I, Curtis

Category: General Life

  • End of an Era

    I have been blogging on the Moveable Type platform for over 6 years now. It has been upgraded and mutated and I have customized some things, but in general, it never did become as familiar as it should have been. At this moment the original blog address (disturbingthoughts.net) runs on MoveableType and the new blog address (icurtis.me) is running on WordPress. I have tried WordPress before in an experimental capacity, but this time it is permanent. In a few days (or maybe weeks) the old platform will be abandoned. Chris and I have mutually agreed that MovableType is crap and no longer met our needs. At the time MovableType was first implemented it was the stable and reliable platform. Unfortunately, not a lot of people really got behind it and its parent organization allowed it to mutate into some sort of nasty CMS management application.

    It will take time to move all of my blogs to their respective installations of WordPress since it is not centralized and I am still quite unfamiliar with how everything works. This blog, while being the largest turns out to be the easiest to move to a new platform, as it had an alternate address that almost no one uses and it has very few dependant web applications, whereas some of the others have websites associated with them and things that make their transition more of a challenge. That being said, my status website as well as the experimental unified presence at livecurt.net will be halted until they are revised to work on the new platform.

    When I agreed to be moved to WordPress I thought it would be a very difficult thing for me to warm up to it and agree to give up the more familiar platform, but I’m not finding the types of oppositional emotions that I originally thought would occur. WordPress is flexible, fast and has a more understandable management functionality than I could have ever hoped for from other applications. I am not sad to see MT go, it was a pain and will not be missed.

  • What to do after graduation?

    I am coming to the end of my undergraduate career. In 2 weeks I will start the last 4 classes toward my major, completing my Bachelor of Science in Psychology degree. I have made a small change to my degree program that will result in me graduating in spring though, I have added a Sociology minor. I can not at this time rationally explain why I have done this, but honestly, its too late to back out now. I am rather glad I have another semester to go, as it gives me time to gather letters of recommendation, take the GRE and various other little tasks that need to be done.

    I have several options for what to do after graduation in May.

    1. Master of Arts in Academic Psychology, East Carolina University – continuing on my same academic track as I am on now, except focusing more on theory than application, but would still be a good start for me. I would be qualified to teach in community college psychology programs as well as limited counseling roles. This program is completely online.
    2. Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology, UNC-Charlotte – this is my second choice option, but it is becoming my first choice. It would put me at the same school as Chris and put me back in an actual classroom. It is in some ways better than the options at ECU. I would be more directly in the program that I want to be in.
    3. Master of Arts in Library and Information Sciences, UNC-Greensboro – basically a masters degree for becoming a librarian. Its a relaxes sort of thing. The classes are a combination of on-campus at UNC-Charlotte as well as online.
    4. Master of Liberal Arts in Liberal Studies, UNC-Greensboro – this option is sort of a fall-back if I can’t get into the other programs. It is a curriculum of world cultures and a variety of artsy-fartsy (thanks Mrs. Hersey for that phrase) related programs.
    5. Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art: Concentration Unknown, UNC-Charlotte – This option is one that I would love to consider more seriously than I currently feel that I can. To seriously think about my future career I have to move forward with options 1 or 2. This program will put be on track to a creative future, but I’m not sure its one that I can convince myself to live with. It would be a lot of work for not a lot of benefit in the end, but in some ways I wonder if I would be happier in this path. This program would also place me as on the same campus as Chris. This idea is quickly finding its way to the #3 spot and not #5.

    There are so many factors to consider and I don’t really know where to begin. I know I have to make a decision soon, as graduation is in May and I need to be prepared for applying to the programs starting in January/February 2011. I want to do something that matters, but at the same time it has to be something I can stick with and something that ultimately will make me happy and perhaps reveal truly who I am.

  • Proper Licensing and Use of Tomatoes

    Currently there is a bit of anger between my father and grandfather (mother’s side) because of some issues over the proper use of gift tomatoes that were given by my uncle. My uncle offered to let both my father and grandfather pick tomatoes from his garden since he has gotten all of them that he wants for the year. My father has been grabbing a few tomatoes each week, primarily for use as his breakfast each morning. My grandfather had been mostly ignoring them because he has his own garden. At some point my grandfather began selling his own tomatoes to a local restaurant. Today he ran out of tomatoes and went into my uncle’s garden, picking all of the rest of the remaining tomatoes to sell to the restaurant, with no compensation to my uncle.

    Does my grandfather’s use of the tomatoes violate an implied license on the proper use of the tomatoes?

  • iPod Touchiness

    Due to a very kind friend I now have an iPod Touch. I have spent a few days with it and I must say that I love it. It is much different than what I expected. It is so much more than a music player and even beyond a PDA. The device is so versatile. The main reason I like it is all of the apps. I have downloaded apps for Twitter, flickr, NWS radar, UPS tracking, Kindle, and the Blackboard Learning Suite. Oh, and one for blogging, which I am currently using. In so many cases it can replace a laptop for basic tasks, and it stays out of the way most of the time. I was a little skeptical of getting the device at first because it is an Apple and I had before sworn to never use one of their devices. So far I am hooked. I do find myself wanting a Bluetooth keyboard or stylus input.

