Hours remaining; IP = In Progress
| Bachelor of Art in Software and Information Systems | Minor in Art | Bachelor of Fine Art in Art |
|---|---|---|
| About 30 hours 12 IP |
9 hours 6 IP |
About 60 hours 6 IP |
| Associate of Art | Associate of Fine Art | Associate of General Education |
|---|---|---|
| 9 hours | 44 hours 6 IP |
Complete (held for residency req.) 3 IP |
I am less than half through the fall semester and I am already building quite an extended schedule for Spring 2008 for myself. I have a maximum of 18 hours available at each of my schools (54 total), but a personal educational threshold per semester of about 21 – 24 hours.
Currently I want to do the following in Spring:
Thats about 13 hours by itself, not including the 12 or so I will need to do at UNCC towards my actual degree (including some ceramics and art history for my minor). I know I can’t take all of the courses, so I will have to prioritize and figure out the best options.
Today on campus I observed one of the military science lab courses (ROTC Cadets at drill/instructional practice) on the field in front of Cato Hall. I watched them for several minutes and analyzed their behavior, attempting to figure out what it is that intrigues me about military guys, and I found it… the pure precision of execution of movement, as well as their ability to still seem human while doing it. It is likely that because of the way my life is, I will not ever get a chance to have military experience. It is because of this that the Military Science/ROTC courses have always intrigued me. I believe that it would be very beneficial to me to take the introductory course, if for no other reason, just to get some leadership experience.
Course Descriptions in bulk: http://www.provost.uncc.edu/Catalogs/2007-2009/MSCI.htm
I’m looking at the following course pair to satisfy my curiosity:
MSCI 1101. Introduction to ROTC. (1) Preprofessional corequisite: MSCI 1101L. Introduction to ROTC and the U.S. Army including the rationale of the national defense structure and the mission and the role of the Army. Participation in the physical fitness program is optional. (Fall, Spring)
MSCI 1101L. Introduction to ROTC. (0) Leadership lab. Practical application of the material learned in the corequisite course. (Fall, Spring)
file photo:
A lot has happened that I haven’t reported here (I think I forgot that I have a blog) with the Fall 2007 semester.
First, for a short period of time I considered taking a break from my BA curriculum and working on some general ed stuff at the community college level, just to give myself time to refocus and determine my academic path and perhaps force myself to dive into my interests and emerge with a clue as to what I want to be when I grow up. At some point, I decided that I really didn’t need that time and that I would always have time to work on new areas of interest once I get one (or two) out of the way first.
In June I was assigned to a new adviser. In July I met my new adviser for the first time and a detailed plan for my Fall semester was constructed. The new objective is full steam ahead towards degree completion (just the requirements, I can decide whether or not to petition the registrar for graduation clearance once I finish the requirements). My new adviser seems to be more accepting of my academic interest in things like art, writing and social sciences. Bruce Long was never this supportive of anything outside of SIS (even though SIS requires a minor). Dr. Lejk (pronounced Lake) almost forced me to declare Studio Art as my minor.
Next came the course selection. I had decided early in the summer that I wanted to take Drawing. I found a section available at Gaston College with a time slot that seemed good to me. I had already missed the early registration period, so I went to be advised on July 5th. On July 16th I registered for my first course at Gaston College in over 2 years. At some point during the summer, I registered for Advanced C++ at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). At one point during the summer I was registered for 24 credit hours during the fall semester, including 3 studio courses (for a total of 33 class hours per week, normal/sane is about 18 class hours). When registering at UNCC I was supposed to be registering for Ceramics Studio, but was unable to do so because of an instructor hold on the course. I contacted Tweedy to request a permit to enroll, she denied my request (which shocked me). After a meeting of Tweedy and Roy Strasberg (the Art department chair at the time), I was permitted as an overflow student to Tweedy’s hand-building course.
Before the semester began I evaluated my course load and dropped Advanced C++ as a result of it seeming unnecessary and excessive to the schedule. It is likely a course for a future semester. On the first day of Ceramics Handbuilding, I was asked if I want to go to Ceramics Studio. I was asked why there was a sudden change, after my request during the summer. I was informed that Tweedy thought I would be “with a better group of people” in the studio course. Hence, I was asked to perform a drop/add with the registrar’s office. Later that same day, I went to the first meeting of my Photo Media 1 course, which I also decided to drop, due to excessive demands of studio courses on my time (and the desire to explore the topic more when I have time to dedicate to it).
