So, I've been out of school for nearly two months now. Of course, it took them this long to get me my diploma. Now, I am usually a fairly patient person, but there is one exception to that rule: mail order. Waiting for this diploma was like ordering something from Amazon and then having to wait two years for it to get here. But, it's here now and all is right with the world.

Well, it would be if I had a job. I've applied to three places now, those being ConocoPhillips, Griffin New Media (both web dev jobs), and a contract motion graphics job out in Florida with Feld Entertainment. Phillips I didn't hear back from for a month and a half and at that the only contact I had was a short note saying I'd been passed up. I got calls from both Griffin and Feld (on the same day even), but Feld never called back after their initial call.

Griffin, on the other hand, has taken an interest in me and I've had two interviews there now (both of which went pretty well, in my opinion). The people I've interviewed with have been extremely nice and seem to have my interests in mind as well as theirs. My first interview seemed mostly to quiz me on my web development knowledge in addition to establishing what the position I'd applied for entailed. The second was more formal in terms of the questions asked and the environment in which it was conducted. Also in that interview, I had to take a skills test in which was given an hour to design and code a small contest entry page. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish everything on the list, though my design was good and my HTML validated first crack out of the barrel. So, at this point I'm waiting to hear back from them. I'm really hoping for this job because it's everything I've been working towards the last several years and the environment and people working there are really nice.

Outside of job hunting, there hasn't been too much more going on in my life. So, instead of wasting precious bytes telling you how awesome the Taiko no Tasujin series of games is, I'll wrap it up here.

I find myself at the end of my college life, living back in good ol' Oklahoma and completely bored out of my skull. Of course, there is on the near horizon the promise of employment, which should take up the next forty years of my natural life. I should relish these moments as I will not have a moment like this in some time... especially if a wife and kids are part of my ultimate master plan. But, I suppose itemization is in order.

Nearly a month ago, I completed my college education and graduated from Full Sail University with a bachelor of science in Digital Arts and Design. The ceremony was all very pomp with much circumstance. During my particular ceremony, there were some two hundred people graduating (all of the bachelor kids, not just my class). I marched along the line of my old instructors shaking their hands (and getting hugs from one). It felt kind of ethereal and even now I'll stop suddenly and realize... it's over. Everything that had sucked up my very being for the last twenty-one months is finished.

So, that's all done and now I'm back home with my family. Not a bad place to be, I suppose. The plan was to take a hiatus after the near non-stop barrage of school. It's been nice, no doubt about that, but now I feel restless. I want to do something and I don't have anything that needs to be done. So, that would suggest to me that it's time to return to the working forces, a new and more educated man.

Actually, a couple weeks back I applied at ConocoPhillips (the family workplace) for an opening they had for an ASP.NET developer. I've yet to hear anything, but my application is supposedly under "secondary review" same as it has been since the offer closed on the seventeenth. The waiting is killing me and never have I been so eager to receive a phone call. I suppose if this falls through (as it's kind of looking like, but I'll give it a bit more time) there's another place in town that I'm going to apply at. It's a design group that I more than qualify for (HTML/PHP type stuffs), so maybe I'll have some more luck there.

Hopefully, I'll be able to find a job soon. I suppose if I don't, I'll have more time to update this blog. Hooray for you.

It seems that ignoring the blog is the fashionable thing for me to do, as of late. It's not entirely intentional, there's just really nothing to talk about. Sometimes, while I'm attempting to force myself into a state of unconsciousness, I'll think of these things I'd love to post ranting about this, that, or the other. However, rarely do I actually act upon these impulses and the dust continues to gather.

The one thing that has happened since I last blogged is the passage of time. And with that passage I draw ever nearer to my graduation date. Currently, I sit at less than a month till I walk with my fellow classmates and receive the piece of paper for which I have worked so hard to achieve. It's hard to believe that not two years ago I was making preparations to come here the thought of actual completion not even in my head. But, here we are.

