Here it is! The 3rd throw on the wheel, and it came out decently. It isn’t perfect, but im happy with it.
C’est Bon
Here it is! The 3rd throw on the wheel, and it came out decently. It isn’t perfect, but im happy with it.
Here it is! The 3rd throw on the wheel, and it came out decently. It isn’t perfect, but im happy with it.
Perfectionistic Murder
My perfectionistic nature finally caused me problems tonight. In an attempt to create a ceramic piece on the wheel tonight I managed to make an almost complete piece collapse into absolute ruin. The piece was taking the shape of a bowl, and getting to be almost completely symetrical and smooth, except for a small defect on the inside, one of the interior walls was a little lumpy near the base. As a result of smoothing that wall down to match the others, the adjacent wall collapsed. This occuring nearly brought me to tears immediately, but I toughened up and started looking for positive things in the failure. I can say one thing for sure about the piece, I had it PERFECTLY centered on the wheel head (the remains of the collapsed piece served to prove this). In addition, the piece had a nearly perfect base (roughly half an inch), which was holding to the wheel unquestionably. For the night I have given up on the wheel, but I plan to work on it some more during the weekend, if I can get that close to having a piece I am happy with then it is definately worth trying again. I have only recently (in the past year or so) become a perfectionist, but it is having a horrible impact on my life. I need to find the right balanace between perfectionist and slacker. It is a tough internal conflict.
After the collapse I questioned why I actually enjoy working with the wheel and clay in general and I couldn’t find any answer that followed a logical path of any type, but I did find an answer that was more of an emotional path. My grandmother and I used to work with my old pottery wheel a lot every summer and we had several nice creations, so there is a link there, but there is more to it than just those memories. I love working with my hands, even though recently I have become very “clean natured”. I used to maintain a decent small garden every year, but haven’t done it seriously since 1993, when my grandfather sold his store. I have had gardens since then and done some stuff with my parents’s garden, but nothing like what I used to do. I have intentions of having a garden this year, I am focusing on herbs and stuff though, so I can have some stuff that I don’t have to worry about preparing garden soil for too much (Herbs for me are a dish-garden event). Sticking my hands into wet clay is a very good feeling for me. It gives me a sense of control as I direct the clay in how it is to act, however, the clay gives a constant reminder that too much force cant be used, or collapse will occur. Balance, interaction and focus are all required during the ceramic creation proccess, or collapse will occur (Notice a reoccuring theme here). I am realizeing at this point that because tonight’s creation wasn’t a total failure I am regretting disposing of it. The piece had a failed wall, but the wall was still intact and the other half of the piece was still standing, and was nearly perfect. The only reason I could even call tonight’s end result a failure is because nothing physically exists as evidence to what went RIGHT tonight. My first instinct with an errored piece seems to be to lift the walls of it and impload the piece back into a ball (even though the clay needs to be reworked before its next project). I made many advancements in my abilities with the new wheel tonight, and with that fact I am happy. Maybe at some point I can train myself to not be so perfectionistic. In addition, I need to get to the point where when something happens that takes the piece off course, I can just stop the wheel and accept whatever final output occurs.
Overall tonight, nothing physically lost, nothing physically gained, but a lot learned.
ITCS2231, INFO2231, ITCS1214?
The identity crisis with one of my courses just got more complicated…
When the course was still being planned it was called INFO2231, but then was posted to the registrar as ITCS2231 (by the ITCS department), and I enrolled in the course. For this semester the course is listed only as ITCS2231, but for the summer it is listed as INFO2231, with a cross listing of ITCS1214, meaning that ITCS1214, INFO2231 and ITCS2231 are essentially the same course. The course itself evolved from some internal issues between the Belk College of Business (COB) and the College of Information Technology, department of Computer Science. The COB decided that the CS department didn’t teach programming in a way that was effective. The ITCS department responded with a request for the COB to rewrite the curriculum to the way they wanted, the course essentially was the same, except for sucking all of the fun out of the course. ITCS accepted the changes, but assigned the course to Sara Scott, the only ITCS instructor who has never been called “mean” or “difficult” by anyone, and who makes the course fun anyway. As of this point the new course has NOT been written to any catalog or course description list in the University, which makes me question whether or not either department will declare it as existing, or if it will fade away with no record, and things will continue with ITCS1214 as the introductory programming course, but offered with VBA instead of Java.
