ok, so I didn't start working with clay today until about 1:30... but it was 9:30 when I stopped for the day... so I'm not far from a full day of working with clay. I started the day with the intention of practicing bowls with rolled rims, and I threw several of them. A friend had asked me to make a q-tip container, and it came out more like a cotton ball container, so I might have to try that again tomorrow. In addition, I tried making a bottle... twice, and ended up making a vase both times. I have to go back to my artistic drawing board and remember how I used to throw bottles... maybe I should document how I do things and keep a record for my own reference. After throwing those pieces I made dinner, then went out for a bit and in general mucked around (WLW's suggested phrasing) for a while until some of the pieces were ready to trim. The 3 smallest bowls and the lid for the qtip container were ready to trim.. the other bowls wait to be trimming...most likely in the morning. The vases are good as is (and very light as is). 

Here is an instructional video that I used to get started with roll rimming my bowls by European ceramic artist, Simon Leach.

THE ART OF JAMES BIGGERS

An art exhibit featuring the digital designs of Gastonia native James Biggers, a nationally renowed artist and adjunct instructor at Gaston College, will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 9 at Carrington's Showroom, 1206 S. York St., Gastonia. Several of Biggers' works will be available for viewing and for purchase. For more information, call 704-833-1425.

I have been looking at definitions for certain processes and states that affect ceramic ware, and I came up with the following definitions... I find them a bit confusing. Is there anyone who can save me a few hours of deciphering what these mean (ignoring supercooling, which doesn't affect ceramics)?

Vitreous refers to a material in an amorphous, glassy state (in contrast to a crystalline state). In such a state, the constituent atoms do not exhibit the long-range order that is characteristic of crystals. However, they still exhibit short-range order -- the separation of atoms and/or the lengths of covalent bonds are very close to their typical equilibrium distances. The creation of a vitreous material by supercooling or by addition of additives prior to cooling is called vitrification.

Vitrification is a process of converting a material into a glass-like amorphous solid that is free from any crystalline structure, either by the quick removal or addition of heat, or by mixing with an additive. Solidification of a vitreous solid occurs at the glass transition temperature (which is lower than melting temperature, Tm, due to supercooling).

Many times people have asked me how to load a kiln. Many times I have failed to have the right words to describe it... tonight, Jared asked a simple question that summarized the process..."is it like playin Tetris?"... YES it is very much like playing tetris.. fill in as tightly as you can, leaving no gaps, but only putting pieces were they fit.

Now that my schedule has settled down and everything is on track, I have copied my verbose course schedule for the semester from GITI to here. 

Fall 2008

Last night I ran the first bisque kiln that I have run in about six months. I felt so strange programming the kiln and loading and everything. Luckily it all came back to me and the 8 pieces I fired made it through with no problems. I am starting to believe I need to find a way to get a bigger kiln, soon, since it is going to take me about 4 days of firing to fire 2 days worth of work... hardly efficient. Also, each of those pieces has to go back through for a glaze load, and that will be even more spread out in time. I had forgotten how absolutely tiny that kiln is.

This evening I ran back over my old assignments from my first attempt at Advanced C++ (CSC234) been rereading the original lab I got stuck on that forced the withdraw (well... that lab and the OTHER 18 credit hours [21 total] I was taking at the time). It was a fairly simple lab, just play with some bank tellers, some customers and a few timers, that's it. A simple, straight forward modeling program. Unfortunately, the lab still scares me and my own original source code makes no sense. I am likely to take a whole different approach to that lab (or whatever has replaced it now) when the course opens, especially having my knowledge of data structures and things now. I feel more prepared than ever to tackle these labs now, mostly because I don't intend to waste time with things and procrastinate before getting them done, so I will have plenty of time to research, get help, etc. I have thought about this course too many semesters to let it get away now. My self-esteem needs to take and pass this course (honestly, I need an A...I have only gotten one non-A at CPCC and it kills me).

