I, Curtis

Category: Academic

  • Difficult Assignments

    There is nothing I hate more than writing love scenes! Well, ok, maybe that isn’t true, but I don’t like writing them for academic assignments. In Creative Writing this week, that is our assignment. I am perfectly happy writing my fluffy love scenes for keeping to myself, or really hot erotic fictions for sharing with those closest to me. Lately I have even developed an ability to take on the persona of a character in one of my stories, although, thats mostly for verbal story-telling. I am uncomfortable with sharing things I write that resemble that with an academic class, maybe its because I am gay and tend to sometimes create gay characters (although, last summer, I created a straight couple). I have no reason to feel that a love scene between my two male lead characters or perhaps one of my male lead characters and another character would be received badly. I don’t know what I am scared of. I am often timid in drawing and in writing because of how I think things will be received, even when there is no reason to think anything negative, its like somehow with myself, being myself outwardly isn’t allowed.

  • End of Semester Rush

    My drawing instructor is now bellowing on a daily basis the number of class meetings we have left. For drawing, we will only meet 4 more times, and for astronomy, we meet 5 more times. There are only 2 weeks left of class and things are going by pretty quick. In previous semesters this timing became stressful. This semester is a bit different. I am quite relaxed about things. I have a ton of stuff to do, but I have plenty of time, and am ready to tackle all of it. Creative writing is the biggest source of stress for me. I can’t seem to get any quiet time to work on my pieces, primarily my novel. I suppose I feel like I haven’t been very “creative” in creative writing. The words are going on the page, but there isn’t much behind them. Drawing has picked up some steam since I last visited that topic for blog purposes. I am enjoying a lot of the newer projects and I feel like my drawing style has developed beyond where it was when I started the semester. I would love to take a figure drawing class, but those are hard to find and when you do find a school that offers them, it is usually difficult to meet the pre-requisites to get into the course. If nothing comes of my desire for a figure drawing course, I may just have to teach myself figure drawing. It will take longer, but I will be able to take things at my own pace and experiment.
    My astronomy course is going well, all concepts are coming to me with great ease, and I feel like I am ready to take on the final exam. My online math course is a little more of a challenge, but I do feel like I am understanding the material. Its hard to believe that i’m over half finished with the 8 week course. I have never really been good with math, but somehow, the way the tool we use (MyMathLab) handles the material and gives demonstrations, it is a lot easier for me. When working on my offline mid-term for the course last week I noticed how bad my handwriting is, especially for numbers. Doing things electronically seems to be helping most with that.
    The semester will come to a crashing halt on April 30th, and then there is a week of exams and other fun stuff. After that week I get about 10 days to recover from spring semester before my digital photography class begins, then I have another 10 week semester to work with. Somewhere in there, I have to figure out my plans for fall, whatever they might be.

  • Digital Camera Ordered


    I think I can finally relax now. I have ordered the digital camera for my summer course. It isn’t a true SLR like I was originally looking for, but its just as good for manual adjustment. I have selected the Fujifilm FinePix S5200 for now. It isn’t exactly a Nikon D80, but I think it will be a good camera to get trained on SLR techniques. The S5200 is quite an impressive camera for its model class, as well as for the price. For the technical geeks, you can read about it and drool from the Fujifilm website. For those of you who aren’t geeks, or don’t care to read that page, the S5200 is as close to an SLR camera as you can get without using a camera that has a rotating mirror inside. Because of this, the camera is substantially cheaper than the typical SLR, but provides the same functionality. Features that I like about the camera that aren’t a requirement for the course are the 10x optical and 5.7x digital zooms, allowing me to zoom up to 57 times. In addition, the camera can detect shaking and compensate for it. Additionally, the camera is designed to avoid needing flash for most situations, creating a warmer, less washed out feeling to the images. However, when needed, the camera will deploy the flash by itself (unless told not to).
    I am really excited and am hoping my camera will ship on Monday, so that I may begin playing with it on Thursday. I have ordered an additional memory card for it from Amazon, as well as a compatible reader. The only downside to the camera is it uses the xD picture card format, but I suppose I will adapt, as I always have.

  • Randomness, Uncertainty and The Pursuit of Accomplishment

    Today I woke up fairly late in the day and have been having the weirdest mood shifts and changes in objectives. I have a chapter to finish for my novel, I have put in several random attempts at effort on it, for the same course I also have to “explicate a poem”, which I can do, but I just have to pick a poem for it. In addition to those assignments, I also have to finish my perspective drawing to turn it in on Monday, and also draw an orange with full shading and texture in my sketch book. I have been letting all of this go through my head and I am bouncing between thoughts in my head way too quickly. I have considered working on the mid-term for one of my online classes as well, but haven’t started on it (100 questions, all to be done and turned in by April 7th, most likely by UPS).
    Other than academic stuff, I have been looking at LiveCurt.net again, working on some stuff for it and trying to get a grasp of what it is supposed to be. I am feeling like I am trying to do a 4 dimensional website in a 2 dimensional space. I have played with Google Analytics some, primarily adding the Art blog to it. I have also been playing with the idea of a centralized location for all of my blogs, which I then realized are all about me, so therefore belong on LiveCurt.net (my domain-registering addiction is foiled again). Oh, and I have been trying to write blog posts on random shit, and pretty much getting no where. I played a game a little while ago, thinking maybe it would calm me down and let me focus, nope, didn’t happen, I’m still bouncing off the walls with stuff to do, but not nearly enough ambition to accomplish any of them.
    Finally, I did finish my loop of looking for a digital camera for my course this summer. I still haven’t decided on or purchased one, but I have at least placed a fall-back candidate in my head. If I can’t decide on anything else, then I am going with the Fugifilm FinePix S5200. It isn’t a true SLR camera, but it gives me the functionality I need for the course. SLR cameras are a little scary with how they work. I don’t like the idea of using a camera that has to rotate a mirror to take a picture, but I guess if I find a real SLR camera that I like, I will go for it, although, the S5200 is definitely a piece to drool over.
    Today I have done a lot of “half-done” things, but fully completed nothing. Maybe tomorrow will be part 2 and I will get everything done.