    One thing I don’t understand is why people have so many typos on these devices.

  • Canning Produce

    Home Made Vegetable Soup
    A few days ago my uncle went on vacation and told me to keep an eye on his garden, to harvest anything that was ready. Well, there was more vegetables ready for picking than I thought there would be, so some preserving techniques were required, this is the result, eleven jars of home made vegetable soup. Chris and I picked, Chris juiced the tomatoes and I sliced the okra and corn.

  • RT: I need Friends

    It has just occurred to me while looking at Facebook that I need to venture out and find more people to have in my life. Everyone on Facebook is someone from high school. I have always been sort of reserved and as a result have not made any new friends lately. I guess unless I’m forced to be around people, I don’t make friends very easily. In high school I was around everyone for 4 years by force, and I suppose I became accustomed to their presence. I seriously need new people to explore, and my interpersonal communication skills are a bit rusty.

  • Weekend Plans

    It seems as though most weekends I don’t have a problem picking what to do. Most weekends I don’t have multiple options floating around. This weekend is a bit of an overload. I have been asked to go to my cousin’s softball tournament on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it is roughly 9am until 12pm, on Sunday its closer to 1pm until 5pm. Also this weekend is the Schiele Museum’s Pirate Invasion. The invasion is 9am until 5pm on Saturday and 1pm until 5pm on Sunday. Really convenient, right? I would love to go to both days of both events, but changes of that happening are pretty much 0. Also, my sleep is screwed up again, so not much chance of being a stable early bird or being able to stay up late after the softball games. What shall I do? I’ve been to numerous softball games and tournaments, but this is the last tournament of the season, but also, its the last major presentation of the Pirates exhibit at the Schiele.

    The third option is to sleep in both days.

  • Refining the Online Presence

    I feel like I have been fighting with my digital identity for a long time now. I start on these little projects of integrating things and it just never seems to all come together. I was originally intending to work with SiteEngine to have a central place for all of the content related to me. Now, I’m not sure exactly what I want as an end result, but I do know that 1 central place is not something that has ever worked for me, no matter how good of an idea it may seem. I think the best I will be able to do is integrate my blog, status, and other RSS-compatible systems into a central site (probably under the www.icurtis.me address). I have decided that I would very much also like to have a less dynamic site that is more of a portfolio of my work, spanning the areas of ceramics, programming and photography. The site would focus a lot on my work, perhaps even some of my thoughts on my work, but no where near as detailed about me as the ClayMentality site. The problem with the portfolio idea is that I would have to take a lot of photos for the ceramics portion, do screenshots that show my programming projects in a flattering way and sort through my existing photos to showcase my best. Somewhere in all of this I also want to fit in room for my Curriculum Vitae and/or a resume. Every time it comes to developing something like this for myself I find myself getting distracted and moving on to other projects that don’t involve having to organize things that are from my complicated life.

  • An Update: July 1, 2010

    Hello Reader(s). It has been a while since I have blogged, over a month for any real entries.  I suppose you could say that I’ve been keeping to myself a bit lately. Not a major amount happening in my life. I have spent some time this month working on some stuff for my aunt and trying to help her get things ready for her big July 4th party that she does every year. For once it seems like other people are helping too, which means less for me to do, but also less time for Chris and myself to spend alone with my aunt. Other than that I’ve been spending a little more time working on ceramics, mostly developing ideas. I’ve thrown exactly one night in the last month. It didn’t go bad and I feel like I turned out some more creative things than I usually do in these middle of the night sessions.

    I’ve found myself trying hopelessly to find meaning in my life. I need direction. I’m 25 years old and I have no clue what to do with my life. Shouldn’t I have developed more of an understanding of what I want to be by now? I’m pretty decent at photography and enjoy it, even the technical side of things, but yet there are many days when I look at the work Chris does and think how much better he is with it. I suppose its just a matter of practice and learning how to properly use available light. I have returned to being bored most of the time, resulting in me sleeping odd hours and not really knowing how to fill up my time. I need substance in my life to be happy. It also doesn’t help that this feels like the hottest summer ever, making it difficult to be outside.

    I am lacking things to be excited about, and keep hoping that one day the so far fruitless quest will result in something that will make me long-term happy.

  • Missing Handcuffs

    A slight mystery has come about here. I am attempting to locate a pair of Galls Standard Handcuffs that I have not seen in a while. The cuffs are fairly cheap, but I was hoping to use them to make a more complex restraint (utilizing the cuffs, a connector chain and a pair of boot size leg cuffs). I recall the cuffs being placed in my under-bed toy box, but I have all but turned the box inside out looking for the cuffs, as well as other locations for storing of restraints. Where could they possibly be? A present theory is that I may have loaned/given them to a friend, but at the present time I don’t remember doing so. If I have loaned you a pair of cuffs resembling those below, please let me know, so that I may properly update my records. If you have my cuffs, you may keep them, I won’t ask for them back, but I would like to be able to update my records to properly indicate their status (given to____, lost, etc).

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