non-black weights, let me know. Thanks

And now for our feature presentation: THE EXHIBITION

A generally successful night despite the high levels of stress, nerves, tension and anxiety. Nothing a few beers couldn't fix anyway. Arrived at 4pm to set up my folio, nope still being built. I didn't really help out at all, didn't feel so good, and my finger was hurting so didn't really bother. The space looked pretty good though. I was quite impressed. Or at least I was expecting a lot worse.

Hung around till 6-ish then went to the pub for a pre-exhibition beer and smoke. Calmed my nerves. Went to an EXPENSIVE Japanese resturant with UNG to eat something (hadn't eaten since lunch the previous day) and we ordered some crazy foods. Nothing too insane, but a whole deep-fried pike with a gross filling was not your average student meal. Anyway Nazlyn and Linus joined us, and it was good. I felt bad because I was spending Linus's money and ordered a big meal, but he didn't have enough for his own food. Um.. yeah. Sorry about that dude. I can understand you being pissed off.

Anyway we went to the exhibition, it was full of people. Talked/listened/pretended to listen. I wasn't really in a good mood for mingling so I was kinda awkward the whole night. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Not my intention. ANYWAY stayed there for a number of hours taking photos (which will be posted soon!) and blah blah blah.

HEARD OVER THE GRAPEVINE:

1. THE GOOD: Colin wouldn't tell me my mark, but did tell me it was 'very high', over 82%, which is good. He was being very coy about it all. Which is puzzling.
2. THE BAD: The thing Sebastian said about me. Which is kind of upsetting. See post below.
3. THE UNBELIEVABLE: Mary came up to me after talking to the head of Minale Bryce [a big-name design studio] who told her that he liked my folio the best of all of them. Which is odd. It's flattering, but also strange because the work they do, and the work I thought I did are very different.

Afterwards we went to the Ship-Inn for some drinks and THAT was fun. I so much prefer sitting around with friends and beers talking and joking than pretending to be adult and professional. Hate 'networking' like you wouldn't beleive. Colin and Don [our lecturer + head of design] came down to the pub, drunk, and joined us. That was good. Colin said some very encouraging things, although I'm not sure how much of it was real, and how much was drunk-talk. He also said Sebastian thinks very highly of me too, which is so confusing. He's friendly to me, joking and whatnot, but behind my back to my peers he says mean things, but to my lecturers he says good things? I'm not sure what his story is, but it hurts my feelings. I looked up to him, and to have your mentor treat so strangely isn't nice.

Anyway the friend and family night is on tuesday so I'm gonna take the rest of my photo's and then post them all up together. WITH CAPTIONS if you're lucky.

See ya then.
IESSO

PS. Overall it was a fun night, don't get me wrong; I had fun, and I intended this post to be a happy one, but it turned out a lot less happy than anticipated. I think I might be in a sad mood right now. Not so sure why. A few things in my personal life are a bit consuming of my thoughts, and the whole Sebastian thing has really got me down. Ordinarily my head would be HHHHUUUUUGGGGEEEEE from all the nice things people said, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the broth? I might have mixed metaphors there...

SUPPLIMENTARY MATERIALS

Kat was talking to Sebastian about her folio; he said it was "Okay, I guess". She replied; "Well at least thats better than what you said about Elliott's". He said "Yeah, but he deserved it..."

Ouch. I'm Elliott Scott, hopes and dreams crushed, signing off

PS> Got photos to post up but I left them at the exhibition. Stay tuned for further updates! HUZZAH!

HER FACE SAYS IT ALL

Yesterday was a LONG day. Here's the story. Listen good there might be a pop-quiz after.

I woke up a 6.30am tuesday to go to work. We had meeting with a client about a christmas card we had to design. Got to work for the 10 oclock meeting. It was cancelled. "OOps, forgot to tell you guys", said Sebsatian. Tuesday was our last day to do the folio before it was do, I was in no mood to mess around so i was naturally annoyed. I missed my fashion test because I hadnt studied so I failed the class. Will probably have to repeat it now.Graduating? Probably not till next year. Whatev.

