Yesterday was a day where I got many new toys to play with. My copy of the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade arrived exactly as hoped for and, like I mentioned in my last posting, I swung by the college bookstore to grab myself a copy of Adobe Creative Suite CS4 (Design Premium).
I started doing the upgrade stuff after I got home from work which meant I spent all afternoon installing and then resetting up OS X how I want it. I’m really enjoying Snow Leopard. I’ve only encountered one software incompatibility so far (Curse you logitech!!!) and the rest of my stuff has worked flawlessly. I’m enjoying all the little enhancements over Leopard, like the application specific Expose support if you hold down your mouse on the dock icon. The entire OS is much snappier now and the install, as promised, took up much less room so my hard drive actually has free space now.
CS4 was neat. I’ve never actually owned a copy of Photoshop despite using it for things over the years. I think a lot of folks are in the same boat, honestly… But now it feels weird to have an actual, legit copy of that and all the other adobe apps. I have more design type software than I ever thought I’d have installed on here. I haven’t had a chance to use much of it but I’ve used it enough to know I really like the new interface in CS4. I also like the little photoshop improvements, like if you zoom in far enough it puts up a faint grid of pixels so you know where all the boundaries are. Neat stuff.
The only thing bad about yesterday was I wish I was able to go with my friends to the State Fair 
Last night was the first step in what I hope to be a new direction for me to go in. Yes…I voluntarily set foot in another college classroom. This time for a class on Digital Typography, my first stop on my new Graphic Design major.
It seems like it’s a lot of stuff I’ve done before, but the professor really knows his stuff and, more importantly, knows how to explain it to the class in a non-boring way. It’s interesting hearing his perspective on stuff since he’s been doing publishing and print layout/typesetting work since before there was computers. So he has a lot of insight on the history of the subject, and why things are done the way they are and called what they are. It’s setup a lot like a desktop publishing type course, which I’ve taken a couple times before, but I think I’ll get a lot out of this one. I’ve already gone through one 4 hour lecture without being bored out of my mind, which is a really good sign.
The only problem is the kids I’m taking the class with. I’m not THAT much older than these people (first year college students). Ok…so maybe I am…but…still. It’s hard to deal with some of them. Like the people behind us who broke in with annoying, unrelated stories about stuff and who couldn’t stay quiet for 2 minutes straight during the lecture while they were working on the homework together in class. It’s disrespectful and annoying. I’m hoping they drop the course…but knowing my luck that won’t be happening…
I’m also going to take the plunge and purchase Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium. I’m going to need the apps, and I really need to…fix my photoshop situation as my copy is not entirely legit. But that’ll be fixed today hopefully once I pop over to the school’s bookstore. Thank god for educational discounts!
It’s just weird being back in class after swearing that I was done with college.
Recent Comments