I don’t have much money, i couldn’t afford to do what my classmate did. And yet i can’t find ways to spend it. When i do spend my money, i want it to be meaningful.

I do pirate things, but then i buy everything that i actually like or need, when i can afford it. Every now and then i make an attempt to stop pirating but bad experiences prevent that from happening. I would buy something without the possibility of properly previewing it and end up being disappointed.

I used the Open Office package because i found it better than the popular microsoft alternative up until the 2007 version. Now it actually offers something which Open Office doesn’t, like a better layout and a pleasant usability (i haven’t thought what it is that does it exactly, i should), but i’m not convinced yet it justifies the 2000kr price tag as opposed to the Open Office alternative.

Spending money in a meaningful way is hard in a capitalist society, where a lot of commerce is based on accidental buys and the power of marketing which encourages you to spend your money on things that you don’t really want or need.

With all this enforced on me by media and my co-dependent personality, it is hard for me to know what it is that I really want.

Gone Fishing. No Update This Week.

Going to give you a nice taste of how Indaba went the comming weekend. Also, today i had my first traffic accident. Not a collision, accident, fell of my scooter. I’m not hurt, but shaken and bruised. And you already got a preview of a two week project i’m doing, or so i hope…

C is for Cryptic.

Next week i am going to the Indaba Design conference, which everyone here loves a lot. I’m not sure why yet but i’m anxious to find out soon. If there’s anything interesting there, i’ll write about it. There’s also a big school assignment connected to the conference, in which i have to write an essay on if there are avant-garde movements in contemporary South African arts. Wish me luck

Just a quick update. I was drawing this while i was waiting for a couple of friends at a resteurant, after a couple of drinks. Drawing after drinking works i guess. The Other Adam did a touch up, increasing the contrast of the picture.

This is called a Robot. Because it has power over people?

Also, calling all NDS owners! If you are up for some Online Play with me, especialy Advance Wars: Dark Conflic / Days of Ruin, please post your Friend Codes in the comments.

In other news, i finaly got a scooter It’s a Vuka, believe that’s a local brand. I don’t have a picture of it, but i will. To be honest, i don’t like the way it looks at all but it gets me places and it was cheap. It’s still a bit scary to be out in the traffic on it, but i’m getting used to it very rapidly.

When i get back home i think i will set getting a yellow Vespa as one of my goals in life. But first i need to check out the traffic laws, as in what kind of vehicle does the Vespa count as, do i need a special licence for it, can it be taken on the highway and so on and so fort. If anyone knows, i would really appreciate a little comment here with some info, so i at least know where to start looking.

The day before yesterday was also the first time i attended a CouchSurfing meet. I loved it a lot, the people were wonderful and i got a couple of new contacts, even to a pair living just across the street from me! I can literally see their windows from my balcony. How cool is that. Also a girl called Mandy, with the cutest facial expressions, asked for the address to my blog so she can check out my projects Unfortunately, after a couple of drinks my face problems started acting up again , but i hope ppl didn’t mind. I really need to do something about that…

Anyway, here come the pics.

Ps. I tried changing the way this blog shows my pictures… what do you think?

This is part of the result of last weeks project. The task was to go to a place, and in five drawing capture the essence of that place and the emotions that it creates in you. Then, make 5 drawings using opposite techniques. I’m only showing you the pictures i’m somewhat proud of, and none of the opposites.

The inside of the little booklet i made, showing both of the Free Thought image version.

The cover and binding i used to put the booklet together. Yes, it's a six pack of Heineken.

My first ever image in colour, not counting what i did in kindergarten as a kid I'm quite content how it turned out.

A drawing i inverted and imposed on a photograph of a pool table.

It's a precise version of the shack logo.

An image i drew using a ligh board, then cut out and pasted on a pamplet i found at the place... the little table there was first drawn and then edited in photoshop.

I’m quite tired now after a long day, so that’s all for now.

But please leave comments and motivations to do more work/posts Hope you enjoyed it.

