You Can’t Have The Good Without The Bad

Ten months after I began looking for a job, and over a year since I last held a job,  I can finally say that I am once again employed.

I spent all that time in between being fairly productive, although there are those who would say going to school full time just isn’t enough, though for some people your good enough is never enough. However, I managed to complete twenty-five credits of my degree, and at the end of this semester I’ll be a senior looking at nine credits left until I graduate. School, although it is keeping me extremely busy, is going really well, and I’m enjoying my classes. Which then brings me around to the situation I find myself in now.

After filling out well over a hundred applications, the last one was the charm. Here’s the time line:

Friday – I fill out the application online and submit it.

Monday – I get a call to come in for an interview.

Tuesday – I go in for the interview. I get hired, on the spot. Really. All I did was sit down in the office, and sign some papers. I was being interviewed for roughly five minutes. Corporate paperwork and background check are submitted.

Wednesday – I go back in to sign the returned paperwork, which by the GM’s own words came back quicker than any previous paperwork that she can remember. I sign the papers.

Friday – 8AM – I start my job.

From now on, on the weekends, you can find me working in the photo lab at the CVS on the corner of Campbell and Nantucket. And with that being said, I have to tell the bad news. Well, not so much bad news as just an unfortunate event. When I came home from work this afternoon, I had a bunch of things to take in with me, needless to say, I was just a bit discombobulated. Long story short, I locked my keys in my car. The last time I did that was several years ago, and I still lived in New Jersey, and help was never far away. But times have changed and I’m far away from home. Also no one within a seven-hundred mile radius has a spare key to my car. Yes I’m serious.

The good news about this was I was at home when it happened, the bad news was my key chain also had my house keys on it, which were in my car. Ten minutes later I get in the house through the secret passage. Four hours later the guy I called to help get my keys out of my car finally shows up and spends three minutes getting the lock open.

All in all, a pretty lousy cap to a pretty awesome week.

A Rainy Day On The Boardwalk

A number of years ago, when I was both still a kid and living in New Jersey, my family and I went on a day trip to Atlantic City. The actual number of times I’ve been to that city I can count on one hand, it was kind of out of our way. There isn’t a lot that I can recall about the place, since as a kid my mind was probably elsewhere, and not concerned with committing my particular experiences to memory. But it is odd, what you end up remembering from long lost days many years ago.

Walking on the boardwalk, I was earnestly more enamored with the ocean than any cheap thrills the boardwalk might have had to offer. The ocean is free, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, is not. It was, of course, an overcast, rainy day that day, which by no means kept people from the city. It just meant those people who were without umbrellas were huddled under the awnings of all the tourist traps, or lingering in the lobbies of the casinos. We made our way through all the various stores, taking in all the sights and smells the boardwalk had to offer. I only remember but snippets of what I saw that day, until the end of the day was nearing. We we probably just taking a break from walking when we positioned ourselves outside a strip of stores to rest for a bit. The building behind where we were standing had multiple individual businesses inside it, so they could be inside, shielded away from the elements.

I remember standing in the corner formed by the building and the railing the protruded out of it, just watching the people walk by when the door into the building opens. Two people on stilts duck down to walk out of the regular sized door and shuffle way toward the boardwalk. It was obviously a man and a woman, since one was dressed in a dark blue outfit, the other in a shade of pink. It was also obvious that they were employees of one of the businesses inside, whose job it was to hand out flyers. What was not obvious to me, at that point in time, was what would happen next. Keep in mind it had been raining off and on all day, it was overcast, the sun was not out, and the fact that the boardwalk is in very close proximity to the ocean and it all adds up to some very slippery planks of wood.