Now I have 5 courses at UNCC and 1 at Gaston. I am perfectly content with my schedule and very happy that I don’t have the spare course at UNCC and the other at CPCC, that would have been 8 courses total, YIKES!
Here is my Fall 2007 Schedule:
[View My Graphical Schedule]
[View My Text Schedule]
In addition to this schedule I also have a computer science course and a math course online.
I meant to post this days ago, as well as a summary of everything after I first went to my classes, but I haven’t quite gotten to it yet.
Assignment:
Describe the smells in one of these places: a church, a hospital waiting room, a public bathroom, a library. (In 3-4 paragraphs or 1 poem.)
Response:
Early in the morning
Enter the old building
Walls of stone and mortar
The lobby smells like a damp cave
Moving into the library itself
The odors of dust and paper waft through the air
The smells are mostly clean
A fragrance of a strong wood oil
On the freshly cleaned shelves
A familiar scent of old paper hits
Scents that only a library can produce
The building smells of knowledge and academia
The building smells black and white
I have decided to take Drawing 1 during the fall semester for my pleasure. Drawing is something I have always had problems with, even something as simple as a sketch of a ceramic piece. I hope to be able to potentially take figure drawing in the spring. The human body has always been something that has fascinated me in the interpreted mediums (drawing, painting) and I would like to be able to attempt to capture the human body that way with at least a little bit of competence.
Because of this course decision, I will be enrolled in two studio courses for the fall semester. I know I can handle them without a problem, I just am starting to wonder about the sanity of some of my academic decisions (some UNCC Art students believe it is an evil thing to take more than one studio at a time).
To make things a little more fun for everyone to keep track of, I have courses at 3 schools during the fall. I will have an advanced programming course at CPCC, Drawing will be at Gaston, and something related to my degree will be at UNCC. I suspect it will be a fun and productive semester.
I have finished my final assignments and the Summer 2007 semester is now finished for me. I now find myself trying to figure out what I will do with my time now that I am not constantly thinking of the next assignment due.
I think my plans for the remainder of the summer include teaching myself to draw (at least partially), doing more ceramic work, and also attempting some creative writing exercises for personal pleasure, as well as the pleasure of others.
Maybe I will just take some time to workout and also get some sun, enjoy some swimming and perhaps do something to burn off all of the sexual energy I have built up over the past few weeks.
Assignment:
Write a poem using one of the following quotes as an epigraph at the start of the poem:
“The World is Change; life is opinion” – Democritus
“Worlds are altered rather than destroyed”- Democritus
“What we call the beginning is often the end”-T. S. Eliot
“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off”-St. Thomas Aquinas
“Dreams pass into the reality of fiction“-Anais Nin
“Hope is a waking dream”-Aristotle
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away”-Kurt Cobain
Response:
[June 24, 2007]
The World is Change; life is opinion
Each life brought into the world anew
Sees the world with a different view
Every tyrant and evangelist has his minion
Nothing is ever the same
With technical enhancement
Or enemy army’s advancement
This world is never the same ole game
Something as constant as the moon and stars
Not as fixed as we may think
Every object in the universe has a link
Even the missing water on Mars
Every life observes this change
Being humans as we are
We never find this method completely bizarre
The impact of each life has a variable range
Once there was fire
And then there was the electric oven
People of Salem feared the wrath of the coven
They felt no impact of the fall of the British empire
Modern children seem to stray from the tutor
Business people have no longer a need for books
There are new inventions that impact even the cooks
The most shocking invention of them all, the computer
Change happens all around
Life happens in a blink
Often recorded with ink
There have been attempts made with sound
Written word is by far our friend
In our archaeological findings
Ancient languages we have been unwinding
Without the linguists, there would be nothing of the past to mend
As things come together
The world has great movement
Sometimes with, sometimes without, improvement
The common link of opinion and change, is the weather