The North Carolina Community College System’s Common Course Library has recently been updated to reflect the changing times in the information systems academic areas.
The following courses have been discontinued:
CSC 136 Fortran Programming
CSC 137 PASCAL Programming
CSC 237 Advanced PASCAL
CIS 144 Operating Systems – DOS
CIS 146 Operating Systems – OS/2
To me it would seem that these changes are a bit overdue.
Word Proccessors Killing the Written Word
“Hello, it looks like you are writing a letter… would you like some help?” – Clippit (Office 97 – 2002)
“Press F7 for an automatic spellcheck” – Word Processing Instructors everywhere
How many times per day do you try to write something and then notice that something is misspelled, then you right-click that little wavy line under a word? Do you consider what is over time happening to our culture as a result? What about to your personal intellect? If every time you have a spelling error, you use the checker to check yourself, how long will it take for you to learn how to spell the word yourself? Will you ever? I personally have many words I can’t spell without the aide of a spell checker, such as necessary.
I have been doing a lot of writing in NotePad, and WordPad recently and I noticed that I feel so much freer to write when I am not bound by the constraints of the analytical “intelligent” word processing tools. Another thing that has tripped this is how absolutely horrible the form-field spell checker in Mozilla FireFox presently is. I am told that it is based on a dictionary that is part of the OpenOffice.org project. I feel so distracted when I am having to continually deal with those little red lines everywhere, especially when I am typing something proper and the spell checker is deciding that it should alert anyway.
For effective communication, we must operate our language within a certain set of rules, but when it comes to some of these rules for the English language, it is just purely an anal fixation that demands their existence. An example would be the comma rules, while it is good to separate portions of thought, its presence or not before every and or or is simply annoying. Language is part of culture, much like art, music and food. The acceptance of music, art or food does not depend on some great authority mandating its “rules”. Music and art must be pleasing to the aesthetic taste and food must be pleasing to the palette. Shouldn’t language be pleasing to the ear and easy to read, not a complex collection of protocol requiring a syntax road map for proper functionality?
About that whole cultural thing…. as some of you may recall, my mother published a cookbook several years ago. When the initial draft review came back from the printer, it was covered in red markings, highlighting things like “cooky” as being spelled incorrectly. The cookbook is a collection of recipes that have been saved for hundred of years in my family, several of those recipes having some things spelled in an older version of the English language, when both “cooky” and “cookie” were technically correct. My mother decided to leave the “misspellings” intact because of the nature of the book, a collection of recipes from the family, and a tribute to thousands of family events involving food that have occurred over the years. Many of the final adoptions of words in this language that were then up for debate are unknown as to their reasoning. The best information that we have for “cooky” and “cookie” is that the plural has always been “cookies”, and since we hardly ever speak of one cookie, the language was simplified to have a uniform “cookie” that follows the standard pluralization transformation of “add s”.
If we are electronically held to the current version of English, then the language has very little chance of progressing to something more useful, or being melded with a more versatile language, such as French.
Erin – good luck with your English degree, this wasn’t meant to be an offensive post to you.
Guy – you are a linguist, it doesn’t apply to you, but you knew that already.
End of Semester: Spring 2007
This has been an eventful semester for me, both academically and personally. Now that things are coming down to the last few days and I have only one more exam to take, I am beginning to freak out a little bit and things are getting stressful. The most active thing on my mind at the moment is that Tweedy missed her exams on Tuesday morning. The registrar gave her Tuesday and Thursday for her exams and she consented to allow students to be evaluated on Tuesday, but yet, she was no where in sight. Another thing on my mind is the glaze kilns, I know that several firings have been conducted, but I don’t know the exact content of those firings or if the most recent firing will be completed on time for my evaluation on Thursday at 2pm. I worry that my present ware won’t be good enough and I worry that my big sculptures are too big and simply won’t get finished in time, because smaller pieces will go ahead of mine in the normal studio protocol.
Next up on my issues chart, I have been trying to get a specific course registered at CPCC for the past week. I want to take Creative Writing 1 at CPCC for fun, but because they have no record of my ENG111 (writing and composition stuff) credit, they are unable to admit me to the course and of course it isn’t enough to remind them that I have ENG112 (the next level of english after ENG111) on my record. They apparently need proof of ENG111 to be able to allow me to register for the course. Finally last night I got a response from the director of the department, and I was told to fax my documentation to her and it would be taken care of. I did that, and today, I had no reply from her, and I am still not allowed to enroll in the course. What is a desperate student to do?
