As I sit here, on a Saturday morning,  sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I can only breath for a moment before my weekend begins with fill itself with reading, writing, housework, errands, and internship work. Two full days I’ll have to myself to enjoy without a having to go to a job or school, yet some form of work is necessary to create the set up of a smooth and successful next week.

The rest of the fourteen weeks are probably going to look exactly the same as last week. Work, internship, and school. Work, homework, and school. Work, internship, and school. This will be the rhythm for at least four days straight. There are two days in which I’ll have three hours to take care of personal business. Life management items that can only be done during business hours.

As far as homework is concerned, I didn’t realize how much reading is necessary. My philosophy instructor has given us three chapters to read along with a one or two page paper to write by Wednesday. My cinema instructor has issued the class two chapters to read. And finally, my economic professor has us reading one chapter for class. All this has to be read over the next two days. The philosophy paper (given the amount of time I’ll have during the week) should be in it’s first draft by Sunday evening.

What I’ll have to sacrifice

Now that I have each syllabus for every class, I can see that entertaining the idea of creating some sort of social life is completly out of the picture. There is a photography Meet-Up tomorrow that I thought about attending. If I haven’t completed 80% of my homework by tonight, I’m going to forgo that idea. Also, I can’t even see where I can fit in trying to earn some extra cash from. There really isn’t any time left.

Yesterday I experienced watching a real live fashion shoot for the first time. It was surreal, yet not that exciting. When it came to learning about being a fashion photographer, there’s a ton of information I had to absorb. From learning how to read a light meter, learning the name of different types of lighting lamps and their components, the “deadly power supply pack” which outputs 4800 watts and how not to kill myself with it, and learning about new functions on the digital camera.

There’s also a skill in getting a good pictures from models. One thing is to have a model “open their lips slightly.” The model that my mentor was shooting was having difficulty with smiling. I wonder if that has to do with experience or just not being very friendly.

I had my oil painting class last night. I seem to be coming along with learning different values. Unfortunately, I had to “erase” a lot of my oil painting due to not getting the color right.

Over the last week, I’ve received a taste of how difficult it is to manage life and being a full-time student. I’ve managed to figure out how to cover my living expenses, and pay for school books and school supplies. What I’m now facing is how to find time accomplish simple task like arranging UPS package pick-ups, having enough time to go grocery shopping, picking up items at the post office, filing taxes, and just taking care of the business of personal life management.

Last night in my film class I started to fall asleep closer to the end the film that we were watching. I was just pooped.

Today I’m going to learn how to set up a photo shoot at my photography internship. Then I have my oil painting class. And after that, I have to hang out for at least an hour with my dad for his birthday. And somewhere during the day I have to buy his birthday card. I won’t get home until after 10:00 p.m. I suppose homework with have to be done over the weekend.

What my life is like now seems like a jam-packed day full of activities. As I alluded to yesterday, it reminds me of  days at boot camp in the army. Activity after activity. Here’s a snap-shot of my yesterday schedule.

• 5:30-6:30 a.m. — blog
• 6:30-7:00 a.m. — breakfast
• 7:00-7:30 a.m. — get ready for work
• 7:30 -8:15 a.m. — commute to work
• 8:15 – 1:00 p.m. — work
• 1:00 - 1:45 p.m. — commute to photograhy internship
• 1:45 – 4:30 p.m. — photography internship/mentor-ship
• 4:45 – 5:15 p.m. — commute to school
• 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. — oil painting class
• 8:30 - 9:15 p.m. — commute home
• 9:15 – 10:30 p.m. — eat (cracker and cheese), check email, watch video news clips.
• 10:30 – 5:30 p.m. — sleep

This is my schedule Monday – Thursday. Friday I have my photography internship. As you can see, I didn’t have time to take care of any personal business like I need to, nor did I have time to do any homework. I was able to read on the bus three articles my philosophy instructor gave me.

Here is a picture of the still-life my oil painting class is working on. We have three class sessions to complete it, which will be also graded. I forgot to take a picture of what I did during the class.

Yesterday I went to my economic class, which is 15 minutes after philosophy class. Both instructors appear to be pretty intense. My philosophy teacher gave the class a three question “pop quiz” on the syllabus that he gave us on Wednesday. This to me was a clear indication that this teacher was not playing around. Getting an A in his class is not going to be without hard work. My economic instructor seems to be lecturing for the marjority of the class time. So, a lot of notes have to be taken during class. He gave us warning that some of the things he teaches will not be in the book, so it is our responsibility to take notes. And note taking I did last night. For full pages, front and back.

After his class was over, I came straight home. I arrived here about 8:30 p.m. I immediately pulled out all my syllabuses to start my assignments. I spent an hour working on my sample writing paper for my philosophy class due on Wednesday. And after that, I spent another hour navigating my way through blackboard for my film class. My instructions were simple – forward my emails to my personal email address, and write an email to the student who name was under mine through the blackboard system. That took another hour.  For dinner, I had crackers and trail mix. I couldn’t afford the time to even cook a meal. This is what my days are going to look like Monday through Thursday for the next 16 weeks. I can see why full-time students drop out of college. The experience is almost as intense as boot camp in the military.

This weekend I spent the majority of my time doing chores; cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, and reading material for class. I also did a photo shoot with a friend to sharpen my photography skills. I had forty-eight hours to complete a number of task. Each task represented how I wanted to see my life Monday morning; clean and organized abode, clean clothes to wear, and to enhance my knowledge of photography. As Sunday night was coming to a close, I began to think; couldn’t I create a number of task to solve other challenges/problems I have in my life? Isn’t life like a canvas? I’m control of what I put on it? How I want the picture to look? If I pick up the brush, mix the paint on the palette, place the paint on the canvas the way I want, I can create the picture to see on the canvas.

