Good News and Bad News

Right. So the good news is that we finished the house. We now have new carpet, new hardwood floors, new painted walls, newly cleaned rooms, and new carpet.

Of course this means that we can on longer be on the carpet with food or drink which is annoying, but by the time summer rolls around Dad should be fine again.

He also hadn’t wanted to put up a tree this year. 1) We got rid of our 15ft fake tree last year. 2) We haven’t found a new on that fits the new requirements. 3) Dad didn’t want a mess in the newly made room.

However, my sisters and I were adamant on getting one so decided that we would look for a real one and put it all up ourselves. All the boys would have to do is be quiet.

So we got our mom and set out. Of course though it was the 22nd and the roads were packed. First we stopped and got lights, a tree carpet, and water collector. We then set out to the garden shop we know still had some trees before trying the farms. We never actually got there though.

On the way we were passing by the old church were the Boy Scouts sell trees every year. They had just finished the day before, but 2 trees were still there. So we checked it out. Turned out that one of them was great - about 6.5 ft tall with no major holes. There was no sign, no rope, no nothing that indicated you couldn’t just take it - so we did and decorated it that night as a family. It has a few issues, but for a free tree it is great.

On to the bad news.

On Thursday the 20th I let out cat Minnie outside as normal. She is an indoor/outdoor cat and enjoys hunting so I thought nothing of it. That night she didn’t come back before dark (which she normally does in the winter) and we had a rain storm that night. We honestly haven’t seen her since that Thursday afternoon.

We have looked everywhere around the house, but with 55 acres in the back - about 50 of them being woods - it is really hard to even look. I’ve put up notices on Facebook, have the shelters on alert, sent out flyers to our neighbors, but we’re really worried. I honestly think she got hurt in the storm and is unable to get to us. Hopefully she can get to someone’s house and they take her to the vet (which we are contacting the day after Christmas).

All we can do is hope.

I'm Alive

Yeah, it’s been a while. Sorry.

Anyway, getting home was...fine, it just seems like I can’t travel without something happening. I had to fly out of Tampa and leave my car at school so as not to pay for a month of parking. So I scheduled a pickup from a shuttle service I used last year. They comforted it - 10:30 am at Publix - my reservation. My roommate give me a ride and we get there at 10:32. No shuttle. We waited, called dad, waited, and waited until 11 and gave up. Thankfully my fight wasn’t actually until 5 so my dad was able to go on a different shuttle at 2. Fun.

But I got home in one piece. Made my parents see Wreck it Ralph with my youngest sister and I, went out to eat, did some Christmas shopping, had a lazy day, and scheduled a time to see my girls at Moore College.

And that was what I did Tuesday. I took a train a bit before noon and got to the school by 1 and walked around waiting for someone to get out of class. I was very upset to see Moe Brooker’s name not on his door anymore (my Design teacher and the one responsible for me liking design) but he is only teaching Graduate classes from what I hear.

It was a great time. I got to see my old roommate and catch up with most of my friends I left (they were in the middle of finals so were a bit busy), toured the LOVE park with it’s Christmas fair with my old roommate, went out to dinner with some people, and just had a good time.

Originally I was going to stay in Philly, but with my one Grandfather not doing great I decided to take the train to his house instead. Meaning I had to take a train from Philly to Trenton, change trains then go from Trenton to Metro-park. Simple, I’ve done it tons of times when I actually went to Moore, but traveling is impossible for me this year.

It wasn’t big, just that the ticket machine wouldn’t take the debit card, or the credit card, so I finally used cash and got to the platform - only to see the train pulling away. Had to wait another half hour but oh well.

I only stayed at my grandparents house for little over a day but I still managed to help make several hundred cookies, decorate the tree, see my Aunt and Uncle in a small quartet recital, nearly finish a puzzle we have been doing for over a year, and help with Christmas shopping. What can I say, I love my grandparents.

The rest of the week was okay. My sister and brother came home from college on the weekend, we’ve been finishing up the house so all the walls just got painted, carpet is going in today, new furniture comes on Saturday, my youngest sister is starting to learn how to drive (scary), trying to find a tree before Christmas, doing some last minute wrapping...the usual holiday crazies.

For those who care, I really am working on getting online this set up for my work, just half of my work is on the external drive I left in Florida - so it will be a while. And incase I don’t update in time - Merry Christmas!

No More

Finally, finally I get to go home. Well, tomorrow at least.