The pair on stilts saunter out to the boardwalk, flyers in hand. They probably seem taller to me in retrospect because I was a kid back then, I was shorter, and everything looks bigger when you are a kid. But nevertheless the man on the stilts made a false move, which was stepping on the boardwalk to begin with. I can see it in my mind in slow motion. He puts his right foot out on the wood of the boardwalk and in the instant he begins to put any of his weight on it, the tiny stilt-foot slips out from underneath him, which in turn sends his stilt-leg flying into the air soon followed by his other stilt-leg and then with the rest of his body. The oddly proportioned man hits the boardwalk with a mighty thud, kind of like if you dropped 160 pounds of dead weight from six or seven feet up. He lays with his back on the boardwalk, the flyers in his hand, a causality of his fall, lay stuck on the wet boardwalk, which is probably where they would have ended up anyway, so it’s not like his didn’t do his job anyway. The weird thing is, I don’t remember seeing a single flyer that hadn’t landed face down, so I have no idea who they represented or what they were trying to sell.

The woman on stilts tries to bend down to see if he is alright, it’s difficult for her because she is, after all, still on stilts. She says a few words to him as best she can, all the while trying not to replicate what he just did. A few seconds later, she heads inside, most likely to alert whomever she works for, and I don’t see her again. I don’t quite remember how the next series of events unfolded, but I’m pretty sure the guy got himself sitting up, enough to remove his stilts anyway. I watched as he hobbled himself back inside where, just minutes before, he had come from.

I don’t remember how old I was that day, what time of year it was, or really who all was with me. I do remember a guy on stilts falling down though, and that’s fine with me.

Lot P Is A Dangerous Place

The car I drive now has been in my care for just over five years now. In that time I’ve managed to evade any major harm while I was in the car, as well as any harm to the car itself. The car is going on ten years old now, being manufactured in the Summer of 2000. So it necessarily has all the little dents and dings and tiny scratches that just seem to happen from driving your car to places like the Wal Mart parking lot, or on roads paved with gravel. Nothing of great note, until today.

Today someone decided to key my car. As per my usual Tuesday schedule, I drove up to school around a half an hour before my class began to idle around the parking lot waiting to snipe a spot to park. After about ten minutes of driving in circles, I got my chance and backed into the recently evacuated spot. I was parked in the spot from about 12:40 PM until around 3:20 PM, which was the time I was in my mixed media class.

Walking back to my car, I noticed the defacement immediately since I was walking toward the car on the side where the crime had been committed. This is what was waiting for me. A big X was carved into the right, rear door of my car. I did not notice any marks on any cars around me either, and both cars were dark colors, so I think I would have seem something, had there been something to see. This leads me to conclude that someone specifically targeted my car. Whether it was by chance it was my car that this person chose, or the person knew it was my car and I was the motive for their crime, I do not know. I do however have somewhat of a hunch, albeit a stretch.

The particular spot I was parked in today happens to be a spot that a very particular car parks in. The car that is parked in this spot is a blue Corvette, newer model. They are parked in this spot every single day, at least every day that I am on campus, and they are there longer than any day I am on campus for as well. This would be of little consequence, except for what I previously noted as well as the fact that whoever owns that car is your typical too-good-for-you, holier-than-thou type. My evidence: they park in the spot, halfway into the yellow lines that separate the road from the beginning of the parking spaces as if to say, I’m too good to park in between the lines. While of course what they’re actually saying is, I have many insecurities and I make up for them by driving this car, parking in the same spot every single day, and taking up what amounts to two spaces because I need you to know just how retarded I really am.

So to whoever decided to desecrate my car today, watch your back. You just gave me something to look at everyday, something to remind me so I wont forget about what you did. Something to keep my blood boiling.

For reference, Lot P is on the north end of the University of Texas at Dallas’ campus inbetween the engineering building and the inadequate ATEC building.

Uh huh, And What Are You Going To Do With That Degree?

A common question. More common than I’d like. Especially since I have no clear cut and concise answer for it.

I’m an Arts & Technology student at the University of Texas at Dallas and I’m finishing up my junior year this Fall. I’ve spent the past three years taking various classes at two different schools that probably have little or nothing to do with what I’ll eventually end up doing. It has only been in the past semester that I finally got a taste of the kinds of things that I came to the program for. I’ve known for a very long time that I wanted to work in the art and animation field, but that was as specific as it ever got, and unfortunately, it still gets. I have no definite direction, no master plan for when I graduate. Mostly due to one simple fact, I’m not very good at any one thing.

