Transmedia Overdrive

Recently the Transmedia juniors threw TROM, the Transmedia Prom. It was the second annual dance and they had it in the lighting studio downstairs in Shaffer. This is the kind of thing I love about Transmedia. Lately most of the computer art majors have been living in the basement, alternating between sleeping on the couches in the classroom and working in the lab. It's a funny thing, but I find myself staying in the lab too late even though I'm not getting any work done. But it isn't really a problem, because I love the people I'm around. We have fun with each other and help each other out with critiques and it's a great atmosphere, all the way until 7 AM. It helps that I live a long way from campus and that it still gets cold at night though. : ) At Trom I was around the rest of the Transmedites and some of them expressed regret at not spending more time in the lab. It's true! In college I've found you can be really great friends with anyone if you spend enough time together. So doing all your work at home is just not as much fun, and it kind of destroys what college is, at least for me. I am still getting a lot of work done, and this is revealing how little of a personal life I might be having, but besides that, the lab is an important feature of computer art, and if you're a computer artist don't neglect it!

So this is my last blog entry for awhile. My plans for the summer are still up in the air, but my plan all year has been to spend the summer in Austin, TX. I have been applying to internships sporadically and only through craigslist, which is a mistake but I'm falling behind anyway. That's a bad attitude, sorry. I've lost count of the places I've applied to, and only heard back from a few. Also, the friend from home who was planning on living with me decided she couldn't afford it and had been offered another job, so now I'm on my own. Imagining living on my own in a bigger city than I'm used to and without a car or a guaranteed plan is getting intimidating, but I still really want to do it. It's like a push to grow up which I feel I'm in need of. My parents are still going to be paying for a lot of my plans, and god bless them they refuse to influence my decision based on that. I've always taken my time at everything, not really last minute but always slowly, like getting my driver's license at 17 and applying for colleges in January and getting my first job at 20. I'm in no hurry to have responsibility, but now I realize that experience is a significant thing that one needs before they graduate college. I don't know what I'm expecting, but I do know I'm ready for some more responsibility/independence. Finding a paid internship to even apply to is proving very difficult and job hunting is the worst kind of fun there is, so it will be hard not to get discouraged through this "quest." I won't give up though. I've been telling people all year my lofty plans for the summer and I know I'll feel like I've gone back on my word even though no one's judging me because of it. I've given up on feeling regret, and so opportunities lost are not going to be my problem.

I just attended a couple Capstone presentations, because I'm in the honors program and will have to do mine next year. One of my old friends (from freshman year) is graduating early and I got to see her presentation. Capstone Projects are a requirement for all honors students, and they have from their sophomore year to start working on them. We can ask for funding, and some people use it to go abroad or get equipment for research or anything they can think of. It's an awesome opportunity and some people come up with fantastic ideas. My friend is a photographer and she sent disposable cameras to kids all over the world, and made a website cataloguing all of them. She's still working on it but the presentation was awesome. She's one of those people that has huge ambitions and has been able to really make thigns happen for herself. In the summer of freshman year she got an internship in London! She's almost intimidating but she really will have an impressive life, and it's cool to have ever known her. Here is the website: http://thecameraproject.com/ you should check it out! You can search for photos with tags - a good one is "oops."

Sorry this last post was so random, and I want to keep this up later on, but I had a lot to say and they were all kind of related to future ambitions, friends, and how I spend my time here, so I hope again that this was interesting!

Happy Summer and Good Luck