Birthday

I finally have my computer running again. No viruses, hackers, or dead video cards anymore. Once I get a decent job I'm going to have to fully upgrade it though. Three years ago it was top of the line but now it struggles at a few things.

Speaking of jobs I've gotten a few bites. I took two and a half tests so far (the half is hard to describe let alone understand myself). No interviews however but who knows. I did manage a freelance gig with an Art Institute student that could be a good job for my resume.

A lot of the jobs out there are for flash and graphic designers. Not much 3D animator positions unless they require modeling, rigging, lighting, the works. A lot of the jobs I've been signing up for require Illustrator, but I would just use flash. Not CS4 though, I've tried that out and I'm not much of a fan of all the animation downgrades. What happened to keyframing an object, making a second keyframe that is on the other side of the screen only bigger, and making it grow/move at the same time? Even with the so called "Classic Tween" my symbols just slide over then grow in one frame. CS3 could do it so I'm not sure what happened. I'll upgrade to Toon Boom before I use CS4. From what I've seen of that program it looks like it can streamline a bunch of processes for you. I even heard that they animate Family Guy on it.

I was thinking the other day, Maniac Mansion was a real awesome game. I sold all my NES stuff when I moved, but I kept a copy of Maniac Mansion I had. It's so bad, but good at the same time. The Bad: The graphics look pretty bad - the characters walk like South Park when they move forward and in reverse - Using the NES controller like a mouse is horrible - while some of the music is great (ie Michael's theme or the alien's), a lot of the music is just high pitched screeching (ie Bernard's theme). And yet it's still a great game. Multiple characters with their own abilites like Bernard can fix things but the other kids can't, so choosing the right character becomes very important. The jokes are great and quirky like Jeff who puts the hamster in the microwave or calling the Alien Police. Since there are multiple characters, the game has to be set up so any combination will result in the same ending, so there are many paths to take in order to win. I was always interested in the fact that events would happen at certain times but there isn't a clock around warning you like when the nurse or the son walk around to get things or the time it takes the alien police to come down. Plus, like a lot of Lucasarts adventure games, you can die very easily if you do the wrong combination of tasks like filling the pool or fooling with the nuclear reactor.

My birthday is only 9 days away. I think I'm getting old because I don't need anything anymore. My computer is fixed so that's all I needed. I don't even want to do anything special that day. I don't mind birthday cake though, that is a must.