A Hurdle, A Clearing, A Hurdle

Seems like this week might seem like there is some breathing room. Maybe not so much breathing room, but things to do seem a lot less in comparison to last week. Nonetheless everything is boiling to a nice fine point. I hope things end well by the end of the semester. I don't know how to plan this semester...too many things in front of me and I don't what I should hold on to.

-David M.

Fall 09: In A Nutshell [7/8]

One of the few habits I have kept since my time at UIC is to keep a log of my semester. I prefer to come them nutshells instead because is just a summary of experiences I had during the semester be it social or academic. Please mind the ambiguity as I write. :]

This semester has been the most drastic oppose to others I have experienced and hopefully ones I have yet to experience. Though each semester provided their own surprises and uniqueness to them, I would say this one sticks out like a sore thumb, be it good or bad I still can't draw a conclusion on that just yet and I probably won't.

Despite being the social bug I tend to be in most occasion I was never in a situation that involved drama; be it my own or others. I don't know why this semester despite it being the Fall it sure felt like it was Spring, never had I witness or be aware of raging hormones. As often I joke about it, it certainly it isn't as funny as it sounds. I hope people are able to find some sort of recourse. I didn't see any happy endings for anyone this semester. :/.

Academically, things are strange...as if nothing new was presented to me for the most part...well things were definitely different, but I definitely didn't have the drive in me as I did last year. I don't know why. Anyways, I'm going to recap each class...

Weight Lifting and Aerobics: Despite me being in Art and Design, these were probably two favorite classes this semester. Besides the fact I have to wake up super early to be in weightlifting by 8:00 am, and the exhaustive nature of aerobics these classes really were fun. Learning what I'm physically capable of and improving upon that, and seeing results from myself improving was definitely a bonus of this class.

Contemporary Art History: This was by far the worse Art History I have taken. I'm not a fan of art history, but I'm still able to siphon information from the class; it was impossible for this one. Despite Art History II being the previous title holder, this takes the cake with ease.

Analog Photography: I swore to myself I will never take another photography class in my life, this comes back and bites me in the ass; I've taken both photography classes. Though, I do enjoy the class mainly because the instructor was quite an interesting fellow. It seems photography instructors have really interesting traits, at least the ones I had and they were both visiting instructors.

Smart Art: I dislike physical computing, but this is a requirement. PD as a tool mad the class bearable however it was still a drag, despite spending a good 20 hours of nonstop work prior to the final, it was exhausting. Not my favorite thing to do, and I hope I don't have to deal with lights and ceilings in my professional career.

Independent Study (EV): I thought this was going to be my favorite class this semester as the concepts and practices cover in this class was what restored my drive in my focus. I guess it was the responsibility I decided to pick up in the class. The project definitely came out as a failure, all I have to say to myself is, architects aren't as responsive and well prepared as one would think, they are terrible at getting back to you.

All in all, I think this was a stressing semester, but I can't say that there weren't any good memories there definitely was plenty, enough to make it worth it. However, it definitely had me thinking a lot more, enough to keep me up at night. :/.

Despite how I like to self promote, I've always felt that I am a person that was capable of doing many things. I realize I'm no fixer; let alone an adequate solution to hold things together. Though, I think I'm a bit better prepared for future conflicts; hopefully. Too many things have happen and I'm still decompressing all of this.

-David M.

Warmup: The Semester Thus Far...

It's been a while since I've written here. A couple things I should pen down, but I'm going to do some warm up exercises. What better exercise than to write about school.

Weight Lifting: The class is somewhat easy compared to aerobics. She doesn't expect us to be raging testosterone loaded guys. Which allows me workout on a more comfortable manner. It doesn't mean I'm not pushing myself, I am; slowly. She's also an energetic instructor, so, it's not as dead as aerobics.

Independent Study (Electronic Visualization): The concept of EV was never interesting till I actually taken a course under Daniel. It was adventurous and new. It still is, but I haven't really found a drive for it this semester. I'm looking forward to pushing myself with this coming project, but the architects seems a bit unprepared.

