Your Neighboorhood Elf

Hey guys -- I got an email saying i'd been inactive for too long, so I thought I'd just drop in and say hello and sorry for being MIA for so long. I've just been so busy lately so I haven't been able to come around anymore. Hope you're all doing well!

=]

Oh yeah that's a new feature that the forums created, I was wondering who would show up! I disabled it so I wouldn't spam inactive members E-mails, though I disabled it after it was already installed and sent a mass of mailings to everyone.

Though it's great to hear that you're still doing well! So how is school going for you? Or have you finished your university now? Anyways it's great to see you! Zfish was asking about your whereabouts about a month or two ago.

hello =D. isnt college/university just great! it consumes the life of everyone =p.

anyway, it's good to see you again! and you know what's interesting, zfish has seemingly been into an Eragon mood so the three of us can chat it up again when it comes to dragons and stuff! yay! i mean....you know if you come on more ^^ and if i am actually able to remember the book ^^.

Loyal Subject wrote:hello =D. isnt college/university just great! it consumes the life of everyone =p.

anyway, it's good to see you again! and you know what's interesting, zfish has seemingly been into an Eragon mood so the three of us can chat it up again when it comes to dragons and stuff! yay! i mean....you know if you come on more ^^ and if i am actually able to remember the book ^^.

I mainly got into it again after i read the third book. and after that, i'm just thinking that the fourth book is going to probably have quite a dark twist in it...

^ these books are becoming so spread out im starting to imagine things that didnt even happen in the series. For some reason I was convinced that Eragon's parents were revealed in the second book and when I read the third book I was thinking to myself "but we already found out about this" and then I found out that I just made it up....

in my case, i read it like it was my first time reading the serise. i didn't remember anything until it mentioned it in the book.

Well, except Brom. you can't really forget him!

Speaking of which, it actually seems rather obvious in retrospect about Brom being Eragon's father.

lol that sounds oddly familiar to a member of an online game I used to play named Brom as well. You couldn't forget him, no one could, he was like the troll of all trolls. He even earned his place as an NPC in a quest which parodied him in one part, making fun of him to kingdom come.

aww thanks guys :)

Well, I'm in my 4th year of university now. Just a year more to go! >_< I'm beginning to think about my career options now. I'm considering going into editing and publishing, so I can stay close to literature, but I just met someone today who told me that that's not a very lucrative field of work and it can be a very dog-eat-dog environment. I'm also seriously considering just continuing with school and becoming a prof, but jobs are pretty limited there too, and the pay is usually not enough for most people to meet their ends with. **sigh** The person I spoke with today said he felt that I'd be more suited for a career that involves research, and/or something to do with language, and he suggested something ultra cool for me to find out about: Forensic Linguistics! AND I'm also going to find out more about careers in Translation and Interpretation, because that seems to be a very promising field, plus I'd get to do all the things I'm interested in (study language, edit and publish stuff, learn more about other cultures and travel). I just need to plan things out and perfect my language skills in the four or five languages I already sort of know. Other than that I've just been working and going to class and doing other normal student things ^^.

p.s. I'm waiting rather eagerly for the next Inheritance book, especially because I didn't like Brisingr too too much. I figure if Christopher Paolini spent SO much time just doing character development, the last book is going to HAVE to be super awesome and very action oriented!!! (I may just be setting myself up for disappointment, though - but I really hope not.)

Oh nice your last year! How does it feel to have all that education under your belt?

About your first choice that some others have given you second thoughts on, if it's the job you want pursue it. So long as you can still keep an income that keeps a roof under yourself it should be good. Most people are always out for the job that offers the most money, I don't care if what I chase doesn't offer as much money. It's the job you'll probably be doing for some time now, maybe even the rest of your life, so if you hate it, that's no good.

Also a lot of jobs that require a lot of education/degrees will be hostile. After all everyone else in the field put so much effort into getting there, they won't roll over when someone new comes in. That career I'm pursuing is the same way. I still don't know what my future holds for me in the path that I'm taking, but only one way to find out.

To be honest, I don't know if I'm quite ready to graduate yet! I still have so many things I want to learn, and yet, I see a basic need to be able to be earning my own money now, so I'm still debating between going on to grad studies or starting work somewhere. With the internships I've done so far, I could easily get a well-paying job in the federal government, but I don't know if I want to go down that road yet....

about editing and publishing, what's risky is not just the fact that there are already established professionals in the field before you, but also that it's a world where the industry is extremely sensitive to the economy and you're somewhat more disposable than in other jobs. Most editors seem to work freelance, and getting a position at the big publishing house like McLelland & Stewart or Penguin or Random House is extremely difficult. The person I was talking with told me about someone he knew who was the Chief Lexicographer of the Canadian Oxford English Dictionary for a number of years, and then was suddenly let go. The Dictionary is now managed by Oxford in England. So I guess I just need to be really strategic with my career path. I mean, I can still do editing work as a freelancer, but I think I should plan for another career that I can pursue parallel to editing. Basically 2 careers at once? I need to follow my heart, but at the same time I also need to keep a roof over my head!

