Transitions

Hi all.

Well....it has been a while, hasn't it? :) A lot has happened since my last entry, so let's see if I can recap it all.

First, I did very well on all of my mid-terms. My Acting monologue went fabulously and I really enjoyed the experience.

Second, the rest of my classes went well and the semester was a fun one. My final acting assignment was a challenge in terms of having to work with a partner that I really didn't care for, but it all turned out well. I ended the semester with 4 A's and a B+ in Liberal Arts Math, so it was all good.

Third, I am officially a graduate of College of Central Florida! Woot! I was so happy and felt so accomplished the night of graduation. My mom, stepdad, brother and sister-in-law all came to graduation and it was just a great experience. My first college graduation was kind of lame. I had finished my two-year program in a year and happened to be in the same town when graduation rolled around, so I walked with the class, but had never made any friends with anyone or any of the instructors, so it was kind of hollow. This time around I had some friends, faculty I really liked and admired, family and it was great. It was a beautiful night and a really special time.

Fourth, things on the transfer front have gotten....interesting. I was all accepted and prepared to go to MSU, but then it turned out that the "scholarship" they were offering for my mother being an alumni was being taken out of my financial aid, so it wasn't really a scholarship at all - I was still basically being charged out-of-state tuition. Then, they weren't going to accept any of my coursework as anything other than electives, so to be able to pursue my Animation degree I would have had to start at square one and it would have taken me another four years. Add in to that moving from Florida to Missouri, trying to find jobs in tiny Springfield, etc. and it just wasn't feeling right. So....I applied and have been accepted to University of Central Florida for the fall. I feel very good about this, but it's also proving to be a challenge.

Staying in Florida means that my credits will transfer and they will accept my AA with no problems. But, prior to orientation at campus I'm having to do some major hoop jumping. I am specifically running around trying to get bloodwork done to prove I've had all of my immunizations (which kind of makes me feel like a dog). I've had blood drawn twice now as the first time the lab screwed it up and it's just a bunch of craziness. Also, the financial aid awards have been limited so I'm going to be struggling to find a decent place to live in Orlando. And the job market is not being kind to me. I know I am not alone, but I have NEVER been looking for a job this long and it is really starting to get to me. I'm educated, experienced, and hardworking, but there just don't seem to be any jobs anywhere. I've applied for everything and haven't even been called for an interview. So....that's difficult.

But, I'm just trying to work on my writing and rebuilding my Etsy shop in the meantime and getting things prepared for moving to Orlando here in a couple of months. I think that once I'm back in school and getting closer to my degree and what I want to do with my life, things will be better. I'm trying to stay positive about everything at any rate. At my age, to be in the position I'm in, with no job, it just really feels like utter failure. Again, I know I'm not alone and that thousands of people are in the same boat I am, but still....it does a number on the ego and heart for sure.

Another new development is that I have decided to change majors a bit. I'm planning to major in technical writing and minor in digital media. UCF seems to have a really great technical writing program and it's work I've done before and that I know I am good at. With the degree, it opens up a lot more possibilities in the job market, and I still get my minor for my digital education. I think this is the best decision as with the job market the way it is currently, the animation degree is so specific and the job market there so tough....I think the technical writing degree will work better for me when it comes to being employable. I have hope anyway.

I'm still considering the benefits of also going to graduate school once I have my Bachelor's, we'll just have to see where things are in a couple of years. Until then....this is where things stand. I will be starting at UCF in the fall and until then, things will be pretty quiet. Thanks for hanging in there with me all and I'll see everyone from a new city and new campus here soon.

Cheers! :) Have great summers!

Educational Update

So....it has once again been a considerable time since my last posting. There's a lot to go over so....let's get to it.

My meeting with CFCC, which is now CCF (College of Central Florida) went well and I was admitted for the summer semester. I managed to get the Statistics class I wanted and also registered for Elementary Spanish II. The semester was just a six week semester and has just come to a close for me today.

As anyone who follows this blog knows, math is not my strong suit so I was very worried about the Statistics course. However, it turned out to be a great experience. The instructor was fabulous and the material was similar to things I did doing data analysis at various jobs. As such, I managed to complete the course with a B+. Not too shabby at all and I'm proud of myself for that accomplishment.

I wish I could say that things with my Spanish II class went as well. Unfortunately, they did not. I had the sinking feeling that my Conversational Spanish class at Rasmussen had not properly prepared me for anything, but since CCF offers Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Spanish classes, I thought I might be in pretty good standing for Elementary Spanish II considering I got an A in my Conversational Spanish class. I thought wrong. The Conversational Spanish class at Rasmussen was a joke and did not give me anywhere near the foundation I needed for Elementary Spanish II. The class workload was insane and EVERYTHING, the book, the instructions, EVERYTHING was in Spanish. I only took the two classes this semester, but the workload ended up being like the quarter I took six classes at Rasmussen.

Despite constantly working my ass off in the class, I ended up failing it. I did the best work I could and everything I could, but without the proper foundation from the first class, I was always three steps behind. It took forever to translate the instructions, then to do the work. The workload was also rather ridiculous really and the instructor seemed to think that the students had nothing else going on but that class for six weeks. There were four websites with work you had to do on them, and every week covered two chapters. I did well on the discussion posts and the vocabulary quizzes, but the verb tenses and changes, as well as the workbook and audio work, completely threw me and I never got above a 53% on any of it. Add to that the fact that I only got a 52% on the final, and my final overall percentage was 59.61%. So....F. I failed. Which sucks and makes me feel about 2 inches tall.

As such, I'm pretty much screwed. I will still submit the transcript to UCF, but without the second foreign language requirement being satisfactorily completed, I doubt they will allow me admission. :(

My next problem, however, is that I cannot move forward with taking any classes at CCF right now. Though I was fully packaged with financial aid at Rasmussen for summer, and for a great deal more than CCF charges, CCF is still dragging their feet on getting any financial aid awarded, so I still have a balance on my account for this summer semester. That, coupled with no financial aid awarded for fall yet, means that I cannot register for any classes. I have been round and round with them about this, submitted all the transcripts and paperwork they wanted, and now they are telling me that they need all of my transcripts entered into their system before they can award anything, and the girl doing it is 2-3 weeks behind. So....I'm screwed.

I don't know what is going to happen now. Monday I will go back to CCF's financial aid office and try to get someone to get something happening with awards. If that is accomplished, I will then move forward with trying to find some classes to take and hopefully find a place in their Elementary Spanish I class so I can get the proper foundation I should have had. I now completely hate the Spanish language by the way.

As I say, I will continue on with submitting my CCF transcript to UCF, but I don't think they'll let me in without that other foreign language requirement. So....I'll just have to do what I can to get it. If CCF cannot get my aid squared away in time for fall semester, however, I have no idea what I am going to do.

So....things are in limbo right now. UCF is still the goal, but some roadblocks have been thrown in my way. I feel like complete and utter shit right now, a real total loser because of failing that class. But at the same time, what more could I do? I did everything I could and worked as hard as I could. I just didn't have the foundation I needed to understand it. Live and learn I guess.

So that is my current status. I will keep y'all apprised of any forward movement. Any good thoughts or energy that could be sent in my general direction would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all!

Welcome to 4th Quarter and Sophomore Year!

Hi all.

Yes, I've been very bad and neglectful of the blog here lately, but I hope today will make up for it. :) Honestly, we've just gotten to the point this quarter where there are things for me to share with y'all so....that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :)

To begin, I'll revisit the topic of my last post, student aid. The drama still continues. I've been in touch with all of my congresspeople, state and federal, and even posted on the President's site. I heard back from one state senator and one state congressman, but have not heard anything from them since their original contact. :( I have been given a couple of other options for help with student aid, so I am working those angles. And as always, I am looking for a job. The economy, it sucks. I wish my school worked more actively in helping to attract scholarship funding, especially for women in technology programs, but it seems to be pretty much a "you're on your own there" type deal. Now that I am starting to get some kind of work together for a portfolio to enter for those kinds of awards and scholarships, I am going to start focusing on that. This quarter is taken care of. Now that I have my taxes filed I can submit my new FAFSA and hopefully will be eligible for more aid. Oh how I wish I could win the lottery or be left a lot of dough by some unknown newly dead relative. Ah well...in the meantime, it just requires some work to find assistance. Sallie Mae can pucker up and kiss my lily white ass.

