Half of the Year
04 Jul 2011 1 Comment
I’m sorry for neglecting you, blog. I was seduced by Tumblr, but today I realized how much I missed you. Sorry for cheating on you.
Where to begin.
I’m in the thick of the production phase of my senior project. (I have to add that it’s not just me who is directing it, but also a good friend of mine as well). To be honest, things aren’t going as well as I hoped, but I’m trying really hard to make it so.
The story is still being worked out, the animatic is not even completed yet, and I have yet to hand off any scenes to the people in my team. Yeah…and I only have 139 days left until December.
I think I should be panicking, but I’m not. I wonder if it’s due to my lack of experience when it comes to making a film from start to finish. I’ve only made “completed” films under extraordinary circumstances: 24 hours, and another was within 2 weeks (Summer Arts). I really want to make a good movie. I mean, who desires to make a bad one? However, I understand now how the process can get muddied, and how easy it is to fall short of your goal in exchange for finishing on time.
I hope that we can make it worthwhile.
Week 6: Pre Production so far
06 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Being creative is hard.
I’m in the thick of the semester, and it has been really really really mind numbing. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and sometimes my thoughts need to spill out every once in a while, so forgive me for this long analogy.
—
Coming up with a good story idea is almost as excruciating and nerve-wracking as passing your driving test for the third time right before you have to start college. And you have to pass, or else…you won’t be able to go to college. (True story, by the way*).
Once you do pass, life is blissfully great for a short while, until you realize that getting your drivers license – a victory- becomes a necessary evil when you have to commute to and fro to school every day.
Things go downhill from there.
It hits you that college isn’t as glamorous as you thought it would be, and all the while, you were hoping that what you were planning to do for the rest of your life will some how COME to you in a moment of glorious epiphany while you are spending thousands of dollars on all the required classes that you have to take to get the general education out of the way.
And if you’re an idiot, crazy, stubborn, or all three, you decide that art is what you really want to do in life, and by golly, you are going to pursue your dreams because this is America and that is what we are entitled to.
So, you enroll into the art classes, and are immediately overwhelmed with the wide range of classes that you have to take. From ceramics to photography to life drawing to graphic design, the possibilities seem boundless and are almost a little frightening (I mean, who needs to know how to do Raku firing anyway?). You also learn to feel inferior to the seniors who have had several years under their belt – who know the college system, or the creative geniuses (damn them) who just seem to OOZE masterpieces on a weekly basis.
You battle it out during the undergrad classes to improve upon your skills, and finally, you get to the upper division classes. Now you feel like you’re a real college student, and not some meager peon hoping to make her mark in the art community at school. You throw yourself headlong into your studio classes, relishing every moment, delighted that you finally have some skills to your arsenal that you can utilize. You are no longer feeling your way through the courses – you are spearheading them. You recognize that there will always be people who are more skilled than you in certain areas, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are inferior to them. You make friends with these people, because you can learn a lot from them. You start to feel good about where you are at.
But wait. What about your major?
This is a harrowing choice, because the effects are long lasting and far-reaching into the future. You search and search, trying to find that little voice that tells you: “This is where you are supposed to be”.
And then it happens. That one class that you take to fulfill a requirement while you are taking classes for some bullsh*t art major you put down to satisfy the school system; it speaks to you. It’s lovely, enticing, and oh man, you can’t get enough of it. One experience and you find this insatiable appetite to learn more. It seduces you in, grabs a hold of your mind – and when you realize what you have gotten yourself into, it’s too late.
—
Not quite a happy painting of my journey as an Art major, but it’s mostly accurate. The hard thing about being an Animation major at CSULB is that the only way you get to experience a hint of Animation is through the upper division classes, and if you decide to change your major to it, you will have to scramble – fast – to get it in gear, learn a ton of things in 3 meager months, and before you know it – you get booted out to graduate.
But it’s also wonderful and fulfilling. I would like to add that I have happily plunged further into the world of animation, and I really can’t wait to move on to the next step.