Anyway... whatever I do this semester has to be better than this:

//Written by Curtis M. Kularski
//CSC234 - 85
//Lab 02 - Banking Simulation


#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

class Teller
{
private: 
    int timer;
    bool isBusy;
    
public: 
    void setTimer(int K)
    {
     timer = 1+rand()%K;
    }

    void decrementTimer()
    {
     timer--;
    }

    int getTimer()
    {
    return timer;
    }
    
    void setBusy(bool busy)
    {
         isBusy = busy;
    }
};



class Customer
{
private:
    int wait;
    int timeInQueue=0;
    bool inQueue;

public: 
    void incrementWait()
    {
      wait++;
      if (inQueue == true)
      {
        timeInQueue++;
      }
    }
    void setTimer()
    {
     wait = 0; 
    }
};


int intializeTellers(int, Teller []);
void createCustomers(int, int, Customer [])
int addCustomers(int);



int main()
{

int i, M, N, K, totalCustomers;
cout << "How many iterations would you like to test? ";
cin >> i;

cout << "\nMaximum customers added per iteration? "; 
cin >> M;


cout << "\nHow many tellers will be working? ";
cin >> N;

cout << "\nWhat is the maximum time a teller spends on a transaction? ";
cin >> K;

cout << "\n\n";

int numCustomers = 0, newCustomers=0, numToRemove = 0, freeTellers;
Teller tellers[N];
initializeTellers(N, tellers);


Customer customers[20];
while (i >=1)
    {
      //Remove Customers who are done
      //Customers enter bank
            newCustomers = addCustomers(M);
            createCustomers(newCustomers, numCustomers, customers);
      //Free tellers are assigned customers, customers removed from queue and tellers isBusy=true, timers set
      //
      

      assignCustomersToTellers(tellers, customers);

   //display 
   
      i--;
      system("pause");
    }

return 0; 
}

 void initializeTellers(int N, tellers [])
 {
  while (N >= 1)
        {
          N--;
          tellers[N].setBusy(false);      
        }
 }


 void createCustomers(int newCustomers, int numCustomers, Customer customers[])
 {
      int j = 0;
      numCustomers--; 
      while (j <= newCustomers)
      {
            if (numCustomers + j + 1 < 20)
            {
             customers[numCustomers + (j+1)].setTimer();
             j++;
            }
            else {cout << "Array Full!"; break;}
      }
  }


int addCustomers(int maxNew)
{
int numToAdd = 1+rand()%maxNew;
return numToAdd;
}

I was just looking at some data to see what's up with the difference in the two reports generated by UNC for my academic record. I first looked up the section title information by searching it for the semester in which I took the course... no match for ART 390 section 991 (the course I was graded for), but there was an entry for ART 390 section 990... which is not on my record.

Three issues have come up in regards to me moving records around lately.

First, earlier in the spring I prepared paperwork for getting my associate level degrees finalized... unfortunately, there was no high school transcript on file for me at Gaston, even though they have a partial transcript for me as well as having me enrolled in their dual enrollment programs while I was in high school. I requested a transcript to be sent sometime around a year ago when I originally registered for my drawing 1 class. After being told when preparing my applications by the registrar that it still wasn't on file, I had the county records office prepare and send a transcript... I called a week later to make sure everything was ok, but it still wasn't on file, so I called the next day and it still wasn't. I haven't called back again, and I haven't been told anything about it from either side... so I'm hoping it has been received and logged. I am planning to call tomorrow to check up on this as well as the next issue.

Second, my transcript from CPCC for summer has been sent to Gaston... it has had over a week to get there and be evaluated, but still, no evaluation appears on my record or has been sent to me via postal mail. Either Gaston is slow... or there is a missing transcript somewhere. I will check on the status of this, along with issue #1 when I call in the morning. The registrar's office usually moves pretty quickly.

Finally, I contacted UNC today because of an issue with my records in general, my record doesn't show the digital photography course in my "complete undergraduate record". At the same time I inquired as to if my transcript had been mailed yet... I was told not to worry about my first question, but the second question was ignored. Curious and having bad luck with transcripts lately, I emailed the student services division (not records) to determine my transcript status... I was informed: "We have no record of a request for you". GREAT! So...another transcript goes MIA.... The nice person at the registrar's office told me to refax my form and she would give it priority processing... I sent it again, and she said it was received fine and the transcript goes out in the morning. I think I will give the registrar's office at Gaston a heads up when I call them tomorrow about issues #1 and #2... just so they know to expect it. I'm wondering how  much work I will have to do to make sure that the course is transferred properly once the transcript arrives.