I've achieved much in my short twenty-one months at Full Sail, both from an academic and personal standpoint. I've improved my design skills, learned the technical art of motion graphics, and added to my repertoire of marketable programming skills through ActionScript. I know better how things in the industry work and have finally been able to get the professional critique that I so longed for as a hobbyist working out of his parents' house.

I've made a lot of memories at this school, both good and bad. It'll be sad to have leave all the friends I've made, but everyone tells me I have a bright future ahead of me. As for what I think of that, I'm not entirely sure. I know I have marketable skills, but there are some things that I know will hold me back. For example, I would like to live close to my family. That alone throws out almost any motion graphics or film job that I could have. I suppose it boils down to what's more important to me: my family and friends or my career. Even at that, I don't really know what career path I'd like to do. i enjoy and am proficient at many things (both inside and outside my degree).

I suppose I'll stop there before I completely depress myself. The next few months are going to have a crucial part in shaping my future. I'd better make damn sure I get it right.

It is another month and with that another wave of classes. Lucky me has class six days a week! (except next week where I only have class four days. Whatever.) So, you're probably asking "Hey, Matt! What kind of awesome stuff do you get to do this month?" To which I answer "Have you not been paying attention, compadre? Classes aren't fun anymore." This month is the exciting world of portfolio creation and business communication (see this, here, now? I'm communicating. Perhaps to businesses).

But, school aside, I've been having a rather fun time rewriting the interface to that media player I brought up some months back. This time, however, the entire front end is all ajaxy and delicious. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself, but don't be ripping off my songs, hear? Though, you'd have to get a flash decompiler or something to actually find where they are on my server. It's all very exciting.

In some days (by which I mean tomorrow) I will the happy owner of a brand new Wii Fit (only cost me twenty extra over retail). Since I left Wal-Mart I've put on some weight - about thirty pounds. Feeling more like a pregnant lady in her third month than the macho man I am, I felt it was time to do something about that. So, I might do a weekly update thingy here as that progresses, though we all know what happens when I promise regular updates of some sort.

Every once in a while I like to google myself and my friends, probably because I have far too much time on my hands. It's an interesting thing to do and one I recommend to my peers (by which I mean other internet micro-celebrities). Interestingly, I seem to have the most web presence of the classmates I googled. Granted, I have had a little bit of a head start and a bump here and there. I suppose it isn't the most common thing ever to be featured on the front page of various gaming sites (twice), but surly somebody in that class has done something that's caught the attention of the internet. Then again, I do seem to be that guy as devusb so fervently calls it, and unfortunately I have to agree. That's probably why I still spend most of my time alone with my computer while everybody else is out smoking weed and getting laid. Or perhaps the internet fame happens because I stay at home by myself. But, we're not here to get into the chicken/egg debate. Actually why don't we.

Q: Chicken or the egg. Which came first?

A: Who cares, they're both delicious.

Well, I suppose that's enough nonsense for one afternoon. Besides, I have other equally unimportant things I could be doing, like checking digg/Joystiq/Engadget, stalking people on Facebook/Twitter, binge drinking all my troubles away, the usual.

It's been quite some time since I last graced the interwebs with my esoteric writings. Much has happened since then and, on the flip side, much hasn't happened since then. Hell I don't even remember what the last thing I wrote was. But, no matter. That's why God invented tabbed browsing.

Going back over some of my more recent posts, it seems that I made some sort of attempt to be more... professional. That is, I attempted to be a help to the community at large, injecting into it my insights and examples. However, after some recent soul searching over break, I realize that this is not who I am, nor is it who I wish to be. I simply wish to be myself and for my blog to continue on much the way it has for so many years. That is to say, contain the trials, tribulations, and joys of my life. So, with so much time to catch up on, where does one begin? I suppose it's best to find out where one left off...