Which leads me back to the start of my entry. Being creative is hard. Coming up with a good story? Damn difficult.
Special Studies is the grand daddy of all the classes I have taken so far. It is what I have been eagerly anticipating; I knew it would be hard work, time consuming, and down right difficult, but it was also a chance to make a MOVIE. Halie and I have been pouring our minds out for the past couple of weeks, sifting through the pieces, and finding some of the things that can work for our film. It has been an extremely frustrating process, so much so that we practically had to walk away from it for a week or so lest we punch a baby or something.
We’ve made another revision to our story that we hope to get approved soon by Aubry. We wanted our story to be a craftsman fantasy story with a whimsical tone, however along the way, we lost it somehow to a corporate realism, and it just got a bit ugly from there.
But, all in all, it has been a very rewarding experience so far, and I can only hope that we move forward even further.
Ta ta for now.
—
*Right before I started college, I needed to get my drivers license.
The situation couldn’t have been more dire: this was the third time I was taking the test, my permit was going to expire the next week, and if I did fail, the next time I COULD take the test was two weeks from then.
And my first year of college would start in three days.
It was a do or die situation, and I had to pass, or else I wouldn’t be able to go to college. Honestly, the only reason I was able to pass was because of divine intervention from God. You may laugh, but it’s honestly true. A voice that was not my own nor anyone I knew kept on telling me, “the Lord will be with you wherever you will go”. It was comforting – it calmed my nerves and helped me do what I needed to do. I always look back fondly on that experience.
Time to hit the ground running.
26 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
It’s the new year.
For me, it feels a bit odd. I mean, 11 has always been a rather odd number to me, but it’s especially different, considering two things.
1. It’s the year of the Rabbit.
2. It’s the start of my special studies program.
I’m excited and anxious, and a bit uncertain. I still don’t know what the heck I’m going to make. I still don’t know if I have any talent for this sort of thing.
But man, I can’t WAIT to get started.
2010.
20 Dec 2010 1 Comment
This post was inspired by my sisters blog.
Because, when I look back on 2010, there have also been a lot of firsts.
Being 23 years old has been surprisingly eventful. I wish I could remember it all, but sometimes holding every detail from a year is too much.
This year…
It was the first time I got a gym membership. I ran for 30 minutes on a treadmill and called it a day. 
Later on, that time increased to three hours with Pia. It was pretty impressive, now that I look back on it.
It was a comeback from my severe illness in October. I was determined to get stronger and better.
It was also the first time that I got my feelings crushed.
It was the first time that I ran the 5k, albeit barely, but I made it some how.
It was the first time that I also held a tea party, on the same day as my birthday (and on the day I did a 5k run).
It was the first time I went bar hopping with my friends. I had a wonderful birthday.
It was the first time I got a ticket for speeding. Ever. (And hopefully the last!)
It was the first time I took an animation class, and realized what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
It was the first time I applied for a “special program”, and got in through the power of my own efforts. (Summer Arts)
It was also the first time I ever cried at work. And in front of someone.
It was also the first time I went camping for 10 days with one of my best friends and her family. I had such a wonderful time.
It was the first time I got to see where my friend lived, and to be honest, I was honored and heartbroken.
It was the first time that I made so many friends in the Art department.
It was the first time I felt so stressed out about applying to a program. Thank God that I got accepted.
But, it was also the first time, on the same day that I found out I got accepted to the BFA Animation Program- that I saw my mom cry like she did. I will never forget that day for the rest of my life.
I went to CTN for the first time, and it won’t be the last.
It was also the first time I was determined to finish a game from start to finish at school. (Halo Reach. I know, I know – totally silly, but I did get my work done!)
These are all the firsts I can think of.
The LONG Delay
16 Oct 2010 1 Comment
I apologize for not writing about the conclusion of my fantastic Summer Arts trip.
