Test Stress

First, robot.



Second...I have two midterms this week...one thirty percent of my grade and the other twenty five. The first is tomorrow. The second is Friday. I've studied for neither. I'm not all that freaked out.

I don't know if hanging out with people who stress about big tests is making me feel like I don't care enough, or if I should be genuinely concerned, but I'm more bothered by the fact that I'm not bothered by my impending doom than I am about the doom itself. Like last November, when I had two term papers due on the same day and hadn't started on either of them two days beforehand? I was freaked out because I wasn't freaked...not because of the papers themselves.

On one hand, I feel like it's a good thing. Self-confidence, and being assured that you'll get things done because it's the way you roll, is a positive thing, right? But what happens when it backfires? Because, statistically, one day it has to. I don't really want to fail anything.

Third...I officially have too much influence on the FRC. Bam.

The pyramids were pretty cool...

Has your head ever hurt so much that you want to pull your brain out?





Yeah. I'm like three seconds away from finding a coat hanger and going Egyptian on my ass.

Banana Bottom

Yes, I missed Tuesday. But missing a day is way more excusable than closing your blog. Seriously. What is that?

I'm in the animation lab (again...that's where I spend all my time these days) waiting for my robot to render. It takes about 5 seconds per frame to render. My snowman, all two seconds of it, was 48 frames...24 frames per viewing second. The robot is 300 frames. Yeah. 25 minutes, minimum of rendering. That doesn't account for the fact that my robot is royally fucked up. I really hope this renders right the first time.

I like animation, though. It's like a big puzzle, and I'm into puzzles. Plus, my teacher's amazing. He's so funny--his jokes are awesome. My favorite quote so far occurred today though..."you have to put a bottom on your banana or your fruit will fall out."

Think about it. It's true.

100 frames left to render. Whew.

The next project is a still picture, though, and that's fun. It'll be a targa file, which shouldn't excite me as much as it does. I've always wanted to have a reason to make a targa file.

I'm parked illegally. Just throwing that out there.

I have two midterms next week, which amounts to eighteen chapters of reading I need to do this weekend. Plus CMF finals. Plus Stillpoint submissions sorting. Plus a review session. Busy busy busy.

75 left. I need a good recipe for roasting chickpeas. I burned the last batch.

Ok. I'll quit being so spacy. Sorry I forgot Tuesday. House was on. I got distracted.

Ouch

So I got a speeding ticket today. I'd feel bad about it, but truth is, I really deserved it. Not that I was going particularly fast, I just speed all the time. So yeah, I got what was coming to me.

What gets me is I'm normally never that sloppy. Like, I always just go 1o over. But today I was going way fast on 85, and when I got off, I didn't really change my pattern. And I saw the cops around, which is usually my sign to slow down. But I kept going. I don't know what I was thinking.

The other funny thing is I usually don't go that way, and I was thinking I'd rather go the way I normally go, but I didn't. And now I have a ticket. A decent ticket, so I'll have to tell my parents. I already sent them the e-mail, actually.

I don't know.

And I'm still pissed off about this new blogger thing. I don't like it.

New Blogger

Sucks. So does making a resume. Because you know how much work experience I have? Six weeks. Fuck you, UGA career center. You need to offer more advice on how people with interesting experiences can make resumes. And not look like slackers.

Bonus Post: This is your chance!

I know, this is out of the every other day pattern, but here you go...

Ships and Dip III with be from January 27th-February 1st, 2008.

If you want to come, now's your chance. It was a blast, guys. Think about four concerts a day. Sometimes six. And they were all awesome. And the band is everywhere.

You're invited. But I need to know within the month. Go.

It's not that I'm in a bad mood.

It's just that bad things keep happening.

My computer decided that firefox was no longer a friend. The thing that sucks is that I wasn't even there when it happened...it spazzed out when I was in class. Now I don't have any of my bookmarks. This sucks.

And my eggs were overcooked. That sucks, too. But I suppose that's what I get for microwaving them.

I need to watch my blockbuster movie before tomorrow night. I also need to watch Scrubs. I like Scrubs.

Jack reminded me today that I really don't want kids. I like watching them, but I really don't think they're what I want to do full time.

I think I'm going to go check the mail before I settle in for a night of logging submisions and watching tv. Eurgh.

meh

Have you ever felt like...

• ...no one really likes you.


• ...you're not in the right place.


• ...it's not 100% worth getting out of bed in the morning.