I remember when I used to have no problem getting all of my schools to send transcripts to each other and the registrar's office at each school managed to keep up with things appropriately (except UNCC, who always demanded an official transient study form when they got a transcript). Things were always simpler when there were just 2... or even 3 schools to sync up. Now at 4 (potentially becoming 5 in a future semester) it just makes things hard.

Took long enough, but the grades are finally in. I really hope that when UNC transmits the grades to the other schools that they don't label the course as "SPEC TOPICS STUDIO", that would so suck, especially since that is only the description, the course title is "Digital Photography".

It seems like every artist has a primary specialization. They are sculptors, painters, graphic artists, ceramists or a variety of other titles...anyone simply called "artist" is usually a painter, or is a lazy person who smokes too much pot. I don't know what my specialization would be. I have been in ceramics the longest, but I'm not sure how much I am married to it in the long run. I enjoy almost any art form I start just as much as ceramics, although, with things like photography and drawing I am not as easily able to venture out into a self-guided attempt as much as I am with ceramics. So where does the decision start? When does an artist declare their "primary medium"?

I have arranged all of my digital photography projects into a single collection on Flickr. If you wish to review my summer semester pictures, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/kularski/collections/72157605379226000/

I'm awake, its nearly 7am and there are still no grades available for my digital photography class. I'm starting to wonder if the instructor made a mistake when he sent the grades to the registrar. Next chance to get grades will most likely be Monday.

Got up at around 5am, and I didn't do much for the first few hours except read email, watch some stuff on YouTube, bookmark some shit in Del.Icio.us and things like that. After a while I ate breakfast, and went back to email. I also read the feedback in my digital photography class from my instructor. He finally got around to grading the course. I won't know until tomorrow morning what my grade is (after the registrar processes grades overnight).

After I got un-lazy I went to the wheel again today. I practiced some bowls and plates using the new texture I started working with. Overall I am happy... but it has been too long since I last trimmed bowls and plates. It is quite challenging to do... remember what hardness level is just right for trimming and things like that. I will get back in the hang of it though. I plan to work on ceramics for the next two or three weeks until I get fully back into the swing of things. I will be working on ceramics at home right up until I go back to class and I start working on a project there. I plan to have large functional objects as my project. I will be returning to bowls as well as working on my newly acquired techniques from last fall for coil building on wheel forms to make things like tall bottles... things I could never do from a whole lump of clay. After working on the wheel for a little while I took a short break for lunch and returned to the week again until I had to clean up to make dinner. After dinner was cooking I went outside to take some pictures for a friend. After dinner was finished being eaten, I went back outside to let Chris take some pictures of me.

Once that excitement ended, back inside for some trimming of the remaining pieces. Now I have cleaned up again and I am exhausted. I just remembered I still have to empty my slurry/refuse clay bucket before bed... then I can sleep.

I have been wrestling so much with course selection for Fall this time. I don't know how many times I have made adjustments to the schedule. Today is the last day to file schedule changes for Gaston until "late registration" which is a day before classes start. The schedule currently looks like this:

I think I am going to attempt the semester at 18 credit hours, with 2 art studio courses. I might end up regretting this decision, but if I do, there is always the option to drop a course. The only course I feel I might regret is the Art History course, but only because I have had bad experiences with art history in the past. I could potentially be fun.

I am holding off on photography this semester since I just had Digital Photo during the summer. I think I need to calm back down from it and take things easy in that department, maybe taking some time to refocus myself and figure out what I want to do with photography in the long run. The goal of taking photography during the summer was to become more familiar with the aesthetics of photography as well as learn the technical details. I have accomplished both this semester, and I am very excited about that. Before taking another photography course I want to explore getting more interesting subjects and expanding beyond this "nature photography" thing that I seem to be doing a lot lately.

My day started at 1am today. I didn't do much then, just browsed some porn and looked at modifications I could make to GITI and things like that. I ate breakfast around 5 or so.. had a waffle with natural peanut butter (yummy ).