The short, cheated version of the ending is this: we had many laughs, a bitter quarrel that ended in compromise, and a race against the clock to finish on time. The sun rose on us many times in the lab, and we migrated our coffee maker into the lab just so that we could stay awake to finish the films. During the last three days, I got an average of 3 hours of sleep a night.
The final night, we were all huddled around the computer, quickly coloring the pieces. As the designated Editor of the group, I was putting together the film in a mentally crazed state, but I got it done somehow. My teammates were beside me, cheering me on, and helping me out in any way they could.
We were the second team to turn in our film. Everyone else was still fighting the machines, sleep, and time to get their work done. I stayed afterwards to help my fellow suffering friends who were struggling to piece their movies together.
And I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.
And now, I’m on the cusp of something new, and probably equally as laborious: I’m applying for the Bachelor’s of Fine Arts program at Cal State Long Beach.
Quite literally, I have been working on my portfolio this entire month (and then some). It is due next week on Thursday, and I feel that I’m at a good spot with my portfolio…but the same can’t be said for my reel. So, I’m sprinting to get things done, and sprinting to get things animated, because right after the BFA is due, I have to turn in my portfolio for CTN. THE NEXT DAY.
It’s pure madness, but I’ll get done. Somehow.
Thursday is coming too soon. I must work with all my might.
Until then.
The Third Day: The Birth of a Story
24 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
—Day 3—
The night before, Halie, Rachel and I stayed up and decided upon the look our scenarios for our film. I roughed out sketches while they discussed better views, camera angles, what transitions we would have, etc. It was pretty exciting, because using this type of language was a new experience for me. For the first time, I felt like a real animator. Or at least like someone who is working on a movie.
We got all of our scenarios and rough storyboards together, and got ready for tomorrow. With luck, they’d like our stuff enough to give us the green light to start in the next step of the pre-production phase.
The next morning, Halie and I woke up early again. We went over the dining hall for breakfast, and after browsing through their options of “eggs” and “potatoes” and bacon, we decided that it wasn’t worth it to wake up that early after all.
Wednesday was the day that Tom Sito would be coming as our guest artist. Tom Sito had animated on some of the great Disney classics, like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and the Lion King (probably one of my all-time favorites). Just the fact that this man was coming to our tiny lab to see what we were doing was pretty astounding. And what was even better was that Bill and Sue Kroyer decided to stay an extra day to help give more input and “pass us” off to Tom. They were all so generous, it was overwhelming.
So, when we got to the lab, I was on the lookout for this Tom Sito fellow. We were all working, but my eyes kept on going to the door, wondering how he would look like. We discussed our scenes with the rest of our group to see how they felt about them. The other two girls agreed enthusiastically, and they liked how the imagery came out.
The door finally opened, and this jovial, Santa Claus-like man walks in, fanning himself. “Whew, it’s damn hot here, isn’t it?”
I liked him immediately.
Our class proceeded with the dailies. The first group went up and talked about their concepts, and waited anxiously for the input. Bill and Sue went first, disagreeing about literally everything (that’s how they work, apparently), and then Tom spoke up about his first impressions. Some teams had an even harder time getting their stories across – Team Poverty, in particular. Their concept was so broad and so difficult to deal with that I felt really bad for them. All the guest artists were in disagreement with each other when they were giving them critique. I was silently thankful that it wasn’t our topic.
Our turn came up.
“We’re Team 3, and our theme is on Exploitation.”
“In the opening scene, we see a butterfly flutter down across a window, and we zoom in to see a girl playing “tea time” with her dolls. She goes to set down each plate, and she places one, two, and at the third plate, we see a close up of it. It is cracked and worn, and looks out of place. We cut back and see that we are in a different room, it is shabby and run down, and we see a similar table with two down-trodden boys sitting at it, and a womanly figure turns and reveals that she is a young girl, providing for her brothers.
