Comparing Cameras

  Nikon D60 Nikon D80
Standard Kit Price: $589 $879
MP Rating: 10.2 10.2
Standard Lens: 18-55mm VR 18-55mm VR
Shutter: 30 – 1/4000 sec. 30 – 1/4000 sec.
Image Sensor: DX/CCD DX/CCD
Total pixels 10.75 Million 12 Million
Effective Pixels: 10.2 Million 10.2 Million
Weight: 16.1 oz 20.48 oz
     

I kept looking back and forth between these cameras trying to figure out what made them different from each other, to be able to justify the additional cost of the D80, I guess the answer is 1.25 million extra pixels, that I likely wouldn’t notice being without except for shots in RAW in "difficult lighting situations".

2008FA Courses

Fall 2008
Code
Course
School
HR
GR
CSC234 Advanced C++
Central Piedmont Community College
 3.0
HIS131 American History I
Central Piedmont Community College
 3.0
ART281 Sculpture I
Gaston College
 3.0
ENG131 Introduction to Literature
Gaston College
 3.0
ART121 Design I
Gaston College
 3.0
ART288C Ceramics Studio
Gaston College
 3.0
ART288PH Photography Studio
Gaston College
 3.0
Total Hours:
21.0
GPA:
NA

This is a representation of everything I COULD take for Fall. I won’t be taking 21 credit hours for fall. I have learned my lesson about things like that, its hell. To give a little insight into what the final schedule is likely to look like, lets go over what has to be here and what doesn’t have to be. First, I have to take History and Literature, or else, there will be a cranky registrar ready to kick my ass. Next… I don’t really want to take three or more studio courses, so at least two of the ones listed have to go away… I’m just not sure which two.

ART 281 – I am not that enthusiastic about Sculpture, it would be new to me, but not really something I know I want to take badly.

ART121 – Design 1 is a lecture/studio combo that is a required part of the art program, but I don’t have to take it this semester, and I don’t really have strong feelings towards taking it this semester.

ART 288 C – Ceramics studio is something I am very attached to taking, but I am worried that it currently isn’t assigned a time slot, so it could disappear completely or I might have it  at a time I don’t like. I should know more next week when the instructor replies to my email.

ART 288 PH – Photography studio I think I want to take. One week before the Digital Photography class ended I told myself that I wanted to take a break from photography, but now I don’t know. Do I? I went as far as getting the special section arranged so that I could take the course in a time slot I wanted… .so I would likely feel guilty if I didn’t take it.

Logically I should take ART 288C and ART 288PH, leaving Sculpture and Design behind. I feel weird having 2 open studio courses on my schedule with nothing else there. I guess I could still take either Sculpture OR Design 1, since with the way Photography Studio would be, there will be more than enough time for me to work on stuff from all 3, especially if I do Design 1.

As for CSC234… that’s going no where. I have registered for that class for about 3 semesters now. The first time I registered I dropped because I didn’t feel like I could handle the work in the course, but then the other times I got scared before the class even started. I am going to take it and take it seriously this time. Chris has asked me why I haven’t finished it, so I’m going to take it and finish it. Maybe I will write a cool app or learn some new tricks that might make GITI better. Either way, its a class that can only improve me.

I hope to weed this down to about 12 – 15 hours before school starts in a month.

More Photo Printing

I have had several sets of prints done at this point. I have used a different method for just about every time I have done it and I haven’t picked my favorite yet. I think I really like having them sent to my local CVS store though, no matter how they are printed… except when having them shipped is a much better deal.

Tonight I was looking at some photo accessories on Amazon and ran across an offer I couldn’t pass up, a lens cleaning pen AND $30 of free prints on ShutterFly. I had nothing to loose, so I did it. I bought the pen (should arrive Tuesday), and received my coupon code and I now have 2 orders with ShutterFly that should arrive sometime next week. I am looking forward to seeing what quality of prints I get. I am excited by a feature they have that no other photo printing service I have used yet does. They will print whatever you want on the back of the photos, for easy identification. This is something I would have loved to have had when I was doing other prints of my work for my digital photography class, to mark lesson and image numbers. Another fun thing I got free is an 11×14 poster containing 1 – 60 images… I picked to do 15… the 15 of my  final project and I even got to have fun and put titles and stuff on it.

shutterfly

I’m looking forward to receiving all of my prints next Friday.

Grades Due Soon

Am I normally this impatient? I am trying to keep myself from checking the grade reports for each of my schools right now. I don’t know why I even check, the instructors have already told me when they will turn in grades. David will turn in grades for ART 390 (Digital Photography) on Wednesday, July 23rd sometime before noon, and my health course is supposed to be graded sometime on Monday morning. I think I got an A in both courses, but I’m not sure, especially since UNC operates on a system where an A- is possible. Nervous I continue to be.

Everything Done for 2008SU :-(

I just finished my final assignment for Digital Photography. I kept telling myself I would get to the extra credit assignment if I had time… usually with that type of thing I let it go out the window and never get it done, instead I take time to recover and relax. I just finished the extra credit paper, so now there is nothing left to do. All assignments are done, or as GITI like to tell me: "No Assignments Exist".

This semester went too quickly. I feel like I need more to do. I need something to do other than continuously check the registrars to see if grades have been posted yet. I am going to miss these courses. It didn’t really hit me until earlier when I was reading my photography partner’s response to my "Final Project Statement" that I realized that my daily refreshing of the course website and my obsessive checking for comments from her were coming to a close. "It has been a privilege to be your "official" class critic for ART 390" she stated. It is a fairly simple harmless statement, quite nice of her to state even, but it makes me feel sad. Its almost like in Fall 2007 when my Drawing 1 class finished. I guess when you get a certain group of people together the bond becomes strong, or maybe its an art thing. Perhaps it is that simple, we trust these people with some of our most precious attempts at expression and we give them the power to lift us up or crush us, and in the end, they simply make us better, and stronger. I have never felt this from an online course before.