At around 6am I brought out my pottery wheel. It was the first time I had really touched ceramics in a while. I worked for about 2 hours before taking a break, during which I went outside with my camera and took some photos, mostly of trees and mostly macro. Then I worked a little while longer at the wheel before going to drop off a package at Office Depot, took care of some other tasks and spend 15 minutes starting at/fondling a Nikon D60 (and its friends the D80, D40 and D300). Know what it feels like to hold a $2500 camera? HEAVY! It wasn't a good heavy either, just bulky and hard to use. I like the D60, its lightweight, but its got awesome features and I believe I could live with it for a long time. Got back home at 12PM...ate lunch and then went back to the wheel for a final throw and then some trimming. In all I made 2 plates, 2 cups, a few bowls and one really odd container. About 10 pieces total. I had about 4 misthrows today. It was pure pleasure throwing today, so I didn't go for speed or anything like that... I just threw to be throwing.

After cleaning up the kitchen from where I was throwing I made dinner. I made a pan-fried chicken wrapped in bacon, some pinto beans (boring I guess, but I like them, its a southern thing I suppose) and a batch of cornbread muffins (and some Mexican cornbread muffins for those who find the others lacking something). After making dinner I received the day's mail, which included my ShutterFly orders (except for one piece, which for some dumbass reason is being handled by UPS Mail Innovations... it goes to UPS to deliver to USPS, who delivers it to me). Overall I am happy with ShutterFly's service. My only complaint is that the 8x10s should be on thicker paper, but well... I say that about everyone.

Now I think my tired ass is ready for bed... it has been  a long day and its a miracle that I am still awake now.

I can understand the general Internet population not rotating their sideways pictures because it is a fairly hard thing to do... but what about the people who have 3000+ images on Flickr? There is a built-in rotation feature that is very fast and very easy to use on Flickr, but yet many people ignore it. Are the people stupid, or simply lazy?

I think I have the solution to the GITI crisis.

1. GITI will register the special cases in its "fields" table

2. Education will follow the new v2 protocol for managing its own fields entries, allowing it to take over inserting records about institutions and maintaining information about them, including their grading system.

3. GITI will loose all "combined" GPA and "quality points" functions... since they aren't really valid anyway.

4. All current GPA calculations will be modified to cause a database check for the existence of a grading scale, if found, it will be referenced  for all calculations, if not, the default grading scale will be used, and a further check will not be run for the situation.

5. All grade input screens will be modified to use the special systems in their lists... this will be done on an array to prevent the database from having to handle a query for each course on the record. As in #4, defaults will be used if no special case has been logged.

I really hate how GITI feels like i'm flying by the seat of my pants when shit like this comes up. I guess I have to work harder at expecting this type of thing.

All of this sounds good in theory at the moment, but I'm way too tired to code this fucker right now. 

How many "pocket" devices do you carry? Why is there no single device to take care of all of the needs of "pocket" device users?

• Cell Phone
• Personal Digital Assistant
• MP3 Player
• Television Remote
• Digital Book Reader
• Blood Sugar Tester*
• Global Positioning System Receiver
• Compact Digital Camera
• Garage remote*
• Digital voice recorder
• Laser pointer*
• Handheld text scanner*
• Personal Security Siren*
• USB Memory Key (or equivalent in device form)

There have been a lot of attempts made at combining 2 or 3 of these things into one device, but no one has ever gotten close to all of them. All devices seem to be missing something.

The closest thing I have seen is a few Smart Phones that have phone, PDA, digital book, compact camera, GPS receiver and television remote (via IR output) capabilities. Those devices tend to lack in the MP3 player department though because of the lack of storage, and that makes the digital book end a bit crap as well. Also, those devices tend to weigh a ton and have really sucky keyboards.

Amazon's Kindle is a great device, but it doesn't do a lot for the money. Its biggest problem is it doesn't do much. A few weeks after the device was released, Amazon started selling MP3s... guess what this device doesn't do.

This post isn't to be taken seriously. I have been up way too long.

GITI's education module was written to be very simple, it understands standard letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) as well as a few other concepts (Pass [P], Incomplete [I]), but it doesn't know how to deal with anything other than whole letters on a 4 point scale. Currently this is hard coded in GITI, and there is no flexible grading system stuff available. Perhaps this was short sighted when I originally wrote GITI. When I think about it, there are a lot of problems here, including the absence of understanding for "Credit By Exam" grades... those are currently handled as "Pass" with a note on the course's record. Yet another area I have missed is "Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory" grading as might apply for a graduate program.

