Tag Archive for 'NESCOM'

2 + 3 = 5, right?

Published by -MiKe- on September 19, 2007 in College. 1 Comment

So, yeah. Third week into school and we’re still alive. That’s some thing to be proud of, right?

All the incoming students came in on the first, which was an image straight out of hell if there ever was one. Figure, there are 9 floors, 37 students per floor, with an average of 10 of them being incoming students. Thats not to say that only incoming students came in on the first either… That said, about 130 students arrived in Bell Hall (thats right, I’m only talking about one of three dorms) from 7am to about 11am on the first of September. Now, consider that each student is traditionally accompanied by Mom and Dad and you have tripled the foot traffic. Add another 80 or so for the odd brother, sister, aunt or uncle, and your looking at 400 pairs of feet, accounting for over 1000 trips trough the lobby, and nearly 45 personal attempts at suicide. Per RA. (in case you didn’t get that, that was a joke)

Moving on.

Continue reading ‘2 + 3 = 5, right?’

So the bed’s made…

Published by -MiKe- on August 30, 2007 in College. 0 Comments

Guess that means its official. I’m an RA!

I have been on campus for almost two weeks now, and I was sleeping on the futon up until last night. Why, I’m not sure. At first it was because I wasn’t sure I liked the way the room was set up. Then it was because I didn’t want to raise the bed (too lazy) by myself (too lazy to get help). Then, conveniently, once it was raised and everything was ready, I found that my sheets smelt like… well, crap, and I needed to get detergent, a laundry card, etc… and wash them. And now it’s done, and school is in session.

Well, not yet. The freshmen haven’t even arrived yet, not to mention I am still Jen-less, but for me, the ball is rolling. Fun fun.

So summer didn’t go exactly as planned, on the bloging front anyway. Personally this was one of the better summers I have had. Continue reading ‘So the bed’s made…’

Thats awkward…

Published by -MiKe- on May 29, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

So, I was looking at visitor statistics for no steam shovel yesterday afternoon, and I came across something very unnerving, and, a little bit funny (depending on how you look at it)… I have visitors coming to my site from Susquehanna (or in relation to, rather) University.

Evidently there is a new college-search website out there that pools blog posts mentioning various colleges and displays them on the college information pages, and my last post evidently made a blip on their radar…

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see a few visitors originating from: http://college.mychances.net/college-1274-Susquehanna-University.html. Yet, in a way, it was a pleasant surprise…

I don’t know how it finds posts mentioning these colleges. I didn’t link to the university home page (and won’t) and I highly doubt the school has a ping-back server… As far as I can tell it identifies posts based on tags (as thats the only thing that identifies the university, other than the text, in my post). If thats the case, they must find pertinent posts via Technorati. Very sneaky.

How ever they do it, maybe now I can say all those unpleasant things about SU that I have been harboring for so long, and someone will actually read them… Excellent…

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have a listing for NESCom, so all my praise will unfortunately fall on deaf ears… Alas… Can’t win them all… :-D

Jenifer and I are going Kayaking this afternoon. Where to, I have no idea, but it will be fun never-the-less.

She should be arriving shortly, so I should probably get things cleaned up a bit before she arrives.

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

Tims are no good for rain…

Published by -MiKe- on April 16, 2007 in College. 1 Comment

If you know me, you’ll probably know I have a nice pair of red suede Timberlands that I just adore. You’d know this because I wear them alot, and they kind of look like a set of clown shoes…

Well, come to find, although such things are marketed by Timberland as “boots” they actually serve no such functionality at all. And when faced with even a mild shower, such as the one we are receiving today, they like to let your feet get in on the fun too.

Gah! Some weather. At least what we are getting now is more in tune with the whole “April showers bring May flowers” thing. Its just a bit cooler, and comes accompanied with a dash or two of snow…

So, I’m in Digital Imaging for the Web I right now… Some kind of crap class…

Shady Acres - full

Shady Acres - skyscraperShady Acres - squareOur last project was to design six animated gifs, and now we have to design two splash pages and three content pages for our final project. Our final project is to pick one of each and make a “functional” web page. I quote functional because I suppose its up for interpretation. If your idea of “functional” is a page that meets minimum design requirements for 1998, then your set to sit in this class…

Shady Acres - half

The pages we are to create are essentially just sliced up Photoshop documents, exported to HTML. Which is hokey-poky, HTML 1.0, table crap. And the kids in my class act like it’s the end of the world…

My company (fictional, and if there is any likeness to ANY site on the net, it’s an act of God) is Shady Acres, Assisted Living for old People. These flashy things are my animated gifs… Hope you have a seizure…

I already threw together the design I am going to use for my final project. You can find that here. As for my splash page, give me a minute… I am sure it won’t be hard…

I’m going to throw a few “templates” together in the next few moments, wish me luck… ;-)

I’m an RA!!

Published by -MiKe- on April 13, 2007 in College. 2 Comments

And there you have it. The end of the world as we know it.

