9B: Collapsus Review

Here is the link to Collapsus, the trans-media experience.

Collapsus

And here is my audio response.

9A: Video Game Presentation Critique (The Good, The Bad, The Terrible, And the Hilarious.)

While I feel that our video game presentation went over well, I do think that there were a few things that didn't come across too well.  The first thing that didn't come across that well is how we expressed our delimiter in terms of gameplay.  I feel that we didn't really give a good indication how the trinkets would work as a delimiter itself in order to balance some of the gameplay.  The trinkets themselves were kind of difficult to describe, but what we should have really focused on was how much they affect gameplay.  I think the best way to describe the trinkets would have been to describe how the trinkets improved as you increased your luck attribute.

The next thing that I think we struggled to explain was the concept of our attributes.  Albeit, it is difficult to describe some these attributes when all six of them were synonyms of each other, but we could have done a bit better job describing how they affect you in game.  For example, we could have described a bit more in detail how karma could affect conversations with other people.  

With all of this being said, I do feel that the most difficult thing to discuss to the class is how to explain the rules of the game.  The rules are how all of the internal organization of the game provides context and structure for the game, such as how we utilized the attributes in combination with the trinkets in order to create a certain amount of depth for the game.  Trying to fully explain how the rules all mesh together in order to make the game can be difficult because in a lot of ways we are still developing the rules as we think of them.  I do feel that in a lot of ways, certain rules are set as ground work for the rest of the game while other rules are implemented as time progress' in order balance certain subjects of the game.  In a lot of ways, I do feel that making a game more of a continual process rather than something that is completely planned, down to the last detail.  Much like all media, we still have changes that we make while we make games, and trying to get all of the rules together is difficult to do when you are just starting.  

8B: Critiques of Other Character Animation

John Esterkamp/Pete Fumosa Hero/Villain Animation:

(Unfortunately, I'm having issues getting their animations to come over to my page, so I'm posting the link to their blog post itself.)

JT/Pete's Animations

The first thing that I would like to talk about is how both Mr. Doctor and Larry the Lawyer contrasted with each other so well.  Right from the get go, you see that Mr. Doctor and Larry the Lawyer are going to the best of enemies, (and by that I mean they hate each other with a passion).  This extreme contrast comes in most apparently with the heavy use of color that both JT and Pete apply to expert effect.  With the two characters, we see that they both employ red and blue hues in order to display their hero (blue) and their villain (red).  The use of blue and red may be a bit overused in terms of color alignment, it still manages to let us know more about the story of these characters through the use of contrasting colors

Likewise, the saturation of the colors also manages to contrast with each other.  The dark red of Larry the Lawyer presents a bold defiance to Mr. Doctor's light, majestic blue.  Within each picture, we also see a nice use of brightness, which shows Larry the Lawyer in a darker setting in order to display his more villainous persona while Mr. Doctor was shown in a brighter setting, which gave him more of a heroic persona.

Over all, I felt that Mr. Doctor and Larry the Lawyer were very good concepts.  The whole judge vs. corrupt lawyer was extremely unique, and it really added a breath of fresh air to the rest of the super powered pantheon that was presented in the class.

Craig Browne/Ryan Priestle Hero/Villian Animation:

While I do feel that the animation for hero was a bit short, I did like the two characters that were made.  I felt that there was a good use of Tension and Release within each character animation.  With the hero's animation, we see an old man who is about to be attacked by street thugs, which creates tension as we await to see what happens next.  This is promptly released when the thug falls from the sky and the hero steps in to save the elder.  Likewise, in the villain's animation, we see the villain approaching the armored car, and this creates a bit of tension as we wait to see what he's going to do.  This tension is released when the villain blows up the car and gets the cash from inside, which actually releases that tension pretty humorously.

From here, I would like to make note that Ryan and Craig did a really good job with the movements of the characters.  The most notable of these movements is parallel movement in the villain's animation, which is showcased as he moves across the screen in a simple manner, just a left to right movement.  The hero animation is a bit more complicated than that, and as such it uses overlapping movements in order to get all of the action in.  The best example would be when the two thugs are running away when the hero arrives to save the elder.  Finally, the arrival of the hero in his animation shows a bit of "weight" in his landing.  If you'll notice, the hero squashes a little bit when he lands and then stretches back out, which shows us that the animators did a good job with the landing animation.  That weight gave a bit more realism to the scene, which let it all come together quite nicely in the end.

