So I just downloaded Sandvox 1.2.1, and it's rife with bugs. But sometimes a girl's gotta write anyway.
I mentioned I'm shopping for new education. Well, I progressed rather rapidly to the formal stage - I found an on-line place that offers a bachelor's degree in interactive media design - basically, web design and graphics. Way cool! Also way expensive - it's a real university, and is priced as such. Also, since it's a bachelor's degree, they require some unrelated courses like composition (which hopefully I could place out of) and art history.
I talked to my manager, and she's going to see if the company will pay for it. I figure it's kind of a long shot - the place is an art school, and the early classes are heavy on design and light on geeky stuff. If they won't pay for it...it's probably too expensive for us to swing. Or more accurately, while we could probably do it, there is a certificate program that costs 1/10th as much (no joke) that, while not as rigorous, is probably better than 1/10th as rigorous.
Honestly, I don't really know what I want. The degree would look better on my resumé, and would be a far more thorough graphic design education. But it's FOUR YEARS. The courses are semi-self-paced - they're scheduled, but assignments are week-to-week. The certificate program, on the other hand, is fully self-paced: you can download two courses at once, and you have three months to complete them. Realistically I could complete the certificate program in less than two years.
So it's hardly a no-brainer, choosing between the two - although it pretty much will be if the company says no. Except THEN I have to talk to the really nice admissions lady - who is also, I suspect, an extremely well-trained salesperson - and say well, no, this isn't going to happen. She'll whip out the contingency plans, and offers to evaluate me for financial aid (laughable, really, given our income; but we're trying to SAVE most of it, and this program would significantly eat into that, not that folks who want your money will take that as an excuse), and subtle guilt trips. I do not cope well with such things; but fortunately I have my husband to back me up, and I'm not going to promise OUR money just because I'm uncomfortable disappointing a total stranger.
The good side of all of this is that whichever program I end up in, I get to buy cool software. Both of them require Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Flash (one of the electives in the certificate program would also get me into InDesign or QuarkXPress). I went to an Apple Store today and twiddled with Dreamweaver a little - quite a sophisticated tool, no surprise given its reputation (not to mention the price tag). And it sure looked nice on that 24" iMac - only $1999. $200 more than Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, which would include all the bits of software I would need. If I were a REAL graphic designer, splurging would mean that $160 set of 132 Prismacolor colored pencils, not two grand on software! But one must move with the times.
I don't know what I hope will happen. The company says yes, I get free everything, but I have to take ethics and art history. The company says no, I get the cheaper, self-paced program; but we'd be footing the bill. Would've been nice if the company covered certificates, but they don't; and I guess I can understand that.
Of course, ultimately I'm terrified of a) failure; and b) exhaustion. And oh, yeah: c) total lack of aptitude, which is a corollary of a). But I have to try. My whole life I've been afraid to screw up. Time to jump, for once.