Figure Drawing

Over the past few days I have made several attempts at figure drawing. I have attempted to read the book that I borrowed from the UNC Library,The Artist’s Complete Guide to Figure Drawing. I find the book to be a little hard to follow and not as useful as I would like in a book about such a difficult topic. I am still seeking the perfect book for the topic, but I am not impressed with what I am finding at Amazon, and the local stores have close to no selection when it comes to art. Anyone know of a good book for the topic?

Another Academic Update

ART115 – Art History II – Got through the first module with no problems. I got an 80 on the quiz, but got 100 on both of the discussion assignments, so I’m happy for that. It seems like it is going to be a very fun course. I am still learning how to prepare for this course.

ART281 – Sculpture I – I am working very hard on my first project. My personal staff is coming along nicely in concept, but I haven’t really spent much time working on it physically. I’m thinking of going fairly simple with it.

ART288C – Ceramics Studio – This course is moving a little faster than sculpture, even though it is the same instructor. I am mostly finished with my garden "totem", I just have to fire it and then glaze it. I might do a few more spare parts for it, but I am overall happy with it. This is easier than the staff, this is just simple shapes that I like.

CSC153 – C# Programming – This course seems to have been designed for a 10 week schedule. Nothing was officially due until yesterday. I have gotten that work done, as well as some other work. I am making good progress towards the next deadline of September 27th. The course is self-driven, which is a new concept to me in this type of course. It is almost like an independent study attempt at the subject. The course fits into my schedule very nicely, because it really has no schedule of its own.

ENG131 – Introduction to Literature – Lit is going as Lit goes, slow and boring. I am not sure I understand where the course is going, we are reading a really weird comic book that reminds me a little of the diary of Anne Frank, except a lot less coherent and with a lot more opinion. I don’t like the book, or its "comic" approach to the topic. http://introduction2literature.wikispaces.com/Maus+Discussion

HIS131 – American History I – History is going VERY well. I have gotten through the first module, did the first quiz (twice), got 90% on the quiz, and will have an opportunity to earn the other 10% back.  I am getting a hold on the material fairly well. I am enjoying myself, which has completely shocked me. I do like history, I guess I just have to be able to do it at my own pace, and not at 9am.

 

Overall I am happy, except for the 9am ceramics class, which I am adapting to.

Making Biscuits

I attempted to make biscuits for dinner this evening, but I seem to have inherited my mother’s ability to screw them up. Her biscuits always came out hard and completely inedible, but mine are a little different, they are very  soft and crumble when you touch them. Unlike my mother’s, which taste like chalk, mine actually taste like biscuits, so maybe there is hope for me yet.

Open-source textbooks – Nice concept

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/open-source-tex.html

While the idea is founded in solid ideas and overall good marketing, there is one factor being missed here, departmental textbook adoption. Colleges get a lot of "incentives" from publishers to use texts, often in the form of additional "resources", such as classroom aids and instructional equipment. In some cases, schools even get paid to select a certain book. The entire thing is very corrupt, and as a result, open source will not work. If you don’t believe me, take a look at online learning environments. Moodle is free and open source, Blackboard is thousands per semester. Every school in North Carolina uses Blackboard, if not primarily, then somewhere, but very few use Moodle or any other free platform.

Yet another web browser

It used to be that an Internet user had 2 choices for a web browser, IE or Netscape. Or in short, the browser that worked or the one that didn’t. Nothing ever worked on Netscape, everything worked on IE, then we jump forward a few years and now there is Internet Explorer, FireFox and a variety of lesser used browsers. There is no huge difference in compatibility, except for a few situations of badly written apps. Tomorrow Google will add their attempt to all of this. Google Chrome will be released on Tuesday as a browser designed specifically for web applications.

I am doubting that Google Chrome will be any more interesting than other modern browsers that copy each other.

Reason for the Blog?

Why do I blog? What purpose does it serve? Does it protect me from being social, or does it give me something to do to fill my time? I really don’t know anymore, and there are days when I question the existence of the blog. It started being for academics, primarily, for my to document my first year of college… that is now behind me by about 160 credit hours.

This month marks 4 years of blogging. The blog went live on August 16, 2004 and was placed at DisturbingThoughts.net on August 23, 2004. In some ways the blog just serves as a reminder of all of the things I have wanted to do and haven’t been able to, and a small number of things, but some chance, I actually managed to do.

 

In 4 years there have been 658 entries, which averages to about 14 per month. In the past 3 months I have gone way above that. I have been averaging about 2 entries per day for the last 3 months. I don’t know if I have had more to say, become more open with my thoughts, or just been more bored in that time, but the numbers have increased dramatically. In the last week or so I have noticed that some of the entries seem to be very short, but get lengthy responses.

 

What is a personal blog supposed to be? What is my audience? One of my friends commented that he sees my blog as more for my personal records than for anyone else, and he would be correct. It has become a personal chronology of sorts, but I don’t know much more about it than that. It has evolved some, but more or less still remains on the same track as it was when I created it so long ago.  I think originally this blog was supposed to have ended by now, but I suppose sometimes plans change.

Realization of a Sad, Lonely Existence

I am presently enrolled in 18 credit hours and I am not happy. I am still bored. Nothing seems to challenge me and I don’t really like feeling like this. I feel incomplete. I need something to do with my life other than sit around constantly refreshing course websites, hoping someone will say something.

More than being bored, I feel like I am presently making no useful contributions to society. In short, I am afraid I am becoming depressed.

Google: Convert 87,000 gold florins to US Dollars

I am used to being able to dump any conversion I need (measurements or currency) into Google with the syntax of "convert".n." ".unit." to ".desired format. In this case, I typed "Convert 87000 gold florins to US Dollars" as well as "Convert 87000 florins to US Dollars".  It ignored both and passed them to the search processor without attempting a conversion.

I was trying to determine the cost of the Tabernacle of the Virgin Marry in Florence, to aid in my understanding of some information from my Art History reading. Am I crazy for asking Google for this information?