Okay - moving on! :) This quarter has been good so far. I am enjoying my classes for the most part, even my drawing class. Who'd have thought that?! :) So far the grades are all As and things are good. Maybe, just maybe, I might acquire that elusive 4.0 this quarter. Maybe. :)

First up - Introduction to Literature. This is a great class and I really enjoy it. I never had the opportunity to take a real literature class before and it is very different than what I had anticipated - but in a good way. I've always loved literature, but never really read it too critically and certainly never wrote about it critically so this class is very challenging. The instructor is really awesome and involved in the class. She turns around grades really quickly, participates in the discussions, and gives awesome feedback. I'm really enjoying learning from her. There's not really anything to post from this class cuz it's all kinda dry stuff for a reader. I may post my final essay at the end of the quarter. But it is an awesome class and I am getting an A.

Next, Visual Communication in the Media. This class has interesting materials, but the class itself leaves a bit to be desired. The instructor is really slow on turning grades around and doesn't really encourage the kind of discussions and analysis I would expect in a mass media type class. Also, my classmates are not exactly helping matters. There seems to be a lot of mental disconnect going on where the discussions are concerned and no one seems to be reading the book and actually analyzing the content as instructed. The posts are poorly written and no one is giving me much to reply to - - makes the discussions difficult. I'm actually really surprised that so many people are in college but cannot think or write at the college level - - what's up with that? I'll give you an example to show you what I'm dealing with here. Last week we had a discussion on shock advertising. The instructions for the discussion post were to relay a time you'd been shocked by advertising and to discuss whether you think advertisers can go too far in shock advertising. Naturally, my classmates completely ignored the second part of the instructions and focused only on the first. Apparently, it doesn't take much to shock these people. Once classmate in particular posted this little gem from the UK:

http://www.utdallas.edu/~jep044000/vidal/sportka.mpeg

Basically her post and the responses of those who replied to her were "ZOMG! Poor kitty!" ::rolls eyes:: Yeah...this is what I'm dealing with folks. So....very nicely, I posted pointing out that UK consumers are a little more savvy with advertising and can take the ad for the joke that it is, understanding that the cat was not actually harmed in the making of the ad. I pointed out that the target demographic for that ad would be young males who would actually find the ad funny. Well...can you guess the reaction from my classmates to my post? "Funny? That's not funny! Animal cruelty is never funny! I'm a cat lover! How dare you!" Then another classmate posted about how the UK is Sodom and Gomorrah and don't they have laws over there and it's just so shocking and immoral and... *facepalm* *headdesk*. After that, I didn't bother responding. That kind of stupid just really doesn't need any encouragement. If you can't parse an ad that obvious for its point and subtext and meaning after reading the chapters in the textbook and studying the concepts in a college class, I can't help you. *heavy sigh* Most of the things people posted that they found "shocking" were things they went looking on the internet for from the UK and wanted to post to make the point that the UK is just so completely immoral in comparison to the US and shouldn't we have stricter laws in the US to protect us all from things like the UK and ZOMG! UK has NUDITY and... Yeah....I just...wonder about some people, I really do. If you're asked to discuss something in a college course, you need to actually provide more of a critical analysis of what it is you're seeing and what about it is shocking, not just knee-jerk ZOMG! responses. And at least attempt an intelligent discourse. Please?

This week's discussion is about stereotyping. And it's abominable. No one in the class seems to understand the definition of the word. One little gem from a classmate: "TV news is showing stories about high profile people and infidelity - don't they know how immoral and wrong that is?" WTF does that have to do with stereotyping? Apparently she doesn't know either. But my classmates are all chiming in on the bandwagon of "ZOMG! I know! What kind of world are we living in?!" And I.....lose a little faith in the ability of people to think at a college level y'all, I really do. So...that class is a bit of a challenge for me on an intellectual level. I took a mass media class in freaking high school where high school kids had a better grasp on critical analysis of images in the media than these people do. It makes my head hurt y'all, it really does. So that would be my least favorite class this quarter. I'm getting an A in it though. As I say, I like critical analysis classes so I enjoy the book and materials we study, I just wish the instructor was helping to facilitate better discussions rather than joining in with the mob mentality "I know! How awful!" choruses. Ugh.

Onward we travel. Next up - Figure Drawing. Y'all know how I feel about drawing. I have not been subtle in previous quarters about how it is the bane of my existence. This class is my weekly humiliation basically. It is, actually, a very small class - only 5 people - and I am actually not the worst artist in there so....it's not as bad as the last drawing class. I'm still having serious troubles drawing from people IRL, but we did exercises this week drawing from masters in our book and I think they turned out okay. Judge for yourself:

Master drawing: Woman Bending Forward by Suzanna Valadon:



And here's my take on it:



Next master drawing, Reclining Nude by Aristide Maillol:



And my attempt at it:



All in all, I'm pretty proud of those drawings. Unfortunately, that's about the only such exercise we're going to do and the rest of our drawings must be drawn from actual life and not pictures so....that sucks. I'm working at it. This class is the one that I spend the most time outside of class working on. Something in the way I see things just does not translate as well IRL as it does from a picture. I dunno why. But I'm working on it. :)

And lastly, we have Digital Media Production. Again - same instructor as my 3D animation courses and I love having this guy as a teacher. He's pretty awesome. The first weeks were all about learning Flash and we just completed and submitted our first project assignment last night. I'd never touched Flash before this class so....I'm learning. :) Our project was a short cut-out animation project. I had lots of ideas, but couldn't quite figure out how to execute them so....I ended up going with this:



He suggested trying to do something humorous for this assignment so that is what I came up with. It's not the best thing ever produced, but at least I am learning the basics of Flash, which was the point to the exercise. I have high hopes for my next project and final project in that class. Just takes a lot of study, playing with the software, and watching tutorials. I'm excited to get into the ActionScript part of that class as well. I like playing with code. I'm a geeky dork - I admit it happily.

So....there we are. That is the status of things right now. I'm amazed that we're already in Week 5, almost Week 6 of this quarter. It seems to be zooming right past me. Things are going well, aside from my personal frustrations, and the educational process continues. We're moving into studying poetry this week in Intro to Literature and I love poetry so that should be fun. We're starting to come up with ideas for our next and final projects in Digital Media Production. In Figure Drawing I have to do 4 (!) drawings from life this week. Eek! And again, Visual Communication in the Media is focusing on stereotypes.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoy. Any feedback on the projects is appreciated. Be kind on the Flash though - I'm still a newbie at that. Cheers until later! :)

End of Third Quarter Final

Hi all.

So....hope everyone had great holidays. Mine was pretty okay. :) My new books for next quarter have arrived and they look pretty interesting. I am, however, currently wrangling with the Sallie Mae people about loan funding. They have, for some inexplicable reason, done away with the Signature Student Loan that was an alternative loan funding source allowing you to borrow the remainder of what you need for school plus extra for expenses like room and board, etc. With that loan, repayment is made starting 6 months after graduation. The interest rate is ridiculous, but it was a great source of funding, especially being able to borrow extra for living expenses seeing as I am still (grrr!) unemployed. Now, the only loans they are offering require you to make payments on the interest while going to school. Ummm...hello? Are they high? I'm not working, I have no income, how the hell am I supposed to make payments on a loan? So....I called them and they said that I did not qualify for grandfathering for the Signature Loan program and that the interest payment option was the only one left to me. This....pissed me off, so I wrote all my state and federal senators and congresspeople and also the President and basically said "WTF?" I've heard back from one state representative's office, but we're playing phone tag. I dunno. What I do know is that employers are now requiring a freaking Bachelor's degree for a damn secretarial position. Supposedly there are all these displaced worker programs going on to help people become more employable - - well...I'm trying to do that, but without the Signature Loan program, wtf am I supposed to do? If I can't get that, I can't go to school full-time because I can't afford it. If I'm not attending full-time I lose most of the rest of my governmental funding and grants, plus the on-time graduation scholarship from my school. So...not surprisingly, the saga continues....I'll keep you posted.