“In the next scene, we see a boy playing happily in the sand, digging at the beach. He digs one, two, and at the third dig, a shovel hits the ground with a heavy thud. It cuts out to reveal a young boy digging in a ditch, with shackles on his arm. In exhaustion, he falls down, and the butterfly from the previous scenes flies in front of him. He looks up as it flies away, and goes to reach for it, but in the end, a shackle prevents him from doing so”.
The three mentors sat in silence. I was getting so anxious that I had to tell myself to breathe.
Finally, they spoke.
“Wow, I really like the imagery”
“What a beautiful story. It is really well thought out.”
“This is nice. It’s clear, concise, and it gets the point across – and you really feel the soul of the issue.”
Then they asked us to change a bit about the young girl’s concept, since it wasn’t really clear that she was being exploited. After a brief conversation within our circle, we decided to have her drawing on a white board, and have her erasing it afterwards. The eraser would transition into another scene where girl was scrubbing the floor. We got a thumbs up.
Our group let out a huge sigh of relief. After two days of brainstorming, we all were definitely ready to get a move on.
After the dailies, Bill and Sue had to leave. They left their email addresses on the board, and wished us the best of luck. They also asked for the finalized animatic and films to be emailed to them so that they could see our progress and give more input. Amazing – so amazing that such experienced people like them would want to see what we were doing. I couldn’t believe it.
Lunch time rolled around with the same terrible food, but it was made ten times better when we got to sit with Tom Sito. Sitting with Tom guarantees a never-ending story session. He just knows SO MUCH. It was pretty remarkable to hear the amount of history that he could summon up within a few minutes.
After lunch, we hashed out the timing for the scenes. This was an entirely foreign concept to me, and I was glad that the other people in my group took charge of it. I was used to animating off of my “feelings”, and had no idea that the timing had to be put down so strictly. But then I quickly realized that within a 30 second format, you had to be strict with the timing, or else everything will get out of hand, and we would never be able to hit the deadline on time.
And that was the worst of my fears.
So, I had to set myself straight. I was here to learn as much as I could about the process of animation, on how to make a good story, and how to make a good movie in general. I cannot mess this up by fumbling around. I had to be focused, I had to learn whatever was thrown at me and nail it. It didn’t matter if I knew next to nothing about animation – I am here because I want to be, and that’s what matters.
Once I got my attitude and enthusiasm revved up, I mentally prepared myself for the hardest two weeks that I’ll experience in a long while. The learning curve would be monstrous, but it was a challenge – and I’m very competitive.
However, there was a slight setback: my contacts.
The weather was taking a turn for the better, but I knew that I would not be able to last the week if I didn’t get my glasses soon. I told my mom about them the night before, and she graciously offered to drop them off on the weekend, since she was driving up with my Dad to see my Grandma. However, I begged her to mail them to me instead. I needed them immediately – it was either walking around blind or just bearing the pain to see a bit further into the night. I opted for the latter, but I wouldn’t last long.
I also had two other requests – a comforter, and some claritin.
Now, you might ask why in the blazes of Fresno that I would ever need a comforter, but there was a sound reason for it.
In our dorms, we were given bunk beds to sleep on. Underneath them were nice, spacious desks, and plenty of drawers to put our things in. It just so happens that my bed was located right next to the air duct – and our air conditioner was set to 64 degrees every night. It was cold, and I was getting a cold. Plus, to add to the misery, Fresno is known as a dust bowl, and allergies that I never knew I had were forming a perfect storm in my head.
But I couldn’t let this stop me.
With the story newly born, how could I? It was the dawning of a new beginning, and the most life-changing event had just begun.
For the first time in my life, I was about to make a movie.
The Second Day: An unexpected Promotion and a Conundrum with Creativity
20 Jul 2010 1 Comment
—Day 2—
Halie and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 am to get ready for breakfast. We got to the dining hall around 6:45 to help ourselves to our “free” breakfast that was included in our meal plan. Now, It was also my first time having cafeteria food, but I was puzzled by the choices. The food was served buffet style, and each dish had its name written on the glass that was on top of the display. That day, they served “eggs”, bacon, “country potatoes”, biscuits; at the dining hall, there were more unsure choices of cold breakfast foods like cereal, “oatmeal”, yogurt, etc. I’m not being a food snob by putting quotes around the names – that’s actually how they wrote them. What did they mean when they put quotations around some and not the others? It was a bit troubling.
