Background:
I started at VT right after high school. It was my first choice of college for a couple of reasons. My brother attended, it was in-state, it wasn't too close to home, etc.
While I loved my time in Blacksburg, I had a real hard time actually going to class. As a person who rarely ever had to study and found school pretty easy, I suddenly found myself in a position where I had to work at it and was completely unprepared for that reality. So, I ended up on academic probation and then headed home to Tidewater Community College.
From there I studied graphic design and really enjoyed an animation class I took there. After I got my associates, my animation teacher told me I should apply to a school called SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) which I had never even heard of. I talked it over with my fiancée and she informed me that if I didn't at least apply, she wouldn't marry me and (the joke's on her) I got in.
We got married and moved to Georgia. I got my BFA in animation and ended up back in Hampton Roads for work. What was supposed to be a one-year job to polish my reel and head off to LA/London/Vancouver/etc. is now in year fifteen.
Now, I do art occasionally while my job pays the bills. I paint, teach a few drawing classes/paint nights and do some graphic design and motion graphics on the side. Despite graduating from two different colleges, I am still a Hokie. Whatever they injected me with my first week during band camp still hasn't worn off.
I love food (baking, cooking and eating), PC gaming and animated movies. If you want to see some of my art, it is available at themattboard.com.
Edit: and I just noticed that Wix updated their auto-titling for galleries on my site. I wonder how long everything has had names like 125365741894 instead of actual titles. Sigh
AMA
Comments
what inspired you specifically to make fantasy themed CFB-maps? just an overlap of two loves?
what are your favorite fictional universes?
fantasy/scifi book recs that are LOTR/SW/Harry Potter-level in terms of content even if the read is more advanced?
what inspired you specifically to make fantasy themed CFB-maps? just an overlap of two loves?
I have always loved fantasy maps ever since I read my dad's LotR leather-bound copy with a fold out map inside as a kid (it took me all summer). A few years ago I was looking for a project and started fiddling with some ideas. I tried a city, but found making the building tedious and decided to try Virginia. Using colleges gave me some nice points of interest. Once the r/CFB crowd responded favorably, I started doing more and it kind of took over my 2019.
what are your favorite fictional universes?
Top 5 (In no particular order):
fantasy/scifi book recs that are LOTR/SW/Harry Potter-level in terms of content even if the read is more advanced?
Two recommendations:
Should King have stopped the series after the 7th Dark Tower book?
Killer series. I just don't know if continuing was necessary.
On a scale of 1 to Battlefield Earth, how bad was the movie "adaptation"?
Yes, he should have let it end after Dark Tower. Wind Through the Keyhole wasn't bad, but it didn't really add anything. Maybe as a short story in an anthology or something would have been better.
The movie was an abomination. It didn't allow the author to establish a horrendous cult, so I guess it has that going for it.
The Battlefield Earth movie was so bad, it destroyed the series for me and I sort of lost all concepts of the universe the book author developed. I've never gone back to it.
Battlefield earth might have been better than the dark tower. And battlefield earth was awful.
Ahh! Having loluva as "The University" on your Virginia "Fantasy Map" now makes more sense.
I almost got sick.
Sadly, since Virginia was the first of them, it wasn't nearly as well-made or cleverly named as the following ones. I did a huge amount of research on schools going forward trying to find interesting trivia about all of them. Virginia just kind of go thrown together.
Sounds like it's time for a redo.
You did your due diligence. I was just kidding.
But wait! William and Mary was really first so we could call them "The University" on these "fantasy" maps.
That's better than loluva.
Being so close to the lower Bay, do you fish/boat any?
Best seafood spot in the 757?
Being so close to the lower Bay, do you fish/boat any?
Alas, I always enjoyed the idea of fishing more than the actual fishing itself. When I was younger, my dad and I would head to the outer banks to surf cast or fish off the pier, but I haven't done it in years.
Best seafood spot in the 757?
There is a ton of great seafood here. My personal favorite is Off the Hook in Chesapeake.
Honorable mention to Crab Shack on the James, Margie & Ray's and Wicker's Crab Pot.
have you hit up A Bite of Maine in Lynnhaven?
No, but I have it in my "list of places to try" in Google Keep
What's the dumbest thing you have ever done?
Whats the nicest thing you have ever done?
What's your favorite sound?
What's your guilty pleasure?