Messed around at work for a bit nothing to do. Needed to go home to print stuff. UNG and her sister were there. We went to my place to use my printer. Got to Helensvale, messed around at the mall, got a nice headache from her sisters talking, she's 15 so I dont mind so much, but still was somewhat grumpy and stressed. UNG took her sister home at 5, I went home to start without her.

UNG arrived at 6.30 and we began working properly.

Printed out my folio and her folio, finally got the printer to print nicely. I already spent close to $1000 on the printer, and another $60 on paper, and $50 on ink, and she bought some more ink and her own paper. But the paper I got didn't work so I had to spend some more money on paper, which had no gaurantee to work! It was catridge paper, feels like cheap rough paper which was perfect for my needs... luckily it worked. But as soon as we started printing the photo inks ran out so we couldnt print high quality! It worked out ok though, so no big deal.

I finished printing around 1am, with UNG having a bit more to print. We took turns in case there was a problem, if we were going down for bad printing, we were going down together! She finsihed at about 2am. All was good, it was looking pretty nice. We were exhausted but generally happy with the work. Time for cutting.

And by cutting we mean the folio, not my finger. Unfortunately I didn't get that memo and sliced a 2mm deep, 12mm long chunk out of my finger. It didn't really hurt. At the time. It didn't bleed either. I freaked out though, in my own little way. For about 1/2 a second I had a little panic attack, stood up, hopped around grabbing my not yet bleeding hand wondering what to do. I got the the bathroom sink, and the bleeding started. Blood was PISSING OUT! It looked like I smashed a bottle of ketchup in the sink. It was soaked in blood. SOAKED! I got some bandages out of the cupboard wrapped it super-f*cking tightly around my entire finger and waited for the bleeding to stop. It didn't. Soaked right through the bandage. I took it off, washed my finger, THE PAIN STARTED. It hurt like f*ck! I'm not talking "Ouch, that smarts", or even "Auuuugggghhh!!!!" but so much pain the world went silent. I couldn't hear anything and if I screamed it was either silent or I couldn't hear it. It hurt. After I pathetically washed it, wrapped it up again with some heavy duty bandage even tighter. And went back to work. By the way, UNG is afraid of blood and stood by the bathroom door with a disgusted screwed up face. It was cute/silly, but kind of annoying cuz I needed her help. Oh well.
FINGER SLICE COUNT: 0 HOUR

I tried working for a bit, but was getting tired. Did I mention I didn't eat anything? And that it was about 3am. Well thats what it was. Anyway we worked for a bit more, readying things for the next morning. I was getting dizzy and sleepy what with the bloodloss and the stress and all, but UNG needed to do a bit more work so I tried to stay awake. I couldn't really so I watched TV untill she was ready. She finished her stuff and helped me with my stuff too. She cut all the extra things I was making (so nice of her) WITHOUT cutting herself [I'm banned from stanley knives now] and we went to bed.
FINGER SLICE COUNT: 1 HOUR



Or at least that was the plan. We did go to bed, but we didn't get any sleep. And not because of sexy "hooray we're done, let us have wild animal sex to celebrate!" oh no, it was much much work. And a lot less sexy. We didn't sleep because I was in too much pain. I'm telling you, this finger REALLY hurt. I took 3 panadiene forte's (which about 10 times more codeine than normal panadiene [or something like that]) and it didnt help. They make you drowsy too, but I was too scared about wednesday and the work we still had to do, and about my finger getting gangrene from the bandages being too tight. UNG got a few hours of sleep I might have gotten about half an hour. I was feeling really crap trying to sleep and the UNG was hugging me. I can't express how wonderful that felt. I was in so much pain and discomfort and the simple act of touching me and hugging me almost made the pain go away. Still couldn't sleep, but without her I probably would have went insane, started crying and given up long ago. THANK YOU UNG!
FINGER SLICE COUNT: 3 HOURS


'Woke' up at 6.30 to finish working and get ready. We gathered our stuff and left for the 8.10 train. The plan was to get to uni finish binding the folios and hand them in before 10am when they were due. Then I was supposed to go to the city, collect Linus's and hand his in too. None of this happened. I called Linus the night before at 3ish to tell him what happened about my finger and that I'd try to help him but wasn't sure. At 6am I called Will to try to get him to go to the city instead of me. I was worried I was gonna wake him but I didn't really have much choice/concern... luckily I didn't wake him. He was busy, tried Glen. He was awake too and agreed to help (thanks dude!)

