Christmas Eve, 2013

Since the semester ended I've been really busy trying to get things organized and easily packed up in preparation for the move. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend Christmas in the new apartment; after finals week, everyone in Student Housing but two employees took off for Christmas, something they said never happened before. So, they couldn't check on the apartment they plan to move me to or get anyone to help me move.

Blah. Ah well, they plan to move me in the week of January 2nd, and that's not too far away.

Initially I wasn't going to worry about Christmas decorations, since I'm living on my own in this small university apartment ... but you know, with the way this year has gone, I needed some Christmas cheer. That, and Cameron University's  Programming Activities Council had a ornament-decorating thing going on I attended back in November, so I had some ornaments lying around with no place to put them. I couldn't really spend Christmas out of town with relatives (for various reasons), so I couldn't decorate someone else's tree with them, either.

So, I bought and put up a small one in my room a few days ago and decorated it to resemble the one my family used to put up in previous years. The stocking ornament has a picture of my mom in it, a copy of the one we used for her headstone.

I might keep the tree up even after the new year's; maybe not with all the ornaments on it, but the way the tree's fiber optic lights cycle between colors is soothing to watch.

As for my plans for the new year ... I'm not sure how things are going to shape up for me outside of university matters. Cameron Unversity and the Great Plains Technology Center are having their annual animation contest next Spring, with the application deadline sometime in April. I'd like to get in on that, if I'm not too wiped out by the chemo by then. I'd also like to try and get back into the groove with artwork and Ragnarok Wisdom and the like, but I'm hardly in a position to make promises (and Load knows I've made plenty of empty ones in recent years ...). I might spend my free time on a lot of non-RW art first.

Gut Funk and the RW crew gave me a really touching present for my birthday earlier; enough money for my own copy of Adobe Illustrator CS6. (I explicitly avoided getting the Creative Cloud version because I want to own software, not rent it.) Taking Computer Graphic Design this semester really demonstrated to me the power and potential of that program, and I'd like to see what I can do with it. I'd love to be able to make some high-quality vector art, maybe even suitable for prints.

So ... that's how the closing of the year is going for me. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, guys.