robb_d

05:18 pm: Follow-up
One would think that riding one's bike faster into the pool would result in increased airtime, but instead you just go down faster and have no way of stopping yourself from crashing into the painful parts of the bike.

This has been a public service announcement.

07:25 pm: Whee
Riding a bike into a swimming pool is really fun.

07:23 pm: Running in the rain
Today we had a short but strong thunderstorm.

I decided to run through it. I ran about 2 miles, with the rain hitting my face sideways so hard that it stung. The lightning was close enough that I could hear the electric crackle before the thunder.

If you ever want to feel really alive, run in the rain.

02:34 am: Hmm
I wonder if I should start using this thing again.

11:50 am: I got a myspace
http://www.myspace.com/robdenbleyker

Shut up.

04:16 pm: I hate liars. I hate cheaters. I hate seeing my family hurt by lies.

I hate coverups and I hate being involved in coverups. I hate being part of webs of lies designed to protect people's feelings, when the truth is more important.

As much as the truth still hurts, at least she won't go her life not knowing it. I'll acknowledge that one small act of maturity on his part.

I'm so angry I can't see straight. Time to start packing for Houston.

12:38 pm: Woohoo
Got my first animation contract with an ad firm in Hong Kong.

I'm so glad I didn't bother getting a real job.

*does a little dance*

11:23 am: Whoa...
I'm usually not the type of person who writes LJ entries about his grades, because they're never anything to brag about. This semester's grades came in, and they're straight A's. I've never gotten straight A's in my entire life.

Also, apparantly I blew away my texturing/lighting professor. He'd recommend me at DNA Studios but they just finished their abomination of a feature film The Ant Bully and fired half their staff.

I shall continue working on my portfolio.

07:02 pm: whoamg
Comment, and . . .
* I’ll respond with something random I like about you.

* I’ll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.

* I’ll name something we should do together.

* I’ll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).

* I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.

* I’ll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.

* I’ll ask you something that I’ve always wondered about you.

Put this in your LJ too. Or something.

05:22 am: A group-driven story project
I had to pick a final project for my interactive storytelling class, so I decided to do something that I already wanted to do on my site. An interactive story thread.

http://forum.explosm.net/showthread.php?t=6269

So far it's been great. I have to write an analysis of the experience afterwards.

05:14 pm: Wow
You can see downtown Dallas from the roof of the School of Management.

I had a fun night last night.


Also, this is from the UTD police activity summary:

* A student was arrested for seven active warrants on Lookout Drive
after being stopped for a traffic location.

03:52 pm: My personal pledge
I talked to Phill for a while last night, and we both shared our disillusionment with ATEC and the university in general. While we have different problems, learning about his made me see mine with striking clarity.

A while back I made a post about the instruction being terrible in my animation classes. Now I think I was looking at it the wrong way. The reason I feel burned out and like I'm wasting my potential is because I don't have the attitude towards learning that I used to. The fact that the ATEC program has bad teachers is just a scapegoat. The real problem's with me.

I need to fall in love with Maya the way I fell in love with Flash in high school. I need to make it something I care about by integrating it into what I do care about, namely my website and my animations.

The labs are available to me. I'm just wasting my time by not using them every spare moment, the way I messed around with Flash every spare moment in high school. That's how I mastered it. I was never taught Flash. I was motivated to teach it to myself.

Why did I lose that motivation?

Sure, Maya's a hell of a lot harder than Flash. But it's still something I can master if I approach it with the same curiosity that I did with Flash. It's just a matter of time spent, and frankly I have a shitload of time on my hands.

I'm sick of doing what the teacher wants, turning it in, getting my A, and walking away with such a limited understanding of what I did. I need to prioritize before these four years run out and I find myself exactly where I was at the beginning but with a few bits of Maya knowledge that I could've gotten by picking up a manual. I want to be an expert by the time I graduate.

The labs open at 10, and close at 10. That's twelve hours I can spend every day, excluding going to class. I can easily do my other crap after ten. Subtracting class time and weekends, I could devote twenty to thirty hours a week to mastering Maya.

