Cozy Evening In An Armchair With H.P. Lovecraft
Guildhall Report
Ian claims that he told me he had a team meeting after school last night, and also something about "pizza and a movie" on Friday. It was just then that our instant messenger connection through Steam went down for maintenance. I never found out if he meant last Friday or something planned for this upcoming Friday? Nevertheless, warned or not, I found myself alone for the evening rather unexpectedly last night. I suspect that may happen often between now and the end of the term; Ian says they have to prepare a demo of their game before then. It may not involve art assets since they apparently demo only the gameplay using lots of built-in features in Half-Life. He will no doubt remain very busy, however. I can bank on that.
"Learnin' Learnin' Learnin'"
Speaking of him being busy, I forgot to mention that Gearbox sent word that they expect their interns to complete some huge set of tutorials in using Unreal -- like, 40 of them or something! Ian was frustrated with the same creative dispute on his team that I've mentioned previously, so he dove into the tutorials this weekend to take his mind off it. I listened to them while playing Conan, and they made sense even to a layman, and the hosts have a good sense of humor. Ian followed along actively doing the exercises on his laptop while playing the DVD on his desktop computer next to him. He said he learned a lot, and he certainly appeared to get a lot out of it. That internship is paying off already, if you ask me. Pretty much this is just "bonus education," something further he can put on his resume, and he wouldn't have had the opportunity (or at least impetus) to learn this stuff otherwise at the Guildhall. Once again, go sweetie for excellence!
Compromise!
By the way, of the greatly reputed creative dispute among the artists on Ian's capstone project team, they seem to have finally reached a compromise and they can move forward. Hooray! He and I spoke only briefly and sleepily when he came in last night, but I'm sure this is a big snarl now out of his hair. They have some kind of document deadline on Friday, and while I don't know how much of that includes the artwork, surely it will include the big themes for the game and they were at issue until yesterday. I'm glad that's over.
Me
I played Conan for about an hour last night (Stygian Ranger on Bardasavatta), and didn't feel like overdoing it. I got some minor things accomplished around the house like cleaning the kitchen and actually creating a bigger mess than was previously in existence by starting to fold clean laundry but not actually finishing the task. About 9:00, I put on some classical music, lit some scented candles, and sat in one of the cozy chairs in our living room to read some Lovecraft.
An Evening In A Cozy Armchair
I'm currently reading, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," one of the longer stories in the anthology. The North Shore Massachusetts town of Innsmouth has often been hinted at here and there throughout other stories, and by reputation you'd think it's entirely peopled with hybrid human-Cthulhoid mutants, so I'm curious to explore the area directly through this story. (I just wrote, "storie," where the heck did that come from?) Another thing I wonder is why all these inbred mutants scattered hither and tho through Lovecraft's stories pay for everything with Spanish ingots? I hope that's covered in these last two stories.
Plans For Tonight
With or without Ian at home, I hope to attend tonight's Water Aerobics class -- although I admit that I might be more strongly motivated to get out of the house and go if Ian is at school. He has class Thursday night, and I hope to go then, regardless.
Continuing Education
Registration for Fall classes starts this week. GOOD: I discovered that I am indeed eligible for Tuition Reimbursement at work. BAD: I further discovered that if I leave within two years, I have to pay back the money. I doubt I'll be here that long, so I won't apply for it at all. GOOD: Nevertheless, school is so cheap out here for in-county/in-state residents, that it's about $100 a class plus books. Shee-it! At those prices, how could I possibly afford not to be in school? Registration will have been open for three days by the time I get to register, so I am a little worried that all the online classes will have filled up by then. As there are several topics that interest me, however, hopefully I can get into at least one. If I have to take one class in person, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, though.
That's it for me for today.
T$
Ian claims that he told me he had a team meeting after school last night, and also something about "pizza and a movie" on Friday. It was just then that our instant messenger connection through Steam went down for maintenance. I never found out if he meant last Friday or something planned for this upcoming Friday? Nevertheless, warned or not, I found myself alone for the evening rather unexpectedly last night. I suspect that may happen often between now and the end of the term; Ian says they have to prepare a demo of their game before then. It may not involve art assets since they apparently demo only the gameplay using lots of built-in features in Half-Life. He will no doubt remain very busy, however. I can bank on that.
"Learnin' Learnin' Learnin'"
Speaking of him being busy, I forgot to mention that Gearbox sent word that they expect their interns to complete some huge set of tutorials in using Unreal -- like, 40 of them or something! Ian was frustrated with the same creative dispute on his team that I've mentioned previously, so he dove into the tutorials this weekend to take his mind off it. I listened to them while playing Conan, and they made sense even to a layman, and the hosts have a good sense of humor. Ian followed along actively doing the exercises on his laptop while playing the DVD on his desktop computer next to him. He said he learned a lot, and he certainly appeared to get a lot out of it. That internship is paying off already, if you ask me. Pretty much this is just "bonus education," something further he can put on his resume, and he wouldn't have had the opportunity (or at least impetus) to learn this stuff otherwise at the Guildhall. Once again, go sweetie for excellence!
Compromise!
By the way, of the greatly reputed creative dispute among the artists on Ian's capstone project team, they seem to have finally reached a compromise and they can move forward. Hooray! He and I spoke only briefly and sleepily when he came in last night, but I'm sure this is a big snarl now out of his hair. They have some kind of document deadline on Friday, and while I don't know how much of that includes the artwork, surely it will include the big themes for the game and they were at issue until yesterday. I'm glad that's over.
Me
I played Conan for about an hour last night (Stygian Ranger on Bardasavatta), and didn't feel like overdoing it. I got some minor things accomplished around the house like cleaning the kitchen and actually creating a bigger mess than was previously in existence by starting to fold clean laundry but not actually finishing the task. About 9:00, I put on some classical music, lit some scented candles, and sat in one of the cozy chairs in our living room to read some Lovecraft.
An Evening In A Cozy Armchair
I'm currently reading, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," one of the longer stories in the anthology. The North Shore Massachusetts town of Innsmouth has often been hinted at here and there throughout other stories, and by reputation you'd think it's entirely peopled with hybrid human-Cthulhoid mutants, so I'm curious to explore the area directly through this story. (I just wrote, "storie," where the heck did that come from?) Another thing I wonder is why all these inbred mutants scattered hither and tho through Lovecraft's stories pay for everything with Spanish ingots? I hope that's covered in these last two stories.
Plans For Tonight
With or without Ian at home, I hope to attend tonight's Water Aerobics class -- although I admit that I might be more strongly motivated to get out of the house and go if Ian is at school. He has class Thursday night, and I hope to go then, regardless.
Continuing Education
Registration for Fall classes starts this week. GOOD: I discovered that I am indeed eligible for Tuition Reimbursement at work. BAD: I further discovered that if I leave within two years, I have to pay back the money. I doubt I'll be here that long, so I won't apply for it at all. GOOD: Nevertheless, school is so cheap out here for in-county/in-state residents, that it's about $100 a class plus books. Shee-it! At those prices, how could I possibly afford not to be in school? Registration will have been open for three days by the time I get to register, so I am a little worried that all the online classes will have filled up by then. As there are several topics that interest me, however, hopefully I can get into at least one. If I have to take one class in person, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, though.
That's it for me for today.
T$