I suppose the last meaningful post was about the anime festival I attended in August. Now, back then I felt like an outcast amidst a lot of freaks (in a good way, however). But, since then, I too have fallen victim to the Japanese and tantalizing animations. I suppose the beginning of my downfall was when I picked up and was subsequently sucked into the Phoenix Wright games. It didn't help that I was prodded along the way by a buddy of mine (who will be called Ryan for lack of a made up name). He showed to me Hellsing, an anime about some vampire killing organization, the Catholic Church, and nazis. As crazy awesome as this combination may sound, vampires and the occult really aren't my forte. So, he pushed me towards Dragon Ball Z, which, I must admit, is not only awesome, but totally over nine thousand. From there I ventured out on my own checking out anime on Netflix's instant watch (Project A-ko and Best Student Council). My biggest pitfall was when Hulu picked up Naruto. Everybody and their chibis seemed to be completely enamoured with this show and, even though I'd previously shunned it as I had all anime, I watched an episode. And another. Two weeks later and not only had I watch one hundred twenty episodes, but I'd also read all the manga after the point I'd left off. I've also watched and completed Lucky Star (all the dubbed versions, at least) and the Meloncholoy of Haruhi Suzumiya. So, I can no longer consider myself the portent of anime's destruction (as I once wanted to be). Instead, I am a lowly otaku. Damn.

School-wise, nothing terribly interesting has happened. I've completed all my film courses, made a level for UT3, created a magazine and TV packaging, and now I'm back to web design. How I hate you, web design. Web programming, that's okay. I enjoy programming, However, I'm beginning to realize how much I don't enjoy actual design. The process of coming up with some idea out of nothing is one I find very difficult (though, I usually execute it fairly well). However, with programming I know what I'm trying to achieve and the steps to get there a fairly linear and even allow for a good bit of problem solving which I do love. That said, I still enjoy film making and motion graphics.

The good news about school is that I've got less than half a year left until graduation. I'm not entirely certain what I'll do after that. One thing I do know is that I'll be heading back home for a couple months to simply do nothing. Full Sail, while it hasn't been terribly difficult has left me drained of nearly every creative juice in my body as well as killed off almost all of my motivation. That can be attributed to the fast pace of the scheduling where every month I have to design my way out of another two classes. I've enjoyed my time here, but I'll also be glad when it ends. It means I get to go on and do something awesome (hopefully VFX, programming, or motion graphics).

Other than that nothing very exciting has happened to me. It's all school and what play there is generally involves me sitting on my ass in front of this computer monitor surfing the nets or whatever recent project has caught my fancy. I promise that I won't let another agonizing two months go by before I update again, but with nothing happening it's hard to find something to write about. Perhaps you should follow me on Twitter for all the little random things and thoughts of mine. Until next time, be cool and stay in school.

They say all good things must come to an end. Such is true for my one week of summer vacation. It was brief, yet enjoyable. Got to celebrate my birthday with my family, eat grilled food and lots of potato salad, and also take the usual trip to Tulsa. It's a pity that it was so short, but I'm complaining too much. The school is giving me a bachelor's degree in less than two years, so this time next year I'll be out of school. But that's a story for another day.

As you may recall, last month began my two month long journey through the wonders of Flash. Last month focused primarily on Flash as it pertains to design, teaching us the interface, motion tweens, and just a hint of ActionScript. This month, however, is dedicated to nothing but ActionScript. To demonstrate these "newly acquired skills" our final project consists of making a game.

Now, I put "newly acquired" in quotes for a reason. For anybody who's frequented this blog long enough you should know by now that I am, or at least used to be, heavy into coding. Because of this I have an unfair advantage over the rest of the class in this regard and as such I am taking my project to ridiculous extents (far above the scope of the course). The nice thing, though, is that the instructor actually acknowledges the fact that I am as proficient as I am, so much so that I took the place of the lab instructor for one day (whilst the real one was waiting in line for his iPhone 3G). Being able to talk to the instructor about geeky stuff as equals is a nice departure. But, enough ego stroking, about the actual project itself.