Next, It is spring, and this is very obvious to me. I have been so horny in the last few days, I don’t know what to do with myself, I get excited at the tiniest little thing (probably bad wording, but who cares). I want to find something to do to expel my sexual energy that doesn’t involve my hand. I have thought about focusing on working out more and finding more physical things to do, but somehow just the thought of being that physically active makes me feel lightheaded.
Finally, I haven’t worked nearly enough on my personal website or any of my little projects and summer isn’t looking good for them either, because I am planning to spend a lot of time outside doing things like working on my garden, swimming, hiking and whatever else I can find that will keep me out of trouble.
Recipe: Chicken-Alfredo Pizza (quick version)
Chicken-Alfredo Pizza (quick version)
2 prepared pizza crusts, thin crust
2lb Prepared Chicken
16oz Alfredo Sauce (1 jar)
12oz Pepper Jack (or Monterey-jack w/jalapeno) cheese, shredded
black pepper, fresh ground
dry basil
Preheat oven to 425°F, with stoneware pizza stone in.
Place crusts on a pans that are easy to slide them from. Pour half of the sauce on each of the crusts. Break up chicken with fingers while sprinkling one pound on each pizza. Place about 6ounces of cheese over each pizza. Grind (or shake) pepper directly over the pizzas in a smooth action, moving from side to side while moving down the pizza. Repeat the same procedure with the basil. Remove stone from oven and carefully slide the first pizza on the stone. Return stone to oven for 12 – 15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to turn brown around the edges. Remove stone from oven, slide pizza on another pan using a wide serving tool. Slide second pizza on the sheet and repeat the cooking procedure. Expect second pizza to take 2 – 5 minutes less than the first.
What does Curtis need?
What is it that I need as a person? Why am I always so unhappy? I am happy in the ceramic studio, and in other classes as well. I am happy during the day when I am by myself and there is no one else around. I am not happy when people are around me and they expect me to always come up with things to do, or when I am around people and they refuse to speak. I am sad when I am alone, and find myself needing someone, and reach out for a “friend” and find that either none or there or none wish to interact with me, they are all too busy with other things, or are too busy holding offenses of the past against me. Is that how people in my life wish to punish me, by ignoring me when I need them the most? I know I am fucked up when it comes to interacting with people, and I try to improve where I can, and I try to apologize for my errors, but no one seems to be willing to forgive me, someone they consider to be a friend. Should I accept people in my life who are completely unwilling to forgive me for errors of the past that have not been since repeated? Should I call these people that refuse to interact with me when I need someone the most friends? Maybe I am selfish and should realize that I am not worthy of having people to talk to in those times? I have thought of going out and finding other people who haven’t been exposed to my problematic past, but I feel a certain loyalty to my current friends and would never want to create a situation where I would have to decide between my current friends and my new friends.
Life interacting with other people is confusing.
Behind in Ceramics
I have thrown many pieces, including my sculptures, but I am back to my same fear from last semester, I am missing something or something will not go right.
My sculptures are all done but one, but because of their size, I am now worried that I won’t have time to get them fired and glaze fired. I am planning to work on a very small backup sculpture project, something that meets the minimum 12″ height requirement, but thats about it. I’ve considered things like stacking bowls in unique ways, but also thought about things like throwing organic forms, like different types of squash, maybe a tree of two.
In addition to the things I feel that I NEED to do, I also have some unfinished business that I WANT to do. For example, I would really love to throw a 50lbs bowl, even if it sucks at the end. I also have a desire to complete a few more tall narrow forms for fun. I still plan to throw up until the very last minute of throwing, so I will probably try to do a few more sets of things while I’m at it, or maybe I will stick with my tradition of doing big things. It is said to be risky to do things with lids that are over a diameter of about 8″, so perhaps I can throw a casserole that is about 14″ diameter and also throw an appropriately sized lid (about 13″ most likely) for it.
I can feel that I am running out of time, but somehow I feel even more pressure in myself to keep throwing, to move forward and to make great leaps in my work in the final hours remaining. I have done it once before, and I will do it once again.
Here I go, just a few more days to go, and I am filled with creative energy.
Potter Going Crazy
It is 0330, I should be asleep right now, but as much as a try, I can’t fall asleep, all of these thoughts are converging on my tiny brain at once.
