Blog #6: Tuesday?? Oh no! I forgot one!

Hey everyone! I meant to do a blog yesterday but I was soooo busy with my work I had no time. I have yet to take a picture of my studio, but I'll get on that very soon! I've been spending almost all of my free time in the studio. Eat sleep and draw has pretty much been every day for the past week, but I knew what I was signing up for so you won't hear any complaints out of me!

I'm currently working on a "hometown map. The finished product has to be a drawing with either a famous building or an icon-- professional sports player, actor, whatever -- and somewhere in the drawing has to be your town or county map. So, I'm doing Monmouth County, and my icon is Bruce Springsteen. I won't spoil the surprise, but I promise I'll post my drawing on the website when it's finished. The final product has to be 24" x 36", and it's done entirely in pen and ink... which, as you can imagine, is going to take a ridiculously long time. Tonight I'll most likely spend in the studio again, I'm considering bringing a pillow and blanket and sleeping there tonight; I wouldn't be the first person to do it this year and I certainly won't be the last.

Tomorrow night is the first pep rally of the year, and thursday is the first football game of the year! Here are some of the chants we've been told to memorize:

--"Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh  C-A-N-E-S-CANES."
--"It's great! To be! A mi-ami hur-ricane it's great! To be! A mi-ami hur-ricane it's great! to be! etc.."
--*Fight song music* M-I-A-M-I FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!"
--"It's all about the U! It's all about the U! It's all about the U!"
--(Left side) "Hurri-!" (Right side) "Canes!", (Left side) "Hurri-!" (Right side) "Canes!"

And finally, after every game- win or lose- we all sing the Alma Mater; with one finger waving in the air; which goes like this:

Southern suns and sky blue water,

Smile upon you Alma mater;
Mistress of this fruitful land,
With all knowledge at your hand,
Always just to honor true,
All our love we pledge to you.
Alma Mater, stand forever
On Biscayne's wondrous shore.
C-A-N-E-S CANES!

So the game this thursday, if anyone is curious, will be on espn3.com.. after that, a good majority of the canes games will be on national TV.

Hope everyone is doing well at home. Love you all and miss you all so much.
Norman

Blog #5: Sunday: Mass, Laundry, Work, and Studio!

Hey everyone! I just got back from my first mass on campus (well, just off campus) at St. Augustine's! The mass was nice, it was cool to see so many college kids walking across Hecht Lawn to mass. Later today, it's laundry time. And I say that only because, well, I'm out of clothes. Great. So, one of my friends is going to video skype me so she can show me how to do the laundry. I can't figure out if that's more pathetic or more funny, but it's definitely somewhere in between. Before laundry, I'm going to have to put in some work in studio and, eventually, read the rest of The Sacred and The Profane.

Besides that, nothing much new is going on!

Love you all and miss you all,
Norman

(Also Bridgey, next time you're at Grandma's with the kiddies, please call my cell phone and we'll work out a time to have a skype video chat!)

Blog Post #4: It's been 2 weeks?

It's weird that it's already been almost 2 weeks since my aloha party. I miss everyone so so much. Please don't ever hesitate to call my cell just to chat, I'll always do my best to answer. But everything down here is so much fun. The movie last night, inception, was just as awesome the 3rd time around. Have you seen it yet grandma? If not, you should!

Also, Bridgey, thank you guys so much for the letters and all of my little bookmarks. I love them so much. Kathryn's is currently holding my place in "The Sacred and The Profane", which is amazingly even less interesting than it sounds. James' is keeping place for my notes in "Experiencing Architecture", Mary's is holding my chapter in Applied Calculus for the Managerial, Life, and Social Sciences, and Sara's is keeping me in the right place in "The Pillars of the Earth".

Today was just a relaxing day. I slept late, had some lunch, worked in studio for a while, went to Target to pick up some "architecure supplies" (I paid a 4 dollar metro ticket to buy a 2 dollar box of thumb tacks), and now I'm on my way out the door to throw a football, grab some dinner, and be at the wellness center for my 9:30PM raquetball court reservation with some friends. Love you all and miss you so much!

Norman

It's the weekend!

Sorry this won't be a long blog post, but I'm about to go wait in line for my Hurry-Cane shuttle pass for the football games. I finished class and grabbed some lunch, tonight I'm going to Sunset Place with a bunch of friends to get dinner and see a movie, it's my buddy John's birthday today. Tomorrow I get to sleep in for the first time in what seems like forever. Then I'll be spending lots of time in studio!

Love ya!
Norm

Blog Post #2: It rains alot.

I don't have many pictures today, but I got poured on twice today. There hasn't been a day where it was completely dry all day. But the 12 hours of sun definitely cancels out the 20 minutes of rain each day.

Here's my finalized schedule, just so you all can know exactly where I am each day =]

Architecture Design I, MWF, 9:05-11:55
Architecture Drawing I, TR, 9:30-12:10
Architecture and Culture, MW, 1:00-2:15
Calculus, TR, 2:00-3:15

Hope everything is going great at home, I love and miss all of you!

(Also, if any of you want to send pictures to me on this blog, all you need to do is visit http://www.imageshack.us/, click 'browse', select the photo you want to show me, click 'upload now', and copy and paste the URL into a comment on the blog. It sounds like alot, but it wouldn't take more than a minute to do.)

Norman

Welcome to my blog!

Hey everyone. I was trying to decide what would be the best way to connect with you guys, and this is what I decided. I'll update this as much as I can, at least once a week. Some days there'll be a story, and others there'll just be a "just checking in". Regardless, I figured this was a good way to connect with all of you guys quickly and easily. I'll really quickly update you on what I've been doing recently; school started today- so that's always fun and excitig. I had Arc Design I and Arch and Culture I today, tomorrow I have Drawin I and Calculus. So grandma, don't be surprised if I give you a call and ask for help on my Calculus homework. I'm not very good with integrating on a z-plain with indefinite integrals, so I'll need you to help me brush up on that.

I've been going to alot of U-Events; a comedian, a dive-in movie (movie from the pool), 850 different "Welcome to Miami!" seminars, and so many more. Here are a couple pictures from my first few days.

My room so far-- you'll get an updated, less clean version in a few weeks I'm guessing

On the left is me with the Heisman trophy. I was tempted to do the Heismen pose, but I refrained from embarassing myself. If you couldn't tell yet, it was pouring outside.












And over here on the left is me sitting in the Miami conference war room, where Coach Shannon and company make all of their tough decisions.

And, finally, the above is a picture of me and the mascot, Sebastian the Ibis. He is NOT a duck, so don't call him one! He's an Ibis, which is the bird that is last to leave during a hurricane, and the first to come back after one is over.

Hope everything is going great at home! Don't forget to comment on this blog post, and we'll all be able to communicate through this.

Love you all lots,
Norman