Saturday, February 28, 2015

Life Update, etc.

So, it has been a long time since I blogged anything. Like, last December a long time. A lot has happened in the past couple of months, so I should probably blog about it for those who don't know, and for myself, for when I'm old and can't remember my own name. It's Jonathan, sir, your name is Jonathan.

First, I went back to school. I have 4 classes this semester, but with two of them having weekly labs, separate from the main classes, it feels more like 6. One class is kind of a continuation of a class from last semester, it's kind of a hands on graphic design course. I do know quite a few things being taught, but with the way the programs change so rapidly, it's good to have a refresher.

The next class is a video production/editing class. I kind of think this will be the class that keeps me busiest. By the end of the semester I will have need to have turned in at least 4 videos, with the footage from everything totaling at least 14 minutes. Only 4 videos doesn't sound like too much, but there's a lot that goes into each video, not the least of which is coming up with ideas, and I have to do them all myself. Yikes, I need to get busy on that.

The next class is more videos, but this time with a focus on television news, and writing for the web and television. There's not too many videos, I don't think, but there's a lot of writing. Hopefully this class won't be so hard, I don't have too many problems with writing.

Last but not least, is my favorite class this semester, Creative Writing. So far we haven't written too much more than our short writing prompts, but out of those I've got at least one, if not two poems, and I never would have guessed in a million years I could do that. I still think it's a fluke, and I doubt much more will come of it, but the TA told me I looked like a poet, so who knows. We'll see what happens. For our first big workshop I elected to turn in some previous work instead of coming up with something all new. We had been talking about creative non-fiction, and some of the examples we read were almost completely fiction, with elements of truth, and the way the teacher explained it sounded exactly like something I had written before, so I turned in three of my Twist Ending stories. They were actually a pretty big hit, with some people even wanting more! Well, I do have more... :)

Outside of class I have been pretty busy with photography for the paper. I've consistently had at least one assignment a week, with some weeks having two or three! I've photographed both the student government and city government meetings now, the latter of which was pretty boring, but the student government can get quite lively, especially on the night they voted to ban e-cigarettes. One guy I thought was going to cry, he did NOT want e-cigarettes banned! I have some pictures I can post that I've taken, but I think I'll save that for another post. I will TRY not to go too long without a post!

The last bit of news, for those of you who don't know, I am now a writer for the Rotoscopers animation blog! I write news and reviews of my favorite animated series. It's a pretty sweet job. It's not a paying job, but it's so much fun I don't care. It's good experience should I need writing experience in a professional setting someday.

So far I've done three articles. News is kind of slow this time of year, with new episodes being few and far between, but when something happens I'll be on it!
The first was a news release about the return of Gravity Falls.
http://www.rotoscopers.com/2015/01/22/season-2-of-gravity-falls-returns-on-february-16/
The second was a recap/review of the premiere episode of the new show, Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
http://www.rotoscopers.com/2015/01/23/recap-review-of-new-disney-channel-series-star-vs-the-forces-of-evil-s1e1/
The last is a review of the last episode of Gravity Falls.
(Do not read it if you don't want to be MAJORLY spoiled!)
http://www.rotoscopers.com/2015/02/23/recap-review-of-gravity-falls-northwest-mansion-mystery-s2e10/

That's all my news for now. Hopefully It won't be another two months before I post again!