The two classes I'm taking this semester are Web Scripting and Package Design, both at night. The day-time job assignment I'm doing is kind enough to allow my schedule to change on those 2 class days so that I can get to class on time.
I thought Web Scripting would be hard but the insructor is very chill and quite entertaining. Thus far, I am really enjoying it and so far it's not too difficult (knock on wood). Even though he wants us all to build everything from scratch so that we know what we are doing he's still shown us some good shortcuts.
I'm excited to use what I'm learning in class to create my own site. I think it would be cool to take what I learn in class and land a Front End web designing opportunity. It's fun enough and you never know what will happen.
The Packaging Design class is taught by the same instructor who taught 2 of my last two semester classes (Corporate Identity and Illustrator). So far the class if fun, too. Both classes are allowing me to artisitcally stretch my left-brained experience (languages and 3D modeling). The Packaging Design class is all about taking 1 dimensional box templates, adding our designs, and turning them into actual boxes. Wow. A lot more than I thought the class would be about.
I think our instructor felt bad about how much homework he had us doing this last semester because this semester he is only making us do 3 assignments: a soap box, something else, and a DVD/video game box. He just wants each one to be our very best. He is also giving us some good class time, which is excellent. I am turning in the first assignment this Wednesday.
I do have to admit, after last semester I was telling my wife that was missing the ol' paper and pencil method of the drawing classes (Observational & Life Drawing). I never thought I would find myself missing the Life Drawing class after all the hardships and difficulty I had in that class. But last Wednesday I suddenly, and quite randomly, found myself missing the Life Drawing class.
I was equally surprised when I walked into class and the instructor read off an announcement that on Wednesdays before my class they were offering an open lab to anyone who wanted to join for Observational Drawing and Life Drawing. We could just show up and draw - no tests, no rush, no hassel: just experience. I am excited!
I told both my wife and mother and they agree that it's good practice. I am excited to learn the things we never got to cover in class: arms, hands, legs, feet, and most importantly-faces.
The lab ends at 5:00 and I get off work at 4:30. I asked the instructor if he could extend it to 6:00. He's trying to see if someone will stay longer than he is allowed too to keep the lab open. Otherwise I'll only get a few minutes before class starts.
We'll see what happens.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Semester 4.2
Will miracles never cease...
I had just started by new semester when my assignment ended at Certiport. I only recently learned that it was due to the fact that I couldn't talk on the phones that they decided to not keep me on. In fact, I had just reached the 6 month mark, which is the time when employers are supposed to decide whether or not they want to keep you on. That, combined with how Finals from the last semester tied me up, really added to the decline of their 'like' in me.
So, here I was, knee-deep into a new semester of school without any income, a family to provide for, and the holidays coming up. Needless to say, the stress was mounting.
The one good thing that I could see was in the class suggestions the school had provided. In the middle of the previous semester they announced that the school took it upon themselves to create some registration suggestions for the next semester. If the students liked the suggestions all they had to do was sign off on them. I liked the descriptions: they were both the same. In the end, the only difference was that one class allowed me to work on my own projects and the other one did not. I was, however, able to use the homework from one class, and slightly tweak it for the other.
That fact right that, and the other fact that I was not working, helped me to pass both classes. If either of them would have been missing I would have failed miserably for sure in both.
How it all works out I don't understand. But I know the Lord knows what He is doing with me. And I am very grateful for it. I know I could not have done this without him.
One of the other big miracles happened near the middle of the semester. A Congressional law had just passed, cutting off Federal funding for students enrolled in private colleges - like the ARt Institute. Without the Federal grant money we would not be able to afford me being in school. As it turns out, I was able to be 'grandfathered' in since I was enrolled prior to that law passing. If I had waited this past year I would have missed out on those blessings.
Also, as a direct result of the law passing the Dean of the Art Institute (whose last name is Murdock, by the way!) decided to combine classes to try and bring the cost down. For us Graphic Design students 4 classes were removed or combined into the curriculm, including Life Drawing. This was big because I was able to apply the time, credits, and energy towards a similar or equal value class. But if I ever need to use those credits towards another degree I won't loose them. At the same time, since most of my projects and work involve creating characters I am still able to benefit from that teaching before they pulled the class from the curriculm. Wow. Again, Heavely Father knows what he is doing.