There are just too many grade systems to try to adapt for, so maybe on GITI's next update I should bring in the ability to attach a grading system to each course using the fields module (which has handled way too few things lately). It would be cool to let the thing use a different scale attached to each school (but fall back to standard 4.0 when none is specified). I had a way not fun trip through the website for the UNC Registrar's office the other day, finding stuff like graduate programs that use grades like H (High Pass), HP (Above Average), L (Low Pass). Each school at UNC has its own grading system. It would be impossible to interpret all of these possible systems and integrate them into GITI, so a per-school system input would be the only way to make this work.

When did it become so hard to just get an "A"?

I just hope I don't have to figure out how to tell GITI how to handle the possibility of me getting an "A-" in Digital Photo.

I have blown gently against the side of my web log, and the tag cloud has gone away.

If you find my tags useful, please see: http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/tags.html

I kept looking back and forth between these cameras trying to figure out what made them different from each other, to be able to justify the additional cost of the D80, I guess the answer is 1.25 million extra pixels, that I likely wouldn't notice being without except for shots in RAW in "difficult lighting situations".

This is a representation of everything I COULD take for Fall. I won't be taking 21 credit hours for fall. I have learned my lesson about things like that, its hell. To give a little insight into what the final schedule is likely to look like, lets go over what has to be here and what doesn't have to be. First, I have to take History and Literature, or else, there will be a cranky registrar ready to kick my ass. Next... I don't really want to take three or more studio courses, so at least two of the ones listed have to go away... I'm just not sure which two.

ART 281 - I am not that enthusiastic about Sculpture, it would be new to me, but not really something I know I want to take badly.

ART121 - Design 1 is a lecture/studio combo that is a required part of the art program, but I don't have to take it this semester, and I don't really have strong feelings towards taking it this semester.

ART 288 C - Ceramics studio is something I am very attached to taking, but I am worried that it currently isn't assigned a time slot, so it could disappear completely or I might have it  at a time I don't like. I should know more next week when the instructor replies to my email.

ART 288 PH - Photography studio I think I want to take. One week before the Digital Photography class ended I told myself that I wanted to take a break from photography, but now I don't know. Do I? I went as far as getting the special section arranged so that I could take the course in a time slot I wanted... .so I would likely feel guilty if I didn't take it.

Logically I should take ART 288C and ART 288PH, leaving Sculpture and Design behind. I feel weird having 2 open studio courses on my schedule with nothing else there. I guess I could still take either Sculpture OR Design 1, since with the way Photography Studio would be, there will be more than enough time for me to work on stuff from all 3, especially if I do Design 1.

As for CSC234... that's going no where. I have registered for that class for about 3 semesters now. The first time I registered I dropped because I didn't feel like I could handle the work in the course, but then the other times I got scared before the class even started. I am going to take it and take it seriously this time. Chris has asked me why I haven't finished it, so I'm going to take it and finish it. Maybe I will write a cool app or learn some new tricks that might make GITI better. Either way, its a class that can only improve me.

I hope to weed this down to about 12 - 15 hours before school starts in a month.

I have had several sets of prints done at this point. I have used a different method for just about every time I have done it and I haven't picked my favorite yet. I think I really like having them sent to my local CVS store though, no matter how they are printed... except when having them shipped is a much better deal.

Tonight I was looking at some photo accessories on Amazon and ran across an offer I couldn't pass up, a lens cleaning pen AND $30 of free prints on ShutterFly. I had nothing to loose, so I did it. I bought the pen (should arrive Tuesday), and received my coupon code and I now have 2 orders with ShutterFly that should arrive sometime next week. I am looking forward to seeing what quality of prints I get. I am excited by a feature they have that no other photo printing service I have used yet does. They will print whatever you want on the back of the photos, for easy identification. This is something I would have loved to have had when I was doing other prints of my work for my digital photography class, to mark lesson and image numbers. Another fun thing I got free is an 11x14 poster containing 1 - 60 images... I picked to do 15... the 15 of my  final project and I even got to have fun and put titles and stuff on it.

