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.

Hurricanes and Halloween

I know I just posted something, but this one isn’t really about school.

It’s about Sandy.

Sure I go to school here in Florida but I’m a Jersey Girl all the way. My whole family is there - okay not everyone but 95% of the family I see regularly is.

Anyway you all must have heard about the storm. It was very bad for Jersey and New York, though I think we go it worst.

The City That Never Sleeps had it's lights shut off for them by Sandy.

Let me start by saying that my family is fine. Everyone is safe. They all lost power but my parents go it back today after it being off for 2.5 days. (Which is really good since we don’t have water without it thanks to our well system). Last I heard neither of my grandparent’s houses had power. My Dad’s parents - last I knew - had gone to the hospital since the generator broke and my Grandpa’s oxygen battery was dead (he’s been on oxygen since September after he had a stroke).

For anyone that doesn’t know Atlantic City is basically gone. Okay, not really, but the boardwalk is. To think that we live only 20 minutes from there is crazy.

Atlantic City Boardwalk or what's left of it.

Our main concern is Long Beach Island (LBI) since my family has a house there. Biased on pictures and videos we have come across it was bad - for a while the ground was gone. There was a clip we found of part of the island after the storm passed and our house happened to be seen in it. It was only a glimpse but the house is still standing with no major visible damage. Hopefully it was only the garage that flooded and it didn’t get up to the actual living areas but we won’t know for sure until they let us back onto the island.

The one thing that annoys me is the way people here are talking. Most are from Florida so are saying that we’re worrying over nothing, it was just a baby hurricane, it’s no big deal. I really wanted to hit them.

Get this straight Florida. We in the north weren’t built to stand against hurricanes. Some rain and wind is okay but this is not what we signed up for, not what we built our houses to battle. So SHUT IT!

Yeah, my rant about Sandy and I wasn’t even there. It did distract me in classes though to the point that my teachers noticed...

Anyway, it’s Halloween but it’s the only holiday I don’t really care for. Every other one I love and plan way in advanced but this day is nothing special in my eyes. That might change after I have kids but for now that is where I stand.

So in exchange I sat at the table doing Fine Arts homework. I got my armadillo and air plane done while watching Halloween movies: Hocus Pocus, HalloweenTown, The Littlest Vampire, Mickey’s House of Villains, and Tower of Terror. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

There's Such a Thing as a Free Weekend?

The weekend was easy. Like easy to the point that I was board out of my mind at times. I watched Netflix, read FanFiction, and played Sims 3. Still I felt like I had nothing to do.

I did have Fine Arts, making the figures and all, but I didn’t have a plan for two of them so just did Santa. 

Did the little Design work we had: make an icon.
This is my abstraction of a brain (brain cells

Sunday came as a relief for me as we had Sunday night dinner that evening. As it had been Brenna’s 20th birthday the day before we were having what she wanted - spaghetti and meatballs. Thankfully I already had the meatballs made from earlier in the term had frozen them. So I took out the crock pot, tossed them in with the sauce and relaxed for those two hours.

Then there was dessert. Brenna wanted ice cream cake - vanilla and chocolate with Oreo crust, mini M&Ms, and Recess. She also wanted almond cake with orange vanilla icing.

The cake in her favorite color: Orange.

The ice cream cake was easy to make as I had been making them constantly for several weeks now. For the almond cake I just made a Betty Crocker White Cake and added some almond extract and for the icing I was able to find pre-made orange colored icing being so close to Halloween and so just used that.

They all loved it.

Brenna as we sing to her. Even the candles and their flames are orange.

That evening we also started to prep for the Winter Holidays (I would just say Christmas but one of our friends involved in this is Jewish so we say this instead out of respect for him). What we did last year was draw names for a Secret Santa and then do the gift exchange during a big party. We wanted to do the same thing this year while adding in our new ‘family’ members as well.

You’re most likely thinking that we’re crazy and it’s too soon to need to worry about that. There’s were you’re wrong.

This year has been crazy. Not necessarily for me but for my CA (computer animation) and Illustration friends (which is nearly everyone) it has been maddening just to get them out of the labs once a week for a dinner that only lasts about an hour. 

So we pulled names. Our cards don’t just say who it is on it though, we fill out a sheet that asks you a few questions: name, shirt size, favorite colors, interests, things like that. This way if you pick someone who isn’t your bast friend you can actually find something.

We then makes sure everyone knows about the money limit ($25) and stress that you can also make the gift by hand (like a drawing or something). The time and date of the Holiday party was also scheduled so those who have work outside of school and adjust their shifts.

Thus my weekend ended. I bit slow but everyone needs time off once in a while. From now on I won’t really get any time off like that again so it was nice.

And the best thing about the weekend being over? It means that I have less than a week before I go to DISNEY!!!

It's Been a Week Already?

These days really do blend together. Are you sure it wasn't just Sunday?

After being up so long for Monday I was relieved when my day ended at 4:00 instead of 9:45. 

Reason? 

For one thing my Fine Arts class was just going over concept ideas and since I already had sketches and examples I got to go second (first person had just had knee therapy and was in pain so we let her go se she could leave). Anyway, I got my concept approved, to create line using bouncy balls, ramps, tubes, and “road blocks.” Once it was I could leave to get started on the work and advance the concepts. 

(Not that I actually did that. I made sure I had everything for my later class, went to diner and took a 15 minute nap.)

The other reason why my day ended early was that my night class was canceled since the teacher was sick. Of course I didn’t realize this until I actually got to the classroom, saw there was no one there (normally there are still 30 minutes early), and then checked my email. I had checked it before diner but of course she sent the email not two minutes after I went to eat...

Anyway, I went to bed early and slept for 14 hours. That felt great.

Tuesday was nice since I had finished my animation back on Friday and I had gotten all that sleep.  It’s a mock client project for MoMA and their upcoming exhibit. 

*(Tried to put it in this but it wouldn't work).*

Wednesday came up along with a meeting for Ministry of Magic making decorations for our Yule Ball in 2 weeks. Of course I thought we only had snowflakes to make and it would only take 2 hours at most. Nope. I forgot we wanted to make banners for each of the Hogwarts houses that day too.

So I got slated to make a banner with the fabric and paint. There were 4 of us on that job and 4 houses so the question got to who did what house. That sparked the question what house are you (everyone there is in Pottermore and has gone through the official sorting). I’m a Slytherin, but so was one other girl (the other two were Gryffindor and Ravenclaw so that was easy). It came down to me having a sister who’s a Hufflepuff so I was called on biased on association.

Worked out okay. I went with making stencils to paint with instead of free handing it on the fabric so it only took 5 hours instead of everyone else’s 6. 

Then off to the Academic Center to do the board-o-maitics for Concept since my lap top can’t handle it.

Jill actually liked the pieces when I showed them. Yeah the type is a bit too big but that’s an easy fix for Monday. Everyone in class seemed to like it too, especially the music choices.

*(These videos alos don't want to work...)*

I’ll end this with a note on Fine Arts. My piece is rolling bouncy balls and golf balls covered in paint down a tube/ramp to create a painting. They will also interact with obstacles that are on the paper thus forcing them to change direction. These will be things that represent road blocks I have encountered in my life. This weekend will be spent making them all out of clay. Hopefully.