To me, the bachelor of arts degree I will hopefully be getting in about a year, feels something like a jack of all trades degree. I can write, but talk is cheap. I can use photoshop, better than the average joe, but I can’t touch some of the talent out there (and I’m using V 7.0). I can model decently, but have only very recently started, and there is a plethora of information out there I’ve not even begun to realize. I can say I’ve programmed Java, but if you tried to set me down and have me program when it actually mattered (and anything more complex than searching one line strings), I would crash and burn faster than the Hindenburg. I can say I have a lot of design foundation under my belt (I do, I rather like design), but I don’t have a portfolio to prove it. I can draw, but human figures are right out. I know how to develop and print traditional film, but who does that anymore, other than for a hobby?

I can’t create a website. I don’t know Flash, CSS, or RSS. I’ve never used any film editing software other than Windows Movie Maker, and that was simply to take many short videos and make one long video out of them. I have no sound design experience whatsoever, and I don’t know the first thing about making a game or a film.

I know just enough about everything to carry on a conversation, for a longer time if the other person is doing most of the talking.

But that all isn’t too frustrating for me. Not yet at least. It’s when people ask me what arts & technology is, and what on Earth that entails. What can you do with that degree? What kind of job are you going to have? How much money are you going to be making with that degree?  Where are you going to be living when you find a job? Tell you what, if I could see the future, then I know one thing for certain, I wouldn’t be talking to you. Though I suppose it is no fault of the people who cannot fathom going to school for something other than engineering or business, as anything else is considered frivolous. It’s simply the age in which every other generation other than our own was raised in. Things move too fast for most of them to keep up, and trying to explain something that is going to go over their heads by default is futile. Yet the questions always continue. And the dumbfounded and looks of disbelief and disapproval continue. But then again, people laughed at the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs when they began their work. So the only choice is to move forward.

I’m sure I’ll find my calling eventually. And maybe that’s what this is all about. Trying so many different things, that when you finally come around to the one thing you enjoy above all else, you’ll know without a doubt that this is the thing for you. Learning a new skill is easy, mastering it takes a lifetime.

The Fall Schedule

Now that the Summer semester has finally ended, it is briskly on to the Fall semester. My last obligation for the Summer semester was on August twelfth, the Fall semester started on August twentieth. I spent my Summer vacation going to school, I spent my two weeks between semesters traveling and relaxing.

This Fall marks my fifth semester at UTD, also, coming into this semester I have a mere fourteen classes left on my degree. That means that including this semester, I have only three more semesters to complete before I’m free. Summer 2010 baby.

But enough musing about the future, I’ve got to concentrate on the here and now. That being said, this is what I will be concentrating on for the next few months of my life. I’m taking five classes, four of which are either studio art, or ATEC classes, the other is a science class. Take a gander at a graphic of my schedule here.

Computer Science I – Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30 – 3:45 – REDO!

Mixed Media – Tuesdays 1:00 – 3:45 – My one studio class for the semester. I’m looking forward to this class since I’m thinking it will be something like my 3D design class I took back at UTEP, and I thoroughly enjoyed that particular class. I generally enjoy design, especially when I get to do it, figure things out, what works and what doesn’t. I like this kind of thing.

2D Traditional Animation – Wednesdays 4:00 – 6:45 – Another class I am looking forward to. I have been enamored with animation since I was little, and although there is only so much one can learn and complete in a semesters time, I can’t wait to animate my bouncing ball, character losing balance, lip sync, etc. Should be good.

Basic Interaction Design – Thursdays 11:30 – 2:15 – Not exactly sure what to expect from this class, though the first class on Thursday gave somewhat of an overview of what was to come. I think when I signed up for the class I thought it was some sort of interaction in 3D class/tutorial thing. Turns out it is a study in designing good interfaces on various products, not limited to any certain genre of products, but encompassing all manner of day to day products and brands. We’ll see.

Storyboard and Pre-production – Thursdays 2:30 – 5:15 – Pretty sure this class is exactly as advertised. Couldn’t say for sure though because, funny story, I missed the first class last Thursday. Turns out I sat in on the wrong class, for the whole class, while I should have been in my regularly scheduled class. As it turns out 2.102 and 2.202 are easy to mix up, especially when you aren’t looking that hard and you’ve already convinced yourself you are in the correct room. In any event, this class let out before the class I was sitting in let out, so I’m thinking there wasn’t that much material covered on the first day. I’ll just have to pull double duty next time.

