Hump Day!

Well, today started out pretty miserable.  I have been working on two freelance jobs that are supposed to be finished the end of the month.  Plus a couple of other jobs that have various deadlines.  Plus my fulltime job, school research, family, church, etc.  One of my clients seemed a little peeved at the lack of updates this morning.  I sent an email back, detailing what all went into producing their project and that they were not the only one I was working for at the moment.  I honestly have been trying as hard as I can to stay organized and be timely but sometimes you just have too much to do.  Anyways, they emailed back a 2nd time and everything is fine.  I think the detailed technical explanation went a long ways (the job involves variables galore, quiz’s, backed database, etc).  So, the day has turned out much better than it started.

BK is going to be hauling Bessie, my poor car, to the mechanic on a tow dollie today.  Thats great so that I don’t have to pay $75 – $80 for a wrecker.  It should be finished tomorrow so I will have her back.  She has 217,000 miles on her and has been the most reliable car we have ever owned.  She’s not real purty, and she pops/cracks/sputters/and shakes but she rarely lets me down.  (My father-in-law says she sounds like a 3 cylinder when she runs)  In fact, I can’t remember the last time she had any problems.  I think it may have been an alternator a couple of years ago but thats been about it.  Now Charlene Bumidene (Our 2000 Mazda MPV) is a completely different story.  It seems like she breaks down every time she breaks a sweat.

Yesterday, I was able to find over 20 scholarships that I was eligible for.  Most require an essay writing of some sort so I guess I will be brushing up on that.  Just winning a few of them would amount to a good chunk of money (at least buy books, supplies, etc).  So wish me luck there!

Well, its gettin’ mighty close to quitin’ time so….

later,
whitey

Topsy Turvy Days…

Have you ever just felt like everything was changing so fast that you are in slow motion – kinda like the “matrix effect”?  Thats the way I feel right now.  I was all geared up for the Art Institute Online.  My Pell grants were taken care of, I had my Stafford Loans in order, and then I came upon a roadblock.  About a $55,000 roadblock.  That would be my loan balance at the end of my 4 year degree there.  The whole time I was going through the application process there was something in the back of my mind saying, “This is going to end up being really expensive.”  But I trudged on, hoping for a scholarship miracle.  Until the phone call…Upon being told the total cost of my education, I decided that common sense had to win out.  I simply cannot justify a $55,000 loan for +/- $20,000 increase in pay.

It was disappointing – really disappointing.  I so much wanted to get a bachelor degree in something I love and am familiar with.  So I decided to do a little more research into some other alternatives.  Unfortunately, ALL art schools are astronimacally expensive.  Everywhere I went it was the same story.  A bachelor degree will run between $70,000 – $80,000 before financial aid and life credits. 

With that realization I proceeded to change directions.  I have a meeting with the local community college on Friday.  They actually have a DEAT (Digital Effects & Animation Technology) program there.  I have known the coordinator there for some time so I gave him a call.  He seems excited to talk with me.  I will be showing a portfolio of my work in hopes of being awarded some life credits for my 13+ years experience in the field.  He also mentioned the possibility of becoming an instructor there for a “certificate” program they are working on.  That would be something I would really enjoy.

 So…so what if it will take longer.  Here is my rationale:

The Art Institute Online is $409.00 per credit hour PLUS a $100.00 lab fee PER class.  That adds up to a whopping $1736 dollars I would be paying for an ENGLISH class!  (4 credits)   Thats ludicrous!  To be fair most (but not all) online training runs in the neighborhood of $400 – $500 per credit hour.  But at my local community college, I will pay around $39 per credit hour.  That’s a savings of $1580.00 for 1 english class!  And oh, by the way…most of the classes at my local community college can be taken online.  Its a no-brainer for me.  Take a little longer and save a LOT!

So I typed up a really nice email, thanking the folks at Art Institute Online for working with me, being patient and providing so much information.  I told them that I just could not justify the expense of the bachelor degree when I could attend my local college so much cheaper.  I get a phone call about 30 minutes later from the admissions director wanting to know whats up.  I reiterate my previous email to him and thank him for his time.  He proceeds to bring up some of our earlier conversation where I said that I was determined to get this degree and wasn’t going to let anyone stop me.  He went into a spill about them having a “diploma” and an “associates” program that would be cheaper and we needed to evaluate all of the options.  I asked him to send me information on those and I would look at it.  Turns out, they are the same amount per credit hour, just less credits to take.  So I would be in the same boat.  $10,000 for a diploma, $35,000 for an associates and still no bachelor degree.  He also sent me an email where he included my admission essay with certain parts highlighted.  This seems a little hard pressure to me but I have never attended college before so I do not know.  I AM determined and I AM highly motivated to get my bachelor degree.  But NOT for $75,000 when I can spend $5,000 at a CC, $18,000 at a 4 year school and have my bachelors for less than $25,000. 

Back to the “matrix”…I just feel like everthing is changing at such a rapid pace, my mind, emotions, and body cannot keep up.  They are just being pulled along for the ride.  My mind is mush, my emotions are touchy, and my body is tired.  And I haven’t even started school! 

Since I cannot start school until the summer semester a  good friend of mine suggested that I try to get a couple of certifications under my belt.  I have been looking at the Macromedia Flash Designer certificate.  I have also been eyeing the Adobe Photoshop/After Effects certificates.  I have about 3 months to work on that.  In the meantime I am researching scholarships again.  I have really found some good ones lately.  Before, it seemed they were all turning up at dead ends but I have about 26 that I am eligible for.  I guess I will be getting an education in essay writing as well!