Analog Photography: This class has taken a toll on me the most. I do work from the class every weekend. Shane is a cool fellow, he's out there, he works us like dogs. I can't understand how someone that seem so laid back could give out so much work.

Aerobics: Every time I step out of this class, I'm drenched in sweat. I think most of the benefits of working out is coming from this class. Even though she could be more energetic about teaching the class that would be great.

Contemporary Art History: Not one redeeming quality about the class. Should just bring a pillow in there, and call it a day.

Smart Art: Things are getting interesting, but it seems like the class has been dragging behind so much. I can't stay awake in there. Drew is a pretty nice professor, I wished the class was more engaging, but there are limitations.

-David M.

End of Spring 09: A Quarter Left

Is a seasonal thing...I end the semester with a note; recollections.

Grab some pop corn if you're actually going to read this.

Class Summaries:
AD307 Electronic Visualization II: 305 was an awesome class and Daniel is an awesome professor; should take his class if you're in A+D, but if you don't like coding this isn't your piece of cake. The class discusses information aesthetics and I think it is a topic worth exploring. Wish there were more active participant in the class, would had made the class more interesting.

AD309 Advanced Topics in Modeling and Animation: If there were only more time to work on projects oppose to tutorials the class would had seem like less of a hell. Sabrina still needs to up her enthusiasm in the class. She doesn't have the most captivating voice. Though, I would say I learned a lot in the class, just not how to be productive in that class.

AD230 Painting: I did not know painting was such an expensive (and toxic) hobby. I knew it was time consuming, but that's about it. Other then the heckle of the over-hyper TA didn't make the class all that enjoyable. I did like building stretchers, but the class took too much time, more than required. However, on a side note, Julia is the sweetest old lady I've met.

AH236 History of Design: The same old routine, a long Friday morning of hearing Robin speak super fast. Though, a lot didn't stick compare to last semester. After she left for maternity leave over Spring Break the guest professor (don't even know her name), did even less so to captivate the class. I know the TA still suck too. The class seemed so crunched on time when it came to exams compared with last semester.

COMM 140: Communications in Media: Have I ever hated a class so much? Maybe MUS 107. The class seem redundant and remedial in the way that the people in class regurgitated the information. Things in the media I'm already aware of. It wasn't a stimulating class for me, being in there just made me want to get out. I hate it when people think things that come out of their mouth are the smartest thing they've said; it isn't.

So, I'll begin here.

This semester was probably the hardest semester I had to deal with. A lot of things didn't really go my way, and what more can I say, "things happen." Though, during the semester I come to judge the quality of a lot of characteristics of people, though in the end I spent the last couple weeks judging the validity of characteristics. I'm not better than the next person, and that's exactly what made this semester, so, hard. I wish I was able to juggle a couple obstacles that were presented this semester more effectively, but I didn't. When I tell some people that I'm just having a hard time, their response would be, "You're David Mei" as if I'm some what extraordinary; in the end I'm nothing special. I found myself making a lot of compromises this semester, mainly on projects and maybe my own leisure time. Sorry, if I might seem dodgey about what I'm talking about, I just am about certain topics.

A certain fear I have when I meet people is how is a good thing. Not to sound emo, but good things in my life usually turn sour pretty quick, or at least I somehow slip up. Maybe, I'm not much of a people person. Makes me wonder why I try; maybe I just want to learn and stop making the same mistake with people. I think I was able to append old relations with people, but along the way I think I broke a few this semester.

Though, one of the greatest thing I learned about myself this semester is that I set up certain boundaries in places I made mistakes in. Recently I realize it was all a psychological thing, and I've been holding myself back in some silly childish fear. As of now, I think I'm going to make it my goal to crush existing borders I placed on myself. I must admit I'm still hesitant and restrain from doing so. I've been telling myself the last couple days that I have to GET OVER MYSELF. I'm my own biggest obstacle and I'm just being stupid holding myself back.

