Review of 2006

January - March 2006

Overall a very good atempt at getting things on track, solid attendence and enthusiasm for Onteca games course, doing Photoshop/Illustrator courses, solar energy devices and jobsearch improving. Still in need of more umph for interactive arts but hey you cannot have it all. Need to get cracking. Went to Sunrise on 3rd March and met someone so things may get a bit busy.

April - December 2006

Things have gone from promising to disastrous. I never finished Interactive Arts, MANCAT short courses, Onteca games course, solar energy devices and some friends fell by the wayside and I had and lost a job. All because of a lack of motivation driven by too many nights out, drugs and spending too much time helping my partner. Finances have become a major problem and I am at an all time low. I'm even visiting the Doctor regarding a barrage of minor medical problems.

I have learned a lot about people, relationships and society. I just have not learned much about things that I wanted to know such as game design, animation and music making. I did get awarded the HNC in music production (with distinction) and have had a lot of time to think about things. Now 2007 is upon us and all hell is breaking loose...

March Targets

Urgent things to get done in March:

Catalogue page and CD-Rom submission
Animation and game environment
Dissertation and Acoustics 3
Interactive Arts studio diary (over Easter)

Update asap

Sort out schedules and get things done before they are too late.

Monday 13/02/2006 - Sunday 19/02/2006

This is a day by day schedule to get the ball rolling:-

Monday 13^th

· IA - dissertation intro and chapter summary & project research

· Backlog of Blogs and Maya tutorials

· Web Design - upload to server and check content

Tuesday 14^th

· Liverpool - Maya and continue with ideas and storyboard

· Maya tutorials and installation

· Research ideas and do visual work

Wednesday 15^th

· Liverpool - Maya and continue with ideas and storyboard

· Prepare presentation and finish work for Nick

Thursday 16^th

· Presentation for 3pm for Nick (rehearse and prepare work and research)

· Web stuff - add stuff to Candymana site, solar devices and work on melting pot site

Friday 17^th

· Acoustics 3 - Calculations, room plan and complete first two parts

· Rockworld

· Maya tutorials and practical work

Saturday 18^th

· Dissertation - write up chapter and new appendix

· Modelling and animation (practical experiments)

Sunday 19^th

· Acoustics 3 - finish off (answer last two questions) for tomorrow

· Dissertation - write up one chapter to be finished by Monday

· 5 rhythm dancing

Monday 06/02/2006 - Sunday 12/02/2006

I cannot stress the following more:

Concentrate on project work for Nick, dissertation for Jane, ideas for project and Interactive Arts Website. - more work needed
Put Website (mine and solar energy) online - done but site needs more editing
Finish MANCAT assignment and backlog of studio diary -not done
Sort out diet, exercise and visit galleries - not done
Do some sketches and 3D animation - not enough done

Look to last week for any other stuff

Result - appalling 5/10 with only some of the above done by 13/02/06. Missed meeting with Nick last Thursday and collapsed over the weekend worrying about trying to do too much at same time. Also ended up hooked on 'Happy Tree Friends' and 'Salad Fingers'.

Monday 30/01/2006 - Sunday 05/02/2006

Aims for this week are summarised as follows:

30/01/2006
IA arts meeting at 1:30pm, show, and speak with tutors for tutorials - done
Need to speak to Tony about registration and teaching course - done
30/01/2006-01/02/2006
Complete last weeks overdue stuff - part done
Ensure Web site, reviews and acoustics completed - not done
31/01/2006 - 01/02/2006
Onteca games training - done
Skills for games industry and project - not done
02/02/2006 - 05/02/2006
Dissertation - complete 2 chapters - not done
Overdue work for Interactive Arts - part done (not enough)
All Week - not done
Go to 3 exhibitions and review them
Kick start studio diary
Daily sketches of ideas
Add more content to site relating to diary and current projects
Put site on server with solar energy stuff done
Brainstorm and sketch project options: interactive narrative, animation
Options: flash, maya, game engines, audio, video, script, story, classification systems
Do something different each day
Keep mind and body fresh
Creative music practice: learn guitar (another creative boost)
Sort out sleep and diet
Needed to get other stuff done

Analysis
Better sleeping hours but too musch to do. Need more focus to get the stuff done for interactive Arts. Once again the top priorities for next week would be dissertation, online presence and overdue work. Can only give this week 6 out of 10 because too much was not done or done late.

Monday 23/01/2006 - Sunday 29/01/2006

Aims for this week are summarised as follows:

23/01/2006
Visit Onteca about games training opportunities for creating demo for games jobs - done
23/01/2006 - 24/01/2006
Finish Acoustics assignment overdue work for HNC music production - not done
25/01/2006
Dissertation: Introduction, consolidate central question and fill SLA - done
Dissertation: Start writing this up for hand in first week of February (overdue from November) - not done
26/01/2006
At Interactive Arts studio hand in SLA details, progress card and discuss about registration (loans comp, teach course) - done on 30/01/06
Get Website online (put site on server with solar energy stuff done) - done on 30/01/06
27/01/2006 - 28/01/2006
Reviews: Sirkus Saigon, BBC innovation day, Onteca - last one only done
Start reviewing stuff for learning journal/diary - part done
by 28/01/2006
Start daily sketches of ideas - not done
29/01/2006
Add more content to site - part done

Have had a lot of problems with sleeping hours and not having enough time to get all of these things done. Top priorities for next week would be dissertation, online presence and overdue work. Can only give this week 6 out of 10 because too much was not done or done late.

Sunday 1st January - Saturday 22nd January 2006

- Monday 2nd: Started daily blog containing my views on a different subject or idea each day
http://candelmar.blogspot.com
- Thursday 12th: Took photos and video footage of the psychedelic rock band Sirkus Saigon at Sankeys Soap rehearsal studio
- Sunday 15th: started working on Website portfolio - www.candymana.co.uk
- Thursday 20th: Meeting with Jane for dissertation and Nick for practical work
- Saturday 22nd: Have been to Manchester MIDI school for Dance Music Production taster course

In addition to the above I completed a LearnDirect course in programming and tidied up some of my flat. However I failed to get any work done on my dissertation and my job search has yielded no fruit. Overall I would give this period 7 out of 10 for effort.

My Situation - Before January 2006

This covers the period where I deferred Interactive Arts twice and much of my time was occupied by mindless work in call centres and periods of unemployment. I:-

- Studied for HNC Music Production from 09/2004 to 06/2005 and this included creating music, analysis and reviews, and managing and running events.
- Worked on event and Website for CD launch party for HNC course - http://www.meltingpot05.co.uk/
- Finished Oldham Gallery workshops in schools in April 2004 and completed the CD-Rom for exhibition on March 2005 in collaboration with local schools http://www.galleryoldham.org.uk/exhibitions/archive/colour_coded.htm
- Started Web design work for Solar Energy Devices - http://www.solarenergydevices.com/

In addition to all this I constructed a journal covering the last 3 months of 2005.