It's all over. It feels so oddly wonderful. Rick joined a bunch of us from school to see "Fellowship" again, and it was good... and it still makes me cry. That scene after Gandalf falls makes me weep - especially the all-too-brief shot of Merry and Pippin, the one lying in the other's lap, bawling. God, that is one of the most powerful images in the entire film. It should have been given an additional second or two for maximum potency.

I couldn't stop talking last night with Rick at my place. I was so excited to be done that I talked and then slept. Boom, like that. Not the most exciting evening ever, but it was so nice to have the pressure lifted. And the food poisoning. I feel... so... great.

I'm off home to Mom's to set up her Internet so that she, too, can become an internerd. I'll be back to work on Sunday. I have absolutely nothing more to write at the moment.

Seventeen hours. That is how long I was at school yesterday. I got lots of practice helping people with their scenes, so, if I get to be a TA, I already think I won't suck. I ended up completely lighting one fellow's scene. Somehow, it's spread: Maya knows how to light. Anyway, this morning we watched all the demos, and you know, they're awesome. Some less so, but the amount of work that was put in, and the various talents that people have - it doesn't cease to amaze me. Mine held up, I suppose, though there were some utterly perfect reels that I will strive for. I have to clean up my DVC and take out the thank you because Dan doesn't want his name in it. I'll leave it on the other reels, since they're at home and I won't get the chance to change them. I don't care, I won't be applying anywhere with this particular reel anyway. This was my first, and it's special to me, even if it's not going out to the world at large.

OH MY GOD ! I just saw my animation on the big tv monitor ! Holy shit ! It's so exciting, and it's so great ! It has some serious animation timing problems, and one of the camera cuts is *nasty* which may have been what Nick was talking about the other night, but since only one seems to jar, perhaps not. Anyway, if I had one more day - which I don't, I would fix the cuts. And the timing. No biggy. I'm coming back, regardless, and I'll fix it then. The lights are quite amazing. Lights are fun.

And, just for you, Nick, I lost the shadow on two footlights. ;) It didn't make much difference. WOOHOO !

I'm not going to be home in time for Buffy, sadly. I hear she cut her hair off. Oh well. I'll see it next week, I guess. I should have set my VCR to tape it, but I've lived so long without a VCR that I quite forgot that I now have that capability. Maybe I'll be home in time for Angel. Nah, probably not. This is the longest stretch I've ever spent here. I think I'll finally end my day at something like 15 hours logged. Wait, there was that time before Christmas when I was in until 5am - nope, that was 13 hours. Today wins.

Tomorrow is my last day. I can't believe it.

Okay, one more update. Clearly, rendering makes for boredom as witnessed here. I just spoke to Larry about TA'ing, and he said he'd hopefully be able to let me know as of tomorrow, possibly as of Thursday or Friday. Either way, he said I'm welcome to come back here to keep working, whether I become a TA or not. So, this is a damn good thing. He said that the school loses about 100 thousand dollars a year in possible tuition just by leaving the computers free at the back of the room for the graduates. He knows damn well that it's not a real loss of money, but an investment. Those grads come back and keep working, and eventually get hired and that's good for Seneca. Anyway, the new semester begins as of the 21st, so this might seriously upset my plans for going home. We'll have to see.

One of the new instructors is hanging out in the lab, poking around in the computer, with his young wife and their kid (maybe three years old, or something) and I swear, I have never seen such a sullen face on a woman before. His wife seems so unimpressed, bored, unhappy, that it worries me. I mean, they just watched a Pixar short and she didn't even crack a smile. Actually, she looks like a grown-up private school girl who is disappointed that she didn't settle down with the dentist she was raised to wed. Is that a horrible thing to say? Anyway, it's merely an observation, subjective as it may be.

Sleeping at school - there's nothing like it. Nope. The first ten minutes of lying on the lounge couch is riddled with people coming up to me and saying, "Are you sleeping?" No, tard-muffin, because people like you are bothering me ! But usually I just ignore them because eventually they go away. Then, an hour or so, later I wake up and stumble, bleary-eyed and lip-smacking into my computer room and Larry (the director) says, "Hey Maya, nice nap?" Ya, bloody fabulous, thanks, and only another hour and a half left to go before my rendering is completed.

What did I do today? Well, I went for lunch, which is a bit of misnomer, since I didn't really eat anything worth mentioning. I did have a tasty bowl of soup from the Greek place in the mall food court - it had both chicken AND plantains in it ! Yummy. So, that was the first bit of food I've eaten since yesterday morning, because the broth I downed at 5:30am doesn't count. Yellow water with hint-of-chicken has very little nutritive value. Then I bought some boot dubbin and proceeded to pollish my boots for twenty minutes. Then I went on the MUD for twenty minutes... and then I decided it was time for a nap. I do feel better, because of it, and I think I could even stand a snack from the over priced vending machine upstairs.

I've got about another hour of rendering to go, and then I'll put it all in Premiere and watch it hopefully NOT screw up. :) Hopefully. I'd really like to catch "Buffy" tonight if it's at all possible.

