I can no longer in anyway be considered a minor. Now that I'm 21 there's nothing I can't do... except run for president... and pull social security... and get AARP. Okay, some milestones left. I plan on celebrating the situation by getting some Mike's Hard Lemonade tonight after work and doing some celebrating.

It's more than just my birthday, however. It's also the second anniversary of my blog. Several months ago I did a little "look back on stuff I did" type post. However, this highlighted primarily minor things (such as buying an iPod or bowling really well). It never delved much into the major things and when it did it was kind of half-hearted. Today I'm going to reflect on the major milestones.

Applied for Job (October '05) - This would have to be the biggest milestone for me. As much as I hate to admit it Wal-Mart has completely changed me as a person. I'd like to think I'm more mature now and am a more socially adept person.

Became Cashier (January '06) - Had I not ever gotten on a register I probably would be a nicer person now. I know most of my current attitude developed during my time on a register because customers treat their cashiers like crap.

Rediscivered Drawing (April '06) - In this list I've given so far I'm pretty sure this is one of the only positive ones. This may seem fairly minor but it does play a large role in my decision for what I want to ultimately want to do for the rest of my life.

Driver's License (May '06) - That was only about three years too late. Not necessarily a major thing but it did bring me up to two out of three of the biggies (job, license, GED).

Kathleen (March-July '06) - I never said anything in my blog about this but I did kind of almost have a girlfriend. Her name was Kathleen and she was a cashier. It started she'd always sit across from me in the break room and we'd talk and laugh. This began sometime in March right before I went to grocery. I didn't realize it until it was too late. This actually played a significant part in my return to cashiering. When I came back in May I had to wait until her and her then boyfriend broke up before I made my move. I had resumed the conversing during break thing to ease into things again and one day I got the balls to ask her for her phone number and that was the beginning of probably one of the best times of last year. We'd text message each other all the time and we'd chat in the break room and I even bought her lunch once. However, I began to get a little obsessive (and posessive) and she ended it with a simple, yet cliched, message. The text in panel two is an exact quote of what she said. This sent me into another deep blue funk for quite a while. The only good thing that came out of that whole mess (aside from some much needed wisdom) was a new cell phone.

CSM (December '06) - This was something that I had worked my ass off for. I was in my gotta move up the chain phase at this point. It started off a little rocky but I got the hang of all the little technicalities. It was the stress of being bombarded from all directions by everybody that got to me in the end. After I shed the red coat I got complaints from a lot of cashiers saying they wanted me back. It's nice feel loved.

The Future (January '07-present) - As most of you know late in January I got my Mac mini but there's an interesting tale around that that bears more importance than just getting a really cool computer. I called in snowed in the day it came (partially true) because I had to be there when it came. As fortune would have it Full Sail called that day wondering what my plans were. The problem was I had no plans for anything at all. I knew I wanted to go to college in the fall but that was about it. I had talked to Full Sail sometime during the old house rennovation in '05 but I hadn't taken them up on anything. But, anyways, they called and I said I'd like to attend in the fall and I'd like to tour the place sometime in the spring. This was the catalyst. Something clicked and soon after that I got into the GED classes (for me just a formality), took the GED and passed, and finally enrolled into Full Sail. This is where I stand today.

When you look at these events as a whole it's like a very intracite yet well laid out puzzle. I have been a little slow in getting to where I'm headed but I've had a lot of time to get my head on straight and learn essential skills I'll need later. When I get to college I'll be able to fully focus on school because I won't have these things in the way. I know what it is I want and nothing is going to stop me from obtaining that goal.

Because I completed yet another work of art!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. It's a far sight better than the original pencil art I had. However, the top part of the body seems to be a bit too small compared to everythiong else. But, considering I don't draw girls very often I'll give myself a break. I suppose it's one of those things I'll need to work on eventually.

This whole mess of pictures actually comes from one piece of art I'd drawn a while back for a comic (the point of which now escapes me). I've enjoyed being able to make purty art again and I may keep it up just to keep me busy until September.

Speaking of which, I've begun searching for a roommate. I've e-mailed a couple guys now and I hope to hear back from some one. Also, I'm pretty darn sure that I'll be adding animation as a second degree. Drawing these pictres has really hit home that, hey, I'm not that bad of an artist and, most importantly, I had a hell of a time doing it. So I'll need to e-mail them and see how much it'll cost me to tack that on. That'd also mean spending twice as long at school, but it's so freakin' cool that's hardly a problem ;-).

The list of things I have to do to prepare for college is getting shorter. Currently I'm working on picking out a roommate and after that we'll work on finding an apartment. Then I'll need to secure funds and come September 20th[ish] I'll be moving my stuff out there. So nothing new on that front, I'll move on to other things. Actually, I lied. I got a call from them the other day making sure I wanted to take the Digital Arts and Design degree because they think I'd be happier in Animation (I promptly said I'd be happy anywhere in that school). But I had actually been thinking of double majoring in either DAD and film or animation and the more I think about it animation and art as a whole has always been a big love of mine so I'm giving that some serious thought.

