Holli Rausch

Here’s a list of things I’m sick of.

• Not being able to sleep when I want to
• Not designing every day
• People who don’t think before they speak or act
• Ungratefulness
• Letting myself get angry (whether or not I have reason to be)
• Physics
• Being cold (temperature)
• Dishes being left in the kitchen, unwashed
• Information Architecture
• Disrespect
• Working out (though I know I need to anyway)
• People moving away
• My shoes not lasting as long as I want them to
• Commercials that play twice in a row
• Doing laundry weekly
• Not feeling creative
• Working in groups
• Assumptions
• The number “23″ (just checking to see if you’re still reading)
• Not receiving mail
• Horror movies
• Closed-toed shoes
• Dry skin
• Britney Spears
• An empty Inbox
• Reading
• White walls
• Thinking of things for this list.

That’s not all. But I’m feeling irritated. Tough.

It’s true. I’m a drop out. Here’s the deal:

I was taking Physics this semester. I took it in High School and although our teacher didn’t challenge us much, I enjoyed and understood it. Flash forward to this semester. Every week we have 13-15 challenging Physics problems…and even though I pay attention in class and seem to understand everything, I can only get about 2 on my own. After that I need Miles’s help. And he has a Mathematics degree and took college Physics. Tony also helped, when he was here a couple weeks ago.

I also spent 5 hours working on a lab report and got 6/10 on it. RIDICULOUS! I spent about 2 hours on the next one and got 7/10. Needless to say, those scores aren’t the kinds of scores I get on assignments. They just aren’t. And I started spending all of my free time thinking about how to do the homework assignments for Physics and became very stressed out. To the point of crying multiple times. (Although, it doesn’t take much for me to cry. But I won’t tell you that because it will seem like Physics didn’t stress me out as much as it did.) The worst is, I was one of the “better” students in the class who understood the stuff (but apparently not really) and so people came to me for help. Causing more stress.

I applied Microeconomics, believe it or not, into my decision on whether or not to drop Physics. I figured the Opportunity Cost. I didn’t need Physics to graduate and it wouldn’t give me an advantage in my major…I just needed a second science course. And I thought, I could work super hard and maybe get an A in the class…or take Biology II and work not as much and still get an A. If I stayed in the class: A lot of extra stress, little to no time for other things (wedding planning?), possibly lower my GPA.  The opportunity cost: $/credit (no refund), $/credit (second science class this summer), damaged pride, much less stress, more “free time”, less crabby, same GPA or possibly higher with replacement class.

After figuring the opportunity cost, the decision was pretty simple. Don’t look down on me. Consider me a genius.

Well, this seems to be the thing to do at the beginning of the semester…. I’m in my 3rd year, but because of the credits I completed last semester, I technically am considered a Senior. I have 12 credits left after this semester.

3D Design II: This is the second class of my 3D modeling and animation course from last semester. I’m really going to like it, since I really liked the first one, and we’re just learning more about the program and stuff. Advantage: I will have more projects to post because of this class.

Microeconomics: I was going to take History, but I had to buy 4 books for that, which meant too much reading. So I decided to take this class instead. As it turns out, the professor made a deal with a company and we got our book absolutely free! I don’t know anything about economics, so I’ll hopefully be learning a lot. Which also might mean a lot of work. Advantage: David sits next to me.

Physics: This class should be OK. I think I’ll like it a lot more than I like Biology. I like the math aspect of it. So, that’s cool. I’ll probably need Miles’s calculator. I forgot to ask him though. Advantage: My teacher is Polish.

Painting: This class is expensive, with the supplies alone. Well over $100. But I haven’t ever painted before, so it could be disaster or I could be pleasantly surprised. Who can tell? Advantage: David is in it, so no matter what, I won’t be the worst painter in class. ZING!

Digital Editing: I must withdraw from Painting. Since I am graduating in Dec 07, I made arrangements for an independent study of Digital Editing. (It normally is only offered in the spring). However, circumstances have changed, and so my professor asked me to take it this semester. It conflicts with Painting. I’ll be taking Painting in the fall. Advantage: One less class with David. Zing!

Graphic Effects II: This is the second class of the one I did last semester. We do a lot of interactive design on DVDs and the like. We will be constructing an electronic portfolio in this class as well. Advantage: This class works at a nice pace and so I don’t feel over-stressed.

Information Architecture: This class is online. She’s teaching it at the same time as a face to face class…so it probably means more work than most onlines classes have meant for me in the past. However, it doesn’t seem to be hard things. Mostly analyzing websites and discussing how their navigation and design could be improved. Not the funnest class, but it’s required. Advantage: It’s online.

Nineteen credits. Not too bad. But I’ll probably be busy. I also got a job. So…we’ll see if I ever post this semester. ;)

Here’s my first custom 3D animation. It’s my final project for 3D. Make sure you have your sound on. I would say I spent around 15 hours on it total. I’ve watched it a lot and now see things I would fix, but I’m pretty proud of it and am really liking 3D and animating…Enjoy.

Our assignment in Graphic Effects: Create a 15 second animated “commercial” for DSU using Director; use cut-out pictures and place a white border around them.

Holly Smith and I joined our creative efforts together to create a commercial for DSU, featuring the Theater Department. We kind of made it look like a puppet show, where the people rock back-and-forth when they talk. It ended up being a little over 90 seconds and seemed to take forever, but we think it looks awesome and are very excited about the way it turned out. Enjoy!

Note: This is not the commercial Noah Sanderson and I are in that will air on KSFY soon. That commercial can be found here.