Overwhelmed

Yesterday I went and did something slightly foolish but long desired. I bought Adobe Production Premium CS4 with my christmas money. Student edition, so it cost a fraction of the regular cost, but that's not what was foolish. Now I have:
Premier Pro (video editing) **was deeply in need of this one**
After Effects (compositing and effects) **was really excited to get this one**
Photoshop (you know what that is) **Gimp is functional as far as it goes... but PS is something of a standard**
Flash (2D vector animation and scripting) **I remember doing flash in high school. I wonder if I remember any of the tools**
Illustrator (vector graphics) **yay... later.**
Encore (DVD and Blu-ray authoring) **yay... I wish I had a blu-ray burner**
Soundbooth (sound editing) **yay... I can't find my microphone**
Pixel Bender (some photoshop plugin) **no idea**
Mocha for AE (motion tracking) **sweet... maybe later**
Bridge, media encoder, version cue, device central, drive... (little apps for various connections and communications) **sigh, time to put my organization to the test**
So this isn't to brag about my purchase (though I've wanted all this software for about 3-4 years or more) but I have to LEARN all of it now. And I'm supposed to be doing Maya (my own project and learning tutorials) and sketching and doing stop motion and traditional animation etc etc etc.

So feeling a bit overwhelmed but not regretting my purchase. Except... CS5 will be out soon. But that's a moot point. New software will be out soon regardless of the purchase date. Right? Right.

So what to do. I think there's so much tons of hours of loads of information and learning that are available to me now that I don't really know what to do first when. Oh yeah, with the CS4 bundle, I got the option of 30 days free lynda.com subscription which is really nice. And I'm not going to start it yet. But that will be good for photoshop and soundbooth and premier and some of the others which aren't covered that well (or at all) by digital tutors. I'll pick a 30 day period and rage through all the essential training I can. Rage might actually be the right word.

Ok, ok, short term goals here.
1) Go through rigging vehicle course (to be done by the end of the week)
2) Complete modelling and rigging crash short by end of weekend
3) Do at least three sketches (on paper!) by end of weekend

Alright, that's feasible. I'll start tomorrow.

Later,
Stuart

PS Book update. I did finish Brave New World in December. Quite enjoyed, but a bit odd. Didn't understand many of the subtle societal themes and implications. Understood that a lot of the book had sexual overtones (undertones?) and that the creator of the assembly line replaced **SPOILER** God **END OF SPOILER**.

My book for January is Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. Loved 20,000 Leagues, and I'm enjoying this one so far.