11 posts tagged “school”

I officially never have to set foot in The Art Institute of Tampa again. Words cannot describe how happy I am right now. I seriously feel so awesome. I'll never have another project. I'll never have to do homework. I'll never have to deal with my douchebag academic advisor. EVER AGAIN. I'm so stoked.

The portfolio show went really well. It was super boring at first and filled with some pretty arrogant people. Dave and Dave stopped by early when there wasn't a whole lot of action going on. They was hardly anyone there at the time and they both said something along the lines of, "this is it?' Yep. Welcome to AI Tampa. My boss and the company owner stopped by, which I thought was nice. They liked my book a lot and said my business cards were better than the ones that they printed. I guess I used heavier paper, lol. I got to see some old instructors. Lisa commented on how great of a student I was. I told her she was the best teacher at AI. I seriously meant it too. I even wrote in my final paper for my internship (which was basically just a bunch of questions about my time at the school) that she was great and deserved a raise. I will miss her. Corrie, Rick, and Theo stopped by as well. Good times.

I got a few job offers. One looked pretty promising. It was for a marketing company that needed a flash and/or web designer. I haven't looked at their site yet, but they were asking when I could start and wanted to know how much I was looking to make. I haven't looked at their website yet, but I have a feeling it is made of fail by the way they were talking. They have no designers on staff and have been hiring freelancers to do basic banner ads for them. I don't think I'd take a full time position there since I like where I work now and they offered me full time, but I think once the first of the year rolls around I'll give them a call to see if they need any stuff done freelance. Extra money never hurts...especially in this economy.

I also got an offer to teach at ITT tech. I've never really thought about teaching, but I guess it could be fun. Especially since I'd probably be younger than most of the students. The guy said a masters is preffered, but I can actually take a test online that certifies me to teach there. I might think about it.

I also got a job offer working for the City of Tampa, which would be interesting, but scary at the same time. I don't know how comfortable I am working for the state right now.

More than likely I am just going to stay where I am now. I am definitely going to bring up the fact that I did get offers though. make them sweeten the deal. We need to meet about me staying and work out some sort of arrangement. working there is great and I want to stay, the details just have to be right.

There was one thing that pissed me off royally today. I'm still seriously irked by this ass hole. Early in the show, maybe 20 minutes after Dave and Dave left, this group comes in. There were 2 guys and a lady that I think worked for the school. They went to Rambo's table first cause he was before me, and I was listening in on what this one dude was saying. He was completely arrogant and downright rude. He didn't even introduce himself and was asking really rude questions to Rambo (who handled them great by the way).

They then get to my table and this douche asks me if I can do flash work. I go to show him some examples and he keeps interrupting me to view other non- flash related stuff, which is fine, but he was a total dick about it. The two other people were nice, but this guy though his shit didn't stink or something. I pulled up one of my motion graphics pieces to show him and he just started to talk to the people he was with and completely ignore me. Whatever. I told him that I had more stuff in my book and gave it to him to look at. He then took a resume and I started to talk to the lady he was with. I didn't realize it, but the asshole left with my portfolio book. He just started walking away book in hand. Luckily I had another copy because I didn't want to make a scene and tell him he had to give it back to me. But seriosuly, who does that? He saw it was the only book on the table and he jacked it ninja style. What a fucking douche. I kind of hope he calls me in a week asking if I'm interested in working for him so I can say there's no fucking way I would ever work for someone as rude and arrogant as you. Man some people.

All and all it was a good day though. I'm excited to see what the future holds and so glad I never have to go back.

It's been a long, but good week. I'm officially cleared for graduation!! My portfolio review went really well. I actually got a hug Bill, one of my professors. I think his exact words were, "I'm a proud Papa." lol. He's a good guy that tried to act hardcore all the time, but really he's a big softy. I think most people in his classes are intimidated by him, but he reminds me of my father.

So since Thursday, I've been officially graduated from college. Yeah, I need to show up Tuesday and give Bill some printouts, and Sean some papers. And I need to pay my final bill, and do the portfolio show on Thursday, but that stuff is all easy. I'm done. I'm done. I'M DONE! I finally don't have no reason to e in that god awful place anymore. I can get my life back. I can do stuff that I want to do. i don't have to worry about doing projects anymore. It's exciting.