I chose to challenge myself and create essentially a dumbed down clone of Street Fighter, but be completely extensible through external configuration files. The first thing I avoided was the use of graphics inside Flash itself opting instead to load sprite sheets from external sources. Everything is configured through XML sheets that define how a character should react, define where animations are within a sprite sheet, stages, etc. Amazingly, I've achieved most of this and all very, very quickly. The biggest problem I foresee is the addition of enemy AI, but I've got ideas on how to achieve this as well. Overall, though, I'm loving being back at the helm of the coding ship. I'd forgotten how much of a thrill can be derived from hours of typing if statements and nested for loops. Damn, it's good to be back.

Summer is here, and with it vacation. Unfortunately for us Full Sailors, we only get about a week of summer vacation (I get ten days because all my classes let out early). However, that's not to say I'm not going to take advantage of the time off. Quite the contrary. Tomorrow I will be heading back to the good old midwest and chill with my folks. It's been over half a year since I've seen them, so I'm definitely looking forward to going back. I'm especially looking forward to potato salad. Mmmmmm....

Interestingly enough, tomorrow is also one year from my graduation. It hardly seems like I've been here for nine months, but there it is. It probably helps that I'm usually pretty busy and that most of this is pretty fun. Though, I will admit, Flash was pretty boring. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working on my projects, but they were small enough that I finished pretty quickly. And the last half of the course was a beginners guide to programming, something that I really don't need. So, while I did try to do more advanced things than what the project originally called for, there wasn't a whole lot of room to flex my muscles, as it were. You can check out my final project here. Yes, it is an homage to egoraptor's series of awesomeness (who I had the great pleasure of helping recently). My other class this month was 3D modelling. That class was a lot of fun. The teacher was cool, the project was fun; I just enjoyed the entire class. I'll have my final project up on YouTube sometime soon.

In other news, I have begun and am about half way through animating a real Flash cartoon, one which will be entitled Phoenix Awesome. I hope to have it up on Newgrounds sometime over break.

Well, that's about everything. I'll leave you with my MGP final project which I never actually posted on here. Enjoy

It seems that since I began school this blog has gotten more and more deserted. I was reading through old entries last night and I feel that things may be beginning to get empty. So, here I am once again poring forth my soul into the void that is known as the internet.

Last month ended my two month journey that was motion graphics. I am sad to have to leave these classes as I seem to have found my calling in mograph. To be frank, I had way too much fun and I probably created my best work ever in those two months. Of course, just because I'm not in the class doesn't mean I won't be dropping it and forgetting about it. No, I plan on doing small projects through out school that I can dump into my demo reel down. Even now I am working on a small advertisement for a friend. After that, there's a Dockers "make your commercial and have it aired on TV" contest that I'm thinking of entering. The more I can get my work out there, the more chance I have of going immediately into the industry after I graduate.

But enough dwelling on the past (or the future), and let us reflect on the present. This month I have probably what is going to be the easiest class off all time: web development. For anybody who doesn't know me personally, I've been involved in web dev for going on eight years. All that YPN stuff and what not. Of course, for those of us who are already fluent in web dev they're going to try to get us to use modern and clean coding practices (tableless design, emphasis on CSS, etc). Oh, wait. I already do all that. I feel like a jerk talking about this class like it's useless crap, but it's really not their fault. However, I don't want to be talked down to as if I know nothing or am new to the whole web stuff. As with most technologies I've taught myself, I not only learn forwards, but backwards as well. I'm well versed in tricks of old as well as new. Alright, enough of that borderline ego stroking.

My other class, which I haven't actually attended yet, is, or will be, developmental psychology. I really don't know what this class has in store for me, but at the very least it should be more interesting than web dev.

Today, I got to get my feet wet in the field of game testing. EA's Tiburon division, which develops most of their sports titles, resides just seven small miles from my house. Once or twice a month they bring people in to do a couple hours of game beta testing in exchange for a free game. I've been on the mailing list since December after Ian Cummings, lead director of the Madden series, put in a recommendation for me after reading my Rock Band drums post. Of course, that was for a full-time job doing game testing, but being a full-time student as well these two hours sessions were the next best thing. But, I digress.

