Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

I've been feeling a bit conflicted in the days leading up to and following my second panel review. By the terms of what we were supposed to present documentation-wise, I was not well prepared. I would have been fine with an incomplete, since I need to finish my documentation anyway (I'm putting final touches on tonight). But Mike and Misha felt that the incomplete wouldn't really help me in the process, which was a generous but uneccessary gesture. I don't think I could feel any more stress at this point -- at some point last week I think I transcended my stress level to achieve a level of "it-is-what-it-is"-ness. Either that, or I'm in the eye of the hurricane, and the winds are a-knockin' at my door.

The ambivalence is partly because so many classmates have started working professionally recently, either because their thesises (thesii?) are more or less finished, or because they felt that school was leading up to this anyway, so why wait. And while I deliberately chose a thesis that I cared about, and still want to see it done well, I'm starting to look at life after thesis, as well as occasionally at my credit card bills.

Long and short of it is, I sent my reel out to Brand New School, a small-ish commercial house in Little Italy, and they've brought me in as a freelancer for three days a week. What this means for my project remains to be seen, but it certainly lights a fire under my... Well, no sleep for me tonight!