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Who here lives in Florida?

DJ88

Member
My friend is looking there for possible film school. Should I warn him to avoid that place at all cost?

Unless he wants to spend 10 times as much for the same education he could get from a community college then yes.

Unfortunately I haven't heard many good things about the place other than the facilities.
 

Meohsix

Member
I'm from the Daytona area as well. Port Orange to be precise. Born in West Palm and moved to Port Orange when I was 2 and lived there until I moved to Tallahassee for college. Now I live in Hiroshima and miss Florida like crazy all the time.

When and if I ever finish up here in Japan I'd love to move to Orlando.

I was from port orange as well. Lived right next to SCHS. It was a nice place when I first moved there, but over the past few years Daytona's scum has oozed their way into port orange and the crime rates have gone up, and it seemed like every other house was in foreclosure yet they just keep building bigger and bigger houses that nobody can afford, and more and more shopping centers that stay vacant because they can't find anyone to fill them. Can't say I'll miss it much.
 
Is there anywhere in Florida that's unaffected by the constant hurricanes, or at the very least only slightly affected?
Honestly Sarasota RARELY gets hit and when it does it's just barely. Something about the bay there just whips hurricanes in to Tampa even when it looks like it's heading straight for it. I lived there from 5th grade to years past college and I can only think of one bad storm.
 

matt360

Member
I was from port orange as well. Lived right next to SCHS. It was a nice place when I first moved there, but over the past few years Daytona's scum has oozed their way into port orange and the crime rates have gone up, and it seemed like every other house was in foreclosure yet they just keep building bigger and bigger houses that nobody can afford, and more and more shopping centers that stay vacant because they can't find anyone to fill them. Can't say I'll miss it much.

Wow, that's pretty sad. I went to SCHS and lived pretty close as well. I only go back about once a year for vacation so I'm mostly just chilling at home, visiting old friends, and going to the beach. The Port Orange Pavilion is pretty nice though, and that House 4 Beer place is amazing. Either way, since I'm just having fun when I come down I don't really see all the bad stuff. Has Port Orange really gotten so bad? What kinda crimes? It still seems like a quaint Daytona suburb every time I go back, but then again, I'm only down for a week or two and always during Xmas when everyone is happy.

But yeah, if I ever moved back to Florida, it wouldn't be anywhere in Volusia County. My dad lives in DeLeon Springs, and aside from the nature and the downtown area of DeLand, I despise that whole DeLand/DeLeon/Orange City area. My step-brother grew up there and went to DeLand High and even now as a man in his 30s all he talks about is getting into bar fights and fucking up dudes who look at his sisters the wrong way. It's pathetic, and DeLand is FULL of people just like him.
 
That's the risk I am willing to take so I may drink around the world at Epcot!



How's Full Sail with its game development program? Heard a little about that place, but I have no idea if it is actually good or not.
I think it is one of their stronger programs and I know their grads are across the industry. But Full Sail isn't for everyone and you'd need to do a lot of research on it first. As far as I understand they are generally regarded as one of the better for-profits. I know they announced something with UF last year but I don't know the status of that quasi-articulation agreement across programs that was discussed with that announcement.

And yeah it's expensive. Only good thing is the main program is under two years long assuming you don't fail anything. So less living arrangements are needed versus staying somewhere for 4-5 years for a traditional computer science or software engineering program.
 

Goody

Member
I grew in Longwood, now I live in Apopka. I'd like to move a little further out. But I really dig it here.
 

border

Member
I am in Jacksonville too. I don't hate it as much everyone else here though. You just have to live in the right neighborhoods.

Every area outside of Downtown, Riverside, and San Marco is suburban strip mall hell. But when you live in a historic area with its own unique local businesses and culture it's pretty cool. Chill in the cafe reading at Chamblin's, head over to Burrito Gallery for dinner, grab a mojito at Dos Gatos, then top it off with beers and live music at Birdie's or Jack Rabbits. I feel sorry for anyone stuck in Orange Park or Arlington or whatever.

I'd happily attend a JaxGAF meetup if anyone wants to help organize one. I remember when there were only 1 or 2 other Jacksonville people on the board -- times have certainly changed.

Is there anywhere in Florida that's unaffected by the constant hurricanes, or at the very least only slightly affected?

Jacksonville is further west than anything else along the eastern coastline, and usually any hurricane that might come close gets quickly sucked north by the Gulf Stream and directed towards North/South Carolina. In the past decade, I can only remember 1 or 2 serious hurricane situations which resulted in schools and businesses shutting down. In both instances the hurricane never hit us. As someone else said, we haven't seen a hurricane in decades. There's been some tropical storms and some nasty whether from hurricanes as they missed us and went north, but nothing resembling a direct hit.
 

FLAguy954

Junior Member
<----

Used to live in Fort Lauderdale for most of my life. Been dragged to Atlanta by my parents and have been here for a couple of years now. It just doesn't compare though, Florida is the shit!
 

GrizzNKev

Banned
Ok you can come back.

Thx broe.

Isn't EA / Tiburon in Orlando? They need help bro. Have you seen the latest Madden.....

Been there. Got a tour through UCF's Honors College summer camp in Java programming. Met a bunch of people, didn't find the place appealing. I don't want to make sports games.

Yup. UCF FIEA downtown has a pretty good grad school for game designing from what I've heard. Basically a direct pipeline to EA and other companies in general. I'm sure it's really competitive, though. I think now they finally a pretty competent undergrad track within the Digital Media department too.

I wouldn't want to wait until after graduation to start working on student game projects.

Full Sail isn't really regarded well as a "game dev college" in the industry, last I checked.

Fixed that for you.

These are also true.

