College. It's weird to say that I'm completing my first semester, even though it was only 2 six week courses. It seems like the semester wasn't really about classes but more about discovering who I would be for the next four years; in essence my college self. I did a large amount of observing: seeing where I wanted to go, what was available to me, where I didn't want to go, who I could relate to, etc. It became somewhat of an experiment as I tested the waters in different areas of social scenes and academics.
It wasn't too difficult for me to do things on my own like laundry, making sure I had enough food, managing my responsibilities, and other single life things because I was fairly independent in high school. It was a different experience however not having anyone to turn to in times of need. Not only did I not have my good friends but I didn't have my family. Sure I could have called them but there's not many places to have privacy on a large campus.
I made it a priority to attend all of my classes, as administrators suggest but don't really see how useless some class lectures are.* In the end, I believe that it helped going to every class because there would be at least one tidbit of information that I could fine useful. My study habits are actually much better than in high school because I know what I need to do to achieve what I want in college while high school was a shot in the dark.
College was a learning experience for me and with some work I'm sure that I can truly make it, as the saying goes, "The four best years of my life." See you next semester Florida State.
*Note that I am not speaking of ENC1101.
About Me
- Omar Torres
- I am a student at Florida State University. Next year, with any luck, I will be entering the film school and starting my life as a professional.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Today
I'm quite sleepy today. I recently rediscovered craigslist, but it's different this time. Living in a college town at the end of the semester means that people are selling their things very cheap. It's like a thrift store with things that I actually want. So I was up fairly late browsing the online market that is craigslist.
I'm optimistic though as today both of my classes seem very simple. My computer class has a guest speaker who will be bringing in all sorts of games and peripherals for games and so I think that I'm going to really enjoy that later in the afternoon. I'm actually anxious to see how many people actually show up today. If it's more than 50 I will be impressed.
I'm not looking forward to finishing my essay for ENC1101 but I am sure that when I actually have it done a weight will be lifted off my shoulders. It needs revision now and it's going to need much more when I'm actually done but I hope in the end it is an entertaining piece that I can be proud of.
I'm optimistic though as today both of my classes seem very simple. My computer class has a guest speaker who will be bringing in all sorts of games and peripherals for games and so I think that I'm going to really enjoy that later in the afternoon. I'm actually anxious to see how many people actually show up today. If it's more than 50 I will be impressed.
I'm not looking forward to finishing my essay for ENC1101 but I am sure that when I actually have it done a weight will be lifted off my shoulders. It needs revision now and it's going to need much more when I'm actually done but I hope in the end it is an entertaining piece that I can be proud of.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The College Essay Experience
When I viewed the assignments and realized that I would have to write 6-8 page papers I was less than thrilled. When I was in high school the most we ever wrote was 750 words and I had to fill those papers with tons of fluff to fulfill the paper requirement. Luckily enough the first essay prompt was all about important life experiences. It was easy for me to flesh out all of my ideas because they were critical to making me the person that I am today. The revision of that essay was more difficult because it felt like I had to cut important pieces of my life that didn't "fit" with the rest of the essay. I thought, "How can anyone truly know who I am without reading [insert experience here]?"
But I cut what I could and I fleshed out the paper with some more detail on some of the other experiences that I had in my paper and some that I didn't. At this point I was very worried about the second paper because I felt like I would have to falsify a large amount of the information. Pre-writing, although I didn't do a whole lot, was my best friend in this paper. I sat down and wrote significant experiences in my reading and writing past and then added a few points on why they were significant. I kept that as my outline while writing the second paper and the ideas seemed to flow so nicely to create a complete, well-rounded essay.
In paper three I intend to create a fiction story. While working on the last two papers I became more aware of sensory details in my writing and that is going to be immensely important in this upcoming story. I also have to keep in mind the lessons I've learned about drafting. I must keep writing and fleshing out my thoughts before I begin revision. My watcher will be shut down at all costs.
But I cut what I could and I fleshed out the paper with some more detail on some of the other experiences that I had in my paper and some that I didn't. At this point I was very worried about the second paper because I felt like I would have to falsify a large amount of the information. Pre-writing, although I didn't do a whole lot, was my best friend in this paper. I sat down and wrote significant experiences in my reading and writing past and then added a few points on why they were significant. I kept that as my outline while writing the second paper and the ideas seemed to flow so nicely to create a complete, well-rounded essay.
In paper three I intend to create a fiction story. While working on the last two papers I became more aware of sensory details in my writing and that is going to be immensely important in this upcoming story. I also have to keep in mind the lessons I've learned about drafting. I must keep writing and fleshing out my thoughts before I begin revision. My watcher will be shut down at all costs.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Omar A. Torres, Movie Mogul and Visionary, Dies at 86
Omar A. Torres, a noted filmmaker in all aspects and an all around upstanding citizen, died on Monday night at his home in Los Angeles, California.