I'm currently getting ready to do another film project this time spoofing Elite Beat Agents. I'd give off more but I don't want to ruin anything. I'll be trying out greenscreen stuff for this. It seems Blender now has the ability to do professional green screen removal (with a little finagling) so I'm going to try that out. In particular I'll be filiming seperate elements against the screen and combining them into one shot. But I have yet to actually build the thing, something I was going to do on days off (Tuesday and Wednesday) but I felt too lazy to drive out to Lowes to buy the stuff. I suppose I'll do it next week and in the meantime I can flesh out a script. This is something I don't do often because I have the vision in my head pretty clearly and I don't want to go through the trouble of writing or storyboarding it out. I'm lazy that way and it's something I'll have to get over before I go to Full Sail.

I completed two games this week (the world must be ending). The first one was Super Paper Mario (Wii). It was, as I thought it would be, a comepletely enjoyable experience. The dialoge was top notch, as always, packed with plenty of laughs. The flip mechanism never got old and was always used cleverly. The story line was fairly predictable (I had the ending figured out about half way through). However, next to Zelda it's the best single player game out there for the Wii so if you own on I'd suggest picking this up.

The second game I completed was Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (DS) which, I admit, I probably enjoyed more than SPM. It's definitely not a game you buy for the graphics or sound because they're meh at best (the art's not bad, I will admit). What is crucial to this game is story and it delivers 110%. The first case, being the introductory one, wasn't the greatest but it gets you into the swing of things well enough. The second case was awesome, and probably one of my favorites. The third case had me stumped (to the point of cheating; I'm ashamed). The last case was simply amazing. Just when you think you had it figured out everything was turned on end. They also introduced some things that made things harder and raised moral questions. To say that this game on a whole was absolutely phenomenal is an understatement. If you like story type games (RPGs, text-adventures) you absolutely have to buy this game. If you're more an action type gamer you probably wouldn't enjoy it much, but rent it at least. It'll do you some good. On that note I'll be buying the first game and third when it comes out.

Now that all that's out, I'll leave you with this piece of art I finished this afternoon. Cheerio!

Firstly, pictures. More importantly, however, I need to quit with this "firstly", "nextly", "that other thingly".

In case you've been living under a rock today was my big tour of Full Sail. Up till now I've been referring to it as "Full Sail, college of awesomeness" however I think I'll have to start referring to it as "Full Sail, college of kick ass!". It is seriously that freakin' cool. When every classroom has computers in it (with the exception of one) you know it has to be cool. I'll try to describe the experience as best I can, but I won't be able to do justice to it. Please note that the accuracy of the order of events may be questionable.

It all started in a sound stage where the whole opening presentation was treated like a live talk show. The camera came over our heads for a nice sweeping crane shot and came to rest on the guy giving the opening monologue. There was another group in the adjacent sound stage who were watching in on what went on in ours. Once the opening ceremonies were finished they broke the group into the seperate degree sections (Digital Arts and Design for me) and began the "global tour", i.e. seeing all of the facilities.

We were first led into one of the lecture rooms and were given a rundown of the "LaunchBox" initiative. What that is is the Full Sail and Apple have teamed together to give every student a Mac Book Pro loaded with fancy software such as [url=https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&view=ols_prod&category=/Applications/DesignPremium&distributionMethod=FULL&promoid=RWTS&nr=0#loc=en_us&rangeUpper=6%2C0%2C65%2C0&HTMLVerRedirect=true&returnURL=%2Fcfusion%2Fstore%2Fhtml%2Findex%2Ecfm%3Fstore%3DOLS%2DUS%26promoid%3DRWTS%26event%3DdisplayProduct%26categoryPath%3D%2FApplications%2FDesignPremium%26distributionMethod%3DFULL&store=OLS-US&view=ols_prod&category=/Applications/DesignPremium&distributionMethod=FULL&promoid=RWTS&nr=0&viewName=Adobe%20Store%20%2D%20North%20America&pageNotFound=0]Adobe Creative Suite[/url], Final Cut Pro, and 3DS Max to name the ones I remember. After they rambled on about that and the masters degree program we actually started looking at the cool stuff.

The first place we visited was the new dubbing studio. If you've ever watched making-of documenteries you've seen the giant sound board and the little couch behind it for the big wigs. Well, it's all there. We were seated and shown a clip from Return of the King. Apparently the guy who did sound design for the collapse of Barad-dur was a Full Sail graduate.