Fortunately for me, this change of opinion of ITCS2231 will result in it being able to count as ITCS1214 for me and I won’t have to take ITCS1214 as an ITIS (COIT: Information Systems) major.
note: ITCS/INFO 2231 is “Introduction to Business Programming” and ITCS1214 is “Introduction to Computer Science”.
The Complexity of Math
I would like to start this entry by stating the following: At this time I am retracting my hatred of mathmatics.
My previous hatred for math was based on a predisposition to it being a foriegn concept due to 3 levels of Algebra in high school. My predisposition was then linked to the instructor, Mrs. Diane Ward. Mrs. Ward has a great personality and is a good math teacher to most, but it just didn’t work with me. The predisposition likely caused me to fall off the horse for second time in AP Statistics when I allowed myself to become discouraged. I must have learned something from the course, I managed to pass the Advanced Placement exam.
I don’t know why, but for some reason this evening I decided to complete some Calculus homework that is due next Wednesday. The homework covers limits and the concept of handling infinity in a limit situation. I noticed after I completed it that I used some of the concepts that I learned in logic (primarily orderly execution of a formal method) in completing the assignment. Either Jae Woo Jeong is a great instructor, or Calculus is easy. I still don’t want to try the other version of Calculus (for engineers), but I feel a little better about my math skills now. I won’t know until final grades are posted whether or not I made a mistake by circumventing Campus Pipeline’s registration system validations. At the moment I think I made the right decision, but it is still possible that it was a mistake.
Now off to do Accounting homework, or maybe just read a little Plato… either way, there is educational stuff to be done. (ok, how many of you know that I am going to run off and work on GITI or something?)
First Throw on New Wheel
I just completed my first thow on the new wheel, it went fairly well. I had minor issues getting started on the new wheel during the centering phase. The bat came off of its mount (I guess I didn’t have it secured well). I considered removing the bat all together (as is reccomended when getting adjusted to the wheel), but the bat was already coverd in clay debris, and the bat mounts would have to be removed, so I reattached the bat and continued from there. Next time I think I will start bat-less. The base wheel-head itself is quite nice and I don’t see any problem with using it without a bat, except for the clean-up thing. I like being able to remove a bat to clean it.
The end piece wasn’t exactly the greatest thing on earth, but perfection wasn’t my goal on this first throw. The goal on this throw was to become familar with this new wheel. All of the things I encountered with the wheel tonight I can adapt to and adjust for, with the immediate exception of the wheel making my table wobble. I need to seek a more stable structure to put the wheel on. The wheel itself only weighs 27lbs, but yet has a centering capacity of over 25 lbs, so it really relies on the structure it is seated on for stability. There are some legs availible for the wheel that I have given thought to, only problem there is that I would have to sit while working with the wheel, which would require me getting a potter’s stool (because none of my furniture sits at the right height), so there is a whole mess of things required to go that route.
In addition to the wobble, there was a slight defect in the clay, which had I been more thorough in the preperation of the clay, would not have existed (or would have been detected). The defect was in the form of a patch of slightly course clay. There was also a defect in the final piece because I moved to quickly to bring the piece to its final height. This resulted in a slightly fat base.
Even though the piece didn’t turn out that well I will post some pics of the finished piece once I do the completion prep and it is fully dry. I will also at that time post some pics of my previous works, both wheel and hand-built. It should be no suprise to anyone who knows me well that the most round and most uniform piece was created as a hand-built piece from a square block of clay (as opposed to the standard ball).
I should be ready to post in about 2 or 3 days, depending on whether or not I decide to glaze. I have no intentions of attempting to get this piece fired.
