Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

First day of classes down!

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

What a day…I got up, took a shower, put my shoes on, walked out the door, and faced the music….and boy, am I glad I did!

Although it was only the first day of classes, I am very excited to see what the UTD EMAC program has in store for me.

My first class was an intro to rigging class…Its an upper level ATEC class that I got put in at the last moment to fill my schedule…Most of the students in there had taken several 3d classes there and knew Maya like their back of their hand…to be honest, I was a little intimidated, the guy next to me had an amazing portfolio.  Needless to say, I got thrown in there and had not really even used or looked at maya since it was Alias Maya 6.5…The professor had our class do some timed excorsizes to see where we are at and I did horribly! I have completely forgotten how to work in Maya! We got a class assignment to rig a pendulum by the next class, so I am going to spend all of my time this weekend getting re-acquainted with the Maya UI and try and do a bang up job on this assignment.I am really looking forward to this class. This is the first time in my college career that I have gotten to do any 3D, and it beats the heck out of anything core classes have to offer!

The 2nd class I had today was called Writing and Research for New Media…The professor I got is amazingly cool! Finally someone who sees the big picture! Although his first class was really just an introduction, telling us a little about himself and the class, I felt very good about it…I chose EMAC as my major and it seems like if the program is designed like this class is I will definitely be getting my moneys worth out of my education! Our first assignment is to set up a blog and a twitter account…I already have em, however I am thinking about setting up a blog just for school…In fact on my drive to school in the morning I was thinking it would be cool to do a day by day account of my experiance in the program…

It was kind of funny, I though I was out of luck on getting a 4th class for the semester, however my adviser stuck me in a class and forgot to tell me about it…So I got an email from the schools bursar’s office telling me I owed them another grand, got freaked out and was like ohh, I have class like right now! So it turns out I have 12 hours this semester anyway…Which is good…

I still have a lot of unfinished freelance work that I fear my interfere with my studies…I told myself I would get everything done by the first day of classes, but it snuck up on me way too fast, I still have a few hundred hours of work to do, sheesh! I am gonna have to turn down any more work I get so I can focus on school now…It’s weird saying “Nope, sorry, I can’t!” to clients.

Since I am out of time for personal projects this semester I am going to hire some contractors to finish all the coding I had planned for my companies other website (txmotocross.com)…It’s weird to realize that I cannot tackle the world, and need to to hire help! lol

I asked them to come on, so..We shall see, I have maya installing right now so I can get to work on the rigging class assignments, this year is going to be a blast!

The end to a non-existant academic summer break…

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Wow did summer pass quickly…My transfer student orientation is Wednesday…and I am still not into enough classes….It’s kind of scary, all of these classes are full! I am down to begging my advisers to stick me into any classes that are open! Some of the classes require professor approval to get you in, but then there is no way to contact the professor…its wacky!

I’ve decided that I want to end up doing the EMAC BA after all, I figure its the best future proof possible, not to mention something I find amazingly fascinating. I hope my professors are cool and in the know, not the monotone teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!!!!

Summer is wrapping up, but things are not slowing down by any means…Got my business running, the gears are turning and I can at least cover rent…So thats good…I am moving out into a new place in McKinney…and I tend to keep myself busy…Have not gotten to fish in a while, but oh well, it is the peak of summer.

I’ve been thinking that I really want to re-design my website, I build it in 2006 and its looking old, I need to bring it up to standards, I don’t even have a twitter of facebook widget on here, GOSH! When we get 12 more hours in the day I suppose…

Who the heck named them wisdom teeth?

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

And why are you yanking them out of my head? Got my wisdom teeth out last Friday…went in expecting something like open heart surgery like everyone made it out to be…Pff, what a let down! No big deal…Although I did randomly pass out while I was standing in the kitchen later that night…Thank god for an otterbox to protect my iphone…woke up laying in a pile of broken glass and water, but the iphone was fine! YES!

Saturday I went out to Village Creek Motocross over in fort worth to watch the races and chill out, had a great time…Motocross is even cooler to whatch while you are on hydrocodone!

Since I am still in summer school I am kind of waiting to see how my grades turn out before I register for my classes at UTD in the fall…There are two programs I really want to do, but can’t decide which one to do, if either of them…I want to get a degree from a school that covers the subject on the job I got laid off from, is that a little odd? I got to go meet with the Doctor who leads both programs…What a great guy, he took an hour out of his day to talk to me about it all, he recommends I go with their new program…its called Emerging Media and Communication…We will see how it goes…I am very excited and anxious to get into some classes I might actually enjoy…I tried to register for classes and they are almost all full, for both programs! Let the rat race begin?

