What to do with ground beef?

Lean ground beef is rumored to be one of the most versatile foods available, but I am having difficulty with this theory. I was encouraged by Chris last night to prepare something this evening based on beef. My first thoughts were something with a tomato sauce and a pasta, second thoughts were with something like stroganoff. I went to my usual recipe resource (Cooks.com) to find some ideas, but all I could find for ground beef was pasta and stroganoff. There are no interesting foods that can be made with ground beef. If you pair beef with beans it becomes a chilli, if you pair it with anything tomato is turns into a pasta based dish, or something mexican. Beef with a cream sauce turns into a stroganoff, so I guess I’m screwed. Beef Stroganoff it is for tonight…

What it means to be a UNC student

Education at one of the best colleges in the country? No
Having class with really hot basketball players? No
Chance to take part in an old academic tradition? No
Opportunity to become a human lab-rat? YES
Since becoming a UNC student I have been invited to join about 15 different medical studies. I get at least 2 emails per week asking me to take part in some type of medical study. This week it was the hearing and acne studies. Last week it was ” Fluoxetine in Autism” and “Muscle and Jaw Function”. If I were living on campus, I would be able to pay for all of my tuition, books and whatever else just by participating in these studies. I don’t think I feel comfortable with being in a population that is studied this much.

Needing to Centralize

Since starting my photography class I have been using a variety of services and systems for sharing, printing and storing my images. Depending upon the classification of images, they end up in different places.
First, my sharing of images. Traditionally I have shared images directly from the blog either using a link from thumbnails to the large images, or even using one of my own cute database driven tools. When sharing larger amounts of images I have been known to share individually with people who are interested, or by posting to my “main” gallery (http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery2). Now I have a separate gallery for my class (http://aux.livecurt.net/ART390/) as well as my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/kularski/). I have to use Flickr for my online photography class, but I don’t find it that useful for sharing images with people, but then some people are more familiar with it, and its easier for them. Oh, and just to make things even more fun, I have tried Picasa web (http://picasaweb.google.com/kularski). The thing I hate most about having all of these services is not the difficulty of keeping up with where my images are, but how hard it is to get them there. For Picasa Web, I upload with Picasa. For Flickr I upload with Windows Live Photo Gallery. For my two Gallery2 installations I use an extension of Windows Explorer on Windows XP, or in Vista I have to “print” my images to the Gallery2 “publisher”. Why can everyone not just tap into the normal Windows Explorer publish functionality, or better yet, lets get a standard protocol for this crap so that I can use a single open-source application, probably designed by Mozilla (or as an add-on for FireFox). For my printing providers, things are a little less weird… I’ve used Kodak’s own publisher and also a CVS/pharmacy… both of which are essentially the same, except with CVS I can theoretically pick up the prints the same day in the store. I’ve found that the easiest way to work with it the publishers is through Picasa, but I would still like something better than that.
Anyone have any photo sharing, printing or storing tips?

Lunch – My Sandwich Process


Some of my photographic adventures are boring, some are redundant, this one leaves me still feeling empty. Maybe I should have taken more time to take more pictures from more angles and not been in such a rush to eat.

Academic Changes

There is something I failed to report on in my blog…. I decided to completely drop American History 1 from my schedule for Summer. I will take it in the fall or as a self-paced course. I started the course and just realized I wasn’t into it or motivated for it at this time.
Also, last week I visited Gaston College and declared my intent to get the two degrees that I have earned from them. I will receive an Associates in General Education at the end of the summer semester and I will receive an Associates in Art at the end of the fall semester, or whenever I take American History and/or British Literature (or any literature course and history course I select). I have decided I will also take the steps toward an Associates in Fine Art at Gaston as well. Depending on how that goes, I will likely finish it off as a BFA at UNCC or another University in the area, perhaps even the Art Institute of Charlotte (yeah, right, when tuition checks write themselves).
Not that anyone cares, but I got authorization from my dean at Gaston College to transfer the Digitial Photography class back to Gaston for my AFA degree. Now I just have to get the departments to agree on what is supposed to happen to that form now that it is finished. The dean’s office tells me to take it to the registrar, the registrar tells me to send it to the registrar at the other school… I am so confused. If I send the form to the other school, how will Gaston know that they are supposed to credit me the way the dean specified?

More Random Pics

I feel like I’m loosing touch with my blog and there isn’t really a lot going on right now, so mostly my updates are from the photographic side of things. Once again there are more photos I have taken available on my normal gallery at: http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery2/v/album/2008-05-26/. They are a bit mix-and-match and most are a bit focused on one of my erotic interests, but they still have aesthetic value.

Rogue Drone




DSCF2447

Originally uploaded by Curtis M. Kularski

I was playing with my 15x macro lens that came with my wide angle adapter earlier and I was studying some flowers in the yard. I feel like I never get to photo living things, so it was fun following this ant across the flowers. I’ve never noticed how complex ants are. I am considering making an attempt at photographing ants in motion for one of my future assignments.

ART390 – Week 2 Assignment


My second week assignment for Digital Photography is up. It was a slightly fun assignment involving exposure, noise and bracketing. Bracketing involves taking an image multiple times at different intervals away from the “normal” exposure. This is done by keeping the same ISO and shutter speed, but changing the F-Stop to a designated number of EVs (exposure values) above and below correct exposure. The noise assignment was to show the change in image quality when using ISO instead of shutter speed to compensate for a lack of light.
http://aux.livecurt.net/art390/main.php?g2_itemId=42

To My Secret Admirer

Whoever you are, I would like for you to STOP sending me new magazine subscriptions. I appreciate the thought, but I really have no use for this many magazines. I am more of a writer than a reader. Although… if you happen to have the urge one last time, I would love to have a subscription to “Muscle and Fitness”, other than that I don’t need any more magazines.
For those who aren’t my admirer and haven’t been around me while I have been being creeped-out by what is occuring…. since the surprise arrival of Instinct early last month, I have also begun receiving PC Photo and Men’s Health. Those three aren’t useful to me. BTW, anyone want those magazines?