In a Previous Life, I was Liked
Tonight I switched from my current AIM SN “NetCalmer” to one of my older names temporarily just for no real reason and discovered a world of people waiting for me. Had time stood still and everyone decided to wait for me on AIM? As soon as I signed in I was greeted by friendly names from the past. A lot of small-talk was had, and I got some people updated on my current life situation. But all of that isn’t relevant to this post, but what is relevant is that those people exist. In my present life situation I am not as friendly as I once was, I am less likely to interact with people, I suppose beause I am a lot more scared and not as able to familarize myself with people around me. About the time I start getting to know people is about the time the semester ends. I like people, I like having friends, it is just a long hard road to get there. There is also the jelousy factor, how do I add friends without somehow making my current friends feel somehow less important to my life? I value all of my friends and everyone else in my life in the positions they hold and I don’t ever want to make anyone feel that their position is threatened.
I miss a lot of my high school friends and I am having a hard time fititng in with people at UNCC well enough to find people I am socially compatible with. I don’t fit in with the jocks, im not that athletic, I don’t fit in with the frat boys, I don’t drink and I don’t fit in with the preps because I am no longer a Bill Gates clone. I am just me, I am unique. I want to find where I fit in, but I can’t really find any clubs that interest me, and i’m not willing to let myself go through the whole create-a-club thing again. I had enough fun with that in high school, I am not focused (or responsible ) enough for that to work.
I have to realize that as an adult I now have a much wider spectrum of people to sort through to find the right person for me, but if all else fails, I could always just go through everyone and weed out people who I am not compatible. As for my selection of friends based on surface characteristics, I used to avoid females for friends, but I am currently enjoying talking to this one girl in my accounting class, Vannessa. She isn’t like me at all, but she is nice to talk to and is very receptive to things I say. She is very easy-going with life, a personality respembling Jessica Simpson kinda, but not completely, she is less of an air-head.
I don’t know what else to say except: If you want to talk to me, go for it, send me an instant message or an email or even respond to this entry with a comment, don’t be shy. I love meeting people and talking to people I already know but haven’t heard from in a while.
Its been a while
I had some negative feedback on my previous posting, actually it was more like hurtful criticism of my life and I became a little discouraged from being externally expressive. I’m going to have to learn how to filter out people who have alternative reasons for being my friends (or are perhaps bipolar?). Sometimes its so hard to figure out who is around because they like me and who is around for other reasons.
Lets get back into the swing of things with an overview of the thing that takes up the majority of my time, my education. I seem to be doing ok with accounting, I am getting a good grasp on the concepts. Calculus is just that, Calculus, it is more simple than I imagined, but still won’t be my simplest course. Business Programming has been VERY dull, we have only been learning basic programming logic, something which I feel could have been covered completed in the first 2 weeks. My micro-economics course has been uneventful for me, it has been primarily a review of macro-economics, which is fairly intense in itself, but for students who have had macro-econ it is a breeze. Once the first test is over I expect the workload to get more intense and more work to be required. Major Figures in Philosphy: Plato has only met a few times, so I can’t give a definate review of it yet, however, so far it has been intersting and I am enjoying it. The course requires a LOT of reading, but that isn’t the primary content of the course. The reading is just a starting point for the course, the real course material is the discussion that occurs in class about the material in the text and our interpretation of it. Dr. Presler adapts well between course levels, she taught Logic on a fairly low level, but Plato is much higher level. I guess some instructors are just capable of doing that, but some ive had in the past aren’t.
In other news, my new pottery wheel has arrived. I’m looking forward to throwing a few projects on it. Here is the wheel:
I haven’t been very expressive in the past few weeks, this new outlet for artisitc expression should help with that and allow me to be myself more outwardly.
Other than the stuff I mentioned and hanging out with Chris I haven’t really done much in the past few weeks. If anything exciting happens I will post it here, just like always.