Dylan Brown does not have his animation posted at the time of this post.  

8A: Superhero Powers, AWAY!!!! (This American Life)

The Link to This American Life

This American Life

My Audio Link

10A: Freak Factor (Or How I Came to Love These Articles)

Again, here is the link to my topic so that we can all see it.

Freak Factor

#2: What's My Problem?
Now, the first of these topics that I want to cover is point number two, or "What's My Problem?"  The reason why I want to focus on this one first is because this passage displays a lot of insight into what we call weaknesses and what they actually are: clues that lead to our true strengths.  For the author of the article, his independent and outspoken nature, which were things that people in society deemed weaknesses, actually helped him land a job working as a consultant, which favors people of these dispositions.  It's not that the weaknesses brought him down to this, but instead, it's that the weaknesses lead him to his career.

In a way, I feel that this might be how we all found out where we want to go with our lives.  The idea is that you spend time learning about what your "weaknesses" are in stages from our toddler days all the way up to our years in high school.  From there, we assess our "weaknesses"and determine how to go forth into the world from there.  Our weaknesses aren't a disadvantage, they're a way of guidance, and we all need to learn where and how to go about doing things as we grow and learn.

#3: Flawless: There's Nothing Wrong With You
This passage was an interesting one for me to read; partially due to the chart that the author provides on the page of this passage, and partially due to the examples that author used to describe some of these weaknesses.  Reading through the chart, I can find a few things that fit with my personality.  I seem to have strengths such as being reflective, responsible, and humble.  How did I come upon these conclusions you ask?  I looked at what the weaknesses were, which included things such as being shy and boring, which I do feel are kind of adequate in telling me who I am.

The next half of the passage showed a multitude of people taking their perceived weaknesses and disadvantages and using them in a way that benefitted them.  The disorganization point actually reminded me a few other articles that I've read, as it mentioned how Alexander Fleming and Albert Einstein came across their discoveries.  Later, the author discussed how several business owners were able to get started even though they had dyslexia, which shows how we will use what our weaknesses as inspiration or a drive for completing our goals.  Lastly, and the one that I felt a little uplifted by, was the addiction section, which described how a former drug addict changed his addiction and wound up creating a better life for himself.  This one is big because it shows what people can do by finding ways to alter their weaknesses in order to gain strengths.

#6: Focus: You Can't Do Both
The last passage that I wanted to cover was #6 because I feel that the example used in the passage was very interesting and relevant.  It showed that the best way to really maximize your output was to just focus on the strengths that you have.  The Wal-Mart/Target/K-Mart example really showed what it means to have focus and what can happen if we overwhelm ourselves in an attempt to appease everyone.  I do feel at times that I've been trying to strike a balance, but this section has lead me to look more for my personal strengths rather than my over-all well-roundedness.

The last thing from this passage that I wanted to cover upon was a small bullet point in #6, which is the point about strengths and weaknesses being linked.  Logically, this makes sense, as we wouldn't have any strengths if we didn't have any weaknesses.  What I find interesting is the fact that the article states that fixing a weakness can diminish a strength, which actually makes a lot of sense.  Our weaknesses are what make our strengths, and trying to fix or eliminate those weaknesses can lead to our strengths suffering.  It's best to focus on strengths rather than try to fix a weakness.

Strengths and Weaknesses:
In conclusion, I want to review what I feel are my own personal strengths and weaknesses when it comes to my creative side.  What I have found out about myself is that I tend to augment other ideas well.  I can usually add things to another's creative idea and I tend to act as a good assistant for people who can get their creativity out.  In a lot of ways, I tend to infuse my ideas with others in order to get the best possible idea out of the whole process.

What I've noticed about my weaknesses is that I tend to have a lot of confidence issues when it comes time to show my work.  In a lot of ways, I feel that I'm not bringing out the best of what I have, which tends to bring a lot of doubt on what I'm doing.  I've noticed that this has affected the work that I do, as it feels like I'm not doing as well as I was hoping in the end.  This is something that I may need to look at as time goes on, as it could help me understand how to create and augment other creative ideas in the future.

Trash Compactor and The Mogul (Our Hero and Our Villain)

This is the hero that my partner, Logan Boucher, and I created for our animation projects.