After getting through meal, most of the animators were striken with grief.
“That was…terrible.”
“What did I just eat?”
“Wow. I’ve never wanted to not eat so much in my entire life.”
“You’d think that at the agricultural capital of the United States, they’d at least serve real food.”
I decided to try and be positive about it. If this was the food they were going to give me for the next two weeks, I’ll just accept it quietly, since we technically already paid for it.
How naïve I was.
Once breakfast was over, Halie and I went back to the dorms. We grabbed our water bottles and our notebooks, and headed over to the lab. Bill and Sue Kroyer came in and introduced themselves – they were our first guest artists for the program. After settling into our groups, Aubry announced the theme of the commercials to us.
“Alright guys, here’s what’s up. So, two weeks before this Summer Arts thing, I was thinking about how in the past, there has always been great work coming out from these workshops, but it just stays put, and never gets seen by anyone else. So I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could get them seen somehow?’.
So, I was thinking some more, and I thought, ‘Well, why not do a commercial? Those get seen a lot – it’d be perfect. Commercials usually have to tell a story in a 30 second format.’ So, I call up my friend who works for this awesome non-profit organization, and she was estatic to hear about my idea. It turns out, that organization needed 6 30-second films to show in front of this huge audience at a conference in Canada. And, if it works out well, it’ll be used for the Canadian equivalent of MTV on television.
So I told her, ‘Don’t call anyone else, let us do them!’ – she agreed, and now, we have ourselves this client called ‘Free the Children’. Apparently, it was started by a young kid who felt that children who were in terrible situations around the world should be helped by kids as well. This organization is also backed by Oprah Winfrey – and now we get to make movies for them!”
Everyone was absolutely still. I think half of us were expecting to do commercials for Coca-Cola or Budweiser.
“Okay, so the topics are as follows: Freedom From – that’s the intro group, Thirst, Exploitation, Poverty, Disease, and Apathy – that’s the outro group. You guys get to pick whatever topic you want to use. Any questions?”
Again, silence. One guy raised his hand.
“Yeah?”
“So, there’s a chance that our commercials will be put onto TV?”
“Yep, if it works out in the end.”
“…that’s fucking awesome.”
“Totally.”
I was still in shock. I instantly became worried. Holy crap, am I qualified for this thing? I only had one semester of animation…and I don’t even know the whole processes of working in a production yet! How the heck was I able to get into this program?!
Aubry spoke again. “Guys, I’m going to teach you how to work in a production. Your team is going to be the invaluable asset to you, because you WILL use each other, and you WILL get to know each other really well. I’m also assigning team leaders to each group – they’re not necessarily taking control of the ideas, but they have the most experience in animation”.
He started to roll call the team leaders from the front of the room. “And the team lead for Team 3 is Halie”.
Halie and I looked at each other. We were both thinking the same thing: Um, what the hell?! We both only have had one semester of animation! And it was clear that in our group, we had a animators who were more experienced than us.
But, the more I thought about it, the more it didn’t surprise me. She was the perfect choice. Even if she had as little as experience as me, it didn’t matter.
I need to tell you a little bit about Halie – she is a freaking genius. And I don’t mean that as a compliment, I mean that as a statement. She is ridiculously smart – and, her art is amazing. She had about as much experience in animation as I did, yet she was able to get complicated mechanics down with relative ease. (Her dance animation is freakishly good). Let me put it this way: to stay “loose”, this girl enrolled in a math class voluntarily. What makes it worse is that it was CALCULUS.
See what I mean? Perfect choice.
In the end, Aubry decided what our topics were, because it was too hard for any of the groups to pick them. My team ended up getting Exploitation as our theme.
