Holli Rausch

I thought I’d write a post summing up what’s been going on in my life.

I’ve been having sleeping issues. I’ve kind of had sleep issues my whole life. But more recently, I’ve been waking up anywhere from one-eight times a night. One night I woke up every half hour or so, and really didn’t get sleep at all. I took the afternoon off from work the next day. I’m light-sensitive, sound-sensitive, and movement-sensitive. I know when Miles gets out of bed and returns to bed and often wake up (luckily, he very rarely gets out of bed). I sleep with a sleeping mask and ear plugs but still wake up to sounds in the night. I have a hard time getting comfortable and I think that’s due to my back issues.

I’ve been going to the chiropractor for the last two years because about eight years ago, I stepped in an irrigation trench-thing while detasseling in a corn field and it caused my hips to be crooked, causing my spine to make up for the shift in weight/pressure on one side. I wear an insert in my shoe to make up for it, but as soon as I walk barefoot, it starts overcorrecting again, causing pain. I had back issues before, but it was more stress-induced and could be worked out with a good night sleep or back rub. Now that’s not enough. And now it’s keeping me from falling asleep quickly. I hadn’t been realigned since before the wedding, mostly because I didn’t want to bother finding another chiropractor that I could trust. But it’s gotten to the point where I need to get readjusted. Unfortunately, our insurance doesn’t cover chiropractic health. Most places the alignment fee is like $35 which isn’t bad, except that I should be going every other week to be pain free. Until we have it insured, I’ll just be going when I absolutely need to. Which will be more often than 5 months from now on.

I’ve been having headaches. It started with two (about two-three weeks apart) that may have been migraines. I’ve never had a migraine before, and don’t want to spend money going to the doctor to find out if they were, but they were the most intense head aches I’ve ever had before. The second one being so bad that when I tried to move, I felt like I was going to throw up. Since then there’s been a dull pain in my head, it feels like it’s behind my left eye and there hasn’t been a day in the last three weeks that I haven’t noticed it. At night, even with the sleeping mask, it feels like my left eye is wide open in a lit room. Causing more issues falling asleep.

I have a chiropractic appointment for Wednesday. I’m hoping it will take care of all my recent problems – head aches, back/neck/shoulder aches, and sleep problems. And to be honest, those are the main things going on in my life right now because it’s hard to think of anything else.

Quick things that have been going on: I got 3rd place in 3D design in Beadle Mania, to which I didn’t submit anything (a professor of mine submitted my character animation of the baby). It’s nice to have a paycheck and be able to put some money away for a future house (I’d like to live in a neighboring small town, like Harrisburg). I’m totally loving LOST and can’t wait for the finale, even though I know it means waiting 8 months for a new episode. I’m listening to a lot of design/media/geek related podcasts lately and it keeps my mind busy at work. I do plan to post about “The Movie Club” soon, and the explanation of it won’t be in the form of a riddle. Or lame.

Here’s a list of “firsts” that happened when I was 21.

• Rented a House
• Received 1st place in 2D for my photo in Beadlemania
• Discovered I didn’t like alcohol, only the fruity stuff in mixed drinks
• I found out I like juice
• Became a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant
• Worked at my favorite place of employment
• Gained a sister-in-law
• Later gained a brother-in-law, three sisters-in-law, and parents-in-law
• Took a summer class – Zoology – and enjoyed it
• Finished Harry Potter
• Acted in a traveling children’s show
• Posed for many more photos than I ever want to for the rest of my life
• Visited Philly
• Modeled and animated a 3D character
• Wrote this letter to Andrew Wilson
• Began creating monthly wallpapers
• Was in the top two for a great job and didn’t get it, triggering the beginning of no graphic design openings in a 50 mile radius
• Gave one of two student speeches at graduation
• Graduated a semester early, summa cum laude
• Fell in love with Albie
• Started a “favorite songs” blog posting excursion and failed to complete it
• Cheered on my fiance as he applied for and obtained employment with a company I’ve wanted to be a part of
• Took a painting class and decided I mega-loathe it
• Spent Christmas away from home
• Got married
• Died a little
• I kid!
• Acted dead
  
• Began responding to a new last name
• Vacationed to the happiest place on earth with the only man on earth that makes me happiest
• Owned a TV bigger than 27″
• Thoroughly enjoyed the company of an 18 month old
• Gained a permanent roommate
• Was unemployed for over 2 months
• Detached from the MilesRausch.com blogs
• Watched an entire Season (and then some) of LOST in less than 48 hours

Wow, I guess I had a lot going on in the past year…!

So our final project for 3D was animating the characters we modeled earlier this semester. I finished early. Not because it was easy, but because I spent a lot of time in there last week at night. People are mad because I’m done because they think it came easy to me and I ran into no problems and theirs is running into all these problems. Well, I ran into the same problems, it’s just I went in two weeks before finals week to work on it, rather than the week before finals week (when everyone else is in the lab). Just because they didn’t see me working several hours on it, doesn’t mean I didn’t. Sorry for the venting. I’m just frustrated with some classmates. My animation isn’t perfect, but with the constraints of the semester, and of the way I created the character, it’s decent.

I used to upload these with Google Video, but it doesn’t really exist anymore. I’m a part of an animation network with MyToons and so I’m trying their embedded player to share the animation with you. I hope it’s a good experience. Turn your sound on.

If you’re observant, you might have noticed that when you came to milesrausch.com/holli, you got redirected. All is thanks to Miles, as he bought the domain name and hosting as a gift. There will be a redesign, soon. No worries, your RSS feeds, links, and permalinks should all redirect to the new URLs. Even if you linked to a specific post; again, thanks to Miles.

Here are my last two paintings for my Painting class. This course was…to say the least…miserable. I don’t want to go into details, but nearly the whole class, if not the whole class, has lost all respect for the professor. In any case, I’m proud of these two pieces. But don’t get me wrong, I am very aware that I am not a painter. I love painting rooms and it seems as though that’s the extent of my emotion.

Our final project had to have at least one dimension matching or close to our height. Mine is about 5′ x 3.5′. You can see in the background a classmate, who is 6′, if that helps you with the dimensions. I can’t even fit it in my car, so if I’m going to keep it, I have to walk it home or find someone with a big enough vehicle.

The painting before our final project was a still life, and I wanted to keep some sort of theme, so I brought some of my demo Mary Kay products. These last two paintings had to be in the style of an existing artist, and I chose Paul Cezanne. Several of his paintings had the black outline look, with a large emphasis on high contrast values.

The next project I’ll be posting about will be my character animation. I should be finishing that up today in class. Sincerely, holligregg.com

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks making a baby. A few surprising things I’ve found out while on this miraculous journey:

• It takes patience
• Sometimes, the result isn’t exactly what you imagined
• It’s really, really hard work
• They don’t come with diapers, by default
• Another person involved is really just in the way
• Pacifiers are a God-send

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I have made a 3D model of a baby. I’m really happy with the model; which is a rare occasion, considering I’m a bit of a perfectionist and my own worst critic. I don’t often like my projects when I’m done with them. Of course, there are things I’d like to change, but I’m not dwelling on them because I like it overall. Next, we’ll add a skeleton and animate our models, (many people chose to model aliens, and I find that….weird interesting). This animation may be our final project, considering the time it takes to model and animate anything. And just figuring out how to animate a biped will take much time in itself. So, here’s hoping we don’t have another project for our final.