At any rate, my final progress report is out and my overall GPA remains 3.84. Yay me! My last grades were all A's and I got 100's on my final World Geography paper and my final fiction project for Creative Writing. Pretty damn awesome if I do say so myself. So....for taking 6 classes this last quarter, I received 4 A's, 1 B, and 1 C - I'm thinking I did pretty good all things considered. :)

So....classes resume next Monday. So far, we're still on the fence about funding so while I have looked at my books, I have not removed the shrink wrap or anything until we have some final determination and I know I can afford to stay in school and take all of my classes. But....so far everything looks really interesting. The last time I went through college I never got to take real writing and literature courses and stuff so I'm really, really enjoying those. If everything goes as planned, I will be taking Introduction to Literature and Visual Communication in the Media online and Figure Drawing and Digital Media Production on campus. Visual Communication in the Media reminds me of a Mass Media class I took in the 10th grade that I liked. Anything having to do with literature is right up my alley. Figure Drawing would be this quarter's torture class and Digital Media Production just looks exceptionally cool.

Until I hear more, things are kind of in limbo. Hopefully some resolution can be worked out over the next couple of days. I love school and learning, I always have, and having the opportunity to learn new things that interest and fascinate me (even when some aspects piss me off) is about my idea of bliss on Earth so....we shall see. Keep a good thought if you will folks.

Cheers!

End of the Quarter and All That Jazz

Hey again all.

So....this quarter has not been very conducive to the blogging, that's for sure. Six classes is a crazy lot and leaves no time for any kind of life; especially not when College Algebra is part of the schedule. So....sorry I've been so lax here as of late. First and foremost, let me say that I am extremely glad this quarter is over. It was long and hard and fast and crazy, all at the same time. It definitely felt different than my previous two quarters. I did not have nearly enough time to fully concentrate on everything I wanted to, and I had a great deal of frustration this quarter. I also was very sick twice this quarter, plus had a great deal of family and personal life drama going on so....yeah....it's been a wild and weird 11 weeks. But, it is over! Huzzah!! I have determined that I am going back to a regular four class schedule and told all of my nearest and dearest that if they ever hear me mention increasing my courseload again, they have my permission to slap me completely senseless. So....there's that.

Final grades are still coming in, but I have three I can share with you and some projects from all of them. As more come online, I'll be back to update you.

First, let's go ahead and discuss algebra. This class was the bane of my existence this quarter. I am not a math person - at all. I can spell anything you want me to, and I'm a pretty good writer, but math is not my thing. Oddly enough, I can program mathematical calculations in programs like Excel and make wonderful things result, but your basic mathematics is not for me. It took about two weeks of me trying to get through all that nonsense on my own to realize that I couldn't and needed some serious help. Luckily, the tutor center at school had someone on staff who was awesome and got me through the quarter. It was also a very, very difficult class to take online. In a classroom setting, if you have questions you can ask the instructor right then and get the concepts explained to you. Online, you're at the liberty of your instructor's life schedule and ours admitted that we were her third job, and she had a family so....guess where we came in? She did the best she could and was very helpful and understanding, but it was a really difficult class to take online.

Almost as difficult as actually working out the problems was entering them in the Word document using Equation Editor and Graph Editor for submissions. The graphing part was an absolute nightmare and I kept getting things lost in the translation. Another really difficult part for me was all of the online quizzes. It's really hard to work off of the computer screen like that for me. I also had serious problems with the quizzes timing out on me and eating all of my work while I was taking the time to work the problems out on paper. So....about halfway through the quarter I started writing out the quizzes, then going back and entering the answers after I'd worked the problems out. It improved my grade immensely and kept the system from booting me so much. I had similar booting problems with other quizzes in my other classes, no matter which browser I tried to use. Since I've yet to have a quiz that is not open book, I really wish the quizzes came with a print option so you could print them out and work them on paper and then submit the answers. None of them are timed either so....I don't see why that can't be added it. But, whatever. Either way, thanks to writing those out, getting tutoring help from tutor girl and the SmarThinking online tutoring, I managed to get a solid C in that class. I passed and never have to take that again! And there was much rejoicing!!! :)

Second class to discuss - Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design. This class was the class that put the nail in the coffin of me ever taking design classes online ever again. I thought no instructor could be worse than my Typography instructor from my first quarter - I was so wrong. This guy was just....where to begin? Unprofessional does not seem a strong enough word. His version of feedback on something was "ok, looks good". WTH is that??!! He would say "great job!" on a discussion grade, but only give 95% with no explanation of why there were percentage points taken off. When he did post in the forums, which was rare, it was usually some snotty comment. There was a big issue with an assignment that in his mind was a big research paper but read as a regular written assignment and he couldn't understand why us stupid students couldn't figure it out. He asked me for clarification, which I gave (and very politely too tyvm - I want a cookie and a gold star for that) and he still wanted to argue the point and then just said "I don't get it but, whatever." He gave no lecture notes and only linked Adobe tutorials which you can find on your own. Our book was Teach Yourself Dreamweaver in 24 Hours, and that's what we did. We taught ourselves and he dialed it in and did the least amount possible to pull down the paycheck. For less than I paid for this class, I could have bought the damn book myself and gotten the same experience, but without the snotty commentary from the instructor. And when we had a problem with linking our final projects and were told to contact our instructor, what did he say? Pay $4 on our own for some web space cuz he didn't know either. And who was his favorite student? The guy who used sexist female imagery on his final project of course! Is there something I'm missing here about graphic design? Is every guy in graphic design a sexist asshat or am I just getting lucky here with these instructors?

Either way, I have made it very clear I will not pay for anymore classes with this instructor and I will not take anymore design classes online. They are completely ineffectual and the instructors do not do the job when it comes to helping students to understand the concepts; it was just utterly useless. However, I do have a final project to link and for never having done anything in web design and teaching myself, I'm pretty proud of it. Naturally, the instructor hated it. According to him:

"Not bad, Amy. Your navigation works. Your external link works. I'll count your order form as a feedback form, though they aren't the same thing. Your layout and design is weaker than I'd like though. The overall look of your site isn't quite professional yet. Your buttons are HUGE and your layout is just blog style which is all dead giveaways for amateur web design. Work on that and you'll go far."

Huh - maybe if I'd had a decent instructor to, oh, I dunno, EXPLAIN some things, I might have been able to do better. Anyhow....I got a B in that class. Here is my final project: http://sotd.us/amyburns/HomePage.html

And here is the project by the class star pupil: http://www.ocalanightlife.com/

Now, personally, living in this town, I know this Ocala Nightlife thing has been around for years. I'm not sure how much of this he actually did himself and how much he took from what already existed, but....whatever. Don't you love the images? (puke, gag, retch) I'll give him that it looks professional, but it's also incredibly offensive and pedestrian. But he's got an A for sure cuz all those male instructors seem to just love to objectify women. }:(

Last of the three classes I have a final grade for is 3D Animation. My grade is an A. I still love this stuff so much. However, this quarter was really difficult. Unlike last quarter when there was no one in the computer lab and there was plenty of time to get in there and work, including on the weekends, this quarter it seemed like every person in every other major decided the computer lab was an extension of the student lounge where they could come in there and play on MySpace and Facebook and blare music out of headphones and talk and horse around and act like idiots. When that wasn't happening, the computers were glitching. It made working on my project really, really difficult. The weekends unfortunately were not any better as there were continually people bringing their kids in and having loud conversations, letting their kids on the computers (which they aren't supposed to do) and being disruptive. For the amount of money I'm paying for these classes y'all, I think the computer lab should be off limits to anyone not in the Design program so we have a place to go and work. I would have loved to have had the 3DS Max software at home this quarter so I could work in peace and quiet and on my hours. But....didn't happen. So....with all that, I still managed. Yay me. I'm actually pretty proud of my final projects. Or I was until I went and saw Avatar and now they just look really amateur and stupid. But, I just remind myself that this is only my second animation-type class and that I'm only in my third quarter of my first year so....give myself a break. So....first project was our Course Assessment. We had to design a solar system, make the light source come from the sun, apply materials to our planets, make them rotate around the sun, and add in a flythrough camera path. So....here it is:



Our final project was an animation of our own creation. I went through a lot of different ideas and storyboards, but finally came up with this. I call it Snow Shock. See what you think:



We also had a final paper to complete, but it's not worth posting. We simply had to choose a kind of animation to discuss and write a paper about it. I chose claymation. It was just your basic research paper, blah, blah, blah.

So....that's all I have so far for grades. Still waiting for final grades from World Geography, Creative Writing, and Astronomy. As they come online I will be back with more to share with you.

