To say my October was an interesting one would be like saying that the sun is hot or that I'm sick and tired of hearing about Twilight. There were numerous things that made it interesting, from my going to the Tulsa State Fair to sitting teaching myself HTML 5. However, the highlight of that month was my trip to San Francisco to interview with Digg.

So, I've been out of school for nearly two months now. Of course, it took them this long to get me my diploma. Now, I am usually a fairly patient person, but there is one exception to that rule: mail order. Waiting for this diploma was like ordering something from Amazon and then having to wait two years for it to get here. But, it's here now and all is right with the world.

Well, it would be if I had a job. I've applied to three places now, those being ConocoPhillips, Griffin New Media (both web dev jobs), and a contract motion graphics job out in Florida with Feld Entertainment. Phillips I didn't hear back from for a month and a half and at that the only contact I had was a short note saying I'd been passed up. I got calls from both Griffin and Feld (on the same day even), but Feld never called back after their initial call.

Griffin, on the other hand, has taken an interest in me and I've had two interviews there now (both of which went pretty well, in my opinion). The people I've interviewed with have been extremely nice and seem to have my interests in mind as well as theirs. My first interview seemed mostly to quiz me on my web development knowledge in addition to establishing what the position I'd applied for entailed. The second was more formal in terms of the questions asked and the environment in which it was conducted. Also in that interview, I had to take a skills test in which was given an hour to design and code a small contest entry page. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish everything on the list, though my design was good and my HTML validated first crack out of the barrel. So, at this point I'm waiting to hear back from them. I'm really hoping for this job because it's everything I've been working towards the last several years and the environment and people working there are really nice.

Outside of job hunting, there hasn't been too much more going on in my life. So, instead of wasting precious bytes telling you how awesome the Taiko no Tasujin series of games is, I'll wrap it up here.

I find myself at the end of my college life, living back in good ol' Oklahoma and completely bored out of my skull. Of course, there is on the near horizon the promise of employment, which should take up the next forty years of my natural life. I should relish these moments as I will not have a moment like this in some time... especially if a wife and kids are part of my ultimate master plan. But, I suppose itemization is in order.

Nearly a month ago, I completed my college education and graduated from Full Sail University with a bachelor of science in Digital Arts and Design. The ceremony was all very pomp with much circumstance. During my particular ceremony, there were some two hundred people graduating (all of the bachelor kids, not just my class). I marched along the line of my old instructors shaking their hands (and getting hugs from one). It felt kind of ethereal and even now I'll stop suddenly and realize... it's over. Everything that had sucked up my very being for the last twenty-one months is finished.

So, that's all done and now I'm back home with my family. Not a bad place to be, I suppose. The plan was to take a hiatus after the near non-stop barrage of school. It's been nice, no doubt about that, but now I feel restless. I want to do something and I don't have anything that needs to be done. So, that would suggest to me that it's time to return to the working forces, a new and more educated man.

Actually, a couple weeks back I applied at ConocoPhillips (the family workplace) for an opening they had for an ASP.NET developer. I've yet to hear anything, but my application is supposedly under "secondary review" same as it has been since the offer closed on the seventeenth. The waiting is killing me and never have I been so eager to receive a phone call. I suppose if this falls through (as it's kind of looking like, but I'll give it a bit more time) there's another place in town that I'm going to apply at. It's a design group that I more than qualify for (HTML/PHP type stuffs), so maybe I'll have some more luck there.

Hopefully, I'll be able to find a job soon. I suppose if I don't, I'll have more time to update this blog. Hooray for you.

A wise man once said all good things must come to an end. So it is true for me as my week long Thanksgiving vacation is over effective 8:00AM EST tomorrow morning. However, I will certainly say that it has been a rather interesting week for me.

There is, of course, my obvious return to fame thanks in no small part to idle curiosity and a couple minutes of nifty text editing. And to those who've been messing around with the drums program from the prior post, I have been paying attention to your comments. At this point I've abandoned that program in lieu of a GlovePIE script. More on that as things unfold.

An interesting development that spun off of all that hype was a small little comment left on a completely unrelated topic. It was from a producer at EA who basically said "Hey, want to do some game testing now and maybe come work for us after college?" When I first read that my small appartment was filled with whooping and jumping (this was before I got sick, more on that in a minute). It would be completely awesome if this were to pan out for me. Not only would I get some extra cash on the side while still in school, but I could go straight from graduation right into the industry that I've always dreamed of working in.