I'm mostly posting this for you, Phill. I know if anyone's going to keep me on task and accountable for what I'm doing it'll be the guy who's in the same boat as me. I'm also posting this for myself, so I can read it later and remind myself of what I'm determed to do, if the determination ever fades.

07:10 pm: A personal thank you
Thank you, LIT professor!

Thank you, first of all, for allowing me to miss last week's class for a funeral. Thank you for telling my presentation group that I would be absent, and that they could design our presentation and then email me my job in the whole thing.

That really was all you had to do.

You didn't have to tell them I was a Flash animator. You didn't have to tell them they could require me to do three animated clips for the presentation. I truly admire that you thought so highly of me, that you bestowed upon me the task of making three animations in a week, three days of which I'd be gone.

I cannot thank you enough for thinking so highly of me that you would assume me to give up all my plans and other schoolwork to make some animations for a presentation in your esteemed class, while my other group members merely write a script and bring silly costumes.

I am truly honored to have my time and skill wasted by you.

Thank you very much.

01:50 am: Wasting my time?
Most of my big life questions dawn on me when I'm supposed to be studying, but whatever. I've got to vent.

I've spent a year and a half now in the ATEC program here. Coming in I thought it would be great. I love animating. I love telling stories. I love creating, and entertaining. I figured ATEC would give me a great understanding of computer animation, so I could take things to the next step for myself.

But now I'm starting to realize, through my own ATEC courses and from conversations with people who have completed higher courses, that this entire program is bullshit.

I spent my freshman year cutting out pieces of paper and playing with paint. My professor was proud. She claimed I made excellent use of negative space and contrasting color. What does that mean? I don't know. It was just a bunch of paint I threw onto some paper the night before it was due.

Then I got to my first modelling class. I discovered the wonder that is Maya, and all the fabulous things you can do with it. I learned how to model. It's pretty easy since Maya is totally intuitive. Do I know how it works, beneath the surface? Nah... No need to know that.

I've essentially spent the last year and a half learning various features of a few pieces of software.

I could've done this on my own in high school if I could've afforded the software. I'm spending the precious few years of my higher education having professors teach me how to use programs that have manuals.

If I was majoring in literature, would I be spending the first month of an upper level course designing my very own haiku poem?

No.

So why the hell am I spending the first month of my intermediate animation course learning how to use a freaking spotlight?

I need to get a new major. Or double major. Or something. I'm about to explode.

12:49 pm: Wheee
Heather and I flew kites last night. Well, I flew my kite. Heather was more intent on dive bombing hers into the ground. After a while her kite decided to attack mine. Mine was the victor, snapping her string off at the top and sending her kite spinning off into the distance.

After that she gave me the rest of her string and we tied it onto mine and got my kite really high. Then my kite got stuck in a tree, where it still resides now.

Flying kites is fun.



^Check out the cop's pose in panels 3 and 4. I made this comic for you, Eighties Man.

11:13 pm: Waldo


I made this comic and it got me thinking.

Waldo was one seriously messed up dude. He went around and deliberately got lost in crowds. He'd always lose pieces of clothing, one by one, almost intentionally.

Whether he was in the middle of ancient Egypt or a pirate battle, he stood perfectly still with an eerie smile on his face. Just waiting for young children to gaze upon him.

01:42 am: Bleh
I threw up hardcore last night. I think it was an allergic reaction to the spaghetti sauce that Caroline's cat slobbered all over.

02:12 pm: Ebaumsworld sucks
http://www.ebaumsworldsucks.com/

Spread the word. This site's been pilfering and pillaging the Internet for years.

The way it works is, anyone can send in any piece of work, be it an animation, a game, or an image, and Eric Bauman, the biggest doofus on the Internet ironically running one of the largest websites, will construe that as ownership. He puts up the stuff with no credit to the original authors.

Everyone should boycott ebaumsworld.com. If you're looking for an alternative to get your wacky Internet videos, check out http://video.google.com/.

02:03 am: ...
Standing on a desk does not make you an airplane.

06:11 pm: Ahhh
I've never looked at my own comic and gone "Huh, that's kind of deep", but I think this one is.

Thanks, Alex, for the inspiration.