Something like this, I think would do nicely. I only have the cover so far, so this is my sneak peak:

I know this is pretty simple. But I think that its a good start. I like vector characters. Vector art has such a versatility to it. I could always throw her into Flash and animate her too.

I like the idea of using vector based design– like you would when workings on logo-types– to create a true illustration. I makes hundreds of logos every week in Illustrator, and I think this really feels like the natural expansion of logo design, into full blown illustration.

I’ve been playing with some other vector illustrations. Here is a nice design of my vampire costume, as a vectorized character.

Before:

After:

I was also playing with types of characters. Something more realistic, with fashion proportions…

Or more of fashion/realistic drawing:

I’m going to keep at these and see how they progress.

I’m interested in freelancing more. Thus begins the “Elance.com” experiment. I bought a $10 membership (10 connects), and I’m going to see where that gets me this month. Who knows, maybe I’ll find some inspiration. J

I was reading an interesting blog by one of my favorite fashion designers, and what she said really hit home. As a designer, your portfolio is constantly going out of date, and its very easy to find yourself years later, stuck at a job you have outgrown, without being able to really show how your skills have grown.

At some point, you just have to make time to build your own work. I know it’s hard with a full-time job, family, dog (and a few cats and fish in my case), but it’s something that needs to be done. Not only is it good for you (who doesn’t like doing the work they love the way they want it?!), it’s also a showcase for your message. It helps you to connect with those buyers out there that really “get” what you’re trying to do, and understand the niche you’re in. It helps you to find clients that want the things you’re passionate about (not just the same old generic graphic design).

Here is a picture of my first paying Elance project. There is a variation with axes and without, though I think the simpler one (without weapons) will be used for the site.

It’s a logo design for a WOW (World of Warcraft) Guild. What do you think? I really enjoy the fantasy subjects. Maybe I should look into doing more of these designs.

Stylecareers.com is the monster.com of the fashion industry, posting mostly big-wig jobs for various apparel, fabric, and accessories companies that even joe-smoe down the street would recognize. They just opened a new site, StylePortfolios.com that offers fashion designers a place to put there portfolio online for potential employers.

I spent some time flipping through the pages. Pages and pages, thousands and thousands of resumes. Lots of drawings and designs catwalk photos, studio work. Good, great, bad, mediocre. The thing that really hits me is that I can do that, I really can do that. And to boot I’m good at it. And I’m just bizarre enough that what I do shines.

The past few months, well really the past year, have been hard for me. I said before when I was writing Being Who You Aren’t, it’s easy to get so caught up in the expectations and what you think you need to do to survive that you let go of who you really are and the things that you want.

I am an excellent illustrator, web designer, graphic designer, and game designer. I think I often undervalue my work, particularly with a couple of strikes of bad luck last year. I’m learning to take it with a grain of salt though. Nobody will ever know how fabulous I can be if I disappear into corporate obscurity to make a buck, and just let the things I am passionate about slide.

I had a long conversation with my mother about what I “Want” to do. Not what I want to do tomorrow, but on a bigger scale. What I really want out of life if nothings holding me back form it. The best answer I could think of on the spot was “Build Stuff”.

I like to “Build Stuff”. I like to do creative things, to tackle and solve problems from abnormal angles. I like art. I like the idea of being bizarre, and being rewarded for being bizarre. I don’t like neutral colors. I like things that are fuzzy. I like locking myself in my room, with no place to be tomorrow and no migraines over my mortgage or anything else, and simply drawing. I like to build, to create, to make new.

I many respects, that’s how I’ve gotten to where I am. I center around two things which seem different but at their core are really not. I like fashion and I like games. These two are forms are both modern and artistic. They also incorporate idea of history, of costuming, of people. They both try to capture the essence of people and relate to them in a whole different way. Fashion and games prey on the same consumers, the consumer that wants the a fantasy. The consumer that doesn’t have the artistic ability, the freedom to travel and see the world, the money and time to fulfill their deepest desires.

Fashion and games are a translation of experience. Through our artistic vision, we enable other people to see the world in a different way.