The Trash Compactor:

The animation for our hero:

The Mogul:  

The animation for our villain:  

7A: Joke Videos and their Inevitable Analysis.

The first thing that I want to talk about both of our videos is that they tend to utilize a fair amount of space, most notable in how the frames are set up.  In the case of "Big Blonde Woman," the camera was set up to focus on a lot of close ups for facial reactions and for wide shots in order to establish the shot.  The wide shots help to create deep space in the environment.  The big difference between the two is that "Blondes and Puppets" tended to have more medium shots than "Big Blonde Woman."

One point that the two videos diverge on is the use of text and subtext between the two videos.  In "Big Blonde Woman," the way that the story is being told, through the use of a narrator as he tells a joke to his friends, presents the information in a more textual way, although a narration itself will usually present the story in some kind of subtextual way due to it's first person narration.  "Blondes and Puppets," on the other hand, presents it's information in a bit more subtext.

Another thing that is different between the two videos is that "Big Blonde Woman," tends to utilize more  rhythm while "Blondes and Puppets" tends to use more movement.  With "Big Blonde Woman," we find that a lot of the quick cuts between each shot created a very rhythmic shot style that lent itself to it's comedic nature.  "Blondes and Puppets" tended to use more character movements, such as the puppet  trying to get the other character's attentions and the use of an offscreen walk out in order to transition from a close shot of the girl to her in the ventriloquist's face.

Lastly, I want to cover the way that information is passed in both films.  In "Big Blonde Woman," that information is passed didactically, due to the fact that the story is being told from the point of a narrator, rather than being shown in a third person style.  "Blondes and Puppets" tends to stick with a third person story telling mechanic, which lets some of the information in the film be passed actively.  One such example of this active interpretation is that we see the blonde girl get angrier as the film moves on, which allows us to interpret how frustrated she is with the jokes.

How to be creative. (As explained by an uncreative video.)

How to be creative.

And the video commentary that goes with it.

Shady Lighting..... IN SPACE!

This is my audio commentary over a section of the game Mass Effect 2, dealing with the space station Omega.

A witch, a knight, and a commentary.

This is my audio commentary for the Monty Python Scene "A Witch."

Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler

The original painting, created by Helen Frankenthaler:        

And what I wanted to highlight:  

Now, the first thing that I want to note is that the minimalist style of this painting makes the work much more open to personal interpretation, which is the reason why I chose this painting.  But the reason that I chose this reframing is because I feel that this gold paint mark is arguably the centerpiece that makes the painting.  In this case, the mark, as displayed on the bottom, does little to nothing on its own, but when combined with the rest of the painting, it gives us a visual image, which to me looks like a human face.  

One thing that I would note about the "nose" is that it utilizes both actual and virtual line types.  In this case, the left hand side also provides us with an example of an actual line, as it gives a clear, visible line between the nose and the pink space.  This is also a good case for visual affinity due to the use of warm colors, similar line structures, and simple space, which lets everything blend together due in their similarities. 

With this in mind, let's take a look at the at the rhythm of the image.  The image actually does contain some rhythm, as you'll notice the pink space, the nose, and the rest of the face are evenly spaced out between each other.  What this rhythm allows us to look at is the subjective details behind the image, such as whether or not the image is actually a face and how we perceive everything on the image.  In this case, I feel that Frankenthaler intentionally framed the painting like this so that the subjective details could be highlighted.    

Finally, we will look at the Rule of Thirds that is present in this painting.  In this case, the centerpiece, the "nose", dominates the middle of the frame, and naturally, our eyes are drawn to that center point.  A quick sweep of the painting shows that when we pass through all of the central points, then we find that the "nose" is centered in the middle of these points, which attracts our attention.  In this way, the painting is using the rule of thirds to show us it's main, subjective detail, so that we can look to the rest of the painting in order to find out what it is that we're looking at.   

Song/Music Critiques

Here are the song critiques that I could get.

Joe Balyeat's Song

-Joe's Critique

James Myers' Song

-James' Critique

I was unable to get Logan Hayes' Song as he has not posted that on his blog as of this post.

Soundscape Critiques

Here's a few soundscapes that I'm critiquing.

