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The Student Life an ongoing journal by Donald Lehman |
....who is Donald Lehman? |
August 31, 2001  by Donald Lehman With all of us kiddies starting back up school again I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to our newest members: Freshmen. Yes, you have finally escaped the clutches of high school and most of you are out of your parents’ house and livin’ large. But you’re paying for your freedom through the teeth. In my case I cough up roughly $25,000(US) a year. Ouch. For the less mathematically inclined out there, over four years I’m looking at $100,000(US). Before you look into black market organ selling to finance the next 1,460 days of your life, think how much you could actually get with $100,000. A whole lot of Bazooka Joe, a house, that plastic surgery you’ve always wanted so you look like Scott Baio, and so on and so forth. During the first week of classes freshman year, my professor, Kim Sherman, addressed the issue of the amount of money we were spending. He explained it in such a way that it has stuck with me and I thought I would share with all of you huddled around your monitors. He compared the four years of college to a luxury sports car that is also worth roughly $100,000. To paraphrase: "You could spend your money on a fast car. But you’re here. What are you getting for all of this money? Everyone right now is spending the same amount of money as everyone else and yet some will come out of here as top-notch designers and some will be not so top-notch." "Granted, some people are better drawers and some are great at coming up with ideas and others are outstanding at pitching a product, and we will hate these people, but who in the end is responsible for how good of a designer you turn out to be? You are. Those other people don’t make you ask the questions to your teachers that will help you better understand something and you can’t blame them if you do not spend the extra time to make sure your work represents the quality you wish it to." "You are in charge of your own future. You determine whether the money you spend is invested well or squandered. Are you going to come out of school a Mercedes level designer or are you just going to be an Edsel?" "Use Only With Adult Supervision" Design of the Month club: X-acto Gripster knife.  This simple tool is must have for any designer. While there are many different variations of a utility knife, this one in my humble opinion, is the best. Rubber grippy stuff is placed on it for a better hold. The end is squared to prevent those late night accidental foot stabbings that occur when other knives roll off the table. Also unlike other knives, you loosen the blade up at the end instead of near the blade where you hold the tool. This may seem trivial, but when you use these tools hours on end, the blade will keep coming loose if you use one that is screwed in from the handling point. |
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