We got right to work. Rachel was a factory of ideas – she loved (and still does) comedy, and immediately referred to a Family Guy episode that dealt with our topic. Jo pipped in a few ideas here and there, and Claire stayed really quiet most of the time. We generated a bunch of ideas for a good 3 hours, and then had to present them to Bill and Sue. Our initial pitch was led by Rachel – it was basically an idea about “supermarket babies” – you buy a kid to use it for whatever you please. It had more of a funny factor to it, but it was shot down almost immediately. Bill told us that he wanted to feel the heart and soul of our topic, something that we didn’t really think about.
So, we went back at it again. It was a really long process, and doing “blue sky” ideas is something that I’m not really used to. Actually, I’m pretty awful at it. By the end of the hour, we were all banging our heads against the walls, trying to come up with something.
In the end, we came up with 4 different scenarios, and pitched it again to Bill and Sue. Their reactions were much more positive.
Then Bill said, “Why don’t you combine them together?”
Brilliant. The answer was so simple, so plain, that I felt a bit dumb for not thinking of that myself.
Lunchtime and dinnertime rolled around. I don’t quite remember what I had that day, probably pasta and “chicken”, but I do know that it took all of my effort to force the food down my throat. It’s interesting to note that even though you eat a lot during the dining hours, you always feel like you’re never satisfied, and that you suffer from hunger pains two hours later.
At the end of the day, it was nothing like I had expected. All of our brains were numb from the intense creative brainstorming that we did, and we still had to do story boards, and possibly a rough animatic. (An animatic is basically a moving storyboard).
Also, my eyes felt terrible. It felt like my contacts were gnawing my eyes. The eye drops that I had with me were being used every 20 minutes, and were instantly sapped out of my body every time I stepped outside the furnace of Fresno. I wouldn’t last the week, let alone another day of this torture.
How the heck was I going to survive the next two weeks?
There and Back Again: the First Day
19 Jul 2010 1 Comment
It has been approximately one week since I have returned from CSU Summer Arts at Cal State Fresno. It was a marvelous experience, and I would go again if I could. (Although, Fresno weather leaves much to be desired.)
I think that one of the most valuable things that I discovered from this trip was this: With animation, anything you imagine is possible. If you dream of something and want to see it come to life, then you can make it a reality through this medium. It was that idea that ignited my passion for animation even further.
Another thing that I discovered about myself was that I really love telling stories. I’m clumsy when it comes to oral story telling, but I can share it well when I can write it down, and even better through pictures. In a way, I guess I always wanted to be an animator, but I didn’t know it until now.
So now, instead of thinking, “Wow, they’re so talented. I wish I could do something like that…” – I’m saying, “I CAN do something like that! And possibly BETTER.” It’s a bold statement, but I feel that sure. If I can learn it, if I can imagine it, I can do it. It’s that simple. This truth is what drives me forward.
— The Trip—
So, on the 26th of July, Jacob and Halie spent the night at my house so that we could all leave together on Sunday Morning. We packed our belongings into my mother’s faithful 2003 toyota highlander and tucked ourselves in for the night at 2 in the morning.
The next day swung upon us like a hammer.
First of all, if you’re ever planning a road trip, be sure to get plenty of rest, because waking up early to “beat all the traffic on the freeway!” is tortuous. Also, not having enough sleep can put a damper on your senses when you’re raring to go, causing you to forget severely important belongings.
Like, your glasses, for instance.
I didn’t find out about this until it was too late, but I’ll delve more into that later. Anyhow, we all got on the road in no time – and sort of “winged” our way to CSU Fresno. I say that because none of us looked up the directions beforehand, but I had a general idea of where we were going, so I hoped for the best. Halie was amused, Jacob bemused, and I didn’t really give a damn, because we were headed to quite possibly the best time we’ll ever have this summer.