On the flipside, I’ve gotten to liking working from home…One advantage, besides not having to deal with traffic, dailies in the hammock!

Ahh this is the life….

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Sometimes all your ducks just seem to line up in a row…ya know? The moons align and everything clicks…

Passing statistics with flying colors, my drawing class is going well, infact I tweeted about it yesterday morning…My LLC is really starting to take shape, and I took up fishing again, there is nothing better about fishing after a long few days in the office…even if it is 1000 degrees out!

Life lesson, take everything with a grain of salt…if its not making you happy, don’t do it….Just finished a site for a client earlier…I am logging off to go fish! I suggest you do the same, dangle your feet in the water!

You know, being laid off isn’t fun at all…

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

On April 7th, I was up at work till 3AM trying to get the one up on a deadline…April 8th, after my last class, I got on my laptop real quick to check my work email in case I needed to come up and help the team out. I couldn’t log in. I thought, “maybe the exchange server is messed up…”, then the thought crossed my mind, “did my account get killed?”

Regardless, since no one was answering their phones, I had drive up and make sure everything was in order to meet the deadline the following day. It was a long drive, or at least it felt like it. After I found a parking spot, as I am walking towards the building, I see one of my coworkers shaking his head…”Hey, you hear what happened?” he said. My two bosses had been let go. Not soon enough or surprising, but the timing was, odd….

So, I went in, and tried to log in. No luck. I knew I had been let go as well. That took me off my feet. I went and talked to my project manager and she told me that the VP of the company was looking for me. So I went down to his office just wanting to get it over with…He said that my log in was a mistake and that I should keep working on the project, and that we would talk tomorrow, so I felt a little relieved and went back upstairs to get some stuff done. Shortly after I got upstairs and on the universal log in, the call came that I was to go down to the conference room. Shit. So, I walked down there, saw the VP and the woman from HR. I knew what was coming. From the time I sat down till the time I went to my truck was kind of a blur. I just remember shaking during all the paperwork….And that was it. The job I absolutely loved, lived for, was gone.

Oh well, you don’t do well to dwell on things that are no more, right? Time to move on…

So, looking ahead, there are actually some great advantages for me being laid off.

1. More Time.
It was not until I gained it, that I figured out how little I had. Today I spent an hour at the bank waiting to get some stuff cleared up, and I had no where I had to be, no stress, I sat their waiting it was nice. Amazing stuff.

2. No Stress.
The anxiety of knowing my job was on the line was actually a ton. I was cut in the 7th round of layoffs, and after I was let go I was really relieved. I am far less stressed out about stuff nowadays, it feels great! Besides school that is.

3. Physical well being.
When my schedule was crammed and I had 484 thousand things going on every day I developed some nasty habits. I got hooked on energy drinks, I stopped exercising, and I ate a lot of junk food.

Now that I have more time I have been able to lay off the energy drinks (they are expensive too, btw, another benefit) and junk food. And, believe it or not, I actually went for a run today, it only lasted 15 feet, but its a start. Haha!

4. Career re-evaluation
I love doing 3d visualization, however I have to ask if viz will be a viable career path. My job ended up getting outsourced to china, the once very profitable field of arch viz is starting to look like grunt work. Is this something that will be around for 10 years? 25? 40?

5. Focus
Having all of this time really allows me to focus back on school and my 3d projects at the house, I spent the better part of last week doing math work, I would have done so bad on the test if I had not spent all day 4 days of the week studying. I got into a rut where I was so burnt out from doing work that when I got home I had no ambition to do anything. Being laid off has kicked me in the butt and made me get back to work on the stuff I wanted to do.

6. Re-examination of priorities
When I had a check coming it, I really didn’t notice those $10 lunches and the $5 I spent on energy drinks and snacks a day. That adds up quickly! Those days of spending are LONG gone, its PB&J time for me!

Another thing I need to do is reconnect with friends, in the two weeks I have been laid off I have gotten in touch with so many people that I have just kinda let go by the wayside, its great hanging out with people again, again, with the free time!

7. Income sources.
There is one thing that this lay off has taught me, income is awesome. Now that my paycheck is gone, I realize that I should diversify my income sources.