Whats the oddest/strangest thing you have ever seen happen, where you literally said to yourself: 'I cant believe that just happened right in front of me?
If you could remove one thing from existence in the world, what would be? It could be a person past or present, a thing, an emotion, .....anything.
I broke up with my girlfriend because we were far apart and I don't even know why. Thankfully, she took me back and we've been married for 17 years now.
I have given Mrs. MattBoard the last brownie on numerous occasions.
You know when you are in a crowded store and go down the linen/pillow aisle and all the sound just gets swallowed up? That.
I love pulpy, over-the-top radio dramas, tv shows, movies, etc.
Story time: Mrs MattBoard and I were driving along I-95 through Lumberton (that place is cursed BTW) and a truck hauling heavy equipment tires had a chain break. Six or so tires as tall as me suddenly let go on the highway at 65-75 MPH right in front of us. We emerged untouched with slightly higher blood pressure.
Same trip: we see a truck hauling wood chips pulled over on 58 with smoke begining to come out of the trailer (probably spontaneous combustion). We pull over ahead of the truck and Mrs MattBoard calls the state police while I go to make sure the driver is ok. He is using a like 5 lb fire extinguisher to try and put out the fire near the back. As I'm talking to him, the fire makes its way to the rear tire and a hole develops and a spout of flame a good 8 feet long shoots out of the tire and into the brush along 58. It kept going for like 10 minutes.
People who abuse the trust of those they are supposed to protect. Spousal/child abusers, elder abusers, etc. It is horrible that people are cruel or take advantage of strangers. But it is perverse and despicable that someone would hurt those that look to them for support, protection and care.
have you been able to sell your CFB maps much? Any plans to update them to reflect the changing conference compositions?
I've sold a few here and there, especially when they first came out.
I thought about updating them this season to realign conferences but got busy with other projects. Maybe next off-season.
Who are your top 5 greatest Matts in history, and why am I not on that list?
Who are you pushing out to make room?
Probably Thiessen or Murdock. The Apostle wrote a pretty good gospel, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a pretty damn good movie, and Cauthon is the luckiest man in history, although he isn't as good with the ladies as Rand and Perrin are. ;^) So I guess it's Thiessen or Murdock......or none.
This resonated with me. I glossed over this in my AMA, but going to class was really difficult for me. College was like hitting a brick wall academically, and I had to really study for the first time in my life, and......wasn't successful. I was "asked" to take a semester off, found some motivation in some very nice people who had some very minimal life goals, and came back to Tech looking to try again harder....and with ADD meds this time.
What were you studying during your time in Blacksburg, was it something that just wasn't the right choice?
I started in University Studies (i.e. I don't know what the hell I want to study). Took some engineering-heavy courses in case I wanted to go that way eventually. After my academic probation I decided on graphic design (i had done some drafting, 3D modeling and photoshop in high school), but when I went to the art department and told them I was interested the person i spoke with literally laughed out loud when they found out I didn't have a portfolio of work built. Not great for my morale. Came home, went to TCC with an "I'll show them" attitude and it worked for me. Then on to art school.
I went from being a kind of arty person surrounded by engineers to being the most technical-minded guy in my animation classes. The number of people who work in the 3D space but had only a tiny understanding of geometry or trig was kind of baffling to me.
I loved my time on campus in Blacksburg, especially in the MVs, I just needed focus. It worked out for me though even if it wasn't exactly a fun ride at the time.
I mean, SCAD is pretty prestigious, from what I've heard. My sister in law got a graphic design degree from there about 6 years back (surprise 5th kid, 10 years younger than my wife). Surprised someone in the art department at tech could afford to be uppity because...you know...it's tech.
I concur with you guys that going from HS to VT was pretty hard. Public High School is WAY too easy, and while I was fortunate to not go on academic probation early on, I definitively used all 6 hours of the "freshman rule" and had to retake a couple classes (freaking Glanville for chem was one I for sure retook, only class I ever failed in my life, and true story, only class my brother in law ever failed and he had him 10 years prior in the 80's)
Also, the discussion of famous Matts made me think of this:
Ha. I remember being in Glanville's chemistry class. I think I made it to most of those because it was close to my dorm. McBryde maybe? I was living over in Thomas (RIP)
Thomas REPRESENT! I was there in 03-04!
Glanville was the coolest guy while being a real shitbird of a professor.
It took me until my senior year at VT to realize that following the syllabus and doing the readings made school that much easier. The high school last minute cram does not work at the collegiate level.