And those are my five classes this semester. Unfortunately for me, unless I can find a couple extra thousand dollars laying around, they might not be my classes for long. And so the saga continues. For the next few weeks anyway.

A Summer In Review

While the actual season of Summer might only be halfway through, for me Summer is practically over. This is of course coming from someone whose calander is structured around his college schedule. In just two months time, the Summer semester is history. So as quickly as I began the three classes I took, the end is going to come and go just as quickly, if not more quickly. But this is how it has always been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. What stands out in my mind this time around is the classes I’m taking. More specifically, how these particular classes are being graded.

While the Summer semester’s time frame might lend itself to modified schedules and grading schemes, each one of my classes approach the grading issue in an obscure way. First is my Intro to 3D class. Being a studio class, we don’t have all that many assignments, being a Summer class, we don’t have time for all that many assignments. In fact the number of assignments is seven, the last of which I am working on for a July twenty-ninth due date. What makes the grading for this class interesting is that each assignment is graded on a zero to six scale, where six is the highest grade possible. I’m not entirely sure how that translates into letter grades, or any grading standard I’m familiar with. Although I can say with almost complete assurance I’ll be getting an A in that class.

The second class is astronomy. This one struck me as a little different than most other classes that I’m used to as far as grading. The only grades in this class are the exams, five of them. The highest grade of on any exam is 100, your final grade is based on a zero to five-hundred scales since the grades for each exam are simply added up. I guess it is the same as averaging in the end, I just have never ended up with such a high level of points in a class before. Although I won’t get close to five-hundred since I opted out of the last exam after deciding the average of my first four were good enough for me, got me an A in the class and a boost to my GPA. Basically the last class day for this class, for me, will be on the twenty-seventh.

The last class is my Texas history class. Not unlike the astonomy class, and a few others I’ve had in the recent past, the only grades I’m getting in this class are the exams, three of them. I think the only other class I’ve had that has matched a three grade semester is the American technological development class I took in the Spring. The spin here, though, is that the first two exams are worth one-hundred points each, the final exam is worth one-hundred and fifty points. So the math gets a little wonky at the end there since it’s not going to have a significanly more amount of questions than either the first two. This is also the only class I’ll have any responsibility to after the last day of classes on the twenty-ninth. The final exam for this class is on August eleventh. Anticipating a B, though a C wouldn’t be unheard of for me, especially in a history class. Way to cancel out my As Texas!

A Trip To The Dentist

About two months ago I began to notice some very telling tooth pain. I knew from experience what the pain was telling me, and it was telling me I hadn’t taken sufficient care of my teeth.

In retrospect, it probably shouldn’t be that unexpected that I found myself with more than one cavity. The last time I was at a dentist of any kind was back in the first half of 2005, over four years ago.  In any event, I knew this was a problem that wouldn’t correct itself, and the longer I put off doing anything about it, the worse it would get. Before any actions on my part could be taken however, and as it happened a piece of one of the fillings I got all those years ago, broke. This compounded an already aggravated dental situation, and hindered my day to day mastication.

My first visit to a dentist, which I picked out using a real life phone book, was on July 10th. I had x-rays taken and a cleaning done. It was at this point that I found out exactly what was going on in my enamel. The verdict: three cavities and a broken filling. All of which just happened to be in the left, rear portion of my mouth. One week after my first visit, my second was scheduled, on July 17th.

I’m pretty confident when I say that one of the worst pains I’ve felt in my life is when I previously got my teeth drilled. Now, I don’t generally find the dentist, or any kind of doctor,  nerve-wracking, but the memory of the pain I felt that first time was in the front of my mind. It was for this reason that I brought my little stress reliever ball with me on the trip. Last time I don’t think the dentist gave me enough novocaine, actually I know he didn’t, because when his drill got down to the root of the tooth, I was in pain. Even though the part that was painful was brief, it was quite enough to have it burned into my memory, but not enough to make me paranoid about my teeth or dentists.

