Photopost: The Room

Well, I've survived Rome for three and a half days. Classes still haven't started, so we've been able to get out and see a lot. So for this first week, I'll try to post something everyday, but once classes start up, I'll try for once a week / whenever I feel like it.

So in my first Photopost, I shall show off our humble living quarters for the next 4 months.
We (that would be me and my two roomates Jeremy and Cal), are in "The Residence", the typical housing complex Temple Rome uses for it's students. It's not all bad, but you can judge for yourself:

This is what you see when you walk in, nothing major: a small kitchenette and rather spacious living room. Of course more space also means more space to heat, which apparently is not a priority here at The Residence. (I'd also like to add that we all agree that these shots make the room look A LOT better than it actually is...)





Next is the obnoxiously large bathroom, complete with a shower/tub, sink, toilet, and the legendary "bidet". (aka a sink for the tush) Where the room lacks in heat, it makes up in hot water. And by hot water I mean "an uncontrollable stream of boiling, liquid fire". But once you note that "C" indicates "caldo" for hot, and get used to the shower's EXTREMELY sensitive nature, it's not bad at all.

Last, and probably least, is our sleeping room. As you can see we have to put up with
some bunk action (I got bottom), and a floor-to ceiling, double-door, two-sectioned, closet with extremely shallow drawers. But so far we've been able to handle the challenge, since apprently we're "lucky" to have a bunk bed that Temple Rome convinced The Residence to purchase for their rooms (as opposed to sentencing a roomate to the couch/bed.) Whatever.



That about takes care of The Residence for now. I'll try to get the 90+ photos from today's excursions about Rome organized for a post tomorrow. Until then, Ciao!

In Rome

I've been in Rome now for almost two days. So far its been really great. My first plane ride alone wasn't too bad, I met some other Temple students who were also Rome-bound (despite the heavy Syracuse presence). Long plane rides never really bothered me, reading, sudoku, even a little drawing:
We arrived, and the fellow temple students and I stuck together, got our luggage, and were driven to "The Residence" were I and the rest of Temple Rome's students are staying. The appartment isn't much, but it fits me and my other two roomates (Jeremy and Col) and is very cold. (prompting this picture)
But so far, the 30 minute walk to campus isn't too bad. There's a lot of bars (as in tiny cafe-like shops that have snacks) on the way as well as the market, featuring many booths of fresh Italian veggies, fruit, cheese, bakeries, meat, everything good. Campus itself is rather reminiscent of the old Tyler School of Art at Elkins park as far as renovated old buildings for Temple's schools go. Tomorrow they're taking students out into the city on mini staff/students-who-were-here-in-the fall hosted tours, and I plan on going, since it's really rainy and bland today. We (roomates and I) did stop off at the market to buy some break-fast stuff for tomorrow today, on the way home from the Orientation. I'll be posting more pictures and maybe sketches later, but for now it's time for a nap and some lunch.

A Semester in Italy

Just updating to inform anyone reading that this blog will be mostly used to report back home my adventures in studying abroad. I hope to maintain it at least once a week with photos and fun stories.

See everyone on the other side of the internets!

Google Suggestions

Want a glimpse at who's using the internet these days? Try using Google. And by that, I mean type in random words and see how Google suggests to finish the phrase.
Of course, you could start with letters, but seeing that most of them are businesses (i.e. W is for Walmart), they probably paid for that spot. So I'm going to start with the question words. What are people asking Google these days?

"Who " (space included)
...is big poppa on real housewives of atlanta
...won megan wants a millionaire
...is my congressman
...invented the internet
...won america's got talent 2009
(These results ignore the "who wants to be a millionaire", "who says lyrics", and "who moved my cheese" as they are not actual questions.)

"What "
...is my ip
...does my name mean
...is my ip address
...is twitter
...to do when your bored
...time is it
...is love
...is a good credit score
(Not including 'what not to wear' and 'what are these strawberries doing on my nipples i need them for the fruit salad"(it's a book.))

"Where "
Where is monopolized by "Where the Wild Things Are" variations with the exception of #10: "Where are they Now"
However "Where is" yields some interesting results, including Chuck Norris, "my refund", "Lady Gaga from", "my mind", and "your appendix"

"When "
...is daylight savings 2009
...will i die
...is labor day
...will the world end
...is easter 2010
...does daylight savings end 2009
...does daylight savings time end
...does the hangover come out on dvd
...is thanksgiving day in 2009
...does new moon come out

"Why "
...do men have nipples
...is the sky blue
...is my poop green
...do cats purr
...do dogs eat grass
...did the chicken cross the road
...do dogs eat poop
...is there a dead pakistani on my couch
...did i get married
...did michael jackson turn white
(The sad thing about this list is that shows what people are asking these days...)

"How "
...to tie a tie
...to kiss
...to get pregnant
...to
...stuff works
...to lose weight fast
...to write a resume
...to lose weight
...long does weed stay in your system
(This result list could be taken chronologically. Getting dressed for a date, kissing, taking it to the next level (possibly marriage), interest in things other than their spouse, losing weight to 'save' marriage, looking for a new job after being fired from the last one for doing nothing but asking google how to live, losing weight for health reasons, and the drug slip-up. Judging by this list, the next reult would be either "how to check into rehab", or "how to handle divorce paperwork".)

dA: Do Not Attempt to Adjust Your Monitor...

...this is actually a real update.

Yes it has been quite some time since I've truly visited the ol' dA stomping grounds. So I'll get the usualy empty promises of uploading stuff out of the way.

I plan on uploading my artwork from my Tyler "career" at some point. More for me and my cataloging habits than for you. (Nothing personal.)

Now that that's done with I can tell you where some (relatively) new stuff of mine IS uploaded: http://astro.temple.edu/~tub53101 It's not all of my new stuff, but it IS something. That being said, there's a link on that site to the "official" Everybody Hates Hamlet website; which, at this point allows yo u to watch it and listen to the "original soundtrack".

Now for a deviantArt specific topic: why do keep people favoriting my "Cartoon Network Collection"? Whenever I visit this site, that's pretty much the only "miscellaneous" messages I get. It now has 147 favorites and 11,916 views. I haven't looked to see which one of my deviations comes in second, but I'm pretty sure it would be pretty pathetic by comparison. This leads me to believe that most deviantArt users are here for the fan art. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just a little dissapointed, that's all.

And in webcomics news, M-Comics will be resumed most likely when I'm done for the semester, and Ack-A-Me is still on the eternal hiatus. I have pencil comics drawn out for both, just not the time to digitize anything.

I suppose that's it for the Journal update. Thanks for reading!

~AJ

A Super Special Awesome Site

Hey I just finished making my Secret Public Site. You should visit it. It is super special awesome.

Periodic Table of Typefaces

It's sad because I thought of it BEFORE I found it. But it's also a lot better than I imagined as well, and from the looks of it, required a lot more work than I would've been willing to do. (As far as researching the best fonts and whatnot)