 I still haven't really celebrated my graduation because I've been pretty busy. Corrie wants to go out to a check out a new bar on Wednesday and I told her I would go since I don't have to be up early the next morning. Apparently all the bartenders from the place we used to go to that decided to charge $10 every night to get in  (for nothing I should add) all work there. I'll probably have a couple drinks, but nothing too crazy. I'm kind of over the drinking until I pass out stage of my life.

We had our work Christmas party last night. it was supposed to be at a ranch with a cookout, hayrides, and smores, but at the last minute (literally 3 hours before we all were supposed to be there) Angie (company owners wife) checked her email to find out the place cancelled. So frantically she decided to go out and buy a bunch of food and cook up some stuff so they could have it at the house. She pulled off a nice party for last minute I must say. Filet mignon, stone crab legs, and lots of side dishes. I just felt bad that she had to cook everything. I brought pie and cookies for desert, but that wasn't nearly the trouble that she went through. It was a good time though, and I got a Christmas bonus! And my boss said he wants to meet with me sometime during the week to discuss my full time status since I'm graduated. It's nice to know in this bad economic state that I have employment and people that actually appreciate me and want to keep me around.

Work over the weekend wasn't too bad. I had a few annoying customers yesterday...one lady I particually wanted to bunch in the jaw, but the season is coming to a schreeching halt. We were pretty slow yesterday and today was full of reschedules and cancellations. Corrie said that after next weekend she probably wouldn't need me, which was expected. She keeps trying to get me to go full time and I politely decline. I only really like working there duting the season, especially now when i don't really give a crap about numbers because I'm ONLY seasonal. The rest of the year sucks. And I have a great job doing what I really want. So no thanks Corrie.

I think it's time for dinner.

My family
Dave
Dave's Family
My job
The fact the gas prices are going down
My friends

I'd post more, but I'm kind of distracted by some cheesy magic show on TV and can't think. I've been procrastinating this week because I have so little left to do. Everything is pretty much done for school...I just have to go through things with a fine tooth comb. I got my book on Saturday and it turned out nice (thank you God!) so I'm going to order a few more so hand out at the portfolio show. I still need to order my business cards, create my letterhead, and print a bunch of resumes. I need to rehearse my speech for portfolio review as well. We are doing rehearsals in class next week. I absolutely hate getting up in front of people and talking, but I just keep telling myself that no one is really listening anyway. I just can't wait to get out of school and get my life back!

Dave and I are going to the casino in a little bit. Happy thanksgiving everyone.

I can't remember the last time I willingly got up this early on a Saturday before. Dave had class this morning and woke me up, then I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to just take a shower and start the day.

There's a lot I need to do...finish the stupid portfolio book so I can send it to the publishers. I'm almost done. Only 5 more pages I think. I actually might add more pages to it because I made the last section be photography and I think only having a few shots in that section would be silly. I was thinking about heading to Michael's later to see about framing this drawing that Dave's friend made him a few years ago that he still hasn't framed. Since he's in class and I'm awake, today would be a good day to sneak out and get it done without him knowing. I also might head to the new mall and see if I can start Christmas shopping. And I need to buy Mackenzie a gift for her birthday ( a Hannah Montana singing something or other doll). Ahh, lots to do.

Tonight Dave wants to watch the UFC fight at Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm always up for UFC, and wings. Hopefully I'll get this stupid book done by tonight because I would like a chance to get out and do something fun.

It's midterm week at school, my final midterm week, and the stress is beginning to set in. If I wasn't so broke, I would take a day off of work just to get all this crap done. This stupid portfolio book is stressing me out. I've been having nightmares that it's going to come back all screwed up and I'm not going to have enough time to make another one, therefore I won't graduate. Seriously, nightmares. I know I'm lame. I'm about halfway done creating it and decided that I MUST get it done and off to the printer by the end of this week. I MUST, I MUST I MUST.

My site is pretty much done. I just have probably like 4-5 hours of work to put in it, most of it being QC to make sure I didn't misspell anything. I showed it to m friend Chris and he already found something. I'm sure there is more because I'm not the greatest at typing.

