Tuesday, May 25, 2004
A path less travelled
It turns out that I just passed the Photoshop assessment after all. Not that it makes me feel that much better.
There's nothing worse than being indecisive at the moment - makes it hard to focus.
I guess it depends on whether I have 1.5 years to spend on this and whether I want to do this instead of my old job. But for now, the cool thing is that they are more than happy to take me during the inter-semester break.
Pumpkin Patch is doing a limited IPO. Yay. Fun to see how that goes.
And in other news, the WRX's windscreen got clobbered by a big chunk of rock from a truck last week. Add another thing to the "to-do" list along with the front shocks (which is starting to leak, slowly...)
There's nothing worse than being indecisive at the moment - makes it hard to focus.
I guess it depends on whether I have 1.5 years to spend on this and whether I want to do this instead of my old job. But for now, the cool thing is that they are more than happy to take me during the inter-semester break.
Pumpkin Patch is doing a limited IPO. Yay. Fun to see how that goes.
And in other news, the WRX's windscreen got clobbered by a big chunk of rock from a truck last week. Add another thing to the "to-do" list along with the front shocks (which is starting to leak, slowly...)
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
SomeThingsGoDownwards
I suppose I should do an update here...
The OneThing conference was great, as one expects from Kirk Bennett and Co. It felt like as if heaven came down to earth.
Back at the course, things are raining down like tetris pieces gone mad. A Photoshop summative project that was less than ho-hum, a Premiere video that repeatedly refused to render (wasting my time), and now we're supposed to start AfterEffects tomorrow (already after an extra day's grace due to a row of PCs losing power in the lab!).
Looking at this game with the 80/20 rule, if that much effort and sleepless nights are yielding this level of results, I should start looking at other options...
At least the tutor is meeting everybody one-on-one and providing some feedback, and some interesting conclusions have already been observed amongst my peers. Hope my turn comes soon, it might even confirm my suspicions above.
On the other hand, a classmate gave himself back to the Lord last Thursday night. Now that's good news for a change.
The OneThing conference was great, as one expects from Kirk Bennett and Co. It felt like as if heaven came down to earth.
Back at the course, things are raining down like tetris pieces gone mad. A Photoshop summative project that was less than ho-hum, a Premiere video that repeatedly refused to render (wasting my time), and now we're supposed to start AfterEffects tomorrow (already after an extra day's grace due to a row of PCs losing power in the lab!).
Looking at this game with the 80/20 rule, if that much effort and sleepless nights are yielding this level of results, I should start looking at other options...
At least the tutor is meeting everybody one-on-one and providing some feedback, and some interesting conclusions have already been observed amongst my peers. Hope my turn comes soon, it might even confirm my suspicions above.
On the other hand, a classmate gave himself back to the Lord last Thursday night. Now that's good news for a change.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Another day, another rant
I decided that leadership != management. Although both are needed for a good leader...
I would class "management" as the practical skills, competance and experience to marshall the necessary resources to get something done. A good manager, therefore would tell you what to do but also organise anything you need to get it done with.
Leadership would be the intrinsic character and attitude of the person concerned. A good leader should not feel entitled to boss it over others, have a listening ear, and willing to learn.
You can get more management skills easily enough. Universities tend to churn those out by the hundreds. There isn't much that can fix poor leadership, though.
Obviously, I'd rather be stuck under an incompetent leader (at least they can improve their management skills) than a good manager with bad leadership.
I would class "management" as the practical skills, competance and experience to marshall the necessary resources to get something done. A good manager, therefore would tell you what to do but also organise anything you need to get it done with.
Leadership would be the intrinsic character and attitude of the person concerned. A good leader should not feel entitled to boss it over others, have a listening ear, and willing to learn.
You can get more management skills easily enough. Universities tend to churn those out by the hundreds. There isn't much that can fix poor leadership, though.
Obviously, I'd rather be stuck under an incompetent leader (at least they can improve their management skills) than a good manager with bad leadership.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Random thoughts
In the course every now and then we are required to write some thoughts... thought (getit?) I'll dig up this one dated 18 March:
The ability to harness the constant stream of psuedo-random thoughts from one's imagination into an articulate form is the essence of storytelling - Me :)
The greater the vision, the greater the possibilities - Jerome Tuiala
It is easy to be sucessful, but staying that way is difficult. Come up with some brilliant, and somebody else always do better. There is always the fellow with more power, money, possessions, or apparent satisfaction than you. The trick is to not compare your lot with others, but be content with what you have.
Like a neighborhood of children in a remote African village with nothing but their rags who live happily and harmoniously with each other - as soon as one kid gets given something of perceived unique value (eg. a balloon), the equilbrium is lost, and all hell breaks loose as they now focus on that one thing.
Is the pursuit of excellence/perfection/sucess/whatever doomed to be at the expense of another person? One thing is for sure - it's like a rat in a roller cage that treadmills endlessly.
One must define the meaning of life for him/herself or else everything will look gray and meaningless, not to mention somebody else will impose their meaning on you!
The ability to harness the constant stream of psuedo-random thoughts from one's imagination into an articulate form is the essence of storytelling - Me :)
The greater the vision, the greater the possibilities - Jerome Tuiala
It is easy to be sucessful, but staying that way is difficult. Come up with some brilliant, and somebody else always do better. There is always the fellow with more power, money, possessions, or apparent satisfaction than you. The trick is to not compare your lot with others, but be content with what you have.
Like a neighborhood of children in a remote African village with nothing but their rags who live happily and harmoniously with each other - as soon as one kid gets given something of perceived unique value (eg. a balloon), the equilbrium is lost, and all hell breaks loose as they now focus on that one thing.
Is the pursuit of excellence/perfection/sucess/whatever doomed to be at the expense of another person? One thing is for sure - it's like a rat in a roller cage that treadmills endlessly.
One must define the meaning of life for him/herself or else everything will look gray and meaningless, not to mention somebody else will impose their meaning on you!
Nice big update
Well it's about time I dusted off this thing...
So what's been happening... Quit my old job @ Pumpkin Patch, been to Africa and back, moved up to Snells Beach to do (i.e. beta test) some 3D animation course, all in the space of a few short months.
Now I know enough to photochop slightly better than the usual "Mr T vs ?" pictures, and just about to start on real motion picture work with (you might've guessed it), Premiere Pro.
With some form of internet access I can actually now start to update this and me website @ netfirms. But don't hold your breath though, I might lose my meagre audience ;)
Looking forward to OneThing this weekend...
Tchau!
So what's been happening... Quit my old job @ Pumpkin Patch, been to Africa and back, moved up to Snells Beach to do (i.e. beta test) some 3D animation course, all in the space of a few short months.
Now I know enough to photochop slightly better than the usual "Mr T vs ?" pictures, and just about to start on real motion picture work with (you might've guessed it), Premiere Pro.
With some form of internet access I can actually now start to update this and me website @ netfirms. But don't hold your breath though, I might lose my meagre audience ;)
Looking forward to OneThing this weekend...
Tchau!
