Entry 000015; 02.08.03

You know I was starting to think lately that perhaps I should make a habit of updating my journal daily. Then again, I was also thinking the same thing around the same time about flossing. Fortunately for flossing, I did it twice in a row and then completely forgot about it. Unfortunately for my journal, I got as far as entry 000153 and well... I don't know what happened there, but there is something charming about the effect.

So much happeneding, so much going on. What first? Let's start with school.

It looks like I haven't updated since christmas vacation. Which of course means that I haven't ranted and raved, moaned, screamed, and stared blankly at walls about my classes yet. I am again taking chinese, and again I sit in class groaning (inwardly this time because I sit closer to the teacher now) about how freaking stupid everyone in the class is and about what a waste of time this is for me. Currently I'm three to four weeks ahead of the rest of the class, and it's not as good as you'd think. It's nice to be secure and all, but the classes are even more painfully useless than last term.

I made friends with a kid in the class, which is nice. I tried tutoring him for a few days, but he just didn't care enough so I gave up. I can only do so much with two hours a week. My original chinese professor left to go to Hong Kong or whereever the heck asians migrate to take care of her sick father. She has since been replaced by another asian woman who wears those pants that look like baggy skirts and pronounces random words differently than they are pronounced on the instructor's tapes. She, like the old professor, is not too bad. Unfortunately she is gung-ho on that entire "attending class" hoopla so that remains a thorn in my side. One excellent thing my previous proffessor DID do, however, is allow me to skip out on those wretched tutoring sessions. So there is a fat grinning god covered with small children and oranges up there afterall.

I'm also taking 2D, which is sort of a longer version of the 2D I took in high school. The professor is peppy and strangely not painful to be around. I find myself enjoying the class and not screaming about having to wake up at 8AM to go. The class is long, however, so by the second hour of drawing the smae white chinese take-out box, I start to fidget. All is well however, as the professor fully encourages getting up, leaving, and going for walks/coffee breaks/vacation during class. I love art school.

What else is there... oh yes graphic design. I meet for 4 hours or something once a week with the same professor I had last semester for Graphic Design. The pros are that she is a great teacher and I love the way she teaches the class. The cons are that she knows I'm capable of very good work and I just don't feel up to her expectations in this class. So far the only thing I've done in the class is help everyone else with thier projects and create a "CHAOS BOX" out of windup toys, tinfoil, and a strobe light.

Photography is almost non-existant. I'm stressed about this entire idea of finding a single idea and running with it for the entirety of the term. After Frank let me know last term that my work wasn't as good as I thought it was, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now. Tommorro I'm going to visit china town with drooly, where I will hopefully capture some good pictures for the critique next monday. And I've called Julie about letting me babysit/shoot Tia and Tess on Saturday nights, but I still question myself and wonder if I really do have any talent whatsoever. Being in the intermediate class with all these people who have been taking photographs for several years is stressing too. I feel like nothing I say during a critique could possibly be useful. Uargh.

On the work front, I'm making progress but I'm not sure in which direction. PP cut my hours down from 4 days a month to two days a month, because the kid who has less experience than me and who gets paid more than me wanted to work Sundays too. FUCK. Mom's receptionist is quitting because she's joining the foreign legion and having a baby or something ridiculous, so she's calling me in on Saturdays to answer phones and whatnot. The good part about this is that I will be paid 12 dollars an hour and I will have a steady job on saturdays from 9-5. The bad side is that everytime I work for my mother, after a couple of days she starts telling me that there isn't enough money in payroll to pay me this week, so she'll have to pay me next week. And she does that until I finally quit because I haven't gotten any of my money. So it's a possibility of free slave labor work for her. My question is why she has enough money to pay a real receptionist, but when I'm working there she never has enough money to pay me.

In addition to the job I had last semester taking pictures of sports teams and whatnot, I got another workstudy as a darkroom TA. This is nice because it couldn't look bad on a rookie resume, and I save 30 dollars on lab fees.

Even with four jobs, my budget simply is not met. This is mostly because they are all one day a week jobs, and they all pay low to zero. That is why I think I shall adopt this idea that people are getting all over the internet of telling people to donate money to them in return for some ridiculous service, such as promising to send telegrams to thier dead grandparents. My services are as follows:

For 5 dollars, I will hand-draw a stick figure likeness of the buyer. If you actually want the stick figure to look anything like you (same number of arms, legs, etc) I suggest sending me a picture of yourself with the check.

For 10 dollars, I will TAKE OFF MY SHIRT!!! wooo!

For 15 dollars, I will TAKE OFF MY SHIRT and email you within a week of doing so, informing you that I have done so.

For 20 dollars, I will TAKE OFF MY SHIRT, email you telling you about it, AND, I will send you a picture of a person who is not wearing ANY [of my] shirts!

If that kinkified sort of thing isn't good enough for you, then I'm sure you could make something up and I'll just quote you a price. Perhaps I'll start a store.

All checks should be made out to "Ashia Lau" and sent to:
Ashia Low
Box 1277
Clark University
950 Main street
Worcester, MA
01610-1477