What I Learned Wednesday

Ok, ok, I know it's "technically" not Wednesday anymore (I meant to post this yesterday). So I LOVE going to school and learning new things everyday!!! I am so excited for my visual media class because we're learning about how to edit/ write and manipulate HTML and CSS. I'm pretty sure since I'm so stoked about this, I am officially a nerd! Wow, what an interesting feeling. Any-who, our current project is designing a web page and turning/ submitting it by Monday. So that is easily a weekend activity I'll be enjoying for sure! The other thing that I am WAY excited about is my BIM class (building information modeling) we use a program called REVIT that allows us to model buildings in 3D. We are getting close to the end of the course and our final project is a rendered walk through of the buildings we have been modeling. SO I have (what my teacher calls) my first piece of PROOF! I am so excited that it actually worked. I'm going to post my little walk through clip at the bottom. Now this is just a preliminary walk through of just the wire frame of the model. I have yet to put all of the detail components in it yet. So if it looks funky, at the beginning, don't worry, I'm fully aware of it and in the works of getting it to perfection. I'll keep posting updates of my progress and finally my final walk through movie! Yay!!! I'm so so so so so.... EXCITED!!!

-enjoy!

 This is an exterior view of my building I am rendering. It has some of the earth in place (it's not quite where it needs to be just yet) but it's cook how you can see the foundation walls underneath it. 

 

 

So this is just a quick screen capture of what I'm looking at in REVIT before I render anything.

This is an example (test run) of how well my model will render in the end. The lighting is kinda funny because we're looking directly at a cross section of the building, so the sun light is just pouring in and casting shadows. But since my building doesn't have a gaping hole in it, it will render more "normal" looking at the end. During the walk through this will be shown on the right side. My camera angel isn't great, so you don't get a good view at this display case.

So this is just a quick hidden frame walkthrough to give me an idea of what my camera is pointing at. Below is a VERY short clip of what it would look like if it were rendered completely. To get 30 sec. of rendered walk through takes about a day for my computer to do!

Snow

In Idaho when it rains, it snows! Snow, snow, snow it's all around us. It loves to comes in the middle of the night while your sleeping and watch your shocked expressions when you discover it in the morning. Tomorrow Ben is flying to Mesa to find work and get registered for school before Kirahley and I come down in December. Today while chilling on the couch together we had the following conversation about snow and driving:

Ashley: babe, it's snowing out side
Ben: yep
Ashley: this means I have to drive in the snow by myself when your gone
Ben: yep
Ben: but you already know how to drive in the snow now, all you have to do is say, "Ben, Ben, it's snowing outside and I need you to drive me around."
Ashley: Yeah, yeah, really funny, I know how to drive in the snow, I just don't like to.
view from our car today

The Look

I was getting ready for our date night and totally stoked about putting on my new outfit. The only problem was that while I was getting ready I kept telling myself, "oh, if only I had some cute black heels, or a sweet unique necklace to ultimately complete my ensemble." Then those thoughts led to how little money we have and then that led to more depressing thoughts until I realized, how stupid I was starting to make myself feel over things that didn't matter.

As I started on this new train of thought I began to ask, who is it that I'm trying so hard to impress? I know for a fact that if I walked out of the house with brown heels on instead of black ones, no one was going to throw tomatoes at me and God sure wasn't going to zap me with a lightning bolt either. The world would keep on turning whether or not I wore the right shoes, had the right makeup or perfect hair. So then who again is it that the world keeps trying to impress with their fashionable values? The truth is, no one. NO ONE cares but themselves. Everyone is so scared about not pleasing this unknown god that we start to turn on each other and pass unnecessary judgments.

I feel mothers get a lot of heat and pressure about how they should look. Heaven forbid we walk out with the same pants we wore the day before, or with half a face of makeup on. The second a new mom cuts her hair she gets stamped as opting out for the "mommy cut" because she has no time. All of this hype is overrated and receives my stamp of 100% lame sauce!

I strongly believe in being well groomed and prepared for the day, and I love getting pretty for my husband. All-in-all, I feel that to many woman look down upon themselves because they are trying to please an unknown god of fashion. What I do find funny is that 9 times out of 10, Kirshley is always better dressed than me, which I'm positive is due to the fact that she doesn't care what she wears as long as she's not naked!

Kirahley and me chillin

Catching a Breath

You know what's great about a vacation (even if it is a mini one)? RELAXING! It's so nice to be able to escape away to grandmas house for the weekend and catch your breath from the crazy week. One of my favorite parts is getting to eat tasty treats that melt in your mouth and enjoy it with people you care about! Last night was fun as we watched How to Train Your Dragon on blu-ray. Ok, I have never seen anything on blu-ray before, but I am now a convert to its technology! Oh my! The movie quality was just phenomenal along with the story line!!!

No more Excusses!

So life is crazy and amazing mixed up perfectly in a blender. Between my last few credits for school and all the other credit I don't "have to" but really wanted to take, I feel like I'm on overload. But if you know me, you wouldn't be surprised.  I LOVE learning! It's my addiction and I don't/ know it will never go away. I have found the best adventures and excitement when I try something new and stick my head out of my comfort zone for a peak at what else is available.
If you ask my mother-in-law, she can easily tell you how many time I have said, "I plan to ..." I have so many "plans" and "want to do's" I have to keep a running list of them or else I would forget or get sidetracked.

I started this blog because I wanted to learn more about web design and how to edit and manipulate HTML. My long term goal is to launch my own personal website that will have my online portfolio on it and showcase the talents I have to offer. I'm quite happy with what I've created so far. A lot of what I have done has come from my own self learning. Some people dread buying text books, but I LOVE them! (well just the relevant ones to my interests) While this is my last semester of school hear at BYU-Idaho, I felt sad that I hadn't been able to study all the things I wanted to while here. Then I had a great idea/ realization. Textbooks are my answer! I've noticed a pattern with text books assigned to classes, the teacher normally has you read large obnoxious portions of text only to discus and test on it later. So, IF is study a text book in a subject I am interested about, but not in the class for, I can THEN teach my self as best as possible what those students are learning in class. However, while textbooks do add up, the library works great as well.
I have also learned that while I have so many things I would love to and can do, I have a hard time just taking the plunge and JUST DOING IT! That's when I have to refer back to my favorite quote, "Our Greatest Fear". Really, nothing is holding me back but myself and if I want to conquer all I have set out to do, I just need to GO & DO or in the words of Nike, "JUST DO IT!"

So from here on out, NO MORE EXCUSES! This is why I am posting for the first time today. Ideally I wanted to wait until I had everything up and running on my blog, but tomorrow never comes. Like I said earlier, this blog is still on going. So who ever my readers are will get to experience the changes I make as I go and as time will permit. Another thing to know about me is that I am not the best grammatical blogger out their. Spell check is my best friend, and polishing my grammar skills is on my to do list. This blog is another way I can go about accomplishing this.
Any-who, this is a long post as it is, so ttfn (ta-ta for now) until next time when my baby falls asleep :)

Our Greatest Fear

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson (from her book "A Return to Love"