I’ve been pretty lazy as far as my mastery goes. I’ve mostly been drawing concept designs for it at home, things like landscapes and all that jazz. I’ve also been creating the dialogue that will be said, coming up with different ideas for the conversations the characters will be having. Nothing ground breaking just yet, but I’ll get there. Just been trying to figure out how to get everything into Gamemaker.

As far as break, it was okay. I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my family, as I haven’t had the time to do so recently due to work and school. It was great to sit down and eat with them for once. What I didn’t enjoy however, was the rush of people that came to work the next day (My job had closed for Thanksgiving, and I guess people really wanted their McDonald’s after not getting it thanksgiving.)

My holiday cards, in my opinion, were actually worse than the ones I had made last year. Last year, I had put a lot of thought and effort into the designs, and had enjoyed creating them immensely. This year, however, I did not have the energy or drive to create them the way I had last year. And they definitely suffered due to it. I did not enjoy it like I had last year, and simply didn’t want to do it as much. I did like the designs, don’t get me wrong, they just weren’t the best work I could’ve made.

For the military folks, I wrote a basic message of thanks, and wished them to stay safe. I didn’t do anything super personal, as I don’t know them myself, but I still put some heartfelt items. I dunno. I’m bad at explaining.

Best thing I learned this week? Well, it’s something I’ve been trying to learn a long time, but it’s unrelated to the programs and everything. It’s more… Something about myself. I’ve learned to put some trust in people. Not much, mind you – don’t like people knowing about me and my issues. But, I’m learning to put some trust in folks and that they aren’t always trying to find something against me. I haven’t put too much trust still, but it’s an improvement from nothing. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to fully trust people. For now though, I’m content with the minimal trust I managed to put with folks.

I haven’t done much on the senior mastery front. Hoping to do some of the level designs over break though. Just been having a rough week or so, haven’t done much in general really.

I have also reflected on my micrography last week, as I had finished it last week since it was fairly easy for me.

My thoughts on compassion and kindness? The world definitely needs more of it. If we need to commend people on being compassionate and kind, then there’s a definite issue as far as giving compassion and kindness. It shouldn’t be so hard to give, as it seems to be for most people. I think this school and the students do an excellent job of being kind and compassionate, though there are definitely some kids who don’t care just because where you’re from or what you’re skin color is or who you are. This school is much better about it than others, as I see a lot less of the issue than I would at a base school, but there are always bad eggs who have to be judgemental. Some people are raised that way and are set in that way.

As far as the video, I think it’s okay. It gets the point across that it wants to get across, but it didn’t really make me feel. It isn’t memorable to me. It’s decent enough, it just has a lot of room to improve. The people didn’t sound like it was coming from their heart, it sounded scripted. It might just be me though. They just… didn’t have the emotion with it that I expected they would and that some probably should.

As far as thanksgiving, there’s a few things I am thankful for. I’m thankful for the friends I have gained, I’m thankful for my cat and the time I get to spend with him, I’m thankful (mostly) for my family. I’m also, quite honestly, thankful for games and books. Without them, and my cat, I would honestly be in a lot worse place than I am currently.

I haven’t done much on my mastery, due to focusing on trying to catch up due to missing Monday and Tuesday. However, I do know what my next two sources for my annotated bibs will be, and hope that I can actually do them on time for once.

As far as my micrography goes, I had finished it fairly quickly as it turned out to be very fun and very interesting for me. I didn’t encounter many issues, other than at the beginning with picking out what I wish to do for it. After that, I got the ball rolling with it really fast. I didn’t expect it to be as interesting and fun as it ended up being, so it was a surprisingly pleasant experience and it did turn out surprisingly good. This is what it looks like:

For the guest speakers, I had enjoyed them all. The SCAD speaker we had this year was a lot more energetic than the one we had last year, and made the experience a lot more enjoyable for me (I did enjoy it last year, but the increased energy did make it better). The Tech Talent South speaker was also great; learning about the company was very interesting, and they were also kind enough to let me intern with them when we do internships which definitely helps me out. The CCU Speaker told us about a program that seems a lot like DC, and seems interesting; however, I won’t apply to it due to the fact I already know where I am going for college.

