West By Northwest: Day Eleven

Today is Career Day. I'm typing this from a classroom at the Digipen Institute of Technology in nearby Redmond, where the first day of an intense 2-week workshop on 3-D animation is coming to a close. We managed to see the neighbors; in this case, the corporate offices of Nintendo...

It was last Thursday night when I ran into a street musician who called herself Yva Las Vegas. (Cute, huh?) She was a member of Sweet 85, a band once headed up by a former member of Nirvana (you know, the one Kurt Cobain was in before he committed suicide, remember?). She was in front of the Century Ballroom that evening, singing in a robust voice and playing a baritone uke-looking instrument called a quattro. I talked of my son's attempts at street-performing, and his career plans. She said she had once worked on the assembly line at Nintendo, and that one of their number was able to move up into a position as a game-tester. I suppose that could happen, but not today.

And anyway, most of all, Paul wants to come to Digipen. So do a lot of other kids. Most don't make it. We didn't even have an appointment for this visit. We just walked in and asked if there was anybody around. The initiative paid off. We met the head prof -- a man on a mission to make this school the creme de la creme for the computer animation world. He reminds me of the hell they put me through at the Graphic Design program at UC. From there, I found myself nodding my head at most of what the guy was saying. Then we got to sit in on a class. That's where I am now. The instructor gave Paul a quick run-through of 3D-Max, the software they use in the class. I got to share with Paul some of my own experience with drawing, and what to look for.

That evening, we decided to go jump in a lake. In this case, from a dockside condo into Lake Washington. My friend Lauren invited us over. Paul had a blast, especially after seeing me try kayaking for the first time in twenty years. I must have made it look like riding a bike.

I could get used to this life. Too bad we gotta leave Thursday...