After that we went into one of the recording booths were some dudes were giving off a live performance. We didn't stay there very long, but I will say this: it was very, very loud. Also, we passed the server room on our way out of there. Very, very cool.

Next we were led into the motion capture studio. Sadly, the software wasn't working quite right and the 3d model's right ankle was twisted in all sorts of crazy manners. Still, how many other colleges have a motion capture studio, I mean, c'mon. Killer!

I'm not completely sure, but I believe after that we went onto another sound stage which was dressed up as an inner city street with a theater at the end. Apparently this is used to teach lighting techniques. This I look forward to because all the video projects I've ever done have terrible lighting and it drives me mad. When you're going for a specific look and it you don't have the tools or knowledge to make it happen it gets a little disheartening.

At this point we began the degree specific tour. It started out in the room without computers that I mentioned earlier. It had a bunch of art desks. If I had to guess this is where I'll be taking my art history course.

After that we went into a classroom filled with twenty-four mac pros. Here we were lectured on the art of 2D print and how it relates to the design process such as company logos and product design. Apparently Illustrator is going to be an integreal part of this class.

Once done there we headed off to hear about motion graphics. This is the part that I'm most excited about. They showed a demo reel from an old student there who went on to do commercials for the likes of MTV, Nickelodeon and the like. It was impressive and I'm definitely looking forward to this. Oh, this room was filled with a bunch of Windows computers.

We were then led out by the coolest guy there (very happy and up-beat) and into yet another room with a bunch of Macs. He filled us in on the wonders of the web not only about the designs but the backend (which will be focusing around PHP). Luckily I've got a good deal of experience in both those fields so that should be an easy class. Before heading on to the next stop we passed through one of the labs where final projects are done. Apparently we'll have more or less free license to do what we want there.

Our last stop in campus was the green screen room. They've got equipment that replaces green screen in real-time. The guy who did the lecturing here was practically giving lessons on how to use the software.

We then proceeded across the street to what I am currently calling the auditorium. Essentially it's a concert stage with the lights and the smoke and whatnot. This place is where any bands come to play and put on a show. Here we were luctured on career development and given a speech by the president of the college. If I wanted to I could've gone on a behind the scenes tour of all the light control equipment and stuff, but I was hungry so that was the end of the tour for us.

Like I said earlier, words really can't describe how cool this place is. You have to see it (in person) to get how freakin' awesome it really is. The only caveat I see to this all is that I still have to wait five months until I start. It's going to feel very unsatisfying to go back to cart pushing after this.

One thing I want to say about Orlando (possibly Florida as a whole). The whole place smells like it's been perfumed. It's a scent I noticed stepping off the plane. I first thought it was indigineous to the airport but it's like everywhere. Almost like another place we've heard about....

Well, that was really, really long so I'll wrap it up. At noon tomorrow (Eastern time) we depart for Memphis again. Until then, peace out.

I've been holding out on this news for quite some time now, but since everything seems to be falling into place like a well played game of Tetris I will let all the cats and their friends out of the preverbial bag.

First, and most importantly, I have finally gotten my GED. I will brag a little and post my scores:

Reading - 96%

Writing - 82%

Math - 99%

Science - 95%

Social Studies - 99%

Now those little percentages are how many people taking the GED in US are stupider than me, to put it not so nicely. Rather surprising, really, because I found the test to be incredibly simple. IMO, my essay did suck pretty bad. I was supposed to write about how I expected to be remembered which was kind of a lame topic to begin with. I am, usually, a fairly concise writer so coming up with 25 sentences on this topics was really, really hard. In the end I kind of wandered off topic talking about something else completely, but I had about 5 minutes to come up with an extra paragraph so I expanded on something I'd touched on earlier. It sucked, trust me.

Since I have now hurdled hugh school the next logical step is college. Funny thing is that was lined up before my GED was. I have been accepted at Full Sail's school of awesomeness and will be taking the Digital Arts and Design degree. This means I will have to relocate myself to sunny Florida. Do I mind? Hell, no. Do my parents mind? I don't think so. Does everybody else mind even though it really isn't their business? Yes. I've gotten more "why would you move to Florida" comments than I care to count. But, that aside, I'm going to be attending the "behind the scenes" tour this weekend so I'll have plenty to blog about whilst I'm there or when I get back. And don't worry, there'll be pictures and maybe some video.

Speaking of video, I'm going to be making another faux commercial. I've got the script ready, all I need to do is film, write some music, make some visuals, cut it all together in iMovie HD and put it up on YouTube.

Speaking of music, Chris got his electric guitar Monday and has been teaching himself to play (as have the rest of us). I will say this much: playing guitar is a bitch. I thought the piano was bad. At least it's pasture is much more spacous. Chris seems to be concentrating mostly on memorizing chords while I went and taught myself how to read tablatures and am trying to play stuff that's way out of my league (in my defense, however, I can play the first three notes of "Sweet Child O Mine").

