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What Mt. San Antonio College Taught Me... |
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When I started at this college in 1993, I originally started with radio classes. I was convinced that I could be a funny and socially abrasive radio jockey, a la Howard Stern. I took all the introductory radio history classes, that prepared you for time spent in the studio. Mount SAC had a small station that would broadcast around the local area, providing great practice for the beginner. Unfortunately, because of a bunch of hippie environmentalists, they had to move the tower that year. They had a multimillion dollar studio but no way to send out a signal. Instead, we spent an entire 16 week semester sitting in a big auditorium talking about "radio stuff" every week. It sucked! This killed my interest in further radio classes and forced me to choose a new major. |
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My New College Major |
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So I decided to try drafting. I briefly flirted with the idea of severly overpaying tuition and going to ITT Tech, but this produced nothing but a photo ID, where I looked like the bass player in some bad heavy metal band.
I was lost. I was 22. I had a new son.I was convinced that nothing they had told us in high school was true, because I was miserably poor. "I got good grades, damnit! What happened?!?" I settled into mechanical drafting, probably thinking that since I liked to draw I would enjoy it. Also, since it involved computers and high-end technology, I thought there would be great money involved when I was done.
We started the first few quarters with protractors, vellum, HD pencils and erasers. In good faith, I bought a drafting table from Staples... |
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Mt. SAC - The Final Months |
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Eventually, as students, we were allowed to begin working on the computers. I learned AUTOCAD and used this software to draw mechanical parts, electrical schematics and architectural layouts. We would spend hours of class staring at the screen, taking something from the printed page or an actual part and creating it on the screen in three dimensions. Our designs could eventually be fed into a machine and the actual part would be created.
Surprisingly, the focus shifted to computer animation. "Toy Story", the Disney film had just come out and this was all the rage. Our instructors switched to a program called 3D Studio and we began making short films. Joined with other small groups, we built a short commercial about an earthworm craving soda. Then, we built a short film about a submarine in an underwater cave-in accident. They turned out really nice. We recorded our own voices and acted the parts.
As I finished, I found I couldn't afford the next school in San Jose. I also couldn't imagine sitting at a computer every day for the rest of my life. After spending five years getting these degrees, I walked away from it all... |
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