Jason Butler's Soundscape

-Jason's Critique

Kevin Crowder's Soundscape

-Kevin's Critique

Peter Hauptman's Soundscape

-Peter's Critique

Lizards and Brainwashing. (Another set of thoughts concerning a reading.)

Links for the people reading this:

Brainwashed

One of the big things that the article talks about is the concept of the "lizard brain," or the emotions that we feel when we take a risk that we are not used to.  As the article puts it, the lizard brain "does not like to be laughed at and it does not like to be out of it's safety zone."  What the article means by acknowledging the lizard brain is to understand that we are uncomfortable with risks in our lives and that we still need to try and take those risks.  The lizard brain is a metaphor for the insecurities that we feel about our risks and our chances of success and failure, and if we want to make it in the coming age, we have to confront and overcome the fears that we have.

The second layer that I wanted to discuss is the learning layer.  The article mentions that while we grew up, we learned only what was needed for the jobs at the time.  But now that we have entered into this recession, it becomes vital to those seeking jobs to seek out and learn new information about anything.  Jobs today require a versatile knowledge of our surroundings and a creative mind will always benefit from more knowledge.

I do feel that these two layers do tie in well with the way that we set up our blogs.  Our blogs are our method of learning and finding out more about our creative side, and the postings generally seem to show a lot of promise with that.  One thing to note is that the blog helps us to acknowledge our lizards and to help us overcome them.  Likewise, we also learn more by reading the blogs of others.  That being said, I do feel that the blog assignments are a little too restricting in terms of what we can write.  Some of the assignments have felt like missed opportunities due to some of the restrictions that have been going on.  In the future, either in this class or with any future classes, I hope we're allowed a little more freedom in how we write our blogs.

My Partner's Song

Jason Butler's Song For Media 203

A little ditty that I did do.

Again, stressful, but the song came out alright.

http://www.youtube.com/user/storeoses?feature=mhum

Covers.... How do they work?

There's a few times in your music-listening life that you find that one cover song that just trumps the original in terms of enjoyment.  I found one of my favorite covers a couple years back when I heard Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" while rummaging through my brother's music collection, and I still listen to it when I feel the time is right (which is all the time).  True, this choice might seem a bit over used, but I feel that's for a good reason.  But if I'm going to look at both of these versions, I should probably start at the beginning, so let's look at the original.

Leonard Cohen:  "Hallelujah"

As you may notice, Leonard Cohen's voice has a very low pitch, giving the rest of the song a certain amount of depth, almost like a narrator telling a story.  Also, notice how the bass is very prominent in this version of the song, which lets the rest of the song come to life around it.  Now let's take a look at Jeff Buckley's cover of this song.

Jeff Buckley:  "Hallelujah"

Right off the bat, we notice that the song is much more somber, softer, emotionally intense, but it goes against the original by going for a softer sonic intensity and going more for emotional intensity.  Using a higher pitch for his voice, Jeff Buckley changes the way that the listener interprets the song, which switches Leonard Cohen's narrator style of interpretation to a more personal, heartfelt approach, almost like it's a close friend telling you about their troubles.

Jeff's cover actually provides a great deal of tension to the listener, as there is a certain amount of emotional output that builds throughout the song as it builds up to what should be a logical conclusion.  What Jeff did was create tension throughout the verses by gradually raising the intensity until it felt like it was going to break, and then released it in a subdued delivery so that the song could continue to ebb and flow with it's dynamics.  Leonard did a similar amount of tension when he builds up to the chorus, but he  lets out that tension with a louder, more pronounced release.

Another really notable shift between the two songs is the rhythm at which they are played.  Leonard Cohen's original was played at a constant 4/4 throughout the song, whereas Jeff Buckley's cover begins with a sort of staggered introduction on the guitar, slowly moving in and out of each part without any real, true rhythm until Jeff starts playing the chords to the song.  Jeff also changes the rhythm at the end, when he holds his voice at the quiet volume and when he plays his guitar a little bit faster.  This really adds to the emotional output that Jeff Buckley is putting into the song.

Lyrically, there are some moments where the two diverge.  For the first two stanzas, the songs share the same lyrics, but at the third stanza is when the two split.  The lyrics that Jeff Buckley used in his cover are much more relationship based, dealing more with lost love, and they rely more on the vocal delivery in order to effectively create the mood of the song.  Leonard Cohen's lyrics tend to be more world-weary and resigned, which lend themselves more to Cohen's vocal delivery rather than Buckley's delivery.