Next quarter should be interesting and quieter, I hope. I'm taking two on campus classes and two online classes. Monday nights on campus is Figure Drawing, which will be with the same instructor who I had Drawing Design and Art Theory with, so I will get a chance to ask him wth happened with my final grade there. Wednesday nights is Digital Media Production which should be with my same instructor from my two 3D Animation classes and a lot of those classmates so....that should be good. A lot of my classmates from 3D Animation should be in Figure Drawing too so it'll be nice to know some people. Online I will be taking Introduction to Literature and Visual Communication in the Media. Those should hopefully be easy classes. We shall see.

Aside from that, I'm just enjoying the downtime from this quarter and the break before next. Next quarter starts my sophomore year so I'm making progress and school seems to be going by pretty quickly. I'm hoping that this next quarter kind of renews my warm fuzzy feeling toward my school. I've had a lot of concerns about things here lately, not the least of which is whether or not they are fully accredited, whether or not potential employers will consider it a "real" degree or an online degree, and whether or not I am getting the best educational experience for my dollar. I went online to the Pixar site to check things out and they use a completely different software called Maya that according to all my reading in the course catalog, my school does not even have or teach so....looks like I'm headed to the Internet for info on that one. As I say, we shall see how this quarter works out. I've been researching other schools and if I don't feel like things are moving in the right direction, I'll transfer what I can somewhere else. But then, there's another concern - will any of these credits even transfer somewhere else? Suffice it to say that in my mind, Rasmussen is on probation with me right now. We'll see how next quarter and the future go.

So....that's it for now. More to come in follow-up as more grades come online. Also - on a non-school note - if you haven't seen Avatar yet - GO SEE IT!!! That is the most visually stunning and amazing film I've seen in a long time. It totally reminded me of why I returned to school and what I want to be able to do when I get out. I'm already working on a couple of screenplays and stories and have so much I want to do. I just need to get the skills and knowledge to do it. So....cheers for now all!

Oops! Bad Me!! Bad!!

So....hi. :) Well....all y'all who read this are probably like "WTH? Did she die? Fall off the planet? WTF?" All I can say is...oops. :)

I'll be really, really honest here that life has been a bit on the complicated side as of late, and if I'm being really, really, REALLY honest, I've kind of been dialing it in a bit this quarter. I kinda lost my mojo there for a while. I don't know why. Just seems like this quarter has been weird for me. I dunno if it's the amount of classes, or the fact that a couple of them annoy me beyond the telling, but I've been having some motivational issues. I do, however, believe that whatever academic funk I fell into I have crawled out of and I will endeavor to do better about updating things. I'm bad, I know, smack my hand, whatever, moving on. :)

So....when last we left things it was the end of Week 2 and I had just posted Week 1's grades. We are now approaching the end of Week 6. Eek! I am so seriously, seriously behind.

So....week 2's grades went like this:

World Geography

Maps Assignment: 90%
Week 2 Discussion: 100%
Written Assignment Place Essay: 100%

Overall: 97.5%

Creative Writing

Week 2 Discussion: 100%
Week 2 Journal Entry: 100%
Week 2 Story Analysis: 100%

Overall: 100%

College Algebra

Week 2 Algebra Problems: 96%
Week 2 Discussion: 100%
Week 2 Test: 90%

Overall: 95%

Astronomy

Week 2 Exploration: 100%
Week 2 Discussion: 90%

Overall: 95.71%

Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design

Week 2 Discussion: 85%
Week 2 Lab: 100%

Overall: 98%

Week 2 was a while ago, but as you can see, things weren't sucking too bad. Yeah, you can tell by the tone that things have changed. Did you doubt it? PLEASE! I have College Algebra this quarter - things suck beyond the telling! So - highlights of Week 2 to post for you: My Place Essay from World Geography (on Seattle) and my Story Analysis from Creative Writing on Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway (whose writing I hate with a fiery passion). Enjoy!

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World Geography - Place Essay (this was supposed to be an essay suggesting a travel destination of our favorite choice for someone. Naturally, I chose Seattle cuz....well...have you met me? :) )

A wonderful travel destination is the city of Seattle, Washington in the United States of America. Located in the lush evergreen mountains, Seattle is a city surrounded by clear, blue water and rich with culture. Native American and Asian cultural influences abound in Seattle, from the Japanese Gardens and Chinatown areas, to the many Native American tribes located in and around the city including the Sammamish, the Snoqualmie, the Puyallup, and the Tulalip. Seattle is also a wonderful place to visit for outdoor activities like hiking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, and kayaking. All of your outdoor equipment needs can be met at the large REI shop located in the beautiful downtown area, which features a rock climbing wall and the ability to try out the merchandise in the store before buying it.
Seattle’s rich cultural life includes the Pioneer Square neighborhood, with its underground tour of the city and its informative markers and museums relating to Seattle’s history as a pioneering town. The Seattle Monorail, Seattle Art Museum, the Pike Place Market, the Experience Music Project, the Ballard Locks, the Seattle Aquarium, and the many wonderful performances at Benaroyal Hall by the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Ballet make for wonderful places to visit and soak in some of Seattle’s art and cultural offerings. Favorite tourist destinations include the Seattle Space Needle and the Fremont Troll. The environment in Seattle is rich with the smell of coffee and clean air, and vibrant within the many interconnected neighborhoods and communities from the hippie culture of Fremont to the Victorian houses in Queen Anne, to the museums and edgy shops of the University District. Seattle has many small, independently owned shops, bookstores, and independent marketplaces that are encouraged to thrive by the city’s populace, which vocally opposes any infiltration by the more established larger chain retailers. Seattle works to maintain its independence and culture and makes a wonderful destination for anyone to visit.

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Creative Writing - Story Analysis – More Hills Like White Elephants (just to let you know that I keep it real everywhere).

1. In one or two sentences, summarize the plot of the story.

The basic plot of the story revolves around a man and a woman discussing whether or not the woman should have an abortion. Throughout the story, the man is basically rationalizing why getting the abortion is no big deal, and the woman is essentially following his lead.

2. What is the major conflict in the story and how is it resolved?

As stated above, the major conflict is the issue of whether or not the girl should get the abortion. The male character is playing the typical male role of father figure, characterized by Hemingway naming him, yet referring to the female character simply as The Girl. The male character basically browbeats and manipulates the situation into the girl finally agreeing to undergo the procedure.

3. What is the position of the main character at the beginning of the story and at the end? Is there a gain or loss?

Assuming that Robert is considered the main character in the story, his position at the beginning of the story is as a manipulator, trying to talk his girlfriend into aborting a child he doesn’t want. For all intents and purposes, he gains at the end by getting the girl to agree.

4. Explain how plot is entwined with character in this story. In your answer, share whether or not you feel the two characters are acting naturally to what happens. To what extent do their character traits actually determine what happens in the plot?

The plot and character are intertwined in the story by the entire story being about the characters and their discussion of whether or not she should have the abortion. I don’t think the characters act naturally to what happens, but I believe most of that is due to Hemingway’s not really fleshing out the characters very much. There’s nothing about them to make the reader invested in their struggle. Both characters come off as detached and indifferent to the entire situation. The characters traits entirely determine what happens in the plot. Robert plays the role of wheedling manipulator, Hadley plays the role of the weak female willing to do anything do make her man happy.

5. Can you imagine another good ending for the story? Why or why not?

As a hardcore feminist, I can imagine a lot of better endings for this story. Hadley actually growing a spine and a character and standing up for herself would have been lovely. Robert being less pushy and less unwilling to actually discuss the issue at hand rather than push his own agenda would have been nice too. I would have preferred a better interaction and more realistic dialogue in the story for the situation. But as the story is, it’s entirely Hemingway and his version of the male/female dynamic, which I personally despise.

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Okay so....that was Week 2. Week 3 went like this:

World Geography

Maps Assignment: 93.33%
Exam 1: 80.85% (something went wrong with this assignment online so this grade is null and void but....this is what I got on it anyway)

Overall: 88.98%

Creative Writing

Week 3 Journal Entry Discussion: 100%
Week 3 Written Assignment - Name Character: 100%
The Fiction Project - Outline Plot from Journal: 100%

Overall: 100% (sensing a trend here?)