The Path of Least Resistance

As a rule, a river tend to take the path of least resistance. In the same way, animals (and people) respond to stimulation. An animal may learn that eating a certain fruit results in being sick. A child may learn that acting a certain way in school leads to being picked on. Just like that, we tend to adapt. If the results we get from doing something are bad, we learn that not to take that action—at least not at certain times or places.

Intelligence and Impressions

Smart people (particularly smarts kids) seem to pick up on these things first. The people that I see with the most problems with their identity are generally intelligent enough to know what other people are thinking about them. This has some positive results when you are talking about business. Most of the time, generating an impression (or first impression) is key to getting what you want, be it a job, sale, entry into school, or anything else.

College Entry Essays

How massively boring is reading college entry essays? My pity knows no bounds for the person that has to do it. The really ironic part about it is that if you take a hundred people at random off the street, sit down for coffee and say “Tell me about you? Your life? What you do and what you care about?” its one in a hundred that are truly boring. Lack of education, age, where they are from- when you really roll it all together, every person (with rare exceptions) has an interesting story to tell. They have love, hates, ups, and downs. They have talents that set them apart. Still, all these young and aspiring artists, engineers—young adults full of dreams… write 99% boring, dull, predictable essays because they are cultured to believe that is what they should do.

Into the Corporate Bubble

And then they get out of college- and now every college prides itself on being a place of variety, multicultural influences, and self expression… but to survive and prosper in the academic world, the smartest among us learn to adapt. We adopt a series of behaviors that get us to our goals faster—get papers signed, get good grades for us. Write in this style, draw in this style, this is how its done here. I was thinking about Salvador Dali and FedEx. It’s a good question, right? What do Salvador Dali ad FedEx have in common? Mostly, they were visionary. Fredrick Smith envisioned a circular system that took into account advancing technology. Dali, in a much different way, made art that addresses the philosophy of an era and questioned what was meaningful about art. Both of these men provided something of value that didn’t exist before they deviated to bring it into the world, and neither did so by fitting into a predetermined mold that society had set for them.

I think the scariest thing for young people trying to support themselves and advance their career is losing track of their own identity underneath the layers we learn to function in society. Think about dressing up for a job interview. People tend to go the drab corporate route. When you design your resume, you use a template so that it will look professional (like all the rest of the professional resumes). When you get an art collection together you’re conscious of what else is in gallery. People strive for a normalcy imposed by their society, from a set of conditions they’ve learned.

Being Happy with Who Your Aren’t

The biggest challenge to your happiness comes from behind the mask. I personally know at least 20 people that are living mediocre lives. The dislike their jobs or relationships, and question what they are doing. The feel dissatisfied, or feel that they do not use their talent. I have been guilty of it at times as well, and that’s why I can say it.

I think to feel satisfied, you have to identify who you are. More that, you have to let your unique identity be a visible part of your life. By showing quirks and flaws, you seem more human. I have been in hiring situations. I have also been the buyer (if you’ve never hired someone, you’ve definitely listened to someone trying to sell you something at some point in your life. The difference is that a potential employee is trying to sell themselves and their abilities, while a salesperson is trying to sell a product or service). Its basic sales 101 to try to develop a relationship with a customer. Share personal experiences, try to find about them. Let them talk about their lives. Try to relate to them as people.

People like people. People like people who they can identify with, or see something of themselves in their problems, joys, and concerns. Most people would be better served in their relationships—business and personal, by acting like themselves.

Have you ever been in a romantic relationship, and the first few weeks were great. Then comes surprise after surprise and, well, you both are nothing like you thought. Under the surface it was all different. The same in business, have you ever presented yourself as the neat corporate perfect worker? And then you get a job, a job that drives you crazy because you can’t stand being neat perfect and corporate 40 hours a week.

Presenting Yourself as Who You Are

Achieving contentment, as defined by me-spending the biggest part of your time doing the things you most want to do and the smallest part of your time doing the things you least want to do- can only be achieved by presenting yourself as who you are, and to do that you have to at least have some idea who you are yourself.

