Life is a Book

I must say the past week has shaken my world, and now I'm left feeling empty, sad, but also hopeful. It took me awhile to realize the theme of my life as of now. If I had to sum up the past few months it's recognizing and accepting the reality of death. Not death of someone in the family or anything like that, but rather the concept of realizing that life really is a series of seasons. In order for one season to start, one season has to end. As I've said before, I'm done with college and now I'm looking for work. I go back to Purdue University once or twice a week to work at the office. When I go back, I feel out of place. I feel as if I don't belong, as I should. I'm no longer a student and it's time to move on. I'll be moving on in August because that's when my current job ends. When I go to Purdue for work, I also try to stop by and see a few friends while I'm there. Hanging out with my friends feels weird. They're focusing on internships and school, and they're perspective of the world is different because of that.

I'm ready to move on from that place and here at home. I love them both, but it's time to move on. Of course I'll miss going to the college bars with my friends and knocking drinks out of random people's hands and almost getting in fights (yeah...we've done that too many times), and I'll miss the ability to just chill late at night with my old roommate playing GTA V and randomly spitting some rap "off the dome". Even here at home, I'll miss going over to a friend's house and chilling playing some video games and staying out til 3am. I did that for many years, but I can't do that anymore. This is what I mean, coming to terms that things are changing and I need to adapt, or die (not literally).

Other parts in my life are ending as well. I'm not trying to get too personal with my life but a very important relationship is drastically changing. Long story short, things weren't working out for the both of us and we agreed it's time to take a step back. Things like this fucking suck. Also, my favorite cat is developing a weird growth on her stomach. It's full of fluid and it worries me because she's ten years old and has never been fixed. I'm worried since she's old, and she has been in a vast amount of "heat" spells, that she has developed a form of cancer. I heard that this happens to cats that aren't fixed. I told my dad and he just brushed it off and said he can't afford taking her to the vet and if she dies, she dies. I'm going to wait a day or two and see if it goes away. If it doesn't, I'm going to take her myself.

Work wise I managed to work on After Effects and Fusion tutorials a decent bit last week. I have an After Effects project in mind. I need it to be a feature piece. I think I'm missing that one "big" project in my portfolio. I also applied to eight or so freelance jobs last week. I haven't heard back from any, but I'm keeping my head up. I'm going to be appling to a few full-time jobs this week as well. I recently was followed on Twitter by Red Giant and that gave me the idea to apply to them. They're out in Portland, Oregon and they make amazing plug-ins for software and create amazing content. Chicago is on the map too. There is a great firm there that is heavily invested in projection mapping and that definitely intrigues me. Lastly I'm going to be looking at Boston and maybe the New York area. Boston is a cool city and there are two studios that have definitely caught my eye. And, MIT is there and they're huge in interactive technology. At this point, I need a job. I got bills to pay, and I'm starting to feel the effect of being at home for too long.

I'd like to share something that my boss sent me a few weeks ago when she was at a conference...

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. They are work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air."

"You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffled, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."

Peace.
Andrew Rose

Tis' A Long Road

I went to Purdue to attend a meeting on Tuesday at 10am, and left a little after 4pm. I wanted to beat the traffic coming back home, which is roughly an hour away. I've been putting in good hours this past week, and that makes me very happy! What sucks though is that I got extremely sick Thursday night. I had a fever of 101.3, and I am just now starting to feel much much better. This put a huge dent in my schedule of "getting shit done". I wanted to apply for a few freelance positions today, but instead, I made up my hours that I was supposed to work yesterday. Now I need to decide, should I apply for jobs tomorrow, or work on some tutorials for After Effects and Fusion? As of right now, I'm leaning toward tutorials for After Effects and Fusion. I feel as if my body is compelling me to do something stress-free. Applying for jobs is definitely stressful and I'm still recovering from being sick. So, I think learning new techniques of compositing and animating will still allow me to be productive without being too overwhelmed with stress. I need to make it a priority though to spend a day or two of just applying for jobs this week; which sucks because that'll limit the amount of hours I get on my paycheck, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

What plans do I have for the future? Well, I've been deciding should I go into visual effects and motion graphics for television and motion picture production, or should I explore the territory of interactive media? The problem with interactive media is that I don't have much programming experience. Sure, I can use HTML and CSS, but that doesn't really help in this situation. I also need to dig more into start-up companies that are already exploring this kind of technology. That's actually something I NEED to do. The thing is with doing visual effects for television and motion pictures is that I think I'll be bored with it. I love playing with video, and making cool effects, but I don't want to be contained in a box. I like the idea of being able to create a logo design, then a cool commercial, and then lending a hand in film, and then working on an interactive design. What comes to my head is working for an interactive media firm; while I explore the idea of freelancing with design and visual media. I'm just thinking out loud... I do want a social life, and to be able to spend time with the people that I love and care for. It'll work itself out. It all becomes clearer and clearer each passing day.

