Learning Useless Things (And Other Forms of Procrastination)

(Let me first address the hiatus between New Year and Now.

I because unwilling to continue blogging at the beginning of January. Last time this happened was about two-thirds of the way through senior year of high school. I had created a schedule to keep up with - write every Friday - and when I became dissatisfied with the forced writing, I stopped altogether and didn't resume until about a month before college started.

This time when I became dissatisfied, I didn't force myself. I stopped writing (though I must have at least 6 drafts with potential ideas). So that's why, instead of months of inactivity, I've only taken a break of a month and a half.)

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I've, of late, gotten bored with my college routine. Wake up, go to class, take notes, do homework, eat, do more homework, sleep, repeat. This semester, I'm taking three science courses and only one humanities class, as opposed to last semester's two of each. Ergo, the math load has increased a lot and I'm missing my art hobby of high school. I wasn't meant to study so much math.

On an unrelated subject, I've recently gotten into song mashups. I like to put in an artist's name plus the word "Mashup" into the YouTube search bar, and see the most popular results that come up. Whatever I like, I follow their link to the download. I've found 12 songs so far, most of them composed of songs you wouldn't think go well together, but do.

I lied. These two subjects are actually very closely tied together. See, downloaded songs have no album artwork, and I loathe looking at the default album cover on my phone. So I decided to make my own album artwork. I have a drawing tablet, and Photoshop installed, so why not?

This solves my problem of being tired with math. However, I am fully aware it's just another one of my many forms of procrastination. Time I spend creating album artwork is time I could've spent studying, and since I am basically teaching myself how to navigate the many tools, it takes about an hour for me to do what a seasoned veteran could do in 10 minutes (though I am getting better and faster each time). It's even worse that learning how to use Photoshop is completely useless for my career.

Bearing that in mind, I've created 11 album covers so far. What? I thoroughly enjoy doing it, and it relaxes me. The third week of January and the second week of February have been the most stressful since college application days - probably even more. For college applications, it was just one thing I had to worry about. In January, I was juggling seven separate events/projects - most of which would affect the scheduling of another, and then that of another, and so forth. I had no clue which I wanted to prioritize and then schedule things around.

But I don't regret making these album covers. I really like how they turned out, and am really proud that, except for one short video tutorial, I figured out the basics of Photoshop all by myself. So I decided to up the bar and learn one more completely useless skill - iMovie.

I've recorded and edited a video of me making my latest album cover, with a montage tacked on the end showing the progression of all the covers I've made to date. It's a pretty good visual of how much I've improved - or at least, of how much more complex they look.

(Check to make sure it's at 720 p, or in HD. Idk why it doesn't automatically go to that when the video is capable.)

Sorry about how fast the pictures flash by at the end, but I was running out of song. 

Corresponding Songs to Album Artwork

Listed in order of appearance

1. Applause Miss Jackson (Lady Gaga, Panic! At The Disco)   <--
2. Radioactive in the Dark (Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy)   <--
3. United States of Pop, 2009 (Greatest Hits of 2009) <--, and There Is a Power Greater Than Me (see link for artists - there must be ~20)
4. People Like Caraphernelia (Kelly Clarkson, Pierce the Veil)  <--
5. Boulevard of Cool Kids (Green Day, Echosmith)  <--
6. If I'm Figure 8, You're Overlap (Sleeping with Sirens, Ellie Goulding, Paramore)  <--
7. This Is Black Widow (30 Seconds To Mars, Iggy Azalea)  <--
8. Check Yes Dear Maria (We The Kings, All Time Low)
9. Princess of Sins Not Tragedies (Coldplay, Panic! At The Disco)
10. Radioactive About To Blow (Imagine Dragons, Ke$ha)  <-- 
11. Where Did Last Night Go (Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy)

#3 has two songs associated with it, because they are mashups of too many songs to possibly represent all the album covers in one picture without it being overcrowded. Warning - United States of Pop may induce severe memories and perhaps even nostalgia.

My favorite songs have a red arrow, and my favorite covers have a purple arrow.

I wish I had recorded Radioactive About To Blow. That one would've been a lot more impressive to watch me edit, if I do say so myself.

If I had to suggest just one song, it would be... damn, it's too hard to pick just one... Okay, I'd have to go with This Is Black Widow, but People Like Caraphernelia is equally as impressive, as far as opposing genres go. But I love Boulevard of Cool Kids too. Those are the holy trinity of my self-compiled mashup album so far.

This week has been a week for learning many new things. I may be studying abroad in Sweden next semester at Uppsala (they have a really good biology program, and it's in the top 100 universities in the world, so I'm excited). They offer an intro to Swedish course there, which I'd like to take, but in preparation I'm teaching myself the basics via an app called Duolingo. So I'm still procrastinating, but at least it's useful procrastination. If I'm successful in at least learning conversational Swedish, then I will know four languages. I never thought I'd be impressed with myself. Guess I better reach that bridge before I burn cross it.

I like creating videos of me creating artwork. The next post will probably include another one, but maybe not sped up as much because I don't need to include excess stuff at the end.

Until next time, then.