Don’t present yourself as corporate suit and tie, reserved and quiet if what you want is an artsy job with loads of creative potential. Because I’m sure that the people who want an artsy outgoing person are ducking and covering when you walk in wearing the suit. And if they wanted the uptight corporate professional… then they’ll be disappointed in interviewing and artsy creative outgoing person. Good, let them keep looking until they find someone like that. The biggest thing is matching you to what you do, and presenting yourself in a way to get the opportunities that you want, not just the ones that you can get.

Statistically speaking, you have a 1 in 3 chance of being sued by someone, be it FTC, IRS, or an individual. But you can take steps to protect yourself, by making sure you meet the minimum requirements for disclosure (that generally protects you from the FTC anyway). This will give you something to stand on in court, and—to be frank—it will drive away many of the blood-sucking parasites and their attorneys that are just looking for inexperienced business owners or individuals that will be easy to sue.

FTC Cracks Down on Online Marketers

In 2004 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the USA started a massive crack down on internet businesses that lacked the required legal documents, such as disclaimers, terms, and privacy policies. Even if your website is of a personal, non-commercial nature you should have a simple privacy policy to protect yourself. If you are running an eCommerce business then you should never be without terms, easily accessible online. Not only does this provide you with something to stand on legally, should the need arise, it also provides you with credibility to potential users, buyers, and browsers.

The following is a simple noncommercial privacy policy that you may use and modify. Be aware that different states have different laws regarding these policies, and I am making no guarantees on the validity of this policy. If you have a small personal website, adding in at least this much can provide you some degree of protection, especially if you are asking for personal information or accepting members

  While this may not be all you need, some great advice that I can give you is that having a lawyer draw up a policy is expensive and time consuming. To help you save both money and time, take this draft or others you find online and modify them for yourself. Then, to be certain you meet all legal requirements, take them to a lawyer in your state to read over. This will save him time—he won’t have to do the footwork on composing the document and asking you for all of your company details—and this will save you money.

  Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for Businesses and Large Organizations

If you are running an eCommerce business, a traditional business, or a larger organization, you should have a Privacy Policy, a Terms of Service/Use, and potentially other documents, such as an Anti-Spam agreement or Copyright terms.

The center point to all these documents is the Terms of Service. When you write your Terms of Service, you should keep in mind that this document spells out how you will do business, setting ground rules for you and your customers, users, employees and other affiliates of your organization.

Basic Structure of Terms of Use:

Acceptance of Terms

1. Description of Service (for nonprofit/educational/government this is of termed “Acceptable Use”)
2. Registration Obligations (if accepting members)
3. Privacy Policy
4. Member, Account, and Password Security (if issuing member names and passwords)
5. Member Conduct (if members are accepted)
6. Payment Terms (if accepting payments)
7. Account Modification and Termination (if creating accounts)
8. Disclaimer
9. Trademark Information (if using proprietary logos)
10. Additional Terms (includes right to modify terms without notification)

The best way to build your terms without the use of a lawyer is to find a site similar to use operating out of your home state. You can use their methods as a guideline for terms draft.

Over thirty years after the 1972 release of Pong that launched the term “video game” into the public eye– and the public living room, for the first time the gaming industry is showing significant interest in expanding its market. According to PriceWaterHouseCoopers, the gaming market is expected to exceed the music market in 2008, and their figures show significant growth continuing as far as 2011 for the industry. The real problem for the industry becomes that the dependable market- the 13 to 25 year old male demographic that has been the hot focus of game marketing since such early releases as Dragon Lair and Donkey Kong in the 1980’s- just isn’t growing as fast as the gaming industry itself.

Growth in Gaming and It’s Not Stopping

In the US alone, by 2011 the gaming industry is projected to reach $12.5 billion dollars annually, which isn’t even the largest world gaming market. The Asian Pacific region is projected to reach $18.8 billion by 2011. In terms of numbers alone the gaming market is nothing short of a phenomenon.