I'm looking forward to receiving all of my prints next Friday.

Am I normally this impatient? I am trying to keep myself from checking the grade reports for each of my schools right now. I don't know why I even check, the instructors have already told me when they will turn in grades. David will turn in grades for ART 390 (Digital Photography) on Wednesday, July 23rd sometime before noon, and my health course is supposed to be graded sometime on Monday morning. I think I got an A in both courses, but I'm not sure, especially since UNC operates on a system where an A- is possible. Nervous I continue to be.

I just finished my final assignment for Digital Photography. I kept telling myself I would get to the extra credit assignment if I had time... usually with that type of thing I let it go out the window and never get it done, instead I take time to recover and relax. I just finished the extra credit paper, so now there is nothing left to do. All assignments are done, or as GITI like to tell me: "No Assignments Exist".

This semester went too quickly. I feel like I need more to do. I need something to do other than continuously check the registrars to see if grades have been posted yet. I am going to miss these courses. It didn't really hit me until earlier when I was reading my photography partner's response to my "Final Project Statement" that I realized that my daily refreshing of the course website and my obsessive checking for comments from her were coming to a close. "It has been a privilege to be your "official" class critic for ART 390" she stated. It is a fairly simple harmless statement, quite nice of her to state even, but it makes me feel sad. Its almost like in Fall 2007 when my Drawing 1 class finished. I guess when you get a certain group of people together the bond becomes strong, or maybe its an art thing. Perhaps it is that simple, we trust these people with some of our most precious attempts at expression and we give them the power to lift us up or crush us, and in the end, they simply make us better, and stronger. I have never felt this from an online course before.

I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

What happens when you want to take a course at a school and it isn't "presently offered"? What about when there is an alternative version of the course you are interested in, but it conflicts with other items on the schedule? Usually I would be generally fucked and have to wait until another semester, but because of the nice people at Gaston College, I have my own section of a Photography Studio course. ART 288PH is designated as the Art department's "open studio" or "independent study" for photography. The photography instructor offered to guide me in advanced photographic exploration based on the requirements of ART265 (Digital Photography II), which has not yet been taught at Gaston. I didn't realize until after the arrangement had been made and I was trying to register that the time slot didn't fit on my schedule. I asked what my options were and it was arranged that I would be working with the instructor during one of his other courses. Usually that would be a permit-type event in something like Banner, but the system used by the NC Community colleges (WebAdvisor/Datatel) doesn't understand a time override, so I have my own section of the photography studio course, ART 288PH 99 is all mine :-)

I don't like tags and I don't use them. I think I am going to make the tag cloud disappear next time I open the layout stuff for the blog. I guess I'm not Web 2.0 compatible.

I spent the last two days not going to sleep very easily because of things going through my head, worries about my future. As my summer classes are coming to a close I have  nothing to do and will have nothing to do for over a month. I laid awake with thoughts racing through my head and being unable to get myself to settle... to just push the thoughts out. I have been unable to communicate my feelings effectively either... until now I guess, but I don't know how effective this will be. I have been staring at the UNCC website for a while tonight, looking at all of the changes that are happening, how the university is progressing forward and things are changing... the Art department is no longer part of the College of Arts and Sciences... and the College of Arts and Sciences is no longer the College of Arts and Sciences. I don't know my purpose, or my direction for my future. Everything is so uncertain and my life seems to be presently up in the air (and sleeping on this weird pattern again isn't helping). I find myself not being grabbed by the possibility of a BFA because it just isn't me. I have laughed at myself for the simplicity of other additional degree options, but they seem... unfulfilling. I could complete 2 semesters (30 hours) and have a BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Humanities, or I could go for 3 semesters (45 hours) and have a BS in Psychology. I feel completely lost now.

What makes this feeling even worse is that people around me and people I interact with don't seem to know, and they keep interacting with me like everything is normal with me, and expecting me to react to them in the same way. Only problem is I interact with some really fragile people and they are starting to piss me off. Seems like only the strong people seem to comfort me lately.