My grades first quarter were actually very good, I just didn’t finish my annotated bibs that quarter. That’s something I need to work on and I know it, I just have absolutely no time and since everything I need is typically blocked in school it’s a bit difficult to actually grab the time and the resources to complete them. I guess I need to get better time management skills, or do less with work and my family, but I don’t know. I do wish to finish them on time, but we shall see.

This week was… In all honesty, a pretty slow week. Me and clayton managed to pretty much finish the villain, and I’ve been looking into buying GameMaker and doing some research on finding out a way to make the music and get it to GameMaker. I also plan on starting to research on how to do the background/level design for the game, as that is what we decided I’d do and I know it’ll be a great learning experience, especially considering I tend to avoid doing anything background related with anything I do. Time I force myself to try new things art wise I guess, right? I’m hoping that we can start designing the game as far as graphics, and have those done by the end of November slash the beginning of December. Then, we’ll work on getting the game to function. I truly believe we can get it to the point of playability, even if it won’t be the ‘complete’ game. Exciting things coming up as far as that goes!

My final Wake Up Carolina poster design is, in my opinion, pretty clever. It references the old trope of ‘monsters under the bed’, and states that they don’t just hide under the bed. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out, even though it wasn’t something I put too much time and effort into. I just didn’t have any ideas for it really, so I just did what I could. I do believe it turned out nice in the end either way though.

Spirit week was great! I loved all the customs I saw. I thought it was neat how the majority of the seniors decided to go for the movie ‘It’ (I obviously wasn’t one of them, went as a Pokemon Trainer instead. That was fun!). I’m glad I actually participated in spirit week this go around, as I really haven’t done it in any of the other years I’ve been in school. Actually participating for once has been an amazing experience, and I actually kinda regret not doing it now that I have actually done it. Oh well, can’t do much about that! I, unfortunately, couldn’t stay for the actual Fall Festival, but I heard it was really fun and I’m glad it was! I’m glad the juniors got to have the fun I had when I did it as a junior.

I can’t wait to see what other fun events will come along, and how those will pan out!

The trip to USC and the State Fair was great! I am incredibly satisfied with how it went. I, honestly, did not pay attention much to the USC portion; I already know what college I want to go to, and will be attending, and didn’t really wish to pay attention to something I personally don’t believe will affect me in the slightest.

The state fair portion, however, I enjoyed immensely! I was incredibly proud and happy after seeing the art show, as my piece had made it in. I was surprised, and ecstatic due to how much time I put into it; I did not think my skills had improved enough that I would get into the show this year unlike last year. But I did, and it makes me feel so much better about my art skills and how much I’ve improved since joining this major. This major has done so much for me, and I’m so glad it has allowed me to improve my skills as I never thought I’d be able to do so. I am also super proud and happy for all my friends and fellow people in the major, as seeing how many got in was amazing and their pieces were amazing. I’m happy to see the skills of everyone in the major, and proud to see how amazing their skills are and I hope to see how they improve as the year goes on! Who knows, I might go to state fair next year just to see how the junior’s skills improved. I have no doubt they’ll be just amazing.

I also won quite a few prizes from the games, as a side note. That was surprising. I got lucky and won one of those harder minigames, the ones that are rigged you know? It made me happy. I also worked together with Clayton to win a minigame, which was fun and great. And I got to try minigames I always thought I’d be bad at, but I did surprisingly great and enjoyed everything. The state fair is a lot more interesting when you actually have money to spend I guess!

As far as my mastery goes, this week I’ve started to work more on the enemies and ‘villains’ of the game for my mastery and last week I had finished the other two main characters for it. I’ve created a total of two basic enemies, and a ‘anti-hero’ type of character; he won’t play for either side, helping both and hindering both for his own amusement. I feel like he’s going to be my favorite! I’ve also been considering more with the plot. nothing too major but trying to fix up some holes in it that I’ve noticed. I’ve also been doing some research for the bib’s, since I have a bad habit of slacking on those things and know that if I don’t do it now I won’t do it ever.

