david mamet, writer.

playwright, screenwriter, director, author, artist.

a meeting of the minds.

Today was the first day I attended BOTH my classes (Modern Drama and College Algebra). I have those two classes back-to-back, and as soon as my math professor ended her (very engaging) lecture, I dashed to Burger King across the street from campus. Bought and finished two tacos, a rodeo burger, and onion rings while I was walking back to the Gold Line. I was starving. Had a huge headache on the way home, no thanks to my old prescription. Let me tell you, headaches caused by your poor, failing eyesight is very unpleasant.

And, yes, it takes five of those babies to rid me of any brain-pain.

School is absolutely amazing. Most people go to school with a goal of obtaining a degree in mind, keeping themselves motivated, reminding themselves to push harder for academic success in order to have an easier career life. But, for me, school has never been about a degree, a pathway to a successful career, status, whatever. I go to school to meet with minds. Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd keep going to school until my brain fails. The reason I love school the most is because you come together with intelligent (mostly) people who come from different backgrounds, who offer a different viewpoint on a subject matter. You come across amazing professors who share their interpretation of the material they teach, ultimately expanding our own awareness and knowledge. My Modern Drama professor, she's SO AMAZING, has definitely wowed me today. And through her, I found a new person to be inspired by, other than herself of course. David Mamet, I don't know why I haven't heard of him before.

And my math professor! Boy, is she something else. I never thought I'd ever really want to stay in a math class as badly as I did today. Thankfully, bless her soul, I was able to add the class when it was already way beyond maximum capacity (she requested a bigger classroom in order to add all six waitlisters into the course) and I couldn't be happier. She's so encouraging, so pro-individual-learning. Definitely made me feel like I should push myself harder when it comes to mathematics (and I abhor subject). Actually, I was pretty advanced in it during elementary. I was learning seventh grade level stuff with a few others in the fifth grade. To be honest, my dad's system of teaching was quite traumatizing when he tutored me in those days, which is probably why I pay the numbers no sincere heed, although I know that math would definitely satisfy my love of logic. Oh, the irony. Anyway.

Today, I fully realized just how out of the loop I am with the world around me. Today, I fully realized just how starved I was for classroom stimulation. All those different opinions, speculations, all in one room. It's so inpiring!

It certainly feels damn good to be back. And the 1.5hour morning commute? It's definitely more interesting than dreadful.

paris, a pinhole movie project.

this is one of the many gems i found on vimeo.
it's a pinhole movie project where an apartment is darkened but for a hole in a window, letting a little bit of light in. then, voila, the outside world projects upside down on the walls (camera obscura for those of you who aren't familiar with it's principle). camera obscura was what ultimately led to photography (and eventually film making), and it's interesting to see a movie project using the elements of its roots.
watching this video made me want to make myself a pinhole camera. hey, maybe that'll be my next project!

first day of school.

Hi, all.

I haven't been consistent, I know. This month's been a busy one--my time's been taken up by a new job (on top of more hours at LACMA), birthdays of loved ones and, best of all, school. Today was the first day of Spring semester over at Pasadena City College and I'm totally in love with the campus as well as my Modern Drama professor (English 57). I just hope that despite the budget cuts and the overcrowded classrooms, I'll be able to add the math class I need (ugh, math).

It's been almost two years since I've been in an official classroom setting--I didn't realize how much I missed it until I sat there among 20+ individuals, going over the class syllabus with the professor. And, yeah, the commute's kind of far (an hour and a half via Metro), but what else is new? In the end it's totally worth it. I seriously love how Pasadena City College really care about the academic success of their students. They pay more attention than CSULA, that's for sure.

e=mc2.

marijuana.

love is.

lightworks, won't do.

button, sun, front door, self-portrait.

I'm so behind.

February 7. 

It was a rainy day, and the button I was pushing the most was my umbrella's.

so far to go.

"it was you who fed my appetite for seduction."

this song is incredibly sexy.

love it here.

"my words are just emotional, spoken from the bottom of the totem pole."

fall in love.

"don't sell yourself to fall in love with the things you do."

i shaved my head today.

i just can't seem to leave my hair alone.

starz.

"the only one i want to be with is you."

the red.

"ya'll niggas be out of your head if your system ain't up to the red."

happy birthday, jay dee.

here's to one of the greatest.

dinner.

chicken stir-fried in oyster sauce with spinach, onions, garlic and mushrooms. scrambled egg. rice.

star and i spent today running errands and she cooked dinnaaaah. <3

sun in my face.

one of my favorite dilla beats!

stranger, 10am.

February 4. Strangers. (I'm cheating, shhh.)

February 5. 10AM.

think twice.

"you're love's like fire and ice."

nothing like this.

"something tells me you're the one; i never felt quite like this."

hannahrenee x hip hop canada.

I don't know if I already shared this with you all, but I'm a contributor to Hip Hop Canada! I want to thank my friend Sina Tash for thinking of me. He's the head of the newly opened Los Angeles office of the site and we make a great team together when it comes to tackling interviews. Crazy how our strengths just mesh together perfectly--I think our work dynamic is pretty awesome. We both come up with the questions, he interviews while I take photos and write up the article later on, he reads it and puts his input, then I edit and submit! Pretty nifty, eh?

When we interviewed Kendrick Lamar before his show at The Music Box.

I'm currently listening to The Weeknd and writing up another article for them right now, which is why I thought up of this post, haha. A little "productive" way of procrastinating (promoting the site + our work? done!), wouldn't ya say? Read the debut interview we did for Hip Hop Canada here, and check back for the Kid Ink article I'm working on.

Screenshot of my contributor bio.

Alright, back to work I go!

hands.

i love my elephant bracelet! it's actually two different elephants put together.

what my hands will be doing for the most part of today.

african rhythms.

good morning.

another challenge?

YES. Let's see if I can do these in a timely fashion, eh?

Here's yesterday's challenge as well as today's.

February 1 - Your view today.

Yes, that huge ass 55" TV is in our small ass room.

I insisted on a 45", max. He went ahead with this one.

No wonder my eyes are getting worse, lol.

dilla-uary, day two.

or is it that my eyes are telling me something you could never see?

something like me being with you, or you being with me...

new-new?

I've been waking up pretty early these days, regardless of what time I close my eyes to sleep. Pretty early? My mind stirs and my eyes open around 4AM. I can't even fully fall back asleep--I stay in this weird in-between state of sleep and consciousness. Which leads to lucid dreaming...leads to some very lucid dreaming. My dreams have been pretty crazy lately, it's almost surprising to know that I'm completely (well, almost completely) in control of them. In the words of Holly Golightly, "the mind reels."

This morning I woke up with the need to do something different with my hair--it literally got me up out of bed as soon as I woke up from..half-sleep (I don't even know what to call it, lol). So, there I was in my bathroom at 8AM with a pair of my mom's old hairstyling scissors that I found in my box of hair-stuff under the sink. Kind of panicked, actually thinking I was gonna fuck it up really bad.

Ta-da! Here's my new look for the next few months! I think I did pretty well with those blunt blades, haha.