Okay, so basically, here's what happened w/ parking. There are meters around the school (and since I come early enough, I will always get a spot), which costs $.35 an hour, which means that I would be spending around $2 a day for parking. So that's $4 a week, and with a 16-week semester, that came out to $64 for the semester, which is cheaper than the $75 semester parking pass. Anyway, then I discovered a little gem -- a tiny strip of curb where there are no meters. Yep, free parking. Anyway, other people must have discovered them too, cuz now it's starting to fill up early. So, on Monday, I came, parked at a meter, and only put in enough money for until class ends, intending to come back to see if any free parking space had freed up before putting more money in the meter. Well, I had forgotten that I had signed up for a counseling session, and that took an extra 30 mins, and by the time I came back, I had a ticket under my wipers.

*Sigh. So that is why my quest for a free spot, when I coulda just put another quarter in for another 42 mins, landed me a $35 ticket. (On a brighter note, I got a free spot today.) Anyway, I would have to get a free spot 10 more times to make it still cheaper than the parking pass. *Sigh.

Oh, and yet another rant: my counseling session was bunk. Pretty much. The main thing I wanted to get cleared up was that I didn't want to take the "Intro to Graphic Computing" class. (See this entry for my description of it.) Basically, it starts out w/ the basics of the computer, and then basics of the web, and then the basics of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash. So, I know already about 90% of the class material already. (The other 10% would be Illustrator.) I mean, I'm currently taking a Flash class (and it's pretty easy right now since they're going over stuff I already know), I've taken a Photoshop class and gotten an A, but it's not "proof" that I can use a computer, so I still need to take that stinkin' class in order to get into the other classes that I want. (I could crash them, but crashing is too damn hard if I had to do that for all of my classes.) The counselor said that he was a student, he understands, that he'll bring it up at the next meeting, but I doubt that will help me. Even if anything happens, I wouldn't be able to benefit from it. I think I'll just have to suck it up and sit through that stupid class. That stupid impacted class that everybody and their mother want to take cuz they also need it to get into the classes they want.

Okay, this entry is getting long, but one good thing I want to rave about: on Monday we had a surprise guest speaker, Tom Sito, best known, perhaps, as the animation director for Osmosis Jones. He was great! He answered a lot of questions, and raised a lot of issues regarding animators today, and he was just a funny guy. It made me really want to be an animator, yet also not. It's a tough time for animation nowadays, despite all the stuff coming out nowadays. The main thing? All the jobs are going oversees to India and South Korea and Japan. It's tough enough having a glut of animators in Southern California, but if there are less and less jobs... well, it's gonna be a tough market. (Hey, it's still not too late to become a nurse! Or a lawyer! OMG. Shoot me now.)