I argued with my Life Drawing instructyor that the Life Drawing class is fundemental for Graphic Design students, and he mentioned that himself and other instructors agreed. I even used characters in my Final Projects for both of my classes. But, what is done is done... for now.
Another miracle is when Donna decided to go back to work part time. The reason why this is important is because, like I said, we had no income - at all. This helped to provide some good Christmas pocket cash, which we needed. It was only on call and less than part time so she wasn't missing a whole lot of time. And every little bit helps. She didn't want to quit before but was nervous about going back now. On her first day she was able to have some wonderful experiences, including seeing some major figures in our area. She was able to buddy-buddy with a lot of her friends and I consider it a 'girls night out' treatment for her. It's good for her to get away from being a mommy all the time and it gives our son a chance to play with his cousins and hang out at grandmas. Also, right when the semester was winding down I was offered by my good friend to come back to the arcade. Donna was adamandtly against this, reminding me of how hard it was for us, and her, then. She reminded me that she went back to work so that I wouldn't have to have a second part time job. That sealed the deal.
Instead of my working for the semester, I was doing homework - sometimes all day and into the night, long.
I was given an assignment close to Finals which lasted only 3 days, because of. Finals had me so stressed that I would go to this assignment looking haggard and weary. The supervisor assigned to me was nice but even she mentioned at one point that I was looking pale. It didn't help that even though this was an office enviornment I was literally doing warehouse work-breaking down boxes, heavy lifting, carting around boxes on the dolly, and unpacking/setting up furniture. I was sweating by the end of each day, had to carry my box cutter with me, and was back in my old, beat-up warehouse shoes just to protect my feet from all of the running around. When I got home, there was not rest-just back to the homework until midnight, where I'd get up to do it again. On the eve of my first day at this new assignment I was so stressed about Finals that I only slept for 4.5 hours. I slept on my lunch break in my car to make up for it.
I was not surprised when I was no longer required at that position and considered it a miracle. I was free again to finish my Finals and it gave us some good Christmas money.
The same day I came home the temp agency also informed me that they thought they had something else in mind for me. It turned out that it was closer to home, was more money, and better suited for me. They initially wanted me to start the same day of my last final. They later wanted me to start the following Monday, which gave me a week to rest.
I have now been there 3 weeks and so far it's been a great assignment.
Another good part of these Christmas miracles I only learned about after the fact-one of the single friends in Donna's family heard of our plight and thought of Quinny. After discussing it with Donna behind my back they decided to put Quinny's name in their ward's Sub-For-Santa. Our son woke up Christmas morning to a fabulous nwe wardrobe, including many pants, shoes, pajamas (which matched the new blanket he got from his Aunt Linda), shirts, socks, and shirts. They all fit, were desperately needed, and wonderful!
Another series of miracles started when dad finally decided to install with a new ceiling fan in our bathroom. The previous one broke down after a long time of service but dad didn't have the money or time to invest in getting it replaced.
As soon as he finished our washer and dryer combo died. Again, dad came to the rescue. Part of that miracle came when we tried to move the old one down the steps and it got away from me. We are both grateful, fortunate, and lucky that neither dad nor Dan were seriously injured (although I've never heard so many swear words coming from Dan at any given time).
And our son was happy to get a giant box for Christmas!
Once that complete, Donna's sister Linda called to say that their next-door neighbor was selling their massive, gorgeous entertainment center, with the flat screen tv, for a very small amount. Negotiations were made, schedules were assembled, and the family got it for us for Christmas. It took us all of Sunday to rearrange our entire living room to get it set in place. And it is gorgeous.
It helped us to understand the importance of decluttering our lives, minds, times, and home. It also became the inspiration of many of our New Year's Resolutions to simply and declutter our lives.
For my Finals homework it finally helped me to understand what my instructors have been trying to say all along: the mind needs places to rest - negative space - in order to fully appreciate the 'art' in front of it.
Less truly is more.
My family threw their yearly Christmas party, in which my parents not only supplied us with lots of much needed food from their own pantries but provided many fun presents for us as well, including some important survival gear.
But the most important present of all came to us before Christmas with the completion of our roof.
