Rebeccannoying

College, that is. Yesterday was my last final in my last studio course of my last year of college. I graduate on Monday, and then I'm free! It hasn't really sunk in yet o.o I still have a few more things to get done, and then I have a month off before work starts. It's a crazy feeling. College has dictated my life since 2009. I'm considering a master's degree (work will pay for it as long as it's relevant, so why not?) but for the near future homework will no longer be a part of my life. It's kind of hard to imagine o.x

The past few months have been a complete and utter roller coaster. The studios this time around were much more rigorous, but also much more fun. I actually sold some of the products from my first studio, and my design from the second served as the launching pad for a product that's currently in development. It has received some publicity, so I may post links when the articles are up. My final studio ended up being a mix of architecture, product design, and digital art--a culmination of the areas I focused in throughout my college career. It was quite conceptual and entirely impractical, but it was a great learning experience. (Also did a deep dive into archviz with Cycles... what a headache, lol). 

Plenty of bad things happened as well. My boyfriend/roommate had a brutal boss and generally terrible workplace. (As an example of just how terrible it was, the ENTIRE staff--except for two people--is leaving and the boss has two lawsuits for racism and abuse filed against them). Anyway, he was fired from his job back in February. Due to my schooling, we're living downtown in the city where everything is extraordinarily expensive. We were managing well enough on his salary, but once it was gone things became a lot more challenging. As if that wasn't bad enough, he started having all sorts of car trouble... a fender bender, cracked radiator, gas leaking inside his engine, and a smashed window. The window happened because I forgot my DSLR bag in his truck and someone stole it. Thankfully I had the camera body and one lens in my apartment, but it's cost me several hundred dollars to replace things over time. I would have preferred to wait until I have an income, but I couldn't because I needed the stuff for school. So frustrating

To end on a more positive note, I have a small backlog of art to post ^^ I'm also thinking of opening a stock account; part of my work this term involved capturing a ton of high res images to convert to seamless textures, plus some HDR environments for 3D modeling. I also have a fair deal of photography that isn't quite good enough to go in my gallery, but it's perfectly usable as reference and stock material. I'm not sure what the near future holds in terms of art (still reeling from finals) but I imagine the pace will pick up. As usual, thank you to all my watchers who have stuck around for all these months of little/no activity from me. It means a lot

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Thanks to those who popped by! :3

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(it's also full of allergens but I'll remain optimistic, lol)

Things have moved forward quite a bit since my last journal. I'm now in my final term of college for the foreseeable future, and it's a strange feeling. Life is about to change a lot! I'm excited at the prospect of regular paychecks and whatnot, but I'm going to miss school life. That internship turned into a job offer, so thankfully I won't have the stress of job hunting to worry about this summer. Last term's design project also went really well, and it's being considered for small-scale production! I'm really excited about it, but it's out of my hands for the time being. 

In terms of art, I do have a bunch of sketches (plus all that design work last term) that I could post. I'm also working on two other costume projects (maybe three!) but those won't be submitted for some time. I'm wondering if something like Twitter may be more appropriate for the way I work these days. I feel like stuff I put on dA needs to be more polished, and that stops me from posting much at all. Thank you to all the highly patient watchers of mine who have stayed along for the ride in spite of my inactivity

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And now for something COMPLETELY different >.>

For one of my design classes, I'm hoping to develop a product that helps diabetics with lifestyle management. As a diabetic myself, this is something really important to me and an area I'm convinced could use some improvement. As part of the research phase, I'm collecting information from diabetics far and wide. If you're diabetic (or pre-diabetic!) it would REALLY help me out if you could take the survey I wrote and help me learn how my fellow diabetics manage their disease :3 It's only 9 questions, so it's not terribly tedious.

Additionally, it would be magical if a few people were willing to let me interview them via notes/Skype. I would be happy to exchange some free art for your time

Thanks guys!

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Well, that only took forever |D I just got my tower set up again, so I should I should be available more frequently. Prior to this, I was using my work laptop so I tried not to use it for personal stuff too often. I was able to check messages occasionally, but now I should be more available The reason it took so long to set up my personal computer was that we moved into our new apartment the night before school started, so it was box city in here for the longest time. My work week days average 12 hours (night classes combined with an hour commute one way to work) and my Saturdays and Sundays have been spent in the shop for the past four weeks. I took yesterday off of school and did a HUGE amount of cleaning and unpacking, so now our space is somewhat presentable. Most of my art things are nicely organized, and we found a really nice glass drafting table by a dumpster (someone was moving I guess?) so I have rather small but nice area to work. I also bought a sewing machine! This will make future school projects soooooooooooooooooo much easier. 

In less positive news, HR told my boss that they can't actually extend my internship, so the days of magical paychecks and free healthcare will be coming to and end I wish I could just focus on school, but rent is so high here that I NEED to find work somewhere so my savings will last more than 3-4 months. Hopefully I can find another paid internship, but those are rather rare these days. I'll get a letter of intent shortly after leaving the company, so at the very least I'll know if I got lucky or I'll need to hit the job market again. My Wacom tablet mouse is also breaking; sometimes the buttons will register 3-8 clicks or none at all, and this time I don't think it's the drivers. I wish they weren't $65 :I I think I'll just buy a really comfy gaming mouse instead, lol. 

Anyway, gonna go install a coat rack. How have people been? Any new or major changes in life? I feel so out of the loop |D

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