I have been away from the computer for a while. I went to my adopted grand-daughter's graduation from college. She graduated from the Art Institute of Portland (Oregon) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Computer Game Design. When I got my Bachelor's degree the desk top computer had yet to be invented, in fact in the summer of 1965 while attending Summer School at NDSU in Fargo I got to see my first desktop computer while on a field trip to the Control Data factory in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a computer that they had been able to shrink to the size of an office desk. (If you didn't count the air-conditioning needed to keep all those relays and transistors cool) I suspect that its computing power was a little less than the TI 30 scientific calculator of today. Times have certainly changed. As a part of the graduation, each graduate participated in a portfolio showing at the Art Institute. Most of the portfolios were on CD Roms and displayed on TV screens. I was amazed at the creativity of the students. Their computer graphics displayed a level of sophistication that was not being done anywhere at the time of their birth. Now, nearly all graphics and design are being done on computers, and these kids will be right in the middle of that. At any rate, I was very proud of Kelly who graduated in 3 years by going straight through without any summer breaks. She also worked part time to help pay for her expenses. And, to top it off, she already has a job designing characters for video games, in fact she already has her name as one of the creators of a game currently on the market. I forgot the name of the game, anything beyond solitaire is out of my league.
I have added a link to another Blog, "23 Acres of Dirt". She sent me a very nice e-mail thanking me for my musings. It's nice to know that someone reads this stuff that I spew forth every day or so. She's the first person outside of my family who has aknowledged reading me. This is so different from writing sermons, with preaching, you at least know that there are people in the pews whom. you have a chance of reaching. Maybe I should get one of those counter things, but that could be devastating if the numbers are really low. Oh well, I am writing to put my thoughts on the page, not for an audience. Its really such a crap-shoot to find a blog by just surfing, there are so many of them. I do bookmark the ones I like. I like 23 Acres of Dirt.
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I'm a soon-to-be student of Art Institute of Portland's Game Art program and I've been having cold feet recently. It's very reassuring to hear about your granddaughter's success. One of the things that made me want to go to school in the first place was explaining to my dad about procedural generation. I got a big kick out of just talking about it with him and my step-mom and doing my best to convey the ideas in a way that wasn't over their heads. There was a shared sense of pride that I'd forgotten meant so much to me. Your post has definitely rekindled my enthusiasm for going to school at the Art Institute and set aside a lot of my misgivings.
I would really love to know more about your granddaughter's experience at the Art Institute of Portland and what games she is working/worked on.
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