Movies, Chemistry, Art

Last night I did nothing but watch tv for five hours and it felt really good. I watched an hour of CSI: New York then we watched Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was really good. It’s a Woody Allen film and from what I’ve seen of his stuff, I really like it. Ironically, he has another movie, Scoop, which also stars Scarlett Johansen. Apparently, as I’m looking at imdb.com he also wrote and directed the movie Match Point which she is also in and was nominated for a best actress award for. The movie is not your typical movie, but no Woody Allen film ever is, or so I’m told. There was a narrator which was very interesting to have because a lot of what was said was implied but Ashley commented, “It’s kind of like reading a book,” which made me think of my film class and how we’re studying the French New Wave and one of the aspects of that theory is that every director is like an author of his film, creating in an audiovisual language. I’m trying to think of a way I can bring this up in class tomorrow but maybe I’ll just hold it inside and ponder it, instead.

The other movie we watched was Rachel Getting Married, which stars Anne Hathaway. It was not as enjoyable as Vicky Christina Barcelona because it was much more depressing. Its about this girl, Kim, who’s sister Rachel is getting married so she comes home from Rehab to be with the family but they all have a thing against her because she “killed” their little brother by being stoned out of her mind and driving off a bridge. The problems were kind of resolved in the end, but in a very vague and tenuous way, so it didn’t have the typical Hollywood ending. That in itself was enjoyable but I wanted more to go with in the end but there wasn’t much offered.

I didn’t get my chemistry homework done yesterday, though not from lack of trying. I have tried three similar problems and I thought I knew exactly how to do them and I did them and they don’t work. I know what answers I’m supposed to get but I don’t seem to be getting them. I can’t get the math to work out right, though I know the theory behind it. I know exactly how to set them up (I think) and I know how to solve them (I think) but putting it into practice is another matter entirely. I really hope I don’t start to cry in chemistry class today. (I know, you’re thinking, cry? Really? But yes, I will cry if I get too frustrated with this.) Its not that I’m giving up on it and its not that I don’t think I can do it. The problem is just that I cry when I’m frustrated. It irritates me that I’m given a task to do without being given an example to work from. I’m not good with the whole figure it out yourself thing when it comes to math problems. I’m sure I’m just doing some small math thing that’s throwing my answers off but I can’t see what it could be and I need someone to look at it and say, “Oh, you forgot to multiply through by five,” or something silly like that and I’ll smack myself and say, “Oh, I feel so stupid, thanks for pointing that out, now I can get the right answer,” and everything will work out fine and in future problems I’ll remember the step I missed and be able to not miss it again. But I can’t do that if no one can tell me what I’m doing wrong. Even worse, there is a help session scheduled today at 4pm and I can’t go because I have class. The one time I would actually go to a help session for something and he schedules it during a time when I have class.

I do have other options. I’m going to talk to him after class about it and hopefully he’ll be able to look at it and tell me what I’m doing wrong but knowing him, he’ll probably say something obscure and abstract and leave me to wonder if I’m doing it right or not still, instead of helping me.

I got Mom’s address book from Dad this morning and I’m going to address my postcards this afternoon. Hopefully I can get them all done so I can mail them today as well. I’m so nervous for my show. I have less than two weeks and I’m freaking out because I still feel like I’m wandering in the dark with my hands outstretched hoping I don’t run into anything big, sharp, and dangerous. So far, so good, but who knows how time will work between now and then. I still haven’t asked Charlie about helping me print but I can ask him today in Advanced Art Research. Hopefully he will be able to help me so I can get things hung and organized in a way that will make them look good without being too terribly time consuming. I’m not going to have a lot of time next week either and I’ve got to rewrite my artist’s statement, write a price list, and figure out where exactly my pictures will be hanging.