end of semester thoughts

Wow, School is almost over.  Yeah.  One of my classes in complete and other two only have one more meeting. Yes I know we have two more CMC classes but I might be in DC for the class on the 2^nd.  This semester has been fast and yes each semester is faster than the previous.  After today I only have to drive to UTD once more this semester and I will be done.  If I play my cards right I only have one more semester left.  Ok so has anybody else had this mental dilemma?  Ok, so for so far in life we go from preK to Elementarily School, Middle School to High School, and now College, but what is after that.  It is the end of the formal structured learning structure.  What is next…

New Bond results

Ok, so I went to the new Bond on its opening night at the UA theater in N Dallas, the one with the largest screen in Texas.  I was surprised at how small the crowd was for the movie. When I went to go see the new batman on opening night it was cram packed SRO.  For the new bond, they had 2 theaters capable of holding 670 people each.  For the one I was in I would say that there were only about 80 people there.  To think I even went to go buy tickets ahead of time getting stuck in rush hour, what a mistake.  The movie was a traditional bond movie with all of its usual components, car chase, foot chase, boat chase I think, plane chase, enough explosions and gun fire.  The story was a little week in my opinion fighting over water and all but I guess that is a valuable commodity in today’s world. I did enjoy a few things about the experience beside the movie itself.  First I got to compare DLP with film side by side.  I have traditionally been an advocate of DLP being digital and all, thinking it is higher quality.  Traditionally I still like DLP better as it does not get dirty but here on this big screen there was a stark difference between the two.  We watched the same preview in DLP and film.  The DLP was good but in high motion sequences involving brighter colors it would just fall apart in my opinion.  However the Film looked great.  That said I had better than 20/20 vision and I make movies for a living and I was this hyper sensitive to the subtleties of its composition.  I did have an epiphany during one of the advertisements that I will use on one of my next woks.   Now call me a nerd but my favorite part of the whole evening was a particular preview, the one that starts with a youth riding on a motorcycle getting in trouble with an official.  You will know what I am talking about when you see it.  I could tell you, but this is more fun. It was questionable if it was worth the drive to that good theater but I still greatly enjoyed the whole evening.

new bond

After class tonight I am going to see the first showing of the new bond at midnight on the largest screen in Texas. The primary reason I am going to the midnight showing is not because I like the first showing but rather that I don’t have time in my normal schedule to fit it in. Midnight, how convenient… I don’t now much about this movie except for it is the next installment in the classic bond trilogy. I am told that this is the best bond(the actor that is) however I have not yet established my opinion yet. When I went to go pre buy tickets on the way to class tonight there were only 12 tickets sold…? Go figure I figured they would be busy… Do people no longer care about bond or something.? There have been a good number of ads on NBC in the morning. O well we can expect another post to follow with my opinion of the movie. ttyl

Intro to marketing

If you want an easy class to fill an out of degree elective take intro to marketing here at UTD. Beware you may get frustrated that it is too easy. I have. This class is insulting it is so easy. It was a mistake for me to take it. They waste time on things like basic pre algebra to figure logical problems. I will be glad when it is over just because it is personally insulting as to the intelligence of the students. It may be me, it may be the class, it may be the teacher, but the class is complaining how hard it is while I am not trying or paying any attention in class and I am making a B+, A grade. What is wrong here? I thought school was supposed to require effort. Can I get a refund for this class in addition to a gas credit for the 90 gallons of gas I have spent? I am intentionally not paying attention in class as not to confuse her distorted log with true logic allowing for a way to easy A in this class.

good idea…

I found this great little thing in our atech degree that allows us to do independent studies. If you are self motivated, have a clear objective, and can find a teacher sponsor you can do a self study on the topic of your choice. This is not any less work, if not more, but it allows you to focus your education towards an interest of yours. I am greatly excited by this and figured I might pass it along.

utd + atech = ?