Once we got off the freeway and into Fresno for the first time, we looked around to scope the city. It looked like a sleepy, ordinary town, save for the gigantic SAVEMART that loomed on the righthand side of Shaw Ave. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could have prepared me for what the weather would be like. Stepping outside of the car was like getting slapped in the face with a red-hot iron griddle. My eyes instantly tightened, because my contacts were gripping my eyeballs mercilessly. It was painfully hot.
We parked in the designated parking lot for CSU Summer Arts and decided to look around the campus. If someone were to view this campus through a computer screen, or watch it on tv, it’s actually very pretty in some areas. The buildings were fairly modern and accommodating, there were trees everywhere, and the grass was nice and luscious. It reminded me a lot of CSU Long Beach (although, I’m biased and I think my campus looks better, haha). However, we didn’t enjoy any of the scenery because the heat was just too intense. We scurried from building to building as fast as we could, so that we could cool off in the air-conditioned rooms. In the end, we decided to wait in the car for orientation to start, because nothing was worth it enough to get out in the sun.
At orientation, we paid for our remaining expenses and got our room keys for our dorms. For the first time, I got a sense of how big this CSU Summer Arts program was. I don’t know why I thought this, but for some reason, I thought it would be just me and 29 other people roasting in this miserably hot weather, animating until we collaspe. But in reality, there were several other classes occuring at the same time, all ranging from a month long orchestra session to writing a memoir to stage combat. It was pretty bizzare.
After hearing the chairman and the professors speak, we met with Aubry (our professor) outside to walk to our classroom. We headed to the music building, onto the second floor, and walked into a lab filled with iMacs. There were white boards, three flatscreen tvs on the walls, and a beautiful Cintaq sitting near the front of the room. My inner geek exploded.
After a brief intro, Aubry divided us into teams. Halie and I were assigned in team 3, along with Jo – who was also from Long Beach, Rachel from CSU Fullerton, and Claire, from CSU Channel Islands. Our introductions to each other were brief and neutral, although I kept on getting cut off by Aubry to start the next activity.
By 7 o clock, I wanted nothing more but to settle into our dorms. I decided to forgo going to the Urban Bush Women performance (something that I regret actually) to get all of our stuff unpacked, make several trips to Target, and call it a day so that we could wake up early for breakfast.
When we got back to our suite, we met all of our dormmates. 2 of the girls were a part of the sculpture program, and the rest of us were animators, and it turns out that Rachel from my team was also my suitemate. It was purely coincidental, but it really helped us out in the end when it came to pulling all our stuff together. Halie and I settled in and organized our room to our liking, and Rachel and Alisa (Rachel’s roommate) called us out to have some wine for introductions. The thought was nice, but the wine bottle was monsterous, and the cork was extremely difficult to get out. It ended up taking 30 minutes. We used a crappy corkscrew (that broke), a pair of cuiticle cutters, a small flat head screwdriver, various attempts from each of us to get that wine bottle open. It was hilarious.
When we were washing up and getting ready for bed, I realized, to my horror, that I had forgotten my glasses. I cursed my stupidity; my contacts were like dry plastic scales, and I didn’t want to use them in the moisture sapping weather. However, I didn’t have a choice. I decided to brave it out and hopefully power through it.
Food for (Personal) Thought
08 Jun 2010 1 Comment
When I was younger, I always strove to improve my character.
I’d like to say that I was an outstanding child who was a good and obedient daughter, but alas, that was far from the truth. The reason why I always strove for improvement was because there was so much to improve upon!
However, I would like to give myself a little credit for taking this mindset; rather than being stubborn about changing my ways, I learned how to take criticism and use it to my advantage. Granted, it was a LONG lesson learned, but at least it is with me. Somehow.
Lately though, I’ve realized that I’ve stopped this quest for a better self, and it really has shortchanged my full potential as a human being. While I have been making steps towards a physical improvement in my appearance, sometimes I feel that my personality has taken a turn for the worst.
Work especially brings out the ugliness in my character.