Got to uni at 9am, binded the folio and rested untill UNG was ready. Sebastian was asking me all sorts of questions about why I did this or that, and why didn't I do this? I was in NO MOOD to talk. He was complaining about the printing quality, and he was asking why I wouldnt care. Hmmm a finger thats on the verge of falling off?! I don't know.
FINGER SLICE COUNT: 4 HOURS

UNG finished her folio at about 11.30, a bit last but we didnt care. What are they gonna do? Not let us graduate cuz we were 1 1/2 hours late?! I think not. Besides. My finger hurt. It still was bleeding. I went into the bathroom to change dressings. BLOOD EVERYWHERE! I wrapped it up with some napkins and tape and we went to the hospital to get it looked at, possibly stitched up.
FINGER SLICE COUNT: 9 HOURS

Got to the Mater Hill hospital, which by the way has the dumbest emergency ward location EVER! Its at the top of a hill around the corner, at the back of the hosptial. Nice and conveinient. We nearly passed out walking up the hill from the heat. Not cool. At. All. Anyway walked into emergency, went to the counter and saw the triage nurse (we know what triage is right? Its the assesment of patients based on seriousness of their condition) She classsified my injury as "BLOODY OOZE +++" which may or may not be bad, but it sounded bad. She asked if the cut went to the bone. I didn't think so. I didn't think that was even possible with my amount of pain, it hurt but not THAT bad. I thought a bone cut would be really REALLY bad, so I wasn't sure. I waited about 5minutes to see the doctor, which is not a good thing, it meant I was serious. She looked at the wound, and went to get a second opinion. A second opinion?! That's not a good thing. That means something is bad. My finger was numb. I had nerve damage. It will heal, but not for a few months. No stitches though. Not because I didn't need it, but because after 12 hours of a skin flap there's not much stitches can do. The flap will either fall off or it won't, stitches won't help.

Anyway after she cleaned it with saline solution, wrapped it up properley and gave me a tetnis shot, which don't tickle one bit, in fact they hurt, not then, but later (now, as I'm writing this!) I was feeling woozy. No, not from the blood, I can handle that, but from the heat, the no sleep, the no food, the pain, the stress and the cigarettes I had to dull the pain. I threw up. The doctor said to UNG "He's a bit of a wimp, isn't he?" I resent that. But she fixed my hand so it's ok.

Anyway after that was all done we went back to uni and chillaxed for a bit. Then we left and went to the Roma St gardens to chillax properly. We walked around for AGES trying to find a nice quiet, shady spot away from people. Eventually we did, hung around till 3.30 and parted. I got to Helensvale at 4.30, waited till 5 for the bus and got home. Stayed awake watching a hilarious movie called 'The Hebrew Hammer', which is like a jewish 'Shaft' and feel asleep at 8.30pm. I was awake for 38 hours. And those were the most intense 38 hours of my friggin life. INSANE. In the membrane. Or maybe insane in the brain.

Anyway that's my story. If it was a soap opera that would have taken about 3-4 years to show. And I guess my evil twin would have been in it, but nonetheless, it was utter madness!

IESSO

BELOW: The Mondayne branding. There's the folio, the sample bag and the business cards. There's a few more suprises but you'll have to wait till friday to see them. They're fun and goofy. And it's all about the gimmicks!

READY?

