Finished, FITC, and Freedom
So… I’m officially a real person. Or at least I’m supposed to be. I’ve finished college, but I’ve yet to find a job… or even job prospects! I’ll always look back at my time at Seneca College as a good one. There’s been ups and downs, but I’d have to say I’ve been the happiest the last two years, learning to do the work I enjoy doing with people who share the same interests.
I’d like to thank a few people, starting with Samina Patel, Alex Steacy and Danielle Pepin. You kept me sane, you kept me on track, you were my partners in crime, as well as on projects. You were always there when I needed an ear to bitch to, or just a shout out for help on work in the middle of the night. You listened when times were tough, when I felt like giving up, in school or otherwise. Thanks big sis Samina, thank you ARECKS, and thank you Danielle… cause I never call you anything silly. Derp.
Next I’d like to thank Frank Duffy, without you I’d never have gotten that Flash site together in time, and Kim wouldn’t have either.
Also I’d like to thank Laura Kucharchuk, Amanda Davy, and Daria Magas-Zamaria (not that she’ll ever read this, lol) for being super-awesome.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Kimberley Hollett for spending many an all-nighter on work, cracking the whip (people will lol hard at this, but in all seriousness, I wouldn’t be where I am without her) lighting the fire under my ass (same applies to this) being my partner in almost every project possible, being my partner in dinner preparation, being my partner in Brawl, putting up with my sometimes grumpy moods, and being all around the best person ever. I love you. <3
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With that out of the way, after we finished classes, we all loaded up the truck to take our Senestuff to FITC. FITC was three days full of presentations, booths, swag, and dinners out. I manned the Seneca Booth a lot of the time, answering questions for people that came around, converting videos to show on our screens, and trying to get people to blog. Which they didn’t much. (If anyone’s wondering about the skin, Kim couldn’t get the FTP working with the info we were given. -_-; )
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Now for part three, freedom. What have I been doing, what will I be doing? What is next for Craig Follick?
Well, since I got home on Thursday night, I’ve just been hanging out at home, sort of winding down. I borrowed my friend’s PS2 and I’m re-playing my copy of Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil (one of my top five favourite games of all time) to prepare for the remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile that’s coming out for Wii next week. Also, Kim bought me Animal Crossing: City Folk and SSX Tricky, so I’ve been playing those too. In the near future (probably tomorrow) I’m going to start building a website for myself, probably simple at first. Finally, my domain will have a little more than just an “Enter the Blog” button! Tuesday, I’m going to a concert with Kim, Ben, Sonja, and Jess, and then I’ll be staying overnight at my place until Wednesday… I haven’t thought much further ahead than that! Job hunting will be soon after, no doubt.
Anyways, I’m gonna go have dinner with my parents now, then go hang with Cindy for a bit, then hang with Nate, Phil and Shayne for a little belated birthday celebration for Nate. Craig, out!
Mobile Post. Woot.
So I’m on my way back to Toronto after my long easter weekend right now. It’s not been a bad weekend… But it has seemed short. At least I finished my layout for print class, and I’ll be submitting it via e-mail when I get home. I’ll also attach it to this post when I publish it. I had a lot of fun doing it, as it’s on Gorillaz… Which is just an all-around awesome subject. I’m slowly catching up on all my work, which is good. GRADUATION IMMINENT!
Unfortunately, graduating presents a slew of new problems. For instance, I’ll no longer be employed by the A/V department, and I’ll have to find a real job. Life is just beginning, which just as horrifying as it is exciting.
Speaking of Gorillaz, I’ve been enjoying a lot of Damon Albarn lately. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen is an excellent album. I’ve also been enjoying Beck’s Modern Guilt of late, which I got from Max in the summer. My favourite song from it is Youthless… I like it’s lyrics and beats a lot. I like music a lot… But I’m really bad at describing what I like about it. Go me.