Overall, I think there were a couple great instances throughout the semester that reminded me that there are people and things that I can still look forward to, despite simultaneous events that were going on. I am always thankful for the people that has made me smile, laugh, and felt welcomed. The last couple years had made me realized there is much others can do for you, and I can do for them. I'm still learning to reciprocate by my own means. This is still all a learning process, I'm bound to mess up along the way.

All in all, I hit more walls then I had ever hit in one semester. It wasn't the best semester, I'll admit it was a pretty shitty semester; shittiest one to date. It had is highlighting moments and I'm extremely grateful for that, but still this semester was very hard to get through. I compromised a lot and I'm not happy with a lot of end results (ie projects). Hopefully, next semester will be something to look forward to.

Speaking of which, I'm 3/4 complete with my time at UIC and I've grown quite attached with everyone. The last 3 years has definitely been the most enjoyable part of my life, and I hope the coming years would be enjoyable as well. I hope beyond this following year that I am able to maintain these relations I made. I've been so bad at keeping in touch with people, I'm a bit fearful about it. Not as fearful as I am of the real world however.

Thanks for reading,

-David M.

Friday: A Case of Strange Happenings

Upon returning yesterday, besides the overall poor reception of the new history of design, the day was a bit off; in all kinds of way.

I found yesterday's arrival on campus to be a strange a return. Though, I've only been gone for 2 days it felt like I have not been present for a while. The "welcoming", was also strange (for lack of a better word for welcoming and the word strange). I felt strangely disconnected from a lot of people yesterday; odd to say I was hoping to find better footing on my last post, but it feels like I've completely fallen of the horse. A few people that knew asked, "How are you?" stimulated a strange after thought, how am I? Of course I'm still fine, but the tonality of it seems detached. Everything seems detached. Strings are cut, to say the least. I wonder if Monday, is going to be any different?

After all my classes, the campus seems emptied, and barren. I took my trip to the Home Depot to get a 2x4 to build my stretchers for painting. On the way down on Roosevelt , I saw a blind lady arguing with a homeless man (the one's that peddle by the expressway); the blind lady actually instigated the argument. It was strange to see a blind person argue. Though, I did not pick up the start of the conversation, I heard the argument arose. The lady was crossing the street with her dog, the homeless man telling her to move a little to the right, the lady stopped to tell the homeless man, "mind your own business and let my dog do its job." She stood in the middle of the expressway arguing with the man, as the light turned red. I watched to see if she made it across the street.

After I dug through a bunch of 2x4s with promising fronts, but rotted backings I found one; not the best, but it'll do. On my way back to campus carrying 7' 1/2 long 2x4 I saw the blind lady coming back in my direction, the homeless man was no longer at his post.

I spent the last hour and a half working on building the stretcher only to be done with the frames; Monday, is going to be another work day.

EDIT: On the way home on the bus, I was looking out the window, I noticed some girl with terrible make-up that from far away it looks like she's wearing sunglasses with the polarized shades. Up close, it was just make up.

As I got home, my friend Teng decided to fix up his old yellow bike. I told him of a bike shop Nik mentioned to me a while back; I might as well check it out. We were off to Nearly New Bikes.

Taking the scenic route on Halsted we slowly made our way up north. [Edit]As we passed Harrison at UIC, we saw a group of people enjoying live role playing with padded swords and all. [/EDIT] On the way up north, we saw a man on his horse and carriage traveling south in front of the northern project building. Strange, no?

In the course of waiting for the guys to finish changing his tires, the guys at bike shops were pretty good and friendly. The guy Jim, seems like a very hard worker and a great father, as he was telling us stories of his kids when he was working on the bike. They had good taste in music, as I walked in I heard Todd Rundren's, Hello Its Me playing in the shop as I lightly sung the chorus; one of my favorite songs.

By the time we got back (around 8), we decided to take his bike out for a spin, I went to grab my bike and we took my short route around. The center point of the route was Ping Tom Park, and by the time we reached the end of the park, I was telling him stories about my little biking trips. I told him how one time I was biking through the end of the park, and circling back, there was a couple that was making out, and how awkward it was to circle around them just to get back.