 

Sad I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

Feeling Academically Special

What happens when you want to take a course at a school and it isn’t "presently offered"? What about when there is an alternative version of the course you are interested in, but it conflicts with other items on the schedule? Usually I would be generally fucked and have to wait until another semester, but because of the nice people at Gaston College, I have my own section of a Photography Studio course. ART 288PH is designated as the Art department’s "open studio" or "independent study" for photography. The photography instructor offered to guide me in advanced photographic exploration based on the requirements of ART265 (Digital Photography II), which has not yet been taught at Gaston. I didn’t realize until after the arrangement had been made and I was trying to register that the time slot didn’t fit on my schedule. I asked what my options were and it was arranged that I would be working with the instructor during one of his other courses. Usually that would be a permit-type event in something like Banner, but the system used by the NC Community colleges (WebAdvisor/Datatel) doesn’t understand a time override, so I have my own section of the photography studio course, ART 288PH 99 is all mine 🙂

Tag Cloud

I don’t like tags and I don’t use them. I think I am going to make the tag cloud disappear next time I open the layout stuff for the blog. I guess I’m not Web 2.0 compatible.

Staring Blankly Into Space

I spent the last two days not going to sleep very easily because of things going through my head, worries about my future. As my summer classes are coming to a close I have  nothing to do and will have nothing to do for over a month. I laid awake with thoughts racing through my head and being unable to get myself to settle… to just push the thoughts out. I have been unable to communicate my feelings effectively either… until now I guess, but I don’t know how effective this will be. I have been staring at the UNCC website for a while tonight, looking at all of the changes that are happening, how the university is progressing forward and things are changing… the Art department is no longer part of the College of Arts and Sciences… and the College of Arts and Sciences is no longer the College of Arts and Sciences. I don’t know my purpose, or my direction for my future. Everything is so uncertain and my life seems to be presently up in the air (and sleeping on this weird pattern again isn’t helping). I find myself not being grabbed by the possibility of a BFA because it just isn’t me. I have laughed at myself for the simplicity of other additional degree options, but they seem… unfulfilling. I could complete 2 semesters (30 hours) and have a BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Humanities, or I could go for 3 semesters (45 hours) and have a BS in Psychology. I feel completely lost now.

What makes this feeling even worse is that people around me and people I interact with don’t seem to know, and they keep interacting with me like everything is normal with me, and expecting me to react to them in the same way. Only problem is I interact with some really fragile people and they are starting to piss me off. Seems like only the strong people seem to comfort me lately.

Earlier I woke up and started thinking about what I seriously wanted to do NOW… not in my five year plan, but now.. at this moment in time. With the way I feel presently I would love to start working on some sort of planned ceramics work, and build my online gallery and perhaps an online store of ceramics as well. I have a basement full of ceramics that I have made, and nothing to do with them. The presence of so many makes me feel like I really shouldn’t make more, but to feel useful and active I need something to actually do during a day. I guess the first step would be waking up early enough to be able to get something done during the day.

A person is given purpose in their self-identity. People self-identify by their "role" in life… what they do. What am I? Am I an artist? I don’t know… I hate my work from last Fall, it has no point to me. I don’t feel like I am emotionally deep enough to be an artist. I do know that I am a potter. I would be very happy sitting at my wheel for 8 – 10 hours a day, throwing pot after pot. It seems like something I can do in life and it makes me happy. Know what is even better about it? I like the way that my ceramics can make people feel. I don’t know how many people I have given a bowl to who have declared it their "special bowl", or in some cases, a special set of bowls. I like when I feel like I have done something that others value. Isn’t that what the entire point of existence is?

Parts of me reject being a potter. Potters are old guys covered in clay, right? I find myself most comfortable in basketball shorts and basketball sneakers a lot of the time, and clay makes those things really messy. So why would I do ceramics professionally? I guess its sort of like turning in the baggy shorts and sneakers for a business suit, except, as a potter I can still wear jeans and comfortable boots. I guess part of my problem goes back to never in my life really seeing a potter as being "hot" (except maybe Travis Owens, and he’s just an overachiever). Maybe thats my fear about that "life track", construction guys are hot, potters just aren’t.

Information Technology still excites me I guess, but just isn’t something that calls to me or gives me any great sense of satisfaction at this time. I love things technical, including photography, but the expression I need isn’t there.

I thought about posting this entry to a special category called "Everything" or perhaps "Nothing", but given that it explains my recent behaviors and feelings, i’m filing it as "sup?".

I don’t fear my printer

USA Today: Printer dots raise privacy concerns

My Dell 3100cn records its serial number (and service tag) and the date/time I print something…. so what? Who cares that Dell keeps a record of who owns/purchased a printer?

I don’t fear my printer. I feel safe knowing that my printer encodes that information. I used to use an embosser on things I printed to identify them as mine. I don’t care that my documents are traced back to me.

The bad pun at the beginning of the article amuses me. Paper doesn’t have to be cheap and shitty. Not all of us print on 20#, 87 brightness paper. I print on Hammermill Business Glossy 32#, 108 brightness, its damn near card-stock y’all.

 

If anyone does fear their printer and the use of this technology to trace you, please let me know. I am very interested in what I am missing out on with this fear.