Post-review contemplations.

The DAAP Digital Design capstone process is a funny one. We meet with our adviser once a week in the winter quarter, which is based around research and concept development. At the end of Week 8 (out of 10 weeks in the quarter), we meet with a panel of professors and give a 20 minute presentation of what we've done so far and what we plan to do in the next quarter.

Twenty minutes isn't terribly long, especially if you're someone like me that doesn't know how to shut up. My presentation lasted about 15 minutes, which only left 5 more minutes for them to discuss my topic with me. Instead of "discussing", it was more of a rapid-fire series of questions that I didn't get any time to respond to. I didn't mind, really. If we only had a few minutes left, it's much more beneficial for me to listen to them talk than for me to spend another few minutes telling them what I already know.

The problem is that I walked out of my review feeling less confident than I have in the two months I've been developing my topic. The general consensus is that they're worried, and I guess they have good reason to be. My topic is huge, and I haven't made any decisions as to how I'm going to accomplish my project. Do I make one three-minute piece? Do I make a series of little PSA-type pieces? Is it video, motion graphics, 3D, some hybrid of all of it?

I graduate college in three and a half months. It's sort of starting to set in that this is really my last project that I'll ever show at DAAP. My second-to-last quarter is over in two weeks. I'd ask where all the time went, but I know that answer. It went to five years of incredibly hard work, late nights, angsty tears over coffee, and happy times over beers with friends. Here's to the rest of it.

P.S. Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my last fitness post! As an update, I've lost 9 pounds total, and I'm kind of at another plateau. I have a feeling this is going to be a long struggle, but it'll all be worth it when it's over. I'm still going to the gym like crazy and making changes that I think are really going to benefit me. Also, I'm taking an extended hiatus from my job, which gives me all the more time to try and develop a healthy lifestyle. (And more time to face my elliptical nemesis.)