Oh-My-Gosh busy.

This past week with the students at the GIV-IT summer camp has been so awesome and so incredibly memorable. Unfortunately, I have hardly slept, and this extreme lack of rest is rapidly catching up with me.

Yesterday evening, Ann, Joel and I presented about the UN Project to the Champlain College Board of Trustees, and among the audience was Jeff Rutenbeck, the Dean of CCM, and Angela Batista, the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Everyone was so friendly to chat with during the dinner, and they were incredibly receptive to our open discussion style presentation. They loved hearing about my trip to South Africa, our experience with pre-testing with Winooksi Middle School students, and developing the game that has the potential to change the world. Presenting to this group was a huge confidence boost in several ways. They revitalized my hope that I have for this project, and they gave me so many compliments on my public speaking that I will approach any presentation with more confidence.

All in all, things with GIV have been great, especially since the Trustees' presentation. One more day left, and then it's time for some rest.

GIV, UN, Father's Day Galore!

HERE, LIVE from GIV!

I am having a blast on the Champlain College campus this week being an RA at the Governor's Institute of Technology: Information Technology. This is where a group of high school students come together to learn about a diverse array of skills in programs like Maya, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and Unity 3D. As an RA, I get to go to each session to bring the students to where they need to be and hang out with them as they learn (and I learn) about all this awesome stuff.

The campers are a blast, and hanging out with the RAs is equally as fun. We have very long days (6:30am to 11:30PM), but it hasn't phased me yet. I know I'll be dead asleep by the end of the week, though.

The only problem with having GIV this week is that this is the last week to wrap up everything for UN, so poor Max Nichols has to crank out a lot of the documentation on his own. Luckily, we may be able to continue working for the first week of July, although it's not guaranteed.
I'm also presenting at the Champlain College Trustees Dinner this Thursday, so preparing for that is difficult with little time in my day. It'll work out, though.

Today is Father's Day, so don't forget to say hi to your dad. I'm going to call mine soon.

Design documentation galore! The UN design doc is our deliverable for the next two weeks (EEK!), and I've been doing my best to crank away at it. It's a pretty hefty design, the largest I've designed and documented this extensively, at least. I do, however, secretly love documentation.

The creative director of the project reminded us recently to add visuals into the documentation, and it's challenged me to think of ways to portray a lot of what we're writing into visuals. It may not be necessary, but its a neat exercise to try to come up with ways to say the same thing in a visual way. Sometimes, though, visuals can hurt more than they can help, so we've gotta be careful in crafting some good aids.

With the project coming to a long pause, I've found myself getting a little nervous. I won't have a job now, which means it's time to go job hunting. My biggest worry with the hunt is coming from the fact that I can only be hired for a month and a half and then its off to RA training and Montreal. Who will hire me for that long? I've gotta get out there anyway and see if something comes around. I'm crossing my fingers!

Today brought a lot of rethinking.

"Things aren't always as they seem", right? Well what if things seem perfect? That saying, while it can be used to console, it can also be used as a warning. What this saying means is that sometimes we don't see the truth. We are blind to the fact that some perfect things in our lives are lies (and vice versa of course).
So when something only seems perfect, sometimes it can't be -- it isn't true. No matter how many great things can come from the illusion, it lacks the verity to merit it worthwhile, right?

Well maybe sometimes we don't need that reminder that things aren't always as they seem, and I'm not convinced that illusions can't be exactly what I need sometimes.

I thoroughly recommend the band Flunk to anyone who is interested in unique female Norwegian vocalists and has an eclectic taste in electronic/rock/indie music. I just got a lot of their music, and I'm liking a lot of it so far. It's neat and new for me.

The Sims 3, Lost, and Sleepiness

I confess,
It's not like I haven't thought about updating....
It's just that......
I'm LOST. I have to admit that the television show titled Lost has completely taken over my life. I'm lost in Lost.

Also, The Sims 3 came out, and it's been difficult to hinder my curiosity. There is a lot to explore, and I feel like even after almost a week I haven't even scratched the surface. I want to know and master all areas of it. There is so much to it.

Things with the UN project seem like they're coming to a close, and I don't like it. We're just getting started! Preproduction is wrapping up (allready!), which means there's a whole lot more ahead. To think that the project is being put on pause urkes me. I really hope that things come through for the rest of the summer, even though hope is slowly fading. If not, the project seems like it'll start back up again in January, which is convieniently when I return back from my semster abroad in Montreal.

Many things have happened recently. I'm learning to cook in the way that I can now improvise recipes, and it's exciting. I have to admit that I just pictured myself in front of the oven with a meter above my head and a flashing plus sign (like in the Sims). I think that means it's time for bed.