friends and family time

Today is my 22nd birthday and Father's day!  I took the weekend off from animating to go home and visit my family, who I have not seen since my grandfather's funeral (give or take it's been a number of months.)  I cannot express to you how good it feels to be home, in the house I grew up in. 

This is my first summer living away from home and the experience made me realize how blessed I am to have such a great family who supports my big dreams.   Living on my own has taught me how to be independant, but also brings to my attention all those little things I have become accustomed to that I take for granted when I am home.  The big trees, the backroads, the street signs.  My mom and I sitting in our kitchen talking about everything and anything.  My dad waking up far too early roaming around downstairs.  Even my brother, coming and going with the social tides and music fests.

Not much has changed, and yet everything has changed.  The house is full of so many knick knacks from Grandpa, all of which is taking about a century to sort through.  My dad is now the ring leader of his own family circus ever since grandpa passed away, so this father's day in particular is the most difficult he as an individual has experienced.

Yesturday was a great day.  My family and I went down the road to a little Italian bistro called Rosa Luca's, had some fantastic martini's and delicious food.  Than my brother and I went to the Tavern (the closest divey-bar to our house) and met up with all my best girlfriends.  My best friends from elementary school and highschool were all there.  We were the best game in town, but it was the first time I have ever drank with my now 21 year old friends, and I had a great time seeing everybody. 


All and all, It's great to catch up with family and friends.

career counseling and type indicator results

Yesturday, I went to meet with career counselor Rebecca M. Danchak  to discuss my results of the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator Profile.  My type is ENFJ which stand for extraversion, intuitive, feeling, and judging. 

I prefer to...

focus my attention is extraversion, people, things, and the world around me
process information intuitively from patterns and the big picuture and focus on future possibilities
make decisions based primarilty on feeling,  values, and person-centered concerns
deal with the outer world through judging, living in an organized orderly way

my qualities are....
warm, compassionate, and supportive
loyal and trustworthy
highly attuned to others, their empathy enables them to quickly understand emotional needs, motivations, and concerns
guided by personal values in decision making
likely to value harmony and cooperation, tend to look for the best in others
curious about new ideas and stimulated by possibilities for contributing to the good of humanity
usually seen by others as sociable, personable, gracious, expressive, responsive, and persuasive

My potential strengths are...
relationships.  because they are so important, ENFJ's are outgoing, friendly, and genuinely concerned about the welfare of others.  They tend to be idealistic and use their own personal values to rule their lives.  They are caring, warm, and enthusiastic people, with great energy for projects or causes they believe in. 

Great diplomats, ENFJ's are usually able to communicate in ways that make others feel excited about their ideas.  They work hard to develop and maintain harmony in all their relationships.  THey are intrigued with new possibilities, especially those that make positive changes, help other people, or generally make the world a better place. 

My potential weaknesses are...

being direct and honest in an attempt to avoid conflict is a challange, because ENFJ's are so concerned with being liked, they would talk around the issue.  The result is that they may sacrafice their own needs and make choices that are not in their own best interest in order to please others.  They may chose not to see the facts that contradict their own idealistic view of other people and then end up dissapointed or hurt. 

ENFJ's are also very eager to have things decided and projects finished, and they sometimes rush through the information collecting stage and make hasty or flawed decisions.  Wanting to always appear capable, organized, and in control, they may hesitate asking for help or admitting they need to start over.  Approaching projects with a clearer sense of logical steps necessary to make them a sucess will hlep them avoid making mistakes or commuiting to causes they might regret later. 

.........................................................................................................................................................

interestingly enough, the results I find to be dead accurate.  And furthermore, these descriptions only reaffirmed that the career path I am taking would be the best possible enviorment for me.  I will always be around creative people, and if I can get people excited about my projects and ideas, than I have the potential to advance myself. 

On the other hand, this also pointed out flaws that I have slowly become aware of.  I do make decisions on impulse, and do not consider all the research and facts before I dive into a project.  I take criticism too personally at times, take on too many things at once and get overwhelmed, get bored with reptitious tasks, let conflicts build rather than being upfront, and see people as I wish they were, rather than for who they really are. 

So, needless to say, I have some work to do.  But if being a people pleaser and being idealistic are my worst flaws, than I have to say I am pretty pleased. 

I get to meet with the other scholars, Rebecca, and my Dorothy Goodwin coordinators to discuss what to do with this new found self discovery.  For me, it has re-fueled my fire, and made me once more confident in the path I am taking and where I am going from here. 

So...now I am back to work! :)

 

working in the third and forth dimension

easier said than done.

Luckily, third party perspective can simplify a lot of clutter in my mind.  Today me and Dennis met for the second time.  I told him I had my narrative and basic storyboard but it was unresolved and the compositions needed work.

So, we worked backwards, 9 frames for the intro, middle, and conclusion.  Talked about how to plan a shot, ways in which to best communicate to the viewer the story in a clear and innovative way.  We also composed how the timing of the shots would go, which ended up roughly 2 seconds per frame.

We talked about Character designs, what to emphasize, and what to condense.  So, I am close to where I need to be at this point, but far from starting the labor intensive project itself.