So after months of searching for jobs, I got one! I’m proud to say I’m Apple’s newest Specialist. Training starts this weekend! I know it’s not a design job, but I gotta pay the billz and this is a pretty sweet deal for doing that. It’ll probably leave me plenty of time for freelancing but still supplement the income in the down time (like now). I’m happy about it, I mean, I even got a position I didn’t even apply for. I guess that’s a good thing, they must think I’m super qualified! I guess we’ll find out on Saturday if they were right or not. So if you’re looking for me, there’s a good chance you can find me in the Apple Store in Westfarms Mall!

Look at this ridiculousness I just found on my external harddrive. Dunno what that was all about.

just sayin’.

I’ve never tried to insert a video into this thing, and I thought this might be the perfect opportunity.  I think cell phones are the new polaroids.  I have so many hilariously un-considered images in there and it’s great!  The video quality sucks, of course, but it’s hilarious only because this is what you get for the convenience of taking video in random situations.  They serve no purpose, especially considering they can only be like 15 seconds long, but that, for some reason, is no deterrent for me.

Enjoy…

wish you were here

Barack Obama.  Thank you very much.  Finally, a good president that can’t have the election pulled from under his feet *cough Gore *cough.

Now I can post works in progress!  This is exciting.  Do you know how many times I’ve tried to figure out how to install wordpress?  A lot of times.  A lot a lot of times.  I think I’ve finally got it though.

Attn: world

Please stop using the font “Handwriting - Dakota”. It is perhaps the worst typeface ever. Professional companies: you are making fools of yourselves. If you want that “handwritten effect”, here’s an idea… GET OUT A PEN AND PAPER.

Thank you, I’ll be awaiting your apologies,
Kristi-Lynn

P.S. Heads up to all comic sans, papyrus, and curlz mt users: you are on an entirely different level of poor design choice making. You should probably just get a typewriter so you can’t embarrass yourself any further. You are next…

So, I’m still thinking about the past and the future. There’s a few things I’ve been thinking about. I did a little research, to see what other people thought about the topic, turns out people are at least thinking about the topic.

When talking about the past, I can look at it two ways. First, the past must exist because it has an effect on the present. If someone pissed me off today, I might still be mad about right now, so it must exist still. Alternately, it is really truly only my memory that causes the past to “exist,” in which case, it doesn’t really exist at all, since a memory is not a physical thing TO exist.

This made me think about a man called Ronald Mallett, a physicist that wants to build a time machine. I learned about his research in a physics class a couple years ago. He is currently a professor at the University of Connecticut, but he’s pretty famous beyond the university. In a documentary on his work, I think it was “The World’s First Time Machine” (BBC/Discovery Channel documentary), he talked about his theories that if he were to build a time machine, he would only be able to cause particles to travel back to the time that the machine was turned on, essentially, otherwise, there would be nowhere to send the particles back to.

He also theorizes that if he were to turn the machine on, he could potentially begin to receive particles immediately, as he may be sending himself some from the future back to the point in time when he turned it on. Philosophically speaking, if there is no past and no future, then a time machine would indeed be completely worthless, it would really just be a machine that causes you to continue doing whatever you’re doing, it would essentially also not exist. This makes me think that Ronald Mallett should speak at my fake symposium.

When thinking about the future, Roger Ruddle wrote an essay that talked about God, of course. He was talking about how if God can exist everywhere, then God could exist in different places simultaneously and thusly could exist in different times simultaneously. This is a contradiction, of course, because nothing can exist in two different times at the same time (the phrase itself being the contradiction). Not sure how useful this information will be in my research, but it was still interesting to read at least.

I’m also tempted to look further into the Theory of Relativity, but I feel like this might be meddling a little bit too far into the realm of time alone, rather than existence within time, so I’m still a little undecided on that.

Well, at least I consider this bit of research a success in that I have solidified at least one guest speaker for the conference.

Well, quite literally thinking about the future, not mine, not yours, just the future in general. I mean, what is it? Does it really exist? Is it entirely theory? “Future” is certainly a noun, right? A direct object even. But not really, in my opinion. I think the future which extends beyond the length of your life doesn’t exist. I suppose this is speaking relatively, but I think it could make for a good argument.

First, a little background. The reason this comes up is because we’re starting a project in Design 2 that requires us to invent a symposium (if you will) that is called “The future is not what it used to be.” Here’s the exact project:

“You are hereby provided with a title for a symposium. Basically speaking, you are given the very beginning and a framework - based on your own interests you will furnish content/theme. THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE is a hypothetical symposium - you can make this conference about art, film, fashion, culture, ecology - to name a few possibilities - which are endless.

In relation to this symposium you will design:
01/Visual identity for symposium
02/Poster - to function in flat form and also as a self mailer
03/DVD + CD packaging [these can be two separate items or combined as one package]
04/A short teaser booklet

In implementing and accomplishing the above you need establish a place + time - furnish a paragraph describing intent of symposium and provide names + titles and lecture information etc. Remember you are the designer, the author, the planner and the editor in this project.”

So that’s the whole idea of the project, if that makes any sense. The other part of it is that he wants us to take into consideration the idea of self and time into our process of considering the future. Which lead to me thinking about the future, which is where we started here, see my drift?

So in thinking about the future, I was thinking about it in terms of a philosophical argument sort of symposium. The two sides would be considering the idea of the future as it exists immediately (to you that is, since everyone has a different future for 10 seconds from now), the idea of a future that happens after your life, and the idea that the future doesn’t exist beyond the span of your individual life, since for you, technically, it doesn’t.

To the idea of a future beyond what your lifespan is, I would say, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?” And to the idea of a lack of future due to your lack of existence I would say, “Was there no past prior to your birth?” I think there could be steady argument either way on the matter, I mean, of course the tree makes a sound, right? And what if everyone has lied to you about the “past?” I mean, of course it’s entirely a philosophical discussion, but I think if I were going to hold my own symposium I would want to hear some strong, relevant, valid arguments from either side and I would have a lot of fun listening to some philosophers battle it out in lecture form rather than book/article form. Who wouldn’t? This will, of course, make the project that much more difficult for me, but you know, I think the harder it is, the more I will learn from it.

I mean really, why am I paying to be here?

So today was a good day. I didn’t do anything at all, I really just sat around in front of a computer and looked pretty. And speaking of sitting around and looking pretty, that’s what I’m going to get paid to do. I’m talking about figure modeling of course. All you have to do is take off all your clothes and sit and be drawn and get paid $15/hour. It’s a great deal if you ask me. My mom seems to think otherwise, but hey, whatever. It’s not her that has to do it anyways.

As far as classes have been going, they’re all pointless. Today, I spent 6 hours in a single room in front of a single computer and did approximately 10 seconds worth of actual work. My professors are making it a point to not do anything useful, they actually don’t even always show up on time, or at all as it were. So you see, college is a bit like real life, except you have far more free time and far less clothing on (and the food comes in endless, free supply, but of poor quality).