April 13, 2007

Michael Mulligan
New England School of Communications
One College Circle
Bangor, ME 04401

Dear Michael,

Congratulations! you have been selected to flil a 2007-2008 Resident Assistant position. Your request for a hall and floor has been taken into consideration.

If you accept this position you must be available on the following dated. The dates listed below are required for this position.

  1. August 17th, 2007 - September 4th, 2007 for Resident Assistant Training and New Student Orientation.
  2. November 20, 2007 at 8pm you are able to leave for Thanksgiving Break.
  3. November 25, 2007 at 8am you are to return from Thanksgiving Break.
    * Unless scheduled for key duty on November 25, 2007 at 8am, you are to return November 24, 2007 by 8pm.
  4. December 22, 2007 at 8am you are able to leave for Winter Break.
  5. January 12, 2008 at 5pm you are to return from Winter Break.
  6. March 1, 2008 at 8am you are able to leave for Spring Break.
  7. March 15, 2008 at 5pm you are to return from Spring Break.
  8. May 11, 2008 at 8am you are able to leave for Summer Break.

Enclosed is a document to accept or decline this position, which must be completed and returned to the Student Life Office in 104 Peabody Hall no later than Monday, April 16, 2007 by 4pm.

Sincerely,

Fran Tracy
Director of Student Life

HA! Good RIDDANCE Old Town! After May 11th I will have no more to do with ye! No more driving back and forth, land-lords, utilities, unpaved driveways, disgusting roommates… Hallelujah!

Now, I know its not going to be a walk in the park, but I think I can handle it. I have found through past experience that the more I am challenged, the better I do. It’s when I am not challenged that I fall to the wayside. We’ll see.

Really, this is going to be such a great opportunity. I am excited beyond words.

Monte Zucker - Passing of a Legend

Published by -MiKe- on April 4, 2007 in General and Photography. 0 Comments

Those of you who are photographers may or may not know the name. I didn’t until just the other day… A day late and a dollar short.

I often frequent the site of Ken Rockwell, an esteemed photographer, and evidently a man who doesn’t merely adjust his depth of field, but changes space-time. He is very knowledgeable in the ways of photography, and tells things how they are, without all the measurbation everyone else gets caught up in.

I was on his site the other day when I noticed a fleeting obituary.

… Monte Zucker, the world’s most famous wedding and portrait photographer, passed away from pancreatic cancer on March 15th at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He was 77.

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Monte Zucker until I read this, and I didn’t, at first, realize how much of a loss this really was.

Monte Zucker is an AMAZING wedding and portrait photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not that his photos are fantastic (they are much more), but that he is such an amazing teacher. Within moments on his website I learned more about posing for portrait photography than I have all year at NESCOM. Yes, it is Bridal portraiture, but the concepts are pretty much universal, and to a growing photographer, invaluable.

His death is a huge loss to the photography industry, both for the loss of all the wonderful images he could have taken, and for the loss of his wealth of knowledge for all the aspiring photographers of the world. If you are interested in the what knowledge he left behind for the lost of us, his educational videos are still for sale here. However, I would expect there would be a delay in processing and shipping while his family mourns his passing.

A true lesson as to the frailty of life, and speed and ferocity with which it can be taken away still stands on his site with his listing of class schedules:

Seems as if some serious health issues may cause a slight change of my schedule. As of now, I’m planning to go through with most of my plans for this year and next year.

Doctors today confirmed that I have a form of pancreatic/lymphatic cancer. I will begin treatments December 11th. The prognosis is that I have 9-12 months to live. Plenty of time to get things in order.

My goal is to teach my Las Vegas/WPPI class, and to teach once more in my home town, the Washington, DC area. I am also going to do everything in my power to teach the class in France.

Anything after that I’ll just have to wait and see.

Monte Zucker passed away on March 15, 2007, at a young 77 years in his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

From his website:

The Passing of a Legend
Monte Zucker: 1929-2007

Celebration of the Life of Monte Zucker
Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1-4 pm

It had to snow…

Published by -MiKe- on April 3, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

It’s freakin’ APRIL! Gah… It’s been nearly shorts-weather for the past week, few weeks, and now its just as white outside as February… Ew… It’s not even cold enough! It’s still kind of warm out…

Whatever.

I feel I owe you, dear reader, an apology.

It seems my “update” yesterday was more of a rant than an honest, all encompassing, update. And I am sorry…

Sure, some bad stuff has gone down, but things have been on the up ‘n up too. And here’s where I get to boast…

Continue reading ‘It had to snow…’

“Having Trouble Sneezing” by Mark Mothersbaugh

Published by -MiKe- on February 23, 2007 in Projects and asides. 3 Comments

I am doing a quick project for TV Production 1, and I needed the Mac v. PC music… I had been thinking about it for a while, but stupid me, never started looking.

Continue reading ‘“Having Trouble Sneezing” by Mark Mothersbaugh’