To wrap this bad boy up I'd like to say one final thing. Treasure the time you have with someone you love, and don't let fear and the unknown poison your conscious. I learned it the hard way... "The world is your mirror".

Peace
Andrew Rose

Check. Check. Check.

I love this time of year. It's warm, color surrounds my environment, and I always seem to work hard during the summer. For those readers out there, I hope your summers are going extremely well and you're getting work done.

I've come to realize that I probably won't be able to get 40+ hours a week at my current job. I'm the web content manager/design intern for the Office of Future Engineers (OFE), Minority Engineering Program (MEP), and Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) at Purdue University. I've been building websites for each of the three clients for the past year. I've completed OFE in March, and ever since then I've been working on the MEP site. Long story short, the MEP site should've been done a long time ago, but communication between them has been very slow and frustrating. Because of the lack of communication, it affects the amount of work I can do. At times I feel like I'm kinda making work for myself just to get an extra hour or two. I really do enjoy my job though. I have a great relationship with all of my bosses, and I've learned a lot about marketing and web development. I'm trying to get at least 40+ hours a week because I'm trying to save up money and pay off bills. I ran out of work to do by Friday this week, and I didn't even work Monday because I spent all day unpacking and settling back in from moving back in from Purdue.

Another issue with the 40+ hour a week plan is having time and energy to work on my career. I'm looking for work currently involving design, animation, and anything art. I've applied to freelance for Elliot Hulse/Strength Camp, Joe Rogan and the Joe Rogan Experience, Kinda Funny, and Freedomain Radio this past Friday and I'm excited to hear back. I have a feeling at least one of those contacts will be interested in what I have to offer. Other good news is the distillery I made a bourbon label for wants to pay me for my work. If we can settle on a price, it'll be a good amount that I can use to either pay off my credit card, or my last payments for my power and cable bills. A month or two ago we also conversed about the possibility of me creating another label. This makes me confident that I'll be okay. I just need to keep reaching out to prospective clients every week and something will turn up. I'll have to juggle a few things and I'll have to get accustomed to that. I need to focus on my current job, start personal work that I can add to my portfolio, seek future employment, keep up on my health and exercise, work and maintain relationships that I have in my life, and start up new hobbies. It's gonna be busy but I can do it!

Ultimately, things are looking good. There are issues in my life regarding relationships, but all I can do is stay strong and be positive. The same goes for my career.  One day at a time.

That's pretty much it for this entry. I wish the best for all my readers, and I appreciate those who take time to read what I have to say. It means a lot. Keep working hard, and keep your chins up!

Peace,
Andrew Rose

Struggle in the Beginning

As a recent college graduate, I've encountered a familiar position that I found myself in five years ago when I graduated high school. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I didn't know how to get there. Well....here I am, I made it. I graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Computer Graphics Technology. I just moved out of my college apartment of three years back into my parents' house an hour away from where I was.

During my time at school, I learned a vast amount of knowledge regarding software, hardware, and the attitude of working hard and creating great things! I always made time to work on my art. I've always had a natural drive to create, and create is what I did ever since I was in 7th grade. But, when I reached my junior year of college, I knew I had to increase my output and the quality of it greatly. I did this all the way up until I graduated. As soon as I got one project done, I began brainstorming of how I can make an even better piece next time. This kind of work ethic is how I've been able to produce splash sequences for an architecture firm, a bourbon label for a distillery, and an interactive art demonstration within just the past year. It's crazy how I didn't realize how much I've done up until I just wrote that sentence.

So here I am now. What is my plan? What do I want to do? How will I achieve this?

The honest answer is "I don't know". I have a calling to freelance as of right now. I enjoy the feeling of having the power to do what I want to do, to a certain degree. I love variety, and I believe adding variety to my work makes me a better artist, and a better person. I do plan to become something bigger than myself. Does this mean I'll work somewhere, or for someone? It could. I don't have an interest in becoming just another solider of the army of artists. I want to be a rebel. I want to be the one who catches the majority of people off guard with my work and my ideas. As I said earlier, I made an interactive art demonstration with a group of three other students for my senior design project, and that project opened my mind to the idea of experiencing art in a multitude of ways.

To put it simply. I want to make a difference with how people view art. I love technology and I love art. How can we fuse them together in different ways? Is it possible to blur the lines? I'm just rambling now like I always do. In the next few months, I hope to have enough money saved up to move out of my parents' house and start my adventure with my girlfriend. I may continue down the freelance route, or not, we'll see.

To end my first and hopefully not last blog post, I'll offer this piece of advice that I constantly struggle with. Don't look off too far into the future. Of course plan for the future, but the now is what matters. Do what makes YOU happy. Work hard and make time for loved ones. And deep down we all know what we want out of life. Recognizing this  may be difficult but we all know.

Peace.
Andrew Rose