Catering to the demanding needs of 85 cafe customers has whittled down my patience and goodwill, and there are just times when I’d like to get violent. Or take a full tray of hot marble taros, load them into a potato launcher, and fire it at the next customer who screams at me for not having the bread ready. Either way, that’s not a good method of relieving stress, so I have to make due with sleeping it and working it off.
Although, I do have to say, I was pretty impressed how I handled a particular woman today.
We get our fair share of crabby old Asian women, and this customer was no exception. In fact, she exemplified the perfect grumpy woman: short, hunched, wrinkly, and balding. She was dressed in sweat pants, socks with sandals, and armed with a vicious and aggressive personality. While I was working in the bread section, I was jabbed from behind with a pair of tongs, and a sharp voice asked,
“WHERE is your LOAF BREAD?”
If I was feeling fiesty, I would have retorted, “WHAT LOAF BREAD? We’re in a BAKERY. BE SPECIFIC“. Instead, I decided to be a respectful person and turned around (although slowly, just to smother my irritation) to respond to her. I turned, then looked down at a tiny old Vietnamese lady staring at me. ”Are you looking for the brioche?”
“YES. WHERE IS IT?!”
So, I did my duties to check in the back. And lo and behold, we had a tray. So I brought it out. She scurried over to me quickly.
“I WANT TWO!!!”
I pr0ceded to hand her two.
“NO, I WANT THIS ONE!”
I handed her the one she pointed to. She grunted (yes, grunted) and scurried off into line. I nearly laughed. She reminded me of a warthog.
I had to interact with her again to bag her bread for her. When I was returning her tray, she wasn’t in her place in line. A curt and annoyed voice alerted me to where she was.
“HELLO! I’m OVER HERE!”
I couldn’t find her because she was so short. I nearly laughed again, but I held it back. She was staring at me with her beady eyes, pointed at the 2nd marble taro on the right hand side of the tray.
“I WANT THIS ONE.”
She proceeded to walk away quickly while I was still holding her tray. So I decided to surprise her.
“Take your tray WITH YOU.”
I placed the tray within her hands. Surprised, she obediently took the tray back and went back in line. I felt a small victory.
Honestly, some of the customers see us as pieces of meat or something, because they’re not very nice, they’re demanding, and they always feel entitled to make our jobs as difficult as possible. I’m speaking very broadly of course, because there are plenty of nice customers that come in as well. But you know, it only takes one bad one to ruin your day – so to counter that, I employ every ounce of defiance underneath my customer service smile. I don’t say anything of course, but I sure would love to.
—
Long tangent aside, I do want to strive towards betterment, one step at a time.
But I’m still going to be fiesty with the rude ones. I’m not going to let them walk over me, that’s for sure.
The Golden Ticket
11 May 2010 1 Comment
So yesterday, I recieved a rather inconspicuous email:
Dear Sarah,
Congratulations! It is my pleasure to accept you into the CSU Summer Arts workshop, Animation: Making a Hand-Drawn Animated Commercial.
My initial thought was, “Huh…” And then it went to “Wait – HUH?!”
To be honest, I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be when I received the news. (I got it via email to my blackberry…while driving on the 405 south bound. Hahahah…) But, it did excite me to hear everyone else rooting for me! According to Aubry, the head coordinator of this program – they could only accept 30 people…and 50 people had applied already. Whoa…exciting!
…It was kinda a downer to read the rest of the email though.
We will be making scholarship decisions within the next two weeks or so. However, the scholarship budget this year is VERY limited, so students should not count on a very significant amount of financial aid.
So, I guess I can’t rely on scholarship money to help me out. However, even though this program is practically the cost of one semester, I’m VERY excited to be a part of it. For one thing, we get to live in the dorms (with another hefty cost added to it). I’ve never dormed before, so it’ll be fun – and another thing – we get to just animate till our eyeballs fall out! Fantastic! And thirdly, we get to work with Industry pros, ESPECIALLY SOMEONE FROM PIXAR! AWESOME!
I can’t wait!
