[Update] Summer 2016 and Hometown

As of this past Friday, my practicum has become completed. I still have an essay to write and paperwork to send off, but once done those, I will be set to graduate.

Now with school nearly done, the next progressive step is a job. Things are a bit tricky, as with plans in August, I'm tempted to not try to apply for any work until late August. I'll be looking to find any summer opportunities at least in the meantime, but there's no pressure for me to get a job r-f-n.
That said, I anticipate finding a job past August is going to be it's own hell, so I may be back to retail or the like in the end. But, money is money, and at this point, I just want to start saving up. And succeed at saving this time. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Now if you remember, a few posts ago, I pitched the "What about moving BACK to Hometown?" question.

And Here's the answer:

Living in Hometown taught me a lot. I experienced self-responsibility. I experienced time management. I experienced balancing obligations. I also learned a lot about finances, enough to know that as much as I don't want to base things around money, sometimes it must be done.
If I were to move back to Hometown, it would be for work. No job, no reason to move. I can't afford at this time to move, and once I could, I'd need to be financially stable to stay. Else I end up here again, or worse.

At this time, I'm planning to remain here in New City. I'm lucky enough to have parents willing to put up with me whilst I try to get my bearings. I have nothing to me yet, still new and a nobody to the industry.

My next story is now beginning. Time to PTE Test My Luck.


[Technology] Set-Up and Break-Down

For filming, I've got plans to get a Canon Rebel, I've been looking at T5 or SL1 as potentials. I've been borrowed a Fujifilm S4200 by my mother until then, which...works. As nooby as I am with film, I can tell it's meant more for photography. Still way nicer than the webcam garbage I used to film FNWER.

For editing, I tried running a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 on my laptop. I did so for practicum, as that program happens to be industry standard at this time. I'm no stranger to Adobe, having worked with their products since the Internetwork Days. I've had notoriously bad luck with their programs, and this one has been no different.
I still keep a certain voice clip from An Animator's Dilemma for every time I have an issue.

Now in all fairness, as was pointed out to me as well, my laptop isn't the best. In fact, it's getting kinda old. It's 6. The battery is flaky, and it blacks out at around 20% if I don't have it charging. It's an i5 running windows 7. Premiere needs a nice beefy computer, and my laptop is minimal running capabilities at best.
Add on top of that that I was editing 4K video, and it's a clear recipe for disaster.

I managed to edit the entire video though. I couldn't play what I was editing when I was in the program, but after exporting I could watch and see what needed fixing. It was a hair-pulling experience, but I was determined to make it work.

Around the end of completing the video, my computer started blue screening a lot. It would also start and say 'OS not found', but upon restart, work just fine.
Eventually I figured out that 'CheckDisk' existed and could repair the issue, which with the constant blue screening, I decided to do. I figured it was likely my hard drive or video card hating me for the 4K editing and playback.

Upon repair, I came back to find that my computer appeared stable. The only difference was...
Premiere had been removed.

I still have more tests to run, and I'm likely going to re-install Premiere temporarily to check again. But as it stands, it seems like my laptop doesn't like Premiere.
I've been looking into using Sony Vegas as an alternative, with my stockpiling I could eventually get Vegas Pro 13. I'll run it's trial to make sure the same problems don't occur, and I'll likely not be editing 4K video on my laptop post-practicum, (At least not the side project(s) for youtube I have been planning) so I'll likely have that.

I'll also be investing in a decent tripod, mounting base, and an extra SD card. Once I actually make a little coin I might invest more into lenses (Once I have the Canon). I know many will caution not to sink lots of money into this, and I'm trying not to. That said, I would like to have a decent set-up for keeping up my skills / making more projects for youtube / demo reels / other things for the work blog.

I have no real ideas yet though aside from the potential FNWER reboot. I'm better at animation ideas it seems. Or maybe just game ideas.
Or maybe just posts. (._.)


[Education] Continuing Improvement

Most of my time is admittedly being spent on the practicum. It's my main business right now, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I'd say it's going well, I've banked half of the hours required.

Outside of that I've decided that my skills I've learned from school will need constant usage to keep them improving. As such, I'm going to try to afford an entry-level professionally-used camera, for making arts-y side projects and the like. I've contemplated returning the FNWER series, though I might put a different spin on it if I do, to avoid conflicts with Pegvlog stuff.
As well, Someone has also asked me to remake the Petters On The Low cover, but that'll be up to a future version of me as to if that happens.

I mention all this not to get hopes up, as you PTErs already know from a certain other blog that I'm better at typing smoke and plans than following through, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning, to get a conversation and ideas going.
Especially since someone I know recently started a new channel.

On a somewhat related note, how helpful are the post tags?  So far I've used:
[Business]
 [Leisure]
[Health]
 [Update]
[Celebration]
 [Deja Vu]
[Education]
 [Special]

Which seems to be covering most of what I post about..


[Celebration] Tay day!

You didn't think I'd forget, did you?

Taylor in Miitomo:


Happy Tay day~

[Update] May-ward

My one and only exam came and went, and though I was super nervous, it's over and done with, so now there is only celebrating whatever amount of success I gain from it.
It may very well have been my last official exam, but with how crazy the world is, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.
But I'm going to try to make what I've got going work as much as I can. I can't exactly afford otherwise...

The practicum is set and is starting in early May. As per Drills Protocol, I won't be mentioning it much more than this and the last post. Wish me luck! (Or don't, whatever you want.)

Aside from that, not much has been going on. My family recently got Netflix, and are slowly embracing it. I've gone full obsessed over Mike Tyson Mysteries, which is the first show in a few months that I've really latched on to. A certain someone sees that as a good thing, but we'll see if I ever really get addicted to TV again. Then again, I do consider myself a YouTube sucker, so I suppose the prospect isn't impossible...

Hometown Post still on it's way, I promise.