Accepted!!!

Yay. I just the acceptance letter to be a Student Volunteer. I'm going!!!!! Made that decision rather quickly.

Too tired for a title...

Finding a way to start these things is the biggest pain. Anywho, I am continuing work on my character animation for class and I finally am beginning to fully understand how computer animation works. The one thing I have heard over and over is arcs, arcs, arcs. Now in my animation, my character is running up the stairs and falling back down them. I was reaching the point were I was regretting this decision because I just couldn't get it to look right. Then it hit me. Make the run up and the fall down one large arc. Then I realized it applies to more than just arm and leg movements. It applies to everything. I got it now. :-)

Next up is the debacle over the SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer acceptance letters. I did not get one and my app was changed to incomplete for reasons I do not know. Even though it showed as being complete since December of 2010. I'm still not entirely sure that I want to go, but even at that I would be upset that I was denied going because of a technicality.

I also still have it in my head that I want to move but that also has changed a bit. I'm now thinking of moving to San Francisco so I can start attending school on campus rather than online. I feel like there is so much I am missing because of conversations I have been having with the director of the animation department at my school.

That and there is also a another issue now. While several months back I had no ties to Indiana that could really stop me from moving. That is not entirely the truth now. I will still leave everything behind if that is something I must do, but now it is more complicated. There is someone now that I don't know that I could really leave behind. I'm certain that if push came to shove, I would walk away to pursue my career. But as before, I will leave if I must. I'm just sort of torn. Life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls.

And lastly, my because of the extremely increasing inability I have towards sleeping, my doctor has prescribed me sleeping pills. Real genius idea there too. Everyone doctor I have ever been too has a complete medical history of me, both physical and mental. There is a part of me that is saying "wow". This guy just handed a BPD patient a bottle of sleeping pills. Smart move. Now to clarify, this is not meant to sound that I'm suicidal. Very far from it in fact. But BPD does cause sudden shifts due to emotional instability and patients of BPD are very prone to self harm in one form or another. In my opinion, I don't think it's a wise idea for a doctor to hand out the means to commit acts of self harm to a BPD patient so easily. 

On another note, one of the supervisors whom I found out was badmouthing me behind my back got into an extreme amount of trouble for said badmouthing. Basically the supervisor was bad mouthing me to the wrong person. (aforementioned person in a previous paragraph) The supervisor had to have known that the first thing that would happen is she would come to me and tell me what was said. So, needless to say. I nailed the supervisor to the wall. I have a certain level of moral integrity to the point that if you have something to say someone, say it to them. Not behind their back. This kind of thing will make me pursue an act of retribution very quickly. And everyone who knows me knows this. I sort of have this reputation for being the person not to fuck with. I think I'm seriously just going to have shirts made up that simply say "you've been warned"

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed now. :-)

*insert attention grabbing title here*

Yep, I'm still alive... barely. I'm nearing the end of my semester and just about every bit of energy I had is fading. There is something like 3 and half weeks left and now it's getting very heavily loaded due to trying to get everything done on time. It also doesn't help that I've been sick for the past 4 days and working at the same time. I'm the time of person who would be on my deathbed and still go to work. People have told me that I push myself too much, and I know they are right.  But I tend to think, you don't get to be successful by not working your ass off, and pushing yourself to your limits and beyond them.

It is also getting to me that I have pretty much no time whatsoever for any kind of a social life at all. Granted, not that I really want one, I'm sort of a loner. I just want the option. I would rather spend time by myself just chilling and watching movies than hanging out with a large group of people who don't really know anything about me. I'm really more the type of person who randomly finds a kindred spirit and hang out with them a lot. But I don't really even have the time for that. And there really aren't many of those where I live. Artistic types don't exactly come in large quantities in Indiana.

Also, there has been a bit of confusion regarding the Student Volunteer statuses for SIGGRAPH 2011. First my app said "rejected", and then it said "incomplete". I'll admit that I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when I saw it said rejected. I'm really not even sure that I want to go this year. I keep thinking that I saved all this money for the trip that could be more useful if it were focused elsewhere... like moving to L.A.  Now I certainly don't have enough money to move there yet but with some more saving, it could be possible within the next year.