With such a short time remaining (14 days) it is becoming more of a challenge to keep these thoughts under control. I am going to spew them here….
1. I am thinking about scrapping the original set of sculptures idea, instead, making the drawing (see a few posts back) the final member of the set, and starting from a much simpler point, the sculptures have to be 12″ tall, so I will do a large bowl, cut a hole in the bottom, add a cylinder that is almost closed at the top on top of that, make it have a hole in the bottom as well. That should be 12″, or higher, so that will be the first one, and I will develop from there to arrive at the final piece, which is in the diagram. If I can’t think of enough transitions, i will go back to my adding vines idea to finish out the set. Doing it like this presently is just too difficult, I am a wheel potter, not a sculptor, so the intricate detail of the vines, leaves, and flowers (well… wheel thrown roses aren’t that hard) is just an overload that I can’t do, i took a risk on trying it, and the risk failed.
2. Talked to Molly a lot today, and we came up with a plan to mid-range fire some ware upon approval from Keith. Keith always says yes to a reasonable request, so we are go for that. I am planning to mid-range fire my sculptures just to make sure they have more of a chance of survival. I mean no disrespect to the mighty Alpine and Geil kilns, but the gas reduction is just a bit too much for some of my ware, so a Cone 6 oxidation might just do the trick to settle my nerves. (will custom mix glazes)
3. I am planning to fire the soda kiln, since no one else is, i’m going to light a [metaphorical] fire under my subordinate classmates (the lower level of wheel students) to get them to prepare some stuff for that kiln. I have a piece that fired apart that I plan to have glazed fired in here to make sure it is a safe ride for it.
4. Projects Remaining –
- 3 – 5 sculptures
- 2-3 more big bowls (final project)
The sculptures will just round out the last few pieces of the set and make sure I have enough to cover my ass. The big bowls are to be really creative big bowls that will stand out above the rest of my work. I am working diligently to make sure my final project is a success. I have worried myself about my lidded wares, but I have finally convinced myself that enough of them exist and that everything will turn out OK. I have 5 seated in the piece and a lot more seated in the lid. I think I have met quota.
Let’s do a quick check to see that I have done everything, shall we?
- 5 small cylinders – check, all accounted for and done
- 10″ or higher cylinders – check (little low on these, but more have been thrown to cover my ass and I have a few that count as multiple)
- Lidded forms – check (see above)
- Sets (2) – check (bowls and steins)
- Sculptural forms – almost, working
- Cumulative Body of Work – check (but with uncertainty)
5. Glazing – not exactly on my high priority list, I will eventually get to it before the end of the semester. I’m looking forward to getting this finished. If I am not careful, I will end up being my own glaze load or two, I should probably start on that soon so that I can stager the load over all of the remaining glaze kiln loads.
6. The weights of my clay balls – so many times in the past few days I have been asked how much clay I use for certain things. I DONT KNOW! I have ceased weighting my clay, I just crab from my personal barrel what I think I need and I work from that. There is no science behind it, just ceramic intuition. I feel bad that I don’t have the numbers for those that ask, I am going to try remembering to weight after I pull out of my barrel so that I have more to offer than a dumb look.
7. Space Consumption – I have 2 standards (5 shelves each), one table (about 10′ x 4′), about 3 other shelves and some floor space (for the really tall ones) currently claimed with my ware. I am concerned that I am becoming a studio hog. I have so much ware and I don’t know what to do with it all. I want to be more organized about it and clean up a bit, but i just don’t know how to go about it. I didn’t really ask if I could use the table (i just sort of started landing on it one day and it has grown from there). I have bisque ware on several shelves, glaze ware on one shelf, and the rest of the space is greenware that hasn’t been fired yet. I don’t know when I will ever find the time and patience to manage to get everything dry enough to fire. More importantly, when do I stop throwing? I know I can work until the last day (April 26th), I’m just not sure how that will work out. I want to clear out my table of greenware, and turn it into a table for glazing (mostly for me, but kinda open for others too).
