03Jan
2009

Studies aka time-consuming pain in the…

Category: College, Life

Look, another entry already ;).

It’s a short summary of what I’ve been up to for the past… 1,5 year. If someone told me that this will keep me so busy I wouldn’t believe it ;).

I study Informatics & Econometrics and my speciality is Computer Graphics & Multimedia.
The first year was a total disaster. Seriously. Subcjects were boring, but overwhelming. What’s worse I’m still wondering if any of them was of any use.
My job at that time was quite well paid yet time-consuming and irritating (I will write a separate entry on this matter) and my parents’ marriage was hanging by a thread (and I really don’t feel like writing about it anytime soon).

Some of you might say: you’ve chosen the faculty yourself and it’s boring? Yes, that’s the way it is. I wouldn’t have chosen it if the speciality was different. I don’t know how it looks like in other countries, but here the speciality starts with the second year and the first is meant for all those difficult subjects which will make half of your group change the faculty or school. We had micro- and macroeconomics (yes, separete subject for each), mathematic analysis, statistics (which continues) and other mostly mathematic oriented stuff. Blah.
The only subjects which might be considered more or less useful were Databases and Programming. Unfortunately we did not learn how to use databases on websites and the only programming language we got to know was Pascal, which is out of use anyway.

Fortunately, this losing streak ended with the first year. On the second, we started our speciality and at last something worth our attention appeared in our schedules.
Few examples:

- Computer Graphics and Multimedia, which can be also known as Game Developing :). It seemed quite great at the beginning, but now it’s just a mess. Our tutor wanted to show us every possible way of creating games and you know how it is: when you learn all you know nothing.
Well, learning various techniques might sound good, but the goal of this subject is to create a video game. And how on Earth are we supposed to do that if we have only basics in few techniques? He knew that most of us (if not all) will use Flash to create it, but we had only +/- 2 hours connected with Flash. Marvelous.
As for the game itself, here’s our groups plan: we want it to be in Silent Hill-ish dark climate (anyone surprised?). FPP (First Person Perspective) with logical riddles. Escape type, probably. Well that’s the plan, we will see if we will be able to create it.
We are sure that the main character will be female and that there will also appear a second, male, character who is based on… I know, no one who knows me would ever guess ;), on Ran/Aya Fujimiya in Side B version <3 <3 <3. *cough*
I’ll post the game here if it gets decent enough ;D.

- Webdesign: another subject which seemed ok at the beggining, but turned out not so great.
Of course, we had to start with basics. Waste of time, seriously. I’m not the best coder, but in times when designs are based on div/css we were supposed to create iframe.
It got even better when PHP started. All we did were few forms. None of them was really useful, not to mention the fact that if you use action=”mailto:” it will not work. You need a PHP script wchich will send the messege to you. And those are not empty words, I created such form like two weeks ago ;D. Though I used a tutorial found in the internet and not school materials.
The tutor didn’t even show us how to use includes. And it’s like the most basic thing ever. Or is that only my opinion? x_x”
[EDIT:] I forgot to mention one thing, which can be considered as the most positive side of this classes: course of Flash for idiots ;D, so the tutor showed us, step by step, how to make few basic effects. When we had Flash on CG&M it was like “click here, here, here and here and poof! it works!” and half of the group was like “WTF has just happened? O_O”. Yup. That’s us.
Of course, the materials we got are done in such weird and hazy way that if you don’t have your own notes, you’ll probably not know what to do anyway. But still, it was a good start :).[/EDIT]

- Multimedia Devices. The only subject hardware oriented so far. I really like our tutor and classes are even more interesting. It’s one of those subjects which you just want to learn, because you know it will be useful in the future. Not only will you be able to choose the best TV or monitor for your needs, but also show your boss a way to lower electricity bills ;).
We also had calsses about tablets. I was the one responsible for the devices, meaning: I took two tablets with me, personal and borrowed from work ;D. I’m not really a show-off type, but my lovely tablet is Wacom Intuos3 A3 <3 and I just had to take it with me ;D. I might not have skills, but I have the hardware… and it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t prefer it the other way round, but oh well.

And the worse part of this year? Except from all those economy-oriented subjects there’s the worse one: English. No, I don’t have any problems with it, it’s the opposite. My group, the most “advanced” group, is on intermediate level. I graduated high scholl on advanced level. Intermediate is two levels lower.
Ok, my English is not perfect, but for god’s sake! Intermediate? How many times am I supposed to “learn” what’s the diference between Present Perfect and Present Simple? It’s not a primary school. I really thought that since it’s Informatics, which is BASED on English, this level will be higher. I’d really be happy if we were on Upper-Intermediate, because it’s much harder than Advanced, but no. The best group is on a level I were in junior high.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like this 3rd term. I really do. It just makes me mad that I learned much more from on-line tutorials and at work than at school. I mean, Uni. Well, whatever.

[EDIT:] I’ve added a few links to blogs I enjoy reading.