In short: I found this week to be fairly productive, and overall a great week. Which makes me happy, been a while since I’ve had a good week. Bout time I had one haha.

For my senior mastery, I’ve finally started designing the characters for the game me and Clayton are creating. Thus far, I’ve drawn and somewhat colored in one of them (only really wanted to have the colors, so I didn’t color him in all that well), the ‘leader’ of my half of the characters. Clayton and I decided to do half of the main characters each. I get three, and he gets three. He’s going to create the humans of the group, and I am creating the ‘humanoids’ of the group. Here is the main guy from the half I’m doing, who is going to be named ‘Teiyaun’:

(includes some notes about him; he will be the standard ‘warrior’ class that is usually seen in a RPG)

I am excited to finally begin the characters of the game, and am generally excited with how our progress is going as far as it goes. We also decided to name the game ‘Rewind’, based on the abilities the two mains have (it relates to time, one being able to ‘rewind’ it and the other can freeze it). I hope to design the rest of my half, some of the monsters, and the villain by the end of this month so that we can start working on the actual map design for the game.

I am not taking a major part as far as the door goes, due to a general lack of ideas. I truly can’t think of anything I can do as far as the door goes. All I can think of is designing breast cancer as some sort of monster to be defeated. Otherwise, I’ve got nothing. I don’t think my idea fits what they are trying to go for with our door design thus far, so I don’t think I’ll mention it.

As far as my logo for the SC Human Affairs Commission, I liked how mine came out. It certainly isn’t the most ‘creative’, but I do feel like it gets across what it is required to. I hope it does win, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at this point if it didn’t. My design style isn’t exactly the type of thing people look for with logos and the like. Oh well, I think it turned out great and that’s all that matters to me as I’m starting to finally be able to like my art.

My week has been lazy, as far as school work goes. I’ve been more focused on some personal issues on me, so I have neglected some of my academic duties to be truthful. I have finished my story for the game that me and Clayton are working on for our mastery though, which is what I was really hoping to finish in all honesty. I am pleased with how the story is, though it’s likely to go through some changes as stories often do. Anyways, I’ve started to work on the character designs I wished to do, since now that the story is done, I can finally focus on those guys since I now know what their roles shall be and what type of person they need to be for the story. I also gave Clayton free reign over the other three, since they are humans and that’s what he wishes to do.

I honestly haven’t really done much with my annotated bibs. I’ll have them done, definitely, but those have honestly been in the back of my mind for the longest of times. So back in the back of my mind I honestly forgot them for a while. All I really know is that my question is along the lines of ‘What impact does video games have on people and society as a whole?’. While I haven’t done them quite yet, I have a good feeling I’ll find plenty of information and research on it as I personally believe games have had such a major impact on us that it would be hard not to notice.

As far as door decorating, that has also been in the back of my mind. It’s not something I really care about in all honesty. I care about the message it conveys, definitely; cancer is something that is awful and needs to be defeated. I just feel that we focus on certain types of cancer more than others. We focus so much on breast cancer, but what about folks with other types? I understand how much of an issue breast cancer is, but so are other types. I don’t know. It’s just not something I feel motivated and compelled to do. I have no ideas for it, as I just can’t think of anything for it and I can’t force myself to care about it.

Probably made myself sound really awful oops. Oh well.

My design process for the SCHAC logo was pretty simple, in my personal opinion anyhow. I did what many others did, which is incorporate the South Carolina state outline in it. I decided to do a two-toned hand with an equal sign in the middle in the center of the state outline I did. I did the hand in two different colors to stand for diversity and the equal sign in the hand to stand for equality, as that’s what the organization is related to (Equality/To stop discrimination in things like house-owning and jobs.) I finished drawing those pretty quickly, my main struggle stemmed from the actual colors for the design. It was hard to pick what colors to do, as I didn’t really know what would fit for the logo. Eventually, I settled on making the logo itself green and white, and the organization’s name and the tag line orange, aka keeping the colors already used because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do. I found this to be an easy project, though that might just be because my idea itself is simple.