Implications for the Gaming Minorities

As the gaming industry grows, its markets inevitably broaden. For two decades the primary market, established and reaffirmed in the 1980s, has been the 13-25 year old male. Such companies as Her Interactive, Purple Moon, and Activision attempted to market towards the female demographic in the 90s, meeting with limited success. The Barbie Fashion Designer , selling over 600,000 units during the first year alone, was designed by Mattel in the mid-90’s. While this game was the rare exception to the common fundamentals f gaming markets, it set a precedent in the video game industry that is only now being realized. The fact is, as the market expands, demographics grow and shift.

Gaming Paves the Way for Women in Technology

With more women than men alive, it would seem shocking that the technology industry is still male dominated. Could this be because many of Generation X and earlier females were not targeted by technology like their male counterparts. While action video games were prolific in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, their female counterparts were scarce and rarely as well developed. While boys and men had a variety of games available for entertainment, the majority of titles directed towards the female demographics were not entertainment titles. Instead the most recommended titles for females we learning games, involving less action and hand-eye coordination, take for example recipe management programs and learn-to-type programs.

Modern psychology has shown that by age seven, the normal human is reacting to their cultural surroundings. Girls and boys respond to positive and negative reinforcement. For instance, a boy may receive negative reinforcement upon playing with his sister’s makeup—reinforcing the concept that males do not care about their appearance. Females, conversely, may be rewarded for staying clean while her brothers play roughly in the mud—again reinforcing the females proper actions according to our culture.

For most technology professionals, you will find that their interest in games and technology was developed at an early age. When a child experiences pleasure, positive reinforcement, from playing video games, that child is more likely to develop an interest in technology as he grows older, perhaps even making his own basic programs or modules for his favorite games.

As the demographic expands that provides young girls with positive and entertaining technological pastimes, it stands to reason that the amount of women in the technology industry as a whole will increase, both growing the gaming industry and its market. Up until now, this has been neglected and perhaps this begins to explain the hesitancy of women to join the technology industry.

If you are interested in more details on the history of gender in gaming, I would highly recommend Sheri Ray’s book. It has an amazing array of details, and really puts the industry into perspective, without sounding “preachy” or “text-book-y”.

The feeling of frustration sets in when you go to work, 9 to 5 , repeat. You come home, you eat dinner, you watch TV, you do your nightly chores. If you are lucky you get a read and long bath (or shower, as the case may be), but most of the time you probably don’t. It is easy to get bogged down in the monotony of day to day life and lose site of your goals. It’s easy to get so caught up in the basics that you forget what it is that you are really working for.

Writers (Bloggers) Create Something

Blogging is becoming a legitimate form of publication. Just like novels or newspapers, they have an audience that reads them, and there are a variety of writers and writing styles, good and bad. There are some “Best-selling” blogs—which translates into those blogs that get loads of traffic. There are also some flops. Many times you can look at the writing style and topic and see how successful a blog is, or will be.

Great Reasons to Blog

1. It makes you do your homework“The lack of formality and the ease of cross-referencing other blog content or references means is great to accelerate discussion and promote broader thinking and understanding.” (David Wilson)

2. This is the way people will learn and share information in the future “This is the difference represented in the shift from traditional classroom based learning and network learning. The idea of the latter is that learning occurs when the learner immerses him or herself in a community of practice, learning by performing authentic tasks, learning by interacting with and becoming a member of the community.” (Stephen Downes)

3. Lets potential customers and other people know you professionally and personally “What can you know about a professional who doesn’t blog his or her work? How do you know they are competent, that they have the respect of their peers, that they understand the issues, that they practice sound methodology, that they show consideration for their clients? You cannot know any of this without the openness blogging (or equivalent) provides. Which means, once a substantial number begin to share, there will be increasing pressure on all to share.” (Stephen Downes)

4. Helps you get perspective on your life, to build something meaningful “there is something that happens to a person when they hit that “publish” button - you cross a threshold - you move from consumer to producer - you put your intellectual neck on the line and I really think that you aren’t the same person after that.” (Mark Oehlert)

5. You network and build relationships that future your career and personal growth“all learning professionals need to exchange ideas with others, to test their ideas, to question their assumptions, to learn from each other in ways that come with dialog. Blogging is great for forming networks based on weak social ties.” (Bill Bruck)

Blogs are bigger than novels or newspapers because they are dynamic. A blog site, much like a website but in a larger way, is a dynamic book with the ability to grow and change as the author progresses through her life. Instead of the static viewpoint brought about by one time or social circumstance, a well written blog provides literary insight into someone life, what really makes them tick.