I would also like to move there because it would give me the chance to get away from a lot of people here that are just breaking me down mentally. Not to go into much detail, but scary stalker types are not good for the psyche. Especially when those scary stalker types have been repeatedly told "NO" about a thousand times. Then being asked by said stalker type, "Why hasn't somebody snatched you up yet?" and I have to reply, "Uh, if anyone does, it won't be you." Hello restraining order.

Also, I did buy and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Now when I watched it in theaters, I reacted a bit differently. It was probably the excitement. When I got it and watched it at home, I couldn't help but think it's good, but damn it is just dragging on and on. Too much Harry, Hermione, and Ron walking. Not enough focus on Voldemort and his search for the Elder Wand. Not enough focus on Snape or the goings on at Hogwarts. These two things were just as important as Harry's search for the Horcruxes, but it seems like they were just given a backseat to Harry. I know he is the title character, but c'mon.

Now it also time for a walk down memory lane. This song came on the radio during a drive to work this past week and I thought 'WOW'. It's been a while. Not only is it a great song, but also the very first song I learned to play on guitar. Here is probably one of the best live performances of the song. One man and his guitar, in the pouring down rain. It doesn't get much better than that.

Untitled

So, I suppose I'll do the post of schoolwork now. Even though I'm really sort of not interested. This is my 2 point vertical perspective drawing.

That having been done and out of the way. Come my next day off from work, I'm going to pay a visit to the local police station and request that they better monitor the speeders on my street. The person who hit the cat last night had to have been going at least 60 mph and my street is 20 mph zone. One day, it's not going to be a cat dying in the middle of the road. It's going to be a child.

RIP Kitty

So what was originally going to be a post with updates of schoolwork is now something else. For the past couple of months there was a cat running around that belonged to the people across the street. Needless to say, they really did not take care of him and I had been putting food on the front porch so he would at least have food and water.

Tonight he was hit by a car. He was still alive after being hit and died while I was holding him. I never kept him because I already have a cat and tried several times to bring him in the house and they were constantly fighting because of territorial issues. I wish had kept him in the house now. This just sucks. He was so adorable. So long Furball.  :-(

A bit of a mixed bag

Yep, so I come equipped more uploads. First up, another assignment from Perspective class. This one was the reflection drawing. We can use Photoshop now and there is a very visible difference from my pencil drawings and my digital drawings.

Also, since I refuse to use youtube because the compression on the site sucks and pretty much destroys any quality of any video, and I can't post directly from Vimeo, this is the link going to my class animation blocking part 2. It's coming along rather nicely.

http://vimeo.com/22270511

Also, I don't know if anyone who reads this has ever seen the movie Strange Days and I don't really feel like going into what the film is about, but it has one of the best endings ever. An entire film that was comprised of violence, doomsday theories, paranoia, and at the heart of the film was 2 people in love with each other. One realized it and the other did not. It was not until the end of the film that the character of Lenny finally realized he loved the character of Mace and went after her. This is romance and passion in my opinion and the song helps a lot. So here is the actual scene. 

And here is the full song that played during the scene.

And yes, that is Ralph Fiennes who portrayed Lenny who also plays Voldemort in another film. See how I segued there. lol

That's right boys and girls. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 hits the blu-ray tomorrow. And yes I will be buying it and totally geeking out for hours on end. Cheers!! :-)

Now I'm disappointed. It's actually Friday that Harry Potter is released. I could have swore that it was the 12th not the 15th. Tuesday is always new release day. That is crap. I won't even be able to watch it when I do buy it. :-(

It's pumpkin season

Yep, more assignments. For texturing class, we are texturing a photo real pumpkin so we can later composite it into a pumpkin patch photo without being able to tell the difference between the real pumpkins and the fake pumpkin. And here would be my pumpkin after painting the color maps.