The rest of the week from the last time I wrote wasn’t that interesting. Since I was getting so much sleep I kept thinking it was the end of the week since the past 2 have kind of blended together.

After Monday I only had animation left and for the first time in nearly a month I didn’t have to go into the labs until after noon. 

We knew we had a lot of layers (20,178 not including the lights and cameras) so in order to export it properly I had to finish the animation on Tuesday.

Therefore Wednesday was dedicated to rendering.

Karim’s job was to figure out how to do it and started at 8 before his morning class. I came by at 12 to help babysit the computers.

We had 7 computers running and it still took 17 hours...

But it went well. The client liked it and the teachers loved that we were actually able to get it out. They talked to us the longest and didn’t even comment on how it looked, just trying to figure out how it was done. We even had our classmates asking us questions. I bet at least 85% of our final grade will be biased on the fact that we got this out.

20,000 + layers, come on, we deserve an A.

A screenshot from the animation. Over break I'm getting vimeo
so you can look at everything then.

Anyway, that was my week. Today was just packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye as people started to leave.

This time tomorrow I’ll be back in Jersey, but for now I have a ‘party’ to get back to.

The Week You Never Want Again

It has been a week? Really? It feels like 2 days and at the same time, a month. That’s what happens when you hardly sleep at night.

But that is what finals are all about.

Let’s break it down shall we.

With this combine project in Motion Design it means one final for three classes which has smaller (but no less important) passes. Then there is the Fine Arts final, and Bio final which is a project.

And guess what! They all have a due date on the same day. December 3rd. (Animation had a pass 2 due Thursday and pass 3 due the 3rd).

On top of that we had spring registration (finally), the Christmas party on Sunday (for which I still needed a present) as well as maintenance coming by to finally fix our sink.

So I needed an attack plan. I had an animation to save and fix, 5 sculptures and objects to make, a nature project to come up with, maintenance to check in on, a present to buy, dinner to make, and decorations to put up.. This is where no sleep comes in.

Basically everyday I would wake up at 9 and opened the door for maintenance, settled them in and got to the labs around 9:45 taking a break for lunch at 11 (unless a morning class which means up at 7). Continue working on animation until 6, dinner, then work on Fine Arts until a sculpture is made (normally done between 3 and 4 am). 

That was the schedule for the week days where I was able to make 5 figures in 4 days. Our sink finally works right without water coming back up, and I registered alright. Got some classes I wanted, one not.

What it looks like in the end. 

The weekend came and so did me going shopping at Home Depot, Jo-Anns, Dollar Tree, Kohl's, Michael’s, Target, and Publix (plus a stop at the beach for some nature).

Saturday was devoted to creating the objects for Fine Arts, painting the figures, and creating their environment. Here was the excitement for the day. I was cutting the basal wood with my box cutter in a very wrong way and slipped cutting my finger. Being stupid I out it under water (it wasn’t deep but angled and bleeding a lot) and the blood wasn’t clotting. Then my sugar level jumped off a cliff (I hadn’t eaten all day) and very nearly passed out. I would have if my roommate didn’t notice and get me an ice pop. 

Fun.

Sunday came and so did the Christmas party. I had to get up at 8 to put the pork in the crock pot and threw some laundry while I finished FA. I wanted to make biscotti and it took 3 tries to get it right. By then it was time to kick out my roommates and decorate. I was running, but I did it.

Pulled pork, pasta, baked potatoes, and biscotti. 14 people, secret santa, dinner, dessert. Perfect.

We had a lot of left overs even with everyone stuffing themselves so I brought it all up to our labs and gave it to those still working (we finished on Friday so we had time to render - my partners job). They were all happy and there were fights over who got what. 

Back to the rooms and I make the last thing for FA (a tinny bouquet of flowers) then do all of Bio. Originally I was going to compose a picture frame with different nature and make a second one with stuff from NJ, but that was boring. Instead I got some empty ordainments from Michael’s and filled them. They look great!

Fluffy beach plant

Acorns

The Beach

Dunes

Spanish Moss

Berries

Plants form the beach

So it is now Monday and I’m still alive. Finger hurts, animation still needs helped, but FA and Bio are done for the year! Only a few more days until I go home!

The Long Week You Never Want to End

Thought I’ld never say it, but I wish the week was longer.

Don’t get me wrong, it was soooo long it felt like 5 in 1, but it was awesome.