Who would have thunk it!
IDK- my usual exam study method was to take my notes and chapter summaries and make a study guide (usually ended up front and back of about 4-5 pages of notebook paper (yes -- we still used actual paper when I was at VT) and then put away everything else and review that twice the night before the test and once in the morning before the test. Worked pretty well.
One Managerial Analysis class was an 8 am class. The prof said he made his tests extremely difficult and graded rigorously...then sat down with a bottle of Jack Daniels and decided where the curve would be. After the midterm (which I got an 85 on) I skipped the class for the rest of the quarter. The final was on the class notes for the second half(which I didn't have at all) and the 12 chapters (300 pages) of the textbook(which I read the day before the exam). I was sure I was gonna fail. There were about 50 multiple choice -which I think I got about 80% right), some fill in the blank questions, then 12 "compare and contrast" questions of which I was fairly sure of 6, halfway sure of 2 more that I halfway knew), 3 that I was sure i missed, and the last one in which I had never even heard of either term! For that one, I actually wrote in the answer space "I've never heard of either of these terms but I hate to leave anything blank so have a nice spring break". Walked out thinking I'd failed the class-but when the grades were posted I had an A for the final class grade!
Like I said above, I take tests well! My method -especially on multiple choice tests-was to take the test form, spend 30 seconds on each question and write my answer on the test paper, skipping anything I couldn't get within that 30 seconds); then I'd start transferring the answers from the test paper to the opscan answer form. As I transferred them, I would spend no more than one minute on the ones I had skipped; if I couldn't get it in that time I wasn't gonna get it at all. And the biggest key- go with my gut instinct first answer and never change an answer once answered (unless I noticed that 'yeah 2+2 is NOT 97' or something glaring like that). Generally your brain will pick the right answer most of the time and you are far more likely to change a right answer to wrong (by second guessing yourself) than to change a wrong one to a right one. That strategy has never failed me! In fact, I've helped people study for subjects I've never taken and I can generally get a passing grade (not an A but not an F) even never having studied the subject before.
What's the soundtrack to your life?
What's your favorite personal story?
How did you and MrsMattBoard come up with the food/drink flight thing that you did over the summer? And what other fun food things do you do?
What is your favorite thing to cook?
I want to say it is scored by John Williams, but in truth its probably Yakkity Sax
Current story I'm overtelling: I very rarely encounter people who know anything about SCAD (though this has been changing in the last few years) unless I am visiting Savannah or talking to other artists. I was in India for three weeks for work this Jan-Feb. While I am there, we spend a day away from the city seeing some sights. I am one of like three non-Indians I have seen all day since we are away from Chennai. A woman stops me coming out of lunch and says, "Oh, SCAD, my daughter goes there!" (I was wearing a t-shirt). Almost 9000 miles from home and we had a quick conversation about the school and the daughters major (fashion) and how the mom likes Savannah. It was a little surreal.
My church started doing Summer Interest Groups a few years ago as a way to get to know people outside of your regular context and invite new people to church. Everybody always hangs out the the same 10 people, so having the groups is a great opportunity to build other relationships. Some of the best ones have been, Gotta Eat (International Food Group), Flights of Fancy (the one you referenced), Bourbon and Bandsaws (drinking and woodworking), Sumo Crew (sumo wrestling fantasy league). I'm also hosting a drawing class called Drawn Together this summer as part of the SIG. There were a bunch of others too.
Fun food stuff: we have a board game group that meets up every other week and Mrs MattBoard and I usually cook dinner for the six of us. Finding food that is affordable and scalable for 6 adults can be a challenge without always making the same few dishes.
Cooking-wise: Mac and cheese
Baking-wise: Pie
This could get interesting on many levels---good and not so good..... I can see ER visits because of this
Yeah, I never made it to that one (from summer 2022) but somehow they made it the entire summer with no injuries. Or at least, no one showed up to church in bandages or missing appendages.
What kind(s) of pie?
My grandfather, a wise and kind man, taught me this truth.
There are only two kids of pie that are any good. Hot and cold.
(I'm partial to custard/creme pies, but I enjoy most varieties.)
Follow-up: This Saturday is the Flights of Fancy whisky meetup. I am really looking forward to what people might bring along to sample.
