Academic Nervousness

Classes start in under a week, so now I’m getting like all nervous and stuff. Usually I’m very calm this time of the year, I am so planned and everything it just seems like it should be fine and smooth. I suppose my biggest problem this semester is I changed schedules around so much that I wasn’t entirely sure what I really wanted my schedule to look like. I have two 3D studio courses, an Art History course, an American history, a programming course and a literature course. It could be an exhausting semester, but at least I will have plenty to do in my spare time. Or… is it really spare time if I do nothing else but academics?

I am still really nervous, especially having an 18 hour load, even though 12 hours are online. 18 Hours is not normally considered insane for a normal student load.

GMail Troubles

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/we-feel-your-pain-and-were-sorry.html

This event is only notable because it doens’t happen that often, but yet it happens all the time, just not to Google. Corporate email servers have problems all the time… academic email servers even more often (some have planned weekly outages of 4 hours or more). As I pointed out a week ago in a blog post, not every email system is up all the time, especially not academically.

GMail is expected to be up all the time, and there is nothing wrong with that expectation, but I think up to this point, they have done a damn good job with system stability and availability.

 

I personally am a Google Apps user and I didn’t even notice the problem. Usually I’m among the first to notice things and tend to be the first to bitch.

Unusual, but useful products

image I am beginning to believe that all original ideas for products have been used. A few days ago I was thinking that it seems weird that my batteries are all giggling around loose in my camera bag. Today I received the latest edition of PC Photo magazine, and a few pages in was this odd, but useful product. It looks like a decent product that might be sturdy as well. The company’s website claims that it is a strong case, but I won’t know for certain until I receive mine in a few days.

They are very cheap for their usefulness. I myself purchased 3 of the "slim-line" AA holders. I got one in "Caution Yellow" for high visibility in my camera bag, one in "Tuxedo Black" for those formal occasions requiring batteries and one in "Military Green" for when I need to blend in, or when I’m in the woods in my camo gear taking pics Open-mouthed

 

Product Link: http://www.powerpax.net

ART390 transferred as ART264

Everything worked out this morning. The registrar received the new information this morning and was able to correctly transfer UNC’s ART390 (Special Topics Studio: Digital Photography) as NCCCS’s ART264 (Digital Photo I). I am quite relieved that the credit has transferred properly now.

Idea for Website

I just had an idea for a website that I feel I could create to contribute to the Internet an a psuedo-significant way. An academic resource website, explaining general practices of many colleges and universities as well as perhaps providing organizational tips and similar things. I don’t know for certain how useful it would be, but it seems like it may be helpful to someone.

My Astrological Chart

image

Yesterday Chris’ aunt generated my astrological chart. The chart itself is more astronomy than astrology, it is the positioning of various celestial bodies at the time of my birth and their relative positions to the location of my birth. The astrology part comes with the "reading" of the chart, which is an interesting psychological event in itself. Horoscopes are hokey, this is interesting and remarkably accurate (or at least it was for me).

Spicy Chicken Seasoning

This evening I tried my own attempt at making a chicken seasoning. I was going for something mildly spicy with a bit of a bite, but nothing too hot for my dinner guests (my parents and Chris). I overshot and ended up with something very spicy, but that was considered to be a good flavor by all who attempted eating it. The mixture is listed below.

Equal parts:

  • Ground red pepper
  • Ground white pepper
  • Ground Italian seasoning
  • Garlic Powder
  • Mrs. Dash Chicken Seasoning (yes, I cheated some)

One-half part:

  • Ground cumin

Three parts:

  • Cornmeal

 

After mixing the seasoning I spooned a single teaspoon into a shaking bag (any light-weight plastic bag, gallon or larger, will do), tossed in a half-breast of chicken and shook aggressively. Once each piece was seasoned I placed them inside a turkey bag (laying flat) on a 13×9 baking dish. I added some sliced Italian sausage on top of the chicken. Tied the bag with butcher’s string and tossed it in the over at 350° for 45 minutes.

 

I believe the level of heat of this dish can be controlled by adjusting the amount of seasoning placed in the bag, perhaps next time only about a half of a teaspoon per piece of chicken.

Transfer Not Successful

Yesterday in the mail I received a little note from the registrar’s office at Gaston College. The note stated that the credit from UNC Chapel Hill could not be transferred because there was no equivalent course in the Gaston College catalog, even though I was assured by my dean that the course would transfer without a problem. I was originally discouraged from doing a transient study form because he felt there should be no problem, and that doing a form would only be extra insurance of the transfer. I’m glad I did the form now. I have faxed a copy of the form and the syllabus for the course to the registrar’s office. I will likely call the registrar’s office on Monday to get thing straightened out. I do not like the feeling of having credit hanging in limbo. I prefer nice, clean transfers that happen transparently.

Plans for Finishing Summer

Summer classes are over and I’ve made enough ceramics to want to bowl myself into a corner… so what’s next for the summer?

  • Figure drawing – I’m borrowing a book from the UNC library about figure drawing, so I think next week I will try some figure drawing exercises and at least get myself a base set up to play with… maybe I will practice enough during the next two weeks to want to take a course on location at CPCC in the Spring.
  • Advanced C++ – since I won’t have a course in Advanced C++ in the fall, I’m going to at least attempt some of the exercises from the old course. Maybe this time I will understand it… using my new 5th edition of the text.
  • Photography – with only a few more weeks of summer, I want to get a few more colorful shots in, maybe even find some locations to set up and shoot for a while. A lot of my readers here only know me electronically and have never seen much where I live except a few shots of my yard. I’m going to try to capture some of the joys of the North Carolina piedmont region.
  • Writing – if there is enough time I think I will write. Maybe some erotic stories, maybe some non-erotic short fantasy fiction… perhaps a lot of poems.. I haven’t written any poems about photography yet.. maybe I should see what I can come up with there.
  • Getting It Together Interface – GITI is always on my agenda for summer, ever since her first few lines of code over 5 years ago. GITI is more complete now than it ever has been, but the education module needs some organization, some redundant code needs pruning and there are a lot of code areas that need to be "smoothed at the edges" (nutrition, email, etc)