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

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 for six solid months now.

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).

I’ve Got A Bad Case Of The GIRUGAMESH

Well the Spring semester is history, and the beginning of the Summer semester is just over a week away. This will mark one year that I’ve been attending UTD, and in that time I’ve completed three semesters worth of work, with hopefully just three left to go.

Having taken the only class (probably) at UTD focused solely on anime, I know the demographic is anticipating the upcoming event in Dallas known as A-KON. This year happens to be the twentieth time they’ve done this, and are  planning accordingly. I was able to attend last year for the first day, but this year I’ll be around for all three days (for better or worse). Despite it all, there are a few interesting things that I am eager to see.

-The first is to see how many people will be dressed as GIRUGAMESH. The kid, not the band. If I had different color hair, I might be able to pull off AND GAMING. The guy, not the activity.

-The second is to see how the cases of H1N1-Swine-Avian-Human-flu-virus spike immediately following the event. Dallas has a solid 90 cases already, who knows what that nuber will be in a few weeks.

Both of my professors from the aforementioned anime class will be holding a panel on Sunday, along with authors Susan Napier and Helen McCarthy about one of their favorite subjects (and the subject of the class I took), Hayao Miyazaki and his incredibly successful animated films.

Other than those few things, there isn’t a lot going on in my life. I’ve been unemployed since August 24th, 2008, nine months next week with no prospects on the horizon. (thanks every generation up to mine for driving our economy and country into the ground! I’m looking at you baby boomers and your free money!) So while the old people of this nation cut themselves social security checks every month, the young (and not so young) are stuggling to find jobs, and probably keep their heads above water. Comforting to know that we’ll never see any form of “social security”, isn’t it? As revolting as the idea is, I find comfort in one thing: knowing that they’ll be dead long before me.

Spring Arts Festival

I briefly mentioned that some of my calligraphy pieces will be in an exhibition in my last blog post. While I knew that, at least in some capacity, some of my work would be exhibited at the beginning of class, I did not know any specifics. But now I do, and am happy to share.

The Spring Arts Festival is sort of a round up of student work from the past year. There will be quite an array of presentations to go and see, but obviously my work is not in the live performance category. My work, and the classes’, will be exhibited in the Visual Arts Studio, colloquially (and lovingly) known to the students as The Art Barn.

The dates for the event are May 1 – 9. If you’re on campus, and have some time to spare, why not take a stoll through the Art Barn and see what there is to see.

Here is the official website for the event, with all the information and itinerary of performances:

http://ah.utdallas.edu/season0809/springfest.htm

We would like it to be known the exhibits that [are] shown
[Are] exclusively our own, all our own, all our own

Come and see the show, come and see the show
Come and see the show
See the show

The Current

It’s been quite a while since I last posted on this blog, over a month. Mostly because of the lack of anything worthwhile to post. For the most part it’s been the same old school thing in the weeks since I last checked in.

Next week, the last week in April, is the last week of classes in the Spring semester. It is also looking to be a busy few days for me. Since I only go to school two days a week, every final task to be completed must be completed in or by those two days. Here’s what my schedule looks like for the remaining days of this semester.

Tuesday April 28th:

• American Tech. Development – we only have two grades in this class, exam I and exam II, attendance as a grade is simply listed as follows, Significant class absences can result in a lowering of your final grade. Which isn’t even the normal three absence limit, after that each absence is an automatic one letter grade lowering. Either way, this class day is reserved for the final exam review. Piece of cake.

• Computer Science I – Mostly a day for the final exam review. Teacher will tell us the chapters to review, and read the names of the chapters to review, read the bullet points that the chapters list of the chapters we need to review, and call it a day.

• Literature, no wait, anime class – This is our last class day, but not our final exam day. It will not be a review day, rather, we will watch our last film, and have our last discussion. The final exam date is Tuesday May 12th, two weeks after the last class day. It’ll have been fun.

• Chinese Calligraphy – Next week’s class will be the last class before our exhibition is starting. A few special projects have been given to us, which we’ll be working on during that class time, but participating in the exhibition is our final, or in place of the final. As far as I know, next week is the last class day for this class.

Thursday April 30th

• American Tech. Development – Final exam day. The first exam had two questions. Two questions. Both were related to steam power. We’ve covered a lot more topics in the second half of the semester than in the first half, so I’m thinking that the second exam will have more than two questions on it. But it’ll be alright either way.

