Day 7

A Fine(nance) Day

Today was just awesome because I got to learn so much about running a business and the finance behind game development. First, we were supposed shadow one of their character artists today, but he isn’t back yet from his trip, so we instead got to hear about Ben’s career. He’s more of the businessman for Mighty Rabbit and so deals with stuff like management and finance over art design or programming. He claims it’s the same boring stuff an accountant does, but it was actually really interesting to hear about. First, he was busy in the morning, but he gave us a project to work on. We took the game idea that I’m working on – a 3d 2 player tanks battle game – and had to come up with a pitch to try and get money to develop the game. (see above for examples of our work) After we delivered this pitch, we got great feedback and how best to sell a pitch to get funding. You need to include artwork and an in depth view of your game in the pitch, but start the pitch with just a 2-3 sentence overview of the game. One thing that surprised me is that you need to have 75% of your game completed before a producer will consider investing in it. You need 75% because you need enough of your game to produce a “vertical slice” to show off to your producer. A vertical slice is basically a fully working demo of your game, like maybe a single level to show that this game will work and can be completed with funding. It was really cool to hear about, and for our last day tomorrow we will get to see character design and animation.

The highlight of today’s work was my introduction to computer aided design. The engineers at Forthright use CAD software to design all of their products in every stage of the development process, from the initial thoughts and brainstorming to production. It’s an integral part to the work that they do and it was really interesting to be able to try it myself. I started with learning the basics of creating individual parts. This included learning new vocabulary, what the different tools and functions did, how to manipulate the view with the mouse, and I began to develop an understanding of knowing how to do what I wanted to make certain objects, like a sphere or a part from a drawing related to one of Forthright’s projects. I was also shown much more complicated work, which was an actual device that they were creating at the time, and I look forward to learning more about assemblies and how to make these individual parts work together tomorrow.

Day 7

Today, the schedule said that I was visiting the “legal” department. Although, it wasn’t really the legal department because I was on the first floor, and the legal department was on the second floor. The correct terminology would be that I would be visiting the contract department. I learned that that department was similar to a hub in that they facilitated processes between the other departments. They also served as support for SAS customers who may not be having technical issues. The coolest part of the day was at the end of lunch when they allowed Max and me to just wander and have free time. We decided to go to the balcony on the top floor to take in the beautiful view of SAS from above. It’s really a shame how they are so many little things about SAS – benches, ponds, sculptures, and landscaping – that many of the employees overlook. We really got to take a good look at the wooded areas around SAS that makes it feel very serene. This quick trip really makes me appreciate the campus we have at CA as well, and I’m definitely going to be paying more attention to the little things on our campus from now on.

Day 7- Marketing

Today I shadowed Dave and Beth in the marketing department at SAS. I spent the morning with Dave who works on ensuring that SAS is always one of the first websites to show up when you look up a “key word” on google. Dave described to me that a “key word” is a word or phrase that he expects customers to search on google and that are applicable to SAS. Dave makes SAS pop up for these key words through Google ads, meaning that they pay for their spot in the search results. I was surprised when Dave told me what he did because I had met someone in the web development department who I at first thought did the exact same thing as Dave. Dave went on to explain to me that him and Katy in web development had the same goal: for SAS to pop up at the top of Google searches. However, they both achieved this goal in different ways. Dave was achieving this goal by “out bidding” other companies for the top spots in a search, or in other words being more willing to pay more for each click on their search results by a customer. Katy, on the other hand, achieved the same goal by manipulating SAS web pages themselves. She changes the code and prevalence of words in the website to make it more relevant to Google searches without paying money for ads. It was interesting to see two people working on the same goal in their own individual styles. Dave later went on to explain to me the many ways that companies access your demographic info and use this to select the ads they show you without you even knowing. Needless to say it was a very eye opening morning.

Wednesday (day 7)

I was with the David Glenn Show and I wrestled a tiger! Okay, I didn’t really wrestle a tiger. But, I did wrestle a bear! Okay, I didn’t really wrestle a bear. But, I did answer phones and I did tell David Glenn that I sucked at dancing, which caused me to be the NBA Finals in his line-dancing analogy. So that was fairly lit. Also, I wrestled John Cena! Okay, maybe I didn’t wrestle John Cena. Maybe.

Day 7 at Raleigh Orthopaedics in Cary

Today, I saw a lot of familiar faces from last week. It was nice seeing progress and new updates in regards to both injuries and personal life. The 100 mile runner came back again this week for more excruciating dry needling. Once again, through all his pain, he was able to have a positive outlook on the necessary procedure and stay happy.

It was a slower day than most, but it meant that I could get to know certain people better. I met a guy who was Gatorade State Player of the Year in soccer a few years ago, which I thought was incredible. It’s amazing to see that Raleigh Orthopaedics has even elite athletes going there for treatment and not just regular people. There was also a girl who is going to play lacrosse for Arizona State University next year, so I am constantly surprised every day.

Day 7

Today was super slow. Almost no patients came in and there were almost no patients already there. We spent most of the day talking to technicians about their experiences with Vet medicine, and also discussing the hardest parts of the practice. We spoke a lot about the pharmaceuticals they use, and the explained how things like anesthetics worked. They use this machine pictured below that puts the animals quickly and painlessly to sleep in their post-ops. Sad it’s almost over 🙁

Day 7 – Dat Funkay Music

Today I re-invented music. That is, I re-invented a method of producing music. I spent almost the whole day coding, entirely from scratch, a system wherein a piezo buzzer speaker would be able to play different tones based on different switches that were played. This was the most difficult arduino project I have completed to date, as there are really no guides or instructions online for hardwiring or coding. That means that today was spent subscribing to the trial-and-error school of education, plugging every possible wire into every possible port, until something worked. The hardest part about today was writing the code, as I’ve never written a full code from scratch before. Luckily, the arduino software has a built-in verification system, and would point me to any errors or typos that would hold me back. It took a while, and I definitely am not finished, but my final product is pretty darn neat; it’s a series of exposed wires, all set in a circle raised off of the table, and a sleeve made of tinfoil for your pointer finger that’s wired to a breadboard. You put your finger in the sleeve, and when you touch any of the exposed wires, the current is able to pass through your finger, and signals the arduino to play a tone. Each wire represents a different note, all of which I can program on the computer to be any possible note on the piano. This means I can set up any intervals and scales I want, and proceed to play each tone individually in a series. I think I may have inadvertently invented a brand new instrument, and if so, that’s pretty cool.

Day 7

Today was different than any of my other days working with the Bulls because it was not a game day. The offices were much more quiet and relaxed than what I’m used to and I wasn’t working with the promo team. Instead I did some work for Faith while she attended a meeting and finished up a magazine like project for the next game. After a fantastic lunch at Tyler’s, I spent my time researching potential game day songs, deciding on which future promotions should be advertised, and other small tasks. It was not a very long or work-heavy day but I enjoyed experiencing the office atmosphere for the first time.

My favorite part of today was lunch with Faith at an incredible restaurant called Tyler’s. The food was great, but I really enjoyed talking to Faith and learning more about the Bulls and her job. She told me a lot about her experience as a member of the promotions team as well as her job now. The whole experience was very informative and I enjoyed the work-free time we had to just chat.