So I'm sitting in the lab on campus, rebuilding a laptop so it will be usable, and I thought I'd do a blog entry. Isn't that neat? Sure it is.
-Got the Production Manager position at work. Apparently, nobody applied, so my boss appointed me (despite my objections). It's going to be a MAJOR commitment for the next two months, but some decent paychecks and experience (and hopefully connections) will come of it, so we'll see. I'll be managing a team of 10-20 people, and I get an assistant (okay, not really. there is someone with the title of Assistant Production Manager, which really means I will do all the yelling at people and he will do all the paperwork). The laptop I'm rebuilding is for me to use during this project, so I guess that's a nice perk. Would be nicer if it had more than 256Mb of RAM in it, and REALLY nice if I didn't have to rebuild it...
-Went swing dancing with Renae and some animation people last night, and had a sweet nerd celebrity sighting. Remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? Well, apparently he is quite the avid dancer, and he was at the same club we were. AND, midway through the evening, he grabbed me and we did a turn on the floor. Very cool! Didn't have anyone take pictures, because I'm smart like that, but we did snap a few of Renae when it was her turn, so at least we can prove he was there with us. Hooray for nerd celebrity sightings!
-There is a possible Las Vegas trip in the works for April. Mumsy and Daddums will be there so Dad can attend a conference, and if I can get away from the thesis show for a few days, I will join them. See, David Hasselhoff is playing in The Producers right now and, well, I just can't pass up an opportunity to see the Hoff in a dress. I'll repeat that. The Hoff. In a dress. Singing and dancing on a stage. In Las Vegas. NICE.
I think that's all for now. Developments tend to move more slowly when school isn't in session, but I'm sure things will pick back up next week. Which reminds me: if you aren't doing anything right now, IM me or call me. Because it's still break, and I'm still BORED OUT OF MY SKULL. Thanks :-)
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Some things:
-Head over to my Flickr (link in the right hand column) for pics of the Chinese New Year parade and some Roman reenactors (like Civil War reenactment, but with fewer guns and more centurions). Here are some samples:
-300 is the manliest movie ever. Seriously, I think the world's testosterone supply is depleted. Either that or it's now larger than ever, because this movie spontaneously generates more. The only way it could have been manlier is if each audience member had been handed a bacon-wrapped steak on entering the theater. Also, if you can see it on an IMAX screen, do so. It's AWESOME.
-I'm on Spring Break until the 18th. For heaven's sake, entertain me, because I will not be doing anything interesting.
-Head over to my Flickr (link in the right hand column) for pics of the Chinese New Year parade and some Roman reenactors (like Civil War reenactment, but with fewer guns and more centurions). Here are some samples:
-300 is the manliest movie ever. Seriously, I think the world's testosterone supply is depleted. Either that or it's now larger than ever, because this movie spontaneously generates more. The only way it could have been manlier is if each audience member had been handed a bacon-wrapped steak on entering the theater. Also, if you can see it on an IMAX screen, do so. It's AWESOME.
-I'm on Spring Break until the 18th. For heaven's sake, entertain me, because I will not be doing anything interesting.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
So it looks like I haven't posted in a few weeks. Whoops a daisy! Here's a rundown of what I've been up to instead of posting here and entertaining you all:
-Mom and Grandma came to visit! Yaaaaaay! They were here for a little over a week, so we did a pretty good sampling of what LA has to offer. Shopping (hooray for Mommy and her Visa!!), trying new restaurants (hooray for In N Out and Sushi Dan!), a rainy afternoon at the spa, driving around to see the sights (and almost falling off a couple mountains, haha), etc. The weather didn't cooperate enough to make the beach fun, but I guess there's always next time. Good times were (I think) had by all. It was nice having them here; I probably won't get to go home for another few months, but at least I've had a dose of family to tide me over for awhile :-)
-Game class! After three weeks of iterations, playtests, and refinements, my group submitted the final version of our prototype board game. I think it turned out rather well, considering how complicated our concept was. If you're particularly bored today, head over to http://evolveyourpresent.blogspot.com for our group's production blog. We kept track of all our testing notes, versions of the rules, game art, etc over there, so if you're curious to see how the process works, this is a decent illustration. Hey look! Pictures!
Our logo for the project, done in about ten minutes by yours truly. Probably could have been snazzier, but oh well. We weren't being graded on art.
In every game design class that does prototyping, you will see at least three variations on this basic setup: a board with a hex grid on it (attached to a piece of foam board), a deck of cards made with printable Avery business cards, and pushpins. Ours was slightly more ambitious in that it provided a cheat sheet to each player.
With the prototyping assignment complete, we've moved on to feature design. We're supposed to design an addition or new feature for an existing game. My partner Mike and I are calling ours Guitar God. It's pretty straightforward. Guitar Hero + real guitar = AWESOME. It's so obvious, I can't believe no one has done it yet. The fun thing about this project is that for the team that has the strongest presentation, the prof is going to try to bring in someone from the game company we're pitching for, and they will see and critique our presentation. I don't need to tell you how awesome it would be if someone from Red Octane came in to see Guitar God :-D
-Thesis space! No, it's still not done. The basic setup is done (it's a livable workspace for the students), but now we've moved on to prepping the space for the thesis show. I'm learning all kinds of things about electricity, hiring moving companies, and the kinds of personnel one hires to put on a thesis show. Speaking of hiring, it sounds like if my boss can't find someone to fill the Production Manager role, at least some of it will fall to me. This is a nervous proposition; I feel like I'd be up for the challenge, but I think I'd like it a lot better if someone else were in charge. Say, someone who's actually seen an IMD thesis show before (because I definitely have not). More on this as it develops.