For the last few years we have found with our extremely leaky roof. We were even wary of having a child with how bad it was. At one point we had over 30 buckets, all throughout our home. Our kitchen ceiling had collapsed on us and was being supported by some metal planks dad put up. Our bedroom ceiling threatened to follow suit, so dad installed some more metal planks. Instead, the ceiling retaliated by growing black mold under the plastic wrap and threatened our health. Donna was at her wit's end and decided to do something about it. She refused to have another Christmas of moving the tree around and trying to catch all of the outside snow as it came in.
After talking with Donna about it many times, she finally followed her gut and started reaching out. Grandpa got involved and agreed to save our hides yet again. He footed the bill for our extremely leaky roof.
We talked to some contractors in our ward and they got to work as quickly as they were able to. Because of dad's business in the lower half of the building our Bishop was able to assist due to legal reasons, and the amount we needed was much higher for him to help with.
My own family was unable to come up with the funds. It broke their hearts to idly stand back and not be able to do anything about it.
Once they heard that the roof was being worked on my parents began preparing another Christmas miracle. At the family Christmas party there was a glass jar on the counter titled, "Service Project" with some bills inside. My mom encouraged everyone to donate. We were still pressed for cash but I pulled out my wallet anyway to contribute as I asked my mom what the jar was for. With tears in her eyes she then stated that it was to help out a certain group of family members get new ceilings for their very drippy apartment.
That is was it for me. With my heart very full of happiness and gratitude I could only express my thanks with heartfelt tears and smiles.
Our prayers had been answered.
The end of the semester came at long last, and happily it came and I was fully prepared. Our Tuesday-night instructor came with 2 local business professionals who critiqued our word one-on-one. That was very important and impressive for the school to provide.
With the stressed of school behind me, and honored with some great grades to boot, I was finally able to breathe many sighs of relief.
With all of this in mind I decided that I already received everything for Christmas that I wanted. The lists and presents and gifts that I had thought of didn't seem to matter at all anymore. I decided to focus on my family and others instead, feeling that all of my prayers had already been answered.
That became my driving focus and it really turned this Christmas into a very memorable one.
I got a few things that I wanted, namely the most important ones, but my biggest joy came from seeing my family's reaction to their gifts. It was then that I suddenly realized what Christmas was all about - consideration. It was about thinking of the other person and providing for their needs in such a way that it would make them happy. It was knowing your gift-giving person so well that you could see past what was on their list and give them what they truly needed deep down inside to become happy.
I saw that on the face of my wife and in her happy tears as she opened her most important gift and I knew I was right. My prayers had become answered. It was good to make hers come true as well.
In the end that's what it all boiled down to - our Heavenly Father provided us the one gift we could never give ourselves - the path to eternal life in His presence, through His Only Begotten Son. Through our Savior we can live with Him forever, and be happy. That is the only thing we truly need to be happy.
At Christmas time we give gifts to commemorate the greatest gift ever given; The gift of Our Heavenly Father's Son to us, so we can be able to return to Him again and live in His mansions and be happy forever. And no matter what gift we may ever give, no matter what service we may ever render, no matter what we may ever do it will pale in comparison.
All we can try to do is our very hardest to come as close as we can to it.
I had just started by new semester when my assignment ended at Certiport. I only recently learned that it was due to the fact that I couldn't talk on the phones that they decided to not keep me on. In fact, I had just reached the 6 month mark, which is the time when employers are supposed to decide whether or not they want to keep you on. That, combined with how Finals from the last semester tied me up, really added to the decline of their 'like' in me.
So, here I was, knee-deep into a new semester of school without any income, a family to provide for, and the holidays coming up. Needless to say, the stress was mounting.
The one good thing that I could see was in the class suggestions the school had provided. In the middle of the previous semester they announced that the school took it upon themselves to create some registration suggestions for the next semester. If the students liked the suggestions all they had to do was sign off on them. I liked the descriptions: they were both the same. In the end, the only difference was that one class allowed me to work on my own projects and the other one did not. I was, however, able to use the homework from one class, and slightly tweak it for the other.
That fact right that, and the other fact that I was not working, helped me to pass both classes. If either of them would have been missing I would have failed miserably for sure in both.
