Projects, Assignments, and Stress
Originally published at Soft Spoken. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve been really stressed out this past week or so. It feels like all the assignments and projects have been thrown at us at the same time. It’s so hard to keep track of everything and course the fact that I’m easily stressed doesn’t help, but I definitely am not the only one in the class that’s been feeling the stress going around. But a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders this afternoon. I finally managed to get a hold of the person I have to interview for an assignment that has managed to get itself integrated into three classes, both of Jim’s classes: Scripting for Multimedia & the Web (CMM 163) and Research & Writing for New Media (RSR 160) and Cal’s class: Digital Audio (CMM 153). Even though the assignments are different, they’re all linked to each other.
First, the assignment was for RSR 160: We’re supposed to get together information for an informational website. We were all assigned programs at the college. Mine is Cultural Studies. Which is stupid because it’s actually a major under the General Studies program, where as other people got actual programs. It’s dumb. If I was researching just General studies it would be way more interesting (even though, yes, it is General Studies). Anyways, we’re supposed to interview the person in charge of the program we were assigned and record the interview so we don’t have to rush to take notes and what not
Then, in CMM 163 we’re supposed to actually make the website part of it.
Later, Cal decided to join in on the fun and create an assignment for CMM 153 where we’re supposed to interview someone and record it. But he has to be really picky about it and force us to use the interview we’re doing for Jim’s assignment. Even the people who aren’t in Jim’s classes have to do it. He’s forcing them to do Jim’s assignment to do his. It’s retarded. Then to top it all off he makes it due tomorrow. I mean yeah, that’s a good way to get us all on track and get it done but I’m willing to bet that he’s going to get assignments from less than half the class. For a while I was thinking that I was going to be in that “more than half” group but I’m starting to think that I might be able to hand it in on time.
I finally tracked down the person I have to interview today and I said whatever time worked for him would work for me, and he said tomorrow at 10:00. Which is amazingly perfect because I have class from 8:00-9:50 tomorrow and then a four hour break before my next class. Now, I just have to make sure that I can get a hold of one of those damn mini disc recorders for 10:00 tomorrow and everything will be fine.
Ok, well I don’t know for sure that everything will be fine. I have another assignment, well a portion of an assignment, due tomorrow. This is for one of Frank’s classes: Multimedia Principles & Design. We have to do a project to show what we’ve learned so far in the course. The project is to be developed around a “how to” theme. As of this moment I have not decided what to do. So far the only half decent ideas that came to mind are:
- How to open a bottle of POP, after someone has shaken it up, without it exploding.
- How to design/code a basic webpage/website.
Ok, you can stop laughing now. The POP thing was the first thing I thought of, probably because I had a bottle of POP in my hand. And the website thing, well it’s the only real hobby that I have that I might actually be half decent at explaining. The final product of this project has to be either a PowerPoint presentation, a Flash presentation, or a DVD video. I’m leaning towards DVD but Flash is a definite possibility too. PowerPoint… meh…. I can survive without PowerPoint.
The proposal for the project is due tomorrow. The rest of the project is due on the 19th.
The rest of the project consists of:
- An outline created in PowerPoint (which is dumb, but whatever)
- A Storyboard
- Then the presentation has to contain at least the following:
- Title Screen
- 5 Bit-Mapped images
- 1 Vector Image
- 1 Animation
- 1 Custom Audio Track
- 1 QuickTime Video
- 1 Slideshow
- 1 Credit screen
Yay! How exciting. NOT! Well, it would be if I had better ideas!!! PLEASE!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!