Chapter 7: Midway Point

Mini Journal

I haven’t written a mini journal in a little while. To review, I write these ‘Mini Journals’ when I have little tidbits of information to share but couldn’t fit them into the main ‘chapter’.

Last week we got a tour of the EA Games and Bioware headquarters here in Montreal. It was very interesting and even a little bit fun, but I can’t tell you what I saw in there! The reasoning behind the secrecy is basically that these companies exert a lot of time and money into their ideas, so a very idea becomes a commodity, and if a competing company learns about their inner workings, all sorts of copyright infringement battles could go down and it wouldn’t be pretty. So, I can’t say what games I saw in progress, but I can say we were assured that the game industry in Montreal is doing well right now.

Also, last night I went to “Sunday Night Improv” (free for the Champlain group) and enjoyed an evening of hilarious made-up stuff! I also learned that any one can join their practices, for free, and partake in their improve workshops every Sunday night. Why did no one tell me this earlier? I love improv! I want to go now… In other words, if you’re interested in Theatre, here’s a spot for you!

Chapter 7

Midterms

I can’t believe we’re already at midterms! This always seems to happen; school starts and then the next day you’re taking your first midterm!

Actually, midterms haven’t quite begun yet. We’re just starting to study and/or prepare for them in my Earth Sci and Canadian Culture classes, and we don’t exactly have an actual ‘midterm’ in the 3D Animation class. In Concept Painting, we’ve been working on our midterm since last week- it’s one finished illustration of a scene of our choosing.

Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised by the arrival of midterms. I am on blog number 7 after all, and if there are 15 weeks in the semester then as a matter of math we are almost halfway through the Fall. We’ve had a lot of work so far, but we’ve had a lot of fun, too.

In fact, just this weekend, we went to the botanical gardens for the Chinese lantern festival. We went at night so it was a tad nippy but the garden was all lit up with colorful lanterns shaped like zodiac creatures or dancing people. The insectarium was open, too, but I didn’t go in there.

Spiders and I… we don’t get along. I did hear exciting stories about said spiders, however, from my friend Dan (who often donates his photos to this blog). Apparently, one of displays had ‘these GIANT tarantulas’ in it which were up against the glass, and as people leaned down to look at nearby Black Widows, they didn’t even notice the tarantulas! He said they also had a display with those spiders that wait under ‘trap doors’ for prey to wander by, and the class bisected the spider’s den so you could see it waiting for a nearby cricket. Actually, I’m sorta glad I didn’t go…

Anyway, there were a lot of people at the garden that night, but I guess the lantern display was coming to an end soon, so the last-minute folks were coming to see it. There’s a pumpkin carving show or display of some kind coming up, too, on account of Halloween, which might be fun to go see, too.

Speaking of Halloween, the UQAM res hall is officially decked out as of last night. They put up paper skeletons and everything orange, black, and cob-webby all over the lobby, so it feels much more festive around here these days. I have my costume all ready, personally, and several of my friends are getting theirs together. I’m really looking forward to Halloween up here, so I hope it’s fun!

Then again, so far pretty much everything we’ve done up here has been fun, so I think I needn’t worry much. I guess I’m taking this blog to reflect on the past seven weeks (which have FLOWN by like a jet) as is often customary of events with both a midpoint and narrator. I’m looking forward to the remainder of my stay here, but I don’t want to even think about the end of it yet. Our next big excursion is the Ottawa City trip, so I’ll certainly have a lot to write then. For now, the leaves are changing and the weather’s getting colder and I have plenty of work to keep me busy.