As far as my mastery goes, I’ve mainly been working on the story for the game. My thought process is that if the story is all figured out, or at least mostly figured out, then it will be easier to design characters, music, levels… Basically, the entire world would be easier to design if we know what we are going to do story wise. I’m thinking that we might just start kind of in the middle of a story, like some books do. You know, where they are in the middle of some big action scene and then the main character basically says ‘lets start over at the beginning…’. Like, the Emperor’s New Groove (I think it does this. I could be wrong, I haven’t seen the movie in ages). Anyways, that’s all that I’ve really been doing. I’ve also been looking for sources for my annotated bibliography, but I haven’t been too focused on that due to other obligations (work, school work, etc. etc.), but I know I should probably put forth more time into finding some sources.

Thus far this week, I’ve been mainly watching tutorials on how to make a game function correctly and that works specifically for RPGs. I’ve learned how to make the sprite move, and how to create a basic sprite mannequin (aka a placeholder that resembles a sprite without all the details and stuff that make a character). I’ve also been jotting down ideas on what the plot for the game will be; I wanted to make sure I could actually make the game before I started designing it and creating a story, and now that I have enough of an understanding and now realize that I do have the ability to make the game, I feel confident enough to continue on with it. I plan on focusing mostly on figuring out the entire plot of the short game for this month, as it takes me some time to fully develop a plot and I find that designing characters becomes a lot easier after you know the story that they need to fit.

My senior year has been pretty good thus far; a little exhausted due to my hours at work, but nothing some caffeine can’t fix I suppose. I enjoy my classes for the most part (I don’t like my Spanish 101 class too much, find the class to be completely and utterly boring). Astronomy has been incredibly chill and interesting, and I spend half the day in the major which makes me happy (I enjoy talking to the juniors, they’re all pretty cool and silly and they seem like great people. Glad I’m getting the chance to interact with them!). Psychology 201 has been interesting as well – I’m not doing the best in the class right now, but I still enjoy it, and as I already stated I don’t enjoy Spanish 101 too much.

This year is going to be a busy year, definitely. I have a lot to balance, mainly my job and my school work. Thus far I’ve been managing that pretty well, still forget to do homework sometimes (I have plenty of time I just forget I have it lol), my job has been really accommodating schedule wise since they realize school is more important than working for me, which pleases me to no end (I like my job somewhat; bit stressful, but the people are great and I haven’t had many awful customers). I also need to figure out when I can hang out with friends due to conflicting days off, and when to exercise once I find a gym I can get to easily. Right now though, balancing has been fairly simple and I hope that once I add new things to my schedule that it’ll continue to be as simple.

A new year, full of new classes. It’s been pretty interesting and chill thus far.

I’ve mainly worked on my state fair piece since I got back into the major, as I really want it to get in this time and I want it to be better. I’ve improved a lot since the first state fair, and I want that to actually be seen this time around. I’ve also been doing a bit of research for how a game can be successful, and figuring out how to create a game for my senior mastery (which, if it wasn’t obvious yet, will be a game). I’ve also just been doing my school work, trying to make sure my grades stay up especially since this is the last stretch before I get thrown into the mix of adulthood and college life. I’ve been enjoying my astronomy class and my psychology class, and my major obviously, but I haven’t been really enjoying my Spanish class. Pretty boring, in all honesty. But you gotta do what you gotta do, you know?

I wasn’t here for the visit to the media center, due to the fact I had an appointment during the time it happened. I should probably visit on my own I suppose, the information would be very helpful for me.

Honestly though, this year doesn’t feel all that much different than last year. I just feel excited to be so close to graduating, and to be with my friends again. It’s also a lot easier this year, I suppose, since I don’t have many classes I need to actually take this year and have more free time. I also now have a better understanding of this school, and the programs I use while here, than I did last year, which made adjusting to school again a lot easier and led me to have a lot less confusion. I suppose it just feels… Easier now. I expected it to feel more overwhelming and things to be a bit more difficult, but I’m honestly really glad that that wasn’t the case. Makes my life and my day easier at least.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for me. I just hope it isn’t anything awful.