8. Bonus project – if I complete my sculptures in my next visit or two to the studio, I plan to utilize the time to work on another “final project” of sorts. I want to work more on my tall vessels. Up to this point, all of my tall vessels have had “accidents” in the kilns (2 in bisque, 1 in glaze). I want to take some time and attempt to do 6 – 10 tall stacked pieces to sort of utilize the last days as best as I can and maybe show Tweedy my dedication to the course. In addition to these tall things, I intend to work on doing small projects for myself as well. I have had a request for some salad bowls, which will be a challenge for me, but I think I will enjoy learning how to make them. I hope my friend Oscar won’t be too critical of them since this will be my first time doing a shallow bowl. One thing I found the night I did the set of steins (yes, the whole set, in one session) is that I am good at sets. I have a talent for repetitive throwing (Tweedy mentions that a lot, but not usually in a good context), I want to exercise that talent.
9. Wheel work at home – I have been working some on my wheel at home, I have gotten good at sets in earthenware too. I am more conservative with my clay at home than at the studio (where I have been given Carte Blanche on clay consumption), because at home, I have to pay for my clay. I likely won’t do anything big at home during the summer, but I will keep throwing as long as I can still afford to buy clay and can throw things small enough to fit in my kiln.
X. Tweedy has pneumonia, this doesn’t make me happy, since there is a lot left to be done, critiqued or put down. How can we finish the semester without Tweedy? Also, I have noticed that I am the only person in my class who is this far along to completion, everyone else is trailing by at least two projects. I am trying to offer encouragement, but these guys are easily put down by their own bad emotions relating to the stresses of the course. This isn’t a course that can be done lightly with success, it requires skill, motivation, and most importantly, a belief that when it all comes down to the last few moments, your ware will all emerge from the kilns and be safe, and the course will come to a dramatic halt as the pieces are paraded like show horses on a summer day in Tennessee. I feel really bad for Tweedy, at the start of the semester she stepped on a needle and was out for a few weeks and now she is ending like this.
Its 0400, I feel slightly more tired, but not by much, but at least I have had a chance to do a proper memory dump.
Definition: To Throw An Egg
Throw An Egg – to use a lump of clay to create (“throw”) a closed form on the potter’s wheel, resembling an egg.
//Just a simple clarification for anyone who thought I was planning to make a mess with yolks this evening.
A Sign of Relief in Ceramics
Tweedy has done something that she has never been known to do in the recent history of the studio, she moved a deadline. Being a few projects away from being done, I am glad that I now have closer to 20 days to get finished instead of the 7 previously.
| Task | Old Deadline | New Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Ceramic Paper | April 4 | April 4 |
| Make Clay | April 12 | April 23 |
| Throw/Trim | April 12 | April 26 |
| Fire Bisque | April 19 | April 29 |
| Fire Glaze | April 29 | May 3 |
| Final Exam | May 8 @ 2 | May 8 @ 2 |
So much pressure was relieved today when the new schedule was disseminated. The emotions of the studio were much lighter than they have been in weeks. No one was really rushing today, and as a result, it seemed like there were much better pieces coming off the wheel. Even Tweedy seemed to be more calm today (this is her time of the semester to mellow out and watch us work until the last day usually).
Things to Do:
- Finish lidded things (need 5 seated in lid)
- Finish sculptures (3.17 of 6 completed)
- Create an original and challenging project of ware (10 pieces)
- Glaze about 115 pieces
Coding on a Tangent
I set out working on SiteEngine for my personal site over a week ago, planning to write the stuff for the multiple site feeds first, then working on everything else, but I have found myself quite distracted by working on the mailing list manager tool for it. That reminds me, most of you, whether you realize it or not, are on at least one mailing list I have. Due to the fact that some of these lists have never been used, I will simply load those lists and send out notifications to allow for acceptance or denial of the subscription when the time comes to activate the new system. Additionally, I have no clue how I am going to disseminate authentication information for the users, as presently, I have no frame of reference for anything, except matching up the address book records with email subscription records. Of all the database records, management tools, and tracking utilities I use, there is nothing to extract a “core group” of friends/family for this type of task. My address book contains information for almost anyone I’ve ever known well enough to have an address or phone number for (not email addresses, thats what an email client is for), my IM lists all contain people I don’t really know that well, and some IDs that I can’t even begin to identify. Since all of these ideas fell apart, then I suppose the best option for the situation is to select people manually and assign personal invitations to each person for accessing the SiteEngine.
Anyway, that was another tangent (there have been a lot of those lately). The point is, my new personal website isn’t quite ready yet, but it is being worked on diligently and I have completed all of the conceptual code things, as well as gotten the mailing list code completed. It is likely that the mailing list tools will be dropped into their relevant engines/sites soon for testing.