• Computer Imaging – Our final project in this class is due this day. What a drag of a class this was. I didn’t need to spend, some $400, to be told to buy a $40 book and do the tutorials out of it. Waste of time and money. HIGHER LEARNING IS AWESOME!

• Computer Science I – Final exam day. Also our last and most complex program is due this day. I am not looking forward to this.

And that’s about it.  I’m leaving this semester with a very generoud feeling of not accomplishing anything. I guess I’ll be that much closer to graduating, but I feel like I have little to show for however many months of work these classes were.

Junioritis man.

Spring Break

So Spring break 2009 is now more than halfway over. For most people, college students in particular, Spring break is a time to lighten up life a little by taking a break from all the demands of school or work. I had initially planned on spending my Spring break looking for a job. However, and this is a topic for a post all its own, after filling out about forty or so separate applications I’ve become more than a little discouraged, and decided to give up my search for the time being. With no other big plans for the week, I was predisposed to nothing, which made my week even less interesting than usual since I didn’t even have school to keep me busy.

While I continue to sit here and twiddle my thumbs, there is but one thing that I, as well as all the other Spring breakers, have in common: mid-term grades. Although these grades have no bearing on final grades, as they are simply the average of your grades up to a certain point, they can be quite telling of how one is performing in any class. I am not  braggart, and this post is not a stealth bragging post, and I will most likely end up with my usual Bs (with an occasional C) in my classes, but I found one very odd thing in my mid-term grades.

Notice with me, for a moment, that next to the course titled COMPUTER SCIENCE I, there is an A+. Now anyone who has kept up with my goings on know that CS is not my strong suit. In fact CS is the one class I’ve had the most trouble with since Physics AP way back in my senior year of high school, four years ago. Which is why you can understand my surprise at this turn of events. I feel like I am performing terribly in that class and lo and behold, my mid-term grade is an A+. But seriously, I can not understate how much I loathe the class. Not because of the subject matter (if you ask me, programming is kind of cool, at least there are many neat things that can be done with it), or because of the professors, or the curriculum, but simply because I can’t do it. Does anyone need a reason other than that to dislike a subject?

Though maybe it’s just me, looking at my work, from the inside out. Maybe I’m better at the rudamentary programming they are having us do than I give myself credit for. Somehow though, I don’t think this is the case. It’s like when you sit in a class, and just feel like you are however many units of time behind the rest of the class, and how frustrating that is. So I’m not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I could be very happy that whoever is in charge of grading (and on what scale do they grade?) decided to be generous and give me an A+ as a mid-term grade, or I could look at it as a half empty glass and tell myself, “Well, it’ll only end up being a C like in my previous CS class”, so as to not disappoint myself.

A lot can happen in a month and a half, which is just about the time left in this semester. So I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch, put all my eggs in one basket, look a gift horse in the mouth, stick my head in the microwave and get myself a tan, or…

Seaweed Is Just The Spinach Of The Sea After All

Reverse Recession

There has been a lot of talk about recessions lately. But there has also been talk about a new phenomenon aptly titled Recession Proof™. Recession Proof™, as you might be able to guess, means that whatever the subject is, it is immune to the effects of a degrading economy based on imaginary money. In other words, it won’t lose its value, or be less desirable even if the world’s fun bucks become little more than colored paper.

Usually Recession Proof™ is used in the context of some sort of tangible item, or concrete idea. Like how to Recession Proof™ your food or cooking habits, finding a Recession Proof™ job, or even Recession Proof™ makeup tips. Anything that can be sold to the public can just as easily be branded as Recession Proof™, and who wouldn’t want to be assured potentially Recession Proof™ products?

But these all of these ideas are simply treating the symptoms of the problem. I have found the true solution to the current economic state. Why try to Recession Proof™ everything except the one thing that could really make a difference? This is why I propose we print Recession Proof™ money. If money itself can’t lose its value, then all our problems would be solved overnight! Take note government(s) of the globe, if you were dry on ideas on how to make your subjects follow your new plan for their lives, creating an absolute Recession Proof™ type of fun bucks is a sure fire way to get them to buy into it.

Art Bytes

This past Friday, at the Dallas Museum of Art, I attended something called Art Bytes, or to use the DMA’s more official name Late Night Art Bytes. I believe that this was the fourth such meeting under the Art Bytes banner.