College Algebra

Week 3 Algebra Problems: 88%
Week 3 Test on Chapter 1: 65%
Week 3 Discussion: 100%

Overall: I didn't get at the time and it's cumulative so....sorry.

Astronomy

Week 3 Exploration - Composition of the Giants: 86%
Week 3 Discussion - Jupiter the Great: 100% (for this discussion assignment we were supposed to hypothesize what would happen if the Earth were the size of Jupiter and how it would effect mankind's evolution. Aside from myself and one other person, everyone in the class claimed Armageddon would be upon us - depressing and scary people there.)

Overall: 93.81%

Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design

Week 3 Discussion: 95%
Week 3 Updating Joe's Deli Lab: 85%

Overall: 95.24% (this instructor is this quarter's Typography guy - he's an absolute asshat).

Nothing majorly interesting to share with y'all from Week 3. Sorry. On to Week 4!

World Geography

Week 4 Research Assignment - Rwandan Genocide: 94%
Maps Assignment: 100%
Discussion - Interpreting Movement: 80% (this was the worst discussion assignment ever. She did not clearly explain what she wanted and it was absolutely ridiculous. We all tanked it. Did she take into account maybe she didn't explain it well? Nah! We're all just too dumb. What. Ever.)

Overall: 90.79%

Creative Writing

Week 4 Journal Entry: 100%
Week 4 Story Analysis: 100%
Fiction Project - Build Characters: 100%

Overall: 100%

College Algebra

Week 4 Chapter Problems: 96%
Test on Chapter 2: 60%
Week 4 Discussion: 100%

Overall: 81.05% (I can do okay getting the problems done, but for some reason the tests just kick my ass)

Astronomy

Week 4 Exploration: 90%
Week 4 Discussion: 100%
Week 4 Quiz: 90%

Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design

Week 4 Design Project - Site Architecture: 100% (his comments? "ok looks fine" Gee - thanks for the feedback)
Week 4 Discussion: 95% (his comments? "good work" No explanation on the discount on my grade)
Week 4 Lab - Joe's Deli: 90%

Overall: 94.75%

So....for Week 4's World Geography class we had to write a research paper on the Rwandan Genocide. I didn't get a 100% on this because I did no in-text citations (which I never do - I think they're tacky) but aside from that, I think I approached the subject well and honestly - judge for yourself:

World Geography - Week 4 Rwandan Genocide Research Paper

In 1994, the two main factions of the Rwandan people declared yet another war on each other, resulting in the deaths of over 800,000 people. The war was the result of decades of ongoing tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes in Rwanda. As far as laying blame for the conflict, the main blame belongs to the Rwandan people themselves. Rather than attempt to work out differences between one another in a civilized manner, they chose to attempt to exterminate each other. The history of the region basically states that the Belgian government took over Rwanda from the Germans after World War I. They chose to offer benefits such as wealth, cattle and status to the Tutsi minority, and the Hutu majority was left as the lower income working class. This caused tensions that sparked conflicts between tribes well before the 1994 incident.

In answer to the question of whether or not the United States or the United Nations could have done anything to help, my answer would be no. This is a similar situation, in my mind, to that faced with the Palestinian versus Jewish conflict in the Middle East. Both sides are convinced that they are right and that there is no recourse other than wiping out the other. Rather than have United States or United Nations servicemen and women killed, I believe it is best to stay out of these kinds of conflicts and focus more on our own country and dealing with our issues before trying to police the world. It was suggested in my reading that the United States or United Nations could have threatened to impose sanctions to get the Hutu people to fall back into line, but based on this history of this region, I believe that it would only have been a matter of time before all out war was declared.

As to how I would handle living in such an environment, while the United States is not a third-world nation, we do have our own inner conflicts that still exist to this day. Living in a southern state in America, it is not hard to see that ethnic hatred and intolerance exist here. It would be remiss and ridiculous to assume that we are by any means free of the same kinds of hatred and violent predilection that exist in Rwanda. The Ku Klux Klan is still in operation, and more and more people are factioning themselves off and turning on one another based on race, religion, sexual preference, or economic disparity. Living in a country like Rwanda would be a difficult life, with no real options for education or future growth unless you were part of the more privileged minority. It is hard to speculate on what a life in these types of countries is like. If you are part of the majority, without power or education, then you will believe what your leaders tell you and act accordingly. If you are part of the privileged minority, then you will be raised with an “us-versus-them” mentality and a preconceived theory of entitlement over your fellow man.

As to why these kinds of conflicts arise, very simply they are based on ignorance, intolerance, hatred, and the absolute belief of one side that they are right and the other is wrong. Without the tolerance to allow all peoples to exist, regardless of whether or not your beliefs are the same, there will always be conflicts and war. Add to that issue the circumstances present in the Rwandan conflict of a privileged minority discriminating and trying to hold down the lesser majority, and you have the perfect ingredients for conflict and war. Deep-seeded notions of entitlement, hatred, intolerance, ignorance and anger are passed down generation to generation, and without the education and understanding that other conflict resolutions are possible; people become mired in a status quo of destruction and death.

I believe all people have the right to live freely. I believe all people are responsible for their own actions and that the circumstances in which you are raised are simply that, circumstances. It is up to the individual to believe what they are taught, or to try to find a different way. Some of the Hutu people believed differently than their brethren and tried to help the Tutsi people. The United Nations sent peacekeepers to try to show the people of Rwanda that there were other options besides war. Once those people made their determination that extinction was the only answer, I firmly believe the United Nations and the Unites States were right in pulling their people out of Rwanda. In situations like this, as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when people are determined no matter what that war is the only solution, it goes beyond anything any outside agency or governing body can control. I for one do not believe there will ever be peace in the Middle East. Both sides are completely certain that they are right and that the other side has no place in their world or their country. These people will continue to fight until they either obliterate the other or themselves. Similarly, the Hutu and Tutsi people in Rwanda have been having altercations and wars since their country’s beginning. The world can look on and say tragedy took place and lament the losses, but the fact is that those people chose to turn on one another, and the odds are, they will choose at some later point to do it again. The United States and United Nations can counsel, they can try to help people to see other options in a situation, but barring that, I believe it to be the height of arrogance and stupidity to interfere in an ethnic war not of our making or understanding.
 
Resources

Anderson, T. (2009). RWANDEN GENOCIDE. Rwandan Genocide, 1-3. http://search.ebscohost.com
(2009). The difficulty of trying to stop it happening ever again. Economist, 390(8626), 45-46. http://search.ebscohost.com
Baldauf, S. (2009, April 7). Why the US didn’t intervene in the Rwandan genocide. Christian Science Monitor, p. 6. http://search.ebscohost.com

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So....that was Week 4. For Week 5, it's a good thing I decided to go and update this because I had to go and look for my grades and found that my Web Authoring dick of a teacher did not grade my discussions properly - he gave me a zero for one saying I did no posts - dumbass. So....sent him a little e-mail requesting he remove head from sphincter, then grade (but actually nicely and respectfully asked he re-check - still - same overall sentiment). Ugh. Anyhoo....aside from that, here's how the rest broke down:

World Geography

Week 5 Discussion: 100% (this discussion was over whether environment, culture or both effect how a society prospers. I said environment. Whatever.)

Overall: 95% (this will be my mid-term grade so....solid A there)

Creative Writing

Week 5 Discussion: 100%
Week 5 Journal Entry: 100%
Fiction Project - Describe the Setting: 100%

Overall: 100% (again, solid A here. Nothing major to post. I'm not going to post my journal entries here because they're personal and as for the Fiction Project, I'm just going to wait and post the final result.) :)

College Algebra

Week 5 Discussion: 100%
Week 5 Test on Chapter 3: 55% (now, this was after I finally scheduled regular tutoring sessions for every week in this class - for some reason, I am having serious disconnect on these quizzes!)
Week 5 Algebra Problems: 95%

Overall: 82.41 (this - I think is actually close to C territory. I will be honest people, I simply want to pass this class, that is all - just pass it and not have to retake it. As long as I'm above 70%, I think I'm okay.)

Astronomy

Week 5 Exploration: 96%
Week 5 Discussion: 100%

Overall: About 93% (he graded something of Week 6's already so it's thrown off the cumulative. Still an A- though.)