Thanksgiving week happened and so my school gave us off Wed-Fri with no classes.

First thing that happened was in class still.

It was Monday in the second half of the now 6 hour Motion class and a bunch of us were in the “meeting” room to talk to Dorian who was absent for some out our meetings. (Our’s wasn’t great. They like the feel of some of it, hate others, want more of this, less of that - we’re scrapping it and starting over.)

Anyway we talked to Dorian and we asked when the 2nd pass of this was due. He left to find out and came back latter saying, “The Monday after Turkey Day.”

WHAT?!

No one was happy and we were all confused. The 26th? He left and came back. Yep the 26th.

Everyone was going home. No one could work on the files with their laptops anymore. People were freaking out. So I wrote an email.

Ed (the department head) was meeting with seniors all day and not seeing us so I sent him an email on behalf of everyone (though no one knew it). I calmly outlined how we felt, reminded him that the project was given an extra week for Thanksgiving in the first place, gave an alternative solution, and reiterated everyone’s feelings. All very politely and respectfully for my Dad would kill me otherwise (and so would Ed).

20 minutes later everyone got an email saying that the due date was moved to the day I suggested. Oh I felt good that day.

Right, so homework moved making my weekend free. Time to go home.

And let me say it was an adventure getting there.

A car on fire, going to the wrong address, GPS doesn’t work, get lost, arrive 1hour and a half late... all to find my flight was pushed back from 9 to 10:30. :P

And the week kept going.

Up at 8:30, breakfast out, trip to the DMV for a new license, catching up with youngest sister, packing, packing sisters, driving, shopping, hellos, dinner, movie, asleep by 1am.

Up at 7:30, dress, light breakfast, drive to other grandparent’s house, hellos, watch parade, help set up, watch dog show, say hello to those who are late, sit down for dinner at 2, get up at 4, nap, dessert, leave to go back to grandma’s house at 6, movie, soup, goodbye to mom and dad, movie, sleep by 12.

Wake at 7:30, breakfast, goodbyes, drive home, breath, go to Wawa, Books-a-Million, find Becca, meet up with Lauren, watch Rise of the Guardians, go home, breath, clean room for new carpet, order chinese, watch TV with family, bed by 1.

Sleep in to 8:30, breakfast, dress, clean for party, help with cooking, watch home videos, greet people, eat, watch videos, greet brother’s girlfriend, say goodbye, relax with parents, play with others, pack, bed by 1.

Up at 5, dress, pick up food, go through security, sleep on plane, go to wrong hotel, find the right one, drive to Sarasota, shop at Michael’s, pick of supplies for dinner, call home, breath, clean Quads, work on Fine Arts, clean, cook dinner, make cookies, have dinner, clean up, drop off leftovers at labs, breath, bed by 12:30.

A long week for one that was off. But really I wish it wouldn’t have ended. Now I have to find a way to do 3 finals all due the same day with only a week to do them. Yippee for me.

Week Flying By

First things first. I at the moment don’t like my sister. Why? Because her teachers canceled there classes for Monday and Tuesday next week so she has the whole week off now. Then she complains to Dada and he changes her flight for these Saturday instead. That means she gets to be home 4 days more than me.

Some of you will say that it’s no big deal. That she also has been away all summer. That I get to go home a week before her for Christmas. You’re right, but I’m still mad at her.

Okay so moving on to what is actually happening.

I was able to get into our room and set up for critique late Sunday night when I happened to notice that 2 senior girls were in there. Good thing I decided to try one more time because it took over an hour to fix it up the way I wanted.

Monday was busy.

First we had Skype presentations of our group storyboards for the Sarasota Film Festival since the client was in Russia for the week. He had gotten the files back on Friday and was just asking questions to help choose one per group if he hadn’t already.

He chose mine!

The style frame that started it all.

Said that he liked how clean it was and it fit the companies feel. I was so happy and the only think I could think of was, “There you have it Jill. My stuff is good.”

After that and looking at everyone’s boardamatics that had been made I did a quick outfit change from my interview cloths to my paint pants that I wanted to have on for the Fine Arts critique.

That crit also went well. People seemed to enjoy it and had some things to say, but that doesn’t mean the grade will be good.Considering that we haven’t gotten any grades at all yet I guess I can only hope for the best.

Has yet to go through Photoshop so the color is a little off.

What else, what else.

Bio was fine. We had a long talk about the movie No Impact Man.

