No fucking way...

Alright, so I'm sitting here in my apartment taking a break from the work I've been doing at home, and I see my phone blinking... that's strange, I didn't hear it ring... I pick it up, and I have a text message... "Who the hell is sending me a text message?" So I check it, and what comes up? "Lose 28 lbs by april 1st!..." ...... Is this some sort of threat that I need to lose weight? and FAST? No... I JUST GOT TEXT SPAM ON MY PHONE!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS WORLD COMING TO!?!?!?!??!?!

Anyways, also - for any of you who have talked to me or seen any of my away messages in the last week or so... you probably know that I have been stressed out beyond belief. Much of that was because of tests and projects and such... but the good news is that I DID finish the main project I was working on - part 1/4 of the engine I'm writing in my online game technology class. Here are some screen shots - it's a VERY cool project, and it damn well better be, since I've put 70+ hrs into the thing in the last week.

Terrain with various levels of the bintree displayed
Overview of the whole terrain - drawing all 256 x 256 x 2 triangles - 131,072 total
Walking mode with transparency on
The BEAST of the project - culling - only displays the triangles the viewer can see, ignores all the others
Showing the detail of the terrain - look at all the triangles!

Anyways, I'm excited that the thing actually works - and it appears I am in a minority of my class - over half the people hadn't finished the project as of Friday (it was due on Tuesday)
Maybe I'll post the executable up here if people wanna wander around it. ^_^

Wanna know why? Because of Naylor's take on CS at UT - "They really teach you crap about programming here, you know that? It's all theory, so graduates have no idea how to just sit down and program. So in my class the projects are large and difficult - to make up for the last four years lack of programming experience you've got." - Paraphrasing, of course.

And this is the guy I'm doing research under... o_O

Webthingus.

Yet another stolen webthingus - thanks Alison!

Vijay:

You have difficulty getting emotionally close to others. You believe in live and let live. You are future oriented. You are relatively demonstrative in your affections. You enjoy being stroked verbally and physically. You conduct yourself in a fair and just manner. You enjoy watching or participating in sports. You have much enthusiasm with a driving attitude toward achievement in life. Your independence and freedom are important to you.

Ajit:

You have much enthusiasm with a driving attitude toward achievement in life. You need to learn discriminating justice and fairness. You need to learn to give and receive love for love's sake. You have a need to be assured of affection. Your privacy is important to you. You have a rich inner life.

Thakkar:

Your privacy is important to you. You have a rich inner life. You work hard to achieve material success through your own efforts. You have a need to be up front. You have good recuperative abilities. You are determined. There is a compulsion for change and rebirth on all levels. There is a need to guard your health. You have a need to be up front. You enjoy a challenge. You can take thought-directed actions.

http://www.zodiacal.com/acro.mv

huhn... interesting that.

I know Kung Fu...

click here to find out which asian action superstar you are!

You are Jet Li.
you are a star crossed lover. your tastes for woman are sometimes beyond ur reach. you like to break all the rules and yet honesty is one of ur main priorities. you sometimes hurt yourself. even kick the living *bleep* out of yourself. but dont worry it's only yourself from an alternate-parallel universe.

*ah... ah.... ah.... AHCHOO!*

Alright, it's been a really long time since I've posted - which, trust me, isn't because I haven't wanted to, but because I lack the drive and effort it takes to do so. (And, as can be seen by the title of this post, I am sick. Really damn sick, and it sucks a LOT - I've been sick for the past four days, and this week was going to be stressful BEFORE I realized I would be working at 50% (which has already involved such mishaps as spilling a giant sprite over the lunch table, and going to the first meeting of the Digital Arts Center with my fly down... and having this pointed out to me by the person I was just introduced to that I would be working with. whee.) So yeah, blah! Blah on sickess! >:-O

Aside from that wonderfulness, I have been trying frantically to not get cheated out of 250 bucks that I bought a tablet for on eBay, only to be an over six week struggle with the buyer that is still ongoing. I want to just buy it from amazon or buy.com, but the prices just went up on them, and I'm still trying to see if I'll get my money back in the first place.