There are a few areas on my canvas that I would like to see a bit differently. Two of them have to do with my finances. To test my theories, I’m going to experiment to see if I can paint a better picture, solve a problem with a number of tasks.

Problem # 1. Since I’ve rearranged my life to be able to go to school, I’ve create a relatively huge debt to my landlord. Due to the amount of debt I owe, it’s not going to be solved in 30 days. However, I plan on making a repayment agreement with him.

Problem # 2. My electricity bill is past due. I’ve received a shut of notice. I plan on finding some assistance to get this resolved.

Each day I’m going to do some activity to get me closer to resolving these issues until solved. Last night, I ran into the manager of my building and told him to put my balance under my door while I’m away.

When I created The Blog Novice, my first blog entry, “Day 1” I had a goal of being a full-time student (along with a few other lofty goals.) This morning, I’m reflecting on my first week as a full-time student with astonishment, pride, and a sense of confidence of knowing that I can recreate my life the way I want it,  However, rearranging your life, whether involuntary, or voluntary, it doesn’t come without some discomfort. You can confidently expect some sort of pain just as you can expect a strong wind to blow in Chicago.

Having the afternoon opened in my life has not only allowed me to fill an afternoon class in it, but it has also allowed me to to create a space to test new career ideas.  Friday, I meet with my photography mentor that I met on modelmayhem. The afternoon learning experience I received I believe no college class could have offered. So, the amalgam of being able to part-time work, go to school full-time, be able to get an inside look at a new industry,  in addition to learning the trade from a working professional in that industry is an overwhelming experience. It’s the type of reaction an artist may have when he steps back to gain a new perspective on his own art work.

Life seems to have a lot of parallel to an artist. Our life is like a canvas. We are given a number of colors to put on our palette to create the picture we want. We are in total control. However, we only have so much space to work with (time.) If we don’t like the picture we’ve started to create, we can alter it to our liking. If we want to start a whole new painting, we can. The pain comes into letting the picture that we’ve grown so comfortable looking at go and being able to pull out a new blank canvas to start painting another one.

Last night I had my oil painting class. All of us had a chance to start painting. We first learn the basic steps to oil painting when drawing  still life. Putting on a ground, which means in layman terms, putting on a foundation. The next step is to sketch out your drawing with black paint diluted with a mineral spirit. The final step is to start painting your darkest values and moving to systematically to your lightest values.

Oil painting is very expensive. I’ve spent around $125.00 on supplies for far and I’m still not finished. I bought a set of Winston hog bristle brushes (set of 5) which is still not enough brushes when your painting.

Next class I’m going to take a picture of the still life and my painting afterwards. One of my fellow students did last night. I thought it would be a good idea for myself as well.

Yesterday I had a full day of activities. Work in the morning, buying art supplies, reading in the library for an hour, and attending two of my classes at Harold Washington College, philosophy and a cinema class that will focus on women in film.

During my philosophy class, we played a form of musical chairs for about thirty minutes. The entire class, about forty students make room in the center of the class and instructor starts playing blues music as we try to find some sort of orderly structure to move in a circle until we hear the music stop. “I’m sorry, is this philosophy?” When the music stops, my professor yells out a number and we try to find the number of partners to form the right group. We then tell each member of our group, our name, and something about ourselves. When the group is small, there was time for each member to expose a bit about themselves. When the groups were larger, (three or more) some students (like myself) didn’t get to share.

My second class, Fine Arts 104, -World of Cinema: Women in Films, will be entirely on women in film. Now I didn’t realize that it would be when I signed up. While I was sitting in class, I thought to myself, “And you thought this was going to be an easy class.” She hands out our syllabus during the break. It included a contract in the back, with spaces to fill in blanks.

As my day ended, I couldn’t think of one thing from these mandatory courses that would be applicable for the part-time job that would offer me some type of advancement. I suppose I might be popular around the office is I could actually have a decent dialog about women’s films with a office full of women. But will that translate in a higher advancement? What about this musical chair exercise? What was I suppose to be learning there? How to talk to people in a crowded elevator?

It’s time to get ready to repeat the process all over again.

A month has almost gone by into ae new year and I still haven’t come up with a single idea, theme, or, subject for my blog. So my days go by without any new entries. And, I, go painfully each day without a place to release my inner thoughts. To hell with monetization and trying to commercialize my blog. I want to write! Everyday!

When I first started blogging, it started out just being simply a place to share with the idea of having it being viewed by the entire world. An artist displaying his new work if you will. Then I had to find out about how other bloggers were making a killing at blogging through advertising. It was from that point that I lost track of my original intent by following the crowd and following the money. Well, it’s time for me to return back to the basic idea as to why I started blogging. And that is to document my personal journey and care not about earning money from my blog. I don’t care if personal journals are popular in blog land.  So today I begin yet another chapter, yet another turn that takes me straight back to my original starting point for THE BLOG NOVICE.

School Starts

School started yesterday for me. The first class I attended was my oil painting class. Oil painting appears to be totally different from drawing. It seems to be a more complex process with the mixing of paints, oils, or preparing your pallet before you make a single mark on your canvas.

Today I have my philosophy and cinema class. It’s going to be yet another long day.