Anyways, I got to go to the EA building, which I must say is very, very nice looking. I even got to sign a non-disclosure agreement that forbids me from telling anybody what I played or what I saw. Kind of cool, actually. I will say, I enjoyed what I played and the best part of all is I obtained myself a free copy of Command & Conquer 3 for PC. I haven't actually installed or tried the game yet, but I'll probably post something when I do.

Well, I suppose that about wraps things up for now. I'll be putting up a post about my final project for motion graphics soon (currently waiting on something). Oh, and for all those tiny little updates be sure to check out my Twitter account. I've also placed a convenient little box above the RSS feeds that shows my latest tweet. Until next time, keep your staplers running.

Not going to put a whole bunch of useless text on this one, however I will explain things a bit. This is yet another project for motion graphics. The criteria on this one was to create a commercial for a demographic outside of my own. So, I decided to market Full Sail to women (because we don't have near enough). Enjoy.

I've wrapped up my first month of motion graphics (MGR), and with it I finished my sixth month of school. Hard to believe it's already been half a year. Time does fly when you're having fun. But that's hardly why we're here.

For MGR, our final project was to create a magazine layout and thirty second animation for a product, service, etc. I had a few ideas for mine before settling on something that was close to me: Crayola crayons.

I've never really touched much on my artistic background, but I've always had a box of Crayons crayons handy. I can remember buying crayons with my birthday money (it was the only time I ever had any) many times. Also, whenever we'd take a trip to visit my grandparents I'd always be drawing stuff with a bowl of crayons that my Grandma would set out. Even now, sitting next to me on my desk is a box of 64 Crayolas, and they're not unused either. And, for the record, those other brands aren't really crayons. Crayola's have a distinct smell, texture, and feel that has not been duplicated by anybody else. I don't mind spending a little extra for them. Upon opening the box and getting a whiff, I am suddenly a little kid, lying on the floor doodling and day dreaming away as only the innocent can.

But, enough of the schmaltzy stuff. Before you can watch the video you must see the ad. It kind of sets the mood.

And, now, for the coup de gracie. Enjoy!

As of the beginning of this month I began my foray into the wondrous world that is motion graphics. Our first project was to make a ten second bumper advertising ourselves or a "company" that represented ourselves. I was originally going to use my name and try to brand myself as myself, but it was advised by an instructor that I brand myself under a pseudonym, at least for the remainder of school, so as to have something that gives a lasting impression. I decided to play off of my more or less established internet moniker, dxprog, and came up with dx productions. Grab yourself some popcorn and prepare to be sold my awesomeness.

It's been some time since I have updated this blog. So I take leave of my busy life, if only for a moment, to fill you, the reader, in on the various happenings and goings on. (Okay, that's enough eighteen hundreds talk).

So, Christmas has come and gone (as it always does) and I am now back into the thick of school. Luckily, I don't have all sucky courses this month. No, I only have one. However, let's put the good news before the bad, shall we?

ADG

Advanced Computer Graphics, or ADG, is probably the second best course I've had thus far (NOS being number one). ADG is, more or less, a Photoshop/Illustrator class. DCG was also this to a slight degree, but more emphasis was placed on the actual design as opposed to technical issues. Now, however, we're in the thick of opacity masks, and layer styles, and blah, blah, blah. Actually, believe it or not, I've become more comfortable in Illustrator than I am in Photoshop. The pen tool, simply put, is the most brilliant thing since aged cheese. But don't take my word for it, take my art:

[gallery][/gallery]

It should be duly noted that the NES is not, in fact, a photograph. Nor was it some fancy job I did in Photoshop. No, it was done completely in Illustrator and, vector graphics being what they are, is infinitely scalable. The advertisement, however, is not. Oh, and speaking of which, I realize that the NES is pushing twenty-three.