8. Starting my business agian.
I am very excited that I can now re-open my website and my freelance opportunities, its something that has just kind of sat there on the backburner, now I get to do something with it!

I am over being laid off, as far as I am concerned they have no clue what they lost!

To the future!

March was fun, April is meh….so far.

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Howdy folks, figured I would update the ol’ blog while I was waiting on some laundry to finish…ahh the joys of life.. So anyway, march was fun…lots of things happened, one of which was the annual vets unite stupidcross. You may not have heard of Vets Unite, an interesting bunch…yes. Heres a video I made to document the days events:

Not much else going on in the world of motox for me, have not been riding much, its expensive!

I have not been keeping you guys apprised of much on the personal side this year at all…Stuffs crazy. As far as work goes, I am still employed, I survived fifth round of layoffs Thursday/Friday, so whatever…I got moved back from spending the past 4 months in the model shop, back to the Viz lab where I am doing a bunch of rotoscoping and keying…maybe I will post about it when I am fired, after last week I am surprised I wasn’t gone in the last layoffs. Besides that, I am preparing to move into an apartment on my own…can’t wait.

The web freelance I had pretty much fell through, one just stopped talking to me, wont answer my calls, and the other one decided that he would just pay some dude on craigslist less and not bother to compensate for the 40 odd hours I had already put into the project. People…

My last post was about getting projects done, starting them and finishing them. I am getting a bit better. I made some progress on my F14, and worked on that interior a lot. I got side tracked, and did some product viz renderings also. There is one new project that I started amidst everything else though, don’t worry, its not going to be some long drawn out thing. Evermotion.org is doing a rendering competition where the supply a model and you can do whatever you want to it to produce a good rendering. I have not had time to do anything to it yet. But I can’t wait. Hopefully the deadline looming over my head will help me produce something great. Anyway here are some updates.

Anyway, figured I would update the site, gonna go finish the laundry, and hit the showers. Peace!

It’s important to finish your projects…

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Have you ever started a project, only to have it interrupted by something, then you come back weeks, sometimes months later, and you don’t want to be bothered with finishing it anymore? Like, your heads not in the right place?

That happened to me a lot last year, every time I got to do something 3d for myself I got interrupted by web freelance or 3d freelance. That’s all good and fine, but, I want to get some cool stuff I can show for my portfolio done!

Here are a few projects I started for myself that I wanted to finish but never had the chance, I figure this blog entry will give me a good kick in the pants to get things going again.

1. A local Texas motocross podcast

When I had the idea I didn’t have a camera and borrowed some footage from 356productions.com, unfortunately the idea could not come to fruition because I didn’t have a camera to go get some footage for myself, but problem solved, I just picked up a canon HV30, hopefully I can get this going!

Heres a pilot clip: http://www.keithdemele.com/clipboard/podcast_test.mp4

2. 3D space battle scene

Originally this started as a contest entry for the 3dbuzz.com Digital artist competition. I didn’t have time to finish it how I would have liked too so I want to pick it up and finish it out. Heres a screen shot.

3. McLaren F1M

I started this one day waiting before class, what you see below is how far I got, not sure if I want to finish this or not, since i started 3 cars I think I may just want to finish one of them so I can move on with the other projects I have in mind…

4. 2006 Camaro Concept car…

This was the first car I ever attempted, I actually spent a ton of time on this, redoing a lot, I got a huge project then just kinda forgot about it, If I pick it up again I think I would just restart it again. I want to do it, its a cool car…

5. A Green Design house.

I am into green architecture and wanted to design an energy efficent house, I got the building modeling done but never progressed further with it.

6. Interior Scene

This is a peice I wanted to get photoreal for the portfilio, again work got in the way, need to do some more modeling and tweaking, but its close…

7. Alpha Romero 158

I started this car because I wanted to learn the whole max NURBS system, I ended up getting side tracked and never really picked it up again, seems like a fun modeling exercise but was never really excited about it.

8. When F14’s attack

This is a project I have longed put off, its part of the 3dbuzz max fundamentals set. I just need to put in the grunt work, I know the drill just have not put in the time, I want to finnish it though.

Some of the scenes I want to work on next are:

A skydiver
A Rockstar guitarist
Another green building exterior
another interior
and a digital short

I don’t know if its just me, but when I finish a project an overwhelming sence of accomplishment takes over me and I just feel good about myself. This is why I feel that it’s important to finish your projects.