Our Literary Past

It’s hard to imagine in the days of full color billboards and two pounds of junk mail every day, but there was a time when humans did not write. Not alphabet, no language, nothing. Then we progressed to a time when only the most educated wrote and read, and stories and information was mostly passed by word of mouth. When most people became literate, the world changed. When the printing press was invented and allowed people to easily own book and written material, the face of the world was forever altered.

Then advertisement and print became common—there were great news media battles between newspapers in the late 1800s. Then the print ant media on television in the 1950s.

The internet came into popular culture in the late 1990s. Suddenly print information was available instantaneously from you home. It was dynamic and could be updated and changed.

The Future of Writing

The new millennium holds dynamic websites, powerful interactive communities and online gaming sites. What do you think the next step is?

Already many businesses are starting to blog to provide direct customer support, product updates, and, mostly, the personal presence of a person that is on the other end of that web connection. Suddenly the web is less impersonal.

Do you realize the modern Book was Pioneered in the 1800s?

Have you noticed the structure of blogs. Take the standard WordPress: Category, Sub Category, Post, Archives. It is a format. Think of the standard book: Table of Contents, Contents, Ending/Notes/Index/Appendices. That format was not always common sense. It was pioneered and perfected after the advent of the printing press. My point is that online literature is in its infancy, but is taking a more defined shape every day.

The future of literature is in interactive online format. Imagine, only twenty years ago most libraries used index card systems to find books? Online databases revolutionized the process of searching for literature. The next logical step is to actually provide literature online with fully searchable dynamic content. The content itself being dynamic bits of information not limited by the normal linear structure of books.

Freedom From Linear Literature

Think of the novels of the future. Can you see multi-dimensional novels being written through blog-like mechanisms? Instead of flowing from start to finish, the novel exists in a series of pieces that depend on the users’ interaction. Already we are seeing periodicals like this. Online magazines don’t flow from start to finish, but are comprised of interactive menus allowing users to flip to pertinent sections.

The future of literature is dynamic written content. Books, Newspapers, Magazines (which think, only in recent history has printing been affordable enough to produce the many full colored magazines and periodicals that we take for granted in our modern society), Web pages, and Online Literature. Puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Opens a whole new window to the future.

Soap resale: You buy a loaf of soap for $12-$20. You split each loaf into 10-12 bars. You wrap the bars nicely and gift package them (tissue and foil sticker). You sell at $3.50 to $6 a bar. It seems like a rather nice little business plan. Very straightforward. In a niche market (natural soaps). Easy item to ship, good online product. You can order it, no need to invest much time in making a product. Good profit. Wide range of people locally and online who might want it. Easy to advertise.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to sell soap. The gaming market just seems that much more complex and difficult. That’s when the forest and the trees thing kicked in. I realized that I want to be in the gaming market, but I get so involved in the little details (my products development, news, game manufacturers, ect) that I stop seeing the bigger picture. I know absolutely nothing about soap, and strangely I find it easier and simpler to sell soap than games.

I start thinking about markets and products, and started to contrast soap with what I’m doing.

After careful consideration, I tried to resolve the problem: Why does selling soap seem easy, why does selling games seem hard? The two biggest problems I noticed were the type of product and the money involved.

In Soap Company, you are not designing or making soap. In Game Company, you are developing and designing games. I know nothing about soap, so I ask myself: If I knew about soap would my development costs go up because I wanted to design and develop soap? Is my knowledge actually holding me back from a good product in games because I am overanalyzing?

Is the problem that I know too much about my products, and thus I am overlooking important business steps while caught up in the design process?

The resolution is, for the Game Design Company, like Soap Company, I need to target a market. Instead of thinking I am making “Games”, think I am making “educational games that a school would buy” or “games that appeal to teens with electronic interests”—just like instead of selling Soap, sell “variety of natural handmade soaps”.