Which really sucks because my muse has been beating me over the head with creativity trying to get me to draw - I've jumped back into that artist's passion that I jump back into every once in a while where I just want to do exactly what Ms. Waterman suggested and go wander around for a week with just a sketchbook and draw whatever hits me. (yeah, bad idea considering I'm sick and already swamped with work) So yeah, I was hoping that I would have the tablet by now to be the battery that jump-starts my creative inspirations again.

On a good note, the DVDs of orientation I've been working on for the last two months are finally done! Whee!!! So now there are a pile of 60+ DVDs sitting on my bedroom floor, all nice and pretty like, with a lot of time and effort buried into them, just waiting to be delivered to their owners. That makes me happy ^_^ because now some of the OAs can actually have copies of what they did over the summer to go back and watch - especially those that made complete fools of themselves ^_~.

And finally - this whole "college" thingy seems to be coming to a close, and I need to figure out what the HELL I'm going to do very soon... so if anyone cares to help me, or offer their opinions, they would be GREATLY appreciated, cuz lord knows I have no clue what I'm doing. So Kim came across a game development post bachelor's school, the Guildhall, that she pointed out to me that looks pretty interesting... actually made my industry professionals... still a little skeptical, but it looks pretty cool, all except for the $37k price tag for the 18 month program... which added a few more bullets to the list of choices, which was good and bad. So here's what I've got - offer your opinions!

- Apply for CS grad school here at UT, and continue working with Bruce Naylor in developing a Digital Arts Center here on campus

- Continue working at the Digital Media Collaboratory and have them hook me up with the games industry in Austin and hope to get a job

- Take full advantage of my GPA and work in college and apply to a grad school like Carnegie Mellon (the #1 CS research institution in the nation) and try to work on cutting edge CS research

- Apply to the Guildhall pursuing the Software Development Specialization, and hope to get into the games industry working in engine design / coding

- Screw the whole "CS" thing and apply to the Guildhall pursuing the Art Creation Specialization (which would entail a LOT of work on my art skills before then) and hope to get into the games industry working in modeling / art design

- Screw the whole "CS" thing and apply to a masters degree somewhere in Higher Education and continue working with students and improving the orientation process across different schools in the nation

So yeah.... simple, right? -_- Well yeah, tell me what you think. (the comments are at the end of this post - after the other two sub-post thingys.)

In the words of Sean - I'm a binge blogger - forever there's nothing, then *BLAM!* 25 pages of text, no pictures!

When I close my eyes, I see...

So a good friend of mine for.... 9 years now were talking a night or two back about the dojo we trained at a long time ago (actually, a picture of me and my three closest karate buddies is in the upper right of that page) and reminiscing about how it used to be, the training, the passion, the comradery. Apparently a lot has changed down there, there's not as much training available for those who want to progress in the upper ranks, most upper ranks only teach, and some of the best people there - Ryan, Eirdam, Obmaces, Eric and Sherry Zarske - are all gone. The whole thing looks like it's changed drastically, and all of us who worked through blood, sweat and tears are left with just the memory of the trip there. It's definately something I miss a lot, it was always a place to release all the frustrations of life, all the while being surrounded by a close family that developed there, and it's something that really made me who I am today. I can close my eyes and just the see the early Saturday mornings training, the Sunday pre-tests, working through and pushing farther and farther then you thought you could, and realizing how much more was possible. All the way to the crazy performances we did for Chinese festivals and the like. Definatly some good times. Good times. I've got the scars to prove it.

When I stop listening, I hear...

"I hear you on the radio
You permeate my screen, its' unkind but
If I met you in a scissor fight
I'd cut off both your wings on principle alone
On principle alone

Hey megalomaniac
You're not Jesus
Yeah, you're no fucking Elvis
Special, as you know yourself, maniac
Step down
Step down

If I were your appendages
I'd hold open your eyes
So you would see
That all of us are heaven sent
There was never meant to be only one
To be only one

Hey megalomaniac
You're not Jesus
Yeah, you're no fucking Elvis
Special, as you know yourself, maniac
Step down
Step down

Yeah
You're no Jesus
You're not Elvis
...
You're no answer

Hey megalomaniac
You're not Jesus
Yeah, you're no fucking Elvis
Special, as you know yourself, maniac
Step down"