So it’s a new year again and we’re already in May. I can’t believe I manage to survive another year and it seems like that every year but will 2012 be the same or will it be different this time? *thinking*…I don’t know =/ …but I do know that life is full of surprises good and bad. 11 months has gone passed by and I haven’t done any blogging until now. I originally wanted to post this at the beginning of this year but had a lot going on. During that time period, it has been one hell of a ride for me. Let alone, the last time I did a blog before that was back in November 2010. The year that changed my life completely. It was the success of my jaw surgery that made an incredible impact on my life forever. It was like I was reborn with a new life. However, life is still a challenge and it will always be.

By the way, sorry if any of my writing doesn’t make sense. I seem to have trouble expressing myself or explaining things properly because of my…*siGhz*…stupid vocabulary and I always had this speech problem since I was born (another one of my problems -.-“) but anyway, just wanted to let you all know and also, be warned, some of my writings can be REALLY long like this one so just a heads up for those who don’t like to read long posts.

Like I said, 2011 was a big year for me. After having to endure the pain (well, not really in pain but you know what I mean anyway) of going through the jaw treatment for 1½ years which involves preparing for the treatment, wearing braces before and after the surgery, the surgery itself and the long recovery afterwards, I finally had my braces taken off in June last year and completed my treatment. Though I still have to keep on wearing my retainers and still have lil bit of numbness in the lower part of my jaw which can be very annoying, I’m so…happy (hmm…still not used to that “word” =S) with the outcome at the end and I don’t regret one bit.

For those who are wondering what on earth I’m talking about, you guys probably don’t know but long story short, I had a jaw surgery 2 years ago to fix up my bad and I mean really bad underbite and had to get all my 4 wisdom teeth taken out as well. I won’t explain the details as I’ve already blogged about it but if you’re still interested in about my jaw surgery, I have posted more detail posts about it so click on these links to read ->  Life Changing Experience & Positive & Negative . I also want to warn you that some bits may be triggering for some people mainly the procedure of the surgery and the anesthesia awareness so read at your own risk but I actually encourage people to read it as it is an amazing story especially with the end result. =D Also, guys, if you know anyone who is thinking of having this jaw surgery or who are interested, please and I mean PLEASE show them my story as this could be a life-changing experience for them. I am living proof that this jaw surgery can change your life forever.

TAFE. What can I say about TAFE? I’ve actually found a course that I absolutely love and it is probably the best one out of all the other courses I have done in the past. At the moment, I’m studying a Multimedia course in Information Technology Certificate IV. For those who don’t know what TAFE is, TAFE is a college/institute in Australia which is sorta like University/College compare to the ones in USA/UK but it’s mainly more practical stuff than theory if that makes sense? =S Originally, I was supposed to be doing full time for 1 year but because of my problems, I couldn’t handle the workload so I had to drop to doing part-time for 2 years instead but I was still able to be in the full-time class and still am. My course involves a variety of modules including Animation, Web Design, Imagery, Audio/Video, Design and Authoring. The last 1½ years, I have been able to create projects that I never thought I could do.

Some of my work samples – one of our teachers set us a project to create our own train animation and for some reason, I had this crazy idea in my head. Everyone knows about the Mario Kart series, right? In Mario Kart 64 (which was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996 for Japan and 1997 for the rest of the world), there is a train in this level called “Kalimari Desert” circling around (reminds me of Mario Party 2’s Western Land =D) and base on that level, I recreated it using Cinema 4D, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects where you can see down below. Some of the textures were already made and some of them were found on the internet. The train/carriages were already made but did some tweaking on it and the smoke was made by using the emitter tool. I ended up working on the animation for about 2 to 3 months but wasn’t able to finish it on time as I was away from TAFE for most of the time mainly because I had to take time off and was also in America. Other samples of my work down below is a jet that I created using with Cinema 4D yet again.