I’ve also been getting stomach pain of late… My side to my stomach was hurting all day Thursday, and I’ve had a weird stitch in what I can describe as under my lowest rib on my right side all day today. I kinda felt sick earlier because of it. I hope it’s nothing bad… The last thing I need right now is medical problems… I’ve gotta finish school!
Anyways, that’ll be all for now. Bye, nobody who reads this!
So you might be wondering…
… what I’m up to. Actually… you’re probably not, and I don’t blame you.
Well, not much has been up. The mad scramble to get outstanding projects in by the end of the semester is well underway. I’ve got a big list of things to do… which I should definitely actually turn INTO a list, because right now it’s just in my head and I keep going “Shit I need to get this, this, and this done!” and then I’ll have finished something and want to take a break only to find that I have something else entirely separate from that list that is due the next day. Luckily, this should only last a couple more weeks.
The SCA Media Awards are shaping up to be a pretty cool show, despite the terrible limitations of only starting to plan for it a month in advance. For anyone who cares, it will be held on Thursday, April 23rd. Cocktails @ 6, Doors @ 6:45, Show @ 7 – 8:30.
I made a banner for the site (which is still under construction at this point) and it looks like this:
So yeah. Anyways, further updates will come, I’m about to bus home for Easter Weekend. If I were a logical person, I’d publish this later. But I’m not.
HUTTAH! *hits the publish button*
No idea where to put this.
My best friend Cindy’s dad passed away last Friday… I don’t know where else to put this really, so I’ll just put it here.
Thank you, Peter Cheng. Thank you for allowing us rowdy kids to spend hours a day under your roof, and among your family. High School was definitely not a favourite time of my life, and almost all of the happy memories I still keep are of you and your restaurant. I’m the person I am today partly because of the experiences I’ve shared with not only Cindy, but the rest of our old little gang as well, though we’ve mostly all gone our separate ways. I’m sorry that I never made it up to the hospital to visit you, but as my mom said, maybe it’s best I remember you for who you were. I’ll never forget your infectious and hearty laugh, your generosity, your cooking, your wit, or your ridiculous stories. I don’t believe in religion and all that, but I’d like to believe we’ll meet again someday, wherever that is. Rest in peace. I’ll be there for Cindy as much as I can. I promise.
Edit: The funeral was a very fitting tribute to Peter. The streets of downtown Fergus were lined with people, (presumably all the shopkeepers from the small businesses there) for the funeral procession, and the police had blocked all the intersections and were out of their cars saluting. I will never forget going through that, and I will probably never see such a show of community again like that in my life.
Thank you, downtown Fergus.
Busy, times… Finishing up, I hope!
The last couple of weeks have been busy… but the next couple of ones will be busier. Kim, Samina and I got in on working on the SCA Media Awards show, which counts for our internships. This means, if I pass all my courses I will graduate on time. Huzzah! (When I look back on this, I will wish I used a better word, but sue me, it’s 9:30AM and I’ve had 4 hours of sleep.) I’m in charge of working on flash banners for the site, as well as possibly getting some ads up for the TVs around the school. I’d still like to get an internship after school if possible, just for the experience.
We’ve got a final project for Production Management (Blog is here) which involves creating a site, e-mail, and Flash banner, pretending that it’s promoting Blackberry. We have to follow their style guide (which is neat to experience, but pretty restrictive) and we have a project manager (Samina, who else? 
) and we’re laying out all the parts in Microsoft Project… which is pretty extensive looking for project management software… not that I’ve seen much anyways… but all in all I’m hoping for it to turn out nicely, and be a good experience. One of my group members, Liz, and I, came up with concepts for the banners yesterday (well actually she did, quite quickly. I just drew them up in Illustrator)… and they’re not too bad. I think we’ll be able to hammer them out quickly, as the two of us are assigned to do the banner. We just have to wait for Chris, our teacher, to select and approve which one he would like us to construct… as he’s the “client”.
Anyways, I’ve got other assignments to work on too, such as an additional banner ad for that class, a 12 page booklet for print, a flash portfolio site, and lots of combustion work to catch up on. Instead of writing about it here, I’d better go do it.
