I was walking on campus today and saw a couch in a tree. I don't know anything more about it than that, but I thought I'd share.

So it's been over a week, and that means it's time for me to do a blog post. Not entirely sure what I should post about, as nothing extraordinary has happened lately. So...let's try a "how things are going" summary.

-Classes are excellent. My writing class is entertaining, my games class is pretty damn great, the Saturday class is...well, as good as a Saturday class can be, I suppose, and seminar is not unbearable (hard to top Zemeckis, though I am sure they will try...eventually).

-Original Fin (the game I'm working on) seems to be progressing, though I admit, this is through no action of mine. I'm still learning the Torque Shader Engine (a program for creating 3D games) and holy CRAP it is confusing!! There's just code and models and collision eeeeverywhere. I've been having limited success in sorting it all out; I'm hoping that this week I'll at least be to the point where I can put code in and get a meaningful result out. Maybe even a useful meaningful result. Wouldn't THAT be crazy?

-Work is going well. We're finally able to mess around with the touch panel interface in ZML (a process they've been trying to make happen since...well, way before I got here). Hopefully, we can get the software on the thing redesigned and user-friendly in the next month or so. That will be a major accomplishment for all involved. In other news, I am finally going to get some professional help with the thesis space. Not that I'm not up for a challenge, but I am most excited to have a real contractor person who can recommend things like soundproofing materials and flooring. Trying to pick those out on my own has been...confusing.

-Found myself some new gamer things to do. One of the many Mikes I know is reviving a USC Game Design Club, so I'm lending what help I can on that. Our first event for the semester, Wiimbledon (yes, a tournament of Wii tennis) was a success. Through Wiimbledon, I met the USC Gamer's Network guys, who apparently have a LAN every Friday night. I am so there. It's not even funny how there I am. Or, will be, you know, on Friday.

-MY WII IS HERE!!! I absolutely adore it. It's all skinned (thanks Grandma!) and awesome and great and stuff. If you have a Wii, I am going to require your number, so I can find you online and steal all your Mii's.

-Mom and Grandma will be here in February, and there's rumblings of a Meg/Janelle visit sometime in...March? April? Marpril? We're working on it. The point is, I am ridiculously excited to have people here. If you're not Mom, Grandma, Meg, or Janelle, you should probably go ahead and get in touch with me about coming out for a visit. We don't have real winter here. Think about it.

Okee, that's all for now. Hope all is well amongst all of you. Drop me some comments once in awhile. I will tell better stories if I know what you want to hear about. :-)

Look, everyone! I own a dress! A dress I wore! Out in public! Try not to faint.

NOTICE:

It is not snowing in LA, and I'm pretty sure it didn't snow yesterday either. It's 69 degrees and sunny today. It DID snow in Los Angeles County, but remember kids, there are mountains in LA County.

So for all of you Midwesterners who were...concerned for my comfort, rest assured. My weather is much nicer than your weather. ::grin::

Hi all! I'm going to go ahead and briefly summarize the last three weeks so that I can describe this week in detail. I am pretty sure I saw most of you over the break, so this shouldn't take long.

1. Finals ended well. All A's and passes, leaving me with a solid 3.8 GPA and a couple projects I'm pretty happy with.
2. Christmas was lovely. Saw a lot of the family, drank a lot of booze and ate a lot of cookies and meat, and got some excellent swag. Highlights include hanging out with the fam (saw some of the Childs side and ALL of the Hughes side), playing Guitar Hero with everyone I could get to play it, my Tickle Me Elmo (see the archives for video of this little guy), and catching up on my sleep.
3. New Years Eve was fantastic. Chris and I joined a bunch of my friends from undergrad in Chicago for a bar party and a night of drinking in our hotel. Mistakes were made, as were a lot of ironic toasts to "dignity", and we had an all around fabulous time.
4. Break was excellent. Saw a lot of people, worked on stuff I needed to work on, and in general got life under control so that the new semester could start.

Okay, recap over. Let us get to what's in store for the coming months:

-Original Fin: A video game I'll be working on this semester. The core team has been working on this bad boy since September, I believe, so I'm coming in halfway. A good opportunity to get experience in using the Torque Game Engine, as well as just general experience in working on a 3D game. When this thing is ready to send out to festivals, I'll have programmer credit as well, so that's always nice.

-Interactive Writing: Taught by Paul de Meo (he wrote the Rocketeer! zomg!), this is probably the first writing class I've ever taken where I'm actually looking forward to the work. We'll be learning to write for games and related media, with lots of suggested reading and playing (yes, he recommends games as homework) to go with in-class discussions.

-Game Design Workshop: Exactly what it sounds like. We meet for lecture and lab once a week and go over all the pertinent aspects of game design (rule systems, art, that kind of thing). Taught by Chris Swain (one of our head game profs) and Dan Aray (creative director at Naughty Dog Games...Banjo Kazooey and Jak and Daxter are their top titles). I'm VERY excited for this class. Looks like it's going to be fantastic. This week's homework: play a board game with classmates and put together a photo essay about the experience. AWESOME.

-Seminar: As with last semester, seminar is a class "taught" entirely by guest speakers. Basically, IMD brings in interesting people and has them tell us about their work, their current projects, the state of our art or the state of the industry...whatever is relevant to us at IMD. Last night, our first seminar speaker was none other than Robert Zemeckis (of Back to the Future and Polar Express fame, among many many others). He is teaching a motion capture class at USC this semester, using the techniques he learned/developed on Polar Express, Monster House, and his latest one, Beowulf. The lecture last night was a general overview of where this type of filmmaking stands, and we got to see production footage of Beowulf, which was pretty awesome. It was interesting to see what gaps existed in Bob's knowledge (he had never heard of the uncanny valley phenomenon, for instance, and had no comment for our questions about the copyright issues of motion capture filmmaking), as well as what his vision is for this art form in the future.

-Visual Expression: The jury is still out on this one, as we haven't met yet, but I will say this: It's a seven hour photography and film class taught on Saturdays. Again, I'll withhold my opinion until we've actually had a class, but I think we can all agree that this will probably be my least favorite class.

-Relocation: Sadly, Renae and I have decided that we can't stay at our current place next year. It's really, REALLY nice, but the rent is just too high. The realtor who found us this place is working with us to find something a little more reasonable. In addition, we'll be adding Al and Mike (friends from Interactive...their pictures are in this blog someplace I'm sure) as roommates, which should be tres fun. Bridget, the realtor, has a couple places for us to check out early next week, so the search has begun in earnest. Here's hoping for something WITH Internet and WITHOUT bars on the windows!

-Employment: Still working for the lab manager in IMD, though my focus will probably shift as things get going. I'm still working on the thesis space project from last semester, trying to nail down things we couldn't get done last semester (flooring and locks, mainly). In addition, I expect I'll be working pretty heavily on the spring thesis exhibition when that starts ramping up. Plenty of opportunities to play with power tools and yell at electricians...whee! I'm also considering a couple of on-campus internships, but I haven't decided if I'll apply for any or not. The work sounds interesting, and I of course like being paid, but the schedule may not allow for any more commitments. We shall see.

I think that about covers it. As things get really moving, I'll be able to elaborate on all of these projects and classes, and of course, I'll post pics whenever possible. Hope everyone is well and enjoying their January (whether you're on break or getting back into the swing of work) and I shall talk to you all again soon!