Posted on 
Spring 2007 ENGINEERING & APPLIED SCIENCE UNDERGRAD
CSE    461  3D COMP MDL & ANM APPL    B+
EAS    499  SENIOR CAPSTONE           A
FNAR   236  DIGITAL FIGURE MODELING   A
PSYC   153  JUDGMENTS & DECISIONS     A
STSC   110  SCIENCE & LITERATURE      B+
            Term Statistics:      GPA 3.72

I kind of rock.

Posted on

Aaaand I’m now writing my Psych paper on Buffy. I believe this nicely rounds out my Fandom in Academia series:

Freshman Year:

  • Visual Communications — Lord of the Rings. Comparative visual analysis of equivalent scenes in two film versions of “Return of the King.”
  • Digital Design Foundations — Sandman. Reinterpretation of The Endless in my “Sandman Series.” In this class, I also did designs inspired by Monty Python‘s Ministry of Silly Walks and Ender’s Game.

Sophomore Year:

  • Copyright and Culture — Harry Potter. Discussion of legal implications for different types of fan art (focusing on the Harry Potter fandom)
  • 3D Computer Modeling — The Nightmare Before Christmas and Star Wars. I modeled an environment from TNMBC and an Imperial walker from Star Wars. Also a creature based on the Jabberwock, but I’m not exactly in the Lewis Carroll fandom.
  • Networked Life — Buffy, sort of. We were supposed to create a network of absolutely anything, so created a network of Buffy guest actors, linked based on if they’d appeared in an episode together. I ended up discussing the arc structure of Buffy a bit in my analysis of the shape of the graph, but it wasn’t really about Buffy itself.

Junior Year:

  • Film History — Star Wars. The impact of the original Star Wars trilogy on the special effects industry.
  • Virtual World Design — Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Created a video game set in an environment based on an image from The Wolves in the Walls.

Senior Year:

  • Feminist Fairy Tales — Terry Pratchett. Theories of Revision in Tepper’s Beauty and Pratchett’s Witches Abroad. (We read the book in class, mind you!)
  • Film Analysis and Methods — Firefly/Serenity. Comparison of themes of “otherness” in Serenity and The Searchers
  • Science and Literature — Doctor Who. Senior Year, Empathy with aliens in War of the Worlds, Ender’s Game, and DW 1×06 “Dalek.”
  • And now: Psychology of Judgments and Decisions — Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The indirectness bias in “The Gift” and other episodes.

Why yes, I am awesome. I accept your love and I return it.

Posted on

My senior project presentation absolutely rocked! My advisor wants to use it as an example to future students. I kind of win. :D

This video of the thigh model in action only represents half of the project, but still. Preeeeetty. Press Ctrl+L in Quicktime to loop it! I could watch it for hours. XD

For those keeping score at home:

  • Senior project slides due the 18th
  • Massive sci-fi final exam from hell the 18th
  • Sci-fi paper Friday
  • Animation critique the 20th
  • Senior project presentation today
  • Psych paper Wednesday
  • Massive computer science project (ray tracer from last semester) due the 1st
  • Psych final exam the 3rd
  • Final Animation project due the 4th
  • Sleep at some point
Posted on

My Sci-Fi final paper is due in 15 hours, and I just changed my topic. Why do I hate myself?

Though I must say, it’s a lot easier to write when you switch from Out of the Silent Planet, Red Planet, and Ender’s Game to War of the Worlds, Ender’s Game, and an episode of Doctor Who.

It’s my last paper as an undergrad. I’ll write about whatever the heck I feel like for my third source, thank you very much! We just have to pick one book from the first half of the semester, one book from the second half, and the third can be absolutely anything. I’ve heard that other students are writing about Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Doctor Who, and one girl was considering writing about the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so I feel justified. I’ll have to get the full list of non-class material written about in these papers from my TA.

*blasts “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” in the privacy of my headphones*

Edit: Done at 10 AM, with two hours to go! I even got 4 1/2 hours of sleep out of the deal! WIN! God bless the miracle of e-texts, which allow me to find the quotes I need with minimal fuss.

Posted on

Woohoo! I reinstalled the jdk6 and it worked this time! No idea what I did differently, but I’m not going to complain!

Posted on

Sweet! Just heard back from my Sci-Fi TAs. I got an A- on the Midterm From Hell! Oh, the world, she is beautiful. There’s a lovely 20% of my grade in the bank!