And, speaking of iMovie, I kind of moved away from OS X. I'd been using it exclusively for quite some time and then Photoshop died. So I decided I'd redownload it for Windows (I'm a bastard that way) and I haven't really booted out of it since except to copy some files. I've finally gotten more or less used to Vista. The interface, IMO, is more complicated now than it had been (especially the network dialogs). So I am, once again, a Windows man.

Well, I believe that shall tide the masses over at least until the weekend. Keep coming back as I will be blogging down in Florida (assuming our hotel has complimentary G, but it looks grim at this point). We shall see... we shall see...

I haven't been posting here very much lately. Why? Well... I dunno :-P. Firstly, though, I'll get the comic links up to speed:

Plan 4 World Peace (filler)

The Fruit Saga, Parts 1, 2, and 3.

The fruit saga is more or less based on real life. I did purchase a Mac mini with my tax refund and, despite my years of rampant Mac hatred, I must admit that it is a nifty piece of hardware. I do have a copy of Vista installed (thanks to bootcamp), but I haven't booted out of OS X in several days. I haven't done much more than piddle around with stuff, but I'm going to start learning the APIs and maybe write a game.

Full Sail, my college of choice, has been "pestering" me lately and I guess I need to call them back and start getting things setup to sail away in the fall. I'm not sure what kind of course I want to take. Back when I heard about them it was game programming hands down, but I do enjoy drawing and would like to do more film projects. It's a real toss up. I may go with game programming yet because, of those three options, it's probably my strongest area. We'll see, though...

As far as work goes, it's pretty much usual. I'm cashier mostly, but since I recieved my CSM powers I've been doing that some too. Just yesterday, in fact, they pulled me off a register to cover for somebody whilst they went on break. I'm sitting in a pretty sweet position in that I can do almost anything in the store from CSMing, to cashiering, to cart pushing, to unloading trucks, etc.

Well, I'll close this blog post with a little piece of my art featuring Basch, my favorite character from FFXII:

It seems like the biggest problem to us getting out of our house is no problem. The people who are buying our house have basically set everything in stone and so now our house and the house we're getting will all have "Sold" signs. So now the packing begins (our room'll be a nightmare :-P) and in probably about two weeks we'll be in our house :-D. btw, here's some info on our new house.

A couple days ago I picked up my free version of Linspire and I decided to try to move over to Linux full time for a month. I got it installed and it was certainly nice looking. I went through some trouble figuring out how to use apt packages but I started to get the hang of things. And then the trouble set in. PHP was giving me problems with MySQL, depending on what program I tried I couldn't get the sound working/synced on DVDs (or avis) and Lsongs, while nice, obviously was running on a low priority because it would cut out frequently. And things went down from there. So, I'm back on a fresh install of Win2K3 and it's nice to be home.

Got an interesting piece of mail the other day about a college down in Florida called FullSail that specializes in film [pre/post]-production. It's quite interesting because next to game programming the realm of film is my other big area of fascination. So whether I'm going to DigiPen or this place is kind of a toss up. I guess I'll worry about that when I get there. Right now I have to keep studying for ye olde GED and get a job (so I can buy my laptop ;-)).

Well, that's enough for today. Stay tuned.

Some interesting things happened today (we had burgers for supper, that in itself makes it interesting ;-)).

Firstly, my Empire game is coming along nicely. I spent most of the afternoon and part of this evening getting the random map generation working. That was a blast :-D. Tomorrow I will actually start building the engine framework. This is the part where I generally choke, but I feel pretty motivated :-). I've never really done anything to this degree (and this clean) in C++.

Secondly, I got to evict a wasp nest hanging up in one of the windows. It was kind of cool (and scary). Luckily, we've got some nasty spray that kills on contact. A couple of spritzes upwards and it started raining wasps. One tried to retaliate, but then it died ;-).

Thirdly, somebody is coming to see the house tomorrow morning (day 6 on the market, about day 4 for actually having the sign up). So that means more cleaning and evacuation and since school starts locally tomorrow we're going to be the odd ones out. Figures :-P. But, all in all, I don't really mind. The more people who look at the house the greater our odds of selling the thing.

It kind of bums me out that Twilight Princess isn't coming out until next year, but that gives me more time to come up with money ;-). Actually, I seem to have found a direction for me to go. Sometime this year I'll take the GED and then just spend from then until fall of next year, when I'll go to a local college to get ready for DigiPen, on a job and saving money. It's the clearest direction on where to take life I've had in a long time.

Well, that was kind of long winded for a change :-P. Before I leave, however, I'd like to give a shout out to Slazer for reading my blog. You're a cool dude, Slazer ;-). See ya!