I just want all this stuff to be done. I can't believe that I only have 5 more weeks of school left.

In other more awesome news, Neil and Sarah are coming to visit for New Years. I wasn't really excited for the holidays, but now I can't wait for them to come. I knew about this on Sunday and haven't had a chance to post because I've been so busy with all his school stuff.

For the past like...2 months, I've been working weekends at the portrait studio, which is fun, but since I have tons of stuff to do for school and I already work everyday during the week, it cuts into my school work time. Today I was scheduled to work 9:30-6:30. Corrie was expecting a pretty busy day. We were supposed to be double booked every half hour almost all day, but I guess last night when appointments were being confirmed a lot of people rescheduled. She has a ton of trainees, so she was giving them all the work to do so they could practice and get comfortable. She sent me home at 11:30 because there was just nothing going on. I was fine with it, since I have a lot of stuff that needed to get done. I went back to Dave's house and started putting away all of the Halloween decorations. everything is cleaned up, except for the big inflatables that were in the yard. I'm not sure where he wants to store them and I didn't really feel like trying to find a spot, so I left that for him. He should be happy when he gets home because I knew the last thing he wanted to do was clean stuff up after sitting in class all day.
After cleaning, I made chicken salad. Dave said last night that he was craving it and it's super easy to make. He didn't have any celery, like he said he did, so I just put some more onions in it. I tasted it and it was pretty good, but the celery gives it something special.

I have a lot of homework I need to do. I'm so glad that portfolio is my only class. I couldn't imagine how much stress I would have right now if I had other classes with homework. Time to get into nerd mode and start coding.

...feels like mush. It took me 8 tries to get a layout I liked for my portfolio site. When it comes to myself, I have a hard time figuring out what is "me". But I think I got something that I actually like this time. I just have to get all my stuff together and formatted for the site. Then make a book. Then make an "interactive DVD. god, I have a lot of work to do still. 

Hello. Nice to meet you.  My name is Barbara DiLisio. I’m a 25 year old Jersey girl that has been living in Florida for the past 7 years. I’m an educated, optimistic, independent female that believes in the good. I think  good design can motivate, inspire, and possibly even change people.  I’ve decided to become an interactive designer to try and help do all three. Welcome to my world...

not sure yet...

Today I started my last quarter. I'm not counting internship as a class (even though I have to show up every week to "meet" and pay for it-such b.s.) so the only class I have is portfolio. It will be intense for sure. Web Design and Interactive Media students have to have 3 components to their portfolio: the website, book, and a flash demo reel. The only thing we need to have to pass the class is our web site, but since we are all 12th quarter, everyone needs the other components for our final review to graduate. I'm glad this is the only class I have to take. I want everything to look perfect and if I don't have to worry about other classes I should have enough time to get everything done.

I really like my professor. He's a "tell it like it is" kind of guy. I hate when professors try to be nice. Tell me if you think my work sucks and fail people that don't follow the classroom procedures. I like no nonsense teachers like this. In the past, I've done well in classes with professors like this. He also has 38 years of experience in the graphic design field, so he knows his stuff and should be a big help.

Our first assignment is to write a "bio' about ourselves that we will eventually put somewhere on our website. Basically, it will just be talking about or strengths and things we stand for. I have a bunch of phrases and descriptive words written down on a piece of paper that I think sum up myself pretty well, but the hard part will be translating that into a few paragraphs that make sense.

In 3 months, all of this will be over 

I'm on lunch. I needed to get away from the office for a little bit because the stuff I'm doing is really tedious and boring. My boss's daughter had to get surgery today, so he's not in, and decided to give me all these boring things to do to keep me occupied I guess. On a good note, he sent us a text saying that her surgery went well, YAY.

I'm so tired of school. I really want it to be over with now. I really only have one class left cause my internship is my current job. Although it's the most important class probably (portfolio) I'm not sweating it because i think i have a good foundation for my website and have an idea now of what i would like to do for my interactive DVD. I should pass fine. There's plenty of people that graduated with a shit portfolio...so I'm sure i'll be ok. I just don't want to do it. At all. I should be done with all of this by now.

I need to go back to work and finish my incredibly tedious tasks. JOY