magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

i keep wanting to challenge my painting teacher on his convictions about the types of paintings that he feels we should be doing in class. it seems to me that in an introductory painting class we should be learning materials and techniques, but he's definitely pushing his own painting philosophy as well. depth, light and shadow, dimensionalism, realism. i decided to look through the syllabus to check on what the objectives of the class were s'posed to be. we haven't been following it all that closely, sometimes for the better in my opinion, but one of our major projects was s'posed to be a "semi abstract" painting from sketchbook drawings. the self portrait seems to have replaced that assignment. and i'm enjoying doing the self portrait, but i still would like to have the opportunity to do something more abstract.

mailed my extension request off to the irs today. it's this simple little form: name, address, what you owe, what you've paid, what yr paying now. still the only part i didn't have a problem with was the what i'm paying now, which is nothing. if you've changed yr name, yr s'posed to file that change with the social security administration before filing documents with the irs. i haven't done that, i used my new name anyway. i decided to use my connecticut address, even though my current "permanent" address is here in texas. as for the what i owe, and what i've paid so far. i just picked some random numbers. i'll have to clear all this up before i actually file, of course, which has to be pretty soon anyway for financial aid purposes.

i spent the evening perusing used books, and yes, i gave in and bought the story of the western wing, a translation of a 700 year old chinese play. although i also poked around in the chinese language section for a bit, and had the feeling that i'd really like to continue my chinese studies.