• ...actually, not even 60%.


• ...barely 50%, but you're being optimistic.


• ...you're feeling way too cold for it to be 67 degrees in your room.


• ...you're sick of everything.


• ...you're kind of an awful person.


• ...the former wouldn't bother you, except that you're not always an awful person.


• ...you hate February for no particular reason.


• ...this place is eating you alive, but it's not worth leaving.

Cause that's kinda how I've felt today.

Feeling Like a Kid again

I was going to write this long post about how I feel really young in my Animation class, and then I realized that you probably don't know I'm taking Animation. But I am. So now you know.

It's DRAM 5810, which sounds like it should take a whole bunch of pre-recs to get to, and in theory it does, but Mike, our professor, doesn't care if you have them or not. So I'm in it with a background in Film Theory and the computer capability of a nine-year-old. It's ok, though, because I (sometimes) catch on quickly.

Which is a very important thing because this dude moves quick. We're already supposed to have our second project completed. Which I have, but I haven't constrained anything except the robot's hands and jaw, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with him, so how would I know how far to constrain his stuff? Or does it matter? I really have no idea.

Our first project was a snowman, which I have uploaded for your enjoyment. You are under no obligation to be impressed, especially when you think about the fact that this took around eight hours to make, but you should at least acknowledge that he's a pretty good looking snowman. If you look close enough, he blinks. That was my idea. So was the hat. And the funny extending arm. And the mouth--we weren't required to have mouths either. See, that's the fun part of this stuff. You can go above the requirements by just fooling around and learning the software. And he's way into that sort of thing.



I hope embedding works. Never tried it before. And yes. It's only two seconds long.

Anyway, here's the part that I was initially going to post about. The software we use to make this stuff is about $7,000, so it's not like you can just go and install it on your computer. So you have to go to the lab and work on it. No biggie right?

Right, kinda. If you go before five on a week day, you can walk right in and work on your stuff. But if it's after five, or on a weekend you have to deal with (cue dramatic music) the grad students.

Don't get me wrong. I usually like grad students. They're fun. They talk in class. They have things to say and stories from undergrad and sometimes even teach classes. But these grad students...man...they're kinda patronizing. Granted, yes, the project I'm in the lab to work on is vastly simpler than whatever they're constructing. But that doesn't mean I don't have a right to be there. And grumpy lab boy: forgive me for not being immediately able to tell that you were rendering on all four of the computers in the front row, because, in case you didn't notice, the monitors were asleep. Next time, just be nice about it.

I mentioned the whole superiority thing to my friend Jesse, who sits next to me in class, and she agrees, so it's not just me. It's like we're the little children and they're just annoyed that we're even in the same room.

This doesn't stop me from liking the class, though. It's fun. And you have stuff to show for your work. And it's teaching me to be a compulsive document saver, which is a valuable skill to have.

And Seal, I hope your a capella thing went well. I wish I could have made it, but between the robot project and Campus Movie Fest, I'm swamped. But I was thinking of you. :)

::waves::

I was going to update yesterday, but I couldn't pass up the chance to not update for an entire month. Channeling Andrew, that's what I'm doing.

Um...Hi? Yeah, haven't updated in a while. But that's ok, because I'm going to do that every-other-day thing for a while. Anyone with me? For Ashley's sake?

Currently working on Campus Movie Fest and hoping it'll snow. I really want it to snow. Really really.

I can't tell you what we're doing for CMF yet, because things are very cut-throat here. And I know. You're thinking...what are they going to do? But you never know. It's also silly because it's not that good of an idea. But I'll tell you on Monday. Or Tuesday. Whatever day I'm supposed to update. Maybe I can put the movie on youtube.

The cruise was good. I have two pictures to share from that, really, but one of them is tagged under my name on Facebook, and the other is online somewhere. I'm really tired, see, but I need to be writing the script for CMF. And writing my play report. And cleaning. And reading.

In exciting news, though, I'm totally going to Portland for Spring Break. March 10-15th. See, I told you I'd eventually work it out and get my butt up there. I have two retail requests, though. While we're there, we must go to the Lush in Portland. For those who didn't follow the trip blog, I've now been to Lush stores in five different countries. This will make six. Dig. Also, when we go to Seattle, we must go to the Fluevog store. Not that I can afford to buy shoes there. I just want to see them. It's like shoe porn.

And the ferret. I want to play with the ferret.

Ok. Back to work. Hello again.