How it all works out I don't understand. But I know the Lord knows what He is doing with me. And I am very grateful for it. I know I could not have done this without him.
One of the other big miracles happened near the middle of the semester. A Congressional law had just passed, cutting off Federal funding for students enrolled in private colleges - like the ARt Institute. Without the Federal grant money we would not be able to afford me being in school. As it turns out, I was able to be 'grandfathered' in since I was enrolled prior to that law passing. If I had waited this past year I would have missed out on those blessings.
Also, as a direct result of the law passing the Dean of the Art Institute (whose last name is Murdock, by the way!) decided to combine classes to try and bring the cost down. For us Graphic Design students 4 classes were removed or combined into the curriculm, including Life Drawing. This was big because I was able to apply the time, credits, and energy towards a similar or equal value class. But if I ever need to use those credits towards another degree I won't loose them. At the same time, since most of my projects and work involve creating characters I am still able to benefit from that teaching before they pulled the class from the curriculm. Wow. Again, Heavely Father knows what he is doing.
I argued with my Life Drawing instructyor that the Life Drawing class is fundemental for Graphic Design students, and he mentioned that himself and other instructors agreed. I even used characters in my Final Projects for both of my classes. But, what is done is done... for now.
Another miracle is when Donna decided to go back to work part time. The reason why this is important is because, like I said, we had no income - at all. This helped to provide some good Christmas pocket cash, which we needed. It was only on call and less than part time so she wasn't missing a whole lot of time. And every little bit helps. She didn't want to quit before but was nervous about going back now. On her first day she was able to have some wonderful experiences, including seeing some major figures in our area. She was able to buddy-buddy with a lot of her friends and I consider it a 'girls night out' treatment for her. It's good for her to get away from being a mommy all the time and it gives our son a chance to play with his cousins and hang out at grandmas. Also, right when the semester was winding down I was offered by my good friend to come back to the arcade. Donna was adamandtly against this, reminding me of how hard it was for us, and her, then. She reminded me that she went back to work so that I wouldn't have to have a second part time job. That sealed the deal.
Instead of my working for the semester, I was doing homework - sometimes all day and into the night, long.
I was given an assignment close to Finals which lasted only 3 days, because of. Finals had me so stressed that I would go to this assignment looking haggard and weary. The supervisor assigned to me was nice but even she mentioned at one point that I was looking pale. It didn't help that even though this was an office enviornment I was literally doing warehouse work-breaking down boxes, heavy lifting, carting around boxes on the dolly, and unpacking/setting up furniture. I was sweating by the end of each day, had to carry my box cutter with me, and was back in my old, beat-up warehouse shoes just to protect my feet from all of the running around. When I got home, there was not rest-just back to the homework until midnight, where I'd get up to do it again. On the eve of my first day at this new assignment I was so stressed about Finals that I only slept for 4.5 hours. I slept on my lunch break in my car to make up for it.
I was not surprised when I was no longer required at that position and considered it a miracle. I was free again to finish my Finals and it gave us some good Christmas money.
The same day I came home the temp agency also informed me that they thought they had something else in mind for me. It turned out that it was closer to home, was more money, and better suited for me. They initially wanted me to start the same day of my last final. They later wanted me to start the following Monday, which gave me a week to rest.
I have now been there 3 weeks and so far it's been a great assignment.
Another good part of these Christmas miracles I only learned about after the fact-one of the single friends in Donna's family heard of our plight and thought of Quinny. After discussing it with Donna behind my back they decided to put Quinny's name in their ward's Sub-For-Santa. Our son woke up Christmas morning to a fabulous nwe wardrobe, including many pants, shoes, pajamas (which matched the new blanket he got from his Aunt Linda), shirts, socks, and shirts. They all fit, were desperately needed, and wonderful!
Another series of miracles started when dad finally decided to install with a new ceiling fan in our bathroom. The previous one broke down after a long time of service but dad didn't have the money or time to invest in getting it replaced.
As soon as he finished our washer and dryer combo died. Again, dad came to the rescue. Part of that miracle came when we tried to move the old one down the steps and it got away from me. We are both grateful, fortunate, and lucky that neither dad nor Dan were seriously injured (although I've never heard so many swear words coming from Dan at any given time).