Earlier I woke up and started thinking about what I seriously wanted to do NOW... not in my five year plan, but now.. at this moment in time. With the way I feel presently I would love to start working on some sort of planned ceramics work, and build my online gallery and perhaps an online store of ceramics as well. I have a basement full of ceramics that I have made, and nothing to do with them. The presence of so many makes me feel like I really shouldn't make more, but to feel useful and active I need something to actually do during a day. I guess the first step would be waking up early enough to be able to get something done during the day.

A person is given purpose in their self-identity. People self-identify by their "role" in life... what they do. What am I? Am I an artist? I don't know... I hate my work from last Fall, it has no point to me. I don't feel like I am emotionally deep enough to be an artist. I do know that I am a potter. I would be very happy sitting at my wheel for 8 - 10 hours a day, throwing pot after pot. It seems like something I can do in life and it makes me happy. Know what is even better about it? I like the way that my ceramics can make people feel. I don't know how many people I have given a bowl to who have declared it their "special bowl", or in some cases, a special set of bowls. I like when I feel like I have done something that others value. Isn't that what the entire point of existence is?

Parts of me reject being a potter. Potters are old guys covered in clay, right? I find myself most comfortable in basketball shorts and basketball sneakers a lot of the time, and clay makes those things really messy. So why would I do ceramics professionally? I guess its sort of like turning in the baggy shorts and sneakers for a business suit, except, as a potter I can still wear jeans and comfortable boots. I guess part of my problem goes back to never in my life really seeing a potter as being "hot" (except maybe Travis Owens, and he's just an overachiever). Maybe thats my fear about that "life track", construction guys are hot, potters just aren't.

Information Technology still excites me I guess, but just isn't something that calls to me or gives me any great sense of satisfaction at this time. I love things technical, including photography, but the expression I need isn't there.

I thought about posting this entry to a special category called "Everything" or perhaps "Nothing", but given that it explains my recent behaviors and feelings, i'm filing it as "sup?".

^__^
(oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
     ||----w |
     || ||

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/56125

Read over this bug report and see if you find it as amusing as numerous geeks have.

USA Today: Printer dots raise privacy concerns

My Dell 3100cn records its serial number (and service tag) and the date/time I print something.... so what? Who cares that Dell keeps a record of who owns/purchased a printer?

I don't fear my printer. I feel safe knowing that my printer encodes that information. I used to use an embosser on things I printed to identify them as mine. I don't care that my documents are traced back to me.

The bad pun at the beginning of the article amuses me. Paper doesn't have to be cheap and shitty. Not all of us print on 20#, 87 brightness paper. I print on Hammermill Business Glossy 32#, 108 brightness, its damn near card-stock y'all.

If anyone does fear their printer and the use of this technology to trace you, please let me know. I am very interested in what I am missing out on with this fear.

1 cup white rice + 1.5 cups water - 0.5 cup steam = 3 cups fluffy white rice

How does this work?

Series V will be standing in for Series F for the graded project.

Here it is, the result of several gigabytes of photos and many hours of editing and sorting. The final project for ART390, Digital Photography.

Series A:
  

Series B:
  

Series C:
  

Series D:
  

Series E:
   

Series F:
  

Series G:
  

Because I do everything with great redundancy... here are the sets that didn't go in the final project. These are backup sets, or sets that were considered as alternates.

Series V:
  

Series W:
  

Series X:
  

Series Y:
  

Series Z:
  

I have finished HEA110, Personal Health and Wellness. I feel like I haven't really learned that much, but somehow I managed to get 937 out of 1000 points (93.7 is the final numerical grade, becomes an A on the transcript). One course down, one more to finish off.

Since starting my digital photography class I have had a few of my photos printed professionally (about 250 or so). I have collected a few of the Kodak envelopes full of my photos (consolidated them into as few as I could). After the first few sessions of printing I decided I wanted a photo album to put them in... something just for my art photos. I had a hard time picking one originally... the age of scrapbooking is fucking us all over on that. Apparently no one just puts photos in an album for portfolio purposes anymore. I finally found one I liked, but didn't obtain it then because it was a little big and a little expensive for what I needed it for... but after looking around more... I found nothing more suitable, so I decided to get it...but that's as far as it got. I think about going to get one of the things every time I move my photos around, and now that I am waiting for another order to be processed I realize even more that I need to get one... but once again I have forgotten to actually go get one. Its the type of thing I would usually just get from Amazon.com, but I am really particular when it comes to this type of thing, so I really want a chance to fondle the product in person. I suppose when I go to pick up my photos tomorrow I should also venture out and find a photo album to put them in.