Blah.
I went to the gym again yesterday…
Then I ate half a pizza.
I’m going again today.
Hope it turns out better.
I’ve also gotta write a story tonight for my elective tomorrow. Not excited for that, as I’m super-exhausted today for some reason, despite getting enough sleep. Can’t find a song to cheer me up, and it seems that an extra large coffee wouldn’t help either.
Oh well. Not that I want to be away from Kim, but I really want the weekend to come. I’m in some kind of weird funk today.
Bit.Trip Beat is kind of cool. I haven’t gotten very far but I’m not very good. Could have been that I was slightly buzzed from our green-cider-cause-we-don’t-like-beer night for St. Patties. I’ve never liked chiptune style music, but it just seems to be freaking awesome in this game. More to come on this I guess?
Now… to work on print layouts. Whee!
This Weekend
Woot. I had a good weekend… Friday night was a… social night out… and was a lot of fun. Saturday I went up to visit Cindy… her family’s restaurant is closing soon, but that just gives me an excuse to eat more delicious Chinese food. I’m sad about it closing, because it was such a big part of my high-school life, and such a big part of her family’s life. Since her dad needs a more wheelchair-accessable place and they don’t need the hassle and monetary investment of running the place, I completely understand. Looking over floor plans for new houses was kind of fun, and brought me and Cindy back to our old days in Mr. Poole’s drafting class in high school… what a grumpy old bugger.
We ended up spending most of the night watching old Zero Punctuation videos and a lot of Iron Stomach Challenge and Man Cooking… all while eating a bunch of pizza.
Sunday I finally found some more blank CDs upstairs with the help of my dad, and he gave me one… I went downstairs right away and burnt Grandia 2 to it… popped it in the Dreamcast… and now I’m really addicted to a console RPG for the first time in years. I can’t wait to play it next weekend… so I’m actually getting the PC version right now. Lol.
Well, that was about it for my weekend… wish it could have been a bit longer. For more Grandia 2. I didn’t see Kim much either other than Friday night… because of her work obligations. The ideal weekend would have more of her too!
Also, FML for not spending more time doing digital media.
Updatin’…
So, the last couple of weeks have been busy, not busy, semi-busy… I’m not really sure. I’ve been all over the place lately.
Let’s see… Reading Week / Study Break was last week for me and the rest of Seneca, so I had a week off to… read or study. I did read, though. Go me! It was for a class, though. Actually, A Dirty Job has renewed my love of books, which is saying something. I’ve always loved reading… I read tons of books as a kid… I read at a Grade 12 level when I was in Grade 4… Just somewhere between schoolwork, video games, girlfriend, and the rest of life, the time I used to take for books got phased out. I think I’ll try to phase it back in a bit… even if I won’t be ploughing through the pages like I used to… it’ll probably be good for me!
Also over reading week, I managed to go to the gym. If you actually know me, your reaction to reading that sentence would probably be something like “Gym WUT? CRAIG GYM!?” and then you’d fall backwards out of your chair from the sheer shock of it. Me and exercise are like… two things that don’t mix. I’d say oil and water but that’d be cliche. And they still kinda hang together. If gym was water and I were oil… Oil would have skipped town. But I went. And went on an exercise bike. Samina badgered me into going, but I’m glad she did. Tired legs kinda felt good, not gonna lie. I thought I looked like a bit of a tool in my I-don’t-own-many-pairs-of-shorts cargo shorts, and my regular old street shoes because I only own one pair, but nobody said anything. Or even looked at me funny, really. I statically travelled some six miles on the bike in 20 minutes, which was cool I suppose. Samina and I got out of there once King of Queens came on the TVs. I don’t like King of Queens. I’m not even sure anyone watches it.
So, the “stuff done during reading week” tally has me reading a book and going to the gym so far… it also has me working all day Tuesday. It was such a quiet morning, and it would’ve been great if I’d remembered my book… but I didn’t. I went home to pick it up at lunch, but then I had constant help requests all afternoon, so I was unable to get much reading done. That and the painters had shown up… they were speaking loudly at eachother in Italian so it was hard to concentrate. I say that they spoke at eachother because replies usually consisted of grunts or ‘hmm’s.