Oh, in other news, briefly, Larry came in and asked me if I was still interested in TA'ing because one person might be taking a *real* job. I certainly said yes, or rather, I looked up at him sort of blankly, mouth slightly ajar and nodded. Good enough. I won't get my hopes up, though, until I actually get the call. But, it means I'll be able to shift some work around - maybe take a leave-of-absense from the ROM, or something. Okay, snack time.

It's the crack of dawn - do you know where your children are? That's right, they're sitting at the Seneca Digital Media Centre having a poor time of it with their projects. After a most traumatic night spent almost entirely in bed (or the bathroom), I dragged myself out to school at 6:30am. Unfortunately, I can't make my render play smoothly in Premiere so I have no idea if the timing works. I suspect it doesn't.

There's no one here to help me, either, so I suppose I'll leave Alloisius' shoes the same colour as his body, and hope that by playing around on a different machine, I can get his timing right. Frankly, I'm almost too sick to care. I don't know how to work Premiere at all, actually. I can't think how I'm supposed to fade one still into another, and almost humourously, when I import the first 100 frames, which happen to go numerically from -100 to -1, they come in backward and I don't think there's a flip option.

Oh well. At least I'm not throwing up.

It gets worse. I went home shortly after 2pm because I couldn't stand the cramps. Also, I'd hoped that I'd be able to sleep it off, which turned out not to be the case. Note that I am presently NOT at school. I can't leave the bathroom, or not for long stretches of time, anyway.

This is reminiscent of my first provincial dressage show when I was 17 years old. I had, much like this, wicked food poisoning - then from a turkey sandwich rather than this time's chicken salad - and somehow I had to push through it all and I did. Took two third place ribbons, too. Hopefully, this turns out to be a good omen. When I can straighten up without needing to heave, I think I'll head into school.

I didn't feel like crap when at first I awoke. No, it came on shortly thereafter. I feel like I've got food poisoning. I've had it before, and I know what it feels like, and this definitely has that feeling. It just seems strange that it came from food I ate twelve hours, or more, earlier. I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich from Tim Horton's last night after I took Nick to the subway. Chicken and mayo both typically cause riotous stomachs within a couple hours after consuming, so why is this taking half a day? Anyway, I'm suffering through waves of stabbing cramps in my lower intestine. This sucks.

Things went well last night, though, with the rendering and whatnot. I worked on my titles and credits, which are pretty cute, I guess. Maybe I should have gone with simple, but whatever, Daniele says to make it memorable, and white-words-on-black credits are a dime-a-dozen. I don't know how nicely mine will work, but, it's worth a shot. Tonight I'm going to rough the whole thing in Adobe Premier and colour Alloisius' shoes (red, I think), and then render the whole damn thing again. I'm pretty excited. It's almost done. Good thing, too, since I have to show-and-tell it on Wednesday. I might be at school all night, though, which means that couch in the lounge is going to start looking darn cozy.

Back to work I go, cramps and all.

Well, it's shaping up to be a long, long, long weekend. It's had it's yo-yo moments, as well, which isn't at all surprising considering my stress level. Yesterday, Rick slept through our date. I sat in my car, blocking half a lane of traffic, for and hour and fifteen minutes waiting for him to show up at Lawrence Station. You see, we were supposed to sup at St. Hubert's and then see "Fellowship of the Ring" again. Well, anyway, *I* ate at St. Hubert's and phoned him again afterward to find out what the hell had happened. Anyway, it turns out that I woke him out of his lazy slumber and he was quite defensive, as though I didn't have some cause for anger. I called him some names and then hung up, and he called me back on my cell and said he wanted to talk and that freaked me right out.

Depeche Mode and Willi helped to calm me as I wept in my bed at home - well, more the Depeche Mode since Willi only yelled at me. Rick let himself in and we talked. There wasn't much to say, except various appologies and then we went for supper (I had some mussels, since I'd already eaten, and they don't take up much room), and it was better. It turns out that he wasn't even awake when I'd called him in the middle of the afternoon to confirm our date - and I even talked to him for TEN minutes. I kid you not.

Today, Nick was to help me at school, and he did come here with me, for here is where I still am sitting, but I had to send him home. I think he was feeling bored and sort of crabby since I was wasting his day where it turns out he wasn't really necessary. He might have spoken up about it, rather than simply getting snippy and bitchy with me, but that was good enough and rather than getting food, I took him to Wilson Station. His suggestions were helpful, and insightful, but I guess I'm getting too close to the end to allow him to tinker with my project settings now. Sorry Nick, please don't take it personally. You ARE helpful. Anyway, I'm going to surprise him with things.

Tomorrow I'm at the ROM, sadly. I'd rather be finishing my project, but, at any rate, guess where I'll be tomorrow night. Yep, school. Ahhh. My home away from home away from home. Oh, one thing worth mentioning, is that apparently I was shortlisted for the TA spots. Daniele told me this at lunch yesterday. About twenty people applied for the spots, which is a bit more than a third of the programme, and six people were chosen. I was within one or two spots from being accepted. Not too shabby, I guess. Anyway, Dan's teaching Maya again next semester, and he told me to tell Larry (the director) that I am permitted to come by Dan's class to work. I'm not sure Dan should be telling Larry what to do, but he was rated the best instructor, so, that says something. And he said it with a wink, so I guess I shouldn't quite tell Larry in exactly those words.

Back to work I go. Titles and credits and fun, woohoo !