The Danosphere.

This just passed through my crosshairs- RIT’s Report Mag, the school magazine for the Rochester Institute of Technology, just posted their 2009 April Fools Edition! Check it out here [PDF]!

That’s right folks, somehow five years later I have managed to graduate RIT with a BS in Interactive Development. I was quick to switch my TCBN status to “Alumni” (via Control Panel>My Info) now that I’m finally free of the bonds of education (although the student loans will linger for quite some time).

In general it was all pretty surreal, after being in school for 5 years and being used to an endless stream of papers, projects, presentations, quizzes and exams day in and day out, now suddenly its all over. Done with. In my field masters degrees aren’t as benficial as some other fields so I plan on staying away from school for at least the next few years. I have a job lined up in D.C., where I’ve been working the past 6 years or so and I’m excited to finally get in and be working in the office (as opposed to the telecommuting I usually do).

I’ll be moving from NY down to MD and although I’m gonna miss the college life and my boys in NY, I know we will keep in touch so I’m not worried. I am very pleased to be leaving the gloom that is upstate NY for 8/12 months every year and covered with treacherous pathways they seem to call roads (responsible for 4 bent rims, 1 busted axle, and a blown lower ball joint), and some of the worst drivers in America hands down. So sunny MD with its blue skies, four season, and smooth roads is a welcome change.

I still have a bit of backed up work I have been meaning to post up [on this blog], that will be up soon as I now have some lounging time for the first time in what feels like ages. I also will be devoting a large portion of my time to upgrades, advances and new features for The College Blog Network. I have been meaning to redesign it to be easier to read and more interactive but these last few weeks of school had me truly “under the gun”. Now that I’m free I hope to pick up the pace on those improvements.

That’s it for now, expect more frequent posts and cool new TCBN features soon (if you found this through blogwire). But for now, I must get back to relaxin’… oh the joys of life after college

Hey blog fans! I have been MIA for a bit as I was at FITC2008! The conference was amazing, it’s really cool to see what other people are using new media for, and how the industry and the products that support it are advancing. I could ramble for hours about all the cool thing’s I saw but in a few words: Adobe Flash CS4 (Bones, true 2.5d, GPU-based shaders, advanced After-Effects style tween controls), AS4 (actionscript continues to mature), and lots of inspiration (Flight404).

But now I’m back in rochester, hammering away at school again. Actually I should say school is hammering away at me, FITC caused me to miss 4days of school, not that I really “missed” anything but I did fail to turn in 2 projects because of it. So now I have to bang out a Data Analysis I Minitab Exercise, finish my After Effects “slate”, animate and finish my “Earth Day” after effect piece, write a Query Letter for science writing, and finish an MVC framework for New Media Team Project. Ah and also continue to maintain TCBN, and do work to create some income. My life is dandy!

It’s all a huge pain in the ass but I’m working through it, updates are sure to follow as my time opens up. Some very cool thing’s I’m looking forward to posting about but for now I’ll just give my readers a sneak peak:

• TCBN Widget – That’s right, now if you blog is on TCBN it’s content will be published on sites around the world through the new TCBN widget. Some sites are already using it but the official public release is coming soon! All members will get their own unique API key and have the ability to tailor the widget to their liking!
• Some Cool School Projects – Hopefully my After Effects animations turn out looking cool, although we definitely aren’t given enough time to make anything amazing (see also: 10week quarters) but I’m doing my best to push it to be all it can be.
• AS3 Particle Engine – Inspired by Robert Hodgin and his work in processing, as well as the work of Joshua Davis I have decided to try and write an advanced particle engine in AS3. I am not usually one for these “creative” projects but these 2 really inspired me to try and apply my hardcore application programming knowledge to a completely different field. I am having to learn alot of math but I’m hoping the end result will be cool, updates will be posted regularly on this one

That’s all for now! Back to slugging away at school work, but keep your peepers open for updates some cool stuff should be coming over the next week.