I also went to school on reading week. Yes, school. Tim Willison, our Flash teacher, ran a workshop on Wednesday all day. We learned about the Dictionary functions of AS3, and how handy they are. It was fairly fun, and I think I picked up a few things… it was worth going to, I’ll say that.
I managed to contract some spyware or adware or whatever somewhere between using my computer for 5 minutes on Thursday, and then it being off until Saturday night.Which was weird… because I didn’t go anywhere but GMail or Facebook, really… I think I may have dropped by The Escapist forums for a minute, but I trust them. I’m running AdBlock Plus and NoScript in my install of Firefox too, so I don’t even know how it made it by that. I didn’t download anything. I’ve never had ad or spy wares as long as I’ve owned my own computer, so I’m kind of embarassed by it. Spybot Search and Destroy seems to think it’s called Virtumonde, and there seems to be about 2 or 3 variations of it that keep coming up in the scan. I’ve removed it several times over now, even trying to kill it before my computer connects to the internet or even launches anything else when I start it. That seems to work for a while. At least the ads aren’t ads anymore, as they used to come up advertising some bogus anti-virus software and doing that thing that ads do to make stupid people think that they’re part of Windows… I think it’s called being designed to look like standard Windows XP! Doesn’t fool me. It can’t. My theme is different. Hah. I think I’ve nuked most of it… now it just seems to occasionally pop up a window with the title “Windows Internet Explorer”, yet I’m running Firefox so it has a Firefox logo in the top right corner… again, nice try. The window is completely blank, as I’ve scanned like 10 times in 2 days and killed most of the files. It’s terribly annoying. I seem to have gotten rid of it, at least temporarily, for now. I thought I’d got it before, but it just came back a day later. I will not trust it’s totally gone until I don’t see it for at least a week. In the meantime, I’ll just repeatedly scan.
On Saturday, I cleaned my room back home. Like REALLY cleaned it. It’s like, crazy clean now. Like it used to be before I moved out/got lazy. It’s not totally done yet… my “junk table” still has junk, but that’s because I used it to clean the rest of the room… I’ll post a picture of its’ clean prettyness later, maybe. It’s nice to move furniture around once in a while, for a bit of a change. The rest of my house doesn’t really change, except when my parents renovate, so it’s nice for my own little basement domain to switch up.
The end of reading week, I finally got to spend some time with Kim. We’d been apart for most of the week, and I think we were both dying a little inside. Good thing we did, as yesterday we got back to school. The headaches resumed, with an essay for me to write and her brochure printing to mess with. Luckily, that got all done, and we relaxed for most of the night.
I played Opoona for Wii for a somewhat lengthy time last night, much to my enjoyment. Firstly, it was $19.99 at Staples. With Sonja’s discount and generosity, that’s turned into 4 Second Cup coffees. I’ve already bought her one. It’s 1/4 paid off! Yay! Secondly, it’s awesome. It’s cutesy, and takes a lot to get into it at first, with a lengthy intro sequence and sort of guiding you around the first town, but then you’re free to take on missions and fight stuff, using the somewhat unique battle system. I’m really enjoying the fact that the game is basically a full-blown world with all kinds of things going on and many terms and such to remember(which the nerd in me loves), all while staying simple to play and control. You only have to use the nunchuk! I love just sitting back and being able to control the game with one hand. It’s got just the right difficulty curve too. If I were a more hardcore RPG fan, I might find it easy… but its’ difficulty seems to be in the vein of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars so far. I just made it to the second dome. I also have to comment on the music, as it’s extremely reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online, which had an excellent soundtrack. In fact, I think I’ll go get that now for nostalgic value. The game is also similar in feel to that of Phantasy Star Online… although it’s only a one-player experience. Damn, now I just want to get back into that. Still, Opoona is fun.
