Eyes Wide Shut.
Ok, this day has been absolutely crazy. First a small bit of backgound (though different from previous post because it relates to this one --- shut up).
Every day it seems like I come up with a really cool idea for SnS. Honestly, I have 4 proposal ideas. But the world is bittersweet in that 1) i don't have time to do them 2) SnS might not want to do them 3) this is the only time in my life where i likely could do at least some of them, but i can't. Oh well, I'm proposing something next year (meaning my senior year). Maybe another reason to stick around for a fifth year. Maybe a reason not to.
I also seem to be getting more and more ideas of incredible other things I could do if I ever had some fucking time. That seems to be a theme but I promise you this is a happy post.
Then today came. I left my alarm clock (the Shake Awake) in cleveland, so last night I set an alarm on my computer. Then I spent about an hour trying to find software that would call to wake me up for free. There was one thing that would call me every 3 minutes until I entered a PIN in the phone, but it was $3 a day. So I went to sleep. Then this morning I woke up to the sound of the woman putting the loud clangy wheelchair ramp over the stairs right outside my window and, assuming I slept in and the alarms didn't work, looked at my clock to see it was 10:22, 3 min before I had wanted to get up. At 10:25, I was still in bed and my phone rang. I was thinking, what the hell? Did I accidentally get something to call me right when I wanted to be called? It was a wrong number. But what are the chances that someone calls the wrong number, MY number right at 10:25 am? Seriously.
Then I get to work and there's this guy here. He asks about a lot of movies and I look them up. He's still here and so I ask, "are you teaching a class in the fall?" It turns out he's a new professor in the art department teaching a class called Introduction to Interactive Graphics. In his class, he teaches art students to use code to make film. In the hour that followed, he managed to give meaning and direction to my life. I honestly now feel that there is something in this world that I will be happy doing, whatever it might be. First, he studied under this guy named Marc Davis who is the head of a graduate program at Univ of Berkeley that is blending computing and film (no joke). He does research in metadata, attempting to allow computers to understand the language of film. He's combining both things I want to do with my life through a medium of language which has also interested me!! The dream is to have a computer be able to understand what a film is about and even make films that are tailored to the viewer's preferences. It's incredible. He's studying the language of film, it's syntax and grammar, so he can describe it electronically.
As if hope for my future career path isn't enough, there's more!! He has been to London. He lived there. He told me it is twice as expensive as NYC which is at least twice as expensive as Pittsburgh. He said I will pay $4.50 to get on the tube in London and wonder why it costs so much to be hot and miserable in the slowest train I've ever ridden in. Then he told me, this is the best part, I should go to India. Not only was I telling Ram but a week or so ago that I want to go to India, but this professor guy said that while I may or may not agree America is on the decline, the film industry of India is booming. So many many things are good about this proposition. Fulbright is very cery competitive to get to London, but not nearly as much to India. Further, Fulbright will eat up that proposal. It's everything they're about!!! I know this after reading the 100+ page information magazine. And he said even if I don't like the films or whatever, it would be an incredible experience, which is true.
He also told me what I all along knew to be somewhat true. Though I think the lure of film still might take me in, he said that if I went with my IS job to get money to make films plan it would turn into a I have a job let's not risk anything and then a I wish I had been a filmmaker plan.
I'm so excited. For life. And I'm totally going to either go to NYC or make some kind of film by the end of the summer. Maybe.
Every day it seems like I come up with a really cool idea for SnS. Honestly, I have 4 proposal ideas. But the world is bittersweet in that 1) i don't have time to do them 2) SnS might not want to do them 3) this is the only time in my life where i likely could do at least some of them, but i can't. Oh well, I'm proposing something next year (meaning my senior year). Maybe another reason to stick around for a fifth year. Maybe a reason not to.
I also seem to be getting more and more ideas of incredible other things I could do if I ever had some fucking time. That seems to be a theme but I promise you this is a happy post.
Then today came. I left my alarm clock (the Shake Awake) in cleveland, so last night I set an alarm on my computer. Then I spent about an hour trying to find software that would call to wake me up for free. There was one thing that would call me every 3 minutes until I entered a PIN in the phone, but it was $3 a day. So I went to sleep. Then this morning I woke up to the sound of the woman putting the loud clangy wheelchair ramp over the stairs right outside my window and, assuming I slept in and the alarms didn't work, looked at my clock to see it was 10:22, 3 min before I had wanted to get up. At 10:25, I was still in bed and my phone rang. I was thinking, what the hell? Did I accidentally get something to call me right when I wanted to be called? It was a wrong number. But what are the chances that someone calls the wrong number, MY number right at 10:25 am? Seriously.
Then I get to work and there's this guy here. He asks about a lot of movies and I look them up. He's still here and so I ask, "are you teaching a class in the fall?" It turns out he's a new professor in the art department teaching a class called Introduction to Interactive Graphics. In his class, he teaches art students to use code to make film. In the hour that followed, he managed to give meaning and direction to my life. I honestly now feel that there is something in this world that I will be happy doing, whatever it might be. First, he studied under this guy named Marc Davis who is the head of a graduate program at Univ of Berkeley that is blending computing and film (no joke). He does research in metadata, attempting to allow computers to understand the language of film. He's combining both things I want to do with my life through a medium of language which has also interested me!! The dream is to have a computer be able to understand what a film is about and even make films that are tailored to the viewer's preferences. It's incredible. He's studying the language of film, it's syntax and grammar, so he can describe it electronically.
As if hope for my future career path isn't enough, there's more!! He has been to London. He lived there. He told me it is twice as expensive as NYC which is at least twice as expensive as Pittsburgh. He said I will pay $4.50 to get on the tube in London and wonder why it costs so much to be hot and miserable in the slowest train I've ever ridden in. Then he told me, this is the best part, I should go to India. Not only was I telling Ram but a week or so ago that I want to go to India, but this professor guy said that while I may or may not agree America is on the decline, the film industry of India is booming. So many many things are good about this proposition. Fulbright is very cery competitive to get to London, but not nearly as much to India. Further, Fulbright will eat up that proposal. It's everything they're about!!! I know this after reading the 100+ page information magazine. And he said even if I don't like the films or whatever, it would be an incredible experience, which is true.
He also told me what I all along knew to be somewhat true. Though I think the lure of film still might take me in, he said that if I went with my IS job to get money to make films plan it would turn into a I have a job let's not risk anything and then a I wish I had been a filmmaker plan.
I'm so excited. For life. And I'm totally going to either go to NYC or make some kind of film by the end of the summer. Maybe.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home