Ok, for those of you out there in the ATECH degree rut that I am in, I figured I would share a few things I have learned as well as a few frustrations. First of all what is up?  Just in my time here I have been trough 5 advisors and I have only been here for 4, ok maybe 5 years.  Some lady in the AH office, some guy with an old radio in his office who let you sign up for classes early, Tara, Jennifer and now the new person to whom I have yet to meet.  No wonder our degree plan feels so discombobulated. I have to give it to Tara , she has been the best so far, I just hope the school doesn’t overwhelm her ending up with a 6^th advisor.  Ok so what is up with this, We as atechs are required to have 9sci hrs.  Now my sci classes are 4 (3 class+1 lab) hrs a piece. So I take phys 1 and phys 2 and end up with 8hrs of sci.  To fill this gap my advisor(#2) then advises I take contemporary science, a moderately challenging and intriguing class.  I go into my advisor the next semester and it turns that the advised class does not count for a sci class hrs. Rrrrrrrr. Go figure.  I have just taken a science class for the fun of it, wasting my time and money, thanks utd.  Ok, so I am still short a sci hr. So I take EE-0, an intro electrical class to fill the requirements, with my professor unaware that I have already taken Phys 2 electromagnetism and waves the big, big brother to this class.  So this class is excessively easy for me.  So the school has me again wasting my time with busy non learning work wasting more of my valuable time and money.  You might ask why they did not substitute my other sci class as they advised it?  IDK, I asked and they refused. Go figure.

There have been some classes I have enjoyed and learned from on the other hand.  BW photography, Sound design, and lighting and texturing were my favs so far.  I wish I would have found a good theater, theater tech, or choral class (as I have done them professionally worldwide) but after attending a few of their shows I quickly realized they were pitiful and not worth my time.

Here is another thought.  When I attended an atech info seminar in 03 it was pitched with the curve of game design like things.  When I attended another atech session in 06(with my bro) it was pitched not as a game design degree but more of a simulations and modeling type of thing.  Does the school even know what the atech plan is for? Now is it just me or does it seam like that now that I am in the degree plan we are stuck in a rut with only one destination, game design.  I am a freelance photo,video,web guy time permitting and there is so much more to the arts and technology world than the degree is giving us.  When I got my full time job doing atech work it was like the deep end, nothing I learned was relevant and had all new stuff to learn.  I feel like this degree was a waste of my time.  But hey I probably shouldn’t be posting this on a class blog but I have stopped caring  I just want my piece of sheep’s skin.  I am now in the process of signing up for what I believe will be a real education, a CS degree in the ECS School.  And then we are required to have out of degree electives, I don’t have a problem with this, it is a great idea, however I made the mistake of taking a business class, intro to marketing.  Can somebody say a joke.  The class is struggling to do well with their test grades when the teacher essentially publishes the answers in her ppt.  Just read her ppt and you will do well.  They waste time arguing how to do basic math that my 12yr old cousin could solve.  Memorizing stupid formulas providing clumsy methods that simple algebraic logic can solve.  Then after class I hear students complaining to the teacher that the test was to hard and that bc this is an “intro” class, and I am paraphrasing now, that we are not supposed to do anything mentally challenging just memorize a few words and call it good.  Who are they kidding this is a UL class and I can sleep through and make a high grad on tests I don’t even study for.  I would advocate not showing up to class except that it is not my work ethic not show to show up to class. And then the part that annoys me is that I live over an hr from class and all we do in class is waste my time, how insulting to the students much less their desire to learn.  Can anybody tell that I am frustrated… Enough of my pointed opinions, more to come later…

Is this semester over yet.

This semester was moving at a good pace so far but lately It just seams to me that things have slowed down to the speed of molasses. A bunch of busy work and no real learning work. It just feels that my teachers have run out of material and are now spinning in circles until the semester is over. Of course by definition this class is excluded as you can not talk about a class in its own blog. Maybe it is just me?.. Maybe the weather is just making me want to go outside just for the sake of being outside. O and yes this is my favorite season of the year. If only it would stay like this all year. Another possibility for my current level of discontent could be just a touch of senioritis setting in.