Keith

Hey its 2009…

Friday, February 6th, 2009

So, I have not blogged lately, to busy? You bet! Can’t sleep? Not a wink…

Megadeth-Insomnia

Ahh, so anyway, in my last blog I posted about having to pass a test, well, I failed it, I should have gone out and partied instead of studied I guess, lesson learned. HAHA!

Anyway, as far as school is concerned…over the winter break I dropped out of school, decided to become an artist and go to art school, got denied for a student loan thanks to the damn economy, decided I cant afford art school, and ended up re-enrolling in some classes that I dropped out of in the first place. I am taking art classes and algebra this semester, as well as doing some community service. School sucks, enough said.

So, lets see we are already into February…What have we missed so far, President Obama was inaugurated, and the country I love is now turning into what is called a socialist democracy. Fun stuff. HOLY SHIT WE ARE SCREWED! and there is nothing I can do as a citizen. Obama has almost started a nuclear war in the middle east, he has whored out to the media, he has signed a few acts that are messed up, he has shut down Guantanamo bay (without thinking where he is going to put the fucking terrorists), and he put Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, great…Just who American needs as a political front man (woman?)..Ever see Escape from New York? That will be the US in 20 years at the current rate.

Work, hahaha work. Well since I had like 3 billable hours for the entire year of 2008, I got whored out the the model shop instead of the viz lab, for the whole year just about I have kept busy with billable work making physical models and stuff. Not a bad thing, but I am an arch viz guy, not a model maker. Its hard doing a job that you don’t do, frustrating when you cant seem to do it right. I get to play with freekin lazer beams a lot of the time though, so its not that bad…Hmm did I mention I have passed what I think is like the 4th round of layoffs? Yeah the economy sucks…Work is just a paycheck right now, nothing too exciting to report, lets see how long I can keep it…

On the home front I am up to my eyeballs freelance, in websites and 3d work…6 websites, a video, and a few 3d renderings. NO SLEEP, It sucks. I laid down for a while earlier but cant seem to rest, my mind is just going over way to much right now…I have not had ANY me time all year. I am getting burnt out…My blog popped into my head while I was laying down, so I figured I would get that off my mind for now, anyway….I am going to go try and sleep for an hour, I have to be up at work to do stuff…

Oh yeah, dirtbikes, nope, none of that this year, got 2 hours in last Saturday actually, had a blast…

Big thanks to Aaron for the photo, great colors, nice camera, make me want to get one and start shooting again…

I am going to try and start updating this blog with more technical related articles as well as work in progress posts, because most of my personal projects never get finnished due to other projects and I would like for some people to see the work, anyway, off to bed…er couch in my office….

Until next time…

Favorite movies of the 90’s.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

I had to ask myself and really think about what good movies came out in the 1990’s…It took a while but I think i have come up with a few…Yes, my favorite, but not fave films of the 90’s…None of these are something I would pop in every few months and watch, but hey…

The Hunt for the Red October

Pump Up The Volume

Grosse Point Blank

The Matrix

Saving Private Ryan

The Shawshank Redemption

Fight Club

The X Files

November 4th, 2008 – A day for the history books.

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Senator Barack Obama was elected president today, well, yesterday, I waited a while before posting this…

Anyway, I voted for John McCain, he lost.

In record turnout, Americans came to the polls to cast their vote on who they think should be president, educated opinions or not, people turned out to vote, in fact, 8 million more people turned out to vote than had ever done before, as of today, they made the difference, Barack Obama won by 7.5 mil votes. A great day for democracy, or was it?

Look, what I am about to say is controversial, and some may take offense…Understand this is a turbulent time in our nations history, and time will smooth this out. I know this, time will tell, relax. As an American I have the right to post this…

I am afraid an onslaught of uneducated (about the election/politics) Americans voted for reasons which should not have effected the presidential race…Race, hatred, blame, an unyielding, blinding want for change. Now, It is every Americans given right to vote, that is a wonderful, great thing….but I think we just shot ourselves in the foot…You should have done the research people…This is a pivotal time in our nations history, not a good time to elect someone who is, clearly, not qualified for the highest elected seat in the world.

I think people were just so upset with outgoing administration, and so fed up with the economy that they didn’t even give McCain the time of day, being a member of the republican party and all. No one bothered to see that he is more moderate, and that he steps to both sides of the isle when things need to get done…They just wanted change, a democrat, and Obama was it, no matter what his credentials were…(are?)