Making back to the other side of the park, which is the playground I normally circle through there when there aren't kids around. As I came around the corner, I see two people on the slide making out; speak of the devil. When we got out of the park we just laughed about it. NOTE THIS PART if you're reading.

As we came to the end of the route, Teng gets a call to see Fast and Furious, and so we put away the bikes, and waited at the gas station. The hypothetical 4 minutes turned out to have been much longer. While, at the gas station the owner son's was making fun of Teng; it killed some time.

When Henry finally arrived, we got the reason for the delay. He was dropping off Phil's girl. [RECALL THE NOTE] Henry was angry at Phil for making us late, and even more so for not telling him where he was to pick him up. He waited 15 minutes after agreeing to drop off his girl in front of his house. Only to call him to found out he was in Ping Tom. Guess who Phil saw at Ping Tom? Teng and I. So, those dam teenagers was Phil and whoever that was. We were laughing at what a small world it was. Henry was mad that we were late.

Fast and Furious was probably the worse of the franchise, not to say the franchise was the best to begin with. I was expecting as much, as everyone would be revving their cars and driving fast shortly after. Heck, two cars were dragging when we were gassing up.

Friday, was a strange day...

-David M.

Huh? What's Going On?

I've always gone on working binges here and there, and is never a real problem. They usually last 3 days at most. This is officially the longest I've spent on a work binge (meaning I spend more than 5 hours outside of class focusing on school work). You would think working on school work would keep you focus, but I think my train of thought has derailed. I'm sitting on the bus thinking about dots and lines, and how to connect them and make them interesting, or should I have went with a triangle instead? a quad perhaps? do I know how to use the polygon script? Er!

I just spent my whole evening rigging a skeleton for a character, and it works about 90% right, at least it is a global model, so, it has it's benefits.

All in all I'm losing track of time, date, words, and information. My phone connection is messed up at home, and I can careless about that at the moment. I think I'm distraught, off topic. Though, I can't really relax till Friday, I was planning to finish my work by today, but that didn't happened.

The only benefit of being on a work binge is I fall asleep a lot easier.

-David M.

Mo-Cap

Today, was a rather interesting thing. I was going to talk to my professor as I saw him outside of the hall, and got blind-sided by my other professor. Though, it wasn't a bad thing at all. Apparently, there is a work-study position for undergrad student to work in the B.A.T. Cave in other words the Mo-Cap studio, I was ecstatic, though I couldn't give her an answer right away. I was thinking about circumstances that I'm in right now, and if I really have the time? Though, I'm thinking I'm going to take it after much thought, not a lot of people use the mo-cap area till probably the end of the semester, and it gives me a nice quite place to work at, and is probably going to be an awesome work experience. Why not? Hopefully, nothing too drastic happens.

A Dying Breed

Today, was the day the anonymous email will be answered. Surely, the answer was quick and to the point. Due to budget constraints the school of Art and Design has come to the conclusion of cutting the Electronic Visualization program to maintain function. If when push comes to shove, but either way is looking that way. They've already gotten rid of the Design Anthropology major. It comes as no surprise as EV is probably the smallest major in the school.

Though, one thing is for certain. I'm not screwed. The EV program has been suspended, not ended. All those that are currently in EV will graduate with a degree for EV. The thing is, how to maintain function of classes given the size of the remaining students, so, classes won't be canceled.

-David M.

Ominous Email

Lately, this has been the greatest mystery that erks my mind. On Wednesday I receive an email from my adviser Erin. It was addressed to some EV students and 2 of the EV profs. and a Graphic Designer prof. which is also the director of the department. The contents of the email consist of...

"Hello,
You are receiving this e-mail because you are listed as an Electronic
Visualization major. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

I am requesting that you meet with myself and a few others on Friday
January 30 at noon in 2410 A + A. This shouldn't take more than an
hour, but will be important.

I hope to see you then,
Erin"

Pretty vague isn't? I can't help, but think of the worse possible scenario of, "Sorry, we're pulling the plug on the program." Though I did talk to my professor Sabrina who was CC. In the email, all she said was don't worry about it, but would not disclose the purpose of the meeting. All I was told was is a "surprise" and there will be changes to the program. This is going to be one hell of a week.