  • Registered for Digital Photography

    After spending the early part of the day reading through the syllabus for the Digital Photography course, I decided that I REALLY want to take it, and finished up the registration process. There is one thing I didn’t notice last night that I did this morning though, the course is not self-paced as I had thought previously, it is on a standard academic schedule (its a CCO class, not a SPC course). The course I selected is an online course for the Summer 2008 semester. I originally wanted to start the course around May 15th, but the summer semester begins on May 13, so I’m not too worried about timings, except now I have to find an SLR camera before the course begins.
    The registration is in, the payment is being sent Monday and the textbook has been ordered. This leaves only one thing still not quite resolved, obtaining a camera for the course.

  • Spring Break?

    It has just occurred to me that instructors don’t really acknowledge spring break anymore. While there is no class held during spring break, there is no effect on online courses, and in-person classes still have assignments due. My Creative Writing class was on break this week (CPCC break), but assignments are still due on the same schedule. I have been working on the assignment all week, so it doesn’t really affect me, but still, there is no true break because work will still be due. Even more fun is the spring break with my drawing course, the instructor has already made it clear that there will be work that is to be done during that week. The only instructor who isn’t expecting something to be done during spring break is my astronomy instructor, he doesn’t want to see his students, think about his students or have anything to do with the course during the week. All he asks is that his students return to him the Tuesday after break completely refreshed and ready to take on more astronomy material.
    I consider spring break to be a necessary break in the semester to allow the brain to recover from the information absorbed during the first part of the semester. Anyway, I’m probably just being irrationally cranky about nothing.

  • Gaudy Poem

    Well… this is what I came up with. It ain’t pretty, but it will get me a grade for turning it in on time (which is all that counts).

    Sweat raining down like a waterfall
    Intense heat penetrating the body
    Kinetic energy pulsating the muscles
    Muscles on fire with stress and tension
    Push, pull, Push, pull
    Blind to the pain
    Ignorant to the ripping
    Deaf of the muscles crying for relief
    Breath in, Breath out
    Coach screams like a master of bellows
    The pain is nothing
    Drone in the heat keeps pushing
    Pain is fear
    Fear is weakness
    Brave the pain
    Alienate the weakness

  • Writers Block in Creative Writing

    I have the easiest assignment ever in Creative Writing II that is due in a few hours. It is an assignment called “gaudy poem”. It is supposed to be a very showy poem. Using all available literary devices and language techniques to create a poem to showcase the strengths of a poet. I believe I can do this, but I am currently bouncing around between topics and can’t get my mind to settle on one particular topic to write about. In Creative Writing 1 I could usually come up with a variety of things to write about, and could throw together a poem in any form requested in just a few moments. This course isn’t having that effect on me. I feel pressured into fiction, so I have thought about the next chapter of my novel, due next week. I decided that one of my characters is going to be gay, and that one of the central conflicts of the novel will involve his homosexuality as it relates to his interactions to heterosexual men, primarily, his best friend.

  • Art History Psycho Bitch

    I am usually a very calm and rational person when it comes to bad grades on assignments, for one, they happen to everybody, but in this instance… I can safely say, it is everybody in the class. There are 4 people in my drawing class, 2 in Drawing 1 and 2 in Drawing 2. On this one particular test that was given, no one made above 90 and even that person admits to getting the grade based on guessing.
    First, two weeks ago the drawing instructor (who is an art history psycho bitch) announced a test in the course. No big deal we all thought, “it will be simple” the instructor repeats over and over. She asked bizarre questions in class and we got all of them right, and then she gave us a sheet with some terms to memorize. No big deal I thought. On the sheet of terms she starred (*) terms that she wanted us to know. On the day of the test, she had decided to ask all of the random shit from the class, including things that had only been mentioned once or twice and there were arbitrary questions from the page she gave us.
    The test material was not abnormal for the course, however, there was no formal outline of test topics, and we were deceived into believing that the test would be more simple and straight forward.
    Why do I call her an Art History Psycho bitch? Well… she is an art history person, that is her area of expertise, that and sculpture. She has no business teaching a 2D/Drawing course. Psycho bitch comes from her abnormally perky nature, and dismissive manor for handling student criticism of her course. I honestly believe she is a nice person, but she is in over her head with this course, since she has no fucking clue how to teach it.
    Where is Mr. Biggers and his 30 years of drawing/instructional wisdom when we need him?
    Addendum:
    My score is 78. I missed 2 questions of 21. You do the math.

  • Upcoming Lunar Eclipse

    There will be a full lunar eclipse for all parts of the world that experiences night at 0143 GMT (2043 EST and 1943 CST). It will occur Wednesday Evening/Thursday morning February 20/21, 2008. The full event lasts just over 3 hours, but we will experience totality for about 50 minutes. Totality will begin at 0300 GMT and 2200 EST. When entering the umbral shadow the moon will appear to be in retrograde of its cycle (it will be less full as the eclipse progresses) and then at totality we should see a bright red moon resembling an enlarged Mars (this is due to the refracting of light from the upper atmosphere, same phenomenon that causes red sunrises). During the late winter/early spring is the best time to see an eclipse, since the atmosphere tends to be clearer.
    If this is the type of thing that interests you, I encourage you to try to enjoy it, as there will not be another total lunar eclipse until 2010.
    For more information, see this Wiki article.