My other course is geometry and I will leave you simply with this: proofs can burn in Hell.

One thing I'd like to say real quick: iPod Touch is the best PDA ever created. I know. I own one. Damn you Apple, damn you.

My site is still riding on a wave of hits from the Rock Band drums thing way back when, but I've had another surge in popularity thanks to this guy. He's created one nicely polished drum kit app and has kindly linked back to my page. It'd be wrong for me not to return the favor.

Finally, while I'm throwing out links, be sure to check out the newly revamped Game Boyz. While you're at it, why don't you sign up on the forums and tell my bro how awesome the comic is.

Well, that should appease the masses for the well being. I write these posts in hope that somebody is reading them, however, even if it just serves as a chronicle of my life for me to read later, then so be it. It's deep tomes of history have already provided me with hours of cringing agony. May it continue to do so in this grand a glorious new year.

It's true; I have pulled an insane amount of all nighters this year and here I am doing it once again. I am currently at Orlando International where I await the departure of my flight at 6:23am, a little less than six hours from now. I was hoping to walk in here, dump off my luggage, and get through security right off the bat. However, good old Northwest Airlines has, yet again, left me with an unmanned counter. So, I am stuck with my twenty pound bag of clothing and vigilantly watching for the first signs of life at the counter.

Once again I have finished another two courses at Full Sail. This time was Design and Art Theory (DAT) and College Math (CMD) which was basically an Algebra course.

DAT was alright; it was essentially a traditional art course with design centric properties. Not being able to use my computer was difficult for me especially because pencils and paper don't have the Ctl+Z option. If you screw up, you've screwed up. Congratulations. However, I did pump out some decent stuff which I will show to you now.

This is my fice piece still life. I pushed it a little bit by counting the drum sticks as seperate objects, but meh. It went ungraded anyways (as did most things in that class).

This is the only piece I am truly proud of. I don't really have much to say aside from it was painted with acrylics on canvas and it was my first time doing any painting outside of using Crayola watercolors. The colors are a little dark because mixing paints is a bitch.

I did do several other pieces, but I don't have pictures of them and seeing as I'm at the airport I won't be taking pictures anytime soon.

Nothing really to report on about math because that's exactly what it was. What is sweet, though, is that I may pull an A out of that class which would thrill me to no end as I thought math was my suckiest subject.

So, there's my month on a nutshell. I'll probably post again once I'm in ol' Bartlesville. Until then, keep on peacin' out!

A wise man once said all good things must come to an end. So it is true for me as my week long Thanksgiving vacation is over effective 8:00AM EST tomorrow morning. However, I will certainly say that it has been a rather interesting week for me.

There is, of course, my obvious return to fame thanks in no small part to idle curiosity and a couple minutes of nifty text editing. And to those who've been messing around with the drums program from the prior post, I have been paying attention to your comments. At this point I've abandoned that program in lieu of a GlovePIE script. More on that as things unfold.

An interesting development that spun off of all that hype was a small little comment left on a completely unrelated topic. It was from a producer at EA who basically said "Hey, want to do some game testing now and maybe come work for us after college?" When I first read that my small appartment was filled with whooping and jumping (this was before I got sick, more on that in a minute). It would be completely awesome if this were to pan out for me. Not only would I get some extra cash on the side while still in school, but I could go straight from graduation right into the industry that I've always dreamed of working in.

This whole thing is a perfect testimony to what I've been told by many people: throw yourself out there, you never know who's looking. I've been slowly working on my online presence since I joined YPN in January of '02. Since then I've dipped into almost every kind of online media there is. From running a message board, to podcasting, to online videos. Basically what I'm trying to say is, if you've got something that you think is good, put up online and do a little bit of shameless advertising. If I can come this far with one little video and a tip suggestion to Engadget and Joystiq there's no reason why anybody else can't. /end soapbox moment

As mentioned previously, I am "sick". I put it in quotes because it's not as bad as my usual form of sickness. Usually I get a sore throat, runny, feel weak, and just downright terrible over all. This, however, is confined mainly to the sore throat combined with a little bit of hoarse voice. Luckily, with the exception of the throat I feel physically fine. I was well enough to bike up to school today to pick up the books for my next wave of classes, namely Design and Art Theory (DAT) and College Mathematics (CMD).

