I'm taking a graphic design class this semester.

I've always wished I could be good at the arts. When I was young, my mom sent my sister and me to a weekend drawing course. Every Saturday morning she would drive us over and we'd spend five hours or so staring at a bunch of apples in a bowl. Even though my creations during those five hours surpassed anything I did elsewhere, claiming they were anything besides 'a decent effort' would be an outright lie.

My mom is an amazing artist. At nineteen, she won a scholarship to an art school in Italy, which she turned down by choosing to marry my father instead. She's done jewelry design, Koran art, interior decorating, and plain drawing. Some of those genes could have come my way.

But they didn't.

I've taken classes in art, 2-d animation, 3-d graphics, graphic design, and pottery. Some of them, I took several times. Some of them, I even enjoyed.

But not graphic design.

My graphic design teacher is treating us like real graphic designers. She's giving us real assignments. Critiquing our work as if she were a client. That's why she's a good teacher. So I know it's not her fault. I'm not even taking the class for credit, and yet I stress before each assignment. I annoy everyone around me, asking for reaffirmation, begging for approval.

This week's assignment is to create a self-identity. Since I'm not taking the class for credit and since I've been thinking it's time for a redesign, I asked her if I could do my web page instead. She said okay.

I spent yesterday going through the 250 fonts on my machine, trying to pick one that represented me. I didn't know what I was looking for but I figured I'd find it when I saw it. Not true. When I finally settled on one, it was mostly cause it looked like handwriting, giving me a diary-ish feeling. I started with my typical purple, and went through seventeen color changes before settling on these. I put black and white photos, changed them to color. I put them on the side, on the top, on the bottom. I moved everything around too many times. After hours, everything started blending into each other and I decided it was time to stop.

So here it is. A new page. Some color.

I'm not changing the archives, I'll integrate it as I go along. I'm not done with this design, it might change. Got opinions? Tell me publicly, tell me privately. Tell me either way.

At least it's got color.

Previously? Thankful.