I am serving a French Alsatian whisky that I picked up on a trip to Colmar last year. It is aged in Burgundy barrels and is really different than anything else I've tried in the whisky world. The color and flavoring are so different. I'm also hoping to bake an apple pie and a bourbon pecan pie if time allows.
I know that's a perfectly acceptable spelling, but I can't help going here in my mind whenever I read "whisky"
Ha, I had the e but changed it because it didn't look right and couldn't remember which was the "more" correct
When elmer fudd does something kinda dangerous
Describes me well- near perfect high school grades d NEVER took homework home cause finished it in class. Not QUITE as easy in college but even skipping approximately 1.5 years of my 5 years at Virginia Tech (8 am classes? please! no way in hell I was showing up for more than a handful plus test days; 7pm class? first two weeks I went and left for good at the 8 pm 'break"; skipped the rest of that class for rest of the quarter; ended up with A's in most of those classes.) Still graduated with a 3.3+ average . Lots of folks are intelligent but have to work their ass off to get good grades. I just happened to also be REALLY good at "doing school" and taking tests too. Never forget taking Econ final from Mandelstamm's class in Burruss Auditorium- 85 multiple choice questions-finished in less than 20 minutes and walked up on stage to hand in my answer sheet opscan form- some incredulous looks from folks still taking it. Got a 95! A stats class- the one that was mainly looking up P values etc. in tables- I had a B+ even if I didn't take the final and need a ten of 100 to get an A. Tried asking the prof if I could skip t but he said no. 25 multiple choice/fill in the blank questions- took 8 minutes. When I walked to the hallway to turn it in to him- he said "You finished already?"; I replied yes; he said "I didn't make out the answer KEY that quickly!"
I think the biggest issue was that I didn't really have any direction. Once I got to TCC and picked a major my grades turned around fast. At VT, I just kind of drifted academically. I put all my energy into band or into choir (I ended up in two of those)
Even when I got to SCAD and was a newly-wed and working full time and going to class full time my grades never suffered like they did when I was a University Studies major.
Album you've listened to the most?
Movie you've seen the most?
Least favorite song(s)?
Probably Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot, especially since they rereleased the whole album recently.
The Princess Bride
Almost anything in the Bro-Country genre
what was the best thing you ate while attending VT?
On-campus: the Shultz express cheeseburger. I destroyed so many of those things.
Most memorably though, there was a Friday night where Dietrick did some kind of Cajun night. There was steak and crawfish or something. Since it was Friday night, no one was there so me and my buddy went through line a dozen times and positively gorged ourselves.
Around Blacksburg: I don't even remember anymore. I'm sure I went out with friends and family and such and had some good food, but it's been more than 20 years now.
What are 3 things that really grind your gears?
Soup and a sandwich- what are you having?
What's the most almost arrested you've ever been?
People who cut in line, people who are rude to minimum wage employees, people who are consistently late
kind of craving a Reuben a a cup of French onion right now.
Alas, my life is tame and boring. Closest I've ever come was being thrown out of a Wal-Mart. Mrs. MattBoard had the police called on a Tupperware party once.
These comments need elaboration......
Story 1:
Me and a friend of mine always have odd Wal-Mart experiences. One time we had a guy try and sell us gold in the parking lot. Another, someone was trying to get us to return some knives so he could get cash for them. On the incident in question, we were goofing off and taking pictures of each other in stupid hats, trying out the products, etc. (this is before cell phone cameras). We get informed by an associate that photography is not allowed because we "might be stealing trade secrets" and they try to confiscate my camera.
After I informed the associate that members of the Target Secret Bureau could not allow our cameras to be confiscated, we were politely asked to leave. I still have the pictures.
Story 2:
While we were living in Savannah, both Mrs. MattBoard and I were full time students. To pay some bills, I worked as a maintenance man at a retirement community and she sold Tupperware. A friend of a friend asks her to run a Tupperware party at what turns out to be a block party complete with live band, kids games, etc. Some of the neighbors objected and called the police with a noise complaint. Police showed up, politely asked for the music to be quieter, had some snacks and went on their way.
Ok your getting kicked out of Walmonkey reminded me of one of my college adventures at Longwood... One day before spring semester of freshman year ended, some of the people from my hall and I decided to go out for lunch, explore and go to Wal-Mart (Farmvegas only has so much entertainment). While we were in Wal-Mart, some of the group decided to do goofy things including trying on hats and ponchos that I took pictures of. However the people in Farmville didn't kick the college kids out ...