One last thing to note about the two songs is that lyrically, they both use a lot of subconscious lyrical themes.  Most readers can consciously figure out what the meaning behind the songs are, but most of the lyrics themselves contain a large amount of symbolism and metaphor, which helps to enhance the delivery of each of the songs.

In regards to what I think is the better version, I feel that the Jeff Buckley cover of "Hallelujah" is better than the original, although I think anyone could have figured that out from how much I gushed on and on about it.  Leonard Cohen's original is great as well, but I feel that the song works much better in a stripped down format rather than a grand, choral format.  What I do love is that both of these songs manage to provide something unique, one has a strong air of wisdom about it (Cohen) whereas the other is delivered in a way that shows the signs of a younger individual, who's still learning about life, a style that hits closer to home for me (Buckley).

Soundscape Project

Lots of work, lots of stress, but it's done.  Now onto another one.

My partner was Logan Hayes for this project.

Finding Your Howl

I recommend reading through this link either before you start listening to the podcast or while you are listening to it.

Finding Your Howl

Podcasting Link for the audio.

Some thoughts about a reading. (aka 14 Great Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas, the Summary)

Firstly, so that everyone reading understands what I'm talking about:

14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

The above link is to a very interesting and fascinating article by the author Mitch Ditkoff.  The beginning makes a brief mention about the need for innovation in today's modern job market, from which it segues into a look at two different ways of coming up with innovation, which it labels as a "western" approach (or as the article puts it, "I think, therefore I am) and an "eastern" approach ("I am, therefore, I think").

Progressing from this point, the article begins listing the eponymous 14 Ways, some of which include fantasizing and daydreaming about what your creative thought (5), taking a break from working in order to get focused on it at a later time (8), and suspending our sense of logic (13).  Coincidently, these are the three concepts that I really want to look at more in depth.

#5: Fantasize


The article mentions that many new ideas and innovations are born when people just fantasize about things, and this is something that I agree completely with.  I feel that many ideas that I've had have occurred when I just daydream, although this usually happens when I need to study so that puts me in a bit of a problem at times when it's ten minutes until my test and I start fantasizing about an epic battle between a T-rex and a washing machine with legs.  I do feel that the example with Gary Kasparov was a poor choice, but it ultimately ties in with the overall idea of the passage that dreaming about something ultimately beats having a computer try to achieve the same result.

One thing that I did enjoy about this passage was the note about companies and innovations.  I felt it was kind of funny that CEOs expect great new ideas and then they don't give any time or motivation to actually look for those innovations.  It's like a man telling you to grow crops but he won't give up the seeds that actually make those crops.  But sometimes, we already have the seeds to our innovations, we just find it when we do other things, like....

#8: Taking a Break


I'll admit, this one really appeals to me, but that's partly because I'm a lazy guy.  Truth be told, I only started work on this blog post after the original due date, which might come back to bite me in the near future.  But what I did take from this passage was that taking a break may actually help me when I'm trying to think of new things.  Plus, it can really relieve stress that comes with the day and with trying (really hard) to find something new.

I do feel that the example with Seymour Cray is actually one of the more relevant examples that I've read in this article.  The passage really got how this worked with people, although I'm a bit surprised that a computer expert works on tunnels whenever he takes a break.

Also, I've been to Wisconsin multiple times, and I wish I could see elves in those trees.  It would make the trips up there so much more exciting.  But logic dictates that there are no elves in Wisconsin.  Speaking of logic, that brings me to my next passage....

#14: Suspend Logic


One thing about this passage that I found interesting was the mention that most people in the world want to find or witness something fantastic, something that completely destroys what logic dictates.  Another interesting bit was when it mentioned that kids tend to live in this state more often than adults, which may indicate that we may find our ideas when we look into our past.  Although that isn't exactly what the article is talking about.

I would argue that this way may be one of the best ways to get an innovation or an idea, as it works well with some of the other tips that the article presents.  For example, when we daydream, we tend to suspend our logic so that we can imagine fantastic and frightening thoughts that we wouldn't be able to experience in real life.  Suspending logic can also work in tangent with suggestion #9: Noticing and Challenging existing patterns, because logic at times dictates what we follow and why we follow it.