So - again, nothing really postable this week and I'm going to have to wait for clarification on the Web Authoring grade. Ugh. :( See - here's how I know I've been down in a funk - last couple of quarters, I stalked my grades every week. This quarter - if I hadn't gone to update this and checked them, I would not have caught that discrepancy. It's weird - and totally unlike me. But, as I say, I think I have a handle on things now and the rest of the quarter should be better. Life has been really stressful and crazy and I have been fighting some depressive issues so - overall, I think I'm doing pretty good. And as I say - I have found my way back to the light. :)

I have a load of papers I have to complete for all of my classes and lots of quizzes coming up. As I say, we are nearing the end of Week 6 and Monday starts Week 7. I am going to try to be better about updating this as it's for my own good as well as to keep all you friendlies informed. :) Sorry I've been behind. Guess I did kinda fall off the planet there for a while, but I'm back now. :) Okay so....until Week 6's grades arrive - cheers! ;)

P.S. - It should go without saying, but, again, everything written here belongs to ME and ME alone!!!! Don't be a loser and steal my stuff. You don't have the snark, and you know it.

P.P.S - Almost forgot - things are going well in my 3D Animation class. My grade is an A, but I won't have anything to post really until our final paper and projects are finished - but it's all good! :)

End of Week 2/Week 1 Grades

Hi all.

So far it's been a pretty good week. I've gotten a better handle on my time organization now that I have a week under my belt with all six classes. It's a juggle, but I'm doing alright. :) Yay.

Assignments this week are going well, aside from the reading in my Creative Writing book. Y'all, I don't know if there's something in the paper or ink of that book or what, but I kid you not, when I open it to read it, I can't read past the second paragraph without my eyes immediately closing. I close that book and I wake right up. It is seriously, seriously weird. :)

With the end of Week 2, Week 1's grades have finally been posted and so....without further ado, here are my grades for Week 1 of classes:

World Geography - we only had a discussion posting assigned for Week 1 so....that was kind of easy. I got 100%.

Creative Writing - we had a discussion post, two journal entries, and a quiz on our reading. I got 100% on all of them.

College Algebra - we had two tutorials we had to do to learn how to correctly put together and submit our homework. One in MS Equation Editor and one in MS Graph Chart - I got 100% on both. Then we had a discussion posting which was us answering and submitting our answer to one problem for the initial post, and then checking the work of a classmate for our reply post. I got 100% on this as well. Then we had our assigned problems we had to work out and submit on our chapter. I got 92%! I was so freaking happy with that I cannot even fully express it! So far, so good!

Astronomy - we had a discussion in this class that I referenced in previous posts. Seems that asking the follow-up question got me some more points on that. My discussion grade was 90%. We also had a written assignment and my grade on that was 96%. So....this class is kind of a struggle for me but I'm doing the best I can.

Web Authoring & Design - we had a discussion post on HTML vs. Dreamweaver that I referenced earlier here. I managed to not sound like a complete idiot apparently and I got 100% on that. I also got my project idea approved and 100% on the proposal. Lastly we had our hand-coded HTML webpage that I was really, really worried about, but it turned out I got 100% on it. Yay. :)

So....my class percentages are currently as follows:

World Geography: 100%
Creative Writing: 100%
College Algebra: 97.33%
Astronomy: 94.29%
Web Authoring & Design: 100%

I'm going to have to work on and watch that Astronomy grade because the cutoff for an A is 93%. I so want to get my 4.0 this quarter, y'all! Please, please, please!! The six classes are a LOT of work, as I anticipated, but also like I anticipated, I can handle it just fine. I'm learning lots of new things and it's all getting very interesting. There are no grades currently for 3D Animation because the way class is structured, we're working on pieces of our final projects to submit. Our first piece is our completed storyboards and they are due to be presented this coming Wednesday night, along with preliminary modeling and texturing. I'll keep you apprised as to the results.

As far as assignments to share with you, this first week really didn't have anything shareable, but the assignments I'm working on this week show a little more promise. As always, watch this space! :) Cheers all.

This Makes Me Feel a Little Better

Hey everybody!

Well....Fall Quarter starts on Monday! Actually, the online classes will be available at 12:01 a.m. Sunday/Monday so....I'll be up to get online and check it all out! :)

I have good news! Despite the issue with my Drawing Design grade, I still managed to make the Dean's List and also made the Perfect Attendance List - two quarters in a row! Didn't make the Director's List (again) but there's always Fall Quarter, right? :) This makes me feel a bit better. My overall GPA for two quarters is 3.84, which really isn't that bad. Right? Sure. Okay. Moving on....

I have been reading ahead in all of my course books. I'm going to have some problems with the Astronomy one, I can tell you right now. Partly because I keep confusing the word Astronomy with Astrology, and partly because I'm not sure I buy some of the stuff they are selling. How do they know all this stuff about billions of light years from us and all that jazz? I will be interested in seeing some PROOF!! :)

My World Geography book and atlas are MASSIVE! And very detailed. Pretty much this quarter's Intro to Business reading. Large pages, small print, very small margins so there's lots to read on a page, and interminably long chapters. Oy! But, it is kind of interesting. I think I'll learn a lot.

The Creative Writing book I mentioned in a previous post. I'm not really impressed with it. I hope the lecture and assignments in that class make up for how much the book sucks. We shall see.

My new 3DS Max book is chock full of lots of cool stuff, but the best part of that class has never been the book, it's the class. I really enjoy it and am looking forward to diving back in again. The only downside? It's on Wednesday nights which means I miss Glee. :( Sad. But, luckily there's Hulu so...moving on! :)

College Algebra is going to be a hot mess no matter what. I watched the first couple of tutorials and it makes sense, which worries me. Math and I, we've never been close. We'll see what kind of relationship builds over this quarter. Again, I think that's a class that's going to be made or broken by the lectures, assignments, and instructor.

Web Design book is all about Dreamweaver. It's the one I'm trying to work my way through now. So far, it's interesting. I'm trying to read as far ahead as I can in case I'm in a class with people who already know the program. The one downfall I have found in some of my classes it that the instructors skew to those who know the most, not those who know the least. Makes for a lot of outside-of-class work if you're on the lower end of the scale.

So....that's the latest. I am somewhat pacified by making both lists again for Summer Quarter. I'm still ticked about that grade, but I'm trying to get it go. It's a process. :) Anyhoo....that's the latest. I'll be back after classes start with all the latest news! Cheers until then!

Saying I'm Pissed is the Understatement of the Century!

Hi all.

Well....it's the beginning of the second week of break. Fall Quarter starts next Monday.

I have lots of news, but we'll start with what is making me see red this morning. They finally posted grades for the Summer Quarter and my Drawing Design and Art Theory grade went from a B at Mid-Term to a B- at the final. Basically, this has jacked my GPA to 3.84 overall. I am not a happy person right now. For one thing, I'd like to know why the hell the instructor never answered the two e-mails I sent asking for my final project and class grades. He said to send an e-mail and he would reply LAST MONDAY and never replied to anything. So that ticked me off from the start. Second, WTF is with my grade going DOWN when he and everyone else in the class said I'd made the most progress in the course???!!! I'm just.....uuuugggghhh! Grrrrrr!!! Not a happy person AT ALL!!! >:( So, needless to say, that's seriously got my back up this morning. Happy Monday to me. :( The rest of my grades for the quarter were as expected, A in E-Commerce, A in Intro to Business, A in Intro to 3D Arts and Animation. So....yeah....whatever.

Moving on.....I have received my books for next quarter and WOW! that's a lotta stuff! Breaking it down for ya:

College Algebra has a massive book, massive workbook, 9-disc tutorial and 5-disc problem thingy. Needless to say, this is going to be my rough class this quarter.

World Geography has a giant book and a giant atlas book that goes with it. Geography has always been something I have trouble with so....this will be a challenge as well.

Astronomy (which I keep confusing with Astrology), has just one book and it's mostly pictures. Very pretty pictures at that. I have a feeling that class will have lots of lecture, otherwise it's going to be hard to learn online. We shall see.

Creative Writing has one little book with it. I read the first chapter and it's okay. I just really wish that some of these writing books, specifically those written by women, would use more female writers than always falling back on the same male writers we've all read a million times before. Can't we move forward and realize women have been writing, and writing astounding works, just as long as men and try to highlight some of that? Is it asking too much? Apparently so. :( Ah well....we shall see. It's more of the same highbrow crap that drives me nuts too. I'm not much for the flowery writing, I like honest, straightforward, real prose. I dunno. It'll be interesting to see if that instructor is male or female.