In a surprising turn of events Mrs. Torres, the retired cinematographers first and only wife, passed away not half an hour later of natural causes. It seems that they were always meant to be.
Mr. Torres died of natural causes. He was discovered by his son, also an entertainment lawyer, about an hour after his death. "It was so depressing," his son said in tears, "I will never forget my parents. They were the best parents anybody could ask for." Mr. Torres is known as a cinematographer, director, producer, writer and has even acted in a number of films all around the world. He has won multiple Oscars, although he only prides himself in winning the 100th Annual Academy Award for Cinematography.
He will always be remembered for his work and generosity to less fortunate student filmmakers.
We will miss you.
In a surprising turn of events Mrs. Torres, the retired cinematographers first and only wife, passed away not half an hour later of natural causes. It seems that they were always meant to be.
Mr. Torres died of natural causes. He was discovered by his son, also an entertainment lawyer, about an hour after his death. "It was so depressing," his son said in tears, "I will never forget my parents. They were the best parents anybody could ask for." Mr. Torres is known as a cinematographer, director, producer, writer and has even acted in a number of films all around the world. He has won multiple Oscars, although he only prides himself in winning the 100th Annual Academy Award for Cinematography.
He will always be remembered for his work and generosity to less fortunate student filmmakers.
We will miss you.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Acts of an Artist
I went to an "arts" school throughout all of my high school years. Even though we went over the definition of art in my English classes and all of my arts classes, there are still so many ways to define art that no one definition ever really stuck. Art is a tangible creative form of expression that can be sold, not that it needs to be. I pride myself as a filmmaker but the art that I am actually most proud of is my work in a play entitled Acts of God by Mark Rigney.
It was a play about twelve kids who experience a devastating storm and go through the next year trying to get their lives back on track. I played a character named Jared. He was a big classic rock fan who wasn't all that bright. Each character had about the same number of lines so there was no main character but if there was it wouldn't have been me.
The reason that I consider Acts of God as my best work of art was because it dealt with serious issues and I was able to work on it with a great group of people that I ended up getting really close to (a little bit too close but that's a different story). It was a five day run and when we opened the show we didn't have many people come but we still performed with enthusiasm and put all of our rehearsal time to the test. One day we had almost nobody but teachers in the audience. It was fantastic to have all of the teachers watch how dedicated we were and how much work we put in to the show. There was a day when most of the casts parents were in the audience and the first half of the show was terrible. Before the second act the director talked to us about how we should start focusing on the characters and stop focusing on our parents. That second act was the best second act out of all five days of showings. The tears were flowing that night, in a good way.
It was a play about twelve kids who experience a devastating storm and go through the next year trying to get their lives back on track. I played a character named Jared. He was a big classic rock fan who wasn't all that bright. Each character had about the same number of lines so there was no main character but if there was it wouldn't have been me.
The reason that I consider Acts of God as my best work of art was because it dealt with serious issues and I was able to work on it with a great group of people that I ended up getting really close to (a little bit too close but that's a different story). It was a five day run and when we opened the show we didn't have many people come but we still performed with enthusiasm and put all of our rehearsal time to the test. One day we had almost nobody but teachers in the audience. It was fantastic to have all of the teachers watch how dedicated we were and how much work we put in to the show. There was a day when most of the casts parents were in the audience and the first half of the show was terrible. Before the second act the director talked to us about how we should start focusing on the characters and stop focusing on our parents. That second act was the best second act out of all five days of showings. The tears were flowing that night, in a good way.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
HIM
I imagine my "Watcher" as a little hunchback creature rummaging through the information in my brain trying to find the right words and the correct structure of sentences. I type something and he says, "No, no do not use that" or, "You are using the vocabulary of a fourth grader", and even, "Really? Is that how you want the sentence to read?"
In a way I have to control his volume. I want him in the room when I write, but I want him very far away. That way when the big mistakes come around I can hear him scream it from across the room.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Five Six Ace
The speech around West Palm Beach is tailored to the younger generation. If you live in West Palm Beach you're either living with your parents, a parent, or you're a retired senior citizen so teenagers basically develop they're own slang terms. The pattern that I have noted recently is that two syllable words are just to many syllables for the teenage brain. Suddenly we have to shorten older slang words like "gnarly" to "gnar" and "totally" to "tots"(said toads) to make them our own. It's like a doctor snipping loose ends of all his words to make it look nicer and then attempted to articulate his rationalization for the surgery.
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