Prelude to Finals

So I have a few minutes to post and so I am. I've been working at Borders for a few days now moving books around at six in the morning. It's nice feeling like I have an income now. I can only hope that I will be allowed to keep the job once it is over. I know it can be stressful having a job and having so much homework but there is also a sense of relief in knowing that I have some money to spend. I could live off of loans and what not for a while but I don't like doing it. I might just have to get my apartment covered in school loans sooner or later though. My savings wont last forever....

Now is the big push to finals, after work today I stopped by the school and that is where I am now. I've talked to my characterization teacher about some of my poses and I'm waiting on him to get back to me so we can continue the meeting. I'm not feeling too bad about things at this point but it is really going to be a long week and a half. Today I need to work on my characters and my 3D head model. Tomorrow it is back to the school to work on animation. I have one project left to complete before I am ready to do my final. I'm still wracking my brain to find inspiration for the animation final. I can't wait to be done with that class. The teacher isn't helpful at all and he never gives any feedback so I have no idea what my grade is. Saturday I'll back back at the school for the regularly scheduled session of Animation class. Hopefully I'll get that assignment done and recorded before I leave the class on Saturday so that all I have to worry about is the final. Sunday it is back to the school for my 3D head project. Hopefully by then I'll have it all modeled out so that I can work on the texture maps for it. The rest of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are hard core 3D head project and characterization work. They are both due on Wednesday and if there is anything left to do after Tuesday it is game over. The rest of Wednesday (if I have any energy to do anything but sleep), Thursday, and Friday will be specifically dedicated to Animation. I have to do a minute long scene and with each of those 60 seconds requiring 12 to 24 frames of animation it's painful to even think about.

All this while I'll probably still be working a 6-10 am shift at Borders. Part of me wants to just tell them that I need next week off but the better part of me knows that I'll feel really good having some money in my account. So to all of my friends and family if you think I've dropped off the face of the world, I haven't. I've been working, eating, and sleeping for the last two weeks knowing full well that it would be needed to make sure this last week will be a success. Please hang in there with me and know that I will be back to my normal self at 5 pm a week from Saturday. Three weeks of glorious freedom!

Chicago- Day 49

Well it took me too long to get this started but here goes!

Today was a blast not only because it was a day off but because it was the first day off that I've had in two weeks. Midterm projects are finally over and final projects won’t really start for at least another week. I just got back from my sister's graduation in South Dakota (SD for those who have never heard it, haha). It was a really long drive back and I didn't get any sleep Sunday night. Anyway, I got over 17 hours of sleep last night and it felt great. I am completely rested and plan to get to bed soon to make sure I stay that way.

Back to talking about this great day I had. Athena (my fiancée) and I went to the Adler Planetarium and had a blast. It took us a while to get there because Google Maps is the worst. It turns out that bus 146 here in Chicago goes right to it so anyone reading this and wants to go just hop on that one. Well after a long search we got there and with about an hour left but thankfully we found a day when it was free. There is a ton of cool things there that really give perspective on how big our solar system and galexy is. I'd recommend anyone who has ever looked up into the sky and wondered to just go and look you won’t regret it!

After that we went to an ice-cream shop on the south end of Chicago called Flamingo. They had a ton of great flavors of ice-cream. They even had flavors like cornbread and sweet potato pie. Athena walked away with a quart and I got a waffle cone. It was worth the long train ride to get it too. I like the variety they have but the flavors didn't seem strong enough to me. I chock that up to natural flavoring though. Guess I'm too used to the strong fake flavors I've eaten all my life!

On our way back we stopped by a nice little diner I think it was just called Melrose. We got a lot of food for less then $10 each. I got a nice big bacon cheese burger, fries, soup, and coleslaw. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that they gave me all four side dishes and didn't just ask me to pick one! Anyway great place and now I have lunch for tomorrow too!

We got back safe and sound and are chilling out. I'm writing this and watching a movie and I think Athena is doing the same. I hope to keep up on this so everyone can keep up with my life here in Chicago. If anyone reading this knows where I can go to get something to show pictures be sure to let me know! As the late-great Paul Harvey put it "and now you know the rest of the story."

Andrew Welbig....Good day!