Now, there is a large elephant in the room, no, not the party symbol…I am talking about the issue of race, but I have to talk about it. Since I am white, apparently I am racist for even talking about it…But, (I was called a racist Tuesday night after a civil debate on who should be president, and why, apparently because I supported McCains policies I was racist against Obama, but whatever)…Anyway, I want to express my distaste about the people who turned out to vote simply because Obama has black skin…I cannot express how insane, how incredibly naive this is! (I bet this happened on both sides, so this goes for both candidates, but still…) On my way home from work tonight, a clip of Sherri Martin, from “the view” was played, on the Russ Martin Show 105.3 KLLI Dallas. In this audio clip she was in tears, saying how she could now tell her son that he could do anything now that Barack was president, and how in the past African Americans were not allowed to do anything else, only work in post offices and stuff, I am paraphrasing, but you get the point. This got my blood pumping….It’s this type of thinking that is getting you down lady. This is the 21st century, anyone can do anything, skin color does not matter, (sorry rev. wright) it didn’t take Barack being elected to “liberate” you, if you went to school, you could be a doctor, astronaut, scientist anything!…heck, your a major star on TV…Your not doing to bad…I don’t ever want to hear again that African Americans don’t have the same opportunity as whites, it’s official there are NO more excuses. Education not up to par? There is a reason look into it, you may be shocked….Look, all I am trying to say is, don’t calibrate this election as “your (African American)” victory, this election was not a white/black issue… There is MUCH more at stake than that, do you have any idea what he proposes for this country? DO YOU? Is he better because he is darker skinned? As one woman (Peggy Joseph) is quoted saying:

I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help him (Obama), he’s gonna help me.”

Now…..I can’t seem to decide if this is the rise of socialism, or the dumbing down of America, or the common Democratic/Anti-Republican drone…Anyway…

I mentioned the debate I had after class Tuesday night with some fellow college students, there was only one other McCain supporter there, the rest (seven students or so) were very supportive of Mr. Obama…I got strait to buisness and asked why he would make a better president than McCain; most said they didnt want 4 more years, and that he was different  and “cool”. Only one other student could jump in and talk about any issue in depth, and she conceded that Obama may not be (have been) the best choice overall, but she voted for him anyway. AHHH!!! Look, I know the younger demographic does not matter, but these people are future senior members of society, scary! I am dumbfounded and disgusted that this type of thinking elected Obama. Again, I say a shot in the foot…

I have been saying for a while that our real problem right now is the bipartisan system. We are too wrapped up fighting each other as a whole, that we are ignoring the real issues at hand…My government professor once told us how George Washington even said that the two party system was dangerous…because in the end, the members of each party become loyal to the party first before the country. I don’t think we quite saw that this past election, but I do think we got a lot of people rejecting one party directly because of the current administration, I mean they had to blame someone, they couldn’t blame the democratic congress who would not pass anything from Bush the last term…

With the presidency being democratic, and the house and senate (congress) being majority democratic, what is the status of the checks and balances system? The democrats will now have control over the the legislative and executive branches of government. I know Obama can’t just re-write the constitution, but he can pass legislation very quickly, he can go and make a mess of the health care system and what not…Whether or not that legislation ends up being good or bad is yet to be seen, but still…

Now, after watching McCains concession speech, and Obamas acceptance speech, all I can say is, I will give you a chance to earn my respect Mr. Obama,  you are going to have to work damn hard, and if you slip, I will be there to call foul on you, dont you worry about that.

To be honest, I have not really yet accepted Mr. Obama as my president, I suppose I will be forced to accept him, however I will forever be against his socialist views…I do not know if I could accept him as my commander and chief if I were in the military though…I would have been proud to serve under McCain…I can’t say the same for a man like Obama. NO, not because he is black, but because of his views, its a matter of pride.

Many people have suggested fleeing the country in the wake of this election, although I would love to, leaving this country would be a travesty to the democratic way our founding fathers put forth. I wonder what they would think about this whole mess…

I truly feel like my fellow countrymen (and women) have failed me, and the country. I am saddened and ashamed to say, that I am ashamed to be an American for the first time in my life. I am ashamed that my fellow Americans voted Obama in, many, blindly…I can honestly say I do not want to stand shoulder to shoulder with people like that…

I will leave that discussion for another post, my mind is going in too many directions right now to make a coherent sentence.