Begin by targeting a niche market. Target just one. If that doesn’t work, alter your target until you hit one. Small successes in this field will help you to build profits. Profits become capital. Capital allows you to expand business. You have to start somewhere though.

There is a South Park Episode about underpants gnomes. The underpants gnomes have a business plan that goes something like this:

Underpant Gnomes Business Plan:

1. Steal Underpants
2. ???
3. Profit!

Accompanied by a song that goes something like this (There’s no reason to know this other than I think its cool):

“Time to go to work. Work all day.
Search for underpants, hey.
We won’t stop until we have underpants.
Yum tum yummy tum tay!”

I think that my business plan (and this is also true of a lot of you aspiring designers out there) looks something like this. We don’t worry so much about the how, things like the target market. We just know we are designing a great product.

So now is the time to start worrying about market. We know who will buy soap. I wouldn’t sell soap without knowing someone would buy it. (In fact, I don’t even like soap… or other scented things for that matter). Why would I develop a game without an idea of who (what type of person, store, ect.) was going to buy it? Well, the short answer is because I want to. And that is the first important step, wanting to and actually turning that want into doing something (anything).

Now, refine “doing something” into turning a profit. I want to take that passion and “want to” drive, and turn it into success by designing with a target market in mind. If I know nothing about soap, and I can sell it… then I know I can sell games. Just keep a level head and balance design and business. Remember that designing for your own enjoyment and to sell are a little different. Thats not to say you shouldn’t enjoy it, thats why you’re here. Just keep in mind who you’re doing it for, and why.

I graduate College in three years, with honors and a 3.9 GPA. I also received numerous awards for art in school and out of it. My university education was subsidized, so I got an extra $5000 every year just for staying full time. I could have graduated more quickly had I taken summer courses, but-trust me- it feels good to have the summers off, even if by off you mean working. Not to mention that working gives you a valuable insight into life after college, and can help you build references, network, and decide what you really want to do with your life. I worked 25-35 hours a week the last tow years of college, and about 12 hours a week the first year. Each semester I took a minimum of 18 course hours.

I’m not saying this to brag about the things I did in college—if you search the web you’ll actually find some more amazing stories of people that graduate in 2-3 semesters and take 30-40 hours per semester. The reason I am telling you this is so that you can realize that you can do more with your time than most people in college.

The average college student spends 15-19 hours a week attending class (assuming you go to every class). This includes the average 12-15 hour college schedule equates to about 4 or 5 courses. Lecture courses meet for a couple hours every week, labs/design/hands-on courses meet for 4-6 hours a week. You will spend half as much that time working on projects outside of class, which equates to about 7-9 hours of outside of class work. So assuming you do every project and attend every class, you will spend between 22 and 28 hours on school every week. This is not the efficient, time managed version, this is just the normal student.

A normal work week is 40 hours, a college undergraduate student works between 22 and 28 hours normally. Leaving plenty of spare time. While a lot of students choose to party this away—or worse, simply don’t know what to do with their time. (Have you noticed how much time you spend surfing the internet every day? Chatting? Doing various tasks that in essence accomplish nothing?) What if you applied that lost time to something productive? This is what we call time management. Boring, right?

What if I told you that you could make a few thousand dollars easy by doing this? Now I’ve got your interest. You have several choices of what you can do with your time in college, and there is no reason anything has to suffer. What you need to do is look at the various aspects of life and ask what parts you can cut down on, and what you can increase. Can you do something more efficiently by overlapping it with something else (like study groups as a social activity, for example)?

• Attend Classes
• Do Coursework, Homework, and Projects
• Work a job
• Work on personal research, writing, ect.
• Attend Additional classes
• Have a social life
• Work out and stay physically active

I always took at least 18, if not 21 hours of courses. Not only does this knock out prerequisites in a hurry, getting to those upper level course that are actually interesting faster (Design one: Charcoal Drawing How To….. what a remedial boring class, but required for my degree! Design IV: Iron Casting…. Way fun, and actually requires brains and talent!). For me, it was much easier to attend challenging courses that I had an interest in.