And our son was happy to get a giant box for Christmas!
Once that complete, Donna's sister Linda called to say that their next-door neighbor was selling their massive, gorgeous entertainment center, with the flat screen tv, for a very small amount. Negotiations were made, schedules were assembled, and the family got it for us for Christmas. It took us all of Sunday to rearrange our entire living room to get it set in place. And it is gorgeous.
It helped us to understand the importance of decluttering our lives, minds, times, and home. It also became the inspiration of many of our New Year's Resolutions to simply and declutter our lives.
For my Finals homework it finally helped me to understand what my instructors have been trying to say all along: the mind needs places to rest - negative space - in order to fully appreciate the 'art' in front of it.
Less truly is more.
My family threw their yearly Christmas party, in which my parents not only supplied us with lots of much needed food from their own pantries but provided many fun presents for us as well, including some important survival gear.
But the most important present of all came to us before Christmas with the completion of our roof.
For the last few years we have found with our extremely leaky roof. We were even wary of having a child with how bad it was. At one point we had over 30 buckets, all throughout our home. Our kitchen ceiling had collapsed on us and was being supported by some metal planks dad put up. Our bedroom ceiling threatened to follow suit, so dad installed some more metal planks. Instead, the ceiling retaliated by growing black mold under the plastic wrap and threatened our health. Donna was at her wit's end and decided to do something about it. She refused to have another Christmas of moving the tree around and trying to catch all of the outside snow as it came in.
After talking with Donna about it many times, she finally followed her gut and started reaching out. Grandpa got involved and agreed to save our hides yet again. He footed the bill for our extremely leaky roof.
We talked to some contractors in our ward and they got to work as quickly as they were able to. Because of dad's business in the lower half of the building our Bishop was able to assist due to legal reasons, and the amount we needed was much higher for him to help with.
My own family was unable to come up with the funds. It broke their hearts to idly stand back and not be able to do anything about it.
Once they heard that the roof was being worked on my parents began preparing another Christmas miracle. At the family Christmas party there was a glass jar on the counter titled, "Service Project" with some bills inside. My mom encouraged everyone to donate. We were still pressed for cash but I pulled out my wallet anyway to contribute as I asked my mom what the jar was for. With tears in her eyes she then stated that it was to help out a certain group of family members get new ceilings for their very drippy apartment.
That is was it for me. With my heart very full of happiness and gratitude I could only express my thanks with heartfelt tears and smiles.
Our prayers had been answered.
The end of the semester came at long last, and happily it came and I was fully prepared. Our Tuesday-night instructor came with 2 local business professionals who critiqued our word one-on-one. That was very important and impressive for the school to provide.
With the stressed of school behind me, and honored with some great grades to boot, I was finally able to breathe many sighs of relief.
With all of this in mind I decided that I already received everything for Christmas that I wanted. The lists and presents and gifts that I had thought of didn't seem to matter at all anymore. I decided to focus on my family and others instead, feeling that all of my prayers had already been answered.
That became my driving focus and it really turned this Christmas into a very memorable one.
I got a few things that I wanted, namely the most important ones, but my biggest joy came from seeing my family's reaction to their gifts. It was then that I suddenly realized what Christmas was all about - consideration. It was about thinking of the other person and providing for their needs in such a way that it would make them happy. It was knowing your gift-giving person so well that you could see past what was on their list and give them what they truly needed deep down inside to become happy.
I saw that on the face of my wife and in her happy tears as she opened her most important gift and I knew I was right. My prayers had become answered. It was good to make hers come true as well.
In the end that's what it all boiled down to - our Heavenly Father provided us the one gift we could never give ourselves - the path to eternal life in His presence, through His Only Begotten Son. Through our Savior we can live with Him forever, and be happy. That is the only thing we truly need to be happy.
At Christmas time we give gifts to commemorate the greatest gift ever given; The gift of Our Heavenly Father's Son to us, so we can be able to return to Him again and live in His mansions and be happy forever. And no matter what gift we may ever give, no matter what service we may ever render, no matter what we may ever do it will pale in comparison.
All we can try to do is our very hardest to come as close as we can to it.
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