Start the Last Year

It’s been a while, I know.

Lots has been going on. Over the summer I wasn’t able to get any internship even though I had a few different interviews…..my animation project from class got into several festivals…..I changed my thesis even though I had all the prep done for the other one…..started my absolute final year of school…..and decided to apply for a Fulbright ETA.

From the top:

No internships this summer….again. I honestly thought I had a good shot at some of them, but nothing came of it. I’m starting to freak out thinking that I’m not going to get anything after graduation now - I’ve got no experience!

My animation did get into a few festivals this summer, even the one I made at Ringling. So that was cool.

I changed my thesis. Don’t get me wrong, I love my first story and I seriously would like to create it at some point. But for thesis I only have 4 minutes max and I can’t get the story in under that time restraint - its just too complex. So now it’s the story of raising a puppy for the Seeing Eye from the dog’s point of view…it’s slow goings though. (Am I doing the right thing?)

Classes started again for my last fall. Seriously I am done with school….well at least with being the student. I’m all for teaching eventually - that’s why I’ve been so gun-ho with my department to let me take these classes on teaching.

Fulbright ETA or rather English Teaching Assistant. I’ve decided I really have no confidence that I’m going to get a job after graduation - so lets go somewhere. Well that’s one reason. The other reason is that my friend from Ringling recently began teaching english in Japan and I am completely jealous. But Fulbright doesn’t have ETA programs in Japan so I’ve decided to apply for Taiwan. 

I’m having problems with the application though. Since I decided to apply so late in the game I’ve had less than a month to research, plan, and write out my essays. There is one week left and though all that is going well I can’t get people for references. I don’t have real relationships with lots of teacher’s here on campus, and those I want to ask I can only reach by email and they aren’t answering….. 

So, yeah - today isn’t a great day. Everything is a bit over wheliming - I just want everything to stop. I’ve got back-up plan after back-up plan, but I’m tripping over the first steps. Can I do this?

5 Months, 800 Words

Last I updated this I had just gotten excepted into Pratt for an MFA in Animation and had about another month at Ringling.

Well, graduation has come and pass.

The ceremony took for. ev. er. You would think that only 260 people would be fast but noooo. Must be dragged out. But finally that moment came. I crossed the stage, got my diploma case (real thing get mailed to you) and said a final goodbye to my Ringling friends.

Some of us from freshman dorm, 2nd floor short hall

Summer came and so did another trip with Katie and my Grandparents. Last time it was our turn Katie and I went to central Europe. This time we wanted any but Europe. So we went to Japan and Taiwan.

We did it with an 8 day cruise since the grandparents can't walk as well as they would like. Most of the time off the boats we were all together, but Katie and I often ran around the boat when we weren't docked. 

In Taiwan by a tea shop that inspired the shop people turn to pigs in Spirited Away.

I loved the trip, would go back in a heart beat, and the weather was great - though we had issues with the time difference for a long while.

A Shinto shrine in Osaka, probably my favorite location.

When I got back it was time to start with apartment shopping for in Brooklyn. Let me tell you, it was a pain in the butt. One day I have 7 roommates, then 4, then 1, then we find a flat, then it get sold...on and on and on this went.

Finally we did find an awesome place. Huge, right next to campus, very reasonable price if someone didn’t mind sharing a gigantic room. Eventually we did secure the place and rent it for our own. It was a process though. Our broker, Tom, was very demanding on us about deadlines but would never get us the next set of papers until the day of. The manager, Hal, is also nearly very annoying stereotypical thing about a New Yorker rolled into one. Good thing is that once we signed the papers we said good-bye to Tom and Hal said he would leave us alone unless there was an issue.

I’ve now been renting the apartment for about a month already. I have my own room and live with 3 others. Shirley, Emma, and Michael. Shirley and Emma are both from Taiwan (I seem to attract international students), and Emma and Michael are dating (and sharing the giant bedroom.) Shirley is also in my MFA program, Emma is studying fashion at FIT, and Michael is a Bio-Chemist who just got back from a teaching program in Taiwan. We aren’t best of friends, but it’s only been 2 weeks since we all got here.

Onto school.

Basically we hit the ground running.

I have 5 classes this semester, 4 are CORE classes. 

Animation Narrative: elective humanities course that teaches good story telling techniques when applying narrative to 4 minute films.

Practicum: a class to get real-life-experiance. First assignment, to create a 15 second promo animation for a new TV network, aka a network re-brand. Something no one in my class really understood, but I did them often at Ringling.

Seminar: not quite sure what we’re doing yet other than going over different devices and collecting a crazy amount of pictures.

Languages: aka Coding. I think in the end we learn how to make animations using only code (Processing 2) but for now we are learning how to create shapes and beginnings of interaction with the image.

Animation: not a class on learning an animation program, but a class where all we are really doing is working on an animation. (You can find the other blog I have to keep for this class about my progress)

So those are my classes. I’ve also picked up a job, a Graduate Assistantship helping to run events on campus. Irregular hours, but $12/hr and only a max of 15hrs a week so I think it will fit in nicely.

Other than that, well I’m exploring the city a bit. Not too much yet since I’m trying to find a buddy to explore with me, but I have seen a free concert and visited Little Italy....