I moved to go to school in Redmond, you can figure out the rest. Actually one of the other people that went to that UCF camp is going to be in Redmond for the summer interning at MS. It'll be nice to see him again.
 

B33

Banned
My friend is looking there for possible film school. Should I warn him to avoid that place at all cost?
Yes, tell him not to squander the exorbitant funding at an institution that lacks any sort of credence within the industries it attempts to pump people through.

Vie for University of Miami, Florida State University, or University of Central Florida.

Or avoid Florida entirely and gun for universities in California and New York.
 

Necrovex

Member
Thanks for all of the responses, I'll tell him about Full Sail when I see him later for lunch.

And I slowly realized Florida isn't too bad. It simply depends where in Florida one lives. I dislike Tampa, but I adore Sarasota and St. Pete. Both of those towns are quite smashing. If I choose to stay in Florida, I will probably live in one of those two cities.
 
I'm in Gainesville.

Go Gators!

Edit: I grew up in a little town called Interlachen. I'm willing to bet no one knows where that is.
 

peach

Member
I was born in Jacksonville. Then my family moved to a small house on Adams St. in Hollywood (attended Colbert Elementary) until '87. We then moved to Port St. Lucie and For Pierce over the next few years. I then moved up to Tennessee and have been here ever since.

Where abouts are you in Tennessee? We live on the eastern side of the state -- just moved here from Pittsburgh PA about a year ago.
 

Horseticuffs

Full werewolf off the buckle
I'm in Inverness, a small town somewhat near Ocala. I sincerely doubt you've heard of it.

I don't mean that in an awesome, ironic hipster way either :-
 
'09 grad. 23-3 right now I believe? :D

23-5 overall, 13-3 SEC, leading the conference. Hopefully the tourney is friendly to the Gators and we don't see another late game ten-plus point lead meltdown like we have these past few years. I graduated in 2010 and witnessed all the championships, 'twas a great time to be a student. :-D
 
All you USF people from Tampa or wherever... hope to see you on Black Friday in Orlando for the UCF football game. Looks like it has been scheduled for that day...
 
Tallahassee

Also known as the capital of South Georgia.

Sup, fellow Tallahassee Gaffers? I find that in many ways we are better than the rest of Florida yet somehow we are also worse at the same time.

Wow I feel sorry for you guys. I went to Tallahassee last year for the weekend for a FSU football game and there was absolutely NOTHING to do there. I even asked around and still didn't hear of anything to do there besides some decent bars to go to. Is it really that boring there?

Did you ask a student? No offense to them, but they hardly ever go anywhere even remotely away from campus, and as such they don't know about a lot of stuff there is to do here. I know this because I came to Tallahassee as a student and none of us went anywhere that was remotely off campus except for the AMC movie theater.

But also to be fair to them, a lot of stuff to do in town is outdoors stuff or things adults would be more interested in like shopping and eating (disposable income!). We have the best parks in the state and they truly are fantastic. We're clearly not a massive city like Miami or Tampa, but we have a lot to do given the size of the place. I've lived in Gainesville and Tallahassee and I far prefer it here. People are nicer, the city has more to do, and it has more character. We've got this weird combination of country and hipster culture that results in some really interesting stuff going on. Many of the older folks in town are ex-hippies which means we have a lot of weird local businesses.
 

Animekatt

Member
I currently live in DeBary, FL. Before that I lived in Deltona, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, and Satellite Beach. Yes I moved around a lot. :D
 
Thanks for all of the responses, I'll tell him about Full Sail when I see him later for lunch.

And I slowly realized Florida isn't too bad. It simply depends where in Florida one lives. I dislike Tampa, but I adore Sarasota and St. Pete. Both of those towns are quite smashing. If I choose to stay in Florida, I will probably live in one of those two cities.

The majority of St.Pete is a shithole, too. A lot of poor and homeless people. The only areas that are nice is when you start to hit the areas and shops near the water. I went to USF St Pete campus, and I liked it. It was a smaller campus, but better than walking your ass miles to your next classroom and trying to find a parking spot.

I want to move to Raleigh, NC.


BTW, anyone in FL work for the state government or in banking? Someone who could pass along my resume? Could be a neat idea to network in this thread.
 
How's Full Sail with its game development program? Heard a little about that place, but I have no idea if it is actually good or not.

i graduated from there recently, but with a computer animation degree. i knew some game dev people, some genuinely cool people, and a lot of people that smell bad, i remember i had a rigging class in one of their buildings before, the room smelled horrible till we got some air freshener spray the next day. also in the game dev department, from what i can tell, girls are pretty rare there. if you're going to go for game dev, i'd recommend taking computer science classes at ucf and following it up at fiea. i can recommend FS' computer animation program though, great instructors, (mostly) cool people.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
23-5 overall, 13-3 SEC, leading the conference. Hopefully the tourney is friendly to the Gators and we don't see another late game ten-plus point lead meltdown like we have these past few years. I graduated in 2010 and witnessed all the championships, 'twas a great time to be a student. :-D
Uh hell yeah it was!

Never got tired of the "maybe we should give someone else a chance to win a national championship" jokes.
 
My friend is looking there for possible film school. Should I warn him to avoid that place at all cost?

Yes. As someone who is in the local film industry, most people joke about it. Not to say it doesn't help but your friend would be better off going to almost any other place. I've worked with a lot of Valencia film grads and they knew their stuff.
 
Fort Lauderdale here. I hate South Florida with a passion. Can't wait to move.

I'm in Inverness, a small town somewhat near Ocala. I sincerely doubt you've heard of it.

I don't mean that in an awesome, ironic hipster way either :-

I moved from Crystal River to here, so I know where you are. :)
 
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