So I went to the dentist for my second visit at three o’clock PM. I arrived about five minutes early, signed myself in and took a seat. The receptionist asked me if I was going to start with the fillings today, and I responded affirmatively. In no time I was called in by one of the assistants who led me to my chair. I sat down, the doctor came and sat next to me and began to inspect the mouth which he would soon enough begin to drill out.

Mmmmhmmmm… *clink prod prod* Hmmmmm… *clink clink* Yes, yes. So Jeffrey, you want to have these cavities drilled out, correct?

Never has a more loaded question ever been asked. But that might just be hyperbole talking. Nevertheless, indeed, I wanted those cavities to be drilled out. Upon hearing my answer, the doctor readied the equipment, and up first was the needle to administer the novocaine, via the gums. A few minutes later, he returns to finish the job, or start the job, whatever. The drill comes out.

But I’m prepared, I produce my stress ball from my pocket and grip it firmly in my hands, prepared for the worst. He tells me if I feel any pain to just raise my hand, I tell him he’ll know before I get a chance to raise my hand. And with those words, a plastic spacer goes in my mouth, and the drilling commences. He begins on the top teeth, and it’s difficult for me to tell exactly where or what he was doing since I was numbed up. But when he started to drill on the one lower tooth that needed to be drilled, that I could feel, and my face showed it. The man doing the drilling imeediatly stopped and said, whoops, still a little painful there, and gave me a gracious coating of deliciously minty nerve numbing fluid.

Continuing his work on the top teeth, the broken filling tooth is the one that he had to spend the most time with, since I imagine the shape and size of the filling he had to make was not normal. There was a lot of picking and scraping and molding involved, as well as using a heat gun to, I’m assuming, mold the old and the new together. After he finished on the top, he once again began work on the lower tooth, this time I was sufficiently numbed. Without much incident, or pain for that matter, he finished all my teeth. It had only taken him around fourty minutes.

As quickly as he had come, the dentist had vanished. In reality he has simply walked to the lobby of the office, I followed shortly there after. I waited as he reviewed my file, after a minute he told the receptionist to give me twenty percent off because I was such a good patient and didn’t scream once. I chuckled and thanked him. The receptionist tallied up my bill including my “good patient” discount. After paying it, I was done and free to go.

And so that concluded my trip to the dentist, the first trip in over four years. So remember kids, don’t trust your government, learn a new language, and take care of your feet teeth.

The Summer Post

The Spring semester is history, and those of us enrolled in the Summer semester have been at it for about two weeks now. The Summer semester is shoter than either the Fall or Spring semester by about four weeks, eleven weeks as opposed to fifteen. This means that the content that would normally take fifteen weeks to teach, must now be crammed into just eleven weeks. On top of that, generally the classes are longer, and the days you end up having to go to class each week are less, so four or five hour classes are common place. It all adds up to one intense experience. Though this year shouldn’t be quite as bad as last year since I took the two five week sessions instead of the one eleven week session like I’m taking this year.

I am only taking three classes this time around, a result of having less classes being offered because it is after all Summer, and the fact that I am simply running out of classes to take in my degree plan, a very good problem to have. So here are the three classes I’m taking:

3D Modeling For Computer Animation (ATEC 3317 MW 1:30 – 3:45) – Finally after months of telling people I’ll be getting into “my major” the next semester, I finally actually have. Sort of. This is the introductory course, meant to get students familiar with Maya, so we aren’t doing anything real complex just yet, but it’s a taste of what’s to come should I chose to do more of this stuff. It takes me back to computer graphics class in high school using Bryce 5 to make scenes, however there is an important distinction to be made here. While I was using Bryce 5, I was simply using prefabricated shapes to create and animate a scene . With Maya, I am taking basic shapes (cube, sphere, cylinder, etc) and molding them into something new, something of my own. Rather quickly I began to get a much better sense of how all those objects in games or movies actually get there, and what someone had to do to make it. This is something I could see myself doing professionally.

