OK, this is major stuff. The decision to go back to school came on the Monday before this quarter started (Sept. 27th), and things have really been a blur since then. I’m retooling. In fact, if you look through this blog you’ll note that I really haven’t been posting that much since Brown launched. I’m really hoping that this latest announcement reflects a shift towards some of that much-needed balance I’m always talking about.
We’ll see,

I did get a little chuckle today while passing through the warehouse at Winn Devon. Someone has a boom box that usually gets turned on (or up) later in the afternoons. It’s an eclectic selection (I can pass on the country music, thanks). As for today, I didn’t know what I thought was funnier, that they were blasting the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar, or that I know every last word of it. I tried to make a friendly joke about it, but my attempt got caught up in my aforementioned awkwardness, so I just felt stupid again. Yeah, that’s me, Mr. Cool.
In other news, well, you know how I’m always saying that if there was any way I could go to school, I would? Well, today–miracle of miracles–I officially enrolled for spring quarter over at Shoreline Community College! Even better (brace yourself), I’ve signed myself up for “Art 101E,” which is a night course in black and white photography! (Hell yeah, I’m thrilled!)
In case you don’t already know, I’ve been trying to get my ass over to Shoreline for the last few years now. I had funding two years ago through the State of Washington that enabled me to pursue a Multimedia degree with North Seattle Community College. I filled out all of the paperwork and jumped through all of the appropriate hoops in order to follow this course, but by the end of my first quarter I came to the realization that NSCC was incapable of providing me real access to what I wanted. It looked good on paper, but I’d have to find an alternate route to my goals.
Now, I’d gone to Shoreline back in

Also, I’ve started reading one of the books I have on Maya. I’m easing my way into it. I am particularly pleased to realize that I have already addressed the majority of the recommendations.
On a more personal note, I’ll say that I’m running in the grey at the moment. I went for a long walk this morning to sort things out, but I don’t feel I’ve come to any resolution. I’ve been distracted throughout the day. I’m still not trying to think about things too much, which is a substantial change in this context. I know I’d normally be reading in this kind of situation, but I simply haven’t felt like it.

I didn’t even hit the shower before going online this morning and tackling some rather important personal research. I paid off all of my overdue charges to the Seattle Public Library last night, so I requested delivery of every Maya 4.5 title I could find. This means that I’ll be working with the Maya 4.5 Personal Learning Edition, but I’m confident that most of that knowledge will translate over to Maya 5.
The whole Maya thing is a big one for me. I’ve recognized a glut in the market of Photoshop experts (my competition). Abandoning my original strategy of gradually migrating from print to multimedia (by way of Flash and Director), I’ve decided instead to attempt to leapfrog into 3-D animation. Arguably, Maya is king of the 3-D world, so now I have to negotiate its considerable learning curve. Obviously, my local the library is the cheapest way for me to begin my quest.
After reserving the available books I made a final decision to bite the bullet and buy another 512MB RAM for my G4, which will bring me to just over one gig. I’ve only run into a memory issue once on my main workstation, but I know that the 3-D rendering for Maya will tax my system. I bought my mirror door G4 (which is loud as hell, by the way,thanks Apple) specifically for working with higher end multimedia applications, knowing that it supports considerable expandability. I’ll want all the RAM I can get when I start playing around with audio, video and 3-D.
After an unscheduled breakfast with Mary at Vera’s, I got back my computer and finished my train of thought by structured my immediate budget. Next week, I’m plan to (finally) acquire a 6×8″ Intuos 2 Wacom tablet