A fact of college life is that you will have to take classes that don’t interest you to complete your degree. When you plan your schedule, prioritize the classes that are important to you and your future. There is no need to spend hours of your best work and brain power on “Influences of Latin American Music” for that extra fine arts credit you need to graduate, when your degree is in Biochemistry.

Remember, a high GPA is impressive, but future employers are never going to see your transcript. That you passed and have the degree is all they care about or know. Put your best effort into classes that matter to you. And add an extra course of two. Take two of those no-so-interesting classes. Give it enough effort to pass—2 B grades is better than 1 A grade in these courses—you save thousands of dollars and get out of school faster. Plus you aren’t burning yourself out on the courses that don’t matter.

Save your real talent and dedication for those in-your-major courses that matter to you—that you’re really getting something out of. In many cases, if I didn’t think attendance was required to pass a course, I wouldn’t go. That’s not to say I didn’t keep up with what was going on, I got notes from someone in the class or read the chapters of text on my own. I could do it a lot quicker than walking to lass, sitting through class, walking back, then starting my homework. Not to mention, during the time I would have been sitting in class, I could be accomplishing things or working for pay.

Cycling classes was a trick I often used. Say I had classes with required attendance. In the case of art studio classes the requirement was that you could miss no more than four class days in a semester. When the semester began, I planned out the three days I would miss and left one as a variable in case something happened. I always missed the max number of course days, because I can accomplish more on my own time and at my own pace than I can in a classroom.

Classrooms are geared to the lowest common denominator—and worse, professors know this. Try something revolutionary: remember that your professors are just people too, with a childhood, hobbies, family, and friends. Try talking to your professors, get to know them. When you know a professor, and he/she knows that you are an intelligent student that is trying to make the most of your time, most professors will try to help you.

You will need professor’s help. Want to take a course in another department that you don’t have the prerequisites for? No problem if you know the professor, or a professor that knows him/her. All they have to do is sign a form, and if they know you, they are more likely to bend the rules to help you. Not to mention, a recommendation form a professor can go a long way towards getting jobs, scholarships, and other opportunities. In many cases, if a professor knows you and the type of student you are, they will even overlook you missing some classes.

Your professors are people too, and they don’t like dealing with stupid policies any more than you do. They want to avoid extra extraneous paperwork and bureaucracy as much as you do—it makes their jobs easier, and maximizes the time they have to work on their own projects. Speaking of such, ask about their projects—the best way to make friends is to ask someone about themselves. Every person’s favorite subject is himself.

The first step in getting anywhere is to know where you are going and why. Just like in your personal life or career, you will want to set a goal. Is your goal to get out of school as quickly as possible? Is it to come out of school with money in your pocket? Or maybe is your goal to pay for your own schooling and avoid loans?

Did you ever play Mario, for old original Nintendo? The goal was always “Rescue the Princess”. No Matter what Mario did, he always needed to “Rescue the Princess”. Every level in Mario 3 you reached an airship and were told to “Rescue the Princess”. In many ways, college (and careers for that matter) are just that simple.

Keep your goal in mind, and ask yourself what you can do to more efficiently reach that goal. I hope this helps you.

The best way to know if an idea will work or no is to test it directly. If I have a new game idea that I think is a fabulous idea, the only way I know if it is going to work is if I put it together and say “Hey guys, lets play this”. Sometimes it goes over great and it’s talked about for years to come—other times it completely falls apart. The same applies to dating, if you never get up the courage to ask that someone out, you don’t know what would have happened. Sure you might have gotten flat out rejected, but then again you might have found a mate for life.

