Yet another new beginning

I vowed some time ago that I would maintain my blog regularly, and that said blog would be located on my website. After letting it slide for some time, though, I received a rude shock one day when I logged in: my blog had been hijacked by goons promoting...well, I'm sure you can guess what they were promoting. I was less than pleased, but the experience taught me a few valuable lessons, including the importance of changing your password now and again, but primarily that it's a good idea to keep on top of your site.

Aside from that, the new year has given me cause for introspection. I haven't yet reached my desired destination for this stage of my life, but I accept the challenge and I want to redouble my efforts to achieve my goal (for anyone who finds this (understandably) oblique, I'm referring to a job in the digital media field). Today at work I had a discussion with two of my friends about the need to be generative in life, and we all agreed that it just wasn't enough to have a job to sustain oneself; rather, we want to feel that we have achieved--and created--something at the end of the day. If I can do that, I'll feel that I've lived up to my potential.

That said, I need to keep learning if I want to carve a little place for myself in the industry, there is so much out there that I don't know. However, I took a small step forward yesterday, and ordered Colin Moock's Essential Actionscript 3. I don't expect it to be an easy read, but I hope that I can be dedicated enough to use the book to become a good AS3 programmer. Wish me luck!

Migration

I've moved all the old posts from this blog to...

http://www.saminaink.com/blog

That's where I'll be updating from now on.

So long, Blogger!

All that Glitters

Just a quick one. I wanted to show something creative I've done recently, so here's something rather different from anything I've posted before. I don't think many people know that I enjoy making jewellery--mostly, fairly simple pieces, but it's just something fun for me to do. What you see here is made of two types of pearls and some crystals, and it was a wedding gift for my sister. I should explain now that her wedding took place this past August, but I hadn't gotten around to actually constructing the piece until now, despite having bought the components well before the wedding.

Anyhow, all for now...and I'll try to keep up with the blogging.

Time compression and work to be done

It's study week at the moment, and frighteningly it's almost half over. It's not as though I have tonnes to do, but I have a few significant things to take care of; finding an internship is pretty much at the top of the list.

To that end, I've cold-contacted a bunch of people, but most of the positive responses I've received have been for projects kind of unrelated to what I'd like to be doing once I finish school (namely, Flash, design, etc.) Even when they involve the web, it's often a case of "my company needs a website, and I'd like to pay...nothing." Which is fine, except that I don't really see a solo project building a website as a truly valuable learning experience...a learning experience nonetheless, but I would prefer to be working under someone's guidance in an agency/studio environment, and really experience what the industry is like and how it functions.

At any rate, I have only a little time remaining to find a placement; we have to fulfill our required 120 hours by about a month after the end of classes. Which brings me to the first part of the title: Time compression.

I don't know why, but time seems to speed up when you have pressing things to do, or when you're having a good time that you wish to hang onto. Both apply in this case: I seem to have too little time to finish my work and find a placement; I'm also enjoying my time at college, and I'm not really looking forward to it being over. I'm already becoming nostalgic about my time at Seneca. I think this is because it was the first time I've truly enjoyed school since I finished high school. I spent a rather dull four years earning my degree at U of T, and it sapped my energy and desire to study. Taking the plunge and returning to school was the best decision I ever made, and it was one I was unsure of and hesitant to make at the time.

But to stay on topic: time compression. I feel like time has sped up as I've grown older; it's as though years have zipped by without my noticing, and suddenly I'm ...well, I'm not going to write my age here, but you get the idea (I'm not old, but I think I've reached the point where I won't just say "I'm x years old". Incidentally, my last post also coincided with my birthday). The truth is that there are many things people will never get to do, simply due to time limitations. It makes me a little sad to think that there are fascinating parts of the world I may never get to see, or that I may have to wait a long time to visit. I suppose all we can do is try our hardest to experience all that we want to in our lives, and try to live without regret over lost opportunities.

Ok, I think I'll sign off here. I could probably go off in way too many tangents from what I've just written, and I'll try and save all of that for another post.

The Angel Lives

The title of this post probably seems pretty counter-intuitive, given that angels are...not among the living, but allow me to clarify. Over a year ago, in my New Media Tools class, everyone designed skate decks, and then made vector-art versions of them, which we printed. I did a design with a guitar on it, which turned out fairly well I guess, then had it printed and stuck it on a skate deck. I don't think the image ever worked when I uploaded it, so here it is again at left.

Anyhow, I had another design which I was really eager to work on, more so in fact than the guitar one. That was the angel design which is in one of my earlier posts. Since I really wanted to see it to completion, I worked on it from time to time when I had a free moment, usually quite sporadically; I finally finished it a few days back. This is the final result at left.

At any rate, I like how it turned out; it has more visual interest than the guitar one. But any feedback would be welcome...I will accept criticism and suggestions with good grace, I promise!

Second Time Lucky

Alright; it seems I overestimated my likelihood to keep up with my blog. However, it IS a new year, which is always a popular time for resolutions (I'm going to conveniently ignore the fact that many resolutions are easily broken).
Anyway, I will say in my own defense that last semester was challenging and quite busy. In addition, I spent the Christmas break running my parents' business while they were abroad; I'm hopeful that I can start producing some interesting material soon though. Fingers crossed!

New Beginnings?

Today I decided to revisit my blog, which I clearly have not touched in close to a year. I have to say that I regret leaving it to stagnate...I actually have some interesting pieces of work here, and I feel like I should continue adding to it so that I can see my progress over time. So, in the spirit of new beginnings, I'm going to pick up where I left off. Hopefully some good stuff will come up.