Well, its almost the end of the day and I am ready to go home.  OH!  BTW…Bessie (my little 1994 green Suburu Legacy) layed down on me today.  She lost a CV joint so I will probably be trying to put one of those in this evening.

later,
whitey

Back to work!!

The weekend went really well.  We traveled to Tennessee Saturday evening and stayed on the grounds of the church.  We had good services Sunday morning and evening.  Since the boys were out of school for MLK day I took a vacation day yesterday (Monday).  We started to go to some caverns but they were closed.  We called some places in Pigeon Forge but they were closed as well.  So we came back through Asheville, ate at Texas Roadhouse (Best Ribs ever) and took the kids to Fun Depot for a little while.  We all had fun and I was able to spend a day with the family before school starts.

Speaking of school, I am getting kind of anxious.  I haven’t heard back about my financial aid.  As expensive as this school is (seems to be a thing with online universities) the financial aid is DEFINITELY going to make a difference.  I have also been trying to cover all of my bases as far as future education goes.  I have been looking at grad school (Master in Interaction Design) and want to make sure that going to the “Art Institute” of Pittsburg will not hurt my chances of being accepted should I choose to further my education.  It seems that national vs regional accreditation can make it difficult to transfer between colleges.  After speaking with the grad school, I was assured that it would not hurt my chances of acceptance.  As far as why I would pursue grad school, take a look at the employer list of recent grads:

Adaptive Path, Agnew Moyer Smith, Apple, Cooper, Ford, Frog Design, Google, IBM, IDEO, Macromedia, Method, Microsoft, Motorola, Razorfish, Samsung, Sapient, Smart Design, and Yahoo just to name a few…

 It tough getting back into the swing of things after a day off.  Already getting calls about computer problems, products that need to be photographed, my color laser machine is on the fritz and its just lunch time.  My freelance work is still as much (or more) than I can handle and it is just Tuesday.  It seems that the more progress I try to make, the further behind I get.  Maybe someday that will change.  But for now, that is the reality of life – work, eat, sleep…work, eat, sleep…

Later,
whitey

Just a blur…

Wow! Life is really moving right now. It seems like everyday I am playing catch-up and still getting behind. The full-time job workload is not really bad right now but its busy. The freelance work is as much as I can handle. I try and try but still cannot seem to spend enough time with my family. Tonight we are going to a revival about an hour and a half away. Tomorrow I leave for Tennessee where I will be preaching Sunday morning and evening. One good thing though, the kids are out of school on Monday and I took a vacation day so we will probably go to Pigeon Forge or something. Trying to keep balance in my life is something that I have struggled with for many years. I feel that I have to work to support my family financially but then I fall short in emotional support. And to top it all off, I enrolled at the Art Institute Online (Art Institute of Pittsburgh) to receive a BS in Interactive Media Design. This is something I should have finished a long time ago but didn’t. But like our Vice President told me, “Don’t worry about what you should have done, Just Do It Now!” It was not an easy decision but one that I gave a lot of thought. My wife and family are very supportive so that will help tremendously. I am going to start out part-time but plan to change to full-time if I feel that I can handle it. This is the same field that I have worked in for 10 years so I think it may be a little bit easier than someone just coming out of high school.

You may ask, “If you have worked in the field for 10 years, why are you bothering to get a degree now?” One would be my insatiable hunger for knowledge. I truly enjoy learning! Being self taught has its good points and bad. A bad point being that you miss a lot of the “foundation” that you get from attending formal college. Two would be to increase my chances of finding better employment in the future. Not having a degree has shut many doors for me although I had more than enough experience. Three would be to build self-confidence in my abilities. Many times I feel inferior when presenting designs and ideas around people with degrees in design. Four would be to provide a career path…who knows where life may take me.

Speaking of a blur…its time for me to move on!

Later,
whitey

Welcome!

It may not be obvious but you have just witnessed the first post of my online existence. Here I will document my life in tenses such as past, present and future. We will try to refrain from tenses such as Historical Present, Present of Past Action Still in Progress (whew!), Present Retained in Indirect Discourse (double whew!) and the like. Sound interesting?

Lets start with a little bit about myself…

married, father, son, brother, child of God, minister, elder, designer, developer, serious, fun, (can the last two coincide in the same list???) 30-something college student, over-weight, honest, motivated, memory challenged, …

My interests include:

My wife (had to say it!), my children, my soul, God, Jesus Christ, Bible, evangelism, food, computers, technology, web design/development, interactive multimedia, music, video, 3D/2D animation, blogs, information, learning, world travel, vacations…

Just to quickly bring you up to date on my life thus far (I will go into more detail in later posts), I was raised as a PK (Preachers Kid), I graduated in 1994 and was married the same year. My first real job was in a recording studio after school. After graduation I began work at a large Video Production/Recording Studio facility. Moved on to work at a record label and began freelance multimedia work in my spare time. Our first child was born in 1998. I worked 2 years for myself providing interactive multimedia services to a variety of companies. Our second child was born in 2000. Joined Corning Cable Systems as a Multimedia Developer. Our third child was born in 2002. Layed off for 3 months. Joined Ferguson Copeland (my present employer) as a web developer/photographer. Called to Preach in 2005. Starting college February 15th, 2007 (if everything goes as planned).

Well, this has been exciting but I’ve got to run.

Later,
whitey