With that being said, if there is one prompt that I would like to take, it would be the prompt to suggestion #14, which goes like this:

"What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic, and rationality in service to birthing your big idea?"


One thing that I can do is to continue to daydream about various things that make absolutely no sense in any way, shape, or form, which would be a good start.  Another thing I could do would be to break my traditional routine, or as my Sociology class puts it, "breaking away from the script."  What this means is that I would need to find something that I could just subvert or invert so that I could find something of meaning out of this.  Unfortunately, finding that will be tough, since my schedule is already very ingrained into my head and it would be tough to really get anything out of doing this.

Or maybe this is what they mean by suspending logic; just finding something strange about our ordinary routine.  After all, some of the things that we do on a regular basis may not seem logical to other people and this also occurs in the opposite way.  Maybe we can find something out of that, by having looking at the illogical actions of other people.  That could definitely work out well in an office style setting.

That's all I have for this blog post, I'll see you guys later.

My Three Biggest Influences (And Other Useful Notes)

They Might Be Giants:

They Might Be Giants hold a special honor for me because they allow me to put on my rose-tinted nostalgia goggles for two separate instances.  The first of which was my own childhood and the second of which was when I was beginning my teenage years.  They relate to the first due to the fact that they were on various children's cartoons back in the day, such as KaBlam! and Tiny Toons Adventures, programs that everyone loved to watch before Nickelodean started rerunning everything.

They relate to the second part because that was around the time that I really found out about the Internet and about things like Youtube.  Ah, I remember those days, when Youtube didn't have ads being played before every major video and the big Internet meme of the time was a big guy lip syncing to a Molodovan pop group while recording it with his web camera.  Back then, I would watch They Might Be Giants videos on Youtube, when it was young and relatively innocent.

Actually, let me show this KaBlam! video just to illustrate the point:

What I love so much about their songs is how much subtext there is in the lyrics. Just hearing/reading the actual text might make no sense at first, what with worms wanting to be drummers and experimental films, but the subtext of the songs show other meanings, such as how the story of Dr. Worm can be seen as an analogy for striving towards your dreams.  Speaking of dreams, that leads me into my next influence:

Sigur Rós:

This is the band that I could probably use to label myself as a hipster, but I think I might be stretching that a bit.  What I will say is that I love this band's dreamy, atmospheric sound; the sounds of a lullaby.

The one thing that really strikes me about Sigur Rós (despite the fact that it's really hard to type Rós on an English keyboard) is how much they can change their sound while still keeping the same riff and melody.  For example:

For the first four minutes, the song built upon an affinity, which was the dreaming sounding voice and the repetitive guitar riff.  Throughout this half, there are variations on the melody and harmony in order to keep things interesting, but subtle enough not to disturb the overall mood of the piece.  Then, at 4:53, the song changes dynamics, contrasting the quiet, peaceful lullaby with the loud, bombastic, and uplifting choral section in order to really maximize the emotional output of the song.

Being an audio production major, it makes sense that my first two influences were musicians.  But sometimes, we all have a special place in our soul for other things outside our area of study.  Which leads me to:

Monty Python:

Yes, these guys are an influence to everyone, but I find it strange just how much these guys lead me into the media business, which gives me a legitimate excuse to gush on and on about them.  So much of their work has influenced what we see in sketch comedy that we sometimes fail to realize what was so good about their work.  But what's even better is how well the work produced by the Monty Python troupe has stood up to the test of time.  Take the Dirty Fork sketch for example:

What's so good about some of the humor in Monty Python sketches is that consciously some of the sketches make absolutely no sense, but subconsciously we find a new level of humor that doesn't exist when we look at the overall plot, because there is no plot (aside from that one episode about the British cyclist, but that still makes very little sense.)  But when I think about all of these influences, I realize that one of them creates nonsensical music, the other creates music in another language, and the last makes comedy with a very loose sense of logic.  All of these make a very strange combination when looked at together, but they all work together in a strange, complex way.

Now, enough of this silliness, let's move on to something completely different.

Introductions

Hey everyone, my name is Eric Miller (aka Boxcar).  The purpose of this blog is to post some critiques of various pieces of media and to post some of my assignments from my MDIA 203 college course.  Don't have too much to say for my first blog post so either wait for me to update this thing or start scrolling.