I, Curtis

Category: Academic

  • Twenty-five Clay Pots

    In a few hours I will be getting up to go to my ceramics “exam”. My final grade will rest on my 25 self-selected pieces. I have over 140 pieces completed, and I haven’t been able to convince myself that I have selected the best 25 pieces. I spent a lot of time looking over them, but im still uncertain. How do I know what someone else will like of my work? I can’t count on the work that I like myself, because Tweedy’s opinion is totally different, she is a strange creature. I have been worrying about every possible aspect of things: the forms (and their compliance with the projects), glazes (their application, their appropriateness for each piece), the compliment between pieces, and a variety of other things that the artistic types like to pick about. I don’t know when the last time was that I was this nervous about something.
    One spot of bright news (or maybe just something to further complicate things), there are 3 kilns currently loaded with my work that will be unloaded tomorrow, providing me with even more options for pieces to select for my projects.

  • Realizing I’m The Hotest Person On Campus

    This morning it was about 60 degrees, and lightly raining when I left home. I opted to wear a tshirt and jeans, no jacket, heavy coat or scarf. Apparently I am the only person who feels that dressing the way I did was warm enough for the day’s weather. Everyone I saw entering campus today had on a coat, or at the very least, a sweater. Am I just totally hot or is everyone cold paranoid? I don’t like feeling like an outcast because I don’t freeze my balls off at 60 degrees.

  • Barnard Trades Nazi for Super Bitch

    Before in Barnard I had to watch for the lab rule Nazi, coming in and verifiying compliance with all posted rules.
    This semester, meet the Barnard Lab Super Bitch. She stands about 4ft, 6 inches and is of Asian origin. Her mission in life? To make sure all systems are functioning and showing their login window, and doing it as fast as possible. The she-devil (or is it taz devil?) of the lab swoops in silently, runs down each row of systems, jiggles the mouse and presses the spacebar on every non-occupied system and then leaves just as quickly as she appeared, all without smiling, saying a word to anyone, or appearing to care at all. I would have to give her a 9.5 out of 10 on the borg scale.

  • Differences Between Public Restrooms and the UNCC Ceramic Studio

    The ceramic studio at UNCC is a shared environment of clay creativity, where everyone shares common tools, clay buckets, slurry return and kilns.

  • Public restrooms are usually clean, the studio is clean between Thursday evening and Friday morning.
  • Public restrooms often smell sanitary or clinical, the studio always smells like mold, dirt and fungus.
  • Public restrooms try to kill bacteria in normal operation, it is the goal of the studio to produce as much bacteria as possible (slurry buckets)
  • Public restooms tend to not have exposed wiring or electrical devices sitting in water, the studio gets flooded once a week for cleaning leaving the wheels standing in water, in addition, there are more exposed wires on the walls and on the wheels than there are in the electrical engineeering lab.
  • In a public restroom, the absence of a foul odor is a good thing, at the studio, the absence of an odor means that somebody forgot to feed the bacteria in the slurry bucket (pour Snapple into the slurry bucket and wait an hour)
    as i think of more, ill add to this entry of analogy

  • Maybe if we ignore it, it will shut up

    .. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP… it is like a constant echolocation becon for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The new crosswalk technology at UNCC has been running for several weeks now. At first it seemed like the idea might actually catch on, you want to cross a road, so you press a little buttom to get a safe crossing signal, and traffic gets a red light, sounds like a good plan, right? It might work for crossing a busy state highway, or even a city street in uptown Charlotte, but how useful is it for a lightly traveled university road? During the first few weeks of school, people actually pushed the button, waited the amount of time (since the commanding voice behind the button demands “WAIT!”), and then crossed when told it was safe. Now, several weeks later, things have changed, it is very rare that anyone actually use the electronicly assisted crosswalks. It would appear that the students are rejecting this new technology and that we have gone back to the old way of doing things on campus, if a pedestrian is waiting to cross a road, vehicles stop and let them cross, if someone is already in a crosswalk, vehicles wait for them to finish crossing. Similarly, if vehicles are moving on a road, pedestrians tend to wait for the vehicle to pass before entering the crosswalk. It is all very simple and easy to work with, especially since there is a university-wide understanding of what is expected when it comes to pedestrian/vehicle and goose/vehicle interaction. Why use a beeping box of horror when humans already do it better?

  • The Adventures of the Platonic No Show Continue

    Today, the first day of Metaphysics, Dr. Judith L. Presler once again failed to attend a crucial class of the semester.

  • Another Quote

    I read this quote, read it again, and then finally decided I need to share it. It is factual, but not something I thought of before. Now I must ask… is it the homosexuals or the heterosexuals who are unnatural?
    “we [humans] are the only species in which men [males] and women [females] copulate face-to-face”

  • Chancellor’s View of Academia

    “a university president or chancellor has to do only three things to be successful: to provide parking for the faculty and staff, sex and beer for the students, and a winning football team for the alumni.” – Phillip DuBois, UNCC Chancellor
    Interesting isn’t it?

  • Universal Language of Music

    I got hooked on this song before I even knew what any of the words meant. It is instrumentally (including voacally) very uplifting. Im still trying to decipher the lyrics and my opinion about them.
    ————
    Burdah – Mesut Kurtis
    Chorus
    Mawlaya salli wa sallim da-Iman abadan
    ‘Ala habibika khayril khalqi kullihimi
    (Oh my Master, send Your salutations and blessings eternally
    Upon Your Beloved – the best of creation) ( x 2 )
    Muhammadun sayyidul kawnayni wath-thaqalain
    (Muhammad is the leader [as the Final Prophet and the best of creation]
    Of the two worlds, and of Man and Jinn) ( x 3 )
    (Chorus)
    Wal fareeqaini min ‘urbin wa min ‘ajami
    (Leader also of the Arabs and the non-Arabs and their kin)
    (Chorus)
    Huwal habibul ladhi thurja shafa’athuhu
    (Beloved by Allah is he, upon whose pleading we depend) ( x 3 )
    Likulli hawlin minal ahwali muq-thahami
    (From the terrors of the Day of Judgement, which on us descend)
    (Chorus)
    Thummar ridha ‘an Abi Bakrin wa ‘an ‘Umari
    (Then we ask You to be pleased with Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ( x 3 )
    Wa ‘an ‘Aliyyin wa ‘an ‘Uthmana dhil karam
    (And ‘Ali and ‘Uthman – the generous one)
    (Chorus)
    Ya Rabbi bil Mustafa balligh maqasidana
    (Oh Lord, with the Chosen One, grant us our goals) ( x 3 )
    (Chorus)
    Waghfir-lana ma mada, Ya wasi’al karami
    (And forgive us for what has already passed,
    Oh Most Munificent One)
    (Chorus)

  • Course Closings

    Registration had been open less than a week and already several courses are completely full. So far Ceramics Wheel I, Physical Conditioning and Small Group Communication are all full. The freshman entering for Spring get to register in December sometime. I’m really glad I was able to register when I did.