I, Curtis

Category: General Life

  • FedEx SmartPost

    I have never liked FedEx, anyone around me when I am expecting something from them knows that very well. Now I am faced with an even greater evil than FedEx itself, FedEx SmartPost. It is a service where FedEx bundles all of the packages heading to an area and then sends them there in bulk for later entry into the US Postal Service system for delivery. This seems like a nice system, and it is very cost effective, but there is only one tiny catch, it is very slow. I am presently expecting a package from Adorama (film scanner), it was shipped on July 1st, and was originally due to arrive here on July 6th, but FedEx has managed to push the delivery due date back to July 10th, quietly and without notifying anyone. Packages from Adorama shipped through the postal service only take about 2 or 3 days to arrive.

    I do not see any advantage, other than cost, for using FedEx SmartPost, and the increased speed of USPS is certainly worth the additional expense. I never thought I would see a time when I preferred USPS over another carrier.

  • My Name In Print

    It happens occasionally…

    http://www.gastongazette.com/articles/college-35187-degrees-gaston.html

  • Boring

    Looking over my old blog posts, I feel like I used to be more interesting, or at the least, more expressive. Now I barely blog about things that anyone else would actually care about. My blog posts recently have read more like weather reports than like a public journal. Perhaps it is just the way things go in life, as we age, we become less interesting, or perhaps it is more like going through cycles of interesting. I feel like I have more direction in my life now than I have ever had before, but it doesn’t seem to matter, nothing interesting comes from it. Perhaps the “interesting” for me was the trip of self-exploration for getting here. I have been through so many different paths before finally arriving on this one. I am becoming more happy with my life now, things are filling in, and the direction seems certain, progress seems imminent. I can’t say that I feel successful in my life yet, but I feel that I am approaching it, and that having a clue about my own positive traits is guiding me towards that destination. Life is strange in a very fluid way. You think your life will turn out one way, and then things shift and it turns out completely another, but in some ways, the alternative is as good, or even better than the life you originally imagined.

  • Coca Cola 600 Tickets

    No one seems to want tickets for the 50th running of the Coca Cola 600. My mother received 2 tickets to the race on Sunday, but of course, she does not want to go, because she doesn’t see the point in running around in a circle, I agree. I thought my father might want to go, but apparently going once in 1995 was enough for him. The calls began going out to the family, my cousin didn’t want them unless they were for the speedway club, because his father in-law can get him tickets to any race he wants. No one else related to the family wants them because, well, no one else in my family is a redneck. Next went out the calls the the friends of the family, no immediate friends wanted the tickets. Finally though, my father found a friend-of-a-friend, his nickname is “copper head”, and he accepted the tickets. I thought races at LMS in May used to be a big deal. Maybe times have changed and people are getting more sophisticated? Either that, or we are entering a world of the yuppie redneck who wants to be in the air-conditioned boxes.

  • Not Enough Time

    One may think that with being bored, that any chance for activity to occur would be a welcome blessing. Unfortunately, in my world, things seem to all hit at almost the exact same time. My mother has decided to take the rest of the week off from work and take care of some things in the yard, so of course I am needed for that (since she can barely carry a light bag of mulch). Also at the same time, the boyfriend wants to hang out, and by the time I finished with my mother it was too late for that, and now boyfriend is crushed, and I feel nothing but guilt for the fact that I didn’t put a time  limit on my mother, since I did agree to hang out with boyfriend, and the thing with my mother was sort of a last minute thing (don’t even remember agreeing to do it, just sort of got started). Now that I’m done with mother, and boyfriend is upset, uncle calls. I have no clue what uncle wants to talk about, since I have decided to take a few minutes to calm down instead of totally cracking, but whatever it is, it is time consuming, since he only calls when he needs technical advice or someone to fix something that he has broken.