Our Nearest Neighbors in the Sky (ISNS 3373 MW 4:30 – 6:30) - I had previously taken two astronomy classes at UTEP for my science requirements, which fulfilled them there, but UTD has three science requirement. So what better to take than another astronomy class? This is one of the few subjects that I have a real interest in, and while it’s probably best to leave this for a separate post, it’s one of the few things that can get me starry eyed (no pun intended). I still want to be an astronaut when I grow up.

History of Texas (HIST 2301 T 5:30 – 10:00) – Back when I was at UTEP, I has planned on getting my two history courses out of the way, and had completed the first one and was enrolled in the second when a few weeks before the semester was slated to begin, I got an e-mail saying the class was canceled for whatever reason. So I didn’t get to take the history course which would have taken me from the Civil War to the present, for me the USA destroyed itself in the Civil War. Luckily UTD stepped in and taught me otherwise. I now know that Texas was the true birthplace of the nation, and all that about the founding fathers and liberty and slaves and Eli Whitney and Britain is all just hogwash. But besides that, it is a history course and involves its share of reading. So I’m reading three books between now and August 12th, and by the end of it will have a much better appreciation for this state we call Texas, or Tejas as the Caddo Indians used to say, and from where the state got its name.

So all in all it shouldn’t be too bad of a semester, though it really is the calm before the storm, because this coming fall semester is going to be a big one. Stay tuned to find out more!

And Now, A List of Places That Have Denied Me Employment

In no particular order:

-Albertsons

-Kroger

-Multiple CVS

-Multiple Walgreens

-Multiple Home Depots

-Multiple Office Depots

-Multiple Office Max

-Multiple Wal Marts

-Multiple Targets

-Multiple Potbelly Sandwich Works

-Multiple Subways

-Black Eyed Pea

-Earthbound Trading Company

-Hobby Lobby

-Michaels

-Bed, Bath & Beyond

-On The Border

-Tuesday Morning

-The Container Store

-AutoZone

-Borders Books and Music

-Best Buy

-Retro Revolution

-Adventure Landing

-Tom Thumb

-U.S. Toy Company

-Barnes & Noble

-Half Price Books

-Radio Shack

-Academy Sports and Outdoors

-Big Lots

-Jo Ann

I’ll update the list as I remember more places I’ve been rejected from, and places I continue to get rejected from. I’ve been at this since January of this year.

This Is What The Internet Was Created For

http://shootthebanker.com/

Shoot the banker is a website where, among one other thing, you shoot a banker. The other thing is calling up the banker and complaining to him about the economic mess he’s gotten us into. But this banker doesn’t take live ammunition to the chest, opting instead for pink paintballs in lieu of 9mm rounds. An herein lies the best part of the whole thing, you control the gun. A live stream from a webcam is broadcast of the target (the banker), while those in line wait their turn for 10 seconds and 2 paintballs. The banker must swerve and dodge the never ending onslaught of angry peasant-folk’s paintballs, all the while dishing out insults to hapless callers that are either in over their head, or underage.

Here’s a perfect example:

I’m sure things like this have been created before somewhere out there on the vast tubes of the internet, but this is fairly creative, given the premise of the project. The only trouble is that irony exists, and the people at shoot the banker can’t afford to keep it running. Turns out the very machine they rage against, in the end, got them too. This is only their third week in operation, and they claim they are $10,000 “in the hole” from the resources devoted to keeping something like this running. So by the banker’s estimates, this will also be their last week in business. So if you’ve got an axe to grind with any of the world’s bankers that swindled you out of your retirement all in one fell swoop, you’ve got just a few days left to take that aggression out on an honest to goodness (sort of) banker.

All in all, it’s a pretty impressive feat for a few hobbyists. Creating both the gun rig, and the program to control the interface from scratch. But sadly, like they say, all good things must come to an end. So kudos to they guys behind this little gem, the internet would be a better place if its inhabitants were as creative as you guys.

They’ve even got their own fan site(s)!

Check it out, the banker is in from 9 – 5 Mountain time (he really does this for eight hours straight), and sometimes the janitors are in afterward, followed by late night with Taran and Brig (the creators of the show).