What are you aiming towards for your career Lee? How much longer until you're done with uni?
Is LS in university now too?? What's new with everyone else too, btw? =] (I guess it really has been a long while since I was here!)

well At the moment, i'm in my junior year of highschool, and i think i'm going to go into Videogame design. i already have a game idea i am currently working on, and i have it all down on my new laptop.

Well just follow what you truly want, whatever that may be. That's all I can really say about your situation Uruviel.

About me I'm majoring in a degree for animation as it seems Zfish wants to major in video game design, which is also a branch of visual arts. So Zfish what side are you looking to do? Programming or the art side of it?

I have some plans for what I want to do after my education, even some ideas for animation, which I really like. I haven't told many about it, though I have drawn some characters/backgrounds and the such to establish the settings of it. Nothing has been animated yet though. I'm too busy worrying about school projects/animations to do my own work right now. And when I do find the spare time to do my own, something happens that usually restricts me from doing it, when I'm in the mood to do so...eh that's life.

^ that sounds sweet.

im a freshman in college. and next semester i start taking the classes geared towards Film which i good. now, im just taking general education courses and one course that gears towards the Contemporary Arts. But my teacher is in theater so instead of making a movie for our final project, i have to perform my monologue on stage......yeah....^^

Oh that sounds nice! You should show us your film work once you're finished! If you feel confident to do so.

^ i cant do a film. i have to perform it. i would have done a film though.

i cant show the other films because the people i did it with dont want me to put it online. i was going to put the two i did last year on my youtube account. but oh well.

Yeah I remember you telling us about that. I meant the films you would be working on. You should show them to us when you are finished them. That would be really neat!

believe me, i wanted to. but i have to respect the wishes of my partner who doesnt want them online >.<.

Why wouldn't you want to show off your work? No offense, but that's why you're doing it in the first place right? An artist who doesn't show his work will never gain the experience needed to better himself.

i do want to show it. i dont know why my friend doesnt want it online. i asked her but she wouldnt tell me. i think it's because her brothers are embarrassed or something to have it online. my friend isnt going into the film industry, i kind of made her my partner for the project because i had no one else to work with XD. i have shown my movies though for scholarships and for applications with her permission. she just doesnt want it online for some reason. and i cant put it online if she doesnt want it online because i wouldnt want someone doing that to me either. though i am going to ask her again when i see her so i can talk it out with her. i want to put up at the least the movie that won an award at my school's film festival.

Wow - so cool! All of you are pretty sure about what you want to do. Just don't get all confused like I did, lol! Actually, I was confused about my future from when I was in grade 12, which is really sad, but good in a way too, since it really got me thinking about things more realistically. Not to sound self-centered or anything, but I really think I've matured quite a bit over the last few years because of all the little mental ordeals I've put myself through. I don't think I was a very grounded person when I was younger. It's good that you guys are already able to plan things out for yourselves.

On a side note, I'm thinking of starting up a writing circle with my cousin ^^. I'm really excited because the two of us have a few stories that we had started writing a while back but never got to finish. We've been motivated to re-light our literary fires again after going for a book-signing event with Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. So in the near future, I may put up a link to a deviant art page or something where some of our stuff will posted for public scrutiny ^^. I also draw and paint too, and we both write a bit of poetry and little essays/opinion pieces/rants, so I/we may put some of that stuff up too. Stay tuned~!

Programing it. or at least the storyline and the mechanics of games.

Oh wow that's really nice! So do you have Flash or something you're working with? What kind of program is it?

At the moment, none. i want to get most of what i'm doing with my game set up before i program anything.


Besides, i don't even have an actual combat system set up yet!

So what exactly are you working on? Sketches and ideas or is it more completed then that at this stage?

So far it's just ideas I've typed up on my laptop. I've got stuff like different worlds and what it's like in them, I've got quest ideas written down (I'm actually getting the exact dialog done in one of them.) I've got pictures of how some of the weapons will look like (They are made in Microsoft power point though. Not using anything that requires drawing any of the weapons. it'll be nearly impossible to draw them well with my dysgraphia...) and i even have the experience table already made and finished!

but that's all i have. before i try to program anything, i'm getting everything down on my laptop though.