IESSO

UNAMED MODEL

I made the unamed girl model my shirts for me for the catalog. But because I didn't actually print them I had to do some photoshopping. And naturally the photoshopping would like lame so I avoided the whole thing by doing dodgy vector graphics. They look cool cuz of their small color palette. And her expressions work well, for eg. "blow me" has her face all screwed up, and "what would jesus do" she's thinking. All the pictures have goofy expressions. It's awesome!

From left to right, TOP ROW:
1. Parsley Makes it Fancy
2. Chairmans Mao
3. Mondayne Tee
4. Eat Out
5. Don't Blame Texas
6. Blow Me

Left to right, BOTTOM ROW:
7. Slave the Whales
8. Bandwagon
9. Miso Horny
10. Faded Black
11. What Would Jesus Do?
12. DJ's Suck

IESSO

STUFF

1. BEST GIRLFRIEND, EVER!
UNG: You know what, I love technology.
ME: *Gives her a big hug*

2. PORTFLASHIO
The online portfolio action is nearly done, and uploaded check it out by clicking HERE. It's pretty good. It's got some bugs but hey, they'll get fixed soon enough.

3. THE DEADLINE MONSTER
Four days to go...

4. THE SHAME
Went with Tanner to town to hang out, cruise around and play pool. We were succesful in all those areas, but also very disappointed with the people we were hanging and cruising with; they were high-schoolers. Lindsey seems to only have friends vastly younger than us, and so whenever Lindsey wants to hang with us we end up feeling like idiots amoungst kids half our age...
LINDSEY: Come on guys, mingle!
ME: (Thinking) I have NOTHING in common with these kids. They like cars, getting drunk and are in high school. I'm a pretentious designer who thinks he's better than these kids who think they're better than me. WHAT am I supposed to talk about?



IESSO

THINK OF IT AS AN INVESTMENT?

Ok so I'm selling some groovy Mondayne themed shirts at the exhibition night. Actually just taking orders, but if you want one, let me know and I'll make you one. Of course they are not gonna be going cheaply! I'm using Giordano tee's for their price and quality ratio and handprinting myself. So the cost is $45 each! It may be high but I don't really mind not selling many or any... so yeah, buy them now if you want one, or regret it for the rest of your life! OH HELL YEAH.

IESSO

THE C IS SILENT IN CHANUKAH

I'm making a clock for my mom for chanukah. Well sort of. I'm actually just printing on the face of a clock. ACTUALLY I'm not even doing that, I'm just replacing a clock face I did a few years ago for chanukah. The old one had a picture of me and my now ex-girlfriend on it, and everytime I saw it I got a bit annoyed/upset, so it's overdue for an update, a facelift as it were. So yeah, blah blah blah. This is totally done using the snazzy new LiveTrace function of Illustrator 12 which some of you might care about, others (most) won't. It's not entirely LiveTraced, some of it has be retouched to fix up details, added colors and delete weird tracing elements. The functions isn't perfect, its not even good, but I'm anxious to replace the face so this will do for now. I'll probably update it again soon.

IESSO

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

I was gonna write her name, but she'd prefer to remain 'the unamed girl', so that's what it's gonna be. Anyway we bought a polaroid camera and tested it out. Doesn't it look awesome? Polaroids rule!

IESSO

PS. I had a long day full of insanity, insults and insecurities, but I want to try remain positive, so instead of posting about that I am just gonna bottle it up and freak out one day!

PPS. F*CK THIS "Think Positive" crap, here's what happened: Sebastian was a real jerk today so i left LW and didnt do any work; drowned my sorrow in shopping.. he said my portfolio was "SHIT" thats a quote. what a jerk. i cried. thats right: CRIED! it was pathetic, but it really cut deep. im really fragile at the moment. he apologised later: "i'm sorry i upset you elliott, but i stand by what i say". thats not really a good apology. in my books anyway. it really hurt my feelings. if he doesnt like it so much, perhaps suggest an alternative, not simply insult it. and try sugar coating it a bit more. especially when elliott is running on no sleep, loads of tea and cigarettes and under high levels of stress. did i mention i cried?