And as he reached the milestone....

...he fell to his knees, exhausted.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time here in UPOU even after just this one term, but the work and household problems really piled on me these past three months.  That said, it was an interesting ride.  I have a newfound respect for working students who can balance their time like this, because it's a constant struggle.  I found myself feeling strained by the combined pressures, and to unwind, I procrastinate by binging YouTube videos or playing video games. 

I get to knock myself out of the procrastination slump early enough to finish my requirements for work and school, but I know I can't go on like this.  A few weeks ago, I got started on sketching out my passion project: Outl4ws.  But it's still just a bunch of scene concepts and nothing following a proper plot yet.  Thinking about it now, I should probably write it, chapter by chapter like a novel.  It's so strange that I'm now finding myself somehow less productive now than back when I was in my post-grad school.  While I'm doing better than I was doing during my early college years, I'm far from my best.  I find myself lying awake at night wondering why and sometimes I think it's because I'm not fulfilled, working for my father.  I make 3d models and write for him, as well as animate occasionally, but for some reason, I can't seem to feel like I "own" my role like I did back when I worked in animation.  Which is funny because it was my father who observed that I'm more of a creator than an artist for hire.  He suggested that later on, I should start my own small multimedia studio, but the thought of that scares me.

Having worked in an animation and multimedia studio, I've seen firsthand the pressures our higher-ups had to deal with.  Bad clients, unreliable hires, technical problems (Philippine internet, anyone?), late salaries and even the last minute revision.  While artists like me were the ones to rush these deadlines, it was our directors who had to stay late and check each scene and then composite them.  If I started a group of my own, all those duties would likely fall to me, starting small.  Upon typing this, I'm reminded of how badly I handle pressure.  This is why I used to rush to finish my work as early as possible so that I don't drive myself mad with worry like I used to back in college.  But people say I'm doing well.  I hope they're right.

As of this writing, we had just finished work on a big artwork to be shown in Dresden, Germany.  During the last few weeks before the deadline, we had to stay as late as midnight to rush the job.  I mainly worked on the artwork's 3d model for the purposes of making a manual for the gallery crew, and it's during these times when I can't help but feel useless to the team.  I'm not well-versed in physical crafts like woodworking or assembly, so what happens is I sit at my laptop and model.  Even when I finish the model early, there's often a significant change to the actual artwork and I end up revising it.  Now, I almost always make the model before work on the actual piece begins, and the product is usually based on what I made in SketchUp, but the numerous revisions sometimes make me feel like my work is pointless.

But in spite of how I feel about this job, it pays well.  It lets me pay for my own schooling now, and it helps my mother financially.  So I have to stick with it for another year and a half, when my father no longer needs me there.  I can only hope that forging my own path, working in animation will revive the spark I had three years ago.

Hello, World!

This is my very first post, on my very first blog.  It seems like enrolling into UPOU had the interesting result of pushing me to try out a lot of new things.  Less than a month as a distance education student and I'm already meeting people, learning new skills, struggling to wrap my head around readings, and getting intimidated by the sternness of my Profs.  It's college all over again, without the commute!

MMS 100: What is Multimedia? isn't what I expected.  I expected a brief introduction and a series of examples throughout history, but the lessons really went into depth about the origins of multimedia.  It was interesting to learn that cave paintings and elaborate opera pieces could be considered multimedia, by definition.  Even as a person with a background in Fine Arts, I was surprised to learn that interactive installations where exhibited as early as the 60's with Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York and Robert Roschenberg's Soundings.

But what surprised me most was how wide this course's coverage actually was. The online class even covered the different fields concerning computers and how to distinguish one from the other.  It was a very interesting read.  I was never very good at academics but after two and a half weeks of getting into the habit of doing my readings, I found myself at least retaining the key terms and definitions laid out in the course.

I managed to score high after two attempts at the first quiz. If memory serves me right, I had two mistakes during my first attempt and no mistakes during my second.  All that kept me from getting a perfect score was me not realizing that a certain item had four correct answers and I only checked three.  I really hope this doesn't happen again, should there come a time when the difference between a pass an a failure is a single point.  Prof. Al seems strict, but fair.  I do appreciate that he words the lesson modules like he's doing a lecture; structured, but with a comfortable casual air that doesn't confuse the reader with an overuse of jargon.  Perhaps that's why I find his modules to be the easiest to understand in spite of how wide their coverage is.

Overall, the short time I've spent studying this course has been interesting and enjoyable.  I hope to learn more in the future and I'm looking forward to the days ahead!