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No, I don't do CG for a living, its just been a interest of mine since I was like 14 years old...
My college that I got my masters of science was University of Dallas, which was a specialization in information security.
I like Maya because I can run it at home.. and dont have to have a render farm to make it just run...

and the price was right!! ($389.00)... I will probably end up using some freeware MEL scripts or some sort of fluid effect to to the job... when I purchased maya 8.5 they also gave me BackBurner, Combustion, and Cleaner XL as part of the package.. I might also be able to find something in my proDAD collection as well...
I do it just for fun now... I was going to go full fledged into college for it when I was younger... was going to goto Sheridan College, but my grants fell through... at the time I was talking to render houses such as PDI (Pacific Data Images), which I think is now owned by Dreamworks... but not sure.. they were providing the guidance to me, and even at the time offered me a intern... but since the grants for college fell through the whole thing crumbled...