This past week my mom came up and visited, and after she left I promptly bought a bottle of wine. Actually, it was two bottles, just to be sure; you know how these things are! I only drank one…and a half. Overall, you could say it was fun!

While she was here we did all sorts of fun things, including frolicking in the sunflowers, suntanning on a beach and shoveling snow. Well, that last idea is the only probable one because it’s the MIDDLE. Of. Winter.

We did all the usual things, like go shopping and whatnot, and then we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum, or, better known as (BKA) the Milwaukee Museum of Artistic Adventures. We also went to the Domes, but I figured I would save those pictures for another post; I’m running out of my stored posts, alright?!

So, this is the actual building, and I must say, it is JUST…like that. However you want to interpret it. When you go inside, it’s a tiny desk and elevator music playing softly in the background as you walk in to this HUGE fake-marble hall. Of course, that big white ship-looking building isn’t even the art museum itself, oh no, they have you walk down this long hallway into the rejected art building made of mud and bricks, no, bricks and mortar, erm…rejected art and rubber glue, dammit! Well, the hall was nice enough, anyways.

That is looking out into Lake Michigan. I have to say it was a terribly overcast day, and I did a bit of doctoring techniques I learned in Photoshop recently from a library book. Not half-bad, eh?

That is looking up at the ceiling, it seems to go on FOREVER.

But, it doesn’t.

The conversation kinda went like this:
Mom: Jillian, why is there a guy standing over there?
Me: Looks like a Janitor.
Mom: I think it’s ‘art’…?
Me: Uhm, well, if it isn’t he is standing awfully still…

We walk over, and there is a guard standing RIGHT next to the guy. I couldn’t believe how realistic it looked! As tall as a regular human, and it looks EXACTLY like a janitor. The sign next to him says that his clothes are fashioned from a janitor in the 1970’s-era. There is a sign next to him, demonstrating what human contact can do to destroy an art piece. The guy is really, REALLY interesting, and in great condition, considering the amount of time it has stood without any rope surrounding it, and how many people have visited the museum, etc.

These TV’s were in a HUGE room, must’ve been stacked about 20 feet high, and all displaying different pictures at different points in time, really interesting to stare at, it was almost like a reverse lava-lamp, instead of it being soothing or calming and not being able to take your eyes off of it, you can’t take your eyes off of it because you are trying to catch a glimpse of all of the images whizzing past the TV’s. The room was dead-silent, no noise from any of the TV’s, just images flickering very fast.

Suddenly, I hear something faint, coming from behind me. I turn around to find the source, and I see a doll sitting on the ground, with a chair toppled over. I guess a famous artist is known for projecting faces onto dolls, it was rather creepy. As I got closer, one could hear what sounded like a monotonous speech coming from a small tape recorder on the floor by the doll, which was part of the ‘art’. It said things like “I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough”, and “I just wanted it all to end”. Let’s just say I moved on quickly from that one.

Now THIS, THIS was weird, man. It was call “infinity”, and created in the 60’s. It’s an entirely glass box, where one has to put on these ’slippers’ to get inside the box, and only two people are allowed at a time because of weight limit or whatnot, but man, that is what was inside. At first I like “No, I’m not going in there,” because you look down and you just see these, well, you know it was lights but it looked like it fell into nothing.

In the end my mom literally had to PULL me into the box; I have to say it resembled too much like a very high bridge for my comfort, not stable at all and if it broke I would fall into nothing, FOREVER! The only way I went into that stupid box was to tell myself over and over again that the floor is below, and NOT nothingness. Really odd feeling of floating-type when you went inside and pulled the black flap closed.

This was pretty cool, called “The Matrix”. I was leading in front, going through the Matrix-like hall. When my mom said to ‘keep going’ because the path wasn’t through yet, I stopped suddenly, looked up and said “Mom, It’s a ROOM”. I too thought it was mirrors and lights like how the “Infinity” box was set up, but it was an actual room filled with these strands of blue lights shimmering oddly. The room was HUGE!

Annnddd finally I give you, what I thought was one of the cooler ‘artworks’, it was just this giant table filled with glass objects.

I know you can’t see it very well, but this is a close-up of one of the objects on the table; it’s a fruit bowl with glass apples, glass grapes, etc. VERY cool. Some of it was cracked around the edges, I wasn’t sure if it was done on purpose or if some stupid art-goer did it, but either way most of the glass objects were intact and it was nice!

Overall, I had a lot of fun, at the art museum, with my mom (and the tequila that followed…). I’d have to say, mission, accomplished!

Today I received a letter from Carroll University stating that I had been accepted into the Master of Software Engineering program, and then I proceeded to frame said letter and do a happy dance around my house.

So…happy.

MAN I haven’t blogged in awhile, feels like years, buttt then again it has only been a month. In my last post, I alluded to a PowerPoint presentation that I had to give regarding Joomla. Well, I gave it, and of course at the end, I had to dump the bucket of sweat that was coming off of my ass-crack; I was THAT nervous.

Mmmm, nice visual there.

It ended up being really good actually, about 10 people asked me for my business card afterward, but I just stared stupidly at them all as if to say, “Business card? Is that the same as a cookie?”. Yes, yes it is. A very delicious cookie.

Did I mention I’ve been accepted into the Masters of Software Engineering program at Carroll University? As in, a Masters. Program. Of. Software. Engineering. Telling people I’m going back to college, well, it’s probably the equivalent of saying coolly that I’ve booked the first seat to the moon. People just look at me crazy, laugh and say, “Good luck!”.

Anyways, apparently three groups that came to the presentation want a Joomla site for their own Lions club, so I have to say: I think the presentation went alright! Maybe I’ll be invited back next year. :-)

More college? Am I a glutton for punishment or what? Here, let me roll over…so you have a better angle for kicking my ass, thanks!