Information in regards to Art Bytes seems to be scarce. In other words, you wouldn’t know about it if you didn’t already know about it. Upon searching the web, and the DMA’s website, little more than a blurb is written for it’s existence. I quote:

Late Night Art Bytes
9:30–10:30 p.m., Tech Lab, Center for Creative Connections, Dallas Museum of Art

View digital works that fuse art and technology. Art Bytes is a forum for tech savvy creators to share their work with peers and the community. Finished works, in-progress works, and creators of all ages are welcome!

This description may be adequate to some, mostly for those who have other projects to consume their time with, which probably describes the majority of museum staff and volunteers. There will always be another project to do, another endeavor to take on, especially in a location such as a museum.

But this description, I feel, is rather inadequate. I believe that the creative forces behind this project want something more from the brand Art Bytes. And indeed it has that potential. There are a few things, though, that I think Art Bytes could benefit from before it reaches a new level of success. Here are some of my ideas to help the cause:

A better definition of Art Bytes

We  need a better description of what Art Bytes actually is. Three short sentences is not enough to describe what Art Bytes is or means. This is most likely separate from a mission or vision statement, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be. But I feel it would be advantageous for this to mesh well with a mission statement. This is the description that would be publicly accessible, easily understood, and less generic than the current description.

A mission and vision statement
I’ve never fully understood the importance of having a good vision or mission statement. That is to say, until this past Friday. When things run smoothly, you hardly ever notice the little bits and pieces of everything that goes into running any given institution. When things don’t run so smoothly, you are left with kind of an awkward situation, wishing  things had worked out a little better. What could help that process along? Defining what it is exactly you mean to accomplish.

A mission statement could be useful by defining what it is we mean to accomplish right now, in the present. It is what we intend to bring to the table.  It could also be useful in further refining exactly who we mean to attract with this program. I suppose it is inferred that all ages are welcome to attend, since all ages are welcome to present. But I feel that this isn’t, by nature, intended for all age groups. Art Bytes needs to find out who it is they cater to, in order to do so with a greater degree of poignancy.

A vision statement could be useful by defining what it is we mean to accomplish in the future. What is it we hope to prove by showing and doing these things. Who is it we want to ultimately reach with our efforts? Involving a certain sort of people is very different from reaching a certain sort of people. It is a ‘why’ to explain the things we do, a declaration of a goal. It is what we want to accomplish given the mission statement.

Discretion with time, talent

I am aware, that perhaps this past Art Bytes, wasn’t quite up to par considering previous meetings. According to the official DMA time frame, Art Bytes has one hour. Let’s assume that there are three separate talents that want to present. If we include five minute introductions and conclusions, that leaves each talent with a paltry fifteen minutes to present their work. Obviously real life is much more fluid than this, and there always is slightly more time than allotted. But I think that Art Bytes suffers from lack of any kind of definite structure, both in terms of time and talent.

Time needs to be managed. We have only a very limited time frame in which to talk about what could be very complicated subjects. Speakers need to be aware of this and they, as well as the facilitators, need to prepare accordingly. Time management cannot be understated, and this dovetails in with managing the talent. Seeing as though Art Bytes has only a limited time and a limited space in which to use that time, we can’t afford to give the stage over to any duds. This may sound entirely not in the spirit of an open mic, but with the odds against us, there really is no time to pit the audience with a speaker who cools them down, rather than warms them up.

If there was a space in which the spirit of Art Bytes could live for hours at a time, then less descretion may be warranted. But as things stand, I think that we need to make every effort put our best foward, at least for the time being. If we want the word to get out that we are worth seeing, and that we legitimately have something to offer, I think we have to step up to the challenge, and really give the audience something. The talent is out there, Dallas is not a small place. Art Bytes just needs to find a way to use that talent in a way that would further their cause.

A logo

This baffles me. Why there is this thing called Art Bytes which focuses on the interplay between art and technology, and they don’t have a spectacular logo to go with it. This just seems lazy, and frankly, I think it speaks to the seriousness of the project and the people involved. This may seem like I’m being a little critical of the thing, but without setting goals, then nothing is every going to get done, or change for the better. So I say, set goals, at least this way ideas are put on the table, and the creative jucies get flowing.

Art Bytes has potential, and I mean no disrespect to the people involved in the project, I mean this as constuctive criticism. It will be interesting to see in what direction, if any, this project ends up taking, and ends up looking like. So here’s to many more succesful, Art Byte meetings!