October 16, 2008

I Have Fans? Who Knew?

I recognize that I haven't posted in a while (obviously) and the reasons are numerous and varied, though they can't be distilled down to some mixture of exhaustion and forgetfulness. Ths lapse however apparently did not go unnoticed, so I figure I should attempt to explain it at least somewhat. This last finals week may have been the most difficult yet and the fact that it let out into this psuedo-break hasn't been much help either. Admittedly, the day after our last final, I took the day completely off, I played videogames all Saturday and pretty much avoided anything even resembling productivity, and it was one of the best days ever. For the first time I can remember in the last few months (maybe longer), I was completely without stress. For that magical day, I was able to completely forget about my Thesis, and Dissonance, and my DFS, and my job search, for that one day I felt really "free."

Unfortunately, my freedom may have been a glimpse of what lies ahead, but I am not there yet. The following Sunday, I basically worked on my portfolio from about 2:00 P.M. until 5:00 A.M. Monday morning in order to get everything in order before they went out to potential employers Monday at 9:00 A.M. The "final" version of my portfolio (at least the one that has now been submitted) is now available, and you can get to it through the same link as before or the more easily remembered www.thomashoeg.com. Since then, I have been spending a lot of time relaxing and recovering from last term and trying to get caught up on my life, the stuff I let slide during the term until I have time during these breaks.

After recovering from the Portfolio crunch I slept in pretty late on Monday, went in to Gearbox to pick up a leftover paycheck, then played video games during the afternoon and hung out with friends that evening. Tuesday I played Starcraft: The Boardgame with friends (and I won) and then concluded the evening with more video games ( I am currently working my way through Neverwinter Nights 2). Yesterday, I ran a bunch of errands like renewing my automobile registration and picking up various necessities like soap and detergent, but I also took some time to shop for video games (unsuccessfully attempting to take advantage of Toys R Us' "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" offer on all videogames) and I ended up picking up Dead Space and playing it a fair bit in addition to cleaning up my email and watching the final presidential debate. Then today, I spent most of my day researching companies, writing cover letters, and submitting job applications (three in total thus far), with a little Company of Heroes thrown in for good measure (which took longer to get setup than it probably should have).

There's still a lot I know I want (or wanted) to do with this week, but time is quickly running out. I feel like I need another week just to get everything in order, but I guess everybody probably feels that way from time to time. With pretty much two projects to focus on next term (not counting Thesis stuff), I am hopeful that it will be a bit easier to manage things, but who knows what the whole job hunt is going to throw at me. Tests, interviews, applications...it's all very exciting, but a little bit scary at the same time. I mean, in the next two months I will basically find out if the last year and a half have really been worth it. Maybe I'm placing a bit too much emphasis on it, but that's definitely how it feels.

About the job hunt, I suppose I should state this now to avoid and questions or comments in the future. I have decided NOT to post any specifics about my job hunt (where I am applying, who has interviewed me, who has rejected me) to avoid any potential negative fallout should a potential employer stumble upon my humble blog. I'm not really sure if anyone would care if I got an offer from Company X or never heard back from Company Y, but I figure I'm better safe than sorry. If you want to hear how things are going, feel free to email me or leave me a comment and I'll let you know privately. I may decide to summarize how things went at the end, but only after I am certain about where I am going.

Finally, I will leave you with this: Dead Space is awesome, it's probably one of the most immersive games I have ever played, and the team should be commended for the HUD-less interface they've managed to put together. It's a genius setup that I hope more games move toward if they can. It's so good that I considered putting subtitles on (because of some heavily accented audio logs), but decided not to because it seemed like a slap-in-the-face to the rest of the interface. Add all that to the fact that it feels like a real, honest-to-goodness survival horror game (unlike what certain Capcom franchises have slowly become), and I think you've got something really special, which is saying a lot considering its leading off against some heavy hitters in the next few weeks. Alright, well hopefully this long, rambling post, will somewhat make up for the last week, but if not....well, you'll just have to live with it. Now, I'm off to shoot some space zombies...

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