Monthly Archives: November 2009

My life, expressed in the nerdiest metaphorical terms possible.‏

There are about two weeks of this academic term remaining, and everything is  amazing.  I’ve never felt as happy or as challenged by work as I have in the last eight weeks of my life.  It’s all coming to a head now and between three classes I have six major projects/assignments all due in a seven day timeline.

Instead of panicking about my deadlines, I spent about an hour last night trying to figure out how a Rubik’s cube works.  I still haven’t got it figured out, but I learned through my practice that I can deliberately make one side all the same color.  The problem is I can’t decide which color I’m going to make it until I have about 3 of the same one in a row.

This, for all intents and purposes, is exactly how I’m going to live my life for the remainder of the term.

So this is how my life is going to work out next week:

  • One or two of the projects I have cooking right now will come out beautifully.
  • A couple of the things I’m working on will come out looking mostly the way they should save for a few glaring exceptions.
    AND
  • One or two of them will be a horrible clusterfuck that I have little to no excuse for.

I still don’t know which assignments will live and breathe, and which ones will die, but this term has definitely turned into the academic equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru.

No matter what the outcome, I am committed to saving the ones that die.  I’ll take them to my creepy cellar, submerge them in embalming fluid to preserve their lifelike qualities, and leave them on the shelf until I can reanimate their flesh.

AP.

University of Oregon EIR

The EIR is an awesome week of presentations and speeches from thought leaders in the field of advertising.  The EIR is funded by generous donations that have come in the form of money and time from beautiful people who love the University of Oregon’s advertising program.

This year I, along with five peers, have been charged with the duty of blogging about all of the events that our guests speak at.  So far, it’s been really exciting. I’ve only seen one presentation since they got here, but I’ve already learned a lot from this experience.

1. A blog post is never finished.
Every time I look at what I’ve written I find something that sounds clunky.  I’m continually embarrassed by the number of eyes that have crossed  my posting.  The number keeps rising, and so I feverishly continue revising.

2. My peers fucking rock.
I’m working with some really cool people.  Before this project I hadn’t been formally introduced to any of the five other people I’m working with.  They’re all very talented and so far we’ve been able to make this project go.  I won’t say our execution has been smooth, but we’re learning as we go.

3. Meet all challenges with persistence, and learn as you go.
However amateur our final product may or may not end up looking, this blog has not been particularly easy to make happen.  I will definitely take every humiliating mistake I make and store that in my memory so as to not make it again.

If you’re interested in following us throughout the week, you can find our blog at www.uoeir.wordpress.com, and you can follow us on Twitter at #uoeir09

It’s time to get back to it.  There’s plenty to think about tonight.

-AP.