To School, Or Not to School?
Filed Under: Web Design, personal
I have been thinking about trying to enroll in a graphic design or photography program here in the Fall. I don’t know anything about what it’s like to go back to school and get a new bachelors when you already have one. I don’t have any idea how much it would cost, and obviously, I would have to take more loans. I already have $40,000+ in student loans left from my last one. So–is it worth it?
Reasons for getting a graphic design degree
- A lot of jobs are requiring it that a few years ago did not
- Would really hone my skillset and give me the grounding in fundamentals I seek
- Would possibly let me get through a bad time in the economy
- Could still take freelance while doing so, just at a lower volume
Reasons against going back to school:
- I can barely earn enough to live and pay loans right now as it is. Will adding another degree really make me that much more employable that I can make enough to handle the new, larger debt load?
- I could probably find a job somewhere without one
- School can be very tedious
- I already have more real world experience equivalent than a degree gives
My job search has been fairly unfruitful right now. It’s tough not to be discouraged and wonder if I need a big change in life. I was talking with Jay this morning, and he was trying to point out that it doesn’t necessarily reflect badly on me. It’s hard not to feel discouraged though. My freelance business is going okay, but how long will that last?
I’m adrift on a sea of uncertainty today. I’m waiting for a wind to nudge me in the right direction, but maybe I should just pick a direction and start paddling.
An Updated Biography
Filed Under: personal
I have taken some time on this fine afternoon to write new words into my About Me page. They might be of some amusement value to those of you who know me well, and even those of you who do not.
(Shortest. Post. Ever.)
Travel Day
Filed Under: personal
I am traveling to Oregon today and will be slow to respond to emails. Rest assured that I want to hear from you and I will respond as soon as I can. Until then, have a good one!
Personal Interlude
Filed Under: personal
Things have been very busy outside of the day job (and at the day job as well, but who cares about that stuff?). I put most of the finishing touches on a new website for Rudi Dornemann last week. I’ll let you know here when he signs off on the site, and I’ll try and write up a postmortem at that point. It was a fun project, involving updating an older design of mine for a different sort of website.
I finalized my artwork for the Strange Horizons donation card over the weekend as well. I will let you know how to get that special Roundbottom art when the donation drive begins. I’m really pleased with how the image turned out. The poor little gob!
I’ve also put nearly every book I own into boxes for the impending move to our new place (only six blocks away from the current house, but $300 a month cheaper).
Blogging will be lighter over the coming two weeks as I’m in the process of finishing up a couple of freelance projects while packing for the move. I currently have no projects scheduled for June or July, so if you are looking for a designer, and want to discuss the possibility of hiring me, you know how to reach me. An awesome new website would be a good investment of your government stimulus check!
I will be on vacation in Oregon for the second week of June, but I can still work on a project for the latter half of the month. If nothing turns up, I’ll put that time into building the new Roundbottom site to go with the relaunch, and in general, just doing more photography.
Have you missed some of the recent Daily Photos? This link will take you to the tag that I file all the daily images under. I don’t usually post images over the weekend, but sometimes I get excited about sharing the work I’ve done and upload it earlier. On my list of things to do is to create a feed specifically for just the daily photos so that I can offer up my blog as a photo blog and get it listed in the directories for those.
One last exciting thing. We purchased a 24 inch LCD for the office computer over the weekend. It is mighty. So mighty that it gives me eye strain to work on it currently. I’ve had to dim down its light as much as possible just to handle looking at it for more than 20 minutes. But I opened up Photoshop first thing after installing it. Oh boy, the room. The room… Unfortunately, the machine it is hooked up to is not powerful enough to run the Age of Conan MMOG I just bought, which means I do not have a computer that can run it period. Perhaps a video card upgrade will solve my problem, but that is $100+ I don’t want to spend after dropping so much on the new monitor. Luckily, I didn’t really pay for the Conan game, but traded in a ton of stuff for it at GameStop. All part of slimming down my possessions for the move. The next step in this is holding a garage sale this coming weekend.