-Writing class! Man, I love this class. I think Andre said it best: "i feel like i get too much credit for bullshit work sometimes." Basically, I sit down, I blab all over a Word document for awhile, and I get an A. Good deal! The last assignment was to write a concept for a theme park or similar interactive space. Mine was a variation on Tomorrowland. Instead of presenting one version of the future, it presented four: Brave New World, Star Trek, Firefly/Serenity, and The Matrix. The idea is to present four very different ideas of what the future might look like, each with a semi-plausible explanation of how we'd get from the world of today to that particular future. It's probably too cerebral to be commercially viable (I'm asking people to come in, pay attention, and draw comparisons and conclusions based on four possible future visions), but it was fun to write. Next up: take an existing source (a book or film, etc) and reimagine it in a new medium, extending the story and the world as you see fit. I'ma play with Orson Scott Card's Enderverse, see what I can come up with. Probably a game, since Card himself is already writing the movie script.
Whew, okay. There's more to tell, but I should probably go ahead and write my Enderverse paper, seeing as how it's due tomorrow morning. Hope you all are doing well and keeping warm.
-Mom and Grandma came to visit! Yaaaaaay! They were here for a little over a week, so we did a pretty good sampling of what LA has to offer. Shopping (hooray for Mommy and her Visa!!), trying new restaurants (hooray for In N Out and Sushi Dan!), a rainy afternoon at the spa, driving around to see the sights (and almost falling off a couple mountains, haha), etc. The weather didn't cooperate enough to make the beach fun, but I guess there's always next time. Good times were (I think) had by all. It was nice having them here; I probably won't get to go home for another few months, but at least I've had a dose of family to tide me over for awhile :-)
-Game class! After three weeks of iterations, playtests, and refinements, my group submitted the final version of our prototype board game. I think it turned out rather well, considering how complicated our concept was. If you're particularly bored today, head over to http://evolveyourpresent.blogspot.com for our group's production blog. We kept track of all our testing notes, versions of the rules, game art, etc over there, so if you're curious to see how the process works, this is a decent illustration. Hey look! Pictures!
Our logo for the project, done in about ten minutes by yours truly. Probably could have been snazzier, but oh well. We weren't being graded on art.
In every game design class that does prototyping, you will see at least three variations on this basic setup: a board with a hex grid on it (attached to a piece of foam board), a deck of cards made with printable Avery business cards, and pushpins. Ours was slightly more ambitious in that it provided a cheat sheet to each player.
With the prototyping assignment complete, we've moved on to feature design. We're supposed to design an addition or new feature for an existing game. My partner Mike and I are calling ours Guitar God. It's pretty straightforward. Guitar Hero + real guitar = AWESOME. It's so obvious, I can't believe no one has done it yet. The fun thing about this project is that for the team that has the strongest presentation, the prof is going to try to bring in someone from the game company we're pitching for, and they will see and critique our presentation. I don't need to tell you how awesome it would be if someone from Red Octane came in to see Guitar God :-D
-Thesis space! No, it's still not done. The basic setup is done (it's a livable workspace for the students), but now we've moved on to prepping the space for the thesis show. I'm learning all kinds of things about electricity, hiring moving companies, and the kinds of personnel one hires to put on a thesis show. Speaking of hiring, it sounds like if my boss can't find someone to fill the Production Manager role, at least some of it will fall to me. This is a nervous proposition; I feel like I'd be up for the challenge, but I think I'd like it a lot better if someone else were in charge. Say, someone who's actually seen an IMD thesis show before (because I definitely have not). More on this as it develops.
-Writing class! Man, I love this class. I think Andre said it best: "i feel like i get too much credit for bullshit work sometimes." Basically, I sit down, I blab all over a Word document for awhile, and I get an A. Good deal! The last assignment was to write a concept for a theme park or similar interactive space. Mine was a variation on Tomorrowland. Instead of presenting one version of the future, it presented four: Brave New World, Star Trek, Firefly/Serenity, and The Matrix. The idea is to present four very different ideas of what the future might look like, each with a semi-plausible explanation of how we'd get from the world of today to that particular future. It's probably too cerebral to be commercially viable (I'm asking people to come in, pay attention, and draw comparisons and conclusions based on four possible future visions), but it was fun to write. Next up: take an existing source (a book or film, etc) and reimagine it in a new medium, extending the story and the world as you see fit. I'ma play with Orson Scott Card's Enderverse, see what I can come up with. Probably a game, since Card himself is already writing the movie script.
Whew, okay. There's more to tell, but I should probably go ahead and write my Enderverse paper, seeing as how it's due tomorrow morning. Hope you all are doing well and keeping warm.
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