-David M.

The Week is Over, Lets Recap

So I trudged through the first week of school, and what an exhausting (and cold) first week it was. Though, I want to have a retrospective on my classes, and what I think of them as of now.

AD307 Electronic Visualization II - The class is a continuation of last semester's course with the same professor. One of my favorite professor given that he's always positive, and fair. The class has always been interesting to me since last semester mainly due to the philosophy of the course. That being using visual elements, or, I can describe it as visual primitives and use them to interpret complex, or even the most useless complex data in a visual form; which allows the audience to interpret the same information, connect the dots without say, having to look through an entire statistic sheet per say. Definitely, looking forward to what were going to do next, heck we're already learning how to make a clock that doesn't use numbers, text, or hands to represent time.

COMM 140 Fundamentals of Media Communication - I always thought all Communication courses are speech courses that are used to improve one's own interpersonal skills; a skill I still need to work on. Though, this is a class about writing in Mass Media, meaning writing objectively, and clearly. Is almost like an English class. The reason I didn't drop this class was, DMEI is not a quitter. Secondly, I think is about time I brush up on my grammar skills again. Too many times have I've been corrected! Plus, it might prove to be a useful skill set later on.

AD309 Advanced 3D Modeling and Animation - This is a continuation of my 3D modeling class from last semester, and thank god it wasn't on the time slot 4-6:40 like last semester because I would not spend any cold winter nights waiting for a bus. As knowledgeable the professor is, she bores or the fact that last semester I had classes 11-4 straight before her class I'll be completely drained of all my learning fluids. Though, we spent the first class day other than reviewing learning about soft/rigid bodies and that was probably the funnest session I had in that class to date. I hope it'll stay that interesting. On Tuesday, we have a mouse trap due.

AD230 Painting I - One measure I always give myself is always to break away from a comfortable medium, even if I have do not have any remote skills in it at all. This class definitely seem like a challenge to me, and I'll take it head on. Though, I don't think I'm going to emerge one of the better trained fine artist, I hope to walk away with some understanding. Though, I spoke too soon, but I think I'll probably going to spend my 4-6:40 time slot in the studio. Dammit! Oh, I think the professor definitely gets lost in her conversation for quite often. We spent the first day on introductions and the syllabus, which at most usually takes an hour. Instead we spent the whole freaking day.

AH236 History of Design II - We spent the first day talking about RAMEN! On why it is the superior noodle, and the flaws of the Ramen, haha. It seems the class always start on the subject of food. The class is a continuation of last year, but through the years of 1925-present. Is the same format, but the present is so much more interesting, and I hope because it happens along the lines of 19th century to the present I have an easier time memorizing things. The overview she gave seems pretty interesting enough, though I looked at the syllabus, and we're only going to spend 3 classes on that.

All in all, I think this semester I can definitely say, "What have I gotten myself into?" Given that Painting and Grammar (it makes me sad to think that my grammar is not as good as it should) are one of the fundamental tools for me to make it past this semester. Hopefully, those things make me and not break me.

-David M.

School on a Saturday

I didn't go to sleep till around 1 a.m. trying to put together to plausible presentation for this interdisciplinary session at school. Things were looking grim to the last hour, but surprisingly it worked out and I'm grateful for all that occurred during the dwindling hours of the evening. Even though I had a little of Murphy's law going on, things were balancing out. Though I went to sleep with probably a sinking feeling of things going wrong.

Come show time or at least prior I hit the snooze several time before I was willing to wake up. Though, I still got there an hour early than I was supposed to. Slowly the meeting room started to fill as my class was still just working outside, this overwhelming feeling of presenting in front of grad students was a bit overwhelming, especially trying to demonstrate that we are "competent" amongst them. Even though I pulled up the wrong pdf for my presentation I believed I faired pretty well after I pulled up the right file, haha. Anyways, it was an interesting session, I thought it would have been a snooze fest, or a very intimidating scenario. However, I found myself being really attentive to other presentation and it just brought up my morale for what's going to happen in the next couple of week for class.