Orientation was this morning. I was a bit late getting up, didn't sleep well last night. Had to get a ride to the masonic center where things were starting. Turns out they were serving breakfast, but I'd already eaten. Checked in... strange to be surrounded by students now when I've only seen a few at a time before. All herded into the big auditorium for a boring speech from the President, and a very odd scene from the leader of the new athletic department and... cheerleaders. Yeah. Geektastic art school has cheerleaders. Go figure.
Then the keynote speaker Randy S. Nelson, dean of Pixar University, came on. I could hug that man. I swear to god. He was amazing, fantastic-- it's really too bad somebody like THAT isn't running this damn school. Broadway director, juggler, actor-- very much the joyous, insane, motivated type of person that Pixar seems full of. I wish I could remember more of what he said, I'll have to see if there's a tape.
I ended up going to lunch with several of the people sitting around me, in a nifty little diner with a real car parked next to our table-- I forgot my headphones there dammit, oh well. Then we caught a shuttle to the main office and set about roaming around to take care of errands.
I had the very great luck of catching an academic advisor at a free moment, and got an Add/Drop form signed to waive Introduction to Computer Graphics for Animation, plus the following class, to be put in Maya 1. The teacher whose signature I needed happened to be down the hall, so the advisor printed out the forms, he took a quick look at some of my work, signed the thing, and off I went. I was told that the Admissions department isn't really very good at figuring out where the students belong and is more geared towards simply dealing with the influx of new students, many of which leave shortly-- they're salespeople basically, handling the big rush until the serious students can be passed to the academic advisors later. Not the best system, but there it is. I still need to go in to the foundations department to deal with Analysis of Form.
Oooone little hitch. I can't actually turn in these Add/Drop slips until I take care of Accounts Receivable. It turns out I missed the damn deadline on the 1st-- I hadn't realized it was so soon. So. I have to come up with about $600 by tomorrow morning. Oooooookay. Gah.
Then we had the department meeting, with the leaders of the Animation department all answering questions and laying things out for us. These people were MUCH more interesting than most of the speakers at the auditorium, people who seriously seemed to know what they were talking about and how things are gonna go down.
Then there was the party, in a bar next to the Metreon. ..........I have never been in this position before. It's very interesting, and terribly surreal. I am not sitting in the back of the room scared and depressed and alone. I am actually out trolling the dance floor, the bar, the crowds-- specifically looking for the people that seem interesting, the outspoken ones, the excited ones, the ones that catch my eye and smile back. I'm looking for the people who are going somewhere. The ones who know what they're doing and what they want. The ones whose talent is burning. At this school there will be two kinds of people-- the ones who just stroll along, doing what they need to pass their classes, and the ones who grab the school with both hands and shake it until they get everything they can out of it. The second kind will be the ones working in the industry, colleagues, compatriots, bosses, friends... competition. They're the ones who can use what I know, and who can help me.
So, hi you guys-- Edward, Alex, Brendan, Katie, Alee, Gitamba, Steve, Dot, Taylor, Chris, Brian, and... the zillion others whose names I didn't manage to catch. Damned fantastic to meet you.
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