Fundmentals of Web Authoring and Design has a Teach Yourself Dreamweaver in 24 Hours book that goes with it. Since the only web authoring I've ever done has been on Microsoft Front Page, and the only coding a severely basic smattering of HTML and then a ton of Visual Basic, suffice it to say that I've got some learning to do on this software. :)

Our book for our next level 3D Animation class is very interesting. It's an older book, but it does have more in it about stuff than our last book so....combined together and with the lecture and lab work, I think it'll be another fun class. I like working in 3DS Max and I like modeling - I could totally see myself doing that all day.

So....that's the latest. I am very, very, very unhappy about the grade I got in Drawing Design, but it's done and there's nothing I can do about it now. :( Time to move on to the next exciting quarter. In the meantime, I know I'll be spending a good portion of this week online playing Evony and Plants vs. Zombies, which I have gotten addicted to. I expect the intervention will commence any day now. "Amy, step away from the computer...." :)

I shall return next week with all the latest news from the new Fall Quarter. Cheers until then!

Two Down, Two to Go!!

Hey all!

So....my final Introduction to 3D Arts & Animation class was last night and it was pretty damn awesome. I know that with all of my projects and the final exam and extra credit, that I have a 103.5% grade - that's an A. :) Yippee! The instructor said I chose a really good major and that I'm really doing well. I really enjoy the class and I'm looking forward to learning more next quarter.

Our final project was supposed to be a "Jack-in-the-box", in this case, the Jack in the box was Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I am extremely proud of my treasure chest, let me tell you. I think that thing is fierce! This quarter mainly focused on modeling, texturing and lighting. Next quarter we will move on into more to do with the cameras and animation. As such, our project was rendered out as JPEGs and kind of works like the old flip books, I guess. We have a six-scene storyboard pattern that we followed. So...without further ado, our "Jack Sparrow in the box":













So....there you have it. The projects were broken down to the girls versus the boys in the class, and was an even 4/4 split. However, two of the girls flaked out during the course so it ended up just being me and Marcella doing all the work for our team. And we KICKED ASS!!! :) The boys still didn't even have their project done at the end of class last night. Marcella and I both put in weekend hours, showed up to every class, and had the two highest grades in the class. Why? - cuz girls RAWK!!!! :)

So there you have it, our final project for our Intro to 3D Animation class. Now it's on to my final Intro to Business paper and final written assignment for E-Commerce. Once those are completed and I finish all of my discussion post replies, Summer Quarter will be over. Then I'm spending the next two weeks reading for fun, writing, and chilling out. At least until my new books arrive - then I'm going to be reading ahead, as always. :) Cheers all!

One Down, Three to Go!

Hey y'all!

So...it's finals week. This quarter has been interesting and challenging on many levels, and also catastrophically boring and annoying on many levels. I'm doing fairly well in my classes and I hope to end the quarter on a high note with a respectable GPA. I *hope*. :)

So last night was my final Drawing Design and Art Theory class. We brought in our final projects to be critiqued and it was agreed by the class that I have made significant improvement over the course of the quarter. And I quite agree. I will know on Monday what my final project grade is and what my overall grade is for the class. This is the one class that could really hump my GPA. At mid-term, I had a B. I know I've improved, so hopefully (hopefully!) I have improved enough to at least an A- or an A. I can handle a 3.95 GPA again, but I really, really, really have been working so hard - I think I've earned my 4.0. But....we'll just have to wait and see.

At any rate, here is my final project from that class. We had to take a book that has not been made into a movie and draw up a movie poster for it. The book I chose was Red Leaves by Paullina Simons. Check it out:



Aside from saying that my trees looked like Lego trees and knowing that I can't draw architecture to save my life, the reviews were overall very positive and since I've never taken any kind of drawing classes before, I feel proud of the final product.

Tonight is my final Introduction to 3D Arts & Animation class. I'm excited to see how our project in that class turns out and hope to have something cool to share with you later. After that, I have two final papers to complete for my online classes, and then this quarter is done. So....as always, watch this space - more to come! Cheers!

Next Quarter's Finalized Schedule

Hi all.

Well....it's hard to believe it, but my second quarter here at Rasmussen is almost over. Seems like the time is flying! :) Things are going well. I think I will survive this quarter with 3 A's and one B. At least that's my hope. I can't see myself pulling off better than a B in my Drawing Design class. I'm lucky I've got the B I think. :)

So....came into school today and met with the registrar and financial aid (both a couple of times actually), and finally have my schedule for next quarter finalized. I started out with four design classes and two gen ed classes, but my financial aid wouldn't jive with that, so now it's four gen ed classes and two design. Five are online, only one on campus. This will indeed be an interesting quarter with taking 6 courses and 22 credit hours - wowza! I think I'm insane. We shall see. Anyhoo....here's how it's shaking out:

Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design
Introduction to Astronomy
Creative Writing
World Geography
College Algebra
3-Dimensional Animation

Overall, I like this schedule and think it will be interesting. I know absolutely nothing about astronomy other than what the Big Dipper looks like in the sky so I'll be learning all new things there - cool!

Fundamentals of Web Authoring and Design should be interesting. All about setting up and coding web pages.

Creative Writing should be really fun and interesting. By the end of the class we have to have written a 6,000 word project.

World Geography should be interesting too. I'm a bit geography-challenged, so I'm excited to have a chance to really learn that stuff. I always miss the geography questions on Jeopardy!

College Algebra will more than likely kick my ass. Luckily, there is tutoring help here at school that I am sure I will utilize. I suck with numbers.

3-Dimensional Animation is the next step up from the Intro class I'm taking this quarter. I really love these Animation courses, so I'm stoked to get going with the next one. Also - a good portion of the people in my class this quarter will probably be in that class, so it will be nice to already know some people. It's my only on campus class next quarter.

I'll be almost out of lower level gen ed courses after this one, so I'm going to have to work with financial aid in squaring away enough aid to cover the design heavy quarters that will follow until I get to upper level classes. But, things should be interesting next quarter. I'll be excited to get my new books! I always am.

So...that's the latest. More to come later as things progress. Laters!

Allow Me To Brag A Bit Please!!

Hey y'all

So....allow me a moment here to brag, if you will. Remember my beautiful bridge from my previous post? (if not, go look at it - I'll wait.....back? OK!)

Well....turns out that I'm the only one in the class that got it right! We went over the architectural project and the instructor is all:

"So....let's go over our architectural projects from last week - YOU!"

He points at me.

"Want to come up and tell us how you did it?"

Well...I didn't get up, 'cuz I hate being the center of attention, but I did explain how I did it.

"Well....first, I went online and searched for pictures of suspension bridges to get an idea of what I was trying to do..."

"PERFECT! YES! EXACTLY! I highly recommend this - it's always good to have some background - next?"

"Well...."

And then I went on to explain how I did it.

"Excellent! This is definitely an A, you got an A. A+ really. This is a perfect example - the exact way I would instruct anyone in building this particular project - WELL DONE!"

Yeah, it's okay to be a little impressed with me - I sure as hell am! God knows I'm the red-headed stepchild of my incredibly talented Drawing Design class so....I'll take the kudos where I can get 'em kiddies!

So....I had to share that with y'all. Really made my week, let me tell you. :)

Onward.....so.....finally got my new schedule. It needs some tweaking (which will happen Tuesday morning at 8 in the bright a.m.), but I'm definitely scheduled for the next 3D Animation class. AWESOME! I really am enjoying this stuff. I can totally see being happy being paid to sit and model shit all day. That would be hella cool! I'll wait to impart any other schedule knowledge until it's all worked out so....watch this space, as always.

Other grade situations - online classes = A's, Drawing Design - I still think I'm holding my B there (I hope). I have sketching to do later today and then will try to post some newness soon. Our assignment for this week is 2 pages of sketches without using lines - WTF is that about??!! Apparently we're supposed to only use shading and cross-hatching and shit. What. Ever. I'm really just trying to survive this class y'all, for real. Just please let me get to the end of the quarter without an F is all I'm asking. I just need to pass. I'll have one other drawing class for my major - Figure Drawing - at some point. Oy! That's all I can say about that.

