I had my first critique yesterday. We had to present our project in front of the class - a project done with foam core and string. Most students' projects looked like something spawned from a sugar-induced kindergarten experiment, my own included. The class would pipe up with their ideas and suggestions, constructive criticisms, what have you, and they were great.

Well, almost great. Well, overall, yeah, it was great, it's just that there was this one dude. He's got bright red hair that's seven feet long. It's honestly about 3/4 his length, contained by not one, not even two, but four strategically-placed hair binders. (Off topic, I've been chastised by my La Crosse friends for saying "binders." What the fuck else are they called?? Seriously, I want to know what you call them. If not "binders," what? What, Jackie Richmond?)

His project was on red construction paper, mounted on a black piece of foam core. It was well done, but I couldn't really concentrate on his project because god damn it, his hair... god. It's frizzy and long and red and distracting.

A boy near the back raised his hand and mentioned that the red construction paper overpowered the white string. I wanted to mention that his red hair overpowered his entire project. Someone else suggested that maybe if he would have used less string, the project would have been a little more simplistic and clean. I wanted to suggest that maybe if he would have less hair, he would be less annoying and look a lot better. I don't even remember his subject matter, I remember his long-ass stupid hair.

Let me back up. I attend an art school. There are majors of many kinds here -- photography, graphic design, interior design, drawing, painting, culinary arts, animation, etc. We all take Fundamentals of Design because, well, we all design something. My class is filled will all of the above, but is overall Drawing students and Animation students ----- the gigantic geeks.

I'm not stereotyping. I know that not all Animation or Drawing students are completely socially-awkward boys with severe acne, bad hair, and a passionate love for Monty Python, Tenacious D, and their Playstations. 100% of the Animation students in my Fundamentals of Design class are such, however, along with probably 60% of the Drawing students.

Really, I'm serious. For example, one guy in my class once played all of his Playstation games beginning to end in a marathon week. Red let the class know early on that he's been growing his hair for seven years. Granted, I'm not one to judge the geeks -- I have the Imperial March from "Star Wars" as my ringtone and the second Death Star made of Legos as the background on my phone (....TMI), and once upon a time, someone wanted to crochet HTML into a pillow for me. These geeks, however, are in a class of their own.

It makes me feel better about my own geek status. While they are playing every Playstation game they own, and calling people "platypus" (I'm so serious), I am getting hair cuts. And at least I use two hands to adjust my glasses. I've got them there.