Finding Self
Sometimes in the way we as humans get into patterns we lose parts of ourselves, usually in the way of spontaineous behavior and artistic expression (or for the non-gifted, artistic apprechiation). For the bigest part of my life I have been very patterned in things I did, I basicly didn’t do much and anything I did do was under my parents’ careful supervision and control. Now that I am an adult (did I just say the A word in reference to myself?) and am mostly free of parental dictatorship I find it hard adapting to the world around me, especially when I am expected to make any type of decision (unless control is clearly granted to me I don’t make many decisions). In the past few weeks I have decided that I have become too systematic and too drone-like in my interpreation of the life experience. An attempt to correct this was made with my decision to change my living space’s look a little. In August I changed my room around from the way it had been for years, but this was not enough of a change for my personality to show through. In December I decided that I loved the fresco by Raphael called “The School of Athens”, so a reprint of it scaled to 4:25 scale (the original is 303 inches wide) would be appropriate. Having this 4ft wide image is interesting and in some ways inspiring. The painting is the ultimate documentation of the personality and role of a lot of philosophers from the origins of philosophy (as all characters expand from either Plato or Aristotle). Now by encouragement from Chris, as well as Oscar (new friend in Texas) is leading to me deciding to put a statue of Michaelangelo’s David somewhere in my living space. There was a time in my life when I would have never thought of decorating this way, I used to have no apprechiation for good art, but through some maturing as well as some academic reinforcement I seem to be doing better at understanding art and finding it to be more than just paint on a canvas or a structure of clay. I mention the academic reinforcement some of you probably turn your heads and think “ok, he has been trained to love art”, but thats not the case at all. Carol Whitman‘s Art Apprechiation course during Summer 2004 was a very informative course, but didn’t force a love of art, just opened the door and introduced some methods for analysis of art. It is possible to analyze art too much, but if it has no meaning and is just “pretty”, then it has lost its point. There are some pieces that shouldn’t be explained though, such as a huge painting of a mountain or body of water, it is self-explanityory, but there should be internal feelings of being peacefully overwhelmed by the piece.
A form of art that I didn’t really acknowledge much at all was music, I used to just listen to music, without really hearing it, it was a background noise for me. Being around Chris changed that a lot in the past two years. There was a post I made a few months ago called “Assorted Weirdness“, which has no relevancy to anything, but is the first time I think I really started to experience music fully without it just being a background noise. It had a meaning and I had a reason to listen to it, the song I was listening to at the time had relevancy to the topic.
To make a relatively complex entry simple, I am begining to function as an individual who expressed personality by art creation (ceramics) as well as by art apprechiation. I feel that I am discovering my personality for once.
DROP 12425
I have now dropped LBST2102-022 due to administrative errors at UNCC.
I went to Denny 215 as scheduled for my course today at 3:00PM, when I arrived there was obviously something wrong, Dr. West was in the room and the course was supposed to be taught by Mrs. Bonaparte. The administrative issue occured in the communications department, there was some sort of communication failure between the department and its faculty [laughter is now appopriate]. Mrs. Bonaparte was never notified that she had been scheduled to teach the course specified and as a result the communications department had no one to teach LBST2102 in that field. Earlier today a book was even specified for the non-existant instructor. The error was not caught until 9:30 this morning when Dr. West was looking over the information for his department (general education). By 3:00 a replacement instructor had been located, Mr. David Johnson, from the history department. Upon hearing the department of the replacement I felt like fate was sending me notification that 18 hours is just plain nuts. As soon as I could get logged into Campus Pipeline today I dropped the course (that was no easy task). I will do almost any topic at UNCC, but I draw the line at anything history again.
Dr. West mentioned that 3 other errors like the one with our course occured in the commnunications department. This seems to be just another example of how badly Campus Pipeline is fucking up the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. All issues I have had while at UNCC have occured because of that system and its related systems. UNCC, it is time to throw away CP, it sucks. We have an MIS, SIS, and several Computer Engineering departments, you would think that UNCC could develop its own proprietary system without much of a problem, but of course outsourcing takes less effort. I have gone from not liking Campus Pipeline to despising it.
Bottom line is that I am now at 15.0 credit hours and there is no intention to replace the other course.
Still Here
I know I haven’t posted an entry in a few days and haven’t really been around and the last post seemed kind of negative. This post is to state that I am still alive, but going quite nuts from having to share my home with my father for a few weeks (he is gone back to his normal life now).
Tonight CMK4 (my main server) was taken out for a complete configuration overhaul, if you are one of my users and cant login please try the most recent password I would have had for you, most likely your AddressBook password. If you have issues logging in please contact me.
Its 7:30AM, perhaps I should go to bed now?