Most semesters I know what studios I want to take, it is just so obvious to me. For Fall 2008 it is a little more challenging. I was originally presented with a very slim assortment of studio courses to take...primarily I was left with Sculpture 1. Now, through courses being added and instructors agreeing to special arrangements I have options of Sculpture 1, Ceramics Studio (self-paced project course), and Photography Studio (instructor-lead exploration, resembling Digital Photo II). As I have discussed previously, taking 3 studio courses is insane, if there are any other courses present on my schedule, and for fall 2008, there are. I will have to narrow down to 1 or 2 studios.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/grass-art/

I found this article to be very amusing, somewhat interesting and a bit inspiring. I guess this proves that there are some things that you just can't do with digital photography (although its easy enough to get slides made). This stuff seems about as useless as ice sculpture, but grass photography seems more interesting. 

In the past few weeks I have been trying a variety of subjects, mostly flowers, but also some of their "visitors". I have found photographing bees to bee very difficult. It is very hard to get a bee to sit still for a photo. They like to fly around, I guess checking out the best pollen in the neighborhood. When you do get a bee to stand still for you, such as the one above, there is a limited amount of time to get the focus right before they move again, and then there is an issue with the contrast. Some cameras seem to focus on bright subjects and ignore dark subjects. Since most bees are dark colors, they get lost and the camera focuses on the flower they are resting on. Another issue I have once I do get a bee in focus and sitting still long enough for a photo is that they tend to collect pollen with their heads, therefore, the least flattering side is showing. Sunflowers seem to be a good spot to catch bees since they are open and allow for access from multiple sides.

I'm using my new lens and it seems to be helping. I am still very limited with how close I can be to a subject, but when I get a subject in focus, the details aren't lost anymore, making macro photography worth doing. Another thing I am seeing with the new lens is that there is no blue hue around the edges of the photos anymore. With my old 2 element lens I had a lot of "cheap glass" issues. This one is super clear and brings out details nicely.

"Make six images of a public space. This could be outside in a park, parking lot, grocery store—anywhere that the public can go"

"Make six more images of a private space"

I have been fighting with myself about this photo for days. I feel like there is a lack of contrast in what otherwise could have been a really cool shot. Anyone else have an opinion?

Most semesters when final projects and final exams come around, I don't usually give much thought to those things, I just dive in and do my best at the time, usually scraping by on the deadline. I am really excited about my Digital Photography final project, and am trying to get everything in place and ready to execute it the best I can. I have a new lens coming in the morning, as well as a new memory card so that I can shoot in CCD-RAW format for greater image quality, while at the same time being able to use a greater sensitivity (which with other formats results in grainy images). A lot of my photos this semester haven't been the best possible quality, because, well.. I wanted some sanity left. I am going to execute the final project with as much precision as possible.  I selected macro photography as my subject, which is something not really covered much in the course, so I have "ordered" a few books on the subject from the art library at UNC. I'm hoping they show up tomorrow with the lens so that I can get started.

Check this out: http://www.47stphoto.com/item.asp?invky=6777612

Right-angle lens for a camera. So many uses, so absolutely unethical!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/05/think-before-you-voicemail/

I love any article that says I am "normal" or "right".

Just showing off my new macro lens:

Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for 55mm Digital Camera Lenses

• 4 elements optical glass
• includes caps for both sides
• includes carry case

I'm a geek, so what?

kularski's del.icio.us Bookmarks: Sunday, July 06, 2008

Opteka HD2 55mm 2.2x High Definition Telephoto Lens

Opteka 70" Pro Tripod for Photo

Just looking through 47th Street photo tonight after ordering a new HD macro lens to use for my project. Found a few neat little toys I would like to play with. First item is a nice telephoto add on for my camera that would give me the effective power  of 22x optical magnification. Don't know how useful it would be, but its certainly a cool little add-on. The next thing is a 70" tripod, which is taller than mine and would let me do portrait shots (camera on its side). Its also taller than my current tripod, which would  let me shoot things over my head.