In Motion classes we have moved on to doing the animation now.

We’re still doing critiques in FA.

My grandparents in North Jersey finally got power after 14 days.

Our beach house is still standing. No broken windows, no flooding in the actual house, we have is good compared to some others. We just have to get the sand in the garage cleared out before we can get someone to check the foundation to make sure it is structurally sound.

Other than that, my little sister had her last 2 competitions for marching band this weekend. At States they got 2nd and at Nationals they placed 4th. No win but they sound better than they have since Glen took over 4 years ago.

So yep. My week so far.

The Craziness that is my Week

So this week has been a bit hectic. Fine Arts is due on Monday, presentation boards for Motion were due Thursday, then final storyboards due Friday, and board-a-matics are due Monday. 

The only good things are 1) my concept for Motion is biased around solid shapes and text. 2) My Fine Arts teacher liked the test piece I brought in on Thursday.

So let the craziness be explained.

Okay, my animation concept for this Sarasota Film Festival commercial was approved, then I do the first set of boards of Thursday and they don’t like it at all. Then I propose something later on in the day, don’t like that. Then a new plan on Friday, Jill doesn’t like it. 

Oh my goodness I wanted to hit something. One minute it’s good the next it isn’t and when someone does like it, another teacher hates it.

Finally I came up with something that Jill will just have to deal with as the boards were due in the template on the webshare by 6 pm to be emailed to the client at 6:05. I got mine in, my partner didn’t get his in...

Moving on to Fine Arts.

This concept is basically cover wooden balls in paint and roll them down a ramp onto a piece of paper. There are some things that they bump against (4 sculptures that represent a different block in my life that has been over come). It worked well. I got done 8 small ones and 6 large ones.

What the process looked like. 

The crit. is on Monday - tomorrow. I went to hang them up and prepare it all in the room today since I don’t think I will get a normal lunch time since we are meeting with the client tomorrow in Motion.

Close up on one of the large ones.

I go over there and the door is locked. I call Public Safety (teacher said to do so) and get no answer. I leave a message and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. 

They didn’t show after half an hour, so I left.

I sent off an email to the teacher asking if we can set up in the room across from us (was open and empty but has classes in there) and have yet to get a reply.

Wonderful.

On top of all this we only have 4 weeks left of school and we have yet to schedule classes for next term. We don’t even know what classes are available or any dates for when we do sign up. It’s a mess.

But there was some good this week.

Since last week was my birthday, my friends thought that cookies weren’t enough of a celebration since I give them cake and a special dinner. Therefore they were taking me out to eat (even though I had to drive).

We went to Olive Garden all fancy (Yule Ball was last week too and we couldn’t do the after ball outing so were combining the events).

Us at diner.

There were 10 of us all fancy for diner (everyone was looking at us) and the first thing is that one of our waiters offers a free sample of wine to those of age. Everyone was very excited for me to try it (me being the only one old enough) and I did. 

It was nasty.

Okay, some would find it good but I hated it. Not even a real portion of the free sample and I was grabbing my water. Only three of my friends saw me doing it and talked me through it, everyone else was really upset they missed it.

Lots of bead sticks, salad, and chicken parm later we were done. Kind of. Our waiters came out with a little dessert for me with a candle and they were all singing. It was nice.

Carlos took this of me as they all sang.

We finally left (they all payed for me too) and back at the Quads there was a cake too. We didn’t eat much of it since we were all still full and everyone left soon after to get work done. I also had to leave to get to anime club which I was late for. I ended up falling to sleep for part of it too. Oops.

And that brings us to today. Waiting for an email from my Fine Arts teacher, trying to get done a board-a-matic, doing laundry. Fun, fun, fun. -_-

How to Turn 21

Oh my goodness was my weekend awesome!

Okay, so on Saturday I turned 21 and to celebrate my sister came over. She goes to FSU in Tallahassee and took a bus on Thursday to get to Tampa where I picked her up and we drove back to Sarasota (I had to go to class the next day).

Thankfully I got to leave at 4 instead of 6 and therefore we got to Downtown Disney by 7 as opposed to 9.

And guess what! Though Halloween had been only 2 days ago the Downtown area was all Winterized and they were already playing Christmas music!

Downtown Diney

Dinner was not healthy - Ghirardelli ice cream - then window shopping and some pictures before heading to the other end to see Wreck it Ralph in 3D (got tickets online before we left when we realized we could leave sooner).