After the first week

After the second week

Before mid-term exams

During the mid-term exams

After the mid-term exams

Before the final exam

After acquainting with the final exam schedule

7 days before the final exam

6 days before the final exam

5 days before the final exam

4 days before the final exam

3 days before the final exam

2 days before the final exam

1 days before the final exam

The night before the final exam

An hour before the final exam

During the final exam

After leaving the examination room

After the exam, during summer break

This Is University Life!

Ps. None of the artwork presented here is mine, i randomly found it on the internet.

I desperately need a means of transport to become more independent. I was hoping to get a scooter this weekend, but the guy i’m buying from seems to be away just this weekend so i will most likely get on on monday, i hope. Otherwise there is a girl in class who is selling her old one, but the resell value on that one isn’t as high, so i aiming for the other one. It’s a Yamaha BWS 100. The BWS stands for Big Wheel Scooter, which apparently makes it an off road scooter. Ever heard of anything like that? 100 stands for 100cc, which is the size of the engine, but even despite that Johan assures me it’s the best possible scooter to get, and since i don’t know squat about those and i can’t get a vespa, i’ll trust him.

The first week of school was pretty intense. I worked from 9 to 20 every day, and was done by Thursday afternoon with only printing left for friday. Unfortunately everything took a lot more time as usual, and i help out Suzanna with her project a bit too, so i ended up at home around 15, just before the heavy traffic hit. I really need my own transport.

The result of my first week at CPUT and a small miniature showing the backside.

In other news, my favourite sneakers broke. It’s a pair i bought when i was last in Vienna, since i couldn’t find a pair i like at home. I exchanged the shoelaces from the original black ones to red before i came here, so its a very personal pair of sneakers to me. All the more annoying that they broke.

But, very unusually for me i decided to fix them myself. This course of action is probably inspired by the book Bohemian Manifesto which i am (still) reading. I could have given them to a shoemaker for repairs, or even worse thrown them out and gotten and new pair. But they weren’t all that badly broken, all that happened was that one seam broke on the outer side of the shoe, so it wasn’t really a hole, just a minor cosmetically rip.

With some determination i took a sewers kit and a red thread, and i sow up the rip myself. I’m actually pretty proud of myself. The new seam is very visible, and adds another nuance of red to the shoe, and a whole lot of personality. It feels incredibly good to do something practical with your hands, without any prior knowledge or training or help.

The new seam in my shoes

It’s incredible how good a rip in your shoe can make you feel.

PS. sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures recently, i’ve been using my new camera -.-

A piece of art created for a school project, original concept artists name unknown.

I’m not doing the Graphical Design program full time. I’m going to pick away some courses i’m not so interested in, like history, and do my own projects in the meantime. Which would be the GVC (GGVC?) web site ^^ Looking forward to that.

So things have been happening at the University. Next week is the first week of school for normal South African students. The first years have an orientation week, but everyone else just continues their education as normal. Not sure how this is going to work out for me, as it’s becoming more and more obvious that the university here hasn’t really got a plan for receiving Masters students. So people are unsure how it is supposed to work and preferably it would be nice if someone else took care of that problem for them. I’ll be there Monday morning, but i ‘m still not sure what will happen. I would love to do my own projects, got at least 2 proposals.

This is a picture specialy for Ahrens. Check description.

I have started moving my blog to my private domain. You can look at its start here, but it’s just an empty page now. Depending on what happens in school, i will be working on creating my own CSS and some custom features. I hope it’s easier than i think it is, but understanding someone else’s code is never simple. My goal is to have a couple custom made CSS you can choose from and exploring the blog in terms of usability.

Since i moved here, the cultural differences have been creeping up on me slowly. I really love how the generally mentality of the people is. They are all really friendly and eager to meet a new face. One major difference i’ve noticed is eating at home. Not many people do it. There’s no point. It takes time and effort, and is likely to be more expensive than eating out. So very few people cook at home, and they do it mostly for pleasure. It made me realize, the the way of life i had been taught at home, doesn’t have to apply. ‘The proper way’ of doing things is just a way i’ve been taught because of local reason, cultural or habitual. Interesting.

If you peel all of that away from me, i wonder what would be left?

*lick*