I haven’t posted a personal blog entry in a while but this will be one of them after a period where I was just writing game reviews (Mass Effect 2 is on the way). Just two days ago I have completed reading the 4th book in “A Song of Ice and Fire” series by George R.R. Marin titled “A Feast for Crows”. The entire series have been one giant roller coaster ride that doesn’t seem (or want to) end. Characters that I have fell in loved and connected with, Ser Martin just wipe them off the face of the planet (or Westeros) but leave the many disingenuous characters living in their posh castle. At the end of “A Feast for Crows” I wanted to strangle Cersei Lannister so bad that her eyes would pop out. However the fate of her predicament won’t be revealed till the 7th (and maybe) the last book. Jamie has redeemed himself and my abhorrence of his character has faded away. I will start reading “A Dance with Dragons” once I get back to school around mid August for something to read during my RA training. The stories of John Snow, Bran Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen and others will be covered. I am curious what they have been up to with everything that is happening in King’s Landing.
Besides finishing up “A Feast for Crows” I completed photographing all of my artwork from my independent study during the Spring Quarter at RIT. I used my father’s nice Canon DSLR camera to get as much detail I can get. The objective was for me to create artwork that portray emotions through the use of abstract forms. Since I did not want to explicitly show or tell the viewer of what emotion I wanted to portray, a lot of the study came to the use of colors. Colors were a central part in filling the viewer of the emotion that I wanted to portray. During the last week, our class when to our Professor’s home to present all of our work. When it came for my turn, the other students all had an interesting look at each of the 6 pieces. One saw a particular shape one way while another saw it in a totally different light. It was fun to see what others felt since the shapes and colors that I used represent different things to a variety of people. This may be due to their background or experience from the past. These pieces are currently posted on DeviantArt. Let me know what emotions you see!
In one more month, my final year at RIT will commence. It has been a strange 3 years since I still feel like a kid yet I’m supposed to be a grown college student. For fall quarter I am taking a comic book class that I am anticipating and a Japanese Film class. I will also be taking a computer graphics class where I hope to really improve my programming skills. This will be a fun but extremely busy quarter as I am taking 20 credits again. Even though I am looking forward to these classes, I am just not ready to graduate yet. I still feel like there is still so much for me to learn especially studying game design, I have not created a game that I feel extremely proud to show. Resonance was really a great concept however I did not lead my team to execute it in the best possible way. I continue to think of different ways to improve the sound manipulation mechanic but it is very difficult without other things breaking. To help me with this predicament, I hope to be able to attend the USC School of Cinematic Arts for graduate school. It is a really tough school to get in but I really want to go since the famous thatgamecompany was formed by students there. They come up with one of the unique game ideas that I have seen. I hope to meet and learn about their creative processes. As a bonus, tons of famous video companies have their studios near that school.
If I do go to California for study, I hope by then the game that I helped design for the Getty Museum will be going for a beta run. I would like to see the fruit of my labors! 😛 Beside studying in California, I hope to get into the study abroad program in Japan. It has been one of my dreams to go to Japan and really experience the culture. By that time, I would have completed my Japanese Language minor. There are tons of Japanese RPGS that do not get released over here in the USA that I am willing to play. There are still tons of unknown variables for my future (like the world ending in 2012) but I continue to anticipate that I will create my own video games company in the end. I will try to continue to post some personal thoughts on this blog. Can be games, life or any random dust floating towards the sky!
Memory Log 07-31-2011CE Recorded Complete.
Lawrence Jung 