So....that's the latest. I shall endeavor to get back with sketches soon but in the meantime, marvel at that bridge why don't ya - my bridge is FIERCE!!! Yes it is! ;) Laters all!

Welcome to the end of Week 7!

Hi all.

Wow - things have been really crazy busy here lately! My dog has been sick, I've been dealing with some work weirdness, and school is....school. :) On the plus side, I finally checked all of my mid-term grades and everything is A's except for my Drawing Design and Art Theory class, which is a B, which is better than I thought so - yay! If I turn in a really kick-ass final project, I may be able to salvage my GPA! Oh the joy!

Intro to Business and E-Commerce are pretty much dud courses. Incredibly boring and banal but....what are you going to do, right? It wouldn't be so bad if the books weren't so far behind the times. I think the E-Commerce one is from 2000 or 2001 - - don't they realize how much shit has gone down since then? Anyway, it makes reading them and juxtaposing all of that with the current state of things a little head-trippy.

In Drawing Design we have moved on to portraits and figure drawing. I need to take some pics of my new sketches and show y'all the mock-up of my final project but, honestly, it ain't gonna happen tonight. I'm about out of steam and still have homework to do. Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow or Sunday.

On to 3D Animation, which is my favorite class this quarter. We've been doing so much cool stuff. We're still in modeling, but I like it. I definitely chose a good major for me, that's for sure. :) So - without further ado, more postings of the cool stuff we've been doing!

First off, we have a project called the Boolean Project, which was using Boolean Commands and Compound Objects. We had to build a claw-footed hammer, a mallet, a dagger, and a pillar. (yes - that's a dagger - shut up!)



Then we had an assignment to build a solar sytem:



Then our newest projects were using Edit Mesh commands. Here we had to make a flying saucer, a doorknob, and a lightbulb (yes - that's a lightbulb - shut up!)



Finally, our newest projects are to build a building like the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and a suspension bridge. I'm still working on the bridge, but here is my Capitol so far:



It's still a work in progress, but I like it so far.

Aside from all of that, it's just business as usual. Schedules for next quarter should go up any day now so I'm excited to see what I end up with. I'll be sure to let y'all know. So - - onward and upward. Again, I'll try to get some new sketches up tomorrow or Sunday for your amusement. Laters!

P.S. - we got sent an e-mail with a link to sign up for the Jeopardy College Tournament test online - I signed up. The test is Tuesday - this should be interesting! ;)

Update on the End of Week 5

Hi all.

Week 5 went pretty well. Things have been a bit crazy personal life-wise, but overall it's going good. Week 5 was mid-terms. The only class I had an actual mid-term in was 3D Animation - more about that in a minute.

Intro to Business is going well. There is one chick in that class that I have an issue with, but she's fairly stupid so - nothing to worry about. Woe be it to her if we ever meet face-to-face and she tries any of this trifling shit on me, however. I'm getting 100%'s on my assignments and discussions and quizzes and my A is firm in that class - yay!

E-Commerce: things here are going well too. Again, 100%'s and a good, solid A. It's deadly dull, but some of the discussions are nice and someone in one of my real-life classes is in there, so it's nice to know someone else.

Drawing Design and Art Theory: very much the Typography of this quarter. Ugh. As you can see from my earlier entry, my drawing skillz are not so great. I'm working on it, however. This class I really need to put forth some more effort in. I don't know what my grade is, but I don't think it's good. I don't have the guts to ask the instructor. I'm going to make a good, concentrated effort to perform better in this class for the rest of the quarter and really get my grade up as high as I can. This class, I admit, I haven't been doing my best, hardest work in - I'm going to remedy that.

3D Animation - got an A+ on my mid-term and I'm one of the people the other students ask for help and stuff. It's pretty damn cool. Again, good solid A in this class and it's my favorite this quarter. I love watching these things come into being. Right now we're still focusing on the different tools of model building, but will be moving forward into animation soon. I'm excited! And construction is already underway on the final project. Should be pretty cool.

Okay, as I said above, we've been working on modeling items and using modifiers to modify shapes and objects. So....one of our first assignments was to modify some objects using 3 modifiers on each and place them in a scene. I introduce, my futuristic highway, complete with car, tree, volcano, park and buildings:



My submission for our Spline Project: a cup, a lamp, a chess piece (yes it's a chess piece!), a bolt, a wine bottle, a nameplate, and a table:



My submission for the Logo Project - which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - superimposing/incorporating text and a tagline onto objects:



Our latest Week 5 Skillz Test, which was a waving flag using NURBS, a screwdriver, and a chair with lathed legs:



My practical Mid-Term assignment, which was to create a traffic cone, a mailbox, a table with funky legs, and a spaceship:



And finally, our last project, which is half-done. We've started in on boolean and compound objects. I have a pillar and mallet here - I have to complete the claw-foot hammer and dagger still.



So....that's what's going on in the world of Introduction to 3D Arts & Animation. This is the way we learn! Do you feel educated now? Good! :)

As always, more to come later. Until then....PEACE!

Going Into Week 5

Hi all!

Okay, so - first things first - my birthday was good. Drank an entire bottle of pink champagne. Did some Intro to Biz homework after 4 glasses. :) Been getting 88% on all of my assignments - - assignments I did after drinking both got 100% - hmmm.... :)

Intro to Biz and E-Commerce are both still deadly dull. I'm still getting A's in both classes, but it's a snoozefest. I have an assignment where I had to interview a small business owner and I will be posting that lately. I chose an awesome Etsy person named Amanda Swan from Sygnet Creations so....that'll be up soon! ;) Especially since it's due tomorrow!

Intro to 3D Animation is going well. Unfortunately, all that homework lives on the school computers, but I'll try to get my JPEGs when I'm back in class and post a few here - some of it's kinda cool. I have a mid-term in that class this coming week so - gotta study for that. :)

Which brings us to Drawing Design and Art Theory. I know I've been promising/threatening to post my sketches and now (while I take a homework break), I will do so. I'm going to try to post these in the order they were done, so bear with me. And please try to keep the helpless laughter to a minimum, okay? My ego, she is fragile. Thx! ;)

Our first assignment was a self-portrait. It did not need to be "real", but a representation of how we see ourselves. So....here it is:



Next up was 2-point perspective. We were set the task to draw a house in 2-point perspective. My classmates, all of whom can draw circles around me I must note, drew these really amazing structures. I came up with these:





One of our course books, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, has these upside down line drawings that you can do that are supposed to turn off your left brain and turn on your right. Guess what? I can draw upside down stuff!!



Here's the drawing turned right-side up. I did okay with just focusing on the lines and not thinking about what I was drawing until I got to the fingers, then I had some trouble. But still pretty good, no?



Then we had to do some drawings from life. I had a box of Jujyfruits so I drew that. Here's the first angle:



And here's the second angle of the back of the box:



Then we had to draw chairs in class. This exercise almost brought me to tears, I must tell you. I could see the chairs right in front of me, and I knew what I wanted to do, but I just couldn't get from the image in my eye through my fingers onto the paper. Needless to say, the rest of the class's drawings left mine in the dust. :( In the first drawing, we were allowed to pick up our pencils:



In the second drawing, we were not allowed to look at our drawings or pick up our pencils while we were drawing:



Here is another upside down drawing from the book that I did - I LOVE the way this one turned out!



Here's the same drawing right-side up.



Our next homework assignments were to sketch some things from life, which I suck at. First drawings were an eraser and my pencil case:



Next sketch was my drawing/art supply briefcase thingy:



And finally we come to this last week's work. We were supposed to be focusing on positive and negative space and how you can use that space to create images. My final work was about honeycomb and hourglasses:



There are some random sketch pages that I went through to get to that, but this is a big enough post already. So....there you have it - what I've been doing in Drawing Design and Art Theory. I pitched my instructor my idea/topic for my final project and he approved it so - - now it's just time to mock it up. He said I could do it on the computer and then draw it so I'm going to do that. You better believe I'm turning that sucker upside down to do it!

So - so far maintaining straight A's in all of my classes. Oh! - spoke with my counselor and the dean and am going to segue from my Digital Design and Animation BS into the Gaming BS. Will add on about a year and a quarter to my schooling if I take 6 course per quarter, but will be so awesome when I'm done! So - starting next quarter I'm going up to six. This should be interesting!

Okay peeps, that's it for now. More to come soon when I get this interview essay finished so - watch this space! Laters!