DAT looks to be rather interesting as it is basically a traditional art class (no computers) with a design oriented twist. I've heard from two sources now that we're going to be getting a large amount of art supplies so that'll be cool. CMD is basic math up through intermediate Algebra. I jumped to the middle of my book and was able to figure out what was going on so I'm feeling pretty confident about that. Plus, I got a free Algebric calculator, though I doubt I'll ever use it. I usually do all my problem solving on paper.

Well, I feel I've rambled on enough. Before I go I just want to give a quick shout out to any new readers I may have picked up through the hulla-balloo. Peace out.

We're almost down to one month before Christmas. THis means many different things to many different people. For some it means shopping, others getting together with others. For me, it means Christmas music. A lot of Christmas music. Of course, it also means that I'll be able to go see my folks again which is always sweet. And let's not forget the tantalizing aroma of sweet Christmas presents under the tree. And, speaking of aroma, and possibly the most important part of Christmas, the cookies. But, I suppose we must get through Thanksgiving first, which for me means being thankful for my brand new copy of Rock Band that I will be playing on that day.

But, holidays aside, I've been working on some very interesting things for school as of late. I've already given you a taste by showing my trailer project, but there are many other things I've been up to. Let's list them by class.

Designing Computer Graphics (DCG)

So far this class has been mostly about Illustrator and Photoshop basics, though they have touched on some good design practices (or not so good) by reviewing previous students works. However, there are three core projects we're working on (of which only two have been assigned so far). The first was a black and white logo.

Our second project was a set of three (or more) icons based around a theme. There were six possible themes to choose from, those being Olympics, zoo, theme park, library, airport, or musical styles. I'll let you figure out which theme I chose.

First I need to note that that is not my logo (it is the official logo of the 2012 Summer Olympic games). It's primarily there to help set the mood and show where I drew my inspiration from.

You may notice that both of these projects were in black and white (no colors or grays). This is a pretty ingenious call because by limiting us in the color department we are forced to put more emphasis on line width, stylization, and shadows and highlights. If something works well in black and white there's no reason why it won't work well in color.

Networks and Operating Systems (NOS)

As stated before the name of this class is a misnomer. They are actually in the process of converting it into Digital Storytelling, focusing more on getting a point across as opposed to the technical aspects of computers. I have to say of the two classes I am currently taking this is my favorite not necessarily because of what we do but because of our instructors, Fabian Socarras and Jacob Kaplan. It's difficult to explain how there two teach (if indeed they are really teaching at all), but it is certainly the most entertaining course and, so far, the most informative.

But, that aside, I've been doing some pretty cool stuff here as well. After the trailer project we all made podcasts (I will not be posting mine, thank you very much). Our last project was to prepare a Keynote presentation trying to convince our target audience of why we needed something and, subsequently, why they should purchase it for us. I did mine on why I needed a Nintendo 64. I presented in front of my lab group and Fabian and Jacob invited themselves in as presenters which was cool. Will you ever see this keynote? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Our next project is something that, for me, is pretty easy stuff. We are to set up and design a blog using Wordpress. To make things challenging for myself I asked Fabian if I could write mine from the ground up as opposed to using Wordpress. While he gave the nod of approval, he seemed dubious as to whether or not I could pull it off within the time frame and meet all the criteria. Considering most of my back end is already in place, and with the addition of a couple of new modules I pounded out tonight, I foresee no problems. However, it turns out this will be a group project so I may just stick with Wordpress so as not to make myself appear elitist to my fellow classmates. No, that can wait until my official web classes a few months down the road.

That's about all for now seeing as I need to get to bed so I can be up at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Here's hoping I have afternoon classes AND labs next month.