You never know if something is going to work until you attempt it, but it’s easy to pack away an idea, pushing it off further and further, until it’s lost. We make all kinds of excuses, but they all center on fear. Let’s face it, the uncertain is scary. <ul class=”uls”>
 

• Thinking with Fear - You can scare yourself out of an idea easily. “90% of new businesses fail within the first 10 years”. So maybe it would be better not to start that business, right?
• Giving in to Critics - My parents really don’t think art is a good career choice, jobs are just too unstable. Letting other people decide for you.
• Overthinking the Possibilities- If I ask my boss for a raise he might ask me to work extra hours, or he might say no, or he might fire me, or he might promote someone else instead, or he might laugh at me, or he might say no, or he might give me only part. Lets face it, the human brain is an amazing thing, and its easy to think up 10,000 different could-be scenarios.
• Failure First Thinking - I just know if I ask her out, she”ll say no and laugh at me, its not even worth it. Justifying yourself by overemphasizing failure.
• Taking Risks without Facts - I can spend $1000 to join the program, because it will make me rich! You don’t eget all the facts, but since you know that you’ll get rewards (”get rich”) you overlook the risks involved in investing time and money.

Don’t let the risk of failure control your decisions. As humans, we innately try to avoid pain. Our animal instincts tell us that if we touch something and it burns us, we should not touch things that look like that in the future. That works fine for animals, now stand up on two legs and stop fearing failure.

If a game I make is a total flop, then I have invested money, time, and brain-power into something useless. I can then stop spending and thinking about it. I can stop letting it eat up my time. I take a loss. If a game is a success, then it will make me money for the entire time it is produced, not to mention I’ll have a design, engine, and concept that I can manipulate and use in future games.

When a plan something succeeds I reap long-term benefits. If a plan fails, I take a short term loss. Just one successful plan can make up for 100 bad ideas that I was able to cut short, and take only small losses. Think of your failures as a learning experience, an investment towards more successful ideas. Good or bad, putting an idea into motion is going to bring you closer to accomplishing your goals.

As you are thinking of all those tomorrow-plans that never seem to come to fruition, remember that you don’t know where you will fail until you do it. Start working on a project—you will be amazed at how far you will get. Take your ideas to completion (even if that is failure!). Let yourself get burnt from time to time, it isn’t the end of the world—and then you know for sure what will burn you and what will not! Take a risk and try something new, start a project or do something that you’ve been putting off. Set goals for yourself. Take steps toward theme very day. Here are some examples from my life, to show you what I’ve been working on.

• Game Design Center - I want to make games, it has always been a passion of mine. I started this site in July 2007, and am currently getting an astounding amount of traffic at about 20 visitors a day. I am painting the illustrations and working on the system for one TT-RPG game and a card game. My goal is to start producing websites and games for private customers to build capital for my own line of products.
• Angie Clever Blog Optimization - I am posting at least one blog every other day, I want to build content and draw traffic. I want to make some passive income by advertising. More importantly, I want to provide a value on the net. There is so much junk out there—particularly in blogs (seriously, nobody really thinks you sex life is interesting except you– Pick another topic, Please!) , I want to provide some interesting reading content that will help people like me overcome their fears and take a step towards doing what they want to be doing with their lives. No to mention, I want to keep an update on what I am doing to help more effectively achieve my goals.
• Tango Dancing Lessons - I love to dance, do I know how? Not at all. I was a musician for a lot of years and I have a pretty good sense of timing. I don’t look too stupid at a club. But classical dance? It’s a little terrifying. I figure I’ve got a chance—I signed up for the class in a couple of weekends. I’m a little nervous, but you never know if you like it until you try.
• Deep Sea Fishing in the Gulf Stream (East Coast) - Fishing is great. I think I have a competitive bone though, if I had a boat, I could see myself becoming one of those obsessive fishers with 300 lures that competes for million dollar pots to get the biggest fish. I just want to catch a big one! Just once. I went for the first time last year. I took a head boat charter out to the gulf stream for about $80. If you live near the coast and have never been, I highly recommend it. The only down side is that you have to register in advance, so you may get a smooth calm day, you may get a choppy windy day. They provide the bait, tackle, everything you need. There’s a little cafeteria on the boat. The boats hold 20-40 people. All in all the social aspect was great, being on the open ocean was an awe-inspiring experience, and I caught some fish. As relaxing goes, I would say being 30 miles from all civilization (we are talking out of reach of cell towers here!) is the way to go—your boss couldn’t reach you if he tried, at least not without the coast guard’s help. I’d love to be better at this sport, but hey- I’d never thought that I would even like it. You don’t know what you want till you give it a shot.