Damn it all. Just got the pop-up again. For running Winamp. What the hell. Back to scanning for the stupid thing.
Brief Post – Will Update for reals LATER!
I made this, and I like it. Hope y’all do too… (lol @ y’all)
Busy Week – Things I’m Working On…
So, this last week has been pretty busy. Last weekend my Valentines’ plans fizzled out because Kim’s grandma passed out and wound up in the hospital. Kim and I only saw eachother for a few hours, and we were both really tired, so we had a Valentine’s day nap. It was nice. Turns out her grandma had to get a pacemaker put in, and she went in for surgery Sunday night, but she was pretty much out the next day and up and about as usual. A little scary, but I’m glad she’s okay… and that through a magical medical miracle she’ll be okay for years to come!
Tuesday at work was really busy, a lot of people asked me for help with the suites. I got through it, although I didn’t get to work on a lot of work… instead, I wound up working on a vector trace for a bit because it was something I could easily leave and come back to. Kim took me out for dinner at our usual Thai place in the evening, and I enjoyed it very much. It was a nice break from going there with everyone else, and it was good to get out on our own.
Wednesday morning, Project Management was cancelled… and we almost didn’t go until we found out from Samina that our groups had showed up anyways. By the time we got there, our groups were gone… but we worked on some stuff for Aviva’s Print class later in the day. I played some e-mail tag with one of my group members, and then we ended up meeting in the first few minutes of Aviva’s class and delegated our workload. I fired off e-mails to everyone so that they’d all have it in writing, and they’re supposed to have all their parts to me tomorrow. Only one person has sent their part so far. We’re to meet Monday night after Combustion class at 7pm. Hopefully that turns out.
Aviva’s class had us working on fictional brochures for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. Mine’s pretty simple so far, but Samina seems to like what I have. I’m not too far into it yet though.
In the evening, Kim and I got down to business on our first real Advanced ActionScripting project. We had to make a tutorial on how to make a document class. I made mine in a .pdf file. I’ll tack it onto the end of this post. I found it to be a good project because I had to go through both actually doing it, and documenting how it’s done as well as how all the different parts of the code work. It was only supposed to be 1-2 pages, but I managed to flesh mine out to 6 plus title page when I added in images and made it easy to use. Overall, an enjoyable assignment I think!
Thursday morning, we had to do a debate in Art and Technology on whether or not the internet isolates people. Our side (Kim, myself, two others) was that it does in fact not isolate people. Our side won by vote of the rest of the class… and not only did we have some good arguments, but the other side seemed very wishy-washy. Their argument was basically “the internet does connect people, and allows you to talk to people all over the world, but it isolates us because there isn’t human contact and stuff”. Two of their group members were prepared, and the other two had no idea they were going that day because they hadn’t checked their Seneca WebMail in a week. How can you go a week without checking it? Silliness.
We spent much of Thursday afternoon finishing up our tutorials, and then we headed off to Flash. We just covered different ways to load different things, and a lot of people shoved off from the class early to “Ninja Pub 12″, a gathering of Digital Media Arts students that happens periodically, and enables networking among the students, as well as the ability to meet other people working in the industry. After Tim was done his talk, we headed there, but it was very loud and everyone was already pretty drunk at that point, and we’d had a long day, so we only stayed about 10 minutes before we headed home.
Friday we went to Motion Graphics and Jasmine was showing us how to put together crazy visualizations in AfterEffects. That looked neat, but I’m still not sure I like AfterEffects as a program all that much. Video has never been my cup of tea, AfterEffects is a little heavy on my poor computer, and I’m just not that into its’ interface. I prefers me Flash.
Anyways, I’m off to celebrate a friend’s birthday soon… I promised myself I’d keep this short because I’ve gotta grab a shower and call another friend to arrange a ride so… that’s all, folks. Toodles.
How to Make a Document Class Using ActionScript 3 and Flash
P.S. – Jet Set Radio’s soundtrack has got me through the week. Kudos to the crazies who scratched and mixed that.
Calendar
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