The movie was awesome and I think everyone should watch it especially if you play any type of video game.

We didn’t get to the hotel until 12:30 and no sleeping till nearly 2 as we were talking to Katie’s friends who would be driving her back to school come Sunday but for now we were just rooming with them.

Now onto the main event.

My birthday was not short of awesome.

We were up by 6:30, eating breakfast (of Mickey waffles) but 7, and waiting for our bus by 7:30. We got to the Ticket and Transportation center (basically as close as you can get to Magic Kingdom on a bus) by 8:30 and went to pick up our tickets that Katie ordered online through her school.

There was a hiccup were they were saying the wrong date but we got it straightened out. Of course we had to wait 20 minutes but during that time the person gave me my “IT’S MY BIRTHDAY” pin to ware and gave us a magic Fast Pass that we could use at any time on any ride at Magic Kingdom that day.

Still we were at the parks before they opened and the running began.

We first hit Buss Lightyear, then got Fast Passes for Splash Mountain, pictures with Chip and Dale, went on Haunted Mansion, checked Pirates and found it was closed, back to Splash Mountain, had orange ice cream, went on Jungle Cruse, the Philharmonic, went by the new Fantasyland, saw a show at the castle, did window shopping, and signed up for the Sorcerer’s game before running over to the Crystal Palace for our lunch reservation at 1 with Pooh.

Lunch with Pooh and friends.

By now we were hungry and a buffet with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet was just what we needed. 

We then left the park to head over to the MGM park (now known as Hollywood Studios) and got there around 3. 

More running. Started at Toy Story Mania and say they were out of Fast Passes with a 1 hour wait so moved on, ran through New York and it’s Christmas display to get to the updated Star Tours to get a Fast Pass there instead, Great Movie Ride was too long a wait so we did an character drawing lesson, drew Woody, got pictures with Sorcerer Mickey, Wreck in Ralph, and the Girl character who’s name I forget. Then a quick dinner, picked up something for my brother, then went to the 7:30 show of Fantasmic. Amazing as always. Then ran to Toy Story Mania and got in line for 40 minutes because it was worth it.

So that park was done - we stayed there until it closed at 9. But out day wasn’t done. Magic Kingdom was open until 12 so we went back. Pirates still wasn’t open so we used our magic Fast Pass to go on Splash Mountain again in the dark this time which was really cool. Then we took the long way around to get back to Main Street seeing the Electrical Light Parade on the way. We then did 2 lands worth of the Sorcerers game which if you don’t know is a interactive-scavenger-hunt-trading-card game they established in the Magic Kingdom park. The locals are addicted and the passer-bys find it cool. The day then was capped by a stop at the bakery before getting back to the hotel around 12:45.

An awesome birthday if I do say so myself.

But it didn’t end there!

The next day we didn’t wake up until 8 when we meant to get up by 7:30. We scrambled and was dressed, packed, checked out, grabbed food, and was in the car to EPCOT by 8:20. Disney is a really good motivator.

Okay, so Sunday we drove to the park since Katie’s friend wanted to leave around 12 and our hotel’s bus didn’t like that. But to park there was cheeper than parking at 6 Flags in New Jersey. Anyway, we were both sore from the day before so took the day at a slower speed. First was Spaceship Earth, the the Mission: Space game twice, toured the new Inoventions House of the Future which was replaced in April as a go green house, the over to The Sea to look at the manatees, shopping for Christmas gifts, the the ride with Figment, lunch and ice cream before meeting Katie’s friends in the parking lot and parting ways. (Test Track was closed).

Actually the Magic Kingdom the day before but who cares.

I got back to school at 2ish and found nothing to do since I did all my homework on Thursday thinking I wouldn’t be back until 8-8:30. On top of that I had canceled dinner for the week also thinking I would be back too late. Oh well. 

Later I helped Millie (on of my roommates) shoot some reference video for her animation. It only took a few minutes before we went back to the Quad (the building name of our dorms). 

We walked in, I gave the memory card to her, and I moved to go to my room when suddenly there was banging and screaming and people coming at me! I was so scared I started crying! Everyone that comes over for dinner had come by to surprise me for my birthday. They brought me my favorite cookies and some milk and gave me a coupon for a dinner out to eat where ever I wanted on them. 

So that was my weekend, my 21st birthday weekend. And what an awesome one it was.