    I don’t like disappointing  people, especially not people who are very close to me.  I often wonder if there is something wrong with me, since I can not manage to avoid getting roped into helping certain people, when I have already agreed to do something with someone else. I  suppose in my life there aren’t that many things that require a lot of time and that block me from doing other things. In other words, my time management skills suck, and GITI is by no means able to make things like this work (no stated time, so no way to schedule).

    On a positive note for today, I have planted about 16 pepper plants, 8 or 10 tomato plants, 2 hibiscus and an azalea (but I can’t forget the 1 broken heart and 1 ignored relative).

  • Chicken About Chicken

    For some bizarre reason I decided that I wanted to cook a whole chicken. Having my roasting bags and my bird, I set out to begin working on the chicken this afternoon. I thought it would be no big deal, just rinse, season and pop in the bag. I suppose I  subconsciously eliminated the part where there are inner parts to deal with. I really grossed myself out by opening the orifice of the bird and looking in. I grabbed my tongs to finish extracting all of the ickies out. I was so disgusted with having to do that part, which is something I don’t easily. I believe at one point Chris was laughing at me while I was fishing for “spare parts”. Fortunately, the chicken cooked well in its bag and is a nice golden color with a smooth texture of meat. A very lovely chicken.

    UPDATE (1906): Decided to use the drippings to make a white gravy, it tastes amazing as well :-D

  • Dirty Keyboards

    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-277938.html?tag=nl.e550

    I hate thinking about this type of thing. I tend to not eat over my laptop or netbook, but I do eat at my desktop sometimes and I really do not want to know what all is growing in the keyboard. This article reminds me of why I try to replace my keyboard about once every 18 months. I am really starting to wish that someone would come up with a better keyboard design that does not involve tiny little places for bacteria to hide.

  • Selecting a Career

    I have begun thinking about possible career paths lately. With changing my academic focus, I have set myself in a position where I have a pretty decent idea of what I might like to do with my life. Most likely, I will either teach, or spend some time as either a professional or organizational (such as school/university) psychologist, and then become a teacher, if this present track ends up being my career track of choice for my life.

    I thought it might be fun to get a more objective opinion on things though, so I used CFNC’s Career Key utility to see what it would respond with. After less than half an hour, the following list was generated:

    Literary Arts
    Writers and Authors

    Visual Arts
    Art Directors
    Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators
    Graphic Designers
    Photographers

    Records Processing
    Writers and Authors
    Library Assistants, Clerical
    Postal Service Clerks

    Regulations Enforcement
    Network and Computer Systems Administrators

    Life Sciences
    Chemists

    Mathematics and Statistics
    Network and Computer Systems Administrators
    Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
    Computer Hardware Engineers
    Computer and Information Systems Managers
    Computer Programmers
    Computer Software Engineers, Applications
    Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software
    Computer Support Specialists
    Computer Systems Analysts
    Database Administrators

    Social Research
    Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychologists

    Engineering
    Computer Hardware Engineers
    Computer Software Engineers, Applications
    Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software

    Crafts
    Photographers
    Chefs and Head Cooks

    Educational and Library Services
    Postsecondary Teachers, All Other
    Archivists, Curators, and Museum Technicians
    Librarians
    Library Technicians
    Fitness Trainers and Aerobics Instructors

  • UPS Inefficiency

    1Z4F63780327418403

    I recently ordered some photo prints from Shutterfly, they are located in Charlotte. Here is the projected route that my photos will take to reach me. They start at A (ShutterFly) and end at E (Home). Please note point C on the map, in Greensboro. I understand the efficiency of grouping packages to get them from place to place, but when you think about it and see it on a map, it just seems crazy.

  • Learning Style Inventory

    Results for: Curtis M. Kularski
ACT                                  X                REF
11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
<-- -->
SEN                                      X            INT
11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
<-- -->
VIS                      X                            VRB
11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
<-- -->
SEQ                              X                    GLO
11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
<-- -->
    Interpreting the results: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm
    The test: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html