This whole thing is a perfect testimony to what I've been told by many people: throw yourself out there, you never know who's looking. I've been slowly working on my online presence since I joined YPN in January of '02. Since then I've dipped into almost every kind of online media there is. From running a message board, to podcasting, to online videos. Basically what I'm trying to say is, if you've got something that you think is good, put up online and do a little bit of shameless advertising. If I can come this far with one little video and a tip suggestion to Engadget and Joystiq there's no reason why anybody else can't. /end soapbox moment

As mentioned previously, I am "sick". I put it in quotes because it's not as bad as my usual form of sickness. Usually I get a sore throat, runny, feel weak, and just downright terrible over all. This, however, is confined mainly to the sore throat combined with a little bit of hoarse voice. Luckily, with the exception of the throat I feel physically fine. I was well enough to bike up to school today to pick up the books for my next wave of classes, namely Design and Art Theory (DAT) and College Mathematics (CMD).

DAT looks to be rather interesting as it is basically a traditional art class (no computers) with a design oriented twist. I've heard from two sources now that we're going to be getting a large amount of art supplies so that'll be cool. CMD is basic math up through intermediate Algebra. I jumped to the middle of my book and was able to figure out what was going on so I'm feeling pretty confident about that. Plus, I got a free Algebric calculator, though I doubt I'll ever use it. I usually do all my problem solving on paper.

Well, I feel I've rambled on enough. Before I go I just want to give a quick shout out to any new readers I may have picked up through the hulla-balloo. Peace out.

Well, I made it past my interview (I'd like to say with flying colors). I may as well say I've got a job (I have no doubt in my mind that I'll pass the drug/alcohol test). In fact, before taking the test today (yuck) I overheard the people in the back talking about how I was "the only one today" and that Wal-mart hasn't been "getting any applications". They're deperate. They need me.

No updates on Ramboella as I can't find my darn Office CD key back (had it just last week :-P). I may mooch off my parents copy of 2K3 Pro (it is nicer) but I'm going to have to do something and soon if I'm going to be on the job 5+ hours a day.

Ah, well it seems I have stuff to talk about again. First of all I've got an idea for a simple short film which I will probably be filming as soon as I finish the script. But until I can get a trailer up, you'll have to live with this poster:

I should be able to finish the script this week and start shooting next week. So keep coming back for updates.

Also, and this is the big news, but it looks like I may have a job pretty soon (as in an actual job). Last night I applied at Wal-Mart and I'm already setup for an interview tomorrow. Now for the moment I may just have a temp job for the holidays (in the lawaway dept. of course :-P), but if I do my job well enough and with enough SpongeBob-like enthusiasm I probably have a chance of becoming a normal employee. We'll see, though. The good thing is is that I'll be making my own money pretty soon (can you spell laptop? :-D).

Well, it was nice to have something to post for a change (and good news at that). Just remember to keep your RSS reader up-to-date or check back for more information on... Ramboella!

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.

It seems I may be launched from my protective shelter at home with my family right into "real" life soon (what is "real"? ;-)). I'm currently being considered for a job at Gamespot/TV.com/MP3.com doing web work for them. Now that in itself is cool but it would mean relocating to San Fransico (a good several hundred miles from here). It's kind of an exciting thought, though. Finally making my own money, putting aside worries of my future at least for the time being.

In other news, I'm getting the parish site up to speed again (basically the last job that really needs to be done) and I'm going to rewrite my GBA bowling program. I've been trying to think of a game to write, but it hasn't been coming lately. Oh well.

I've been having some nasty hankering to play old Mario World again (probably thanks to my last write up). So, after collecting some money from VB.NET, I bought it for my beloved GBA :-). Of course, you can't have Mario World 1 without Mario World 2 (aka Yoshi's Island) so I got it too :-). Now my game collection should be complete (though Mario Kart would be fun and the Wario Ware games look like a blast :-D).

And, this just in, we finally found a AC adapter for the old keyboard and now I can start teaching myself how to play :-).

Well, I shall sign off for the night. Maybe next time I'll put up my next autobiographical installment.